Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Improved Visual SLAM Algorithm Based on Graph Neural Network

Feature extraction and matching are irreplaceable parts of a typical visual simultaneous localization and mapping (VSLAM) algorithm. A variety of different approaches (e.g., ORB, Superpoint, GCNv2, etc.) have been proposed for effective feature extraction and matching. However, as far as we know, such methods still face great challenges in extreme angle and texture sparse scenarios. In this paper, an Improved Visual SLAM Algorithm Based on Graph Neural Network (GNNI-VSLAM), inspired by the strong robustness of the graph neural network in the field of image matching, is proposed to solve the problem of feature point extraction difficulties in sparsely textures scenes and feature point matching difficulties at extreme angles. First, the a priori location estimation feature extraction network is proposed to obtain fast and uniform detection and description of image feature points by a priori location estimation and to build accurate and real feature point information. Second, the feature matching network of the graph attention mechanism is proposed to aggregate feature point information through the neural network of the message passing graph, and then use the self and joint attention mechanism for adjacent image frame weighted feature matching. Then, the feature extraction and neural network are merged with the back-end nonlinear optimization, closed-loop correction and local mapping modules of the ORB-SLAM2 system to propose a complete monocular vision GNNI-VSLAM system. Finally, the proposed algorithm is verified by the public TUM dataset and the experimental results show that the absolute trajectory error of the proposed algorithm is reduced by 29.7 % compared to the GCNv2-SLAM algorithm, which shows a good mapping capabilities.
Psoriasis and the risk of diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE To compare the prevalence and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus between patients with psoriasis and those without psoriasis. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews between January 1, 1980, and January 1, 2012. STUDY SELECTION Observational (cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional) studies published in English that compared the prevalence or incidence of diabetes among patients with psoriasis with individuals serving as controls. DATA EXTRACTION Two independent investigators extracted the data. The quality of evidence was assessed using a 6-point scale. DATA SYNTHESIS Among 142 identified publications, 27 observational studies were included in the meta-analysis. Five of these studies assessed the incidence of diabetes in patients with psoriasis and were analyzed separately. Among studies assessing the prevalence, psoriasis was associated with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.59 (95% CI, 1.38-1.83) for diabetes. The pooled OR was 1.53 (95% CI, 1.16-2.04) for mild psoriasis and 1.97 (1.48-2.62) for severe psoriasis. Meta-regression of prespecified potential sources of heterogeneity revealed a nonsignificant difference (P= .10) of increased reported strength of association among studies that used medical record review (OR, 1.52 [95% CI, 1.31-1.77]) or patients' report of diabetes (2.79 [1.42-5.48]) compared with studies that used billing data (1.46 [1.01-2.09]). Among studies that assessed incidence, psoriasis was associated with a relative risk of 1.27 (95% CI, 1.16-1.40) for developing diabetes. CONCLUSIONS Psoriasis is associated with an increased prevalence and incidence of diabetes. The association of psoriasis with diabetes may be strongest among patients with severe psoriasis.
Evaluation of Interprofessional Education

To evaluate the impact of interprofessional education (IPE) in final-year optometry learners, a questionnaire was given to assess their knowledge, attitude and skill around interprofessional collaboration (IPC) before they completed a placement with an interprofessional health clinic. Results showed that a majority of learners believed there is an increasing need for IPE and IPC in optometry and felt the development of multidisciplinary ideas and the enhancement of patient-centered care are the main benefits. Both the learners and clinic members indicated that they gained a personal satisfaction working together and were interested in future collaborations. Further investigation is required to enhance the understanding of how optometry improves patient care outcomes in an interprofessional setting.
Fundal height growth curve patterns of pregnant women with term low birth weight infants

Purpose To investigate the patterns of fundal height (FH) growth curve in pregnant women with term low birth weight (LBW) infants compared with the standard FH growth curve for Thai women. Subjects and methods A retrospective study was conducted at the four governmental general hospitals in the northern part of Thailand between 2009 and 2011. All data were obtained from antenatal records and labor registry. Serial FH measurements in centimeters of 75 pregnant women with term LBW infants were plotted against the standard FH growth curve for Thai women throughout pregnancy. Results Six patterns of the FH growth curve were summarized: pattern I: FH below or around the tenth percentile throughout pregnancy (n=17, 22.7%); pattern II: FH below normal in early pregnancy, caught up with normal, then decelerated or stagnant (n=19, 25.3%); pattern III: FH normal in early pregnancy, then decelerated or stagnant (n=17, 22.7%); pattern IV: FH normal in early pregnancy, decelerated or stagnant, then caught up to normal (n=6, 8.0%); pattern V: FH normal throughout pregnancy except for the last visit (n=6, 8.0%); and pattern VI: FH normal throughout pregnancy (n=10, 13.3%). Conclusion Patterns I–V may be used to recognize women who are likely to deliver term LBW infants from early pregnancy, during pregnancy, and on the day of admission for labor. Ultrasound evaluation is still recommended in cases with known risk factors that might be undetectable by FH, or in cases where FH measurement may be inaccurate.
International Journal of Computer Vision

▶ Details the science and engineering of the rapidly growing field of computer vision ▶ Presents major technical advances of broad general interest ▶ Provides a fast publication path for novel research results ▶ Offers critical reviews of the state of the art and/or tutorial presentations of pertinent topics ▶ 92% of authors who answered a survey reported that they would definitely publish or probably publish in the journal again
pu ta çã o A trajectory deformation algorithm for intelligent vehicles

JUSTO, V. H. S. A trajectory deformation algorithm for intelligent vehicles. 2023. 93 p. Dissertação (Mestrado em Ciências – Ciências de Computação e Matemática Computacional) – Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação, Universidade de São Paulo, São Carlos – SP, 2023. Autonomous vehicles require robust planning algorithms to compute the sequence of movements from a starting point to an ending goal while considering the constraints in the environment. It is challenging to ensure safety maneuvers in all possible traffic scenarios and the motion planning module recalculates initially-planned trajectories as many times as necessary to resolve those complex situations. However, the computational cost rises up when the planning process is repeated many times for the same task and current solutions do not allow to link user preferences to the vehicle’s motion behavior. An alternative is to generate new trajectories based on planned trajectories already available. We propose an algorithm that takes into account Signal Temporal Logic (STL) formulas that represent the constraints imposed by the user in order to modify invalid trajectories and guide the motion planning into respecting safety requirements such as the minimum distance to static obstacles or between vehicles. We use a lattice-based planner to generate candidate paths and include a multi-resolution feature to generate as many lattices as it is necessary depending on the context. Then, the STL robustness value quantifies the level of respect that initial paths have for STL specifications and activates the repairing process that generates new lattices based on the initial selected path. The robustness measure also defines a new resolution to generate lattices and influences the cost function to ensure the selection of the path that has more respect for the STL formulas. The deformed version of the initial lattice is used to generate the trajectory for a specified planning horizon using a simulation approach. The computational cost of the proposed repairing strategy is less than recalculating the complete trajectory from scratch and it is specially convenient when there are not many rule violations near the goal region. We evaluate our approach using the automobile tools of the robot simulator Webots considering different traffic scenarios involving obstacle avoidance. The efficiency of our method is demonstrated by comparing trajectories using STL constraints with trajectories that do not consider STL rules.
Syntactic Complexity in EFL Writing: Within-Genre Topic and Writing Quality 1

This study examined the relationship between the syntactic complexity of EFL writing and writing quality as judged by human raters. It also explored the role of topics in the relationship. The data set used was 320 argumentative essays produced by EFL learners taken from the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (ICNALE). These essays were analyzed using eight syntactic complexity measures with the L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer. The complexity indices and writing scores of the essays were quantitatively analyzed. The result indicated strong topic effects on the majority of syntactic complexity measures. There were significant changes across different proficiency levels in phrasal-level measures but not in clause-level measures. In comparison to essays on the smoking topic, essays on the part-time job topic showed a significantly greater overall T-unit complexity, particularly at more advanced proficiency levels. However, there were no statistical differences in overall sentence complexity. Concerning the relationship between syntactic complexity and writing quality, global features including Mean Length of Sentence (MLS) and Mean Length of T-unit (MLT) were found to have a significant, positive relationship with writing scores across both topics. At the local level, though, the correlations varied considerably between syntactic measures.
Midlatitude Synoptic Meteorology: Dynamics, Analysis, and Forecasting

The past decade has been characterized by remarkable advances in meteorological observation, computing techniques, and data-visualization technology. However, the benefit of these advances can only be fully realized with the introduction of a systematic, applied approach to meteorological education that allows well-established theoretical concepts to be applied to modernized observational and numerical datasets. This textbook, which covers synoptic-dynamic meteorology, synoptically driven mesoscale phenomena, weather forecasting, and numerical weather prediction, links theoretical concepts to modern technology and facilitates the meaningful application of concepts, theories, and techniques using real data. As such, it will both serve those planning careers in meteorological research and weather prediction and provide a template for the application of modern technology in a classroom and laboratory setting.
Karatsuba Algorithm for multiplication of Linearized Polynomials

This paper explores multiplication of linearized polynomials in the field F q m as an alternative for matrix multiplications in the field F n × n q . this is done by means of an implementation of the Karatsuba Algorithm for linearized polynomials. A comparison based on time complexity is made against Schoolbook multiplication. This comparison shows the Karatsuba algorithm to be faster for linearized polynomials of degree n > 19 independent of q and for even lower degrees n when q gets larger. Finally, this research shows naive matrix multiplication in F n × n q to yield the most efficient computation over Karatsuba linearized polynomials multiplications over F q m .
Possibilities of increasing biodiversity in the genus Elaeagnus L. during reproduction by soft cuttings

In this article, for the first time in Russia, the reproduction results of four species of the genus Elaeagnus L. by soft cuttings are presented comparatively. The promising genus of Elaeagnus L. have been identified in terms of fruiting and ornamentally. Their reproduction methods by soft cuttings with growth regulators, which make it possible to obtain high-quality seedlings for planting plantations, have been studied. Experiments on reproduction by soft cuttings were carried out in 2018 - 2020 on the territory of the Fruit Station of the RSAU-Moscow Agricultural Academy, named after K.A. Timiryazev. The cuttings were treated with three different growth regulators, stimulants of root formation (IMA-indolylbutyric acid, GHC-hydroxycinnamic acid (Zircon), and BCI + GGA (Universal rooting agent) and water was used as a control. The obtained results were processed by analysis of variance, as a result of which the morphological variability of rooted soft cuttings was revealed when treated with growth and development regulators. It was found that the genotype and stimulants significantly affect the average length and number of roots, the growth of shoots, their number, and the number of leaves on the shoot. The most effective was the growth and development regulator GKK + IMC. The results obtained make it possible to increase the biodiversity of valuable genotypes of the genus Elaeagnus L.
Pembangunan dan penilaian modul pengajaran dan pembelajaran berasaskan multimedia subjek reka bentuk dan teknologi sekolah rendah

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk membangunkan dan menilai modul pengajaran dan pembelajaran berasaskan multimedia bagi subjek Reka Bentuk dan Teknologi (RBT) Tahun Lima. Modul tersebut dibangunkan berpandukan model ADDIE iaitu analisis, rekabentuk, pembangunan, perlaksanaan dan penilaian. Model ini merangkumi lapan peringkat iaitu pemilihan tajuk, penyediaan alatan untuk dirakam, pengujian alatan, rakaman video, penyuntingan video, pembangunan modul, pengujian dan penambahbaikkan modul serta penilaian rintis modul. Pendekatan kuantitatif dengan reka bentuk eksperimen kuasi telah digunakan dalam kajian ini. Pemilihan subjek kajian dijalankan secara persampelan kluster melibatkan 50 orang murid Tahun Lima Sekolah Kebangsaan Bidor 2. Subjek kajian terdiri daripada 25 orang pelajar kumpulan eksperimen dan 25 orang pelajar kumpulan kawalan. Tiga instrumen kajian digunakan iaitu set soalan ujian pra dan ujian pos serta borang soal selidik. Data dianalisis dengan menggunakan analisis deskriptif dan inferensi. Analisis deskriptif menjelaskan persepsi murid terhadap modul yang dibangunkan, manakala statistik inferensi pula melibatkan ujian-t yang menerangkan perbezaan antara pemboleh ubah kajian. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa pencapaian murid kumpulan eksperimen mengalami peningkatan yang signifikan berbanding pencapaian murid kumpulan kawalan. Dapatan kajian juga menunjukkan bahawa tidak terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan antara pencapaian murid lelaki dan perempuan kumpulan eksperimen. Hasil dari analisis soal selidik pula mendapati hampir semua murid yang diajar dengan menggunakan modul yang dibangunkan mempunyai persepsi yang positif terhadap modul tersebut dari aspek elemen multimedia (88.8%), motivasi (95.2%) dan kefahaman (83.2%). Kesimpulan daripada kajian menunjukkan penggunaan modul pengajaran berasaskan multimedia yang dibangunkan telah meningkatkan pencapaian murid untuk subjek RBT Tahun Lima. Implikasi kajian menunjukkan penggunaan modul pengajaran berasaskan multimedia dapat meningkatkan keberkesanan pengajaran dan pembelajaran subjek RBT.
The Effects of Language Proficiency and Online Translator Training on Second Language Writing Complexity, Accuracy, Fluency, and Lexical Complexity

Language classes have adopted technology to aid L2 learning for the last 30 years. One important technological adoption by L2 teachers is Google Translate (GT). While L2 scholars have demonstrated a positive effect of GT on L2 learners’ writing, there are a few unexplored areas. For instance, previous studies have used holistic measures to assess writing, leaving an area open as to how the use of GT affects the complexity, accuracy, fluency, and lexical complexity (CAFL). Similarly, research scholars believe that when teachers provide training and apprise the learners of the limitations of using online translators (OTs), learners can use them more effectively. However, not much evidence is available to support this. The current study was therefore conducted to fill these gaps in the literature. Two hundred twenty-five first-semester university students were made part of the study. These students were first put into high proficiency (HP; n= 108) and low proficiency (LP; n=117) and later were divided randomly across the three groups: GT+ training, GT only, and control group. The writing was evaluated in terms of CAFL; the results demonstrated that HP learners exhibited higher syntactic and lexical complexity and fluency, while LP learners fared better on accuracy.
Investigation of Endothelial Mechanics on Primary Cell Functions: Endothelium Permeability and Wound Healing

iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. vii LIST OF FIGURES . xi LIST OF TABLES . xiv CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION . 1 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW . 3 Mechanosensing . 3 Endothelial Mechanics and Endothelial Permeability . 4 Endothelial Mechanics and Wound-Healing . 6 Angiogenic Inhibition . 7 Endothelial Mechanics and Diseases . 8 Traction Force Microscopy and Monolayer Stress Microscopy . 9 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ENDOTHELIAL PERMEABILITY . 11 Traction Force Microscopy (TFM) . 11 Monolayer Stress Microscopy (MSM) . 12 CHAPTER FOUR: INVESTIGATION OF ENDOTHELIAL FUNCTIONAL MECHANICS OF ENDOTHELIAL PERMEABILITY . 14 Abstract . 14 Introduction. 15 Materials And Methods. 18 Cell Culture . 18
hyperuricemia is a biomarker of early mortality in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

: Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are often at high risk of early death. Identification of prognostic biomarkers for COPD may aid in improving their survival by providing early strengthened therapy for high-risk patients. In the present study, we investigated the prognostic role of hyperuricemia at baseline on the prognosis of patients with COPD. Thirty-four patients with COPD with hyperuricemia were matched (1:2) to 68 patients with COPD without hyperuricemia and of similar age and sex. Data from those patients with COPD were evaluated retrospectively. The role of hyperuricemia on mortality was first analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier method, and multivariate Cox regression model was then used to evaluate the prognostic significance of hyperuricemia in patients with COPD. Hyperuricemia was not associated with other baseline characteristics in patients with COPD. Kaplan–Meier survival curve showed that patients with COPD with hyperuricemia had higher risk of mortality compared with patients with normouricemia, and the P -value for log-rank test was 0.005. In univariate analysis, hyperuricemia was associated with higher risk of mortality in patients with COPD (hazard ratio = 2.29, 95% CI = 1.07–4.88, P = 0.032). In the multivariate analysis, hyperuricemia was independently associated with higher risk of mortality in patients with COPD (hazard ratio = 2.68, 95% CI = 1.18–6.09, P = 0.019). In conclusion, hyperuricemia is a promising biomarker of early mortality in patients with COPD.
8th International IFAC Symposium on Dynamics and Control of Process Systems NONLINEAR MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL BASED ON SEQUENTIAL MONTE CARLO STATE ESTIMATION

Formulating the nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) problem using nonlinear differential equations has been gaining attention recently, with the promise of improved performance. NMPC requires a knowledge of the states, which are rarely available directly. Hence, the role of a state estimator is crucial to provide state information from noisy process measurements. Earlier attempts to combine variants of the Kalman filter with NMPC met with limited success due to debilitating effects of linearization. Currently, moving horizon estimation (MHE) is the most popular choice since it is seen as a dual to the control problem. However, MHE typically makes simplifying assumptions about the nature of stochastic variables and lacks an efficient recursive formulation. Most importantly, MHE is an optimization burden in addition to the regulation problem to be solved online. We propose using the sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) filter for state estimation in NMPC since it is significantly faster and at least as accurate as MHE. More accurate and fast estimation results in faster control optimization for realtime use of NMPC and improves the performance. In this paper a comparison of NMPC performance is detailed with MHE and SMC state estimation in a nonlinear CSTR simulation study. Copyright c © 2007 IFAC.
Phonemic variability and confusability in pronunciation modeling for automatic speech recognition. (Variabilité et confusabilité phonémique pour les modèles de prononciations au sein d'un système de reconnaissance automatique de la parole)

This thesis addresses the problems of phonemic variability and confusability from the pronunciation modeling perspective for an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system. In particular, several research directions are investigated. First, automatic grapheme-to- phoneme (g2p) and phoneme-to-phoneme (p2p) converters are developed that generate alternative pronunciations for in-vocabulary as well as out-of-vocabulary (OOV) terms. Since the addition of alternative pronunciation may introduce homophones (or close homophones), there is an increase of the confusability of the system. A novel measure of this confusability is proposed to analyze it and study its relation with the ASR performance. This pronunciation confusability is higher if pronunciation probabilities are not provided and can potentially severely degrade the ASR performance. It should, thus, be taken into account during pronunciation generation. Discriminative training approaches are, then, investigated to train the weights of a phoneme confusion model that allows alternative ways of pronouncing a term counterbalancing the phonemic confusability problem. The objective function to optimize is chosen to correspond to the performance measure of the particular task. In this thesis, two tasks are investigated, the ASR task and the KeywordSpotting (KWS) task. For ASR, an objective that minimizes the phoneme error rate is adopted. For experiments conducted on KWS, the Figure of Merit (FOM), a KWS performance measure, is directly maximized.