Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Fast Trilateral Filter-Based Adaptive Support Weight Method for Stereo Matching

Adaptive support weight (ASW) methods represent the state of the art in local stereo matching, while the bilateral filter-based ASW method achieves outstanding performance. However, this method fails to resolve the ambiguity induced by nearby pixels at different disparities but with similar colors. In this paper, we introduce a novel trilateral filter (TF)-based ASW method that remedies such ambiguities by considering the possible disparity discontinuities through color discontinuity boundaries, i.e., the boundary strength between two pixels, which is measured by a local energy model. We also present a recursive TF-based ASW method whose computational complexity is O(N) for the cost aggregation step, and O(NLog2(N)) for boundary detection, where N denotes the input image size. This complexity is thus independent of the support window size. The recursive TF-based method is a nonlocal cost aggregation strategy. The experimental evaluation on the Middlebury benchmark shows that the proposed method, whose average error rate is 4.95%, outperforms other local methods in terms of accuracy. Equally, the average runtime of the proposed TF-based cost aggregation is roughly 260 ms on a 3.4-GHz Inter Core i7 CPU, which is comparable with state-of-the-art efficiency.
Dissociating neural subsystems for grammar by contrasting word order and inflection

An important question in understanding language processing is whether there are distinct neural mechanisms for processing specific types of grammatical structure, such as syntax versus morphology, and, if so, what the basis of the specialization might be. However, this question is difficult to study: A given language typically conveys its grammatical information in one way (e.g., English marks “who did what to whom” using word order, and German uses inflectional morphology). American Sign Language permits either device, enabling a direct within-language comparison. During functional (f)MRI, native signers viewed sentences that used only word order and sentences that included inflectional morphology. The two sentence types activated an overlapping network of brain regions, but with differential patterns. Word order sentences activated left-lateralized areas involved in working memory and lexical access, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the inferior frontal gyrus, the inferior parietal lobe, and the middle temporal gyrus. In contrast, inflectional morphology sentences activated areas involved in building and analyzing combinatorial structure, including bilateral inferior frontal and anterior temporal regions as well as the basal ganglia and medial temporal/limbic areas. These findings suggest that for a given linguistic function, neural recruitment may depend upon on the cognitive resources required to process specific types of linguistic cues.
Data Acquisition in Social Networks: Issues and Proposals

The amount of information that is possible to gather from social networks may be useful to different contexts ranging from marketing to intelligence. In this paper, we describe the three main techniques for data acquisition in social networks, the conditions under which they can be applied, and the open problems. We then focus on the main issues that crawlers have to address for getting data from social networks, and we propose a novel solution that exploits the cloud computing paradigm for crawling. The proposed crawler is modular by design and relies on a large number of distributed nodes and on the MapReduce framework to speedup the data collection process from large social networks.
Highly Scalable Adaptive Photonic Beamformer Using a Single Mode to Multimode Optical Combiner

This letter presents a novel architecture for a wideband photonic beamformer. The system is best suited for an adaptive beamforming application related to a highly non-stationary environment, requiring rapid beam steering. Using optical transversal filters for each antenna element, the array is capable of both spatial beamforming and frequency-domain filtering. With the use of a single-mode fiber to multimode fiber coupling technique, our system is highly scalable, and the same set of laser wavelengths can be used for every antenna in the system. Experimental results are presented to show proof-of-concept and demonstrates proposed adaptive beamformer performance.
China's Open-end Fund Investment Style Drift and Fund Performance Empirical Analysis

Based on the model of return-based style analysis put forward by Sharpe (1992), the paper made an empirical research on the thirty open-ended funds in China within the sample periods during 2008 and 2011. Through quantifying the degree of the fund style drift and fund performance, this paper studied the relationship between the fund style drift and fund performance. As a result, this paper shows that style drift and fund performance are negatively related in the sample period.
Investigating the Use of Primes in Hashing for Volumetric Data

Traditional hashing methods used to store 3D volumetric data utilise large prime numbers. The intention of this is to achieve well-distributed hash addresses to minimise addressing collisions. Hashing is an attractive method to store 3D volumetric data, as it provides simple method to store, index and retrieve data. However, implementations fail to provide theoretical support as to why they utilise large primes which act to create a hash address through randomising key values. Neither is it specified what a “large” prime is. 3D data is inherently well-distributed as each coordinate in 3D space is already unique. It is thus investigated in this paper whether this randomisation through the use of large primes is necessary. The history of the use of primes for hashing 3D data is also investigated, as is whether their use has persisted due to habit rather than due to methodical investigation.
Efficient Path Counting Transducers for Minimum Bayes-Risk Decoding of Statistical Machine Translation Lattices

This paper presents an efficient implementation of linearised lattice minimum Bayes-risk decoding using weighted finite state transducers. We introduce transducers to efficiently count lattice paths containing n-grams and use these to gather the required statistics. We show that these procedures can be implemented exactly through simple transformations of word sequences to sequences of n-grams. This yields a novel implementation of lattice minimum Bayes-risk decoding which is fast and exact even for very large lattices.
An intelligent system architecture for multi-camera human tracking at airports

In this paper we describe the architecture of an intelligent surveillance system tested at two reference airports. This architecture is developed to support the human operator and enables a multi-camera tracking of suspicious people in case of an alert. The described architecture is based on a network of non-overlapping cameras, each one connected to a self-developed recording tool which provides acquired images to different image processing modules. An efficient preprocessing makes it possible to analyze the data in realtime. The system is able to detect, track and recognize people, but also enables the prediction of where a person will walk to by analyzing possible walking paths.
Short-Term Plasticity Explains Irregular Persistent Activity in Working Memory Tasks

Persistent activity in cortex is the neural correlate of working memory (WM). In persistent activity, spike trains are highly irregular, even more than in baseline. This seemingly innocuous feature challenges our current understanding of the synaptic mechanisms underlying WM. Here we argue that in WM the prefrontal cortex (PFC) operates in a regime of balanced excitation and inhibition and that the observed temporal irregularity reflects this regime. We show that this requires that nonlinearities underlying the persistent activity are primarily in the neuronal interactions between PFC neurons. We also show that short-term synaptic facilitation can be the physiological substrate of these nonlinearities and that the resulting mechanism of balanced persistent activity is robust, in particular with respect to changes in the connectivity. As an example, we put forward a computational model of the PFC circuit involved in oculomotor delayed response task. The novelty of this model is that recurrent excitatory synapses are facilitating. We demonstrate that this model displays direction-selective persistent activity. We find that, even though the memory eventually degrades because of the heterogeneities, it can be stored for several seconds for plausible network size and connectivity. This model accounts for a large number of experimental findings, such as the findings that have shown that firing is more irregular during the persistent state than during baseline, that the neuronal responses are very diverse, and that the preferred directions during cue and delay periods are strongly correlated but tuning widths are not.
A Fully Annotated Corpus of Russian Speech

The paper introduces CORPRES ― a fully annotated Russian speech corpus developed at the Department of Phonetics, St. Petersburg State University as a result of a three-year project. The corpus includes samples of different speaking styles produced by 4 male and 4 female speakers. Six levels of annotation cover all phonetic and prosodic information about the recorded speech data, including labels for pitch marks, phonetic events, narrow and wide phonetic transcription, orthographic and prosodic transcription. Precise phonetic transcription of the data provides an especially valuable resource for both research and development purposes. Overall corpus size is 528 458 running words and contains 60 hours of speech made up of 7.5 hours from each speaker. 40% of the corpus was manually segmented and fully annotated on all six levels. 60% of the corpus was partly annotated; there are labels for pitch period and phonetic event labels. Orthographic, prosodic and ideal phonetic transcription for this part was generated and stored as text files. The fully annotated part of the corpus covers all speaking styles included in the corpus and all speakers. The paper contains information about CORPRES design and annotation principles, overall data description and some speculation about possible use of the corpus.
Behavioral anomaly detection approach based on log monitoring

Log monitoring has been an effective measure to detect anomalies in large-scale software systems. Many researches for anomaly detection are based on the analysis of log semantics or frequency features in a single time interval. In this paper, we present a new detection method which predicts the system state by detecting anomalous behaviors extracted from log messages. Our detection method consists of 2 major steps: First, preprocess log messages by log normalization and an efficient hierarchical clustering operation. Second, generate behavior pattern sets from clustered messages and assign an anomaly score to new log sequences according to the relation between the log sequences and corresponding behavior patterns. Experiments on real world log data show that our method can predict system anomalies with a high accuracy.
Metal-InGaAs contact resistance calculations from first principles

The metal-semiconductor contact resistance is an important factor in the performance of MOSFETs and a detailed understanding of the contact resistance is necessary in order to simulate and eventually optimize the devices. In this work we calculate metal-InGaAs contact resistances using Density Functional Theory (DFT) combined with non-equilibrium Greens function (NEGF) methods as implemented in Atomistix ToolKit (ATK). We have calculated specific contact resistivities, pc, of metal-InGaAs and metal-InAs interfaces, where the metals studied are Ti, W, and Mo. We find that pc is approximately inversly proportional to the doping density with values that are in close agreement with experimental results from the literature.
A Survey of Predictive State Representations

Predictive State Representations (PSRs) [10] are a model for a discrete-time finite action and observation stochastic systems, presented as an alternative to HMMs and POMDPs. A PSR represents the system’s state as a set of predictions of the observable outcomes of tests performed in the system. Unlike hidden variable models no latent variables are assumed or required – only observable outcomes matter. The basic idea of PSRs is relatively simple. The open problems are learning compact PSRs, and acting under them.
Random Access Region of Interest in Backward Coding of Wavelet Trees

Random access to high quality regions of interest (ROI) from compressed bit streams of large images is becoming a necessary feature in many applications, particularly in viewing important areas within larger images. We have developed a completely new multi-rate image subband coding scheme using backward coding of wavelet trees (BCWT), which is fast, memory-efficient and resolution-scalable, while offering much less complexity than many other codecs, including block-based ones, e.g. JPEG2000. Although the focus of this paper is the inclusion of random access ROI decoding capabilities in BCWT, the method can also be modified in order to accommodate conventional ROI schemes in which the selected region is decoded with higher fidelity than the rest of the image. Experimental results compare the original BCWT bitstream size against that of the resulting ROI.
The Relationship between Knowledge Sharing Behavior and the Effectiveness of Information Systems Strategic Planning (ISSP): An Empirical Study in Taiwan

“Improving information systems strategic planning” remains among one of top ten issues facing IS/IT executives and corporate general managers. As e -business strategies have received growing attention from enterprises, information systems strategic planning (ISSP) is now considered critical in developing a successful e-strategy. However, numerous researchers have examined the relationship between various factors and the effectiveness of information systems strategic planning, the effects of knowledge sharing behavior on the effectiveness of information systems strategic planning still have little been examined. The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between knowledge sharing and the effectiveness of information systems strategic planning. Furthermore, we explore the factors influencing knowledge sharing behavior among stakeholders in the ISSP process. Data were collected by a questionnaire survey sent to the IS directors of 805 large companies in Taiwan. Survey results indicate that knowledge sharing behavior influence of the effectiveness of information systems strategic planning. The implications of this finding for practice and future research are also examined herein.
A Theoretical and Empirical Comparison of Systemic Risk Measures

We derive several popular systemic risk measures in a common framework and show that they can be expressed as transformations of market risk measures (e.g., beta). We also derive conditions under which the different measures lead to similar rankings of systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs). In an empirical analysis of US financial institutions, we show that (1) different systemic risk measures identify different SIFIs and that (2) firm rankings based on systemic risk estimates mirror rankings obtained by sorting firms on market risk or liabilities. One-factor linear models explain most of the variability of the systemic risk estimates, which indicates that systemic risk measures fall short in capturing the multiple facets of systemic risk.
Argumentation Semantics for Prioritised Default Logic

We endow prioritised default logic (PDL) with argumentation semantics using the ASPIC+ framework for structured argumentation, and prove that the conclusions of the justified arguments are exactly the prioritised default extensions. Argumentation semantics for PDL will allow for the application of argument game proof theories to the process of inference in PDL, making the reasons for accepting a conclusion transparent and the inference process more intuitive. This also opens up the possibility for argumentation-based distributed reasoning and communication amongst agents with PDL representations of mental attitudes.
G T ] 1 3 A pr 2 00 6 From 3-algebras to ∆-Groups

We introduce ∆-groups and show how they fit in the context of lattice field theory. To a manifold M we associate a ∆-group Γ(M). We define the symmetric cohomology HSn(G, A) of a group G with coefficients in a G-module A. The ∆-group Γ(M) is determined by the action of π1(M) on π2(M) and an element of HS 3(π1(M), π2(M)). Introduction A topological lattice field theory is a prescription of initial data which allows one to construct an invariant for manifolds. The machinery works like this: one starts with a triangulation of the manifold, associates a quantity to each simplex, takes an ”appropriate” sum and shows that the result is an invariant. Of course, in practice, things are a little bit more complicated. The first problem is how you decide, from combinatorial data, if two triangulations give the same manifold. This can be settled by using an Alexander type theorem [12] or Pachner’s Theorem [2], [11]. The second problem is to find an algebraic input which reflects the combinatorial equivalence between two triangulations of a manifold. In dimension two it is known that topological lattice field theories are in bijection with semisimple associative algebra [6]. For three dimensional manifolds, invariants can be obtained from various algebraic structures: Hopf algebras in [8] and [3], 6-j symbols in [12] and [5] or finite groups and 3-cocycles in [4]. A review of these results and an example in dimension four can be found in [2]. 3-algebras were introduced by Lawrence in [9] as another possible approach to the problem. A 3-algebra is a vector space A together with three maps m : A ⊗ A ⊗ A → A, m : A ⊗ A → A ⊗ A and P : A → A which satisfy certain compatibilities. Geometrically m represents the projection of three faces of a tetrahedron to the fourth face, m is the projection from two faces of a tetrahedron to the the other two and P in the rotation of a face with an angle of 2π 3 . It was shown in [9] that the 6-j symbol invariant [12], fits naturally in the context of 3-algebras. The first result about 3-algebras is a coherence type theorem which says that in a 3-algebra a product does not depend on the way we make the evaluation. This is the analog of the fact that in an associative algebra the product does not depend on the way we put the parenthesis. The idea behind 2-groups can be traced back to [13] where crossed modules where introduced in connection with the homotopy groups of a topological space. Formally, a 2-group is a 2-category with one object in which every 1(2)-morphism is invertible. To a topological space M we can associate a 2-group by taking as 2-morphism maps from the 2-cube [0, 1] × [0, 1] to M . The ∗Permanent address: Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy, PO-Box 1-764, RO-014700 Bucharest, Romania.
Proceedings of the Fourth Program Visualization Workshop

Adapted, or customized systems, are usual in most application areas. Those systems are able to take some variables into account and, depending of their values, behave differently. Customized systems can be very sophisticated but, once their foreseen parameters are taken into account, their interfaces are consequently fixed, and no change takes place at runtime. By no change we mean that there is no need of making new information visible: from that point of view, user interactions will not affect system behavior once the application is running. Beside adapted systems, adaptive systems are becoming quite useful in some areas. Adaptive systems differ from customized ones in several senses. Mainly, they aim to adapt themselves to user interactions at runtime. When talking about hypermedia systems, adaptation means not only adapting contents and/or navigation issues on the fly, but also adapting interfaces to the changing parameters. And always keeping in mind not to disturb users while interacting with the system Consequently, visualization issues play a key role from adaptive system perspective. It is clear that, in adaptive systems, data visualization can be much more complex and subtle than in many other applications. In this work, main visualization issues for adaptive systems are addressed, making use of existing applications for illustrating the depicted facts. 2 Fifth Program Visualization Workshop Visual Interactive Analysis: Insights into Software Comprehension Roberto Therón Universidad de Salamanca
Hierarchical Monte Carlo Radiosity for General Environments

The rendering of general environments containing participating media is a very hard problem since radiance has to be computed at every point in space. Finite element methods are usually very complex and often have robustness problems. We have developed a new method that computes a rough global illumination solution based on a particle tracing method: the Hierarchical Monte Carlo Radiosity (HMCR) method. The method is very simple and allows to quickly compute solutions that can be viewed interactively by means of 3D textures for the isotropic and diffuse components of the illumination. Moreover, we have developed a second rendering step, assisted by a final gathering procedure, that allows the computation of high quality images using the HMCR solution.
Making A Decision vs. Sticking to A Decision: A Comparison of Intertemporal Choice and Delay of Gratification

Making and sticking to a decision are two important stages in decision behavior. Intertemporal choice stems from economic research on the process of adults choosing among outcomes at different points in time,whereas delay of gratification comes from psychological research on childhood persistence,in which children had to resist the temptation of the sooner but smaller reward to obtain the later but larger reward. Both studies relate to time and focus on individual impulsiveness and self-control,although from different perspectives. Nonetheless,the two areas are rarely compared systematically. The article addresses this issue and compares their methods as well as their cognitive and neural mechanisms. The article provides scientific theoretical foundations for the collaborative development of both areas to facilitate the practice of foresight.
Physiology of Streptococcus thermophilus during the late stage of milk fermentation with special regard to sulfur amino‐acid metabolism

Streptococcus thermophilus is a thermophilic lactic acid bacterium widely used as starter in the manufacture of dairy products in particular in yoghurt manufacture in combination with Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus. However, in spite of its massive use, the physiological state of S. thermophilus in milk has hardly been investigated. We established the first map of the cytosolic proteome of S. thermophilus LMG18311 grown in milk. It comprises 203 identified proteins corresponding to 32% of theoretical proteome. In addition, using proteomic and transcriptomic approaches, we analyzed the physiology of LMG18311 during its late stage of growth in milk (between 2h30 and 5h30). It revealed the up‐regulation of (i) peptides and AA transporters and of specific AA biosynthetic pathways notably for sulfur AA and (ii) genes and proteins involved in the metabolism of various sugars. These two effects were also observed in LMG18311 grown in milk in coculture with L. bulgaricus although the effect on sugar metabolism was less pronounced. It suggests that the stimulatory effect of Lactobacillus on the Streptococcus growth is more complex than AA or peptides supply.