Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Video Human Motion Recognition Using a Knowledge-Based Hybrid Method Based on a Hidden Markov Model

Human motion recognition in video data has several interesting applications in fields such as gaming, senior/assisted-living environments, and surveillance. In these scenarios, we may have to consider adding new motion classes (i.e., new types of human motions to be recognized), as well as new training data (e.g., for handling different type of subjects). Hence, both the accuracy of classification and training time for the machine learning algorithms become important performance parameters in these cases. In this article, we propose a knowledge-based hybrid (KBH) method that can compute the probabilities for hidden Markov models (HMMs) associated with different human motion classes. This computation is facilitated by appropriately mixing features from two different media types (3D motion capture and 2D video). We conducted a variety of experiments comparing the proposed KBH for HMMs and the traditional Baum-Welch algorithms. With the advantage of computing the HMM parameter in a noniterative manner, the KBH method outperforms the Baum-Welch algorithm both in terms of accuracy as well as in reduced training time. Moreover, we show in additional experiments that the KBH method also outperforms the linear support vector machine (SVM).
A Fast and Efficient Method for Training Categorical Radial Basis Function Networks

This brief presents a novel learning scheme for categorical data based on radial basis function (RBF) networks. The proposed approach replaces the numerical vectors known as RBF centers with categorical tuple centers, and employs specially designed measures for calculating the distance between the center and the input tuples. Furthermore, a fast noniterative categorical clustering algorithm is proposed to accomplish the first stage of RBF training involving categorical center selection, whereas the weights are calculated through linear regression. The method is applied on 22 categorical data sets and compared with several different learning schemes, including neural networks, support vector machines, naïve Bayes classifier, and decision trees. Results show that the proposed method is very competitive, outperforming its rivals in terms of predictive capabilities in the majority of the tested cases.
A Simple Clinical Scoring System to Determine the Risk of Pancreatic Cancer in the General Population

This study aimed to develop and validate a simple scoring system to determine the high-risk group for pancreatic cancer (PC) in the asymptomatic general population. The scoring system was developed using data from PC cases and randomly selected non-PC cases undergoing annual medical checkups between 2008 and 2013. The performance of this score was validated for participants with medical checkups between 2014 and 2016. In the development set, 45 PC cases were diagnosed and 450 non-PC cases were identified. Multivariate analysis showed three changes in clinical data from 1 year before diagnosis as independent risk factors: ΔHbA1c ≥ 0.3%, ΔBMI ≤ −0.5, and ΔLDL ≤ −20 mg/dL. A simple scoring system, incorporating variables and abdominal ultrasound findings, was developed. In the validation set, 36 PC cases were diagnosed over a 3-year period from 32,877 participants. The AUROC curve of the scoring system was 0.925 (95%CI 0.877–0.973). The positive score of early-stage PC cases, including Stage 0 and I cases, was significantly higher than that of non-PC cases (80% vs. 6%, p = 0.001). The simple scoring system effectively narrows down high-risk PC cases in the general population and provides a reasonable approach for early detection of PC.
A Performance Comparison of Spatial Multiplexing MIMO Detectors

Many techniques are used in MIMO for various purposes, such as SM (spatial multiplexing), SD (spatial diversity) and antenna beam forming. Among them spatial multiplexing is used in MIMO for accommodating high data-rates applications. In, SM, independent information sequences called as layers are simultaneously transmitted from independent antennas. So, the overall bit-rate compared to single antenna system is thus largely enhanced without requiring extra bandwidth or extra transmission power. However during transmission through channel, individual layers are overlying with each other and MSI (multi stream interference) will occurs at the receiver. So, it is very difficult to obtain intended symbol from the bunch of streams. To solve out this problem of MSI various approaches have been proposed, which provides efficient approximate solution of the detection problem at receiver. Such as zero forcing (ZF), minimum mean square error (MMSE), successive interference cancellation (SIC), Ordered successive interference cancellation (OSIC). In this paper error performance of these SM detection schemes are investigated. They are compared on the basis of their BER performance. General Terms Spatial Multiplexing, MIMO Detectors
Effects of Digoxin on Acute, Atrial Fibrillation–Induced Changes in Atrial Refractoriness

BackgroundAtrial fibrillation (AF) shortens the atrial effective refractory period (ERP) and predisposes to further episodes of AF. The acute changes in atrial refractoriness may be related to tachycardia-induced intracellular calcium overload. The purpose of this study was to determine whether digoxin, which increases intracellular calcium, potentiates the acute effects of AF on atrial refractoriness in humans. Methods and ResultsIn 38 healthy adults, atrial ERP was measured at basic drive cycle lengths (BDCLs) of 350 and 500 ms after autonomic blockade. Nineteen patients had been treated with digoxin for 2 weeks. After a several-minute episode of AF, atrial ERP was measured serially at alternating BDCLs. Compared with pre-AF ERPs, the first post-AF ERPs were significantly shorter in both the digoxin and the control groups (P <0.001). The post-AF ERP at a BDCL of 350 ms shortened to a greater degree in the digoxin group (37±16 ms) than in the control group (20±13 ms, P <0.001); similar changes occurred at a BDCL of 500 ms. During post-AF determinations of the atrial ERP, secondary AF episodes occurred significantly more often in the digoxin group (32% versus 16%;P <0.04). ConclusionsAfter a brief episode of AF, digoxin augments the shortening that occurs in atrial refractoriness and predisposes to the reinduction of AF. These effects occur in the setting of autonomic blockade and therefore are more likely to be due to the effects of digoxin on intracellular calcium than to its vagotonic effects.
Larval Development of Tropical Oyster crassostrea cuculata in Laboratory Condition

O ysters , Crassostrea cuculata were induced to spawn by injection of 1.5 mM/L serotonin. Each female produced 2. 3 0-2 2 . 42 million eggs during spawning. Mature eggs measured 41 - 49 m m in diameter. Cell division occurred within 1 0 - 25 minutes after fertilization. Mobile trochophore larvae were occured after 6-1 0 hours, D-stage larvae after 2 3-30 hours, early umbo stage in 6- 9 days, late umbo in 14-2 1 days, spats in 2 5 - 30 days and settlement occurred soon after a suitable cultch materials were presented. Spat which settled on shell cultches showed good growth and exceeded 0. 4 cm within 2 weeks after setting.
Engaging Caribbean island communities with indigenous heritage and archaeology research

This paper describes community engagement activities with indigenous heritage and archaeology research in the Caribbean. The practice of local community engagement with the archaeological research process and results can contribute to retelling the indigenous history of the Caribbean in a more nuanced manner, and to dispel the documentary biases that originated and were perpetuated from colonial times. From the conception of the ERC-Synergy NEXUS 1492 research project, a key aim has been to engage local communities and partners in the research process and collaboratively explore how the research results can be positively incorporated in contemporary cultural heritage. In the context of community engagement with scientific research, this paper explores the question of who represents a community and highlights key examples in community participation in archaeological research. These examples emphasize participation throughout the research process, from the development of research questions, to data analysis, dissemination and conservation action.
Comparison of Data-driven Link Estimation Methods in Low-power Wireless Networks

Link estimation is a basic element of routing in low-power wireless networks, and data-driven link estimation using unicast MAC feedback has been shown to outperform broadcast-beacon-based link estimation. Nonetheless, little is known about how different data-driven link estimation methods affect routing behaviors. To address this issue, we classify existing data-driven link estimation methods into two broad categories: L-NT that uses aggregate information about unicast and L-ETX that uses information about the individual unicast-physical-transmissions. Through mathematical analysis and experimental measurement in a testbed of 98 XSM motes (an enhanced version of MICA2 motes), we examine the accuracy and stability of L-NT and L-ETX in estimating the ETX routing metric. We also experimentally study the routing performance of L-NT and L-ETX. We discover that these two representative, seemingly similar methods of data-driven link estimation differ significantly in routing behaviors: L-ETX is much more accurate and stable than L-NT in estimating the ETX metric, and accordingly, L-ETX achieves a higher data delivery reliability and energy efficiency than L-NT (for instance, by 25.18 percent and a factor of 3.75, respectively, in our testbed). These findings provide new insight into the subtle design issues in data-driven link estimation that significantly impact the reliability, stability, and efficiency of wireless routing, thus shedding light on how to design link estimation methods for mission-critical wireless networks which pose stringent requirements on reliability and predictability.
The Magellanic Stream and the Density of Coronal Gas in the Galactic Halo

The properties of the Magellanic Stream constrain the density of coronal gas in the distant Galactic halo. We show that motion through ambient gas can strongly heat Stream clouds, driving mass loss and causing evaporation. If the ambient gas density is too high, then evaporation occurs on unreasonably short timescales. Since heating dominates drag, tidal stripping appears to be responsible for producing the Stream. Requiring the survival of the cloud MS IV for 500 Myr sets an upper limit on the halo gas density of nh < 10-5 cm -3 at 50 kpc, roughly a factor of 10 lower than that estimated from the drag model of Moore & Davis. Implications for models of the evolution of gas in galaxy halos are discussed.
Minimizing End-to-End Delays in Linear Multihop Networks

The optimum designs of linear multihop networks that can minimize the end-to-end transmission delays are studied in this paper. In multihop networks, more hops mean a shorter transmission distance per hop but more overheads; thus, it is critical to identify the optimum number of hops that can minimize the end-to-end delay. Two network configurations are considered: one with deterministic equidistant relays and the other with random relays uniformly distributed between the source and destination. The average end-to-end delays of both networks operating in the presence of noise and/or interference are expressed as functions of a number of system parameters, such as channel propagations, noise, interference, protocol overhead, and the geometric distributions of the relays. Based on the analytical results, the optimum number of hops for various system configurations is obtained. It is shown that networks with equidistant relays can achieve a shorter end-to-end delay than those with uniformly distributed relays.
Allgemeine Konzepte zur software-technischen Unterstützung verschiedener Petrinetz-Typen

Petri nets are widely used for modelling systems. The different areas and goals require different types of Petri nets. Each Petri net contains beside places, transitions, and arcs several further specific elements. Furthermore, a Petri net type defines a specific firing rule. There are many different Petri net types. It is not easy to have a general view on this bulk of Petri net types. Thus, there are attempts to establish general Petri net types or classifications of Petri net types (even of particular aspects). But, current approaches include only a few of all Petri net types. Our approach is a classification by semantics of Petri nets. We call this classification Petri Net Hypercube. It is meant to be universal for all Petri net types. A syntactical classification approach is the base of the Petri Net Hypercube. This approach leads on the one hand to the proposal of the Petri Net Markup Language. This language describes Petri nets of all types. On the other hand, the same approach leads to a base of Petri net tools. The parts of a Petri net type are implemented in this base independently of each other. The Petri Net Kernel is such a base for building Petri net tools. It implements those concepts which are general concepts of each Petri net. The Petri Net Kernel forms together with the Petri Net Hypercube a further basic Petri net tool for a parameterized Petri net type with a parameterized firing rule. The Petri Net Markup Language and the Petri Net Kernel are the main contributions of this thesis. Together, they are a powerful base for Petri net tools of each Petri net type.
Perturbation Analysis of Subspace-Based Methods in Estimating a Damped Complex Exponential

We present a study of mode variance statistics for three SVD-based estimation methods in the case of a single-mode damped exponential. The methods considered are namely Kumaresan-Tufts, matrix pencil and Kung's direct data approximation. Through first-order perturbation analysis, we derive closed-form expressions of the variance of the complex mode, frequency and damping factor estimates. These expressions are used to compare the different methods and to determine the optimal prediction order for matrix pencil and direct data approximation methods. Application to the undamped case shows the coherence of the results with those already stated in the literature. It is also found that the variances converge linearly towards the Cramer-Rao bound. Finally, the theoretical results are verified using Monte Carlo simulations.
Defining Compositionality in Execution Time Analysis

Timely operation of hard real-time systems is a correctness criterion. Guarantees, i.e. upper bounds on the execution times of a program running on a specific microarchitecture, are obtained by static timing analysis. To prevent over-provisioning of system resources, the computed bounds should be as tight as possible. For current processors, precise timing analysis is difficult mainly due to subtle interferences between processor features that affect the overall timing behaviour. To still obtain precise results, state-of-the-art approaches perform a detailed but computationally expensive exploration of possibly arising system states – thereby capturing the effects of these interferences. Future systems pose new challenges. As an example, multi-core processors introduce interference on shared resources between (functionally independent) programs running on different cores. This will eventually render the above approach infeasible in terms of analysis runtime and memory consumption. As a consequence, recent approaches to timing analysis assume so-called timing compositionality of the underlying system. This allows for a decoupling into several, less complex, individual analyses. In this thesis, we present and discuss an updated version of our definition of timing compositionality [18]. How to achieve timing compositionality in general is an unsolved question. We are interested in the construction of compositional analyses even for complex processors, as well as hardware designs that allow for precise and compositional analyses by construction. We present ideas to approach the challenges that arise in the context of compositional timing analysis. Remarks on previous publications The first part of this thesis has already been published in [18] with a preliminary version of the compositionality definition. The publication includes Section 1, Section 2, a previous version of Section 3, and parts of Section 7 of this thesis. The remaining sections present novel and unpublished material.
AUDITORY CONFLICTS AND ILLUSIONS

Perceptual conflicts appear when the brain receives ambiguous information and needs to choose which of the conflicting pieces of information represents the actual stimulation. In some cases, one piece of information dominates the other ones and we are largely unaware of the conflicting information. In other cases, however, all pieces of information are perceptually equivalent and the brain switches spontaneously between alternate interpretations of the received stimulation. If the brain receives several conflicting but perceptually equivalent pieces of information such a phenomenon is also called perceptual multistability and the acting stimulation is called multistable stimulation (Leopold and Logithesis, 1999). In case of two conflicting pieces of information, the phenomenon is called perceptual bistability and corresponding stimulation is called bistable stimulation (Hupe, Joffo and Pressnitzer, 2008). Multistable stimulation has been extensively studied in the visual domain (e.g., moving plaids, binocular rivalry) but can also occur in the auditory modality. The most common form of multistable auditory perception is auditory grouping of incoming acoustic information that may change depending on the listener's focus on specific The grouping of arriving sounds into perceptual events is referred to as auditory streaming. Normally, the grouping forms a uniform unequivocal stream. However, bistable streaming may occur under certain conditions. For example, an alternating sequence of high-and low-frequency tones may be perceived as one or two streams. When the tones are similar in frequency and the rate of presentation is slow, the listener hears a single coherent series of tones alternating in time. However, when the difference in frequency is large and the repetition rate is fast the alternating sequence splits perceptually in two unrelated streams of high-and low-frequency tones. Between these two extreme conditions, the listeners may hear either phenomenon by paying attention to different properties of the sequence. For example, Van Noorden (1975) presented the listeners with two tones A and B forming a sequence ABA-ABA-…ABA. Depending on the frequencies of the tones and the duration of the pause between individual ABA chunks, the listeners perceived either a single stream of information in a form of " a gallop " or two parallel streams of high-and low-frequency tones. However, within a certain range of manipulated parameters the listeners could hear either of these two phenomena just by refocusing their attention. Similar effects can be observed when the same tone with alternating intensities is presented to the listener (Van Noorden, 1975). Perceptual conflicts may also have …
Bistability in Atomic-Scale Antiferromagnets

Structured Memories High-density magnetic memory is generally produced by using ferromagnetic materials. As the density increases and the memory elements become closer together, stray fields can result in cross-talk and a corruption of the stored information. Antiferromagetic structures, however, are expected to be relatively insensitive to magnetic fields and so should, in principle, allow the elements to be packed in even closer. Loth et al. (p. 196) carried out low-temperature experiments to construct antiferromagnetic structures atom by atom. Electrical switching of the magnetic states was observed, and data could be robustly stored on the structure for several hours, albeit at low temperature. Atomically engineered antiferromagnets consisting of a few atoms exhibit stable magnetic states at low temperature. Control of magnetism on the atomic scale is becoming essential as data storage devices are miniaturized. We show that antiferromagnetic nanostructures, composed of just a few Fe atoms on a surface, exhibit two magnetic states, the Néel states, that are stable for hours at low temperature. For the smallest structures, we observed transitions between Néel states due to quantum tunneling of magnetization. We sensed the magnetic states of the designed structures using spin-polarized tunneling and switched between them electrically with nanosecond speed. Tailoring the properties of neighboring antiferromagnetic nanostructures enables a low-temperature demonstration of dense nonvolatile storage of information.
Positron emission tomography

The developments in positron emission tomography (PET) are reviewed with an emphasis on instrumentation for clinical PET imaging. After a brief summary of positron imaging before the advent of computed tomography, various improvements are highlighted including the move from PET scanners with septa to fully 3D scanners, changes in the preferred scintillators, efforts to improve the energy discrimination, and improvements in attenuation correction. Time-of-flight PET imaging is given special attention due to the recent revival of this technique, which promises significant improvement. Besides technical instrumentation efforts, other factors which influenced the acceptance of clinical PET are also discussed.
Instruction of hospitalized patients by respiratory therapists on metered-dose inhaler use leads to decrease in patient errors.

BACKGROUND Hospitalized patients have been shown to make several errors in using metered-dose inhalers (MDIs), which can lead to poor medication delivery. METHODS This study was designed to look at the potential benefit of a respiratory therapist (RT) giving instruction on the use of MDIs to hospitalized patients with obstructive lung disease. A baseline group of 58 patients was observed by a physician while performing 2 actuations of their MDI and the number of errors they committed, based on the National Institutes of Health's recommended 8 steps for proper MDI use, was recorded. After a program of MDI instruction (which included encouragement to use a spacer) by an RT was performed, a second group of hospitalized patients was again observed by a physician to determine if their error rate was reduced. RESULTS The baseline error rate was 6.72 (out of 15 possible) errors per patient, and improved to 2.43 errors per patient after RT-provided instruction (p < 0.001). This improvement was still significant after controlling for an increased use of spacers in the post-instruction group of patients (27.6% and 91.7% spacer use before and after education). CONCLUSIONS Instruction of hospitalized patients with obstructive lung disease by an RT improves their correct use of MDIs and increases their use of spacers while in the hospital.