Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implementing Histogram Equalization and Retinex Algorithms for Image Contrast Enhancement

The image enhancement targets on transforming input image as better one, so that the enhanced image solve the purpose of specific application or set of objectives. Histogram equalization is a primitive and well established technique for enhancing image contrast. The existing methods are Range Limited Bi-Histogram Equalization (RLBHE) and Adaptive histogram equalization method. RLBHE works by dividing the input histogram into two independent sub-images with reference to threshold. This minimizes the intra-class variance thereby support fine separation of objects from its background. In Adaptive histogram equalization (AHE), the input source image is divided by equal number of rows and columns and the histogram for each region is calculated. The histogram of each sub region is used to perform local image enhancement. But both the RLBHE and AHE are very slow and do over enhancement of noise in the image. On the other hand, Retinex algorithms improve the sharpness, contrast and brightness of an image. It also reduces the noise level in the image. It uses OTSU-S method to threshold the images. This paper explains a walkthrough on both histogram equalization and Retinex algorithm techniques by implementing them for image contrast enhancement.
Positive Psychological Factors, Abdominal Pain and Other Irritable Bowel Syndrome Symptoms in Emerging Adults

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS, ABDOMINAL PAIN AND OTHER IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME SYMPTOMS IN EMERGING ADULTS Rachel M. Tomlinson University of Guelph, 2014 Advisor: Dr. C. Meghan McMurtry The purpose of the current study was to better understand how positive psychological factors relate to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) symptoms and related symptoms in emerging adults. In a university setting, 67 individuals aged 18 to 22 (M = 18.93, SD = 1.10) completed a questionnaire online. Results did not provide statistical support for a positive psychological model through which positive psychological variables relate to IBS symptoms in a non-clinical sample of emerging adults. 52% (n = 37) reported experiencing abdominal pain and thus completed additional measures related to that pain. Some important associations with well-being emerged. Higher levels of optimism significantly related to lower “worst” pain intensity ratings in people who endorsed experiencing abdominal pain. Additionally, lower levels of pain selfefficacy significantly associated with increased pain-related disability. Results provide promising effect sizes between positive psychological variables with IBS symptoms, pain-related disability, and pain intensity given the sample size.
Overcoming multidimensional marginality: the significance of higher education for traditionally reared single mothers living in the outer periphery

ABSTRACT The current study gives voice to a group of remarkable returning college students whose lives are defined by multidimensional marginality. These students are single mothers who grew up in traditional families in the outer periphery of Northern Israel, where they still lived at the time of this study. Drawing on the women’s life stories gathered from in-depth interviews, the purpose of the study was twofold: to examine their multidimensional marginality in the context of the complexity of social situations they are required to face and to understand the impact of higher education upon that marginality and upon their lives. The findings demonstrate, quite powerfully, the impact of the participants’ student status on their discourse with their previously excluding family of origin, and the significance of their status for their personal growth process and for their relationship with their children. The process of matriculating into a higher education degree programme, and their continued progress in the programme, enabled these women to become proactive in moving from the margins towards a more central position of affecting and becoming a role model for their children, their families of origin and their communities.
Design and Analysis of Adaptive Neural Controller for Voltage Source Converter for STATCOM

Usually a STATCOM is installed to support power system networks that have a poor power factor and often poor voltage regulation. It is based on a power electronics voltagesource converter. Various PWM techniques make selective harmonic elimination possible, which effectively control the harmonic content of voltage source converters. The distribution systems have to supply unbalanced nonlinear loads transferring oscillations to the DC-side of the converter in a realistic operating condition. Thus, additional harmonics are modulated through the STATCOM at the point of common coupling (PCC). This requires more attention when switching angles are calculated offline using the optimal PWM technique. This paper, therefore, presents the artificial neural network model for defining the switching criterion of the VSC for the STATCOM in order to reduce the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the injected line current at the PCC. The model takes into the account the dc capacitor effect, effects of other possible varying parameters such as voltage unbalance as well as network harmonics. A reference is developed for offline prediction and then implemented with the help of back propagation technique.
Needle Insertion Parameter Optimization for Brachytherapy

This paper presents a new needle path planning method for the insertion of rigid needles into deformable tissue. The needle insertion point, needle heading, and needle depth are optimized by minimizing the distance between a rigid needle and a number of targets in the tissue. The optimization method is based on iterative simulations performed using a tissue finite element model. At each iteration, the best 3-D line fitted to the displaced targets in the deformed tissue is used as a candidate for a new insertion line. First, this method is implemented in a prostate brachytherapy simulator under different boundary conditions to minimize the targeting error. It is shown that the optimization method converges in a few iterations and decreases the seed misplacement error to less than the needle diameter. Second, the efficacy of the optimization algorithm is verified by optimizing the insertion parameters for a brachytherapy needle before insertion into a prostate tissue phantom. The elastic properties of the phantom and the needle-tissue interaction parameters were identified in an independent experiment. The optimization algorithm is effective in decreasing the targeting error.
A New Measure of Circularity Based on Distribution of the Radius

The measures most commonly used in current literature to compute the roundness of digital objects are derivations of the form factor based on area and perimeter computations. However, these measures are highly dependent on image resolution and sensitive to shape variations. In this article, a new measure is proposed. This measure takes into consideration the dominant geometry of objects, avoiding the use of such parameters as area, perimeter and Ferret's diameter. The proposed measure is easy to compute, and since it is a distribution of probability based on the radius, it is invariant to abrupt changes in contours or to shape resolution. In order to show the performance of this measure, it is compared with three other recently proposed measures: factor shape, which is recommended by the American Standard Test Measurement, mean roundness and radius ratio.
THE DESIGN THEORY NEXUS 1 2 By :

14 15 Managers frequently face ill-structured or “wicked” prob16 lems. Such problems are characterized by a large degree of 17 uncertainty with respect to how the problem should be 18 approached and how to establish and evaluate the set of 19 alternative solutions. A design theory nexus is a set of 20 constructs and methods that enable the construction of models 21 that connect numerous design theories with alternative solu22 tions. It thereby offers a unique problem-solving approach 23 that is particularly useful for addressing ill-structured or 24 wicked problems. For each alternative solution in a design 25 theory nexus one or more unique criteria are established to 26 formulate a specific design theory. We develop a general 27 method for constructing a design theory nexus and illustrate 28 its utility using two field studies. One develops and applies 29 an organizational change nexus. The other develops and 30 applies a user involvement nexus. Each is a specific instan31 tiation of the general design theory nexus constructs. Using 32 Veda Storey was the accepting senior editor for this paper. 33 these illustrations, we provide examples of how to evaluate such instantiations. We then discuss our findings as well as the validity of our approach. We conclude that the design theory nexus provides a viable conceptualization that enables the construction of effective problem-solving artifacts.
Towards an SSVEP Based BCI With High ITR

A brain-computer interface (BCI) provides the possibility to translate brain neural activity patterns into control commands without movement by the user. In recent years, there has been increasing interest in using steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) in BCI systems; the SSVEP approach provides currently the fastest and most reliable communication paradigm for the implementation of a non-invasive BCI system. However, many aspects of current system realizations need improvement, specifically in relation to speed (in terms of information transfer rate as well as time needed to perform a single command), user variability and ease of use. With these improvements in mind, this paper presents the Bremen-BCI, an online multi-channel SSVEP-based BCI system that operates on a conventional computer making use of the minimum energy combination method for extraction of power information associated with the SSVEP responses. An additional advantage of the presented methodology is that it is fully online, i.e., no calibration data for noise estimation, feature extraction, or electrode selection is needed, the system is ready to use once the subject is prepared. The SSVEP-based Bremen-BCI system with five targets, an adaptive time segment length between 0.75s and 4s, and six EEG channel locations on the occipital area, was used for online testing on 27 subjects. ALL participants were able to successfully complete spelling tasks with a mean accuracy of 93.83% and an information transfer rate (ITR) of 49.93 bit/min.
Detecting transient gravitational waves in non-Gaussian noise with partially redundant analysis methods

There is a broad class of astrophysical sources that produce detectable, transient, gravitational waves. Some searches for transient gravitational waves are tailored to known features of these sources. Other searches make few assumptions about the sources. Typically events are observable with multiple search techniques. This work describes how to combine the results of searches that are not independent, treating each search as a classifier for a given event. This will be shown to improve the overall sensitivity to gravitational-wave events while directly addressing the problem of consistent interpretation of multiple trials.
OD-Wheel: Visual design to explore OD patterns of a central region

Understanding the Origin-Destination (OD) patterns between different regions of a city is important in urban planning. In this work, based on taxi GPS data, we propose OD-Wheel, a novel visual design and associated analysis tool, to explore OD patterns. Once users define a region, all taxi trips starting from or ending to that region are selected and grouped into OD clusters. With a hybrid circular-linear visual design, OD-Wheel allows users to explore the dynamic patterns of each OD cluster, including the variation of traffic flow volume and traveling time. The proposed tool supports convenient interactions and allows users to compare and correlate the patterns between different OD clusters. A use study with real data sets demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed OD-Wheel.
Discriminative transformations of speech features based on minimum classification error

Feature extraction is an important step in pattern classification and speech recognition. Extracted features should discriminate classes from each other while being robust to the environmental conditions such as noise. For this purpose, some transformations are applied to features. In this paper, we propose a framework to improve independent feature transformations such as PCA (Principal Component Analysis), and HLDA (Heteroscedastic LDA) using the minimum classification error criterion. In this method, we modify full transformation matrices such that classification error is minimized for mapped features. We do not reduce feature vector dimension in this mapping. The proposed methods are evaluated for continuous phoneme recognition on clean and noisy TIMIT. Experimental results show that our proposed methods improve performance of PCA, and HLDA transformation for MFCC in both clean and noisy conditions.
Dealing with Parameterized Actions in Behavior Testing of Commercial Computer Games

We present a method that enhances evolutionary behavior testing of commercial computer games, as introduced in [CD+04], to deal with parameterized actions. The basic idea is to use a layered approach. On one layer, we evolve good parameter value combinations for the parameters of a parameterized action. On the higher layer, we evolve at the same time good action sequences that make use of the value combinations and that try to bring the game in a wanted (or unwanted) state. We used this approach to test cornerkicks in the FIFA-99 game. We were able to evolve many parametervalue-action sequence combinations that scored a goal or resulted in a penalty shot, some of which are very short or represent a rather unintelligent behavior of the players guided by the computer opponent.
Self-reported Body Changes and Associated Factors in Persons Living with HIV

The study aimed at verifying the associated factors of self-perceived body changes in adults living with HIV in highly-active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. This cross-sectional study was conducted among people living with HIV on HAART for at least three months. A standardized questionnaire was used for assessing self-perceived body changes. Associated factors relating to self-reported body changes in people living with HIV (PLHIV) were assessed with Student's t-test and chi-square test. In total, 507 patients were evaluated. The mean time since diagnosis was 6.6 years [standard deviation (SD)±4.1], and the mean duration of HAART was 5.1 years (SD±3.3). Self-perceived body changes were reported by 79.5% of the participants and were associated with viral load and duration of HAART. Fibre intake was lower among males who gained in abdominal fat (p=0.035). HAART-related body changes were reported by the large majority of the population and were associated with demographic and clinical variables.
Neural mechanisms of rhythm-based temporal prediction : Delta phase-locking reflects temporal predictability but not rhythmic entrainment

News Article of the Month, March 2017-Deouell's lab [1] Neural mechanisms of rhythm-based temporal prediction: Delta phase-locking reflects temporal predictability but not rhythmic entrainment Read More [1] ELSC alumni, Dr. Shahar Barbash received the 2016 award of the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation [2] Dr. Shahar Barbash received the 2016 award of the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation The Foundation awards scientific prizes for outstanding work in selected fields in the engineering sciences, medicine and the natural sciences.
Precise spike timing in silicon neurons 2

31 32 A fundamental question in neuroscience is how neurons perform precise operations despite inherent variability. This 33 question also applies to neuromorphic engineering, where low-power microchips emulate the brain using large 34 populations of diverse silicon neurons. Biological neurons in the auditory pathway display precise spike timing— 35 critical for sound localization and interpretation of complex waveforms such as speech—even though they are a 36 heterogeneous population. Silicon neurons are also heterogeneous, due to a key design constraint in neuromorphic 37 engineering: Smaller transistors offer lower power consumption and more neurons per unit area of silicon, but also 38 more variability between transistors and thus between silicon neurons. Utilizing this variability in a neuromorphic 39 model of the auditory brainstem with 1080 silicon neurons, we found that a low-voltage-activated potassium 40 conductance (gKL) enables precise spike timing via two mechanisms: statically reducing the resting membrane time 41 constant and dynamically suppressing late synaptic inputs. The relative contribution of these two mechanisms is 42 unknown because blocking gKL in vitro eliminates dynamic adaptation but also lengthens the membrane time 43 constant. We replaced gKL with a static leak in silico to recover the short membrane time constant and found that 44 silicon neurons could mimic the spike-time precision of their biological counterparts, but only over a narrow range 45 of stimulus intensities and biophysical parameters. GKL’s dynamics were required for precise spike timing robust to 46 stimulus variation across a heterogeneous population of silicon neurons, thus explaining how neural and 47 neuromorphic systems may perform precise operations despite inherent variability. 48
Rapid Testing of Gene-Gene Interactions in Genome-Wide Association Studies of Binary and Quantitative Phenotypes

Genome‐wide association (GWA) studies have been extremely successful in identifying novel loci contributing effects to a wide range of complex human traits. However, despite this success, the joint marginal effects of these loci account for only a small proportion of the heritability of these traits. Interactions between variants in different loci are not typically modelled in traditional GWA analysis, but may account for some of the missing heritability in humans, as they do in other model organisms. One of the key challenges in performing gene‐gene interaction studies is the computational burden of the analysis. We propose a two‐stage interaction analysis strategy to address this challenge in the context of both quantitative traits and dichotomous phenotypes. We have performed simulations to demonstrate only a negligible loss in power of this two‐stage strategy, while minimizing the computational burden. Application of this interaction strategy to GWA studies of T2D and obesity highlights potential novel signals of association, which warrant follow‐up in larger cohorts. Genet. Epidemiol. 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.35: 800‐808, 2011
Core References in Introductory Social Psychology and Developmental Psychology Textbooks

The purpose of the present study was to identify the core references in introductory textbooks in two sub-disciplines of psychology: social psychology and developmental psychology. One research question was the extent to which the common references in these textbooks present the trends in contemporary research in each sub-discipline. An analysis of the reference sections of 10 introductory social psychology textbooks and 15 developmental psychology textbooks found a small set of common references for each subject area. The results yielded three additional effects. First, there were more common references across social psychology textbooks than across developmental psychology textbooks. Second, authors of social psychology textbooks used journal articles as common references more often than books, whereas authors of developmental psychology textbooks used books as common references more than journal articles. Third, the majority of the core references were published prior to 2000. Implications of these findings for teachers of psychology were discussed.
Affinity of nat/68Ga-Labelled Curcumin and Curcuminoid Complexes for β-Amyloid Plaques: Towards the Development of New Metal-Curcumin Based Radiotracers

Curcumin derivatives labelled with fluorine-18 or technetium-99m have recently shown their potential as diagnostic tools for Alzheimer’s disease. Nevertheless, no study by exploiting the labelling with gallium-68 has been performed so far, in spite of its suitable properties (positron emitter, generator produced radionuclide). Herein, an evaluation of the affinity for synthetic β-amyloid fibrils and for amyloid plaques of three nat/68Ga-labelled curcumin analogues, namely curcumin curcumin (CUR), bis-dehydroxy-curcumin (bDHC) and diacetyl-curcumin (DAC), was performed. Affinity and specificity were tested in vitro on amyloid synthetic fibrils by using gallium-68 labelled compounds. Post-mortem brain cryosections from Tg2576 mice were used for the ex vivo visualization of amyloid plaques. The affinity of 68Ga(CUR)2+, 68Ga(DAC)2+, and 68Ga(bDHC)2+ for synthetic β-amyloid fibrils was moderate and their uptake could be observed in vitro. On the other hand, amyloid plaques could not be visualized on brain sections of Tg2576 mice after injection, probably due to the low stability of the complexes in vivo and of a hampered passage through the blood–brain barrier. Like curcumin, all nat/68Ga-curcuminoid complexes maintain a high affinity for β-amyloid plaques. However, structural modifications are still needed to improve their applicability as radiotracers in vivo.
Survivability over multiple GMPLS domains

Carrier networks are gradually adopting a network model that consists of MPLS-capable routers and OXCs interconnected by high bandwidth WDM links for transporting IP and Ethernet traffic. A control plane can be used to deliver dynamic circuit provisioning in the transport layer, as well as bandwidth provisioning and traffic engineering in higher layers. Globalization drives the quest for end-to-end QoS guarantees over different carrier networks. Recovery mechanisms are crucial to reach the high availability requirements of critical services. In this paper we share our vision on how to enable high availability services spanning multiple networks, using failure protection techniques, whilst obeying administrative constraints. We show how to compute the paths in each domain with minimal resource consumption, show the applicability of this approach and show how the GSRO routing object can be used for the setup of the paths.
Type inference through the analysis of Wikipedia links

DBpedia contains millions of untyped entities, either if we consider the native DBpedia ontology, or Yago plus WordNet. Is it possible to automatically classify those entities? Based on previous work on wikilink invariances, we wondered if wikilinks convey a knowledge rich enough for their classication. In this paper we give three contributions. Concerning the DBpedia link structure, we describe some measurements and notice both problems (e.g. the bias that could be induced by the incomplete ontological coverage of the DBpedia ontology), and potentials existing in current type coverage. Concerning classication, we present two techniques that exploit wikilinks, one based on induction from machine learning techniques, and the other on abduction. Finally, we discuss the limited results of classication, which conrmed our fears expressed in the description of general gures from the measurement. We also suggest some new possible directions to entity classication that could be taken.
Towards a Calculus of Secure Mobile Computations

The Seal calculus is a calculus of mobile computations designed for programming secure distributed applications over large scale open networks. The calculus is a distributed variant of the-calculus that incorporates agent mobility as well as strong protection mechanisms. Linear, revocable, capabilities control access to resources and ensure that agents may only use resources that have been allocated to them. Capabilities are also used to protect agents from the hosts on which they execute. The syntax and semantics of the Seal calculus are presented and its expressive power is demonstrated with an example secure mobile application.