Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Real Color Image Enhanced by Illumination - Reflectance Model and Wavelet Transformation

Because the greatly most algorithms of real color image enhancement did not relate to the spectral sensitivity of most human vision, the color restoration functions of some real color image enhancement algorithms are greatly at random and not proved , and the real color images enhanced which are based on illumination-reflectance model have the loss of details and the ‘halos’, we proposed a new algorithm to overcome these disadvantages. Firstly, we transform the real color image from RGB space to HSV space which is approximately orthonormal system between color and value. Secondly, the illumination and the reflectance of value are separated by homomorphic decomposition based on illumination-reflectance model. We have discovered that the high dynamic range of image including high bright lights is mainly caused by the reflectance. Thirdly, the details of reflectance are preserved by wavelet transform. Fourthly, the dynamic range of reflectance is compressed by Butterworth filtering. Lastly, the energy of the saturation of real color image in HSV space is attenuated according to the spectral sensitivity of most human vision. Experiments show that the color of image enhanced adapts well to the most people vision and is not obviously distorted, the preservation of the details is perfectly and the ‘halos’ is effectively restrained. Real color images enhanced by the algorithm are much better than the multi-scales Retinex’s with color restoration (MSRCR).
Robust Kernel Embedding of Conditional and Posterior Distributions with Applications

This paper proposes a novel non-parametric method to robustly embed conditional and posterior distributions to reproducing Kernel Hilbert space (RKHS). Robust embedding is obtained by the eigenvalue decomposition in the RKHS. By retaining only the leading eigenvectors, the noise in data is methodically disregarded. The non-parametric conditional and posterior distribution embedding obtained by our method can be applied to a wide range of Bayesian inference problems. In this paper, we apply it to heterogeneous face recognition and zero-shot object recognition problems. Experimental validation shows that our method produces better results than the comparative algorithms.
Efficient link adaptation in OFDM systems using a hybrid intelligent technique

Adaptive communication for rate enhancement and link survival is a recent area of interest. In adaptive communication, transmission parameters like transmit power, code rate and modulation scheme are chosen in an adaptive manner to match the link conditions and quality of service demand at that transmission interval. But this is a highly non linear phenomenon and a constrained optimization problem. In this paper, we have investigated Simulated Annealing algorithm in conjunction with a fuzzy rule base system (SAFRBS) for adaptive coding, modulation and power in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing environment. The cases of fixed and adaptive communication are compared and results are shown through the simulations.
Underwater object tracking using electrical impedance tomography

Few effective technologies exist for sensing in dark or murky underwater situations. For this reason, we have been exploring the use of a novel biologically-inspired approach to non-visual sensing based on the detection of perturbations to a self generated electric field. This is used by many species of neotropical nocturnal freshwater fish. This approach, termed active electrosense, presents unique challenges for sensing and tracking of nearby objects. We explore two methods for estimating the velocity of objects through active electrosense. The first of these methods uses a simple cross-correlation method, which depends on the uniformity of the electric field. We show some of the ramifications of making this assumption for a self-generated field around a cylindrical pod-shaped sensor in a rectangular tank. We then evaluate the use of methods developed for electrical impedance tomography (EIT) for localization and tracking. This is an unusual application of EIT in that typical applications involve surrounding the volume of interest (such as the thorax of humans) with sensor/emitters. Here, rather than this “outside in” approach, we are using EIT “inside out. ” In simulation, we nonetheless find significant improvements in the accuracy of estimated velocity when using the EIT approach. Additionally, we demonstrate how EIT may be used for accurate position estimation. Under the conditions evaluated, the computation time for inversion is low enough to make its use feasible as a primary position and velocity estimator in an on- line system or as a secondary system to augment a computationally inexpensive estimator.
Speeding Up Inference in Markov Logic Networks by Preprocessing to Reduce the Size of the Resulting Grounded Network

Statistical-relational reasoning has received much attention due to its ability to robustly model complex relationships. A key challenge is tractable inference, especially in domains involving many objects, due to the combinatorics involved. One can accelerate inference by using approximation techniques, "lazy" algorithms, etc. We consider Markov Logic Networks (MLNs), which involve counting how often logical formulae are satisfied. We propose a preprocessing algorithm that can substantially reduce the effective size of MLNs by rapidly counting how often the evidence satisfies each formula, regardless of the truth values of the query literals. This is a general preprocessing method that loses no information and can be used for any MLN inference algorithm. We evaluate our algorithm empirically in three real-world domains, greatly reducing the work needed during subsequent inference. Such reduction might even allow exact inference to be performed when sampling methods would be otherwise necessary.
Spitzer Spectra of a 10 mJy Galaxy Sample and the Star Formation Rate in the Local Universe

A complete flux-limited sample of 50 galaxies is presented having fν(24 μm) > 10 mJy, chosen from a survey with MIPS on Spitzer of 8.2 deg2 in the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (NDWFS) region in Bootes. Spectra obtained with the low-resolution modules of IRS on Spitzer are described for 36 galaxies in this sample; 25 show strong PAH emission features characteristic of starbursts, and 11 show silicate absorption or emission, emission lines, or featureless spectra characteristic of AGNs. Infrared or optical spectral classifications are available for 48 of the entire sample of 50; 33 galaxies are classified as starbursts and 15 as AGNs. [There are an additional 19 Galactic stars with fν(24 μm) > 10 mJy in the survey area. ] Using a relation between 7.7 μm PAH luminosity and SFR derived from previous IRS observations of starbursts, the SFR per unit volume of the local universe (SFRD) is determined from the complete sample and is found to be 0.008 M☉ yr-1 Mpc-3. This provides an extinction-free measurement of SFRD independent of optical properties and provides a parameter that can be used for direct comparison to high-redshift starbursts being discovered with Spitzer. Individual sources in the sample have SFRs from 0.14 to 160 M☉ yr-1. The derived value for the local SFRD is about half that of the local SFRD deduced from bolometric luminosities of the IRAS 60 μm Bright Galaxy Sample, with the deficiency being at lower luminosities and arising primarily from the small number of low-luminosity sources in the 10 mJy sample. The agreement for higher luminosities confirms the validity of using the 7.7 μm PAH feature as a measure of SFRD in the high-redshift universe, where this is often the only indicator available for faint sources.
Accounting for the warm-up: describing the proportion of total session demands in women’s field hockey – Female Athletes in Motion (FAiM) study

ABSTRACT This study quantified the proportion and absolute amount of total session demands accounted for by the warm-up during female field hockey matches. A U21 national women’s field hockey team was monitored during eight matches with GPS/heart rate monitors. A RM-ANOVA compared the relative and absolute demands of the warm-up and total session across matches. Differences between matches for warm-up and total session demands occurred. The average warm-up accounted for 27 ± 2% of total distance (~2,500 m of ~9,400 m) and 30 ± 2% of total session duration (~39 min of ~130 min). Distances covered during the warm-up accounted for 30 ± 2 (low), 26 ± 4 (moderate), 9 ± 2 (high), and 6 ± 2% (maximal) of the total session distances. Cumulatively, the warm-up contributed ~10, 9, 0.4, and 0.06 km in the respective velocity bands. The warm-up duration in heart rate zones was 37 ± 3 (50–80% HRpeak), 22 ± 9 (80–90%), and 3 ± 4% (>90%) of the respective total session duration, corresponding to cumulative totals of ~250, 50 and 10 min in each heart rate intensity band. The warm-up represents a substantial proportion of the total session demands; showing a decreasing contribution with increasing intensity. These outcomes are important in the context of monitoring accumulated demands during congested field hockey tournament schedules.
A Novel Comparative Method for Locating Human Conserved DNA 1

Functional elements in our genome are under purifying selection, and accumulate fewer mutation events than nonfunctional neutrally evolving material. This can be used to locate conserved and putatively functional DNA. Current methods are primarily based on models of nucleotide substitution, and have been quite successful at localising proteincoding genes. Many other types of functional elements however, such as transcription-factor binding sites and RNA genes, are less conserved at the sequence level, and are therefore harder to find. This proposal concerns a novel method that is orthogonal to current methods, and focuses exclusively on insertion and deletion events. Preliminary work showed that the method is highly sensitive, and is able to locate material that is weakly conserved at the sequence level, but is under purifying selection with respect to indels. We have e.g. shown a high sensitivity for RNA genes, despite a generally low sequence-level conservation of such genes. A preliminary analysis further revealed a novel class of high-period tandemly repeated sequences whose structure is strongly conserved, and which are highly overrepresented in sub-telomeric regions. The method is a first step toward more specific automatic annotation method for e.g. RNA genes of transcription factor binding sites. This pilot project proposes to set up a large, structured database of conserved elements in the human genome, to allow this data to be flexibly combined with downstream annotation methods, and to foster internet-enabled collaborations building further onto this novel method.
High-quality hair modeling from a single portrait photo

We propose a novel system to reconstruct a high-quality hair depth map from a single portrait photo with minimal user input. We achieve this by combining depth cues such as occlusions, silhouettes, and shading, with a novel 3D helical structural prior for hair reconstruction. We fit a parametric morphable face model to the input photo and construct a base shape in the face, hair and body regions using occlusion and silhouette constraints. We then estimate the normals in the hair region via a Shape-from-Shading-based optimization that uses the lighting inferred from the face model and enforces an adaptive albedo prior that models the typical color and occlusion variations of hair. We introduce a 3D helical hair prior that captures the geometric structure of hair, and show that it can be robustly recovered from the input photo in an automatic manner. Our system combines the base shape, the normals estimated by Shape from Shading, and the 3D helical hair prior to reconstruct high-quality 3D hair models. Our single-image reconstruction closely matches the results of a state-of-the-art multi-view stereo applied on a multi-view stereo dataset. Our technique can reconstruct a wide variety of hairstyles ranging from short to long and from straight to messy, and we demonstrate the use of our 3D hair models for high-quality portrait relighting, novel view synthesis and 3D-printed portrait reliefs.
Irrevocable Multi-Armed Bandit Policies

This paper considers the multi-armed bandit problem with multiple simultaneous arm pulls. We develop a new `irrevocable' heuristic for this problem. In particular, we do not allow recourse to arms that were pulled at some point in the past but then discarded. This irrevocable property is highly desirable from a practical perspective. As a consequence of this property, our heuristic entails a minimum amount of `exploration'. At the same time, we find that the price of irrevocability is limited for a broad useful class of bandits we characterize precisely. This class includes one of the most common applications of the bandit model, namely, bandits whose arms are `coins' of unknown biases. Computational experiments with a generative family of large scale problems within this class indicate losses of up to 5 to 10% relative to an upper bound on the performance of an optimal policy with no restrictions on exploration. We also provide a worst-case theoretical analysis that shows that for this class of bandit problems, the price of irrevocability is uniformly bounded: our heuristic earns expected rewards that are always within a factor of 1/8 of an optimal policy with no restrictions on exploration. In addition to being an indicator of robustness across all parameter regimes, this analysis sheds light on the structural properties that afford a low price of irrevocability.
Discovery of multiple ultra-luminous X-ray sources in the galaxy KUG 0214-057 ⋆

We report the serendipitous discovery of several unresolved X-ray sources lying in the prominent spiral arms of the galaxy KUG 0214-057 in XMM-Newtonobservations. The location of these X-ray sources strongly suggests that at least three, and possibly four, of these may be physically related to the galaxy. The luminosity of each of these sources at the distance of KUG 0214-057 is> 5× 10 39 erg s −1 (0.3-10 keV), making each a strong candidate ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX). Using the ULX objects as a metric implies that this relatively low-mass galaxy may be experiencing rather intense starburst activity. The serendipitous discovery of these ULX objects suggests that such objects are not a negligible component of the overall extragalactic X-ray source population.
Output-Sensitive Parallel Algorithm for Polygon Clipping

Polygon clipping is one of the complex operations in computational geometry. It is a primitive operation in many fields such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Computer Graphics and VLSI CAD. Sequential algorithms for this problem are in abundance in literature but there are very few parallel algorithms solving it in its most general form. We present the first output-sensitive CREW PRAM algorithm, which can perform polygon clipping in O(logn) time using (n + k + k') processors, where n is the number of vertices, k is the number of edge intersections and k' is the additional temporary vertices introduced due to the partitioning of polygons. The current best algorithm by Karinthi, Srinivas, and Almasi [1] does not handle self-intersecting polygons, is not output-sensitive and must employ &odash;(n2) processors to achieve O(logn) time. Our algorithm is developed from the first principles and it is superior to [1] in cost. It yields a practical implementation on multicores and demonstrates 30x speedup for real-world dataset. Our algorithm can perform the typical clipping operations including intersection, union, and difference.
Enzyme activities and subcellular localization of members of the Arabidopsis glutathione transferase superfamily

Enzyme screens with Strep-tagged recombinant proteins and expression studies with the respective green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusions have been employed to examine the functional activities and subcellular localization of members of the Arabidopsis glutathione transferase (GST) superfamily. Fifty-one of 54 GST family members were transcribed and 41 found to express as functional glutathione-dependent enzymes in Escherichia coli. Functional redundancy was observed and in particular three theta (T) class GSTs showed conserved activities as hydroperoxide-reducing glutathione peroxidases (GPOXs). When expressed in tobacco as GFP fusions, all three GSTTs localized to the peroxisome, where their GPOX activity could prevent membrane damage arising from fatty acid oxidation. Through alternative splicing, two of these GSTTs form fusions with Myb transcription factor-like domains. Examination of one of these variants showed discrete localization within the nucleus, possibly serving a role in reducing nucleic acid hydroperoxides or in signalling. Based on this unexpected differential sub-cellular localization, 15 other GST family members were expressed as GFP fusions in tobacco. Most accumulated in the cytosol, but GSTU12 localized to the nucleus, a family member resembling a bacterial tetrachlorohydroquinone dehalogenase selectively associated with the plasma membrane, and a lambda GSTL2 was partially directed to the peroxisome after removal of a putative chloroplast transit peptide. Based on the results obtained with the GSTTs, it was concluded that these proteins can exert identical protective functions in differing subcellular compartments.
Cartesian contact force estimation for robotic manipulators using Kalman filters and the generalized momentum

Estimating contact forces and torques in Cartesian space enables force-controlled robotic applications as well as collision detection without costly additional sensing. A new approach towards online estimation of contact forces and torques at the tool center point from motor torques as well as joint angles and speeds is presented, which is based on analyzing the generalized momentum of the manipulator. Existing generalized momentum based methods are extended by designing a Kalman filter to estimate the generalized momentum as well as contact forces and torques simultaneously. This approach introduces additional degrees of freedom in the design of the estimator that are exploited to increase robustness with respect to disturbances such as uncertainty in joint friction. The method is verified by simulation results obtained from a dynamic model of an ABB YuMi, a dual-arm collaborative robot with 7DOF each arm.
Racial and Ethnic Differences in Diabetes Care and Health Care Use and Costs

Introduction Previous studies have shown racial and ethnic differences in diabetes complication rates and diabetes control. The objective of this study was to examine racial and ethnic differences in diabetes care and health care use and costs for adults with diabetes using a nationally representative sample of the U.S. noninstitutionalized civilian population. Methods We performed a cross-sectional analysis of the 2000 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and its related Diabetes Care Survey. The respondents were adults (aged 18 years and older) with diabetes, including non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic African Americans, and Hispanics. Racial and ethnic differences were examined in diabetes process of care and health care use and costs using logistic regression, negative binomial regression, and ordinary least squares regression with log cost. Results Most of the outcomes in diabetes care management, treatment, and complications were not significantly different among race groups. After adjusting for socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, Hispanics were more likely to have eye problems than whites (odds ratio, 1.56; 95% confidence interval, 1.03–2.56). African Americans and Hispanics had lower total health care costs, lower ambulatory care costs, and lower prescription drug costs than whites (P < .01 for all). Conclusion We found differences in ambulatory care and prescription drug fills among white, African American, and Hispanic adults with diabetes. However, most of the diabetes care measures were not significantly different among the three racial and ethnic groups. Understanding the reason outcomes do not differ when health care use and costs differ significantly should be a focus of future studies.
Essential Role of Survivin, an Inhibitor of Apoptosis Protein, in T Cell Development, Maturation, and Homeostasis

Survivin is an inhibitor of apoptosis protein that also functions during mitosis. It is expressed in all common tumors and tissues with proliferating cells, including thymus. To examine its role in apoptosis and proliferation, we generated two T cell–specific survivin-deficient mouse lines with deletion occurring at different developmental stages. Analysis of early deleting survivin mice showed arrest at the pre–T cell receptor proliferating checkpoint. Loss of survivin at a later stage resulted in normal thymic development, but peripheral T cells were immature and significantly reduced in number. In contrast to in vitro studies, loss of survivin does not lead to increased apoptosis. However, newborn thymocyte homeostatic and mitogen-induced proliferation of survivin-deficient T cells were greatly impaired. These data suggest that survivin is not essential for T cell apoptosis but is crucial for T cell maturation and proliferation, and survivin-mediated homeostatic expansion is an important physiological process of T cell development.
A New DC-Voltage-Balancing Circuit Including a Single Coupled Inductor for a Five-Level Diode-Clamped PWM Inverter

This paper proposes a new dc-voltage-balancing circuit for a five-level diode-clamped inverter intended for a medium-voltage motor drive with a three-phase diode rectifier used as the front end. This circuit consists of two unidirectional choppers and a single coupled inductor with two galvanically isolated windings. The inductor produces no net dc magnetic flux because the individual dc magnetic fluxes generated by the two windings are canceled out with each other. This makes the inductor compact by a factor of six, compared with the balancing circuit including two noncoupled inductors. Moreover, introducing phase-shift control to the new balancing circuit makes it possible to adjust the midpoint voltage. As a result, the dc mean voltages of all the four split dc capacitors can be balanced, independent of inverter control. Experimental results obtained from a 200-V 5.5-kW downscaled model verify the effectiveness of the new balancing circuit.