Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Minimal Surfaces : A Three DimensionalSegmentation

A novel geometric approach for three dimensional object segmentation is presented. The scheme is based on geometric deformable surfaces moving towards the objects to be detected. We show that this model is equivalent to the computation of surfaces of minimal area (local minimal surfaces) in a Riemannian space. This space is deened by a metric induced from the three dimensional image in which the objects are to be detected. The model also shows the relation between classical deformable surfaces obtained via energy minimization, and geometric ones derived from curvature ows in the surface evolution framework. The new approach is stable, robust, and automatically handles changes in the surface topology during the deformation. Results related to existence, uniqueness, stability, and correctness of the solution to this geometric deformable model are presented as well. Based on an eecient numerical algorithm for surface evolution, we present a number of examples of object detection in real and synthetic images.
Ontologies for the internet of things

Challenges the Internet of Things (IoT) is facing are directly inherited from today's Internet. However, they are amplified by the anticipated large scale deployments of devices and services, information flow and direct user involvment in the IoT. Challenges are many and we focus on addressing those related to scalability, heterogeneity of IoT components, and the highly dynamic and unknown nature of the network topology. In this paper, we give an overview of a service-oriented middleware solution that addresses those challenges using semantic technologies to provide interoperability and flexibility. We especially focus on modeling a set of ontologies that describe devices and their functionalities and thoroughly model the domain of physics. The physics domain is indeed at the core of the IoT, as it allows the approximation and estimation of functionalities usually provided by things. Those functionalities will be deployed as services on appropriate devices through our middleware.
The Risk-Escalation Model: A Principled Design Strategy for Early-Phase Trials

Should first-in-human trials be designed to maximize the prospect of therapeutic benefit for volunteers, prioritize avoidance of unintended harms, or aim for some happy medium between the two? Perennial controversies surrounding initiation and design of early-phase trials hinge on how this question is resolved. In this paper, we build on the premise that the task of early-phase testing is to optimize various components of a potential therapy so that later, confirmatory trials have the maximal probability of informing drug development and clinical care. We then explore three strategies that investigators might use to manage trial risks while optimizing a therapy, using cell therapy for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) as an example. We argue that an iterative application of maximin strategies over successive cohorts and trials, which we call the “risk-escalation model,” establishes a moral principle that should guide decision-making in early-phase trials.
Sounds Big: The Effects of Acoustic Pitch on Product Perceptions

There is meaning in sound that transcends language. Structural differences in the sound of a spokesperson's voice or a piece of background music can influence a consumer's perception of product attributes through cross-modal inference. This article examines how differences in acoustic pitch in marketing communications influence consumer's perceptions of product size. Through six studies, the authors find that when associated with a product, lower pitch in voice or music leads consumers to infer a larger product size. Furthermore, evidence shows that this pitch–size effect occurs through a process of visual mental imagery, which can be facilitated through stronger visualization cues delivered via auditory channels and reduced when size perceptions are assessed directly in the presence of visual product information. The cross-modal effects between auditory stimuli and physical products represent an unexplored influence on consumer perception and behavior with important managerial and theoretical implications.
Decoding face categories in diagnostic subregions of primary visual cortex

Higher visual areas in the occipitotemporal cortex contain discrete regions for face processing, but it remains unclear if V1 is modulated by top‐down influences during face discrimination, and if this is widespread throughout V1 or localized to retinotopic regions processing task‐relevant facial features. Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we mapped the cortical representation of two feature locations that modulate higher visual areas during categorical judgements – the eyes and mouth. Subjects were presented with happy and fearful faces, and we measured the fMRI signal of V1 regions processing the eyes and mouth whilst subjects engaged in gender and expression categorization tasks. In a univariate analysis, we used a region‐of‐interest‐based general linear model approach to reveal changes in activation within these regions as a function of task. We then trained a linear pattern classifier to classify facial expression or gender on the basis of V1 data from ‘eye’ and ‘mouth’ regions, and from the remaining non‐diagnostic V1 region. Using multivariate techniques, we show that V1 activity discriminates face categories both in local ‘diagnostic’ and widespread ‘non‐diagnostic’ cortical subregions. This indicates that V1 might receive the processed outcome of complex facial feature analysis from other cortical (i.e. fusiform face area, occipital face area) or subcortical areas (amygdala).
Invited Commentaries on “Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing”

In the preceding article, Vargo and Lusch (V&L; 2004) observe that an evolution is underway toward a new dominant logic for marketing. The new dominant logic has important implications for marketing theory, practice, and pedagogy, as well as for general management and public policy. Thus, their observations are likely to resonate with a broad cross-section of the business community. With the goal of stimulating discussion and debate, I invited some distinguished scholars to write brief commentaries on different aspects of V&L's article. I was delighted to receive a thoughtful and diverse set of comments. The ideas expressed in the article and the commentaries will undoubtedly provoke a variety of reactions from readers of Journal of Marketing. I hope you will enjoy reading, and thinking, about these scholars’ views on the fundamental premises of marketing as much as I did.
Evidence of a High Carbon Abundance in the Local Interstellar Cloud

The nature of the local interstellar cloud (LIC) is highly constrained by the combination of in situ heliospheric and line-of-sight data toward nearby stars. We present a new interpretation of the LIC components of the absorption-line data toward ϵ CMa, based on recent atomic data that include new rates for the Mg+ to Mg0 dielectronic recombination rate, and using in situ measurements of the temperature and density of neutral helium inside of the heliosphere. With these data we are able to place interesting limits on the gas-phase abundance of carbon in the LIC. If the C/S abundance ratio is solar, ~20, then no simultaneous solution exists for the N(Mg I), N(Mg II), N(C II), and N(C II*) data. The combined column density and in situ data favor an abundance ratio AC/AS = 47. We find that the most probable gas-phase C abundance is in the range 400-800 ppm with a lower limit of ~330. We speculate that such a supersolar abundance could have come to be present in the LIC via destruction of decoupled dust grains. Similar enhanced C/H ratios are seen in very low column density material, N(H) < 1019 cm-2, toward several nearby stars.
Data-parallel full reference algorithm for dropped frame identification in uncompressed video using genetic algorithm

In recent years due to easy availability of video editing tools, video sequences which are to be presented as evidence during court trials, can be tampered and therefore misguide the court proceeding. These video sequences are required to be authenticated by forensic experts before considering them as evidence during court trials. Frame drop is one of the most often temporal tampering and it is required to authenticate a video sequence against frame drop. Current work is an extension of author's pre-published work where they presented a full reference algorithm for dropped frame identification in uncompressed video using genetic algorithm which efficiently identifies dropped frame indices with accuracy ranging from 78 to 100 percentage under different test scenarios. To resolve the issue of scalability, this paper extends the algorithm by identifying set of independent tasks in pre-published FR algorithm and presented a data-parallel algorithm. We simulated the scheme over five video sequences (of duration 10 to 540 seconds) by dropping 0.5 percentage and 1 percentage video frames and analyzed the required processing time with 1, 2, 4, and 8 processors. Simulated results suggested that the presented algorithm is scalable and efficiently identifies dropped frame indices with average speedup of 1.77, 2.81, and 3.35 for 2, 4, and 8 processors respectively.
FROM POINT CLOUDS TO ARCHITECTURAL MODELS: ALGORITHMS FOR SHAPE RECONSTRUCTION

The use of terrestrial laser scanners in architectural survey applications has become more and more common. Row data complexity, as given by scanner restitution, leads to several problems about design and 3D-modelling starting from Point Clouds. In this context we present a study on architectural sections and mathematical algorithms for their shape reconstruction, according to known or definite geometrical rules, focusing on shapes of different complexity. Each step of the semi-automatic algorithm has been developed using Mathematica software and CAD, integrating both programs in order to reconstruct a geometrical CAD model of the object. Our study is motivated by the fact that, for architectural survey, most of three dimensional modelling procedures concerning point clouds produce superabundant, but often unnecessary, information and are also very expensive in terms of cpu time using more and more sophisticated hardware and software. On the contrary, it's important to simplify/decimate the point cloud in order to recognize a particular form out of some definite geometric/architectonic shapes. Such a process consists of several steps: first the definition of plane sections and characterization of their architecture; secondly the construction of a continuous plane curve depending on some parameters. In the third step we allow the selection on the curve of some nodal points with given specific characteristics (symmetry, tangency conditions, shadowing exclusion, corners, … ). The fourth and last step is the construction of a best shape defined by the comparison with an abacus of known geometrical elements, such as moulding profiles, leading to a precise architectonical section. The algorithms have been developed and tested in very different situations and are presented in a case study of complex geometries such as some mouldings profiles in the Church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane.
Mining blog stories using community-based and temporal clustering

In recent years, weblogs, or blogs for short, have become an important form of online content. The personal nature of blogs, online interactions between bloggers, and the temporal nature of blog entries, differentiate blogs from other kinds of Web content. Bloggers interact with each other by linking to each other's posts, thus forming online communities. Within these communities, bloggers engage in discussions of certain issues, through entries in their blogs. Since these discussions are often initiated in response to online or offline events, a discussion typically lasts for a limited time duration. We wish to extract such temporal discussions, or stories, occurring within blogger communities, based on some query keywords. We propose a Content-Community-Time model that can leverage the content of entries, their timestamps, and the community structure of the blogs, to automatically discover stories. Doing so also allows us to discover hot stories. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our model through several case studies using real-world data collected from the blogosphere.
Visual servoing of nonholonomic cart

This paper presents a visual feedback control scheme for a nonholonomic cart without capabilities for dead reckoning. A camera is mounted on the cart and it observes cues attached on the environment. The dynamics of the cart are transformed into a coordinate system in the image plane. An image-based controller which linearizes the dynamics is proposed. Since the positions of the cues in the image plane are controlled directly, possibility of missing cues is reduced considerably. Simulations are carried out to evaluate the validity of the proposed scheme. Experiments on a radio controlled car with a CCD camera are also given.
Hydrodynamic instability of the heliopause driven by plasma-neutral charge-exchange interactions

Results from time-dependent two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of the global heliosphere suggest that drag between the plasma ions and the interstellar neutrals, caused by charge-exchange collisions, may cause the heliopause to be hydrodynamically unstable. Both ions and neutrals are treated as fluids coupled by charge-exchange collisions. The neutral-ion drag is proportional to the plasma density and introduces an effective gravity in the direction of the neutral flow, which, because the interstellar plasma is much denser than the heliosheath plasma, causes a Rayleigh-Taylor-like instability to develop. The heliopause is unstable only near the stagnation point at the “nose” of the heliosphere. In the simulations, the heliopause is seen to oscillate nonlinearly about its equilibrium position with a timescale of the order of a hundred years and amplitudes of tens of AUs. Growth rates from the simulations are in reasonable agreement with theoretical estimates. The possible stabilizing influence of energetic solar wind neutrals, neglected in the present model, is discussed. Implications of this instability on the interpretation of the Voyager 2–3 kHz emissions are also discussed.
PZT-on-silicon RF-MEMS Lamb wave resonators and filters

Lamb-wave piezoelectric RF-MEMS resonators have demonstrated promising performance, such as low motional impedance and high Q-factor. Lamb-wave resonators are still in the perfectioning state and therefore there is a great demand for further understanding of various issues such as reducing the anchor-loss, spurious mode suppression using various designs and simulation techniques such as finite-element methods. AlN, ZnO and recently PZT thin-films are the prevalent piezoelectric materials utilized in the resonators. Of these, PZT has the highest electromechanical coupling-factor which is a big opportunity to reduce the size of the filters and keep the motional impedance low. PZT suffers from a high feed-through due to its high dielectric permittivity which, as a consequence, drastically reduces the stopband rejection. In this thesis, to overcome this problem, we propose a feed-through cancellation method in the presence of specific grounding resistances (non-zero grounding) at the input- and output-sides, which always exist and prevent perfect grounding. Particularly, these grounding resistances have been considered in the designs. Using the proposed technique, the stopband rejection of the resonator is improved by more than 20 dB. Two different bandpass filter configurations (i.e. mechanically coupled and differentially readout) are presented in this thesis. The mechanically-coupled filter consists of two mechanically-coupled resonators with identical designed wave-length. One resonator is used to actuate the whole coupled structure and the other one is used to pick up the signal. The mechanically-coupled filter is actuated using two differential input signals and on the other side, the output signal is also picked up using a differential readout. As both actuation and readout are done using a differential technique, the feed-through signals trough air and substrate are not eliminated. Therefore, the filter shows a low stopband rejection. To overcome this problem, a new concept of bandpass filter is proposed in this thesis called, differential readout filter. Two different filters at two different resonance frequencies around 380MHz and 700MHz are presented. This technique showed a considerable improvement in the performance of RF-MEMS filters compared to the existing Lamb wave filters. Conventional electromechanical filters are using mechanical and/or electrical couplings, however, this new technique is based on the phase change of two un-coupled resonators below and above their resonances. This technique resolves the design issue associated with high feed-through at high frequencies as well as exploiting piezoelectric materials with high-dielectric constant like PZT.
Causes and Effects of Rationale Clarity in AEC Design Projects

Managing consensus on novel building design processes is difficult because industry tradition engenders self-interested behavior by project participants and discourages designs deviating significantly from precedents. Whereas a traditional decision analysis provides a structured conversation leading to clarity of action, we have observed that the system of checks and balances in AEC conceptual design projects pre-requires a structured collaboration leading to consensus of action. The paper presents a set of propositions about the potential effects that using a clear rationale may have on the project and industry. This paper uses theories of organization, social psychology, management, and management science to form a theoretical argument that building and maintaining consensus in AEC conceptual design using a rational, explicit, socially constructed design rationale is possible and tends to improve outcomes. The paper concludes with a discussion of findings from several ethnographic and intervention studies supports the view that, independently of hypothesized improvements to the exploration and evaluation of design spaces, improvements to consensus management justify socially constructing clear, decision-based design rationale models in AEC conceptual design. Motivation Intuitively, in this paper providing a clear rationale means developing a broadly available and understandable reason supporting a major AEC design decision (such as choice of steel vs. concrete structure, undervs. above-ground parking, or LEED Gold vs. Silver certification). This section explains the need for a common definition of clarity in the rationale for AEC conceptual design decisions. Intuitively, every building and infrastructure project includes a conceptual design stage, in which a team decides on one of several alternate configurations. Stakeholders, designers, regulatory gatekeepers, and management work together with some purposes in common and some at odds. Projects vary, but this paper nevertheless finds a common language for comparing many of them: Although teams vary, this paper defines a set of roles that participants in every project play; Although buildings vary, this paper defines a set of attributes that each possess; Although decision making methods vary, this paper defines a set of elements that each contains; and although methods for documenting a decision vary, this paper defines a set of measures that identify and compare clarity. Comment [jh1]: the big idea in this paper: A list of theorized or observed effects, and ways to measure them, that we gathered through literature review and ethnography The paper currently takes way too long to get to these, and the reader needs to work WAY to hard to decipher them. Looking at the subject headings, one would never guess that this is the purpose fo the paper. I think this paper needs a lot of work, and should be reorganized to
Modeling of ALFA Programs Using PVS Theorem Prover

In Safety critical software failure can have a high price. Such software should be free of errors before it is put into operation. Application of formal methods in the Software Development Life Cycle helps to ensure that the software for safety critical missions are ultra reliable. PVS theorem prover, a formal method tool, can be used for the formal verification of software in ADA Language for Flight Software Application (ALFA.). This paper describes the modeling of ALFA programs for PVS theorem prover. An ALFA2PVS translator is developed which automatically converts the software in ALFA to PVS specification. By this approach the software can be verified formally with respect to underflow/overflow errors and divide by zero conditions without the actual execution of the code.
Tenet Suite 1 and the Continuous Media Toolkit

The Continuous Media Toolkit (CMT) [1][2] is a flexible toolkit which facilitates development of local and distributed continuous media applications. Data transfer across a computer network is provided on a connectionless, best-effort basis using a network protocol called “Cyclic-UDP” [3]. A second set of network protocols, called “Tenet Suite 1” [4][5], has been designed to provide a simplex, unicast, connection-oriented service to realtime traffic in a packet-switched internetwork, with guaranteed performance in terms of data throughput, end-to-end delay, delay jitter, and loss rate. This report describes an extension to CMT which allows an application developer to employ the guaranteed network services of Tenet Suite 1.
Soft Computing: Frontiers? A Case Study of Hyper-Spectral Satellite Imaging

Soft computing methods such as fuzzy control, neural networks, etc., often require lots of computations even for small amounts of data. It is, therefore, sometimes believed that for larger amounts of data, the required amount of computations will be so large that we will reach the frontiers of soft computing. In this paper, we show, on the example of hyperspectral satellite imaging, that this belief is often too pessimistic. We should not be afraid to use (or at least to try to use) soft computing methods even for large amounts of data. The problem: it looks like soft computing is approaching its frontiers
The Updated Phylogenies of the Phasianidae Based on Combined Data of Nuclear and Mitochondrial DNA

The phylogenetic relationships of species in the Phasianidae, Order Galliformes, are the object of intensive study. However, convergent morphological evolution and rapid species radiation result in much ambiguity in the group. Further, matrilineal (mtDNA) genealogies conflict with trees based on nuclear DNA retrotransposable elements. Herein, we analyze 39 nearly complete mitochondrial genomes (three new) and up to seven nuclear DNA segments. We combine these multiple unlinked, more informative genetic markers to infer historical relationships of the major groups of phasianids. The nuclear DNA tree is largely congruent with the tree derived from mt genomes. However, branching orders of mt/nuclear trees largely conflict with those based on retrotransposons. For example, Gallus/Bambusicola/Francolinus forms the sister-group of Coturnix/Alectoris in the nuclear/mtDNA trees, yet the tree based on retrotransposable elements roots the former at the base of the tree and not with the latter. Further, while peafowls cluster with Gallus/Coturnix in the mt tree, they root at the base of the phasianids following Gallus in the tree based on retrotransposable elements. The conflicting branch orders in nuclear/mtDNA and retrotransposons-based trees in our study reveal the complex topology of the Phasianidae.