Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
3 D PARTICLE TRACKING VELOCIMETRY BASED ON IMAGE AND OBJECT SPACE

The 3D Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV) offers a flexible technique for the determination of velocity fields in flows. In the past decade the successful research work performed by the Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry at ETH Zurich led to an operational and reliable measurement tool used in hydrodynamics and space applications. In cooperation with the Institute of Hydromechanics and Water Resources Management at ETH Zurich further progress has been achieved in the improvement of the existing hardand software solutions. Regarding the hardware setup the acquisition system used at the ETH Zurich was upgraded from offline to online image digitization. Major progress was made on the software implementation. Within the framework of a research project of the Swiss National Science Foundation a new spatio-temporal matching algorithm was developed, implemented and tested. In former approaches the reconstruction of the particle trajectories was done in two steps by establishing the spatial and temporal correspondences between particle images separately. The previous 3D PTV solution at the Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry applying an object space based tracking algorithm was improved in a way that the redundant information in image and object space is exploited more efficiently. The new method uses a combination of image and object space based information to establish the spatio-temporal correspondences between particle positions of consecutive time steps. The redundant image coordinate observations combined with the prediction for the next particle position should allow the establishment of spatio-temporal connections even when the velocity field has a high density or the movement of the tracer particles is fast. The use of image and object space based information in combination with a prediction of the particle motion was intended to lead to enhanced results in the velocity field determination. In the case of ambiguities particle trajectories are often interrupted for only a few time steps. With the new algorithm these gaps can be bridged reliably and even the continuation of a trajectory is possible when the redundant information is exploited in a correct way. The most important result of this work is a substantial increase of the tracking rate in 3D PTV. A reduction of the trajectory interruptions due to unsolved ambiguities can multiply the yield of long trajectories and thus the usefulness of the results of 3D PTV, which further enlarges the application potential of the technique. Compared to the former implementation the tracking efficiency has been increased up to 40 % depending on the data set. The latest developments of the algorithmic aspects of 3D PTV are described and some examples of the successful application of the method are given in this paper.
Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometric Determination of Trace Amounts of Manganese in Alloys and Biological Samples after Preconcentration with the Ion Pair of 2-(5-Bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-diethylaminophenol and Ammonium Tetraphenylborate on Microcrystalline Naphthalene or by Column Method

Manganese is quantitatively retained on 2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-diethylaminophenol (5-Br-PADAP)-ammonium tetraphenylborate with microcrystalline naphthalene or by a column method in the pH range 7.5–10.5 from large volumes of aqueous solutions of various samples. After filtration, each solid mass consisting of the manganese complex and naphthalene was dissolved with 5 ml of dimethylformamide and the metal was determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Manganese complex can alternatively be quantitatively adsorbed on ammonium tetrphenylborate-naphthalene adsorbent packed in a column and determined similarly. About 0.1 µg of manganese can be concentrated in a column from 500 ml of aqueous sample, where its concentration is as low as 0.2 ppb. Eight replicate determinations of 1.0 ppm of manganese gave a mean absorbance of 0.224 with a relative standard deviation of 1.8%. The sensitivity for 1% absorption was 19 ppb. The interference of a large number of anions and cations has been studied and the optimized conditions developed were utilized for the trace determination of manganese in various standard samples.
Shared Transcriptional Signature in Caenorhabditis elegans Dauer Larvae and Long-lived daf-2 Mutants Implicates Detoxification System in Longevity Assurance*

In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, formation of the long-lived dauer larva and adult aging are both controlled by insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 signaling. Potentially, increased adult life span in daf-2 insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor mutants results from mis-expression in the adult of a dauer larva longevity program. By using oligonucleotide microarray analysis, we identified a dauer transcriptional signature in daf-2 mutant adults. By means of a nonbiased statistical approach, we identified gene classes whose expression is altered similarly in dauers and daf-2 mutants, which represent potential determinants of life span. These include known determinants of longevity; the small heat shock protein/α-crystallins are up-regulated in both milieus. The cytochrome P450, short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase, UDP-glucuronosyltransferase, and glutathione S-transferase (in daf-2 mutants) gene classes were also up-regulated. These four gene classes act together in metabolism and excretion of toxic endobiotic and xenobiotic metabolites. This suggests that diverse toxic lipophilic and electrophilic metabolites, disposed of by phase 1 and phase 2 drug metabolism, may be the major determinants of the molecular damage that causes aging. In addition, we observed down-regulation of genes linked to nutrient uptake, including nhx-2 and pep-2. These work together in the uptake of dipeptides in the intestine, implying dietary restriction in daf-2 mutants. Some gene groups up-regulated in dauers and/or daf-2 were enriched for certain promoter elements as follows: the daf-16-binding element, the heat shock-response element, the heat shock-associated sequence, or the hif-1-response element. By contrast, the daf-16-associated element was enriched in genes down-regulated in dauers and daf-2 mutants. Thus, particular promoter elements appear longevity-associated or aging associated.
D-KEFS Trail Making Test performance in patients with lateral prefrontal cortex lesions

This study evaluated cognitive set-shifting in 12 patients with focal lesions in the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPC) by examining their performance on the Trail Making Test from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS). Patients with LPC lesions performed significantly worse than controls on the D-KEFS Trail Making Test on the Letter Sequencing, Number-Letter Switching (set-shifting), and Motor Speed conditions. Patients with LPC lesions performed significantly more slowly on the Number-Letter Switching condition even after controlling for performance on the four baseline conditions of the test. In addition, patients with LPC lesions exhibited significantly elevated error rates on the Number-Letter Switching condition. Results suggest that LPC lesions can lead to impaired cognitive set-shifting on a visual-motor sequencing task. (JINS, 2007, 13, 704–709.)
TRCCIT: Tunable reliability with Congestion Control for Information Transport in Wireless Sensor Networks

A core functionality of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is to transport information from the network to the application/user. The evolvable application reliability requirements and the fluctuating perturbations lead to continuous deviation between the attained and desired reliability. Using an existing approach that guarantees a highest reliability is not appropriate for WSN as this over-provisioning wastes the most valuable resources, e.g., energy. In this paper, we present a new approach called as Tunable Reliability with Congestion Control for Information Transport (TRCCIT) in WSN. To provide probabilistically guaranteed tunable reliability TRCCIT implements localized techniques such as probabilistic adaptive retransmissions, hybrid acknowledgment and retransmission timer management. TRCCIT pro-actively alleviates the network congestion by opportunistically transporting the information on multiple paths. TRCCIT fulfills application reliability requirements in a localized way, which is desirable for scalability and adaptability to large scale WSNs. Simulation results show that TRCCIT provides tunable reliability and efficiently mitigates the congestion.
Segregation of Nitrogen Fixation and Oxygenic Photosynthesis in the Marine Cyanobacterium Trichodesmium

In the modern ocean, a significant amount of nitrogen fixation is attributed to filamentous, nonheterocystous cyanobacteria of the genusTrichodesmium. In these organisms, nitrogen fixation is confined to the photoperiod and occurs simultaneously with oxygenic photosynthesis. Nitrogenase, the enzyme responsible for biological N2 fixation, is irreversibly inhibited by oxygen in vitro. How nitrogenase is protected from damage by photosynthetically produced O2 was once an enigma. Using fast repetition rate fluorometry and fluorescence kinetic microscopy, we show that there is both temporal and spatial segregation of N2 fixation and photosynthesis within the photoperiod. Linear photosynthetic electron transport protects nitrogenase by reducing photosynthetically evolved O2 in photosystem I (PSI). We postulate that in the early evolutionary phase of oxygenic photosynthesis, nitrogenase served as an electron acceptor for anaerobic heterotrophic metabolism and that PSI was favored by selection because it provided a micro-anaerobic environment for N2 fixation in cyanobacteria.
A survey on Reducing Features to Improve Bug Prediction by Using Cos-triage Algorithm

- Bugs are nothing but Software defects, present a serious challenge for system consistency and dependability. It is very difficult task to predict bugs. To detect the bugs from the software bug prediction is useful way. Machine learning classifiers have emerged newly as a way to envisage the existence of a bug in a change made to a source code. The machine learning classifier is first skilled on software history data and then it is used to predict bugs. Two main drawbacks of existing classifier-based bug prediction are insufficient accuracy for practical use and deliberate prediction time because of a large number of machine learned features. In this paper we have proposed mainly two techniques cos-triage algorithm which tries to utilize both accuracy and cost of bug prediction and feature selection techniques which discard less important features until optimal classification performance is reached. Reducing the feature improve the quality of knowledge extracted and also enhance the speed of computation.
Do Public Subsidies Have an Impact on New Firm Survival? An Empirical Study with French Data

This paper deals with the impact of social contributions and tax cuts (which are considered as operating subsidies) on new firms' probability of survival and economic performance. We use a rich matched database of French firms that were newly created in 1998 and that include entrepreneurs' individual characteristics and firm economic and financial variables. We implement propensity score matching models and show that (i) subsidized firms are more likely to survive after the first two years; (ii) bank loans increase the probability of survival, be they subsidized or not; and (iii) operating subsidies allow firms to increase their turnover. However, no significant effects of these subsidies on other performance criteria are found.
Interactive video mirrors for sports training

This paper studies gesture and speech controlled video for sports training. The goal is to combine the benefits of recording your performance with video equipment and training with a mirror. For example, a delayed camera view projected on a screen can be used to repeatedly perform and evaluate a spin kick, a move that is difficult to practice with a mirror. A video mirror can also be augmented with speech or gesture control for playback, recording and inspecting of individual frames. Three different interface design approaches are evaluated, based on testing with eight users that practice martial arts and acrobatics. The results suggest that an interactive video mirror can be highly useful in martial arts and other sports. The paper also introduces new kind of graphical controls that float around the user so that they can be manipulated with gestures regardless of the user's position.
Accurate Human-Limb Segmentation in RGB-D Images for Intelligent Mobility Assistance Robots

Mobility impairment is one of the biggest challenges faced by elderly people in today's society. The inability to move about freely poses severe restrictions on their independence and general quality of life. This work is dedicated to developing intelligent robotic platforms that assist users to move without requiring a human attendant. This work was done in the context of an EU project involved in developing an intelligent robot for elderly user assistance. The robot is equipped with a Kinect sensor, and the vision component of the project has the responsibility of locating the user, estimating the user's pose, and recognizing gestures by the user. All these goals can take advantage of a method that accurately segments human-limbs in the colour (RGB) and depth (D) images captured by the Kinect sensor. We exploit recent advances in deep-learning to develop a system that performs accurate semantic segmentation of human limbs using colour and depth images. Our novel technical contributions are the following: 1) we describe a scheme for manual annotation of videos, that eliminates the need to annotate segmentation masks in every single frame, 2) we extend a state of the art deep learning system for semantic segmentation, to exploit diverse RGB and depth data, in a single framework for training and testing, 3) we evaluate different variants of our system and demonstrate promising performance, as well the contribution of diverse data, on our in-house Human-Limb dataset. Our method is very efficient, running at 8 frames per second on a GPU.
REFOCUS: Current & Future Search Interface Requirements for German-speaking Users

While smartphones are widely used for web browsing, also other novel devices like Smart TVs become increasingly popular. Yet, current interfaces do not cater for the newly available devices beyond touch and small screens, if at all for the latter. Particularly search engines--today's entry points of the WWW--must ensure their interfaces are easy to use on any web-enabled device. We report on a survey that investigated (1) users' perception and usage of current search interfaces, and (2) their expectations towards current and future search interfaces. Users are mostly satisfied with desktop and mobile search, but seem to be skeptical towards web search with novel devices and input modalities. Hence, we derive REFOCUS--a novel set of requirements for current and future search interfaces, which shall address the demand for improvement of novel web search and has been validated by 12 dedicated experts.
Research Universities: Their Value to Society Extends Well Beyond Research.

If the victory at Waterloo, which set the stage for Brit preeminence in the century that follo observed, it may be equally true to say that the contest for preeminence in the 21 century will be won on the campuses of the research universities. In this contest, the United States begins with a substantial advantage. A recent ranking undertaken by Jiao Tong University in Shanghai shows 36 U.S universities among the top 50 universities in the world, with eight of the top 10 in the United States. Author Fareed Zakaria has declared [H]igher education is the
Bayesian hierarchical models and inference for musical audio processing

In music transcription and related musical signal processing applications we are interested in determining the activity of a set of sound-generating sources having extracted features such as DFT coefficients, spectral peaks from the audio, over time. A probabilistic treatment requires the construction of a Bayesian hierarchy: a dynamical model of how the source activity changes over time, and a generative model of how the features are produced from the active sources. The resulting Bayesian network is of extremely large dimension, for which standard MCMC and variational inference methods struggle. In this paper we describe some models developed recently for these tasks, which also have utility in audio and general signal processing applications; and investigate hybrid inference strategies: sequential methods such as particle filtering on the source activity dynamics coupled with MCMC inference over latent parameters on the generative models, demonstrating their performance for real data.
Energy efficiency and performance of shorten-and-forward bi-directional relaying in long channels

Bi-directional relaying is an efficient way of exchanging messages between two devices through a relay. However, in multipath fading environments, using relays can increase the effective delay spread of the communication channel, causing inter-symbol interference in OFDM systems. In this paper, we look at the effect of using channel shorteners at relays to reduce the effective delay spreads to within the cyclic prefix length. We will also look at the improvement in energy efficiency of the system through using a combination of channel shortener and a shorter cyclic prefix.
Automated face recogntion system: Multi-input databases

There has been significant progress in improving the performance of computer-based face recognition algorithms over the last decade. Although algorithms have been tested and compared extensively with each other, there has been remarkably little work comparing the accuracy of computer-based human face recognition systems. We compared eight state-of-the-art face recognition algorithms with three different databases: (i) faces 94; (ii) Olivetti research lab (ORL), and (iii) Indian face database (IFD). The face detection phase had been performed using the morphological features. The recognition results had showed that in linear appearance based classifier; LDA performs better than ICA and PCA in terms of the accuracy of recognition. The computational overhead of LDA and the PCA are almost similar while ICA has a very long execution time. In addition, neural network based on DWT features perform better than classifiers based on other features with 99% recognition rate on the average.
Text Summarization within the Latent Semantic Analysis Framework: Comparative Study

It is very difficult for human beings to manually summarize large documents of text. Text summarization solves this problem. Nowadays, Text summarization systems are among the most attractive research areas. Text summarization (TS) is used to provide a shorter version of the original text and keeping the overall meaning. There are various methods that aim to find out well-formed summaries. One of the most commonly used methods is the Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA). In this review, we present a comparative study among almost algorithms based on Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) approach. General Terms Natural Language Processing (NLP).
Secular trends of antibacterial prescribing in UK paediatric primary care.

BACKGROUND Resistance to antibacterial drugs can be contained by judicious prescribing. In particular, the use of these drugs in children requires ongoing surveillance. While there was a decline in antibacterial prescribing in the UK during the 1990s, recent trends are less well known. OBJECTIVES To describe antibiotic prescribing patterns and time trends in children in the UK over the last two decades. METHODS We identified all children ages 0-19 years from 1993 to 2007 and their antibiotic prescriptions from the General Practice Research Database. We used Poisson regression to estimate prescription rates considering the children's age and gender, calendar year and practice. RESULTS The cohort included 1 751 645 children with 5 835 891 antibacterial prescriptions. The average prescription rate was 511 prescriptions per 1000 person-years [95% confidence interval (CI) 509-513]. As of 1995, the rate decreased to 419/1000 person-years (95% CI 411-426) in 2000, then increased to 568/1000 person-years (95% CI 559-577) in 2007. Between 2000 and 2007, rates increased on average by 4.3% (95% CI 3.7-5.0%) annually, amounting to an increase of 40.7% (95% CI 34.5-47.2%) for all children. Rates were generally higher in girls, except for boys <5 years. Broad-spectrum penicillins were most frequently prescribed; their rate increased on average by 4.6% annually (95% CI 4.0-5.3%) after 2000. This trend was similar in most classes of antibacterials. CONCLUSIONS Antibacterial prescribing to outpatient children in the UK has been steadily increasing since 2000, consistently for boys and girls, across all ages and antibacterial classes.
Error analysis in Croatian morphosyntactic tagging

In this paper, we provide detailed insight on properties of errors generated by a stochastic morphosyntactic tagger assigning Multext-East morphosyntactic descriptions to Croatian texts. Tagging the Croatia Weekly newspaper corpus by the CroTag tagger in stochastic mode revealed that approximately 85 percent of all tagging errors occur on nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs. Moreover, approximately 50 percent of these are shown to be incorrect assignments of case values. We provide various other distributional properties of errors in assigning morphosyntactic descriptions for these and other parts of speech. On the basis of these properties, we propose rule-based and stochastic strategies which could be integrated in the tagging module, creating a hybrid procedure in order to raise overall tagging accuracy for Croatian.
Succession of the Bacterial Community and Dynamics of Hydrogen Producers in a Hydrogen-Producing Bioreactor

ABSTRACT Variation in the hydrogen production rate was consistent with the succession of dominant bacteria during the batch fermentation process. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of 16S rRNA genes and quantitative analysis of the hydA genes at both the DNA and mRNA levels confirmed that Clostridium perfringens was the most dominant hydrogen producer in the bioreactor.
Cleanly combining specialised program analysers

Automatically proving that (infinite-state) software programs satisfy a specification is an important task, but has proved very difficult. Thus, in order to obtain techniques that work with reasonable speed and without user guidance, researchers have typically targeted restricted classes of language features, programming idioms and properties. We have designed a system in which several of these specialised techniques can be used together in proving that a program is correct; this is done without breaking modularity by propagating information between the analyses, expressed as formulae of an expressive common logic. In this way, we can verify programs which, because they use diverse language features and idioms, are difficult or impossible to prove using any one individual technique. Our system is implemented in the experimental tool HECTOR.