Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficient occlusive components analysis

We study unsupervised learning in a probabilistic generative model for occlusion. The model uses two types of latent variables: one indicates which objects are present in the image, and the other how they are ordered in depth. This depth order then determines how the positions and appearances of the objects present, specified in the model parameters, combine to form the image. We show that the object parameters can be learned from an unlabeled set of images in which objects occlude one another. Exact maximum-likelihood learning is intractable. Tractable approximations can be derived, however, by applying a truncated variational approach to Expectation Maximization (EM). In numerical experiments it is shown that these approximations recover the underlying set of object parameters including data noise and sparsity. Experiments on a novel version of the bars test using colored bars, and experiments on more realistic data, show that the algorithm performs well in extracting the generating components. The studied approach demonstrates that the multiple-causes generative approach can be generalized to extract occluding components, which links research on occlusion to the field of sparse coding approaches.
Reactive Sensing for Autonomous Mobile

This article presents an overview of our ongoing research in reactive sensing. Reac-tive sensing allows sensing processes at both the behavioral and deliberative levels to act as autonomous specialists in maintaining the most robust and eecient perception for the given behavior, state of the robot, and state of the world. Two basic reactive sensing mechanisms are presented. One is a method for identifying and employing a satisfactory recovery strategy after a sensing failure. The recovery-centered method shows an improvement of between 39% and 99.4% over previous methods. The second mechanism is an alternative to Dempster's rule of combination of belief used to op-portunistically reduce sensing without sacriicing certainty. The method dynamically projects whether belief in an object will decay below an unsatisfactory threshold if an observation is missed. These mechanisms were implemented on two mobile robots within the SFX architecture , and demonstrated for indoor, outdoor, and space navigation tasks. SFX is novel in its integration of sensing throughout the reactive and deliberative layers. Sensing is formalized in the reactive layer as perceptual schemas within behaviors. Information agents in the deliberative layer, such as the Cartographer, may also conduct sensing. The output of information agents may be treated as virtual sensors, for use by the perceptual schemas in the reactive layer. A middle agent, the Sensing Manager, allocates sensing resources and is responsible for handling sensor failures.
A recursive feature vector normalization approach for robust speech recognition in noise

The acoustic mismatch between testing and training conditions is known to severely degrade the performance of speech recognition systems. Segmental feature vector normalization was found to improve the noise robustness of mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) feature vectors and to outperform other state-of-the-art noise compensation techniques in speaker-dependent recognition. The objective of feature vector normalization is to provide environment-independent parameter statistics in all noise conditions. We propose a more efficient implementation approach for feature vector normalization where the normalization coefficients are computed in a recursive way. Speaker-dependent recognition experiments show that the recursive normalization approach obtains over 60%, the segmental method approximately 50%, and parallel model combination a 14% overall error rate reduction, respectively. Moreover, in the recursive case, this performance gain is obtained with the smallest implementation costs. Also in speaker-independent connected digit recognition, over a 16% error rate reduction is obtained with the proposed feature vector normalization approach.
Mining User Development Signals for Online Community Churner Detection

Churners are users who stop using a given service after previously signing up. In the domain of telecommunications and video games, churners represent a loss of revenue as a user leaving indicates that they will no longer pay for the service. In the context of online community platforms (e.g., community message boards, social networking sites, question--answering systems, etc.), the churning of a user can represent different kinds of loss: of social capital, of expertise, or of a vibrant individual who is a mediator for interaction and communication. Detecting which users are likely to churn from online communities, therefore, enables community managers to offer incentives to entice those users back; as retention is less expensive than re-signing users up. In this article, we tackle the task of detecting churners on four online community platforms by mining user development signals. These signals explain how users have evolved along different dimensions (i.e., social and lexical) relative to their prior behaviour and the community in which they have interacted. We present a linear model, based upon elastic-net regularisation, that uses extracted features from the signals to detect churners. Our evaluation of this model against several state of the art baselines, including our own prior work, empirically demonstrates the superior performance that this approach achieves for several experimental settings. This article presents a novel approach to churn prediction that takes a different route from existing approaches that are based on measuring static social network properties of users (e.g., centrality, in-degree, etc.).
PrivComp: a privacy-aware data service composition system

In this demo paper, we present a new privacy preserving composition execution system. Our system allows to execute queries over multiple data services without revealing any extra information to any of the involved services. None of involved services (and their providers) is able to infer any information about the data the other services provide beyond what is permitted
Applications of a Combination of Two Adaptive Filters

Designing a Least Mean Square (LMS) family adaptive algorithm includes solving the wellknown trade-off between the initial convergence speed and the mean-square error in steady state according to the requirements of the application at hands. The trade-off is controlled by the step-size parameter of the algorithm. Large step size leads to a fast initial conver‐ gence but the algorithm also exhibits a large mean-square error in the steady state and in contrary, small step size slows down the convergence but results in a small steady state er‐ ror [9,17]. In several applications it is, however, eligible to have both and hence it would be very desirable to be able to design algorithms that can overcome the named trade-off.
Pre‐inspiratory and inspiratory hypoglossal motor output during hypoxia induced plasticity in the rat

Respiratory discharge in the hypoglossal (XII) nerve is composed of pre‐inspiratory (pre‐I) and inspiratory (I) activity. Our first purpose was to test the hypothesis that hypoxia‐induced plasticity in XII motor output is differentially expressed in pre‐I vs. I XII bursting. Short‐term potentiation (STP) of XII motor output was induced in vagotomized and ventilated rats by isocapnic hypoxia. Both pre‐I and I XII discharge abruptly increased at beginning of hypoxia, and the relative increase in amplitude was much greater for pre‐I vs. I bursting. In addition, STP was expressed in I but not pre‐I bursting following hypoxia. Specifically, I activity remained elevated following hypoxia but pre‐I bursting abruptly returned to pre‐hypoxia levels. Our second purpose was to test the hypothesis that STP of I XII activity results from recruitment of silent XII motoneurons (MNs) vs. rate coding of active MNs. Single fiber recordings were used to classify XII MNs as I, expiratory‐inspiratory (E‐I), or silent based on baseline discharge patterns. STP of I XII activity following hypoxia was associated with increased discharge frequency in active I and silent MNs, but not E‐I MNs. We conclude that the expression of respiratory plasticity is differentially regulated between pre‐I and I XII activity. Moreover, both recruitment of silent MNs and rate coding of active I MNs contribute to STP of XII motor output following hypoxia.
DNA Double Strand Breaks Occur Independent of AID in Hypermutating Ig Genes

Somatic hypermutation (SHM) and class switch recombination (CSR) take place in B cells of the germinal center (GC) and are associated with DNA double-strand breaks (DNA-DSBs). Transcription favors the generation of DNA-DSBs in the V-regions and switch regions of Ig genes. Both SHM and CSR are controlled by the Activation Induced Cytidine Deaminase (AID), an enzyme exclusively expressed in B cells of the GC. Because AID is capable of deaminating deoxy-cytidine (dC) to deoxy-uracil (dU), it might directly induce nicks (single strand DNA breaks) and also DNA-DSBs via a U-DNA glycosylase mediated base excision repair pathway ('DNA-substrate model'). Alternatively, AID could function like its closest homologue Apobec-1 as a catalytic subunit of a RNA editing holoenzyme ('RNA-substrate model'). To determine whether AID lies upstream or downstream of the DNA lesions found in hypermutating Ig genes, we have analysed the Vλ locus of AID proficient and AID deficient GC B cells for the presence of DNA-DSBs. Although rearranged Vλ genes are preferred targets of SHM we find that AID-proficient and -deficient Vλ1/2-expressing GC B cells display a similar frequency, distribution and sequence preference of DNA-DSBs in rearranged and germline Vλ genes, favoring the idea that AID acts downstream of the DNA lesions to mediate error prone processing.
THE MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION OF THE NUMBER OF SELF-STERILITY ALLELES IN A POPULATION

PREVIOUS estimates of the number of alleles, n, at a self-sterility locus have been based on a method of DOBZHANSKY and WRIGHT (1941 ) . These authors showed that the probability of two things being of the same kind, when taken at random from a population composed of n different kinds, is (1Jn) f nup2, where p is the proportion of any one kind. This was adapted to the case of the incompatibility locus by BATEMAN (1947), taking into account the working of the system, whereby the two alleles of every diploid individual must be different. In practice, estimates have been made from data which gave no evidence that the alleles differed in frequency. This is the situation expected in a population at equilibrium provided that there are no selective effects correlated with particular alleles. The value of p may then be assumed equal to l /n for all alleles, making the variance of p (upz) zero, and the last term of WRIGHT'S formula disappears. The estimate then depends on the proportion of pairs of individuals in the sample that carry identical alleles. In common with BATEMAN (1947) and RAPER, KRONGELB and BAXTER (1958), it is assumed that the alleles going to make up an individual are associ-
Minimal Interaction Search: Multi-Way Search with Item Categories

Extensive online collections of content exist, such as music, books, movies, and various others. Search in these collections is typically implemented in two ways, typing attributes of interest into a search box, or progressively navigating through series of menus with item categories to a list of desired items. In this paper, we focus on the latter approach. In particular, we propose a strategy that guides the user to the items of interest in the minimal number of interactions. Therefore, we refer to our technique as minimal interaction search. At each step of the search, we show the user k item categories and ask them to choose the one that matches their preferences, or state that none does. We formalize this problem as multi-way search and propose an algorithm DoubleGreedy that solves the problem efficiently. The item categories in each question can be computed in O(k) time, and any item in the database is found in the worst case in OPTk log(n 1)e=(e 1) questions, where n is the total number of items and OPTk is the maximum number of questions asked by the optimal strategy (that uses the smallest number of questions possible in the worst case). We evaluate our method on two datasets of movies and books, and show that the target item can be found very fast.
Solving minimum-cost flow problems by successive approximation

We introduce a framework for solving minimum-cost flow problems. Our approach measures the quality of a solution by the amount that the complementary slackness conditions are violated. We show how to extend techniques developed for the maximum flow problem to improve the quality of a solution. This framework allows us to achieve &Ogr;(min(n3, n5/3 m2/3, nm log n) log (nC)) running time.
Towards the provision of site specific flood warnings using wireless sensor networks

An important aspect of flood risk management is the issuing of timely flood alerts. The spatial, as well as temporal, scale of these warnings is important. In many situations efficient risk management may be aided by the provision of local flood predictions at a high spatial resolution. Examples of such situations include issuing warnings for small groups of outlying houses or key infrastructure locations such as power sub‐stations. In this paper a methodology for providing automated, detailed and location specific warnings which are computed ‘on‐site’ is presented. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society
Taxes in Post-Accession Romania: Concentration and Specialization in the State Budget and Local Budgets

This article valorises the statistical theory of concentration-diversification in the field of the Romanian taxation, especially post-accession. Section 1 presents the main tax concepts and other general theoretical aspects from the theory of taxation, section 2 basically represents a brief retrospection of the economic and statistical literature of the concentration-diversification analyses with dominant instrumental highlights, section 3 describes the method of Onicescu informational energy or the cohesion’s system and Gini-Struck coefficients, and section 4 expands these instruments in the budgetary analysis, formulating an original statistically founded tax law, according to which the excessive concentration within certain categories of revenues or expenses from the state budget inevitably leads to diversification within the local budgets and vice-versa, the negative elasticity coefficient of the relation between the state and local budgets being validated through econometric tests. A final section provides two physical modelling solutions (specific to the interpretations of the energetic systems and statistical physics), with a pronounced econopsyhical sense, sustains and generalizes the multidisciplinary tax analysis.
ABILTY OF COLLEGE STUDENTS TO SIMULATE ADHD ON OBJECTIVE MEASURES OF ATTENTION

guidance in the development and preparation of this dissertation. I would also like to thank Susan R. Andrews, Ph.D., for volunteering her time and expertise as a " blind " clinical neuropsychologist in this study (but mostly I thank her for her enduring encouragement and mentorship over so many years). The support of my family and friends is acknowledged whole heartedly. I thank my husband and daughters, my truest source of inspiration, for their many sacrifices and for making it all worthwhile.
Global risk, effort, and emotions in an investment experiment

This paper experimentally investigates investment behavior. We find that global risk – i.e. risk independent of an agent’s investment decision (like political risk) – substantially decreases investment. Also, if the capital used for investment is based on previous earnings (effort) instead of an endowment, investment decreases substantially. These results are neither in line with expected utility theory nor with some alternative theories of decision making under risk (like prospect theory or regret theory). We offer an explanation that takes the role of experienced and anticipated emotions into account. In addition, an emotion-based explanation is provided for related experimental findings concerning the common ratio effect. This version: August 2001
Modifications on NIST MarkIII array to improve coherence properties among input signals

This work describes an activity that led to the realization of a modified NIST Microphone Array MarkIII. This system is able to acquire 64 synchronous audio signals at 44.1 kHz and is primarily conceived for far-field automatic speech recognition, speaker localization and in general for hands-free voice message acquisition and enhancement. Preliminary experiments conducted on the original array had showed that coherence among a generic pair of signals was affected by a bias due to common mode electrical noise, which turned out to be detrimental for time delay estimation techniques applied to co-phase signals or to localize speakers. A hardware intervention was realized to remove each internal noise source from analog modules of the device. The modified array provides a quality of input signals that fits results expected by theory.
Boundary Detection in Medical Images Using Edge Following Algorithm

This paper introduces a new edge following technique for boundary detection in noisy images. Utilizati on of the proposed technique is exhibited via its appl ication to various types of medical images. Our pro posed technique can detect the boundaries of objects in n oisy images using the information from the intensit y gradient via the vector image model and the texture gradient via the edge map. The performance and robustness of the technique have been tested to segment objects in synthetic no isy images and medical images including prostates i n ultrasound images, left ventricles in cardiac magnetic resonan ce (MR) images, aortas in cardiovascular MR images, and knee joints in computerized tomography images. We compare the proposed segmentation technique with the acti ve contour models (ACM), geodesic active contourmodels, active contours without edges, gradient vector fl ow snake models, and ACMs based on vector field convolution, by using the skilled doctors’ opinions as the grou nd truths. The results show that our technique performs very w ell and yields better performance than the classica l contour models. The proposed method is robust and applicable on various kinds of noisy images without prior kn owledge of noise properties.
Motion Detection from Mobile Robots with Fuzzy Threshold Selection in Consecutive 2D Laser Scans

Motion detection and tracking is a relevant problem for mobile robots during navigation to avoid collisions in dynamic environments or in applications where service robots interact with humans. This paper presents a simple method to distinguish mobile obstacles from the environment that is based on applying fuzzy threshold selection to consecutive two-dimensional (2D) laser scans previously matched with robot odometry. The proposed method has been tested with the Auriga-α mobile robot in indoors to estimate the motion of nearby pedestrians.
A Kalman Filter Based Approach for Outlier Detection in Sensor Networks

Outliers are common in data collection applications with wireless sensor networks, which consist of a large number of sensor nodes, embedded in physical space. The limited power supplies and noisy sensor data put challenges for outlier detection and cleaning in sensor networks. In this paper, we propose utilizing spatial and temporal dependencies that exist sensory readings. Our approach is based on Kalman filter and we design the state transition module and measuring module of the Kalman filter to exploit the temporal and spatial dependencies of sensor data respectively. The experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of our approach.
Association between α4 integrin cytoplasmic tail and non-muscle myosin IIA regulates cell migration

α4β1 integrin regulates cell migration via cytoplasmic interactions. Here, we report an association between the cytoplasmic tail of α4 integrin (α4 tail) and non-muscle myosin IIA (MIIA), demonstrated by co-immunoprecipitation of the MIIA heavy chain (HC) with anti-α4-integrin antibodies and pull-down of MIIA-HC with recombinant α4 tail from cell lysates. The association between the α4 tail and MIIA does not require paxillin binding or phosphorylation at Ser988 in the α4 tail. We found that substituting Glu982 in the α4 tail with alanine (E982A) disrupts the α4–MIIA association without interfering with the paxillin binding or Ser988 phosphorylation. By comparing stably transfected CHO cells, we show that the E982A mutation reduces the ability of α4β1 integrin to mediate cell spreading and to promote front–back polarization. In addition, we show that E982A impairs shear-flow-induced migration of the α4-integrin-expressing CHO cells by reducing their migration speed and directional persistence. The E982A mutation also leads to defects in the organization of MIIA filament bundles. Furthermore, when cells are plated on fibronectin and simulated with shear flow, α4β1 integrin forms filament-like patterns that co-align with MIIA filament bundles. These results provide a new mechanism for linking integrins to the actomyosin cytoskeleton and for regulating cell migration by integrins and non-muscle myosin II.
Aerosol Deposition on Transparent Electro-Optic Films for Optical Modulators

Complex thin oxide films with electro-optic (EO) properties are promising for use in advanced optical devices because of their large EO effect. We developed a method of aerosol deposition (AD) for fabricating EO films. The mechanism for AD is based on the solidification by impact of submicron particles onto a substrate. Since particles in AD films preserve their crystalline structure during the formation of film, epitaxial growth is not necessary for exhibiting the EO effect. Highly transparent Pb(Zr, Ti)O3films, which have acceptable transmittance loss for use as optical devices, were directly deposited on glass substrates by AD. We found the Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 film by AD produced a fairly high EO coefficient (> 150 pm/V), approximately 10 times larger than that of LiNbO3. A FabryPerot (FP) optical modulator was developed with EO films fabricated by AD. We demonstrated the modulation of optical intensity with an electrical field applied to an EO film made of ferroelectric Pb (Zr, Ti)O3. key words: film deposition method, aerosol deposition, electro-optic, optical modulator
THE KACANOV METHOD FOR A NONLINEAR VARIATIONAL INEQUALITY OF THE SECOND KIND ARISING IN ELASTOPLASTICITY

The authors first prove a convergence result on the Ka(? )anov method for solving general nonlinear variational inequalities of the second kind and then apply the Kacanov method to solve a nonlinear variational inequality of the second kind arising in elastoplasticity. In addition to the convergence result, an a posteriori error estimate is shown for the Kacanov iterates. In each step of the Ka(? )anov iteration, one has a (linear) variational inequality of the second kind, which can be solved by using a regularization technique. The Ka(? )anov iteration and the regularization technique together provide approximations which can be readily computed numerically. An a posteriori error estimate is derived for the combined effect of the Ka(? )anov iteration and the regularization.
Swing Modulo Scheduling for GCC

Software pipelining is a technique that improves the scheduling of instructions in loops by overlapping instructions from different iterations. Modulo scheduling is an approach for constructing software pipelines that focuses on minimizing the cycle count of the loops and thereby optimize performance. In this paper we describe our implementation of Swing Modulo Scheduling in GCC, which is a Modulo Scheduling technique that also focuses on reducing register pressure. Several key issues are discussed, including the use and adaptation of GCC’s machine-model infrastructure for scheduling (DFA) and data-dependence graph construction. We also present directions for future enhancements.