Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High Quality Image Reconstruction of Point Models

The parallel and discrete nature of many image-based techniques, such as interpolation methods, are highly suitable for GPU implementations. An important advantage is their bounded complexity by the screen resolution as opposed to the data size. Consequently, the direct surface reconstruction of points using image-based methods is an attractive solution to interactively render large data-sets. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that raises the robustness and quality standards of previous related works. The algorithm achieves quality equivalent to surface splatting techniques, while maintaining high performance rates compatible with previous image-based methods. A hierarchical pixel structure is employed to render the projected samples efficiently with minimum artifacts. One of the main advantages of the method is the independency from the number of samples during the surface reconstruction. Furthermore, no extra object space data structure is needed, making the approach also memory efficient.
Do Neighborhoods Affect Work Behavior ? Evidence from the NLSY 79 September 2000

Researchers have argued that neighborhoods are an important determinant of labor activity. Using confidential street address data from the NLSY79, respondents were linked to neighborhood social characteristics and measures of job proximity. A one standard deviation increase in the social characteristics of a neighborhood increases annual hours by 6%; a similar increase in job proximity raises hours by 4%. Labor market activity at the individual level is positively related to labor market activity of neighbors. But employment is not the only neighborhood characteristic that matters. Being in a disadvantaged neighborhood, as measured by a variety of characteristics, reduces market work. Social interactions have non-linear effects with the greatest impact in the worst neighborhoods. Social interactions are more important for less educated workers and Hispanics. Job locations are more important for blacks. Estimates that do not account for neighborhood selection on the basis of time-invariant and time-varying unobserved individual characteristics substantially overstate the social effects of neighborhoods but understate the effects of job access.
Information diffusion model for microblog

Most current propagation models ignore individual differences between users. To solve this problem, we extract the impact of retweeting behavior of four categories of characteristics, and propose a method to predict individual forwarding behavior using logistic regression model. Then, by integrating into the user individual differences, a behavior-prediction based information diffusion model is established. The experiments results show that the model can simulate the process of information diffusion in the real network well.
Application of the Kinetic Voronoi Diagram to the Real-Time Navigation of Marine Vessels

In this paper a new type of GIS system for maritime navigation safety is proposed. The system takes advantage of the properties of the kinetic Voronoi diagram, and uses the "quad-edge" data structure for the real-time maintenance of the spatial relationships of ships and other navigational objects. The locations of ships are updated using a standard onboard AIS transponder, and moving-points Voronoi algorithms. The spatial relationships are used for collision detection and avoidance. The system is aimed at tackling the main cause of marine accidents - human errors - by providing navigational aid and decision support to navigators. The brief introduction into static and kinematic Voronoi methods is given and is followed by the discussion of different types of GIS systems for marine purposes. The state-of-the-art in maritime safety and its major developments are also covered.
A Localization System for the Ubiquitous Computing Office Environment

Localization is an important aspect in the ubiquitous computing environment. It allows the ubiquitous computing environment to provide a number of services. This paper focuses on the services that can be provided in the office environment by using localization and what kind of localization system is required for this. A number of parameters and taxonomies are listed to be able to characterize localization systems. The services for the ubiquitous computing environment are determined based on a literature study and observation in the current office environment. These services lead to the characteristics of the localization system that is required in the ubiquitous computing
Patient self-efficacy and health locus of control: relationships with health status and arthritis-related expenditure.

OBJECTIVE To explore the relationship between measures of self-efficacy, health locus of control, health status and direct medical expenditure among community-dwelling subjects with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS This analysis is part of a larger ongoing study of the costs and outcomes of arthritis and its treatments. Community-dwelling RA and OA respondents completed questionnaires concerning arthritis-related expenditure, health status, arthritis related self-efficacy and health locus of control. RESULTS Data were obtained from 70 RA respondents and 223 OA respondents. The majority of respondents were female with a mean age of 63 yr for RA respondents and 68 yr for OA respondents. Among the RA respondents, those with higher self-efficacy reported better health status and lower overall costs. Health locus of control was not consistently correlated with health status. OA respondents with higher self-efficacy reported better health status and lower costs. Health locus of control had more influence. OA respondents with higher external locus of control reported worse pain and function. A higher belief in chance as a determinant of health was correlated with more visits to general practitioners and a higher cost to both the respondent and the health system. CONCLUSION Higher self-efficacy, which is amenable to change through education programmes, was associated with better health status and lower costs to the respondent and the health system in this cross-sectional study. Locus of control had less of an influence; however, the tendency was for those with higher external locus of control to have higher costs and worse health status. As the measurement of these constructs is simple and the outcome potentially affects health status, these results have implications for future intervention studies to improve quality of life and reduce the financial impact of arthritis on both the health-care system and patients.
Design and implementation of a software defined radio based OFDMA network

OFDM technique has wide usage in modern communication systems, it can offer efficient use of frequency spectrum and high service quality for users. In literature, there are some software defined radio implementations of OFDM technique. OFDMA technique that can deliver advantages of OFDM technique to multi-user and dynamic based systems is more important for modern communications systems. In this study, for the first time in literature, multi-transmitter OFDMA, which is seen a generalized case of OFDM, is implemented using software defined radio technology. Handicaps of multi-user systems are tackled and solved with our implementation. This implementation is also an important step for understanding the basics and structure of modern and future communication technologies.
Detection of figure and caption pairs based on disorder measurements

Figures inserted in documents mediate a kind of information for which the visual modality is more appropriate than the text. A complete understanding of a figure often necessitates the reading of its caption or to establish a relationship with the main text using a numbered figure identifier which is replicated in the caption and in the main text. A figure and its caption are closely related; they constitute single multimodal components (FC-pair) that Document Image Analysis cannot extract with text and graphics segmentation. We propose a method to go further than the graphics and text segmentation in order to extract FC-pairs without performing a full labelling of the page components. Horizontal and vertical text lines are detected in the pages. The graphics are associated with selected text lines to initiate the detector of FC-pairs. Spatial and visual disorders are introduced to define a layout model in terms of properties. It enables to cope with most of the numerous spatial arrangements of graphics and text lines. The detector of FC-pairs performs operations in order to eliminate the layout disorder and assigns a quality value to each FC-pair. The processed documents were collected in medic@, the digital historical collection of the BIUM (Bibliothèque InterUniversitaire Médicale). A first set of 98 pages constitutes the design set. Then 298 pages were collected to evaluate the system. The performances are the result of a full process, from the binarisation of the digital images to the detection of FC-pairs.
On the uniform approximation of discrete-time systems by generalized Fourier series

In this paper, model sets for linear time-invariant discrete-time systems spanned by fixed orthonormal bases are studied. It is shown that the Fourier series of the system transfer function with respect to these bases converges uniformly on the unit circle if the frequency response of the system is Dini-Lipschitz continuous.
High-Frequency Fiber-Optic Ultrasonic Sensor Using Air Micro-Bubble for Imaging of Seismic Physical Models

A micro-fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) is proposed and demonstrated experimentally for ultrasonic imaging of seismic physical models. The device consists of a micro-bubble followed by the end of a single-mode fiber (SMF). The micro-structure is formed by the discharging operation on a short segment of hollow-core fiber (HCF) that is spliced to the SMF. This micro FPI is sensitive to ultrasonic waves (UWs), especially to the high-frequency (up to 10 MHz) UW, thanks to its ultra-thin cavity wall and micro-diameter. A side-band filter technology is employed for the UW interrogation, and then the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) UW signal is achieved. Eventually the sensor is used for lateral imaging of the physical model by scanning UW detection and two-dimensional signal reconstruction.
Modeling semantic context for key-frame extraction in wildlife video

In order to improve scene understanding, the focus in image and video retrieval research has been shifted from low-level feature extraction to producing high-level semantic representation of scenes. This paper presents a framework that produces semantic context features for image frame understanding and further employs a one-class classifier for key-frame extraction. Working with wildlife video frames, the framework starts with image segmentation, followed by low-level feature extraction and classification of the image blocks extracted from image segments. The labeled image blocks are then scanned through to generate a co-occurrence matrix of object labels, representing the semantic context within the scene. The semantic co-occurrence matrices then undergo binarization and principal component analysis for dimension reduction, forming the basis feature for frame representation. Experiments show that the utilization of high-level semantic features result in better key-frames extracted semantically as compared with using low-level features.
Fermionic atoms in an optical lattice: a new synthetic material

europhysicsnews T demonstration of Bose-Einstein condensation, ten years ago, has initiated a wave of research on quantum degenerate gases [1,2]. Close to absolute zero temperature the atoms almost come to a standstill and a window on the quantum nature of many-particle systems opens up. It has now become possible to establish a link between quantum gases and the physics of electrons in a solid. Ultracold fermionic atoms have been trapped in a crystal structure formed by interfering laser beams [3,4]. The properties of this synthetic material can be changed at will. Switching between conducting and insulating states has been demonstrated, and by tuning the interactions between the atoms, an intriguing regime beyond basic solid state models has become accessible. Even the dimensionality of the system is controlled. One-dimensional Fermi gases have been created and weakly bound molecules, existing only in one dimension, have been observed [5]. The unique versatility of atoms in these optical lattices makes researchers optimistic to study a whole range of phenomena linked to solid-state physics. Text-book style experiments, answers to open questions and new effects will probably be seen. For example, it has been proposed that the physics underlying high-temperature superconductivity may be mimicked in these systems [6,7]. In the following we give a general introduction to this novel research field, describe first experimental results on fermions in optical lattices and provide an outlook to this vibrant field.
Re-Evaluating Causal Modeling with Mantel Tests in Landscape Genetics

The predominant analytical approach to associate landscape patterns with gene flow processes is based on the association of cost distances with genetic distances between individuals. Mantel and partial Mantel tests have been the dominant statistical tools used to correlate cost distances and genetic distances in landscape genetics. However, the inherent high correlation among alternative resistance models results in a high risk of spurious correlations using simple Mantel tests. Several refinements, including causal modeling, have been developed to reduce the risk of affirming spurious correlations and to assist model selection. However, the evaluation of these approaches has been incomplete in several respects. To demonstrate the general reliability of the causal modeling approach with Mantel tests, it must be shown to be able to correctly identify a wide range of landscape resistance models as the correct drivers relative to alternative hypotheses. The objectives of this study were to (1) evaluate the effectiveness of the originally published causal modeling framework to support the correct model and reject alternative hypotheses of isolation by distance and isolation by barriers and to (2) evaluate the effectiveness of causal modeling involving direct competition of all hypotheses to support the correct model and reject all alternative landscape resistance models. We found that partial Mantel tests have very low Type II error rates, but elevated Type I error rates. This leads to frequent identification of support for spurious correlations between alternative resistance hypotheses and genetic distance, independent of the true resistance model. The frequency in which this occurs is directly related to the degree of correlation between true and alternative resistance models. We propose an improvement based on the relative support of the causal modeling diagnostic tests.
A New Method to Predict Software Defect Based on Rough Sets

High quality software should have as few defects as possible. Many modeling techniques have been proposed and applied for software quality prediction. Software projects vary in size and complexity, programming languages, development processes, etc. We research the correlation of software metrics focusing on the data sets of software defect prediction. A rough set model is presented to reduce the attributes of data sets of software defect prediction in this paper. Experiment shows its splendid performance.
Executive function in progressive and nonprogressive behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia

Background: Recent studies suggest that behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bv-FTD) patients differ in their prognosis with fast-progressing and very slow–progressing cases. We investigated executive and behavioral profiles of progressive and nonprogressive bv-FTD patients to establish diagnostic markers discriminating the two groups. Methods: A range of neuropsychological and behavioral tests were used. Mean overlap-based statistical analyses and logistic regression analyses were performed to distinguish progressive from nonprogressive bv-FTD cases. Results: Although progressors and nonprogressors showed similar behavioral profiles, they were distinguishable by their performance on executive tasks. The nonprogressors’ performance on all tests was with the normal range, whereas the progressors were consistently impaired on four tests: Digit Span Backward, Hayling Test of inhibitory control, Letter Fluency, and Trails B. Logistic regression showed that 86% of patients could be classified on the basis of Digit Span and Hayling subscores. Conclusions: Contrary to some prior reports, behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bv-FTD) patients who progress over time are typically impaired on executive tasks at first presentation, although an important minority of true FTD patients perform normally. Previous inconsistencies are explicable by the mixture of patients with progressing FTD and phenocopy cases.
DRAW: investigating benefits of adaptive fetch group size on GPU

Previously, hiding operation stalls is one of the important issues to suppress performance degradation of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). In this paper, we first conduct a detailed study of factors affecting the operation stalls in terms of the fetch group size on the warp scheduler. Throughout this paper, we find that the size of fetch group is highly involved in hiding various types of operation stalls. The short latency stalls can be hidden by issuing other available warps from the same fetch group. Therefore, the short latency stalls may not be hidden well under small sized fetch group since the group has the limited number of issuable warps to hide stalls. On the contrary, the long latency stalls can be hidden by dividing warps into multiple fetch groups. The scheduler switches the fetch groups when the warps in each fetch group reach the long latency memory operation point. Therefore, the stalls may not be hidden well at the large sized fetch group. Increasing the size of fetch group reduces the number of fetch groups to hide the stalls. In addition, the load/store unit stalls are caused by the limited hardware resources to handle the memory operations. To hide all these stalls effectively, we propose a Dynamic Resizing on Active Warps (DRAW) scheduler which adjusts the size of active fetch group. From the evaluation results, DRAW scheduler reduces an average of 16.3% of stall cycles and improves an average performance of 11.3% compared to the conventional two-level warp scheduler.
Coffee consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus: an 11-year prospective study of 28 812 postmenopausal women.

BACKGROUND Coffee intake may be associated with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus because of minerals, phytochemicals, and antioxidants in coffee, but the role of caffeine is unclear. Our objective was to examine the association between total, caffeinated, and decaffeinated coffee intake, as assessed by food frequency questionnaire at baseline, and risk of incident type 2 diabetes mellitus. METHODS This prospective analysis of the Iowa Women's Health Study (1986-1997) included 28 812 postmenopausal women free of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in the general community. The main outcome measure was incident type 2 diabetes mellitus as determined by mailed questionnaire. RESULTS Coffee intake was categorized as 0, less than 1, 1 to 3, 4 to 5, and 6 or more cups per day. During 11 years of follow-up, there were 1418 incident cases of diabetes. Relative risks (RRs) were adjusted for a variety of demographic, adiposity, and lifestyle measures. Compared with women who reported 0 cups of coffee per day, women who consumed 6 or more cups per day had a 22% lower risk (RR = 0.78; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.61-1.01) of diabetes (P for linear trend across categories, .06). This association appeared to be largely explained by decaffeinated coffee (RR = 0.67; 95% CI, 0.42-1.08; P for trend, .006) rather than regular coffee (RR = 0.79; 95% CI, 0.59-1.05; P for trend, .90). Intake of magnesium and phytate did not explain these associations. Intakes of caffeine from all sources was not associated with risk of diabetes. CONCLUSION Coffee intake, especially decaffeinated, was inversely associated with risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in this cohort of postmenopausal women.
Assessing secondhand smoke using biological markers

Secondhand smoke exposure (SHSe) is a known cause of many adverse health effects in adults and children. Increasingly, SHSe assessment is an element of tobacco control research and implementation worldwide. In spite of decades of development of approaches to assess SHSe, there are still unresolved methodological issues; therefore, a multidisciplinary expert meeting was held to catalogue the approaches to assess SHSe and with the goal of providing a set of uniform methods for future use by investigators and thereby facilitate comparisons of findings across studies. The meeting, held at Johns Hopkins, in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, was supported by the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute (FAMRI). A series of articles were developed to summarise what is known about self-reported, environmental and biological SHSe measurements. Non-smokers inhale toxicants in SHS, which are mainly products of combustion of organic materials and are not specific to tobacco smoke exposure. Biomarkers specific to SHSe are nicotine and its metabolites (eg, cotinine), and metabolites of 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK). Cotinine is the preferred blood, saliva and urine biomarker for SHSe. Cotinine and nicotine can also be measured in hair and toenails. NNAL (4-[methylnitrosamino]-1-[3-pyridyl]-1-butanol), a metabolite of NNK, can be determined in the urine of SHS-exposed non-smokers. The selection of a particular biomarker of SHSe and the analytic biological medium depends on the scientific or public health question of interest, study design and setting, subjects, and funding. This manuscript summarises the scientific evidence on the use of biomarkers to measure SHSe, analytical methods, biological matrices and their interpretation.
Supply Capacity , Vertical Specialization and Tariff Rates : The Implications for Aggregate U . S . Trade Flow Equations

This paper re-examines aggregate and disaggregate import and export demand functions for the United States over the 1975q1-2007q4 period. This re-examination is warranted because (1) income elasticities are too high to be warranted by standard theories, and (2) remain high even when it is assumed that supply factors are important. These findings suggest that the standard models omit important factors. An empirical investigation indicates that the rising importance of vertical specialization combined with decreasing tariffs rates explains some of results. Accounting for these factors yields more plausible estimates of income elasticities.
Applications of Low Density Parity Check Codes for Wiretap Channels and Congestion Localization in Networks

To my parents and my brother iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank my advisor, Professor Steven W. McLaughlin for his guidance and constant encouragement that got me through every step in my PhD. He was very understanding and always rescued me whenever I got myself into trouble. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with him for the past five years. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Professor So many people have influenced my PhD and as well as, my life! It would be an exercise in vain to try to acknowledge everyone here. I apologize to anybody I have left out. All my friends at the old source of support, encouragement and inane banter. I would like to thank Para, Nitin, Babak, David, Yogesh and Arumugam for making the transition to the new Centergy building vastly entertaining. I also thank my parents for their constant encouragement during the years of my PhD. They and my brother were a constant source of inspiration. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude towards my family. It would not have been possible without them.