Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Driving space detection for structured outdoor environment using monocular vision

Driving space detection is one of the basic steps for autonomous guidance of vehicles. In this paper a real time road segmentation algorithm is proposed for identifying driving space. The presented algorithm uses the concept of appearance based object detection (ABOD) to detect traversable area for vehicles. The input image is partitioned as road and off road and each individual pixel is classified as either traversable or non traversable. It uses Mean Shift Algorithm for road segmentation and then uses ABOD on segmented image to separate road and off road areas.
Possibilities for QoS in existing Internet Routing Protocols

In classical circuit switching networks Quality of Service is an essential aspect which innuence the entire network design process, including routing consideration. Due to the eeorts to introduce Quality of Service (QoS) into IP-based networks, design routing to support QoS becomes increasingly important, e.g. in such concepts like integrated service and diierentiated service IP networks. In this we give an overview of the possibility to introduce QoS in existing routing schemes and give an outlook to new QoS routing protocols currently discussed in the internet community such as the IETF. First of all we give a survey of diierent routing algorithms used in unicast Interior Gateway Protocols and Exterior Gateway Protocols. We describe in detail (E)IGRP a proprietary CISCO routing protocol, followed by a short overview of the diierent aspects for QoS routing protocols in the Internet.
The double description method for the approximation of explicit MPC control laws

A standard model predictive controller (MPC) can be written as a parametric optimization problem whose solution is a piecewise affine (PWA) map from the measured state to the optimal control input. The primary limitation of this optimal `explicit solution¿ is that the complexity can grow quickly with problem size, and so in this paper we seek to compute approximate explicit control laws that can trade-off complexity for approximation error. This computation is accomplished in a two-phase process: First, inner and outer polyhedral approximations of the the convex cost function of the parametric problem are computed with an algorithm based on an extension to the classic double-description method; a convex hull approach. The proposed method has two main advantages from a control point of view: it is an incremental approach, meaning that an approximation of any specified complexity can be produced and it operates on implicitly-defined convex sets, meaning that the optimal solution of the parametric problem is not required. In the second phase of the algorithm, a feasible approximate control law is computed that has the cost function derived in the first phase. For this purpose, a new interpolation method is introduced based on recent work on barycentric interpolation. The resulting control law is continuous, although non-linear and defined over a non-simplical polytopic partition of the state space. The non-simplical nature of the partition generates significantly simpler approximate control laws than current competing methods, as demonstrated on computational examples.
Unmasking silence and impunity: the Zimbabwe Peace Project’s e-activism in a polarised political dispensation

ABSTRACT This study is an exploration of the use of technology-mediated interventions by the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) in checkmating the country’s insidious culture of political violence and impunity. It disentangles the ZPP’s strategies and the composite reactions they triggered from state functionaries and the aligned security apparatus. The ZPP exploited and deployed an Internet-circulated monthly newsletter, bulk short message service (SMS) alerts, smartphones, radio and Facebook to shine a spotlight on injustice. It is argued that the ZPP’s whistle-blowing strategies used against human rights violators were not necessarily intended to secure immediate perpetrator conviction; rather, they were a partial but exigent attempt at using perpetrator exposure to reveal extralegal activities and checkmate the country’s culture of impunity. The ZPP’s cybernetic naming and shaming strategies embarrassed some offenders, as evidenced by the intelligence operatives and the police’s constant harassment and arrests of ZPP-affiliated activists. The state-controlled media compounded this pressure by casting aspersions on the ZPP’s bona fides, labelling it a foreign-funded organisation that was attempting to destabilise the country. Finally, this study is informed by a broad evidentiary base that includes ZPP reports on its e-archive, oral interviews, policy documents and newspaper accounts.
Overcoming encumbrances on the road to good theory : HCI as a catalyst for unified cognitive science

Current attempts to create a unified, multidisciplinary cognitive science have languished. This paper demonstrates how the human-computer interaction (HCI) paradigm can serve as a unifying framework for cognitive science. HCI has focused the research of many disciplines on the single domain of interaction design. Cognitive science, in contrast, has emphasized multidisciplinary research across a wide range of domains, resulting in disciplinary fragmentation. This paper demonstrates how limiting the domain breadth of cognitive science through HCI research curtails disciplinary fragmentation and drives unified theory building.
Emergence of Polymorphic Mating Strategies in Robot Colonies

Polymorphism has fascinated evolutionary biologists since the time of Darwin. Biologists have observed discrete alternative mating strategies in many different species. In this study, we demonstrate that polymorphic mating strategies can emerge in a colony of hermaphrodite robots. We used a survival and reproduction task where the robots maintained their energy levels by capturing energy sources and physically exchanged genotypes for the reproduction of offspring. The reproductive success was dependent on the individuals' energy levels, which created a natural trade-off between the time invested in maintaining a high energy level and the time invested in attracting mating partners. We performed experiments in environments with different density of energy sources and observed a variety in the mating behavior when a robot could see both an energy source and a potential mating partner. The individuals could be classified into two phenotypes: 1) forager, who always chooses to capture energy sources, and 2) tracker, who keeps track of potential mating partners if its energy level is above a threshold. In four out of the seven highest fitness populations in different environments, we found subpopulations with distinct differences in genotype and in behavioral phenotype. We analyzed the fitnesses of the foragers and the trackers by sampling them from each subpopulation and mixing with different ratios in a population. The fitness curves for the two subpopulations crossed at about 25% of foragers in the population, showing the evolutionary stability of the polymorphism. In one of those polymorphic populations, the trackers were further split into two subpopulations: (strong trackers) and (weak trackers). Our analyses show that the population consisting of three phenotypes also constituted several stable polymorphic evolutionarily stable states. To our knowledge, our study is the first to demonstrate the emergence of polymorphic evolutionarily stable strategies within a robot evolution framework.
Eurosystem Monetary Targeting: Lessons from U.S. Data

Abstract Using a small empirical model of inflation, output, and money estimated on U.S. data, we compare the relative performance of monetary targeting and inflation targeting. The results show monetary targeting to be quite inefficient, yielding both higher inflation and output variability. This is true even with a nonstochastic money demand formulation. Our results are also robust to using a P ∗ model of inflation. Therefore, in these popular frameworks, there is no support for the prominent role given to money growth in the Eurosystem's monetary policy strategy.
Resource Allocation in Software Defined Wireless Networks

Recently, various wireless networks have been deployed, and thus people can access the Internet conveniently. However, traditional architectures are closed and ossified, which causes wireless networks to become complicated, inflexible, and expensive. As a result, there are several challenges for management and QoS guarantees that should be addressed. In order to solve these challenges, a new architecture should be designed. To this end, SDN techniques have been a hot topic due to the advantages of flexibility and cost efficiency. In this article, we first introduce the basic idea of SDN and discuss the reason why using software defined wireless networking (SDWN) is necessary. Second, we review some typical SDWN-based architectures, and show a hierarchical mobile cloud computing based software defined wireless network (MCC-SDWN) for fifth generation wireless networks. Next, the state-of-the-art work on resource allocation for MCC-SDWN is reviewed. For performance evaluation and simulation, some mainstream implemental tools and simulation platforms are introduced. We also discuss potential problems and solutions.
Analyst Eyes and Camera Eyes: Theoretical and Technological Considerations in "Seeing" the Details of Classroom Interaction.

The Project on Academic Language Socialization (PALS) investigated, in a longitudinal study, the process by which urban high school students are socialized into subject matter discourse. Specifically, the PALS project examined language forms and discourse patterns that both occur in and constitute the process of teaching and learning in high school subject matter courses. This paper reports that the particular technology of data collection being used in the classroom has a strong effect on what is "seen"--and therefore collected--in capturing and understanding classroom interaction. The paper aims to uncover and clarify these aspects of the process. It begins by examining the theory of language being followed and how it has shaped the processes of data collection in the classroom. The paper then describes the project's thoughts about and experiences with various forms of classroom data to illustrate how a particular way to represent the data that make up the raw material for analysis was arrived at. Finally, the paper presents some preliminary findings that illustrate the effects of taking seriously the relationship between theory and data collection. In this way, the project hopes to show how theory and technologies/methods of data acquisition are intertwined such that a loyalty to one entails a deep examination of the other. Contains 10 figures, 3 notes, and 26 references. (NKA) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 17This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. ANALYST EYES AND CAMERA EYES: THEORETICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS LN "SEEING" THE DETAILS OF CLASSROOM INTERACTION JANE ZUENGLER CECILIA FORD CHRIS FASSNACHT
An Increase in N-Ras Expression is Associated with Development of Hormone Refractory Prostate Cancer in a Subset of Patients

Protein expression of H, K and N-Ras was assessed in hormone sensitive and hormone refractory prostate tumour pairs from 61 patients by immunohistochemistry. Expression of H-Ras and K- Ras was not associated with any known clinical parameters. In contrast an increase in N-Ras membrane expression in the transition from hormone sensitive to hormone refractory prostate cancer was associated with shorter time to relapse (p = 0.01) and shorter disease specific survival (p = 0.008). In addition, patients with an increase in N-Ras membrane expression had lower levels of PSA at relapse (p = 0.02) and expression correlated with phosphorylated MAP kinase (p = 0.010) and proliferation index (Ki67, p = 0.02). These results suggest that in a subgroup patients N-Ras expression is associated with development of hormone refractory prostate cancer via activation of the MAP kinase cascade.
Databsse system approach the management decision support

Traditional intuitive methods of decision-making are no longer adequate to deal with the complex problems faced by the modern policymaker. Thus systems must be developed to provide the information and analysis necessary for the decisions which must be made. These systems are called decision support systems. Although database systems provide a key ingredient to decision support systems, the problems now facing the policymaker are different from those problems to which database systems have been applied in the past. The problems are usually not known in advance, they are constantly changing, and answers are needed quickly. Hence additional technologies, methodologies, and approaches must expand the traditional areas of database and operating systems research (as well as other software and hardware research) in order for them to become truly effective in supporting policymakers. This paper describes recent work in this area and indicates where future work is needed. Specifically the paper discusses: (1) why there exists a vital need for decision support systems; (2) examples from work in the field of energy which make explicit the characteristics which distinguish these decision support systems from traditional operational and managerial systems; (3) how an awareness of decision support systems has evolved, including a brief review of work done by others and a statement of the computational needs of decision support systems which are consistent with contemporary technology; (4) an approach which has been made to meet many of these computational needs through the development and implementation of a computational facility, the Generalized Management Information System (GMIS); and (5) the application of this computational facility to a complex and important energy problem facing New England in a typical study within the New England Energy Management Information System (NEEMIS) Project.
The existential dimensions of the paradox of becoming in the process turn in organisation studies

This article offers a theory of becoming a manager which goes beyond Maslow and Rogers’ theory of self-actualisation. Based on two process perspectives in the context of organisations and management, it argues that becoming is less about ‘inner-self’ but emerges out of the dialectical interaction between a person and the world: a manager only becomes a manager as they engage with the world. Based on existential philosophers, it argues that the dialectical activity of becoming a manager through interacting with the world presupposes the willingness to leap through the anxiety of the unfamiliar and unknown so that a managerial identity and way of being can emerge. Existentialism and Organization Studies–based process theory are brought together by the way in which Karl Weick uses a quotation from Kierkegaard: ‘Life is lived forward and understood backward’. This statement is also used as a basis for suggesting a way of working with the relationship between theory and practice in management.
Expression of enterovirus 71 capsid protein VP1 in Escherichia coli and its clinical application

The VPl gene of enterovirus 71 (EV71) was synthesized, construct a recombinant plasmid pET15b/VP1 and expressed in E. coli BL21. The recombinant VP1 protein could specifically react with EV71-infected patient sera without the cross-reaction with serum antibodies of coxsackievirus A16 (CA16), A4, A5, B3 and B5 as well as echovirus 6. In acute and convalescent phases, IgM and IgG antibodies of 182 serum samples were detected by ELISA with recombinant VP1 protein as a coated antigen. The results showed that the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of IgM antibodies in serum samples for the diagnosis of EV71 infection were 90.1, 98.4, 98.8 and 88.7%, respectively; similarly, those of IgG antibodies in serum samples were 82.4, 89.1, 91.5 and 78.1%, respectively. Five of 80 samples (6.25%) from CA16-infected patients were detected positive by ELISA with recombinant VP1 protein in which indicated the cross reactions and 0 of 5 samples from patients infected with other enteroviruses including CA4, CA5, CB3, CB5 and echovirus 6. Therefore, the recombinant VP1 protein of EV7l may provide a theoretical reference for establishing an effective antibody screening of IgM for EV71-infected patients with clinically suspected hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD).
JM: An R package for the joint modelling of longitudinal and time-to-event data

In longitudinal studies measurements are often collected on different types of outcomes for each subject. These may include several longitudinally measured responses (such as blood values relevant to the medical condition under study) and the time at which an event of particular interest occurs (e.g., death, development of a disease or dropout from the study). These outcomes are often separately analyzed; however, in many instances, a joint modeling approach is either required or may produce a better insight into the mechanisms that underlie the phenomenon under study. In this paper we present the R package JM that fits joint models for longitudinal and time-to-event data.
Three Novel Herpesviruses of Endangered Clemmys and Glyptemys Turtles

The rich diversity of the world’s reptiles is at risk due to significant population declines of broad taxonomic and geographic scope. Significant factors attributed to these declines include habitat loss, pollution, unsustainable collection and infectious disease. To investigate the presence and significance of a potential pathogen on populations of critically endangered bog turtles (Glyptemys muhlenbergii) as well sympatric endangered wood (G. insculpta) and endangered spotted (Clemmys guttata) turtles in the northeastern United States, choanal and cloacal swabs collected from 230 turtles from 19 sites in 5 states were screened for herpesvirus by polymerase chain reaction. We found a high incidence of herpesvirus infection in bog turtles (51.5%; 105/204) and smaller numbers of positive wood (5) and spotted (1) turtles. Sequence and phylogenetic analysis revealed three previously uncharacterized alphaherpesviruses. Glyptemys herpesvirus 1 was the predominant herpesvirus detected and was found exclusively in bog turtles in all states sampled. Glyptemys herpesvirus 2 was found only in wood turtles. Emydid herpesvirus 2 was found in a small number of bog turtles and a single spotted turtle from one state. Based on these findings, Glyptemys herpesvirus 1 appears to be a common infection in the study population, whereas Glyptemys herpesvirus 2 and Emydid herpesvirus 2 were not as frequently detected. Emydid herpesvirus 2 was the only virus detected in more than one species. Herpesviruses are most often associated with subclinical or mild infections in their natural hosts, and no sampled turtles showed overt signs of disease at sampling. However, infection of host-adapted viruses in closely related species can result in significant disease. The pathogenic potential of these viruses, particularly Emydid herpesvirus 2, in sympatric chelonians warrants additional study in order to better understand the relationship of these viruses with their endangered hosts.
Managing Customer Switching Costs: A Framework for Competing in the Networked Environment

Previous research argues that customer switching costs play an important role in the firm’s ability to retain customers and achieve competitive advantage. Research also indicates that in the increasingly networked environment, switching costs are changing in important ways. Despite switching costs’ recognized role in contributing to competitive advantage and its increasingly strategic characteristics in the expanding networked environment, we find a lack of coherence and completeness in the conceptual tools and models developed to understand its role and help effectively to manage the phenomenon. In this paper we attempt to address these needs by expanding and refining the conceptualization of customer switching costs and developing a more useful and comprehensive framework for managers.
A PHENOMENOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF PEER LEADERSHIP EXHIBITED BY DIVISION I FOOTBALL CAPTAINS

Patrick Pauken, Advisor The rationale for this study was to discover the peer leadership effect Division I football captains had on the remainder of their team by examining the phenomenological experiences of the captains and their teammates. Through interviews and a focus group, leadership practices were connected to the captains and their formal roles within the structure of the team, but were not limited to these title-bearing leaders. Dependent upon factors such as age, playing experience and personality of a studentathlete, peer leadership extended beyond the verbal and visible demonstrations by the captains and was exhibited by various members of the team. Attributes relating to consistency and work ethic were more highly valued than sheer athletic talent. Additionally, misuse of talent was a key area where respect was lost. These values moved beyond the field and into the world of academics. Those who worked in the classroom for their marks, whatever they may be, were more likely to earn respect than those who did not apply their efforts away from the field. Furthermore, the study suggests, the title ‘captain’ serves more of an external purpose of prestige and tradition than an internal end-all leadership function in this setting. A suggestion of the research findings is the formal role may not have the same importance within the team structure that it once had. If this is true, the role of captain serves a public function of team representation and gives leadership accessibility to those who have earned it, whether or not they bear the title of captain.
Effect of dexamethasone on the onset time and recovery profiles of cisatracurium

Background The effect of dexamethasone injection on cisatracurium-induced neuromuscular block was compared according to different injection time points. Methods One hundred seventeen patients were randomly assigned to three groups: 8 mg of dexamethasone injected intravenously 2–3 h before anesthesia (group A), just before anesthesia induction (group B), and at the end of surgery (control group). Three minutes after anesthesia induction, intubation was performed without neuromuscular blockers, and acceleromyography was initiated. All patients received 0.05 mg/kg cisatracurium; the onset time and recovery profiles were recorded. Results Eighty patients were finally enrolled. The onset time (median [interquartile range], seconds) was significantly hastened in group A (520.0 [500.0–560.0], n = 30) compared to that in group B (562.5 [514.0–589.0], n = 22) (P = 0.008) and control group (586.5 [575.0–642.5], n = 28) (P < 0.001). The onset time in group B was faster than the control group (P = 0.015). The recovery time [mean (95% CI) minutes] was significantly hastened in group A [28.5 (27.3–29.6)] compared to that in group B [32.3 (31.0–33.6)] (P < 0.001) and control group [30.9 (29.9–31.8)] (P = 0.015). The total recovery time was significantly hastened more in group A [47.1 (45.5–48.6)] than group B [52.8 (51.6–54.0) minutes] (P < 0.001) and control group [50.5 (48.7–52.3) minutes] (P = 0.008). Conclusions A single dose of 8 mg of dexamethasone hastened the onset and total recovery times of cisatracurium-induced block by approximately 15 and 9%, respectively if administered 2–3 h prior to surgery.