Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Obstacle detection techniques for navigational assistance of the visually impaired

The visually impaired people lack visual information to realize the obstructions and obstacles in their path thus making it difficult for them to perform their day-to-day tasks comfortably and efficiently. Digital assistance techniques have proven to be a boon for these visually challenged sections of the society. Detection of an obstacle free-path for an easier and smooth navigation of visually impaired people has been a topic of interest for researchers over the years. Application of obstacle detection is not only restricted to this area but also in the fields of aviation, auto-motives etc. Development of a smart-phone application for local navigation of the visually impaired people is the main focus of the current work. This paper presents the most established techniques for detection of objects and classification of these as obstacles or non-obstacles. The performance of the methods used for obstacle detection is analyzed based on the success rate of detecting the obstacles present in the path of the user.
Partial Replacement of Ground Corn with Glycerol in Beef Cattle Diets: Intake, Digestibility, Performance, and Carcass Characteristics

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of replacing dry ground corn with crude glycerol on intake, apparent digestibility, performance, and carcass characteristics of finishing beef bulls. A completely randomized block design experiment with 25 d for adaptation and 100 d for data collection was conducted, in which 3,640 Nellore bulls (367 ± 36.8 kg; 18 ± 3 mo) were blocked by body weight and assigned to 20 pens. Bulls were randomly assigned to one of four treatments: 0, 5, 10, and 15% (dry matter basis) of crude glycerol in the diet. Initially, 20 bulls were slaughtered to serve as a reference to estimate initial empty body weight, which allowed for carcass gain calculation. Bulls were weighed at the beginning, at two-thirds, and at the end of the experiment for performance calculations. Carcass measurements were obtained by ultrasound. Fecal output was estimated using indigestible neutral detergent fiber as an internal marker. Data were analyzed using the mixed procedures in SAS 9.2 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). Intake of dry matter, organic matter, and neutral detergent fiber decreased linearly (P < 0.05) with crude glycerol inclusion. However, crude glycerol levels did not affect (P > 0.05) intakes of crude protein, non-fiber carbohydrates, and total digestible nutrients. Digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, neutral detergent fiber, and total digestible nutrients increased quadratically (P < 0.05) with the inclusion of crude glycerol in the diet. Crude glycerol inclusion did not change the intake of digestible dry matter, average daily gain, final body weight, carcass gain, carcass dressing, gain-to-feed ratio, Longissimus thoracis muscle area, and back and rump fat thicknesses (P > 0.05). These results suggest that crude glycerol may be included in finishing beef diets at levels up to 15% without impairing performance and carcass characteristics.
Epistasis between the MHC and the RCAα block in primary Sjögren syndrome

Objective: The RCAα block (Regulators of Complement Activation, 1q32) contains critical complement regulatory genes such as CR1 and MCP. This study examined RCAα block haplotype associations with both disease susceptibility and diversification of the anti-Ro/La autoantibody response in primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS). Methods: 115 patients with pSS and 98 controls were included in the study. 93 of 109 (85%) of the patients with pSS were seropositive for Ro/La autoantibodies. The Genomic Matching Technique (GMT) was used to define RCAα block ancestral haplotypes (AH). Results: RCAα block haplotypes, AH1 and AH3, were both associated with autoantibody-positive pSS (p = 0.0003). Autoantibody associations with both HLA DR3 and DR15 have been previously defined. There was an epistatic interaction (p = 0.023) between RCAα AH1 and HLA DR3, and this genotypic combination was present in 48% of autoantibody-positive patients with pSS compared with 8% of controls. This epistasis is most simply attributable to an interaction between C4 and its receptor, CR1, encoded within the RCAα block. Both DR3 and a relative C4 deficiency are carried on the major histocompatibility complex 8.1 ancestral haplotype. Only four of 92 (4%) autoantibody-positive patients with pSS did not carry any risk RCAα or HLA haplotype, compared with 36 of 96 (38%) controls, and there were differences in haplotype frequencies within autoantibody subsets of pSS. Conclusions: Normal population variation in the RCAα block, in addition to the major histocompatibility complex, contributes genetic susceptibility to systemic autoimmune disease and the autoantibody response. This finding provides evidence for the role of regulation of complement activation in disease pathogenesis.
Equal rate multilevel coding for the AWGN channel

We examine the use of layered modulation to form multilevel codes with unequal power allocations across the codewords. This departs from traditional coded modulation in that we do not enforce any particular constellation structure on the transmitted signals, but rather let the power allocations together with the sub-layered constellation determine the overall signal structure. We argue that the scheme can achieve the Gaussian capacity of the AWGN channel as the number of layers grows large, with each layer employing QPSK modulation with very low rate codes. A practical advantage of our scheme over traditional multilayered approaches is that the same coding rate is employed at each stage, allowing a single encoder and decoder; which removes the practical constraints of rate compatible code structures.
Numerical homotopy continuation for control and online identification of nonlinear systems: the survey of selected results

The article gives an overview of the parameter numerical continuation methodology applied to setpoint control and parameter identification of nonlinear systems. The control problems for affine systems as well as general (nonaffine) nonlinear systems are considered. Online parameter identification is also presented in two versions: with linear and nonlinear nonconvex parameterization. Simulation results for illustrative examples are shown.
TMT quantization table generation based on psychovisual threshold for image compression

The human visual systems are able to perceive various intensity of the colour image while it is not able to respond small different colour signals of the image. The sensitivity of the color image can be measured by a psychovisual threshold. A psychovisual threshold represents the sensitivity of the human eye to the image. The quantization tables are obtained to determine psychovisual threshold that can be perceived visually by the human eye. This paper presents a generating of the quantization tables from a psychovisual threshold on gray-scale TMT image compression. This paper introduces the concept of psychovisual threshold into TMT image compression. TMT image compression has been shown to perform better than the standard JPEG image compression. This model has been implemented on TMT image compression. The experiment results show that a psychovisual threshold for TMT basis function provides better image compression performance.
The Threat of Insurance: On the Robustness of Principal-Agent Models

The traditional principal-agent model assumes that the principal offers an exclusive contract to the agent. This paper shows that the standard results are not robust to the introduction of additional contracting opportunities for the agent. We analyze equilibria of an extended game with the presence of additional players who might trade risk away from the agent. There are settings (and parameter values) in which the principal is worse off, total welfare is lower, and suboptimal effort is implemented in equilibrium. There are other settings in which the principal can manage to be as well off as in the standard case, but in these cases he has to offer a steeper contract for performance. These findings may call for a revision of some previous theoretical and applied conclusions. JEL CLASSIFICATION NUMBERS : C72, D82.
Accommodating software development collaboration

With the rapid progress of Internet technology, more and more software projects adopt e-development to facilitate the software development process in a world wide context. However, collaborative software e-development activity itself is a complex orchestration. It involves many people working together without the barrier of time and space difference. Therefore, how to efficiently monitor and control software e-development in a global perspective becomes an important issue for any Internet-based software e-development project. In this paper, we present a novel approach to tackle this crucial issue by means of controlling e-development process, collaborative task progress and communication quality. Meanwhile, we also present our e-development supporting environment prototype: Caribou, to demonstrate the viability of our approach.
Journal of Graph Algorithms and Applications Ongrax: a Web-based System for the Collaborative Visual Analysis of Graphs

The visual analysis of complex networks is a challenging task in many fields, such as systems biology or social sciences. Often, various domain experts work together to improve the analysis time or the quality of the analysis results. Collaborative visualization tools can facilitate the analysis process in such situations. We propose a new web-based visualization environment which supports distributed, synchronous and asynchronous collaboration. In addition to standard collaboration features like event tracking or synchronizing, our client/server-based system provides a rich set of visualization and interaction techniques for better navigation and overview of the input network. Changes made by specific analysts or even just visited network elements are highlighted on demand by heat maps. They enable us to visualize user behavior data without affecting the original graph visualization, are robust against layout changes, and are user-sensitive in a sense that the current analyst is able to perceive which changes were made by others in asynchronous collaboration. In case of synchronous collaboration, an analyst can see where and what others are currently analyzing in the network visualization. Thus, our approach addresses critical collaborative visualization challenges, for instance, awareness and coordination of user activities or pointing to interesting objects. We evaluated the usability of the heat map approach against two alternatives in a controlled user experiment. In addition, the results of a domain expert review are described in this article.
A Mathematical Theory for Single-Nutrient Competition in Continuous Cultures of Micro-Organisms

The continuous culture of micro-organisms using the chemostat is an important research technique in microbiology and population biology. It offers advantages in the form of economical production of micro-organisms for the industrial microbiologist and is a laboratory idealization of nature for population studies. The paper studies a mathematical model, based on Michaelis-Menten kinetics, for one substrate and n competing species. Given the parameters of the system, we answer the basic question as to which species survive and which do not, and determine the limiting behaviors. The primary conclusion is that the species will survive whose Michaelis-Menten constant is smallest in comparison with its intrinsic rate of natural increase.
Global dynamics of the periodic SEIR epidemic model

In this paper, the global dynamics of a periodic SEIR epidemic model is investigated. The basic reproductive number R0 is defined. It is proved that the disease-free equilibrium is globally stable if R0 &#60; 1. The disease-free equilibrium is unstable and the disease remains endemic when R0 > 1. The existence of the periodic solution is investigated, and it is proved that the periodic model has at least one periodic solution if R0 > 1. Numerical simulations are also provided to confirm our analytic results and simulations show that the eradication policy on the basis of the average reproduction number may overestimate the infectious risk when the disease shows periodic behavior.
Wind-driving protostellar accretion discs – I. Formulation and parameter constraints

We study a model of weakly ionized, protostellar accretion discs that are threaded by a large-scale, ordered magnetic field and power a centrifugally driven wind. We consider the limiting case where the wind is the main repository of the excess disc angular momentum and generalize the radially localized disc model of Wardle & Konigl, which focused on the ambipolar diffusion regime, to other field diffusivity regimes, notably Hall and Ohm. We present a general formulation of the problem for nearly Keplerian, vertically isothermal discs using both the conductivity-tensor and the multifluid approaches and simplify it to a normalized system of ordinary differential equations in the vertical space coordinate. We determine the relevant parameters of the problem and investigate, using the vertical-hydrostatic-equilibrium approximation and other simplifications, the parameter constraints on physically viable solutions for discs in which the neutral particles are dynamically well coupled to the field already at the mid-plane. When the charged particles constitute a two-component ion-electron plasma, one can identify four distinct sub-regimes in the parameter domain where the Hall diffusivity dominates and three sub-regimes in the Ohm-dominated domain. Two of the Hall sub-regimes can be characterized as being ambipolar diffusion-like and two as being Ohm-like: the properties of one member of the first pair of sub-regimes are identical to those of the ambipolar diffusion regime, whereas one member of the second pair has the same characteristics as one of the Ohm sub-regimes. All the Hall sub-regimes have B rb /lB φb (ratio of radial-to-azimuthal magnetic field amplitudes at the disc surface) > 1, whereas in two Ohm sub-regimes this ratio is < 1. When the two-component plasma consists, instead, of positively and negatively charged grains of equal mass, the entire Hall domain and one of the Ohm sub-regimes with B rb /lB φb | < 1 disappear. All viable solutions require the mid-plane neutral-ion momentum exchange time to be shorter than the local orbital time. We also infer that vertical magnetic squeezing always dominates over gravitational tidal compression in this model. In a follow-up paper we will present exact solutions that test the results of this analysis in the Hall regime.
Bipedal robot walking strategy on inclined surfaces using position and orientation based inverse kinematics algorithm

This paper proposes a strategy for bipedal robot walking on inclined surfaces using position and orientation based inverse kinematics algorithm. Some researchers implemented control approaches to solve bipedal walking on inclined surfaces. Generally, most of them apply control feedback at ankle joints and also introduced many more control methodologies. In this paper, inverse kinematics methodology is introduced systematically for bipedal walking on inclined floor. Positions and orientations are embedded into the kinematics calculation. In this strategy, a working bipedal robot walking pattern for flat floor must be developed first. Then, the same walking pattern can be used for the inclined floor with orientation included so that the bipedal robot is able to walk on the inclined floor successfully. This methodology will distribute the angles caused by the inclined surfaces to the appropriate robot joints. By doing this, control at ankle joints only is avoided. A 3-D dynamics simulator which is known as Robot Control Simulator and developed in our laboratory is used for simulation in order to validate our proposed method.
Double circulant codes from two class association schemes

Two class association schemes consist of either strongly regular graphs (SRG) or doubly regular tournaments (DRT). We construct self-dual codes from the adjacency matrices of these schemes. This generalizes the construction of Pless ternary Symmetry codes, Karlin binary Double Circulant codes, Calderbank and Sloane quaternary double circulant codes, and Gaborit Quadratic Double Circulant codes (QDC). As new examples SRG's give 4 (resp. 5) new Type I (resp. Type II) [72, 36, 12] codes. We construct a [200, 100, 12] Type II code invariant under the Higman-Sims group, a [200, 100, 16] Type II code invariant under the Hall-Janko group, and more generally self-dual binary codes attached to rank three groups.
Cost-Effectiveness of Bronchial Thermoplasty, Omalizumab, and Standard Therapy for Moderate-to-Severe Allergic Asthma

Background Bronchial thermoplasty (BT) is a recently developed treatment for patients with moderate-to-severe asthma. A few studies have suggested the clinical efficacy of this intervention. However, no study has evaluated the cost-effectiveness of BT compared to other alternative treatments for moderate-to-severe allergic asthma, which currently include omalizumab and standard therapy. Objective To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of standard therapy, BT, and omalizumab for moderate-to-severe allergic asthma in the USA. Methods A probabilistic Markov model with weekly cycles was developed to reflect the course of asthma progression over a 5-year time horizon. The study population was adults with moderate-to-severe allergic asthma whose asthma remained uncontrolled despite using high-dose inhaled corticosteroids (ICS, with or without long-acting beta-agonists [LABA]). A perspective of the health-care system was adopted with asthma-related costs as well as quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and exacerbations as the outcomes. Results For standard therapy, BT, and omalizumab, the discounted 5-year costs and QALYs were $15,400 and 3.08, $28,100 and 3.24, and $117,000 and 3.26, respectively. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of BT versus standard therapy and omalizumab versus BT was $78,700/QALY and $3.86 million/QALY, respectively. At the willingness-to-pay (WTP) of $50,000/QALY and $100,000/QALY, the probability of BT being cost-effective was 9%, and 67%, respectively. The corresponding expected value of perfect information (EVPI) was $155 and $1,530 per individual at these thresholds. In sensitivity analyses, increasing the costs of BT from $14,900 to $30,000 increased its ICER relative to standard therapy to $178,000/QALY, and decreased the ICER of omalizumab relative to BT to $3.06 million/QALY. Reducing the costs of omalizumab by 25% decreased its ICER relative to BT by 29%. Conclusions Based on the available evidence, our study suggests that there is more than 60% chance that BT becomes cost-effective relative to omalizumab and standard therapy at the WTP of $100,000/QALY in patients with moderate-to-severe allergic asthma. However, there is a substantial uncertainty in the underlying evidence, indicating the need for future research towards reducing such uncertainty.
Efficient Specification-Assisted Error Localization and Correction

We present a new error localization tool, Archie, that accepts a specification of key data structure consistency constraints, then generates an algorithm that checks if the data structures satisfy the constraints. We also present a set of specification analyses and optimizations that (for our benchmark software system) improve the performance of the generated checking algorithm by over a factor of 3,900 as compared with the initial interpreted implementation, enabling Archie to efficiently support interactive debugging. We evaluate Archie’s effectiveness by observing the actions of two developer populations (one using Archie, the other using standard error localization techniques) as they attempted to localize and correct three errors in a benchmark software system. With Archie, the developers were able to localize each error in less than 10 minutes and correct each error in (usually much) less than 20 minutes. Without Archie, the developers were, with one exception, unable to locate each error after more than an hour of effort. These results illustrate Archie’s potential to substantially improve current error localization and correction techniques.
Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation Appears to Attenuate Particulate Air Pollution–Induced Cardiac Effects and Lipid Changes in Healthy Middle-Aged Adults

Background: Air pollution exposure has been associated with adverse cardiovascular health effects. Findings of a recent epidemiological study suggested that omega-3 fatty acid (fish oil) supplementation blunted cardiac responses to air pollution exposure. Objectives: We conducted a randomized, controlled exposure study to evaluate the efficacy of fish oil supplements in attenuating adverse cardiac effects of exposure to concentrated ambient fine and ultrafine particulate matter (CAP). Methods: Twenty-nine healthy middle-aged participants (mean, 58 ± 1 years of age) were supplemented in a randomized, double-blinded manner with 3 g/day of either fish oil or olive oil for 4 weeks before sequential chamber exposure to filtered air and CAP (mean mass concentration 278 ± 19 µg/m3) for 2 hr. Cardiac responses were assessed by comparing time and frequency domain changes in heart rate variability (HRV) and electrocardiographic repolarization changes measured before, immediately after, and 20 hr after exposure. Changes in plasma lipids were also evaluated at these time points. Results: Fish oil supplementation appeared to attenuate CAP-induced reductions in high-frequency/low-frequency ratio, as well as elevations in normalized low-frequency HRV and prolongation of the QT interval corrected for heart rate (QTc). Very low-density lipoprotein and triglyceride concentrations increased significantly immediately after exposure to CAP in participants supplemented with olive oil, but not in those supplemented with fish oil. Conclusions: Exposure of healthy middle-aged adults to CAP for 2 hr induced acute cardiac and lipid changes after supplementation with olive oil, but not fish oil. Our findings suggest that omega-3 fatty acid supplements offer protection against the adverse cardiac and lipid effects associated with air pollution exposure.
Central Connectivity of Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin 8-Expressing Axons in the Brain Stem and Spinal Dorsal Horn

Transient receptor potential melastatin 8 (TRPM8) ion channels mediate the detection of noxious and innocuous cold and are expressed by primary sensory neurons, but little is known about the processing of the TRPM8-mediated cold information within the trigeminal sensory nuclei (TSN) and the spinal dorsal horn (DH). To address this issue, we characterized TRPM8-positive (+) neurons in the trigeminal ganglion and investigated the distribution of TRPM8+ axons and terminals, and their synaptic organization in the TSN and in the DH using light and electron microscopic immunohistochemistry in transgenic mice expressing a genetically encoded axonal tracer in TRPM8+ neurons. TRPM8 was expressed in a fraction of small myelinated primary afferent fibers (23.7%) and unmyelinated fibers (76.3%), suggesting that TRPM8-mediated cold is conveyed via C and Aδ afferents. TRPM8+ axons were observed in all TSN, but at different densities in the dorsal and ventral areas of the rostral TSN, which dominantly receive sensory afferents from intra- and peri-oral structures and from the face, respectively. While synaptic boutons arising from Aδ and non-peptidergic C afferents usually receive many axoaxonic contacts and form complex synaptic arrangements, TRPM8+ boutons arising from afferents of the same classes of fibers showed a unique synaptic connectivity; simple synapses with one or two dendrites and sparse axoaxonic contacts. These findings suggest that TRPM8-mediated cold is conveyed via a specific subset of C and Aδ afferent neurons and is processed in a unique manner and differently in the TSN and DH.