Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Real-time monocular image-based 6-DoF localization

In this paper we present a new real-time image-based localization method for scenes that have been reconstructed offline using structure from motion. From input video, our method continuously computes six-degree-of-freedom camera pose estimates by efficiently tracking natural features and matching them to 3D points reconstructed by structure from motion. Our main contribution lies in efficiently interleaving a fast keypoint tracker that uses inexpensive binary feature descriptors with a new approach for direct 2D-to-3D matching. Our 2D-to-3D matching scheme avoids the need for online extraction of scale-invariant features. Instead, offline we construct an indexed database containing multiple DAISY descriptors per 3D point extracted at multiple scales. The key to the efficiency of our method is invoking DAISY descriptor extraction and matching sparingly during localization, and in distributing this computation over a temporal window of successive frames. This enables the system to run in real-time and achieve low per-frame latency over long durations. Our algorithm runs at over 30 Hz on a laptop and at 12 Hz on a low-power computer suitable for onboard computation on a mobile robot such as a micro-aerial vehicle. We have evaluated our method using ground truth and present results on several challenging indoor and outdoor sequences.
NCAA Enforcement and Competitive Balance in College Football

This article investigates the effects of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) enforcement on the competitive balance of major college football conferences in the context of the standard empirical crime model. Using an unbalanced panel describing 11 major Division IA football conferences from 1953 through 2003, NCAA enforcement efforts, in the form of investigations and probations, and the severity of punishment, measured as the average length of probations imposed, are found to have opposite but not necessarily offsetting effects on competitive balance. Greater levels of enforcement in a conference improve competitive balance. On the other hand, greater severity of punishment reduces competitive balance. The empirical evidence indicates that these changes take approximately five years to be fully dissipated. Overall, the empirical results indicate that, on average, the net effect of NCAA enforcement is an improvement in competitive balance.
Negotiating Language Policies in Schools : Educators as Policymakers

Foreword, Nancy H. Hornberger 1. Introduction, Kate Menken & Ofelia Garcia Part I: Negotiation of Language Education Policies Guided by Educators' Experiences or Identity (Individual) 2. Appropriating Language Policy on the Local Level: Working the Spaces for Bilingual Education, David Cassels Johnson and Rebecca Freeman 3. Two-Teacher Classrooms, Personalized Learning and the Inclusion Paradigm in the United Kingdom: What's in it for Learners of EAL? Angela Creese 4. "Tu Sais Bien Parler Maitresse! ": Negotiating Languages other than French in the Primary Classroom in France, Christine Helot 5. "Angles Make Things Difficult": Teachers' Interpretations of Language Policy and Quechua Revitalization in Peru, Laura Alicia Valdiviezo 6. Towards Normalizing South African Classroom Life: The Ongoing Struggle to Implement Mother-Tongue Based Bilingual Education, Carole Bloch, Xolisa Guzula, and Ntombizanele Nkence 7. Enacting Language Policy through the Facilitator Model in a Monolingual Policy Context in the United States, Bonnie English and Manka M. Varghese 8. Between Intended and Enacted Curricula: Three Teachers and a Mandated Curricular Reform in Mainland China, Yuefeng Zhang and Guangwei Hu Part II: Educators' Negotiation of Language Education Policies Influenced by Situation/Context/Community (Social) 9. Maori Language Policy and Practice in New Zealand Schools: Community Challenges and Community Solutions, Mere Berryman, Ted Glynn, Paul Woller, and Mate Reweti 10. (Re)Constructing Language Policy in a Shi'i School in Lebanon, Zeena Zakharia 11. Cases of Language Policy Resistance in Israel's Centralized Educational System, Elana Shohamy 12. Traversing the Linguistic Quicksand in Ethiopia, Michael Daniel Ambatchew 13. Language Policy in Education and Classroom Practices in India: Is the Teacher a Cog in the Policy Wheel? Ajit K. Mohanty, Minati Panda, and Rashim Pal 14. Chilean Literacy Education Policies and Classroom Implementation, Viviana Galdames and Rosa Gaete Part III: Moving Forward 15. Stirring the Onion: Educators and the Dynamics of Language Education Policies (Looking Ahead), Ofelia Garcia and Kate Menken 16. Moving Forward: Ten Guiding Principles for Teachers, Ofelia Garcia and Kate Menken
Transitional price rises with the adoption of the euro: aggregate and disaggregate sector evidence

This paper presents a time‐series regression analysis of price inflation at the time of the euro currency changeover in January 2002. Cross‐equation tests on 12 euro countries and three non‐euro EU countries are used to identify significant price changes around that time. For a small number of product and service categories, positive price changes immediately after the euro changeover suggest the possible existence of menu costs, sellers' rounding up of prices or buyers' temporary rational inattention. However, the lack of evidence for reduced inflation immediately prior to the euro changeover suggests menu costs are not important.
Comparison of neutrophil chemotactic response in diabetic patients with mild and severe periodontal disease.

This study was undertaken to evaluate the relationship between the severity of periodontitis and neutrophil (PMN) chemotactic abnormalities in diabetic patients and to correlate the observed PMN chemotactic defects with the degree of gingival inflammation and the amount of periodontal attachment loss. Fourteen dentulous, insulin-dependent, adult onset diabetics and 18 nondiabetics participated in this study. Complete periodontal examinations including periodontal charting and full mouth radiography were performed, and gingival and plaque indices were recorded. Severe periodontitis was diagnosed in eight diabetics and seven nondiabetics. The remainder of the subjects including six diabetic patients and 11 nondiabetic subjects demonstrated mild or no periodontal disease and served as controls. The chemotactic assay employed a modification of the Boyden technique. Chemoattractants studied included endotoxin activated autologous plasma, endotoxin activated normal plasma, and n-formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylala.
A 3.9-kHz Frame Rate and 61.0-dB SNR Analog Front-End IC With 6-bit Pressure and Tilt Angle Expressions of Active Stylus Using Multiple-Frequency Driving Method for Capacitive Touch Screen Panels

This paper proposes an analog front-end (AFE) IC using a multiple-frequency driving method (MFDM). The proposed AFE IC achieves a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by using an external noise spectrum and locating the frequencies of the excitation signals in low-noise regions. In addition, it employs the MFDM to increase the frame rate by simultaneously sending excitation signals having multiple frequencies to the touch screen panel (TSP). The proposed AFE IC extracts the coordinates of the finger as well as the coordinates, pressure, and tilt angle of the active stylus with the force gauge and gyro sensor. The proposed AFE IC and active stylus were fabricated in a 0.13-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> standard CMOS process. The measurement results show that the proposed AFE IC achieves a frame rate of 3.9 kHz, and SNRs of 61.0 and 50.1 dB when a finger and active stylus are used, respectively. In addition, the pressure and tilt angle of the active stylus are expressed with 6-bit resolution. A capacitive touch system with the proposed AFE IC is demonstrated with a 65-in <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$104\times 64$ </tex-math></inline-formula> TSP using ten fingers and the active stylus with the pressure and tilt angle.
Sialylation of Neisseria meningitidis lipooligosaccharide inhibits serum bactericidal activity by masking lacto-N-neotetraose

Exogenous sialylation of gonococcal lipooligosaccharide causes resistance to serum bactericidal activity. The aim of this study was to determine how lipooligosaccharide sialylation affects the serum sensitivities of group C Neisseria meningitidis strains. The relationship between the degree of sialylation or expression of the lipooligosaccharide sialic acid acceptor, lacto-N-neotetraose (LNnT), of nine meningococcal strains and their sensitivities to a pool of normal human sera was assessed. All strains expressed LNnT that was variously endogenously sialylated. Susceptibility to serum bactericidal activity ranged from extremely sensitive to resistant in 50% serum. For endogenously sialylated strains, the amount of killing correlated with the amount of free LNnT above a threshold of expression; strains that expressed less than the threshold survived in 25% serum. All strains added more sialic acid when they were grown in medium that contained cytidine monophospho-N-acetylneuraminic acid. Exogenous sialylation reduced the expression of free LNnT and significantly increased serum resistance. Exogenous sialylation affected killing through both classical and alternative complement pathways. The killing of exogenously sialylated strains also correlated with the amount of free LNnT. The amounts of endogenous, exogenous, and total sialic acid bound to LNnT did not correlate with the resistance of strains to serum bactericidal activity; rather, the loss of free LNnT expression by sialylation was associated with resistance. In conclusion, the expression of free LNnT by group C meningococcal strains is directly associated with the amount of killing of organisms in pooled human sera. Both endogenous and exogenous lipooligosaccharide sialylation are associated with increased serum resistance by masking LNnT.
The role of condensed tannins in the nutritional value of Lotus pedunculatus for sheep

1. Vegetative secondary growth Lotus pedunculatus was cut daily, and fed fresh at hourly intervals (600 g dry matter (DM)/d) to three groups each of three sheep fitted with permanent cannulas into the rumen and duodenum. Lotus fed to two of the groups was sprayed with low and high rates of polyethylene glycol (PEG; molecular weight 3350), which specifically binds the condensed tannins (CT). Nutrient intake and faecal excretion were measured directly, duodenal flows estimated from continuous intraruminal infusion of inert ruthenium phenanthroline (Ru-P) and CrEDTA markers, and rumen pool sizes measured at slaughter. 2. Dietary concentrations of total reactive CT (i.e. that not bound to PEG) were 95, 45 and 14 g/kg DM, whilst the corresponding values for free CT were 15, 5 and 2 g/kg DM. 3. Increasing dietary reactive CT concentration linearly increased duodenal flows of non-ammonia nitrogen, but linearly decreased the apparent digestibility of energy and organic matter, and rumen digestion of hemicellulose but not of cellulose. Rumen digestion as a proportion of total digestion was increased by the higher PEG rate for organic matter, energy, pectin and lignin. 4. High dietary CT concentration was associated with increased N retention. Rumen ammonia concentration and pool size showed only a slight decline on this diet, indicating that there must have been increased recycling of N into the rumen. 5. Increasing dietary reactive CT concentration had no effect on the rate at which carbohydrate constituents were degraded in the rumen per unit time (FDR), but increased the rate at which their undegraded residues (FOR) left the rumen per unit time. The latter appeared to be the principal mechanism by which rumen digestion as a proportion of total digestion was reduced at high dietary CT concentrations. From a comparison of FDR and FOR of carbohydrate components in lotus and Brassica oleracea diets, it was concluded that hemicellulose digestion was rate-limiting for rumen cell-wall digestion, probably due to bonding with lignin. However, the considerable post-rumen digestion of hemicellulose was not associated with post-rumen lignin digestion. 6. It was concluded that a desired concentration of CT in Lotus sp. should represent a balance between the positive effect of CT in improving the efficiency of N digestion and their negative effect in depressing rumen carbohydrate digestion. A recommended concentration is 3WOg/kg DM.
Importance evaluation of system components by introducing the description of virtual gravity

It is of great help and practical guidance for a system to improve the reliability and extend the service life when getting the knowledge of the components importance in a system. By introducing the description of virtual gravity, the function addressing the influence between components is built to evaluate the importance of each component, in which proximity and relationship contribution to nodes are both considered. By virtue of this method, the core parts of a complex system can be clearly excavated. Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) network is taken as a case study to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method on evaluating the importance of system components.
Common Stock Performance and Inflation: An International Comparison

Several recent studies have questioned the long-held view that stocks are a good inflation hedge. ' First, Alchian and Kessel2 found that corporations which were net monetary debtors3 experienced an increase in their equity value greater than that of net monetary creditors. Thus, debtor companies provide better inflation protection than do creditor companies. In a second study, Reilly, Johnson, and Smith4 considered market performance during five periods of rapid inflation. They found that the average real return on stock (using several well-known stock indexes) was negative or below the long-term average return in each of the five periods. Two of the periods, however, began during expansions and ended during recessions; two began during peacetime and ended during war; and one straddled the 1967 credit crunch. Thus, noninflationary factors may have caused the poor performance. In a third study, Keran5 found that inflationary expectations depressed stock prices (as measured by Standard and Poor's 500). If stocks were considered a complete inflation hedge, inflationary expectations would not depress their prices. In fact, an attempt to shift from assets which provided less inflation protection might cause an increase in stock prices. Thus, Keran's study indicates that the stockholders do not react as if they thought stocks were a good inflation hedge. Finally, Oudet conducted a study in which he concluded that inflation exerted a negative influence on returns.6 While each of these studies suggests that stocks are not a complete inflation hedge, none of them indicates to what extent, if at all, stocks may be a partial hedge. In order to answer this question and to provide a check on the previous results, all of which are based on U.S. timeseries data, it is useful to consider international data.
Multiple suppression in GPR image for testing back-filled grouting within shield tunnel

In this study, Ground penetrating radar is used to detect the quality of back-filled grouting in a shield tunnel. A simulated GPR record shows that the steel bars in lining segments usually generate strong scattering and multiples, thereby obscuring the reflections from objects and making it difficult to locate the objects. Various filtering methods for multiple suppression (i.e., predictive deconvolution, f-k multiple attenuation, and Karhunen-Loeve transformation) were applied to the GPR record of a typical grouting defect model. The `wave field prediction and removal method' is proposed, which involves predicting propagation of the GPR wave field in the lining segment. By subtracting the predicted wave field from the raw GPR record, reflections from objects are precisely abstracted. Application of the method to a synthetic GPR record revealed that the proposed method achieves better results than those obtained using existing methods.
Performance Evaluation of TCP-Based Traffic over Direct Communications in LTE-Advanced

Direct (or device-to-device, D2D) communications are being investigated in the framework of LTE- Advanced. They allow one-to-one communications between two endpoints, under the control of the eNodeB, which allocates resources for the d2d flow, but does not act as a relay for its traffic. The direct link can also be used for file transfer or proximity-based browsing, i.e. applications running on TCP. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of TCP-based traffic transported through the direct link, in several scenarios. We show and explain non-intuitive results, which arise from the interplay of TCP and LTE-A protocol mechanisms, and compare the existing TCP versions in a dynamic environment, where mode switches between the direct and the infrastructure link may induce periodic losses.
Domain adaptation of image classification exploiting target adaptive collaborative local-neighbor representation

Domain adaptation aims to deal with a kind of problem, in which the distribution of training scenarios and testing scenarios are different. Traditional solutions consider this problem in the point of the distribution matching. For the problem of domain adaptation of image classification, this paper proposes a new collaborative representation from the view of image representation. First, all source samples are supposed to form the dictionary. Second, we encode the target sample by combining this dictionary and exploiting adaptively the local-neighbor geometrical construction. Third, based on this proposed representation, named target adaptive collaborative local-neighbor representation, and the nearest classifier, the classification is implemented. Our core contribution is that the adaptive local-neighbor information of the target sample is technically absorbed to form more robust representation. The experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.
The G20 at the Cancun Ministerial: Developing Countries and Their Evolving Coalitions in the WTO

In large measure, the voice that developing countries were able to exercise in Cancun was a result of their effective coalition formation. In this paper we present a brief overview of the various coalitions that played an important role at Cancun. The greater part of this paper focuses on one among these various coalitions: the G20 on agriculture. The G20 presents an especially fascinating case of a coalition that combined a great diversity of members and apparently incompatible interests. All theoretical reasoning and historical precedent predicted that the group would collapse in the endgame. And yet the group survived. We investigate the sources of the unity of this group and trace them to a process of learning that allowed the group to acquire certain structural features and develop strategies that helped to cement it further. While our central dependent variable is the cohesion of the G20, we also address the derivative question of the costs and benefits of maintaining such coalitions. The Cancun coalitions give us an excellent case of coalitions that managed to retain their cohesion, but also ended up with a situation of no agreement rather than a fulfilment of even some of their demands. We examine some of the causes behind the impasse in the negotiation process and suggest ways in which future outcomes could be improved.
Comparison of potassium currents in rabbit atrial and ventricular cells.

1. In rabbit and human hearts there are significant differences in the action potential configuration in atrium and ventricle, and the action potential waveform exhibits marked frequency dependence in both tissues. To study the ionic mechanism(s) of these phenomena, the size and time course of the potassium (K+) currents responsible for repolarization have been recorded from single cells using a whole‐cell microelectrode voltage clamp method. 2. At physiological heart rates, the action potential in atrial cells has a short plateau phase; however, the rapid early repolarization is strongly frequency dependent. Ventricular myocytes have a long plateau (400‐700 ms at 23 degrees C), and the late repolarizing phase of the action potential is much faster in ventricle than in atrium. 3. In both cell types, four different outward currents can be recorded: (i) a large transient outward current, It; (ii) IK(Ca), a smaller Ca2+‐dependent K+ current; (iii) IK, a small, maintained time‐ and voltage‐dependent delayed rectifier K+ current; (iv) IK1, an inwardly rectifying K+ current. 4. It, which is responsible for early repolarization, is much larger in atrium than in ventricle. It has very rapid activation and inactivation kinetics but a very slow time course of recovery from inactivation (tau = 5.4 s at 23 degrees C). Our results show that the reactivation kinetics of It are responsible for the pronounced dependence of the shape of the atrial action potential on stimulus frequency. 5. IK(Ca) is variable from cell to cell and is larger in atrium than in ventricle. In both cell types, IK(Ca) is much smaller than It. 6. The delayed rectifier current, IK, is very small and turns on relatively slowly in both cell types. It is therefore not activated strongly during the relatively short plateau of the atrial action potential. Even in ventricle, it contributes only a small repolarizing current. 7. IK1, the inward rectifier K+ current, is much larger in ventricle than in atrium. The current‐voltage relationship for IK1 in ventricle exhibits a negative slope conductance between ‐50 and 0 mV. IK1 is the outward current which generates the resting membrane potential and it modulates the final repolarization phase of the action potential in both cell types. 8. These data strongly suggest that the action potential configuration and its frequency dependence in rabbit atrial and ventricular cells are mainly due to the differences in sizes and kinetics of It and IK1.
Children's Schooling and Parental Migration: Empirical Evidence on the Left-Behind Generation in Albania

This article investigates the long-term effects of parental migration abroad on the schooling of children left behind in Albania. Although parents' migration usually benefits children economically, the lack of parental care may cause relational and psychological problems that may affect children's welfare in the long term. The phenomenon of children left behind — mainly by fathers — is considerable in Albania, where migration has represented the only viable way to cope with an increasing poverty and the scarcity of public resources for sustaining households' incomes. Between 1990 and 2005 in Albania 22 per cent of children under 18 have been left behind, with an average parental absence of 9 months. Using detailed information on family migration drawn from the Living Standard Measurement Survey for 2005, multiple‐choice models are applied to evaluate the school progression of older children and adolescents. A duration analysis of school participation with both discrete and continuous time models is then performed. The results show that past parental migration has a negative effect on school attendance in the long term with higher hazards of school dropouts for children left behind. These results are robust to the use of different econometric techniques and model specifications.