Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kernel density feature based improved Chan-Vese Model for image segmentation

In this paper, an interactive image segmentation method is proposed base on the kernel density feature estimation. Compared with the traditional RGB value, it could be more accurate to model the color feature of pixel using corresponding kernel density estimation. To obtain the regional color feature, the mean of kernel densities of all pixels in this region is applied, and Bhattacharyya distance is used to measure the differences between two kernel densities. Consequently, an energy function is constructed according to the main idea of Chan-Vese Model, and it is optimized using the graph cuts technique. Experimental results demonstrate the advantages of our proposed method in terms of robustness and accuracy, especially for objects with thin elongated or concave parts.
Experiences of Tongan Women Migrants at Paid Work in New Zealand

ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . iii TABLE OF CONTENTS . v LIST OF TABLES . viii LIST OF FIGURES.viii Chapter One: Introduction . 1 Background . 1 Importance of this study . 2 Research objectives and questions . 3 Working definitions of terms used within the research . 4 The structure of the thesis. 4 Chapter Two: Setting the Context . 6 International migration. 6 Pacific region: migration experience . 7 A Historical overview. 7 Socio-economic Context . 9 Tonga: a summary . 10 International migration of Tongans . 14 Research justification . 19 Chapter Three: Theoretical Discussion . 20 Migration. 21 Migration approaches . 21 International Migration Movements: Tendencies . 28 Gender: Paid Work Perspective. 32 International division of labour. 33 Ethnicity . 39
Wavelet representation of functions defined on tetrahedrical grids

In this paper, a method for representing scalar functions on volumes is presented. The method is based on wavelets and it can be used for representing volumetric data (geometric or scalar) defifined on non structured grids. The basic contribution is the extension of wavelets to represent scalar functions on volumetric domains of arbitrary topological type. This extension is made by constructing a wavelet basis defifined on any tetrahedrized volume. This basis construction is achieved using multiresolution analysis and the lifting scheme
Measuring Cloud Workload Burstiness

Workload burstiness and spikes are among the main reasons for service disruptions and decrease in the Quality-of-Service (QoS) of online services. They are hurdles that complicate autonomic resource management of datacenters. In this paper, we review the state-of-the-art in online identification of workload spikes and quantifying burstiness. The applicability of some of the proposed techniques is examined for Cloud systems where various workloads are co-hosted on the same platform. We discuss Sample Entropy (Samp En), a measure used in biomedical signal analysis, as a potential measure for burstiness. A modification to the original measure is introduced to make it more suitable for Cloud workloads.
Alcohol dehydrogenase activity in Lactococcus chungangensis: application in cream cheese to moderate alcohol uptake.

Many human gastrointestinal facultative anaerobic and aerobic bacteria possess alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity and are therefore capable of oxidizing ethanol to acetaldehyde. However, the ADH activity of Lactococcus spp. , except Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis, has not been widely determined, though they play an important role as the starter for most cheesemaking technologies. Cheese is a functional food recognized as an aid to digestion. In the current study, the ADH activity of Lactococcus chungangensis CAU 28(T) and 11 reference strains from the genus Lactococcus was determined. Only 5 strains, 3 of dairy origin, L. lactis ssp. lactis KCTC 3769(T), L. lactis ssp. cremoris KCCM 40699(T), and Lactococcus raffinolactis DSM 20443(T), and 2 of nondairy origin, Lactococcus fujiensis NJ317(T) and Lactococcus chungangensis CAU 28(T) KCTC 13185(T), showed ADH activity and possessed the ADH gene. All these strains were capable of making cheese, but the highest level of ADH activity was found in L. chungangensis, with 45.9nmol/min per gram in tryptic soy broth and 65.8nmol/min per gram in cream cheese. The extent that consumption of cheese, following imbibing alcohol, reduced alcohol uptake was observed by following the level of alcohol in the serum of mice. The results show a potential novel benefit of cheese as a dairy functional food.
A Case for a Stateful Middlebox Networking Stack

Statful middleboxes such as intrustion detection systems, application-layer firewalls, and protocol analyzers are increasingly popular as they perform critical operations in modern networks. Such middleboxes typically operate by maintaining flow states of live TCP connections that pass through a network. Despite its growing demand, developing a stateful middlebox remains a challenging task. The root of complexity stems from a lack of common programming abstraction for middleboxes that clearly separates flow management from custom middlebox logic. As a result, middlebox developers often resort to writing a complex flow management module from scratch, which results in tens of thousands of code lines that are hardly portable [4, 2]. This is in stark contrast to developing networking applications for end nodes, which significantly benefits from a nice network abstraction layer such as Berkeley socket API. The lack of a reusable networking stack for middleboxes makes the code highly dependent on a custom packet library, which greatly reduces readability, modularity, and extensibility. In this work, we formulate a general-purpose flow management stack that serves the basic requirements of monitoring middlebox applications. The flow management stack should satisfy three requirements. First, it should abstract TCP state management such that the developers can focus on the custom middlebox processing instead of dealing with low level detail. Clear separation of flow management and a custom middlebox logic is the key to high code readability and modularity. Second, it should be flexible enough to express any packet or flow-level event that triggers a special middlebox operation. An event can be as simple as TCP state change or packet retransmission. Or one should be able to extend a basic event by evaluating an arbitrary function (e.g., retransmitted packet whose content is different from the original packet). A flexible event-based system enables a developer to write a middlebox application as a set of logical middlebox events and their event handlers. Third, the flow management stack should allow efficient resource management. Depending on the needs of a middlebox, a developer might want to avoid the flow reassembly on the server side while she actively monitors the flow content from the client side. Or one should be able to deallocate all resources for a flow even if the flow has not terminated yet.
Symmetry Hierarchy of Man‐Made Objects

We introduce symmetry hierarchy of man‐made objects, a high‐level structural representation of a 3D model providing a symmetry‐induced, hierarchical organization of the model's constituent parts. Given an input mesh, we segment it into primitive parts and build an initial graph which encodes inter‐part symmetries and connectivity relations, as well as self‐symmetries in individual parts. The symmetry hierarchy is constructed from the initial graph via recursive graph contraction which either groups parts by symmetry or assembles connected sets of parts. The order of graph contraction is dictated by a set of precedence rules designed primarily to respect the law of symmetry in perceptual grouping and the principle of compactness of representation. We show that symmetry hierarchy naturally implies a hierarchical segmentation that is more meaningful than those produced by local geometric considerations. We also develop an application of symmetry hierarchies for structural shape editing.
Feature selection of EEG data with neuro-statistical method

Feature selection (FS) of high dimensional electroencephalographic (EEG) data helps to identify and diagnose the brain conditions easily. Features can be selected with different ways where canonical correlation analysis (CCA) is one of them which are a statistical method. We employed neural network (NN) with CCA for salient features extraction of EEG data, called Neural Canonical Correlation Analysis (NCCA), which exhibits better result than individual CCA or NN. A NN classifier is used to test the classification of the selected features. The NN classifier shows remarkable result in terms of recognition rate.
Einstein, Renoir, and Greeley: Some Thoughts about Evidence in Sociology

It is relatively easy to determine if evidence supports or does not support a given theory or conclusion, but a central problem in sociology is our inability to go beyond this and develop truly convincing evidence about a theory. Several changes in current practices are vital, including the cessation of nonproductive assaults between sociologists on the evidence used in the discipline. More fundamentally, theory should not be viewed as one pole of a continuum with research on the other end. A probabilistic view of theory is proposed such that a theory may be correct even if there is negative evidence. This leads to a different way of evaluating evidence, a different view of the role of examples, a distinction between explanations ofparticular events as opposed to evaluations of theories, skepticism about the possibility of developing theories that accountfor long complex chains of events, and a sharp differentiation between the evidence used in applied as opposed to basic research. A new sociological specialty should concern itself with epistemological issues that arise in determining the verifiable propositions that are the basic building blocks to sociological knowledge.
Visualization and control system for wireless network using augmented reality technology

There are various kinds of wireless network devices, such as cellular phone and wireless sensors, around us in a ubiquitous environment. Unlike a wired network, we cannot grasp the exact status of a wireless network in real space. Moreover, it is difficult to understand the relationships of connectivity intuitively, since network management software is used in a virtual two-dimensional space. We propose and implement EVANS (Embodied Visualization with AR for Network System) as a visualization system for wireless networks. EVANS shows the status of a wireless network on an interface that uses AR technology, which allows us to grasp the status among nodes intuitively. In addition, we can use EVANS to actually manipulate nodes in real space by manipulating the annotations on the AR interface.
Overview Of Methodologies For Building Ontologies

A few research groups are now proposing a series of steps and methodologies for developing ontologies. However, mainly due to the fact that Ontological Engineering is still a relatively immature discipline, each work group employs its own methodology. Our goal is to present the most representative methodologies used in ontology development and to perform an analysis of such methodologies against the same framework of reference. So, the goal of this paper is not to provide new insights about methodologies, but to put it all in one place and help people to select which methodology to use.
Bacterial Signatures in Thrombus Aspirates of Patients With Myocardial Infarction

Background— Infectious agents, especially bacteria and their components originating from the oral cavity or respiratory tract, have been suggested to contribute to inflammation in the coronary plaque, leading to rupture and the subsequent development of coronary thrombus. We aimed to measure bacterial DNA in thrombus aspirates of patients with ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction and to check for a possible association between bacteria findings and oral pathology in the same cohort. Methods and Results— Thrombus aspirates and arterial blood from patients with ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (n=101; 76% male; mean age, 63.3 years) were analyzed with real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction with specific primers and probes to detect bacterial DNA from several oral species and Chlamydia pneumoniae. The median value for the total amount of bacterial DNA in thrombi was 16 times higher than that found in their blood samples. Bacterial DNA typical for endodontic infection, mainly oral viridans streptococci, was measured in 78.2% of thrombi, and periodontal pathogens were measured in 34.7%. Bacteria-like structures were detected by transmission electron microscopy in all 9 thrombus samples analyzed; whole bacteria were detected in 3 of 9 cases. Monocyte/macrophage markers for bacteria recognition (CD14) and inflammation (CD68) were detected in thrombi (8 of 8) by immunohistochemistry. Among the subgroup of 30 patients with myocardial infarction examined by panoramic tomography, a significant association between the presence of periapical abscesses and oral viridans streptococci DNA–positive thrombi was found (odds ratio, 13.2; 95% confidence interval, 2.11–82.5; P=0.004). Conclusions— Dental infection and oral bacteria, especially viridans streptococci, may be associated with the development of acute coronary thrombosis.
What is sustainable agriculture?

We all want to eat food that is produced sustainably. But it's not at all clear what that means in practice. Fundamentally, agriculture can be regarded as sustainable if it can continue to meet human needs whilst avoiding irreversible harm to the planet. The human needs are not just food, but include employment, leisure, social cohesion and the many ecosystem services provided by agricultural land that benefit people, including regulating water quantity and quality, carbon storage, maintaining landscapes of cultural and spiritual value, and providing homes for wildlife. Agriculture causes harm to the planet from habitat loss, carbon emissions, and pollution of air and water. Meeting these challenges is tough now, but it will only become more difficult as the human population rises and climate change becomes more difficult to cope with.
The prognostic significance of subclinical hepatic encephalopathy

OBJECTIVE:Subclinical hepatic encephalopathy may have prognostic significance with regard to the development of clinical hepatic encephalopathy and survival.METHODS:We studied 116 consecutive patients with histologically proven cirrhosis of the liver for subclinical hepatic encephalopathy, using Number Connection Test A, Digit Symbol Test, and spectral analysis of the electroencephalogram.RESULTS:Twenty-five patients (22%) were diagnosed as having subclinical hepatic encephalopathy. Patients with subclinical hepatic encephalopathy were older, had a higher Child-Pugh score, and more often had esophageal or gastric varices and episode(s) of clinical hepatic encephalopathy in their history. During a median follow-up of 29 months (range, 1–49 months), patients with subclinical hepatic encephalopathy significantly more often had episodes of clinical hepatic encephalopathy; survival, however, was similar to that of patients without subclinical hepatic encephalopathy, and was determined mainly by the Child-Pugh score. The Child-Pugh score was also superior to subclinical hepatic encephalopathy in predicting episodes of clinical hepatic encephalopathy.CONCLUSIONS:The prognostic significance of subclinical hepatic encephalopathy appears limited.
Reconstruction of Glucose in Plasma from Interstitial Fluid Continuous Glucose Monitoring Data: Role of Sensor Calibration

Background: Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) sensors measure glucose concentration in the interstitial fluid (ISF). Equilibration between plasma and ISF glucose is not instantaneous. Therefore, ISF and plasma glucose concentrations exhibit different dynamic patterns, particularly during rapid changes. The purpose of this work was to investigate how well plasma glucose can be reconstructed from ISF CGM data. Methods: Six diabetic volunteers were monitored for 2 days using the TheraSense FreeStyle Navigator (Abbott Diabetes Care, Alameda, CA), a minimally invasive device that, on the basis of an initial calibration procedure (hereafter referred to as standard calibration), returns ISF glucose concentration. Simultaneously, plasma glucose concentration was also measured every 15 minutes. First we identified, in each subject, the linear time-invariant (LTI) two-compartment model of plasma-interstitium kinetics. Then, a nonparametric regularization deconvolution method was used to reconstruct plasma from ISF glucose. Results: Deconvoluted profiles were always closer to plasma glucose than ISF ones. However, the quality of the reconstruction is unsatisfactory. Some visible discrepancies between average plasma and ISF time series suggest problems either in the applicability of the LTI model of plasma-interstitium kinetics to normal life conditions or in the standard calibration with which ISF glucose is determined from the sensor internal readings. Assuming that the LTI model of plasma-interstitium kinetics is correct, we focused on the influence of calibration and we employed a recently proposed method to recalibrate ISF data. Conclusions: After the recalibration step, the relative error in reconstructing plasma glucose was reduced significantly. Results also demonstrate that further margins of improvement of plasma glucose reconstruction are possible by developing more sophisticated recalibration procedures.
A volumetric MRI analysis of hypochondriac patients

No volumetric brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study has been performed in hypochondriac patients to date. In the present study, we aimed to volumetrically evaluate the orbito-frontal cortex (OFC), anterior cingulate, caudate nucleus, and thalamus. The volumes of the OFC, thalamus, caudate nucleus, and anterior cingulate cortex were measured in 16 treatment-naive hypochondriac patients and 16 healthy control subjects. Volumetric measurements were made with T1-weighted coronal MRI images, with 1.5-mm-thick slices, at 1.5T and were done blindly. Hypochondriac patients had significantly smaller mean left and right OFC, and greater left but not right thalamus volumes compared with healthy controls. There was no difference in regard to caudate and anterior cingulate volumes for either side between groups. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) scores were not associated with any volumetric parameter studied. Age at onset showed a significant relationship to left OFC, and left thalamus volumes. Duration of illness also exhibited a significant association with left OFC, and left thalamus volumes. In conclusion, this morphometric MRI study showed that patients with hypochondriasis had smaller left and right OFC and significantly greater left thalamus volumes compared to healthy controls. Taken together, our findings suggest that abnormalities in the OFC and thalamus seem to play an important role in the pathophysiology of hypochondriasis.
How to Cut a Cake Fairly

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Parasite–mediated selection in experimental metapopulations of Daphnia magna

In metapopulations, only a fraction of all local host populations may be infected with a given parasite species, and limited dispersal of parasites suggests that colonization of host populations by parasites may involve only a small number of parasite strains. Using hosts and parasites obtained from a natural metapopulation, we studied the evolutionary consequences of invasion by single strains of parasites in experimental populations of the cyclical parthenogen Daphnia magna. In two experiments, each spanning approximately one season, we monitored clone frequency changes in outdoor container populations consisting of 13 and 19 D. magna clones, respectively. The populations were either infected with single strains of the microsporidian parasites Octosporea bayeri or Ordospora colligata or left unparasitized. In both experiments, infection changed the representation of clones over time significantly, indicating parasite-mediated evolution in the experimental populations. Furthermore, the two parasite species changed clone frequencies differently, suggesting that the interaction between infection and competitive ability of the hosts was specific to the parasite species. Taken together, our results suggest that parasite strains that invade local host populations can lead to evolutionary changes in the genetic composition of the host population and that this change is parasite–species specific.
Hugin: a framework for awareness and coordination in mixed-presence collaborative information visualization

Analysts are increasingly encountering datasets that are larger and more complex than ever before. Effectively exploring such datasets requires collaboration between multiple analysts, who more often than not are distributed in time or in space. Mixed-presence groupware provide a shared workspace medium that supports this combination of co-located and distributed collaboration. However, collaborative visualization systems for such distributed settings have their own cost and are still uncommon in the visualization community. We present Hugin, a novel layer-based graphical framework for this kind of mixed-presence synchronous collaborative visualization over digital tabletop displays. The design of the framework focuses on issues like awareness and access control, while using information visualization for the collaborative data exploration on network-connected tabletops. To validate the usefulness of the framework, we also present examples of how Hugin can be used to implement new visualizations supporitng these collaborative mechanisms.
Noninterference and intrusion detection

This paper presents an intrusion detection methodology based on the concept of noninterference for detecting race-condition attacks. In general, this type of attack occurs when an unprivileged process causes a privileged process to perform illegal operations by executing strategic operations in the appropriate timing window. We apply the noninterference model in a novel way that allows us to formally represent valid interleaving between privileged and unprivileged processes. Instead of proving a system satisfies noninterference assertions, we derive an algorithm for checking the assertions at run-time based on the developed theory and a formal model of Unix system calls. Our methodology can detect unknown race-condition attacks. In addition, this work provides an example of the application of formal specification and reasoning in intrusion detection.