Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Algebraic topology

This lecture covers several basic methods for standard tasks in data analysis and image processing. A non-exclusive and non-exhaustive list of meth-ods: histograms, dimension reduction, clustering, ﬁlters, frequency analysis, morphological methods. We will develop the mathematical theory that underlies these methods which is the basis for thorough understanding and proper execution of the method. Moreover, we will deal with the practical implementation of the methods and apply them to solve problems such as image denoising, image deblurring, or music identiﬁcation. This lecture should enable you to take a deeper dive into image and data analysis and prepares you to follow recent developments in the ﬁeld. If you want to understand the inner working of image compression with JPEG or music recognition with tools like Shazam, come to this lecture!
TputCache: High-frequency, multi-way cache for high-throughput FPGA applications

Throughput processing involves using many different contexts or threads to solve multiple problems or subproblems in parallel, where the size of the problem is large enough that latency can be tolerated. Bandwidth is required to support multiple concurrent executions, however, and utilizing multiple external memory channels is costly. For small working sets, FPGA designers can use on-chip BRAMs achieve the necessary bandwidth without increasing the system cost. Designing algorithms around fixed-size local memories is difficult, however, as there is no graceful fallback if the problem size exceeds the amount of local memory. This paper introduces TputCache, a cache designed to meet the needs of throughput processing on FPGAs, giving the throughput performance of on-chip BRAMs when the problem size fits in local memory. The design utilizes a replay based architecture to achieve high frequency with very low resource overheads.
Building-based urban land use classification from vector databases in Manchester, UK

The recognition, analysis and classification of urban structures are important in urban land use modeling. The form and the function of individual urban elements such as buildings and street blocks help us better understand the urban morphology. The types, layout and arrangement of these buildings form up the local characteristics of urban areas. A model has been developed to classify urban areas based on the cartometric properties of buildings and the patterns they make. Supervised and un-supervised classification algorithms from data mining techniques along with GIS are explored to help create a framework for extracting information from vector databases and classifying building and blocks. The methodology is developed and applied to Manchester metropolitan in the UK.
Decomposed Utility Functions and Graphical Models for Reasoning about Preferences

Recently, Brafman and Engel (2009) proposed new concepts of marginal and conditional utility that obey additive analogues of the chain rule and Bayes rule, which they employed to obtain a directed graphical model of utility functions that resembles Bayes nets. In this paper we carry this analogy a step farther by showing that the notion of utility independence, built on conditional utility, satisfies identical properties to those of probabilistic independence. This allows us to formalize the construction of graphical models for utility functions, directed and undirected, and place them on the firm foundations of Pearl and Paz's axioms of semi-graphoids. With this strong equivalence in place, we show how algorithms used for probabilistic reasoning such as Belief Propagation (Pearl 1988) can be replicated to reasoning about utilities with the same formal guarantees, and open the way to the adaptation of additional algorithms.
Development of a software for motion optimization of robots - Application to the kick motion of the HRP-2 robot

This paper presents software that has been devised for the purpose of optimal motions computation for robots. For the time being, this study considered only open-loop and fully actuated structures. Generated motion satisfies a stability criterion while minimizing energy consumption. Motion optimization is solved with the IPOPT optimization package. In order to achieve fast and reliable optimization convergence, an efficient calculation of gradients is presented. Moreover, almost rarely considered in the literature, joint friction, which has a non- negligible effect on the optimized motion, is taken into account. Efficiency of the proposed software is demonstrated through the optimization of a kicking motion for the 30 degrees of freedom humanoid robot HRP-2.
The Returns and Implications of Human Capital Investment in a Transition Economy: An Empirical Analysis for Russia 1994-1998

This paper uses the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS), a household-based survey designed to measure systematically the reforms in Russia, for the years 1994-98. It utilises standard Mincer analysis to assess the returns to education as well as to specific levels of post-compulsory education and training. Results suggest, in the case of Russia, significant and positive returns to education and training that are comparable in magnitude to other transition countries
The GM-PHD Filter Multiple Target Tracker

The Gaussian mixture probability hypothesis density filter (GM-PHD Filter) was proposed recently for jointly estimating the time-varying number of targets and their states from a noisy sequence of sets of measurements which may have missed detections and false alarms. The initial implementation of the GM-PHD filter provided estimates for the set of target states at each point in time but did not ensure continuity of the individual target tracks. It is shown here that the trajectories of the targets can be determined directly from the evolution of the Gaussian mixture and that single Gaussians within this mixture accurately track the correct targets. Furthermore, the technique is demonstrated to be successful in estimating the correct number of targets and their trajectories in high clutter density and shows better performance than the MHT filter
A 10-year follow-up study of psychosocial factors affecting couples after infertility treatment.

BACKGROUND Little is known about the long-term course taken in life by couples who had undergone medically assisted reproduction (MAR). The aim of this study was to find out in a large sample whether, in comparison with parents, involuntarily childless couples have a different subjective perception of overall and specific quality of life over a period of >10 years. METHODS Between 1994 and 1997, 564 couples participated in the initial Heidelberg Fertility Consultation Service study of psychosocial aspects of infertility. In March 2008, a follow-up questionnaire was sent to all of these couples. Both partners were asked about the current status of their desire for a child and their satisfaction with life, their self-esteem, partnership, sexuality and career, as well as their current attitude towards the MAR they had undergone and experience of the process. RESULTS The final sample consisted of 148 couples and 60 women (response rate: 41% of the women and 31% of the men contacted). Fifty-nine percent of the women had at least one genetically related child, 11% had a foster or adopted child and 30% remained childless. Comparisons of psychological variables between parents and childless couples were done for the 148 couples only. Post-MAR parents indicated significantly higher self-esteem than childless couples (P < 0.01) and were more inclined to go through the infertility treatment again than childless couples (P < 0.001 for women, P < 0.05 for men). Positive aspects of infertility were seen more often by childless couples than by parents (P < 0.001). Childless women reported more occupational satisfaction than mothers (P < 0.01), while no such difference was identified in the male partners. Concerning overall life satisfaction, satisfaction with friendships and the partnership, and sexual satisfaction there were no statistically significant differences between childless women/men and mothers/fathers. CONCLUSIONS Overall, our 10-year follow-up survey indicated good psychological adjustment both in childless couples and in post-MAR parents. A decline of sexual satisfaction in childless couples (often reported in the literature) was not observed in this large sample. Quality of life in the long-term can safely be said to be high, both in the definitively childless couples and the post-MAR parents. These findings should be integrated into the information and counselling for would-be parents prior to infertility treatment. A major limitation of this study is that the majority of women and men from the initial study did not respond in our follow-up study.
CUGE: a screening instrument for alcohol abuse and dependence in students.

OBJECTIVES The prevalence of alcohol abuse on college campuses ranges from 7 to 17%. Frequent heavy drinkers place themselves and others at risk for a variety of adverse consequences and frequently remain undetected. Brief individual interventions result in a significant reduction on the number of drinks. Therefore, detection of students at risk is useful and desirable. The CUGE has been elsewhere described as a promising screening device for problem drinking in students. In order to determine the diagnostic value of this new questionnaire, we set up a validation study in a new and independent population of freshmen. METHODS A cross-sectional diagnostic study. Participants were college freshmen of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. All students received a questionnaire, containing the CUGE, being the test of interest, and the CIDI as the reference test. RESULTS The CUGE combines a very high sensitivity of 91% with a reasonable specificity of 76.3% in this validation group. CONCLUSIONS The CUGE is an excellent screening device in this population of students. In addition, it is a short questionnaire with only yes or no questions. This makes the CUGE easily applicable as a part of broad routine questionnaires.
Design and implementation of driving control system for autonomous vehicle

The control system design that is responsible for the path tracking and driving safety, is one of the most important technologies for autonomous vehicle. This paper describes the design of driving control system, including both longitudinal and lateral controls, for the Kuafu-II autonomous vehicle. Compared with most of previous works that inevitably require a large amount of parameters, the presented control system design integrates several typical and yet efficient controllers to significantly reduce the system sensitivity to these parameters, and hence is able to achieve the system robustness under diversified circumstances. The effectiveness of presented control system design has been extensively evaluated under simulation and vehicle test on road.
Maize Seed Variety Classification Using the Integration of Spectral and Image Features Combined with Feature Transformation Based on Hyperspectral Imaging

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) technology has been extensively studied in the classification of seed variety. A novel procedure for the classification of maize seed varieties based on HSI was proposed in this study. The optimal wavelengths for the classification of maize seed varieties were selected using the successive projections algorithm (SPA) to improve the acquiring and processing speed of HSI. Subsequently, spectral and imaging features were extracted from regions of interest of the hyperspectral images. Principle component analysis and multidimensional scaling were then introduced to transform/reduce the classification features for overcoming the risk of dimension disaster caused by the use of a large number of features. Finally, the integrating features were used to develop a least squares–support vector machines (LS–SVM) model. The LS–SVM model, using the integration of spectral and image features combined with feature transformation methods, achieved more than 90% of test accuracy, which was better than the 83.68% obtained by model using the original spectral and image features, and much higher than the 76.18% obtained by the model only using the spectral features. This procedure provides a possible way to apply the multispectral imaging system to classify seed varieties with high accuracy.
Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging Via Modified Smoothed $L_{0}$ Norm

Compressive sensing theory is able to exactly recover an unknown sparse signal from observation samples with high probability. In this letter, we convert the imaging into a problem of signal reconstruction with the aid of orthogonal basis in the framework of high-resolution inverse synthetic aperture radar imaging. More specifically, we propose a new method based on smoothed L0 norm, whose recovery rate is faster than the algorithm based on L1 norm. Experiment results with real data show that our proposal is more efficient than the L1 norm algorithm.
A Pipeline Approach to Supervised Error Correction for the QALB-2014 Shared Task

This paper describes our submission to the ANLP-2014 shared task on automatic Arabic error correction. We present a pipeline approach integrating an error detection model, a combination of character- and word-level translation models, a reranking model and a punctuation insertion model. We achieve an F1 score of 62.8% on the development set of the QALB corpus, and 58.6% on the official test set.
Autonomous robot retrieval system

Mobile robots are used for exploration and object manipulation in hazardous environments, but in many cases human presence is still required posing a risk to the health and safety of the human operator. In order to operate fully autonomously in a completely unknown environment a mobile robot is required to both create a map of its environment and localize itself; this is known as simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). SLAM is a very active area of robotics research but many robot platforms using this technique are relatively large and more sophisticated than the mobile robot featured in this work. This work proposes a small, low-cost mobile robot platform for the autonomous retrieval of an object in a completely unknown environment using OpenRatSLAM. The main contribution of this project will be the implementation of a SLAM algorithm used in conjunction with vision based object recognition on a Lego NXT mobile robot.
Pair-Bonding, Romantic Love, and Evolution

This article evaluates a thesis containing three interconnected propositions. First, romantic love is a “commitment device” for motivating pair-bonding in humans. Second, pair-bonding facilitated the idiosyncratic life history of hominins, helping to provide the massive investment required to rear children. Third, managing long-term pair bonds (along with family relationships) facilitated the evolution of social intelligence and cooperative skills. We evaluate this thesis by integrating evidence from a broad range of scientific disciplines. First, consistent with the claim that romantic love is an evolved commitment device, our review suggests that it is universal; suppresses mate-search mechanisms; has specific behavioral, hormonal, and neuropsychological signatures; and is linked to better health and survival. Second, we consider challenges to this thesis posed by the existence of arranged marriage, polygyny, divorce, and infidelity. Third, we show how the intimate relationship mind seems to be built to regulate and monitor relationships. Fourth, we review comparative evidence concerning links among mating systems, reproductive biology, and brain size. Finally, we discuss evidence regarding the evolutionary timing of shifts to pair-bonding in hominins. We conclude there is interdisciplinary support for the claim that romantic love and pair-bonding, along with alloparenting, played critical roles in the evolution of Homo sapiens.
CAN-Ethernet architectures for real-time applications

Embedded systems have specific real-time requirements that led to the development of dedicated communication protocols. Such systems must face increasing communication needs and the evolution of switched Ethernet architecture. But moving from existing dedicated field-busses architectures to new Ethernet based architectures is not always feasible, due to industrial constraints. In this paper, we compare different solutions for integrating existing data busses (such as CAN, which is an important standard in automotive context) on a global architecture that respects increasing bandwidth requirements. In a first step, we study classical CAN/CAN bridging strategies. In a second step, we propose CAN/Ethernet bridging strategies that respect the real time behavior of CAN End System when communicating through an Ethernet network that can be shared by (non CAN) applications
Locality-Aware Parallel Sparse Matrix-Vector and Matrix-Transpose-Vector Multiplication on Many-Core Processors

Sparse matrix-vector and matrix-transpose-vector multiplication (SpMMTV) repeatedly performed as z←ATx and y← A z (or y A w) for the same sparse matrix A is a kernel operation widely used in various iterative solvers. One important optimization for serial SpMMTV is reusing A-matrix nonzeros, which halves the memory bandwidth requirement. However, thread-level parallelization of SpMMTV that reuses A-matrix nonzeros necessitates concurrent writes to the same output-vector entries. These concurrent writes can be handled in two ways: via atomic updates or thread-local temporary output vectors that will undergo a reduction operation, both of which are not efficient or scalable on processors with many cores and complicated cache-coherency protocols. In this work, we identify five quality criteria for efficient and scalable thread-level parallelization of SpMMTV that utilizes one-dimensional (1D) matrix partitioning. We also propose two locality-aware 1D partitioning methods, which achieve reusing A-matrix nonzeros and intermediate z-vector entries; exploiting locality in accessing x-, y-, and z-vector entries; and reducing the number of concurrent writes to the same output-vector entries. These two methods utilize rowwise and columnwise singly bordered block-diagonal (SB) forms of A. We evaluate the validity of our methods on a wide range of sparse matrices. Experiments on the 60-core cache-coherent Intel Xeon Phi processor show the validity of the identified quality criteria and the validity of the proposed methods in practice. The results also show that the performance improvement from reusing A-matrix nonzeros compensates for the overhead of concurrent writes through the proposed SB-based methods.
A small-molecule RGD-integrin antagonist inhibits cell adhesion, cell migration and induces anoikis in glioblastoma cells

In cancer cells integrins modulate important cellular events that regulate the metastasic cascade which involves detachment from the tumor mass, dissemination and attachment to the oncogenic niche. The α5β1, αvβ3 and αvβ5 integrins are widely expressed in different cancer types and recognize the tripeptide Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) motif present in several extracellular matrix proteins. In human glioblastoma, αvβ3 integrin expression correlates with tumor grade, suggesting that this integrin may play a crucial role in the highly infiltrative behavior of high grade gliomas. However, few selective RGD-like antagonists have been developed and few studies have investigated their effects in in vitro models of human glioblastoma. In this study, we investigated several cellular effects and the underlying molecular mechanisms exerted by a new small-molecule RGD antagonist, 1a-RGD, in the U251 and U373 human glioblastoma cell lines. Treatment with 1a-RGD (20 μM) demonstrated a weak effect on cell viability and cell proliferation but strongly inhibited cell attachment and cell migration together with actin cytoskeleton disassembly. Prolonged 1a-RGD treatment (72 h) induced anoikis, assessed by Annexin staining and nucleosome assay, particularly in the detached cells. When integrin-linked transduction pathways were investigated, 1aRGD was found to exert a marked reduction in focal adhesion kinase (FAK) phosphorylation without affecting the AKT- and ERK-dependent pathways. Our data indicate that 1a-RGD, probably via modulation of the FAK-dependent pathway, inhibits cell migration and attachment and induces anoikis in glioblastoma cells. This novel finding suggests that the development of an RGD-like molecule may represent a promising tool for the pharmacological approach aimed at reducing the malignancy of glioblastoma cells.
An efficient test relaxation technique for synchronous sequential circuits

Testing systems-on-a-chip (SOC) involves applying huge amounts of test data, which is stored in the tester memory and then transferred to the circuit under test (CUT) during test application. Therefore, practical techniques, such as test compression and compaction, are required to reduce the amount of test data in order to reduce both the total testing time and the memory requirements for the tester Relaxing test sequences can improve the efficiency of both test compression and test compaction. In addition, the relaxation process can identify self-initializing test sequences for synchronous sequential circuits. In this paper we propose an efficient test relaxation technique for synchronous sequential circuits that maximizes the number of unspecified bits while maintaining the same fault coverage as the original test set.
A Mixed Methods Approach To Combining Behavioral And Design Research Methods In Information Systems Research

The design research method has recently been introduced in information systems research as an alternative to behavioral (i.e., qualitative and quantitative) research methods. It is, however, recognized in literature that behavioral research methods can be used as part of a design research project. Unfortunately, there are currently no clear guidelines on how both research methods can and should be combined. In this paper, we propose a mixed methods approach to how behavioral and design research methods can be combined in a coherent manner. In addition, we identify five specific mixed methods research designs that describe how a supplementary behavioral research study can be conducted within the context of a larger design research project. This mixed methods approach may draw more attention from design researchers to the methodological implications of using behavioral research methods. It may also expose the design researcher to a richer set of behavioral research approaches and techniques.
Valuable messages and random outputs of channels in linear network coding

Motivated by the fact that the most problems on network coding can be represented as how much information about a given subset of network inputs can be obtained by legal or illegal users from the channels accessed by them, in this paper we investigate the relation between a subset of random network inputs and the outputs of an arbitrarily given set of channels in networks. We focus on linear network codes because they are widely studied and applied. We begin with the algebraic structure of cosets of linear subspaces and derive bounds on their mutual information and the conditions for their tightness. To apply the results to random linear network coding we introduce strongly generic linear network codes such that for sufficiently large coding fields a random linear network code is strongly generic with high probability. Our results show that random linear network coding is good for error correction and security but not efficient for multiple source network coding.