Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A novel image quality assessment metric using singular value decomposition

Image quality assessment (IQA) plays an important role in many applications such as image compression and transmission. In this paper a full referenced IQA (FR-IQA) model has been proposed which is based upon transformation based technique. Singular value decomposition (SVD) has been used to determine the basis vectors that best describe the input image signal. In contrast to other transformation based techniques such as discrete cosine transformation (DCT) and wavelet transform (WT), SVD does not use predefined basis vectors. In this paper a new methodology has been adopted in which both reference and distorted images are first combined together and then SVD is applied to compute the basis vectors. Projection coefficients of both reference and distorted images when projected onto these basis vectors have been used to calculate the final score. The proposed methodology has been tested on three publicly available image databases. The results of proposed methodology are better than most of the state of the art IQA metrics.
Identification and non-linear control strategy for industrial pneumatic actuator

In this paper, a combination of nonlinear gain and proportional integral derivative (NPID) controller was proposed to the trajectory tracking of a pneumatic positioning system. The nonlinear gain was employed to this technique in order to avoid overshoot when a relatively large gain is used to produce a fast response. This nonlinear gain can vary automatically either by increasing or decreasing depending on the error generated at each instant. Mathematical model of a pneumatic actuator plant was obtained by using system identification based on input and output of open-loop experimental data. An auto-regressive moving average with exogenous (ARMAX) model was used as a model structure of the system. The results of simulation and experimental tests conducted for pneumatic system with different kind of input namely step, sinusoidal, trapezoidal and random waveforms were applied to evaluate the performance of the proposed technique. The results reveal that the proposed controller is better than conventional PID controller in terms of robust performance as well as show an improvement in its accuracy.
Field study on fracture propagation in weak snowpack layers

Instabilities in snow slopes generally involve the progressive fracture along a weak snowpack layer. Recent field observations on fractures in weak layers have shown that this process results vertical displacement due to crushing of the weak layer. Long beam specimens containing a natural weak layer were used to study the propagation of fracture. Multiple black markers were inserted in the snow above and below the weak layer. The deformation of the slab during fracture propagation was recorded with a portable digital high speed camera. A technique to reconstruct the trajectories of the markers was developed. This resulted in a detailed visualization of the deformation of the slab during fracture propagation. Results show the propagation of a wave through the slab associated with the collapse of the weak layer. Propagation velocities were relatively constant in the middle of the beam and increased towards the edges. The propagation speed in the middle of the beam was 20 ms -1 , in agreement with theoretical predictions of a new theory for fracture propagation in weak snowpack layers.
A Dialectical model of buyer-seller relationships

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on building and testing a model of buyer‐seller relationships from a dialectical perspective. It aims to provide both academics and managers with a better understanding of the relationships among the key relational variables in business settings. The model distinguishes four levels of social complexity (individual, interaction, relationship, and intergroup level) and includes the key relational variable for each level.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 151 French professional buyers. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the validity of the measures. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. The empirical test includes linear, non‐linear, moderating, and mediating effects testing.Research limitations/implications – The limitations of the study relate to the sample of respondents and the measurement scales. More precisely, the sample is based on a unique company's customer data file and a single.
There and back again: An acquisition study

ABSTRACT When again modifies an English goal-PP construction, the sentence is ambiguous between a repetitive and a restitutive reading. Interestingly, languages vary in whether their counterpart to English again permits a restitutive reading with goal-PP constructions (Beck 2005; Beck & Snyder 2001). This article explores how English-speaking children acquire restitutive again with goal-PP constructions, given the cross-linguistic variation. An experiment shows that 4- to 5-year-old children can understand these restitutive readings. However, examining the parental input of four children, we find that parental uses of restitutive again with goal-PP constructions are infrequent and (usually) ambiguous. We propose that in this case children can rely on more general evidence about the syntax of English goal-PP constructions, together with knowledge of a basic semantics for again, to deduce the restitutive reading.
Business types, e-strategies, and performance

Of the multitude of dot-coms in existence in the 1990s, only a fraction survived the crash of the e-commerce (EC) market in the summer of 2000. These companies must now rediscover the principles that governed businesses prior to the EC era. Dot-coms must be rebuilt and transformed to face the new economy: not only must they devise innovative e-strategies [1], but they must also restructure around new business models. After such reengineering efforts, some dot-coms have steadily recuperated from the debacle, but many more are still struggling.Little research has compared the performance of companies with different business types, including B2B, B2C, and non-EC, and explored their endeavors to continue after the EC crash. In this article we report the results of our investigation of EC companies in the aftermath of the crash, with particular emphasis on their performance as compared to their counterpart non-EC companies, and in light of their EC operations experience. We also identify e-strategies introduced by different companies and evaluated their effectiveness by correlating them with company performance, and examine whether this strategy-performance relationship is contingent upon business type.Our study adopted a three-stage data collection method. The first stage involved an analysis of the annual reports of 103 companies listed in the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM), which was established by the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in November 1999. In addition, 16 EC companies with similar histories, reputations, and backgrounds were included. Although GEM imposes no restrictions on the nature of an applicant's business, many of its listed companies come from IT or EC-related fields. Classification of EC and non-EC companies was based on the Dow Jones Internet Index, which classifies firms as EC companies if they derive more than 50% of revenue from EC activities. The latest reports of these 119 companies were thoroughly analyzed to derive financial indices of performance.
Monitoring the user perceived quality of SILK-based voice calls

Quality measurements are required to support VoIP traffic in the Internet. The widely used average Mean Opinion Score is, however, not sufficient for this task. In this paper, we provide a detailed analysis of the Skype SILK codec and compare it with the iLBC and GSM codec. The results show that the SILK codec is superior to the other codecs in scenarios with random and bulk packet loss. This increased tolerance of packet loss enables the option of QoE Monitoring under reasonable network conditions. From analysis, we derive an estimation, which can be used to monitor the MOS value of the users in the worst case. Furthermore, we show how sampling can effectively decrease the required measurement effort.
An Unsupervised Iterative Method for Chinese New Lexicon Extraction

An unsupervised iterative approach for extracting a new lexicon (or unknown words) from a Chinese text corpus is proposed in this paper. Instead of using a non-iterative segmentation-merging-filtering-and-disambiguation approach, the proposed method iteratively integrates the contextual constraints (among word candidates) and a joint character association metric to progressively improve the segmentation results of the input corpus (and thus the new word list.) An augmented dictionary, which includes potential unknown words (in addition to known words), is used to segment the input corpus, unlike traditional approaches which use only known words for segmentation. In the segmentation process, the augmented dictionary is used to impose contextual constraints over known words and potential unknown words within input sentences; an unsupervised Viterbi Training process is then applied to ensure that the selected potential unknown words (and known words) maximize the likelihood of the input corpus. On the other hand, the joint character association metric (which reflects the global character association characteristics across the corpus) is derived by integrating several commonly used word association metrics, such as mutual information and entropy, with a joint Gaussian mixture density function; such integration allows the filter to use multiple features simultaneously to evaluate character association, unlike traditional filters which apply multiple features independently. The proposed method then allows the contextual constraints and the joint character association metric to enhance each other; this is achieved by iteratively applying the joint association metric to truncate unlikely unknown words in the augmented dictionary and using the segmentation result to improve the estimation of the joint association metric. The refined augmented dictionary and improved estimation are then used in the next iteration to acquire better segmentation and carry out more reliable filtering. Experiments show that both the precision and recall rates are improved almost monotonically, in contrast to non-iterative segmentation-merging-filtering-and-disambiguation approaches, which often sacrifice precision for recall or vice versa. With a corpus of 311,591 sentences, the performance is 76% (bigram), 54% (trigram), and 70% (quadragram) in F-measure, which is significantly better than using the non-iterative approach with F-measures of 74% (bigram), 46% (trigram), and 58% (quadragram).
Motion Estimation using Kinetic Energy with Controlled Friction

This paper presents a new energy minimization approach to the motion estimation. The conventional energy minimization approaches yield local minimum solutions corresponding to initial states. In the case of video processing which includes many objects moving randomly, it is impossible to give a proper initial state to each object. We propose to introduce "kinetic energy with controlled friction" in order to get better solution automatically. The experimental results showed the proposed method found the lower energy than conventional methods.
Adaptive Proportional Fair Scheduling Based on Opportunistic Beamforming for MIMO Systems

In MIMO systems, the multi-user diversity is exploited by always scheduling the subscribers whose channel conditions are almost in their peaks. The throughput of system is increased but the fairness is ignored, even some subscribers will be "starvation". In this paper, the fairness of the MIMO systems is concerned and two adaptive proportional fair scheduling schemes based on opportunistic beamforming are proposed to increase the throughput of the subscribers in the bad channel conditions and guarantee the fairness allover the systems. In each timeslot, the adaptive parameters are updated by monitoring the requested data rate and the mean of the requested data rate in the past period. And the adaptive parameters are updated per-user basis. The proposed schemes find a tradeoff between the throughput and the fairness. And the simulation results show the validity.
Phase I Open-Label Study of Continuous Treatment with BIBF 1120, a Triple Angiokinase Inhibitor, and Pemetrexed in Pretreated Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients

Introduction: BIBF 1120 (planned brand name Vargatef) is a novel, oral, triple angiokinase inhibitor targeting three receptor classes involved in blood vessel formation. The objectives of this phase I, open-label dose-escalation study were to determine the safety, tolerability, and maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of BIBF 1120 with pemetrexed in patients with recurrent advanced-stage non–small cell lung carcinoma. Patients and Methods: Patients harboring a tumor of any non–small cell lung carcinoma histology, previously treated with one first-line platinum-based chemotherapy regimen, received a BIBF 1120 starting dose of 100 mg bid (days 2-21) with pemetrexed 500 mg/m2 (day 1) over a 21-day cycle. Previous pemetrexed treatment was not permitted. BIBF 1120 dose was escalated until the MTD was determined. Results: Twenty-six patients were treated. During treatment cycle (TC) 1, dose-limiting toxicities were experienced by one patient receiving 100 mg bid, one patient receiving 150 mg bid, one patient receiving 200 mg bid, and two patients receiving 250 mg bid BIBF 1120. Two additional dose-limiting toxicities were observed in TC 1 in an expanded patient cohort receiving 200 mg bid. Gastrointestinal disorders (84.6%), general disorders, and administration site conditions (76.9%) were the most frequent drug-related adverse events. One patient had a complete response 44 days after initiating trial medication; 50% had stable disease as the best overall response. No clinically relevant pharmacokinetic interactions between BIBF 1120 and pemetrexed were observed. Conclusion: The MTD of BIBF 1120 in combination with standard-dose pemetrexed was 200 mg bid. Continuous daily treatment with BIBF 1120 in this combination was tolerable, with promising signs of efficacy. Clin Cancer Res; 16(10); 2881–9. ©2010 AACR.
Research Of Task Assignment And Scheduling Algorithms In Wireless Sensor Networks

In recently several years, it is increasingly important that wireless sensor networks (WSN) be able to achieve detecting and transiting data information of environment, in particular, which is widely applied to field of civil and military, which has more advantage than traditional networks. Sensor nodes play the role of sensing event and collected data of environment, and transit data information toward cluster head node or sink node by one-hop or multi-hop router, then transit it to base station or data center. Suppose looking upon processing information as a task of node, we consider power constraints of node, and node use way of awaking/sleeping, during awaking we assure that sensor node accomplish task and cluster head node can schedule multi-task of sensor node. In this paper, we will resolve such problem: before satisfying multi-tasks deadline invaliding of sensor node, how to feasibly schedule task by cluster head node? We present schedule algorithm of improving Rate-Monotonic (RM) and dynamic Preemptive Earliest Deadline First Algorithm, via concrete example, we explain process of algorithm achieving, result indicate that the algorithms are simple and can reduce lateness of task, moreover, making feasible schedule of node task.
Building a Large-Scale Japanese CFG for Syntactic Parsing

Large-scale grammars are a prerequisite for parsing a great variety of sentences, but it is difficult to build such grammars by hand. Yet, it is possible to derive a context-free grammar(CFG) automatically from an existing large-scale, syntactically annotated corpus. While being seemingly a simple task at first sight, CFGs derived in such a fashion have hardly ever been applied to an existing systems. This is probably due to the great number of possible outputs, i.e. parse results(high ambiguity). In this paper, we analyze some causes of this high ambiguity, and we propose a policy for building a large-scale Japanese CFG for syntactic parsing, capable to decrease ambiguity. We end the paper with an experimental evaluation of the obtained CFG.
An Intermediate Library for Multi-GPUs Computing Skeletons

This paper introduces a library which supports programmers to write parallel programs on GPU architecture, especially with a system consisting of multi-GPUs. The library is designed from the idea of skeletons, which helps us to make parallel programs easily and quickly as if writing sequential programs. Skeletons usually are described by functional language which supports high-order function totally. Because of the performance and popularity of C++ language, we try to re-annotate C++ language to support high-order functions completely, hence, it is convenience for us to create general-purpose skeletons.
On-Site Semi-Automatic Calibration and Registration of a Projector-Camera System Using Arbitrary Objects with Known Geometry

In the Shader Lamps concept, a projector-camera system augments physical objects with projected virtual textures, provided that a precise intrinsic and extrinsic calibration of the system is available. Calibrating such systems has been an elaborate and lengthy task in the past and required a special calibration apparatus. Self-calibration methods in turn are able to estimate calibration parameters automatically with no effort. However they inherently lack global scale and are fairly sensitive to input data. We propose a new semi-automatic calibration approach for projector-camera systems that - unlike existing auto-calibration approaches - additionally recovers the necessary global scale by projecting on an arbitrary object of known geometry. To this end our method combines surface registration with bundle adjustment optimization on points reconstructed from structured light projections to refine a solution that is computed from the decomposition of the fundamental matrix. In simulations on virtual data and experiments with real data we demonstrate that our approach estimates the global scale robustly and is furthermore able to improve incorrectly guessed intrinsic and extrinsic calibration parameters thus outperforming comparable metric rectification algorithms.
Keyframe detection for appearance-based visual SLAM

This paper is concerned with the problem of keyframe detection in appearance-based visual SLAM. Appearance SLAM models a robot's environment topologically by a graph whose nodes represent strategically interesting places that have been visited by the robot and whose arcs represent spatial connectivity between these places. Specifically, we discuss and compare various methods for identifying the next location that is sufficiently different visually from the previously visited location or node in the map graph in order to decide whether a new node should be created. We survey existing techniques of keyframe detection in image retrieval and video analysis. Using experimental results obtained from visual SLAM datasets, we conclude that the feature matching method offers the best performance among five representative methods in terms of accurately measuring the amount of appearance change between robot's views and thus can serve as a simple and effective metric for detecting keyframes. This study fills an important but missing step in the current appearance SLAM research.
A Curvilinear Method for Large Scale Optimization Problems

We present a new matrix-free method for the computation of the negative curvature direction in large scale unconstrained problems. We describe a curvilinear method which uses a combination of a quasi-Newton direction and a negative curvature direction. We propose an algorithm for the computation of the search directions which uses information of two specific L-BFGS matrices in such a way that avoids both the calculation and the storage of the approximate Hessian. Explicit forms for the eigenpair that corresponds to the most negative eigenvalue of the approximate Hessian are also presented. Numerical results show that the proposed approach is promising. Keywords— large scale unconstrained optimization, curvilinear search, negative curvature direction, eigenvalues, eigenvectors, power inverse method, quasi-Newton method
Dimension-free tail inequalities for sums of random matrices

We derive exponential tail inequalities for sums of random matrices with no dependence on the explicit matrix dimensions. These are similar to the matrix versions of the Chernoff bound and Bernstein inequality except with the explicit matrix dimensions replaced by a trace quantity that can be small even when the dimension is large or infinite. Some applications to principal component analysis and approximate matrix multiplication are given to illustrate the utility of the new bounds.
Supply Chain Revenue-sharing Coordination with Sales Effort Effects

With considering reward and punishment, This paper analyzes a two stage supply chain consisting of a risk-neutral supplier and a risk-neutral vendor who faces a stochastic demand influenced by sales effort level. We demonstrate that unit production cost equals to the wholesale price when the supply chain is coordinated. Revenue sharing contract cannot coordinate the supply chain effectively without the reward and punishment mechanism when sales effort influences the product demand. Besides, we find that both reducing unit production costs and improving sales ability can improve profitability level of all parties in the supply chain.
A temporal subtraction method for thoracic CT images using non rigid warping technique

A temporal subtraction technique which is subtracted from previous image to current one is introduced as powerful tools in medical fields to diagnose abnormalities. It provided a computer aided diagnosis (CAD) tools on visual screening. Radiologist can detect lesions on image by compare the two images. It is because the subtraction image can enhance the temporal changes, such as shaped of new lesions and/or the temporal changes in existing abnormalities by removing most of the normal background structures by subtraction of a previous image from a current one. There are some technical reports to register the different images until now. But subtraction artifacts are still remained which are caused by mis-registration. In this paper, we propose a new method for temporal subtraction method on thoracic MDCT images using non-rigid image warping techniques based on free form deformation (FFD). We applied our method to two clinical cases of chest CT image sets and compare to conventional methods in terms of computational cost and accuracy.
Linear Hashing: A New Tool for File and Table Addressing

Linear hashing is a hashing in which the address space may grow or shrink dynamically. A file or a table may then support any number of insertions or deletions without access or memory load performance deterioration. A record in the file is, in general, found in one access, while the load may stay practically constant up to 90 %. A record in a table is found in a mean of 1.7 accesses, while the load is constantly 80 %. No other algorithms attaining such a performance are known.