Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ieee Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 1 Active Batch Selection via Convex Relaxations with Guaranteed Solution Bounds

—Active learning techniques have gained popularity to reduce human effort in labeling data instances for inducing a classifier. When faced with large amounts of unlabeled data, such algorithms automatically identify the exemplar instances for manual annotation. More recently, there have been attempts towards a batch mode form of active learning, where a batch of data points is simultaneously selected from an unlabeled set. In this paper, we propose two novel batch mode active learning (BMAL) algorithms: BatchRank and BatchRand. We first formulate the batch selection task as an NP-hard optimization problem; we then propose two convex relaxations, one based on linear programming and the other based on semi-definite programming to solve the batch selection problem. Finally, a deterministic bound is derived on the solution quality for the first relaxation and a probabilistic bound for the second. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first research effort to derive mathematical guarantees on the solution quality of the BMAL problem. Our extensive empirical studies on 15 binary, multi-class and multi-label challenging datasets corroborate that the proposed algorithms perform at par with the state-of-the-art techniques, deliver high quality solutions and are robust to real-world issues like label noise and class imbalance.
A 3D MODEL TO CHARACTERIZE HIGH-FREQUENCY SCATTERING BY URBAN AREAS FOR MONOSTATIC AND BISTATIC RADAR CONFIGURATIONS

In this paper, we propose a 3D model to characterize the fleld scattered by an urban area, which is composed of a group of buildings, for both monostatic and bistatic radar conflgurations. This model is based on a ray-tracing technique combined with the Uniform Theory of Difiraction (UTD). It is useful not only in elucidating mechanisms of ray propagation through the observed area, but also in evaluating the amplitude and the phase of any point in the far-zone scattered fleld above the ground. In order to validate the model, some comparisons with the commercial software XGTD R ∞ are presented. In addition, our model is tested against 33{37GHz indoor measurements conducted in the anechoic chamber of the \ElectroMagnetic Efiects Research Lab" (EMERL) in Singapore. These latter comparisons have shown that the model can predict precisely the location of a target placed between two metallic plates representing walls.
Teachers Induction and Digital Culture. The case of Southern Italy Teachers attending TFA

This paper aims at describing one of the possible Italian teachers induction paths, which is called “TFA”. Then, we grasp how Southern Italy participants in a TFA course aimed at educate to teach students with special educational needs shape their own digital culture. All of the participants are in an induction process related to teaching students with special educational needs; however, some of them are already experienced teachers about other teaching fields (different from the one related to special educational needs). So, we first run Principal Component Analysis to detect what factors compose the participants’ digital culture. Then we run independent samples t-test to observe differences between males and females, and experienced and not experienced teachers. Results show that two of the four detected factors are similar to those proposed by literature. The other two, instead, differ from them. Furthermore, it emerged that, on average, males have higher scores than females on the factors; these differences are significant on three factors. Last but not the least, experienced teachers have, on average, higher scores than not experienced participants. However, these differences are not significant.
Note About Non-BPS and BPS Dp-branes in Near Horizon Region of N Dk-Branes

In this paper we will consider the dynamics of BPS and non-BPS Dp-branes in the background of N Dk-branes. Our approach is based on an existence of the new symmetry of D-brane effective actions that naturally emerges in the near horizon region of the stack of N Dk-branes. Since generally this scaling symmetry is explicitly broken in the Lagrangian we will find the equation that determines the time evolution of the generator of this transformations. Then we will argue that in case when the tachyon living on the worldvolume of unstable D-brane reaches the stable minimum the time evolution of this generator can be easily determined. With the help of the knowledge of the time dependence of this charge we will determine the trajectory of the non-BPS D-brane in the near horizon region of N Dk-branes. In case of BPS Dp-brane probe we will aruge that such a broken scaling symmetry exists as well and the existence of the explicit time dependence of the generator of this symmetry can be used in the solving the equation of motion of the probe Dp-brane in the near horizon region of N Dk-branes.
Optimizing architectural and structural aspects of buildings towards higher energy efficiency

In this on-going work, we aim at contributing to the issue of energy consumption by proposing tools to automatically define some aspects of the architectural and structural design of buildings. Our framework starts with a building design, and automatically optimizes it, providing to the architect many variations that minimize, in different ways, both energy consumption and construction costs. The optimization stage is done by the combination of an energy consumption simulation program, EnergyPlus, with a state-of-the-art multi-objective evolutionary algorithm, Hype. The latter explores the design search space, automatically generating new feasible design solutions, which are then evaluated by the energy simulation software. Preliminary results are presented, in which the proposed framework is used to optimize the orientation angle of a given commercial building and the materials used for the thermal insulation of its walls.
Multiscale mixed finite elements

In this work, we propose a mixed finite element method for solving elliptic multiscale problems based on a localized orthogonal decomposition (LOD) of Raviart-Thomas finite element spaces. It requires to solve local problems in small patches around the elements of a coarse grid. These computations can be perfectly parallelized and are cheap to perform. Using the results of these patch problems, we construct a low dimensional multiscale mixed finite element space with very high approximation properties. This space can be used for solving the original saddle point problem in an efficient way. We prove convergence of our approach, independent of structural assumptions or scale separation. Finally, we demonstrate the applicability of our method by presenting a variety of numerical experiments, including a comparison with an MsFEM approach.
Wand-based Multiple Camera Studio Calibration

To meet the demands of the many emerging multiple camera studio systems in entertainment content production, a novel wand-based system is presented for calibration of both intrinsic (focal length,lens distortion) and extrinsic (position, orientation) parameters of multiple cameras. Full metric calibration is obtained solely from observations of a wand comprising two visible markers at a known fixed distance. It is not necessary for all cameras to see the wand simultaneously, cameras may face each other, and have non-overlapping fields of view. High accuracy is achieved by using iterative bundle adjustment of tracked feature points across multiple views to refine calibration parameters until re-projection errors are minimised over the required measurement volume. The approach involves a new automatic initialisation procedure and novel application of bundle adjustment to refine calibration estimates. Evaluation of wand-calibration is performed using an eight-camera system. Results demonstrate a reprojection error of approximately 0.5 pixels rms and 3D reconstruction error of less than 2mm rms for a capture volume of 2x3x2m. Advantages of wand-based calibration over conventional chart-based calibration include time-efficient calibration of multiple camera systems and calibration of camera configurations without all cameras having to view the same objects or having overlapping fields of view.
DrosOCB: a high resolution map of conserved non coding sequences in Drosophila

Comparative genomics methods are widely used to aid the functional annotation of non coding DNA regions. However, aligning non coding sequences requires new algorithms and strategies, in order to take into account extensive rearrangements and turnover during evolution. Here we present a novel large scale alignment strategy which aims at drawing a precise map of conserved non coding regions between genomes, even when these regions have undergone small scale rearrangments events and a certain degree of sequence variability. We applied our alignment approach to obtain a genome-wide catalogue of conserved non coding blocks (CNBs) between Drosophila melanogaster and 11 other Drosophila species. Interestingly, we observe numerous small scale rearrangement events, such as local inversions, duplications and translocations, which are not observable in the whole genome alignments currently available. The high rate of observed low scale reshuffling show that this database of CNBs can constitute the starting point for several investigations, related to the evolution of regulatory DNA in Drosophila and the in silico identification of unannotated functional elements.
Fiscal Policy Rules and the Sustainability of Public Debt in Europe

In this paper, the sustainability of public debt is interpreted as the result of the interaction of fiscal policy with the economic environment, and not as a statistical concept as in most of the recent literature. If debt must not explode over time, policy makers have to respond to the changing conditions in the macroeconomic environment. This paper defines the conditions which will ensure compliance of fiscal policy with the intertemporal budget constraint in the context of Europe’s fiscal policy rules. The empirical part of the paper reveals that European public debt is sustainable in this respect, but questions regarding liquidity remain.
Sensing Driven Clustering for Monitoring and Control Applications

Clustering the nodes in a wireless sensor network is a fundamental step in many distributed self organization, re- source management, communication, and processing algorithms. Although in many system management tasks a purely network topology-based clustering may be sufficient, a more sensor-centric approach to clustering is required for many distributed sensing, control, and actuation applications. In this paper we investigate the sensing-driven node clustering problem by first formulating it as an instance of weighted bi-partite matching between sensors and phenomena of interest. In order to make the clustering algorithm implementation practical in a larger networks, we then present two distributed approaches: (i) a simple, low- cost, deterministic approach and (ii) a probabilistic balanced clustering approach. Depending on the number of sensors in the system and cluster capacities, our simulation studies indicate that switching from one approach to the other, under specific conditions, can achieve near optimal results while keeping the communication costs low.
IMPROVED RESULTS ON STABILITY ANALYSIS OF NEURAL NETWORKS WITH TIME-VARYING DELAYS: NOVEL DELAY-DEPENDENT CRITERIA

In this paper, the problem of stability analysis of neural networks with discrete time-varying delays is considered. By constructing a new Lyapunov functional and some novel analysis techniques, new delay-dependent criteria for checking the asymptotic stability of the neural networks are established. The criteria are presented in terms of linear matrix inequalities, which can be easily solved and checked by various convex optimization algorithms. Three numerical examples are included to show the superiority of our results.
Beyond product customization: Towards a conceptual framework for Collaborative Customer Innovation

Modern product customization aims at satisfying customers' individual requirements by providing customers various customization approaches. Recently, customers, especially lead users, are proven that they can play an active role in product innovation by using their potential user knowledge and creative skills. However, there is an obvious lack of systematic and deep research on customers' innovation or co-creation in current product customization systems. By customer integration and team collaborative creativity, a conceptual framework for collaborative customer innovation (CCI) is formulated in this paper, which proposes a new customer integrating approach beyond product customization. First, the concept and connotation of CCI are presented by comparing this emergent innovation approach with existing researches. Second, by studying the essential working principle of CCI, technology-driven knowledge spiral collaborative innovation mechanism and an agent-based team working model are formulated and described in detail. To realize customer collaborative innovation, the function structure of the innovation platform of CCI is analyzed and proposed. An innovation platform for household ceramic products is constructed as the application of CCI, and a case study is presented to validate the above principle and working model. The proposed conceptual framework for CCI can be used to build the collaborative customer innovation organization, develop innovation toolkits, and instruct enterprises to realize CCI effectively.
The Play Experience Scale

Objective: A measure of play experience in video games was developed through literature review and two empirical validation studies. Background: Despite the considerable attention given to games in the behavioral sciences, play experience remains empirically underexamined. One reason for this gap is the absence of a scale that measures play experience. Method: In Study 1, the initial Play Experience Scale (PES) was tested through an online validation that featured three different games (N = 203). In Study 2, a revised PES was assessed with a serious game in the laboratory (N = 77). Results: Through principal component analysis of the Study 1 data, the initial 20-item PES was revised, resulting in the 16-item PES-16. Study 2 showed the PES-16 to be a robust instrument with the same patterns of correlations as in Study 1 via (a) internal consistency estimates, (b) correlations with established scales of motivation, (c) distributions of PES-16 scores in different game conditions, and (d) examination of the average variance extracted of the PES and the Intrinsic Motivation Scale. Conclusion: We suggest that the PES is appropriate for use in further validation studies. Additional examinations of the scale are required to determine its applicability to other contexts and its relationship with other constructs. Application: The PES is potentially relevant to human factors undertakings involving video games, including basic research into play, games, and learning; prototype testing; and exploratory learning studies.
Influence of the Nd:YAG Laser Pulse Duration on the Temperature of Primary Enamel

The aim of this study is to evaluate the temperature change on specimens of primary enamel irradiated with different pulse duration of Nd:YAG laser. Fifteen sound primary molars were sectioned mesiodistally, resulting in 30 specimens (3.5 × 3.5 × 2.0 mm). Two small holes were made on the dentin surface in which K-type thermocouples were installed to evaluate thermal changes. Specimens were randomly assigned in 3 groups (n = 10): A = EL (extra long pulse, 10.000 μs), B = LP (long pulse, 700 μs), and C = SP (short pulse, 350 μs). Nd:YAG laser (λ = 1.064 μm) was applied at contact mode (10 Hz, 0.8 W, 80 mJ) and energy density of 0.637 mJ/mm2. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed for the statistical analysis (P = 0.46). Nd:YAG laser pulse duration provided no difference on the temperature changes on primary enamel, in which the following means were observed: A = EL (23.15°C ± 7.75), B = LP (27.33°C ± 11.32), and C = SP (26.91°C ± 12.85). It can be concluded that the duration of the laser pulse Nd:YAG increased the temperature of the primary enamel but was not influenced by different pulse durations used in the irradiation.
Computation offloading for sporadic real-time tasks

The applications of the mobile devices are increasingly being improved. They include computation-intensive tasks, such as video and audio processing. However, the mobile devices have limited resources, which may make it difficult to finish these tasks in time. Computation offloading can be used to boost the capabilities of these resource-constrained devices, where the computation-intensive tasks are moved to a powerful remote processing unit. This paper considers the computation offloading problem for sporadic real-time tasks. The total bandwidth server (TBS) is adopted on the remote processing unit (the server side) for resource reservation. On the client side, a dynamic programming algorithm is proposed to determine the offloading decision of the tasks such that their schedule is feasible (i.e., all the tasks meet their deadlines). The algorithm is evaluated using a case study of surveillance system and synthesized benchmarks.
Skinning on Progressive Decimated Models

Skinning existing animation frames or examples is exploited actively to find the most suitable scheme that is capable of capturing deformations from given mesh sequences. It is necessary to approximate joint transformations by a fitting algorithm that usually involves solving a large scale linear system. In this paper, we reduce the dimensions of the linear system substantially by representing example meshes as progressive decimated models. These models are reconstructed from augmented deformation sensitive decimation (ADSD) that is able to handle large deformations while maintaining connectivity relationship throughout all example meshes. We also show that skinning can be propagated to decimated models, which allows animations to be scalable to specific applications with varied requirements of qualities.
New and emerging prognostic and predictive genetic biomarkers in B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a heterogeneous disease at the genetic level. Chromosomal abnormalities are used as diagnostic, prognostic and predictive biomarkers to provide subtype, outcome and drug response information. t(12;21)/ETV6-RUNX1 and high hyper-diploidy are good-risk prognostic biomarkers whereas KMT2A (MLL) translocations, t(17;19)/TCF3-HLF, haploidy or low hypodiploidy are high-risk biomarkers. t(9;22)/BCR-ABL1 patients require targeted treatment (imatinib/dasatinib), whereas iAMP21 patients achieve better outcomes when treated intensively. High-risk genetic biomarkers are four times more prevalent in adults compared to children. The application of genomic technologies to cases without an established abnormality (B-other) reveals copy number alterations which can be used either individually or in combination as prognostic biomarkers. Transcriptome sequencing studies have identified a network of fusion genes involving kinase genes - ABL1, ABL2, PDGFRB, CSF1R, CRLF2, JAK2 and EPOR. In vitro and in vivo studies along with emerging clinical observations indicate that patients with a kinase-activating aberration may respond to treatment with small molecular inhibitors like imatinib/dasatinib and ruxolitinib. Further work is required to determine the true frequency of these abnormalities across the age spectrum and the optimal way to incorporate such inhibitors into protocols. In conclusion, genetic biomarkers are playing an increasingly important role in the management of patients with ALL.
The Reliability of Disease Activity Score in 28 Joints–C-Reactive Protein Might Be Overestimated in a Subgroup of Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients, When the Score Is Solely Based on Subjective Parameters

BackgroundDisease Activity Score in 28 Joints (DAS28) is a scoring system to evaluate disease activity and treatment response in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A DAS28 score of greater than 3.2 is a well-described limit for treatment intensification; however, the reliability of DAS28 might be overestimated. ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of DAS28 in RA, especially focusing on a subgroup of patients with a DAS28 score of greater than 3.2. MethodsData from RA patients registered in the local part of Danish DANBIO Registry were collected in May 2015. Patients were categorized into 2 groups: First, those with DAS28 >3.2 with at least one swollen joint (SJ) or elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) (“objective group”), and second, patients with a DAS28 >3.2 who had no SJ, and CRP values were within the reference range (“subjective group”). Disease Activity Score in 28 Joints, Clinical Disease Activity Index, and Health Assessment Questionnaire scores were calculated for each group. We defined new score, DAS28 subjective, to focus on subjective parameters. ResultsTwo hundred thirty patients were included; 198 (86.1%) and 32 (13.9%) patients were in the objective and subjective groups, respectively. Patients in the subjective group had lower mean values of DAS28 (P < 0.001) and Evaluator Global Assessment (P < 0.001) with less common immunoglobulin M rheumatoid factor (P < 0.001) and anti–cyclic citrullinated peptide positivity (P = 0.02) and contrarily higher mean values of tender joints (P = 0.04) and DAS28 based on subjective parameters (P = 0.003) compared with the objective group. ConclusionsRheumatoid arthritis scoring systems should be used cautiously in patients who are considered for treatment intensification. Patients with central sensitization and psychological problems and those with false-positive diagnosis of RA are at high risk of overtreatment.
Recognition of manipulated posts based on SVM classification on bulletin board system

Inspired by the fact that online Public Relations (online PR) companies manipulate the online information and confuse people about the truth of information, a novel problem of identifying messages that are controlled by online PR companies is presented. Combined with the knowledge of characteristics of opinion leaders, methods of agenda setting and strategy patterns of online PR companies, a set of features which can identify manipulated posts on bulletin board system (BBS) is proposed and verified by using classification methods. Experiments with data from real-world BBS are conducted to evaluate the ability of the feature set. The verification using Support Vector Machines proves that the feature set can be used for identification with the accuracy surpassing 74%.