Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Belief propagation optical flow for high-resolution image morphing

Over the last decade, considerable progress has been made on the so-called early vision problems. We present an optical flow algorithm for image morphing that incorporates recent advances in feature matching, energy minimization, stereo vision and image segmentation. At the core of our flow estimation we use Efficient Belief Propagation for energy minimization. While state-of-the-art algorithms only work on thumbnail-sized images, our novel feature downsampling scheme in combination with a simple, yet efficient data term compression can cope with high-resolution data. The incorporation of SIFT features into data term computation further resolves matching ambiguities, making long-range flows possible. We detect occluded areas by evaluating the symmetry of the flow fields, we further apply Geodesic matting to automatically inpaint these regions.
Boosting tuple propagation in multi-relational classification

Multi-relational classification is a mining method aiming at building classifiers for the tuples in some target relation based on its own data as well as on the data possibly dispersed over other non-target relations, by exploiting the relationships among them formalized via foreign key constraints. While improving on the efficacy of the resulting classifiers, propagating data via the foreign key constraints deteriorates the scalability of the underlying algorithm. In the paper, various techniques are discussed to efficiently implement this propagation task, and hence to boost performances of current multi-relational classification algorithms. These techniques are based on suitable adaptations of state-of-the-art query optimization methods, and are conceived to be coupled with database management systems. A system prototype integrating all the techniques is illustrated, and results of experimental activity conducted on top of it are eventually discussed.
Gut Microbiota and Lifestyle Interventions in NAFLD

The human digestive system harbors a diverse and complex community of microorganisms that work in a symbiotic fashion with the host, contributing to metabolism, immune response and intestinal architecture. However, disruption of a stable and diverse community, termed “dysbiosis”, has been shown to have a profound impact upon health and disease. Emerging data demonstrate dysbiosis of the gut microbiota to be linked with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Although the exact mechanism(s) remain unknown, inflammation, damage to the intestinal membrane, and translocation of bacteria have all been suggested. Lifestyle intervention is undoubtedly effective at improving NAFLD, however, not all patients respond to these in the same manner. Furthermore, studies investigating the effects of lifestyle interventions on the gut microbiota in NAFLD patients are lacking. A deeper understanding of how different aspects of lifestyle (diet/nutrition/exercise) affect the host–microbiome interaction may allow for a more tailored approach to lifestyle intervention. With gut microbiota representing a key element of personalized medicine and nutrition, we review the effects of lifestyle interventions (diet and physical activity/exercise) on gut microbiota and how this impacts upon NAFLD prognosis.
A novel 7T SRAM cell design for reducing Leakage Power and improved stability

As the channel length of MOSFETs is scaling down, the Leakage Power and the stability of the SRAM cells become the major concern for future technology. In this paper, stable SRAM cell is proposed which improves the stability of the SRAM cell and reduces the average power dissipation during the read write operation and reduces the leakage power in standby mode. Two techniques for reducing gate leakage currents and sub threshold leakage currents are examined. In first technique, the supply voltage is decreased. In the second techniques the voltage of the ground node is increased and hence the effective voltage across SRAM cell is decreased. The proposed SRAM cell is compared to conventional 6T SRAM cell in terms of power consumption and delay. The proposed SRAM cell consumes 60-70% less power for read and write operations and 40-60% reduction in leakage power has been observed. The speed, however, is degraded by 30-40% in the SRAM cells. The simulations are carried out in Tanner EDA tool with 180nm and 45nm technologies at 1.8V and 1V power supply respectively.
Variational Denoising in Besov Spaces and Interpolation of Hard and Soft Wavelet Shrinkage

The relation of soft wavelet shrinkage (Donohoshrinkage) and variational denoising was discovered by Chambolle, Lucier et al. [3, 4]. Here we present an outline of this relation and give a non-convex generalization which will be related to hard wavelet shrinkage. This approach will lead to a “natural” interpolation between soft and hard shrinkage. AMS Subject Classification: 65K10, 42C40
Review of transitions and trees: an introduction to structural operational semantics, by Hans Hüttel

In order to reason about the behavior of computer programs it is mandatory to have a precise definition of the semantics (i.e., the meaning) of the various constructs that can be used in programming languages. A formal semantics of a programming language can serve as a standard for implementing compilers or interpreters and is necessary in order verify correctness of programs. Several ways of providing the formal semantics of a programming language have been developed:
Oscillation and Light Induction of timeless mRNA in the Mammalian Circadian Clock

Circadian rhythms in Drosophila melanogaster depend on a molecular feedback loop generated by oscillating products of the period (per) and timeless (tim) genes. In mammals, three per homologs are cyclically expressed in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), site of the circadian clock, and two of these, mPer1 and mPer2, are induced in response to light. Although this light response distinguishes the mammalian clock from its Drosophila counterpart, overall regulation, including homologous transcriptional activators, appears to be similar. Thus, the basic mechanisms used to generate circadian timing have been conserved. However, contrary to expectations, the recently isolated mammalian tim homolog was reported not to cycle. In this study, we examined mRNA levels of the same tim homolog using a different probe. We observed a significant (approximately threefold) diurnal variation in mTim expression within mouse SCN using two independent methods. Peak levels were evident at the day-to-night transition in light-entrained animals, and the oscillation persisted on the second day in constant conditions. Furthermore, light pulses known to induce phase delays caused significant elevation in mTim mRNA. In contrast, phase-advancing light pulses did not affect mTim levels. The mTim expression profile and the response to nocturnal light are similar to mPer2 and are delayed compared with mPer1. We conclude that temporal ordering of mTim and mPer2 parallels that of their fly homologs. We predict that mTIM may be the preferred functional partner for mPER2 and that expression of mTim and mPer2 may, in fact, be driven by mPER1.
Can Text Simplification Help Machine Translation?

This article explores the use of text simplification as a pre-processing step for statistical machine translation of grammatically complex under-resourced languages. Our experiments on English-to-Serbian translation show that this approach can improve grammaticality (fluency) of the translation output and reduce technical post-editing effort (number of post-edit operations). Furthermore, the use of more aggressive text simplification methods (which do not only simplify the given sentence but also discard irrelevant information thus producing syntactically very simple sentences) also improves meaning preservation (adequacy) of the translation output.
lectrophysiological evidence of early processing deficits in alexithymia

Alexithymia describes difficulties to identify and describe one’s emotions. Previous research focused on difficulties associated with the later processing stages of appraisal in alexithymia. We tested whether early processing deficits are apparent in alexithymic persons and whether these abnormalities contribute to later processing difficulties. 20 participants were selected and identified as either having high (HDA)
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems Nonlinear Filtering with Imm Algorithm for Ultra-tight Gps/ins Integration Regular Paper

This paper conducts a performance evaluation for the ultra‐tight integration of a Global positioning system (GPS) and an inertial navigation system (INS), using nonlinear filtering approaches with an interacting multiple model (IMM) algorithm. An ultra‐tight GPS/INS architecture involves the integration of in‐phase and quadrature components from the correlator of a GPS receiver with INS data. An unscented Kalman filter (UKF), which employs a set of sigma points by deterministic sampling, avoids the error caused by linearization as in an extended Kalman filter (EKF). Based on the filter structural adaptation for describing various dynamic behaviours, the IMM nonlinear filtering provides an alternative for designing the adaptive filter in the ultra‐tight GPS/INS integration. The use of IMM enables tuning of an appropriate value for the process of noise covariance so as to maintain good estimation accuracy and tracking capability. Two examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the design and demonstrate the effective improvement in navigation estimation accuracy. A performance comparison among various filtering methods for ultra‐tight integration of GPS and INS is also presented. The IMM based nonlinear filtering approach demonstrates the effectiveness of the algorithm for improved positioning performance.
A Semantics-Preserving Reduction of Code-Annotated Well-formed Free Choice Petri Nets

Software models of hardware designs are commonly used for simulation during system design and verification. They provide excellent control over and visibility into the designs being simulated but complex design simulations are very time consuming. Improving the run-time performance of such models would have a direct impact on critical design cycle metrics such as time-to-market. In our previous work we have shown that we can exploit the implicit concurrency in such system models to significantly improve their simulation run-time. The key to that was a concurrency reassignment technique that reduced the overhead of emulating hardware parallelism in software. In the early stages of experimentation we have simulated both the original and restructured models and compared the results to verify the correctness of our transformations. However, a stronger proof is always desirable and, therefore, in this paper we formally prove that our Petri net-based reduction approach to software model restructuring preserves the SystemC simulation semantics.
How Using ANT Can Assist to Understand Key Issues for Successful e-Health Solutions

Globally in healthcare, the focus is on designing and implementing national e-health solutions in an attempt to address key challenges that are plaguing healthcare delivery. However, despite the initial euphoria and notwithstanding the significant investments made, to date, many of these e-health solutions have yet to prove their success or have been complete failures. This paper presents the findings from an exploratory study that examined e-health initiatives in five countries Australia, China, Germany, UK and US to understand why these e-health solutions have not as yet delivered the promised results. The paper proffers Actor-Network Theory ANT as an appropriately rich theoretical lens that can be used to assist in the understanding of key issues for successful e-health solutions.
An Adaptive UKF-Based  Particle Filter for Mobile Robot SLAM

The mobile robot Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) in unknown environments has been considered to be an important and fundamental problem in the mobile robotics research domain. Nowadays most methods for SLAM are focused on probabilistic Bayesian estimation, this paper propose an Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) Assistant-Proposal Distribution (UKF-APD) particle algorithm,compute the Euclidean distance of particle approximate distribution to the UKF-APD, and take it as an adaptive particle-resampling criterion, the proposed algorithm can avoid particles’ impoverishment and deviation to the real robot posterior distribution. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS Working Paper UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST On the Ricardian Invariable Measure of Value in General Convex Economies : Applicability of the Standard Commodity

The purpose of this paper is to examine the critical arguments made by Burmeister, Samuelson, and others, with respect to Sra¤a (1960). Sra¤a did not address these arguments, but they are relevant from the viewpoint of modern economic theories. In his arguments about the standard commodity, Sra¤a assumed that a change in income distribution has no e¤ect on the output level and choice of techniques. However, modern economic theories allow interdependence among changes in income distribution, output level, and choice of techniques. Therefore, it is interesting to consider the existence of an invariable measure of value and linearity of income distribution in a model where such interdependence is discussed. We assume general convex economies with non-increasing returns to scale. In this model, we obtain the conditions under which the existence of an invariable measure of value and the validity of the linearity of income distribution are assured. Keywords: Ricardos invariable measure of value, Sra¤as standard commodity, General convex economies, Linear relation of income distribution JEL Classi cations: B51, D30, D51 This paper was written when the rst author was a visiting fellow of the Catholic University of Milan from 2012 to 2013. He wishes to express his gratitude to the university. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 17th ESHET conference, the Japanese Society for Post Keynesian Economics, Japan Society of Political Economy, and a seminar in Milan. The authors thank all the participants, especially Enrico Bellino, Luigi Pasinetti, Neri Salvadori, Bertram Schefold, Paolo Varri, and Takashi Yagi, for their helpful comments and suggestions. The research is nancially supported by the Nomura Foundation. The usual disclaimer applies. yGraduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University, Kawauchi 271, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8576, Japan. E-mail: kurose@econ.tohoku.ac.jp zThe Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University, Naka 21, Kunitachi, Tokyo 1860004, Japan. E-mail: yoshihara@ier.hit-u.ac.jp
Time variability of cyclonic geostrophic circulation in the Mediterranean

Interannual variability and trends of the surface geostrophic cyclonic circulation and cyclone frequency in Western and Eastern Mediterranean areas are analyzed, based on a cyclone data base derived from the ERA-40 ECWMF reanalysis (within the MEDEX project tasks), spanning from September/1957 to August/2002. In this 45 years, the cyclonic circulation show a significant decrease in the Western Mediterranean, mostly in winter and spring, and an increase in the Eastern, mainly due to the summer and autumn increase in the frequency of thermal lows.
Comparison of the systemic effects of fluticasone propionate and budesonide given by dry powder inhaler in healthy and asthmatic subjects

BACKGROUND The potential for long term adverse effects from inhaled corticosteroids relates to their systemic absorption, usually assessed from proxy markers in short term studies. When fluticasone propionate and budesonide have been compared in this way the results have been inconsistent. To determine whether this is because of the subjects studied or the sensitivity of the systemic marker used, we have compared the effects of fluticasone propionate and budesonide in healthy and asthmatic subjects and investigated the effect of treatment on three systemic markers. METHODS Forty six healthy subjects were randomised to receive inhaled fluticasone propionate 1500 μg/day (via an Accuhaler), budesonide 1600 μg/day (via a Turbuhaler), or placebo; 31 subjects with moderately severe asthma were randomised to receive the same doses of fluticasone propionate or budesonide but not placebo. Systemic effects in healthy and asthmatic subjects were compared after 7 days. Treatment was continued for another 21 days in the subjects with asthma when systemic effects and asthma control were assessed. RESULTS At baseline healthy subjects had higher urinary levels of total cortisol metabolites (TCM) than subjects with asthma. After 7 days of treatment with fluticasone propionate urinary TCM levels in the healthy subjects were significantly lower than in the subjects with asthma (mean difference between groups 1663 μg/day, 95% CI 328 to 2938). This was not the case with budesonide, however, where urinary TCM levels in the healthy subjects remained above those in the asthmatic subjects (mean difference between groups 1210 μg/day, 95% CI –484 to 2904). Urinary TCM levels were considerably more sensitive to the effects of inhaled corticosteroids than morning serum cortisol or osteocalcin concentrations. Only budesonide reduced the serum level of osteocalcin. CONCLUSIONS When given by dry powder inhaler for 7 days, fluticasone propionate 1500 μg/day has a greater effect on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in healthy subjects than in subjects with asthma, but this is not the case for budesonide 1600 μg/day. These findings, together with the differences in sensitivity between systemic markers, explain many of the discrepancies in the literature.
Towards Self-Manageable Cloud Services

Cloud computing represents a promising computing paradigm, where computational power is provided as a utility. An important characteristic of Cloud computing, other than in similar paradigms like Grid or HPC computing, is the provision of non-functional guarantees to users. Thereby, applications can be executed considering predefined execution time, price, security or privacy standards, which are guaranteed in real time in form of Service Level Agreements (SLAs). However, due to changing components, workload, external conditions, hardware, and software failures, established SLAs may be violated. Thus, frequent user interactions with the system, which are usually necessary in case of failures, might turn out to be an obstacle for the success of Cloud computing. In this paper we discuss self-manageable Cloud services. In case of failures, environmental changes, and similar, services manage themselves automatically following the principles of autonomic computing. Based on the life cycle of a self-manageable Cloud service we derive a resource submission taxonomy. Furthermore, we present an architecture for the implementation of self-manageable Cloud services. Finally, we discuss the application of autonomic computing to Cloud services based on service mediation and negotiation bootstrapping case study.
Photon Statistics Limits for Earth-Based Parallax Measurements of MACHO Events

We analyze the limitations imposed by photon-counting statistics on extracting useful information about MACHOs from Earth-based parallax observations of microlensing events. We find that if one or more large (say 2.5 m) telescopes are dedicated to observing a MACHO event for several nights near maximum amplification, then it is possible, in principle, to measure the velocity of the MACHO well enough to distinguish between disk and halo populations for events with ωAm2 ≳ 1 day−1, where ω−1 denotes the timescale of the event and Am denotes its maximum amplification. Thus, if it turns out to be possible to reduce all other sources of error to below that of photon statistics, it may be feasible to do useful Earth-based parallax observations for high amplification events.
How to Trick Mother Nature into Letting You Fly Around or Stay Up All Night

Night shift work and rapid transmeridian travel result in a misalignment between circadian rhythms and the new times for sleep, wake, and work, which has health and safety implications for both the individual involved and the general public. Entrainment to the new sleep/wake schedule requires circadian rhythms to be phase-shifted, but this is often slow or impeded. The authors show superimposed light and melatonin PRCs to explain how to appropriately time these zeitgebers to promote circadian adaptation. They review studies in which bright light and melatonin were administered to try to counteract jet lag or to produce circadian adaptation to night work. They demonstrate how jet lag could be prevented entirely if rhythms are shifted before the flight using their preflight plan and discuss the combination of interventions that they now recommend for night shift workers.
Properties of cluster satellites in hydrodynamical simulations

We analyse the dynamical and thermal evolution of dark matter and the intracluster medium in hydrodynamical N-body simulations of galaxy clusters. Starting from a sample of 17 high-resolution objects, with virial mass ranging from 3 x 10 14 to 1.7 x 10 15 h -1 M ○. , we follow the build-up of the systems in dark matter and hot gas through the repeated merging of satellites along their merging history trees. We measure the self-bound mass fraction of subhaloes as a function of time after the merging, estimate the satellite mean orbital properties as a function of the mass ratio with the main cluster at merging time, and study the evolution of their internal velocity dispersion, gas temperature and entropy as the substructure is disrupted by various dynamical processes, eventually reaching thermodynamic equilibrium in the gravitational potential of the main cluster. We model some relevant properties of subhalo orbits, as the time of the first pericentric and apocentric passages, and the typical distances and velocities at the corresponding times. This survival study can be used to interpret the dynamics of observed merging clusters; as an example, we apply our results to the system 1E0657-56. We show that, in the light of our results, the most likely interpretation of the data for this cluster points to the merger of a small group with mass M 1 x 10 13 h -1 M ○. with a massive cluster with M 1.3 × 10 15 h -1 M ○.
Compact Modeling and Analysis of Through-Si-Via-Induced Electrical Noise Coupling in Three-Dimensional ICs

Through-silicon vias (TSVs) in 3-D integrated circuits (ICs), which are used for connecting different active layers, introduce an important source of coupling noise arising from electrical coupling between TSVs and the active regions. This paper, for the first time, presents compact models based on a fully analytical approach for the electrical coupling from a TSV to the active regions for a comprehensive set of 3-D IC substrate technologies including those with and without the high-conductivity buried layer in dual-well bulk CMOS technology in the presence of VDD/VSS rails. The models can be used during design validation of emerging 3-D ICs. The compact physical models are verified against full-wave electromagnetic (EM) simulations. A comparative analysis of the magnitude of the EM coupling noise for different 3-D technology scenarios, including both dual-well bulk CMOS and partially depleted silicon-on-insulator, is also presented. The compact models presented for dual-well bulk CMOS are subsequently employed for estimating the stay-away radius (safe distance) from the center of the TSVs to the active regions to minimize the impact of such coupling noise. In order to highlight the significance of the TSV to active-region EM coupling noise, a comparison is also made with the white noise in the active region and the flicker noise from the interface between the TSV oxide and silicon.