Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Master ’ s Paper [ ROUGH DRAFT ] : 2 Dimensional Min-Filters with Polygons

Computing min-filters is an important operation in image processing. Min-filters are the basic building blocks for translation invariant morphological operators, which are used to perform operations such as noise suppression, image smoothing, contrast enhancement, and edge detection. Min-filters are a special case of min-convolutions, which are used for a variety of applications, including signal processing, and combinatorial optimization. The most widely used approach for computing min-filters decomposes the filtering element as a Minkowsky sum of smaller filters. However this approach can be expensive for large filtering elements[1]. There is an algorithm to perform the min-filter efficiently, but it only applies to axis parallel rectangles [2]. We present an efficient algorithm to compute the min-filter when the filtering element is a polygon for certain polygons. Because the polygon will be given as a non digital geometric object, we relax the conditions by allowing the algorithm to choose a valid digitization of the polygon for each placement. With this relaxation, we present an algorithm to compute the min-filter by arbitrary rectangles and isosceles right triangles in logarithmic time per pixel, in the size of the polygon. We also show how to compute the min-filter by arbitrary triangles in time O ( log A sinγ ) per pixel, where A is the area of the triangle, and γ is the size of the smallest angle in the triangle.
Organizational Stress and Adaptation to Changing Political Status

~ton~n~a, 1~~~~ ~ci~l~r~ 19~~g Truman, q 5 1: 5385 41), ~~3~~i1~ there was an obvious need thus to the scope of research, it is by no means clear that the resulting neglect or or~a~ 3zational factors has been justified on any sound theoretical basis. As organizations, interest groups are to the constraints of their political environment, and one enviro--i. -iiental factor affecting group behavior is its social prestige and relative visibility. Truman (1951) has noted that disruption of social
A solvation‐free‐energy functional: A reference‐modified density functional formulation

The three‐dimensional reference interaction site model (3D‐RISM) theory, which is one of the most applicable integral equation theories for molecular liquids, overestimates the absolute values of solvation‐free‐energy (SFE) for large solute molecules in water. To improve the free‐energy density functional for the SFE of solute molecules, we propose a reference‐modified density functional theory (RMDFT) that is a general theoretical approach to construct the free‐energy density functional systematically. In the RMDFT formulation, hard‐sphere (HS) fluids are introduced as the reference system instead of an ideal polyatomic molecular gas, which has been regarded as the appropriate reference system of the interaction‐site‐model density functional theory for polyatomic molecular fluids. We show that using RMDFT with a reference HS system can significantly improve the absolute values of the SFE for a set of neutral amino acid side‐chain analogues as well as for 504 small organic molecules. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Comparing Evolutionary Strategies on a Biobjective Cultural Algorithm

Evolutionary algorithms have been widely used to solve large and complex optimisation problems. Cultural algorithms (CAs) are evolutionary algorithms that have been used to solve both single and, to a less extent, multiobjective optimisation problems. In order to solve these optimisation problems, CAs make use of different strategies such as normative knowledge, historical knowledge, circumstantial knowledge, and among others. In this paper we present a comparison among CAs that make use of different evolutionary strategies; the first one implements a historical knowledge, the second one considers a circumstantial knowledge, and the third one implements a normative knowledge. These CAs are applied on a biobjective uncapacitated facility location problem (BOUFLP), the biobjective version of the well-known uncapacitated facility location problem. To the best of our knowledge, only few articles have applied evolutionary multiobjective algorithms on the BOUFLP and none of those has focused on the impact of the evolutionary strategy on the algorithm performance. Our biobjective cultural algorithm, called BOCA, obtains important improvements when compared to other well-known evolutionary biobjective optimisation algorithms such as PAES and NSGA-II. The conflicting objective functions considered in this study are cost minimisation and coverage maximisation. Solutions obtained by each algorithm are compared using a hypervolume S metric.
Wireless Link Bandwidth Estimation from Signal-to-Noise-Ratio

Dynamics of link bandwidth of a wireless link, which changes frequently and abruptly due to the dynamic channel sharing, fading, and mobility, is of interest to adaptive applications and protocols in wireless communication environments. This paper presents a novel approach to model wireless link bandwidth based on radio signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Its salient feature is that unlike the traditional methods that use probe packets, our method is non-intrusive to the wireless network since wireless device drivers normally provide SNR information. The method is evaluated on both indoor and outdoor IEEE 802.11b wireless networks, and the estimation error for a model using BP-neural-network is within 10% to 15% range.
Isotropic Sequence Order Learning

In this article, we present an isotropic unsupervised algorithm for temporal sequence learning. No special reward signal is used such that all inputs are completely isotropic. All input signals are bandpass filtered before converging onto a linear output neuron. All synaptic weights change according to the correlation of bandpass-filtered inputs with the derivative of the output. We investigate the algorithm in an open- and a closed-loop condition, the latter being defined by embedding the learning system into a behavioral feedback loop. In the open-loop condition, we find that the linear structure of the algorithm allows analytically calculating the shape of the weight change, which is strictly heterosynaptic and follows the shape of the weight change curves found in spike-time-dependent plasticity. Furthermore, we show that synaptic weights stabilize automatically when no more temporal differences exist between the inputs without additional normalizing measures. In the second part of this study, the algorithm is is placed in an environment that leads to closed sensor-motor loop. To this end, a robot is programmed with a prewired retraction reflex reaction in response to collisions. Through isotropic sequence order (ISO) learning, the robot achieves collision avoidance by learning the correlation between his early range-finder signals and the later occurring collision signal. Synaptic weights stabilize at the end of learning as theoretically predicted. Finally, we discuss the relation of ISO learning with other drive reinforcement models and with the commonly used temporal difference learning algorithm. This study is followed up by a mathematical analysis of the closed-loop situation in the companion article in this issue, ISO Learning Approximates a Solution to the Inverse-Controller Problem in an Unsupervised Behavioral Paradigm (pp. 865884).
Risk-Aware Algorithms for Adversarial Contextual Bandits

In this work we consider adversarial contextual bandits with risk constraints. At each round, nature prepares a context, a cost for each arm, and additionally a risk for each arm. The learner leverages the context to pull an arm and then receives the corresponding cost and risk associated with the pulled arm. In addition to minimizing the cumulative cost, the learner also needs to satisfy long-term risk constraints -- the average of the cumulative risk from all pulled arms should not be larger than a pre-defined threshold. To address this problem, we first study the full information setting where in each round the learner receives an adversarial convex loss and a convex constraint. We develop a meta algorithm leveraging online mirror descent for the full information setting and extend it to contextual bandit with risk constraints setting using expert advice. Our algorithms can achieve near-optimal regret in terms of minimizing the total cost, while successfully maintaining a sublinear growth of cumulative risk constraint violation.
Watching television over an IP network

For half a century, television has been a dominant and pervasive mass media, driving many technological advances. Despite its widespread usage and importance to emerging applications, the ingrained TV viewing habits are not completely understood. This was primarily due to the difficulty of instrumenting monitoring devices at individual homes at a large scale. The recent boom of Internet TV (IPTV) has enabled us to monitor the user behavior and network usage of an entire network. Such analysis can provide a clearer picture of how people watch TV and how the underlying networks and systems can better adapt to future challenges. In this paper, we present the first analysis of IPTV workloads based on network traces from one of the world's largest IPTV systems. Our dataset captures the channel change activities of 250,000 households over a six month period. We characterize the properties of viewing sessions, channel popularity dynamics, geographical locality, and channel switching behaviors. We discuss implications of our findings on networks and systems, including the support needed for fast channel changes. Our data analysis of an operational IPTV system has important implications on not only existing and future IPTV systems, but also the design of the open Internet TV distribution systems such as Joost and BBC's iPlayer that distribute television on the wider Internet.
Localized amplification of energy in turbulent channels

This paper is part of a wider inquiry into the relevance of linear dynamics to the largescale structure of wall-bounded flows, in the spirit of del Álamo & Jiménez (2006). It has long been understood that some of the large-scale features of shear flows are governed by the linear behavior of the velocity perturbations, essentially because the production of turbulent energy from the mean shear is already present in the linearized equations. This is most easily seen in free shear flows, where the integral scales are well described by the unstable eigenfunctions of the mean velocity profile (Brown & Roshko 1974; Gaster et al. 1985), but Reynolds & Tiederman (1967) showed that the mean profiles of wall-bounded turbulent flows under moderate pressure gradients are stable, and it has been a matter of some discussion whether they nevertheless retain some traces of linear behavior. It was soon realized that the streamwise velocity streaks, which are the most obvious features of wall-bounded turbulent fields, originate from the essentially linear deformation of the mean profile by the wall-normal velocity, but quantitative agreement with experiments remained elusive. In this paper we use xj and uj , with j = 1 . 3, for the streamwise, wall-normal and spanwise coordinates and velocity components, and bold-faced symbols represent vectors or matrices. The discussion is restricted to channels of half-width h, and the + superindex denotes wall units, defined from the friction velocity and the kinematic viscosity ν. Mean quantities are capitalized, and lower-case symbols are fluctuations. The questions about the linearized dynamics in wall-bounded flows took a new turn when non-modal stability theory generalized rapid distortion theory to non-homogeneous cases, showing that stability does not necessarily mean lack of growth, and providing a wavenumber selection mechanism that was absent from previous analyses (Gustavsson 1991; Butler & Farrell 1992; Reddy & Henningson 1993; Schmid 2007). While that theory was originally developed for transition, it was eventually applied to turbulent velocity profiles, in the hope that the energy spectrum would be explained by which initial conditions are most strongly amplified. The initial results did not agree with observations. Even when Butler & Farrell (1993) analyzed the mean velocity profile of a turbulent channel, the most amplified perturbations had wavelengths λ3 = 2π/k3 ≈ 2h, in the range of the large structures in the central part of turbulent channels, but the better-known sublayer streaks with λ+3 ≈ 100 could not be recovered without artificial restrictions on the model. A somewhat better agreement was obtained when del Álamo & Jiménez (2006) substituted the molecular viscosity in the equations by the eddy viscosity required to maintain the mean velocity profile. That model had previously been used in forced wall-bounded flows by Reynolds & Hussain (1972) and Jiménez et al. (2001), and the variation of eddy
Problem behaviors in later portions of officers' careers

Purpose – The aim of this study is to investigate whether police problem behaviors decline over time as officers gain experience, or whether they rise again as officers approach or pass the typical year of retirement.Design/methodology/approach – Research hypotheses were tested examining mean citizen complaint rates by years of experience, for a cohort of officers for a 14‐year period at the aggregate level, and a semi‐parametric, group‐based approach at the individual level, to estimate developmental trajectories of officers who follow similar pathways over time.Findings – While at the aggregate level rates of citizen complaints steadily decline between years 4 and 23, there were three trajectories underlying this aggregate pattern. These trajectories differed in terms of their magnitude, but all exhibit a general decline over time, except for the most problematic group. For this group, problem behaviors began to rise between years 16 and 23.Research limitations/implications – This study relies on citize.
The Identification of Blocs in Small Political Bodies

The Identification of Blocs in Small Political Bodies. Methods have been devised for the quantitative measurement of voting behavior in legislative or other bodies, and in parties or blocs within such bodies. The writer has elsewhere proposed for this purpose an Index of Cohesion within groups, and an Index of Likeness between groups. Both provide a scale between 0.0 and 100.00. The first will express by a single number the extent to which the members of a group vote alike among themselves on a given roll call, or any collection of roll calls. The second, similarly, will express the extent to which any two groups within the same body are alike in their votes. For example, it was found upon what types of measures farmer and workingmen legislators, respectively, tended to agree among themselves; also, upon what types of measures farmers and workingmen were in agreement or disagreement as between the two groups. For the use of these indices two conditions only are in practice required: (1) The votes of individuals must be recorded. This requirement is met in certain stages of the work of most legislative and administrative bodies, although by no means in all, even of American legislatures. (2) Supplementary information must be available, permitting the classification of the membership into the desired sub-groups. In the case of the members of a state senate, for example, it is usually possible to learn from documentary sources the party affiliations, the occupations, and the types of communities in which the members reside. It is sometimes possible to determine various social and economic characteristics of the legislative districts from which the members are elected. Using any of these factors as criteria, the membership may be classified, the cohesion of any class of two or more members determined, and the likeness between any two of these calculated. In this method, the existence of a group made up of certain predetermined individual members must be postulated before the tests of cohesion and likeness can be applied. The methods cited will not serve to determine automatically the effective groupings that actually exist within the body. Nor will the presence of a non-cooperative member who lowers the cohesion of the group necessarily be observed. For example, having guessed or postulated in advance the presence of align-
Full-Duplex Relaying Systems Subject to Co-Channel Interference and Noise in Nakagami-m Fading

This paper investigates the performance of dual-hop full-duplex relaying schemes subject to co-channel interference (CCI) and noise. In our analysis, two main scenarios are considered: in the first scenario, the link between the source and destination is seen as interference and, in the second one, it is seen as useful information. In both schemes, the effect of self-interference at the relay is taken into account. Accurate, closed- form expressions for the outage probability are derived for the general case, in which CCI and noise are assumed at both the relay and destination. The derived expressions allow for independent non-identically distributed Nakagami-m fading. Based on these expressions, special cases (but, yet new) assuming CCI only at the relay and assuming CCI only at the destination are examined. It is shown that CCI at the relay is more harmful for the system performance than CCI at the destination.
‘Risking the University? Learning to be a Manager-Academic in UK Universities’

The paper explores the extent to which Heads of Department and Pro-Vice Chancellors, or manager-academics, in UK universities are aware of and prepared for the so-called ‘risk society’. It draws on a research project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council concerned with the management of UK universities and the extent of permeation within universities of recent ideologies about new practices for managing public services. Recent debates in social theory about the concept of a risk society and risk cultures, and how these might be applied to higher education, are considered. Key features of a rapidly changing environment for the conduct and management of academic work are also outlined. The focus and methodology of the ESRC research project are explained. Interview data from Head of Department and Pro-Vice Chancellors are then used to illustrate a range of responses to notions of risk made by manager-academics. Finally, the paper examines how the learning of manager-academics could be better supported, in order that post-holders can acquire the flexibility and reflexivity which living in a risk society and culture seems to demand.
Reports of joint instability in knee osteoarthritis: its prevalence and relationship to physical function.

OBJECTIVE To report the prevalence and relationship of self-reported knee instability to physical function in a sample of subjects with knee osteoarthritis (OA), and to discuss the implications of these observations for rehabilitation. METHODS Subjects were 105 individuals (80 females) with knee OA who rated their knee instability severity on a 6-point numeric scale in response to the query "To what degree does giving way, buckling, or shifting of the knee affect your level of daily activity? " A principal component analysis was used to combine The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities pain, stiffness, and physical function subscale scores, and the Timed Get Up and Go Test score into a principal component score for physical function (PCPF). Other variables that could affect the PCPF such as age, sex, years with knee OA, radiographic severity of knee OA, knee pain, knee motion, and quadriceps strength were also recorded. The prevalence of self-reported knee instability was determined by calculating the proportion of subjects who reported each severity level of knee instability. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to determine if the level of self-reported knee instability could predict the PCPF, even after accounting for the effects of the other variables. RESULTS Sixty-three percent of the subjects reported knee instability during activities of daily living, and 44% reported that instability affects their ability to function. The severity of self-reported knee instability was associated with the PCPF (eta2=0.40, P <0.001), and after controlling for all other independent variables, significantly increased the prediction of the PCPF (r2=0.56, r2 change=0.05; P <0.001). CONCLUSION The results indicate that a substantial proportion of individuals with knee OA report episodes of knee instability during activities of daily living, and instability affects physical function beyond that which can be explained by contributions from other impairments such as knee pain, range of motion, and quadriceps strength. Knee instability is a problem that should be specifically addressed in rehabilitation programs and may require interventions beyond those that address pain, joint motion, and muscular strength, to maximize the effectiveness of rehabilitation for individuals with knee OA.
Local positioning system using WiFi networks

This work describes a complete indoor location system, from its creation, development and deployment. This location system is a capable way of retrieving the position of wireless devices using a simple software solution, no additional hardware is necessary. The positioning engine uses artificial neural networks (ANN) to describe the behaviour of a specific indoor propagation channel. The training of the ANN is assured using a slight variation of the radio frequency fingerprinting technique. Results show that the location system has high accuracy with an average error below two meters.
In Vitro Evaluation of the Inhibitory Potential of Pharmaceutical Excipients on Human Carboxylesterase 1A and 2

Two major forms of human carboxylesterase (CES), CES1A and CES2, dominate the pharmacokinetics of most prodrugs such as imidapril and irinotecan (CPT-11). Excipients, largely used as insert vehicles in formulation, have been recently reported to affect drug enzyme activity. The influence of excipients on the activity of CES remains undefined. In this study, the inhibitory effects of 25 excipients on the activities of CES1A1 and CES2 were evaluated. Imidapril and CPT-11 were used as substrates and cultured with liver microsomes in vitro. Imidapril hydrolase activities of recombinant CES1A1 and human liver microsomes (HLM) were strongly inhibited by sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) and polyoxyl 40 hydrogenated castor oil (RH40) [Inhibition constant (Ki) = 0.04±0.01 μg/ml and 0.20±0.09 μg/ml for CES1A1, and 0.12±0.03 μg/ml and 0.76±0.33 μg/ml, respectively, for HLM]. The enzyme hydrolase activity of recombinant CES2 was substantially inhibited by Tween 20 and polyoxyl 35 castor oil (EL35) (Ki = 0.93±0.36 μg/ml and 4.4±1.24 μg/ml, respectively). Thus, these results demonstrate that surfactants such as SLS, RH40, Tween 20 and EL35 may attenuate the CES activity; such inhibition should be taken into consideration during drug administration.