Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Repairing Bad Co-Segmentation Using Its Quality Evaluation and Segment Propagation

In this paper, we improve co-segmentation performance by repairing bad segments based on their quality evaluation and segment propagation. Starting from co-segmentation results of the existing co-segmentation method, we first perform co-segmentation quality evaluation to score each segment. Good segments can be filter out based on the scores. Then, a propagation method is designed to transfer good segments to the rest bad ones so as to repair the bad segmentation. In our method, the quality evaluation is implemented by the measurements of foreground consistency and segment completeness. Two propagation methods such as global propagation and local region propagation are then defined to achieve the more accurate propagation. We verify the proposed method using four state-of-the-arts co-segmentation methods and two public datasets such as ICoseg dataset and MSRC dataset. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed quality evaluation method. Furthermore, the proposed method can significantly improve the performance of existing methods with larger intersection-over-union score values.
In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Puerto Rico June pages Ego Motion Estimation Using Optical Flow Fields Observed from Multiple Cameras

In this paper we consider a multi camera vision system mounted on a moving object in a static three dimensional environment By using the motion ow elds seen by all of the cameras an algorithm which does not need to solve the point correspondence prob lem among the cameras is proposed to estimate the D ego motion parameters of the moving object Our ex periments have shown that using multiple optical ow elds obtained from di erent cameras can be very help ful for ego motion estimation
Four Earplugs in Search of a Rating System

Objective: The performance of four insert earplugs was evaluated by determining the Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) and the Subject‐Fit Noise Reduction Rating [NRR(SF)]. The NRR and NRR(SF) were calculated from real‐ear attenuation at threshold (REAT) data collected using the experimenter‐fit protocol described in the now‐rescinded ANSI S3.19‐1974 (American National Standards Institute, 1974) and the subject‐fit protocol of the recently revised ANSI S12.6‐1997 (American National Standards Institute, 1997) standards for REAT measurement. Design: A comparison of the experimenter‐fit and subject‐fit REAT performance was conducted using four pools of subjects, one pool per protector. Each device was tested with at least 20 subjects, the minimum size necessary to estimate the NRR(SF) for an earplug. The REAT was measured with thirdoctave narrowband noise stimuli for center frequencies at 0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 3.15, 4, 6.3, and 8 kHz. The REAT means and standard deviations were compared with the manufacturer data. Results: This study showed that the NRR(SF) is typically lower than the NRR and that the NRR(SF) is not well‐predicted by the NRR derating schemes recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Conclusion: The difference between the present NRR on hearing protector labels and the NRR(SF) is sufficiently large and unpredictable enough to render the application of derating schemes meaningless even though these schemes attempt to account for the difference between the laboratory and realworld outcomes. The only way to provide a protector noise rating that is predictive of a real‐world outcome is to retest the protector according to the subject‐fit method of ANSI S12.6‐1997 (American National Standards Institute, 1997).
Improving Word Alignment by Adjusting Chinese Word Segmentation

Most of the current Chinese word alignment tasks often adopt word segmentation systems firstly to identify words. However, word-mismatching problems exist between languages and will degrade the performance of word alignment. In this paper, we propose two unsupervised methods to adjust word segmentation to make the tokens 1-to-1 mapping as many as possible between the corresponding sentences. The first method is learning affix rules from a bilingual terminology bank. The second method is using the concept of impurity measure motivated by the decision tree. Our experiments showed that both of the adjusting methods improve the performance of word alignment significantly.
Crinkle: A heuristic mapping algorithm for network on chip

In this paper, a heuristic mapping algorithm which maps tasks, using priority lists and the crinkle moving pattern is proposed. To evaluate this algorithm, a set of real (i.e. Video Object Plan Decoder) and random applications have been used and the results have been compared. By reducing the number of hops between IP cores, the energy consumption and the completion time of the application (time which all tasks in the task graph execute wholly) have been optimized. Compared to other mapping algorithms, the algorithm execution time (due to its low complexity) is considerably lower.
CONTACT DERMATITIS X

Pharmacologists determine the systemic and toxic properties of drugs and cosmetics but their ability to irritate and sensitize the skin is the concern of the dermatologist. Cutaneous investigations, to assess these effects, have been described and modified during the past 25 years and still remain unsatisfactory, mainly because the conditions of the tests may differ so radically from the conditions of normal application. It is however important to know the potential of chemicals to irritate and sensitize the skin and this can be revealed by stressing them in maximization tests but it is difficult to translate this information into the hazard such chemicals may constitute in the much milder conditions of every-day use. With composite preparations it is necessary to determine not only the irritating and sensitizing potential of each component but that of the whole product, as these may not be the same. Although an irritant effect or a sensitizing risk may be acceptable in an effective therapeutic preparation the same disadvantage would be quite unjustified in a cosmetic.
Microbially Induced Flotation of Galena and Quartz from Pyrite

Selective separation of pyrite from galena and quartz was achieved through microbiologically induced flotation in presence of Bacillus subtilis. B. subtilis functions as a depressant for pyrite while it promotes the flotation of galena and quartz. Bacterial extracellular protein (EP) was isolated and the protein profile of bacterial cells grown in presence and absence of minerals established.
A Software Package for Lie Algebraic Computations

The paper presents a computer algebra package that facilitates Lie algebraic symbolic computations required in the solution of a variety of problems, such as the solution of right-invariant differential equations evolving on Lie groups. Lie theory is a powerful tool, helpful in the analysis and design of modern nonlinear control laws, nonlinear filters, and the study of particle dynamics. The practical application of Lie theory often results in highly complex symbolic expressions that are difficult to handle efficiently without the aid of a computer software tool. The aim of the package is to facilitate and encourage further research relying on Lie algebraic computations.
Correlation Properties of Large Scale Parameters from 2.66 GHz Multi-Site Macro Cell Measurements

Multi-site measurements for urban macro cells at 2.66 GHz are performed with three base stations and one mobile station. In order to analyze the correlation properties of large scale parameters, we split up the routes into subsets, where it can be assumed that wide-sense stationarity (WSS) applies. The autocorrelation distance and correlation properties of large scale parameters for each link are analyzed. By comparing these properties with the corresponding parameters from the COST 2100 and WINNER II models, we can see that the measured autocorrelation distance of the shadow fading as well the autocorrelation distance of delay spread have similar properties as in the two models. The shadow fading and delay spread from the same link are negatively correlated and match the two models well. Based on the WSS subsets, we can see that large scale parameters for different links can be correlated, also when two BSs are far away from each other. In those cases the correlation of different links tends to be positively correlated when both base stations are in the same direction compared to the movement of the MS, otherwise the two links are usually negatively correlated.
Fuzzy Counter Propagation Neural Network Control for a Class of Nonlinear Dynamical Systems

Fuzzy Counter Propagation Neural Network (FCPN) controller design is developed, for a class of nonlinear dynamical systems. In this process, the weight connecting between the instar and outstar, that is, input-hidden and hidden-output layer, respectively, is adjusted by using Fuzzy Competitive Learning (FCL). FCL paradigm adopts the principle of learning, which is used to calculate Best Matched Node (BMN) which is proposed. This strategy offers a robust control of nonlinear dynamical systems. FCPN is compared with the existing network like Dynamic Network (DN) and Back Propagation Network (BPN) on the basis of Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Square Error (MSE), Best Fit Rate (BFR), and so forth. It envisages that the proposed FCPN gives better results than DN and BPN. The effectiveness of the proposed FCPN algorithms is demonstrated through simulations of four nonlinear dynamical systems and multiple input and single output (MISO) and a single input and single output (SISO) gas furnace Box-Jenkins time series data.
Personality test based on eye tracking techniques

This paper presents an original research on eye tracking based personality test. To deal with the unavoidable human deception and inaccurate self-assessment during subjective psychological test, eye tracking techniques are utilized to reveal the participant's cognitive procedure during test. A non-intrusive real-time eye tracking based questionnaire system is developed for Chinese military recruitment personality test. A pilot study is carried out on 12 qualified samples. The preliminary result of experiment indicates a strong correlation between the participant's fixation features and test results. And such kind of relationship can be developed as an assistive indicator or a predictive parameter to traditional psychological test result to highly improve its reliability and validity in future applications.
A Unitary ESPRIT algorithm for carrier frequency offset estimation

This article presents a low-complexity parametric algorithm for the estimation of the carrier frequency offset (CFO) in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems. The proposed algorithm is equivalent to the Unitary ESPRIT algorithm, originally devised for estimating the direction-of-arrival of a wavefront, now applied to the CFO scenario. It is verified that the proposed algorithm reduces the overall computational complexity in around 40%, while sustaining the error-rate performance achieved by the standard ESPRIT algorithm.
Resting Energy Expenditure and Body Mass Changes in Women During Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer

Weight gain is a commonly reported side effect of adjuvant chemotherapy. A change in resting energy expenditure during treatment has been a suggested mechanism for weight gain. We prospectively measured resting energy expenditure, weight change, and body composition (dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry) in 10 women undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer. There was no change in resting energy expenditure across cycles of chemotherapy (P =.78) or from baseline to the end of treatment (1,189.68 ± 80.27 vs 1,205.76 ± 56.71 kcal/d; P =.74). Overall, participants did not gain weight across treatment. However, there was an overall trend toward weight gain (66.3 ± 5.1 vs 68.2 ± 5.0 kg; P =.09), and participants did show an increase in total fat mass (24.2 ± 3.8 vs 26.5 ± 3.2 kg; P =.04), whereas muscle mass remained the same. Although no change in resting energy expenditure was seen, the observed increase in total fat mass is consistent with a decrease in physical activity level commonly reported with adjuvant chemotherapy treatment of breast cancer, and these body composition changes may have important health implications for survivors.
A Functional Decision Support System for the Optimisation of Dam Operations

Operational procedures for large, multi-purpose reservoirs have often been derived through a fundamental analysis by first principles. These principles have gradually been tested and refined through actual dam operation. While the operational procedures developed in this way may meet all the requisite criteria for dam operation, there are often significant opportunities for refinement of rules and procedures to improve operational efficiencies and storage yield. This is particularly pronounced for reservoir systems operated with multiple, conflicting objectives. This paper demonstrates a functional analysis and decision support framework for the optimisation of dam operations. Operational improvements are demonstrated on two case studies for multi-purpose reservoirs involving hydropower generation, flood mitigation, irrigation supply and environmental flows. Moreover, a description is given of the analyses undertaken to improve reservoir rule curves and the operational systems configured for real-time forecast optimisation.
PoweRock: Power Modeling and Flexible Dynamic Power Management for Many-Core Architectures

Energy-efficient design for green high-performance computing (HPC) is a formidable mission for today’s computer scientists. Dynamic power management (DPM) is a key enabling technology involved. While DPM can have various goals for different application scenarios (e.g., enforcing an upper bound on power consumption or optimizing energy usage under a performance-loss constraint), existing DPM solutions are generally designed to meet only one goal and not adaptable to changes in optimization objectives. This paper proposes a novel flexible DPM approach based on a profile-guided dynamic voltage/frequency scaling (DVFS) scheme to meet the different goals. Our contributions include 1) an accurate power prediction model for many-core architectures; 2) a new profiling method for (distributed) shared-memory parallel applications to flexibly determine the optimal frequency and voltage for different phases of the execution; and 3) a hierarchical domain-aware power control design boosting the DPM system scalability for many-core chips. We implement the approach into a working library dubbed PoweRock and evaluate it on the Intel SCC port of the Barrelfish operating system. Experimental results obtained from several well-known benchmarks show that PoweRock attains significant energy and energy-delay product (EDP) improvements (average: 37.1% and 25.5%; best case: 64.0% and 65.4%, respectively) over a static power scheme.
The amino-terminal domain of yeast U1-70K is necessary and sufficient for function

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae SNP1 gene encodes a protein that shares 30% amino acid identity with the mammalian U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particle protein 70K (U1-70K). We have demonstrated that yeast strains in which the SNP1 gene was disrupted are viable but exhibit greatly increased doubling times and severe temperature sensitivity. Furthermore, snp1-null strains are defective in pre-mRNA splicing. We have tested deletion alleles of SNP1 for their ability to complement these phenotypes. We found that the highly conserved RNA recognition motif consensus domain of Snp1 is not required for complementation of the snp1-null growth or splicing defects nor for the in vivo association with the U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particle. However, the amino-terminal domain of Snp1, less strongly conserved, is necessary and sufficient for complementation.
The importance of the viable but non-culturable state in human bacterial pathogens

Many bacterial species have been found to exist in a viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state since its discovery in 1982. VBNC cells are characterized by a loss of culturability on routine agar, which impairs their detection by conventional plate count techniques. This leads to an underestimation of total viable cells in environmental or clinical samples, and thus poses a risk to public health. In this review, we present recent findings on the VBNC state of human bacterial pathogens. The characteristics of VBNC cells, including the similarities and differences to viable, culturable cells and dead cells, and different detection methods are discussed. Exposure to various stresses can induce the VBNC state, and VBNC cells may be resuscitated back to culturable cells under suitable stimuli. The conditions that trigger the induction of the VBNC state and resuscitation from it are summarized and the mechanisms underlying these two processes are discussed. Last but not least, the significance of VBNC cells and their potential influence on human health are also reviewed.
On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough

This paper seeks to better understand the historical origins of current differences in norms and beliefs about the appropriate role of women in society. We test the hypothesis that traditional agricultural practices influenced the historical gender division of labor and the evolution and persistence of gender norms. We find that, consistent with existing hypotheses, the descendants of societies that traditionally practiced plough agriculture, today have lower rates of female participation in the workplace, in politics, and in entrepreneurial activities, as well as a greater prevalence of attitudes favoring gender inequality. We identify the causal impact of traditional plough use by exploiting variation in the historical geo-climatic suitability of the environment for growing crops that differentially benefited from the adoption of the plough. Our IV estimates, based on this variation, support the findings from OLS. To isolate the importance of cultural transmission as a mechanism, we examine female labor force participation of second-generation immigrants living within the US.
Enabling 3D online shopping with affordable depth scanned models

Online shopping systems nowadays are constructed with the capability of displaying text and 2D images to the customers. Although it is enough for the purpose of exchanging product information between sellers and buyers, the plain and dull shopping experience is not really appreciated. With the recent advancement of 3D technologies in the web environment, we can enhance such an experience with 3D visualized products. However, the creation of 3D content is a major challenge in realizing a 3D enabled shopping system. The high cost of 3D scanning devices inhibits the popularity of scanned 3D objects on the web and related applications. Therefore, one major targets of our system is to provide a low cost 3D scanning solution suitable for naïve web users. We exploit the Kinect device, which is a low-cost and fast depth sensor with color, in the development of a 3D scanning system. With an integration of a marker-based tracking system to estimate the current view angle of Kinect sensor during depth acquisition, the obtained depth data can reconstruct the 3D model by a preliminary coordinate frame alignment and a registration of all point clouds. The whole process of capturing, storing, uploading, compressing and displaying 3D models of products on web application is done with minimal user involvements. The introduction of attractive and fashionable 3D product on the web will gain significant attention from customers and evolve habits and traditions in e-commerce, especially for C2C business, in which sellers can promote their goods for sale with scanned 3D models.
Polymerization of Peptide Polymers for Biomaterial Applications

The term biomaterial, as defined by a consensus conference on Definitions in Biomaterial Science, is a material intended to interface with biological systems to evaluate, treat, augment or replace any tissue, organ of function of the body. [1] Biomaterials range from the simple embedded material to complex functional devices. There are three primary types of biomaterials: 1) metallic, based on metallic bonds, 2) ceramic, based on ionic bonds, and 3) polymeric, based on covalent bonds. [2] Polymers that are mechanical resistance, degradable, permeable, soluble and transparent, have been used in both simple and complex biomaterial applications. [3-5] The mechanical properties of poly(esters), poly(amides), poly(amidoamines), poly(methyl methacrylate), and poly(ethyleneimine), are particularly well suited (Table 1). These polymeric materials have given rise to first and secondgeneration biomaterials. [6] ‘Next’-generation biomaterials will have less toxic degradation products, undergo hierarchal assemble to form supramolecular structures, and maintain a sustainable design. The degradation products of synthetic polymers are of acidic and cannot be metabolized biological systems. This can result in a bioaccumulation of these products offsetting the homeostatic balance of the system. The production of synthetic polymers requires bulk separation and crystallization, which often inhibits the formation of higher ordered structures. Finally, the source materials for these polymers are petrochemicals. The dependency on petrochemicals presents both environmental and sustainability concerns. The development of materials that overcome these limitations would be a significant advancement in the field of biomaterials.
A Centrality Measure for Electrical Networks

We derive a measure of "electrical centrality" for AC power networks, which describes the structure of the network as a function of its electrical topology rather than its physical topology. We compare our centrality measure to conventional measures of network structure using the IEEE 300-bus network. We find that when measured electrically, power networks appear to have a scale-free network structure. Thus, unlike previous studies of the structure of power grids, we find that power networks have a number of highly-connected "hub" buses. This result, and the structure of power networks in general, is likely to have important implications for the reliability and security of power networks.
Hybrid Immune Algorithm with intelligent recombination

In this study, we introduce a hybrid immune algorithm based on the intelligent recombination operator and clonal selection algorithm. The intelligent recombination operator uses orthogonal experimental design for factor analysis which identifies the potential gene segments from two individuals to improve their antigenic affinities. The new algorithm, termed as Hybrid Immune Algorithm with Recombination (HIAR), can avoid the decrease of gene diversity in evolutionary process. It evaluates the hamming distance before recombination and uses the two individuals which have the largest hamming distance between each other to implement intelligent recombination operator. It is shown empirically that HIAR has better performance in solving benchmark functions as compared with Intelligent Evolutionary Algorithm and Clonal Selection Algorithm.