Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reconstruction of magnetic resonance images from EPI data

We present a method for reconstructing magnetic resonance (MR) images from data acquired using echo-planar imaging (EPI) techniques. All data were acquired from a commercial scanner, the 1.5 Tesla Picker Vista HPQ MR imaging system, equipped with a special, high- performance, gradient system. Blipped echo planar imaging (BEPI) was performed, with and without digitizer pausing during data acquisition. Both sinusoidal and trapezoidal readout gradients were programmed and tested. Samples obtained from the gradient amplifier current monitors were used to calculate the approximate position of every sample obtained in the spatial-frequency (k-space) plane. A convolution function with compact support int he k-space and good rolloff in the image domain was used to resample the data onto a lattice permitting the use of fast transformation methods to the image domain. Strong ghosting was observed in the resulting images due probably to static magnetic field variation, gradient asymmetry and echo asymmetry between data lines. A piecewise-linear function was used to model the introduced ghost and hence to remove pixels in the reconstructed image which were determined to be spurious. Initial results are promising.
Labor Force Transitions in Late Life: Between Agency and Structure

The current aging process is unprecedented-the scale at which it is affecting populations has never been so great or so enduring-and the era of young population structures will not return (Department of Economic and Social Affairs United Nations, 2010; Lee, Mason, & Cortlear, 2010). This structural development has not only made the sustainability of pension and social security arrangements a key issue for governments, but also influenced the way in which people organize their working lives and firms manage their workforces. Research over the past decades has focused on the driving forces behind early exit from employment and its consequences for organizations and individuals (Ekerdt, 2010; Wang, Henkens, & van Solinge, 2011). However, as Ekerdt (2010) states, “The trend toward earlier retirement is history. ” Exit routes have been closed, benefit levels are lower, and the duration of these benefits has shortened. These reforms have taken place within a macroeconomic context of increasing job and pension insecurity and an erosion of trust in governing institutions (Hershey, Henkens, & van Dalen, 2010).
Diachronic proximity vs. data sparsity in cross-lingual parser projection. A case study on Germanic

For the study of historical language varieties, the sparsity of training data imposes immense problems on syntactic annotation and the development of NLP tools that automatize the process. In this paper, we explore strategies to compensate the lack of training data by including data from related varieties in a series of annotation projection experiments from English to four old Germanic languages: On dependency syntax projected from English to one or multiple language(s), we train a fragment-aware parser trained and apply it to the target language. For parser training, we consider small datasets from the target language as a baseline, and compare it with models trained on larger datasets from multiple varieties with different degrees of relatedness, thereby balancing sparsity and diachronic proximity. Our experiments show (a) that including related language data to training data in the target language can improve parsing performance,
Canonical Correlation Analysis of Regional Logistics Capability and Regional Economic Development

For analyzing global and local influence of logistics industry on regional economy, described the development level of regional logistics by “regional logistics capability”. Constructed indicators of regional logistics capability and regional economic development from various aspects. Quantitatively analyzed the relationship between two set of indicators by canonical correlation analysis based on statistics data of Jilin province during 1984-2008. The result shows highly correlation between regional logistics capability and regional economic development. The paper presents development proposals combined with result analysis of canonical variables, canonical loadings, canonical correlations etc.
Lowness for Kurtz randomness

Abstract We prove that degrees that are low for Kurtz randomness cannot be diagonally non-recursive. Together with the work of Stephan and Yu [16], this proves that they coincide with the hyperimmune-free non-DNR degrees, which are also exactly the degrees that are low for weak 1-genericity. We also consider Low(ℳ, Kurtz), the class of degrees a such that every element of ℳ is a-Kurtz random. These are characterised when ℳ is the class of Martin-Löf random, computably random, or Schnorr random reals. We show that Low(ML, Kurtz) coincides with the non-DNR degrees, while both Low(CR, Kurtz) and Low(Schnorr, Kurtz) are exactly the non-high, non-DNR degrees.
Applying Learning by Tutelage and Multimodal Interface to Sociable Robots

In this article, a learning mechanism and a multimodal interface are presented. The learning mechanism allows the robot to learn concepts of the environment by human tutelage. The multimodal interface employs mechanisms of face detection, pose estimation, object saliency and speech recognition. The learning mechanism and multimodal interface are evaluated in the context of concept learning.
Two-way Compress-and-forward Relaying With Multiple MIMO Relay Nodes

In this letter, we consider a two-way communication system where two source nodes exchange information via multiple relay nodes. The source and relay nodes may have multiple antennas and the compress-and-forward strategy is applied at each relay node. We aim at maximizing the sum-rate of two-way communication. An iterative algorithm is proposed to jointly optimize the source precoding matrices, the compression noise covariance matrices, and the time-sharing factor. Numerical simulation results show a better performance of the proposed algorithm compared with existing techniques.
Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods Lecture 7 : September 12 , 2006 Coupling from the Past Eric Vigoda

We saw in the last lecture how Markov chains can be useful algorithmically. If we have a probability distribution we’d like to generate random samples from, we design an ergodic Markov chain whose unique stationary distribution is the desired distribution. We then run the chain (i.e., start at an arbitrary state and evolve according to the transition matrix), until the process is at (or close to) the stationary distribution.
Use of a Confusion Network to Detect and Correct Errors in an On-Line Handwritten Sentence Recognition System

In this paper we investigate the integration of a confusion network into an on-line handwritten sentence recognition system. The word posterior probabilities from the confusion network are used as confidence scored to detect potential errors in the output sentence from the Maximum A Posteriori decoding on a word graph. Dedicated classifiers (here, SVMs) are then trained to correct these errors and combine the word posterior probabilities with other sources of knowledge. A rejection phase is also introduced in the detection process. Experiments on handwritten sentences show a 28.5 % relative reduction of the word error rate.
Finding experts in community question answering services: A theme based query likelihood language approach

Community question answering services provide an open platform for users to acquire and share their knowledge. In the last decade, popularity of such services has increased noticeably. Large number of unanswered questions is a major problem for the growth of such services. A common way to address this issue is to route a new question to some selected users who have the potentiality in answering the question. Expert finding is the process of selecting such potential answerers. In this article, we have introduced an efficient method for expert finding using the theme in query likelihood language (QLL) model. Theme of a query is nothing but its subject matter and we have decided it based on the parts of speech (POS) of the words in the query. Depending on the theme of the given question, its similarity to a question in the archive is determined using the QLL model. Aggregating the similarity values of the questions a user answered previously (i.e., in the archive), his/her expertise for the given question is obtained. The performance of the proposed method is verified on a real world dataset (obtained from Yahoo! Answers) and it is found to be quite encouraging.
Vision-based path coordination for multiple mobile robots with four steering wheels using an overhead camera

In this paper, we extend our previous work to introduce a vision-based path coordination method for multiple mobile robots with four steering wheels to avoid mutual collisions, so that the generated paths are always in the visibility range of the overhead camera. The proposed algorithm generates the synchronized trajectories for all wheels belonging to each mobile robot, with respect to its inertial-frame, relying on only one calibrated camera. These synchronized trajectories reduce the complexity of the robot kinematic model to plan maximum allowable bounded driving and steering velocities for each mobile robot. The main contribution of the proposed method is coordinating the trajectories for multiple mobile robots to avoid intersection boundaries that are obtained by generated geometrical traces in real world coordinates. Our experimental results are presented to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method for the path coordination of multiple mobile robots with four steering wheels to avoid mutual collision.
Multimodal play–literacy: a preschooler’s storytelling, drawing, and performing of dinosaur extinction theories

ABSTRACT Building on relevant research concerning the play–literacy relationship, the social-semiotic theory of multimodality, and the notion of embodiment, this article seeks to explore the possibilities of children’s play as a meaningful context for literacy practices and, more importantly, of play itself as a form of literacy practice. This article presents a descriptive and interpretive analysis of a video-taped, play–literacy event at home to explore socio-cultural as well as multimodal aspects of a preschooler’s meaning-making processes. Particularly, this article focuses on how one preschooler strategically selects, switches, and combines particular semiotic modes available in the situated play–literacy activity, in order to express his understanding of his social world and intended meanings while also highlighting the roles of family members in this process.
Looking at things differently: Exploring perspective recall for informal text retrieval

When retrieving informal text such as blogs, comments, contributions to discussion forums, users often want to uncover different perspectives on a given issue. To help uncover perspectives, we examine the use of query expansion against multiple external corpora. We consider two informal text retrieval tasks: blog post ﬁnding and blog ﬁnding. We operationalize the idea of uncovering multiple perspectives by query expansion against multiple corpora from different genres. We use two approaches to incorporate these perspectives: as a rank-based combination of runs and a mixture of query models. The use of external sources does indeed generate different views on a topic as becomes clear from the unique relevant results identi-ﬁed by the expanded runs compared to the baseline run. Even after combining the expanded run with the original run, unique relevant documents are found by both of the perspectives. As to the combination methods, the mixture of query models outperforms the rank combination, and leads to signiﬁcant improvements in MAP score over the baseline.
Multifunctional Biocompatible Graphene Oxide Quantum Dots Decorated Magnetic Nanoplatform for Efficient Capture and Two-Photon Imaging of Rare Tumor Cells

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are extremely rare cells in blood containing billions of other cells. The selective capture and identification of rare cells with sufficient sensitivity is a real challenge. Driven by this need, this manuscript reports the development of a multifunctional biocompatible graphene oxide quantum dots (GOQDs) coated, high-luminescence magnetic nanoplatform for the selective separation and diagnosis of Glypican-3 (GPC3)-expressed Hep G2 liver cancer tumor CTCs from infected blood. Experimental data show that an anti-GPC3-antibody-attached multifunctional nanoplatform can be used for selective Hep G2 hepatocellular carcinoma tumor cell separation from infected blood containing 10 tumor cells/mL of blood in a 15 mL sample. Reported data indicate that, because of an extremely high two-photon absorption cross section (40530 GM), an anti-GPC3-antibody-attached GOQDs-coated magnetic nanoplatform can be used as a two-photon luminescence platform for selective and very bright imaging of a Hep G2 tumor cell in a biological transparency window using 960 nm light. Experimental results with nontargeted GPC3(−) and SK-BR-3 breast cancer cells show that multifunctional-nanoplatform-based cell separation, followed by two-photon imaging, is highly selective for Hep G2 hepatocellular carcinoma tumor cells.
Evaluation of a Single Procedure Allowing the Isolation of Enteropathogenic Yersinia along with Other Bacterial Enteropathogens from Human Stools

Enteropathogenic Yersinia are among the most frequent agents of human diarrhea in temperate and cold countries. However, the incidence of yersiniosis is largely underestimated because of the peculiar growth characteristics of pathogenic Yersinia, which make their isolation from poly-contaminated samples difficult. The use of specific procedures for Yersinia isolation is required, but is expensive and time consuming, and therefore is not systematically performed in clinical pathology laboratories. A means to circumvent this problem would be to use a single procedure for the isolation of all bacterial enteropathogens. Since the Statens Serum Institut enteric medium (SSI) has been reported to allow the growth at 37°C of most Gram-negative bacteria, including Yersinia, our study aimed at evaluating its performances for Yersinia isolation, as compared to the commonly used Yersinia-specific semi-selective Cefsulodin-Irgasan-Novobiocin medium (CIN) incubated at 28°C. Our results show that Yersinia pseudotuberculosis growth was strongly inhibited on SSI at 37°C, and therefore that this medium is not suitable for the isolation of this species. All Yersinia enterocolitica strains tested grew on SSI, while some non-pathogenic Yersinia species were inhibited. The morphology of Y. enterocolitica colonies on SSI allowed their differentiation from various other Gram-negative bacteria commonly isolated from stool samples. However, in artificially contaminated human stools, the recovery of Y. enterocolitica colonies on SSI at 37°C was difficult and was 3 logs less sensitive than on CIN at 28°C. Therefore, despite its limitations, the use of a specific procedure (CIN incubated at 28°C) is still required for an efficient isolation of enteropathogenic Yersinia from stools.
Evidence of European IFRS Adoption: The effect on goodwill and intangible assets.--

We investigate how the adoption of IFRS 3, business combinations, affected reported goodwill and whether the change was relevant for stock market valuation of companies. We use data for all companies listed at the main Swedish stock exchanges. We find some evidence suggesting that aggregated goodwill impairment charges in 2005 are lower than aggregated goodwill amortizations in 2004. Hence, goodwill seems to be more persistent than implied in the amortization plans used prior IFRS. In addition, our results indicate that the information on higher goodwill persistence had not been impounded in stock prices prior to the IFRS 3 adoption. We document some evidence of positive returns earned on a zero-investment trading strategy that buys stock of goodwilland intangible-asset-intensive companies whose expected earnings are favorably affected by higher persistence of goodwill and short-sell stocks with low goodwill and intangible asset. These results may indicate that the increased relevance of the reported goodwill measure after the adoption of IFRS 3 was relevant for stock market valuation of companies. However, the change across portfolios was not statistically significant.
Respectful relationships education: violence prevention and respectful relationships education in Victorian secondary schools

The focus of the Project Brief was on programs that are designed to promote respectful gender relations and to address attitudes and behaviours that might be harassing, abusive or violent towards women and girls. Schools were advised that relevant programs were likely to include terminology such as anti-violence, violence/sexual assault prevention,healthy/respectful relationships, relationships education, anti-discrimination, gender awareness, early intervention or safe dating.
Scale-Space for Discrete Signals

A basic and extensive treatment of discrete aspects of the scale-space theory is presented. A genuinely discrete scale-space theory is developed and its connection to the continuous scale-space theory is explained. Special attention is given to discretization effects, which occur when results from the continuous scale-space theory are to be implemented computationally. The 1D problem is solved completely in an axiomatic manner. For the 2D problem, the author discusses how the 2D discrete scale space should be constructed. The main results are as follows: the proper way to apply the scale-space theory to discrete signals and discrete images is by discretization of the diffusion equation, not the convolution integral; the discrete scale space obtained in this way can be described by convolution with the kernel, which is the discrete analog of the Gaussian kernel, a scale-space implementation based on the sampled Gaussian kernel might lead to undesirable effects and computational problems, especially at fine levels of scale; the 1D discrete smoothing transformations can be characterized exactly and a complete catalogue is given; all finite support 1D discrete smoothing transformations arise from repeated averaging over two adjacent elements (the limit case of such an averaging process is described); and the symmetric 1D discrete smoothing kernels are nonnegative and unimodal, in both the spatial and the frequency domain. >
Influence of early stressful life events on the future expectancy changes and current addictions in homeless people

Stressful life events experienced at an early developmental stage could have a negative infl uence on the rest of people ́s lives. For this research 49 homeless people were selected from two Spanish foster care centres. They were interviewed for three months and divided in two groups, using a Statistical Latent Classes Model, according to the following variables: number of stressful life events experienced before sixteen years old, having a current addiction and future changes expectancy. Homeless people with high probabilities of having between 1 and 5 stressful life events before sixteen, (0.704; 70.4%), had a higher probability of having a negative expectation of future changes in their lives (0.77; 77%) and presented a higher probability of not having current addictions (0.763; 76.3%). However, individuals with higher probability of having more than 5 stressful events (0.662; 66.2%) had a higher probability of having a positive outlook about change of situation in the future (0.758; 75.8%) and presented a higher probability of having a current addiction (0.614; 61.4%). According to these data, a relationship between past, present and future exists. Therefore, it would be advisable to anticipate addiction prevention policies or motivation therapy according to the number of stressful life events experienced before sixteen.
First-Order Markov Decision Processes

Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) [7] have developed lately as a standard method for representing uncertainty in decision-theoretic planning. Traditional MDP solution techniques have the drawback that they require an explicit state space, limiting their applicability to real-world problems due to the large number of world states occurring in such problems. Recent work addresses this drawback via compactly specifying the state-space in factored form as the set of possible assignments to a set of statevariables [1]. Such Factored MDPs (FMDPs) allow for easily representing exponentially large state spaces. The algorithms for planning using MDPs, however, still run in time polynomial in the size of the statespace or exponential in the number of state-variables, and methods for taking advantage of the structure of the state-space in planning with FMDPs have been proposed in the literature [1] [3]. Many complex systems are naturally represented using some form of relational representation. We propose to investigate methods of incorporating relational representations into the state-space of MDPs to allow their application to complex problems for which it may be impractical to use less expressive representations. The idea of using more expressive representations in MDPs i of course not new to the stochastic planning community--recent work by Boutilier et al. identifies limitations in the applicability of FMDPs to problems with complex state-spaces and proposes First-Order MDPs (FOMDP) based on the situation calculus [2]. This work still has some limitations--needing a separate description for each possible outcome of an action, and requiring all intermediate value functions computed to be piecewise constant. We are currently investigating alternatives to this approach that will avoid the first of these limitations by using Bayesian etwork (BN) techniques to represent action effects. In FMDPs the action effects are compactly represented using a Two-Stage Temporal Bayesian Network [4] or Dynamic Bayesian Network (DBN) by exploiting the fact that the effects of an action on state-variable often only depend on a small number of other state-variables. Recent work has developed Probabilistic Relational Models (PRMs) for representing probability distributions over relational domains, building on the ideas of BNs [5][6]. PRMs offer an alternative approach to representing action effects in relational MDPs. Our current interest lies in developing a method for representing action effects using a PRM, in much the same manner that DBNs are used. Of prime importance when developing this representation of the transition matrix is to ensure that the structure of the compact representation can also be exploited by solution techniques o as to keep planning tractable.
Sound Source Localization experiment in variety real environment for intelligent service robots

In this paper, we present a Sound Source Localization (SSL) with robot auditory system for a network-based intelligent service robots that give a service in variety places. The main goal of this paper is to analysis performance of SSL algorithm in real environment for robot. We gathered the sound databases in museum, conference hall and restaurant for SSL experiments. These places will be served by intelligent robot in actually. With using these databases, we compared some of SSL algorithms and searched that we can use the SLL for intelligent robot in real environment. Algorithms for calculating time delay are based on the advanced cross correlation and GCC (Generalized Cross-Correlation)-PHAT(Phase Transform) by frequency characteristics for calculating time delay estimation. The robot platform used in this work is wever-R2, which is a network-based intelligent service robot developed at Intelligent Robot Research Division in ETRI.