Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Airborne camera experiments for traffic monitoring

Prediction of traffic, dynamic routing, off board navigation and a standardisation of traffic flow parameters are the cornerstones of modern intelligent transport systems. The development of such systems requires intelligent data acquisition from different sensors and platforms. Due to its spatial and temporal flexibility airborne sensors can provide useful information beside existing systems, e.g. induction loops and vehicle probes data etc. DLR is involved in two projects proving the gain of using aerial images for traffic monitoring – “LUMOS” and “Eye in the sky”. For LUMOS an infrared camera system was used in combination with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) onboard an airplane. The project “Eye in the sky” provides an opportunity to evaluate the relevance of image data captured by a zeppelin and a helicopter. A high resolution digital camera and an inertial measurement unit mounted on an airborne platform were used to provide images and attitude data. In both projects, images were transmitted to a ground station, georeferenced and processed in order to extract user relevant traffic information. The whole procedure is realized in real time. Within the projects a variety of different sensors and platforms were used. This allows a validation of several configurations helping DLR in opening up new perspectives for traffic monitoring in future.
Students’ Attitudes Towards Collaborative Tools In A Virtual Learning Environment

The purpose of this study is to investigate prep class university students’ attitudes towards collaborative tools used in Moodle. Also it was aimed to find out whether or not there is a difference in students’ attitudes towards traditional and collaborative activities. The participants of the study, 28 non-English major university students, who had three-hours of Self Access Centre lessons per week, used a virtual learning environment named ‘Moodle’ for two hours each week. In order to investigate the attitudes, the participants were administered a computer readiness scale at the beginning of the study. At the end, a questionnaire was administered, and to support the data, screenshots of the activities were taken and twelve participants were interviewed. Results show that the collaborative tools in the virtual learning environment have significant positive effects according to the participants’ opinions. The students have significantly positive attitudes towards the collaborative tools, although they have not had enough experience of collaborative work. Also the students do not reflect positive attitudes towards traditional activities and, accordingly do not use them much.
Organizational Action Sets in the U.S. and German Labor Policy Domains

Legislative fights over national policy are often examinedfrom an organizational state perspective -public authorities and organized interest groups form temporary coalitions to influence the outcomes ofpublic policy. We extend this approach using the concepts of event public, collective actor, action set, and opposition network. Analyses of communication network and policy event participation data from the U.S. and German national labor policy domains in the 1980s reveals similar spatial patterns in three dimensions: Opposing business and labor coalitions structured many of the legislativefights; no central body emerged to coordinate actions; and organizational interests were central to action-set formation. Political resources played minor roles. Structural differences between U.S. and German domains are attributed to institutional contexts.
Bulk Loading the M-tree

The M-tree is a dynamic paged structure that can be effectively used to index multimedia databases, where objects are represented by means of complex features and similarity queries require the computation of time-consuming distance functions. The initial loading of the M-tree, however, can be very expensive. In this paper we propose a fast (bulk) loading algorithm to speed-up the creation of the tree on a given dataset. Experimental results show that our BulkLoading algorithm can significantly improve the index’ performance with respect to M-tree insertion methods, and its performance is comparable to that of static metric trees.
Twelve weeks CLA supplementation decreases the hip circumference in overweight and obese women. A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

BACKGROUND Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) reduces body weight (BW), body fat mass (BFM), and increases or maintains lean body mass in animals. However, the results concerning the effect of CLA on weight reduction in humans are contradictory. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of CLA supplementation on the BW and anthropometric parameters (waist and hip circumferences) in overweight and obese adult women. METHODS A total of 74 subjects (BMI: 28-42 kg/m2) were included in a double blind, placebocontrolled trial. Subjects were randomized into two groups, those supplemented with either 3.0 g/d CLA or with placebo (sunflower oil) for 12 weeks. RESULTS CLA significantly decreased the hip circumferences compared to placebo (p = 0.016209), but had no effect on body weight, BMI, or waist circumference. The number of subjects with a reduction in hip circumference in the CLA group was significantly larger compared to that in the placebo group (p = 0.0017; NNT= 2.65; CI [6.27-1.685]). CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, our findings do not support the hypothesis that 12 weeks CLA supplementation, as dosed in the present study, is effective for body weight reduction in overweight and obese women. However, its local action in decreasing the hip circumference seems to be encouraging and suggests that CLA may represent an attractive dietary supplement.
Understanding Illicit Drug Use Behaviors by Mining Social Media

Drug use by people is on the rise and is of great interest to public health agencies and law enforcement agencies. As found by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 20 million Americans aged 12 years or older consumed illicit drugs in the past few 30 days. Given their ubiquity in everyday life, drug abuse related studies have received much and constant attention. However, most of the existing studies rely on surveys. Surveys present a fair number of problems because of their nature. Surveys on sensitive topics such as illicit drug use may not be answered truthfully by the people taking them. Selecting a representative sample to survey is another major challenge. In this paper, we explore the possibility of using big data from social media in order to understand illicit drug use behaviors. Instagram posts are collected using drug related terms by analyzing the hashtags supplied with each post. A large and dynamic dictionary of frequent illicit drug related slang is used to find these posts. These posts are studied to find common drug consumption behaviors with regard to time of day and week. Furthermore, by studying the accounts followed by the users of drug related posts, we hope to discover common interests shared by drug users.
Religiosity of Undergraduates in an Online Christian Worldview Course

The purpose of this study was to examine whether or not a change in religiosity would occur in undergraduate students at a West Coast Christian university as a result of their participation in an online Christian worldview course. Twenty-six undergraduate students participated in this pretest/posttest quasi-experimental study, which employed the Shepherd Scale (Bassett, Sadler, Kobischen, Skiff, Merrill, Atwater, & Livermore, 1981) and the Religiosity Measure (Rohrbaugh & Jessor, 1975). The findings indicated that students self-reported positive change in two areas: Belief component and Christian walk component. Belief component indicated p = . 03, with a post hoc statistical power of . 45 and an effect size of 0.36; Christian walk component indicated p = . 01 with a post hoc statistical power of 0.61 and an effect size of 0.42. Ritual, consequential, theological, and experiential religiosity did not show statistical significance, p = . 29, . 30, . 08, and . 07 respectively. However, the effect sizes were 0.11, 0.10, 0.27, and 0.30 respectively, which suggests that a small negative effect occurred in the area of ritual religiosity, a small positive effect occurred in the area of consequential religiosity, and a medium effect occurred in the areas of both theological and experiential religiosity. The results of this study suggest that online Christian education may affect an increase in religiosity, which not only validates the mission of Christian colleges and universities to foster Christian growth in their student body but also validates the time, effort, and training that colleges and universities invest in their faculty and staff to provide online Christian education.
Four-channel polarization-insensitive optically transparent wavelength converter

Multichannel wavelength converters may be important components in the cross-connects in future wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) transport networks. We demonstrate a multichannel, polarization-insensitive, optically transparent wavelength converter, based on four-wave mixing in two semiconductor optical amplifiers in a polarization-diversity arrangement. Bit-error-rate (BER) measurements with four input 2.5-Gb/s WDM channels, spaced by 2 nm, show penalties for wavelength conversion less than 2.6 dB at 10/sup -9/ BER. Changes in the state of polarization of the input signals cause the output power to change by less than 1.2 dB, and the corresponding power penalties change by less than 0.9 dB.
48-hours administration of nifedipine in spontaneous preterm labor - Doppler blood flow assessment of placental and fetal circulation.

OBJECTIVES The aims were to assess the placental and fetal circulation during nifedipine tocolysis within the first 48 hours of therapy. METHODS Placental and fetal circulation was assessed in Doppler ultrasound examination prior to nifedipine administration and then after 24 and 48 hours. Maternal heart rate and PI in uterine arteries were evaluated as well as FHR, RI and PI of UA and MCA. E/A-wave ratio for A-V valves, MPI and SF were calculated for both ventricles independently. To determine changes over time in all study variable analysis of variance (ANOVA) for repeated measurements followed by Tukey-Kramer's multiple comparison test was used. The effects of additional clinical covariates were checked. RESULTS Uterine and umbilical blood flow patterns were not altered significantly during administration of nifedypine tocolysis. While MCA Doppler indicies such as RI and PI were unchanged, the evaluation of MCA PSV revealed a transient significant decrease after 24 hours. A resolution of this distraction was observed within the following 24 hours. No significant changes were observed in direct fetal cardiac function parameters calculated separately for both ventricles. CONCLUSIONS The decrease of MCA PSV after 24 hours of treatment was isolated and transient hemodynamic distraction observed during treatment. Neither fetal cardiac parameters nor other Doppler indices were changed. Therefore oral administration of nifedipine seems not to alter uterine nor fetal arterial blood flow pattern seriously. As significant changes were observed by different authors, further studies should be performed to verify the optimal total dose of nifedipine and its influence on hemodynamic conditions.
Multimode Resource-Constrained Multiple Project Scheduling Problem under Fuzzy Random Environment and Its Application to a Large Scale Hydropower Construction Project

This paper presents an extension of the multimode resource-constrained project scheduling problem for a large scale construction project where multiple parallel projects and a fuzzy random environment are considered. By taking into account the most typical goals in project management, a cost/weighted makespan/quality trade-off optimization model is constructed. To deal with the uncertainties, a hybrid crisp approach is used to transform the fuzzy random parameters into fuzzy variables that are subsequently defuzzified using an expected value operator with an optimistic-pessimistic index. Then a combinatorial-priority-based hybrid particle swarm optimization algorithm is developed to solve the proposed model, where the combinatorial particle swarm optimization and priority-based particle swarm optimization are designed to assign modes to activities and to schedule activities, respectively. Finally, the results and analysis of a practical example at a large scale hydropower construction project are presented to demonstrate the practicality and efficiency of the proposed model and optimization method.
Enhancing patient freedom in rehabilitation robotics using gaze-based intention detection

Several design strategies for rehabilitation robotics have aimed to improve patients' experiences using motivating and engaging virtual environments. This paper presents a new design strategy: enhancing patient freedom with a complex virtual environment that intelligently detects patients' intentions and supports the intended actions. A `virtual kitchen' scenario has been developed in which many possible actions can be performed at any time, allowing patients to experiment and giving them more freedom. Remote eye tracking is used to detect the intended action and trigger appropriate support by a rehabilitation robot. This approach requires no additional equipment attached to the patient and has a calibration time of less than a minute. The system was tested on healthy subjects using the ARMin III arm rehabilitation robot. It was found to be technically feasible and usable by healthy subjects. However, the intention detection algorithm should be improved using better sensor fusion, and clinical tests with patients are needed to evaluate the system's usability and potential therapeutic benefits.
Stubborn Communication Channels

This paper aims at bridging the gap between the assumption of reliable channels by fault-tolerantdistributed algorithmsand the weak reliabilityof feasible communication channels. We de(cid:12)ne a new kind of communication channels which we call Stubborn channels. Stubborn channels are easily implementable over a connectionless network layer and, although weak, the reliability guarantees o(cid:11)ered by Stubborn channels are su(cid:14)cient to solve the fundamental Consensus problem in asynchronous systems with unreliable failure detectors
Evolutionary optimized footstep planning for humanoid robot

This paper proposes a novel evolutionary optimized footstep planner for humanoid robot. Firstly, a footstep planner using univector field navigation method is proposed to provide a command state (CS) which is to be the input of modifiable walking pattern generator (MWPG) at each footstep. Then the MWPG generates the associated trajectories of every leg joint of humanoid robot at each footstep to follow the inputted CS. Secondly, the step length modification method which makes the humanoid robot step over low obstacles with minimum step length is proposed. Lastly, evolutionary optimization for the univector fields is presented. The univector fields are optimized by evolutionary algorithm (EA) considering objectives in navigation of humanoid robot for efficient navigation. The effectiveness of the proposed evolutionary optimized footstep planner is demonstrated through computer simulations for the simulation model of small-sized humanoid robot, HanSaRam-VIII (HSR-VIII).
Conserved regional 3' grouping of rare codons in the coding sequence of ocular prosecretory mitogen lacritin.

PURPOSE Lacritin is a prosecretory mitogen in tears and, although a tear protein, it promotes basal tearing and lacrimal gland secretion. Since scale up is relevant to its potential use in the treatment of dry eye, we explored various mutagenic strategies to alter the stability, solubility, and translational efficiency of nascent lacritin, and discovered 3' clustering of rare human codons. METHODS Site-directed mutagenesis of lacritin coding cDNA "pLAC" generated 24 different nonsynonymous and 13 synonymous mutations. Nonsynonymous mutations altered amino acids with nonpolar, basic or acidic side chains to serine. Synonymous mutation progressively optimized human codons that are rare or uncommon in Escherichia coli without changing the amino acid specified. These changes were validated by sequencing and protein production, and analyzed via the "rare codon calculator" (RCC). Nonhuman primate and nonprimate lacritin coding sequences were extracted from Ensembl, and analyzed via RCC using codon usage appropriate for each species. RESULTS Superior yields were obtained by modification of individual hydrophobic residues or a predicted salt bridge, suggesting that production was limited by lacritin stability. Accordingly, elimination of rare codons increased yields less effectively. Importantly, RCC analysis of human, nonhuman primate (mouse lemur) and nonprimate (cat, tree shrew) lacritin coding sequences revealed remarkable 3' clustering of rare codons, unlike human lipocalin-1 and 21 other widely expressed human tear genes. CONCLUSIONS Lacritin protein yields were improved primarily by hydrophobic or salt bridge mutagenesis and less so by elimination of rare codons. The 3' clustering of rare codons is conserved in all lacritin orthologs examined.
Optimal dividend-payout in random discrete time

Assume that the surplus process of an insurance company is described by a general Levy process and that possible dividend pay-outs to shareholders are restricted to random discrete times which are determined by an independent renewal process. Under this setting we show that the optimal dividend pay-out policy is a band-policy. If the renewal process is a Poisson process, it is further shown that for Cramer–Lundberg risk processes with exponential claim sizes and its diffusion limit the optimal policy collapses to a barrier-policy. Finally, a numerical example is given for which the optimal bands can be calculated explicitly. The random observation procedure studied in this paper also allows for an interpretation in terms of a random walk model with a certain type of random discounting.
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Random Matrix Based Input Shaping Control of Uncertain Parallel Manipulators

Input shaping control techniques have proven to be very effective in improving performance and lowering actuation requirements for Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) systems. However, deployments tend to be very sensitive to variation of the system natural frequencies and damping ratios. This limits the application of input shaping schemes in the nonlinear systems (e.g., robotic manipulators) or systems with uncertain parameters. The main focus of this paper is to address the parametric uncertainty in the system and the design of an input shaping control based upon the estimated parameters. The variations induced by system non-linearity are tackled by the method of the linearization. The uncertainty is characterized by treating the linearized system mass matrix as a random matrix. This provides the probability density function of the eigenvalues of the underdamped system that are then used to design the input shaping control for the uncertain system. We believe that such a characterization (and desensitization to production variability) is especially important for successful deployment of newer generations of 3D printed robotic systems. This is verified via a Monte Carlo simulation — the statistics of the percent residual vibration verifies the superiority of the input shaping control scheme based on the estimated parameter values (compared to the one based on the nominal parameters). Copyright © 2014 by ASME
Traffic-aware decentralized AP selection for multi-rate in WLANs

AP selection problem is one of the major issues in infrastructure WLANs. Recently, many authors in the literatures have proposed a novel AP selection scheme which can provide better performance (e.g. aggregated throughput, load balancing) than RSS-based legacy scheme. However, they have presented the schemes with non-practical assumptions, e.g. they have assumed that adjacent APs are configured with orthogonal channels and each station transmits the data frame using a single data rate. As we have studied, adjacent BSSs' transmission and multiple transmission rates impact the network's performance. In this paper, we propose a practical traffic-aware AP selection scheme considering the factors previously mentioned. By exploiting the Retry field in the MAC header as feedback about channel conditions, we can infer the network conditions, and each client can select the ‘best’ AP in terms of expected throughput. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution by comparing to existing approaches through ns-2 simulation.
Improving MIMO Capacity in a Line-of-Sight Environment

In this paper, the optimal form of a channel matrix is derived to maximize the MIMO capacity in a LOS environment. Antenna response functions are proposed to achieve the optimal form and suboptimal results are considered. In designing an antenna to maximize the capacity, the objective is to increase the slope of the far-field phase response without sacrificing too much antenna gain. Such a constraint has not typically been considered in antenna design and should be further explored.
'Leaning Against the Wind' and the Timing of Monetary Policy

If monetary policy is to aim also at financial stability, how would it change? To analyze this question, this paper develops a general-form framework. Financial stability objectives are shown to make monetary policy more aggressive: in reaction to negative shocks, cuts are deeper but shorter-lived than otherwise. By keeping cuts brief, monetary policy tightens as soon as bank risk appetite heats up. Within this shorter time span, cuts must then be deeper than otherwise to also achieve standard objectives. Finally, we analyze how robust this result is to the presence of a bank regulatory tool, and provide a parameterized example.
Interaction with Transducin Depletes Metarhodopsin III

In the phototransduction pathway of rhodopsin, the metarhodopsin (Meta) III retinal storage form arises from the active G-protein binding Meta II by a slow spontaneous reaction through the Meta I precursor or by light absorption and photoisomerization, respectively. Meta III is a side product of the Meta II decay path and holds its retinal in the original binding site, with the Schiff base bond to the apoprotein reprotonated as in the dark ground state. It thus keeps the retinal away from the regeneration pathway in which the photolyzed all-trans-retinal is released. This study was motivated by our recent observation that Meta III remains stable for hours in membranes devoid of regulatory proteins, whereas it decays much more rapidly in situ. We have now explored the possibility of regulated formation and decay of Meta III, using intrinsic opsin tryptophan fluorescence and UV-visible and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. We find that a rapid return of Meta III into the regeneration pathway is triggered by the G-protein transducin (Gt). Depletion of the retinal storage is initiated by a novel direct bimolecular interaction of Gt with Meta III, which was previously considered inactive. Gt thereby induces the transition of Meta III into Meta II, so that the retinylidene bond to the apoprotein can be hydrolyzed, and the retinal can participate again in the normal retinoid cycle. Beyond the potential significance for retinoid metabolism, this may provide the first example of a G-protein-catalyzed conversion of a receptor.