Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Image2Text: A Multimodal Image Captioner

In this work, we showcase the Image2Text system, which is a real-time captioning system that can generate human-level natural language description for any input image. We formulate the problem of image captioning as a multimodal translation task. Analogous to machine translation, we present a sequence-to-sequence recurrent neural networks (RNN) model for image caption generation. Different from most existing work where the whole image is represented by a convolutional neural networks (CNN) feature, we propose to represent the input image as a sequence of detected objects to serve as the source sequence of the RNN model. Based on the captioning framework, we develop a user-friendly system to automatically generated human-level captions for users. The system also enables users to detect salient objects in an image, and retrieve similar images and corresponding descriptions from a database.
Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Distributed Real-Time Kernel for Distributed Robotics (Dissertation Proposal)

Modern robotics applications are becoming morc complex due to greater numbers of sensors and actuators. The control of such systems may require multiple processors to meet the computational demands and to support the physical topology of the sensors and actuators. A distributed real-time system is needed to perform the required communication and processing while meeting application-specified timing constraints. We are designing and implementing a real-time kernel for distributed robotics applications. The kernel's salient features are consistent, user-definable scheduling, explicit dynamic timing constraints, and a two-tiered interrupt approach. The kernel wi1l be evaluated by implementing a two-arm robot control example. Its goal is to locate and manipulate cylindrical objects with spillable contents. Using the appHcation and the kernel, we will investigate the effects of time granularity, network type and protocol, and the handling of external events using interrupts versus polling. Our research will enhance understanding of real·time kernels for distributed robotics control.
Formation of Communicative Competence of the Future Specialists in Professional Activity by Means of Telecommunication Technology

On the condition of informatization of education and joining the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Bologna process, H.A. Yasawi International Kazakh-Turkish University points out as one of its main problem the usage of informational and telecommunication technologies in training of the specialists of the international level in the sphere of ecology, increasing the quality of their professional training and formation their communicative competence in professional activity through telecommunication technology because the use of informational and telecommunication technologies emphasizes practical-oriented education, its professional, pragmatic, subject-professional aspect. Taking into consideration some elements of well-known approaches in pedagogical and methodological sciences such as systematic, personal-oriented and synergetic and others the significance of the usage of informational and telecommunication technologies as one of necessary base of formation of communicative competence of the future specialists in professional activity is stated out. Because it has practical, professional, humanistic and pragmatic features, which show its integration and systematic advantages in educational process. Working out the pedagogical bases of formation of communicative competence of the future specialists in professional activity through telecommunication technology becomes one of key problems.
A Target Searching Scenario in Undirected Acyclic Graph

In a generic problem in search theory we have some metric search space and two players - a target T and a searcher S. Mostly T is static in the space according to some specified probability distribution or in some cases dynamic, andS starts its search at some arbitrary start point. The usual goal will be to design a strategy that minimizes the expected time forS to findT . S knows the search space but has no other information and T could be a fully or partially informed target. In some versions, S has visibility characteristics allowing it to see a small distance ‘ ’ from its location. This kind of exploration problems relate to various contexts, such as robot motion planning in hazardous or inaccessible terrain, maintaining security of large networks, and searching, indexing, and analyzing digital data in the Internet [1] [2] [3]. One of the earliest examples of such problems is the linear search problem, proposed by Bellman [4] and Beck [5]. Here, the search space is an infinite line, with the searcher initially at an arbitrary origin, and the target located at an unknown point on the line, at distanced from the origin. The objective is to minimize the worst-case ratio of the distance traveled by the searcher over d. Different scenario (with cycles) is considered in cops and robbers problem [6] where the cops and robbers take alternate turns in movements and the question usually posed is how many pursuers are necessary to ensure the eventual capture of all the robbers. The Isaac’s Princess and Monster problem [7] is also a related problem but with different scenario. The Lost Cow problem [8] is stated as a short-sighted cow following along an infinite fence and wants to find the gate. The lost cow problem is limited in the idea that the target is static. In case of one dimensional space, if a moving target wants to escape, then it can do so by constantly moving away from the searcher. And in case of a cyclic graph, a fully informed target can move around in cycles and never be found by the searcher. The present study stands out in that it studies the problem in case of undirected acyclic graph which was not studied before. But the proposed search space offers an interesting environment to both target and the searcher. To the target, it provides an opportunity to move towards the searcher without being found; and to the searcher it provides an easier search space by removing the case of cyclic movement of the target. Sleator and Tarjan [9] suggested evaluating the performance of an online algorithm using competitive analysis. This paper proposes an online algorithm for the provided search space and also attempts to find upper and lower bounds of the competitive ratio. General Terms
Dosimetry of 3 CBCT devices for oral and maxillofacial radiology: CB Mercuray, NewTom 3G and i-CAT.

OBJECTIVES Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT), which provides a lower dose, lower cost alternative to conventional CT, is being used with increasing frequency in the practice of oral and maxillofacial radiology. This study provides comparative measurements of effective dose for three commercially available, large (12'') field-of-view (FOV), CBCT units: CB Mercuray, NewTom 3G and i-CAT. METHODS Thermoluminescent dosemeters (TLDs) were placed at 24 sites throughout the layers of the head and neck of a tissue-equivalent human skull RANDO phantom. Depending on availability, the 12'' FOV and smaller FOV scanning modes were used with similar phantom positioning geometry for each CBCT unit. Radiation weighted doses to individual organs were summed using 1990 (E(1990)) and proposed 2005 (E(2005 draft)) ICRP tissue weighting factors to calculate two measures of whole-body effective dose. Dose as a multiple of a representative panoramic radiography dose was also calculated. RESULTS For repeated runs dosimetry was generally reproducible within 2.5%. Calculated doses in microSv [corrected] (E(1990), E(2005 draft)) were NewTom3G (45, 59), i-CAT (135, 193) and CB Mercuray (477, 558). These are 4 to 42 times greater than comparable panoramic examination doses (6.3 microSv [corrected] 13.3 mSv). Reductions in dose were seen with reduction in field size and mA and kV technique factors. CONCLUSIONS CBCT dose varies substantially depending on the device, FOV and selected technique factors. Effective dose detriment is several to many times higher than conventional panoramic imaging and an order of magnitude or more less than reported doses for conventional CT.
Stroke units in their natural habitat: can results of randomized trials be reproduced in routine clinical practice? Riks-Stroke Collaboration.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials of acute stroke care have shown care in stroke units (SUs) to be superior to that in conventional general medical, neurological, or geriatric wards, with reductions in early case fatality, functional outcome, and the need for long-term institutionalization. This study examined whether these results can be reproduced in clinical practice. METHODS A multicenter observational study of procedures and outcomes in acute stroke patients admitted to designated SUs or general medical or neurological wards (GWs), the study included patients of all ages with acute stroke excluding those with subarachnoid hemorrhage, who were entered into the Riks-Stroke (Swedish national quality assessment) database during 1996 (14 308 patients in 80 hospitals). RESULTS Patients admitted to SUs who had lived independently and who were fully conscious on admission to the hospital had a lower case fatality than those cared for in GWs (relative risk [RR] for death, 0.87; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.79 to 0.96) and at 3 months (RR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.85 to 0.98). A greater proportion of patients cared for in an SU could be discharged home (RR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.03 to 1.10), and fewer were in long-term institutional care 3 months after the stroke (RR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.89 to 0.99). No difference was seen in outcome in patients cared for in SUs or GWs if they had impaired consciousness on admission. CONCLUSIONS The improvement in outcomes after stroke care in SUs compared with care in GWs can be reproduced in the routine clinical setting, but the magnitude of the benefit appears smaller than that reported from meta-analyses.
Investigating Java type analyses for the receiver-classes testing criterion

This paper investigates the precision of three linear-complexity type analyses for Java software: Class Hierarchy Analysis (CHA), Rapid Type Analysis (RTA) and Variable Type Analysis (VTA). Precision is measured relative to class targets. Class targets results are useful in the context of the receiver-classes criterion, which is an object-oriented testing strategy that aims to exercise every possible class binding of the receiver object reference at each dynamic call site. In this context, using a more precise analysis decreases the number of infeasible bindings to cover, thus it reduces the time spent on conceiving test data sets. This paper also introduces two novel variations to VTA, called the iteration and intersection variants. We present experimental results about the precision of CHA, RTA and VTA on a set of 17 Java programs, corresponding to a total of 600 kLOC of source code. Results show that, on average, RTA suggests 13% less bindings than CHA, standard VTA suggests 23% less bindings than CHAt and VTA with the two variations together suggests 32% less bindings than CHA.
Clinical utility of seropositive voltage-gated potassium channel–complex antibody

Background:Antibodies against voltage-gated potassium channel (VGKC)–complex are implicated in the pathogenesis of acquired neuromyotonia, limbic encephalitis, faciobrachial dystonic seizure, and Morvan syndrome. Outside these entities, the clinical value of VGKC-complex antibodies remains unclear. Methods:We conducted a single-center review of patients positive for VGKC-complex antibodies over an 8-year period. Results:Among 114 patients positive for VGKC-complex antibody, 11 (9.6%) carrying the diagnosis of limbic encephalitis (n = 9) or neuromyotonia (n = 2) constituted the classic group, and the remaining 103 cases of various neurologic and non-neurologic disorders comprised the nonclassic group. The median titer for the classic group was higher than the nonclassic group (p < 0.0001). A total of 90.9% of the patients in the classic and 21.4% in the nonclassic group possessed high (>0.25 nM) VGKC-complex antibody levels (p < 0.0001). A total of 75.0% of the patients in the high-level group had definite or probable autoimmune basis, while nonautoimmune disorders were seen in 75.6% of patients from the low-level group (p < 0.0001). A total of 26.3% of patients were found with active or remote solid organ or hematologic malignancy, but no antibody titer difference was observed among subgroups of absent, active, or remote malignancy. Compared to age-matched US national census, rates of active cancer in our cohort were higher in patients older than 45 years. Conclusions:High VGKC-complex antibody titers are more likely found in patients with classically associated syndromes and other autoimmune conditions. Low-level VGKC-complex antibodies can be detected in nonspecific and mostly nonautoimmune disorders. The presence of VGKC-complex antibody, rather than its level, may serve as a marker of malignancy.
Survey of resource-searching algorithms in structured P2P network

Nowadays resource-searching algorithm in structured P2P network becomes a hot subject of research. Based on introduction of the resource-searching algorithms in P2P network, the algorithms of structured P2P resource researching called DHT including Chord, CAN, Pastry, Tapestry were mainly discussed, and the advantages and disadvantages of them were analyzed in this paper. It will lay a foundation for the further studying of high performance P2P resource-researching algorithms.
Biophysical climate impacts of recent changes in global forest cover

It's not only the carbon in the trees Forest loss affects climate not just because of the impacts it has on the carbon cycle, but also because of how it affects the fluxes of energy and water between the land and the atmosphere. Evaluating global impact is complicated because deforestation can produce different results in different climate zones, making it hard to determine large-scale trends rather than more local ones. Alkama and Cescatti conducted a global assessment of the biophysical effects of forest cover change. Forest loss amplifies diurnal temperature variations, increases mean and maximum air temperatures, and causes a significant amount of warming when compared to CO2 emission from land-use change. Science, this issue p. 600 The biophysical effects of recent global forest cover change have caused measurable warming. Changes in forest cover affect the local climate by modulating the land-atmosphere fluxes of energy and water. The magnitude of this biophysical effect is still debated in the scientific community and currently ignored in climate treaties. Here we present an observation-driven assessment of the climate impacts of recent forest losses and gains, based on Earth observations of global forest cover and land surface temperatures. Our results show that forest losses amplify the diurnal temperature variation and increase the mean and maximum air temperature, with the largest signal in arid zones, followed by temperate, tropical, and boreal zones. In the decade 2003–2012, variations of forest cover generated a mean biophysical warming on land corresponding to about 18% of the global biogeochemical signal due to CO2 emission from land-use change.
Recessive Resistance to Plant Viruses: Potential Resistance Genes Beyond Translation Initiation Factors

The ability of plant viruses to propagate their genomes in host cells depends on many host factors. In the absence of an agrochemical that specifically targets plant viral infection cycles, one of the most effective methods for controlling viral diseases in plants is taking advantage of the host plant’s resistance machinery. Recessive resistance is conferred by a recessive gene mutation that encodes a host factor critical for viral infection. It is a branch of the resistance machinery and, as an inherited characteristic, is very durable. Moreover, recessive resistance may be acquired by a deficiency in a negative regulator of plant defense responses, possibly due to the autoactivation of defense signaling. Eukaryotic translation initiation factor (eIF) 4E and eIF4G and their isoforms are the most widely exploited recessive resistance genes in several crop species, and they are effective against a subset of viral species. However, the establishment of efficient, recessive resistance-type antiviral control strategies against a wider range of plant viral diseases requires genetic resources other than eIF4Es. In this review, we focus on recent advances related to antiviral recessive resistance genes evaluated in model plants and several crop species. We also address the roles of next-generation sequencing and genome editing technologies in improving plant genetic resources for recessive resistance-based antiviral breeding in various crop species.
A Wide Coverage Positioning System (WPS) for Underwater Localization

Underwater localization is challenging as its efficacy is affected by propagation delays, motion-induced doppler shift, phase and amplitude fluctuations, multipath interference etc that are inherent in underwater acoustic channels. In this paper, we consider a recently proposed Underwater Positioning Scheme, which offers unique localization only in a finite region. We quantify the conditions for unique localization and propose a variant that offers unique localization with high probability regardless of the reference and unknown node deployment. We demonstrate the trade-offs between both schemes in terms of localizability space, localization latency and energy consumption.
An Optimisation Approach to Robust Estimation of Multicomponent Polynomial Phase Signals in Non-Gaussian Noise

In this paper, we address the problem of estimating the parameters of multicomponent polynomial phase signals in impulsive noise which arises in many practical situations. In the presence of this non-standard noise, existing techniques perform can poorly. We propose a nonlinear M-estimation approach to improve the existing techniques. The phase parameters are obtained by solving a nonlinear optimisation problem. A procedure is proposed to find the global minimum at low computational cost. Simulation examples show the proposed method performs better than existing methods
Neurotrophic Factors Increase Axonal Growth after Spinal Cord Injury and Transplantation in the Adult Rat

The capacity of CNS neurons for axonal regrowth after injury decreases as the age of the animal at time of injury increases. After spinal cord lesions at birth, there is extensive regenerative growth into and beyond a transplant of fetal spinal cord tissue placed at the injury site. After injury in the adult, however, although host corticospinal and brainstem-spinal axons project into the transplant, their distribution is restricted to within 200 micron of the host/transplant border. The aim of this study was to determine if the administration of neurotrophic factors could increase the capacity of mature CNS neurons for regrowth after injury. Spinal cord hemisection lesions were made at cervical or thoracic levels in adult rats. Transplants of E14 fetal spinal cord tissue were placed into the lesion site. The following neurotrophic factors were administered at the site of injury and transplantation: brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), neurotrophin-4 (NT-4), ciliary-derived neurotrophic factor (CNTF), or vehicle alone. After 1-2 months survival, neuroanatomical tracing and immunocytochemical methods were used to examine the growth of host axons within the transplants. The neurotrophin administration led to increases in the extent of serotonergic, noradrenergic, and corticospinal axonal ingrowth within the transplants. The influence of the administration of the neurotrophins on the growth of injured CNS axons was not a generalized effect of growth factors per se, since the administration of CNTF had no effect on the growth of any of the descending CNS axons tested. These results indicate that in addition to influencing the survival of developing CNS and PNS neurons, neurotrophic factors are able to exert a neurotropic influence on injured mature CNS neurons by increasing their axonal growth within a transplant.
SECOND‐TRIMESTER DIMERIC INHIBIN‐A IN DOWN'S SYNDROME SCREENING

Initial studies of immunoreactive inhibin using a commercial assay have shown levels to be increased in three second‐trimester series of maternal samples from Down's syndrome‐affected pregnancies. This assay detected non‐specifically all forms of circulating inhibin, dimeric and free alpha subunits, whether fully or partially processed. More recently, a new specific assay for dimeric inhibin‐A has shown elevated results in both a first‐trimester and a second‐trimester series of cases. In order to assess the value of dimeric inhibin‐A as a potential marker in the second trimester, we have analysed 157 Down's syndrome cases and used 367 unaffected cases across the gestational range 14–20 weeks to establish control medians and population parameters. In our series, the median MOM in Down's cases was 1·77, significantly higher than in the controls. At a 5 per cent false‐positive rate, dimeric inhibin‐A alone identified 37 per cent of cases. When used in conjunction with maternal age and other marker combinations, mathematical modelling showed detection rates rising from 48 per cent (inhibin‐A plus age) to 61 per cent (inhibin‐A, free beta hCG, age) and 68 per cent (inhibin‐A, AFP, free beta hCG, age). Our data suggest that dimeric inhibin‐A may have greater potential earlier in gestation when median levels at 14–16 weeks are 1·92 compared with 1·46 at 17–23 weeks. Dimeric inhibin‐A may be a valuable addition to screening protocols, particularly in early gestations.
TEACHER EDUCATION STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF USE OF MS POWERPOINT AND THE VALUE OF ACCOMPANYING HANDOUTS

Title of Document: TEACHER EDUCATION STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF USE OF MS POWERPOINT AND THE VALUE OF ACCOMPANYING HANDOUTS Yesim Yilmazel-Sahin, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Directed By: Professor Dr. Rebecca L. Oxford Department of Curriculum and Instruction This research study investigated issues related to use of Microsoft (MS) PowerPoint presentation software program in teacher education and drew attention to the significant value of handouts that accompany Po werPoint presentations. Graduate and undergraduate teacher education students at fou r higher education institutions were surveyed through semi-structured interviews an d questionnaires concerning their views on use of PowerPoint and related handou ts. Interviews provided qualitative findings, while questionnaires gave bot h qualitative and quantitative results. The results of Mann-Whitney U tests indica ted that both graduate and undergraduate students perceived PowerPoint to be a useful learning and teaching tool, but results also showed that significant diff erences existed between the perceptions of graduate students and undergraduates , with undergraduates reporting fewer class discussions when PowerPoint is used. Majority of students expressed the belief that hand outs accompanying PowerPoint presentations were very important for th eir learning, as shown by qualitative and quantitative results. This study al so revealed that undergraduate students, compared to graduate students, take fewer not s during a PowerPoint presentation if they receive a handout. Qualitativ e results indicated that “guidednote” handouts, which provide a skeleton of the Pow erPoint presentation without giving complete lecture notes, were found to be the most effective way to facilitate active learning and note-taking, in the students’ p erceptions. TEACHER EDUCATION STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF USE OF M S POWERPOINT AND THE VALUE OF ACCOMPANYING HANDOUTS