Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using PCL Gobal Descriptors in a DenseFusion Architecture

In this paper, we present an alternative architecture to the state-of-the-art in 6D pose DenseFusion. We changed the architecture of the method in the depth feature extraction phase. Instead of using the PointNet, as used in the original DenseFusion, we used global descriptors from the Point Cloud Library (PCL) to extract features. We made a comparison in terms of average accuracy between the Ensemble of Shape Functions (ESF), Viewpoint Feature Histogram (VHF) and the original PointNet.
A review on application of nanoparticles for cancer therapy

In recent years, scientific societies had warmly embraced nanotechnology as an emerging field in cancer therapy. Nanotechnology has had a profound influence on almost every aspect of the twenty-first century’s diurnal life. During the past years, nanomaterials have been successfully applied in different biomedical fields; especially in cancer therapy. While cancer is one of the deadliest disorders worldwide, there is a need to develop novel anticancer approaches. In this review, we explained various kinds of nanoparticles such as liposome-based and polymeric nanoparticles and dendrimers along with their applications in cancer therapy.
Cognitive Performance in the relation between Digital Use and Subjective Wellbeing

The incredible convenience that digital devices offer is suspected to come at a high cost. Researchers have been trying to find out, how the use of digital devices and addictive tendencies affect our health and brains. They found evidence that the dependence on digital devices negatively affects our physical and mental wellbeing, as well as our cognitive skills. To further investigate these relations, this paper analyses the mediating effect of Cognitive Performance in the relation between Digital Use and Subjective Wellbeing. The method applied is a Mediation Model in Structural Equation Modelling, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel on young adults in 2016 and 2017. The variable Digital Use is measured as time spent on social networks and other surfing on the internet. Cognitive Performance is a latent construct with the indicators Concentration, Efficiency, Thoroughness, Diligence, and Ambition. The results of the analysis are mostly insignificant, which means that no mediating effect is found with the data at hand. As the insignificance might be caused by a gap between the theoretical concept and the available data, the measurability of addictive Digital Use is discussed.
ERASMUS UNIVERSITY ROTTERDAM Erasmus School of Economics Bachelor scriptie Fiscale Economie Toetsing van het wetsvoorstel Wet excessief lenen bij eigen vennootschap aan fiscale criteria

Obesity rates have been rising over the last decade. It has already been established that Body Mass Index (BMI) is negatively related to work productivity and physical health. This paper aims to explore the effect of BMI on life attainment. In this study, life attainment is split into educational attainment and career attainment. Further, it examines whether the effect of BMI on life attainment is mediated through mental health, as established literature states that higher BMIs are closely related to depressive symptoms. To test the relationship between BMI, mental health and life attainment and to obtain more knowledge about the direction of effects, insights from genetic studies and the instrumental variable analysis are used to eliminate reverse causality and omitted-variable bias. Utilizing the longitudinal data and polygenic scores from the Health and Retirement Study, a negative causal effect of BMI on mental health and, in turn, a positive causal effect on educational attainment is found for the elderly, female American demographic.
Discontinued Privacy: Personal Data Leaks in Apple Bluetooth-Low-Energy Continuity Protocols

Abstract Apple Continuity protocols are the underlying network component of Apple Continuity services which allow seamless nearby applications such as activity and file transfer, device pairing and sharing a network connection. Those protocols rely on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to exchange information between devices: Apple Continuity messages are embedded in the pay-load of BLE advertisement packets that are periodically broadcasted by devices. Recently, Martin et al. identified [1] a number of privacy issues associated with Apple Continuity protocols; we show that this was just the tip of the iceberg and that Apple Continuity protocols leak a wide range of personal information. In this work, we present a thorough reverse engineering of Apple Continuity protocols that we use to uncover a collection of privacy leaks. We introduce new artifacts, including identifiers, counters and battery levels, that can be used for passive tracking, and describe a novel active tracking attack based on Handoff messages. Beyond tracking issues, we shed light on severe privacy flaws. First, in addition to the trivial exposure of device characteristics and status, we found that HomeKit accessories betray human activities in a smarthome. Then, we demonstrate that AirDrop and Nearby Action protocols can be leveraged by passive observers to recover e-mail addresses and phone numbers of users. Finally, we exploit passive observations on the advertising traffic to infer Siri voice commands of a user.
Modeling the Inception of Supercontinent Breakup: Stress State and the Importance of Orogens

The relative significance of various geodynamic mechanisms that drive supercontinent breakup is unclear. A previous analysis of extensional stress during supercontinent breakup demonstrated the importance of the plume‐push force relative to the dragging force of subduction retreat. Here, we extend the analysis to basal traction (shear stress) and cross‐lithosphere integrations of both extensional and shear stresses, aiming to understand more clearly the relevant importance of these mechanisms in supercontinent breakup. More importantly, we evaluate the effect of preexisting orogens (mobile belts) in the lithosphere on supercontinent breakup process. Our analysis suggests that a homogeneous supercontinent has extensional stress of 20–50 MPa in its interior (<40° from the central point). When orogens are introduced, the extensional stress in the continents focuses on the top 80‐km of the lithosphere with an average magnitude of ~160 MPa, whereas at the margin of the supercontinent the extensional stress is 5–50 MPa. In both homogeneous and orogeny‐embedded cases, the subsupercontinent mantle upwellings act as the controlling factor on the normal stress field in the supercontinent interior. Compared with the extensional stress, shear stress at the bottom of the supercontinent is 1–2 order of magnitude smaller (0–5 MPa). In our two end‐member models, the breakup of a supercontinent with orogens can be achieved after the first extensional stress surge, whereas for a hypothetical supercontinent without orogens it starts with more diffused local thinning of the continental lithospheric before the breakup, suggesting that weak orogens play a critical role in the dispersal of supercontinents.
Ageing in Serbia: Perceptions and experiences of nursing home residents

Population ageing in Serbia has pervading effect on many societal spheres. Paradigm of active ageing highlights the importance for older to lead healthy and productive life. The aim of this paper is to explore active ageing practices of institutionalised older citizens considering their sociodemographic characteristics and migration background. Semi-structured interview, as a qualitative research method was used to grasp perceptions and experiences of 27 older residents in nursing homes regarding adjustment in later life and daily activities. Additional valuable insight on topic was gained from institutional social workers. According to the results, the routine of daily living of the elders varies depending on individual abilities, preferences, health, marital status and migration history. The findings suggest that institutional setting does not have to represent barrier to active ageing, with implications for further research and practice.
A BASS LINE TRANSCRIPTION ALGORITHM FOR POLYPHONIC MUSIC

This paper presents an algorithm to detect bass lines in polyphonic music pieces. Several analysis methods from various research work in the field of music information retrieval and signal processing were assembled to an overall system. A database including tracks from various genres, tempo and key with bass line annotations was utilized for evaluation purpose. The algorithm achieves recall and precision note tracking scores situated around 60-75% for 50/100 ms note onset ranges and frame level evaluation scores of 80/78% voiced/total pitch detection as well as 85/82% for voiced/total chroma detection.
The Pacific Ocean heat engine: global climate's regulator

Abstract. Climate change is routinely represented as a smoothly changing signal surrounded by statistical noise. However, on decadal timescales, warming proceeds as a sequence of steady-state regimes punctuated by abrupt shifts. Here we present evidence that this process is regulated by a heat engine spanning the tropical Pacific Ocean. The eastern-central Pacific maintains steady-state conditions, collecting heat and delivering it to the Western Pacific warm pool. This acts as distributor, transporting heat upwards and to the poles. The heat engine is networked within the climate system, linking different oscillations and circulations as heat energy is dissipated. The process is self-regulating. Steady-state regimes will persist until they become unstable and need more or less power depending on the direction of forcing. Under greenhouse gas forcing, shifts initiated within the heat engine propagate broadly across the shallow ocean, followed by warming over land and at higher latitudes. The heat engine was in free mode during the early 20th century, dominated by decadal variability. From the 1960s, it switched into forced mode, initiating a stepladder-like pattern of warming in regional and global climate. The most recent shift commenced in the warm pool in December 2012, ending the so-called hiatus (1997–2013). During 2014–15, surface temperatures warmed abruptly by ~ 0.25 °C globally and > 0.5 °C over northern hemisphere land and high latitudes. With increasing forcing, the heat engine will shift more frequently. Rapid decreases in greenhouse gas emissions will slow the process and potentially, could stabilise it. Managing unavoidable change requires developing the capacity to predict shifts in advance. Planning for rapid changes in extreme events is an urgent priority.
A feeling for the numbers in biology

Although the quantitative description of biological systems has been going on for centuries, recent advances in the measurement of phenomena ranging from metabolism to gene expression to signal transduction have resulted in a new emphasis on biological numeracy. This article describes the confluence of two different approaches to biological numbers. First, an impressive array of quantitative measurements make it possible to develop intuition about biological numbers ranging from how many gigatons of atmospheric carbon are fixed every year in the process of photosynthesis to the number of membrane transporters needed to provide sugars to rapidly dividing Escherichia coli cells. As a result of the vast array of such quantitative data, the BioNumbers web site has recently been developed as a repository for biology by the numbers. Second, a complementary and powerful tradition of numerical estimates familiar from the physical sciences and canonized in the so-called ‘‘Fermi problems’’ calls for efforts to estimate key biological quantities on the basis of a few foundational facts and simple ideas from physics and chemistry. In this article, we describe these two approaches and illustrate their synergism in several particularly appealing case studies. These case studies reveal the impact that an emphasis on numbers can have on important biological questions.
POLYPHONIC MUSIC SEQUENCE CLASSIFICATION WITH LSTM NETWORKS

We describe our submission for the symbolic polyphonic Patterns for Prediction MIREX task (subtask 2). Our system is a simple LSTM model trained for prediction. We investigate more specifically the use of various newly proposed metrics as training losses and classification criteria. We also propose to train our model in a multi-task fashion for both prediction and classification.
OSDTM: an Offline-Structural Distributed Test Mechanism for Data Links in NoC

— The Micro Packet Switched based Network on Chip (NoC) is emerged to address traditional non-scalable buses-based Systems on Chip (SoC) challenges such as out of order transactions, flow control and higher latencies. The NoC is disposable to a different of defects in its life which cause of such drawbacks as data missing, efficiency reduction, and eventually, entire system overwhelm. This paper is amid to propose a new Offline-Structural Distributed Test Mechanism (OSDTM) to discovering and emplacing shorts on the data links in NoC. The projected test approach encompasses three main component namely Test Pattern Producer (TPP), Test Response Compiler (TRC) that are implanted in the Network Adapter (N) as well as a Flit Comparator Block (FCB) located in the Routers(R). The FCB concern is to detect dissimilar Flits through comparison the entrance Flits. The OSDTM leads to 100% Test Coverage (TC), 82.3% Discovering Capability (DC), and 100% fault emplacement (FE) of faulty links in NoC. The experimental results illustrate that the FCB hardware cost is very insignificant in related to the hardware of Vici router.
Effect of Phytogenic Extracts and Organic Acids on Growth Performance of Nursery and Finishing Pigs

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of level of soybean meal (SBM) and the addition of Micro-Aid (DPI Global, Porterville, CA) to nursery diets on pig growth performance. A total of 180 crossbred pigs for Experiment 1 and 280 crossbred pigs for Experiment 2 (average BW = 6.1 kg) were used to determine the effects of addition of Micro-Aid (Yucca schidigera) to a soybean meal-based diet on growth performance of nursery pigs in 43-d and 40-d experiments, respectively. Pigs were weaned at 20 d of age for both studies. During Experiment 1, pigs were allotted to 1 of 3 treatments in a randomized complete block design (6 pens/trt). The three dietary treatments consisted of: 1) control diet (CNT) containing animal protein sources (plasma, fish meal), 2) a high soybean meal-based diet without animal protein sources (HSBM), and 3) the SBM-based diet plus 125 ppm of Micro-Aid (SMA). During Experiment 2, the same dietary treatments were used and a fourth treatment 4) control diet with
Generalized Quasilinearization Using Coupled Lower and Upper Solutions for Periodic Boundary Value Problem of an Integro Differential Equation

In this paper we rst develop the method of generalized quasilinearization for initialvalue problem of an integro dierential equation and then use it to develop quasilinearization forÂ the periodic boundary value problem of the integro dierential equation by using the coupled lowerÂ and upper solutions of Type-I.
Digital media in teachers' training; formulating recommendation on how to enhance creativity

In this paper we discuss the process of formulating guidelines for educational practitioners on how to integrate digital creative teaching in their daily practice and of drawing policy recommendations for institutions on how to enhance digital creativity (DC) in teachers’ education on national or European level. This set of guidelines/recommendations comes as one of the end products of DoCENT project (DC Enhanced in Teacher Education). A main goal of the project was to design a teachers’ training model, based on the DoCENT Framework for Digital Creative Teaching Competences (DF), which was already developed at the beginning of the project. The training model was implemented in Italy, Spain and Greece, and a set of digital resources was produced. The evaluation of the implementation phase, the analysis of the data that were produced and the resources that was constructed during the implementation phase, are the basis of the set of guidelines/recommendations. In the next pages we mostly describe the rationale behind the guidelines/recommendations formulation and we focus on their linking to the DF. Finally, we give a sample of guidelines, since their drawing is still ongoing.
A tale of two explanations: Enhancing human trust by explaining robot behavior

Forms of explanation that are best suited to foster trust do not necessarily correspond to those components contributing to the best task performance. The ability to provide comprehensive explanations of chosen actions is a hallmark of intelligence. Lack of this ability impedes the general acceptance of AI and robot systems in critical tasks. This paper examines what forms of explanations best foster human trust in machines and proposes a framework in which explanations are generated from both functional and mechanistic perspectives. The robot system learns from human demonstrations to open medicine bottles using (i) an embodied haptic prediction model to extract knowledge from sensory feedback, (ii) a stochastic grammar model induced to capture the compositional structure of a multistep task, and (iii) an improved Earley parsing algorithm to jointly leverage both the haptic and grammar models. The robot system not only shows the ability to learn from human demonstrators but also succeeds in opening new, unseen bottles. Using different forms of explanations generated by the robot system, we conducted a psychological experiment to examine what forms of explanations best foster human trust in the robot. We found that comprehensive and real-time visualizations of the robot’s internal decisions were more effective in promoting human trust than explanations based on summary text descriptions. In addition, forms of explanation that are best suited to foster trust do not necessarily correspond to the model components contributing to the best task performance. This divergence shows a need for the robotics community to integrate model components to enhance both task execution and human trust in machines.
emotionSync®, EMDR, REM Sleep, NLP and the Horizontal Eight

Introduction: Therapy methods using eye movements might be considered unusual but are becoming more and more scientifically accepted. The underlying effect mechanisms are still largely unknown. Objectives: The objective of this article is to review what phenomena occur during REM sleep and how knowing this can be used to make therapies using eye movements more effective. Methods: Firstly, a relatively new method using eye movements, emotionSync®, is introduced and described. Then, we provide a review of the literature about REM sleep. emotionSync® is compared to concepts from kinesiology, NLP and the well-established Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Results: emotionSync® uses concepts that are successfully used in kinesiology and have a theoretical foundation in NLP – loop shaped movements, hence the horizontal eight – which EMDR typically does not use. Loop shaped movements are supported by studies on REM sleep. Regarding the temporal dynamics emotionSync® emphasizes high speed and acceleration while EMDR nowadays allows for much slower movements. Conclusions: This study shows similarities and differences between emotionSync® and EMDR. Empirical studies are needed to compare the effectiveness and efficacy of emotionSync® and EMDR.
Distortion Analysis of UWB Pulse Caused by Trapezoidal Antenna

In this paper, the distortion of the ultra wideband (UWB) pulse caused by trapezoidal antenna is analyzed. The far field impulse response of this antenna is evaluated by using finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. The UWB pulse is the modulated Gaussian pulse with frequency ranges from 3.16 to 10.6 GHz. The waveforms of UWB pulses which radiate at the specific angle are shown. The correlation coefficients are also illustrated. From the numerical results, we can see the effects of distortion caused by trapezoidal antenna along the specific angles.
Molecular Characterization of BK Polyomavirus’ Large T Antigen Gene Sequences Detected in Prostate Cancer Tissues of Sudanese Patients

All the BKV LTAg gene sequences derived from Sudanese patients were classified with Subtype-1 BKV strains from Iran and Japan. Translated protein alignment showed that some isolates had identical amino acids with Iranian and Japanese strains, whereas others had a silent mutation. Interestingly, a point mutation was identified in the sequences of isolate 5 and 8 where adenine nucleotide (A) was replaced with Cytosine (C) at position 276, resulting in amino acid substitution.
3D detectors with high space and time resolution

For future high luminosity LHC experiments it will be important to develop new detector systems with increased space and time resolution and also better radiation hardness in order to operate in high luminosity environment. A possible technology which could give such performances is 3D silicon detectors. This work explores the possibility of a pixel geometry by designing and simulating different solutions, using Sentaurus Tecnology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) as design and simulation tool, and analysing their performances. A key factor during the selection was the generated electric field and the carrier velocity inside the active area of the pixel.
Multidisciplinary Teamwork in the Design of DailyCog for Evaluating Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) in Parkinson’s Disease

This study describes the development of DailyCog: an accessible, practical smartphone application for the detection of mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s disease. Cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s has been capturing researchers interest lately, as it may occur at early stages of the disease, and has a substantial impact on quality of life. In order to find the best markers of the initial stage of the cognitive decline we developed DailyCog - a smartphone application for the detection of mild cognitive impairment. This work focuses on the design considerations while working in a multidisciplinary team, building a common understanding, and bringing together knowledge from Occupational Therapy, Neurology and Computer Science to build an application for evaluating Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) in Parkinson’s Disease.
Outdoor Autonomous Landing of a Quadcopter on a Moving Platform using Off-board Computer Vision

This paper presents a method that enables a quadcopter to perform autonomous landing on a moving platform using computer vision. In addition, the system implementation of the computer vision technique is presented. Unlike other researches, the camera is mounted on the moving platform instead of being installed on the quadcopter. Besides, the computer vision system is tested outdoor, and the results such as the performance and the accuracy are presented. In the stationary platform test, 5 out of 10 landings fall within 30 cm from the center. In the moving platform test, the maximum platform-moving speed for autonomous landing is 2 m/s. Hence, it is proven that this methodology is feasible. Lastly, the advantages and limitations of the computer vision technique proposed are discussed.
Position Paper: Process Isolation and Exascale Operating Systems and Runtimes

Exascale Operating Systems and Runtimes need to balance performance and backwards compatibility concerns to meet Exascale challenges. This position paper discusses the use of dynamic linking to allow traditional executables to break process isolation, sacrificing security for performance and compatibility. The primary goal of this method of execution is moving computation to data, either by loading a user process inside the kernel boundary, avoiding the need for boundary crossings in Internode communication, or by moving two processes to the same address space, allowing them to communicate using traditional APIs without the need for new shared memory abstractions.