Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A survey on inspecting structures using robotic systems

Advancements in robotics and autonomous systems are being deployed nowadays in many application domains such as search and rescue, industrial automation, domestic services and healthcare. These systems are developed to tackle tasks in some of the most challenging, labour intensive and dangerous environments. Inspecting structures (e.g. bridges, buildings, ships, wind turbines and aircrafts) is considered a hard task for humans to perform and of critical importance since missing any details could affect the structure’s performance and integrity. Additionally, structure inspection is time and resource intensive and should be performed as efficiently and accurately as possible. Inspecting various structures has been reported in the literature using different robotic platforms to: inspect difficult to reach areas and detect various types of faults and anomalies. Typically, inspection missions involve performing three main tasks: coverage path planning, shape, model or surface reconstruction and the actual inspection of the structure. Coverage path planning ensures the generation of an optimized path that guarantees the complete coverage of the structure of interest in order to gather highly accurate information to be used for shape/model reconstruction. This article aims to provide an overview of the recent work and breakthroughs in the field of coverage path planning and model reconstruction, with focus on 3D reconstruction, for the purpose of robotic inspection.
CURRENT ACCOUNT DYNAMICS AND THE REAL EXCHANGE RATE: DISENTANGLING THE EVIDENCE

We study the main shocks driving current account (CA) fluctuations for the G6 economies, using a standard two-good intertemporal model. We build a structural vector autoregression model including the world real interest rate, net output (NO), the real exchange rate, and the CA and identify four structural shocks. Our results suggest four main conclusions: (i) there is substantial support for the two-good intertemporal model with time-varying interest rate, since both external supply and preference shocks account for an important proportion of CA fluctuations; (ii) temporary domestic shocks account for a large proportion of CA fluctuations, albeit smaller than in previous studies; (iii) our results alleviate the puzzle in the literature that a shock that explains little about NO changes can explain a large proportion of CA changes; (iv) the nature of the shock matters to shape the relationship between the CA and the real exchange rate.
Novel Chromatic Technique Based on Optical Absorbance in Characterizing Mineral Hydraulic Oil Degradation

A low cost, compact, real-time, and quick measurement optical device based on the absorbance of white light, which comprised of photodiodes in a 3-element color-sensor, feedback diodes, water and temperature sensing element, and so on, was developed and tested in low absorption mineral oil. The device, a deviation from conventional electrical, mechanical, and electrochemical techniques, uses color ratio (CR) and total contamination index (TCI) parameters based on transmitted light intensity in RGB wavelengths for oil condition monitoring. Test results showed that CR corroborated CIE chromaticity (𝑋-𝑌 Coordinates) and increased with oil degradation unlike Saturation 𝑆 and Hue 𝐻. CR was found to be independent of the particulate contaminants of oil, but dependent on chemical degradation. TCI depended on both chemical degradation and particulate contaminants in oil, being most sensitive in the blue wavelength range and least in the green. Furthermore, results agreed with those of viscometry, total acid number (TAN), and UV-VIS photospectrometry. CR and TCI gave clearer indication of oil degradation than key monitoring parameters like TAN and were found to be effective criteria for characterizing the degradation of hydraulic mineral oils.
Attrition in Randomized Control Trials: Using Tracking Information to Correct Bias

This paper starts from a review of RCT studies in development economics, and documents many studies largely ignore attrition once attrition rates are found balanced between treatment arms. The paper analyzes the implications of attrition for the internal and external validity of the results of a randomized experiment with balanced attrition rates, and proposes a new method to correct for attrition bias. We rely on a 10-years longitudinal data set with a final attrition rate of 10 percent, obtained after intensive tracking of migrants, and document the sensitivity of ITT estimates for schooling gains and labour market outcomes for a social program in Nicaragua. We find that not including those found during the intensive tracking leads to an overestimate of the ITT effects for the target population by more than 35 percent, and that selection into attrition is driven by observable baseline characteristics. We propose to correct for attrition using inverse probability weighting with estimates of weights that exploit the similarities between missing individuals and those found during an intensive tracking phase. We compare these estimates with alternative strategies using regression adjustment, standard weights, bounds or proxy information.
Estimation for Non-Markov Multi-states Models

Multi-state models are powerful tools to understand and describe complex disease. Patients can move among a certain number of states defined by specific conditions of disease level often including death. Typically in these studies, the issues of interest include overall survival, effects of prognostic factors on disease progress and estimation of transition probabilities. Often multi-state models are employed under the Markov assumption, or it is assumed that the multi-state model can be described by a Markov renewal process. These assumptions are mainly made for mathematical convenience, since it is easier to estimate transition intensities and covariate effects. Moreover the transition probabilities can be computed. Obviously these assumptions could be rather unrealistic or too restrictive. The Markov assumption might not hold because there is association between transition times. In case a positive association is present, later transition will show higher rate if earlier transitions had taken place earlier. This implies a violation of the Markov assumption because the future depends not only on the present status but also on the past. In this thesis the Markov Renewal assumption is relaxed and two methods are proposed to deal with a violation of this assumption. The first method focus on the illness-death model, which is a 3-states model where only an intermediate event can occur before the main event of interest takes place. By relaxing the Markov renewal assumption, the proposed method models the correlation between transition times in the framework of Cox model. To obtain predictions for patients with a given history, formulas for prediction of transition probabilities are developed. For application purpose, some general functions for prediction are also developed in R and their use is illustrated through a set of data coming from a breast cancer trial. Relying on the frailty theory, the second approach proposed in this thesis models a forward-going sequential process in a framework of hidden Markov model. By extending the two-point mixture frailty model, frailties are modeled as hidden states which can have an impact on the transition rates and eventually be observed by the sojourn times and occurrence of events. Based on the likelihood construction an Expectation-Maximization algorithm was proposed.
Smooth Pursuit Target Speeds and Trajectories

In this paper we present an investigation of how the speed and trajectory of smooth pursuits targets impact on detection rates in gaze interfaces. Previous work optimized these values for the specific application for which smooth pursuit eye movements were employed. However, this may not always be possible. For example UI designers may want to minimize distraction caused by the stimulus, integrate it with a certain UI element (e.g., a button), or limit it to a certain area of the screen. In these cases an in-depth understanding of the interplay between speed, trajectory, and accuracy is required. To achieve this, we conducted a user study with 15 participants who had to follow targets with different speeds and on different trajectories using their gaze. We evaluated the data with respect to detectability. As a result, we obtained reasonable ranges for target speeds and demonstrate the effects of trajectory shapes. We show that slow moving targets are hard to detect by correlation and that introducing a delay improves the detection rate for fast moving targets. Our research is complemented by design rules which enable designers to implement better pursuit detectors and pursuit-based user interfaces.
Contribution to the study of insects in north east of Sahara of Algeria (El Oued region)

We propose to establish a study on the diurnal and nocturnal insect activity according to their specific distribution in both daily variations in three palm groves (Sahne Elmartome, Bouhmid and Zemla) in the region of Oued Souf during 6 months. To this end, we considered that such a study requires first, a work in different stations. The methods that are used during the sampling periods (Barber pots, Fauchoire net and light traps), allow capturing the maximum of existing insects. Thereby 2245 class individuals' insect distributed among 92 species are trapped in the day, where the order Coleoptera 43.03%, Diptera 25.9% and Hymenoptera 23.53% with more abundant but the other orders are the weakest. We noted a maximum diversity 6.66 bits, with a diversity index H' 4.79 equal to bits and equitability 0.71. Thanks to the night Trap 381 individuals and 35 species are caught, where Lepidoptera 47.77%, Diptera 32.01%. Coleoptera 13.89%, Neuroptera 3.41%, Hymenoptera 1.57% and Homoptera 0.78%. The same maximum diversity in the day 6.66 bits, with a diversity index H' 3.81 equal to bits and equitability 0.57.
Precise Level of Cnbp is Required for Proper Rostral Head Development in Zebrafish

Cellular nucleic-acid binding protein (Cnbp) is a highly conserved protein involved in both transcriptional and translational regulation of several genes. Knockout and knockdown studies suggest that Cnbp is required for proper craniofacial cartilages development. Here we provide a new insight into the influence of Cnbp dose on rostral head formation by overexpressing the wild-type Cnbp or a dominant negative mutant in both transient and stable transgenic approaches. The expression of neural crest marker genes and the development of craniofacial cartilages were adversely affected in either dominant negative or wild-type Cnbp transiently overexpressing specimens. The development of other embryonic structures was not affected neither by dominant negative or wildtype Cnbp overexpression, thus ruling out unspecific defects caused by the ectopic expression of Cnbp or its mutant. Results indicate that delimited level of Cnbp is required for proper rostral head development in zebrafish. Tol2-mediated transgenesis yielded up to 50% of stable wild-type Cnbp and 5% of dominant negative mutant overexpressing lines. Unlike observed in transient overexpression experiments, F2 offspring developed with no differences between controls and either of the two stable transgenics. Noteworthy, Cnbp levels in transiently overexpressing embryos were significantly higher than those ones measured in stable transgenics. Results suggest that stable transgenics derive from progenitors expressing constrained Cnbp levels.
Large-scale morphological segregation in optically selected galaxy redshift catalogs

We present the results of an exhaustive analysis of the morphological segregation of galaxies in the CfA and SSRS catalogs through the scaling formalism. Morphological segregation between ellipticals and spirals has been detected at scales up to 15-20 h$^{-1}$ Mpc in the CfA catalog, and up to 20-30 h$^{-1}$ Mpc in the SSRS catalog. Moreover, it is present not only in the densest areas of the galaxy distribution, but also in zones of moderate density.
The impact of child care costs and availability on mothers’ labor supply

In this paper we review recent literature on the link between child care and women’s labor supply. The growing labor market participation of women has raised many concerns since it implies less time spent with the children and greater reliance on external forms of care. Focusing on studies examining the US, Canada and several European countries, we compare and discuss their methodologies and empirical results as well as their implications for child care policies. Most of the results suggest that the impact of child care availability and costs are stronger for mothers' labor supply among more disadvantaged backgrounds. Child care programs aimed at lower income and less educated families have important implications for EU targets on child poverty and mothers’ employment.
Dealing with heterogeneity, nonlinearity and club misclassification in growth convergence: A nonparametric two-step approach

Classical growth convergence regressions fail to account for various sources of heterogeneity and nonlinearity. While recent contributions are able to address either the one or the other, we present a simple two-step method to address both issues. Based on a slightly augmented version of a recently proposed algorithm to identify convergence clubs, we formulate a flexible nonlinear framework which allows to analyze convergence effects on both individual and club level, while alleviating potential misclassification in the club formation process using simultaneous smoothing over the club structure. The merits of the method are illustrated for data on different aggregational levels.
Applicability of Multi-modal Electrophysiological Data Acquisition and Processing to Emotion Recognition

We present an overview and study on the applicability of multimodal electrophysiological data acquisition and processing to emotion recognition. We build on previous work in the field and further explore the emotion elicitation process, by using videos to stimulate emotions in several participants. Electrophysiological data from Electrocardiography (ECG), Blood Volume Pulse (BVP), Electrodermal Activity (EDA), Respiration (RESP), Electromyography (EMG), and Peripheral Temperature (SKT) sensors was acquired and used to classify the negative and positive emotions. We evaluate the emotional status identification accuracy both in terms of the target emotions and those reported by the participants, with recognition rates above 70% through Leave One Out Cross Validation (LOOCV) with a k-NN Classifier.
Speed and Tobin's Q

Slow execution of investment projects often means substantial revenue losses for companies. However, accelerating investments generally results in higher investment costs. Our paper integrates this investment speed tradeoff in a reduced-form model of project development to create an empirical proxy for firm speed. We examine how deviations from industry-average speed in the execution of large investments in oil and gas facilities worldwide from 1996 to 2005 affect firm value, as measured by Tobin’s q. We find substantial variation in investment speed among firms in the oil and gas industry. Using a linear correlated random parameter model to allow for unobserved firm heterogeneity, we show that firms’ speed capabilities have high market value. On average, accelerating a firm’s investments by 5% (or 1 month) relative to the industry norm due to organizational capabilities increases market value by $214.3 million. Additionally, we show that the effect of speed on firm value varies widely among firms and is amplified by good corporate governance but often mitigated by the level of firms’ debt.
Cenatav Voice Group System for Albayzin 2018 Search on Speech Evaluation

This paper presents the system employed in the Albayzin 2018 “Search on Speech” Evaluation by the Voice Group of CENATAV. The system used in the Spoken Term Detection (STD) task consists on an Automatic Speech Recognizer (ASR) and a module to detect the terms. The open source Kaldi toolkit is used to build both modules. ASR acoustic models are based on DNN-HMM, S-GMM or GMM-HMM, trained with audio data provided by the organizers and other obtained from ELDA. The lexicon and trigram language model are obtained from the text associated to the audio. The ASR generates the lattices and the word alignments required to detect the terms. Results with development data shown that DNN-HMM model brings up a behavior better or similar to obtained in previous challenges.
Density-dependent electron scattering in photoexcited GaAs

In a series of systematic optical pump - terahertz probe experiments we study the density-dependent electron scattering rate in photoexcited GaAs in a large range of carrier densities. The electron scattering time decreases by as much as a factor of 4, from 320 to 60 fs, as the electron density changes by 4 orders of magnitude, from 1015 to 1019 cm-3.
C.E.E. : Command Everything with Eyes, Multi-modal gaze-based interface for everyday Interaction

Although gaze interface has high potential to be a pervasive interface, previous researches focused on enhancing performance to control single display device and researches of gaze interaction method with multi devices are lacking. To improve the gaze interface as an interface for everyday interaction, this paper proposes a multi-modal wearable gaze interface optimized for multi devices control. First, we developed high performance wearable gaze interface which can be fully customized for multi device control. A manual input modality for confirmation was added to improve accuracy and avoid Midas touch. Second, an infrared boundary+ID markers and its novel recognition algorithm are suggested and they enabled immediate device switching maintaining high robustness in various light condition. To verify the appropriateness of the developed gaze interface for multi displays control, user tests controlling three display devices were conducted and we compared performance with conventional interfaces, touch and mouse. The performance is similar to touch and better than mouse. In user interviews, the developed gaze interface showed better scores in most factors than other interfaces. Finally, by developing gaze sound ID recognition method, we expand the usability of gaze interface to control non-display device.
Reference Point Based Multi-Objective Algorithms for Group Decisions

While in the past decades research on multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEA) has aimed at finding the whole set of Pareto optimal solutions, current approaches focus on only those parts of the Pareto front which satisfy the preferences of the decision maker (DM). Therefore, they integrate the DM early on in the optimization process instead of leaving him/her alone with the final choice of one solution among the whole Pareto optimal set. In this paper, we address an aspect which has been neglected so far in the research on integrating preferences: in most real-world problems, there is not only one DM, but a group of DMs trying to find one consensus decision all participants are willed to agree to. Therefore, our aim is to introduce methods which focus on the part of the Pareto front which satisfies the preferences of several DMs concurrently. We assume that the DMs have some vague notion of their preferences a priori the search in form of a reference point or goal. Thus, we present and compare several reference point based approaches for group decisions and evaluate them on three ZDT and two flow shop problems.
What Promotes Customers' Trust in The Mobile Payment Platform: An Empirical Study Of Alipay In China

: Trust was recognized as a significant factor in facilitating customers’ continuance intention of mobile payment. Drawing upon innovation diffusion and trust theory, this study developed a research model to examine five critical antecedents that promote customers’ trust in the mobile payment platform. An empirical survey was conducted in China and structural equation modelling method was used to examine the research model. 394 questionnaires were collected from users of Alipay, which is one of the largest mobile payment platforms in China. The analysis results suggest that security is the most significant antecedent of trust, followed by platform reputation. In addition, mobility and customization characteristics are also beneficial to promote customers’ trust in the mobile payment platform. While compatibility is directly associated with customers’ continuance intention without mediated by trust. Conclusions and future research directions are discussed in the final section.
Evaluation of the Ability of Short and Long Double-stranded RNAs to Induce Homologous Gene Silencing in the Protozoan Parasite, Toxoplasma gondii

Among recently developed genetic tools, RNA interference (RNAi) is one of the most effective methods used in eukaryotes. Although an RNAi-like mechanism can be invoked in Toxoplasma gondii, a highly effective RNAi methodology is still elusive. Using a dual luciferase system, the ability of short (28 nucleotides) and long dsRNA (~600 nucleotides) as RNA effectors controlling gene expression in T. gondii was evaluated. An effective down regulation can be observed when ≤ 1 microgram of short dsRNAs were used in the down regulation of Renilla luciferase. We have detected that short dsRNAs are better gene modulators than long dsRNA. Most importantly, due to its high sensitivity and reproducibility, the dual luciferase reporter system reported here offers an excellent tool to be used in (i) the standardization of the RNAi silencing methodology performed in different Toxoplasma laboratories, (ii) the detailed mechanistic study of the RNAi pathway, and (iii) the development of better genetic tools for the biological study of protozoan parasites.
Digital Backward Propagation: A Technique to Compensate Fiber Dispersion and Non-Linear Impairments

evaluated for WDM systems in several articles (Gavioli et al., 2010; Li et al., 2008; Poggiolini et al., 2011; Savory et al., 2010). In (Savory et al., 2010) 112Gbit/s DP-QPSK transmission system is examined and investigations demonstrate that the non-linear compensation algorithm can increase the reach by 23% in a 100GHz spacing WDM link compared to 46% for the single-channel case. When the channel spacing is reduced to 50GHz, the reach improvement is minimal due to the uncompensated inter-channel non-linearities. Whereas, in (Gavioli et al., 2010; Poggiolini et al., 2011) the same-capacity and bandwidth-efﬁciency performance of DBP is demonstrated in a ultra-narrow-spaced 10 channel 1.12Tbit/s D-WDM long haul transmission. Investigations show that optimum system performance using DBP is obtained by using 2, 4 and 8 steps per ﬁber span for 14GBaud, 28GBuad and 56GBaud respectively. To overcome the limitations by inter-channel non-linearities on the performance of DBP (Mateo et al., 2010; 2011) proposed improved DBP method for WDM systems. This modiﬁcation is based on including the effect of inter-channel walk-off in the non-linear step of SSFM. The algorithm is investigated in a 100Gbit/s per channel 16QAM transmission over 1000km of NZDSF type ﬁber. The results are compared for 12, 24 and 36 channels spaced at 50GHz to evaluate the impact of channel count on the DBP algorithm. While self-phase modulation (SPM) compensation is not sufﬁcient in DWDM systems, XPM compensation is able to increase the transmission reach by a factor of 2.5 by using this DBP method. The results depicts efﬁcient compensation of cross-phase modulation (XPM) and the performance of DBP is improved for WDM systems. methodological advances and recent applications of digital signal processing in various domains