Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Landslides in Iceland Studied using SAR Interferometry

ABSTRACT Landslides and debris flows have caused both fatalities and considerable economic loss in Iceland during the past centuries. In a recently started project we plan to study known landslides in eastern and central-north Iceland using satellite radar interferometry (InSAR) and survey many other slopes in search for other active landslides that may exist. Our initial results show that a landslide in Seyðisfjorður, eastern Iceland, did not move during the summers of 1995 and 1997, despite moving at rates of up to 33 cm/year during 2001-2002. At another location, Vopnafjorður, InSAR reveals movement of a previously unknown landslide. Extensive Envisat acquisitions from both ascending and descending orbits are planned during summers of 2004 and 2005 to better study the current landslide activity. 1. INTRODUCTION Landslides mainly occur in three regions of Iceland: The eastern fjords, central-north Iceland, and the western fjords [1]. These areas are geologically the oldest parts of Iceland and consist of deep valleys and fjords bounded by steep sided mountains, a landscape formed by glaciers during the past ice ages (Fig. 1). Recent discovery of active landslide movement near towns in eastern and central-north Iceland has prompted various efforts to assess the risk of a catastrophic event to occur. These efforts include landslide mapping and geodetic observations of the landslide creep [2,3]. GPS measurements of two landslides in eastern Iceland, near the towns of Seyðisfjorður and Neskaupstaður, have shown displacement rates of up to 33 and 138 cm/year, respectively. The results of these measurements, among other things, led to the initiation of a new project on using satellite radar interferometry (InSAR) to study Icelandic landslides, on which we report in this paper. This ESA category-1 project (#2424) has three primary objectives: 1. To investigate the feasibility of using InSAR for landslide detection and monitoring in Iceland. 2. To study known active landslides by InSAR and to compare InSAR data to GPS observations. 3. To survey large areas in eastern and central-north Iceland to search for other creeping landslides that may exist. Fig. 1. Map of Iceland showing the regions where most landslides have occurred: The eastern fjords, central-north Iceland, and the western fjords. Also marked are the three locations in eastern Iceland discussed in the text. The frame marks the area shown in Figure 2. In this paper we present our initial results from eastern Iceland. We begin to discuss the conditions for repeat orbit C-band interferometry in the region and then move on to present results from locations where active landslides are known. We also report findings in other areas where no previous landslide movement was known and discuss the next steps to be taken in this project.
Dynamic plan generation for parameterized queries

Query processing in a DBMS typically involves two distinct phases: compilation, which generates the best plan and its corresponding execution steps, and execution, which evaluates these steps against database objects. For some queries, considerable resource savings can be achieved by skipping the compilation phase when the same query was previously submitted and its plan was already cached. In a number of important applications the same query, called a Parameterized Query (PQ), is repeatedly submitted in the same basic form but with different parameter values. PQ's are extensively used in both data update (e.g. batch update programs) and data access queries. There are tradeoffs associated with caching and re-using query plans such as space utilization and maintenance cost. Besides, pre-compiled plans may be suboptimal for a particular execution due to various reasons including data skew and inability to exploit value-based query transformation like materialized view rewrite and unsatisfiable predicate elimination. We address these tradeoffs by distinguishing two types of plans for PQ's: generic and specific plans. Generic plans are pre-compiled plans that are independent of the actual parameter values. Prior to execution, parameter values are plugged in to generic plans. In specific plans, parameter values are plugged prior to the compilation phase. This paper provides a practical framework for dynamically deciding between specific and generic plans for PQ's based on a mix of rule and cost based heuristics which are implemented in the Teradata 12.0 DBMS.
Management of Age-Related Osteoporosis and Prevention of Associated Fractures

Osteoporosis and related fractures are a significant concern for the global community. As the population continues to age, morbidity and mortality from fractures due to low bone mineral density (BMD) will likely continue to increase. Efforts should be made to screen those at risk for osteoporosis, identify and address various risk factors for falls and associated fractures, ensure adequate calcium and vitamin D intake, and institute pharmacological therapy to increase BMD when indicated. Agents which increase BMD and have been shown to decrease fractures, particularly at the hip, should be considered preferentially over those for which only BMD data are available. Drugs which have been shown to decrease the risk of age-related osteoporotic fractures include oral bisphosphonates (alendronate, ibandronate, and risedronate), intranasal calcitonin, estrogen receptor stimulators (eg, estrogen, selective estrogen receptor modulators [raloxifene]), parathyroid hormone (teriparatide), sodium fluoride, and strontium ranelate. Data are beginning to emerge supporting various combination therapies (eg, bisphosphonate plus an estrogen receptor stimulator), though more data are needed to identify combinations which are most effective and confer added fracture protection. In addition, further research is needed to identify ideal regimens in special populations such as nursing home patients and men.
Use Cases and Aspects-Working Seamlessly Together

Aspect oriented programming (AOP) is “the missing link” to allow you slice a system, use case by use case, over “all” lifecycle models. This will dramatically change the way complex systems are understood, how new features are added to systems, and how systems are implemented and tested. AOP will also add a new dimension of reuse to software development. And it is here to be harvested—now.
2nd International Workshop on Automated Forensic Handwriting Analysis (afha) 2013 the First Paper, 'some Observations on Handwriting from a Motor Learning Perspective' the Fourth Paper 'chinese Handwritten Writer Identification Based on Structure Features and Extreme Learning Machine' Proposes an Ap

We discuss the dynamics of signatures in the light of recent findings in motor learning, according to which a signature is a highly automated motor task and, as such, it is stored in the brain as both a trajectory plan and a motor plan. We then conjecture that such a stored representation does not necessarily include the entire signature, but can be limited to only parts of it, those that have been learned better and therefore are executed more automatically than others. Because these regions are executed more automatically than others, they are less prone to significant variations depending on the actual writing conditions, and therefore should represent better than other regions the distinctive features of signatures. To support our conjecture, we report and discuss the results of experiments conducted by using an algorithm for finding those regions in the signature ink and eventually using them for automatic signature verification.
Leveraging Co-authorship and Biographical Information for Author Ambiguity Resolution in DBLP

Many authors can share the same name and this constitutes a serious problem that affects the relevancy of retrieval results and constitutes our motivation of finding such approach to cover this issue at the author names entity level. Solving such a problem may return with positive gain at the level of document retrieval, web search and the quality of data. This entity resolution task can be tackled as an unsupervised problem, where there are set of features that can be employed for the resolution job, or as supervised problem to compute the similarities among two citations and then classify if they are the same or not. Recent approaches usually utilize features such as: co-author, venue, topic similarity, affiliations and title of publications to deal with author ambiguity. In this paper, three attributes are used to treat this problem sequentially. The co-authorship firstly which is a well-known attribute, and then the topic and affiliation extracted from biographies, which can be found inside the publication, and this is our novelty frame in this paper.
Propagation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae [PSI+] Prion Is Impaired by Factors That Regulate Hsp70 Substrate Binding

ABSTRACT The Saccharomyces cerevisiae [PSI+ ] prion is believed to be a self-propagating cytoplasmic amyloid. Earlier characterization of HSP70 (SSA1) mutations suggested that [PSI+ ] propagation is impaired by alterations that enhance Ssa1p's substrate binding. This impairment is overcome by second-site mutations in Ssa1p's conserved C-terminal motif (GPTVEEVD), which mediates interactions with tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) cochaperones. Sti1p, a TPR cochaperone homolog of mammalian Hop1 (Hsp70/90 organizing protein), activates Ssa1p ATPase, which promotes substrate binding by Ssa1p. Here we find that in SSA1-21 cells depletion of Sti1p improved [PSI+] propagation, while excess Sti1p weakened it. In contrast, depletion of Fes1p, a nucleotide exchange factor for Ssa1p that facilitates substrate release, weakened [PSI +] propagation, while overproducing Fes1p improved it. Therefore, alterations of Hsp70 cochaperones that promote or prolong Hsp70 substrate binding impair [PSI +] propagation. We also find that the GPTVEEVD motif is important for physical interaction with Hsp40 (Ydj1p), another Hsp70 cochaperone that promotes substrate binding but is dispensable for viability. We further find that depleting Cpr7p, an Hsp90 TPR cochaperone and CyP-40 cyclophilin homolog, improved [PSI +] propagation in SSA1 mutants. Although Cpr7p and Sti1p are Hsp90 cochaperones, we provide evidence that Hsp90 is not involved in [PSI +] propagation, suggesting that Sti1p and Cpr7p functionally interact with Hsp70 independently of Hsp90.
Parallel Implementation Strategies for MIMO ID-BICM Systems

This work has been partially funded by PROMETEO/2009/013 project of Generalitat Valenciana, projects TEC2009-13741 of the Ministerio Espanol de Ciencia e Innovacion, TEC2012-38142-C04 of the Ministerio Espanol de Economia y Competitividad, and PAID-05-2011 of Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.
Research of a System for Monitoring Body Posture Based on Wireless Sensor Networks

Trend of accelerated aging society increases need of care for the aged at home. To fit this need, we designed the continuous body posture monitoring system based on wireless sensor networks. The hardware platform is made up of anchor nodes, the central control node and wireless sensor nodes which include the three axis low-g accelerometer MMA7260, 2-axis magnetic sensor HMC5883L and CC2431 System-on-Chip (SoC). This system positions human indoor through the fingerprint identification algorithms, recognizes posture by establishing model of posture. To distinguish abnormal posture from daily activities through the posture, position and acceleration vector threshold. The result show that the system can successfully distinguish between normal posture and abnormal posture in real-time.
On Multivariate Runs Tests for Randomness Davy Paindaveine

This paper proposes several extensions of the concept of runs to the multivariate setup, and studies the resulting tests of multivariate randomness against serial dependence. Two types of multivariate runs are defined: (i) an elliptical extension of the spherical runs proposed by Marden (1999), and (ii) an original concept of matrix-valued runs. The resulting runs tests themselves exist in various versions, one of which is a function of the number of data-based hyperplanes separating pairs of observations only. All proposed multivariate runs tests are affine-invariant and highly robust: in particular, they allow for heteroskedasticity and do not require any moment assumption. Their limiting distributions are derived under the null hypothesis and under sequences of local vector ARMA alternatives. Asymptotic relative efficiencies with respect to Gaussian Portmanteau tests are computed, and show that, while Mardentype runs tests suffer severe consistency problems, tests based on matrix-valued ∗Davy Paindaveine is Professor of Statistics, Université Libre de Bruxelles, E.C. A.R. E.S. and Département de Mathématique, Avenue F. D. Roosevelt, 50, CP 114, B-1050 Bruxelles, Belgium, (email: dpaindav@ulb.ac.be). The author is also member of ECORE, the recently created association between CORE and ECARES. This work was supported by a Mandat d’Impulsion Scientifique of the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique, Communauté française de Belgique.
On Kalman Information Fusion for Multiple Wireless Sensors Networks Systems with Multiplicative Noise

Kalman information fusion filter is dealt with for WSNs (Wireless sensor networks), where multiplicative noises occur in the system model. There are l > 2 sub-systems, and for each sub-system, there are m > 2 observations that are sent through different wireless channel. Packet loss is inevitable for the wireless channel, and the optimal information fusion filter is given by the projection theorem and the scalar weighting criterion. Numerical example shows that the proposed approach is efficient. Copyright © 2014 IFSA Publishing, S. L.
Energy-driven adaptive clustering data collection protocol in wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks consisting of a mass of inexpensive, low-power and multifunctional sensor nodes are deployed in military or citizen field, collecting information or monitoring environments. Gathering data in energy efficient way is critically important to prolong the lifetimes of the networks. In {3], data collection problem is studied in homogeneous network. An adaptive clustering protocol LEACH is presented and makes a breakthrough in this area. By localized data fusion and randomized cluster heads rotation, energy is averagely depleted among nodes and LEACH achieves 7-8 times improvement than three traditional protocols measuring the dieing times of nodes; In this paper, we propose EDAC (Energy-Driven Adaptive Clustering) protocol, which is an improvement over LEACH in heterogeneous networks. Unlike the homogeneous network, if we apply LEACH in heterogeneous networks, the averagely energy dissipation mechanism will result in early death of "powerless" nodes and can not use the advantage of the "powerful" nodes. In EDAC, we use energyariven cluster heads rotation, which enables cluster heads change asynchronously and coordinate energy consuming closely based on the heterogeneous property of nodes¿ energy. Time synchronization is relaxed and topology maintenance is localized by event triggering rotation. Also, the energy cost in topology maintenance can be kept small even when only little data to be transmitted in networks. Simulation results show that the lifetimes of nodes in EDAC can be 1-2.5 times as those in LEACH in heterogeneous network, and that it also works as well as LEACH in homogeneous networks.
Context Modeling and Context-Aware Service Adaptation for Pervasive Computing Systems

Devices in a pervasive computing system (PCS) are characterized by their context-awareness. It permits them to provide proactively adapted services to the user and applications. To do so, context must be well understood and modeled in an appropriate form which enhance its sharing between devices and provide a high level of abstraction. The most interesting methods for modeling context are those based on ontology however the majority of the proposed methods fail in proposing a generic ontology for context which limit their usability and keep them specific to a particular domain. The adaptation task must be done automatically and without an explicit intervention of the user. Devices of a PCS must acquire some intelligence which permits them to sense the current context and trigger the appropriate service or provide a service in a better suitable form. In this paper we will propose a generic service ontology for context modeling and a context-aware service adaptation based on a service oriented definition of context. Keywords—Pervasive computing system, context, context- awareness, service, context modeling, ontology, adaptation, machine learning.
Andropause – state of the art 2015 and review of selected aspects

The term ‘male menopause’ was first used in 1944 to describe various complaints of ageing men which at least partially mirrored the climacteric symptoms in women. Continuous research resulted in the evolution of opinions about the nature of these complaints, from the clinical syndrome, diagnosed with the use of disease-targeted questionnaires, to a well-defined clinical and biochemical syndrome. The pathophysiological causes – gonad ageing (with a compensatory rise in luteinizing hormone), age-related increase in serum sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) levels, the role of visceral adipose tissue as a place for aromatization of androgen to estrogen, and lower sensitivity of testosterone receptors – have been described. However, no consensus was reached as far as the definition, incidence, treatment, and especially testosterone therapy, are concerned. Our review presents the current standpoints, indicating the predictive role of late-onset hypogonadism (LOH) in evaluating male health as well as the current literature reports on the risks and benefits of using testosterone therapy.
Approaches to learning of Irish students studying accounting

Several reports on accounting education have identified the development of students' learning to learn as the primary objective of accounting education. Higher education research identifies the approach to learning as a significant factor in the overall student learning experience. If accounting educators are to find ways to improve the educational experience of their students, they must understand how students learn and the effects of the learning context on learning approaches. This study examines the approaches to learning adopted by first year students enrolled on the B.A. in Accounting and Finance and the BBS at Dublin City University and assesses the impact of a number of contextual variables on these learning approaches.
Robust Recognition of Checkerboard Pattern for Deformable Surface Matching in Multiple Views

Checkerboard pattern can be used in many computer vision areas by matching the pattern as a surface, such as camera calibration, stereo vision, projector-camera system and even surface reconstruction. However, most existing checkerboard pattern recognition methods only work in planar and fine illuminating circumstances. A robust recognition method for checkerboard pattern is proposed in this paper to deal with those arbitrary surface deformation and complex illumination problems. Checkerboard internal corners are defined as special conjunction points of four alternating dark and bright regions. A candidate corner’s neighbor points within a rectangular or a circular window are treated as in different onepoint-width layers. By processing the points layer by layer, we transform the 2D points distribution into 1D to detect corners, which simplifies the regions amount counting and also improves the robustness. After corner detection, the pre-known checkerboard grids rows and columns amounts are used to match and decide the right checkerboard corners. Regions boundary data produced during the corner detection also assist the matching process. We compare our method with existing corner detection methods, such as Harris, SUSAN, FAST and also with the widely adopted checkerboard pattern recognition method, FindChessboardCorners function in OpenCV, to show the robustness and effectiveness of our approach.
The Problem Solving Genome: Analyzing Sequential Patterns of Student Work with Parameterized Exercises

Parameterized exercises are an important tool for online assessment and learning. The ability to generate multiple versions of the same exercise with different parameters helps to support learning-by-doing and decreases cheating during assessment. At the same time, our experience using parameterized exercises for Java programming reveals suboptimal use of this technology as demonstrated by repeated successful and failed attempts to solve the same problem. In this paper we present the results of our work on modeling and examining patterns of student behavior with parameterized exercises using the Problem Solving Genome, a compact encapsulation of individual behavior patterns. We started with micro-patterns (genes) that describe small chunks of repetitive behavior and constructed individual genomes as frequency profiles that show the dominance of each gene in individual behavior. The exploration of student genomes revealed the individual genome is considerably stable, distinguishing students from their peers. Using the genome, we were able to analyze student behavior on the group level and identify genes associated with good and poor learning performance.
Lossless Data Hiding Using Integer Wavelet Transform and Threshold Embedding Technique

This paper presents a new lossless data hiding method for digital images using integer wavelet transform and threshold embedding technique. Data are embedded into the least significant bit-plane (LSB) of high frequency CDF (2, 2) integer wavelet coefficients whose magnitudes are smaller than a certain predefined threshold. Histogram modification is applied as a preprocessing to prevent overflow/underflow. Experimental results show that this scheme outperforms the prior arts in terms of a larger payload (at the same PSNR) or a higher PSNR (at the same payload)
Profil Entropic Visual Features for Visual Concept Detection in CLEF 2008 Campaign

In this task, we used only visual information to implement the VCDT task. We dened and compared two simple projection operators : the harmonic and arithmetic means. We proposed a new kind of compact features based on the entropy of pixels projection. These features, called Prol Entropy Features (PEF), were added to usual color means and variances, and then were fed to SVM classiers for the detection of 17 visual concepts on the IARPR images during the CLEF 2008 campaign. The simple arithmetic mean projection is at the 4th best rank at the ocial test over 53 runs of around 20 laboratories. We show that the harmonic projection gives complementary information, and that its simple early fusion with arithmetic PEF yields to the third best rank system. As the runs of the other teams used state of the art SIFT an color histogram visual features, it could be concluded that PEF are ecien t. Moreover, PEF are fast with around 10 images computed per second on usual pentium.
Influence of Research and Development Expenditures on Number of Patent Aplications: Selected Case Studies in OECD Countries and Central Europe, 1981-2001

Investment in R&D encourages innovation, which in turn, spurs economic growth. This paper presents a model to test whether that the number of patent applications is dependent on R&D expenditure, especially R&D expenditure in the business sector. This paper shows: 1) that a strong positive correlation exists between R&D expenditure and patent applications, 2) that R&D investment creates patent applications with a time-lag, which is different from country to country, 3) that the number of patent applications in developed countries depends more on R&D expenditure in the business sector than on R&D gross domestic expenditure.