Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Digital video analysis and manipulation

More and more digital video is being generated and becoming ubiquitous in many emerging applications. Due to the inherently large amount of data, managing and accessing the video according to content in large video databases is very difficult and time-consuming. Efficient ways to analyze, manipulate, annotate, browse and retrieve video data of interest are therefore important and have attracted much attention. In this thesis, new techniques are proposed to analyze and manipulate the content of digital video. As motion is a fundamental constituent of the visual information in video and often serves as an important clue for understanding the video content, algorithms are developed to compute the dominant motion from images. The computation of this image motion requires the establishment of some form of correspondences between the images. By formulating the measurement of feature correspondences as a parameter estimation problem, robust algorithms are developed to select good image features for establishing image correspondence. The proposed image motion estimation techniques are then applied to several useful applications such as constructing large field of view panoramas from image sequences, stabilizing and smoothing video sequences with unsteady content, and detecting and segmenting moving objects of interest from video sequences. Next, for the purpose of video matching and searching by low-level visual content, proximity indices and metrics, as well as dynamic time warping techniques are proposed to measure the similarity of video content, both spatially and temporally. A framework for searching a video sequence for segments which are similar to an example video segment of interest is presented. Finally, new techniques are developed to infer high-level content of structured video in compressed domain. By using MPEG data without full frame decompression and incorporating prior knowledge of basketball video, algorithms are designed to identify interesting basketball events such as wide-angle views and close-up views of the game, fast breaks, shots on basket, etc. The techniques developed are useful in annotation, browsing and classification of the video data of interest by high-level video content.
Book Reviews

The focus of the book is on backward readers, that is, children who are reading far below the level expected from their intelligence. Its purpose is to consider research on why these children have difficulty learning to read, what the best way to teach them might be in order to lessen their difficulties, and how such difficulties can be prevented in the first place. Bryant and Bradley believe that "a solution is very close" (p. 3). This is why they have written the book. The authors hold positions in the Department of Psychology at the University of Oxford, and they have conducted numerous studies to answer these questions. Much of their research is summarized in the book along with other selected studies. The book is written in a style suitable for teachers and parents who are interested in the subject but who may have little background or tolerance for technical terminology and methodological and statistical details of studies. Although this does simplify the text and make it more readable, it sometimes leaves the reader without sufficient information to understand the studies fully. In considering what research studies reveal about deficits claimed to cause reading problems, the authors develop criteria for evaluating the adequacy of such studies. This section is valuable in showing how the designs of many poor-reader studies fail to rule out alternative explanations for their results. Several improvements in designs are recommended. One is to compare backward readers to younger normal readers matched for reading age rather than to older better readers matched for mental age. This design rules out the possibility that any observed deficits are a consequence of learning to read. Another recommended design is to study reading development longitudinally in order to show that purported causal deficits precede and predict the development of reading skill. A third design is a training study in which purported causal deficits are manipulated experimentally to demonstrate cause-effect relations directly and to show that training effects are specific to reading achievement and do not include unrelated skills such as mathematics. Studies presenting evidence for several deficits are considered and found inadequate. This includes studies of visual perception, modality crossing, word production speed, and word memory. There are two kinds of difficulties, however, where the evidence is considered to be strong. One involves a deficit in phonemic awareness. Backward readers
2013 mask industry survey

A comprehensive survey was sent to merchant and captive mask shops to gather information about the mask industry as an objective assessment of its overall condition. 2013 marks the 12th consecutive year for this process. Historical topics including general mask profile, mask processing, data and write time, yield and yield loss, delivery times, maintenance, and returns were included and new topics were added. Within each category are multiple questions that result in a detailed profile of both the business and technical status of the mask industry. While each year’s survey includes minor updates based on feedback from past years and the need to collect additional data on key topics, the bulk of the survey and reporting structure have remained relatively constant. A series of improvements is being phased in beginning in 2013 to add value to a wider audience, while at the same time retaining the historical content required for trend analyses of the traditional metrics. Additions in 2013 include topics such as top challenges, future concerns, and additional details in key aspects of mask masking, such as the number of masks per mask set per ground rule, minimum mask resolution shipped, and yield by ground rule. These expansions beyond the historical topics are aimed at identifying common issues, gaps, and needs. They will also provide a better understanding of real-life mask requirements and capabilities for comparison to the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS).
Utilizing first hop redundancy protocol to mitigate the effects of denial-of-service attack

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS . v LIST OF TABLES . vii LIST OF FIGURES . viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . xiii Chapter 1 : INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1. MOTIVATION AND PROBLEM STATEMENT . 1 1.2. PROJECT SCOPE . 1 1.3. PROJECT OBJECTIVES . 4 1.4. IMPACT, SIGNIFICANCE AND CONTRIBUTION . 5 1.5. BACKGROUND INFORMATION . 6 1.6. REPORT ORGANISATION . 8 Chapter 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW . 9 2.1 EXISTING PROPOSED SOLUTIONS OVERVIEW . 9 2.2 PACKET FILTERING . 10 2.3 CAPABILITY . 10 2.4 CAPTCHA MECHANISM . 12 2.5 INGRESS FILTERING . 13 Chapter 3 : PROPOSED METHOD/APPROACH . 15 3.1 DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS . 15 3.2 EVALUATING PLAN FOR PERFORMANCE OF GLBP IN MITIGATING SYN FLOOD ATTACK . 18 3.3 MITIGATION OF ADDITIONAL TYPE OF DoS ATTACKS . 18 3.4 SYSTEM DESIGN / OVERVIEW . 21 3.5 IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES AND CHALLENGES . 30 3.6 COST ANALYSIS . 30 3.7 TIMELINE . 31 Chapter 4 : TESTING RESULTS AND DISCUSSION . 35 4.1 SYN FLOOD ATTACK . 35 4.2 PING FLOOD ATTACK . 41
Uncertainty, robustness, and the value of information in managing a population of northern bobwhites

The abundance of northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) has decreased throughout their range. Managers often respond by considering improvements in harvest and habitat management practices, but this can be challenging if substantial uncertainty exists concerning the cause(s) of the decline. We were interested in how application of decision science could be used to help managers on a large, public management area in southwestern Florida where the bobwhite is a featured species and where abundance has severely declined. We conducted a workshop with managers and scientists to elicit management objectives, alternative hypotheses concerning population limitation in bobwhites, potential management actions, and predicted management outcomes. Using standard and robust approaches to decision making, we determined that improved water management and perhaps some changes in hunting practices would be expected to produce the best management outcomes in the face of uncertainty about what is limiting bobwhite abundance. We used a criterion called the expected value of perfect information to determine that a robust management strategy may perform nearly as well as an optimal management strategy (i.e., a strategy that is expected to perform best, given the relative importance of different management objectives) with all uncertainty resolved. We used the expected value of partial information to determine that management performance could be increased most by eliminating uncertainty over excessive-harvest and human-disturbance hypotheses. Beyond learning about the factors limiting bobwhites, adoption of a dynamic management strategy, which recognizes temporal changes in resource and environmental conditions, might produce the greatest management benefit. Our research demonstrates that robust approaches to decision making, combined with estimates of the value of information, can offer considerable insight into preferred management approaches when great uncertainty exists about system dynamics and the effects of management. Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
Quality Evaluation of GANs Using Cross Local Intrinsic Dimensionality

Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) are an elegant mechanism for data generation. However, a key challenge when using GANs is how to best measure their ability to generate realistic data. In this paper, we demonstrate that an intrinsic dimensional characterization of the data space learned by a GAN model leads to an effective evaluation metric for GAN quality. In particular, we propose a new evaluation measure, CrossLID, that assesses the local intrinsic dimensionality (LID) of real-world data with respect to neighborhoods found in GAN-generated samples. Intuitively, CrossLID measures the degree to which manifolds of two data distributions coincide with each other. In experiments on 4 benchmark image datasets, we compare our proposed measure to several state-of-the-art evaluation metrics. Our experiments show that CrossLID is strongly correlated with the progress of GAN training, is sensitive to mode collapse, is robust to small-scale noise and image transformations, and robust to sample size. Furthermore, we show how CrossLID can be used within the GAN training process to improve generation quality.
Big data analytics in smart grids: state‐of‐the‐art, challenges, opportunities, and future directions

Big data has potential to unlock novel groundbreaking opportunities in power grid that enhances a multitude of technical, social, and economic gains. As power grid technologies evolve in conjunction with measurement and communication technologies, this results in unprecedented amount of heterogeneous big data. In particular, computational complexity, data security, and operational integration of big data into power system planning and operational frameworks are the key challenges to transform the heterogeneous large dataset into actionable outcomes. In this context, suitable big data analytics combined with visualization can lead to better situational awareness and predictive decisions. This paper presents a comprehensive state-of-the-art review of big data analytics and its applications in power grids, and also identifies challenges and opportunities from utility, industry, and research perspectives. The paper analyzes research gaps and presents insights on future research directions to integrate big data analytics into power system planning and operational frameworks. Detailed information for utilities looking to apply big data analytics and insights on how utilities can enhance revenue streams and bring disruptive innovation are discussed. General guidelines for utilities to make the right investment in the adoption of big data analytics by unveiling interdependencies among critical infrastructures and operations are also provided.
Anomaly Detection in Crowded Scene by Pedestrians Behaviour Extraction using Long Short Term Method: A Comprehensive Study

With the expansion of worldwide security concerns and a consistently expanding requirement for successful checking of open places, i.e. air terminals, railroad stations, shopping centres, crowded sports fields, army bases or smart healthcare facilities such as daily activity monitoring and fall detection in old people’s homes is increasing very rapidly. The visual occlusions and ambiguities in crowded scenes, usage of suitable method and in addition the perplexing practices and scene semantics make the investigation a challenging task. This research demonstrates comprehensive and critical analysis of crowd scene involves in object detection, tracking, feature extraction and learning from visual surveillance which helps to recognize behavioural pattern. This research refers scene understanding as scene layout, i.e. finding streets, structures, side-walks, vehicles turning, person on foot intersection and scene status such as crowd congestion, split, merge etc. The significance of the proposed comprehensive review to create crowd administration procedures and help the development of the group or people, to maintain a strategic distance from the group calamities and guarantee general society security. Based on the observation of previous research in three aspects, i.e. review based on methods, frameworks and critical existing results analysis, this research propose a framework for anomaly detection in crowded scene using LSTM (long Short-Term Method). Proposed comprehensive review is expected to contribute significantly for the investigation of behavior pattern analysis in computer vision research domains.
Parametric Time-Frequency Domain Spatial Audio

This book provides readers with the principles and best practices in spatial audio signal processing. It describes how sound fields and their perceptual attributes are captured and analyzed within the time-frequency domain, how essential representation parameters are coded, and how such signals are efficiently reproduced for practical applications. The book is split into four parts starting with an overview of the fundamentals. It then goes on to explain the reproduction of spatial sound before offering an examination of signaldependent spatial filtering. The book finishes with coverage of both current and future applications and the direction that spatial audio research is heading in.
Effects of Voltage Dips on Robotic Grasping

This paper addresses the effects of electric power quality on robotic operations. A general overview is reported to highlight the main characteristics of electric power quality and it’s effects on a powered system by considering an end-user’s viewpoint. Then, the authors outline the influence of voltage dip effects by focusing on robotic grasping applications. A specific case study is reported, namely that of LARM Hand IV, a three-fingered robotic hand which has been designed and built at LARM in Cassino, Italy. A dedicated test rig has been developed and set up to generate predefined voltage dips. Experimental tests are carried out to evaluate the effects of different types of voltage dip on the grasping of objects.
A Randomised Comparative Interventional Prospective Study of Intubation by Macintosh Laryngoscope Versus McGrath Video Laryngoscope in Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery

Background: Laryngoscopy and endotracheal intubation is an integral part of general anesthesia for cardiac surgery. Direct laryngoscopy and passage of endotracheal tube through the larynx is a noxious stimulus, which can provoke untoward response in the cardiovascular, respiratory and other physiological systems. Significant tachycardia and hypertension can occur with tracheal intubation under light anesthesia. In this study our aim was to evaluate hemodynamic changes during intubation by using Macintosh and McGrath video laryngoscope in patients undergoing cardiac surgeries. Objective: Our aim was to evaluate hemodynamic changes during intubation by using, Macintosh and McGrath video laryngoscope in patients undergoing cardiac surgeries. Material and method: A total of 60 patients were randomly allocated to two groups which were divided according to intubation with Macintosh (Group A, n=30) versus McGrath (Group B, n=30). Both groups were studied by using Edwards EV 1000 flowtrac monitor with hemodynamic variable eg. stroke volume (SV), stroke vol. variation (SVV), Systematic vascular resistance (SVR), Stroke vol. index (SVI), cardiac output (CO), cardiac index (CI), BP (blood pressure)&PR (pulse rate). Patient undergoing various cardiac surgeries were included with ASA grade III & IV. Patient’s having coagulation abnormalities, pre -existing haematological, metabolic, hepatic, respiratory, renal disease were excluded. Intubation with more than 2 attempts and difficult intubation were also excluded. Result: In group A the mean intubation time was 17.17 ± 3.03 sec. and in group B mean intubation time was 21.13 ± 3.04 sec. Among two groups significant (P 0.05). Conclusion: Our study showed that there was a hemodynamic stability in both the groups undergoing various cardiac surgeries. But in Group B, there was less rise in the mean hemodynamic variables. It is advisable to use McGrath video laryngoscope for intubation in these patients to maintain hemodynamic stability.
Facilitation can maintain clustered spatial pattern of plant populations during density‐dependent mortality: insights from a zone‐of‐influence model

Recent years have seen a growing body of evidence showing that plant competition and facilitation usually operate simultaneously to drive population dynamics, community structure and ecosystem functions. However, the potential role of facilitation in spatial patterning of plant populations has rarely been explicitly examined. We used a ‘zone-of-influence’ model to explore how facilitation interacts with competition and abiotic stress to determine the spatial patterning of populations during density-dependent mortality. Model simulations revealed that started with the same clustered pattern, the final pattern of simulated populations depended strongly on the interaction among facilitation, stress level and sizesymmetry of competition. Asymmetric competition consistently led to immediate and non-random mortality towards regularity, thus rapidly decayed the initially clustered pattern to final patterns of small-scale regularity and large-scale randomness. The role of symmetric competition in decaying the clustered pattern increased with abiotic stress because stress-induced reductions in plants’ growth rates can make individuals in high-density clusters more likely to die even from symmetric competition. Facilitation played a clear role in counteracting the effect of stress, thus tended to maintain the degree of clustering of the pattern during density-dependent mortality. This is because the amelioration of harsh con ditions by neighboring plants relieved the reductions in plant growth due to competition, thus slowed down and reduced the mortality inside clusters (relative to that outside clusters). Moreover, the effect of facilitation appeared to increase with abiotic stress. Our results indicate that facilitation among neighboring plants should partially be responsible for clustered population spatial patterns observed in stressful environments, even though its contribution relative to other factors (e.g. local dispersal and environmental heterogeneity) remains to be evaluated. In addition, the potential influence of facilita tion on self-thinning trajectory should be explicitly examined in future modeling and experimental studies considering its effects on density-dependent mortality.
Curricular Innovations in Literacy Instruction: How Students Respond to the Change

The purpose of this study was to describe how students respond when in transition from traditional to innovative language arts instruction. Data were collected through observations, interviews, and documents. Analysis was conducted through the constant comparative method. Breadth of description was achieved through case study of the group as a whole. Depth was achieved through case studies of two of the students. Patterns in students' responses resulted in a grounded theory of change for students in such transition. The theory indicates that students progress through three stages. The first stage is one of Comfortable Dependence, when students do what is expected of them because it fits their paradigm of school. The second stage is one of Anxiety, when students resist as they become aware that the rules have changed. The final stage is Comfortable Independence, when students become self-directed learners. Findings were consistent with other change research that indicates that change is a process implemented over time, is individualized, is accompanied by anxiety, and requires personal and technical support.
Movement Control Based on Model Predictive Control with Disturbance Suppression using Kalman Filter including Disturbance Estimation

This study proposes a movement control system based on model predictive control (MPC), and a Kalman filter (KF) that can consider the influences of noise and disturbance. The KF estimates not only the motion state but also the disturbance of the controlled objects affected by noise. Disturbance is introduced by the stationary disturbance, by the system noise, and by observation noise. An MPC system filtered by the KF is robust and suppresses disturbances using the special design method proposed in this study. The feasibility of the MPC-based control system is confirmed under conditions of strong intermittent disturbances, such as road surface and sensor noises, and a friction force with less time variation. Finally, the proposed method is tested in simulations of a cart traveling in a straight line. The superior simulation results over the existing MPC system validate the proposed control system.
Review of the Old World Leafhopper Genus Futasujinus Ishihara (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae: Paralimnini), with Description of Three New Species

ABSTRACT The Old World leafhopper genus Futasujinus Ishihara is revised and redescribed. Eight species, including three new species, are recognized in the genus: F. amuriensis (Metcalf) (China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and Russia), F. biarmatus Dlabola (Mongolia), F. candidus (Matsumura) (China, Russia, Korea, and Japan), F. dietrichi sp. nov. (China), F. hastatus sp. nov. (China), F. koreacola Kwon & Lee, 1979 (Korea), F. towadensis (Matsumura) (Japan), and F. truncates sp. nov. (China). All species from China are described. A key to the species in this genus is given, and their genital structures are illustrated.