Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DeepMovie: Using Optical Flow and Deep Neural Networks to Stylize Movies

A recent paper by Gatys et al. describes a method for rendering an image in the style of another image. First, they use convolutional neural network features to build a statistical model for the style of an image. Then they create a new image with the content of one image but the style statistics of another image. Here, we extend this method to render a movie in a given artistic style. The naive solution that independently renders each frame produces poor results because the features of the style move substantially from one frame to the next. The other naive method that initializes the optimization for the next frame using the rendered version of the previous frame also produces poor results because the features of the texture stay fixed relative to the frame of the movie instead of moving with objects in the scene. The main contribution of this paper is to use optical flow to initialize the style transfer optimization so that the texture features move with the objects in the video. Finally, we suggest a method to incorporate optical flow explicitly into the cost function.
Book review: John Flowerdew (ed.), Discourse in Context: Contemporary Applied Linguistics

genders; and through contrastive/comparative analysis between English and Italian, Spanish and German on rhetorical and lexicogrammatical patterns, while changes are observed through diachronic studies of authorial voices, metadiscourse and the historical development of academic journal abstracts. It is one of the most comprehensive books to date which concentrates on abstracts as an academic genre, covering definition and classification of abstracts, disciplinary similarities and differences, cross-linguistic aspects, intercultural aspects, gender differences in academic lexis, structural and cross-generic analysis. One minor defect is the slight imbalance between soft and hard science discourse examples in the book. However, this drawback should not detract from the conclusion that Bondi and Lorés Sanz have done the data-driven research community a great service with Abstracts in Academic Discourse. The book is particularly useful to researchers interested in discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, and it will be a much quoted reference in the years to come.
Optimizing MIMO Antenna Placement and Array Configurations for Multimedia Delivery in Aircraft

In this paper, the feasibility of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems in aircraft is examined for the specific application of seatback entertainment, using an approach built around a site-specific capacity analysis methodology. The average capacity is evaluated as a function of the seat location, using the proposed methodology that relies on inputs from measurement results or ray-tracing simulations. The extension of the methodology to optimize the access point and client antenna placement locations and array configurations is also described in the paper. While the specific results are for the deployment of MIMO communication in aircraft for seatback entertainment, the same methodology can be applied to other deployment scenarios as well.
Superstring in the plane-wave background with RR flux as a conformal field theory

We study the type IIB superstring in the plane-wave background with Ramond-Ramond flux and formulate it as an exact conformal field theory in operator formalism. One of the characteristic features of the superstring in a consistent background with RR flux, such as the AdS5 × S5 and its plane-wave limit, is that the left- and the right-moving degrees of freedom on the worldsheet are inherently coupled. In the plane-wave case, it is manifested in the well-known fact that the Green-Schwarz formulation of the theory reduces to that of free massive bosons and fermions in the light-cone gauge. This raises the obvious question as to how this feature is reconciled with the underlying conformal symmetry of the string theory. By adopting the semi-light-cone conformal gauge, we will show that, despite the existence of such non-linear left-right couplings, one can construct two independent sets of quantum Virasoro operators in terms of fields obeying the free-field commutation relations. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the BRST cohomology analysis reproduces the physical spectrum obtained in the light-cone gauge.
Why so Emotional? An Analysis of Emotional Bot-generated Content on Twitter

In this paper, we present a study on the emotions conveyed in b ot-generated Twitter messages as compared to emotions conveyed in human-generated messages. Social b ts are software programs that automatically produce messages and interact with human users on social med ia platforms. In recent years, bots have become quite complex and may mimic the behavior of human users. Prio r studies have shown that emotional messages may significantly influence their readers. Therefore, it is i mportant to study the effects that emotional botgenerated content has on the reactions of human users and on i formation diffusion over online social networks (OSNs). For the purposes of this paper, we analyzed 1.3 milli on Twitter accounts that generated 4.4 million tweets related to 24 systematically chosen real-world even ts. Our findings show that: 1) bots emotionally polarize during controversial events and even inject polar izing emotions into the Twitter discourse on harmless events such as Thanksgiving, 2) humans generally tend to con f rm to the base emotion of the respective event, while bots contribute to the higher intensity of shifted emo tions (i.e. emotions that do not conform to the base emotion of the respective event), 3) bots tend to shift emoti ons to receive more attention (in terms of likes and retweets).
Dynamic Multiobjective Clonal Selection Algorithm for Engineering Design

We propose a Multiobjective Clonal Selection Algorithm (MCSA) with dynamic variation of its main parameters for the solution of engineering design problems. The MCSA performs a cloning process using different probability distributions, in which the mutation strengths are guided based on a logarithmic rule and on information implicitly created by a simple differential evolution technique. This feature results in a self-adapting search in the algorithm. The efficiency of the MCSA is studied comparing its performance with the Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) in analytical test problems and also in the design of a microwave heating device. The MCSA has outperformed the NSGA-II in all problems investigated.
Probabilistic model-based detection of bent-double radio galaxies

We describe an application of probabilistic modeling to the problem of recognizing radio galaxies with a bent-double morphology. The type of galaxies in question contain distinctive signatures of geometric shape and flux density that can be used to be build a probabilistic model that is then used to score potential galaxy configurations. The experimental results suggest that even relatively simple probabilistic models can be useful in identifying galaxies of interest in an automatic manner.
Hierarchical Contour Shape Analysis

This paper introduces a novel shape representation which performs shape analysis in a hierarchical fashion using Gaussian and Laplacian pyramids. A background on hierarchical shape analysis is given along with a detailed explanation of the hierarchical method, and results are shown on natural contours. A comparisson is performed between the new method and a previously proposed approach using point distribution models with different shape sets. The document concludes with a discussion and proposes ideas on how the new approach may be extended.
Badly posed classification of remotely sensed images-an experimental comparison of existing data labeling systems

Although underestimated in practice, the small/unrepresentative sample problem is likely to affect a large segment of real-world remotely sensed (RS) image mapping applications where ground truth knowledge is typically expensive, tedious, or difficult to gather. Starting from this realistic assumption, subjective (weak) but ample evidence of the relative effectiveness of existing unsupervised and supervised data labeling systems is collected in two RS image classification problems. To provide a fair assessment of competing techniques, first the two selected image datasets feature different degrees of image fragmentation and range from poorly to ill-posed. Second, different initialization strategies are tested to pass on to the mapping system at hand the maximally informative representation of prior (ground truth) knowledge. For estimating and comparing the competing systems in terms of learning ability, generalization capability, and computational efficiency when little prior knowledge is available, the recently published data-driven map quality assessment (DAMA) strategy, which is capable of capturing genuine, but small, image details in multiple reference cluster maps, is adopted in combination with a traditional resubstitution method. Collected quantitative results yield conclusions about the potential utility of the alternative techniques that appear to be realistic and useful in practice, in line with theoretical expectations and the qualitative assessment of mapping results by expert photointerpreters.
Sequential SRL Using Selectional Preferences. An Approach with Maximum Entropy Markov Models

We present a sequential Semantic Role La-beling system that describes the tagging problem as a Maximum Entropy Markov Model. The system uses full syntactic information to select BIO-tokens from input data, and classiﬁes them sequentially us-ing state-of-the-art features, with the addition of Selectional Preference features. The system presented achieves competitive performance in the CoNLL-2005 shared task dataset and it ranks ﬁrst in the SRL subtask of the Semeval-2007 task 17
University of Birmingham The evolution of 'sol-gel' chemistry as a technique for materials synthesis

• Users may freely distribute the URL that is used to identify this publication. • Users may download and/or print one copy of the publication from the University of Birmingham research portal for the purpose of private study or non-commercial research. • User may use extracts from the document in line with the concept of ‘fair dealing’ under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (? ) • Users may not further distribute the material nor use it for the purposes of commercial gain.
Energy-aware Restricted Access Window control with retransmission scheme for IEEE 802.11ah (Wi-Fi HaLow) based networks

Restricted Access Window (RAW) has been introduced to IEEE 802.11ah MAC layer to decrease collision probability. However, the inappropriate application of RAW for different groups of devices would increase uplink energy consumption and decrease data rate. In this paper, we study an energy efficient RAW optimization problem for IEEE 802.11ah based uplink communications. We first present a novel retransmission scheme that utilizes the next empty slot to retransmit for collided devices, and formulate the problem based on overall energy consumption and the data rate of each RAW by applying probability theory and Markov Chain. Then, we derive the energy efficiency of the uplink transmission. Last but not the least, an energy-aware window control algorithm to adapt the RAW size is proposed to optimize the energy efficiency by identifying the number of slots in each RAW for different group scales. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithm outperforms existing RAW on uplink energy efficiency and delivery ratio.
Unified management of registers and cache using liveness and cache bypass

In current computer memory system hierarchy, registers and cache are both used to bridge the reference delay gap between the fast processor(s) and the slow main memory. While registers are managed by the compiler using program flow analysis, cache is mainly controlled by hardware without any program understanding. Due to the lack of coordination in managing these two memory structures, significant loss of system performance results because:Cache space is wasted to hold inaccessible copies of values in registers. Inaccessible copies of values replace those accessible ones from cache. Despite the fact that register allocation has long recognized the benefits of live range analysis, current cache management has completely ignored live range information. In this paper, we propose an unified management of registers and cache using liveness and cache bypass. By using a single model to manage these two memory structures, most redundant copies of values in cache can be eliminated. Consequently, bus traffic and memory traffic in data cache are greatly reduced and cache effectiveness is improved.
Complement-Opsonized HIV-1 Alters Cross Talk Between Dendritic Cells and Natural Killer (NK) Cells to Inhibit NK Killing and to Upregulate PD-1, CXCR3, and CCR4 on T Cells

Dendritic cells (DCs), natural killer (NK) cells, and T cells play critical roles during primary HIV-1 exposure at the mucosa, where the viral particles become coated with complement fragments and mucosa-associated antibodies. The microenvironment together with subsequent interactions between these cells and HIV at the mucosal site of infection will determine the quality of immune response that ensues adaptive activation. Here, we investigated how complement and immunoglobulin opsonization influences the responses triggered in DCs and NK cells, how this affects their cross talk, and what T cell phenotypes are induced to expand following the interaction. Our results showed that DCs exposed to complement-opsonized HIV (C-HIV) were less mature and had a poor ability to trigger IFN-driven NK cell activation. In addition, when the DCs were exposed to C-HIV, the cytotolytic potentials of both NK cells and CD8 T cells were markedly suppressed. The expression of PD-1 as well as co-expression of negative immune checkpoints TIM-3 and LAG-3 on PD-1 positive cells were increased on both CD4 as well as CD8 T cells upon interaction with and priming by NK–DC cross talk cultures exposed to C-HIV. In addition, stimulation by NK–DC cross talk cultures exposed to C-HIV led to the upregulation of CD38, CXCR3, and CCR4 on T cells. Together, the immune modulation induced during the presence of complement on viral surfaces is likely to favor HIV establishment, dissemination, and viral pathogenesis.
Exploring the unknown aspects of Roma community in Cyprus and the role of social work practice

ABSTRACT The status quo of Roma communities in Europe is strongly marked by marginalisation and discrimination. Roma people tend to face social exclusion and segregation leading to lack of education, chronic unemployment and limited access to healthcare, housing and public services as well as widespread poverty. Very few studies have been conducted as far as Roma community in Cyprus are concerned and almost none has explored quality of life of this ethnic minority. Therefore, this article examines quality of life dimensions in approximately half of the population (n = 156) residing in the catchment area. Both quantitative and qualitative results showed poor standards of living, high school dropout rates and high levels of marginalisation. Social work as discipline can foster a more empowering and coordinating role as to enhance Roma’s distinctive identity and improve standards of living.
Quality Improvement in the Modular Housing Industry

Continuous improvement is a reflection of the culture of a company whose goal is to respond to the needs of its customers. It may not only result in better customer satisfaction, but in increased productivity, profitability and employee satisfaction. This paper presents a study of how a continuous improvementbased quality management system might be implemented in the modular housing industry. Fundamental quality concepts such as mission statement, measurement, continuous improvement, employee empowerment, training, rewards and leadership are identified and described in the context of the industry. Best practices for each quality concept are identified based on a benchmarking study of industry leaders. The results indicated that the most valued elements of a quality system are management involvement, a company-wide quality culture emphasizing a team approach to problem solving, and an employee reward system linked to company strategy.
Modeling multimedia workloads for embedded system design

To design a successful computer system, designers need to kn ow characteristics of the computational workload that this system is supposed t o process. This knowledge forms the necessary basis for optimizations of th e system. In order to use this knowledge in the design process, designers need t o characterize the workload using a formal workload model. This model represen t a abstraction of the concrete workload and serves as an input to a number of c ritical design tasks, such as system performance analysis. The quality of t he workload model largely determines the quality of the design decisions made b s d on it. Coming up with a proper workload model represents a difficult p roblem in many computer system design contexts. One such context, add ressed in this thesis, is system-level design of embedded computers whose mai n functionality involves real-time processing of media streams (e.g. streams of audio-video data). Of late, there is a growing demand for such computers because they are increasingly being embedded into many electronic products, especi ally those found in consumer electronics domain, e.g., digital TVs, audio and v ideo players, digital video cameras, advanced set-top boxes, multimedia-enable d mobile phones and a myriad of other electronic devices supporting multimedia applications. To meet high performance requirements and stringent constraints p er aining to cost, size and energy consumption, these embedded computers tend to ha ve complex, heterogeneous multiprocessor architectures. This architect ural complexity, coupled with the ever-growing complexity of the multimedia applica t ons themselves, results in a very complex workload behavior and by that poses ma ny challenges to the workload modeling. In this thesis, we argue that the variability of various para meters of the multimedia workloads is the key property to be captured in a worklo ad model for the embedded systems design. We show that conventional workloa d models fail to accurately characterize the dynamic nature of the multimed ia workloads and, as a result, return overly pessimistic estimations of system p rformance (especially, if worst-case performance bounds are of interest). As a solu tion, we propose a novel workload model capable of accurately capturing the wo rkload’s dynamic nature. We demonstrate the advantages of the proposed workl oad model over conventional ways to characterize the workload and develop a number of systemlevel design methods which use this model. These methods inc lude system-level performance analysis, automatic identification of represe ntative workload sce-
Rural-Urban Differences in the Utilization of Maternal Healthcare in Ghana: The Case of Antenatal and Delivery Services

Although maternal health in Ghana has generally improved over the past two decades, the current MMR implies that Ghana"s MMR is approximately 2.4 times higher than the set target in MDG 5. Using data from the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey 2008, an attempt is made in this study to investigate the rural-urban differences in maternal health care (antenatal and delivery care) service utilization in Ghana. Most previous studies focused more broadly on the utilization of MHC services either in the entire country or some parts of the country. This study fills the gap by looking at women from the rural and urban areas with varying standards of living and other socioeconomic attributes. The study also includes some women autonomy variables to find out their effect on MHC service utilization in both areas. Lastly, an attempt is also made to investigate the effect of informal education on the use of MHC services using a logistic regression model. The results from the rural sample show that, women with some degree of autonomy are more likely to use MHC services than their counterparts who lack such autonomy. Again, informal education through the media is more effective in the rural areas than in the urban areas, and wealth still remains an issue particularly in the urban areas.
Merging partial behavioural models

Constructing comprehensive operational models of intended system behaviour is a complex and costly task. Consequently, practitioners have adopted techniques that support incremental elaboration of partial behaviour descriptions. A noteworthy example is the wide adoption of scenario-based notations such as message sequence charts. Scenario-based specifications are partial descriptions that can be incrementally elaborated to cover the system behaviour that is of interest. However, how should partial behavioural models described by different stakeholders with different viewpoints covering different aspects of behaviour be composed? How should partial models of component instances of the same type be put together. In this paper, we propose model merging as a general solution to these questions. We formally define model merging based on observational refinement and show that merging consistent models is a process that should result in a minimal common refinement. Because minimal common refinements are not guaranteed to be unique, we argue that the modeller should participate in the process of elaborating such a model. We also discuss the role of the least common refinement and the greatest lower bound of all minimal common refinements in this elaboration process. In addition, we provide algorithms for i) checking consistency between two models; ii) constructing their least common refinement if one exists; iii) supporting the construction of a minimal common refinement if there is no least common refinement.
Everolimus and Early Calcineurin Inhibitor Withdrawal: 3-Year Results From a Randomized Trial in Liver Transplantation

The feasibility of de novo everolimus without calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) therapy following liver transplantation was assessed in a multicenter, prospective, open‐label trial. Liver transplant patients were randomized at 4 weeks to start everolimus and discontinue CNI, or continue their current CNI‐based regimen. The primary endpoint was adjusted estimated GFR (eGFR; Cockcroft‐Gault) at month 11 postrandomization. A 24‐month extension phase followed 81/114 (71.1%) of eligible patients to month 35 postrandomization. The adjusted mean eGFR benefit from randomization to month 35 was 10.1 mL/min (95% confidence interval [CI] −1.3, 21.5 mL/min, p = 0.082) in favor of CNI‐free versus CNI using Cockcroft‐Gault, 9.4 mL/min/1.73 m2 (95% CI −0.4, 18.9, p = 0.053) with Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (four‐variable) and 9.5 mL/min/1.73 m2 (95% CI −1.1, 17.9, p = 0.028) using Nankivell. The difference in favor of the CNI‐free regimen increased gradually over time due to a small progressive decline in eGFR in the CNI cohort despite a reduction in CNI exposure. Biopsy‐proven acute rejection, graft loss and death were similar between groups. Adverse events led to study drug discontinuation in five CNI‐free patients and five CNI patients (12.2% vs. 12.5%, p = 1.000) during the extension phase. Everolimus‐based CNI‐free immunosuppression is feasible following liver transplantation and patients benefit from sustained preservation of renal function versus patients on CNI for at least 3 years.