Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantifying the contribution of feature maps for goal-directed visual attention

Assessing and selecting relevant visual cues is crucial for rapid saliency estimation and visual search. Here, we derive a new optimal feature modulation strategy to maximize the relative salience of the target, in which the top-down weight on a feature map depends on its stimulation intensity ratio (SIR) between the target and the distractors. The stimulation intensity is determined by two factors, i.e., cumulative summation of salience and the mean activity coefficient. Furthermore, we present a pruning strategy (i.e., extracting a small subset of features to compute the corresponding feature maps whose weights are higher than a given threshold prior to the feature combination) to reduce the computational cost of the search process. Testing on natural scenes shows that our optimal feature gain setting strategy together with the pruning technique increase the search speed and accuracy.
WF/sup 2/Q: worst-case fair weighted fair queueing

The generalized processor sharing (GPS) discipline is proven to have two desirable properties: (a) it can provide an end-to-end bounded-delay service to a session whose traffic is constrained by a leaky bucket; (b) it can ensure fair allocation of bandwidth among all back logged sessions regardless of whether or not their traffic is constrained. The former property is the basis for supporting guaranteed service traffic while the later property is important for supporting best-effort service traffic. Since GPS uses an idealized fluid model which cannot be realized in the real world, various packet approximation algorithms of the GPS have been proposed. Among these, weighted fair queueing (WFQ) also known as packet generalized processor sharing (PGPS) has been considered to be the best one in terms of accuracy. In particular, it has been proven that the delay bound provided by WFQ is within one packet transmission time of that provided by GPS. We show that, contrary to popular belief there could be large discrepancies between the services provided by the packet WFQ system and the fluid GPS system. We argue that such a discrepancy will adversely effect many congestion control algorithms that rely on services similar to those provided by GPS. A new packet approximation algorithm of GPS called worst-case fair weighted fair queueing (WF/sup 2/Q) is proposed. The service provided by WF/sup 2/Q is almost identical to that of GPS, differing no more than one maximum size packet.
Whatever Happened to Critical Mass Theory? A Retrospective and Assessment*

Between 1983 and 1993 the authors published a series of articles and a book promulgating and explicating “Critical Mass Theory,” a theory of public goods provision in groups. In this article we seek to trace the growth, change, or decline of the theory, primarily through an analysis of all journal citations of the theory. We find that the majority of citations are essentially gratuitous or pick a single point from the theory, which may or may not be central to the theory. However, we identify four lines of theorizing that creatively use substantial parts of Critical Mass Theory in their own development: (1) theories relevant to issues in communication studies such as interaction media and shared databases; (2) Macy's work on adaptive learning models; (3) Heckathorn's models of sanctioning systems; and (4) theories that are centrally concerned with issues of influence in collective goods processes. A few additional, less-developed lines of work are also discussed. None of this work identifies itself as being itself “Critical Mass Theory,” but many of the innovations and assertions of the theory are important bases for its development.
A principle of minimum translation search approach for object pose refinement

The state-of-the-art object pose estimation approaches represent the set of detected poses together with corresponding uncertainty. The inaccurate noisy poses may result in a configuration of overlapping objects especially in cluttered environments. Under a rigid body assumption the inter-penetrations between pairs of objects are geometrically inconsistent. In this paper, we propose the principle of minimum translation search, PROMTS, to find an inter-penetration-free configuration of the initially detected objects. The target application is to automate the task of unloading shipping containers, where a geometrically consistent configuration of objects is required for high level reasoning and manipulation. We find that the proposed approach to resolve geometrical inconsistencies improves the overall pose estimation accuracy. We examine the utility of two selected search methods: A-star and Depth-Limited search. The performance of the search algorithms are tested on data sets generated in simulation and from real-world scenarios. The results show overall improvement of the estimated poses and suggest that depth-limited search presents the best overall performance.
An improved iterative regularization algorithm based on varying the singular values

We consider the numerical solution of the first kind Fredholm integral equations. Such integral equations occur in signal processing and image recovery problems among others. The common used methods to solve it are Tikhonov regularization and the iterative Tikhonov regularization methods. In this paper, we proposed an improved iterative Tikhonov regularization method. We compares traditional Tikhonov regularization, iterative Tikhonov regularization with our proposed method in numerical experiments. The results indicate that our proposed method can provide a decrease in error of about two orders of magnitude.
Novice Human Teachers of a Virtual Toddler : A Case Study

While home robotic agents have been successful in learning or adapting to simple tasks (such as vacuuming), often they can perform only preordained tasks and cannot be easily trained by a nonexpert. This study is part of a larger project that with the goal of addressing this challenge by creating an interface and feature set for a child-like virtual robot automated learner teachable by human teachers (HTs) with no prior training. The current study contributes to this project by exploring the ways in which the HTs interact with our virtual robot automated learner (VRAL). Through the study, we found that humans tended to make a repeated and reliable set of assumptions about the learner, and that these assumptions affected how the HTs attempted to teach VRAL. Past research has shown that humans teaching robots (or agents) have three reliable tendencies: they attempt to infer a model of learner; they exhibit bias towards positive reinforcement; and they direct the agents attention. This study suggests that there are two more tendencies: humans do not ask the robot to explore and humans assume much about the nature of a robot before evaluating it. We explore the evidence of and reasons for these tendencies.
Thermal X-Ray Emission from Shocked Ejecta in Type Ia Supernova Remnants. II. Parameters Affecting the Spectrum

The supernova remnants (SNRs) left behind by Type Ia supernovae (SNe) provide an excellent opportunity for the study of these enigmatic objects. In a previous work we showed that it is possible to use the X-ray spectra of young Type Ia SNRs to explore the physics of Type Ia SNe and identify the relevant mechanism underlying these explosions. Our simulation technique is based on hydrodynamic and nonequilibrium ionization calculations of the interaction of a grid of Type Ia explosion models with the surrounding ambient medium, coupled to an X-ray spectral code. In this work we explore the influence of two key parameters on the shape of the X-ray spectrum of the ejecta: the density of the ambient medium around the SN progenitor and the efficiency of collisionless electron heating at the reverse shock. We also discuss the performance of recent three-dimensional simulations of Type Ia SN explosions in the context of the X-ray spectra of young SNRs. We find a better agreement with the observations for Type Ia SN models with stratified ejecta than for three-dimensional deflagration models with well-mixed ejecta. We conclude that our grid of Type Ia SNR models can improve our understanding of these objects and their relationship to the SNe that originated them.
An epidemiologic and genomic investigation into the obesity paradox in renal cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND Obesity increases risk for clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), yet obese patients appear to experience longer survival than nonobese patients. We examined body mass index (BMI) in relation to stage, grade, and cancer-specific mortality (CSM) while considering detection bias, nutritional status, and molecular tumor features. METHODS Data were available from 2119 ccRCC patients who underwent renal mass surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center between 1995 and 2012. Logistic regression models produced associations between BMI and advanced disease. Multivariable competing risks regression models estimated associations between BMI and CSM. Somatic mutation, copy number, methylation, and expression data were examined by BMI among a subset of 126 patients who participated in the Cancer Genome Atlas Project for ccRCC using the Kruskal-Wallis or Fisher exact tests. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS Obese and overweight patients were less likely to present with advanced-stage disease compared with normal-weight patients (odds ratio [OR] = 0.61, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.48 to 0.79 vs OR = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.51 to 0.83, respectively). Higher BMI was associated with reduced CSM in univariable analyses (P < .005). It remained statistically significant after adjustment for comorbidities and albumin level, but it became non-statistically significant after adjusting for stage and grade (P > .10). Genome-wide interrogation by BMI suggested differences in gene expression of metabolic and fatty acid genes, including fatty acid synthase (FASN), consistent with the obesity paradox. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that although BMI is not an independent prognostic factor for CSM after controlling for stage and grade, tumors developing in an obesogenic environment may be more indolent.
Data-driven Shoulder Inverse Kinematics

This paper proposes a shoulder inverse kinematics (IK) technique. Shoulder complex is comprised of the sternum, clavicle, ribs, scapula, humerus, and four joints. The shoulder complex shows specific motion pattern, such as Scapulo humeral rhythm. As a result, if a motion of the shoulder isgenerated without the knowledge of kinesiology, it will be seen as un-natural. The proposed technique generates motion of the shoulder complex about the orientation of the upper arm by interpolating the measurement data. The shoulder IK method allows novice animators to generate natural shoulder motions easily. As a result, this technique improves the quality of character animation.
HoverFlow: expanding the design space of around-device interaction

In this paper we explore the design space of around-device interaction (ADI). This approach seeks to expand the interaction possibilities of mobile and wearable devices beyond the confines of the physical device itself to include the space around it. This enables rich 3D input, comprising coarse movement-based gestures, as well as static position-based gestures. ADI can help to solve occlusion problems and scales down to very small devices. We present a novel around-device interaction interface that allows mobile devices to track coarse hand gestures performed above the device's screen. Our prototype uses infrared proximity sensors to track hand and finger positions in the device's proximity. We present an algorithm for detecting hand gestures and provide a rough overview of the design space of ADI-based interfaces.
Teachers’ Curriculum Stories: Perceptions and preparedness to enact change

Abstract Within the specific context of The Australian Curriculum: The Arts, this paper explores how teachers of the Arts and teacher educators encounter and enact curriculum change. Adopting Ewing’s notion that curriculum is a complex web of varying stories and storylines that are impacted on by teachers’ underlying philosophy, we suggest that Arts teachers embrace the intent behind The Australian Curriculum: The Arts. This paper unearths and explores insights gleaned from teachers looking inward and reflecting on their own personal curriculum journeys. The learning dimensions of conceptualising, experimenting and developing, reflecting, resolving and communicating are applied to investigate the implementation of the new curriculum. This article shares data from a number of Arts teachers’ interviews with the authors in relation to their thoughts on the implementation of the new curriculum. Two key themes emerged from these interviews, these being navigating challenges and the implications of personal attributes in encountering and enacting change. Interestingly, a number of qualities associated with Arts practitioners such as creative and lateral thinking, resilience and flexibility emerge as significant contributing factors in regard to how teachers encounter, enact and become curriculum change.
Analysis of Stochastic Approximation Schemes With Set-Valued Maps in the Absence of a Stability Guarantee and Their Stabilization

In this paper, we analyze the behavior of stochastic approximation schemes with set-valued maps in the absence of a stability guarantee. We prove that after a large number of iterations, if the stochastic approximation process enters the domain of attraction of an attracting set, it gets locked into the attracting set with high probability. We demonstrate that the above-mentioned result is an effective instrument for analyzing stochastic approximation schemes in the absence of a stability guarantee, by using it to obtain an alternate criterion for convergence in the presence of a locally attracting set for the mean field and by using it to show that a feedback mechanism, which involves resetting the iterates at regular time intervals, stabilizes the scheme when the mean field possesses a globally attracting set, thereby guaranteeing convergence. The results in this paper build on the works of Borkar, Andrieu et al., and Chen et al., by allowing for the presence of set-valued drift functions.
The Hybrid Reasoning Algorithm of ß-PSML

For solving problems in a large-scale distributed Web environment, we proposed β-PSML (Problem Solver Markup Language). We have studied the theoretical problems of β-PSML constructed by combining description logic and Horn clauses. In the nonrecursive case, we show that a single step of applying a Horn clause needs to be replaced by a more sophisticated reasoning step in β-PSML. We call it as the hybrid reasoning algorithm. We described the hybrid reasoning algorithm in this paper. Hybrid reasoning algorithm provides a sound and complete inference procedure for nonrecursive β-PSML knowledge bases in which the description logic component is decidable.
Removal of specularities using color and polarization

An algorithm for separating the specular and diffuse components of reflection from images is presented. The method uses color and polarization simultaneously to obtain strong constraints on the reflection components at each image point. Polarization is used to locally determine the color of the specular component, constraining the diffuse color at a pixel to a one-dimensional linear subspace. This subspace is used to find neighboring pixels whose color is consistent with the pixel. Diffuse color information from consistent neighbors is used to determine the diffuse color of the pixel. In contrast to previous separation algorithms, the proposed method can handle highlights that have a varying diffuse component, as well as highlights that include regions with different reflectance and material properties. Experimental results obtained by applying the algorithm to complex scenes with textured objects and strong interreflections are presented. <<ETX>>
The unscented Kalman filter for pedestrian tracking from a moving host

In this paper we present a time-efficient estimation framework for camera-based pedestrian tracking from a moving host car using a monocular camera. An image processing system processes the camera output to find the location of objects of interest in each frame. The position and sensor information about the host translation and rotation are passed to a tracking module. The module uses the position of the detected objectpsilas foot point as measurement input and connects them over time to estimate the movement of the objects of interest in order to reduce noise and single frame failures in the detection process. We have developed a new method to estimate the target movement which takes into account the host movement and allows to exploit prior information about the intrinsic and extrinsic camera parameters. The basic idea is to assume that host and target movements can be modelled as 2-dimensional movements on a flat ground-plane. Our developed motion model is based on this assumption and includes host motion as well as the target ego motion. A measurement is modelled as a perspective projection of a point on the ground-plane to the image plane. The motion and the measurement model are combined by an unscented Kalman filter. This filter is relatively new and has not been applied for pedestrian tracking before. Finally, we present a new logical initialization strategy for the selected filter, a part that is left out by most other publications. First results indicate that our approach gives good tracking results and allows to track pedestrians from a moving host in real time.
Distinct mechanisms of spike timing‐dependent LTD at vertical and horizontal inputs onto L2/3 pyramidal neurons in mouse barrel cortex

Spike timing‐dependent plasticity (STDP) is an attractive candidate to mediate the synaptic changes that support circuit plasticity in sensory cortices during development. STDP is prevalent at excitatory synapses, but it is not known whether the underlying mechanisms are universal, or whether distinct mechanisms underpin STDP at different synapses. Here, we set out to compare and contrast STDP at vertical layer 4 and horizontal layer 2/3 inputs onto postsynaptic layer 2/3 neurons in the mouse barrel cortex. We find that both vertical and horizontal inputs show STDP, but that they display different time windows for induction of timing‐dependent long‐term depression (t‐LTD). Moreover, whereas t‐LTD at vertical inputs requires presynaptic NMDA receptors and is expressed presynaptically, using paired recordings we find that t‐LTD at horizontal inputs requires postsynaptic NMDA receptors and is expressed postsynaptically. These results demonstrate that similar forms of plasticity on the same postsynaptic neuron can be mediated by distinct mechanisms, and suggest that these forms of plasticity may enable these two types of cortical synapses to support different functions.
BAFF, APRIL, TWEAK, BCMA, TACI and Fn14 Proteins Are Related to Human Glioma Tumor Grade: Immunohistochemistry and Public Microarray Data Meta-Analysis

Gliomas are common and lethal tumors of the central nervous system (CNS). Genetic alterations, inflammatory and angiogenic processes have been identified throughout tumor progression; however, treatment still remains palliative for most cases. Biological research on parameters influencing cell survival, invasion and tumor heterogeneity identified several cytokines interfering in CNS inflammation, oxidative stress and malignant transformation, including TNF-superfamily (TNFSF) members. In this report we performed a meta-analysis of public gene-array data on the expression of a group of TNFSF ligands (BAFF, APRIL, TWEAK) and their receptors (BAFF-R, TACI, BCMA, Fn14) in gliomas. In addition, we investigated by immunohistochemistry (IHC) the tumor cells' expression of these ligands and receptors in a series of 56 gliomas of different grade. We show that in IHC, BAFF and APRIL as well as their cognate receptors (BCMA, TACI) and Fn14 expression correlate with tumor grade. This result was not evidenced in micro-arrays meta-analysis. Finally, we detected for the first time Fn14, BAFF, BCMA and TACI in glioma-related vascular endothelium. Our data, combined with our previous report in glioma cell lines, suggest a role for these receptors and ligands in glioma biology and advance these molecules as potential markers for the classification of these tumors to the proliferative, angiogenic or stem-like molecular subtype.
Wine as a biological fluid: History, production, and role in disease prevention

Wine has been part of human culture for 6,000 years, serving dietary and socioreligious functions. Its production takes place on every continent, and its chemical composition is profoundly influenced by enological techniques, the grape cultivar from which it originates, and climatic factors. In addition to ethanol, which in moderate consumption can reduce mortality from coronary heart disease by increasing high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol and inhibiting platelet aggregation, wine (especially red wine) contains a range of polyphenols that have desirable biological properties. These include the phenolic acids (p‐coumaric, cinnamic, caffeic, gentisic, ferulic, and vanillic acids), trihydroxy stilbenes (resveratrol and polydatin), and flavonoids (catechin, epicatechin, and quercetin). They are synthesized by a common pathway from phenylalanine involving polyketide condensation reactions. Metabolic regulation is provided by competition between resveratrol synthase and chalcone synthase for a common precursor pool of acyl‐CoA derivatives. Polymeric aggregation gives rise, in turn, to the viniferins (potent antifungal agents) and procyanidins (strong antioxidants that also inhibit platelet aggregation). The antioxidant effects of red wine and of its major polyphenols have been demonstrated in many experimental systems spanning the range from in vitro studies (human low‐density lipoprotein, liposomes, macrophages, cultured cells) to investigations in healthy human subjects. Several of these compounds (notably catechin, quercetin, and resveratrol) promote nitric oxide production by vascular endothelium; inhibit the synthesis of thromboxane in platelets and leukotriene in neutrophils, modulate the synthesis and secretion of lipoproteins in whole animals and human cell lines, and arrest tumour growth as well as inhibit carcinogenesis in different experimental models. Target mechanisms to account for these effects include inhibition of phospholipase A2 and cyclo‐oxygenase, inhibition of phosphodiesterase with increase in cyclic nucleotide concentrations, and inhibition of several protein kinases involved in cell signaling. Although their bioavailability remains to be fully established, red wine provides a more favourable milieu than fruits and vegetables, their other dietary source in humans. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 11:287–313, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Flexible Search-by-Similarity Algorithm for Content-Based Image Retrieval

This paper introduces a flexible search strategy for image or image category retrieval in large databases. The process is based on a search-by-similarity method in which both request and dissimilarity measure are updated thanks to user interaction. The system copes with complex queries combining relevant images scattered in the database. The effectiveness of the method is emphasized by a quality assessment realized for a large and heterogeneous image database.