Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Robust Depth Estimation and Image Fusion Based on Optimal Area Selection

Mostly, 3D cameras having depth sensing capabilities employ active depth estimation techniques, such as stereo, the triangulation method or time-of-flight. However, these methods are expensive. The cost can be reduced by applying optical passive methods, as they are inexpensive and efficient. In this paper, we suggest the use of one of the passive optical methods named shape from focus (SFF) for 3D cameras. In the proposed scheme, first, an adaptive window is computed through an iterative process using a criterion. Then, the window is divided into four regions. In the next step, the best focused area among the four regions is selected based on variation in the data. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is validated using image sequences of synthetic and real objects. Comparative analysis based on statistical metrics correlation, mean square error (MSE), universal image quality index (UIQI) and structural similarity (SSIM) shows the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Aging and the Ranschburg effect: no evidence of reduced response suppression in old age.

Two experiments tested 1 aspect of L. Hasher and R. T. Zacks's (1988) reduced inhibition hypothesis, namely, that old age impairs the ability to suppress information in working memory that is no longer relevant. In Experiment 1, young and older adults were asked to recall lists of letters in the correct order. Half of the lists contained repeated items while half were control lists. Recall of nonadjacent repeated items was worse than that of control items. This Ramschburg effect was larger (i.e., greater response suppression) in older than in young adults. In Experiment 2, young and older adults were required either to recall the list or to report if there was a repeated item. Repetition detection was high and similar in the 2 age groups. When age differences in overall performance were taken into account, there was evidence of increased repetition inhibition with age in both experiments. Thus, contrary to the general reduced inhibition hypothesis, the specific process of response suppression during serial recall is not reduced by aging.
A semantic generation framework for enabling adaptive game worlds

Adaptive games are expected to improve on the pre-scripted and rigid nature of traditional games. Current research uses player and experience modeling techniques to successfully predict some game-play adjustments players desire. These are typically deployed to adapt AI behavior or to evolve content for simple game levels. In this paper we propose a generation framework aimed at creating personalized content for complex and immersive game worlds. This framework, currently under development, captures which content provided the context for a given personal gameplay experience. This model is then used to generate content for the next predicted experience, through retrieval and recombination of semantic gameplay descriptions, i.e. case-based mappings between content and player experience. Through its integration with existing player and experience modeling techniques, this framework aims at generating, in an emergent way, game worlds that better suit players. Dynamic game content, which responds to the player performance, has the ability to personalize player experience, potentially making games even more unpredictable and fun.
Cues to Infidelity

This research sought to identify cues to a long-term partner's sexual infidelity and emotional infidelity. In Study 1, 204 participants nominated acts that evoke suspicions of sexual or emotional infidelity. In Study 2, 230 participants evaluated these acts on how diagnostic each was of sexual and emotional infidelity. Factor analysis revealed 14 factors of cues, including Anger and Argumentativeness, Exaggerated Affection, Sexual Boredom, and Relationship Dissatisfaction. Twelve factors were differentially diagnostic of sexual versus emotional infidelity. Sexual Boredom, for example, was more diagnostic of sexual infidelity, whereas Relationship Dissatisfaction was more diagnostic of emotional infidelity. Men and women provided higher diagnosticity ratings for acts performed by an opposite-sex versus same-sex target. For ratings collapsed across sex of target, however, women provided higher diagnosticity ratings than did men. Discussion integrates results with previous research on infidelity and suggests important directions for future research on the cues to infidelity.
Palsy of upward and downward saccadic, pursuit, and vestibular movements with a unilateral midbrain lesion

Upward and downward gaze palsy was measured by a magnetic search coil technique and correlated with neuropathologic findings in a patient with a unilateral midbrain infarct. Oculography demonstrated (1) saccadic palsy above primary position and slow, limited vertical saccades below; (2) low-gain, restricted vertical pursuit; and (3) low-gain, abnormal phase lead, and restricted range of the vertical vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). Bidirectional palsy of vertical saccades is attributed to unilateral loss of burst cells in the rostral interstitial nucleus of the medial longitudinal fasciculus (riMLF) and interruption of burst cell fibers from the opposite riMLF. Pathways mediating vertical pursuit and integration of the vertical VOR also traversed the infarct, which included the interstitial nucleus of Cajal.
A Unified Multi-Surface, Multi-ResolutionWorkspace with Camera-Based Scanning and Projector-Based Illumination

Research in the area of projector- and camera-augmented office environments has demonstrated the use of cameras as desktop scanning devices, shown the benefits of using multiple display devices for focus and context information, and advocated display on multiple surfaces for visualization of multi-dimensional data. In this paper, we describe how the implementation of these ideas can be unified to simplify the creation of a workspace that combines them.
The metalloprotease-disintegrin ADAM8 contributes to temozolomide chemoresistance and enhanced invasiveness of human glioblastoma cells.

BACKGROUND Despite multimodal treatment, glioblastoma (GBM) therapy with temozolomide (TMZ) remains inefficient due to chemoresistance. Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) and a disintegrin and metalloprotease (ADAM), increased in GBM, could contribute to chemoresistance and TMZ-induced recurrence of glioblastoma. METHODS TMZ inducibility of metalloproteases was determined in GBM cell lines, primary GBM cells, and tissues from GBM and recurrent GBM. TMZ sensitivity and invasiveness of GBM cells were assessed in the presence of the metalloprotease inhibitors batimastat (BB-94) and marimastat (BB-2516). Metalloprotease-dependent effects of TMZ on mitochondria and pAkt/phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) and phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (pERK1/2) pathways were analyzed by fluorescence activated cell sorting, morphometry, and immunoblotting. Invasiveness of GBM cells was determined by Matrigel invasion assays. Potential metalloprotease substrates were identified by proteomics and tested for invasion using blocking antibodies. RESULTS TMZ induces expression of MMP-1, -9, -14, and ADAM8 in GBM cells and in recurrent GBM tissues. BB-94, but not BB-2516 (ADAM8-sparing) increased TMZ sensitivity of TMZ-resistant and -nonresistant GBM cells with different O(6)-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase states, suggesting that ADAM8 mediates chemoresistance, which was confirmed by ADAM8 knockdown, ADAM8 overexpression, or pharmacological inhibition of ADAM8. Levels of pAkt and pERK1/2 were increased in GBM cells and correlated with ADAM8 expression, cell survival, and invasiveness. Soluble hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) R/c-met and CD44 were identified as metalloprotease substrates in TMZ-treated GBM cells. Blocking of HGF R/c-met prevented TMZ-induced invasiveness. CONCLUSIONS ADAM8 causes TMZ resistance in GBM cells by enhancing pAkt/PI3K, pERK1/2, and cleavage of CD44 and HGF R/c-met. Specific ADAM8 inhibition can optimize TMZ chemotherapy of GBM in order to prevent formation of recurrent GBM in patients.
3D Reconstruction of Complex Polyhedral Shapes from Contours using a Simplified Generalized Voronoi Diagram

We are interested in modelling the suface of very irregular objects known through a few planar polygonal cross‐sections. This problem is considered difficult when severe topology and morphology variations appear between neighbouring cross‐sections (multi‐branching, holes, disconnected areas). Only few methods deal with this problem in a systematic way.
'Gif laten wij niet voortbestaan' : een onderzoek naar de overlevingskansen van joden in de Nederlandse gemeenten, 1940-1945

ICS dissertation of the Radboud University Nijmegen. In this dissertation, new light is shed on the persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands during the German occupation of 1940 till 1945. The study aims to explain the variation that existed among the Dutch municipalities in the percentage of Jews that survived the war. Several causes are taken into account: background characteristics of the Jews themselves, the degree of local pillarization, the relative numbers of local ant-Semites and members of the National Socialist auxiliary voluntary police force, the denomination of the local population, the degree to which the local police force collaborated, the affiliation of the local burgomaster and the behaviour of the regional bureau of the German Sicherheitspolizei. By applying methods and techniques of case-oriented as well as variable-oriented research on archival material that has hardly been used until now, this thesis revises many of the existing ideas regarding the persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands. Includes a summary in English
The mobility performance of the elderly before, during and after crossing over an obstacle

Purpose. Tripping over objects is a major cause of fall-related injuries. The elderly feature decreased locomotor velocity with aging and delays in locomotion when encountering obstacles. Numerous studies have analyzed how the mobility performance of the elderly is affected when crossing over an obstacle. However, how is mobility performance affected when performing sequences of various locomotor movements (gait, changing direction, standing up and sitting down) that make up activities of daily living? To answer this question, this study investigated the changes in locomotor velocity when encountering an obstacle during various locomotor movements in both older adults and young adults by using the TUG, a representative mobility test. Methods. Thirty older adults who were judged to be able to walk independently by the berg balance Scale (bSS) (age: 70.0 ± 6.94 yrs; bbS: 54.7 ± 1.78 pts) and seventeen male young adults (age: 21.7 ± 2.37 yrs) participated in the “Timed Up & Go” (TUG) test with and without an obstacle. Using the TUG score (the total time required to complete the test), a rate of the total times (with an obstacle/ without an obstacle) was calculated to create an index of the decline in mobility performance by the obstacle. Results. The decline in the mobility performance of the elderly was significantly larger than the young adults for the following measurements: in the single stance phases just before and after an obstacle, the time needed to change direction 180 degrees, and for level walking after crossing over an obstacle. Conclusions. The elderly require a longer period of time for stepping over obstacles. Gait and the ability to change direction after encountering an obstacle was found to be slower when compared to the younger male population.
Fault Prediction Capability of Program File's Logical-Coupling Metrics

Frequent changes in logically coupled source files induced bugs in software. Metrics have been used to identify source files which are logically coupled. In this paper, we propose an approach to compute a set of eight metrics, which measure logical-couplings among source files. We compute these metrics using the historical data of software changes which are related to the fixing of post release bugs. To validate that our propose set of metrics is highly correlated with the number bugs and are more capable to construct a bug prediction model, we performed an experiment. Our experimental results show that our propose set of metrics is highly correlated with the number of bugs, and hence can be used to construct a bug prediction model. In our experiment, the obtained accuracy of our bug predictor model is 97%.
A fast torsionally compliant kinematic model of concentric-tube robots

Concentric-tube robots have the potential to become an important surgical tool for robot-assisted percutaneous interventions. They can provide dexterous operation in a small constrained environment. The kinematic model of a concentric-tube robot has been well developed in terms of accuracy, but the computational cost places limitations on real-time implementation. In this paper, we propose a new technique that will substantially improve the computational efficiency of evaluating the kinematics of a concentric-tube robot in the context of developing a control strategy without sacrificing the accuracy of the results. In this paper we develop a torsionally compliant kinematic model using global variables. The model is validated by comparing the results obtained by computing the kinematic model corresponding to an experimental setup of a concentric-tube robot to which a force/torque sensor has been mounted at its base with those obtained directly from the experimental setup. The results indicate that it is feasible to compute the kinematics of the concentric-tube robot fast enough to allow the position/force control loop to be implemented at a rate of 1 kHz.
Guaranteed cost control for large‐scale systems under control gain perturbations

The guaranteed cost control problem of the decentralized robust control for large‐scale systems with the norm‐bounded time‐varying parameter uncertainties and a given quadratic cost function is considered. Sufficient conditions for the existence of guaranteed cost controllers are given in terms of linear matrix inequality (LMI). It is shown that decentralized local state feedback controllers can be obtained by solving the LMI. The problem of guaranteed cost control for large‐scale systems under the gain perturbations is also considered. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 146(4): 43–57, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.10265
Feature Based Sentiment Analysis for Online Reviews in Car Domain

The rapid growth of the Web in the last decade makes it the largest publicly accessible data source in the world. There are several websites which allows user to post reviews on particular product or service. Customers also want to know the opinions of existing users before they use a service or purchase a product; even businesses want to find public or consumer opinions about their products and services. Hence there is need to do automatic feature based opinion mining for buyers to take smart decision. However, since the polarity of features is varied according to domain the task of feature based summary is challenging itself. This paper presents an approach for mining online user reviews to generate feature-based sentiment analysis that can guide a user in making an online purchase. In this work, feature based sentiment analysis on car domain is presented. In which features are extracted using domain ontology, then by using the feature description table the features are classified into positive and negative polarity. Since the polarity of each feature is varied according to the domain. The outcome of the system is a set of reviews organized by their degree of positivity and negativity based on each feature. This system helps to reduce the manual effort of evaluating reviews according to features in which user is interested. The polarity obtained for each feature from our approach is with good average accuracy.
Social Workers Who Work With and Without Volunteers: Comparison of Perceptions, Organisational Culture, Training and Experience

The study’s aim is to better understand what may foster social workers’ work with volunteers, by comparing workers who work with volunteers (n ¼ 118) and those who do not (n ¼ 169) on four dimensions: perceptions of volunteers’status and contribution, organisationalculture,trainingtoworkwithvolunteers,andpersonalexperienceofvolunteering.Thesampleconsistedof287socialworkersintwenty-sixrandomlysampledmunicipal social service departments in Israel. Almost all the sampled workers were Jewish women. A third had a BSW; two-thirds had an MSW or were studying for one. The findings show that social workers who worked with volunteers differed on almost all the dimensions from those who did not. They perceived volunteers as making greater contributions; were more inclined to view volunteering as having no less value than salaried work; tended to perceive their organisation’s managerial and peer cultures as more supportive of work with volunteers; and were more likely to have had experience of volunteering themselves. These differences, albeit small, suggest that greater use of volunteers may be encouraged by raising social workers’ awareness of the value and contribution of volunteers’ work, and by developing an organisational culture that supports work with volunteers.
Neural respiratory drive in obesity

Background: The load imposed on ventilation by increased body mass contributes to the respiratory symptoms caused by obesity. A study was conducted to quantify ventilatory load and respiratory drive in obesity in both the upright and supine postures. Methods: Resting breathing when seated and supine was studied in 30 obese subjects (mean (SD) body mass index (BMI) 42.8 (8.6) kg/m2) and 30 normal subjects (mean (SD) BMI 23.6 (3.7) kg/m2), recording the electromyogram of the diaphragm (EMGdi, transoesophageal multipair electrode), gastric and oesophageal pressures. Results: Ventilatory load and neural drive were higher in the obese group as judged by the EMGdi (21.9 (9.0) vs 8.4 (4.0)%max, p<0.001) and oesophageal pressure swings (9.6 (2.9) vs 5.3 (2.2) cm H2O, p<0.001). The supine posture caused an increase in oesophageal pressure swings to 16.0 (5.0) cm H2O in obese subjects (p<0.001) and to 6.9 (2.0) cm H2O in non-obese subjects (p<0.001). The EMGdi increased in the obese group to 24.7 (8.2)%max (p<0.001) but remained the same in non-obese subjects (7.0 (3.4)%max, p = NS). Obese subjects developed intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEPi) of 5.3 (3.6) cm H2O when supine. Applying continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) in a subgroup of obese subjects when supine reduced the EMGdi by 40%, inspiratory pressure swings by 25% and largely abolished PEEPi (4.1 (2.7) vs 0.8 (0.4) cm H2O, p = 0.009). Conclusion: Obese patients have substantially increased neural drive related to BMI and develop PEEPi when supine. CPAP abolishes PEEPi and reduces neural respiratory drive in these patients. These findings highlight the adverse respiratory consequences of obesity and have implications for the clinical management of patients, particularly where the supine posture is required.
The Effect of Arousal on Warm-up Decrement

Abstract The purposes of the study were to examine whether particular strategies would enhance affective arousal and if these arousal-inducing techniques would reduce or eliminiate warm-up decrement (WUD) on the performance of a sport skill. A total of 15 female gymnasts, age 9 to 14 years, performed a series of 10 handspring vaults. After a 20-minute period which included rest and the experimental treatment, three additional trials were given. The treatments, experienced by each of the subjects, included (1) rest (REST), (2) mental practice (MP), and (3) riding a bicycle ergometer (BIKE). To ascertain arousal level, subjects completed the children's arousal scale (CAS), a 9-item semantic differential test that measured positive and negative feelings, prior to the first trial and again immediately following the experimental treatments. Heart rate also was recorded at these times to determine a physiological basis of arousal. The results indicated that the BIKE condition eliminated WUD as compared to condi.
Accurate quantitation of standard peptides used for quantitative proteomics

MS‐based proteomics has become an indispensable tool in system biology generating a need for accurate and precise quantitation of peptide standards. The presented method utilizes ultra performance LC‐MS/MS (UPLC‐MS/MS) to accurately quantify peptide standards at concentrations of 0.1–10 μM. The ability for accurate quantitation of micro‐molar concentrations has the advantages that quantitation can be performed routinely with high precision and the high sensitivity of the method minimizes the amounts required.
Heart rate variability and functional outcome in ischemic stroke: a multiparameter approach

Background and purpose: Heart rate variability (HRV) as a measure of autonomic function might provide prognostic information in ischemic stroke. However, numerous difficulties are associated with HRV parameters assessment and interpretation, especially in short-term ECG recordings. For better understanding of derived HRV data and to avoid methodological bias we simultaneously recorded and analyzed heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate. Methods: Seventy-five ischemic stroke patients underwent short-term ECG recordings. Linear and nonlinear parameters of HRV as well as beat-to-beat blood pressure and respiratory rate were assessed and compared in patients with different functional neurological outcomes at 7th and 90th days. Results: Values of Approximate, Sample and Fuzzy Entropy were significantly lower in patients with poor early neurological outcome. Patients with poor 90-day outcome had higher percentage of high frequency spectrum and normalized high frequency power, lower normalized low frequency power and lower low frequency/high frequency ratio. Low frequency/high frequency ratio correlated negatively with scores in the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale and modified Rankin Scale (mRS) at the 7th and mRS at the 90th days. Mean RR interval, values of blood pressure as well as blood pressure variability did not differ between groups with good and poor outcomes. Respiratory frequency was significantly correlated with the functional neurological outcome at 7th and 90th days. Conclusion: While HRV assessed by linear methods seems to have long-term prognostic value, complexity measures of HRV reflect the impact of the neurological state on distinct, temporary properties of heart rate dynamic. Respiratory rate during the first days of the stroke is associated with early and long-term neurological outcome and should be further investigated as a potential risk factor.
Risk Taking and Academic Success and their Relation to an Objective Measure of Achievement Motivation

use an objective test in preference to a projective one if it were guaranteed that the tests had identical reliabilities and validities. But in research to date on n Achievement, the part played by objective tests has not been very impressive. To begin, the great bulk of the significant work done in this area has been done with varied projective procedures, e.g., Atkinson (1958a), McClelland (1955; 1961), McClelland et al. (1953). Further, studies which have used objective tests, e.g., Atkinson and Litwin (1960), Barnette (1961), deCharms, Morrison, Reitman, and McClelland (1955), Izard (1962), have generally not been able to produce the same results. Thus far, it would seem that McClelland’s (1958a) argument, that n Achievement can only be measured with projective techniques, is difficult to refute.