Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficient edge-awareness propagation via single-map filtering for edge-preserving stereo matching

In this paper, we propose an efficient framework for edge-preserving stereo matching. Local methods for stereo matching are more suitable than global methods for real-time applications. Moreover, we can obtain accurate depth maps by using edge-preserving filter for the cost aggregation process in local stereo matching. The computational cost is high, since we must perform the filter for every number of disparity ranges if the order of the edge-preserving filter is constant time. Therefore, we propose an efficient iterative framework which propagates edge-awareness by using single time edge preserving filtering. In our framework, box filtering is used for the cost aggregation, and then the edge-preserving filtering is once used for refinement of the obtained depth map from the box aggregation. After that, we iteratively estimate a new depth map by local stereo matching which utilizes the previous result of the depth map for feedback of the matching cost. Note that the kernel size of the box filter is varied as coarse-to-fine manner at each iteration. Experimental results show that small and large areas of incorrect regions are gradually corrected. Finally, the accuracy of the depth map estimated by our framework is comparable to the state-of-the-art of stereo matching methods with global optimization methods. Moreover, the computational time of our method is faster than the optimization based method.
Protecting Scalable Video Flows from Congestion Loss

To minimize packet loss caused by bandwidth probing, a video congestion control algorithm may use Forward Error Correction (FEC) to reproduce dropped packets. Unfortunately, if a dominant part of the competing flows adds redundancy, the extra overhead may cause increased packet loss ratios in the network, and in turn do more harm than good. In this paper however, we demonstrate both analytically and with simulations, that by using a standard DiffServ dropping mechanism and assigning a lower precedence level to FEC packets, the negative effect of the added overhead can be strongly pacified. The analysis also show that the FEC benefit is clearly maximized when router buffers are small, favoring multimedia flows with delay and jitter requirements.
Reflections on the neurotherapeutic effects of hyperbaric oxygen

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke are the major causes of brain damage and chronic neurological impairments. There is no agreed-upon effective metabolic intervention for TBI and stroke patients with chronic neurological dysfunction. Clinical studies published this year present convincing evidence that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) might be the coveted neurotherapeutic method for brain repair. Here we discuss the multi-faceted role of HBOT in neurotherapeutics, in light of recent persuasive evidence for HBOT efficacy in brain repair and the new understanding of brain energy management and response to damage. We discuss optimal timing of treatment, dosage, suitable candidates and promising future directions.
A Co-Synthesis Environment for Embedding Digital Systems in a Sea-of-Gates IC

This paper describes a co-synthesis environment for the implementation of embedded digital systems on a single chip quick turnaround sea-of-gates technology. The target architecture integrates a parameterizable 8 bit RISC microcontroller core with application specific hardware functional units able to accelerate the execution of the timing critical system components. The hardware/software co-synthesis is guided by constraint directives added to the software-based system specification. The system proposed provides a suitable environment and an efficient solution for rapid prototyping and low cost small series production of low to medium complexity embedded digital systems.
Wildcard Search in Structured Peer-to-Peer Networks

We address wildcard search in structured peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, which, to our knowledge, has not yet been explored in the literature. We begin by presenting an approach based on some well-known techniques in information retrieval (IR) and discuss why it is not appropriate in a distributed environment. We then present a simple and novel technique to index objects for wildcard search in a fully decentralized manner, along with some search strategies to retrieve objects. Our index scheme, as opposed to a traditional IR approach, can achieve quite balanced loads, avoid hop spots and single point of failure, reduce storage and maintenance costs, and offer some ranking mechanisms for matching objects. We use the compact disc (CD) records collected in FreeDB (http://freedb.org) as the experimental data set to evaluate our scheme. The results confirm that our index scheme is very effective in balancing the load. Moreover, search efficiency depends on the information given in a query: the more the information, the higher the performance.
Symmetry plane detection in neuroimages based on intensity profile analysis

Symmetry plane identification is a critical initial step in brain image analysis, either done manually or automatically. Automatic extraction of the symmetry plane can provide an initial estimate for brain image registration, pathology assessment and disease diagnosis. This paper presents a novel technique for extracting the mid plane from volumetric magnetic resonance images (MRI). It is a theoretically simple approach that utilizes anatomical and radiological properties. The method is straight-forward to implement without the need for any prior segmentation. The efficacy of the proposed method was tested on brain MRI while investigating the robustness against rotation, intensity non-uniformity, noise and pathology. The method was compared with a cross-correlation based technique and the results show the viability of the approach.
Dragon: Data discovery and collection architecture for distributed IoT

Wireless Low-powered Sensing Systems (WLSS) are becoming more prevalent, taking the form of Wireless Sensor/Actuator Networks, Internet of Things, Phones etc. As node and network capabilities of such systems improve, there is more motivation to push computation into the network as it saves energy, prolongs system lifetime, and enables timely responses to events or control activities. Another advantage of such edge-processing is that these networks can become autonomous in the sense that users can directly query the network via any node in the network and are not required to connect to gateways or retrieve data via long range communications. Dragon is a scheme that efficiently identifies nodes that can reply to user requests based on static criteria that either describes that node or its data and provides the ability to near-optimally route queries or actuation control messages to those nodes. Dragon is scalable and agile as it does not require any central point orchestrating the search. In this paper we demonstrate significant performance improvements compared with state-of-the-art approaches in terms of numbers of messages required (up to 93% less) and its ability to scale to 100s of nodes.
Process algebra and non-interference

The information security community has long debated the exact definition of the term "security". Even if we focus on the more modest notion of confidentiality the precise definition remains controversial. In their seminal paper, Goguen and Meseguer (1982) took an important step towards a formalisation of the notion of absence of information flow with the concept of non-interference. This too was found to have problems and limitations, particularly when applied to systems displaying non-determinism which led to a proliferation of refinements of this notion and there is still no consensus as to which of these is "correct". We show that this central concept in information security is closely related to a central concept of computer science: that of the equivalence of systems. The notion of non-interference depends ultimately on our notion of process equivalence. However what constitutes the equivalence of two processes is itself a deep and controversial question in computer science with a number of distinct definitions proposed in the literature. We illustrate how several of the leading candidates for a definition of non-interference mirror notions of system equivalence. Casting these security concepts in a process algebraic framework clarifies the relationship between them and allows many results to be carried over regarding, for example, composition and unwinding. We also outline some generalisations of non-interference to handle partial and conditional information flows.
Fetal Origin of the Posterior Cerebral Artery Produces Left-Right Asymmetry on Perfusion Imaging

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Fetal origin of the PCA is a common anatomic variation of the circle of Willis. On perfusion imaging, patients with unilateral fetal-type PCA may demonstrate left-right asymmetry that could mimic cerebrovascular disease. The aim of this study was to characterize the relationship between a fetal-type PCA and asymmetry of hemodynamic parameters derived from MR perfusion imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed MR perfusion studies of 36 patients to determine the relationship between hemodynamic and vascular asymmetries in the PCA territory. Perfusion asymmetry indices for the PCA territory were computed from maps of rCBF, rCBV, MTT, Tmax, and FMT. Vascular asymmetry indices were derived from calibers of the PCA-P1 segments relative to the posterior communicating arteries. RESULTS: Asymmetrically smaller values of FMT and Tmax were observed with unilateral fetal-type PCA, and these were strongly correlated with the degree of vascular asymmetry (Spearman's rho = 0.76 and 0.74, respectively, P < 1 × 10−6). Asymmetries of rCBF, MTT, and rCBV were neither significant nor related to vascular asymmetry. CONCLUSIONS: Faster perfusion transit times are seen for parameters sensitive to macrovascular transit effects (eg, FMT and Tmax) ipsilateral to fetal origin of the PCA in proportion to the degree of arterial asymmetry. Knowledge of this normal variation is critical in the interpretation of perfusion studies because asymmetry could mimic cerebrovascular pathology.
Layer 2 Virtual Private Networks Using BGP for Auto-Discovery and Signaling

Layer 2 Virtual Private Networks (L2VPNs) based on Frame Relay or ATM circuits have been around a long time; more recently, Ethernet VPNs, including Virtual Private LAN Service, have become popular. Traditional L2VPNs often required a separate Service Provider infrastructure for each type and yet another for the Internet and IP VPNs. In addition, L2VPN provisioning was cumbersome. This document presents a new approach to the problem of offering L2VPN services where the L2VPN customer's experience is virtually identical to that offered by traditional L2VPNs, but such that a Service Provider can maintain a single network for L2VPNs, IP VPNs, and the Internet, as well as a common provisioning methodology for all services. This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes.
A Bayesian multinomial modeling of spatial pattern of co-morbidity of malaria and non-malarial febrile illness among young children in Nigeria.

BACKGROUND Children in developing countries continue to suffer mortality and morbidity from a number of illnesses, among which are malaria and non-malarial febrile illnesses, which epidemiologically overlap. We examined the spatial pattern and risk factors of co-morbidity of malaria and non-malarial febrile illness among children aged 6-59 months in Nigeria. METHOD Using data from the 2010 Nigeria Malaria Indicator Survey, we considered the co-morbidity of malaria and non-malarial febrile illness among the children as multicategorical and selected a mixed multinomial logit model capable of incorporating covariates of different types. Inference was Bayesian, based on multicategorical linear mixed-model representation. RESULTS We found that the risk of co-morbidity of malaria and non-malarial febrile illness increases as a child advances in age while the risk of non-malarial fever reduces after about 32 months of age. Area of residence (urban or rural), wealth index and type of roofing material used in the dwelling are other important risk factors for the co-morbidity found in this study. Further, children from four of Nigeria's 37 states are at high risk of malaria. CONCLUSIONS Disease preventive measures need to be intensified, with more focus on rural areas and the poor. Campaigns for use of insecticide-treated bed nets need be more aggressive in all Nigerian states.
Functional Program Testing

An approach to functional testing is described in which the design of a program is viewed as an integrated collection of functions. The selection of test data depends on the functions used in the design and on the value spaces over which the functions are defined. The basic ideas in the method were developed during the study of a collection of scientific programs containing errors. The method was the most reliable testing technique for discovering the errors. It was found to be significantly more reliable than structural testing. The two techniques are compared and their relative advantages and limitations are discussed.
Consistent evolution of UML models by automatic detection of change traces

As software evolves, analysis and design models should be modified, correspondingly. In this scenario, one of the main problems is to detect which elements should be changed due to a given change. This paper presents an approach that applies data mining over a versioned UML repository in order to detect change patterns among model elements at different abstraction levels. These patterns are presented to the software engineer together with contextual information obtained from a change control system, so he can decide the software evolution task at hand.
Role of Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase and Endocytosis in Nerve Growth Factor-Induced Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase Activation via Ras and Rap1

ABSTRACT Neurotrophins promote multiple actions on neuronal cells including cell survival and differentiation. The best-studied neurotrophin, nerve growth factor (NGF), is a major survival factor in sympathetic and sensory neurons and promotes differentiation in a well-studied model system, PC12 cells. To mediate these actions, NGF binds to the TrkA receptor to trigger intracellular signaling cascades. Two kinases whose activities mediate these processes include the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase (or extracellular signal-regulated kinase [ERK]) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3-K). To examine potential interactions between the ERK and PI3-K pathways, we studied the requirement of PI3-K for NGF activation of the ERK signaling cascade in dorsal root ganglion cells and PC12 cells. We show that PI3-K is required for TrkA internalization and participates in NGF signaling to ERKs via distinct actions on the small G proteins Ras and Rap1. In PC12 cells, NGF activates Ras and Rap1 to elicit the rapid and sustained activation of ERKs respectively. We show here that Rap1 activation requires both TrkA internalization and PI3-K, whereas Ras activation requires neither TrkA internalization nor PI3-K. Both inhibitors of PI3-K and inhibitors of endocytosis prevent GTP loading of Rap1 and block sustained ERK activation by NGF. PI3-K and endocytosis may also regulate ERK signaling at a second site downstream of Ras, since both rapid ERK activation and the Ras-dependent activation of the MAP kinase kinase kinase B-Raf are blocked by inhibition of either PI3-K or endocytosis. The results of this study suggest that PI3-K may be required for the signals initiated by TrkA internalization and demonstrate that specific endocytic events may distinguish ERK signaling via Rap1 and Ras.
Classification and Volume Morphing for Performance-Driven Facial Animation

We present a new facial animation approach that produces a wide variety of realistic facial expressions with advantages over existing geometry deformation and morphing methods for performance-driven animation systems. These systems sense and reconstruct a real person’s facial expressions from an image sequence. The novelty of our approach is to sense and animate both textures and geometry using classification, volume morphing, and 3D-texture interpolations. Feature tracking drives our volume morphing animation system directly, without a need for intermediate animation parameters. Classification encodes realistic dynamic skin wrinkles, eye blinking, and eye motions. Classification results control 3D-texture animations that reconstruct the observed facial appearance. Classification leads to extremely low bandwidths for communicating visual information and independence of the rendered resolution and image quality from sensing resolution and pose. We demonstrate our approach with results obtained with a realtime volume morphing engine that animates the geometry of a facial model from sparse motion samples. A wavelet-based classifier and a 3D-texture engine reproduce dynamic textures on the animated geometry, including wrinkling effects, eye blinking, and eye movements.
Congenital heart disease and chromossomopathies detected by the karyotype

OBJECTIVE: To review the relationship between congenital heart defects and chromosomal abnormalities detected by the karyotype. DATA SOURCES: Scientific articles were searched in MEDLINE database, using the descriptors "karyotype" OR "chromosomal" OR "chromosome" AND "heart defects, congenital". The research was limited to articles published in English from 1980 on. DATA SYNTHESIS: Congenital heart disease is characterized by an etiologically heterogeneous and not well understood group of lesions. Several researchers have evaluated the presence of chromosomal abnormalities detected by the karyotype in patients with congenital heart disease. However, most of the articles were retrospective studies developed in Europe and only some of the studied patients had a karyotype exam. In this review, only one study was conducted in Latin America, in Brazil. It is known that chromosomal abnormalities are frequent, being present in about one in every ten patients with congenital heart disease. Among the karyotype alterations in these patients, the most important is the trisomy 21 (Down syndrome). These patients often have associated extra-cardiac malformations, with a higher risk of morbidity and mortality, which makes heart surgery even more risky. CONCLUSIONS: Despite all the progress made in recent decades in the field of cytogenetic, the karyotype remains an essential tool in order to evaluate patients with congenital heart disease. The detailed dysmorphological physical examination is of great importance to indicate the need of a karyotype.
A loss-of-function screen reveals SNX5 and SNX6 as potential components of the mammalian retromer

The mammalian retromer is a multimeric protein complex involved in mediating endosome-to-trans-Golgi-network retrograde transport of the cation-independent mannose-6-phosphate receptor. The retromer is composed of two subcomplexes, one containing SNX1 and forming a membrane-bound coat, the other comprising VPS26, VPS29 and VPS35 and being cargo-selective. In yeast, an additional sorting nexin - Vps17p - is a component of the membrane bound coat. It remains unclear whether the mammalian retromer requires a functional equivalent of Vps17p. Here, we have used an RNAi loss-of-function screen to examine whether any of the other 30 mammalian sorting nexins are required for retromer-mediated endosome-to-trans-Golgi-network retrieval of the cation-independent mannose-6-phosphate receptor. Using this screen, we identified two proteins, SNX5 and SNX6, that, when suppressed, induced a phenotype similar to that observed upon suppression of known retromer components. Whereas SNX5 and SNX6 colocalised with SNX1 on early endosomes, in immunoprecipitation experiments only SNX6 appeared to exist in a complex with SNX1. Interestingly, suppression of SNX5 and/or SNX6 resulted in a significant loss of SNX1, an effect that seemed to result from post-translational regulation of the SNX1 level. Such data suggest that SNX1 and SNX6 exist in a stable, endosomally associated complex that is required for retromer-mediated retrieval of the cation-independent mannose-6-phosphate receptor. SNX5 and SNX6 may therefore constitute functional equivalents of Vps17p in mammals.
Negative Politeness Strategies Used By Sybil Branson In Downtown Abbey,s Television Series Script

Studi ini berjudul “Negative Politeess Strategies Used by Sybil Branson in Downtown Abbey’s Television Series Script”. Studi ini difokuskan dan bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi dan menganalisa jenis dari strategi kesopanan negative dan factor yang mempengaruhi pemakaian strategi tersebut oleh salah satu tokoh dari cerita fiktif tersebut bernama Sybil Branson. Data yang digunakan dalam studi ini diambil dari dialog yang terdapat dalam naskah serial televisi Downtown Abbey, terutama dialog antara Sybil Branson dengan keluarga, teman-teman dan pelayannya. Kalimat-kalimat yang digunakan sebagai sumber data studi ini adalah kalimat yang terdapat dalam percakapan yang menggunakan strategi kesopanan negative. Metode yang digunakan adalah metode kualitatif dan deskripsi. Teori yang digunakan dalam studi ini berdasarkan teori Brown dan Levinson (1978) untuk mengidentifikasi dan menganalisa jenis dari strategi kesopanan negative dan factor yang mempengaruhi pemakaian strategi tersebut. Hasil studi ini menyebutkan bahwa terdapat 10 jenis strategi kesopanan negative yang ditemukan dan 2 faktor yang mempengaruhi pemakaian strategi tersebut. Jenis dari strategi kesopanan negative dan faktor yang mempengaruhi pemakaiannya memiliki hubungan yang erat dalam percakapan sehari-hari. Baik digunakan untuk bercakap-cakap dengan perbedaan jenis kelamin, pria atau wanita, perbedaan umur, tua atau muda ataupun disesuaikan dengan keadaan, situasi dan kondisi.
Reader's Emotion Prediction Based on Weighted Latent Dirichlet Allocation and Multi-label k-nearest Neighbor Model ⋆

There are few existing works on emotion prediction from the reader’s perspective while most works are based on Bag of Words (BOW) model and single-label classification strategy. Considering that many emotions are the combination of more than one base emotion in nature, in this study, we transfer the reader’s emotion prediction to a multi-label classification problem. Meanwhile, intuitively, it is reasonable to associate the essential words describing the topics/events in the document with reader emotions rather than all of the words, thus we propose to apply Weighted Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model which is an expansion of LDA to discover the semantic relationship between the essential words in the documents and reader’s emotions. Finally, we incorporate WLDA model and a multilabel classification algorithm, namely multi-label k-nearest neighbor model (MLkNN) to predict reader’ emotion. The evaluations on a large user-generated community emotion corpus show that the proposed method achieves a better performance compared to BOW model and LDA model.
Multilayer Perceptron Trained with Numerical Gradient

of MLP networks is presented. Several versions of the algorithm and the influence of various parameters on the training process are discussed. Optimization of network parameters based on global search with numerical gradient is presented. Examples of two-dimensional projection of the error surface are shown and the influence of various numerical gradient parameters on the error surface is presented. The speed and accuracy of this method is compared with the search-based MLP training algorithm.