Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhanced visual scene understanding through human-robot dialog

We propose a novel human-robot-interaction framework for robust visual scene understanding. Without any a-priori knowledge about the objects, the task of the robot is to correctly enumerate how many of them are in the scene and segment them from the background. Our approach builds on top of state-of-the-art computer vision methods, generating object hypotheses through segmentation. This process is combined with a natural dialog system, thus including a 'human in the loop' where, by exploiting the natural conversation of an advanced dialog system, the robot gains knowledge about ambiguous situations. We present an entropy-based system allowing the robot to detect the poorest object hypotheses and query the user for arbitration. Based on the information obtained from the human-robot dialog, the scene segmentation can be re-seeded and thereby improved. We present experimental results on real data that show an improved segmentation performance compared to segmentation without interaction.
Macroinvertebrates inhabiting the tank leaf terrestrial and epiphyte bromeliads at Reserva Adolpho Ducke, Manaus, Amazonas

The aim of this work was to investigate the diversity of macroinvertebrates and also verify if the abundance and diversity of Diptera were influenced by the abiotic factors. The samples were collected from the epiphytic and terrestrial bromeliads G. brasiliensis (1 and 3m) in wet and dry seasons at Reserva Adolpho Ducke analyzed total of 144 samples were analyzed from a total of 15,238 individuals collected. These conatined 14,097 insects and, among these, 8,258 were immature Diptera, represented by eight most abundant families: Chironomidae, Ceratopogonidae and Culicidae. The relationship of Diptera diversity was influenced by the seasons and stratifications (p= 0.01); the abundance was influenced by the volume of water (p= 0.02) and the relationship between the season and volume of water in the terrestrial bromeliads was significant (p= 0.01). This study represented the first contribution to knowledge of community of macroinvertebrates associated to bromeliads G. brasiliensis in Central Amazon.
Domain Specific Language for Geometric Relations between Rigid Bodies targeted to robotic applications

This paper presents a DSL for geometric relations between rigid bodies such as relative position, orientation, pose, linear velocity, angular velocity, and twist. The DSL is the formal model of the recently proposed semantics for the standardization of geometric relations between rigid bodies, referred to as `geometric semantics'. This semantics explicitly states the coordinate-invariant properties and operations, and, more importantly, all the choices that are made in coordinate representations of these geometric relations. This results in a set of concrete suggestions for standardizing terminology and notation, allowing programmers to write fully unambiguous software interfaces, including automatic checks for semantic correctness of all geometric operations on rigid-body coordinate representations. The DSL is implemented in two different ways: an external DSL in Xcore and an internal DSL in Prolog. Besides defining a grammar and operations, the DSL also implements constraints. In the Xcore model, the Object Constraint Language language is used, while in the Prolog model, the constraint are natively modelled in Prolog. This paper discusses the implemented DSL and the tools developed on top of this DSL. In particular an editor, checking the semantic constraints and providing semantic meaningful errors during editing is proposed.
Evaluating method of effectiveness of light energy's utilization based on service requirement

Energy conservation is becoming more and more important due to the shortage of energy sources. Because of the wide application of light, energy conservation of lighting is a very important issue to be studied. However, the evaluating method of the effectiveness of light energy's utilization, which is now widely adapted, concerns only about the conversion rate of energy. The amount of light energy which must be dissipated when a certain goal is to be met under a certain situation is ignored. As a result, a new evaluating method is introduced in this paper, which is based on the energy demand in actual situation. Firstly the inevitable energy consumption of lighting is found out with the help of energy flow analysis. Then the definition of energy requirement of lighting is given and the parameters which affect the energy demand of service of lighting have been confirmed. Based on this definition and parameters, an analysis model and the method to calculating the energy demand of service are provided. Finally redundancy of energy consumption is introduced to evaluate the lighting system.
Sparse spatial filter optimization for EEG channel reduction in brain-computer interface

Spatial filters are useful in discriminating different classes of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals such as those corresponding to motor activities. In the case of discriminating two classes of signals, EEG signals are projected onto a space where one class of signals is maximally scattered and the other is minimally scattered. This paper finds a minimal number of electrodes that can achieve the discrimination. Applying many electrodes is tedious and time-consuming. To reduce the number of electrodes, we propose inducing sparsity in the spatial filter. We reformulate the optimization problem in Common Spatial Patterns by introducing an ^i-norm regularization term. Experimental results on five subjects show that the proposed method significantly reduces the number of electrodes while generating features with good discriminatory information. The number of electrodes on average, is reduced to 11% (of the 118 electrodes) while the average drop in the classification accuracy is only 3.8%.
A Dynamic Theory for Sustaining Process Improvement Teams in Product Development

Process improvement has become an imperative for businesses seeking competitive advantage. However, firms often experience difficulties in both gaining acceptance for improvement programs and sustaining them, particularly in product development. We describe a theory to explain the initiation and sustainability of process improvement teams in product development. The theory integrates the structural elements of the firm with the dynamics of commitment and the improvement process. Since improvement activity takes time away from design work, the short-run effect of improvement effort is an increase in work pressure and a drop in organizational performance. This worse before better dynamic combined with the organizational and technical complexity of product development creates unanticipated feedbacks which can lead to the failure of improvement programs, even when the teams are highly motivated. The paper integrates theories from product development, teams, performance, motivation, and process improvement literatures and is grounded in an in-depth study of a successful product development improvement initiative undertaken by a global telecommunications equipment manufacturer. Implications for theory and practice are considered.
Six Networks on a Universal Neuromorphic Computing Substrate

In this study, we present a highly configurable neuromorphic computing substrate and use it for emulating several types of neural networks. At the heart of this system lies a mixed-signal chip, with analog implementations of neurons and synapses and digital transmission of action potentials. Major advantages of this emulation device, which has been explicitly designed as a universal neural network emulator, are its inherent parallelism and high acceleration factor compared to conventional computers. Its configurability allows the realization of almost arbitrary network topologies and the use of widely varied neuronal and synaptic parameters. Fixed-pattern noise inherent to analog circuitry is reduced by calibration routines. An integrated development environment allows neuroscientists to operate the device without any prior knowledge of neuromorphic circuit design. As a showcase for the capabilities of the system, we describe the successful emulation of six different neural networks which cover a broad spectrum of both structure and functionality.
The Susceptibilities of Respiratory Syncytial Virus to Nucleolin Receptor Blocking and Antibody Neutralization Are Dependent upon the Method of Virus Purification

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) that is propagated in cell culture is purified from cellular contaminants that can confound experimental results. A number of different purification methods have been described, including methods that utilize fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) and gradient ultracentrifugation. Thus, the constituents and experimental responses of RSV stocks purified by ultracentrifugation in sucrose and by FPLC were analyzed and compared by infectivity assay, Coomassie stain, Western blot, mass spectrometry, immuno-transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and ImageStream flow cytometry. The FPLC-purified RSV had more albumin contamination, but there was less evidence of host-derived exosomes when compared to ultracentrifugation-purified RSV as detected by Western blot and mass spectrometry for the exosome markers superoxide dismutase [Cu-Zn] (SOD1) and the tetraspanin CD63. Although the purified virus stocks were equally susceptible to nucleolin-receptor blocking by the DNA aptamer AS1411, the FPLC-purified RSV was significantly less susceptible to anti-RSV polyclonal antibody neutralization; there was 69% inhibition (p = 0.02) of the sucrose ultracentrifugation-purified RSV, 38% inhibition (p = 0.03) of the unpurified RSV, but statistically ineffective neutralization in the FPLC-purified RSV (22% inhibition; p = 0.30). The amount of RSV neutralization of the purified RSV stocks was correlated with anti-RSV antibody occupancy on RSV particles observed by immuno-TEM. RSV purified by different methods alters the stock composition and morphological characteristics of virions that can lead to different experimental responses.
Spray-on PEDOT:PSS and P3HT:PCBM Thin Films for Polymer Solar Cells

PEDOT:PSS electron-blocking layer, and PEDOT:PSS + P3HT:PCBM stacked layers are fabricated by ultrasonic atomization and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical profilometry. The measured thicknesses based on SEM and optical profilometry are quite different, indicating the incapability of measurement techniques for non-uniform thin films. The thickness measurements are compared against theoretical estimations and a qualitative agreement is observed. Results indicate that using a multiple pass fabrication strategy results in a more uniform thin film. It was also found that the film characteristics are a strong function of solution concentration and spraying passes, and a weak function of substrate speed. Film thickness increases with solution concentration but despite the prediction of theory, the increase is not linear, indicating a change in the film porosity and density, which can affect physical and opto-electrical properties. Overall, while spray coating is a viable fabrication process for a wide range of solar cells, film characteristics can be easily altered by a change in process parameters.
Considerations for accurate voxel positioning on a rotating-screen volumetric display system

Volumetric 3D displays are those in which physically three-dimensional images are generated within a display volume rather than upon a stationary surface. In many cases the display volume is created by the rapid rotation of a target screen and the images are created by addressing the screen with an electron or laser beam. When part of the screen lies at a very oblique angle to the beam, however, the image quality will suffer owing to imprecision in voxel placement and the elongation of the voxels themselves. The regions within which these effects are unacceptable are termed dead zones, and they are elucidated quantitatively for the optical system of a volumetric display prototype known as the Cathode Ray Sphere.
Optimal design of resonant enhanced quantum dot infrared photodetector based on metal-insulator-metal microcavity

The design of quantum dot infrared photodetector (QDIP) based on metal-insulator-metal (MIM) microcavity in which the quantum dot (QD) is sandwiched between a planar metallic film and a metallic stripe is reported. By a finite difference time-domain (FDTD) method, the light coupling efficiency spectra and enhancement factor are numerically calculated. The results exhibit that the total electric field concentrated in metal-metal region is strongly enhanced when the resonant frequency of microcavity is equal to the QD’s peak response frequency. This enhancement effect mainly originates from the resonant coupling of incident photons into microcavity forming the surface plasmonic mode. The optimization of structural parameters for MIM microcavity is discussed, demonstrating an optimal structure of quantum dot infrared photodetector with the coupling efficiency improved nearly 7 times compared with conventional mesa QDIPs. So, it is deduced that a favorable performance of device such as high quantum efficiency and infrared responsivity is possible. Finally, the detector shows the potential application in the infrared sensing and imaging, as well as integrating with other electronic and optoelectronic device for the sub-wavelength size.
Mechanisms and limits of contrast in optical imaging of cancer

The mechanisms of optical contrast in biological tissues and the limits of contrast are discussed. Some cancers develop as cellular masses which displace normal fibrous tissue or stroma, yielding a net drop in scattering properties. Some cancer may be more fibrous than normal tissues yielding a net increase in scattering. Cancers sometimes develop increased vascularity which yields a net increase in absorption. Another measure is fluorescence, either autofluorescence or dye-enhanced fluorescence. This paper considers the limits of resolution when optically characterizing a small spherical object within a turbid tissue. The ability to discriminate a small object with a strongly increased absorption vs a larger object with a slight increase in absorption is tested, using frequency-domain light transport with 3-GHz modulation of the light source. The results suggest that an object about 1/10 the size of the tissue within which it is embedded can be distinguished by a pair of measurements: the phase difference (Delta) P and the amplitude ratio A/A0.
Synthesis and Applications of Lanthanide-Doped Nanocrystals

Lanthanide (Ln3+)-doped nanocrystals continue to receive significant interest due to the large number of applications in display devices, optical communication, solid-state lasers, catalysis, and biological labeling. It is well known that the Ln3+-doped nanocrystals can exhibit unique optical properties such as long fluorescence lifetime, large Stokes shift, single to multicolor emission and good luminescence efficiency combined with high photochemical stability of the hosts. Nano-sized phosphorescent or optoelectronic devices usually exhibit novel properties, depending on their structures, shapes, and sizes, such as tunable wavelengths, rapid responses, and high efficiencies. In terms of the mechanism of luminescence, the luminescence of Ln3+ ions can be divided into down-conversion and up-conversion emission processes. The down-conversion process is the conversion of higher-energy photons into lower-energy photons, which often requires two main components, an inorganic matrix (known as the host) and activated Ln3+ doping ions (activators). Among all the Ln3+-based host materials observed to date including oxides, phosphates, vanadates, oxides, and so on. The optical properties of Ln3+-doped nanocrystals depend critically on the hosts in which the Ln3+ reside, and thus it is important to seek for suitable host matrices to achieve desirable luminescence of Ln3+. In this review, we focus on the most recent advances in the development of the synthesis and applications of Ln3+-doped nanocrystals.
Better Late Than Never? On the Dynamics of Online Regulation of Sadness Using Distraction and Cognitive Reappraisal

Real-life emotion regulation often occurs at some point after an emotion-triggering event (ETE) has been introduced, but most previous research has involved regulation before or after the ETE. In a series of experiments, the authors examined online regulation via distraction and cognitive reappraisal by manipulating the strategy initiation point in sadness-evoking films. Distraction was effective even when initiated late, presumably because it involves diluting the ETE contents by mixing them with a nonsad input. By contrast, reappraisal was less effective when initiated late, suggesting a possible point of no return for this strategy: Adopting a detached view late in the ETE may be difficult because it involves continued focus on the ETE and hence requires overcoming a previously formed tendency of identifying with the emotional content.
The impact of parsing accuracy on syntax-based SMT

In statistical machine translation (SMT), syntax-based models generally rely on the syntactic information provided by syntactic parsers in source language, target language or both of them. However, whether or how parsers impact the performance of syntax-based systems is still an open issue in the MT field. In this paper, we make an attempt to explore answers to this issue, and empirically investigate the impact of parsing accuracy on MT performance in a state-of-the-art syntax-based system. Our study shows that syntax-based system is not very sensitive to the parsing accuracy of parsers used in building MT systems.
Some Engineering Properties of Plantago major L. (Barhang) Seed

Due to medical and dietary properties of the Plantago Major L. seed, it is necessary to know engineering properties in order to design post harvest equipments. Engineering properties of Plantago Major L. seed was determined only at the moisture content of 7.98% dry basis, because of it produces mucilaginous components when it is soaked in water. The average of length, width, surface area, sphericity, perimeter, roundness and aspect ratio were determined 778.9 m, 514.8m, 29.6344 × 104 m2, 0.996, 1874.8 m, 0.620 and 1.53 respectively by means of image processing technique. The average thousands seeds mass, bulk density, true density and porosity were 147 mg, 701.8 kg/m3, 1283 kg/m3 and 45.3% respectively. Coefficient of friction was measured on the 5 surfaces of plywood, rubber, glass, fiberglass and galvanized sheet and the average value were 0.51, 0.46, 0.36, 0.35 and 0.33 respectively. Angle of emptying repose and angle of filling repose were 36.1˚ and 18.1˚ respectively and terminal velocity was determined 1.86 m/s. Keywords: Plantago Major L. seed, Dimensions, Density, Angle of repose, Coefficient of friction
Two-Dimensional Gel Electrophoresis Reveals Differential Protein Expression Between Individual Daphnia

Analysis of individual genetic variation is paramount to understanding how organisms and communities respond to changes in the environment and requires a model system with well-developed molecular resources and a solid foundation of ecological knowledge. Traditional genetic model systems (E. coli, yeast, fly, worm, and mouse) have served as workhorses in elucidating virtually all of the knowledge in modern molecular biology. While these systems were chosen for their robustness in laboratory studies, virtually nothing is known about their life histories in their native environment. By contrast, newmodel systems, which have typically been studied in depth, from an ecological perspective are severely limited in regards to their molecular resources.
Evolutionary morphing

We introduce a technique to visualize the gradual evolutionary change of the shapes of living things as a morph between known three-dimensional shapes. Given geometric computer models of anatomical shapes for some collection of specimens - here the skulls of the some of the extant members of a family of monkeys - an evolutionary tree for the group implies a hypothesis about the way in which the shape changed through time. We use a statistical model which expresses the value of some continuous variable at an internal point in the tree as a weighted average of the values at the leaves. The framework of geometric morphometrics can then be used to define a shape-space, based on the correspondences of landmark points on the surfaces, within which these weighted averages can be realized as actual surfaces. Our software provides tools for performing and visualizing such an analysis in three dimensions. Beginning with laser range scans of crania, we use our landmark editor to interactively place landmark points on the surface. We use these to compute a "tree-morph" that smoothly interpolates the shapes across the tree. Each intermediate shape in the morph is a linear combination of all of the input surfaces. We create a surface model for an intermediate shape by warping all the input meshes towards the correct shape and then blending them together. To do the blending, we compute a weighted average of their associated trivariate distance functions and then extract a surface from the resulting function. We implement this idea using the squared distance function, rather than the usual signed distance function, in a novel way.
Semantic Mapping Using Automatic Word Alignment and Semantic Role Labeling

To facilitate the application of semantics in statistical machine translation, we propose a broad-coverage predicate-argument structure mapping technique using automated resources. Our approach utilizes automatic syntactic and semantic parsers to generate Chinese-English predicate-argument structures. The system produced a many-to-many argument mapping for all PropBank argument types by computing argument similarity based on automatic word alignment, achieving 80.5% F-score on numbered argument mapping and 64.6% F-score on all arguments. By measuring predicate-argument structure similarity based on the argument mapping, and formulating the predicate-argument structure mapping problem as a linear-assignment problem, the system achieved 84.9% F-score using automatic SRL, only 3.7% F-score lower than using gold standard SRL. The mapping output covered 49.6% of the annotated Chinese predicates (which contains predicate-adjectives that often have no parallel annotations in English) and 80.7% of annotated English predicates, suggesting its potential as a valuable resource for improving word alignment and reranking MT output.
Theorem proving for prenex Gödel logic with Delta: checking validity and unsatisfiability

G\"odel logic with the projection operator Delta (G_Delta) is an important many-valued as well as intermediate logic. In contrast to classical logic, the validity and the satisfiability problems of G_Delta are not directly dual to each other. We nevertheless provide a uniform, computational treatment of both problems for prenex formulas by describing appropriate translations into sets of order clauses that can be subjected to chaining resolution. For validity a version of Herbrand's Theorem allows us to show the soundness of standard Skolemization. For satisfiability the translation involves a novel, extended Skolemization method.