Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Practice makes perfect? Managing and leveraging visual experiences for lifelong navigation

This paper is about long-term navigation in environments whose appearance changes over time - suddenly or gradually. We describe, implement and validate an approach which allows us to incrementally learn a model whose complexity varies naturally in accordance with variation of scene appearance. It allows us to leverage the state of the art in pose estimation to build over many runs, a world model of sufficient richness to allow simple localisation despite a large variation in conditions. As our robot repeatedly traverses its workspace, it accumulates distinct visual experiences that in concert, implicitly represent the scene variation - each experience captures a visual mode. When operating in a previously visited area, we continually try to localise in these previous experiences while simultaneously running an independent vision based pose estimation system. Failure to localise in a sufficient number of prior experiences indicates an insufficient model of the workspace and instigates the laying down of the live image sequence as a new distinct experience. In this way, over time we can capture the typical time varying appearance of an environment and the number of experiences required tends to a constant. Although we focus on vision as a primary sensor throughout, the ideas we present here are equally applicable to other sensor modalities. We demonstrate our approach working on a road vehicle operating over a three month period at different times of day, in different weather and lighting conditions. In all, we process over 136,000 frames captured from 37km of driving.
The effects of sub-shells in highly magnetized relativistic flows

Astrophysical sources of relativistic jets or outflows, such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), active galactic nuclei (AGN) or micro-quasars, often show strong time variability. Despite such impulsive behaviour, most models of these sources assume a steady state for simplicity. Here I consider a time-dependent outflow that is initially highly magnetized and divided into many well-separated sub-shells, as it experiences impulsive magnetic acceleration and interacts with the external medium. In AGN the deceleration by the external medium is usually unimportant and most of the initial magnetic energy is naturally converted into kinetic energy, leading to efficient dissipation in internal shocks as the sub-shells collide. Such efficient low-magnetization internal shocks can also naturally occur in GRBs, where the deceleration by the external medium can be important. A strong low-magnetization reverse shock can develop, and the initial division into sub-shells allows it to be relativistic and its emission to peak on the time-scale of the prompt GRB duration (which is not possible for a single shell). Sub-shells also enable the outflow to reach much higher Lorentz factors that help satisfy existing constraints on GRBs from intrinsic pair opacity and from the afterglow onset time.
Prime Rigid Graphs and Multidimensional Scaling with Missing Data

In this paper we investigate the problem of embedding a number of points given certain (but typically not all) inter-pair distance measurements. This problem is relevant for multi-dimensional scaling problems with missing data, and is applicable within anchor-free sensor network node calibration and anchor-free node localization using radio or sound TOA measurements. There are also applications within chemistry for deducing molecular 3D structure given inter-atom distance measurements and within machine learning and visualization of data, where only similarity measures between sample points are provided. The problem has been studied previously within the field of rigid graph theory. Our aim is here to construct numerically stable and efficient solvers for finding all embeddings of such minimal rigid graphs. The method is based on the observation that all graphs are either irreducibly rigid, here called prime rigid graphs, or contain smaller rigid graphs. By solving the embedding problem for the prime rigid graphs and for ways of assembling such graphs to other minimal rigid graphs, we show how to (i) calculate the number of embeddings and (ii) construct numerically stable and efficient algorithms for obtaining all embeddings given inter-node measurements. The solvers are verified with experiments on simulated data.
Complex Thinking as a Result of Incongruent Information Exposure

In this article, we explore whether incongruent information influences what people recall to mind about a presidential candidate’s policy statements. We investigate whether the volume of people’s political thoughts, their ability to produce arguments, the affective valence of these thoughts, and their integrative complexity are influenced by the congruency between new political information and prior political convictions. We conducted an experiment via MTurk manipulating the congruency of information with respect to ideology. Our results show that incongruency significantly alters how people think about politics. Incongruent information increases integrative complexity of the opposing thoughts, becomes more voluminous, and includes more rationales. Moreover, these defensive thoughts are significantly more negative and less positive about the incongruent information. Parallel to what studies on motivated reasoning demonstrated, we also find that politically knowledgeable people in particular seem to strengthen their thoughts’ cognitive structure while defending their priors against information counter to their political views. We further discuss the general effects of these results and the importance of challenges to existing beliefs in generating complex thought systems.
Job Insecurity and the Willingness to Undertake Training: The Moderating Role of Perceived Employability

This study investigates the relationship between job insecurity and the willingness to undertake training, accounting for perceived employability. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we hypothesize that job insecurity negatively relates to the willingness to participate in training to strengthen the internal and external labor market position and that perceived employability has a buffering effect on this relationship. The hypotheses were tested among 560 Belgian employees using structural equation modeling. The results did not provide support for the relationship between job insecurity and the willingness to undertake training to strengthen the position inside the organization. We did, contrary to expectations, find a significant positive relationship with the willingness to undertake training to strengthen the position outside the organization. Furthermore, the relationship between job insecurity and the willingness to undertake training to strengthen the external labor market position was weaker with increasing levels of perceived employability.
The SIWIS French Speech Synthesis Database ? Design and recording of a high quality French database for speech synthesis

We describe the design and recording of a high quality French speech corpus, aimed at building TTS systems, investigate multiple styles, and emphasis. The data was recorded by a French voice talent, and contains about ten hours of speech, including emphasised words in many different contexts. The database contains more than ten hours of speech and is freely available.
What am I going to do now? Examining choice overload in vacation activities using the familiarity concept

ABSTRACT This study examines the similarities between leisure activities engaged in at home and those engaged in while at a vacation destination, as well as the relationships between leisure involvement, leisure habit, choice overload, regret and satisfaction. A post-holiday web-based survey was conducted among tourists in Rovaniemi, Finland, and a valid sample of 246 persons was used for the data analysis. The study indicates that some visitors might exhibit similar behaviours in both their home and holiday environments in terms of activity participation. The findings demonstrate the effect of high involvement (self-expression and centrality) and habits (resistance) in leisure activities at home on lower choice overload regarding vacation activities while at a destination. Lower choice overload also leads to less regret but is not associated with satisfaction. One of the managerial implications of this study is that to avoid choice overload tourism service providers should be aware of the activities that visitors do in their home environments when offering them activities. Moreover, different tiers of programmes targeting various visitor segments are critical in avoiding choice overload, eliminating regret and creating satisfactory experiences.
Region-based Objective Evaluation of Polygonal Mesh Segmentation Methods

In this paper, we propose a new region-based objective evaluation approach of polygonal mesh segmentation algorithms. This approach is derived from 2D-images segmentation similarity measures. We quantify an evaluation criterion relatively to each type of segmented mesh-regions, based on a mesh classification method into convex, concave and planar regions. We apply this approach on eight wellselected existing algorithms conducted by a heterogeneous ground-truth. We present and discuss the evaluation results of these techniques by taking into account the corresponding objects’ classes in every type of region. This provides better understanding as to the strengths and weaknesses of each technique in function of each mesh-regions type. That aims to make a better choice concerning the segmentation algorithms for different applications.
UT-Vocal Effort II: Analysis and constrained-lexicon recognition of whispered speech

This study focuses on acoustic variations in speech introduced by whispering, and proposes several strategies to improve robustness of automatic speech recognition of whispered speech with neutral-trained acoustic models. In the analysis part, differences in neutral and whispered speech captured in the UT-Vocal Effort II corpus are studied in terms of energy, spectral slope, and formant center frequency and bandwidth distributions in silence, voiced, and unvoiced speech signal segments. In the part dedicated to speech recognition, several strategies involving front-end filter bank redistribution, cepstral dimensionality reduction, and lexicon expansion for alternative pronunciations are proposed. The proposed neutral-trained system employing redistributed filter bank and reduced features provides a 7.7 % absolute WER reduction over the baseline system trained on neutral speech, and a 1.3 % reduction over a baseline system with whisper-adapted acoustic models.
Increase in the Risk of Respiratory Disorders in Adults and Children Related to Crop-Growing in Niger

Background and Objective. Environmental factors are an increasing concern for respiratory health in developing countries. The objective of this study was to investigate whether Nigerien people living in cultivated areas have more respiratory symptoms than those living in pastoral areas. Method. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2013 in two populations during the rainy season when land is cultivated. Environmental factors including pesticide use and respiratory symptoms were collected in adults and children during face-to-face interviews. Multivariate analysis between exposures and symptoms was performed in children and in adults separately. Results. The study included 471 adults and 229 children. Overall, none of the households reported the use of pesticides for agricultural purposes. However, 87.2% reported the use of insecticides at home. Multivariate analysis showed that people living in agricultural areas compared to those in pastoral areas had an increased risk of respiratory symptoms in adults (wheezing, dyspnea, sudden shortness of breath, and cough without fever) and in children (cough without fever). The use of insecticides showed no effect on respiratory symptoms after adjustment. Conclusion. This first epidemiological study on the environment and respiratory health conducted in Niger demonstrates a significant relationship between respiratory manifestations and the agricultural characteristics of the living area. However only the effect of insecticides in the home on respiratory health was observed.
Identification of microsatellite markers in the rye genome

The rye genomic library, which consists of DNA fragments in the range of 0.5–1.1 kb, was screened for the presence of tri-and tetranucleotide and compound microsatellites. Of the 1,600,000 clones analysed, 102 clones were positive and 41 were suitable for SSR primer pair design. Twenty-six primer pairs amplified specific products, and six of them were capable of detecting polymorphism among 30 rye accessions of different genetic backgrounds. Using a set of Chinese Spring-Imperial wheat-rye addition lines, it was possible to locate 3 newly identified microsatellites on chromosomes 3R, 4R and 7R.
Covariance and Controvariance: a fresh look at an old issue (a primer in advanced type systems for learning functional programmers)

Twenty years ago, in an article titled "Covariance and contravariance: conflict without a cause", I argued that covariant and contravariant specialization of method parameters in object-oriented programming had different purposes and deduced that, not only they could, but actually they should both coexist in the same language. In this work I reexamine the result of that article in the light of recent advances in (sub-)typing theory and programming languages, taking a fresh look at this old issue. Actually, the revamping of this problem is just an excuse for writing an essay that aims at explaining sophisticated type-theoretic concepts, in simple terms and by examples, to undergraduate computer science students and/or willing functional programmers. Finally, I took advantage of this opportunity to describe some undocumented advanced techniques of type-systems implementation that are known only to few insiders that dug in the code of some compilers: therefore, even expert language designers and implementers may find this work worth of reading.
Evaluation of characterization methods of printer MTF

We explore two recent methods for measuring the Modeling Transfer Function of a printing system12. We investigate the dependency on the amplitude when using the sinusoidal patches of the method proposed in1 and show that for too small amplitudes the measurement of the MTF is not trustworthy. For the method proposed in2 we discuss the underlying theory and in particular the use of a significance test for a statistical analysis. Finally we compare both methods with respect our application - the processing and printing of photographic images.
On the impact of virtualization on the I/O performance of analytic workloads

In this work we study the I/O performance of long, sequential workloads that mimic those of Big Data applications, to understand the implications of system virtualization on data-intensive frameworks such as Apache Hadoop and Spark, which are frequently run in clusters of Virtual Machines (VMs). We do so through an experimental measurement campaign that collects low-level traces and metrics, to show the role played by important parameters such as the I/O schedulers and caching mechanisms involved in the I/O path, and the VM configuration in terms of dedicated resources. Our findings are important, especially for determining appropriate deployment strategies for today's emerging Analytics Services hosted both on public and private clouds.
Modeling Dynamical Influence in Human Interaction

How can we model influence between individuals in a social sys tem? How can we use influence to model and predict observations from social syst em ? In this article, we explain the recent advances of the influence model, a Bayesian networ k approach for modeling social influence from observations of individuals. We review the de velopment of the influence model in the literature. We also introduce the generalization of t he influence model, the dynamical influence model, and demonstrate three examples on how to use the models.
The Tits alternative for non‐spherical Pride groups

Pride groups, or ‘groups given by presentations in which each defining relator involves at most two types of generators’, include Coxeter groups, Artin groups, triangles of groups, and Vinberg's groups defined by periodic paired relations. We show that every non‐spherical Pride group that is not a triangle of groups satisfies the Tits alternative.
Optical millimeter-wave generation or up-conversion using external modulators

We have experimentally compared the performances of optical millimeter-wave generation or up-conversion using external modulators based on different modulation schemes. The generated or up-converted optical millimeter wave using the optical carrier suppression (OCS) modulation scheme shows the highest receiver sensitivity, highest spectral efficiency, and smallest power penalty over long-distance delivery. Moreover, the OCS modulation scheme has a simple configuration and low-frequency bandwidth requirement for both electrical and optical components. Employing an OCS modulation scheme, 16-channel dense wavelength-division multiplexing signals at 2.5-Gb/s per channel have been up-converted to a 40-GHz carrier simultaneously.
Modelos matemáticos de la sociedad y aplicaciones. Crecimiento de las redes sociales.

Resumen Revisamos varios modelos de crecimiento que han sido propuestos para redes: el crecimiento aleatorio de Erdos y Ranyi, el crecimiento libre de escala de Barabasi propuesto originalmente para el internet, el modelo  de crecimiento de Watts y Strogatz. Una aplicacion del Teorema de Turan muestra que la optimizacion del crecimiento implica la aparicion de clanes en la red. Nuestro modelo de crecimiento propone una combinacion del crecimiento del tipo libre de escala y el -crecimiento, una vez satisfecho el principio de acotamiento del numero de vecinos c(i) ≤ D, para toda i, por un numero de Dunbar D fijado a priori. Alternativamente al establecimiento de relaciones de acuerdo al principio de preferencia de los mas populares que da lugar, en algunos casos, al crecimiento libre de escala, proponemos el establecimiento de nuevas relaciones de acuerdo al principio de preferencia de los mas poderosos. Palabras clave: crecimiento libre de escala, modelo  de crecimiento, numero de Dunbar, teorema de Turan.
Heavily doped junctionless vertical slit FETs with slit width Below 20 nm

This paper reports an alternative simple fabrication process for twin gate junctionless Vertical Slit Field Effect Transistors. N-type devices have been successfully manufactured on SOI substrates with a doping density 5×10<sup>18</sup> atoms/cm<sup>3</sup>. The devices demonstrate up to six decades of I<sub>on</sub>/I<sub>off</sub> ratio and a sub-threshold swing of 90 mV/decade relative to a slit width of approximately 10 nm.
A Dynamic Hashing Approach to Supporting Load Balance in P2P Systems

In a structured P2P system, peers maintain information about what resources neighbor peers offer. Chord is one of well-known structured P2P systems to efficiently support resource finding based on the hashing approach. However, in Chord, most of data keys may be assigned to the same peer, since it uses the static hashing scheme, resulting in the case that the load of Chord is unbalanced. Therefore, we propose a strategy which uses the dynamic hashing scheme to locate the data key based on the Chord architecture, and to maintain the load balance. From our simulation results, we show that the load of the P2P system based on our strategy is much more balanced than that based on the original strategy used in Chord.
3D DNA self-assembly for the maximum clique problem

DNA self-assembly technology has brought some novel inspirations to the development of DNA computing. At present, there are many diversified computational models to solve various NP problems, some of which are very useful to solve complex NP problems. In this paper, we introduce how the 3D self-assembly model to solve the maximum clique problem, with the capacity of DNA molecules in massive parallel computation. In this model, the number of distinct tiles used in the computing is a constant - 15, computation time is θ(n2), and computation space is θ(n3). Our work makes a significant attempt to explore the computational power of 3D DNA self-assembly.
Probabilistic Anomaly Detection Based on System Calls Analysis

We present an application of probabilistic approach to the anomaly detection (PAD). Byanalyzing selected system calls (and their arguments), the chosen applications are monitoredin the Linux environment. This allows us to estimate “(ab)normality” of their behavior (bycomparison to previously collected profiles). We’ve attached results of threat detection ina typical computer environment.
Sliding Mode Control of quadrotor

This paper presents a design method for attitude control of an autonomous quadrotor based sliding Mode Control. We are interested in the dynamic modeling of quadrotor because of it complexity. The dynamic model is used to design a stable and accurate controller to perform the best tracking and attitude results. To stabilize the overall systems, each sliding mode controller is designed based on the Lyapunov stability theory. The advantage of sliding mode control is its not being sensitive to model errors, parametric uncertainties and other disturbances. Lastly, we show that the control law has a good robust and good stability though simulation.
Indigenous Methodology in Understanding Indigenous Nurse Graduate Transition to Practice

Increasing Indigenous health care professional presence in health care aims to reduce health inequities of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Nurses are the largest health professional group and nurse graduates the main source of recruitment. The quality of graduate transition to practice is evident in the literature; however, little is reported about Indigenous new graduates. We describe using Indigenous methodology and two-eyed seeing (Indigenous and Western perspectives) in exploring Indigenous transition experiences. Talking circles provided a safe environment for nurses, nurse educators and students, health managers, and policy makers to discuss Indigenous new graduate case scenarios. The methodology was critical in identifying challenges faced, recommendations for change, and a new collective commitment for cultural safety education, and ethical and respectful relationships within education, practice, and policy.
Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) : real time operations and photometric analysis

Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) have provided the first evidence for an accelerating universe and for the existence of an unknown ``dark energy'' driving this expansion. The 5-year Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) will deliver \~700 type Ia supernovae and as many type II supernovae with well-sampled light curves in 4 filters g', r', i' and z'. The current status of the project will be presented, along with the real time processing leading to the discovery and spectroscopic observation of the supernovae. We also present an offline selection of the SN candidates which aims at identifying and eliminating potential selection biases.
Illumination Component Separation Method Based on Independent Component Analysis

In the field of computer vision, since the image of an object is negatively influenced by illumination, material, texture, shadows, and so on, it is often necessary to separate the illumination components (diffuse and specular reflections) from the intrinsic information of an image. In this paper, the diffuse and specular reflections are regarded as mutually independent components. By analyzing the coefficient matrix of the illumination components and incorporating it into independent component analysis, the diffuse and specular reflections are separated. The experiment results reveal that the proposed method is feasible and has a better separation precision.