Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self-supervised Transfer Learning for Instance Segmentation through Physical Interaction

Instance segmentation of unknown objects from images is regarded as relevant for several robot skills including grasping, tracking and object sorting. Recent results from computer vision have shown that large hand-labeled datasets enable high segmentation performance. To overcome the time-consuming process of manually labeling data for new environments, we present a transfer learning approach for robots that learn to segment objects by interacting with their environment in a self-supervised manner. Our robot pushes unknown objects on a table and uses information from optical flow to create training labels given by object masks. To achieve this, we fine-tune an existing DeepMask instance segmentation network on the self-labeled training data acquired by the robot. We evaluate our trained network (SelfDeepMask) on a set of real images showing challenging and cluttered scenes with novel objects. Here, SelfDeepMask outperforms the DeepMask network trained on the COCO dataset by 8.6% in average precision.
Modeling two-phase fl ow in three-dimensional complex fl ow-fi elds of proton exchange membrane fuel cells

3D fine-mesh flow-fields recently developed by Toyota Mirai improved water management and mass transport in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell stacks, suggesting their potential value for robust and high-power PEM fuel cell stack performance. In such complex flow-fields, Forchheimer's inertial effect is dominant at high current density. In this work, a two-phase flow model of 3D complex flowfields of PEMFCs is developed by accounting for Forchheimer's inertial effect, for the first time, to elucidate the underlying mechanism of liquid water behavior and mass transport inside 3D complex flow-fields and their adjacent gas diffusion layers (GDL). It is found that Forchheimer's inertial effect enhances liquid water removal from flow-fields and adds additional flow resistance around baffles, which improves interfacial liquid water and mass transport. As a result, substantial improvements in high current density cell performance and operational stability are expected in PEMFCs with 3D complex flow-fields, compared to PEMFCs with conventional flow-fields. Higher current density operation required to further reduce PEMFC stack cost per kW in the future will necessitate optimizing complex flow-field designs using the present model, in order to efficiently remove a large amount of product water and hence minimize the mass transport voltage loss. © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Detection and clinical significance of rheumatoid factor , anti-CCP antibody , immunoglobulin and cytokines in serum of patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common autoimmune disease, the incidence is 0.5%-1%[1]. The commonly used laboratory examination index of RA is mainly RF and its role in the diagnosis of RA was limited by the low sensitivity and specificity[2]. Foreign research shows that the sensitivity and specificity of anti CCP antibody and Ig in diagnosing RA is relatively high[3,4]. This study detected the serum levels of RF, antiCCP antibody ,Ig and cytokines in patients with RA to analysis the relation between indexes and their relevance with RA disease activity and further discussed the function of the index levels in RA diagnosis, disease progression monitoring and prognosis.
The neural correlates of evidence accumulation and summed similarity in EEG oscillations

Several studies have indicated a link between scalp EEG oscillations of 4 to 9 Hertz and decision making. An unequivocal connection has been lacking, however, as this theta activity has shown a strong correlation with evidence accumulation irrespective of stimulus similarity in a perceptual decision making task, but also increased with the summed similarity of a probe item to studied items in a recognition decision making task. This current study was to deconfound these two variables by recording scalp EEG activity in participants executing two tasks of roughly equal difficulty, but with different similarity computations. The results should provide grounds for establishing a clearer link between either theta oscillations and evidence accumulation independent of stimulus structure, or between theta oscillations and the summing of similarities. In this present study, we showed left parietal theta activity was linked to direct similarity in a perceptional task, and central alpha activity was correlated to response time in a memory task.
Closing the Gap for Coded Caching with Distinct File Sizes

Coded caching can exploit multicast opportunities even when multiple users request different pieces of content, and thus can significantly reduce the backhaul requirement to serve high-volume content. A common assumption in existing studies of coded caching is that all files are with the same size, which however may not be true in reality. Our previous work [1] first studied this problem, and proposed a non-trivial lower bound, as well as a new achievable scheme that uses a caching probability increasing proportionally with the file size. However, the gap [1] of the achievable rate and the lower bound still differs by a factor of Θ(log K), where K is the number of users in the system. In this paper, under a mild assumption that the total size of all files is larger than eight times the size of one individual cache, we will close this gap and reduce it to a constant by proposing a novel new lower bound and another new achievable scheme. Our lower bound is derived by considering a new cut-set bound, where files of a type1 will be requested more often if the number of such files is smaller. Our achievable scheme uses a caching probability that decreases with the number of files with a same type. The improvements on both the lower bound and the achievable rate make their gap constant.
Positive Spillover of Pro-Environmental Behavior Phenomenon : The Influence of Organizational and Family Factors

Studies have repeatedly established the existence of the spillover of pro-environmental behavior phenomenon; where employees that are actively involved with environmental activities at workplace would also show similar inclination toward performing pro-environmental behavior at home. The findings from these past studies would be of interest for policy makers and behavioral scientists, since it has shed some light in understanding ways to promote and develop a more sustainable-conscious society. This study intends to explore factors that exist at both ends of the spillover of pro-environmental behavior process. After carrying out the analysis, all three organizational climate factors (clarity of organizational goal, training and teamwork) were found to have very significant influence in the spillover process. On the other side, similar outcome is also observed with regard to family support, though at a relatively lesser degree.
Characteristics of precipitation for propagation modelling

Recommendation ITU-R P.837-4 contains maps of meteorological parameters that have been obtained using the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) ERA-15 re-analysis database. New maps have been generated using the ECMWF ERA-40 re-analysis database, which is a new product generated by ECMWF using improved assimilation and forecast procedures and covering a longer time period with improved spatial resolution. In addition, the regression coefficients used in the prediction of rainfall rate have been optimized.
Truly Scalable Data Series Similarity Search

Data series are widely used in numerous domains. Analyzing this data is important for a variety of real-world applications and has been extensively studied over the past 25 years. At the core of the analysis task lies a classic algorithm called similarity search. A number of approaches have been proposed to support similarity search over massive data series collections. The results of two comprehensive data series experimental evaluations form the foundations of our future work, which will lead to the development of a novel index that can e � ciently support both exact and approximate data series similarity search, as well as progressive query answering with bound guarantees. Based on the insights gained from the exhaustive study of the related work, the new index will surpass the state-the-art approximate and exact techniques both in performance and accuracy.
Investigating heterogeneity of growth and drug response in mesotheliomas

The prognosis for patients with malignant mesothelioma is very poor with patient response to therapy highly variable. This project was aimed at investigating the degree of heterogeneity in the responses to treatment amongst mesothelioma cell lines which have all arisen due to asbestos exposure. Despite the use of the same carcinogen, a number of variabilities amongst these cancers are still present. Avenues of investigation initially tried to determine if the variability in response was due to heterogeneity in the proliferation of malignant mesothelioma cells. Different growth rates were observed for cell lines grown in culture and in vivo. Cells showed different degrees of response to treatment with different chemotherapeutic agents. An attempt was made to determine the mode of cell death undergone by cells in their response to the treatments. Further investigation is warranted into the validity of these results because if the differences found in the phenotype of the cells were accurate, it could direct individualised therapeutic strategies to target the uniqueness of malignant mesothelioma.
Potentials and limitations of NFIs and remote sensing in the assessment of harvest rates: a reply to Breidenbach et al. Forest

The timely and accurate monitoring of forest resources is becoming of increasing importance in light of the multi-functionality of these ecosystems and their increasing vulnerability to climate change. Remote sensing observations of tree cover and systematic ground observations from National Forest Inventories (NFIs) represent the two major sources of information to assess forest area and use. The specificity of two methods is calling for an in-depth analysis of their strengths and weaknesses and for the design of novel methods emerging from the integration of satellite and surface data. On this specific debate, a recent paper by Breidenbach et al. published in this journal suggests that the detection of a recent increase in EU forest harvest rate—as reported in Nature by Ceccherini et al.—is largely due to technical limitations of satellite-based mapping. The article centers on the difficulty of the approaches to estimate wood harvest based on remote sensing. However, it does not discuss issues with the robustness of validation approaches solely based on NFIs. Here we discuss the use of plot data as a validation set for remote sensing products, discussing potentials and limitations of both NFIs and remote sensing, and how they can be used synergistically. Finally, we highlight the need to collect in situ data that is both relevant and compatible with remote sensing products within the European Union.
EXTRAPOLATIVE-STATISTICAL FORECASTS OF RADAR REFLECTIVITY

A common approach to short-range precipitation forecasting involves the extrapolation of radar reflectivity fields that ha ve been analyzed in digital form on a map grid. In an attempt to. refi.ne this basic technique, a large number of extrapolatlveforecasts were prepared and statistically correlated with actual radar observations at the valid time. The relationships determined in this manner can then be applied if.l interp~·etfng other extrapolative forecasts. This extrapolatIve-statIstIcal method implicitly accounts for echo decay and IIncertainties in the extrapolative process, and is analogOlls to the Model Output Statistics approach often used to prodllce forecasts of sensible weather from numerical weather prediction model output. This study was based on observations obtained with Radar Data Processor 1/ at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, during the period /985-1990. A large sample of 30and 60-minute extrapolativeforecasts of zero-tilt reflectivity, vertically-integrated liqllid, and /8-dBZ echo tops was prepared. The extrapolation velocity was estimated from digital pattern matching within a sequence of reflectivity images collected before the forecast initial time, orfrom the 700-mb environmental wind vector. Linear regression was used to relate the areas of zero-tilt reflectivity 2: 40 dBZ to the extrapolative forecasts of reflectivity variables. The probability forecasts produced by the regression equations 11'1'/:1' then verified 011 independent data. Categorical (yeslno). /orecastsfor40-dBZ reflectivity, valid at 30 minutes wlt! 7in ~I /2-/\117 square region, were producedfrom the probabtllt)' forecasts. A threshold of 35% yielded a probability of detect~OJ: of O. ~ with a false alarm ratio of 0.4 and bias of 1.2. SU17t1ar s/oll scores were obtained for 60-minute forecasts \'{{Iid within 20-km square regions.
Preliminary Phytochemical Investigation and Antimicrobial Activity of Sinapis

The plant leaves contain a number of medicinally important compounds. The present study was carried out to identify the phytochemicals and evaluate antimicrobial activity of hexane extract of Sinapis alba seeds. The antimicrobial activity was determined by well diffusion method and tested against different pathogens of three bacteria and two funguses. Antimicrobial activty of 50, 100 and 150% Hexane extract of Sinapis alba (white mustard), has been evaluated against streptococcus pneumoniae, Aspergillus niger, Salmonella typhi, klebsiella pneumoniae, Trichophyton Violaceum. The seeds of hexane extract contain terpenoids and fattyacids. In 150% concentration Sinapis alba showed the highest 20mm antibacterial zone against streptococcus pneumoniae. In 100% and 150% concentration Sinapis alba showed the highest 15mm, 20mm, antimicrobial zone respectively against Aspergillus niger. The extract showed inhibitory effects due to the presence of terpenoids and terpenoids.
Propagative interactions of guided waves in structured plates

High-order waves’ propagation with low spatial attenuation in broadband frequency range is here investigated as an alternative to some structural health monitoring techniques based on first-order wave propagation. It may encompass some of the drawbacks encountered when dealing with boundary conditions in 2D-waveguides or provide accurate wave-based inspection techniques for heterogeneous or composite beams. The wave propagation and scattering in a structured composite component is studied using time-response analysis and compared to the Wave Finite Element Methods’ predictions. These waves are generated by pulse excitations of the medium. The results are based on the propagation of high-order waves in a sandwich plate made of transverse isotropic honeycomb core surrounded by fiber-reinforced skins.
Protea : An Abstraction for Building Flexible Storage Systems

System designers today have a wide selection of storage devices (flash memory, NVRAM, disk, etc.) at their disposal, each with distinct characteristics and tradeoffs. Substantial work has been done in investigating novel storage system designs that optimize for different properties, such as Griffin[6] which uses a hard drive as a write-cache to extend the lifetime of the backing SSD. A result of the proliferation of hardware devices is an increase in flexibility as well as complexity when it comes to designing storage systems. To facilitate the process of designing storage systems we propose Protea, an interface and library of storage idioms for building storage systems. Protea is a library and interface for building general storage systems on a single machine connected to a heterogeneous set of hardware storage devices. It attempts to capture the heterogeneity of existing and hypothetical storage systems and their underlying hardware in a unified tree representation, the ProtoTree. Under the ProtoTree abstraction, storage systems are represented by operator nodes and device nodes. Operator nodes abstract over common storage functional idioms and are composed together on top of a set of device nodes representing storage media. Protea aims to enable simpler and faster design and implementation of storage systems.
Research on Analyzing and Processing Methods of Ocean Sonar Signals

ABSTRACT Huang, T. and Wang, T. , 2019. Research on analyzing and processing methods of ocean sonar signals. In: Gong, D. ; Zhu, H. , and Liu, R. (eds.), Selected Topics in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 94, pp. 208–212. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. In the marine environment, the use of sonar equipment is very extensive. The widespread application of sonar equipment in military and civilian fields has promoted the rapid development of sonar technology, and the sonar system is gradually developing toward multi-bases and large-scale direction. The analyzing and processing of ocean sonar signals has become an important part of sonar system design. Based on the environmental conditions of the Zhanjiang sea area in Guangdong Province, this paper designs the ocean sonar signal waveforms, analyzes the sonar signals with appropriate methods, and constructs an ocean sonar signal processing platform. The research results show that in the marine environment, multi-base sonar system can realize continuous transmitting of sonar signals and receive echoes to achieve continuous detection of targets. Continuous sonar signals have a lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) than pulse sonar signals, but continuous sonar signals have a longer time bandwidth product (TBP), which reduces the negative impact of the ocean environment. The Gold-sequence phase modulated (PM) signals have strong reliability and good concealment performance. The signals can occupy the entire bandwidth. The signal processing is not limited by the number of transmitting stations, but its signal forms are more complicated, the signal analysis is cumbersome, and the processing platform is highly demanded. The research in this paper provides a theoretical basis for ocean sonar signal analyzing and processing.
Maritime Communication Regulation: A Model for Evaluating the Performance

ABSTRACT Li, D. and Zhang, Y. , 2019. Maritime communication regulation: A model for evaluating the performance. In: Gong, D. ; Zhu, H. , and Liu, R. (eds.), Selected Topics in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 94, pp. 997–1001. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. China's maritime communication regulatory departments have issued some corresponding regulatory policies to ensure the sound development of China's maritime communication, but the evaluation of the regulatory performance of these policies has not been taken seriously, and some existing studies still lack a set of performance evaluation models verified by empirical studies. Based on this, this paper first uses principal component analysis method to establish an exploratory model of China's maritime communication regulation performance evaluation based on the maritime communication data of 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China. On this basis, it uses BP neural network algorithm to verify the model and finally establishes a model of China's maritime communication regulation performance evaluation, thus providing a useful reference for China's maritime communication regulation.
Application of Ant Colony Algorithms in Path Planning of Ocean Survey

ABSTRACT Due to the existence of multiple constraints and optimization objectives, the path planning of ocean survey is very difficult. In this paper, ant colony algorithm is applied to the path planning of ocean survey. Considering the coverage of ant colony algorithm, the path planning of ocean survey is carried out, the competitive decision of ocean boundary is made, and the initial solution is created. In the path planning of ocean survey, the local search scope is limited to the K-nearest neighborhood of the network, only the most possible spatial neighborhood is searched, and the quality of the solution is improved iteratively. The performance of the algorithm is tested by using ocean survey path planning. The experimental results show that the proposed method can solve the competitive decision-making problem of 6 400 survey paths in 15 minutes. The quality of the solution is 10.8% better than that of ArcGIS, and the computing time is about 21.2%. Yu, H. -T. ; Wang, S. , and Bao, Y. , 2019. Application of ant colony algorithms in path planning of ocean survey. In: Gong, D. ; Zhu, H. , and Liu, R. (eds.), Selected Topics in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 94, pp. 121–124. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.
Hybrid SWOT-AHP Analysis of Strategic Decisions of Coastal Tourism: A Case Study of Shandong Peninsula Blue Economic Zone

ABSTRACT Liu, R. , Wang, Y. and Qian, Z. , 2019. Hybrid SWOT-AHP analysis of strategic decisions of coastal tourism in China: A case study of Shandong Peninsula Blue Economic Zone. In: Gong, D. ; Zhu, H. , and Liu, R. (eds.), Selected Topics in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 94, pp. 671–676. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Coastal tourism is an important growth point of marine economic. Shandong Peninsula Blue Economic Zone (SPBEZ) is the first approved strategic marine economic development zone in China. Its coastal tourism development not only has an important demonstration role, but also has important significance for the marine ecological civilization. This study combined SWOT analysis with the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), and with experts' professional knowledge, quantitatively calculated the intensities of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of coastal tourism in SPBEZ. From the perspective of SWOT-AHP model, drew strategic quadrilateral, calculated strategic vector, and scientifically established the strategic type and the strength of strategy implementation. The results show that the pioneering strategy of seizing opportunities should be actively implemented, and the implementation focus of OS strategy, OW strategy, ST strategy and WT strategy are further clarified.
Measuring Online Debaters’ Persuasive Skill from Text over Time

Abstract Online debates allow people to express their persuasive abilities and provide exciting opportunities for understanding persuasion. Prior studies have focused on studying persuasion in debate content, but without accounting for each debater’s history or exploring the progression of a debater’s persuasive ability. We study debater skill by modeling how participants progress over time in a collection of debates from Debate.org. We build on a widely used model of skill in two-player games and augment it with linguistic features of a debater’s content. We show that online debaters’ skill levels do tend to improve over time. Incorporating linguistic profiles leads to more robust skill estimation than winning records alone. Notably, we find that an interaction feature combining uncertainty cues (hedging) with terms strongly associated with either side of a particular debate (fightin’ words) is more predictive than either feature on its own, indicating the importance of fine- grained linguistic features.