Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design for Presence: A Structured Approach to Virtual Reality System Design

The development and maintenance of a virtual reality (VR) system requires indepth knowledge and understanding in many different disciplines. Three major features that distinguish VR systems are real-time performance while maintaining acceptable realism and presence, objects with two clearly distinct yet inter-related aspects like geometry/structure and function/behavior, and the still experimental nature of multi-modal interaction design. Until now, little attention has been paid to methods and tools for the structured development of VR software that addresses these features. Many VR application development projects proceed by modeling needed objects on conventional CAD systems, then programming the system using simulation packages. Usually, these activities are carried out without much planning, which may be acceptable for only small-scale or noncritical demonstration systems. However, for VR to be taken seriously as a media technology, a structural approach to developing VR applications is required for the construction of large-scale VR worlds, and this will undoubtedly involve and require complex resource management, abstractions for basic system/object functionalities and interaction tasks, and integration and easy plug-ins of different input and output methods. In this paper, we assembled a comprehensive structured methodology for building VR systems, called CLEVR (Concurrent and LEvel by Level Development of VR System), which combines several conventional and new concepts. For instance, we employ concepts such as the simultaneous consideration of form, function, and behavior, hierarchical modeling and top-down creation of LODs (levels of detail), incremental execution and performance tuning, user task and interaction modeling, and compositional reuse of VR objects. The basic underlying modeling approach is to design VR objects (and the scenes they compose) hierarchically and incrementally, considering their realism, presence, behavioral correctness, performance, and even usability in a spiral manner. To support this modeling strategy, we developed a collection of computeraided tools called P-VoT (POSTECH-Virtual reality system development Tool). We demonstrate our approach by illustrating a step-by-step design of a virtual ship simulator using the CLEVR/P-VoT, and demonstrate the effectiveness of our method in terms of the quality (performance and correctness) of the resulting software and reduced effort in its development and maintenance.
A comparative study of modified best-first and randomized algorithms for image-based path-planning

In this paper, we propose three types of sensor-based path-planning algorithms and compare them as the image-based path-planning algorithm for a huge search space. In the general image-based path-planning, a camera mounted on a tip of a manipulator is seeking for an objective image while the manipulator is controlled in a joint space. As long as the number of degrees-of-freedom of a manipulator increases, the search space becomes exponentially huge. Though the sensor-based path-planning algorithm is a noncombination search, it sometimes spends much time to escape from a valley minimized by a local minimum. To overcome this problem, we use a modified version of the randomized algorithm as the best image-based path-planning algorithm for a huge search space. This tendency is checked by several simulation results. In addition, the version can be easily applied for a real problem as the classic visual servoing (the steepest descendent method) with memorizing a set of visited points and another set of their neighbor points, as well as generating a sequence of random motions.
Rough Set Based Generalized Fuzzy C-Means clustering Algorithm with Spatial Constraints for Distributed WSN Data Stream

In practical applications, wireless sensor network (WSN) generate massive data streams with the spatial and sensor measurements information, and moreover, energy source of sensors is usually limited. Therefore, minimizing sensors energy expenditure and consequently extending the network lifetime is the major challenge in WSN. This paper presents an efficient distributed clustering algorithm based on FCM by incorporating the neighborhood sensor spatial information into the FCM algorithm (FCMS) to meet sensor data correlation increasing with decreasing spatial separation. FCMS can overcome the disadvantages of the known fuzzy c-means algorithms and at the same time enhances the clustering performance. The major characteristic of FCMS is the use of a fuzzy local ((both spatial and sensing measurements) similarity measure, aiming to partitions the sensor data into a set of spatial regions with similar sensing measurements. FCMS is initialized by Subtractive Clustering algorithm, in which the number of cluster and the cluster centers is taken to the FCMS Algorithm. The distributed FCMS (DFCMS) forms clusters of the sensor nodes sensing similar values and transmits features from the created local clusters as opposed to raw data per sensor node as in central clustering algorithm. Thus, DFCMS can significantly reduce the number of transmissions, which results in energy savings. Simulations reveal that DFCMS algorithm is effective and efficient with significantly less energy than that required by central FCM algorithm.
H2A.Z overexpression promotes cellular proliferation of breast cancer cells

We recently showed that histone H2A.Z, as well as members of the ATP-dependent p400 chromatin remodeling complex (p400.com), are essential components of estrogen receptor a (ERa) signaling. More specifically, we showed that H2A.Z and p400.com are incorporated into the promoter regions of ERα target genes only upon gene induction, and also in a cyclic fashion. RNAi-mediated cellular depletion of H2A.Z and p400.com strongly impedes estrogen-dependent growth of breast cancer cells as well as strongly affect ERa-target gene expression. Two mechanisms emerged from our studies of how H2A.Z incorporation within ERa-target regulatory regions can actually regulate estrogen-mediated signaling: (1) by stabilizing nucleosomes within the translational DNA axis, a process that allows general transcription factors to be efficiently recruited to promoter regions; 2) by allowing estrogen-responsive enhancer function. In the current study, we now show that in MCF7 cells, ectopic overexpression of H2A.Z increases proliferation, and such in conditions where estrogen levels are low. Also, immunohistochemical studies of breast cancer biopsies show that the presence of H2A.Z correlates highly with that of ERa, but is associated with high-grade ER-negative cancers. Finally we show that ERa directly associates to the H2A.Z promoter, and consequently modulates its expression. Our study provides a possible link between H2A.Z and endocrine resistance by showing that H2A.Z overexpression leads to increased growth, particularly when estrogen levels are very low.
The Image Matting Method with Regularized Matte

Image matting refers to the problem of accurately extracting foreground objects in images and video. The most recent works in natural image matting relies on the local and manifold smoothness assumptions on foreground and background colors on which a cost function is established. In this paper, we present a framework of formulating new regularization for robust solutions and illustrate new algorithms using the standard benchmark images.
Extending character-based storytelling with awareness and feelings

Most Interactive Storytelling systems developed to date have followed a task-based approach to story representation, using planning techniques to drive the story by generating a sequence of actions, which essentially "solve" the task to which the story is equated. One major limitation of this approach has been that it fails to incorporate characters' psychology, and as a consequence important aesthetic aspects of the narrative cannot be easily captured by Interactive Storytelling. In this paper, we introduce a new approach to Interactive Storytelling, which aims at reconciling narrative actions with the characters' attributed psychology as stated in the narrative. Our long-term goal is to be able to explore Interactive Storytelling for those narrative genres which are based on the characters' psychology rather than solely on their actions. We used as a starting point the formalisation by Flaubert himself of his novel Madame Bovary, which includes a detailed account of characters' desires and feelings. We describe a prototype in which characters' behaviour is driven by a real-time search-based planning system applying operators whose content is based on a specific inventory of feelings. Furthermore, the actual pattern of evolution of the character's plan, as measured through the variation of the search heuristic, is used to confer a sense of awareness to the characters, which can be used to generate feelings about its overall situation, from feelings of boredom to hope.
A Pilot Study for Discovering Candidate Genes of Chromosome 18q21 in Methamphetamine Abusers: Case-control Association Study

Objective It was previously suggested that the malic enzyme 2 (ME2) as the candidate gene for psychosis in fine mapping of chromosome 18q21. Chromosome 18q21 is also one of the possible regions that can contribute to addiction. Methods We performed a pilot study for discovering candidate gene of chromosome 18q21 in the methamphetamine abusers for elucidating the candidate gene for methamphetamine addiction leading to psychosis. We have selected 30 unrelated controls (16 males, 14 females; age=59.8±10.4) and 37 male methamphetamine abusers (age=43.3±7.8). We analyzed 20 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of 7 neuronal genes in chromosome 18q21 for DNA samples that was checked for the data quality and genotype error. The association between the case-control status and each individual SNP was measured using multiple logistic regression models (adjusting for age and sex as covariates). And we controlled false discovery rate (FDR) to deal with multiple testing problem. Results We found 3 significant SNPs of 2 genes in chromosome 18q21 (p-value<0.05; adjusting for age as covariate) in methamphetamine abusers compared to controls. We also found 2 significant SNPs of 1 gene (p-value<0.05; adjusting for age and sex as covariates) (rs3794899, rs3794901:MAPK4). Two SNPs in MAPK4 gene were significant in both statistical groups. Conclusion MAPK4, the gene for mitogen-activated protein kinase 4, is one of the final 6 candidate genes including ME2 in 18q12-21 in our previous finemapping for psychosis. Our results suggest that MAPK4 can be a candidate gene that contribute to the methamphetamine addiction leading to psychosis.
Joint azimuth, elevation and Time Of Arrival estimation of 3-D point sources

In this paper, we estimate the azimuth, the elevation and the time of arrival (TOA) of point sources by using the multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm. The estimated channel matrix is used to jointly estimate the azimuth, elevation and TOA. The performance of the proposed algorithm is then evaluated in terms of mean square error of the azimuth, elevation and the TOA estimates. The obtained results are also compared to the Cramer-Rao bound.
Identifikasi Nilai Kekasaran Permukaan pada Pemesinan Paduan Magnesium

The using of magnesium alloy, as alternative to iron and steel, is becoming more popular in the manufacturing industries. Magnesium and its alloys were classified as lighter material and also available in a quite large quantity in this world. Some of machined componens, included automotive and aerospace componens were produced by cutting, which is known as machining process. The machining process done in several conditions doe to the pharamater or factor in machining process. The main factors in machining process are feed rate, cutting speed, machining condition and deep of cutting. The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of cutting pharameter to the surface roughness of magnesium, when machined using milling process and supplied with cooling air from vortex tube cooler. Cutting pharameters used in this research are feed rate and cutting speed. Feed rate used was three levels, those are 0,15 mm/rev, 0,20 mm/rev, and 0,25 mm/rev. Cutting speed used also three levels, those are 23,18 m/min, 32,15 m/min and 42,7 m/min. Cooling air is released from vortex tube cooler with 15 oC of temperature. The result of this research is found that feed rate affected signicantly on surface roughness value. The surface roughness value increased with increasing of the feed rate level. An other han, the surface roughness value is also affected wear on the edge of the cutting tool. The wear on the cutting tool contributed to the changes of nose radius (become bigger), so increase the surface roughness value.
Structural defects in amorphous solids Statistical analysis of a computer model

Abstract The possibility of defining structural defects in amorphous solids in terms of parameters such as atomic-level internal stresses and local symmetry coefficients was proposed in a previous paper (Egami, Maeda and Vitek 1980). Using a model amorphous structure generated by a computer, these parameters are statistically analysed in the present paper. It is shown that the stress and the symmetry coefficients are closely correlated and that spatial correlations of various kinds exist. The structural defects are then defined as regions in which the corresponding characterizing parameter deviates significantly from its average value. Two distinct classes of defects were found; (i) positive (p-type defects) and negative (n-type defects) local density fluctuations; and (ii) regions of large shear stresses and large deviations from spherical symmetry. Defects consisting of pairs of p-type and n-type defects separated by regions of large shear stresses are also common. The effect of annihilation of p- and n.
A two-dimensional rough surface: Experiments on a pile of rice

Dynamical roughening of interfaces has received much attention in recent years. However, experiments have been restricted to one dimensional (1d) systems. Moreover, theoretical studies of the two dimensional (2d) case have been highly inconclusive. Here we introduce an experimental 2d system, with which the theories can be tested. As is shown, the surface of a 2d pile of rice shows roughening behaviour in both space and time, with a roughness exponent $\alpha_{2d}$ = 0.39(3) and a growth exponent $\beta_{2d}$ = 0.27(3).
Slip Pridiction Based Path Planning for Planetary Rovers

Most methods of path planning for planetary rovers were designed for fairly benign terrain and do not account for potential slippage . Though the TANav system addresses slip prediction issue,it does not integrate directional slip prediction into the path planning algorithm.This paper presents an autonomous navigation algorithm for planetary rover based on slip pridiction. This method does integrate directional slip prediction into the path planning algorithm resolving the essue of emerging higher-level behaviors such as planning a path with switch-backs up a slope. The result of simulation demonstrates that this method is effective.
Pathologic synovial plica of the knee

Observations of 136 cases of pathologic synovial plica of the knee were analyzed with regard to etiology, symptoms, and the results of conservative treatment. The results obtained with conservative treatment were good in 40% of cases, average in 20%, and poor in 40%. In our opinion, these results justify the treatment of this condition with physical therapy before proceed ing with surgical correction. The objective of physical therapy was to decrease the compressive forces in the anterior compartment of the knee by increasing the structural flexibility of the flexor and extensor muscles. This increase in flexibility was obtained by instituting stretching exercises for the hamstrings, gastrocnemius, and quadriceps.
A Query-Driven Characterization of Linked Data

Due to the Linked Data initiative, the once unpopulated Semantic Web is now rapidly being populated with millions of facts stored in RDF. Could any of this data possibly be interesting to ordinary users? In this study, we run queries extracted from a query log from a major hypertext search engine against a Semantic Web search engine to determine if the Semantic Web has anything of interest to the average Web user. There is indeed much Semantic Web information that could be relevant for many queries for entities (like people and places) and abstract concepts, although these possibly relevant results are overwhelmingly clustered around DBPedia. We present an empirical analysis of the results, focusing on their major sources, the structure of the triples, the use of various RDF and OWL constructs, and the power-law distributions produced by both the URIs that serve Linked Data and the URIs in the triples themselves. The issue of 303 redirection and the URI identiy is given in-depth treatment.
An Efficient Background Term for 3D Reconstruction and Tracking with Smooth Surface Models

We present a novel strategy to shrink and constrain a 3D model, represented as a smooth spline-like surface, within the visual hull of an object observed from one or multiple views. This new background or silhouette term combines the efficiency of previous approaches based on an image-plane distance transform with the accuracy of formulations based on raycasting or ray potentials. The overall formulation is solved by alternating an inner nonlinear minization (raycasting) with a joint optimization of the surface geometry, the camera poses and the data correspondences. Experiments on 3D reconstruction and object tracking show that the new formulation corrects several deficiencies of existing approaches, for instance when modelling non-convex shapes. Moreover, our proposal is more robust against defects in the object segmentation and inherently handles the presence of uncertainty in the measurements (e.g. null depth values in images provided by RGB-D cameras).
A novel, generalized recommender system for social media using the collaborative-filtering technique

Our goal in this paper is to discuss various methods available for Recommender Systems and describe an end-to-end approach for designing a Recommender System for social media using the collaborative-filtering approach. We will discuss the scope of contributions made in the recommender-system field, pros and cons for the collaborative-filtering approach, and current trends and challenges involved in the market with respect to the implementation of collaborative filtering.
Model Checking One-clock Priced Timed Automata

We consider the model of priced (a.k.a. weighted) timed automata, an extension of timed automata with cost information on both locations and transitions. We prove that model-checking this class of models against the logic WCTL, CTL with cost-constrained modalities, is PSPACE-complete under the "single-clock" assumption. In contrast, it has been recently proved that the model-checking problem is undecidable for this model as soon as the system has three clocks. We also prove that the model-checking of WCTL* becomes undecidable, even under this "single-clock" assumption.
Understanding the Complexity of Lifted Inference and Asymmetric Weighted Model Counting

We highlight our work on lifted inference for the asymmetric Weighted First-Order Model Counting problem (WFOMC), which counts the assignments that satisfy a given sentence in first-order logic. This work is at the intersection of probabilistic databases and statistical relational learning. First, we discuss how adding negation can lower the query complexity, and describe the essential element (resolution) necessary to extend a previous algorithm for positive queries to handle queries with negation. Second, we describe our novel dichotomy result for a non-trivial fragment of first-order CNF sentences with negation. Finally, we discuss directions for future work.
Enhanced surveillance of campylobacter infection in the North West of England 1997-1999.

OBJECTIVES To identify sources and routes of infection for sporadic cases of campylobacter infection in the North West of England. METHODS Standard, structured questionnaires were used to gather epidemiological information from cases of campylobacter infection in the North West Region of England between 1997 and 1999. The strains of campylobacter isolated from these cases were identified and typed using serotyping and phage typing methods. Analysis of combined serotype and epidemiological data is presented. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Human campylobacter infection in the North West is seasonal and a new observation was a peak in cases in March each year. Drinking bird-pecked milk was a highly seasonal exposure that might be an indicator of environmental contamination with campylobacter. A possible environmental basis for seasonality of infection is discussed. Frequencies of risk exposures related to serotypes of cases are described and a potential association was demonstrated between Campylobacter jejuni HS6 and consumption of bird-pecked milk. Also, Campylobacter coli infections were more commonly associated with travel abroad than C. jejuni and a decreased proportion of C. jejuni HS2 and C. jejuni HS11 reported consumption of meat and unpasteurised milk (respectively). Contact with a sick animal may be a significant risk exposure in younger age groups and in those who do not consume poultry or meat. It is clear from this and other studies that the sources and vehicles of human campylobacter infection are numerous and interventions that target a single risk factor are unlikely to impact significantly on the overall burden of disease.
Regulation of Myosin V Processivity by Calcium at the Single Molecule Level*

Calcium can affect myosin V (myoV) function in at least two ways. The full-length molecule, which adopts a folded inhibited conformation in EGTA, becomes extended and active in the presence of calcium. Calcium also dissociates one or more calmodulin molecules from the extended neck. Here we investigated at the single molecule level how calcium regulates the processive run length of full-length myosin V (dFull) and a truncated dimeric construct (dHMM), which cannot adopt the folded conformation. The processivity of dFull and dHMM is tightly controlled by the calcium and calmodulin concentration, with shorter runs occurring at higher calcium concentration. The data indicate that a calcium-dependent dissociation of calmodulin from the neck region of myoV terminates its processive run. dFull showed unexpected processive movement in EGTA, suggesting that a small population of extended, active molecules are in equilibrium with the inhibited, folded form. Single turnover assays showed that the ATPase activity of the folded full-length molecule is inhibited by more than 50-fold compared with the extended molecule. The results imply that activation and termination of the processive runs of myoV can be accomplished by multiple mechanisms.
A Rote Extractor with Edit Distance-Based Generalisation and Multi-Corpora Precision Calculation

In this paper, we describe a rote extractor that learns patterns for finding semantic relationships in unrestricted text, with new procedures for pattern generalization and scoring. These include the use of part-of-speech tags to guide the generalization, Named Entity categories inside the patterns, an edit-distance-based pattern generalization algorithm, and a pattern accuracy calculation procedure based on evaluating the patterns on several test corpora. In an evaluation with 14 entities, the system attains a precision higher than 50% for half of the relationships considered.