Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pan-Tilt Camera and PIR Sensor Fusion Based Moving Object Detection for Mobile Security Robots

One of fundamental issues for security robots is to detect and track people in the surroundings. The main problems of this task are real-time constraints, a changing background, varying illumination conditions and a non-rigid shape of the person to be tracked. In this paper, we propose a solution for tracking with a pan-tilt camera and a passive infrared range (PIR) sensor to detect the moving object based on consecutive frame difference. The proposed method is excellent in real-time performance because it requires only a little memory and computation. Experiment results show that this method can detect the moving object such as human efficiently and accurately in non-stationary and complex indoor environment.
Are historians ontological realists? An exchange

ABSTRACT This is an exchange between Herman Paul and Ethan Kleinberg on Kleinberg’s book, Haunting History. The exchange revolves around the question: Are historians ‘ontological realists’? That is, do historians generally take the past to be a fixed and immutable object – ‘definitive, knowable, and stable’? Paul argues that historians do not necessarily hold consistent ontological beliefs. When facing the specter of Derridean deconstructivism, they may well invoke the image of a fixed, immutable past. But this does not imply that historians are ontological realists on all occasions: it is well possible that they respond quite differently to old-fashioned positivists than to Foucault- or Derrida-inspired theorists of history. In his rejoinder to Paul, Kleinberg argues that the ontological realist position historians hold is more stable than their context-specific commitments might suggest. This can be seen in response to the perceived threat of French theory in general and deconstruction in particular but also in the published works of most academic history. He contends that if Swidler’s concept of ‘cultural vocabularies’ is apt in regard to these specific commitments, as Paul suggests, it demonstrates the inadequacy of the ontological realist approach to the past and precisely why historians should look to a deconstructive one.
The Influence of Speaking a Dialect of Appalachian English on the College Experience.

DUNSTAN, STEPHANY BRETT. The Influence of Speaking a Dialect of Appalachian English on the College Experience. (Under the direction of Dr. Audrey J. Jaeger). Many students will arrive at college speaking a dialect that is considered non-standardized or stigmatized due to the socially stratified nature of language. In the United States, where there are commonly held ideologies about the type of language that is considered “correct” or “proper,” students who speak non-standardized dialects may find themselves at a disadvantage in educational settings. Dialects of Appalachian English are often stigmatized in mainstream American culture, and certain elements of dialects of Southern Appalachia are particularly stigmatized, even by other Southerners. This qualitative study explored the influence of speaking a dialect of Appalachian English on the college experiences of students from rural, Southern Appalachia. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 26 participants attending a large research university in an urban area of a Southern state, and sociolinguistic analysis of participants’ speech was performed to provide rich description of their speech in order to better understand the role it played in their college experiences. Sociolinguistic analysis focused on features of participants’ speech that are noted as being salient markers associated with Southern Appalachian dialects, and would thus perhaps be markedly different from normative speech patterns on campus among non-Appalachian peers. Findings suggest that dialect is influential in three main areas: 1) academic experiences 2) sense of belonging and perceptions of campus environment and 3) in interactions with others on campus. Findings have significant implications for diversity education and programming; understanding language as a student characteristic to better explain the experiences of student populations such as rural, first-generation, low SES, and racial and ethnic minorities; sense of belonging and persistence models; and creating inclusive campus environments. © Copyright 2013 by Stephany Brett Dunstan All Rights Reserved The Influence of Speaking a Dialect of Appalachian English on the College Experience by Stephany Brett Dunstan A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Educational Research & Policy Analysis Raleigh, North Carolina 2013
Relational queries computable in polynomial time (Extended Abstract)

Query languages for relational databases have received considerable attention. In 1972 Codd [Cod72] showed that two natural mathematical languages for queries-&-mdash;one algebraic and the other a version of first order predicate calculus-&-mdash;had identical powers of expressibility. Query languages which are as expressive as Codd's Relational Calculus are sometimes called complete. This term is misleading, however, because many interesting queries are not expressible in -&-ldquo;complete-&-rdquo; languages. In this paper we show: Theorem 2: The Fixpoint Hierarchy collapses at the first fixpoint level. That is, any query expressible with several applications of least fixpoint can already be expressed with one. We also show: Theorem 1: Let L be a query language consisting of relational calculus plus the least fixpoint operator. Suppose that L contains a relation symbol for a total ordering relation on the domain (e.g. lexicographic ordering). Then the queries expressible in L are exactly the queries computable in polynomial time. Theorem 1 was discovered independantly by M. Vardi [Var82]. It gives a simple syntactic categorization of those queries which can be answered in polynomial time. Of course queries requiring polynomial time in the size of the database are usually prohibitatively expensive. We also consider weaker languages for expressing less complex queries.
VIREO @ TRECVID 2011: Instance Search, Semantic Indexing, Multimedia Event Detection and Known-Item Search

The vireo group participated in four tasks: instance search, semantic indexing, multimedia event detection and known-item search. In this paper,we will present our approaches and discuss the evaluation results. Instance Search (INS): We experimented four runs to contrast the following for instance search: full matching (vireo b) versus partial matching (vireo m); use of weak geometric information (vireo b) versus stronger spatial configuration (vireo s); use of face matching (vireo f).
Action Fluency Facilitates Perceptual Discrimination

Perception and action interact in nearly every moment of daily life. Previous studies have demonstrated not only that perceptual input shapes action but also that various factors associated with action—including individual abilities and biomechanical costs—influence perceptual decisions. However, it is unknown how action fluency affects the sensitivity of early-stage visual perception, such as orientation. To address this question, we used a dual-task paradigm: Participants prepared an action (e.g., grasping), while concurrently performing an orientation-change-detection task. We demonstrated that as actions became more fluent (e.g., as grasping errors decreased), perceptual-discrimination performance also improved. Importantly, we found that grasping training prior to discrimination enhanced subsequent perceptual sensitivity, supporting the notion of a reciprocal relation between perception and action.
Cellular traffic offloading through opportunistic communications: a case study

Due to the increasing popularity of various applications for smartphones, 3G networks are currently overloaded by mobile data traffic. Offloading cellular traffic through opportunistic communications is a promising solution to partially solve this problem, because there is no monetary cost for it. As a case study, we investigate the target-set selection problem for information delivery in the emerging Mobile Social Networks (MoSoNets). We propose to exploit opportunistic communications to facilitate the information dissemination and thus reduce the amount of cellular traffic. In particular, we study how to select the target set with only k users, such that we can minimize the cellular data traffic. In this scenario, initially the content service providers deliver information over cellular networks to only users in the target set. Then through opportunistic communications, target-users will further propagate the information among all the subscribed users. Finally, service providers will send the information to users who fail to receive it before the delivery deadline (i.e., delay-tolerance threshold). We propose three algorithms, called Greedy, Heuristic, and Random, for this problem and evaluate their performance through an extensive trace-driven simulation study. The simulation results verify the efficiency of these algorithms for both synthetic and real-world mobility traces. For example, the Heuristic algorithm can offload cellular traffic by up to 73.66% for a real-world mobility trace.
Diabetic complications and glycaemic control in remote North Africa.

BACKGROUND Delivery of diabetes services in resource-poor areas of Africa is difficult. Control is often poor and complications are common. However, adequate robust surveys are uncommon, particularly in remote rural areas. This makes needs assessment difficult and health-care planning impossible. AIM To accurately assess the glycaemic control and burden of complications in a group of diabetic patients from a remote area of a resource-limited north African country. DESIGN Prospective cohort study. METHODS Over a 6-week period, all patients attending the diabetic clinic at Mekelle Hospital in northern Ethiopia were intensively assessed, using imported western technology as necessary. Glycated haemoglobin (HbA(1c)), lipid profile, serum creatinine and urinary albumin-creatinine ratio were measured. Complications were assessed as accurately as possible, including examination of fundi by an ophthalmic specialist, and biosthesiometry for neuropathy. RESULTS There were 105 patients, mean (+/- SD) age 41 +/- 16 years and diabetes duration 7 +/- 6 years. There were 74 (70%) males, and 69 (66%) on insulin. Median body mass index was low at 20.6 kg/m(2), but mean HbA(1c) high at 11.3 +/- 2.8% (68% had an HbA(1c) over 10.0%). Cataract (12%), retinopathy (21%), neuropathy (41%) and microalbuminuria (51%) were common; but nephropathy (2%) was rare, as was large vessel disease (6% had peripheral vascular disease, and none had coronary artery disease or cerebrovascular disease). Risk factors such as hypertension (5%) and smoking (2%) were uncommon, and lipid profiles were generally good. DISCUSSION We conclude that in this severely resource-limited area of North Africa, glycaemic control amongst diabetic patients is very poor. Neuropathy, retinopathy and microalbuminuria are common; but large vessel disease risk factors are beneficial, and macroangiopathy prevalence is low. Scattered populations, shortage of drugs and insulin and lack of diabetes team care are major factors behind these serious issues of diabetic control and complications.
Collaborative bathymetry-based localization of a team of autonomous underwater vehicles

Without access to GPS and high-quality visual landmarks, many autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) face a fundamental navigation vs. cost tradeoff: advanced navigation systems that might include an INS, Doppler velocity, or long-baseline acoustics are expensive. Supporting low-cost operations, this work focuses on collaborative positioning for a team of AUV's, given a bathymetric terrain map, and only an altimeter and acoustic modem on each vehicle. The joint localization is performed via decentralized particle filtering, where we extend the usual measurement model to allow received information to modulate the importance function. We investigate the impact on performance of sensor noise, communication interval and number of vehicles. Results are shown for bathymetry maps near St. John's Island, Singapore, and for the Charles River Basin, Boston. In the second case, we ran our algorithm with physical measurements from actual vehicles executing trajectories.
Precoder design for MIMO broadcast channels

This paper considers precoder designs in downlink MIMO broadcast channels (BC). A preceding scheme that is analog to the MMSE decision feedback equalizer in the uplink MIMO multiple access channels is first introduced. The proposed scheme can asymptotically achieve the sum-capacity of MIMO-BC at high SNRs. At medium SNRs, its achievable sum capacity is very close to that of MIMO-BC and larger than that of ZF-DR. The new scheme can also offer a significant gain over linear pre-equalization techniques in terms of average error probability. Furthermore, by linking the proposed precoder with the sphere encoder, a modified sphere encoder is devised. The modified sphere encoder is shown to be able to achieve the same diversity order as the maximum likelihood (ML) receiver in dual uplink. Its performance is also approaching the corresponding ML receiver.
Parameterized MPC to reduce dispersion of road traffic emissions

This paper has two main contributions. First, it presents a simple area-wide emission (or dispersion) model for a freeway traffic networks. The model takes the variation of the wind speed and direction into account. Second, it presents a nonlinear parameterized MPC controller for freeway traffic systems. Next, the proposed model and control approach are illustrated with a simulation-based case study. The simulation results show improved traffic performance with respect to the uncontrolled system.
The Case for Binary Rewriting at Runtime for Efficient Implementation of High-Level Programming Models in HPC

Implementations of Parallel Programming Models are provided either as language extensions, completely new languages or as a library. The first two options often provides high productivity, but requires the porting of codes. In contrast, calls to new libraries can be added more easily, however the use of abstractions in such programming model implementations can have high runtime overhead. In both cases, the mentioned drawbacks often hinder the adaptation of novel programming models for large existing codes. To combine the advantages of compiler analysis with the composability of pure libraries towards more efficient programming model implementations, in this paper, we propose a low level API for programmer controlled binary rewriting at runtime. This can be used by programming models provided as libraries to efficiently integrate their abstractions with application code. It enables incremental adoption for existing codes as well as favoring input-dependent optimization strategies yet providing similar performance as language extension approaches. We show first promising experiences.
Expression and Potential Roles of HLA-G in Human Spermatogenesis and Early Embryonic Development

As one of the non-classical major histocompatibility complex(MHC)-1 antigens, Human Leukocyte Antigen G (HLA-G), has been suggested as a prognostic marker to identify the embryo developmental potential. In the present study, we investigated the potential roles of HLA-G in human spermatogenesis and early embryonic development. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that HLA-G's expression was increased with increased Johnsen score in testicular tissues. There was no significant difference in HLA-G mRNA expression between testicular tissues with Johnsen score of 8–9 and normal sperm from ejaculated semen. HLA-G mRNA expression was detected in human zygotes, embryos and blastocysts but not in unfertilized oocytes. In testicular tissues where sperm was obtained by testicular sperm extraction (Johnsen score was 8 to 9), there were no correlations between HLA-G mRNA expression and fertilization, cleavage and high-quality embryo rates. At 48–72 h post-fertilization, HLA-G expression was higher in fast growing embryos. HLA-G specific siRNA injection into zygotes not only slowed down embryonic cleavage rate at 48 h post-fertilization, but also down-regulated the expression of embryo metabolism related gene (SLC2A1) and cell cycle-regulated gene (CCND2). Taken together, our findings suggested that HLA-G plays significant roles in human spermatogenesis and early embryonic development.
Extracting Brain Connectivity from Diffusion MRI [Life Sciences]

This article gives a short introduction to dMRI tractography methods. Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) is an MRI modality that has gained tremendous popularity the past five years and is especially promising for imaging the white matter in brain. The dMRI technique has raised hopes in the neuroscience community for a better understanding of the fiber tract anatomy of the human brain. Various methods have been proposed to visualize the anatomy of fiber pathways and to derive connectivity between different parts of the brain in vivo. While there are strong indications that dMRI reveals information about the fiber pathways in the brain, it is important to stress that the explicit measurements are of water diffusion, and not of the axons themselves. This technique allows us to use fibers from multiple brains as input, and thereby obtain a simultaneous clustering and matching of the bundles in all brains.
Configuration of organisational justice and social capital: their impact on satisfaction and commitment

This study argues that the limited information of individuals in responding to organisational policies forces them to evaluate justice subjectively. Referring to social identity theory, this study proposes social capital as a key factor in explaining individual behaviour in evaluating distributive justice and procedural justice. An individual's high social capital tends to be oriented towards groups with different justice principles. Applying an experimental design, this research discusses the controversies of distributive and procedural justice impact on job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The substantial finding in this research explains that contextual aspects, such as distributive justice, procedural justice, and social capital, play a large role in elaborating satisfaction and organisational commitment.
Rich Feature Set, Unification of Bidirectional Parsing and Dictionary Filtering for High F-Score Gene Mention Tagging.

In the first BioCreative (2004) [3], conditional random fields (CRFs) [5] were employed in tagging gene and protein mentioned in the biomedical text with high performance [8]. Therefore, we chose CRFs as our starting point and carefully selected a rich set of 5,059,368 predicates as the features. To further improve its performance, we combined the tagging results of forward and backward parsing [4]. We tried different combination methods, including set operations and Co-Training [1]. However, we found that Co-Training performed poorly. Instead, we selected the best solutions from the " adjacent " ten candidates of bidirectional parsing and then applied dictionary filtering to obtain the best F-score result. Details are given as follows. We applied MALLET [7] to take advantage of its feature induction capability [6]. Due to the special characteristics of name-entities of genes and gene products [10], a rich set of features is required. Not all features proposed in previous work are useful. After hundreds of trials, we carefully selected predicates shown in Table 1 as our feature set, which includes commonly used orthographic predicates and character-n-gram predicates for 2 ≤ n ≤ 4 [8]. We used {−2, −1, 0, 1, 2} as the offsets and evaluated predicates such as word, stemmed word, part-of-speech tag, and word morphology as the contextual features at each position. Our domain-specific features include nucleotide (i.e., types of DNA or RNA), residues of amino acids, etc. We excluded prefix and suffix predicates used in previous work because we found that they usually increase false positive. To extract features, the Genia Tagger [9] was applied for stemming, tokenization and part-of-speech tagging. We modified the Genia Tagger slightly to tokenize words with a higher granularity. For example, punctuation symbols within words were segmented. We also applied a rule-based filter to clean up some easily fixed mistakes, such as entities with unpaired parentheses or square brackets. The performance of the CRF models with this feature set and the rule-based filter is given in the first row of Table 2, which is already slightly better than previously reported figures. These inside test results were obtained by randomly selected 10,000 sentences for training and the rest for testing from the training data set provided by the organizers. To further improve its performance, we combined the tagging results of forward and backward parsing. In forward parsing, the tagger reads and tags the input sentences from left to right, while …
Long-Term Antioxidant Intervention Improves Myocardial Microvascular Function in Experimental Hypertension

Abstract—Hypertension increases oxidative stress, which can impair myocardial microvascular function and integrity. However, it is yet unclear whether long-term antioxidant intervention in early hypertension would preserve myocardial perfusion and vascular permeability responses to challenge. Pigs were studied after 12 weeks of renovascular hypertension without (n=8) or with daily supplementation of antioxidants (100 IU/kg vitamin E and 1 g vitamin C, n=6), and compared with normal controls (n=7). Myocardial perfusion and microvascular permeability were measured in vivo by electron beam computed tomography before and after 2 cardiac challenges (intravenous adenosine and dobutamine). Basal left ventricular muscle mass was also obtained. Mean arterial pressure was significantly increased in both groups of hypertensive animals (without and with antioxidants, 123±9 and 126±4 mm Hg, respectively, versus normal, 101±4 mm Hg; both P <0.05), but muscle mass was not different among the groups. The impaired myocardial perfusion response to adenosine observed in hypertensives (normal, +51±14%; P <0.05 versus baseline; hypertension, +14±15%; P =0.3 versus baseline) was preserved in hypertensive pigs that received antioxidants (+44±15%; P =0.01 compared with baseline). Long-term antioxidant intervention also preserved subendocardial microvascular permeability responses in hypertension. On the other hand, antioxidant intervention had little effect on the hypertension-induced myocardial vascular dysfunction observed in response to dobutamine. This study demonstrates that the impaired myocardial perfusion and permeability responses to increased cardiac demand in early hypertension are significantly improved by long-term antioxidant intervention. These results support the involvement of oxidative stress in myocardial vascular dysfunction in hypertension and suggest a role for antioxidant strategies to preserve the myocardial microvasculature.