Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low dose CT image reconstruction with learned sparsifying transform

A major challenge in computed tomography (CT) is to reduce X-ray dose to a low or even ultra-low level while maintaining the high quality of reconstructed images. We propose a new method for CT reconstruction that combines penalized weighted-least squares reconstruction (PWLS) with regularization based on a sparsifying transform (PWLS-ST) learned from a dataset of numerous CT images. We adopt an alternating algorithm to optimize the PWLS-ST cost function that alternates between a CT image update step and a sparse coding step. We adopt a relaxed linearized augmented Lagrangian method with ordered-subsets (relaxed OS-LALM) to accelerate the CT image update step by reducing the number of forward and backward projections. Numerical experiments on the XCAT phantom show that for low dose levels, the proposed PWLS-ST method dramatically improves the quality of reconstructed images compared to PWLS reconstruction with a nonadaptive edge-preserving regularizer (PWLS-EP).
Improving GLONASS Precise Orbit Determination through Data Connection

In order to improve the precision of GLONASS orbits, this paper presents a method to connect the data segments of a single station-satellite pair to increase the observation continuity and, consequently, the strength of the precise orbit determination (POD) solution. In this method, for each GLONASS station-satellite pair, the wide-lane ambiguities derived from the Melbourne–Wübbena combination are statistically tested and corrected for phase integer offsets and then the same is carried out for the narrow-lane ambiguities calculated from the POD solution. An experimental validation was carried out using one-month GNSS data of a global network with 175 IGS stations. The result shows that, on average, 27.1% of the GLONASS station-satellite pairs with multiple data segments could be connected to a single long observation arc and, thus, only one ambiguity parameter was estimated. Using the connected data, the GLONASS orbit overlapping RMS at the day boundaries could be reduced by 19.2% in ideal cases with an averaged reduction of about 6.3%.
Side Channel Analysis on Biometric-based Key Generation Algorithms on Resource Constrained Devices

Side channel analysis is a technique that enables the adversary to benefit from information leakages occurring due to the implementation of encryption algorithms on hardware. Since its introduction, side channel analysis has been extensively used in cryptology, more precisely in cryptanalysis. In this paper we describe a novel method, according to which side channel analysis is applied to biometric key generation algorithms, operating on resource constrained devices. Instead of aiming to identify the encryption key, and therefore penetrate the cryptographic system, the biometric signature of the user, necessary for the generation of the encryption key, can be accurately extracted. In the following sections we outline our approach for achieving this goal, describe its implications and discuss directions for future work.
Neural control of a mobile robot with monocular visual feedback

In this paper a neural identification approach is used to estimate the parameters of a mobile robot with nonholonomic constraints. Then an inverse optimal control is designed for its control. In order to take in account the environment of the robot, a monocular visual sensor is mounted on the robot to estimate the velocities for the controller. Simulations results show the effectiveness of the proposed neural controller.
An Architecture for the Interface to the Routing System

This document describes the IETF architecture for a standard, programmatic interface for state transfer in and out of the Internet routing system. It describes the high-level architecture, the building blocks of this high-level architecture, and their interfaces, with particular focus on those to be standardized as part of the Interface to the Routing System (I2RS).
Study of the Effects of SEU-Induced Faults on a Pipeline Protected Microprocessor

This paper presents a detailed analysis of the behavior of a novel fault-tolerant 32-bit embedded CPU as compared to a default (non-fault-tolerant) implementation of the same processor during a fault injection campaign of single and double faults. The fault-tolerant processor tested is characterized by per-cycle voting of microarchitectural and the flop-based architectural states, redundancy at the pipeline level, and a distributed voting scheme. Its fault-tolerant behavior is characterized for three different workloads from the automotive application domain. The study proposes statistical methods for both the single and dual fault injection campaigns and demonstrates the fault-tolerant capability of both processors in terms of fault latencies, the probability of fault manifestation, and the behavior of latent faults.
Fattening free correlation algorithms

Block matching along epipolar lines is the core of most stereovision algorithms in geographic information systems. The usual distances between blocks are the sum of squared distances in the block (SSD) or the correlation. These distances suffer the adhesion (or fattening) effect, a defect by which the center of the block inherits the disparity of the more contrasted pixels in the block. This report shows that there is a simple and universal solution to this problem. It is enough to use an adaptive weight in the SSD. This weight is nothing but the square of the gradient of the first image in the epipolar direction. This magic adaptive weight yields a computed disparity which is the result of a convolution of the real disparity with a fixed kernel. The choice of the kernel is left to the user. Experiments on simulated and real pairs prove that the formula applies really, and eliminates surface bumps clearly due to the adhesion phenomenon. 1
Using the past to constrain the future: how the palaeorecord can improve estimates of global warming

Climate sensitivity is defined as the change in global mean equilibrium temperature after a doubling of atmospheric CO2 concentration and provides a simple measure of global warming. An early estimate of climate sensitivity, 1.5—4.5°C, has changed little subsequently, including the latest assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The persistence of such large uncertainties in this simple measure casts doubt on our understanding of the mechanisms of climate change and our ability to predict the response of the climate system to future perturbations. This has motivated continued attempts to constrain the range with climate data, alone or in conjunction with models. The majority of studies use data from the instrumental period (post-1850), but recent work has made use of information about the large climate changes experienced in the geological past. In this review, we first outline approaches that estimate climate sensitivity using instrumental climate observations and then summarize attempts to use the record of climate change on geological timescales. We examine the limitations of these studies and suggest ways in which the power of the palaeoclimate record could be better used to reduce uncertainties in our predictions of climate sensitivity.
The effects of Chinese competition and demand on Peruvian Exporters

China’s role in the global economy has grown tremendously over the past two decades, significantly altering the nature of world markets. In this paper, we study the impact of Chinese supply and demand shocks to the international markets on Peruvian firm-product exports across destinations from 2000 to 2011. In particular, the demand shock has been notably absent from literature on the recent impact of China. We present evidence using both channels, focusing primarily on within firm-product and across destinations specification. The results indicate that for most part, an increase in Chinese supply and demand has had a significant and positive effect on Peruvian firm exports. From the supply side, this suggests that firms are either (i) concentrating on markets where competition is tougher, (ii) increasing R&D efforts to enhance the productivity as well as the competitiveness, (iii) benefiting from a comparative advantage in certain sectors that helps mitigate the competition presented by Chinese exporters, or (iv) a combination of these three explanations. From the demand side, this indicates that firms are possibly redirecting their exports from other markets to China.
Discrimination between human functional ability/disability by means of different classification methodologies

A new method for discovering well defined incipient pathologies in human beings, by means of the analysis of the sit- to-stand locomotion task, is proposed. It is based on the frequency analysis of acceleration measurements supplied by a homemade transducer and on the exploitation of some of the most effective classification strategies at this time. Results show the capability of distinguishing between pathological and non pathological subjects.
The Role of Accrual Accounting Basis in the Prediction of Future Cash Flows: The Nigerian Evidence

The study examines the role of past accrual based earnings derived from accrual accounting basis in comparison to cash flows in the prediction of future operating cash flows of quoted non-financial companies in Nigeria. Using a sample of 40 quoted non-financial companies in the Nigeria Stock Exchange, studied over a period of 13 years from 2001 – 2013, and employing the OLS regression technique, the results suggest that both past accrual based earnings and cash flows have predictive ability in forecasting future operating cash flows. The results show that cash flows are a better predictor of future operating cash flows than past earnings. Our findings do not support the assertion of the FASB (1978) and the IASB (1989) that earnings are a better predictor of future cash flows. The study recommends that the quality of accounting information produced by the accrual accounting basis should be improved upon by the urgent enforcement of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) in Nigeria. Keywords: past accrual based earnings; accrual accounting basis; cash flows; future operating cash flows; predictive ability; OLS regression
The geometric calibration of the Planck satellite using solar system objects

The geometric calibration of the Planck satellite using the planetary transits is investigated, together with the reconstruction of any offsets from the nominal layout of the focal plane. The methods presented here may be applied to a single focal plane transit of a planet, to find the values of the geometric-calibration parameters at the epoch of the transit or all the transits over the course of the mission. The pointing requirements are easily met, with the pointing reconstruction being dominated by the errors due to the star tracker.
Maximum likelihood neural network based on the correlation among neighboring pixels for noisy image segmentation

In this paper, we will present a new algorithm which is extended from the standard Gaussian mixture model to segment the noisy image based on the correlation among neighboring pixels. Firstly, we use the correlation between each centre pixel and its neighboring pixels in 3 times 3 window in building the prior probability, and this centre pixel is used to construct the conditional density function. Finally, to estimate the posterior probabilities of each pixel, instead of using expectation maximization algorithm as usual, we present a new maximum likelihood neural network (MaxNet) to optimize the parameters by using the error back propagation. Extensive experimental results illustrate the better performance compared to mixture model based on Markov random fields.
Political mistrust and the discrediting of politicians

Introduction: Political Mistrust as a Worldwide Phenomenon Mattei Dogan I Comparative Analyses Erosion of Confidence in Thirty European Democracies Mattei Dogan Political Mistrust in Latin America Timothy J. Power and Giselle Jamison Political Mistrust in Sbutheast Asia William Case Political Scandals Sighard Neckel II Contrasting Cases of National Configurations of Trust-Mistrust Norway: Trust Among Elites in a Corporatist Democracy Trygve Gulbrandsen France: Political Mistrust and the Civil Death of Politicians Mattei Dogan Nigeria: Trust Your Patron, not the Institutions Jean-Pascal Daloz III From Mistrust to Crisis of Legitimacy Argentina: Economic Disaster and the Rejection of the Political Class Frederick C. Turner And Marita Carballo How Civil War Was Avoided in France Mattei Dogan Book Reviews Analytic Index
On the Convergence and the Applications of the Generalized Simulated Annealing

The convergence of the generalized simulated annealing with time-inhomogeneous communication cost functions is discussed. This study is based on the use of log-Sobolev inequalities and semigroup techniques in the spirit of a previous article by one of the authors. We also propose a natural test set approach to study the global minima of the virtual energy. The second part of the paper is devoted to the application of these results. We propose two general Markovian models of genetic algorithms and we give a simple proof of the convergence toward the global minima of the fitness function. Finally we introduce a stochastic algorithm that converges to the set of the global minima of a given mean cost optimization problem.
China’s Response to the Global Financial Crisis: Implications for U.S. – China Economic Relations

48 I. THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS AND ITS EFFECT ON CHINA . 49 A. China’s Export Driven Economy 50 1. Exports as a Percentage of GDP 50 2. China’s Trade Balance with the United States. 51 a. Lack of Reciprocal Spending By China 54 b. Currency Policies 56 c. Export Subsidies 59 3. Foreign Direct Investment 60 4. Summary 62 5. Impact of Financial Crisis 63 II. CHINA’S RESPONSE TO FINANCIAL CRISIS 66 A. Political Response 68 B. Economic Response 71 1. Fiscal Policy 71 2. Monetary Policy 72 3. Social Programs 73 III. POTENTIAL TRADE U.S.-CHINA TRADE ISSUES AS A RESULT OF CHINA’S RESPONSE TO THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS . 73 A. Three Areas of Potential Concern 74 1. China’s Currency Policy 74 2. Countervailing Duties on Subsidized Exports. 76 3. Safeguards 77 B. China’s Perspective on Prospective Measures Taken by the United States 78 IV. CONCLUSION 81 * B.A., J.D. , Yale University; Joseph S. Platt-Porter Wright Morris & Arthur Professor of Law, The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law. This article is an expanded version of remarks at a symposium on the global financial crisis held at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law on April 9, 2010. The author would like to thank Judy Y. Kim, Moritz College of Law, Class of 2011, for her able research assistance. 48 GLOBAL BUSINESS LAW REVIEW [Vol. 1:47
A cooperative game theoretic approach to clustering algorithms for wireless sensor networks

As one of the most widely investigated topology control mechanisms of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the clustering algorithm provides energy efficient communications by reducing transmission overhead and enhancing transmission reliability. Through the previous forms of noncooperative games, the behavior of each sensor node (SN) is individual in WSNs; accordingly, it engenders uneven distribution of residual energy across SNs and expedites network partition. To balance energy consumption of SNs and increase network lifetime and stability, a cooperative game theoretic model of clustering algorithms is provided for assigning feasible allocations of energy cost. Moreover, from the outcome of this model, we propose and analyze a cooperative clustering approach for global optimization with the capacity of sensing data transmission and energy efficiency. The key idea is that SNs should trade off individual cost with network-wide cost. In the algorithm, we develop conditions to form coalitions considering residual energy, transmission distance and number of SNs in a cluster adapting to various WSNs. Furthermore, we present performance evaluation and comparison of the existing clustering algorithms with our approach quantitatively with respect to network lifetime, data transmission capacity and energy efficiency. Comparing with other approaches through the simulation, our scheme can surely guarantee to prolong network life-time and improve data transmission capacity up to 5.8% and 35.9%, respectively.
Models for Inter net CacheLocation AdamWierzbicki

Thepaperdiscussesmodelsof theCacheLocation Problemfrom theperspecti ve of DecisionSupport Systems.Thisapproachleadsto thedesignof models that allow the user (decisionmaker) to flexibly specifyhis preferences, andareprecisein the searchfor solutionsthat areclosestto thesepreferences.The modelsare designedusing a multicriteriaapproachandarespecifiedusingMixedInteger Linear Programming. The paperconsiders what is the maximal size of cachelocation problemsthat canbe solved optimally in realistictime usingstate-of-the-art MILP solvers.It is foundthat medium-sizedproblemscan be solved optimally; thepaperconsidershow to extendexisting heuristics to solve largerproblemsusingthenewly developedmodels.
Identification of a novel mechanism of blood–brain communication during peripheral inflammation via choroid plexus‐derived extracellular vesicles

Here, we identified release of extracellular vesicles (EVs) by the choroid plexus epithelium (CPE) as a new mechanism of blood–brain communication. Systemic inflammation induced an increase in EVs and associated pro‐inflammatory miRNAs, including miR‐146a and miR‐155, in the CSF. Interestingly, this was associated with an increase in amount of multivesicular bodies (MVBs) and exosomes per MVB in the CPE cells. Additionally, we could mimic this using LPS‐stimulated primary CPE cells and choroid plexus explants. These choroid plexus‐derived EVs can enter the brain parenchyma and are taken up by astrocytes and microglia, inducing miRNA target repression and inflammatory gene up‐regulation. Interestingly, this could be blocked in vivo by intracerebroventricular (icv) injection of an inhibitor of exosome production. Our data show that CPE cells sense and transmit information about the peripheral inflammatory status to the central nervous system (CNS) via the release of EVs into the CSF, which transfer this pro‐inflammatory message to recipient brain cells. Additionally, we revealed that blockage of EV secretion decreases brain inflammation, which opens up new avenues to treat systemic inflammatory diseases such as sepsis.
Bilateral and unilateral neuromuscular function and muscle cross-sectional area in middle-aged and elderly men and women.

Forty-eight healthy men (M) and women (W), divided into two different age groups, i.e., M50 yrs (range 44-57; n = 12), W50 yrs (range 43-57; n = 12), M70 yrs (range 59-75; n = 12), and W70 yrs (range 62-75; n = 12), volunteered as subjects for examination of muscle cross-sectional area (CSA), maximal voluntary forces, force-time curves, and electromyographic activity of the knee extensor muscles during bilateral and unilateral isometric contractions. The maximal bilateral knee extension force and the average CSA values in M50 were greater (p < .05) than in M70 and in W50 were greater (p < .05-.001) than those recorded for W70. The early forces in the force-time curve were greater (p < .05) for M50 than for M70 and in W50 were greater (p < .05) than in W70. The individual values of the CSA of the left and right quadriceps femoris (QF) correlated (p < .05-.001) with the individual values of maximal unilateral knee extension forces in M50 (r = .87 and r = .87), M70 (r = .61 and r = .80), W50 (r = .79 and r = .58), and W70 (r = .56 and r = .54). When the force values were related to the CSA of the muscle, W70 demonstrated a lower (p < .05) value than the other three groups. Maximal voluntary bilateral forces didn't differ from those of the summed unilateral forces, and the maximal integrated EMG values during the bilateral and unilateral contractions of the same leg were also the same. The results suggest that the decline in maximal strength with increasing age could be related to the decline in the CSA of the muscle, but in older people, especially women, strength decreases seemed to be multifactorial, including possibly a decrease in voluntary neural drive or changes in "qualitative" characteristics of the muscle tissue. Explosive strength may decrease with aging even more than maximal strength, suggesting that atrophying effects of aging may be greater on fast-twitch muscle fibers than on slow-twitch fibers and/or that the rate of neural activation of the muscles may also be influenced by aging. On the other hand, the central nervous system in a simple single joint isometric force production of the knee extensors seems to be capable of activation of the two bilateral QF muscle groups to the same degree in comparison to that of the unilateral activation only.
Spotting dynamic hand gestures in video image sequences using hidden Markov models

A new and general stochastic approach to find and identify dynamic gestures in continuous video streams is presented. Hidden Markov models (HMMs) are used to solve this combined problem of temporal segmentation and classification in an integral way. Basically, an improved normalized Viterbi algorithm allows one to continuously observe the output scores of the HMMs at every time step. Characteristic peaks in the output scores of the respective models indicate the presence of gestures. Our experiments in the domain of hand gesture spotting provided excellent recognition results and very low temporal detection delays.
The Black Aspergillus Species of Maize and Peanuts and Their Potential for Mycotoxin Production

The black spored fungi of the subgenera Circumdata, the section Nigri (=Aspergillus niger group) is reviewed relative to their production of mycotoxins and their effects on plants as pathogens. Molecular methods have revealed more than 18 cryptic species, of which several have been characterized as potential mycotoxin producers. Others are defined as benign relative to their ability to produce mycotoxins. However, these characterizations are based on in vitro culture and toxins production. Several can produce the ochratoxins that are toxic to livestock, poultry, and humans. The black aspergilli produce rots of grapes, maize, and numerous other fruits and grain and they are generally viewed as post-harvest pathogens. Data are review to suggest that black aspergilli, as so many others, are symptomless endophytes. These fungi and their mycotoxins contaminate several major grains, foodstuffs, and products made from them such as wine, and coffee. Evidence is presented that the black aspergilli are producers of other classes of mycotoxins such as the fumonisins, which are known carcinogenic and known prior investigations as being produced by the Fusarium species. Three species are identified in U.S. maize and peanuts as symptomless endophytes, which suggests the potential for concern as pathogens and as food safety hazards.
Book-to-market, Size, and Distress Risk

Fama and French (1992) argue that the book-to-market effect might be due to distress risk. CHAN, CHEN and Hsieh (1985) show that a large portion of the size effect can be explained by a default factor. This paper examines the relationship between size, book-to-market effects and distress risk. The paper provides evidence suggesting that size and book-to-market effects are very important in estimating the risk premium in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). Furthermore, consistent with Dichev (1998) the paper concludes that the distress risk is unlikely to account for the size and book-to-market effects.