Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of exo-s, exo-u, and alg virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from migratory Egyptian vultures from India

This study of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in fecal droppings of migratory Egyptian vultures (Neophron p. percnopterus) revealed eight positive samples (n=25) by a 16S rRNA gene-based PCR in two consecutive winter seasons. Disk diffusion sensitivity testing revealed three multiple antimicrobial resistant (MAR) isolates. Genotypic characterization showed mutually exclusive exo-s and exo-u virulence genes in five and three isolates, respectively, while the alg gene was present in all of the isolates. MAR isolates with virulence genes were detected in both seasons. The Egyptian vultures could potentially be vectors of pathogenic and MAR P. aeruginosa, thereby affecting regional control and preventive measures.
Two-dimensional channel rate allocation for SVC over error-prone channel

The motion compensated temporal filtering (MCTF) based scalable video coding (SVC) provides a full scalability including spatial, temporal and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) scalability with fine granularity, each of which may result in different visual effect. This paper addresses a novel approach of two-dimensional unequal error protection (2D UEP) for the scalable video with a combined temporal and quality (SNR) scalability over packet-erasure channel. The bit-stream is divided into scalable sub-bit-streams based on the structure of MCTF. Each sub-bit-stream is further divided into several quality layers. Unequal quantities of bits are allocated to protect different layers to obtain acceptable quality video with smooth degradation under different transmission error conditions. Experimental results are presented to show the advantage of the proposed 2D UEP scheme over the traditional one-dimensional unequal error protection (1D UEP) scheme
A comparison of reading paper and on-line documents

We report on a laboratory study that compares reading from paper to reading on-line. Critical differences have to do with the major advantages paper offers in supporting annotation while reading, quick navigation, and flexibility of spatial layout. These, in turn, allow readers to deepen their understanding of the text, extract a sense of its structure, create a plan for writing, cross-refer to other documents, and interleave reading and writing. We discuss the design implications of these findings for the development of better reading technologies.
NOMA-Based Inter-Base Station Cooperative Scheduling Method Among Multiple Service Channels to Maximize Integrated System Throughput

We propose a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)-based inter-base station (BS) cooperative scheduling method among terminals in multiple service channels to maximize integrated system throughput. The proposed method optimizes coordinated time/frequency-domain scheduling, which includes bandwidth and power allocation to terminals, with inter-BS cooperation using NOMA with successive interference canceller (SIC). The computational complexity and signaling overhead at the backhaul of the proposed method are expected to increase as the number of BS in cooperation increases. Therefore, we introduce the limited range in inter-BS cooperation. We also evaluate computationally-efficient suboptimal transmission power allocation strategies in addition to the optimal one. Numerical results show that the effectiveness of the proposed method is especially significant when the system prioritizes the fairness among terminals (including fairness among services). We also show that the appropriate range in inter-BS cooperation and use of the suboptimal transmission power allocation strategy maintain most from the potential gain by using the proposed method while the system complexity is effectively reduced.
CALIBRATION OF A PROJECTOR WITH A PLANAR GIRD

The projector is being frequently used in broad range of the photogrammetric measurements with the development of non-contact measurement in the close-range photogrammetry, because a projector can project any pattern onto the measured object for controlling and calculating. Before using a projector, the interior parameters of it have to be calibrated first. Hence, the projector calibration is a necessary and important preceding step. The paper proposes a flexible technique to make the calibration of a projector with a planar grid. This technique only requires an ordinary projector, a digital camera and a planar grid. The planar grid provides the main control ground and the camera takes photos as the image data. The camera demands to be calibrated or its intrinsic parameters are known. The algorithm with 2D direct linear transformation (2D-DLT) and collinear equations is used to calibrate the projector. The operation method in detail and the algorithm are addressed systematically and entirely. First, the image coordinates of the projector are designed carefully and the space coordinates of the projector are computed by the image data and the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of the digital camera. Then, the decomposition of initial values of the projector intrinsic and extrinsic parameters using the correspondence of 2D-DLT and collinear equation is deduced. Finally, the projector calibration parameters are worked out by the whole adjustment. The feasibility and the exactness of the calibration technique of a projector put forward in this paper are verified by the results of real experimentations and data.
Parallel Algorithms for Finding the Most Vital Edge in Weighted Graphs

LetG= (V,E) be a weighted undirected graph withnvertices andmedges; each edgeehas a weightw(e) assigned to it. Letf(G) be the weight of a minimum spanning tree ofGifGis connected; otherwisef(G) = ∞. The most vital edge ofGis an edgeesuch thatf(G? e) ? f(G? e? ) for every other edgee? ofG. In this paper we describe anO(logn) time parallel algorithm withmprocessors for finding the most vital edge of a graph on the concurrent read exclusive write (CREW) model of parallel computation.
Forecasting the Realized Variance in the Presence of Intraday Periodicity

This paper examines the impact of intraday periodicity on forecasting realized volatility using a heterogeneous autoregressive model (HAR) framework. We show that periodicity inflates the variance of the realized volatility and biases jump estimators. This combined effect adversely affects forecasting. To account for this, we propose a periodicity-adjusted model, HARP, where predictors are built from the periodicity-filtered data. We demonstrate empirically (using 30 stocks from various business sectors and the SPY for the period 2000--2016) and via Monte Carlo simulations that the HARP models produce significantly better forecasts, especially at the 1-day and 5-days ahead horizons.
Estimation, Control, and Planning for Aggressive Flight With a Small Quadrotor With a Single Camera and IMU

We address the state estimation, control, and planning for aggressive flight with a 150 cm diameter, 250 g quadrotor equipped only with a single camera and an inertial measurement unit (IMU). The use of smartphone grade hardware and the small scale provides an inexpensive and practical solution for autonomous flight in indoor environments. The key contributions of this paper are: 1) robust state estimation and control using only a monocular camera and an IMU at speeds of 4.5 m/s, accelerations of over 1.5 g, roll and pitch angles of up to 90°, and angular rate of up to 800°/s without requiring any structure in the environment; 2) planning of dynamically feasible three-dimensional trajectories for slalom paths and flights through narrow windows; and 3) extensive experimental results showing aggressive flights through and around obstacles with large rotation angular excursions and accelerations.
Motion states extraction with optical flow for rat-robot automatic navigation

The real-time acquisition of precise motion states is significant and difficult for bio-robot automatic navigation. In this paper, we propose a real-time video-tracking algorithm to extract motion states of rat-robots in complex environment using optical flow. The rat-robot's motion states, including location, speed and motion trend, are acquired accurately in real time. Compared with the traditional methods based on single frame image, our algorithm using consecutive frames provides more exact and rich motion information for the automatic navigation of bio-robots. The video of the manual navigation experiments on rat-robots in eight-arm maze is applied to test this algorithm. The average computation time is 25.76 ms which is less than the speed of image acquisition. The results show that our method could extract the motion states with good performance of accuracy and time consumption.
Interactive and graphic coupling between multiple alignments, secondary structure predictions and motif/pattern scanning into proteins

A computer module that includes multiple alignments, secondary structure prediction, and site and pattern search has been developed and integrated into our ANTHEPROT software for protein sequence analysis. All the programs can be invoked from within any routine, thus yielding multiple pathways to obtain final results. All the results are graphically displayed. The main feature of this module is that all methods are connected in an interactive graphic manner. This module has been designed to display easily the potential sites with conserved predicted structures.
Using Code Perforation to Improve Performance, Reduce Energy Consumption, and Respond to Failures

Many modern computations (such as video and audio encoders, Monte Carlo simulations, and machine learning algorithms) are designed to trade off accuracy in return for increased performance. To date, such computations typically use ad-hoc, domain-specific techniques developed specifically for the computation at hand. We present a new general technique, code perforation, for automatically augmenting existing computations with the capability of trading off accuracy in return for performance. In contrast to existing approaches, which typically require the manual development of new algorithms, our implemented SpeedPress compiler can automatically apply code perforation to existing computations with no developer intervention whatsoever. The result is a transformed computation that can respond almost immediately to a range of increased performance demands while keeping any resulting output distortion within acceptable user-defined bounds. We have used SpeedPress to automatically apply code perforation to applications from the PARSEC benchmark suite. The results show that the transformed applications can run as much as two to three times faster than the original applications while distorting the output by less than 10%. Because the transformed applications can operate successfully at many points in the performance/accuracy tradeoff space, they can (dynamically and on demand) navigate the tradeoff space to either maximize performance subject to a given accuracy constraint, or maximize accuracy subject to a given performance constraint. We also demonstrate the SpeedGuard runtime system which uses code perforation to enable applications to automatically adapt to challenging execution environments such as multicore machines that suffer core failures or machines that dynamically adjust the clock speed to reduce power consumption or to protect the machine from overheating.
A Market-based Approach to Sensor Management

Given the explosion in number and types of sensor nodes, the next generation of sensor management systems must focus on identifying and acquiring valuable information from this potential flood of sensor data. Thus an emerging problem is deciding what to produce, where, for whom, and when. Identifying and making tradeoffs involved in information production is a difficult problem that market-based systems can “solve” by allowing user values, or utilities, to drive the selection process. Essentially this transforms the traditional “data driven” approach (in which multiple sensors and information sources are used, with a focus on how to process the collected data) to a user-centered approach in which one or more users treat the information collection and distribution system as a market and vie to acquire goods and services (e.g., information collection, processing resources and network bandwidth). We describe our market-based approach to sensor management, and compare our prototype system to an information-theoretic system in a multisensor, multi-user simulation with promising results. This research is motivated in part, by rapid technology advances in network technology and in sensing. These advances allow near universal instrumentation and sensing with worldwide distribution. However while advances in service-oriented architectures and web-based tools have created “the plumbing” for data distribution and access, improvements in optimization of these distributed resources for effective decision making have lagged behind the collection and distribution advances.
Cost aggregation with guided image filter and superpixel for stereo matching

Cost aggregation is one of the popular method for stereo matching due to efficiency and effectiveness. Their limitation is a high complexity and some error near the contour, which makes them not to implement in real time. Furthermore, the weakness makes them unattractive for many applications which require the accurate depth information. In this paper, we present a cost aggregation method using the superpixel-based edge-preserving filter and the guided image filter for stereo matching. First, we combine cost using a census transform and truncated absolute difference of gradients. The guided filter and the super pixel based smooth filter are exploited for the cost aggregation in order. In order to refine depth information, we apply occlusion handling and median filter. Consequently, the proposed method increases the accuracy of the depth map, and experimental results show that the proposed method generates more robust depth maps compared to the conventional methods.
Beyond CCA: Moment Matching for Multi-View Models

We introduce three novel semi-parametric extensions of probabilistic canonical correlation analysis with identifiability guarantees. We consider moment matching techniques for estimation in these models. For that, by drawing explicit links between the new models and a discrete version of independent component analysis (DICA), we first extend the DICA cumulant tensors to the new discrete version of CCA. By further using a close connection with independent component analysis, we introduce generalized covariance matrices, which can replace the cumulant tensors in the moment matching framework, and, therefore, improve sample complexity and simplify derivations and algorithms significantly. As the tensor power method or orthogonal joint diagonalization are not applicable in the new setting, we use non-orthogonal joint diagonalization techniques for matching the cumulants. We demonstrate performance of the proposed models and estimation techniques on experiments with both synthetic and real datasets.
Exposure of Perfluorinated Chemicals through Lactation: Levels of Matched Human Milk and Serum and a Temporal Trend, 1996–2004, in Sweden

Background Only limited data exist on lactation as an exposure source of persistent perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) for children. Objectives We studied occurrence and levels of PFCs in human milk in relation to maternal serum together with the temporal trend in milk levels between 1996 and 2004 in Sweden. Matched, individual human milk and serum samples from 12 primiparous women in Sweden were analyzed together with composite milk samples (25–90 women/year) from 1996 to 2004. Results Eight PFCs were detected in the serum samples, and five of them were also above the detection limits in the milk samples. Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorohexanesulfonate (PFHxS) were detected in all milk samples at mean concentrations of 0.201 ng/mL and 0.085 ng/mL, respectively. Perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) were detected less frequently. Discussion The total PFC concentration in maternal serum was 32 ng/mL, and the corresponding milk concentration was 0.34 ng/mL. The PFOS milk level was on average 1% of the corresponding serum level. There was a strong association between increasing serum concentration and increasing milk concentration for PFOS (r2 = 0.7) and PFHxS (r2 = 0.8). PFOS and PFHxS levels in composite milk samples were relatively unchanged between 1996 and 2004, with a total variation of 20 and 32% coefficient of variation, respectively. Conclusion The calculated total amount of PFCs transferred by lactation to a breast-fed infant in this study was approximately 200 ng/day. Lactation is a considerable source of exposure for infants, and reference concentrations for hazard assessments are needed.
A Computer Vision based Lane Detection Approach

Automatic lane detection to help the driver is an issue considered for the advancement of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and a high level of application frameworks because of its importance in drivers and passerby safety in vehicular streets. But still, now it is a most challenging problem because of some factors that are faced by lane detection systems like as vagueness of lane patterns, perspective consequence, low visibility of the lane lines, shadows, incomplete occlusions, brightness and light reflection. The proposed system detects the lane boundary lines using computer vision-based technologies. In this paper, we introduced a system that can efficiently identify the lane lines on the smooth road surface. Gradient and HLS thresholding are the central part to detect the lane lines. We have applied the Gradient and HLS thresholding to identify the lane line in binary images. The color lane is estimated by a sliding window search technique that visualizes the lanes. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated on the KITTI road dataset. The experimental results show that our proposed method detects the lane on the road surface accurately in several brightness conditions.
Synthesis of thiolated Ag/Au bimetallic nanoclusters exhibiting an anti-galvanic reduction mechanism and composition-dependent fluorescence.

We report a direct one-pot approach, employing 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (11-MUA) as a reducing and capping agent, for the preparation of fluorescent Ag/Au bimetallic nanoclusters (Ag/AuNCs) from HAuCl4 and AgNO3 in basic aqueous solution at room temperature. Unlike the monocomponent 11-MUA-AgNCs with negligible fluorescence, the as-prepared 11-MUA-Ag/AuNCs exhibit similar average diameters of ∼1.8 nm but much stronger and tunable fluorescence by varying the concentration ratios of AgNO3 to HAuCl4 in the synthesis. The quantum yield of the 11-MUA-Ag/AuNCs can reach 6.81% at a Ag-to-Au molar ratio of 1 : 2, nearly 3-fold higher than the monocomponent 11-MUA-AuNCs (2.38%) of similar sizes. More importantly, the occurrence of the reaction between Ag(+) ions and Au(0) of 11-MUA-AuNCs (which is opposite to the classic galvanic theory) and the coexistence of Ag(0) and Au(+) in the final NC products, are revealed by thorough analysis of XPS data. The anti-galvanic reduction, that is, metal ions are replaced by less reactive metals, has been further demonstrated through the reaction between the as-obtained purified monocomponent 11-MUA-AuNCs and Ag(+) ions. Direct electrochemical insights into the anti-galvanic reduction mechanism were provided by cyclic voltammetry characterizations of the NCs, and the universality of the anti-galvanic reduction was tested by preparing thiolated Pt/Au bimetallic NCs using platinum instead of silver in our synthetic system.
Auto-Calibrating Projectors for Tiled Displays On Piecewise Smooth Vertically Extruded Surfaces

In this paper we present a novel technique to calibrate multiple casually aligned projectors on fiducial-free piecewise smooth vertically extruded surfaces using a single camera. Such surfaces include cylindrical displays and CAVEs, common in immersive virtual reality systems. We impose two priors to the display surface: (a) the surface is a piecewise smooth vertically extruded surface; and (b) the aspect ratio of the rectangle formed by the four corners of the surface is known. We also assume that the boundary of the display is visible and segmentable. Using these priors, we can estimate the display’s 3D geometry and camera extrinsic parameters using a non-linear optimization technique from a single image without any explicit display to camera correspondences. Using the estimated camera and display properties, the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of each projector is recovered using a single projected pattern seen by the camera. This in turn is used to register the images on the display from any arbitrary viewpoint making it appropriate for virtual reality systems. The fast convergence and robustness of this method is achieved via a novel dimension reduction technique for camera parameter estimation and a novel deterministic technique for projector property estimation. This simplicity, efficiency and robustness of our method enables several coveted features for non-planar projection based displays. First, it allows fast re-calibration in the face of projector, display or camera movements and even change in display shape. Second, this opens up, for the first time, the possibility of allowing multiple projectors to overlap on the corners of the CAVE – a popular immersive VR display system. Finally, this opens up the possibility of easily deploying multi-projector displays on aesthetic novel shapes for edutainment and digital signage applications.
Service Interaction through Gateways for Inter-Cloud Collaboration within the Arrowhead Framework

Service oriented architectures (SOA) provide functional and configuration flexibility in closed communication environments, where security and service-related orchestration issues are controlled within the local network. For automation systems, these SOA-based networks can have core services, such as Service Registry, Orchestration, Authorization, and so on. A set of such core services are defined, implemented and made available through the Arrowhead framework. Since the Core Services are distributed resources available for all systems that wish to consume them, these networked services can be considered a cloud. As one cloud cannot serve for all, there is a need for such automation system clouds to interact with each other: use the services of one from another. This paper presents a solution for providing inter-cloud servicing capabilities in the Arrowhead framework by introducing a gatekeeper concept. The main idea is to extend the service discovery functionality outside the boundaries of a single cloud, and solve the security and orchestration issues in a way that fits into the general Arrowhead concept. This paper also introduces the methodology of creating secure connections between service consumers and producers situated in different clouds.