Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Isotropic Hashing

Most existing hashing methods adopt some projection functions to project the original data into several dimensions of real values, and then each of these projected dimensions is quantized into one bit (zero or one) by thresholding. Typically, the variances of different projected dimensions are different for existing projection functions such as principal component analysis (PCA). Using the same number of bits for different projected dimensions is unreasonable because larger-variance dimensions will carry more information. Although this viewpoint has been widely accepted by many researchers, it is still not verified by either theory or experiment because no methods have been proposed to find a projection with equal variances for different dimensions. In this paper, we propose a novel method, called isotropic hashing (IsoHash), to learn projection functions which can produce projected dimensions with isotropic variances (equal variances). Experimental results on real data sets show that IsoHash can outperform its counterpart with different variances for different dimensions, which verifies the viewpoint that projections with isotropic variances will be better than those with anisotropic variances.
Hand Gesture Recognition Using Standard Deviation of Color Block and Thinning

Hand gesture recognition is the key technology to realize the interaction between human and machine. This paper proposed an standard deviation approach for the hand gesture recognition to improve the sensitivity problem of the color space. The color space is sensitivity when the light is changing. The proposed approach can reduce a great impact of the color space on light. The experiments of this study show that the confusion caused by the complex background and the objects with the similar color is reduced successfully on the hand gesture recognition. The proposed approach can handle effectively in the following situations: one hand overlapping with the face, not enough light, the complicated background.
SEGMENTED MARKET DIVERSIFICATION AND COST OF DEBT FINANCING [ Previous title : Does Conglomerate Diversification to Segmented Markets Enhance Firm Value ?

The paper examines the cost of capital implications of geographic diversification in general and segmented market diversification in particular using a sample of corporate new bonds issued between 1999 and 2002 by non-financial U.S. parent firms. Consistent with the existing literature, the paper finds that geographically diversified firms obtain cheaper debt financing, compared to their domestic counterparts. In particular, U.S. firms benefit more from segmented market diversification. Firms diversified by segmented markets have lower cost of new debt compared to their counterparts diversified only by developed markets or operating domestically. In the panel tests, the paper reports that a US non-financial firm with an average level of segmented market diversification lowers its cost of new debt by about 31 basis points. This saving in cost of new debt is equivalent to a contribution to shareholder value of about 2.2% of issued debt value. Debt ratings do not fully incorporate incremental information contained in the segmented market diversification by U.S. firms, while they do for the geographic diversification in general. About one third of the total yield spread impact of segmented market diversification remains unexplained by debt ratings.
Release, relocate, reorient, resize: fluid techniques for document sharing on multi-user interactive tables

Group work frequently involves transitions between periods of active collaboration and periods of individual activity. We aim to support this typical work practice by introducing four tabletop direct-manipulation interaction techniques that can be used to transition the status of an electronic document from private to group-accessible. After presenting our four techniques - release, relocate, reorient, and resize - we discuss the results of an empirical study that compares and evaluates these mechanisms for sharing documents in a co-located tabletop environment.
Preventing crime on transport

Specific forms of crime occurring on trains, trams and underground transport systems, buses and bus shelters, taxis, in airports and on aircraft are explored. Successful techniques employed as crime prevention measures in Australia and overseas are described. Situational crime prevention strategies, modelled on three strands of contemporary criminology (rational choice perspective, opportunity theory, and environmental criminology), are emphasised.
Fast Sorting and Pattern-avoiding Permutations

We say a permutation π "avoids" a pattern σ if no length |σ| subsequence of π is ordered in precisely the same way as σ. For example, π avoids (1, 2, 3) if it contains no increasing subsequence of length three. It was recently shown by Marcus and Tardos that the number of permutations of length n avoiding any fixed pattern is at most exponential in n. This suggests the possibility that if π is known a priori to avoid a fixed pattern, it may be possible to sort π in as little as linear time. Fully resolving this possibility seems very challenging, but in this paper, we demonstrate a large class of patterns σ for which σ-avoiding permutations can be sorted in O(n log log log n) time.
Functioning in schizophrenia from the perspective of psychologists: A worldwide study

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder associated with impairment in functioning. A multidisciplinary approach is essential to help individuals with this health condition, and psychological interventions are considered a priority. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) offers a theoretical framework for assessing functioning and disability. The ICF Core Sets for schizophrenia are a list of ICF categories describing the most common problems in functioning of persons affected by this health condition. This study aimed to explore the content validity of these ICF Core Sets and to identify the most common problems in people with schizophrenia from the perspective of psychologists. Psychologists with experience of schizophrenia treatment were recruited for a three-round Delphi study in order to gather their views regarding the problems commonly presented by these patients. A total of 175 psychologists from 46 countries covering the six WHO regions answered the first-round questionnaire, and 137 completed all three rounds. The 7,526 concepts extracted from first-round responses were linked to 412 ICF categories and 53 personal factors. Consensus (≥75% agreement) was reached for 76 ICF categories and 28 personal factors. Seventy-three of the 97 ICF categories that form the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for schizophrenia achieved consensus, and only three categories that yielded consensus do not feature in this Core Set. These results support the content validity of these ICF Core Sets from the perspective of psychologists. This provides further evidence of the suitability of the ICF framework for describing functioning and disability in persons with schizophrenia.
An Efficiency Clustering Algorithm Based on Mathematics Morphology and Scale Space Theory

In this paper, a new clustering algorithm MSC is proposed. Mathematics morphology theory is used to search clusters. A new mathematics morphological operator is introduced, which is more accurate than the ordinary operators: open and close. The scale space theory is integrated with mathematics morphology to get multi-scale and hierarchical clusters. Performance tests show that MSC can find clusters in different scale spaces; its hierarchical result is easy to understand and interpret.
Relationship Research Between Communication Activities and Success Indexes in Small and Medium Software Projects

In the field of software developing, project is almost the most common organizational form. But with the enhancement of software products' complexity and the constant change of customers' demand, the importance of communication in software development projects is increasingly prominent.Based on literature review about communication management and software development life cycle, the paper identified 48 communication activities. Then, we did a large-scale questionnaire research and applied SPSS statistic instrument to analyze the relationship between identified communication activities and the success indexes of software project. Finally, we concluded the research results and made correlative suggestions for the software development on the basis of the research result.
Performance analysis of scheduling and dropping policies in vehicular delay-tolerant networks

Part of this work has been supported by Instituto de Telecomunicacoes, Next Generation Networks and Applications Group (NetGNA), Portugal, in the framework of the Project VDTN@Lab, and by the Euro-NF Network of Excellence of the Seventh Framework Programme of EU, in the framework of the Project VDTN.
A GUI for Automatic Extraction of Signature from Image Document

method for Extracting signature from image document is proposed based on the auto cropping method. This method improves the performance of security system based on signature images as well as provides the region of interest of the used image for the biometric system. This method also reduces the time cost associated with signature detection. Region of Interest in an image document is taking attention in research area. In this method, the signature document image converted into the binary image. This Binary image is normalized (resize) the signature image. To show the signature effective areas in signature image resizing may be required. Now we are performing Adaptive thresholding because it dynamically set all pixels whose intensity values are above a threshold to a foreground value and all the remaining pixels to a background value over the signature document image. This signature document image has some discontinuity between the pixels to remove this discontinuity we are using morphology. This morphological method uses bridge to connect the pixels and remove operator to remove the interior pixel region. The remaining pixel makes the signature image skeleton. This skeleton is used to select the signature Region of Interest (ROI) using auto cropping method. Auto cropping is the fast procedure to select the ROI. In this auto cropping method we are using Image Station Automatic Elevations (ISAE) technique to select the connected pixel which sizes are greater than 250 pixels. This cropped signature has no garbage region it crops only the ROI of signature image. This method takes less processing time then other methods. To extract the features of cropped image we are using the 'Sobel' edge detection to identify the points in a digital image at which the image brightness changes sharply or, more formally has discontinuities.
Enhancing transmission efficiency of broadband PLC systems with In-Band Full Duplexing

In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of In-Band Full-Duplexing (IBFD) for Broadband Power Line Communication (BB-PLC) systems, to potentially double the throughput and spectral efficiency. IBFD accomplishes this through simultaneous bidirectional communication over the same powerline in the same frequency band, by applying echo cancellation (EC) to suppress the interference caused by the self-transmitted signal. In light of various EC schemes employed in Digital Subscriber Lines, Ethernet, co-axial cables and recently in wireless systems, we investigate the specific requirements and constraints in BB-PLC, and present solutions for an effective IBFD implementation for such systems. We then use our simulated EC gain values to examine the overall data rate gains obtained by IBFD under different channel attenuations and PLC noise conditions, to determine if we truly obtain a 100% increase in throughput at all conditions.
A Stochastic Geometry Analysis of Dense IEEE 802.11 Networks

This paper presents a stochastic geometry model for the performance analysis and the planning of dense IEEE 802.11 networks. This model allows one to propose heuristic formulas for various properties of such networks like the probability for users to be covered, the probability for access points to be granted access to the channel or the average long term throughput provided to end-users. The main merit of this model is to take the effect of interferences and that of CSMA into account within this dense network context. This analytic model, which is based on Matern point processes, is partly validated against simulation. It is then used to assess various properties of such networks. We show for instance how the long term throughput obtained by end-users behaves when the access point density increases. We also briefly show how to use this model for the planning of managed networks and for the economic modeling of unplanned networks.
Lacome: a cross-platform multi-user collaboration system for a shared large display

Lacome is a multi-user cross-platform system that supports collaboration in a shared large screen display environment. Lacome allows users to share their desktops or application windows using any standard VNC server. It supports multi-user concurrent interaction on the public shared display as well as input redirection so users can control each other’s applications. Lacome supports separate types of interaction through a Lacome client for window management tasks on the shared display(move, resize, iconify, deiconify) and for application interactions through the VNC servers. The system architecture provides for Publishers that share information and Navigators that access information. A Lacome client can have either or both, and can initiate additional Publishers on other VNC servers that may not be Lacome clients. Explicit access control policies on both the server side the client side provide a flexible framework for sharing. The architecture builds on standard cross-platform components such as VNC and JRE. Interaction techniques used in the window manager ensure simple and transparent multi-user interactions for managing the shared display space. We illustrate the design and implementation of Lacome and provide insights from initial user experience with the system.
Revealing Hidden 3-D Reflection Symmetry

Reflection symmetry is present in most of the man-made or naturally formed objects. In computer vision, real-world scenes are represented by dense 3-D models or by 2-D projections, such as images captured by cameras. Most of the existing methods either detect reflection symmetry from dense 3-D models or 2-D projections. However, generating a dense 3-D model is a computationally expensive process and reflection symmetry may not be evident in any of the 2-D views obtained through projections. In this letter, we propose an energy minimizationbased approach to detect the reflection symmetry present in the object from its multiple 2-D projections captured from different viewpoints and the sparse 3-D model obtained using these projections. The proposed approach only estimates the sparse 3-D model and utilizes content of the images in terms of local scale invariant features. The energy minimization problem reduces to the problem of finding the eigenvector corresponding to the smallest eigenvalue of a small matrix, thereby leading to reduction in computations.
Analysis of variants in Round Robin Algorithms for load balancing in Cloud Computing

— Cloud computing is the emerging internet based technology which emphasizes commercial computing. Cloud is a platform providing dynamic pool resources and virtualization. Based on a pay-as-you-go model, it enables hosting of pervasive applications from consumer, scientific, and business domains. To properly manage the resources of the service provider, load balancing is required for the jobs that are submitted to the service provider. Load balancing also helps in improving the performance of the centralized server. In the present work, various policies in relation to the algorithms developed are analyzed using an analysis tool, namely, cloud analyst. Comparison is also made for variants of Round Robin (RR) algorithms .
Economics of Industrial Innovation

Part 1 Rise of science-related technology: introduction evolutionary theory in economics and technical change process innovations materials innovations product and system innovation paradigm change. Part 2 Innovations and the firms: the microeconomics of innovation success and failure, the role of marketing and user-producer networks innovation, size of firm, economies of scale and scope uncertainty, project evaluation and finance of innovation, management strategy and theory of the firm. Part 3 Macroeconomics of innovation - science, technology and economic growth globalization and multinational corporations underdevelopment and catching up. Part 4 Innovation and public policies: market failure and aspects of public support for innovation technical change, employment and skills environmental issues technological assessment. Appendix: measurement and definitions.
The Spatial Dimensions of Economic Growth in Africa : The Case of Sub-national Convergence and Divergence in South Africa

This paper examines the determinants of economic growth at sub-national level in South Africa, and test for convergence in income per capita between 354 magisterial districts over the period 1998 to 2002. A dynamic panel data regression model is used that includes measures of geography (distance and natural resources) as well as more recent estimates of physical and human capital. The contribution of the paper is (i) to add to the small but growing literature on sub-national growth and convergence, (ii) to investigate the impact of geography on economic growth in a context where there is much more institutional homogeneity and (iii) to inform practical policy making in South Africa where concerns about spatial inequality have been prominent. Using a dynamic panel data model, we find no evidence of absolute convergence (perhaps divergence) and only evidence of slow beta convergence in South Africa. We also find that the significant determinants of local economic growth are distance from internal markets, human capital, export propensity, and the capital stock of municipalities (reflecting institutional quality and governance on local government level). Distance from international harbours, as a measure of transport costs, and urban agglomeration (or density) affects growth indirectly through its significant effect on the ability of a region to export. Overall, these results indicate that geography is important, independent of its effects on institutions, for economic growth.
Is coverage a good measure of testing effectiveness?: An assessment using branch coverage and Random testing

Most approaches to testing use branch coverage to decide on the quality of a given test suite. The intuition is that covering branches relates directly to uncovering faults. In this article we present an empirical study that applied random testing to 14 Eiffel classes for a total of 2520 hours and recorded the number of uncovered faults and the branch coverage over time. Our results show that: (1) in the tested classes, random testing reaches 93% branch coverage (2) it exercises almost the same set of branches every time, (3) it detects different faults from time to time, (4) during the first 10 minutes of testing while branch coverage increases rapidly, there is a strong correlation between branch coverage and the number of uncovered faults, (5) over 50% of the faults are detected at a time where branch coverage hardly changes and the correlation between branch coverage and the number of uncovered faults is weak. These results provide evidence that branch coverage is not a good stopping criterion for random testing. They also show that branch coverage is not a good indicator for the effectiveness of a test suite.
Practical clothes modeling and simulation Practical Clothes Modeling and Simulation

Simulation of complex cloth-like visco-elastic materials is a hot topic today as more and more fields of application are discovered in research and industry. Theoretical foundations are needed to describe the non-linear physical properties of a material and to introduce its simulation with the desired accuracy and runtime characteristics. Particle based mass-spring models and semi-implicit integration methods are widely introduced today because of their stability and efficiency. In this paper this approach is chosen to model a physically correct and efficient program for cloth simulation.
Using brain–computer interfaces to induce neural plasticity and restore function

Analyzing neural signals and providing feedback in realtime is one of the core characteristics of a brain–computer interface (BCI). As this feature may be employed to induce neural plasticity, utilizing BCI technology for therapeutic purposes is increasingly gaining popularity in the BCI community. In this paper, we discuss the state-of-the-art of research on this topic, address the principles of and challenges in inducing neural plasticity by means of a BCI, and delineate the problems of study design and outcome evaluation arising in this context. We conclude with a list of open questions and recommendations for future research in this field.
Hidden Markov mixtures of experts for prediction of non-stationary dynamics

The prediction of non-stationary dynamical systems may be performed by identifying appropriate sub-dynamics and an early detection of mode changes. We present a framework which unifies the mixtures of experts approach and a generalized hidden Markov model with an input-dependent transition matrix: the hidden Markov mixtures of experts (HMME). The gating procedure incorporates state memory, information about the current location in phase space, and the previous prediction performance. The experts and the hidden Markov gating model are simultaneously trained by an EM algorithm that maximizes the likelihood during an annealing procedure. The HMME architecture allows for a fast online detection of mode changes: change points are detected as soon as the incoming input data stream contains sufficient information to indicate a change in the dynamics.
Screening masses of mesons in 2+1 flavour QCD

We present results for screening masses of light and strange mesons in 2+1 flavour QCD using improved (p4fat3) staggered fermions on 6x24^3 lattices. We have studied the screening masses of scalar, pseudo-scalar, vector and axial-vector mesons along the line of constant physics, determined by a pion mass ~220 MeV and a kaon mass ~500 MeV. In order to investigate the cut-off and volume dependencies we have also performed studies of the meson screening correlators in the non-interacting theory using the p4 and the standard staggered discretizations.
Introduction : Demography and Cultural Macroevolution

The papers in this special issue of Human Biology, which derive from a conference sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Center for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity, lay some of the foundations for an empirical macroevolutionary analysis of cultural dynamics. Our premise here is that cultural dynamics—including the stability of traditions and the rate of origination of new variants—are infl uenced by independently occurring demographic processes (population size, structure, and distribution as these vary over time as a result of changes in rates of fertility, mortality, and migration). The contributors focus on three sets of problems relevant to empirical studies of cultural macroevolution: large-scale reconstruction of past population dynamics from archaeological and genetic data; juxtaposition of models and evidence of cultural dynamics using large-scale archaeological and historical data sets; and juxtaposition of models and evidence of cultural dynamics from large-scale linguistic data sets. In this introduction we outline some of the theoretical and methodological issues and briefl y summarize the individual contributions.