Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
3DTouch: A wearable 3D input device with an optical sensor and a 9-DOF inertial measurement unit

We present 3DTouch, a novel 3D wearable input device worn on the fingertip for 3D manipulation tasks. 3DTouch is designed to fill the missing gap of a 3D input device that is self-contained, mobile, and universally working across various 3D platforms. This paper presents a low-cost solution to designing and implementing such a device. Our approach relies on relative positioning technique using an optical laser sensor and a 9-DOF inertial measurement unit. 3DTouch is self-contained, and designed to universally work on various 3D platforms. The device employs touch input for the benefits of passive haptic feedback, and movement stability. On the other hand, with touch interaction, 3DTouch is conceptually less fatiguing to use over many hours than 3D spatial input devices. We propose a set of 3D interaction techniques including selection, translation, and rotation using 3DTouch. An evaluation also demonstrates the device's tracking accuracy of 1.10 mm and 2.33 degrees for subtle touch interaction in 3D space. Modular solutions like 3DTouch opens up a whole new design space for interaction techniques to further develop on.
Improved Search Strategies and Extensions to K-medoids-based Algorithms-Extended Report

In this paper a number of improvements are suggested that can be applied to most k-medoids-based algorithms. These can be divided into two categories conceptual / algorithmic improvements, and implementational improvements. These include the revisiting of the accepted cases for swap comparison and the application of partial distance searching and previous medoid indexing to clustering. We propose extensions to the problem of nearest neighbor search, by combining the previous medoid index with triangular inequality elimination and partial distance searching. An improved k-medoids algorithm using simulated annealing, CLASA, is also discussed, as is a novel mechanism for managing memory usage. Various hybrids of these search approaches are then applied to a number of k-medoids-based algorithms and we show that the method is generally applicable. For example, experimental results based on various datasets, including both artificial and real datasets, demonstrate that when applied to CLARANS the number of distance calculations can be reduced by up to 98% with similar average distance per object. Importantly, these search approaches can also be applied to nearest neighbor searching and other clustering algorithms.
Effects of controlled inspiratory muscle training in patients with COPD: a meta-analysis

The purpose of this meta-analysis is to review studies investigating the efficacy of inspiratory muscle training (IMT) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and to find out whether patient characteristics influence the efficacy of IMT. A systematic literature search was performed using the Medline and Embase databases. On the basis of a methodological framework, a critical review was performed and summary effect-sizes were calculated by applying fixed and random effects models. Both IMT alone and IMT as adjunct to general exercise reconditioning significantly increased inspiratory muscle strength and endurance. A significant effect was found for dyspnoea at rest and during exercise. Improved functional exercise capacity tended to be an additional effect of IMT alone and as an adjunct to general exercise reconditioning, but this trend did not reach statistical significance. No significant correlations were found for training effects with patient characteristics. However, subgroup analysis in IMT plus exercise training revealed that patients with inspiratory muscle weakness improved significantly more compared to patients without inspiratory muscle weakness. From this review it is concluded that inspiratory muscle training is an important addition to a pulmonary rehabilitation programme directed at chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients with inspiratory muscle weakness. The effect on exercise performance is still to be determined.
Parallel Simulation of an Unsteady Forced Convection around a Linear Cascade Using PC-Cluster

A multi-core PC cluster based on linux operating system was designed and built with an affordable PC hardware and high speed Gigabyte network switches. The PC cluster consisted of 36-cores and easily expandable. With a commercial CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) package, the performance of the HPC was evaluated by changing the number of CPU involved in the computation. An unsteady forced convection problem around a linear cascade was solved using the CFX program and the heat transfer coefficient along the surface of the cascade was investigated. The mesh of the model CFD problem has 1.5 million nodes and the unsteady computation was performed during 2000 time-integrations. The performance of present HPC cluster increases as the number of code increases up to 16 cores. It was shown that the computation time with 16-core is approximately 3times faster than that with 4-core.
On human capability and acoustic cues for discriminating singing and speaking voices

In this paper, acoustic cues and human capability for discriminating singing and speaking voices are discussed to develop an automatic discrimination system for singing and speaking voices. Based on the results of preliminary subjective experiments, listeners discriminate between singing and speaking voices with 70.0% accuracy for 200ms signals and 99.7% for one-second signals. Since even short stimuli of 200 ms can be correctly discriminated, not only temporal characteristics but also short-time spectral features can be cues for discrimination. To examine how listeners distinguish between these two voices, we conducted subjective experiments with singing and speaking voice stimuli whose voice quality and prosody were systematically distorted by using signal processing techniques. The experimental results suggest that spectral and prosodic cues complementarily contributed to perceptual judgments. Furthermore, a software system that can automatically discriminate between singing and speaking voices and such performances is also reported.
Transmission of Fusarium boothii Mycovirus via Protoplast Fusion Causes Hypovirulence in Other Phytopathogenic Fungi

There is increasing concern regarding the use of fungicides to control plant diseases, whereby interest has increased in the biological control of phytopathogenic fungi by the application of hypovirulent mycoviruses as a possible alternative to fungicides. Transmission of hypovirulence-associated double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) viruses between mycelia, however, is prevented by the vegetative incompatibility barrier that often exists between different species or strains of filamentous fungi. We determined whether protoplast fusion could be used to transmit FgV1-DK21 virus, which is associated with hypovirulence on F. boothii (formerly F. graminearum strain DK21), to F. graminearum, F. asiaticum, F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici, and Cryphonectria parasitica. Relative to virus-free strains, the FgV1-DK21 recipient strains had reduced growth rates, altered pigmentation, and reduced virulence. These results indicate that protoplast fusion can be used to introduce FgV1-DK21 dsRNA into other Fusarium species and into C. parasitica and that FgV1-DK21 can be used as a hypovirulence factor and thus as a biological control agent.
Incivility and Beyond at the Top Management Team Level

ABSTRACT Although incivility has been gaining increasing attention in the literature as well as in the industry, academic studies have not examined the effects on top management team (TMT) members. TMT members are different from employees at other levels because they are officers of their organizations who are held to a much higher level of responsibility than those in lower echelons. They are crucial in setting the norms of an organization and have far-reaching influence. This article seeks to uncover the mechanisms that explain what happens when TMT members are targets of uncivil leadership behavior. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 TMT members. Findings suggest that TMT members tended to be analytical in their reactions, influencing their responses. This study contributes to the literature on incivility and leadership, filling the gap of addressing such behavior at the TMT level.
Impulse Processing: A Dynamical Systems Model of Incremental Eye Movements in the Visual World Paradigm

The Visual World Paradigm (VWP) presents listeners with a challenging problem: They must integrate two disparate signals, the spoken language and the visual context, in support of action (e.g., complex movements of the eyes across a scene). We present Impulse Processing, a dynamical systems approach to incremental eye movements in the visual world that suggests a framework for integrating language, vision, and action generally. Our approach assumes that impulses driven by the language and the visual context impinge minutely on a dynamical landscape of attractors corresponding to the potential eye-movement behaviors of the system. We test three unique predictions of our approach in an empirical study in the VWP, and describe an implementation in an artificial neural network. We discuss the Impulse Processing framework in relation to other models of the VWP.
Community interactions at crowd scale: hybrid crowds on the GitHub platform

ABSTRACT Communities and crowds have both been popular settings for the study of open innovation, but until recently, scholars have tended to study each in relative isolation from the other. The separate study of communities and crowds may mask commonalities and areas of overlap. In this exploratory study, we examine hybrid crowds, which exhibit norms of reciprocity common in communities, as well as patterns of contribution dispersion common in crowds. We show empirical variation along these two dimensions using data from six machine learning projects hosted on the GitHub software platform. We discuss the implications of hybrid crowds for sponsoring firms and opportunities for further research by scholars of open innovation.
Murrinh-Patha agreement : implications for the relationship between theory and description

This publication can be cited as: Rachel Nordlinger. 2009. Murrinh-Patha agreement: implications for the relationship between theory and description. In Peter K. Austin, Oliver Bond, Monik Charette, David Nathan & Peter Sells (eds) Proceedings of Conference on Language Documentation and Linguistic Theory 2. London: SOAS. or: Rachel Nordlinger. 2009. Murrinh-Patha agreement: implications for the relationship between theory and description. In Peter K. Austin, Oliver Bond, Monik Charette, David Nathan & Peter Sells (eds) Proceedings of Conference on Language Documentation and Linguistic Theory 2. London: SOAS. www.hrelp. org/eprints/ldlt2_26. pdf Language Documentation & Linguistic Theory 2
Modeling the Effect of APC Truncation on Destruction Complex Function in Colorectal Cancer Cells

In colorectal cancer cells, APC, a tumor suppressor protein, is commonly expressed in truncated form. Truncation of APC is believed to disrupt degradation of β—catenin, which is regulated by a multiprotein complex called the destruction complex. The destruction complex comprises APC, Axin, β—catenin, serine/threonine kinases, and other proteins. The kinases and , which are recruited by Axin, mediate phosphorylation of β—catenin, which initiates its ubiquitination and proteosomal degradation. The mechanism of regulation of β—catenin degradation by the destruction complex and the role of truncation of APC in colorectal cancer are not entirely understood. Through formulation and analysis of a rule-based computational model, we investigated the regulation of β—catenin phosphorylation and degradation by APC and the effect of APC truncation on function of the destruction complex. The model integrates available mechanistic knowledge about site-specific interactions and phosphorylation of destruction complex components and is consistent with an array of published data. We find that the phosphorylated truncated form of APC can outcompete Axin for binding to β—catenin, provided that Axin is limiting, and thereby sequester β—catenin away from Axin and the Axin-recruited kinases and . Full-length APC also competes with Axin for binding to β—catenin; however, full-length APC is able, through its SAMP repeats, which bind Axin and which are missing in truncated oncogenic forms of APC, to bring β—catenin into indirect association with Axin and Axin-recruited kinases. Because our model indicates that the positive effects of truncated APC on β—catenin levels depend on phosphorylation of APC, at the first 20-amino acid repeat, and because phosphorylation of this site is mediated by , we suggest that is a potential target for therapeutic intervention in colorectal cancer. Specific inhibition of is predicted to limit binding of β—catenin to truncated APC and thereby to reverse the effect of APC truncation.
Using Verbs and Adjectives to Automatically Classify Blog Sentiment

Training and test datasets for the paper "Using Verbs and Adjectives to Automatically Classify Blog Sentiment", available online at http://citeseerx.ist. psu.edu/viewdoc/download? doi=10.1. 1.179. 3144&rep=rep1&type=pdf . Zip files of texts from blogs that are manually classified as having positive, negative, or neutral sentiment.
Spectral estimation using higher-lag autocorrelation coefficients with applications to speech recognition

In this paper, we introduce a noise robust spectral estimation technique for speech signals that is derived from a windowed one-sided higher-lag autocorrelation sequence. We also introduce a new high dynamic range window design method, and utilise both techniques in a modied Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefcient (MFCC) algorithm to produce noise robust speech recognition features. We call the new features Autocorrelation Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefcients (AMFCCs). We compare the recognition performance of AMFCCs to MFCCs for a range of stationary and non-stationary noises on the Aurora II database. We show that the AMFCC features perform as well as MFCCs in clean conditions and have higher noise robustness in noisy conditions.
Working Paper 144 - An Analysis of the Impact of Financial Integration on Economic Activity and Macroeconomic Volatility in Africa within the Financial Globalization Context

The purpose of this study is to provide an empirical analysis of some of the impacts of international financial integration on economic activity and macro-economic volatility in African countries. It is acknowledged that financial integration affect several aspects of economic performance, particularly increases investment rates, technology transfers, trade openness, stimulates the development of domestic financial system and economic growth. Similarly, financial integration is recognized as a potential source of macroeconomic instability. The results of empirical analysis show that the impact of external capital flows on growth seems to depend mainly on the initial conditions and policies implemented to stabilize foreign investment, increase domestic investment, productivity and trade, develop the domestic financial system, expand trade openness and other actions aimed at stimulating growth and reducing poverty. The analysis also shows that financial instability was particularly severe as from the nineties. The instability was more pronounced in the case of portfolio investments than in foreign direct investments because of the longer-term relationship established by the latter. Similarly, trends in official capital flows were less unstable than in private capital flows. Lastly, the volatility of capital flows observed in financially “open” and “closed” countries was accompanied by moderate macroeconomic instability.
Exploiting Semantics of Inter-Process Dependencies to Instantiate Predefined Integration Patterns

The integration of behaviour has long been a major goal for research into information systems integration. Its greater complexity compared to the well understood integration of structure means that it must be considered from a highly abstract (conceptual) level so the person responsible for the integration can focus on the integration rather than on implementation details. This paper extends previous work which defined ways to identify correspondences between processes and offered integration patterns arising from these correspondences. It investigates the integration of heterogeneous activity specifications and addresses the problem of defining activity specifications in the integrated process. As a result, the user can instantiate the integration patterns automatically and need not to deal with parameter bindings.
Stock Returns and Trading Activity Around Earnings Announcements for Chinese A-Shares September 15

This study examines annual earnings announcements for Chinese A-shares, a market dominated by retail investors where short selling is prohibited. We document a significant tendency for A-share prices to increase on the days, both, before and after the earnings announcement date. In contrast, we find a significant tendency for A-share prices to decline on the day of the announcement, immediately following the earnings release. Consistent with Miller’s (1977) theory, abnormal returns on the days before, on, or after the announcement day are directly related to abnormal trading activity measured over the same time period, but negatively related to abnormal trading in earlier periods.
AN EVALUATION OF RATIONAL FUNCTIONS FOR PHOTOGRAMMETRIC RESTITUTION.

This paper addresses the questions of whether rational functions are suitable for photogrammetric restitution. With the increasing number, and greater complexity of sensors becoming available, and the need for standards in transferring orientation data, the use of polynomials offers an attractive solution. However there are concerns about the accuracy and robustness of such methods, and the paper sets out to examine these concerns and also to propose a method of removing some of the shortcomings of current methods. The paper reviews the current information available on rational functions and sets out the methods being used and reports on results which are available. A new method of dealing with error propagation is proposed. The paper concludes that the use of polynomial functions can offer an effective method of photogrammetric restitution for a wide range of sensors but that the models available have not been tested or used sufficiently to be certain that error or instability will not be a problem. There does however seem to be no case to use polynomial functions with standard frame cameras, as existing methods are rigorous and proven to work, unless the most important requirement of the user is having only one sensor model for all sensors.
Learning to ignore salient distractors: Attentional set and habituation

ABSTRACT Attentional capture by salient distractors can be attenuated by the target search strategy (feature-search mode vs. singleton-detection mode) adopted, as well as by learning processes concerning the distractor features. Hence, two different models, one based on the task-relevant and one on the task-irrelevant information, would interact in the control of attention. Here, we investigated whether the search mode used to locate the target can affect the possibility to reject salient distractor on the basis of habituation mechanisms. Our results showed that when a feature-search mode was used, capture by a uniquely-coloured distractor was progressively reduced with practice, a result consistent with the habituation of capture phenomenon (Experiment 1). Conversely, when a singleton-detection mode was used habituation of capture was prevented (Experiment 2), both when the distractor feature remained constant (Experiment 3) and when a prolonged exposure to the distractor was allowed (Experiment 4). We propose that when the templates for the task-relevant (i.e., the target) and the task-irrelevant (i.e., the distractor) information overlap the former prevails in the control of attention, and prevents habituation of capture to take place.
Simple 'neural' optimization networks: An A/D converter, signal decision circuit, and a linear programming circuit

We describe how several optimization problems can be rapidly solved by highly interconnected networks of simple analog processors. Analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion was considered as a simple optimization problem, and an A/D converter of novel architecture was designed. A/D conversion is a simple example of a more general class of signal-decision problems which we show could also be solved by appropriately constructed networks. Circuits to solve these problems were designed using general principles which result from an understanding of the basic collective computational properties of a specific class of analog-processor networks. We also show that a network which solves linear programming problems can be understood from the same concepts.
Estimating Variance Components in Stata

This article gives a brief overview of the popular methods for estimating variance components in linear models and describes several ways to obtain such estimates in Stata for various experimental designs. The article's emphasis is on using xtmixed to estimate variance components. Prior to Stata 9, loneway could be used to estimate variance components for one-way random-effects models. For other experimental designs, variance components could be computed manually using saved results after anova. The latter approach is viable but requires tedious computations for complicated experimental designs. Instead, as of Stata 9, variance components are easily obtained by using xtmixed.
A New Role for the Parahippocampal Cortex in Representing Space

The debate surrounding the function of the human posterior parahippocampal cortex (PHC) is currently dominated by two competing theories. The spatial layout hypothesis proposes that PHC processes information about the shape of space embodied in layout-defining scene features. The contextual association hypothesis rejects this notion, proposing instead that PHC responds to highly contextualized, but not necessarily spatial, stimuli. Here we present a novel concept that suggests PHC is primarily concerned with any representation that depicts three-dimensional local space, be it scenes or even single objects. Specifically, we identified space-defining (SD) and space-ambiguous (SA) single objects, where SD objects consistently evoke a strong sense of the surrounding space while SA objects do not, in the absence of any background, spatial layout, or context. We found that participants could easily identify and distinguish between SD and SA objects. This distinction was subsequently affirmed at a neural level, where visualizing or viewing single SD objects compared with SA objects engaged PHC, despite these single SD objects offering no information about the shape or layout of the space. Moreover, this PHC response was robust and not accounted for by other factors, including contextual associations. Instead, it was linked to intrinsic object properties, specifically a combination of perceived object size and portability. By showing that PHC is responsive to the awareness of surrounding local space suggests its role in scene processing is basic and fundamental, such that it is not dependent on complex scene properties such as geometric structure, scene schema, or contextual associations.