Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Illegal Entrant Detection at a Restricted Area in Open Spaces Using Color Features

Developing an automatic and intelligent system to detect, track, recognize, and analyze moving objects could save human power in monitoring centers. In this study, the color features of an employee's uniform were extracted to identify the entrance legality in a restricted area of an open space. The body of an entrant was segmented into three parts for locating the region of interest (ROI) using a watershed transform. Dominant color features extracted from the ROI were classified for preventing the illegal entrance. Some experiments were conducted to show the feasibility and validity of the proposed system
A Statistical Analysis of Visual Cues for Estimating Dense Range Maps

A method for recovering dense range maps from sparse range maps by using statistical analysis of visual cues is presented. The proposed technique is based on constructing a 3D map of a real environment, which in turn, requires visual information to densely cover the environment to be placed. Moreover, the method relies only on the information coming from intensity images taken at the scene in question and compared to existing work, use a small, but representative, set of visual cues to estimate their geometry. The steps for implementing the proposed technique require obtaining an initial (sparse) geometric information from stereo vision. A set of visual characteristics with relevant geometric information is extracted by statistically analyzing small patches from data. These characteristics help to assign confidence values to the sparse range map and apply a range synthesis algorithm based on a Markov field model to estimate a complete dense range map. Preliminary experimental results validate the proposed method.
The Diffusion of Innovations in Social Networks

We consider processes in which new technologies and forms of behavior are transmitted through social and geographic networks Agents adopt behaviors based on a combination of their inherent payoff and their local popularity (the number of neighbors who have adopted them) subject to some random error We characterize the long-run dynamics of such processes in terms of the geometry of the network but without placing a priori restrictions on the network structure When agents interact in sufficiently small close-knit groups the expected waiting time until almost everyone is playing the stochastically stable equilibrium is bounded above independently of the number of agents and independently of the initial state
Ray-Traced Reflections in Real-Time Using Heuristic Based Hybrid Rendering

Game engines typically use cube maps or screen space local reflections for simulating reflections effects at the real-time renderer pipeline. While these techniques work in many situations, they cannot deal well with reflections of reflections, reflections from covered spaces, reflections from elements outside the screen space or reflections from elements that change its shape or position in real-time. In this paper, we present a method capable of creating true real-time ray-traced reflections by using a heuristic based method and a hybrid renderer. Our solution maintain real-time frame rates by selecting, for each frame, the best reflexive surfaces to ray trace, based on the user's point of view.
Request patterns and caching for VoD services with recommendation systems

Video on Demand (VoD) services like Netflix and YouTube account for ever increasing fractions of Internet traffic. It is estimated that this fraction will cross 80% in the next three years. Most popular VoD services have recommendation engines which recommend videos to users based on their viewing history, thus introducing time-correlation in user requests. Understanding and modeling this time-correlation in user requests is critical for network traffic engineering. The primary goal of this work is to use empirically observed properties of user requests to model the effect of recommendation engines on request patterns in VoD services. We propose a Markovian request model to capture the time-correlation in user requests and show that our model is consistent with the observations of existing empirical studies. Most large-scale VoD services deliver content to users via a distributed network of servers as serving users requests via geographically co-located servers reduces latency and network bandwidth consumption. The content replication policy, i.e., determining which contents to cache on the servers is a key resource allocation problem for VoD services. Recent studies show that low start-up delay is a key Quality of Service (QoS) requirement of users of VoD services. This motivates the need to pre-fetch (fetch before contents are requested) and cache content likely to be requested in the near future. Since pre-fetching leads to an increase in the network bandwidth usage, we use our Markovian model to explore the trade-offs and feasibility of implementing recommendation based pre-fetching.
A highly-ionized absorber in the X-ray binary 4U 1323-62: A new explanation for the dipping phenomenon

We report the detection of narrow $\ion{Fe}{xxv}$ and $\ion{Fe}{xxvi}$ X-ray absorption lines at $6.68 \pm 0.04$ keV and $6.97 \pm 0.05$ keV in the persistent emission of the dipping low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1323-62 during a 2003 January XMM-Newton observation. These features are superposed on a broad emission feature centered on $6.6\,^{+0.1}_{-0.2}$ keV. During dipping intervals the equivalent width of the $\ion{Fe}{xxv}$ feature increases while that of the $\ion{Fe}{xxvi}$ feature decreases, consistent with the presence of less strongly ionized material in the line-of-sight. As observed previously, the changes in the 1.0–10 keV spectrum during dips are inconsistent with a simple increase in absorption by cool material. However, the changes in both the absorption features and the continuum can be modeled by variations in the properties of an ionized absorber. No partial covering of any component of the spectrum, and hence no extended corona, are required. From persistent to deep dipping, the photo-ionization parameter, ξ , expressed in , decreases from $\log(\xi)$ of $3.9 \pm 0.1$ to $\log(\xi)$ of $3.13 \pm 0.07$, while the equivalent hydrogen column density of the ionized absorber increases from ($3.8 \pm 0.4$) $\times~$10 22 atoms cm -2 to ($37 \pm 2$) $\times~$10 22 atoms cm -2 . Since highly-ionized absorption features are seen from many other dip sources, this mechanism may also explain the overall changes in X-ray spectrum observed during dipping intervals from these systems.
Decoding neuronal spike trains: How important are correlations?

It has been known for >30 years that neuronal spike trains exhibit correlations, that is, the occurrence of a spike at one time is not independent of the occurrence of spikes at other times, both within spike trains from single neurons and across spike trains from multiple neurons. The presence of these correlations has led to the proposal that they might form a key element of the neural code. Specifically, they might act as an extra channel for information, carrying messages about events in the outside world that are not carried by other aspects of the spike trains, such as firing rate. Currently, there is no general consensus about whether this proposal applies to real spike trains in the nervous system. This is largely because it has been hard to separate information carried in correlations from that not carried in correlations. Here we propose a framework for performing this separation. Specifically, we derive an information-theoretic cost function that measures how much harder it is to decode neuronal responses when correlations are ignored than when they are taken into account. This cost function can be readily applied to real neuronal data.
Mixed Genetic Algorithm Approach for Fuzzy Classifier Design

An important issue in the design of FRBS is the formation of fuzzy if-then rules and the membership functions. This paper presents a Mixed Genetic Algorithm (MGA) approach to obtain the optimal rule set and the membership function of the fuzzy classifier. While applying genetic algorithm for fuzzy classifier design, the membership functions are represented as real numbers and the fuzzy rules are represented as binary string. Modified forms of crossover and mutation operators are proposed to deal with the mixed string. The proposed genetic operators help to improve the convergence of GA and accuracy of the classifier. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated through development of fuzzy classifier for seven standard data sets. From the simulation study it is found that the proposed algorithm produces a fuzzy classifier with minimum number of rules and high classification accuracy. Statistical analysis of the test results shows the superiority of the proposed algorithm over the existing methods.
Metrics and techniques for quantifying performance isolation in cloud environments

The cloud computing paradigm enables the provision of costefficient IT-services by leveraging economies of scale and sharing data center resources efficiently among multiple independent applications and customers. However, the sharing of resources leads to possible interference between users and performance problems are one of the major obstacles for potential cloud customers. Consequently, it is one of the primary goals of cloud service providers to have different customers and their hosted applications isolated as much as possible in terms of the performance they observe. To make different offerings, comparable with regards to their performance isolation capabilities, a representative metric is needed to quantify the level of performance isolation in cloud environments. Such a metric should allow to measure externally by running benchmarks from the outside treating the cloud as a black box. In this paper, we propose three different types of novel metrics for quantifying the performance isolation of cloud-based systems and a simulation-based case study applying these metrics in the context of a Softwareas-a-Service (SaaS) scenario where different customers (tenants) share one single application instance. We consider four different approaches to achieve performance isolation and evaluate them based on the proposed metrics. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and practical usability of the proposed metrics in quantifying the performance isolation of cloud environments.
Haplotyping and estimation of haplotype frequencies for closely linked biallelic multilocus genetic phenotypes including nuclear family information

With the discovery of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) along the genome, genotyping of large samples of biallelic multilocus genetic phenotypes for (fine) mapping of disease genes or for population studies has become standard practice. A genetic trait, however, is mainly caused by an underlying defective haplotype, and populations are best characterized by their haplotype frequencies. Therefore, it is essential to infer from the phase‐unknown genetic phenotypes in a sample drawn from a population the haplotype frequencies in the population and the underlying haplotype pairs in the sample in order to find disease predisposing genes by some association or haplotype sharing algorithm. Haplotype frequencies and haplotype pairs are estimated via a maximum likelihood approach by a well‐known expectation maximization (EM) algorithm, adapting it to a large number (up to 30) of biallelic loci (SNP), and including nuclear family information, if available, into the analysis. Parents are treated as an independent sample from the population. Their genotyped offspring reduces the number of potential haplotype pairs for both parents, resulting in a higher accuracy of the estimation, and may also reduce computation time. In a series of simulations our approach of including nuclear family information has been tested against both the EM algorithm without nuclear family information and an alternative approach using GENEHUNTER for the haplotyping of the families, using the locus‐by‐locus allele counts of the sample. Our new approach is more precise in haplotyping in cases of a high number of heterozygous loci, whereas for a moderate number of heterozygous positions in the sample all three different approaches gave the same perfect results. Hum Mutat 17:289–295, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Stability of the solution to inverse obstacle scattering problem

This invention relates to a DNA fragment comprising a base sequence encoding a non-A non-B hepatitis-specific antigen polypeptide, said base sequence being obtained using genetic engineering techniques from non-A non-B hepatitis virus RNA which is isolated directly from blood plasma from non-A non-B hepatitis patients, to an expression vector and a transformant for use in the expression of the DNA fragment, to a single strand DNA sequence for PCR primer, and to use of said polypeptide and said single strand DNA sequence in the detection of the non-A non-B hepatitis virus. The recombinant polypeptide and the single strand DNA sequence for PCR primer make it possible to detect the non-A non-B hepatitis virus with extremely high accuracy.
Predictors of left ventricular remodelling and failure in right ventricular pacing in the young

Aims To identify risk factors for left ventricular (LV) dysfunction in right ventricular (RV) pacing in the young. Methods and results Left ventricular function was evaluated in 82 paediatric patients with either non-surgical (n = 41) or surgical (n= 41) complete atrioventricular block who have been 100% RV paced for a mean period of 7.4 years. Left ventricular shortening fraction (SF) decreased from a median (range) of 39 (24–62)% prior to implantation to 32 (8–49)% at last follow-up (P < 0.05). Prevalence of a combination of LV dilatation (LV end-diastolic diameter >+2z-values) and dysfunction (SF < 0.26) was found to increase from 1.3% prior to pacemaker implantation to 13.4% (11/82 patients) at last follow-up (P = 0.01). Ten of these 11 patients had progressive LV remodelling and 8 of 11 were symptomatic. The only significant risk factor for the development of LV dilatation and dysfunction was the presence of epicardial RV free wall pacing (OR = 14.3, P < 0.001). Other pre-implantation demographic, diagnostic, and haemodynamic factors including block aetiology, pacing variables, and pacing duration did not show independent significance. Conclusion Right ventricular pacing leads to pathologic LV remodelling in a significant proportion of paediatric patients. The major independent risk factor is the presence of epicardial RV free wall pacing, which should be avoided whenever possible.
CIVL: Formal Verification of Parallel Programs

CIVL is a framework for static analysis and verification of concurrent programs. One of the main challenges to practical application of these techniques is the large number of ways to express concurrency: MPI, OpenMP, CUDA, and Pthreads, for example, are just a few of many "concurrency dialects" in wide use today. These dialects are constantly evolving and it is increasingly common to use several of them in a single "hybrid" program. CIVL addresses these problems by providing a concurrency intermediate verification language, CIVL-C, as well as translators that consume C programs using these dialects and produce CIVL-C. Analysis and verification tools which operate on CIVL-C can then be applied easily to a wide variety of concurrent C programs. We demonstrate CIVL's error detection and verification capabilities on (1) an MPI+OpenMP program that estimates π and contains a subtle race condition, and (2) an MPI-based 1d-wave simulator that fails to conform to a simple sequential implementation.
Handwritten Document Image Analysis at Los Alamos: Script, Language, and Writer Identification

A system for automatically identifying the script used in a handwritten document image is described. The system was developed using a 496-document dataset representing six scripts, eight languages, and 281 writers. Documents were characterized by the mean, standard deviation, and skew of five connected component features. A linear discriminant analysis was used to classify new documents, and tested using writer-sensitive cross-validation. Classification accuracy averaged 88% across the six scripts. The same method, applied within the Roman subcorpus, discriminated English and German documents with 85% accuracy. Pilot results indicate that a variation of the method may be applicable to writer identification.
Towards managed real-time communications in the internet environment

Our work is concerned with the provision of resource-managed multimedia communications in an. Internet environment. In this paper we outline an architecture and an implementation of a real-time continuous media adaptive application that includes the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) and its associated control protocol (RTCP). The application makes use of the RTCP feedback reports for Quality of Service (QoS) monitoring of the traffic load on the network. The feedback reports are utilised by the application's adaptive rate controller to alleviate the problem of network congestion. We are assessing the suitability of RTPfRTCP in this application. Results obtained from our experiments with the adaptive rate controller are described and discussed. Then, some problems and issues concerning adaptive applications are presented. Finally, we outline the next phase of our work which concerns development of management facilities.
Knowledge transfer for high-performance quadrocopter maneuvers

Iterative Learning Control algorithms are based on the premise that “practice makes perfect”. By iteratively performing an action, repetitive errors can be learned and accounted for in subsequent iterations, in a non-causal and feedforward manner. This method has been previously implemented for a quadrocopter system, enabling the quadrocopter to learn to accurately track high-performance slalom trajectories. However, one major limitation of this system is that knowledge from previously learned trajectories is not generalized or transferred to new trajectories; these must be learned from a state of zero experience. This paper experimentally shows that the major dynamics of the Iterative Learning Control process can be captured by a linear map, trained on previously learned slalom trajectories. This map enables this prior knowledge to be used to improve the initialization of an unseen trajectory. Experimental results show that prediction based on a single prior is enough to reduce the initial tracking error for an unseen trajectory by an order of magnitude.
Target recognition based on a dynamic SVM

A dynamic support vector machine method is applied to the target recognition using noise power spectrum. It searches the optimal separating hyperplane of the local space taking the target feature as center. To show better importance of each sample to the target feature, the penalty function is measured by using the distance between the target feature and each training sample.
Fast two-degree-of-freedom tracking controller design for linear systems subject to actuator saturation and disturbance

This article presents a novel approach for fast setpoint tracking control based on two-degree-of-freedom structure for linear system subject to input amplitude and rate saturation constraints in the presence of the disturbance. Short settling times and a better control performance are achieved by the proposed approach. Furthermore, the actuating variable range is adaptively adjusted for the reference behavior and disturbance behavior. The set point tracking controller in feedforward control can be derived from a controller stabilizing the origin with an additional associated domian of attraction. A existing convex optimization procedure for the controller synthesis based in linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) can be applied by introducing the auxiliary conditions.
QA UdG-UPC System at TREC-12

This paper describes a prototype multilingual Q&A system that we have designed to participate in the Q&A Track of TREC-12. The system answer concrete responses, then we participate in the Q&A main task for factoid questions. The main areas of our system are: (1) Inductive Logic Programming to learn the question type, (2) Clustering of Named Entities to improve Information Retrieval and (3) Semantic relations and EuroWordNet synsets to perform a language-independent answer extraction.
Towards scalable FPGA CAD through architecture

Long FPGA CAD runtime has emerged as a limitation to the future scaling of FPGA densities. Already, compile times on the order of a day are common, and the situation will only get worse as FPGAs get larger. Without a concerted effort to reduce compile times, further scaling of FPGAs will eventually become impractical. Previous works have presented fast CAD tools that tradeoff quality of result for compile time. In this paper, we take a different but complementary approach. We show that the architecture of the FPGA itself can be designed to be amenable to fast-compile. If not done carefully, this can lead to lower-quality mapping results, so a careful tradeoff between area, delay, power, and compile run-time is essential. We investigate the extent to which run-time can be reduced by employing high-capacity logic blocks. We extend previous studies on logic block architectures by quantifying the area, delay and CAD runtime tradeoffs for large capacity blocks, and also investigate some multi-level logic block architectures. In addition, we present an analytically derived equation to guide the design of logic block I/O requirements.
Ties That Bind: Families, Social Capital and Caribbean Second-Generation Return Migration

2 Abstract This paper explores second-generation return migration to the Caribbean and how this is facilitated by social capital generated through transnational family relationships. My analysis is positioned and contextualised within broader theories of migration studies. The family narrative constructed around the ‘myth of return’ is integral to the young people’s accounts of return migration. Of particular interest in the analysis is how these narratives act as important social resources in sustaining the second generation’s emotional attachment to the family homeland and in influencing the decision to return alongside other pragmatic and practical constraints. Drawing on fieldwork data, the analysis also examines issues of adjustment and settlement, particularly ways the ‘insider/outsider’ status and existing gender and social class relations inform experiences of return migration among the second generation. Introduction Return migration by particular ethnic communities in the UK has received considerable academic attention (Gmelch 1980; King 1986; Byron 2000). Increasingly, research interest is turning towards second-generation return migration to highlight the significance of diaspora and social networks informing the return migration process. This paper explores second-generation return migration to the Caribbean
Superpixel Based Depth Propagation for Semi-Automatic 2D-to-3D Video Conversion

In this paper, we proposed a super pixel based depth map propagation algorithm for the application in 2D to 3D video conversion. The proposed algorithm employs four main processes to generate depth maps for all frames in video sequences. First, the depth map of the key frames in the input sequences are generated by manual work. Second, the frames in the input sequences are over-segmented by Simple Linear Iterative Clustering (SLIC) method. Third, each super pixel in the non-key frame is used to match the corresponding super pixel in the key frame. Finally, the depth value in every super pixel is assigned by the matching result. The experiments showed that the proposed algorithm works well and give good depth generation quality and high efficiency.