Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Image analysis using visual saliency with applications in hazmat sign detection and recognition

Zhao, Bin Ph.D., Purdue University, December 2014. Image Analysis Using Visual Saliency with Applications in Hazmat Sign Detection and Recognition. Major Professor: Edward J. Delp. Visual saliency is the perceptual process that makes attractive objects “stand out” from their surroundings in the low-level human visual system. Visual saliency has been modeled as a preprocessing step of the human visual system for selecting the important visual information from a scene. We investigate bottom-up visual saliency using spectral analysis approaches. We present separate and composite model families that generalize existing frequency domain visual saliency models. We propose several frequency domain visual saliency models to generate saliency maps using new spectrum processing methods and an entropy-based saliency map selection approach. A group of saliency map candidates are then obtained by inverse transform. A final saliency map is selected among the candidates by minimizing the entropy of the saliency map candidates. The proposed models based on the separate and composite model families are also extended to various color spaces. We develop an evaluation tool for benchmarking visual saliency models. Experimental results show that the proposed models are more accurate and efficient than most state-of-the-art visual saliency models in predicting eye fixation. We use the above visual saliency models to detect the location of hazardous material (hazmat) signs in complex scenes. We develop a hazmat sign location detection and content recognition system using visual saliency. Saliency maps are employed to extract salient regions that are likely to contain hazmat sign candidates and then use a Fourier descriptor based contour matching method to locate the border of hazmat signs in these regions. This visual saliency based approach is able to increase the
An Unsupervised Approach based on Fingerprinting to the Web People Search task

In this paper we present the results obtained in the Web People Search task (WePS-2) when using an unsupervised approach based on document fingerprinting techniques. In the context of document indexing/retrieval, we consider a document fingerprint to be a specific code which may be used to uniquely identify this document from the rest of the text collection. In terms of implementation, we consider a document fingerprint may be obtained through hash-based indexing. The evaluation of the experiments carried out show that the implemented technique could have a positive impact in the analysis/indexing of huge volumes of information. However, the feature set for all the documents in the WePS framework needs to be further investigated.
/spl Sigma/-matching technique for MMPP modeling of heterogeneous ON-OFF sources

It has been believed that the MMPP (Markov modulated Poisson process) model is inadequate for describing heterogeneous sources because of the complexity of the parameter matching. The authors develop a simple and good parameter matching technique, called the X-matching, for the MMPP modeling of heterogeneous ON-OFF sources. It is based upon the well known property of MMPPs that the superposition of MMPPs is MMPP; each traffic class is modeled by a 2-state MMPP using average matching and then their superposition becomes a 2/sup L/-state MMPP where L is the number of traffic classes. The authors evaluate the performance of the /spl Sigma/-matching for various traffic classes.
Learning causal relationships: an integration of empirical and explanation-based learning methods

A theory of learning to predict and explain the outcomes of events is proposed. The theory integrates three sources of information: (1) Inter-example relationships: Regularities among a number of examples that reveal the conditions under which a cause produces an effect. (2) Intra-example relationships: Temporal and spatial relationships between a cause and an effect which constrain the search for a causal hypothesis. (3) Prior causal and social knowledge: Prior knowledge which predicts and explains regularities in events. I focus on the strengths and weaknesses of each source of information and their associated learning methods. I describe how the learning methods can be integrated in a complementary fashion. The proposed theory of learning is realized by a computer program that I constructed called sc OCCAM. sc OCCAM acquires causal and social knowledge by empirical techniques by exploiting inter-example and intra-example relationships. An explanation-based learning component of sc OCCAM takes advantage of prior knowledge to constrain the learning process. sc OCCAM is unique among explanation-based learning systems in that it has the ability to acquire, with empirical techniques, the background knowledge needed for explanation-based learning. For example, sc OCCAM learns about kidnapping by applying social knowledge acquired by empirical learning. The result of applying sc OCCAM to a collection of economic sanction incidents is also discussed.
Treatment adherence and quality of life among thyroid cancer patients

This study aimed to 1) determine the rate of adherence to treatment recommendations from health professionals among thyroid cancer patients, 2) identify factors infl uencing the adherence, and 3) compare the quality of life among patients before and after treatment with 30 mCi. radioiodine-131 (I-131). One hundred thirty eight patients who were registered at the Nuclear Medicine Division, Songklanagarind Hospital and received I-131 ablation were enrolled in the study. The researcher interviewed the subjects on two occasions 5-7 days apart. Two instruments were used in the study: The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT-G) instrument for assessing the patients’ quality of life and the interview instrument developed specifi cally for the study to measure knowledge on treatmen recommendation, knowledge on treatment, relevant health beliefs, and adherence to the treatment recommendation from health professionals. The results showed that more than 90% of patients followed the advice of health professionals on how to follow safety precautions before and after I-131 ingestion, and how to reduce radiation risk to others. The signifi cant predictors of adherence to the recommendations of safety precautions before receiving I-131 were knowledge of the correct practices, education, and experiences with treatment. The factors affecting adherence to the recommendation of safety precautions after receiving I-131 were knowledge on safety precautions, and education. The only signifi cant predictor of adherence to the recommendation to reduce radiation was knowledge on safety precautions. The social/ family well-being significantly decreased, but emotional well-being signifi - cantly improved after I-131 treatment.
National Drug Treatment Reporting System. statistical bulletin 1997 and 1998.

This Statistical Bulletin provides information regarding treated drug misuse in the Republic of Ireland for 1997 and 1998. Drug misuse which occurs outside the treatment context is not included - its extent is unknown. The Statistical Bulletin is based on data collected through the National Drug Treatment Reporting System [NDTRS]. The NDTRS is an epidemiological database providing information on people who present themselves to the health services throughout the country for help with their drug use problems. These problems may involve the misuse of controlled drugs such as cannabis, ecstasy, heroin etc.; or prescribed drugs such as benzodiazepines or antidepressants. Volatile inhalants such as solvents or glue are also included. Data is provided to the NDTRS through centres or service locations where drug use is treated. The locations cover a range of services and facilities including both medical and non-medical care. Returns were received for 68 service locations in 1997 and 100 locations in 1998. Not all possible centres made returns. Amongst the reasons for services not returning data were - no clients presented for treatment or returns were not forthcoming, due, for example, to lack of resources. In conclusion, it is felt that the centres which have returned data for 1997 and 1998, represent reasonable coverage of treated drug misuse in Ireland.
Designing Calm Technology

Bits flowing through the wires of a computer network are ordinarily invisible. But a radically new tool shows those bits through motion, sound, and even touch. It communicates both light and heavy network traffic. Its output is so beautifully integrated with human information processing that one does not even need to be looking at it or near it to take advantage of its peripheral clues. It takes no space on your existing computer screen, and in fact does not use or contain a computer at all. It uses no software, only a few dollars in hardware, and can be shared by many people at the same time. It is called the "Dangling String".
A spatial query & analysis tool for architects

There exists a lack of 'off the shelf' and user-friendly computational tools that allow architects and other design consultants to quickly analyse and simulate circulation patterns of buildings. Other developments of such tools have so far failed to penetrate the mainstream market for architectural design software. The research presented in this paper focuses on the development of a graph-based building navigation and distance measurement tool; the Spatial Analysis and Query Tool (SQ&AT), that plugs into the most common design documentation software (Autodesk Revit) with the ability for extension into other tools. The resulting software allows users to test point-to-point shortest distances, produces several grid based metrics and allows scenarios to be built. These results may expose areas where the designer's intuition and bias has led them to make inaccurate assumptions about quantitative design aspects.
A Century of Robotic Hands

This article reports on the state of the art of artificial hands, discussing some of the field's most important trends and suggesting directions for future research. We review and group the most important application domains of robotic hands, extracting the set of requirements that ultimately led to the use of simplified actuation schemes and soft materials and structures—two themes that clearly emerge from our examination of developments over the past century. We provide a comprehensive analysis of novel technologies for the design of joints, transmissions, and actuators that enabled these trends. We conclude by discussing some important new perspectives generated by simpler and softer hands and their interaction with other aspects of hand design and robotics in general.
A Novel Structure for Image Negative using Quantum Cellular Automata Adder

Quantum computing is the growing interest in recent years. As it can bring significant improvement in speed,while decreasing the power consumption and size. Quantum cellular automata is the major tool used for quantum computing. QCA mainly deals with the placement of unbounded electrons in the cell. Image negative in an digital image processing has been implemented using conventional computers. The size and complexity of these computers are of great concern. This drawback can be overcome by using quantum cellular automata technique to implement image negative. There are lot of researches going on in image processing field but non has been able to deal with the problem of area, speed and power consumption. Image negative is a process of enhancing white or grey detail embedded in the dark regions of an image. Image negative has a great advantage in the field of medicine. Mammogram for early detection and screening of breast cancer is one of the best example of its application.
Assessing older adults' current and expected 'social care related quality of life' in order to investigate the impact of care services

Extra care housing schemes are housing with care communities that allow for independent ownership of residences, flexible care packages, disability conscious design and on site facilities. The impact of support and care services within extra care housing schemes was explored through comparisons of quality of life in a sample of 83 extra care housing residents across seven schemes in England (62 female, mean age 80 years). A measure of ‘social care related quality of life’ reflected the current contributions of care and support services to aspects of residents’ lives ranging from personal care to social participation. This was compared to residents’ imagined view of their life in the absence of care and support services, described as their expected ‘social care related quality of life’. A lower estimated quality of life was recorded when residents considered their lives without care and support services, demonstrating the importance of services. The differences between current and expected ‘social care related quality of life’ suggest that care and support services are valuable in maintaining a satisfactory quality of life.
Discrete-Time MIMO Reset Controller and Its Application to Networked Control Systems

Reset control has been shown to have advantages over linear time-invariant controllers, especially, for control loops with time-delays. In this paper, in order to adapt reset control to networked control systems (NCS), multi-input multi-output discrete-time reset control model is first established by decomposing the controller output and defining appropriate flow set and jump sets. Then, we apply discrete-time reset controllers to NCS with time-varying delays in both forward and feedback channels, the modeling framework of networked reset control systems is given based on switched linear parameter-varying systems, and stability conditions are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Finally, experimental and simulation examples are presented to illustrate the superior performance of the proposed approaches.
The Syntax of Icelandic

1. Introduction 2. Word order and clause structure 3. Order of elements within the phrases 4. Case, agreement, grammatical relations and thematic roles 5. Passives, middles and unaccusatives 6. Expletive constructions and clause structure 7. Fronting, focussing, extraposition and NP-shift 8. Finite and non-finite complements and adjuncts 9. Pronouns, reflexives and empty categories.
Hierarchical control and learning for markov decision processes

This dissertation investigates the use of hierarchy and problem decomposition as a means of solving large, stochastic, sequential decision problems. These problems are framed as Markov decision problems (MDPs). The new technical content of this dissertation begins with a discussion of the concept of temporal abstraction. Temporal abstraction is shown to be equivalent to the transformation of a policy defined over a region of an MDP to an action in a semi-Markov decision problem (SMDP). Several algorithms are presented for performing this transformation efficiently. This dissertation introduces the HAM for generating hierarchical, temporally abstract actions. This method permits the partial specification of abstract actions in a way that corresponds to an abstract plan or strategy. Abstract actions specified as HAMs can be optimally refined for new tasks by solving a reduced SMDP. The formal results show that traditional MDP algorithms can be used to optimally refine HAMs for new tasks. This can be achieved in much less time than it would take to learn a new policy for the task from scratch. HAMs complement some novel decomposition algorithms that are presented in this dissertation. These algorithms work by constructing a cache of policies for different regions of the MDP and then optimally combining the cached solution to produce a global solution that is within provable bounds of the optimal solution. Together, the methods developed in this dissertation provide important tools for producing good policies for large MDPs. Unlike some ad-hoc methods, these methods provide strong formal guarantees. They use prior knowledge in a principled way, and they reduce larger MDPs into smaller ones while maintaining a well-defined relationship between the smaller problem and the larger problem.
Knowledge and attitudes of paediatric nurses related to breastfeeding

Introduction: Almost 90% of Australian mothers are exclusively breastfeeding when they discharge from maternity hospitals but by six months of age breastfeeding infants have reduced to 32% nationally and 19% in Queensland, far below the national target of 80%. Many factors influence the choice to breastfeed, including health care provision, therefore the knowledge and attitudes of paediatric nurses have the potential to affect breastfeeding duration. Aims: To assess current breastfeeding knowledge and attitudes of paediatric nurses in metropolitan and regional Queensland settings. Method: The study used a cross-sectional survey design. The tool was developed from several documented health professional questionnaires about breastfeeding, with permission from authors. Survey items relating breastfeeding physiology, factors relating to breastfeeding success, and local, national and international policies were also included. Ethics approval was granted from the appropriate Ethics Committees to conduct the survey through tertiary metropolitan and regional hospital settings. Results: A total of 241 surveys were returned, achieving a response rate of 53%. Nurses acknowledged breastmilk as the best source of nutrition for infants (99%, n=238) and that mothers should be encouraged to breastfeed (92%, n=221). However, many respondents considered infant formula a nutritional equivalent (44%, n=105) and (47%, n=113) were unaware that supplemental formulas interfered with successful breastfeeding. Most nurses recognised that stress (e.g. infant hospitalisation) impacts on the success of breastfeeding (90%, n=216). Knowledge of breastfeeding anatomy and physiology was poor and a substantial number of nurses did not identify correct attachment in response to two diagrammatic representations (76%, n=183 and 45%, n=109). Survey results demonstrated deficiencies in knowledge that would impact on support provided to breastfeeding mothers. Knowledge deficits were also identified relating to local, national and international policies and protocols concerning breastfeeding and breastmilk substitutes. Conclusion: Breastfeeding knowledge and attitudes were exceptional in areas related to general breastfeeding knowledge. However, in areas directly related to nursing practice, considerable deficits in paediatric nurses' knowledge and attitudes were identified. Lack of appropriate skills, knowledge and varying attitudes amongst paediatric nurses has the potential to negatively impact on the education, advice and support provided to breastfeeding mothers and their families whilst their infant is in hospital. These study findings will guide future research and strategies to improve knowledge and policy statements to assist paediatric nurses in fulfilling their role.
Towards a set of techniques to implement Bump Mapping

The revolution of three dimensional video gameslead to an intense development of graphical techniquesand hardware. Texture-mapping hardware is now able togenerate interactive computer-generated imagery withhigh levels of per-pixel detail. Nevertheless, traditionalsingle texture techniques are not able to simulate bumpedsurfaces decently. More traditional bump mappingtechniques, such as Emboss bump mapping, most timesdeploy an undesirable or ‘fake’ appearance to wrinkles insurfaces. Bump mapping can be applied to different typesof applications varying form computer games, 3denvironment simulations, and architectural projects,among others. In this paper we will examine a method thatcan be applied in 3d game engines, which uses texturemapsto generate bump surfaces in a flat polygon, calledDot3 bump mapping. This method is based on normalperturbationtechnique and a vectorial operationperformed at each pixel which results on a correct lightcalculation, and therefore great visual quality. We willpresent the foundations of the bump mapping method, anda technique proposal to apply it in a systematic form. Wehave used this technique in the implementation of a gameengine that will be used as a case study.
Loudness Control by Intelligent Audio Content Analysis

Automatic audio segmentation aims at extracting information of audio signals. In the case of music tracks, detecting segment boundaries, labelling segments, and detecting repeated segments could be performed. These information can be used in different applications such as creating song summaries and facilitating browsing in music collections. This thesis studies the Foote method which is one of the automatic audio segmentation algorithms. Numerous experiments are carried out to improve the performance of this method. The most suitable parameter settings of the Foote method, which have the best performance in detection of segment boundaries as correct as possible in real time audio segmentation, have been selected. Finally, real time audio segmentation results were applied to automatically control loudness level of a streaming audio input signal. Our experiments show that this application results in better dynamic structure preserving and faster loudness level adjustment.
Nutrition Through the Life Cycle

As one of the most respected nutrition life cycle texts in the higher education market, NUTRITION THROUGH THE LIFE CYCLE, Third Edition uses current research to explain the nutritional foundations necessary for the growth, development, and normal functioning of individuals in each stage of the life span. Filled with resources to guide your study, the Third Edition brings clarity to key concepts as it draws you into the excitement of new research in eating disorders, heart disease, diabetes, and many other topics. Written by an expert author team, this text benefits from a broad range of normal and clinical nutrition expertise from registered dietitians and researchers, meant to help you understand all the major concepts!
A prototype of parallel hybrid algorithm.

Parallel algorithms have focused an increase interest due to advantages in computation time and quality of solutions when applied to industrial engineering problems. In this communication , we present a prototype for a parallel hybrid algorithm combining an exact method like Branch and Bound (B&B) and a metaheuristic like Complete Local Search (CLM), Ghosh and Sierksma (2002), based in the sequential algorithm Bound Driven Search (BDS), Framinan and Pastor (2008).