Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Novel Metric Online Monocular SLAM Approach for Indoor Applications

Monocular SLAM has attracted more attention recently due to its flexibility and being economic. In this paper, a novel metric online direct monocular SLAM approach is proposed, which can obtain the metric reconstruction of the scene. In the proposed approach, a chessboard is utilized to provide initial depth map and scale correction information during the SLAM process. The involved chessboard provides the absolute scale of scene, and it is seen as a bridge between the camera visual coordinate and the world coordinate. The scene is reconstructed as a series of key frames with their poses and correlative semidense depth maps, using a highly accurate pose estimation achieved by direct grid point-based alignment. The estimated pose is coupled with depth map estimation calculated by filtering over a large number of pixelwise small-baseline stereo comparisons. In addition, this paper formulates the scale-drift model among key frames and the calibration chessboard is used to correct the accumulated pose error. At the end of this paper, several indoor experiments are conducted. The results suggest that the proposed approach is able to achieve higher reconstruction accuracy when compared with the traditional LSD-SLAM approach. And the approach can also run in real time on a commonly used computer.
Sympathetic Vasoconstriction Sensitive to a2-Adrenergic Receptor Blockade No Evidence for Preferential Innervation of c^-Adrenergic Receptors in the Canine Femoral Bed

In the canine femoral bed, we studied the involvement of vascular o2-adrenergic receptors in vasoconstriction by stimulating the sympathetic nerve during different degrees of activation of metabolic counter-regulation (constant pressure and constant flow perfusion). In chloraloseanesthetized, despinalized dogs under /3-blockade (2 mg/kg nadolol) and under a constant femoral perfusion pressure, cumulative doses of rauwolscine (0.03, 0.3, and 3.0 mg/kg i.v., n = 8) or of prazosin (0.012, 0.12, and 1.2 mg/kg i.v., n = 8) caused dose-dependent shifts to the right of the doseresponse curve of intraarterial norepinephrine (NE) infusions. These cumulative doses also caused attenuations of the vasoconstriction initiated by lumbar sympathetic stimulation (0.1, 0.3, 1.0, and 3.0 Hz). Sham treatment (n = 8) had no such results. In experiments with constant flow perfusion (n = 6 for each antagonist), rauwolscine shifted the NE dose-response curve significantly more compared to the experiments with constant pressure perfusion, while prazosin was similarly effective under both conditions. Under constant flow perfusion, both antagonists dose-dependently attenuated the vasoconstrictions caused by sympathetic stimulation. While prazosin and sham treatment did not modify the overflow of NE from the femoral bed during stimulation, this overflow was augmented by rauwolscine during stimulation at 3 Hz, which indicated presynaptic modulation of NE release. Under both experimental conditions, no significant difference could be observed in the attenuation of lowfrequency sympathetic vasoconstriction by the two antagonists, when dosages were compared on the basis of their action against infused NE. It is concluded that both a rauwolscine-sensitive component and a prazosin-sensitive component are involved in the competition between sympathetic vasoconstriction and metabolic dilation. The vascular a-adrenergic receptors activated by these two components have a similar postsynaptic localization relative to the nerve endings. (Hypertension 6: 915-925, 1984)
Hunting Trojan Horses

HTH (Hunting Trojan Horses) is a security framework developed for detecting difficult types of intrusions. HTH is intended as a complement to anti-virus software in that it targets unknown and zero-day Trojan Horses and Backdoors. In order to accurately identify these types of attacks HTH utilizes runtime information available during execution. The information collected includes fine-grained information flow, program execution flow and resources used.In this paper we present Harrier, an Application Security Monitor at the heart of our HTH framework. Harrier is an efficient run-time monitor that dynamically collects execution-related data. Harrier is capable of collecting information across different abstraction levels including architectural, system and library APIs. To date, Harrier is 3-4 times faster than comparable information flow tracking systems.Using the collected information, Harrier allows for accurate identification of abnormal program behavior. Preliminary results show a good detection rate with a low rate of false positives.
Light attenuation and scattering by phytoplanktonic cells: a theoretical modeling.

A theoretical modeling is proposed to predict the efficiency factors for attenuation, total scattering, and backscattering for spherical and homogeneous phytoplanktonic cells in suspension. The input parameters of this modeling are the actual size distribution, the spectral values of absorption by the living cells, and an adjustable value of the real part of the refractive index. The variations in these parameters lead to very diverse spectral behavior of the efficiency factors. Theoretical predictions are compared to experimental results for some species to evaluate the reliability of the model for algal cells of various indices and morphologies.
R&D Failure and Second Generation R&D: New Potentialities

Ample incentives exist for firms to pursue product, service, or process innovations to increase their profitability. In contrast, few incentives exist for firms to pursue innovations that provide social externalities if these are not inherently profitable. This article provides an argument that first generation research and development (R&D), or R&D that does not utilise economies of scale (as second generation R&D does), cannot effectively provide societal innovation that is not incentivised by market forces. An example of an alternative model for global societal problem solving, based on second generation R&D, is offered. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014. v5n3p11
Non-linear Registration Using Block-Matching and B-Splines

Medical image registration techniques are of particular importance to improve and facilitate working with images of the body interior. The main idea in medical image registration is to find a transformation that maps a source image as close as possible to a target image by determining a corresponding position for each point of the source. To find a mapping between two images that takes anatomic variabilities into account, the respective transformation must be non-linear. In this thesis, an algorithm is implemented that calculates a non-linear transformation to register 2D or 3D images. The transformation estimation is based on a block-matching technique that identifies a displacement field between two images. Using this set of correspondences as sampling points, the transformation is approximated by cubic B-Spline functions. In order to compute the approximation, a Least Squares estimator is employed which is extended in a second step to a weighted Least Squares approach to gain robustness. The minimization is solved by the conjugate gradient algorithm. For a high accuracy of the result, the transformation estimation is performed in an iterative manner that is in addition nested in a pyramidal approach. For reasons of noise influence and lack of sampling points in homogeneous regions, a biharmonic regularization term is integrated to smooth the unfavourable effects. Results are presented obtained by experiments on different artificial testing images as well as on images of histological slices of the brain. As highlighted, the non-linear approach yields satisfying registration results for most . The implementation of the B-Spline transformation completes a program that registrates two images fully automatically in a linear or non-linear way.
Fabrication of micro-needles for transdermal drug delivery

Alternative means of delivering drugs such as insulin to patients sometimes include the usage of high voltage pulsing or electrical current. However, such systems are limited by their ability to push drugs across the stratum corneum at therapeutic rates. One promising solution could be the usage of a micron scale needle, to create micropores in the skin which can allow faster diffusion of drugs with greater molecular weight or polarity into the human body. In combination with a transdermal patch, an array of micro-needles can be created to enhance the intake of drugs as well. With rapid advancement in MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems), silicon micromachining had enabled the development of such devices and result in various micro-needle designs to date. In addition, micro-needles had been fabricated with the inclusion of a fluid channel along the structure to allow controlled diffusion rates. However, the steps in fabricating such structures are often complex which lowers the process reliability and repeatability. By further proposing certain fabrication protocols and improvising on the design of micro-needles, the process can be made simpler and result in more efficient manufacturing routes. An extensive study by researchers have revealed certain requirements of the microneedle during drug injection, various fabrication techniques for different kind of materials as well as the possibilities of mass manufacturing processes. These areas are widely investigated and a particular area of study uses the soft lithography techniques in fabricating polymeric micro-needles. This requires the fabrication of a master mold either from silicon or commonly nickel. The research focus in this report is devoted to fabricating an array of silicon micro-needles which can double as usages for direct drug applications or as master molds for soft molding. A novel, multiple-sacrificial approach has been demonstrated as suited to the fabrication of at least 150um long micro-needle bodies with positive profiles. By changing the mask design for base diameters from 90um to 240um, the needle profile can be engineered to give a suitable tip size for penetration, as well as a broad needle base to facilitate the creation of either single or multiple-through holes. This approach allows the mechanical properties of the otherwise brittle needles to be optimized up to buckling loads of 28mN. In i ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library
Food Craving and Its Relationship with Restriction and Liking in Japanese Females

Craved foods are thought to be those that are well liked but restricted. However, this claim has not been demonstrated empirically. Japanese female undergraduate students (n = 144) completed a questionnaire measuring their craving for, degree of liking, and frequency of restricting their eating of 47 widely consumed foods. The food with the highest mean craving score was rice. We plotted the craving scores as a function of restriction and liking scores for the 47 foods. The students’ craving scores were strongly correlated with their restriction scores and liking scores. Thus, craved foods are those that are restricted and liked. However, in both scatter plots, rice was an outlier. While it was the most craved food, neither the restriction nor liking score of rice was very high. These findings were consistent with the view that craved foods are generally liked, yet restricted, implying the generation of food related conflicts. Interestingly, the mechanism of craving rice, the main staple in Japan, may differ from other foods.
Caching and prefetching for Web content distribution

Proxy caching effectively reduces the network resources that Web services consume, while minimizing user access latencies. Deploying Web caching proxies over the Internet is not easy, however, and presents several cache management challenges. We offer an overview of key management problems for Web proxy caching and prefetching and present state-of-the-art solutions to these problems. Our focus is on the distribution of conventional Web objects, such as HTML pages and images, but we also address issues arising from emerging applications and services, such as streaming media.
Exercise Training and Quality of Life in Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE To establish whether exercise improves quality of life (QOL) in individuals with type 2 diabetes and which exercise modalities are involved. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Health Benefits of Aerobic and Resistance Training in individuals with type 2 Diabetes (HART-D; n = 262) was a 9-month exercise study comparing the effects of aerobic training, resistance training, or a combination of resistance and aerobic training versus a nonexercise control group on hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in sedentary individuals with type 2 diabetes. This study is an ancillary analysis that examined changes in QOL after exercise training using the Short Form-36 Health Survey questionnaire compared across treatment groups and with U.S. national norms. RESULTS The ancillary sample (n = 173) had high baseline QOL compared with U.S. national norms. The QOL physical component subscale (PCS) and the general health (GH) subscale were improved by all three exercise training conditions compared with the control group condition (resistance: PCS, P = 0.005; GH, P = 0.003; aerobic: PCS, P = 0.001; GH, P = 0.024; combined: PCS, P = 0.015; GH, P = 0.024). The resistance training group had the most beneficial changes in bodily pain (P = 0.026), whereas physical functioning was most improved in the aerobic and combined condition groups (P = 0.025 and P = 0.03, respectively). The changes in the mental component score did not differ between the control group and any of the exercise groups (all P > 0.05). The combined training condition group had greater gains than the aerobic training condition group in the mental component score (P = 0.004), vitality (P = 0.031), and mental health (P = 0.008) and greater gains in vitality compared with the control group (P = 0.021). CONCLUSIONS Exercise improves QOL in individuals with type 2 diabetes. Combined aerobic/resistance exercise produces greater benefit in some QOL domains.
SERVICE PROCESS CONFIGURATIONS IN ELECTRONIC RETAILING: A TAXONOMIC ANALYSIS OF ELECTRONIC FOOD RETAILERS

We developed a taxonomy of service processes in electronic retailing using data from 255 electronic food retailers. The taxonomy is comprised of eight service process configurations. Analysis of publicly available data on on‐line customer ratings for 52 retailers in the study sample shows that the ordering of the configurations in the taxonomy on a continuum of low to high flexibility is associated positively with (i) customer satisfaction with web site aesthetics, web site navigation, product selection, product information, customer support, and ease of return, and (ii) customer loyalty.
Minimizing the Number of Separating Circles for Two Sets of Points in the Plane

Given two sets of points $\mathbb{R}$ and $\mathbb{B}$ in the plane, we address the problem of finding a set of circles $\mathbb{C} = \{c_i, i= 1, 2, \ldots, k\}$, satisfying the condition that every point in $\mathbb{R}$ is covered by at least one circle $c_i$ and each point in $\mathbb{B}$ is not covered by any circle $c_i, i = 1, 2, \ldots k$. We conjecture that to find such a set with the smallest $k$ is NP-complete. In this paper, we present an approximation algorithm for computing the set with minimal number of such circles. The algorithm finds also a lower bound of the smallest $k$.
Coupling of Physiological and Proteomic Analysis to Understand the Ethylene- and Chilling-Induced Kiwifruit Ripening Syndrome

Kiwifruit [Actinidia deliciosa (A. Chev.) C.F. Liang et A.R. Ferguson, cv. “Hayward”] is classified as climacteric fruit and the initiation of endogenous ethylene production following harvest is induced by exogenous ethylene or chilling exposure. To understand the biological basis of this “dilemma,” kiwifruit ripening responses were characterized at 20°C following treatments with exogenous ethylene (100 μL L−1, 20°C, 24 h) or/and chilling temperature (0°C, 10 days). All treatments elicited kiwifruit ripening and induced softening and endogenous ethylene biosynthesis, as determined by 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) content and ACC synthase (ACS) and ACC oxidase (ACO) enzyme activities after 10 days of ripening at 20°C. Comparative proteomic analysis using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE-PAGE) and nanoscale liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (nanoLC-MS/MS) revealed 81 kiwifruit proteins associated with ripening. Thirty-one kiwifruit proteins were identified as commonly regulated by the three treatments accompanied by dynamic changes of 10 proteins specific to exogenous ethylene, 2 to chilling treatment, and 12 to their combination. Ethylene and/or chilling-responsive proteins were mainly involved in disease/defense, energy, protein destination/storage, and cell structure/cell wall. Interactions between the identified proteins were demonstrated by bioinformatics analysis, allowing a more complete insight into biological pathways and molecular functions affected by ripening. The present approach provides a quantitative basis for understanding the ethylene- and chilling-induced kiwifruit ripening and climacteric fruit ripening in general.
Stabilizing skateboard speed-wobble with reflex delay

A simple mechanical model of the skateboard–skater system is analysed, in which the effect of human control is considered by means of a linear proportional-derivative (PD) controller with delay. The equations of motion of this non-holonomic system are neutral delay-differential equations. A linear stability analysis of the rectilinear motion is carried out analytically. It is shown how to vary the control gains with respect to the speed of the skateboard to stabilize the uniform motion. The critical reflex delay of the skater is determined as the function of the speed. Based on this analysis, we present an explanation for the linear instability of the skateboard–skater system at high speed. Moreover, the advantages of standing ahead of the centre of the board are demonstrated from the viewpoint of reflex delay and control gain sensitivity.
Dynamic assessment of carcinoembryonic antigen in the first month after liver resection for colorectal liver metastases as a rapid‐recurrence predictor

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is a tumor marker used widely for detecting the recurrence and predicting the prognosis of colorectal cancer. This study investigates the possibility of serial measurement of serum CEA in several weeks after liver resection for colorectal liver metastases (CRLM) in detecting earlier detection of recurrence.
Organic monolayers and fluoropolymer brushes : functionalization, stability and tribology

This thesis deals with the adhesion and friction properties of densely grafted and covalently bound fluoropolymer brushes on silicon surfaces with varying thickness and fluorine content. A novel surface-functionalizing method is described using the thiol-yne click (TYC) reaction. The TYC reaction is highly useful for the attachment of functional (bio-)molecules and immobilization of radical initiators onto a surface with high density. Next, the hydrolytic and thermal stability of 24 different types of monolayers on Si(111), Si(100), SiC, SiN, SiO 2 , CrN, ITO, PAO, Au and stainless steel surfaces was evaluated. Subsequently, based on this outcome, highly stable fluorinated polymers are described as obtained using surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) reactions. The effects of thickness and fluorine content on tribological properties of these layers were studied. The adhesion and friction properties were investigated using colloidal probe atomic force microscopy under dry and ambient conditions. The solvent-free lubricating properties of obtained fluoropolymer brushes have been characterized in detail, and demonstrate their potential for e.g., MEMS/NEMS devices.
Design Considerations for a Mobile Testbed

Today’s cellular technologies allow users to access the Internet in a car or on a high-speed train, albeit the access bandwidth is far lower than that through a typical wired access technology such as Ethernet. Numerous new applications and services are under development for users of wireless technologies. Locationbased services (e.g, GPS navigation) and streaming media services are just two examples from the vast set of candidate applications and services. Not only researchers, but application and service developers could benefit from a testbed where they could experiment with mobility in the network. A typical testbed for a mobile wireless technology has no mobile component in it. Notable exceptions are: mobile Emulab [6] and DOME [1]. Mobile Emulab consists of mobile robots mounted with an 802.11 interface in a confined indoor setting. It offers 1 cm accuracy in robot maneuvering and location reporting. Mobile Emulab has the same access policy as Emulab: users request and are granted fixed resources in advance [9]. DOME (Diverse Outdoor Mobile Environment) has multiple DTN (Disruption Tolerant Networking) testbeds. One of them, DieselNet, consists of computers that are mounted on buses and have multiple radio interfaces. They connect with computers on other buses or scan for DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) offers. Another DTN in DOME is TurtleNet, which actually has Wood turtles as the carrying medium of sensors. These sensors monitor the turtles’ behavior and habitats, and upload the data whenever the turtles pass by the collection post. While Mobile Emulab is open for public access, all networks in DOME are for special-purpose. The limited number of mobile testbeds is a clear demonstration of difficulties in building and maintaining a mobile testbed. A mobile testbed poses chal-
Evaluation the combustion properties of the modified polypropylene

A new flame-retardant compounds A; synthesized from phenyltrimethoxysilane (PTMS) and potassium-montmorillonite (K-MMT), B; synthesized from 3-glycidoxypropyl)trimethoxysilane (3-GPTMS) and potassium-montmorillonite (K-MMT), and C; synthesized from potassium-montmorillonite (K-MMT) that prepared by using sol-gel technique. TWIN-SCREW EXTRUDER was used to blend polypropylene (PP) with different weight percentage of polymers A, B, and C. In this paper the thermal properties of composites A, B, and C were examined by using differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The combustion properties of the composites PP/A, PP/B, and PP/C were evaluated by the cone calorimeter (CC) at heat flux 35kW/m2. The decreasing Mass Loss Rate, Heat Release Rate (HRR), and Peak Heat Release Rate (pHRR) of the blend specimens compared to the pure PP (blank) after combustion indicated the main role of the blend composites in improving the ignition properties of the PP. Hence, the fire risk of the PP can be ignored with blending with composites A, B, and C.