Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
OSCAM - optimized stereoscopic camera control for interactive 3D

This paper presents a controller for camera convergence and interaxial separation that specifically addresses challenges in interactive stereoscopic applications like games. In such applications, unpredictable viewer- or object-motion often compromises stereopsis due to excessive binocular disparities. We derive constraints on the camera separation and convergence that enable our controller to automatically adapt to any given viewing situation and 3D scene, providing an exact mapping of the virtual content into a comfortable depth range around the display. Moreover, we introduce an interpolation function that linearizes the transformation of stereoscopic depth over time, minimizing nonlinear visual distortions. We describe how to implement the complete control mechanism on the GPU to achieve running times below 0.2ms for full HD. This provides a practical solution even for demanding real-time applications. Results of a user study show a significant increase of stereoscopic comfort, without compromising perceived realism. Our controller enables 'fail-safe' stereopsis, provides intuitive control to accommodate to personal preferences, and allows to properly display stereoscopic content on differently sized output devices.
Semias: Self-Healing Active Replication on Top of a Structured Peer-to-Peer Overlay

Active replication on top of a structured peer-to-peer overlay is an attractive solution for transparently providing high availability to distributed applications. However, self-healing is necessary to ensure the availability of the replicated application despite node arrivals, failures or departures in the overlay. Self-healing means to automatically reconfigure the replica groups when changes in the overlay occur. In the case of active replication, reconfigurations must be done carefully, to keep the replicas consistency. Moreover, as every reconfiguration could imply a state transfer between replicas, their number should be limited. In this paper we propose a self-healing solution that limits the number of group reconfigurations and ensures the availability of the replicated application in a dynamic environment. To evaluate the performance of our solution, we implemented it in a framework, called Semias, in the context of Vigne grid middleware. Experiments run on Grid'5000 and Planet Lab show the performance of the framework and the efficiency of our self-healing mechanisms in a dynamic environment.
Dengue Outbreak Prediction: A Least Squares Support Vector Machines Approach

Dengue fever (DF) and the potentially fatal dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) continue to be a crucial public health concern in Malaysia. This paper proposes a prediction model that incorporates Least Squares Support Vector Machines (LS-SVM) in predicting future dengue outbreak. Data sets used in the undertaken study includes data on dengue cases and rainfall level collected in five districts in Selangor. Data were preprocessed using the Decimal Point Normalization before being fed into the training model. Prediction results of unseen data show that the LS-SVM prediction model outperformed the Neural Network model in terms of prediction accuracy and computational time.
A Longitudinal Analysis of Labour Market Data with SOM

The aim of this paper is to present a typology of career paths in France drawn up with the Kohonen algorithm and its extension to a clustering method of life history analysis based on the use of Self Organizing Maps (SOMs). Several methods have previously been presented for transforming qualitative into quantitative information so as to be able to apply clustering algorithms such as SOMs based on the Euclidean distance. Our approach consists in performing quantitative encoding on labor market situation proximities across time. Using SOMs, the preservation of the topology also makes it possible to check whether this new method of encoding preserves the particularities of the life history according to our economic approach to careers. Lastly, this quantitative encoding preprocessing, which can be easily applied to analysis methods of life history, completes the set of methods extending the use of SOM to qualitative data.
Assessment of Historical Flood Risk to the Groundwater Regime: Case Study of the Kolubara Coal Basin, Serbia

Heavy rainfall and slow movement of the cyclone Tamara caused record floods in May 2014 across Serbia. As a result, levees were breached, a large portion of the open-pit lignite mine Tamnava–West Field was flooded and a flood lake was created. Due to an active hydraulic link with aquifers, the water table rose and the amount of stored groundwater increased dramatically. Based on in situ surveys and hydrodynamic modeling, three distinct periods of the groundwater regime are identified and the flood impact on the groundwater regime in the study area quantified. The paper describes correlations between flood lake water levels and the water table, and shows calculated groundwater volumes as a result of flooding and those of residual groundwater after dewatering of the open-pit mine. This extreme historical flood in Serbia had disastrous economic and social consequences, given that the studied open-pit mine supports more than 25% of Serbia’s electric power output. The assessment of the flood wave and its impact on the groundwater regime is an important example of the groundwater system response to an extreme rainfall and flood event. The paper presents the operating algorithm which leads to the approach of assessing the impact of floods on increasing the volume of accumulated groundwater. The paper presents a developed methodology for groundwater level status exploration in the wider area of open-pit mine Tamnava-West Field during the flooding that occurred in this mine. The developed method encompasses the creation and calibration of a groundwater model and fate and transport model for groundwater state prior to the flooding, a verification model for groundwater level during the extreme floods and a control verification model which corresponds to the period after the passing of the flood wave. The applied operational algorithm offers reliable bases for adopting a strategy for groundwater management during floods.
Evolution of outcome measures in schizophrenia

Summary Outcome has been a key concern in schizophrenia since Kraepelin first identified the disorder. The outcomes that researchers and clinicians use and value in their work with it have changed to reflect evolving theories about it and the available interventions. This supplement tracks those changes and examines the merits and use of structured approaches to understand this most complex disorder
Performance Driven Facial Animation using Blendshape Interpolation

This paper describes a method of creating facial animation using a combination of motion capture data and blendshape interpolation. An animator can design a character as usual, but use motion capture data to drive facial animation, rather than animate by hand. The method is effective even when the motion capture actor and the target model have quite different shapes. The process consists of several stages. First, computer vision techniques are used to track the facial features of a talking actress in a video recording. Given the tracking data, our system automatically discovers a compact set of key-shapes that model the characteristic motion variations. Next, the facial tracking data is decomposed into a weighted combination of the key shape set. Finally, the user creates corresponding target key shapes for an animated face model. A new facial animation is produced by using the same weights as recovered during facial decomposition, and interpolated with the new key shapes created by the user. The resulting facial animation resembles the facial motion in the video recording, while the user has complete control over the appearance of the new face.
Routing in Multi Hop Wireless Infrastructures

The purpose of this report is to propose a new routing algorithm, Balanced Interference Routing Algorithm (BIRA), for the next generation cellular communication networks. The new network has high density base stations distribution to increase the capacity. The whole network is based on CDMA type of technology. One of the main features of the new routing algorithm BIRA is to take the interference into account. In BIRA a new link cost is calculated considering the interference level of a node and fixed cost of each link. Based on this new link cost, Dijkstra algorithm will be used to compute routes. A model of the network is built in this report. A series of experiments have been done to compare the performance of BIRA with other traditional routing algorithms, such as Shortest Path algorithm, etc. We found that BIRA can obtain higher data rates compared to the other algorithms in such a high density future generation wireless network.
Endogenous PYY and GLP‐1 mediate l‐glutamine responses in intestinal mucosa

l‐glutamine (Gln) is an energy source for gastrointestinal (GI) epithelia and can stimulate glucagon‐like peptide 1 (GLP‐1) release from isolated enteroendocrine L‐cells. GLP‐1 and peptide YY (PYY) are co‐secreted postprandially and both peptides have functional roles in glucose homeostasis and energy balance. The primary aim of this project was to establish the endogenous mechanisms underpinning Gln responses within intact GI mucosae using selective receptor antagonists.
Molecular Epidemiology of Human Rhinovirus Infections in Kilifi, Coastal Kenya

This study reports pediatric surveillance over 3 years for human rhinovirus (HRV) at the District Hospital of Kilifi, coastal Kenya. Nasopharyngeal samples were collected from children presenting at outpatient clinic with no signs of acute respiratory infection, or with signs of upper respiratory tract infection, and from children admitted to the hospital with lower respiratory tract infection. Samples were screened by real‐time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (real‐time RT‐PCR) and classified further to species by nucleotide sequencing of the VP4/VP2 junction. Of 441 HRV positives by real‐time RT‐PCR, 332 were classified to species, with 47% (155) being HRV‐A, 5% (18) HRV‐B, and 48% (159) HRV‐C. There was no clear seasonal pattern of occurrence for any species. The species were present in similar proportions in the inpatient and outpatient sample sets, and no significant association between species distribution and the severity of lower respiratory tract infection in the inpatients could be determined. HRV sequence analysis revealed multiple but separate clusters in circulation particularly for HRV‐A and HRV‐C. Most HRV‐C clusters were distinct from reference sequences downloaded from GenBank. In contrast, most HRV‐A and HRV‐B sequences clustered with either known serotypes or strains from elsewhere within Africa and other regions of the world. This first molecular epidemiological study of HRV in the region defines species distribution in accord with reports from elsewhere in the world, shows considerable strain diversity and does not identify an association between any species and disease severity. J. Med. Virol. 84:823–831, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Dissociation and post-traumatic stress disorder: two prospective studies of road traffic accident survivors.

BACKGROUND Dissociative symptoms during trauma predict post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but they are often transient. It is controversial whether they predict chronic PTSD over and above what can be predicted from other post-trauma symptoms. AIMS To investigate prospectively the relationship between dissociative symptoms before, during and after a trauma and other psychological predictors, and chronic PTSD. METHOD Two samples of 27 and 176 road traffic accident survivors were recruited. Patients were assessed shortly after the accident and followed at intervals over the next 6 months. Assessments included measures of dissociation, memory fragmentation, data-driven processing, rumination and PTSD symptoms. RESULTS All measures of dissociation, particularly persistent dissociation 4 weeks after the accident, predicted chronic PTSD severity at 6 months. Dissociative symptoms predicted subsequent PTSD over and above the other PTSD symptom clusters. Memory fragmentation and data-driven processing also predicted PTSD. Rumination about the accident was among the strongest predictors of subsequent PTSD symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Persistent dissociation and rumination 4 weeks after trauma are more useful in identifying those patients who are likely to develop chronic PTSD than initial reactions.
A Two-Hop Proportional Fairness Scheduling Algorithm for Relay Based OFDMA Systems

This paper proposes a two-hop proportional fairness scheduling scheme for relay based orthogonal frequency division multiplexing access (OFDMA) systems. The proportional fairness scheduling algorithm is extended to a two-hop scenario to ensure that both direct link users and relay link users are fairly allocated capacity. The fairness allocation problem is considered both in the first time subslot between direct link users and relay stations, and the second time subslot among relay link users. Simulation results show that this algorithm achieves an overwhelming performance on the long-term fairness of the user data rate although suffering some throughput lost.
Short message service (SMS) technology in alcohol research--a feasibility study.

AIM The aim of this study was to describe the feasibility, advantages and limitations of the combined use of Internet and SMS technology to assess alcohol use, and to test whether an SMS sent in the evening (i.e. prior to a possible drinking event) changed the respondents' assessment, made on the following day, of the number of drinks consumed. PARTICIPANTS Seventy young adults (mean age 22.7) were recruited through face-to-face contacts, e-mails and Internet advertisements. DESIGN AND SETTING Participants completed a baseline assessment via Internet and were randomly assigned to two conditions (with and without evening SMS). Over four weekends, both Friday and Saturday night, drinking was assessed via SMS questions sent the next day to the participants' cell phones. RESULTS A high retention rate (75% in total) was obtained across all three recruitment conditions. The number of drinks indicated in the SMS survey was strongly correlated with the usual quantity assessed via Internet and did not differ depending on whether an additional SMS question was sent in the evening or not. CONCLUSION The new method shares some of the advantages of conventional diaries but overcomes most of the limitations: it is easy to use, cost-effective and suitable for large-scale surveys. Application restrictions and further developments are discussed.
Antiretroviral resistance at virological failure in the NEAT 001/ANRS 143 trial: raltegravir plus darunavir/ritonavir or tenofovir/emtricitabine plus darunavir/ritonavir as first-line ART.

OBJECTIVES To describe the pattern of drug resistance at virological failure in the NEAT001/ANRS143 trial (first-line treatment with ritonavir-boosted darunavir plus either tenofovir/emtricitabine or raltegravir). METHODS Genotypic testing was performed at baseline for reverse transcriptase (RT) and protease genes and for RT, protease and integrase (IN) genes for patients with a confirmed viral load (VL) >50 copies/mL or any single VL >500 copies/mL during or after week 32. RESULTS A resistance test was obtained for 110/805 (13.7%) randomized participants qualifying for resistance analysis (61/401 of participants in the raltegravir arm and 49/404 of participants in the tenofovir/emtricitabine arm). No resistance-associated mutation (RAM) was observed in the tenofovir/emtricitabine plus darunavir/ritonavir arm, and all further analyses were limited to the raltegravir plus darunavir arm. In this group, 15/55 (27.3%) participants had viruses with IN RAMs (12 N155H alone, 1 N155H + Q148R, 1 F121Y and 1 Y143C), 2/53 (3.8%) with nucleotide analogue RT inhibitor RAMs (K65R, M41L) and 1/57 (1.8%) with primary protease RAM (L76V). The frequency of IN mutations at failure was significantly associated with baseline VL: 7.1% for a VL of <100,000 copies/mL, 25.0% for a VL of ≥100,000 copies/mL and <500,000 copies/mL and 53.8% for a VL of ≥500,000 copies/mL (PTREND = 0.007). Of note, 4/15 participants with IN RAM had a VL < 200 copies/mL at time of testing. CONCLUSIONS In the NEAT001/ANRS143 trial, there was no RAM at virological failure in the standard tenofovir/emtricitabine plus darunavir/ritonavir regimen, contrasting with a rate of 29.5% (mostly IN mutations) in the raltegravir plus darunavir/ritonavir NRTI-sparing regimen. The cumulative risk of IN RAM after 96 weeks of follow-up in participants initiating ART with raltegravir plus darunavir/ritonavir was 3.9%.
Higher-Order SMT Solving (Work in Progress)

Satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) solvers have throughout the years been able to cope with increasingly expressive formulas, from ground logics to full first-order logic modulo theories. Nevertheless, higher-order logic within SMT (HOSMT) is still little explored. In this preliminary report we discuss how to extend SMT solvers to natively support higherorder reasoning without compromising their performances on FO problems. We present a pragmatic extension of the cvc4 solver in which we generalize existing data structures and algorithms to HOSMT, thus leveraging the extensive research and implementation efforts dedicated to efficient FO solving. Our evaluation shows that the initial implementation does not add significant overhead to FO problems and its performance is on par with the encoding-based approach for HOSMT. We also discuss an alternative extension being implemented in veriT, in which new data structures and algorithms are being developed from scratch to best support HOSMT, thus avoiding the inherent difficulties of generalizing in a graceful way existing infrastructure not indented to higher-order reasoning.
Frame skipping minimization in low bit-rate video coding

When encoding low bit-rate video at constant bit-rate, state of the art video encoders may be forced to skip frames. Frames are mostly skipped after "scene changes", i.e. immediately after the beginning of a new scene. We address the problem of determining the minimal number and the exact positions of the frames that must be skipped in a video sequence in order to match closely a prefixed rate and distortion. The reduction of the number of skipped frames decreases the jerkiness associated to the skips and improves the overall quality of the encoded video. The off-line frame-layer rate control method we propose can be used in several existing video coders and it is fully compatible with rate-distortion optimized macroblock-layer rate controls. We also present a simplified heuristic that performs almost optimally while requiring only minimal encoding complexity with respect to the standard encoders.
Is Defeasible Logic Applicable

In this paper the application of defeasible logic for automated negotiation is investigated. Defeasible logic is flexible enough to be adapted to several possible negotiation strategies, has efficient implementations, and provides a formal basis for analysis (e.g. to explain why a negotiation was not successful). Two case studies, one small and one more comprehensive, will be described and the feasibility of approaches based on defeasible logic will be discussed.
Intention reconsideration in complex environments

One of the key problems in the design of belief-desire-intention (BDI) agents is that of finding an appropriate policy for intention reconsideration. In previous work, Kinny and Georgeff investigated the effectiveness of several such reconsideration policies, and demonstrated that in general, there is no one best approach different environments demand different intention reconsideration strategies. In this paper, we further investigate the relationship between the effectiveness of an agent and its intention reconsideration policy in different environments. W e empirically evaluate the performance of different reconsideration strategies in environments that are to varying degrees dynamic, inaccessible, and nondeterministic. In addition to our empirical results, we are able to give preliminary analytical results to explain some of our findings.
Incomplete Assessments: Towards a Better Understanding of Causes and Solutions. The Case of the interRAI Home Care Instrument in Belgium

The chronic diseases, comorbidities and rapidly changing needs of frail older persons increase the complexity of caregiving. A comprehensive, systematic and structured collection of data on the status of the frail older person is presumed to be essential in facilitating decision-making and thus improving the quality of care provided. However, the way in which an assessment is completed has a substantial impact on the quality and value of the results. This study examines the online completion of interRAI Home Care assessments, the possible causes for incomplete assessments and the consequences of these factors with respect to the quality of care received. Our findings indicate high nurse engagement and poor physician participation. We also observed the poor completion of items in predominantly medically- oriented sections characterized by, first, the fact that the assessors felt incapable of answering certain questions, second, the absence of required data or of a competent person to fill out the data, and third, the lack of tools necessary for essential measurements. The incompleteness of assessments has a clear negative influence on outcome generation. Moreover, without the added value of support outcomes, the improvement of care quality can be impeded and information technology can easily be seen as burdensome by the assessors. We have observed that multidisciplinary cooperation is an important prerequisite to establishing high-quality assessments aimed at improving the quality of care.
Anatomical Course Demarcating the Safe Area for the Superior Gluteal Nerve

Iatrogenic injury to the superior gluteal nerve (SGN) persists despite a safe area being defined. Current descriptions of the course of the SGN are conflicting and do not provide agreeable distances to surface landmarks that are useful for most health care professionals. This study aimed to suggest a more conservative and gender-dependent estimate of the safe area between each buttock and genitals as defined by four bony surface landmarks. The posterior and lateral surfaces of each buttock in eight cadavers, four male and four female, were dissected. The surface anatomy of sixteen SGNs was defined in relation to the quadrate tubercle of the intertronchanteric crest of the femur (QTIF), the most cranial ridge of the iliac crest (IC), the anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS) and the posterior superior iliac spine (PSIS). Between the sexes, no significant difference existed concerning average SGN lengths across each buttock pair, (i.e. SGN length male/female difference df=3 (p=0.273); Pearson = - 0.76). There was no significant difference between both buttock sides concerning the SGN distances from each of the four bony surface landmarks across either sex (e.g. male QTIF df=3 (p=0.284); Pearson correlation = -0.31. ) From our measurements we conclude that the standard safe area is too generous and should be half the size immediately adjacent to the tip of the greater trochanter.