Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Real-time Estimation of the Camera Path from a Sequence of Intrinsically Calibrated Pmd Depth Images

In recent years real time active 3D range cameras based on time-of-flight technology using the Photonic-Mixer-Device (PMD) have been developed. Those cameras produce sequences of low-resolution depth images at frame rates comparable to regular video cameras. Hence, spatial resolution is traded against temporal resolution compared to standard laser scanning techniques. In this work an algorithm is proposed, which allows to reconstruct the camera path of a moving PMD depth camera. A constraint describing the relative orientation between two calibrated PMD depth images will be derived. It will be shown, how this constraint can be used to efficiently estimate a camera trajectory from a sequence of depth images in real-time. The estimation of the trajectory of the PMD depth camera allows to integrate the depth measurements over a long sequence taken from a moving platform. This increases the spatial resolution and enables interactive scanning objects with a PMD camera in order to obtain a dense 3D point cloud.
Cooperation and Competitive Goals: A Social-Comparison Analysis

Ss' choice behavior in two types of mixed-motive games was used to classify them according to their predominant goal orientation. Ss with competitive (Relative Gain) goals and those with individualistic (Own Gain) goals were then presented with 50 decomposed Prisoner's Dilemma games in which they interacted with a conditionally cooperative other. Some Ss saw their own and the other person's outcomes displayed on each trial, while others also saw a bogus Average outcome. The latter outcome was constructed such that comparison with it made the mutually competitive outcomes “look bad” and the mutually cooperative outcomes “look good. ” On the basis of social-comparisons, it was predicted that Relative-gain Ss would learn to cooperate in the “Average” condition but not in the Other condition. Own-gain Ss were expected to show high levels of cooperation over-all and to cooperate sooner in the Average condition than in the Other condition. Predictions were significant only for Own-gain Ss, though they were also in the expected direction for Relative-gain Ss. The discussion focused on problems with using social-comparison processes as a basis for training Ss to be cooperative, with special emphasis placed on the issue of the relevance of the available comparisons.
What works and why? Student perceptions of ‘useful’ digital technology in university teaching and learning

Digital technologies are now an integral aspect of the university student experience. As such, academic research has understandably focused on the potential of various digital technologies to enable, extend and even ‘enhance’ student learning. This paper offers an alternate perspective on these issues by exploring students’ actual experiences of digital technology during their academic studies – highlighting the aspects of digital technology use that students themselves see as particularly helpful and/or useful. Drawing on a survey of 1658 undergraduate students, the paper identifies 11 distinct digital ‘benefits' – ranging from flexibilities of time and place, ease of organizing and managing study tasks through to the ability to replay and revisit teaching materials, and learn in more visual forms. While these data confirm digital technologies as central to the ways in which students experience their studies, they also suggest that digital technologies are not ‘transforming’ the nature of university teaching and learning. As such, university educators perhaps need to temper enthusiasms for what might be achieved through technology-enabled learning and develop better understandings of the realities of students’ encounters with digital technology.
On Retrieving Analogues When Solving Problems

After criticism of the precision of previous experimental procedures for testing analogue retrieval, a new procedure that overcomes the proposed inadequacies is described. This procedure is then employed in two experiments that test aspects of the general hypothesis that base analogues that are semantically remote from a target problem (Duncker's radiation problem) are more difficult to retrieve than those that are semantically closer. Experiment 1 confirmed this hypothesis by finding that remote analogues are seldom retrieved relative to literal analogues. The results of Experiment 2 falsified the hypothesis that analogue retrieval is solely due to the recognition of an “identical element”. Finally, an ad hoc model of analogue retrieval is proposed based on Schank's dynamic memory theory, and its consistency with the evidence and more general implications are considered.
Collaborative Curriculum Design to Increase Science Teaching Self-Efficacy: A Case Study

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to establish whether participation in a teacher design team (TDT) is an effective way to increase the science teaching self-efficacy of primary school teachers who vary in their levels of experience and interest in science. A TDT is a group of at least 2 teachers from the same or related subjects working together to (re)design and enact (a part of) their common curriculum (A. Handelzalts, 2009). This study considers the context of a primary school in The Netherlands. Three forms of data were collected to obtain more in-depth data about the value of working in a TDT: the Dutch version of the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (P. Fisser, B. Ormel, & C. Velthuis, 2010), an additional TDT questionnaire, and a focus group interview. The results indicate that professional development through a TDT can improve science teaching self-efficacy for teachers with varying levels of experience and interest.
It’s All in the Family: Family Counseling for Depressed Children

This article illustrates how to treat children and their families from an integrative family systems approach. First, the authors provide a brief overview of family systems perspective and how various systems approaches have been found to be effective for children and adolescents with depression. The authors then stress the importance of applying systems perspective in a holistic sense whereby all of the various social domains that have an affect on the children and their depression are addressed. Such application includes consultation with the schools and broader social contexts.
Reply to Sweezy

I agree completely with Sweezy's contention that the 18 developed capitalist countries I treat are interrelated parts of a single world capitalist system, that the United States has a tremendous and asymmetrical impact on this system, and that military spending in fact has prevented the United States from falling back into a state of deep stagnation such as that which prevailed in the 1930s (i.e., that military spending is a sufficient condition for avoiding stagnation). But the conclusion that military spending must necessarily be the major factor in preventing economic stagnation in monopoly capitalist countries does not follow. The data presented in my paper refute this claim. For me to show that there is no positive correlation between military spending and economic prosperity within advanced capitalist countries is sufficient to refute his argument, providing that Sweezy or other critics cannot demonstrate how a specific property of the international capitalist system, the power of the United States, or some other third variable concretely intervenes to account for the observed correlations. For example, Sweezy could refute my argument if he were to show that the United States bought a higher share of the surplus production of the countries which spent the least on their militaries for use by the U.S. military machine. Sweezy's blanket rejection of the comparative method for analyses among advanced capitalist countries on the grounds that they are interrelated is superfluous. The comparative method is a powerful tool of analysis, providing sufficient care is taken to control for relevant variables. Variables related to interrelations among the units compared can be controlled for, as can any other measurable factors. There are important differences among the leading capitalist countries, differences which must be understood if we are to understand the historical possibilities for change in the United States. The implication of my paper is that the United States could possibly develop a welfare capitalism of the Scandinavian variety, converting the locus of state spending from military to other uses. Such a conversion would necessitate a drastic reorientation of the United States to the rest of the world, but the signs of
Age-Related Differences in Spatial Frequency Processing during Scene Categorization

Visual analysis of real-life scenes starts with the parallel extraction of different visual elementary features at different spatial frequencies. The global shape of the scene is mainly contained in low spatial frequencies (LSF), and the edges and borders of objects are mainly contained in high spatial frequencies (HSF). The present fMRI study investigates the effect of age on the spatial frequency processing in scenes. Young and elderly participants performed a categorization task (indoor vs. outdoor) on LSF and HSF scenes. Behavioral results revealed performance degradation for elderly participants only when categorizing HSF scenes. At the cortical level, young participants exhibited retinotopic organization of spatial frequency processing, characterized by medial activation in the anterior part of the occipital lobe for LSF scenes (compared to HSF), and the lateral activation in the posterior part of the occipital lobe for HSF scenes (compared to LSF). Elderly participants showed activation only in the anterior part of the occipital lobe for LSF scenes (compared to HSF), but not significant activation for HSF (compared to LSF). Furthermore, a ROI analysis revealed that the parahippocampal place area, a scene-selective region, was less activated for HSF than LSF for elderly participants only. Comparison between groups revealed greater activation of the right inferior occipital gyrus in young participants than in elderly participants for HSF. Activation of temporo-parietal regions was greater in elderly participants irrespective of spatial frequencies. The present findings indicate a specific low-contrasted HSF deficit for normal elderly people, in association with an occipito-temporal cortex dysfunction, and a functional reorganization of the categorization of filtered scenes.
Antibacterial effect of citrus press-cakes dried by high speed and far-infrared radiation drying methods

In this study, the antibacterial effect was evaluated to determine the benefits of high speed drying (HSD) and far-infrared radiation drying (FIR) compared to the freeze drying (FD) method. Citrus press-cakes (CPCs) are released as a by-product in the citrus processing industry. Previous studies have shown that the HSD and FIR drying methods are much more economical for drying time and mass drying than those of FD, even though FD is the most qualified drying method. The disk diffusion assay was conducted, and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) were determined with methanol extracts of the dried CPCs against 11 fish and five food-related pathogenic bacteria. The disk diffusion results indicated that the CPCs dried by HSD, FIR, and FD prevented growth of all tested bacteria almost identically. The MIC and MBC results showed a range from 0.5-8.0 mg/mL and 1.0-16.0 mg/mL respectively. Scanning electron microscopy indicated that the extracts changed the morphology of the bacteria cell wall, leading to destruction. These results suggest that CPCs dried by HSD and FIR showed strong antibacterial activity against pathogenic bacteria and are more useful drying methods than that of the classic FD method in CPCs utilization.
COORDINATION AND TIMING OF HEART RATE COMPONENTS OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY

We propose applying the linear Granger Causality concept to very high-dimensional time series. The approach is based on integrating dimensionality reduction into a multivariate time series model. If residuals of dimensionality reduced models can be transformed back into the original space, prediction errors in the high–dimensional space may be computed, and a Granger Causality Index (GCI) is properly defined. We provide a proof–of–principle, and compare the results with the classical GCI.
Bradykinin-induced mesenteric vasodilation is mediated by B2-subtype receptors and nitric oxide.

We investigated mechanisms mediating bradykinin (BK)-induced anterior mesenteric artery (AMA) vasodilation in anesthetized rats. The velocity of blood flowing (VBF) in the AMA was measured with pulsed Doppler velocimetry, and arterial pressure (BP) was measured with a pressure transducer. Drugs were infused through an intra-aortic catheter positioned proximal to the AMA origin. AMA conductance (C) was calculated from mean VBF/BP and expressed as percent of control C. BK infusion (10-1,000 ng.kg-1.min-1) increased C significantly (Cmax = 201 +/- 18%, ED50 = 100 ng.kg-1.min-1, P < 0.01 for all doses). A B2-subtype receptor antagonist, D-Arg,[Hyp3,Thi5.8,D-Phe7]BK, administered at 10(5) ng.kg-1.min-1 before or during BK infusion, inhibited the vasodilation by 73 +/- 7 and 103 +/- 7%, respectively. A nitric oxide (NO) synthesis inhibitor, NG-nitro-L-arginine, administered at 5.0 mg/kg 15 min before BK, inhibited the hyperemia by 61 +/- 8%. Neither a B1-receptor antagonist nor intrajejunal capsaicin inhibited BK-induced vasodilation. BK-evoked, dose-dependent, mesenteric vasodilation in rats appears to be mediated partly by B2-receptors and endogenous NO generation.
An Edge-Preserving Super-Precision for Simultaneous Enhancement of Spacial and Grayscale Resolutions

In this paper, we propose a method that recovers a smooth high-resolution image from several blurred and roughly quantized low-resolution images. For compensation of the quantization effect we introduce a measurement of smoothness originally used for suppression of block noises in a JPEG compressed image [Schultz & Stevenson '94]. With a simple operator that approximates to the convex projection onto constraint set defined for each quantized image [Hasegawa et al. '05], we propose a method that minimizes these cost functions, which are smooth convex functions, over the intersection of all constraint sets, i.e. the set of all images satisfying all quantization constraints simultaneously, by using hybrid steepest descent method [Yamada & Ogura '04]. Finally in the numerical example we compare images derived by the proposed method, POCS based conventional method, and generalized proposed method minimizing smoothed total variation and energy of output of Laplacian
Global Evaluation of Random Indexing through Swedish Word Clustering Compared to the People’s Dictionary of Synonyms

Evaluation of word space models is usually local in the sense that it only considers words that are deemed very similar by the model. We propose a global evaluation scheme based on clustering of the words. A clustering of high quality in an external evaluation against a semantic resource, such as a dictionary of synonyms, indicates a word space model of high quality. We use Random Indexing to create several different models and compare them by clustering evaluation against the People’s Dictionary of Synonyms, a list of Swedish synonyms that are graded by the public. Most notably we get better results for models based on syntagmatic information (words that appear together) than for models based on paradigmatic information (words that appear in similar contexts). This is quite contrary to previous results that have been presented for local evaluation. Clusterings to ten clusters result in a recall of 83 % for a syntagmatic model, compared to 34% for a comparable paradigmatic model, and 10% for a random partition.
Does Race Matter in Residential Segregation? Exploring the Preferences of White Americans

Employing an alternative methodology and new data, the authors address the debate concerning the underlying causes of racial residential segregation. Are white Americans avoiding racially mixed neighborhoods because they do not want to live with nonwhites? And if so, is this the case independent of factors with which race is associated, such as crime levels or housing values? An over-the-telephone factorial experiment addresses these issues, measuring variables that shape white Americans’ choice of purchasing a home. Based on a national, random-digit-dial survey of 1,663 white Americans, the effects of African American, Asian, and Hispanic neighborhood composition on whites’ likelihood of buying a house are explored, as well as the other variables for which race may serve as a proxy. Results indicate that Asian and Hispanic neighborhood composition do not matter to whites. Black neighborhood composition, however, does matter, and matters even more for white Americans with children under age 18. The effect of black composition is net of the variables that whites offer as the primary reasons they do not want to live with blacks. The implications of these findings for segregation trends and for future research are considered.
Soya food intake and risk of endometrial cancer among Chinese women in Shanghai: population based case-control study

Abstract Objective To evaluate the association of intake of soya food, a rich source of phytoestrogens, with the risk of endometrial cancer. Design Population based case-control study, with detailed information on usual soya food intake over the past five years collected by face to face interview using a food frequency questionnaire. Setting Urban Shanghai, China. Participants 832 incident cases of endometrial cancer in women aged of 30 to 69 years diagnosed during 1997-2001 and identified from the Shanghai Cancer Registry; 846 control women frequency matched to cases on age and randomly selected from the Shanghai Residential Registry. Main outcome measures Odds ratios for risk of endometrial cancer in women with different intakes of soya foods. Results Regular consumption of soya foods, measured as amount of either soya protein or soya isoflavones, was inversely associated with the risk of endometrial cancer. Compared with women with the lowest quarter of intake, the adjusted odds ratio of endometrial cancer was reduced from 0.93 to 0.85 and 0.67 with increasing quarter of soya protein intake (P for trend 0.01). A similar inverse association was observed for soya isoflavones and soya fibre intake. The inverse association seemed to be more pronounced among women with high body mass index and waist:hip ratio. Conclusion Regular intake of soya foods is associated with a reduced risk of endometrial cancer.
Wrapper Approach for Feature Selections in RBF Network Classifier

In this paper we investigate the impact of wrapper approach on classification accuracy and performance of RBF network. Wrapper approach used six rule induction algorithms for evaluators on supervised learning algorithms RBF network and tested using eight real and three artificial benchmark data sets. Classification accuracy and performance of RBF network depends on evaluators. Our experimental results indicate that every rule induction algorithms in wrapper approach maintains or improves the accuracy of RBF network for more than half data sets. Evaluation of selecting features with wrappers approach is not so fast compare with filters approach. Keywords: classification accuracy, feature selection, RBF network, rule induction algorithm, wrapper approach. 2000 MSC: 68T01, 97P20, 97R40.
A new method to derive star formation histories of galaxies from their star cluster distributions

Star formation happens in a clustered way which is why the star cluster population of a particular galaxy is closely related to the star formation history of this galaxy. From the probabilistic nature of a mass function follows that the mass of the most massive cluster of a complete population, Mmax, has a distribution with the total mass of the population as a parameter. The total mass of the population is connected to the star formation rate (SFR) by the length of a formation epoch. Since due to evolutionary effects only massive star clusters are observable up to high ages, it is convenient to use this Mmax(SFR) relation for the reconstruction of a star formation history. The age distribution of the most massive clusters can therefore be used to constrain the star formation history of a galaxy. The method, including an assessment of the inherent uncertainties, is introduced with this contribution, while following papers will apply this method to a number of galaxies.
Pre-Service English Language Teachers' Perceptions of Computer Self-Efficacy and General Self-Efficacy

The primary aim of this study is to investigate pre-service English language teachers’ perceptions of computer self-efficacy in relation to different variables. Secondarily, the study also explores the relationship between preservice English language teachers’ perceptions of computer self-efficacy and their perceptions of general selfefficacy. To this end, in 2007-2008 Academic Year Fall Term a sample of 288 pre-service English language teachers at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University was surveyed. Three basic research instruments were used to collect data: The Computer Self-Efficacy Scale (Askar and Umay, 2001), The General Self-Efficacy Scale (Schwarzer and Jerusalem, 1995), and a survey questionnaire designed to obtain personal information and previous computer experience from the participants. The data were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics. Frequencies and percentages were calculated and t-test, one-way ANOVA, and correlation analyses were used in the analysis of the data. The significant level was taken as . 05. The findings indicated that pre-service English teachers had a moderate level of computer self-efficacy perceptions. Computer experience, frequency of use and gender were identified to create a significant difference in the perception of computer self-efficacy (p< .05). Concerning grade levels, only between 1 and 4 ones a significant difference was found (p<.05). The correlation analysis between general sense of self-efficacy and computer self-efficacy revealed a moderate and a positive correlation between the two psychological constructs. Finally, the regression analysis showed that computer experience was the variable that affected the computer self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service English teachers most.
Exactness and precision

Psychology and other disciplines of social sciences, and even the medical discipline of psychiatry, are plagued by a tendency towards instrument development. In psychiatry there is the trend to develop more and more refined scales and interview schedules, in psychology we have an increasing trend to rely on measures of validity (and reliability) in the development of instruments to quantify otherwise rather little explored fields like intelligence, loneliness, severity of addiction, happiness, depression etc. The basic question asked in this paper is whether the statistical way of constructing realities is appropriate. The term precision is introduced for 'virtual' realities created by statistical modelling, whereas the term exactness is proposed for 'social' realities, realities by consensus, or meaning shared through a common grammar and, therefore, of communication value. The paper tries to set out social realities as pertaining to realities by consensus, created by a shared grammar of constructing things rather than by statistical associations. It goes on to examine some mathematical bases of qualitative research. The paper assumes that topology, communication theory, language development, emotional intelligence and a few other issues following a common grammar of constructing meaning can be helpful in promoting social science research. The basic issue: can we delink meaning from statistics, i.e. quantification? Drawing from examples from physics and biology the paper tries to give the answer of an assertive yes to this question.