Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automated Linear-Time Detection and Quality Assessment of Superpixels in Uncalibrated True- or False-Color RGB Images

Capable of automated near real time superpixel detection and quality assessment in an uncalibrated monitor typical red green blue (RGB) image, depicted in either true or false colors, an original low level computer vision (CV) lightweight computer program, called RGB Image Automatic Mapper (RGBIAM), is designed and implemented. Constrained by the Calibration Validation (CalVal) requirements of the Quality Assurance Framework for Earth Observation (QA4EO) guidelines, RGBIAM requires as mandatory an uncalibrated RGB image pre processing first stage, consisting of an automated statistical model based color constancy algorithm. The RGBIAM hybrid inference pipeline comprises: (I) a direct quantitative to nominal (QN) RGB variable transform, where RGB pixel values are mapped onto a prior dictionary of color names, equivalent to a static polyhedralization of the RGB cube. Prior color naming is the deductive counterpart of inductive vector quantization (VQ), whose typical VQ error function to minimize is a root mean square error (RMSE). In the output multi level color map domain, superpixels are automatically detected in linear time as connected sets of pixels featuring the same color label. (II) An inverse nominal to quantitative (NQ) RGB variable transform, where a superpixelwise constant RGB image approximation is generated in linear time to assess a VQ error image. The hybrid direct and inverse RGBIAM QNQ transform is: (i) general purpose, data and application independent. (ii) Automated, i.e., it requires no user machine interaction. (iii) Near real time, with a computational complexity increasing linearly with the image size. (iv) Implemented in tile streaming mode, to cope with massive images. Collected outcome and process quality indicators, including degree of automation, computational efficiency, VQ rate and VQ error, are consistent with theoretical expectations.
Species diversity of keratinophilic fungi in various soil types

Keratinophilic fungi are a highly specialized, keratin-degrading ecological group. They live in natural environments, mostly in the keratinrich remains of dead animal in the soil. We investigated species diversity in four types of soils with different physico-chemical properties. The strain material was identified based on morphological characters. Different representatives of Chrysosporium and geophilic dermatophytes dominated depending on soil pH. Geophilic dermatophytes were represented by one species, Trichophyton ajelloi, and the Chrysosporium group was represented by Chrysosporium keratinophilum. The frequency of Trichophyton ajelloi increased with an increase in pH, and it reached the maximum in strongly acidic soil (podzol), unlike the Chrysosporium group. The frequency of Chrysosporium keratinophilum was positively correlated with the content of humus, nitrogen, CaCO3 and phosphorus in the soils.
Intrusion Detection System Using Genetic Algorithm for Cloud

Cloud and its transactions have emerged as a major challenge. This paper aims to come up with an efficient and best possible way to transfer data in cloud computing environment. This goal is achieved with the help of Soft Computing Techniques. Of the various techniques such as fuzzy logic, genetic algorithm or neural network, the paper proposes an effective method of intrusion detection using genetic algorithm. The selection of the optimized path for the data transmission proved to be effective method in cloud computing environment. Network path optimization increases data transmission speed making intrusion in network nearly impossible. Intruders are forced to act quickly for intruding the network which is quite a tough task for them in such high speed data transmission network.
A framework for developing serious games to meet learner needs

This paper will communicate preliminary findings from applied research exploring how to ensure that serious games are cost effective and engaging components of future training solutions. The applied research is part of a multimillion pound program for the Department of Trade and Industry, and involves a partnership between UK industry and academia to determine how bespoke serious games should be used to best satisfy learning needs in a range of contexts. The main objective of this project is to produce a minimum of three serious games prototypes for clients from different sectors (e.g., military, medical and business) each prototype addressing a learning need or learning outcome that helps solve a priority business problem or fulfill a specific training need. This paper will describe a development process that aims to encompass learner specifics and targeted learning outcomes in order to ensure that the serious game is successful. A framework for describing game-based learning scenarios is introduced, and an approach to the analysis that effectively profiles the learner within the learner group with respect to game-based learning is outlined. The proposed solution also takes account of relevant findings from serious games research on particular learner groups that might support the selection and specification of a game. A case study on infection control will be used to show how this approach to the analysis is being applied for a healthcare issue.
Preparation and characterization of polysaccharide-based nanoparticles with anticoagulant activity

The aim of this study was to produce and characterize nanoparticles (NPs), combining chondroitin sulfate (CS) and fucoidan (FC) with chitosan for therapeutic purposes. These NPs were characterized by dynamic light scattering, zeta potential determination, and transmission electronic microscopy. The anticoagulant activity was determined for FC NPs and compared with FC solution at the same concentration. FC NPs showed regular shapes and better anticoagulant activity than free polysaccharide solution. FC solution did not affect coagulation compared to FC NPs, which increased up to two-fold, even at a lower concentration. Cytotoxicity and permeability tests were conducted using Caco-2 cell monolayer, exhibiting no toxic effect in this cell line and higher permeability for NP2 samples than FC solution at the same concentration.
Instruction Sequence Based Non-uniform Complexity Classes

We present an approach to non-uniform complexity in which single-pass instruction sequences play a key part, and answer various questions that arise from this approach. We introduce several kinds of non-uniform complexity classes. One kind includes a counterpart of the well-known non-uniform complexity class P/poly and another kind includes a counterpart of the well-known non-uniform complexity class NP/poly. Moreover, we introduce a general notion of completeness for the non-uniform complexity classes of the latter kind. We also formulate a counterpart of the well-known complexity theoretic conjecture that NP is not included in P/poly. We think that the presented approach opens up an additional way of investigating issues concerning non-uniform complexity.
Multi-Layer Test and Diagnosis for Dependable NoCs

Networks-on-chip are inherently fault tolerant or at least gracefully degradable as both, connectivity and amount of resources, provide some useful redundancy. These properties can only be exploited extensively if test and diagnosis techniques support fault detection and error containment in an optimized way. On the one hand, all faulty components have to be isolated, and on the other hand, remaining fault-free functionalities have to be kept operational. In this contribution, behavioral end-to-end error detection is considered together with functional test methods for switches and gate level diagnosis to locate and to isolate faults in the network in an efficient way with low time overhead.
Models and Algorithms for Haplotyping Problem

One of the main topics in genomics is to determine the relevance of DNA variations with some genetic disease. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) is the most frequent and important form of genetic variation which involves a single DNA base. The values of a set of SNPs on a particular chromosome copy define a haplotype. Because of its importance in the studies of complex disease association, haplotyping is one of the central problems in bioinformatics. There are two classes of in silico haplotyping problems, i.e., single individual haplotyping and population haplotyping. In this review paper, we give an overview on the existing models and algorithms on this topic, report the recent progresses from the computational viewpoint and further discuss the future research trends.
Myocardial delivery of colloid nanoparticles using ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction.

AIMS Ultrasound (US)-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) is a promising method for delivering genetic material to the heart. The aim of this study was: (i) to test whether colloid nanoparticles can be delivered to the rat myocardium using UTMD; and (ii) to determine whether tissue damage and contractile dysfunction occurs in hearts exposed to UTMD in vivo. METHODS AND RESULTS Hearts from anaesthetized rats were exposed to perfluorocarbon-enhanced sonicated dextrose albumin (PESDA) (at two different microbubble concentrations) and US at peak pressures of 0.6, 1.2, or 1.8 MPa for 1, 3, or 9 min. During US, pairs of 30 and 100 nm fluorescent nanospheres were infused intravenously. Left ventricular function was assessed before and immediately after US, as well as at 24 h and 7 days. At the end of the experiments, the number of ruptured microvessels and the amount of nanospheres deposited were quantified. Rats exposed to PESDA alone or US alone showed no functional abnormalities, no capillary ruptures, and no nanosphere delivery. In contrast, rats exposed to both PESDA and US exhibited microvascular ruptures and nanosphere deposits. They also showed transient contractile dysfunction and premature ventricular contractions. All these changes were time-, US peak pressure-, and PESDA concentration-dependent. CONCLUSION UTMD allows colloid nanoparticles to be delivered to the rat myocardium through microvessel rupture sites. The efficacy of delivery depends on the peak pressure applied, the duration of US exposure, and contrast concentration. UTMD also causes time- and peak pressure-dependent contractile dysfunction, and tissue alterations that are spontaneously reversible over time.
An Empirical Comparison of Dissimilarity Measures for Recommender Systems

Many content-based recommendation approaches are based on a dissimilarity measure based on the product attributes. In this paper, we evaluate four dissimilarity measures for product recommendation using an online survey. In this survey, we asked users to specify which products they considered to be relevant recommendations given a reference product. We used microwave ovens as product category. Based on these responses, we create a relative relevance matrix we use to evaluate the dissimilarity measures with. Also, we use this matrix to estimate weights to be used in the dissimilarity measures. In this way, we evaluate four dissimilarity measures: the Euclidean Distance, the Hamming Distance, the Heterogeneous Euclidean-Overlap Metric, and the Adapted Gower Coefficient. The evaluation shows that these weights improve recommendation performance. Furthermore, the experiments indicate that when recommending a single product, the Heterogeneous Euclidean-Overlap Metric should be used and when recommending more than one product the Adapted Gower Coefficient is the best alternative. Finally, we compare these dissimilarity measures with a collaborative method and show that this method performs worse than the dissimilarity based approaches.
Near-real-time satellite image processing: metacomputing in CC++

Metacomputing combines heterogeneous system elements in a seamless computing service. In this case study, we introduce the elements of metacomputing and describe an application for cloud detection and visualization of infrared and visible-light satellite images. The application processes the satellite images by using Compositional C++ (CC++)-a simple, yet powerful extension of C++-and its runtime system, Nexus, to integrate specialized resources, high-speed networks, parallel and distributed computing, and stereoscopic visualization in virtual reality (VR) displays.
The Oxford Handbook of Reasons and Normativity

The Oxford Handbook of Reasons and Normativity contains forty-four commissioned chapters on a wide range of topics. It will appeal especially to readers with an interest in ethics or epistemology, but also to those with an interest in philosophy of mind or philosophy of language. Both students and academics will benefit from the fact that the Handbook combines helpful overviews with innovative contributions to current debates. A diverse selection of substantive positions are defended by leading proponents of the views in question. Few concepts have received as much attention in recent philosophy as the concept of a reason. This is the first edited collection to provide broad coverage of the study of reasons and normativity across multiple philosophical subfields. In addition to focusing on reasons as part of the study of ethics and as part of the study of epistemology (as well as focusing on reasons as part of the study of the philosophy of language and as part of the study of the philosophy of mind), the Handbook covers recent developments concerning the nature of normativity in general. A number of the contributions to the Handbook explicitly address such “metanormative” issues, bridging subfields as they do so.
A Saddlepoint Approximation to the Distribution of the Half-Life Estimator in an Autoregressive Model: New Insights Into the PPP Puzzle

We derive saddlepoint approximations for the density and distribution functions of the half-life estimated by OLS from an AR(1) or AR(p) model. Our analytic results are used to prove that none of the integer-order moments of these half-life estimators exist. This provides an explanation for the unreasonably large estimates of persistency associated with the purchasing power parity “puzzle”, and it also explains the excessively wide confidence intervals reported in the empirical PPP literature.
A Fuzzy RDF Semantics to Represent Trust Metadata

The need for fuzzy knowledge bases arises from many application fields, such as trust management. To represent fuzzy data, a syntactic and semantic extension of RDF is proposed. The syntax adds to each triple a truth value. The semantic for Fuzzy RDF and Fuzzy RDF Schema allows to derive truth values for derived statements as well. Fuzzy RDF/RDFS does not aim to become a standard extension to plain RDF/RDFS. It is conceived to be used only inside the applications. Fuzzy data can be transferred as standard RDF using reification. The extra semantic can be brought back using rules.
Diffuse Optical Tomography Activation in the Somatosensory Cortex: Specific Activation by Painful vs. Non-Painful Thermal Stimuli

Background Pain is difficult to assess due to the subjective nature of self-reporting. The lack of objective measures of pain has hampered the development of new treatments as well as the evaluation of current ones. Functional MRI studies of pain have begun to delineate potential brain response signatures that could be used as objective read-outs of pain. Using Diffuse Optical Tomography (DOT), we have shown in the past a distinct DOT signal over the somatosensory cortex to a noxious heat stimulus that could be distinguished from the signal elicited by innocuous mechanical stimuli. Here we further our findings by studying the response to thermal innocuous and noxious stimuli. Methodology/Principal Findings Innocuous and noxious thermal stimuli were applied to the skin of the face of the first division (ophthalmic) of the trigeminal nerve in healthy volunteers (N = 6). Stimuli temperatures were adjusted for each subject to evoke warm (equivalent to a 3/10) and painful hot (7/10) sensations in a verbal rating scale (0/10 = no/max pain). A set of 26 stimuli (5 sec each) was applied for each temperature with inter-stimulus intervals varied between 8 and 15 sec using a Peltier thermode. A DOT system was used to capture cortical responses on both sides of the head over the primary somatosensory cortical region (S1). For the innocuous stimuli, group results indicated mainly activation on the contralateral side with a weak ipsilateral response. For the noxious stimuli, bilateral activation was observed with comparable amplitudes on both sides. Furthermore, noxious stimuli produced a temporal biphasic response while innocuous stimuli produced a monophasic response. Conclusions/Significance These results are in accordance with fMRI and our other DOT studies of innocuous mechanical and noxious heat stimuli. The data indicate the differentiation of DOT cortical responses for pain vs. innocuous stimuli that may be useful in assessing objectively acute pain.
A Novel Routing Scheme for LEO Satellite Networks Based on Link State Routing

The low earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks are characterized by their significant dynamics of topology and traffic load which pose huge challenge to the development of routing algorithm. In this paper, a novel routing scheme based on link state routing, Satellite networks Link State Routing (SLSR), is proposed for LEO satellite networks. In order to relief the problem of high overhead and slow convergence time when applying link state routing to satellite networks, some measures are taken. Firstly, the link propagation delays which can be predicted are calculated in advance rather than collected in real-time. Secondly, only the uncertain link queuing delays, link and node failures are collected in real-time. Thirdly, the network information is flooded using enhanced flooding algorithm which has much less overhead than original flooding algorithm.
Online-offline consistency exploration based on the alternating direction method of multipliers

Nowadays, online social network has become one of the main tools which people communicate with each other every day. The online users' behavior is a large amount of high dimension data. However, is online and offline behavior the mapping relation? This paper explores whether there is consistency between online and offline behavior using the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) algorithm. The ADMM is becoming more and more popular recently, due to it can solve the problem of large-scale and complex data sets. ADMM was designed to solve the convex optimization problem. It is an iterative method that minimizes the objective augmented Lagrangian function.
Differences between paid and unpaid social services for beneficiaries

ABSTRACT In many Western welfare states, social work services that have traditionally been provided by paid employees are being replaced by family support, community support, informal networks, and volunteering. For the field of social work, it is relevant to know what it matters to beneficiaries whether services are provided by volunteers or by paid employees. The central question of this article is therefore as follows: What are the differences between unpaid and paid social services for beneficiaries? The article is based on literature review and focus groups. Our results suggest that beneficiaries do experience some differences regarding the advantages of volunteer services for beneficiaries that can be summarized in three propositions: (1) services provided by volunteers are more relational than are services provided by paid employees, and they are therefore perceived as more equal, flexible and sincere. (2) The effects of volunteer services for beneficiaries are not exclusively positive. (3) Although particular tasks may appear to be interchangeable to some extent, the relative advantages of a given task depend upon whether it is performed by a paid worker or by a volunteer. Additional research is needed in order to provide further validation.
Control Of An Hybrid Multilevel Converter With Floating DC-Links For The Improvement Of Current Waveform

Multilevel converters offer advantages in terms of the output waveform quality due to the increased number of levels used in the output voltage modulation. This advantage is particularly true for cascaded H-bridge converters that can be built to produce a large number of levels. Nevertheless, this advantage comes at the cost of multiple DC-links supplied by independent rectifiers through the use of a multioutput transformer for inverters. This front-end complicates the implementation of converters that have a high number of levels. An alternative method of using lower voltage cells with floating dc-links to compensate only for voltage distortion of an NPC converter is considered for active rectifier applications. The analogy between the floating Hbridges and series active filters is used to develop a strategy for harmonic compensation of the NPC output voltage and the control of the floating dclink voltages. This simplifies the current control scheme and increases its bandwidth. Experimental result with a low power prototype that show the good performance of the proposed modulation technique and the resulting improvement in the output waveform are provided.
Online Node-Weighted Steiner Forest and Extensions via Disk Paintings

We give the first polynomial-time online algorithm for the node-weighted Steiner forest problem with a poly-logarithmic competitive ratio. The competitive ratio of our algorithm is optimal up to a logarithmic factor. For the special case of graphs with an excluded fixed minor (e.g., planar graphs), we obtain a logarithmic competitive ratio, which is optimal up to a constant, using a different online algorithm. Both these results are obtained as special cases of generic results for a large class of problems that can be encoded as online 0, 1-proper functions. Our results are obtained by using a new framework for online network design problems that we call disk paintings. The central idea in this technique is to amortize the cost of primal updates to a set of carefully selected mutually disjoint fixed-radius dual disks centered at a subset of terminals. We hope that this framework will be useful for other online network design problems.
Mainstream media’s coverage of the Gezi protests and protesters’ perception of mainstream media

This article seeks to analyse how different sets of media covered the Gezi protests, whether the protest paradigm model varied according to the ideological leanings of newspapers, and whether social media created an alternative way for citizens to gather information while bypassing domestic news media. Furthermore, the study examines protesters’ perceptions of mainstream media coverage of the Gezi Park protests. It is important to understand how the exchange of information and idea flows in a polarized media environment and social media tools affected this process in Turkey.
Hierarchical representation of videos with spatio-temporal fibers

We propose a new representation of videos, as spatio-temporal fibers. These fibers are clusters of trajectories that are meshed spatially in the image domain. They form a hierarchical partition of the video into regions that are coherent in time and space. They can be seen as dense, spatially-organized, long-term optical flow. Their robustness to noise and ambiguities is ensured by taking into account the reliability of each source of information. As fibers allow users to handle easily moving objects in videos, they prove useful for video editing, as demonstrated in a video inpainting example.