Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Description and Discovery of Complex Events in Video Surveillance

Behavior understanding and semantic interpretation of dynamic visual scenes have attracted a lot of attention in computer vision research community. Although the use of surveillance cameras has proliferated, the understanding of activities still remains complex. While users are mostly interested in high level and subjective semantics, only low level visual features can be extracted in a reliable way. This paper presents a novel in a reliable way. This paper presents a novel around the event modeling concept. It enables users to design their personal models of events combining elementary concept and low level features using expressive formalisms. The framework enables then detection of the events within video streams based on low level features extraction and manual annotations analysis, while taking in consideration uncertainty. Examples depicting content-based events modeling and detection from video surveillance are presented to illustrate the approach.
Community-based neurorehabilitation in underserved populations

Despite the fact that stroke is the leading cause of long-term adult disability and a primary cause of death, one of the major problems in national healthcare systems is the inability to provide quality post-stroke rehabilitation. Geographical barriers, socioeconomic position, race, education, and cost all contribute to health care disparities. These disparities may not only obstruct access to the most appropriate rehabilitative care, but may contribute to psychological problems, reduced quality of life, and unsuccessful return to meaningful community participation. Information and communications technology (ICT) when combined with robotic technology can enhance the accessibility of rehabilitation in low-resource, capacity-constrained settings. In this paper we introduce a low cost, limited supervision, portable robot (H-Man) designed for upper extremity rehabilitation. A usability and feasibility study indicates that out-patient robotic treatment with the H-Man leads to positive improvements in arm movement, and that the system is usable and well accepted by key stakeholders. This paper also introduces an implementation strategy to assess the effectiveness, benefits and barriers of using the H-Man robot for community-based neurorehabilitation in underserved populations, such as those that live in low income neighborhoods or in rural areas.
The Northern Lights Experience - Negotiation strategies

3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . 4 CHAPTER -IINTRODUCTION . 5 1.1 Background for the study . 5 1.2 Aim of the study . 7 1.3 Structure of master thesis . 7 CHAPTER -IIMETHODOLOGY . 8 2.1 Choice of subject and methodological review . 8 2.2 Research approach . 10 2.2.1 Pre-study . 11 2.2.2 Semi-structured interviews . 11 2.2.3 Participant observation . 12 2.3 My role as a researcher . 12 2.4 Research ethics . 14 CHAPTER -IIINORTHERN LIGHTS EXPERIENCES – Staging, Narrative and Negotiation strategies . 16 3.1 Nature based experiences in Aurora landscapes . 16 3.1.1 The Aurora landscapes – affective atmospheres . 18 3.1.2 Landscape and identity . 20 3.2 Staging experiences – engaging customers . 22 3.2.1 Designing memorable experiences . 24 3.3 Using narratives and storytelling in the production of Northern Lights experience production . 27 3.3.1 Contrasting Aurora narratives – science, myths and history . 30 3.4 Controlled by the unruly forces of Nature? 32 3.4. 1 Facilitating and negotiating extraordinary Aurora experiences . 33
European Conference on Information Systems ( ECIS ) 2010 Managing the IT Carve-Out in a SBU Divestment

This paper presents an alignment model to analyze the specific IT-based challenges of divesting a strategic business unit (SBU). The model identifies the interdependences among SBU application portfolios, undocumented local system customization, and other intra-organization links that a carveout must identify and resolve. For large organizations that frequently buy and sell SBUs, four guidelines are proposed: 1) a SBU that will be sold the so called carve-out object should be autonomous, 2) the SBU IT application portfolios should be independent, 3) IT standards should be implemented in both the corporate IT platform and IT application portfolios, and 4) the intellectual property embedded in human resources needs to be replicated, and both retained in the vendor organization and divested to the buyer with the IT carve-out object. Complying with these guidelines is complex and difficult because they are frequently in conflict with vendor IT and line management goals. Carve-out management teams should consider and address these differences when structuring, designing and resourcing the IT work stream.
Cardiorespiratory fitness and physical function in children with cancer from diagnosis throughout treatment

Background Children with cancer experience severe reductions in physical fitness and functionality during and following intensive treatment. This may negatively impact their quality of life. Purpose To describe the physical capacity and functionality of children with cancer during and after treatment as well as the feasibility of physical activity intervention in the Rehabilitation including Social and Physical activity and Education in Children and Teenagers with Cancer study. Patients and methods The study included children diagnosed from January 2013 to April 2016 with paediatric cancer or Langerhans cell histiocytosis, all treated with chemotherapy. Seventy-five of 78 consecutively eligible children (96.2%) were included. Median age was 11 years (range 6‒18). The physical capacity and function were assessed based on testing of physical strength, balance and cardiorespiratory fitness. Children were tested at diagnosis, 3 and 6 months after diagnosis and 1 year after cessation of treatment. The feasibility evaluation was inspired by the criteria for reporting the development and evaluation of complex interventions in healthcare. Results All children participated in the physical intervention programme with no dropouts. Strenuous physical exercise and physiological testing during paediatric cancer treatment was safe and feasible, with only five minor adverse events during the intervention. Cardiorespiratory fitness was significantly lower in children with cancer than norms for healthy age-matched children at diagnosis (difference 19.1 mL/kg/min, 95% CI 15.4 to 22.7; p <0.0001), during treatment 3 and 6 months from diagnosis (difference 21.0 mL/kg/min, 95% CI 17.4 to 24.6; p <0.0001 and difference 21.6 mL/kg/min, 95% CI 17.3 to 25.8; p <0.0001, respectively) and 1 year after cessation of treatment (difference 6.9 mL/kg/min, 95% CI 1.1 to 12.7; p <0.0072). Furthermore, children with cancer experienced a pronounced decline in physical function. Conclusion This study shows that it is safe and feasible to perform strenuous physical exercise and testing during paediatric cancer treatment and that children with cancer have significantly lower physical capacity and functionality than healthy age-matched norms. Trial registration number ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01772862.
On-demand new word learning using world wide web

Most of the Web-based methods for lexicon augmenting consist in capturing global semantic features of the targeted domain in order to collect relevant documents from the Web. We suggest that the local context of the out-of-vocabulary (OOV) words contains relevant information on the OOV words. With this information, we propose to use the Web to build locally-augmented lexicons which are used in a final local decoding pass. Our experiments confirm the relevance of the Web for the OOV word retrieval. Different methods are proposed to retrieve the hypothesis words. Finally we present the integration of new words in the transcription process based on part-of-speech models. This technique allows to recover 7.6% of the significant OOV words and the accuracy of the system is improved.
Evidence for Abasic Site Sugar Phosphate-Mediated Cytotoxicity in Alkylating Agent Treated Saccharomyces cerevisiae

To better understand alkylating agent-induced cytotoxicity and the base lesion DNA repair process in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we replaced the RAD27FEN1 open reading frame (ORF) with the ORF of the bifunctional human repair enzyme DNA polymerase (Pol) β. The aim was to probe the effect of removal of the incised abasic site 5′-sugar phosphate group (i.e., 5′-deoxyribose phosphate or 5′-dRP) in protection against methyl methanesulfonate (MMS)-induced cytotoxicity. In S. cerevisiae, Rad27Fen1 was suggested to protect against MMS-induced cytotoxicity by excising multinucleotide flaps generated during repair. However, we proposed that the repair intermediate with a blocked 5′-end, i.e., 5′-dRP group, is the actual cytotoxic lesion. In providing a 5′-dRP group removal function mediated by dRP lyase activity of Pol β, the effects of the 5′-dRP group were separated from those of the multinucleotide flap itself. Human Pol β was expressed in S. cerevisiae, and this partially rescued the MMS hypersensitivity observed with rad27fen1-null cells. To explore this rescue effect, altered forms of Pol β with site-directed eliminations of either the 5′-dRP lyase or polymerase activity were expressed in rad27fen1-null cells. The 5′-dRP lyase, but not the polymerase activity, conferred the resistance to MMS. These results suggest that after MMS exposure, the 5′-dRP group in the repair intermediate is cytotoxic and that Rad27Fen1 protection against MMS in wild-type cells is due to elimination of the 5′-dRP group.
A relativistic retrocausal model violating Bell's inequality

We present a simple model demonstrating that time-symmetric (advanced + retarded) relativistic interactions can account for statistical correlations violating the Bell inequalities while avoiding conspiracies as well as the commitment to instantaneous (direct space-like) influences. We provide an explicit statistical analysis of the model while highlighting some of the difficulties arising from retrocausal effects. Finally, we discuss how this account fits into the framework of Bell's theorem.
Employing following eye movements to discriminate normal from glaucoma subjects

We recorded optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) to see if slow phase velocity, duration or other measures were affected by glaucoma. Drifting grating patterns that either weakly or strongly evoked the spatial frequency doubling illusion were employed. Analysis of 68 variables characterizing the OKN revealed that small subsets of these variables were good at discriminating normal from primary open angle glaucoma subjects. The variables were related to the regularity of following eye movements. Models including the best five variables selected in two different ways classified about 90% of subjects correctly. Impaired accuracy of eye movements suggests that glaucoma changes the signal to noise ratio available to the brain. The gross changes observed permit the use of electro‐oculography or other simple methods in the clinic.
Comparing Perceptions of Motivation to Change: Clinicians Versus Their Substance-Abuse Clients

Although some clients enter treatment voluntarily to seek intervention for their substance abuse problems, most enter under coercive external pressures that may be perceived by clinicians as less influenced by addressing substance abuse than by appeasing mandates from the judicial system, family, or employers. Little research has examined and compared how clinicians assess clients’ extrinsic and intrinsic motivation to change as opposed to how the clients assess themselves. A congruency between the two parties’ assessments may inform the quality of the therapeutic relationship and facilitate an effective treatment plan. Using the Circumstance, Motivation, and Readiness Scales (CMR) and availability sampling methods, we surveyed both the clinicians and their clients (N = 31 clients and 11 clinicians). Results showed that there is a statistically significant difference between the ratings of the clinicians and their clients. The clinicians tended to rate the clients as having lower motivation and being less ready to change than the clients rated themselves. In addition, the clinicians rated three groups of clients similarly; no significant difference existed comparing (a) a court-mandated group, (b) a conditional (e.g., referred by family or welfare office), and (c) a voluntary group. Likewise, there was no significant difference with respect to clients’ own ratings, comparing the three client groups. Implications for practice, policy, and future research are discussed.
Restating the Case for Weighted-IPC Metrics to Evaluate Multiprogram Workload Performance

Weighted speedup is nowadays the most commonly used multiprogram workload performance metric. Weighted speedup is a weighted-IPC metric, i.e., the multiprogram IPC of each program is first weighted with its isolated IPC. Recently, Michaud questions the validity of weighted-IPC metrics by arguing that they are inconsistent and that weighted speedup favors unfairness [4]. Instead, he advocates using the arithmetic or harmonic mean of the raw IPC values of the programs in the multiprogram workload. We show that weighted-IPC metrics are not inconsistent, and that weighted speedup is fair in giving equal importance to each program. We argue that, in contrast to raw-IPC metrics, weighted-IPC metrics have a system-level meaning, and that raw-IPC metrics are affected by the inherent behavior of the programs. We also show that the choice of a metric may adversely affect the conclusions from an experiment. We suggest to use two weighted-IPC metrics - system throughput (STP) and average normalized turnaround time (ANTT) - for evaluating multiprogram workload performance, and to avoid raw-IPC metrics.
Pose-Invariant 3D Object Recognition Using Linear Combination of 2D Views and Evolutionary Optimisation

In this work, we present a method for model-based recognition of 3d objects from a small number of 2d intensity images taken from nearby, but otherwise arbitrary viewpoints. Our method works by linearly combining images from two (or more) viewpoints of a 3d object to synthesise novel views of the object. The object is recognised in a target image by matching to such a synthesised, novel view. All that is required is the recovery of the linear combination parameters, and since we are working directly with pixel intensities, we suggest searching the parameter space using an evolutionary optimisation algorithm in order to efficiently recover the optimal parameters and thus recognise the object in the scene
Low effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccine in preventing laboratory-confirmed influenza in primary care in the United Kingdom: 2014/15 mid-season results.

R G Pebody (Richard.Pebody@phe.gov.uk)1, F Warburton1, J Ellis2, N Andrews1, C Thompson2, B von Wissmann3, H K Green1, S Cottrell4, J Johnston5, S de Lusignan6, C Moore7, R Gunson8, C Robertson9,10, J McMenamin3, M Zambon2 1. Public Health England Centre of Infectious Disease Surveillance and Control, London, United Kingdom 2. Public Health England Operations Directorate, Microbiology Services, Colindale, London, United Kingdom 3. Health Protection Scotland, Glasgow, United Kingdom 4. Public Health Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom 5. Public Health Agency Northern Ireland, Belfast, United Kingdom 6. Royal College of General Practitioners Research and Surveillance Centre, United Kingdom 7. Public Health Wales Molecular Diagnostics Unit, Cardiff, United Kingdom 8. West of Scotland Specialist Virology Centre, Glasgow, United Kingdom 9. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom 10. International Prevention Research Institute, Lyon, France
Teaching Agile Software Engineering Using Problem-Based Learning

Many studies have reported the utilization of Problem-Based Learning PBL in teaching Software Engineering courses. However, these studies have different views of the effectiveness of PBL. This paper presents the design of an Advanced Software Engineering course for undergraduate Software Engineering students that uses PBL to teach them Agile software development methods-particularly Scrum. The course also aims to develop entrepreneurial skills needed for software engineering graduates to better prepare them for the software industry. The assessment process designed for this course is illustrated. The paper shows that Scrum practices correlate with the characteristics of the PBL approach, which has resulted in a successful experience of PBL as reported by students in an end of a semester survey.
Creating trauma-informed correctional care: a balance of goals and environment

Background : Rates of posttraumatic stress disorder and exposure to violence among incarcerated males and females in the US are exponentially higher than rates among the general population; yet, abrupt detoxification from substances, the pervasive authoritative presence and sensory and environmental trauma triggers can pose a threat to individual and institutional stability during incarceration. Objective : The authors explore the unique challenges and promises of trauma informed correctional care and suggest strategies for administrative support, staff development, programming and relevant clinical approaches. Method : A review of literature includes a comparison of gendered responses and the implications for men's facilities, and the compatibility of trauma recovery goals and forensic programming goals. Results : Trauma informed care demonstrates promise in increasing offender responsivity to evidence-based cognitive behavioral programming that reduces criminal risk factors and supporting integrated programming for offenders with substance abuse and co-occurring disorders. Conclusions : Incorporating trauma recovery principles into correctional environments requires an understanding of criminal justice priorities, workforce development and specific approaches to screening, assessment and programming that unify the goals of clinical and security staff.
Sparse representation for coarse and fine object recognition

This paper offers a sparse, multiscale representation of objects. It captures the object appearance by selection from a very large dictionary of Gaussian differential basis functions. The learning procedure results from the matching pursuit algorithm, while the recognition is based on polynomial approximation to the bases, turning image matching into a problem of polynomial evaluation. The method is suited for coarse recognition between objects and, by adding more bases, also for fine recognition of the object pose. The advantages over the common representation using PCA include storing sampled points for recognition is not required, adding new objects to an existing data set is trivial because retraining other object models is not needed, and significantly in the important case where one has to scan an image over multiple locations in search for an object, the new representation is readily available as opposed to PCA projection at each location. The experimental result on the COIL-100 data set demonstrates high recognition accuracy with real-time performance.
Interaction of the RAGE Cytoplasmic Domain with Diaphanous-1 Is Required for Ligand-stimulated Cellular Migration through Activation of Rac1 and Cdc42*

Cellular migration is a fundamental process linked to diverse pathological states such as diabetes and its complications, atherosclerosis, inflammation, and cancer. The receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) is a multiligand cell surface macromolecule which binds distinct ligands that accumulate in these settings. RAGE-ligand interaction evokes central changes in key biological properties of cells, including proliferation, generation of inflammatory mediators, and migration. Although RAGE-dependent signal transduction is critically dependent on its short cytoplasmic domain, to date the proximate mechanism by which this RAGE domain engages and stimulates cytoplasmic signaling pathways has yet to be identified. Here we show that the RAGE cytoplasmic domain interacts with Diaphanous-1 (Dia-1) both in vitro and in vivo. We employed the human RAGE cytoplasmic domain as “bait” in the yeast two-hybrid assay and identified the formin homology (FH1) domain of Dia-1 as a potential binding partner of this RAGE domain. Immunoprecipitation studies revealed that the RAGE cytoplasmic domain interacts with the FH1 domain of Dia-1. Down-regulation of Dia-1 expression by RNA interference blocks RAGE-mediated activation of Rac-1 and Cdc42 and, in parallel, RAGE ligand-stimulated cellular migration. Taken together, these findings indicate that the interaction of the RAGE cytoplasmic domain with Dia-1 is required to transduce extracellular environmental cues evoked by binding of RAGE ligands to their cell surface receptor, a chief consequence of which is Rac-1 and Cdc42 activation and cellular migration. Because RAGE and Dia-1 are implicated in the regulation of inflammatory, vascular, and transformed cell migration, these findings highlight this interaction as a novel target for therapeutic intervention in inflammation, atherosclerosis, diabetes, and cancer.
From hits to niches?: or how popular artists can bias music recommendation and discovery

This paper presents some experiments to analyse the popularity effect in music recommendation. Popularity is measured in terms of total playcounts, and the Long Tail model is used in order to rank music artists. Furthermore, metrics derived from complex network analysis are used to detect the influence of the most popular artists in the network of similar artists. The results from the experiments reveal that---as expected by its inherent social component---the collaborative filtering approach is prone to popularity bias. This has some consequences on the discovery ratio as well as in the navigation through the Long Tail. On the other hand, in both audio content--based and human expert--based approaches artists are linked independently of their popularity. This allows one to navigate from a mainstream artist to a Long Tail artist in just two or three clicks.
Feasibility study of photoplethysmographic signals for biometric identification

The utilization of photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals for biometric identification represents a novel approach in the area of secure authentication. PPG signals can be easily obtained with low cost and have great potential to serve as biometric identification mechanism. This paper explores the feasibility, along with the relevant signal processing methods, of using PPG signals of an individual as a biometric trait. PPG signals from two biometric datasets are examined. PPG signals were obtained from the fingertips of 29 healthy subjects. The experimental results demonstrate that PPG signals can be used as bio-measures for identification purposes given that PPG signals are collected under controlled environment and with accurate sensors.
Determinants of IT Adoption , Organizational Change and the Nature of the Firm An empirical study of French Survey Data

This paper uses French survey data on firms’ IT equipment to test a model of complementarity between technology, organizational innovations and environmental influences. The methodology used to assess the complementarity hypothesis is based on two different statistical procedures : a typological analysis and ordered probit estimates. The main result of this study is to show that firms can adopt two coherent combinations of information technologies, organizational tools and competitive strategies. This suggests that the theory of the firm should not necessarily lead to a unique model of firms’ behavior.