Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ieee Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 1 Stereo Processing by Semi-global Matching and Mutual Information

— This paper describes the Semi-Global Matching (SGM) stereo method. It uses a pixelwise, Mutual Information based matching cost for compensating radiometric differences of input images. Pixelwise matching is supported by a smoothness constraint that is usually expressed as a global cost function. SGM performs a fast approximation by pathwise optimizations from all directions. The discussion also addresses occlusion detection, sub-pixel refinement and multi-baseline matching. Additionally, post-processing steps for removing outliers, recovering from specific problems of structured environments and the interpolation of gaps are presented. Finally, strategies for processing almost arbitrarily large images and fusion of disparity images using orthographic projection are proposed. A comparison on standard stereo images shows that SGM is among the currently top-ranked algorithms and is best, if sub-pixel accuracy is considered. The complexity is linear to the number of pixels and disparity range, which results in a runtime of just 1-2s on typical test images. An in depth evaluation of the Mutual Information based matching cost demonstrates a tolerance against a wide range of radiometric transformations. Finally, examples of reconstructions from huge aerial frame and pushbroom images demonstrate that the presented ideas are working well on practical problems.
Implications of genomic signatures in the differential vulnerability to fetal alcohol exposure in C57BL/6 and DBA/2 mice

Maternal alcohol consumption inflicts a multitude of phenotypic consequences that range from undetectable changes to severe dysmorphology. Using tightly controlled murine studies that deliver precise amounts of alcohol at discrete developmental stages, our group and other labs demonstrated in prior studies that the C57BL/6 and DBA/2 inbred mouse strains display differential susceptibility to the teratogenic effects of alcohol. Since the phenotypic diversity extends beyond the amount, dosage and timing of alcohol exposure, it is likely that an individual's genetic background contributes to the phenotypic spectrum. To identify the genomic signatures associated with these observed differences in alcohol-induced dysmorphology, we conducted a microarray-based transcriptome study that also interrogated the genomic signatures between these two lines based on genetic background and alcohol exposure. This approach is called a gene x environment (GxE) analysis; one example of a GxE interaction would be a gene whose expression level increases in C57BL/6, but decreases in DBA/2 embryos, following alcohol exposure. We identified 35 candidate genes exhibiting GxE interactions. To identify cis-acting factors that mediated these interactions, we interrogated the proximal promoters of these 35 candidates and found 241 single nucleotide variants (SNVs) in 16 promoters. Further investigation indicated that 186 SNVs (15 promoters) are predicted to alter transcription factor binding. In addition, 62 SNVs created, removed or altered the placement of a CpG dinucleotide in 13 of the proximal promoters, 53 of which overlapped putative transcription factor binding sites. These 53 SNVs are also our top candidates for future studies aimed at examining the effects of alcohol on epigenetic gene regulation.
A MapReduce-Based Maximum-Flow Algorithm for Large Small-World Network Graphs

Maximum-flow algorithms are used to find spam sites, build content voting system, discover communities, etc., on graphs from the Internet. Such graphs are now so large that they have outgrown conventional memory-resident algorithms. In this paper, we show how to effectively parallelize a max-flow algorithm based on the Ford-Fulkerson method on a cluster using the MapReduce framework. Our algorithm exploits the property that such graphs are small-world networks with low diameter and employs optimizations to improve the effectiveness of MapReduce and increase parallelism. We are able to compute max-flow on a subset of the Face book social network graph with 411 million vertices and 31 billion edges using a cluster of 21 machines in reasonable time.
MMSE subchannel decision feedback equalization for filter bank based multicarrier systems

In this work we present a per-subchannel nonlinear equalizer for a class of filter bank based multicarrier (FBMC) systems. We consider the class of exponentially modulated FBMCs with offset quadrature amplitude modulated (OQAM) input symbols. We design a fractionally spaced decision feedback equalizer (DFE) that minimizes the mean squared error (MMSE) and takes into account the inter-(sub)channel interference (ICI). The input of each equalizer comprises only the output of each subchannel. In the simulation results we show that, despite its increased computational complexity, the performance and the higher bandwidth efficiency of OQAM FBMC systems makes them a competitive alternative to conventional multicarrier systems like cyclic prefix based orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM).
Pi-Invariant Unscented Kalman Filter for sensor fusion

A novel approach based on Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) is proposed for nonlinear state estimation. The Invariant UKF, named π-IUKF, is a recently introduced algorithm dedicated to nonlinear systems possessing symmetries as illustrated by the quaternion-based mini Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) kinematics modeling considered in this paper. Within an invariant framework, this algorithm suggests a systematic approach to determine all the symmetry-preserving terms which correct accordingly the nonlinear state-space representation used for prediction, without requiring any linearization. Thus, based on both invariant filters, for which Lie groups have been identified and UKF theoretical principles, the developed π-IUKF has been previously and successfully applied to the mini-RPAS attitude estimation problem, highlighting remarkable invariant properties. We propose in this paper to extend the theoretical background and the applicability of our proposed π-IUKF observer to the case of a mini-RPAS equipped with an aided Inertial Navigation System (INS) which leads to augment the nonlinear state space representation with both velocity and position differential equations. All the measurements are provided on board by a set of low-cost and low-performance sensors (accelerometers, gyrometers, magnetometers, barometer and even Global Positioning System (GPS)). Our designed π-IUKF estimation algorithm is described in this paper and its performances are evaluated by exploiting successfully real flight test data. Indeed, the whole approach has been implemented onboard using a data logger based on the well-known Paparazzi system. The results show promising perspectives and demonstrate that nonlinear state estimation converges on a much bigger set of trajectories than for more traditional approaches
INDUCED OSCILLATIONS GENERATED BY PROTECTIVE THRESHOLD POLICIES IN THE MANAGEMENT OF EXPLOITED POPULATIONS

Management and conservation of exploited populations have been a central issue in theoretical and empirical studies. In this work, it is shown that threshold policies can induce cyclic behavior in an otherwise exploited stable population as a consequence of the combination of harvest pressure and excessively protective threshold densities. Moreover, the dynamical outcomes generated by these extremely protective policies may vary according to the initial densities. These results may be of significant concern in conservation as well as in management of exploited population.
Conjugal Transfer of the Pathogenicity Island ROD21 in Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis Depends on Environmental Conditions

Unstable pathogenicity islands are chromosomal elements that can be transferred from one bacterium to another. Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis) is a pathogenic bacterium containing such unstable pathogenicity islands. One of them, denominated ROD21, is 26.5 kb in size and capable of excising from the chromosome in certain culture conditions, as well as during bacterial infection of phagocytic cells. In this study we have evaluated whether ROD21 can be effectively transferred from one bacterium to another. We generated a donor and several recipient strains of S. Enteritidis to carry out transfer assays in liquid LB medium. These assays showed that ROD21 is effectively transferred from donor to recipient strains of S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium. When Escherichia coli was used as the recipient strain, ROD21 transfer failed to be observed. Subsequently, we showed that a conjugative process was required for the transfer of the island and that changes in temperature and pH increased the transfer frequency between Salmonella strains. Our data indicate that ROD21 is an unstable pathogenicity island that can be transferred by conjugation in a species-specific manner between Salmonellae. Further, ROD21 transfer frequency increases in response to environmental changes, such as pH and temperature.
Flow Aware Traffic Management

TCP congestion control mechanism, while simple and scalable, has several well known limitations: 1) often different flows experience synchronized losses, leading to lower link utilization, and 2) when flows with different Round Trip Times (RTT) share the same bottleneck link, the flows with a smaller RTT will receive a larger share of the capacity. Not only this allocation of capacity is non-optimal in general, but it cannot be modified as long as only drop tail queues and TCP are used. Active Queue Management algorithms aim at improving link utilization by desynchronizing packet losses for different flows, albeit without addressing the fairness issue. Many AQM algorithms have been proposed (like RED, REM, Blue, Stochastic fair blue, just to name a few), but, to the best of our knowledge, none of them is capable of addressing both issues while being easy to configure and supporting different fairness criteria. Another advantage of using AQM algorithms is that routers can use Explicit Congestion Notification, in order to inform a sender that it needs to reduce its sending rate. We propose a new flow-aware traffic management mechanism that aims at addressing the two aforementioned limitations of TCP, while being self-configuring and supporting different fairness criteria. Clearly the fairness criteria has to be
Watching and talking: media content as social nexus

New multimedia applications, such as community-created video repositories and tools for synchronous sharing, have revolutionized the ways that media is watched and shared. Effective instrumentation of these applications can enable researchers and system designers to better understand how video is being consumed: that is, how it is being watched, shared, augmented with annotations and otherwise experienced by individuals, by groups, and crowds. In addition to consuming content, however, people also talk about it. Conversational exchanges around video content can take place within applications (e.g., in chat spaces) and/or using separate communication channels (e.g., microblogs). We propose that the actions of these video viewers, with the video object itself and/or with each other around the video object, provide rich data for understanding the semantics and social relevance of various pieces of video content. We illustrate this approach with current research and a novel taxonomy of social multimedia interaction.
Design and modal analysis of feedback excitation control system for vertical series elastic manipulator

This paper describes a feedback excitation control system with consideration of gravity, which is a control method to obtain high kinetic energy by utilizing passive potential energy. In the case of a robot that has series elastic joints, peak kinetic energy becomes higher than that of a rigid robot with same motors. We have proposed the feedback excitation control for horizontal multiple-joint robots in our previous work. In this paper, we extend the feedback excitation control to systems that are affected by gravity, and we analyze the feedback excitation control system from the viewpoint of linear vibration mode. Validity of the proposed `coordinate or opposite phase controller' is suggested by the modal analysis. We examine effective excitation controllers to utilize gravitational and elastic potential energy by simulations and experiments.
Long-Term Air Pollution Exposure and Blood Pressure in the Sister Study

Background Exposure to air pollution has been consistently associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, but mechanisms remain uncertain. Associations with blood pressure (BP) may help to explain the cardiovascular effects of air pollution. Objective We examined the cross-sectional relationship between long-term (annual average) residential air pollution exposure and BP in the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ Sister Study, a large U.S. cohort study investigating risk factors for breast cancer and other outcomes. Methods This analysis included 43,629 women 35–76 years of age, enrolled 2003–2009, who had a sister with breast cancer. Geographic information systems contributed to satellite-based nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (≤ 2.5 μm; PM2.5) predictions at participant residences at study entry. Generalized additive models were used to examine the relationship between pollutants and measured BP at study entry, adjusting for cardiovascular disease risk factors and including thin plate splines for potential spatial confounding. Results A 10-μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 was associated with 1.4-mmHg higher systolic BP (95% CI: 0.6, 2.3; p < 0.001), 1.0-mmHg higher pulse pressure (95% CI: 0.4, 1.7; p = 0.001), 0.8-mmHg higher mean arterial pressure (95% CI: 0.2, 1.4; p = 0.01), and no significant association with diastolic BP. A 10-ppb increase in NO2 was associated with a 0.4-mmHg (95% CI: 0.2, 0.6; p < 0.001) higher pulse pressure. Conclusions Long-term PM2.5 and NO2 exposures were associated with higher blood pressure. On a population scale, such air pollution–related increases in blood pressure could, in part, account for the increases in cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality seen in prior studies. Citation Chan SH, Van Hee VC, Bergen S, Szpiro AA, DeRoo LA, London SJ, Marshall JD, Kaufman JD, Sandler DP. 2015. Long-term air pollution exposure and blood pressure in the Sister Study. Environ Health Perspect 123:951–958; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1408125
Providing a secure base: Parenting children in long-term foster family care

This paper reports on a longitudinal study of children growing up in long-term foster family care. It focuses attention on the challenges for foster carers in providing a secure base for foster children in middle childhood and early adolescence, who have come predominantly from backgrounds of abuse, neglect, and psychosocial adversity. Separation and loss in the children's lives, often through multiple placements, increase the likelihood of difficulties across a range of development. These children tend to be wary, distrustful, and controlling when they enter foster placements, but need from their carers many of the caregiving qualities most commonly described as providing a secure base in infancy. This study describes a model of parenting which uses four caregiving dimensions that are consistent with attachment theory and research: promoting trust in availability, promoting reflective function, promoting self-esteem, and promoting autonomy. A fifth dimension, promoting family membership, is added, as it reflects the need for children in long-term foster family care to experience the security that comes from a sense of identity and belonging. Qualitative data from the study demonstrates the usefulness of this model as a framework for analysis, but also suggests the potential use of such a framework for working with and supporting foster carers.
Hybrid symbolic-genetic approach to test pattern generation for digital logic circuits

A genetic tests synthesis algorithm for the synchronous digital circuits, based on solving the problem of integer optimization with a scalar objective function is presented. A decomposition strategy of the circuit under test and symbolic representation of its fragments obtained. New objective function with global optimum which is the test sequence developed. Experimental results confirmed the effectiveness and practical applicability of the method.
Role of Pseudorabies Virus Us3 Protein Kinase during Neuronal Infection

ABSTRACT The pseudorabies virus (PRV) Us3 gene is conserved among the alphaherpesviruses and encodes a serine/threonine protein kinase that is not required for growth in standard cell lines. In this report, we used a compartmented culture system to investigate the role of PRV Us3 in viral replication in neurons, in spread from neurons to PK15 cells, and in axon-mediated spread of infection. We also examined the role of Us3 in neuroinvasion and virulence in rodents. Us3 null mutants produce about 10-fold less infectious virus from neurons than wild-type virus and have no discernible phenotypes for axonal targeting of viral components in cultured peripheral nervous system neurons. After eye infection in rodents, Us3 null mutants were slightly attenuated for virulence, with a delayed onset of symptoms compared to the wild type or a Us3 null revertant. While initially delayed, the symptoms increased in severity until they approximated those of the wild-type virus. Us3 null mutants were neuroinvasive, spreading in both efferent and afferent circuits innervating eye tissues.
Identification of MIMO non-linear systems using a forward-regression orthogonal estimator

Abstract An orthogonal least squares estimator, which was originally derived for single-input single-output systems, is extended to multi-input multi-output non-linear systems. The estimator can provide information about the structure, or which terms to include in the model, and final parameter estimates in a very simple and efficient manner. Multivariable non-linear model validity tests are also discussed and the results of applying the orthogonal estimator to both simulated and real data are included.
Towards an Affect Space for robots to display emotional body language

In order for robots to be socially accepted and generate empathy it is necessary that they display rich emotions. For robots such as Nao, body language is the best medium available given their inability to convey facial expressions. Displaying emotional body language that can be interpreted whilst interacting with the robot should significantly improve its sociability. This research investigates the creation of an Affect Space for the generation of emotional body language to be displayed by robots. To create an Affect Space for body language, one has to establish the contribution of the different positions of the joints to the emotional expression. The experiment reported in this paper investigated the effect of varying a robot's head position on the interpretation, Valence, Arousal and Stance of emotional key poses. It was found that participants were better than chance level in interpreting the key poses. This finding confirms that body language is an appropriate medium for robot to express emotions. Moreover, the results of this study support the conclusion that Head Position is an important body posture variable. Head Position up increased correct identification for some emotion displays (pride, happiness, and excitement), whereas Head Position down increased correct identification for other displays (anger, sadness). Fear, however, was identified well regardless of Head Position. Head up was always evaluated as more highly Aroused than Head straight or down. Evaluations of Valence (degree of negativity to positivity) and Stance (degree to which the robot was aversive to approaching), however, depended on both Head Position and the emotion displayed. The effects of varying this single body posture variable were complex.
Nonparametric M-quantile Regression via Penalized Splines

Quantile regression investigates the conditional quantile functions of a response variables in terms of a set of covariates. Mquantile regression extends this idea by a “quantile-like” generalization of regression based on influence functions. In this work we extend it to nonparametric regression, in the sense that the M-quantile regression functions do not have to be assumed to be linear, but can be left undefined and estimated from the data. Penalized splines are employed to estimate them. This choice makes it easy to move to bivariate smoothing and additive modeling. An algorithm based on penalized iteratively reweighted least squares to actually fit the model is also proposed. Simulation studies are presented that show the finite sample properties of the proposed estimation technique.
Labour Market Deregulation and Temporary Migrant Labour Schemes: An Analysis of the 457 Visa Program

This article examines Australia’s main temporary labour migration scheme, the 457 visa program, through the concept of ‘labour market deregulation’. In this article, ‘deregulation’ is not equated with the removal of regulation; rather it is defined to mean the removal of a particular kind of regulation – protective regulation. Applying this concept to the 457 program, the article identifies three protective purposes: protection of the employment opportunities of local workers; protection of the working conditions of local workers; and protection of the working conditions of temporary migrant workers. It argues that this program was deregulated under the Coalition Government (1996-2007) while being subject to re-regulation under the current ALP Government (2007-present). The significance of this study is twofold: it provides a specific analysis of the 457 program, up to and including the most recent changes, and it suggests an analytical approach to examining the regulation of temporary migrant work.
The Impact of HAART on the Respiratory Complications of HIV Infection: Longitudinal Trends in the MACS and WIHS Cohorts

Objective To review the incidence of respiratory conditions and their effect on mortality in HIV-infected and uninfected individuals prior to and during the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Design Two large observational cohorts of HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected men (Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study [MACS]) and women (Women’s Interagency HIV Study [WIHS]), followed since 1984 and 1994, respectively. Methods Adjusted odds or hazards ratios for incident respiratory infections or non-infectious respiratory diagnoses, respectively, in HIV-infected compared to HIV-uninfected individuals in both the pre-HAART (MACS only) and HAART eras; and adjusted Cox proportional hazard ratios for mortality in HIV-infected persons with lung disease during the HAART era. Results Compared to HIV-uninfected participants, HIV-infected individuals had more incident respiratory infections both pre-HAART (MACS, odds ratio [adjusted-OR], 2.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.2–2.7; p<0.001) and after HAART availability (MACS, adjusted-OR, 1.5; 95%CI 1.3–1.7; p<0.001; WIHS adjusted-OR, 2.2; 95%CI 1.8–2.7; p<0.001). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was more common in MACS HIV-infected vs. HIV-uninfected participants pre-HAART (hazard ratio [adjusted-HR] 2.9; 95%CI, 1.02–8.4; p = 0.046). After HAART availability, non-infectious lung diseases were not significantly more common in HIV-infected participants in either MACS or WIHS participants. HIV-infected participants in the HAART era with respiratory infections had an increased risk of death compared to those without infections (MACS adjusted-HR, 1.5; 95%CI, 1.3–1.7; p<0.001; WIHS adjusted-HR, 1.9; 95%CI, 1.5–2.4; p<0.001). Conclusion HIV infection remained a significant risk for infectious respiratory diseases after the introduction of HAART, and infectious respiratory diseases were associated with an increased risk of mortality.