Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neural computing-based pedestrian detection from image sequence

Preventing a traffic accident is a good way to solve many problems in the world for the current generation surrounding with many automotive technologies causing many people's death from the accident. The prevention makes an important impact to every society for making many people more safety and improving their lives' quality. In the fact, the primary cause is mostly drivers' carelessness and lacking of control, which might be because of addiction of drugs, resulting that a pedestrian walking on a road pains and then becomes dead. Therefore the problem can be solved using a computer for analysis and making a decision as a human called pedestrian detection. This study uses many several enhancement algorithms and processes for detecting integrated with an analysis based on a neural computing to decide whether a detected object is a pedestrian. Moreover the study shows an experimental result that the procedure is sufficient and efficient to be a fundamental knowledge for the next related work including a real-life traffic situation.
Concurrent Reflectance Confocal Microscopy and Laser Doppler Flowmetry to Improve Skin Cancer Imaging: A Monte Carlo Model and Experimental Validation

Optical interrogation of suspicious skin lesions is standard care in the management of skin cancer worldwide. Morphological and functional markers of malignancy are often combined to improve expert human diagnostic power. We propose the evaluation of the combination of two independent optical biomarkers of skin tumours concurrently. The morphological modality of reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) is combined with the functional modality of laser Doppler flowmetry, which is capable of quantifying tissue perfusion. To realize the idea, we propose laser feedback interferometry as an implementation of RCM, which is able to detect the Doppler signal in addition to the confocal reflectance signal. Based on the proposed technique, we study numerical models of skin tissue incorporating two optical biomarkers of malignancy: (i) abnormal red blood cell velocities and concentrations and (ii) anomalous optical properties manifested through tissue confocal reflectance, using Monte Carlo simulation. We also conduct a laboratory experiment on a microfluidic channel containing a dynamic turbid medium, to validate the efficacy of the technique. We quantify the performance of the technique by examining a signal to background ratio (SBR) in both the numerical and experimental models, and it is shown that both simulated and experimental SBRs improve consistently using this technique. This work indicates the feasibility of an optical instrument, which may have a role in enhanced imaging of skin malignancies.
Quantifying variability in oculomotor and manual choice response times

QUANTIFYING VARIABILITY IN OCULOMOTOR AND MANUAL CHOICE RESPONSE TIMES By Angelica Godinez Response times (RTs) of various motor systems have traditionally been used to characterize aspects of human performance (e.g., fatigue, disease states). However, the properties and sensitivity of different motor systems to detect changes in neural states across multiple timescales remain an open question. In this thesis, we attempt to characterize the difference in sensitivity of the pursuit, saccadic, and manual systems to detect changes in stimulus strength. In Experiment 1, we used a modified Yes-No task to test the effects of contrast (5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 100%) on three pursuit, saccadic, and manual RT’s for three observers. In Experiment 2, we used a 2-AFC task to test the effects of luminance (0-10 d' above background noise) on saccadic and manual RT for five observers. We observed: 1) saccadic RT are better correlated with changes in stimulus strength, 2) manual responses are more variable, 3) trial-by-trial variability is greater than variability across sessions, and 4) each pair of motor systems shows significant shared variability. We conclude that oculomotor and manual responses have different signal processing and RT characteristics, and may have different levels of utility to detect physiological factors that affect performance (e.g., Dinges & Powell, 1985), with the saccadic system being more sensitive to changes in stimulus strength and less variable in the timing of the response.
An active vision approach to the road following problem

This paper illustrates a method to design dynamic neural network controllers to allow a robot to autonomously navigate roads based on color perception. The neuro-controller moves the robot by setting the speed of the wheels and adjusts the robot visual systems by setting the value of three parameters that determine how much of the red, green and blue components of the RGB camera images contribute in generating the network input vector. Results show that the best evolved controller can successfully drive a real robot in environments with color characteristics never encountered during evolution. Moreover, we show that the dynamic color perception abilities are based on complex patterns of activation of the three color parameters. These patterns are generated by evolved neural mechanisms that successfully adapt the robot perceptual system to the color characteristics of the different visual scenes.
Metal-insulator transitions in the Falicov-Kimball model with disorder

The ground-state phase diagrams of the Falicov-Kimball model with local disorder are derived within the dynamical mean-field theory and using the geometrically averaged s“typical” d local density of states. Correlated metal, Mott insulator, and Anderson insulator phases are identified. The metal-insulator transitions are found to be continuous. The interaction and disorder compete with each other stabilizing the metallic phase against the occurring one of the insulators. The Mott and Anderson insulators are found to be continuously connected.
1 Death by Market Power : Reform , Competition and Patient Outcomes in the National Health Service

The effect of competition on the quality of health care remains a contested issue. Most empirical estimates rely on inference from non-experimental data. In contrast, this paper exploits a procompetitive policy reform to provide estimates of the impact of competition on hospital outcomes. The English government introduced a policy in 2006 to promote competition between hospitals. Using this policy to implement a difference-in-differences research design, we estimate the impact of the introduction of competition on not only clinical outcomes but also productivity and expenditure. We find that the effect of competition is to save lives without raising costs. JEL classification: I18, I11, L13, L32
The Harmonic Balance Technique Analysis of Open Quantum Systems

The Harmonic Balance Technique (HBT) is used to analyze the steady state performance of a two-state quantum system interacting with a classical sinusoidal electromagnetic wave and with a thermal bath at a fixed temperature. The linear time-variant differential equations describing such a system can be solved to any number of harmonics and the results can be compared with those obtained with the classical RWA approximation, thus emphasizing the validity limits of the latter.
Transgenic Expression of the Formin Protein Fhod3 Selectively in the Embryonic Heart: Role of Actin-Binding Activity of Fhod3 and Its Sarcomeric Localization during Myofibrillogenesis

Fhod3 is a cardiac member of the formin family proteins that play pivotal roles in actin filament assembly in various cellular contexts. The targeted deletion of mouse Fhod3 gene leads to defects in cardiogenesis, particularly during myofibrillogenesis, followed by lethality at embryonic day (E) 11.5. However, it remains largely unknown how Fhod3 functions during myofibrillogenesis. In this study, to assess the mechanism whereby Fhod3 regulates myofibrillogenesis during embryonic cardiogenesis, we generated transgenic mice expressing Fhod3 selectively in embryonic cardiomyocytes under the control of the β-myosin heavy chain (MHC) promoter. Mice expressing wild-type Fhod3 in embryonic cardiomyocytes survive to adulthood and are fertile, whereas those expressing Fhod3 (I1127A) defective in binding to actin die by E11.5 with cardiac defects. This cardiac phenotype of the Fhod3 mutant embryos is almost identical to that observed in Fhod3 null embryos, suggesting that the actin-binding activity of Fhod3 is crucial for embryonic cardiogenesis. On the other hand, the β-MHC promoter-driven expression of wild-type Fhod3 sufficiently rescues cardiac defects of Fhod3-null embryos, indicating that the Fhod3 protein expressed in a transgenic manner can function properly to achieve myofibril maturation in embryonic cardiomyocytes. Using the transgenic mice, we further examined detailed localization of Fhod3 during myofibrillogenesis in situ and found that Fhod3 localizes to the specific central region of nascent sarcomeres prior to massive rearrangement of actin filaments and remains there throughout myofibrillogenesis. Taken together, the present findings suggest that, during embryonic cardiogenesis, Fhod3 functions as the essential reorganizer of actin filaments at the central region of maturating sarcomeres via the actin-binding activity of the FH2 domain.
Is Compensation for Coarticulation Mediated by the Lexicon

Ambiguous stops between /t/ and /k/ tend to be heard as /k/ after /s/-final words and as /t/ after /∫/-final words. Elman and McClelland (1988,Journal of Memory and Language,27,143–165) obtained this compensation for coarticulation effect when the word-final fricatives were replaced with an ambiguous phoneme and argued that this indicated top-down lexical involvement in a prelexical process, as predicted by interactive models of speech perception. But autonomous models, which have no top-down processing but which are sensitive to the transitional probabilities between speech sounds, can also account for the effect. This study tested these two accounts. In Experiments 1, 2, and 3, listeners categorized fricatives at the ends of nonwords and words and the immediately following word-initial stops. When nonwords were the context stimuli, categorization of both the fricatives and the stops was influenced by the transitional probabilities of the vowels into the fricatives. When words were used, the transitional probabilities into the fricatives were matched. No compensation on following stops was found, even though the fricatives tended to be labeled in a lexically consistent manner. In Experiment 4, where listeners simply categorized stops at the ends of nonwords, further evidence of sensitivity to the transitional probabilities of these consonants was obtained. These results challenge interactive models, but are accounted for most parsimoniously by autonomous models in which transitional probabilities are represented independently of lexical information.
The Role of the Media in the Co-Production of Identities in a Filmmaking Company

This article focuses on the role of organizational storytelling and identity formation of a Danish filmmaking company, Zentropa Entertainment Productions Company (a.k.a. Zentropa). Identity formation, as storytelling, is taking place in a context of multiple voices, polyphony, and is performed in dialogue. The article explores how identities are co-produced through the interaction between the organization and external actors by their story interaction. The study illustrates how the identity of a filmmaking company emerges from identity stories and how they are co-produced with the media. We argue that the rebellious 'Maverick' identity of Zentropa has emerged through its interaction with the media through "counter stories. " Finally, the study shows the difficulties that Zentropa encountered trying to maintain its rebellious 'Maverick' identity.
Diversity and Activity of Lysobacter Species from Disease Suppressive Soils

The genus Lysobacter includes several species that produce a range of extracellular enzymes and other metabolites with activity against bacteria, fungi, oomycetes, and nematodes. Lysobacter species were found to be more abundant in soil suppressive against the fungal root pathogen Rhizoctonia solani, but their actual role in disease suppression is still unclear. Here, the antifungal and plant growth-promoting activities of 18 Lysobacter strains, including 11 strains from Rhizoctonia-suppressive soils, were studied both in vitro and in vivo. Based on 16S rRNA sequencing, the Lysobacter strains from the Rhizoctonia-suppressive soil belonged to the four species Lysobacter antibioticus, Lysobacter capsici, Lysobacter enzymogenes, and Lysobacter gummosus. Most strains showed strong in vitro activity against R. solani and several other pathogens, including Pythium ultimum, Aspergillus niger, Fusarium oxysporum, and Xanthomonas campestris. When the Lysobacter strains were introduced into soil, however, no significant and consistent suppression of R. solani damping-off disease of sugar beet and cauliflower was observed. Subsequent bioassays further revealed that none of the Lysobacter strains was able to promote growth of sugar beet, cauliflower, onion, and Arabidopsis thaliana, either directly or via volatile compounds. The lack of in vivo activity is most likely attributed to poor colonization of the rhizosphere by the introduced Lysobacter strains. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that Lysobacter species have strong antagonistic activities against a range of pathogens, making them an important source for putative new enzymes and antimicrobial compounds. However, their potential role in R. solani disease suppressive soil could not be confirmed. In-depth omics'–based analyses will be needed to shed more light on the potential contribution of Lysobacter species to the collective activities of microbial consortia in disease suppressive soils.
User interface evaluation of a direct manipulation temporal visual query language

As new query interfaces emerge for accessing multimedia data, formal user studies are needed to evaluate the usability of such interfaces. In this paper, we present results from a user interface evaluation of our temporal visual query language (TVQL). TVQL is a novel direct manipulation query interface for specifying temporal relationship queries over temporal events such as video data. In our user study, we compare TVQL to a forms-based temporal query language (TForms). Our results indicate that while subjects took longer to learn TVQL than TForrns, they were more efficient and more accurate in specifying temporal queries with the TVQL interface than with the TForms interface.
Wisdom of the local crowd: detecting local events using social media data

Event attendees post about their experiences on social media. We propose a novel approach for analyzing these posts to extract ongoing events. We gather posts from Twitter and Instagram and perform a number of processing steps to identify posts related to events based on hashtags and location information. Our approach detects events only using posts submitted during the past hour which ensures that only ongoing events are detected. The system can detect both large and small events with a high location accuracy, a precision of 0.20, and a recall of 0.60.
Service centric mobility management for improving Quality of Experience toward future mobile network

In future mobile networks, we anticipate the massive use of small cells to meet the high demand of wireless resources. With such a mobile network infrastructure, we expect very frequent handovers during communication, and these degrade application layer performance. To overcome this problem, we propose a service centric handover scheme. With this scheme, a network recelves information from the application service of a user and utilizes it to determine when and where to make a handover. In particular, we illustrate our proposal based on a cloud-based driving navigation service and describe how information from the service can be integrated into the C-plane architecture of a mobile network architecture. We show the effectiveness of our proposal in the case of a single piece of user equipment using an ns-3 simulator.
Developmental action perception for manipulative interaction

The paper describes a developmental framework of action-driven perception in anthropomorphic robots. The key idea of the framework is that action develops the agent's perception of the own body and its action. In this framework, a robot voluntarily generates movements, and then develops the ability to perceive its own body and the effects of action primitives. The robot, moreover, demonstrates manipulative actions composed of the learned primitives, and characterizes the actions based on their sensory effects. After learning, the robot can predictively recognize humans' manipulative actions with cross-modal recovery of unavailable sensory information and reproduce the recognized actions. We evaluated the proposed framework in experiments with a real robot. In the experiments, we achieved developmental recognition of human actions as well as their reproduction.
Teacher Effects on Complex Cognitive Skills and Social-Emotional Competencies

I exploit the random assignment of class rosters in the MET Project to estimate teacher effects on students’ performance on complex open-ended tasks in math and reading, as well as their growth mindset, grit, and effort in class. I find large teacher effects across this expanded set of outcomes, but weak relationships between these effects and performance measures used in current teacher evaluation systems including value-added to state standardized tests. These findings suggest teacher effectiveness is multidimensional, and high-stakes evaluation decisions are only weakly informed by the degree to which teachers are developing students’ complex cognitive skills and social-emotional competencies.
Mismatch between Entrepreneurs and Their Firms: The Role of Cognitive Fit/Misfit

(WP 10/04 Clave pdf) This paper examines the relationship between cognitive fit/misfit, and burnout, satisfaction, and intentions to exit the firm in entrepreneurs. Given the disordinal (crossed) nature of the significant interactions, the results indicate when cognitive misfit in entrepreneurs (based on their dominant decision-making approach) is more likely lead them to experience negative outcomes, given the nature and degree of firm structure.
Comprehensive assessment of the expression of the SWI/SNF complex defines two distinct prognostic subtypes of ovarian clear cell carcinoma

Somatic mutations in the ARID1A tumor-suppressor gene have been frequently identified in ovarian clear cell carcinoma (CCC) cases. BAF250a encoded by ARID1A is a member of the SWI/SNF complex, but the expression and mutation status of other SWI/SNF subunits have not been explored. The current study aimed to elucidate the biological and clinical significance of the SWI/SNF complex subunits, by assessing the expression and mutation status of SWI/SNF subunits, and distinct genomic aberrations associated with their expression. Of 82 CCC specimens, 38 samples presented no BAF250a expression, and 50 samples exhibited the loss of at least one subunit of the SWI/SNF complex. Cases which lack at least one SWI/SNF complex component exhibited significantly more advanced stages, faster growth and stronger nuclear atypia compared with SWI/SNF-positive samples (p<0.05). Although BAF250a expression is not related to poor prognosis, the group presenting the loss of at least one SWI/SNF complex subunit exhibited significantly shorter overall and progression-free survivals (p<0.05). A multivariate analysis suggested that the expression status of the SWI/SNF complex serves as an independent prognostic factor (p<0.005). The cases positive for all SWI/SNF subunits demonstrated significantly greater DNA copy number alterations, such as amplification at chromosomes 8q.24. 3 and 20q.13. 2-20q.13. 33 (including ZNF217) and deletion at chromosomes 13q12.11-13q14.3 (including RB1), 17p13.2-17p13.1 (including TP53) and 19p13.2-19p13.12. In conclusion, the CCCs exhibiting the loss of one or multiple SWI/SNF complex subunits demonstrated aggressive behaviors and poor prognosis, whereas the CCCs with positive expression for all SWI/SNF components presented more copy number alterations and a favorable prognosis.
Outsourcing Manufacturing: Secure Price‐Masking Mechanisms for Purchasing Component Parts

This paper develops and tests a privacy‐preserving business process that supports the selection of a contract manufacturer by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), and the determination of whether the OEM or the chosen contract manufacturer will procure each of the components to be used in the manufacture of the OEM's branded product. Our “secure price‐masking (SPM)” technology contributes to procurement theory and practice in four significant ways: First, it preserves the privacy of every party's individual component prices. Second, SPM assures that the contract manufacturers will bid their own private purchase cost (i.e., not add a margin to their cost). Third, SPM is not invertible; i.e., none of the participants can “solve” for the private inputs of any other participant based on its own inputs and the outputs provided to it by SPM. Fourth, the posterior distribution of any other participant's private inputs is practically indistinguishable from its prior distribution. We also describe the results of a proof‐of‐concept implementation.
Molecular Signatures Associated with HCV-Induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Liver Metastasis

Hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) are a heterogeneous group of tumors that differ in risk factors and genetic alterations. In Italy, particularly Southern Italy, chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection represents the main cause of HCC. Using high-density oligoarrays, we identified consistent differences in gene-expression between HCC and normal liver tissue. Expression patterns in HCC were also readily distinguishable from those associated with liver metastases. To characterize molecular events relevant to hepatocarcinogenesis and identify biomarkers for early HCC detection, gene expression profiling of 71 liver biopsies from HCV-related primary HCC and corresponding HCV-positive non-HCC hepatic tissue, as well as gastrointestinal liver metastases paired with the apparently normal peri-tumoral liver tissue, were compared to 6 liver biopsies from healthy individuals. Characteristic gene signatures were identified when normal tissue was compared with HCV-related primary HCC, corresponding HCV-positive non-HCC as well as gastrointestinal liver metastases. Pathway analysis classified the cellular and biological functions of the genes differentially expressed as related to regulation of gene expression and post-translational modification in HCV-related primary HCC; cellular Growth and Proliferation, and Cell-To-Cell Signaling and Interaction in HCV-related non HCC samples; Cellular Growth and Proliferation and Cell Cycle in metastasis. Also characteristic gene signatures were identified of HCV-HCC progression for early HCC diagnosis. Conclusions A diagnostic molecular signature complementing conventional pathologic assessment was identified.
Spatially-coupled MacKay-Neal codes universally achieve the symmetric information rate of arbitrary generalized erasure channels with memory

This paper investigates the belief propagation decoding of spatially-coupled MacKay-Neal (SC-MN) codes over erasure channels with memory. We show that SC-MN codes with bounded degree universally achieve the symmetric information rate (SIR) of arbitrary erasure channels with memory. We mean by universality the following sense: the sender does not need to know the whole channel statistics but needs to know only the SIR, while the receiver estimates the transmitted codewords from channel statistics and received words. The proof is based on the potential function.