Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Combino - A GWAP for Generating Combined Tags

The aim of the Artigo project is twofold: to provide a semantic search engine for art works and to research how humans perceive art works. The GWAPs available on the Artigo website mostly generate simple tags with little semantical complexity. Since these tags build the foundation for the art work search engine, complex queries lead to rather unsatisfying search results so far. The GWAP “Combino”, which is proposed in this thesis, aims at generating a special kind of semantically complex tags, in particular combined tags. These combined tags enable the semantic art work search engine to answer more complex search queries. Thus both the quality of the search results can be improved and deeper insights into the perception of art works can be gained.
The Implications of Intertemporal Consistency for Patent Licensing

A patent provides its holder the monopolist's right to sell licenses that allow the use of new knowledge or an innovation during a certain period of time. The patent holder therefore faces the typical commitment problem of the durable-goods monopolist. This intertemporal consistency problem appears when the monopolist does not have the ability to commit to a future schedule of license sales.
A Robust Method for Ego-Motion Estimation in Urban Environment Using Stereo Camera

Visual odometry estimates the ego-motion of an agent (e.g., vehicle and robot) using image information and is a key component for autonomous vehicles and robotics. This paper proposes a robust and precise method for estimating the 6-DoF ego-motion, using a stereo rig with optical flow analysis. An objective function fitted with a set of feature points is created by establishing the mathematical relationship between optical flow, depth and camera ego-motion parameters through the camera’s 3-dimensional motion and planar imaging model. Accordingly, the six motion parameters are computed by minimizing the objective function, using the iterative Levenberg–Marquard method. One of key points for visual odometry is that the feature points selected for the computation should contain inliers as much as possible. In this work, the feature points and their optical flows are initially detected by using the Kanade–Lucas–Tomasi (KLT) algorithm. A circle matching is followed to remove the outliers caused by the mismatching of the KLT algorithm. A space position constraint is imposed to filter out the moving points from the point set detected by the KLT algorithm. The Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm is employed to further refine the feature point set, i.e., to eliminate the effects of outliers. The remaining points are tracked to estimate the ego-motion parameters in the subsequent frames. The approach presented here is tested on real traffic videos and the results prove the robustness and precision of the method.
In Vitro Quantification of the Radiopacity of Onyx during Embolization

Purpose Onyx has been successfully applied in the treatment of various neurovascular lesions. However, some experience is required to get accustomed to its unpredictable fluoroscopic visibility during injection. This in vitro study aimed to evaluate the characteristics of radiopacity change in a simulated embolization procedure. Materials and Methods Using a bench-top Onyx injection experiment simulating a typical brain arteriovenous malformation embolization, nine cycles of casting modes (continuous injection) and plugging modes (injection with intermittent pauses) were performed. Radiodensity of Onyx droplets collected from the microcatheter tip and the distal head portion of the microcatheter were measured as time lapsed. Distribution of droplet radiodensity (radiodensity) and distribution of radiographic grade (grade) were analyzed and compared by repeated measurements. Results Within-group analysis revealed no significant radiodensity change with time (P>0.05). The radiodensity was significantly higher in the casting mode than in the plugging mode (P<0.01). The lateral radiograph of the microcatheter showed higher radiopacity (P<0.01) and better evenness (P<0.01) in the casting mode than in the plugging mode. A significant difference in microcatheter attenuation (both radiographic grade mean and SD; P<0.01) was noted between the two modes. Radiodensity had a significant influence on the radiopacity and radiopacity evenness of the microcatheter. Conclusion The radiopacity of the Onyx can vary significantly over time because of early precipitation of tantalum powder. Radiopacity decreased significantly during plugging modes, characterized by pauses between injections.
Term Dependence Graphs 1

Program slicing is a method for decomposing programs by analyzing their data and control ∞ow. It has many applications in the fleld of software engineering (like program debugging, testing, code reuse, maintenance, etc). The so called program dependence graph|a data structure that stores control and data dependences between the statements of imperative programs|is a key ingredient of many slicing techniques. Unfortunately, there is no analogous data structure for rewrite systems (or functional programs), which is relevant for deflning an associated program slicing technique. In this work, we present the deflnition of a new data structure, called term dependence graph, that can be used to flll this gap.
Deficient Signaling via Alk2 (Acvr1) Leads to Bicuspid Aortic Valve Development

Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is the most common congenital cardiac anomaly in humans. Despite recent advances, the molecular basis of BAV development is poorly understood. Previously it has been shown that mutations in the Notch1 gene lead to BAV and valve calcification both in human and mice, and mice deficient in Gata5 or its downstream target Nos3 have been shown to display BAVs. Here we show that tissue-specific deletion of the gene encoding Activin Receptor Type I (Alk2 or Acvr1) in the cushion mesenchyme results in formation of aortic valve defects including BAV. These defects are largely due to a failure of normal development of the embryonic aortic valve leaflet precursor cushions in the outflow tract resulting in either a fused right- and non-coronary leaflet, or the presence of only a very small, rudimentary non-coronary leaflet. The surviving adult mutant mice display aortic stenosis with high frequency and occasional aortic valve insufficiency. The thickened aortic valve leaflets in such animals do not show changes in Bmp signaling activity, while Map kinase pathways are activated. Although dysfunction correlated with some pro-osteogenic differences in gene expression, neither calcification nor inflammation were detected in aortic valves of Alk2 mutants with stenosis. We conclude that signaling via Alk2 is required for appropriate aortic valve development in utero, and that defects in this process lead to indirect secondary complications later in life.
An Analysis on Super Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Coexistence in Urban and Rural Areas

Super Wi-Fi is a Wi-Fi-like network built upon TV white spaces (TVWS) exploiting cognitive radio (CR) techniques. Super Wi-Fi is expected to achieve larger coverage than today’s Wi-Fi thanks to its superior propagation characteristics, while suffering from smaller bandwidth compared to Wi-Fi (6–8 MHz versus 20 MHz) which limits its network capacity. Therefore, it has been a common belief that Super Wi-Fi is only suitable for coverage enhancement and not desirable for high data-rate networks. However, there is a lack of studies to confirm such a belief via rigorous comparison of the network capacities of Super Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi. To fill the gap, this thesis performs a thorough study on the downlink capacity of a Super Wi-Fi network coexisting with a Wi-Fi network. Capacity comparison in the scenario with a single Super Wi-Fi AP and a single Wi-Fi AP reveals that Super Wi-Fi can outperform Wi-Fi at the outskirts of the Wi-Fi’s coverage and channel bonding makes Super Wi-Fi more preferable. In addition, capacity comparison in the scenario with a Super Wi-Fi network and a Wi-Fi network each consisting of multiple APs has shown that Super Wi-Fi can effectively mitigate Wi-Fi’s outage in urban areas and can significantly outperform Wi-Fi in rural areas.
Enhanced PCA reconstruction method for eyeglass frame auto-removal

A robust face recognition system needs to address the problem of partial occlusion like frame glasses. In this paper, a new glass auto-removal scheme is proposed, which includes the SVM-based glass detection, recursive PCA reconstruction, GVF snake model and the multi-image patch match. Experimental results show good performance in aspects of quantitative measure and face recognition. It implies that this method can be used to improve the face recognition accuracy in real applications.
Ambiguity Measures in Requirements Engineering

In many software systems development projects, the documents available for requirement analysis are in natural language. However, their quality is not always optimal, owing to the presence of ambiguous expressions which may be interpreted in different ways. This may be an obstacle against understanding the problem and against the identification and subsequent modelling of requirements. It may, moreover, hamper the entire development process and negatively affect the quality of the system. This paper proposes a scheme with which to define indices of ambiguity, both structural and semantic. It also investigates the feasibility of calculating these indices using the knowledge base of a natural language processing system and the outputs produced during the text parsing phase. In this way it may be possible rapidly to signal the terms and phrases open to several interpretations, thereby improving the quality of the requirements analysis process.
Predicting the probability of change in object-oriented systems

Of all merits of the object-oriented paradigm, flexibility is probably the most important in a world of constantly changing requirements and the most striking difference compared to previous approaches. However, it is rather difficult to quantify this aspect of quality: this paper describes a probabilistic approach to estimate the change proneness of an object-oriented design by evaluating the probability that each class of the system will be affected when new functionality is added or when existing functionality is modified. It is obvious that when a system exhibits a large sensitivity to changes, the corresponding design quality is questionable. The extracted probabilities of change can be used to assist maintenance and to observe the evolution of stability through successive generations and identify a possible "saturation" level beyond which any attempt to improve the design without major refactoring is impossible. The proposed model has been evaluated on two multiversion open source projects. The process has been fully automated by a Java program, while statistical analysis has proved improved correlation between the extracted probabilities and actual changes in each of the classes in comparison to a prediction model that relies simply on past data.
C 1 -surface splines

The construction of quadratic $C^1 $ surfaces from B-spline control points is generalized to a wider class of control meshes capable of outlining arbitrary free-form surfaces in space. Irregular meshes with nonquadrilateral cells and more or less than four cells meeting at a point are allowed so that arbitrary free-form surfaces with or without boundary can be modeled in the same conceptual frame work as tensor-product B-splines. That is, the mesh points serve as control points of a smooth piecewise polynomial surface representation that is local, evaluates by averaging, and obeys the convex hull property. For a regular region of the input mesh, the representation reduces to the standard quadratic spline. In general, a surface spline is represented by Bernstein–Bezier patches of degree two and three with derivatives matching across boundaries after local reparametrization. According to the user’s choice, these patches can be polynomial or rational, and three-sided, four-sided, or a combination thereof.
Structural Resolution: a Framework for Coinductive Proof Search and Proof Construction in Horn Clause Logic

Logic programming (LP) is a programming language based on first-order Horn clause logic that uses SLD-resolution as a semi-decision procedure. Finite SLD-computations are inductively sound and complete with respect to least Herbrand models of logic programs. Dually, the corecursive approach to SLD-resolution views infinite SLD-computations as successively approximating infinite terms contained in programs' greatest complete Herbrand models. State-of-the-art algorithms implementing corecursion in LP are based on loop detection. However, such algorithms support inference of logical entailment only for rational terms, and they do not account for the important property of productivity in infinite SLD-computations. Loop detection thus lags behind coinductive methods in interactive theorem proving (ITP) and term-rewriting systems (TRS). Structural resolution is a newly proposed alternative to SLD-resolution that makes it possible to define and semi-decide a notion of productivity appropriate to LP. In this paper, we prove soundness of structural resolution relative to Herbrand model semantics for productive inductive, coinductive, and mixed inductive-coinductive logic programs. We introduce two algorithms that support coinductive proof search for infinite productive terms. One algorithm combines the method of loop detection with productive structural resolution, thus guaranteeing productivity of coinductive proofs for infinite rational terms. The other allows to make lazy sound observations of fragments of infinite irrational productive terms. This puts coinductive methods in LP on par with productivity-based observational approaches to coinduction in ITP and TRS.
Think Tanks, Public Policy, and the Politics of Expertise: Works Cited

List of tables List of figures Acknowledgements 1. The political demography of think tanks 2. The evolution of think tanks 3. Political credibility 4. The policy roles of experts 5. Policy influence: making research matter 6. Think tanks, experts and American politics Appendix A: details on the characteristics, perception and visibility of think tanks Appendix B: list of in-depth interviews Works cited Index.
A class of stochastic games with infinitely many interacting agents related to Glauber dynamics on random graphs

We introduce and study a class of infinite-horizon non-zero-sum non-cooperative stochastic games with infinitely many interacting agents using ideas of statistical mechanics. First we show, in the general case of asymmetric interactions, the existence of a strategy that allows any player to eliminate losses after a finite random time. In the special case of symmetric interactions, we also prove that, as time goes to infinity, the game converges to a Nash equilibrium. Moreover, assuming that all agents adopt the same strategy, using arguments related to those leading to perfect simulation algorithms, spatial mixing and ergodicity are proved. In turn, ergodicity allows us to prove ‘fixation’, i.e. players will adopt a constant strategy after a finite time. The resulting dynamics is related to zero-temperature Glauber dynamics on random graphs of possibly infinite volume.
A fast hybrid optimization algorithm based on TS and PSO for circles packing problem with the equilibrium constraints

The packing problem with the behavioral constraints is difficult to solve due to its NP-hard nature. Tabu search (TS) has strong global search ability but the convergence accuracy is low. particle swarm optimization (PSO) is quick in convergence, but likely to be premature at the initial stage. Considering both the advantages and disadvantages, a fast hybrid optimization algorithm based on improved TS and PSO for this problem is proposed, which employ the novel intensification search and diversification search balance strategy of TS and the refined search of PSO as a whole to plan large-scale space global search according to the fitness change, and to quicken convergence speed, avoid repeated search work, economize computational expenses, and obtain global optimum. The proposed algorithm is tested and compared it with other published methods on constrained layout examples, demonstrated that the revised algorithm is feasible and efficient.
Generating Complex and Faulty Test Data through Model-Based Mutation Analysis

Testing the correct behaviour of data processing systems in the presence of faulty data is extremely expensive. The data structures processed by these systems are often complex, with many data fields and multiple constraints among them. Software engineers, in charge of testing these systems, have to handcraft complex data files or databases, while ensuring compliance with the multiple constraints to prevent the generation of trivially invalid inputs. In addition, assessing test results often means analysing complex output and log data. Though many techniques have been proposed to automatically test systems based on models, little exists in the literature to support the testing of systems where the complexity is in the data consumed in input or produced in output, with complex constraints between them. In particular, such systems often need to be tested with the presence of faults in the input data, in order to assess the robustness and behaviour of the system in response to such faults. This paper presents an automated test technique that relies upon six generic mutation operators to automatically generate faulty data. The technique receives two inputs: field data and a data model, i.e. a UML class diagram annotated with stereotypes and OCL constraints. The annotated class diagram is used to tailor the behaviour of the generic mutation operators to the fault model that is assumed for the system under test and the environment in which it is deployed. Empirical results obtained with a large data acquisition system in the satellite domain show that our approach can successfully automate the generation of test suites that achieve slightly better instruction coverage than manual testing based on domain expertise.
Video frames text detection through Bayesian classification and boundary growing method

Text detection in natural scene images is important for content-based image analysis. It consists of different component analysis for text detection video frames. Multioriented text detection in video frames is one of the text detection in videos frames. Multi-oriented text detection is not easy as detection of captions or graphics which is usually appears in horizontal direction and has high contrast compared to its background. Multi-oriented text detection generally refers to scene text that makes text detection more challenging. Therefore conventional text detection may not give good results for multi-oriented video frames text detection. Hence, in this paper, we present a new enhancement method that includes the product of Laplacian and Sobel operations to enhance text pixels in videos. To classify true text pixels, we propose a Bayesian classifier without assuming a priori probability about the input frame but estimating it based on three probable matrices. Three different ways of clustering are performed on the output of the enhancement method to obtain the three probable matrices. Text candidates are obtained by intersecting the output of the Bayesian classifier with the Canny edge map of the input frame. The robustness of the methods are analyzed our own datasets under different video frames. Finally, it coarse-to-fine detection locates text regions efficiently.
Seismic Response Analysis of Highway Bridges , including Backfill-deck Interaction , through Improved Participation of Backfills

The present investigation aims at the reduction in the inertial seismic actions of bridges through the improved seismic participation of the approach embankments, which dissipate part of the induced seismic energy. The participation of the embankments is achieved through the extension of the continuous deck slab onto the backfills. The width of this slab is equal to the distance between the wing-walls, with which it is in contact, and has the ability to slide as a drawer between them. This slab constitutes the pile cap of the micropiles, which are either hot-rolled structural steel sections or reinforced concrete micropiles. The serviceability requirements of the deck are arranged by the flexibility of the piles, the embankment density and by the cracking of the extension slab -namely the “continuity slab”of the deck. The piles contribute efficiently to the participation of the embankments during earthquake and effectively reduce the inertial seismic actions during a longitudinal seismic action. As far as concerns the seismic actions in the transverse direction of the bridge, the extended part of the deck slab, acting as a plate, effectively restrains the superstructure at the abutment. The proposed technique concerns all bridge structures, especially those responding with large displacements during earthquake. Furthermore, the need for hollow piers, due to significant displacements of the bridge, can be reduced with help of the proposed restraining technique, while the cost-effectiveness and seismic response of the bridge is improved. The commonlyadopted bilinear P-y curve was assumed for the modeling of the piles. For the analysis of the strongly non-linear dynamic response of the resulting structural system, which dissipates part of the induced seismic energy, time history analysis was implemented in order to model response to recorded and artificial earthquake motion that is compatible with the corresponding soil-dependent Eurocode 8 elastic spectra. Ioannis A. Tegos and Stergios A. Mitoulis 2
Constructing a Mimetic Curl using Gauss ’ Theorem

The common way to define a curl operator considers Stoke’s Theorem and the concept of circulation. Common numerical discretizations for this operator also use this approach. In this work, we revisit the construction of the curl operator using an extended form of Gauss’ Divergence Theorem instead. This new approach allows us to present a discretization framework that naturally inherits all the desirable properties of the mimetic differential operators. We present the mathematical justification for this new approach and we test the mimetic curl operator on 2D test cases. Physical applications concern the computational study of hurricanes.
Advanced Multi-Frame Rate Rendering Techniques

Multi-frame rate rendering is a parallel rendering technique that renders interactive parts of the scene on one graphics card while the rest of the scene is rendered asynchronously on a second graphics card. The resulting color and depth images of both render processes are composited and displayed. This paper presents advanced multi-frame rate rendering techniques, which remove limitations of the original approach and reduce artifacts. The interactive manipulation of light sources and their parameters affects the entire scene. Our multi-GPU deferred shading splits the rendering task into a rasterization and lighting pass and distributes the passes to the appropriate graphics card to enable light manipulations at high frame rates independent of the geometry complexity of the scene. We also developed a parallel volume rendering technique, which allows the manipulation of objects inside a translucent volume at high frame rates. Due to the asynchronous nature of multi-frame rate rendering artifacts may occur during the migration of objects from the slow to the fast graphics card, and vice versa. We show how proper state management can be used to avoid these artifacts almost completely. These techniques were developed in the context of a single-system multi-GPU setup, which considerably simplifies the implementation and increases performance.