Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ondelettes analytiques et monogènes pour la représentation des images couleur. (Analytic and monogenic wavelets for color image representation)

De nombreux algorithmes de traitement d'image numerique (compression, restauration, analyse) sont bases sur une representation en ondelettes. Les outils mathematiques disponibles etant souvent penses pour des signaux 1D a valeurs scalaires (comme le son), ils sont mal adaptes aux signaux 2D vectoriels comme les images couleur. Les methodes les plus repandues utilisent ces outils independamment sur chaque ligne et chaque colonne (methodes " separables "), de chaque plan couleur (methode " marginale ") de l'image. Ces techniques trop simples ne donnent pas acces aux informations visuelles elementaires, aboutissant a des traitements qui risquent d'introduire des artefacts rectangulaires et de fausses couleurs. Notre axe de recherche se situe autour des representations analytiques qui utilisent un modele oscillatoire des signaux. Ces outils de traitement du signal sont connus pour etre bien adaptes a la perception humaine (auditive et visuelle), et leur extension a des dimensions superieures est un sujet encore tres actif, qui revele des proprietes interessantes pour l'analyse de la geometrie locale. Dans cette these, nous faisons une revue des ondelettes analytiques existantes pour l'image en niveaux de gris (dites complexes, quaternioniques et monogenes), et nous proposons des experimentations qui valident leur interet pratique. Nous deﬁnissons ensuite une extension vectorielle qui permet de manipuler facilement le contenu geometrique d'une image couleur, ce que nous validons a travers des experimentations en codage et analyse d'image.
The communicative and cognitive deficits following closed-head injury.

The communicative and cognitive deficits of three closed-head injured patients were investigated within the framework of language form, language use, and cognitive ability. A battery of tests was administered and results indicated a degree of cognitive impairment in all subjects. The balance between the language form and language use skills was subject-specific. These findings supported the current view of heterogeneity within the closed-head injured population as well as the view that a language disorder may result from an underlying cognitive deficit. The results are discussed in the light of the existing literature on head injury. The theoretical and clinical implications are considered.
Deformation, stirring and material transport in thermochemical plumes

The deformation, stirring processes and transport structures for a series of numerical models of plume formation in axisymmetric spherical shell are examined to better understand the development of lateral heterogeneity in mantle plumes. In our models we find that under a wide range of conditions the surrounding material is heated and entrained. This indicates that plume sampling the ambient mantle material on its way to the base of the lithosphere cannot be ruled out. The deformation and convective stirring can be significantly enhanced in the thermochemical plumes and the dispersion of compositional heterogeneity can be much more effective than that in the purely thermal plumes. For models with episodic pulsations or with small‐scale convection due to the interplay between the thermal and compositional buoyancy forces, material in the plume and the source region can undergo strong stretching and folding resulting in structures such as filaments, streaks, tendrils and well‐mixed regions. Islands can be surrounded by highly deformed regions which may contribute to structures such as the coexistence of the compositional heterogeneity and relatively homogeneous matrix in Ocean Island Basalts (OIBs). These results may have implications for the interpretation of the lateral heterogeneities of the OIBs.
Hospital-level Variation in Secondary Complications After Surgery

Objectives:To assess whether hospital rates of secondary complications could serve as a performance benchmark and examine associations with mortality. Background:Failure to rescue (death after postoperative complication) is a challenging target for quality improvement. Secondary complications (complications after a first or “index” complication) are intermediate outcomes in the rescue process that may provide specific improvement targets and give us insight into how rescue fails. Methods:We used American College of Surgeons’ National Surgical Quality Improvement Program data (2008–2012) to define hospital rates of secondary complications after 5 common index complications: pneumonia, surgical site infection (SSI), urinary tract infection, transfusion/bleed events, and acute myocardial infarction (MI). Hospitals were divided into quintiles on the basis of risk- and reliability-adjusted rates of secondary complications, and these rates were compared along with mortality. Results:A total of 524,860 patients were identified undergoing one of the 62 elective, inpatient operations. After index pneumonia, secondary complication rates varied from 57.99% in the highest quintile to 22.93% in the lowest [adjusted odds ratio (OR), 4.64; confidence interval (CI), 3.95–5.45). Wide variation was seen after index SSI (58.98% vs 14.81%; OR, 8.53; CI, 7.41–9.83), urinary tract infection (38.41% vs 8.60%; OR, 7.81; CI, 6.48–9.40), transfusion/bleeding events (27.14% vs 12.88%; OR, 2.54; CI, 2.31–2.81), and acute MI (64.45% vs 23.86%, OR, 6.87; CI, 5.20–9.07). Hospitals in the highest quintile had significantly greater mortality after index pneumonia (10.41% vs 6.20%; OR, 2.17; CI, 1.6–2.94), index MI (18.25% vs 9.65%; OR, 2.67; CI, 1.80–3.94), and index SSI (2.75% vs 0.82%; OR, 3.93; CI, 2.26–6.81). Conclusions:Hospital-level rates of secondary complications (failure to arrest complications) vary widely, are associated with mortality, and may be useful for quality improvement and benchmarking.
Probabilistic user behavior models in online stores for recommender systems

Recommender systems are widely used in online stores because they are expected to improve both user convenience and online store profit. As such, a number of recommendation methods have been proposed in recent years. Functions required for recommender systems vary significantly depending on business models or/and situations. Although an online store can acquire various kinds of information about user behaviors such as purchase history and visiting time of users, this information has not yet been fully used to fulfill the diverse requirements. In this thesis, we propose probabilistic user behavior models for use in online stores to tailor recommender systems to diverse requirements efficiently using various kinds of user behavior information. The probabilistic model-based approach allows us to systematically integrate heterogeneous user behavior information using rules of the probability theory. In particular, we consider three requirements for recommender systems: predictive accuracy, efficiency, and profitability. Models that can accurately predict present user behavior, rather than past user behavior, are necessary for recommendations because behaviors may vary with time. We propose a framework for learning models that best describes present samples and apply the framework to learning choice models that predict the next purchase item. In the proposed framework, models are learned by minimizing a weighted error over time that approximates the expected error at the present time. Efficiency is also an important issue for recommender systems because the systems need frequent updates in order to maintain high accuracy by handling a large number of purchase history data that are accumulated day by day. We present an efficient probabilistic choice model using temporal purchase order information. Fast parameter estimation and high predictive accuracy are achieved by combining multiple simple Markov models based on the maximum entropy principle. For the profitability requirement, it may be important for online stores to improve customer lifetime value (LTV) rather than to predict future purchases accurately. We present a recommendation method for improving LTV by integrating probabilistic choice models and purchase frequency models. The proposed recommendation method finds frequent purchase patterns of high LTV users, and
Effects of Hypoxia on the Closing Pressure of the Canine Systemic Arterial Circulation

We studied the relationships among closing pressure (Pc) and Indices of systemic arterial resistance (Ra) and compliance (Ca) during hypoxic hypoxia (HH) and carbon monoxide hypoxia (COH) in anesthetized dogs with cardiac bypass and constant ventilation. Closing pressure was measured as the lowest level to which arterial pressure (Pa) fell after inflow to the arterial bed was reduced suddenly to zero. Since the fall of Pa to Pc could be well-described as a single exponential function of time and since Pc was always greater than outflow (venous) pressure, Ra and Ca were determined by applying a “vascular waterfall” model to the arterial bed. During HH, Pc increased while Ra and Ca decreased. During COH, Pc and Ra decreased, but Ca did not change. The Pc results indicate that during HH, but not COH, a large portion of the systemic arterial bed experienced a marked increase in vasomotor tone, a qualitative difference that would have been missed if Pc had not been measured. The relationships among Pc, Ra, and Ca during hypoxia suggest these indices may have been determined largely by different portions of the arterial bed in which tone changed independently.
Validity of self-assessment of oral health among 15-year-olds in Tehran, Iran.

PURPOSE The objective of the present study was to compare the self-assessed and the clinically determined findings of oral health and their determinants among 15-year-olds in Tehran, Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross-sectional study based on World Health Organization criteria and the methods of the Second International Collaborative Study was carried out among the 15-year-olds (N = 509). The data were based on a self-administered questionnaire and a clinical dental examination. RESULTS Altogether 78% of the 15-year-olds assessed their oral health as good or better. Based on self-assessment, 46% reported gingival bleeding, 28% reported the need for a filling and 23% for teeth straightening. Clinical examinations showed that 40% of the students had sound dentition (decayed, missing or filled teeth, DMFT = 0), 40% had current caries (decayed teeth, DT > 0), 92% had gingival bleeding and 26% had a definite need for orthodontic treatment. Most of those with DMFT = 0 and DT = 0 assessed their oral health as good or better. Compared with clinical findings, sensitivity for self-assessed need for fillings, gingival bleeding and the need for teeth straightening were 42%, 49% and 37%, respectively, whereas the corresponding specificities were 82%, 80% and 81%, respectively. Good or better self-perceived oral health was more likely among those with sound dentition (odds ratio, OR = 2.1, P = 0.01), with no self-assessed need for fillings (OR = 2.1, P = 0.01), with a self-assessed absence of gingival bleeding (OR = 2.9, P < 0.001) or with highly educated parents (OR = 1.2, P = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS When compared with clinical evaluations, the students most accurately detected healthy conditions. Educating the students on the signs of dental diseases could increase the reliability of self-assessment to provide a useful method for reporting oral conditions, especially in countries with developing oral health care systems.
Data Mining using Advanced Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm and Application to Bankruptcy Prediction

Ant Colony Optimization ACO is gaining popularity as data mining technique in the domain of Swarm Intelligence for its simple, accurate and comprehensive nature of classification. In this paper the authors propose a novel advanced version of the original ant colony based miner Ant-Miner in order to extract classification rules from data. They call this Advanced ACO-Miner ADACOM. The main goal of ADACOM is to explore the flexibility of using a different knowledge extraction heuristic approach viz. Gini's Index to increase the predictive accuracy and the simplicity of the rules extracted. Further, the authors increase the information and the prediction level of the set of rules extracted by dynamically changing specific parameters. Simulations are performed with ADACOM on a few benchmark datasets Wine, WBC Wisconsin Breast Cancer and Iris from UCI University of California at Irvine data repository and compared with Ant-Miner Parpinelli, Lopes, & Freitas, 2002, Ant-Miner2 Liu, Abbass, & McKay, 2002, Ant-Miner3 Liu, Abbass, & McKay, 2003, Ant-Miner+ Martens, De Backer, Haesen, Vanthienen, Snoeck, & Baesens, 2007 and C4.5 Quinlan, 1993. The results show that ADACOM outperforms the above mentioned algorithms in terms of predictive accuracy, simplicity of rules, sensitivity, specificity and AUC values area under ROC curve. In addition, the ADACOM is also employed to extract rules from bank datasets UK, US, Spanish and Turkish for bankruptcy prediction and the results are compared with that obtained by Ant-Miner. Again ADACOM yielded better results and is proven to be the better choice for solving bankruptcy prediction problems in banks
A Space-Based Layout Algorithm for the Drawing of Co-citation Networks

We present in this paper a drawing algorithm to represent graphically co-citation networks (scientograms). These networks have some interesting and unusual topological properties which are often valuable to be visualized. In general, these networks are pruned with a network scaling algorithm, then visualized using a drawing algorithm \cite{Chen98a}. However, typical drawing algorithms do not work properly, especially when the size of the networks grows. Edge crossings appear while the drawing space is not adequately filled resulting in an unsightly display. The approach presented in this paper is able to print the networks filling all the available space in an aesthetic way, while avoiding edge crossings. The algorithm is detailed and compared with the classical Kamada-Kawai drawing algorithm on two maps.
What is the role of cultural factors in the gravity model of FDI

I greatly appreciate the help of my supervisor Dr. E.M. Bosker. When I got stuck we discussed the possibilities to make this master thesis a success. After each meeting I started again with renewed energy and new insights. I also would like to thank my colleagues who where there for me if I needed help. Last but not least I am grateful to my parents and friends who supported me throughout my study. Whenever I doubted which route to take, they advised me or had faith in my choices which eventually led to the end of my study.
The Interplay Between Social Cynicism Beliefs and Person–Organization Fit on Work-Related Attitudes Among Chinese Employees

In recent decades, person–organization (P–O) fit has been established as an important predictor of work-related attitudes (e.g., Hoffman & Woehr, 2006; Kristof-Brown, Zimmerman, & Johnson, 2005). However, research has revealed the existence of boundary conditions for effects of P–O fit (e.g., employees' personality, perceptions of other aspects of their jobs; Resick, Baltes, & Shantz, 2007). We argue that people's worldview may also moderate this process, adding predictive power above and beyond the established moderation effects of personality and other aspects of fit in the organization. To examine this possibility, we conducted a survey among Chinese employees from various organizations to examine the interaction between their social beliefs and P–O fit on their level of job satisfaction.
A Constraint-Programmed Planner for Deep Space Exploration Problems With Table Constraints

In recent years because of the increasing number and types of scientific payloads on a probe, the constraints between payload and probe and the constraints among payloads have become increasingly complex. The technology of constraint processing has gradually become a focus of research in deep space planning. In this paper, we propose a constrained-programmed planner called DSPlan for deep space planning problems based on table constraints. We first propose a technique for automatically converting the planning domain definition language model used in planning into the form of table constraints. Following the common practice of coding a planning problem as a constraint satisfaction problem with multiple levels, we propose a dynamic constraint set and a corresponding mutex filtering algorithm to express the different combinations of constraints on varying levels that need to be satisfied. This new form of data structure uses explicit domain information to maintain the generalized arc consistency of table constraints. Empirical analyses demonstrate the efficiency of table constraints over the international planning competition problem and classic deep space instances in general arc consistency schema algorithms. Experimental results also prove that DSPlan and table constraints are highly promising general-purpose tools for deep space planning problems compared with other planners.
Event studies: discourses and future directions.

The field of event Studies is described and its evolution considered, with specific reference to three general subdivisions or discourses. Event tourism, event management, and disciplinary perspectives are all quite different in terms of their approach to studying planned events, the concepts of interest, and related public and policy discourse. Major concepts being discussed in event management and event tourism are identified (both being highly instrumentalist in nature), while sociological and anthropological themes are examined to illustrate the disciplinary approach. In particular, major differences between the three discourses are observable in the context of how event impacts are addressed, and this is reflected in public and political discourse. The article concludes with a discussion of future directions and the need for interdisciplinary theory building.
Long-term resistance to simulated climate change in an infertile grassland

Climate shifts over this century are widely expected to alter the structure and functioning of temperate plant communities. However, long-term climate experiments in natural vegetation are rare and largely confined to systems with the capacity for rapid compositional change. In unproductive, grazed grassland at Buxton in northern England (U.K.), one of the longest running experimental manipulations of temperature and rainfall reveals vegetation highly resistant to climate shifts maintained over 13 yr. Here we document this resistance in the form of: (i) constancy in the relative abundance of growth forms and maintained dominance by long-lived, slow-growing grasses, sedges, and small forbs; (ii) immediate but minor shifts in the abundance of several species that have remained stable over the course of the experiment; (iii) no change in productivity in response to climate treatments with the exception of reduction from chronic summer drought; and (iv) only minor species losses in response to drought and winter heating. Overall, compositional changes induced by 13-yr exposure to climate regime change were less than short-term fluctuations in species abundances driven by interannual climate fluctuations. The lack of progressive compositional change, coupled with the long-term historical persistence of unproductive grasslands in northern England, suggests the community at Buxton possesses a stabilizing capacity that leads to long-term persistence of dominant species. Unproductive ecosystems provide a refuge for many threatened plants and animals and perform a diversity of ecosystem services. Our results support the view that changing land use and overexploitation rather than climate change per se constitute the primary threats to these fragile ecosystems.
Reliability-Aware Energy Management for Periodic Real-Time Tasks

The prominent energy management technique, dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS), was recently shown to have direct and adverse effects on system reliability. In this work, we investigate static and dynamic reliability-aware energy management schemes for a set of periodic real-time tasks to minimize energy consumption while preserving system reliability. Focusing on EDF scheduling, we first show that the static problem is NP-hard and propose two task-level utilization-based heuristics. Then, we develop a job-level dynamic (on-line) scheme by building on the idea of wrappertasks, to monitor and manage dynamic slack efficiently in reliability-aware settings. Our schemes incorporate recovery tasks/jobs into the schedule as needed for reliability preservation, while still using the remaining slack for energy savings. Simulation results show that all the proposed schemes can achieve significant energy savings while preserving the system reliability. Moreover, the energy savings of the static heuristics are close to those of the static optimal solution by a margin of 5%
Amplifier function of resistance vessels and the left ventricle in hypertension

We have recently modeled the structural factors responsible for the increased slope of the dose-vascular resistance response curves in the hindquarter bed under both in vitro and in vivo conditions. Slope increases when the ratio of wall thickness to internal radius ri) increases and when ri decreases, but the slope decreases with greater wall stiffness. Enhanced slope is an indicator of the vascular amplifier properties. Resistance at maximum vasodilation in hypertension is also structurally determined and is most affected by a reduction in riEarly treatment studies with angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) suggest that the reduction in ri can be reversed, suggesting that it is due to vascular hypertrophy. The concentrically hypertrophied left ventricle is an amplifier of stroke volume. Together, the vascular and left ventricular amplifiers contribute about 70% to the elevated total peripheral resistance in renovascular hypertension. In SHR, the vascular amplifier is present early in postnatal life before the onset of hypertension, which occurs in parallel with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). The development of the vascular amplifiers appears to be under the control of the renin-angiotensin system, whilst LVH appears to be under sympathoadrenal control, acting through cardiac α -adrenoceptors. Early immunosympathectomy plus prazosin treatment specifically prevents development of LVH in SHR and also prevents hypertension. In human hypertension, cardiac hypertrophy also plays an important role; after a period of prolonged therapy, the rate of redevelopment of hypertension when the drugs are stopped depends on the degree of regression of LVH during treatment. We conclude that the early development of vascular and cardiac amplifiers in primary hypertension appears to be genetically determined and the role of the heart in pathogenesis appears to be greater than previously thought.