Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning-Based Filter Selection Scheme for Depth Image Super Resolution

Depth images that have the same spatial resolution as color images are required in many applications, such as multiview rendering and 3-D texture modeling. Since a depth sensor usually has poorer spatial resolution compared with a color image sensor, many depth image super-resolution methods have been investigated in the literature. With an assumption that no one super-resolution method can universally outperform the other methods, in this paper we introduce a learning-based selection scheme for different super-resolution methods. In our case study, three distinctive mean-type, max-type, and median-type filtering methods are selected as candidate methods. In addition, a new frequency-domain feature vector is designed to enhance the discriminability of the methods. Given the candidate methods and feature vectors, a classifier is trained such that the best method can be selected for each depth pixel. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is first demonstrated using the synthetic data set. The noise-free and noisy low-resolution depth images are constructed, and the quantitative performance evaluation is performed by measuring the difference between the ground-truth high-resolution depth images and the resultant depth images. The proposed algorithm is then applied to real color and time-of-flight depth cameras. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the conventional algorithms both quantitatively and qualitatively.
Environmental Interpretation in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park: An Assessment of Programme Effectiveness

This study sought to determine how visitor environmental interpretation programmes in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park could be assessed to determine their effectiveness in educating visitors about the reef environment and conservation issues. A self-administered visitor questionnaire was designed to identify changes in visitor knowledge and understanding of the reef's basic ecology, human impacts, health and tourism. The study used an independent sample design in which visitors aboard a large reef-trip vessel were surveyed over one week before exposure to the operation's interpretive programme. A second set of visitors was then surveyed following completion of the interpretive programme. The survey identified significant changes in visitors' self-reported knowledge of the reef environment as a result of the trip. Additionally, visitors' self-reported knowledge and understanding of basic reef ecology and human impacts on the reef environment differed significantly in relation to the number of interpretive activities in which they participated. These findings suggest that (1) reef-based visitor interpretation programmes can effectively change visitor understanding of key reef topics and issues, and (2) methods of evaluating reef-based interpretive programmes can be undertaken through self-administered questionnaires.
Resource Degradation in Africa and Latin America: Population Pressure, Policies, and Property Arrangements

Degradation of renewable natural resources in the developing world is taking a serious toll. Deforestation threatens biological diversity and could alter global climate. Soil erosion reduces the capacity of many countries to satisfy expanding demands for agricultural commodities. It also jeopardizes the benefits of water resource development. Deposition of eroded soil in reservoirs, for example, diminishes hydroeletricity production and reduces irrigation water supplies. In spite of widespread concern over these environmental problems, analysis of resource degradation in poor countries is rudimentary. Simple Malthusian explanations, in particular, are widely circulated. Other than the general recommendation that human fertility be controlled, these explanations offer little guidance for the design of conservation strategies. In this paper, a broader perspective is taken on the causes of depletive human interaction with the natural environment in Africa and Latin
Book Review: Ondetti, G. (2008). Land, Protest, and Politics: The Landless Movement and the Struggle for Agrarian Reform in Brazil. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press

tivist approach is not always clear. True, according to both the qualitative study and the quantitative study, firms seem to consider social ties, historical advantages, and international agreements when making investment decisions. However, these could be interpreted as factors that influence a firm’s calculations about the likelihood of profits given the risk of starting a venture in another country. Put another way, these social features of FDI could be seen as ways of reducing transaction costs. Perhaps firms do go where the profits are greatest, but their cost-benefit calculus includes factors such as the risk of doing business in an environment where social ties (and the informational benefits they afford) are absent. This is a substantial issue for the argument. Bandelj’s response to it is based largely on the distinction between uncertainty and risk. When expected utility cannot be calculated, actors make decisions based on reason but infused with routine, emotional reaction, normative commitments, and tacit knowledge. This is “practical rather than rational action” (p. 192), and practice is a process. For this answer to be convincing, one must accept the unknowable and constructed qualities of the socioeconomic world. The payoff, however, involves shifting to a conception of action as a process that evolves over time and is shaped by situations; as such, it is a much thicker understanding of the process of decision making than that offered by the rationalist account. The book offers compelling arguments and evidence that a socially and culturally contextualized theory of action is necessary and possible without its falling prey to the usual objection that cultural approaches are too heavily interpretative to be of general use. It will have an impact on economic sociologists, and it should be read by political scientists who are interested in theories of rationality, economic transformations, and economic aspects of globalization. Roger Schoenman University of California, Santa Cruz
Cactus Pear as Dryland Fodder: Ambovombe Farm, Madagascar and Wellwood Farm, South Africa Compared, c.1920–1950

For over a century the pros and cons of using Opuntia species (prickly pear, cactus pear) as stock feed in arid and semi-arid regions have been debated in print. The issue remains important since pastoralism is often a major livelihood option in disadvantaged dryland areas, and any introduced plant that might enhance pastoral production could be of great value. This paper seeks to test the argument that cactus pears increase the productivity of land devoted to livestock by comparing records for their use in two historically specific locations over a thirty-year period from 1920 to 1950: a French colonial veterinary service farm in Androy, southern Madagascar and a successful Merino sheep farm in the Karoo, South Africa. It explores the different types of experiment that can be undertaken to determine impacts on livestock-rearing as well as the methodological difficulties involved. It highlights the significance of particular Opuntia species or varieties (spiny and spineless, cultivated and wild) as well as particular ecological conditions and social management systems for determining productivity impacts. It also considers the divergent historical trajectories of investigations into Opuntia productivity in Madagascar and South Africa, relating these to broader contexts.
L’allocation de paiements pour services environnementaux par enchère inversée : premières réflexions pour une application au sein des forêts privées françaises

Because biodiversity is by nature a public good, the goods and services deriving from it are subject to deterioration. Government intervention is necessary to reconcile private and public interests and avoid “freeriding” behaviours. One of the tools government can use is the PES contract. To enhance the efficiency of these contracts, many programmes now use auctions to allocate conservation contracts. In this paper, we examine a number of these programmes, with the aim of initiating an investigation of the prospects for using auctions to allocate PES contracts in French private forests. Several avenues worth exploring are suggested. Insofar as the bidding process is much more efficient the greater the competition between owners and the larger their differences in terms of opportunity costs, it is essential to assess the bidding potential of owners of French forests and their diversity to see if there are situations in which auctioning could be considered.
Participation in voluntary organizations

Economic theories explaining participation have focused on individual preferences, private and public failures as explanations for participation in voluntary organizations. These theories do not look at the relevance of the institutions that affect public and market failures that in turn, affect participation. My essay considers and empirically examines the effect those different institutions and institutional forms may have on civic participation, as suggested by political scientists and sociologists. Using a sample of 83 countries circa year 2000 from the World Value Surveys, the hypotheses with respect to the importance of institutional variables are partially supported by the data.
Multi-core model checking and maximum satisfiability applied to hardware-software partitioning

Bounded model checking (BMC) based on satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) is well-known by its capability to verify software. However, its use as optimisation tool, to solve hardware and software (HW-SW) partitioning problems, is something new. In particular, its integration with the maximum satisfiability solver vZ tool, which provides a portfolio of approaches for solving linear optimisation problems over SMT formulas, is unprecedented. We present new alternative approaches to solve the HW-SW partitioning problem. First, we use SMT-based BMC in conjunction with a multi-core support using open multi-processing to create four variants to solve the partitioning problem. The multi-core SMT-based BMC approaches allow initialising many verification instances based on the number of available processing cores, where each instance checks a different optimum value until the optimisation problem is satisfied. Additionally, we integrate the vZ into the BMC, making it a specialised solution for optimisation in a single-core environment. We implement all five approaches on top of the efficient SMT-based context-bounded model checker (ESBMC) and compare them to a state-of-the-art optimisation tool. Experimental results show that there is no single optimisation tool to solve all HW-SW partitioning benchmarks, but based on medium-size benchmarks, ESBMC-vZ had better performance.
Examining organizational climate in Greek hotels from a service quality perspective

– Organizational climate, which includes the setting of values, rules and priorities to be followed by all individuals involved in the organisation, has been receiving increased attention over recent years. The purpose of this paper is to look into the prevalent organizational climate within hotels and to identify variations in employees' perceptions, based on whether they hold managerial or non‐managerial positions. , – This paper reports a study conducted in 24 Greek hotels located in the Thessaly region, providing 217 usable responses. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the relative importance placed on the climate dimensions and then t‐tests were used to check for significant differences between managerial and non‐managerial employees. , – The results show that efficiency, reflexivity, innovation and flexibility, supervisory support and quality were among the most prominent characteristics affected by organisational climate, whereas outward focus and pressure to produce were least affected. Moreover, the only differences revealed between managerial and non‐managerial employees were in the areas of involvement and efficiency. , – Since Greece is a very diverse country in terms of tourism, including hotels that operate in other regions of the country would improve the generalizability of these findings. Future research should also try to link organizational climate directly with measures of the actual service quality provided to customers. , – Identifying the prevalent organizational climate can help managers to optimize performance by identifying inherent strengths and weaknesses. Managers can then exploit the opportunities offered and evade the threats evident in the globalized hospitality setting. In addition, variations in perceptions between managers and non‐managers may help the organization to identify common priorities among all individuals employed.
A meandered rectangular microstrip antenna for dual-frequency operation

This paper describes the simulated of a meandered rectangular microstrip antenna for dual-frequency operation at 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz. This compact antenna was simulated using Computer Simulation Technology (CST) software. The radiating patch has dimensions 39 times 26.5 mm with ground plane size of 60 times 50 mm. Then the designed antenna was fabricated and measured. In the measurement, it was found that the antenna was operated at 2.61 GHz and 6.1 GHz with accepted value of voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR les 2.1). The simulated and measured gain of the designed antenna also was recorded at these operating frequencies.
Compare bancassurance sales with an insurer's own team in Taiwan

No research has yet focused on comparing the efficiency among different channels when selling insurance products. To fill this gap in the research, this study concentrates on bancassurance services provided through the creation of subsidiaries and compares the efficiency of this model with the traditional insurance selling channels in Taiwan. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approaches are employed to identify the weights of inputs and evaluate the efficiencies of the bancassurance and traditional channels separately. The findings are as follows: 1) The efficiency score of a life insurance company's own sales representatives is significantly higher than that of its bancassurance representatives; 2) The efficiency relationship between the bancassurance channel and the traditional selling channels is independent; 3) A marketing efficiency evaluation of a life insurance company, when divided into different marketing channels for evaluation, is capable of providing meaningful results for marketing decision-makers.
The strategic orientation of owner‐managers of small ventures

This explorative research paper considers the strategic development objectives of small owner‐managed ventures in order to have an insight into how to systematically categorise the heterogeneous owner‐managed small business economy. It commences with a review of the literature and other studies pertinent to the strategic objectives of small business owner‐ managers from which the general research hypothesis is established; small firms have a variant form of strategic orientation owing to a plethora of internal (behavioural) and external market economic factors. This is followed by the research methodology and statistical analysis of a database which incorporates the views of 922 small firm owner‐managers on strategic objectives. The empirical evidence identifies four generic clusters of owner‐managers namely: growth stars, exiteers, survivors, and controllers. In order to throw more light on the profile of the variant clusters of owner‐managed small firms, the paper briefly examines the inter‐relationship.
A semi-supervised model for network traffic anomaly detection

Network traffic anomaly detection can help to early detect network attacks because hacker's activities may result in unusual changes of network traffic, that are significant fluctuations compared to normal traffic of the network Among various anomaly detection approaches, principal component analysis (PCA) has been seen as an effective solution. Until now, PCA is basically applied to dimension reduction method. Several issues remain including: how effective can PCA be applied to semi-supervised models with a small training dataset, which components are significant for anomaly detection. This paper proposes a semi-supervised model using a modified Mahanalobis distance based on PCA for network traffic anomaly detection. We propose a K-means clustering method to build normal profile of traffic to improve the training dataset and propose to give weights to choose principal components of PCA.
Discussion of Assessing the Information Content of Mark-to-Market Accounting with Mixed Attributes: The Case of Cash Flow Hedges and Market Transparency and the Accounting Regime

Arguments for marking to market would be overwhelming in the context of frictionless, textbook competitive markets. In such a world, valuation would be a matter of reading off the competitive prices that are common knowledge to all, and that would be the end of the matter. No further debate would be needed. On the other hand, if we had such a world, then accounting would be irrelevant; accounting would simply be a veil, leaving the economic fundamentals unaffected. To put it the other way round, accounting is relevant only because we live in an imperfect world. As such, laying out the precise nature of the imperfections and following up their consequences for economic efficiency are crucial in any debates about accounting measurement. The papers in the 2006 JAR conference by Bleck and Liu and by Gigler, Kanodia, and Venugopalan offer two alternative perspectives on the merits
ASSDN: A Framework for Adaptive Strategies for Software-Defined Networking

In the last years, several projects are emerged with the aim to addressing the challenge of providing solutions for deployment, monitoring, adaptation, and management of clouds belonging to different enterprises/organisations. In such scenarios the network connectivity is one of the key factors. SDN technologies represent a good solution to face this challenge. Separating the control plane from the data plan, they can supply the cloud provider with the opportunity to specify on-the fly both the network topologies and routing schemes, guaranteeing, at same time, specific level of isolation. ASSDN, the framework presented in this paper, represents the first attempt to face this kind of issue. Driving the SDN controllers of all the Network Providers involved, it allows to create, handle and monitor virtual networks that are able to span across several heterogeneous cloud environments so to guarantee specific level of QoS.
Constructing Race and Ethnicity in America: Category-making in Public Policy and Administration

Part I. Laying the Groundwork: Giving a(n) (Ac)count 1. Constructing Categories: Naming, Counting, Science, and Identity 2. Toward an American Categorical "Science" of Race and Ethnicity: OMB Directive No. 15 Part II. Making Race-Ethnicity Through Public Policies 3. Color, Culture, Country: Race and Ethnicity in the US Census 4. Identity Choices? Agency Policies and Individual Resistance Part III. Making Race-Ethnicity Through Administrative Practices 5. Ethnogenesis by the Numbers, Ethnogenesis by "Eyeballing" 6. Constructing Race-Ethnicity Through Social Science Research: Managing Workplace Diversity Part IV. Telling Identities: The Contemporary Legacy 7. Public Policies as Identity Stories: American Race-Ethnic Discourse 8. Changing (Ac)counting Practices: Meditation on a Problem
Inhibitory effect against pathogenic and spoilage bacteria of Pseudomonas strains isolated from spoiled and fresh fish

The antibacterial effects of 209 Pseudomonas strains isolated from spoiled iced fish and newly caught fish were assessed by screening target organisms in agar diffusion assays. One-third (67 strains) inhibited the growth of one or several of six target organisms (Escherichia coli, Shewanella putrefaciens, Aeromonas sobria, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Listeria monocytogenes, and Staphylococcus aureus), of which S. aureus and A. sobria were the most sensitive. The inhibitory action was most pronounced among the strains producing siderophores, and the presence of iron eliminated the antibacterial effect of two-thirds of the inhibitory strains. Siderophore-mediated competition for iron may explain the inhibitory activity of these strains. All but nine of the inhibiting strains were found to inhibit the growth of 38 psychrotrophic S. putrefaciens strains isolated from spoiling fish and fish products. Siderophore-containing Pseudomonas culture supernatants inhibited growth of S. putrefaciens, as did the addition of iron chelators (ethylenediamine dihydroxyphenylacetic acid [EDDHA]). In particular, Pseudomonas strains isolated from newly caught and spoiled Nile perch (Lates niloticus) inhibited S. putrefaciens. This suggests that microbial interaction (e.g., competition or antagonism) may influence the selection of a microflora for some chilled food products.
Implementation of Novel Imaging Strategies in Complex Ablation Procedures:

Radiofrequency catheter ablation can be offered to many patients with common arrhythmias as a routine clinical procedure, with a high success rate and a low complication rate. This is not yet the case for more complex arrhythmias, such as ventricular tachycardia in patients with structural heart disease and atrial fibrillation. These arrhythmias remain the last two hurdles and represent the major target for scientists and clinical electrophysiologists. Several issues can be considered important for improving curative treatment of cardiac arrhythmias: (1) better understanding of arrhythmia mechanisms, e.g., revealing the relevance of focal triggers for atrial fibrillation initiation was crucial for the attempts of a catheter ablative cure of this common arrhythmia1; (2) implementation of alternative energy sources, such as cryoablation, ultrasound, or microwave,2 into the armamentarium of clinical electrophysiologists; and (3) improving cardiac imaging prior to, during, and after electrophysiologic procedures. The main goal of current and future methods of visualizing cardiac anatomy and electrical excitation will be to improve ablation outcome and avoid complications. Novel invasive imaging strategies such as electroanatomic mapping and noncontact mapping have already become a mainstay in the treatment of selected arrhythmias, such as atrial and ventricular tachycardia.3,4 Likewise, intracardiac echocardiography has been found to be useful for imaging anatomic structures and the position of ablation catheters.5,6 Recently, Marrouche et al.7 suggested that ablation success can be improved and possible complications such as embolic events, cardiac rupture, and pulmonary vein stenosis can be avoided if intracardiac echocardiography is implemented in radiofrequency ablation procedures for atrial fibrillation. In this issue of the Journal, Khoury et al.8 report on myocardial contrast echocardiography by inserting a 9-French, 9-MHz intracardiac echocardiographic catheter into the left ventricle and infusing contrast microbubbles in the left coronary artery. Subsequently, left ventricular focal and linear radiofrequency lesions were applied in the canine heart. Focal lesion dimensions could be clearly delineated with two-dimensional myocardial contrast echocardiography as opposed to intracardiac echocardiography alone. The dimensions of the lesion immediately following radiofrequency application and after 30 minutes were comparable in size and