Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Abstract Art by Shape Classiﬁcation

—This paper shows that classifying shapes is a tool useful in Non-Photorealistic rendering from photographs. Our classiﬁer inputs regions from an image segmentation hierarchy and outputs the “best” ﬁtting simple shape such as a circle, square or triangle. Other approaches to NPR have recognised the beneﬁts of segmentation, but none have classiﬁed the shape of segments. By doing so, we can create artwork of a more abstract nature, emulating the style of modern artists such as Matisse and other artists who favoured shape simpliﬁcation in their artwork. The classiﬁer chooses the shape that “best” represents the region. Since the classiﬁer is trained by a user, the ‘best shape’ has a subjective quality that can over-ride measurements such as minimum error and more importantly captures user preferences. Once trained, the system is fully automatic, although simple user interaction is also possible to allow for differences in individual tastes. A gallery of results shows how this classiﬁer contributes to NPR from images by producing abstract artwork.
Coding and multiple-access over fading channels

These Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne EPFL, n° 1672 (1997)Section de systemes de communication Reference doi:10.5075/epfl-thesis-1672Print copy in library catalog Record created on 2005-03-16, modified on 2016-08-08
Shock Modification and Chemistry and Planetary Geologic Processes

The second half of the twentieth century has seen a revolution in the Earth and planetary sciences. One radically new concept is that hypervelocity impact is a major process at work in the solar system. Only in the last few decades has it become fully accepted that the Earth, the other terrestrial planets, the Moon, the icy satellites, and the asteroids all have surfaces that are heavily modified by a history of impact. Such modification is evident from the cratered surfaces of these solar system objects, the micro­ structures of many meteorites, and the properties of the lunar regolith, all of which show evidence of repeated exposure to impacts and resulting shock waves. Along with the appreciation of the importance of impact as a surface process, accretionary models for planetary formation have been advanced and accepted. For example, it is now clear that shock heating was a primary contributor to thc thermal state of planets as they grew. In the last decade, hypotheses have been embraced that require impacts of various sizes to explain events ranging from the origin of the Moon to the Cre­ taceous-Tertiary mass extinction to the ejection of rocks (thc SNC meteor­ ites) from the surface of Mars. Serious hypotheses have included impact as the cause of phenomena as varied as periodic biologic extinctions and magnetic pole reversals.
Vertical Fiscal Imbalance and Local Fiscal Discipline: Empirical Evidence from China

Using a nationwide city-level panel dataset for China for the years 1999-2009, this paper examines the effects of vertical fiscal imbalances (VFI) on local fiscal discipline, and explicitly explores the institutional conditions under which these effects may take place. We find that higher VFI levels induce fiscal indiscipline by reducing tax effort of local governments. We exploit the unique Chinese fiscal institution of assigning taxing power for local taxes and shared taxes to two separate authorities (i.e., the local tax bureau and the central tax bureau, respectively) in several ways. We show that local governments respond to the presence of the VFI by lowering their tax effort on local taxes, but do not do so for shared taxes. In addition, we show that the (in)disciplining effect of the VFI is not present for extra-budgetary revenues, which reflects the institutional fact that extra-budgetary revenues are not considered for the determination of central fiscal transfers to local governments, thus creating no incentive for local governments to respond in this area.
Probabilistic navigation in dynamic environment using Rapidly-exploring Random Trees and Gaussian processes

The paper describes a navigation algorithm for dynamic, uncertain environment. Moving obstacles are supposed to move on typical patterns which are pre-learned and are represented by Gaussian processes. The planning algorithm is based on an extension of the rapidly-exploring random tree algorithm, where the likelihood of the obstacles trajectory and the probability of collision is explicitly taken into account. The algorithm is used in a partial motion planner, and the probability of collision is updated in real-time according to the most recent estimation. Results show the performance of the navigation algorithm for a car-like robot moving among dynamic obstacles with probabilistic trajectory prediction.
Rupture dynamics of a planar fault in a 3D elastic medium: Rate- and slip-weakening friction

We propose a new boundary integral equation method (BIEM) to model the spontaneous propagation of rupture on a planar fault embedded in a homogeneous elastic medium. The BIEM formulation is very compact and fast in computation, so that we are able to study the effect of different slip- and rate-dependent friction laws on dynamic shear fault propagation. We simulated a spontaneous rupture by a sudden break of asperity under two friction laws, rate and/or slip weakening. We examined both long and circular asperities. The long asperity model corresponds to the 2D anti-plane or in-plane problem. The obtained result shows that slip-weakening friction is important at the crack tip, and rate-weakening friction plays an important role in the healing stage. If slip-weakening friction is strong stress drops gradually at the crack tip. On the other hand, if rate-weakening friction is strong stress drops abruptly, but it stops suddenly and sometimes stress recovers. This sudden stop of rupture produces a heterogeneous stress distribution, which will in turn produce aftershocks. Finally, we studied a realistic asperity model in which rupture starts from a small patch and then propagates with finite rupture speed. Depending on the asperity size healing can occur even without rate-weakening friction. This is due to very strong healing waves produced by the edges of the asperity.
Effects of Guarana Aqua Extracts on Fermentation Kinetics and Quality Properties of Set-Type Yogurts

The combination of bioactive phytochemicals with yogurt in the form of plant extracts or essential oils stimulates the scientific community’s interest and consumers’ preferences. Extracts from guarana are considered bioactive agents and have important health protective properties. In this study, concentrations of guarana aqua extracts 0%, 0.5%, 1%, 2%, 3%, and 4% w/w were added to milk and yogurt fermentation kinetics, acidity, color, water-holding capacity, hardness, and microstructure and were evaluated. The presence of guarana aqua extract reduced the time needed for the completion of yogurt fermentation compared to the control samples. A drop in L ∗ and an increase in a ∗ parameters were also observed with increased guarana aqua extract concentrations. The lowest concentration of guarana aqua extract decreased titratable acidity, hardness, and syneresis. While different casein networks were observed in microscopy, yogurt without and yogurt with 3% w/w guarana extract had the same acidity and hardness. Finally, this research indicates the suitability of guarana extracts in the production of functional set-type yogurt and increases the knowledge on the effects of plant extracts on milk fermentation and yogurt quality characteristics.
La publication d'articles de recherche en économie en France

We constructed a database containing 1 540 economics researcher working in France in 1998. For each scholar we have his/her current affiliation his/her professional status and the list of all his/her publications as referenced by "EconLit. " Twelve indices, taking or not into account the journal quality, the article length and the number of co-authors, and for three different time periods (1969-1998, 1994-1998 and by year since the first publication) are elaborated. A descriptive study of the French publications and of their concentration is presented. The analysis of the correlation between the rankings leads to the selection of one balanced indicator. Rankings of scholars, status and centers are given. Finally, some international comparisons are presented. This work helps to quantify precisely the production of publications in France. Furthermore, our methodology could be extended to other fields as it is not specific to economics.
Financial Statement Fraud: The Need for a Paradigm Shift to Forensic Accounting

The main aim of this study is to develop a forensic accounting system that will help in reducing financial statement fraud through not only its predictive properties; but also, the recommended forensic accounting procedures and policies which the accounting profession should adopt. This study through a neo-empiricist inductive approach, that is premised on an objective collection of qualitative empirical data, has developed a forensic accounting system by exploring the perception of Accounting Academics, Forensic Accountants, External Auditors and Finance Directors using a purposive sampling method. The findings revealed that the training of professional accountants’, particularly external auditors, in forensic accounting skills, ethics, principles and procedures can increase their fraud detection capabilities which can, in turn, increase the chances of fraud detection in the financial statements and equally serve as a fraud deterrence mechanism. The main output from this study was developed into a model called the "Forensic Accounting system". This model has three elements; Audit Concerns, Education, Accounting Standards and Regulations. These three elements are not mutually exclusive, but one element can be addressed per time. This new system stipulates that in order to reduce financial statement fraud, audit concerns (agency concern, role and responsibility of auditors, management responsibility and odd agency situation) need to be addressed. Of importance in the audit concerns element is the mandate of the auditors. The mandate of external auditors needs to include the detection of fraud in the financial statement. Once the audit concerns have been addressed how auditors are educated will need to change. The changes that are required are some elements of forensic accounting to be incorporated into the curriculum and professional development of auditors. The last element of the new system is the accounting standard and regulations. Those grey areas that allow for the manipulation of the financial statements will need to be closed down by the standard setters. Two key issues here are the concept of materiality and auditors’ responsibility. This study has implication for standard setters on the need to make accounting and auditing standards fit for purpose to complement the corporate governance codes. Higher education and professional bodies should work along the changes in accounting standards and integrate some elements of forensic accounting into the education curriculum of professional accountants in order to increase their chances
Calanoid Copepods of the Genera Spinocalanus and Mimocalanus From the Central Arctic Ocean: With a Review of the Spinocalanidae

The family Spinocalanidae includes small to medium-sized marine calanoid copepods belonging to the genera Spinocalanus, Monacilla, Mimocalanus, and Teneriforma. All species are deep-living and often comprise a large proportion, or even a majority, of the copepods in deep samples. In spite of their prevalence, definitive knowledge of the Spinocalanidae has lagged behind that of other copepod groups because adequate collections from deep water have been few, and specimens from widely separated localities have seldom been compared. Most important, however, is the fact that the fragility of the specimens makes them very difficult to study; most investigators attempting to describe or identify Spinocalanidae have indicated that their specimens were damaged and incomplete. The present study is based on collections of zooplankton from Fletcher's Ice Island, T-3, in the Canadian Basin of the Arctic Ocean in 1967-68. The seven species of Spinocalanidae from these collections are redescribed, and their vertical distributions are discussed, based on series of samples from discrete depth intervals to 3,000 m. The systematics of the Spinocalanidae has been reconsidered, using characters in addition to those most commonly lost in sampling. All published descriptions and records are discussed. Several critical type specimens and specimens forming the bases of widespread records have been examined and are redescribed. Keys to the genera and all of the species have been prepared, with the goal of enabling an investigator to identify even damaged specimens. Many named species or forms have been placed in synonymy, and two new species (Spinocalanus terranovae and Mimocalanus heronae) are described. The family is now considered to comprise 32 species, distributed as follows: Spinocalanus (19), Monacilla (4), Mimocalanus (8), and Teneriforma (1).
Burden of potentially human papillomavirus‐associated cancers of the oropharynx and oral cavity in the US, 1998–2003

As human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination becomes widely available in the US for cervical cancer prevention, it may also affect the rates of other cancers potentially associated with HPV. The objective of the current study was to describe the incidence rates of oropharyngeal and oral cavity cancers in the US with a focus on anatomic sites potentially associated with HPV infection.
Repetitive DNA and Plant Domestication: Variation in Copy Number and Proximity to Genes of LTR-Retrotransposons among Wild and Cultivated Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) Genotypes

The sunflower (Helianthus annuus) genome contains a very large proportion of transposable elements, especially long terminal repeat retrotransposons. However, knowledge on the retrotransposon-related variability within this species is still limited. We used next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies to perform a quantitative and qualitative survey of intraspecific variation of the retrotransposon fraction of the genome across 15 genotypes—7 wild accessions and 8 cultivars—of H. annuus. By mapping the Illumina reads of the 15 genotypes onto a library of sunflower long terminal repeat retrotransposons, we observed considerable variability in redundancy among genotypes, at both superfamily and family levels. In another analysis, we mapped Illumina paired reads to two sets of sequences, that is, long terminal repeat retrotransposons and protein-encoding sequences, and evaluated the extent of retrotransposon proximity to genes in the sunflower genome by counting the number of paired reads in which one read mapped to a retrotransposon and the other to a gene. Large variability among genotypes was also ascertained for retrotransposon proximity to genes. Both long terminal repeat retrotransposon redundancy and proximity to genes varied among retrotransposon families and also between cultivated and wild genotypes. Such differences are discussed in relation to the possible role of long terminal repeat retrotransposons in the domestication of sunflower.
Responses of chlorophyll a to added nutrients, Asian dust, and rainwater in an oligotrophic zone of the Yellow Sea: Implications for promotion and inhibition effects in an incubation experiment

Increasing anthropogenic atmospheric deposition of nutrients, trace metals, and toxic substances to oceans may synergistically enhance or inhibit some specific phytoplankton growth, subsequently modulating primary productivity. In this study, onboard incubation experiments were performed in the southern Yellow Sea in the spring of 2011 to explore the responses of microphytoplankton, nanophytoplankton, and picophytoplankton to various combinations of added substances. The water samples used were collected at a lower nutrient concentration zone with an N/P ratio of 10, where satellite data showed a bloom on the eleventh day after collection. The bloom also occurred in the control experiment on the ninth to eleventh days. We simulated atmospheric input by artificially adding Asian dust, rainwater, nitrogen (dissolved inorganic N), phosphorus (P), and iron (Fe). The addition of a large amount of Asian dust increased both the maximum concentration of chlorophyll a (Chl a) and the conversion efficiency index of N into Chl a (CEI) by ~40% and ~30%, respectively, compared to the control, indicative of promoting growth of the phytoplankton. However, no promotion effect on phytoplankton growth was observed when the addition of Asian dust was reduced to10% of the original amount. The addition of rainwater increased the maximum concentration of Chl a by ~40% but decreased the CEI by ~40%, indicating inhibition coexisting with promotion of some phytoplankton species. Moreover, the size‐fractioned Chl a data showed that the inhibition effect pertained to nanophytoplankton and occurred following the bloom (after the eighth day).
Statistical issues in modelling the ancestry from Y-chromosome and surname data

A considerable industry has grown-up around genealogical inference from genetic testing, supplementing more traditional genealogical techniques but with very limited quantification of uncertainty. In many societies Y-chromosomes are co-inherited with surnames and as such passed down from father to son. This thesis seeks to explore what the correlation can say about ancestry. In particular it is concerned with estimation of the time to the most recent common paternal ancestor (TMRCA) for pairs of males who are not known to be directly related but share the same surname, based on the repeat number at short tandem repeat (STR) markers on their Y-chromosomes. We develop a model of TMRCA estimation based on the difference in repeat numbers in pairs of male haplotypes using a Bayesian framework and Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo techniques, such as adaptive Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. The model incorporates the process of STR discovery and the calibration of mutation rates, which can differ across STRs. In simulation studies, we find that the estimates of TMRCA are rather robust to the ascertainment process and the way in which it is modelled. However, they are affected by the site-specific mutation rates at the typed STRs. Indeed sequencing the fastest mutating STRs yields a lower error in the estimated TMRCA than random STRs. In the British context, we extend our model to include additional information such as the haplogroup status (as determined from single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs) of the pair of males, as well as the frequency and origin of the surname. In general, the effect of this is to reduce estimates of the TMRCA for pairs of males with an older TMRCA, typically outwith the period of surname establishment (about 500-700 years ago). In the genealogical context, incorporating surname frequency (within the prior distribution) results in lower estimates of TMRCA for pairs of males who appear to have diverged from a common male ancestor since the period of surname establishment. In addition, we include uncertainty in the years per generation conversion factor in our model.
Airborne Isocyanates, Aminoisocyanates and Amines

Isocyanates are used in the production of polyurethane (PUR). Exposure to isocyanates is associated with respiratory disorders and may occur during production or processing of PUR. During thermal degradation of PUR, amines and aminoisocyanates are formed in addition to isocyanates. Some isocyanates and several aromatic amines are sensitizers and listed as carcinogens. A liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method for simultaneous determination of isocyanates, aminoisocyanates and amines in gas and particle phase was developed. Air samples were collected in midget impinger flasks, containing di-n-butylamine (DBA) in toluene, and glass fibre filters in series to form specific DBA-isocyanate derivatives. Amines were derivatized with ethyl chloroformate. Derivatives were characterized using both LC-MS and LC-chemiluminescent nitrogen detection. Gas chromatography with MS and thermionic specific detection was also used. LC-MS detection resulted in a highly sensitive measurement of isocyanates equivalent to 1/2000 of the Swedish threshold limit value (for TDI in a 5 L air sample). In air samples from spray painting operations, aliphatic isocyanates that have not been reported previously were revealed. In car repair shops, during work operations such as welding in PUR-coated metal sheets, isocyanates, aminoisocyanates and amines were observed at high concentrations in both gas and particle phase. Compounds with high volatility were efficiently collected in the impinger flask, whereas compounds with low volatility were mainly found on the filter. Isocyanic acid (ICA) and methyl isocyanate (MIC) were among the most dominating compounds present. ICA and MIC could also be observed when urea-based resins were thermally degraded.
Detection of Cell Phone Usage in Restricted Areas

— The objective of this work is to detect the cell phone and/or camera used by a person in restricted areas. The paper is based on intensive image processing techniques, such as, features extraction and image classification. The dataset of images is generated with cell phone camera including positive (with cell phone) and negative (without cell phone) images. We then extract relevant features by using classical features extraction techniques including Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) and Speeded up Robust Features (SURF). The extracted features are then, passed to classifier for detection. We employ Support Vector Machine (SVM), Nearest Neighbor (K-NN) and Decision tree classifier which are already trained on our dataset of training images of persons using mobile or otherwise. Finally, the detection performance in terms of error rate is compared for various combinations of feature extraction and classification techniques. Our results show that SURF with SVM classifier gives the best accuracy.
Green roofs on municipal buildings in Lund : modeling potential environmental benefits

Green roofs have the potential to mitigate problems with an urban heat island and to act as an element in stormwater management. Other environmental benefits exist as well, such as improvement of air quality, biological diversity and noise reduction. This project focuses on local community efforts to create a better environment through the use of extensive green roofs, which require almost no maintenance. A sub area in Lund, Sweden, encompassing the University and University Hospital and with a high proportion of municipal buildings was simulated as having green roofs. The energy and water balances were modeled for two summer months. Storage heat changes were not analyzed. 85% of all municipal building areas, or almost 14% of the total area, were suitable as green roofs. Green space would increase from 42% to 55%. Runoff reduction for July and August were 22% and 58%, respectively. Daytime roof surface temperatures decreased 9° C on average. The increase in latent heat, also called evaporative cooling, and reduced surface temperatures brought a decrease in sensible heat and thus a potential mitigation of the urban heat island effect. Other methods such as ponds and channels also serve to improve stormwater management but green roofs have the advantage of using free space and cool buildings at the same time. Applying green roofs on existing buildings is not very common, but this study shows that doing so on large roof areas can be beneficial to the local environment.