Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Compression of line-drawing images using vectorizing and feature-based filtering

A three-stage method for compressing bi-level line-drawing images is proposed. In the first stage, the raster image is vectorized using a combination of skeletonizing and line tracing algorithm. A feature image is then reconstructed from the extracted vector elements. In the second stage, the original image is processed by a feature-based filter for removing noise near the borders of the extracted line elements. This improves the image quality and results in more compressible raster image. In the final stage, the filtered raster image is compressed using the baseline JBIG algorithm. For a set of test images, the method achieves a compression ratio of 40:1, in comparison to 32:1 of the baseline JBIG.
A Synthesis-Free Directional Modulation Transmitter Using Retrodirective Array

By modification of the classical retrodirective array architecture, a directional modulation (DM) transmitter can be realized without the need for synthesis. Importantly, through analytical analysis and exemplar simulations, it is proved that, besides the conventional DM application scenario, i.e., secure transmission to one legitimate receiver located along one spatial direction in free space, the proposed synthesis-free DM transmitter should also perform well for systems where there are more than one legitimate receiver positioned along different directions in free space, and where one or more legitimate receivers exist in a multipath environment. None of these have ever been achieved before using synthesis-free DM arrangements.
LITERATURE REVIEW & MONITORING RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SALMONID SPAWNING GRAVEL SCOUR

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks to the Washington Forest Protection Association for providing funding for this study. Thanks also to the many people who responded to our request for information and references. Salmonid eggs and larvae undergo a critical period of early development while buried in stream bed gravel. During this time eggs and alevin are vulnerable to scour and disturbance of the stream bed. Mortality at this early stage in the life cycle can affect recruitment to later life stages. Scour to the depth of salmonid egg pockets typically occurs during peak discharges when bedload transport processes are active. The magnitude and frequency of peak flow discharge and sediment transport are influenced by watershed conditions that affect the hydrologic and sediment regimes. A variety of land-use activities alter peak flows and sediment transport dynamics. The Watershed Analysis fish habitat module recommends using information on the frequency of redd scour to identify potential changes in peak flow hydrology and channel stability, but does not contain methods to document scour. A standard procedure is needed to assess and monitor spawning gravel scour in the context of Watershed Analysis. Purpose The purpose of this report is to: 1) present information on scour from the literature; 2) identify the features required in a scour monitoring method for Watershed Analysis; 3) identify key issues that need to be resolved in the development of a scour method; 4) examine how existing studies have addressed these issues, and 5) make recommendations for the design of the Watershed Analysis scour module.
Architectures for Multidimensional Low- and Intermediate Level Image Processing (Invited)

Abstract In the last decade many architectures for low-level image 2- Image processing tasks. processing were developed. But simultaneously the image processing tasks were growing and changing, resulting in a As we look at tasks that are performed in image processing different set of basic operations than was needed ten years nowadays a few profiles can be sketched, without ago. An attempt is made to classify the existing and pretending to beexhaustive: proposed architectures over the past ten years followed by the results of a theoretical comparison on three of the main 2.1 Industrial inspection and robotics: groups of architectures, the pipelines, the processor arrays and the linear processor arrays. One of the conclusions is Industrial inspection and robotics is nowadays a main that recursive neighbourhood operations appear to be an application field of the classical 20 image processing efficient way to implement global operations and object sequence. operations. But is there support from the architectures? Image acquisition in this field involves both CCD video Another conclusion is that queue or bucket updating is an cameras and line-scan cameras. Gray-value filtering is extremely efficient way to process pixels, especially when avoided by solving the illuinination problem and many elements have to be processed as in 3D image segmentation is typically done by thresholding followed by processing. With the amount of elements to process in a 3D post-processing mostly in the form of morphologic image, the idea of 'one pixel or voxel
High Constitutive NFk B Activity Mediates Resistance to Oxidative Stress in Neuronal Cells

Selected clones of the sympathetic precursor-like cell line PC12 (rCl8) are resistant to oxidative cell death induced by the Alzheimer’s disease-associated amyloid b protein (Ab) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Here, we show that the transcriptional activity and DNA binding activity of the redox-sensitive transcription factor NF-kB and its nuclear expression are constitutively increased in rCl8 cells compared with their nonresistant parental PC12 cell (PC12p) counterpart. Suppression of the transcriptional activity of NF-kB in rCl8 cells with the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone or by direct overexpression of a super-repressor mutant form of IkBa, a specific inhibitor of NF-kB, reversed the oxidative stress resistance phenotype of these cells and ultimately led to increased cell death after the challenge with H2O2. Dexamethasone treatment also caused an increase in the protein level of IkBa. Our data show that an increased baseline of NF-kB activity may mediate the resistance of these cells of neuronal origin to oxidative stress. Therefore, the presented model may help to identify possible neuronal target genes of NF-kB and to further elucidate the molecular basis of the differential sensitivity of neurons in neurodegenerative conditions associated with an increased oxidative burden, such as in Alzheimer’s disease.
Network Lifetime Analysis of Data Collection Protocols

When a sensor network is deployed, we fundamentally care about three main outcomes: to obtain as much data as possible (high delivery rate), to obtain data as fast as possible (low latency), and to obtain data for as long as possible (long lifetime). This last metric, called network lifetime, is of great importance and has been widely investigated because sensor nodes are usually battery-operated. However, there is a gap between the many theoretical studies and the very few empirical ones. The aim of this thesis is to bridge that gap. To achieve our aim, we analyze two well-known data collection protocols: one based on shortest-path trees, called CTP; and the other based on opportunistic routing, called ORW. Both protocols have advantages and disadvantages with respect to the network lifetime. On the one hand, CTP reduces the total number of transmissions in the network, but uses an expensive communication primitive and does not care about load balancing. On the other hand, ORW has the exact opposite characteristics, good load balancing with an efficient communication primitive at the cost of increasing the total number of transmissions. There is hence an open question to solve: which protocol provides longer lifetimes? We tackle the problem from an analytical and a practical perspective. For the analytical part, we improve the accuracy of current energy models for CTP and develop a new energy model for ORW. Our models for CTP are up to 95% more accurate than the state-of-the-art. For the empirical part, we evaluate both protocols on a public testbed with 100 nodes. Our analytical results show that ORW has longer lifetimes than CTP for high density networks, and that this advantage should vanish in low density networks. Our empirical results validate that ORW is indeed better than CTP under high densities, but for lower densities, our experiments actually show that ORW performs significantly worse than CTP. We show that this unexpected behaviour (according to the model) is due to some inherent flaws in the implementation of ORW.
Hydromechanics of low-Reynolds-number flow. Part 2. Singularity method for Stokes flows

The present study further explores the fundamental singular solutions for Stokes flow that can be useful for constructing solutions over a wide range of free-stream profiles and body shapes. The primary singularity is the Stokeslet, which is associated with a singular point force embedded in a Stokes flow. From its derivatives other fundamental singularities can be obtained, including rotlets, stresslets, potential doublets and higher-order poles derived from them. For treating interior Stokes-flow problems new fundamental solutions are introduced; they include the Stokeson and its derivatives, called the roton and stresson. These fundamental singularities are employed here to construct exact solutions to a number of exterior and interior Stokes-flow problems for several specific body shapes translating and rotating in a viscous fluid which may itself be providing a primary flow. The different primary flows considered here include the uniform stream, shear flows, parabolic profiles and extensional flows (hyper-bolic profiles), while the body shapes cover prolate spheroids, spheres and circular cylinders. The salient features of these exact solutions (all obtained in closed form) regarding the types of singularities required for the construction of a solution in each specific case, their distribution densities and the range of validity of the solution, which may depend on the characteristic Reynolds numbers and governing geometrical parameters, are discussed.
Mininet-WiFi: Emulating software-defined wireless networks

As the density of wireless networks continues to grow with more clients, more base stations, and more traffic, designing cost-effective wireless solutions with efficient resource usage and ease to manage is an increasing challenging task due to the overall system complexity. A number of vendors offer scalable and high-performance wireless networks but at a high cost and commonly as a single-vendor solution, limiting the ability to innovate after roll-out. Recent Software-Defined Networking (SDN) approaches propose new means for network virtualization and programmability advancing the way networks can be designed and operated, including user-defined features and customized behaviour even at run-time. However, means for rapid prototyping and experimental evaluation of SDN for wireless environments are not yet available. This paper introduces Mininet-WiFi as a tool to emulate wireless OpenFlow/SDN scenarios allowing high-fidelity experiments that replicate real networking environments. Mininet-WiFi augments the well-known Mininet emulator with virtual wireless stations and access points while keeping the original SDN capabilities and the lightweight virtualization software architecture. We elaborate on the potential applications of Mininet-Wifi and discuss the benefits and current limitations. Two use cases based on IEEE 802.11 demonstrate available functionality in our open source developments.
Anthropometric profile and performance indicators in female elite beach handball players

This study describes the anthropometric and physical profile of the team that was the World Champion of female Beach Handball in 2016. 12 international level field players from Spain Beach Handball National Team participated in this study. The anthropometric and physical profile of the players has been evaluated, measuring: height and weight; skin folds and somatotype was determined. For the physical profile have been measured: maximal isometric hand grip force; throw velocity (throw in static support behind the line of 6 meters; throw with three steps run throw and jump with turn of 360o); speed 5 and 10 meters; countermovement jump (CMJ) and Repeated Sprint Ability on Sand (RSAS). Somatotype obtained from the sample studied, characterized by mesomorphyendomorphy (3,33 – 3,35 – 2,65). The physical profile shown by the beach handball players champions of the world were: handgrip show very similar values to those shown by the elite Team Handball players. Throw velocity values are slightly higher to those obtained in other studies with Team Handball players. The Spanish World Champion Beach Handball players show anthropometric characteristics with low values than those shown by Beach Handball players of other nationalities, and by Team Handball players.
Voces de Resistencia: Exploring Salvadoran Students’ Experiences and Needs in Higher Education

This study aims to examine how historical and contemporary traumas, refugee experiences, and cultural adjustment affect first-generation Salvadoran students’ identities and experiences in higher education. Thirteen Salvadoran college students completed a demographic survey and a semistructured interview. Using grounded theory methodology, three selective, 11 axials, and 36 open themes were identified. Respondents reflected on the impact of trauma. They also discussed challenges of being first generation and navigating through higher education, though reportedly conceptualizing these as symbols of hope and opportunity for their own growth. Findings demonstrate ways institutions of higher education can better support Salvadoran students.
Performance Evaluation of Hadoop in Cloud for Big Data

Recent trends in big data have shown that the amount of data continues to increase at an exponential rate. This trend has inspired many researchers over the past few years to explore new research direction of studies related to multiple areas in big data. Hadoop is one of the most popular platforms for big data, thus, Hadoop MapReduce is used to store data in Hadoop distributed file systems. While, cloud computing is considered an excellent candidate for storing and processing the big data. However, processing big data across multiple nodes is a challenging task. The problem is even more complex using virtualized clusters in a cloud computing to execute a large number of tasks. This paper provides a review and analysis of the impact of using physical versus cloud cluster in the processing a large amount of data. This analysis has an impact on the processing in terms of execution time and cost of using each one of them. The result indicates that the use of cloud virtual machines helped better utilize the resources of the host computer.
A simple ultrasonic Indoor/Outdoor detector for mobile devices

Context information is fundamental for mobile application. A system able to detect Indoor/Outdoor state switching can give useful information to upper-level applications permitting to improve their performance or reduce the computational load and consequently the lifetime of the smartphone. A localization application may exploit the Indoor/Outdoor information to smartly decide if using GPS (that performs well outdoors but poorly indoors) or other localization methods. In this paper we present an ultrasonic-signal-based Indoor/Outdoor detector for smartphones. The phone plays an ultrasonic ping by using its in-built speakers and records the echoes by using its microphone, therefore, no specific hardware is required to be added to the smartphone. The proposed detector shows good performance in terms of accuracy and latency.
An Endoparasitoid Avoids Hyperparasitism by Manipulating Immobile Host Herbivore to Modify Host Plant Morphology

Many parasitic organisms have an ability to manipulate their hosts to increase their own fitness. In parasitoids, behavioral changes of mobile hosts to avoid or protect against predation and hyperparasitism have been intensively studied, but host manipulation by parasitoids associated with endophytic or immobile hosts has seldom been investigated. We examined the interactions between a gall inducer Masakimyia pustulae (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) and its parasitoids. This gall midge induces dimorphic leaf galls, thick and thin types, on Euonymus japonicus (Celastraceae). Platygaster sp. was the most common primary parasitoid of M. pustulae. In galls attacked by Platygaster sp. , whole gall thickness as well as thicknesses of upper and lower gall wall was significantly larger than unparasitized galls, regardless of the gall types, in many localities. In addition, localities and tree individuals significantly affected the thickness of gall. Galls attacked by Platygaster sp. were seldom hyperparasitized in the two gall types. These results strongly suggest that Platygaster sp. manipulates the host plant's development to avoid hyperparasitism by thickening galls.
Adaptive correlates of socially aggressive behavior in peer relationships

This study examined concurrent and longitudinal associations among overt and social forms of aggression, peer status, and friendship quality over an 11-month period. A sample of 559 adolescents (50% girls) in grades 6-8 participated in the study. Participants completed a measure of friendship quality at both time points. Measures of aggression and peer status (preference-based and reputation-based popularity) were collected using a standard sociometric procedure. Results suggested a modest curvilinear effect such that high levels of social aggression were associated with slight increases in both preference-and reputation-based popularity for boys. No effects were revealed for the prediction of either of the peer status constructs from social aggression for girls. With respect to friendship variables, high levels of overt aggression were associated with a lower likelihood of friendship reciprocity, whereas high levels of social aggression were associated with less stable friendships over time. High levels of both overt and social aggression were associated with slight decreases in self-reported positive and negative friendship quality for boys and girls. Implications for understanding the complex patterns of association among different forms of aggression, peer group status, and friendship quality are discussed.
Choice of Air Cargo Transshipment Location : an application to air cargo traffic to / from Northeast Asia 1

Based on a unique data set of 760 air cargo transshipment routings to/from the Northeast Asian region in 2000, this paper applies an aggregate form of multinomial logit model to identify the critical factors influencing air cargo transshipment route choice decisions. The analysis focuses on the trade-off between monetary cost and time cost while considering other variables relevant for choice of transshipment airport. The estimation method considers the presence of unobserved attributes, and corrects for resulting endogeneity via a two-stage least squares estimation using instrumental variables. Our empirical results show that choice of air cargo transshipment hub is more sensitive to time cost than the monetary costs such as landing fees and line-haul price. For example, our simulation results suggest that a one-hour reduction in total transport and processing time for a particular O-D air cargo traffic would be more effective than a US$1,000 reduction in airport charges. This suggests that it is important to reduce air cargo connecting time at an airport via adequate investment in capacity and automation even by increasing landing and other airport charges. Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the Northeast Asian Economic Forum and Korea Transport Institute for project funding for data collection. Tae Oum acknowledges gratefully the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada for research grant support.
Importance of Video Technologies in Seizure Identification - Evidence through a Case Report

Epilepsy is characterized by unprovoked repetitive occurrence of seizures, which are the clinical manifestation of an abnormal cerebral discharge. Seizure semiology is widely variable, in some cases being difficult to identify and diagnose. Especially in non-convulsive seizures, a high grade of suspicion is necessary and description of episodes by patients and witness may be bizarre and misleading. Video recording of seizures could be widely available through portable cameras and may help physicians recognize seizures. We present a case of a patient with an eight years history of non-convulsive seizures that was only diagnosed with epilepsy after self recording a seizure on his phone camera. Through this case we would like to alert the medical community for the usefulness of these widespread portable video technologies in the diagnosis of seizure disorders.
Detection of tool flute breakage in end milling using feed-motor current signatures

An effective algorithm based on improved time-domain averaging is proposed to detect tool flute breakage during end milling using feed-motor current signatures. The algorithm proposed is demonstrated to be effective in detecting tool flute breakage in real time through a series of milling experiments, and is also demonstrated to be insensitive to the effects for transients, such as cutter runout, entry/exit cuts, and noise in the feed-motor current signals. The results show that the approach has an excellent online application potential for tool flute breakage detection in end milling.
A New Algorithm to Diagnose Atrial Ectopic Origin from Multi Lead ECG Systems - Insights from 3D Virtual Human Atria and Torso

Rapid atrial arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation (AF) predispose to ventricular arrhythmias, sudden cardiac death and stroke. Identifying the origin of atrial ectopic activity from the electrocardiogram (ECG) can help to diagnose the early onset of AF in a cost-effective manner. The complex and rapid atrial electrical activity during AF makes it difficult to obtain detailed information on atrial activation using the standard 12-lead ECG alone. Compared to conventional 12-lead ECG, more detailed ECG lead configurations may provide further information about spatio-temporal dynamics of the body surface potential (BSP) during atrial excitation. We apply a recently developed 3D human atrial model to simulate electrical activity during normal sinus rhythm and ectopic pacing. The atrial model is placed into a newly developed torso model which considers the presence of the lungs, liver and spinal cord. A boundary element method is used to compute the BSP resulting from atrial excitation. Elements of the torso mesh corresponding to the locations of the placement of the electrodes in the standard 12-lead and a more detailed 64-lead ECG configuration were selected. The ectopic focal activity was simulated at various origins across all the different regions of the atria. Simulated BSP maps during normal atrial excitation (i.e. sinoatrial node excitation) were compared to those observed experimentally (obtained from the 64-lead ECG system), showing a strong agreement between the evolution in time of the simulated and experimental data in the P-wave morphology of the ECG and dipole evolution. An algorithm to obtain the location of the stimulus from a 64-lead ECG system was developed. The algorithm presented had a success rate of 93%, meaning that it correctly identified the origin of atrial focus in 75/80 simulations, and involved a general approach relevant to any multi-lead ECG system. This represents a significant improvement over previously developed algorithms.