Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DPOCL: A Principled Approach To Discourse Planning

Research in discourse processing has identified two representational requirements for discourse planning systems. First, discourse plans must adequately represent the intentional structure of the utterances they produce in order to enable a computational discourse agent to respond effectively to communicative failures [15]. Second, discourse plans must represent the informational structure of utterances. In addition to these representational requirements, we argue that discourse planners should be formally characterisable in terms of soundness and completeness.
Omnidirectional visual odometry for a planetary rover

Position estimation for planetary rovers has been typically limited to odometry based on proprioceptive measurements such as the integration of distance traveled and measurement of heading change. Here we present and compare two methods of online visual odometry suited for planetary rovers. Both methods use omnidirectional imagery to estimate motion of the rover. One method is based on robust estimation of optical flow and subsequent integration of the flow. The second method is a full structure-from-motion solution. To make the comparison meaningful we use the same set of raw corresponding visual features for each method. The dataset is an sequence of 2000 images taken during a field experiment in the Atacama desert, for which high resolution GPS ground truth is available.
Interleukin 2 and gamma interferon production, interleukin 2 receptor expression, and DNA synthesis induced by tularemia antigen in vitro after natural infection or vaccination

The T-cell response induced by Francisella tularensis antigen in sensitized subjects was characterized in vitro by measuring DNA synthesis in whole-blood and mononuclear cell cultures, interleukin 2 (IL-2) and gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) production, and IL-2 receptor expression. Correlations between these variables were estimated. The strengths of the responses were compared in 21 subjects naturally infected 2 years ago, 6 subjects vaccinated 5 to 6 years ago, and 13 control subjects with no history of infection or vaccination. Subjects with a history of natural infection synthesized more DNA in both whole-blood and mononuclear cell cultures, secreted more IL-2 and IFN-gamma, and expressed more IL-2 receptors than control subjects did. All these responses differed highly significantly (P less than 0.001) from those of the control subjects. The vaccinees exhibited somewhat lower responses than the naturally immunized subjects did, but the vaccinees could be distinguished from the control subjects by their DNA synthesis, receptor expression, and IFN-gamma production (P less than 0.01 to 0.001). The vaccinees showed a lower response, in terms of DNA synthesis and IL-2 secretion (P less than 0.05), than the infected group did but responded in a manner similar to that of this group, with respect to receptor positivity and IFN-gamma secretion (P greater than 0.10). The correlations between all the T-cell functions were good, with highly significant correlations (P less than 0.001) between whole-blood DNA synthesis and IL-2 and IFN-gamma secretion and between the two lymphokines (P less than 0.001). The results not only increase our knowledge of the T-cell response to tularemia antigen but also give an alternative approach to DNA synthesis measurement for the quantitation of T-cell responses. The results for the low-responding sensitized subjects seem to indicate that the parameters were comparable in sensitivity.
Toward a Midlatitude Ocean Frequency–Wavenumber Spectral Density and Trend Determination

Abstract The time- and space-scale descriptive power of two-dimensional Fourier analysis is exploited to reanalyze the behavior of midlatitude variability as seen in altimetric data. These data are used to construct a purely empirical and analytical frequency–zonal wavenumber spectrum of ocean variability for periods between about 20 days and 15 yr and on spatial scales of about 200–10 000 km. The spectrum is dominated by motions along a “nondispersive” line, which is a robust feature of the data but for whose prominence a complete theoretical explanation is not available. The estimated spectrum also contains significant energy at all frequencies and wavenumbers in this range, including eastward-propagating motions, which are likely some combination of nonlinear spectral cascades, wave propagation, and wind-forced motions. The spectrum can be used to calculate statistical expectations of spatial average sea level and transport variations. However, because the statistics of trend determination in quantitie.
A Markov random field model-based approach to unsupervised texture segmentation using local and global spatial statistics

Many studies have proven that statistical model-based texture segmentation algorithms yield good results provided that the model parameters and the number of regions be known a priori. In this correspondence, we present an unsupervised texture segmentation method that does not require knowledge about the different texture regions, their parameters, or the number of available texture classes. The proposed algorithm relies on the analysis of local and global second and higher order spatial statistics of the original images. The segmentation map is modeled using an augmented-state Markov random field, including an outlier class that enables dynamic creation of new regions during the optimization process. A Bayesian estimate of this map is computed using a deterministic relaxation algorithm. Results on real-world textured images are presented.
Experiential Learning with an Open-Source Enterprise System

The benefits of experiential learning using commercially available ERP systems have been shown; however, the costs associated with integrating and maintaining such systems in the classroom can be a barrier for academic institutions. This paper presents the results of a study where we provided hands-on experiences with an open-source ERP system, OpenERP, to students in an IS course. Learning was measured before and after exposure to the system and increases in understanding, engagement, and learning were found. However, an increase in interest in learning was not found. The results suggest OpenERP may be suitable as a supplement to traditional pedagogy, rather than using commercially available systems. We hope that increased knowledge of such freely-available systems will help to reduce the barrier to integrating ERP systems into the curriculum. Future studies might consider extending the use of the OpenERP system to a fully integrated IS course or to other business courses.
Automatic Piano Reduction from Ensemble Scores Based on Merged-Output Hidden Markov Model

We discuss automated piano reduction from ensemble scores based on stochastic models of piano fingering and reduction process. Music arrangement including piano transcription is an important compositional technique, automation of which creates a challenging research field. As a starting point, we aim at a simple case of piano reduction which is playable and sounds similar to the original ensemble score. It is proposed to formulate the problem as an optimisation of fidelity to the original score under constraints on performance difficulty. First a model of piano fingering is presented to quantify performance difficulty. Next we construct a stochastic model for piano reduction based on the fingering model and probabilities to describe how notes in ensemble scores are likely to be edited, from which a piano reduction algorithm is derived. The models are constructed with merged-output hidden Markov model, which is a recently proposed model suited to describe a musical process involving multiple voice parts. It is confirmed that the constructed algorithm can control the performance difficulty of output reductions taking into account the density of notes and chords, the tempo, and the rhythm of the input ensemble score. The proposed formulation can be applied for more general music arrangement.
Hypersensitivity reaction associated with subcutaneous glargine insulin therapy in a cat

Case summary A 14-year-old, domestic shorthair cat was treated for transient diabetes mellitus for 3 months with glargine insulin, which was discontinued when the diabetes mellitus resolved. Approximately 36 months later the diabetes mellitus recurred and glargine insulin was restarted. Within 2–3 mins of the first injection the cat collapsed, developed profuse vomiting and diarrhea, as well as facial swelling and diffuse erythema. A hypersensitivity reaction was suspected and the cat was treated with antihistamines, aggressive fluid therapy and gastrointestinal support. The cat made a full recovery and was discharged 3 days later. Six months later the cat re-presented for relapse of its diabetes mellitus and an intradermal skin challenge with 1:20 diluted insulin was performed confirming a hypersensitivity to glargine. The cat continues to be well regulated on porcine zinc insulin without any hypersensitivity reactions noted. Relevance and novel information Hypersensitivity reactions to insulin administration are rarely described in human medicine. This is the first reported case of a hypersensitivity reaction secondary to glargine insulin in a cat. Clinicians should be aware of this potential complication, particularly in animals with a previous history of insulin administration and the potential to utilize intradermal testing with insulin.
Iodine biokinetics and dosimetry in radioiodine therapy of thyroid cancer: procedures and results of a prospective international controlled study of ablation after rhTSH or hormone withdrawal.

UNLABELLED Technical aspects and results of the dosimetric assessments of postoperative radioiodine ablation in the framework of an international, prospective, controlled, randomized, comparative study of the effectiveness of ablation therapy with 3.7 GBq (131)I in differentiated thyroid cancer after stimulation with recombinant human TSH (rhTSH) or by thyroid hormone withdrawal (THW) are presented. METHODS Sixty-three patients were randomized after thyroidectomy to either the THW or the rhTSH group. Scintigraphic neck images were acquired starting 48 h after radioiodine administration to assess biokinetics in the thyroid remnant. The activity in blood samples was quantified and data from whole-body probe measurements and scintigraphic whole-body scans were combined to deduce retention curves in blood and whole body, respectively. The absorbed dose to the blood was calculated using a modified approach based on the formalism of the MIRD Committee of the Society of Nuclear Medicine. RESULTS The effective half-time in the remnant thyroid tissue was significantly longer after rhTSH than THW (67.6 +/- 48.8 vs. 48.0 +/- 52.6 h, respectively; P = 0.01), whereas the observed differences of the mean 48-h (131)I uptakes (0.5% +/- 0.7% vs. 0.9% +/- 1.0% after THW; P = 0.1) and residence times (0.9 +/- 1.3 vs. 1.4 +/- 1.5 h after THW; P = 0.1) between the rhTSH and THW groups were not statistically significant. The specific absorbed dose to the blood was significantly (P <0.0001) lower after administration of rhTSH (mean, 0.109 +/- 0.028 mGy/MBq; maximum, 0.18 mGy/MBq) than after THW (mean, 0.167 +/- 0.061 mGy/MBq; maximum, 0.35 mGy/MBq), indicating that higher activities of radioiodine might be safely administered after exogenous stimulation with rhTSH. CONCLUSION Indication of an influence of the residence time of radioiodine in the blood on the fractional uptake into thyroid remnant was found. A novel regimen is proposed in which therapeutic activities to be administered are determined from the individual specific blood dose.
Feasibility of Video Clip Analysis on Effect of Botulinum Toxin-A Injection for Post-Stroke Upper Limb Spasticity

Existing functional evaluation tools do not accurately reveal the improved function following botulinum toxin A (BTX-A) injection for post-stroke upper limb spasticity. With the aim of developing an alternate method of measuring functional improvement following BTX-A injection, this study tested the feasibility, validity and reliability of video clip analysis performed by the clinicians. Seventy-nine patients administered BTX-A due to post-stroke upper limb spasticity, were retrospectively evaluated using video clip analysis. Pre- and post-injection video clips recorded at 1-month intervals were randomly allocated and sent to three blinded physician evaluators who were asked to choose the one that seemed more improved in terms of hand motion and associated upper limb reaction during gait. The three physicians chose the post-injection video clip as depicting improved hand motion (82.3%, 79.7%, and 72.2%) and associated upper limb reaction during gait (73.4%, 70.9%, and 70.9%). Kappa and intraclass correlation coefficient as a measure of interrater reliability among the three physicians was 0.86 and 0.79 for the hand, and 0.92 and 0.92 for associated upper limb reaction during gait, respectively. The percent overall agreement of the physicians was 78.1% and 71.7% for hand function and associated upper limb reaction, respectively. Retrospective pre- and post-BTX-A injection video clip analyses is a clinically feasible alternative method to evaluate the improvement following BTX-A injection for post-stroke upper limb spasticity, especially in busy clinical practice setting.
On the analysis of tuberculosis studies with intermittent missing sputum data

In randomized studies evaluating treatments for tuberculosis (TB), individuals are scheduled to be routinely evaluated for the presence of TB using sputum cultures. One important endpoint in such studies is the time of culture conversion, the first visit at which a patient's sputum culture is negative and remains negative. This article addresses how to draw inference about treatment effects when sputum cultures are intermittently missing on some patients. We discuss inference under a novel benchmark assumption and under a class of assumptions indexed by a treatment-specific sensitivity parameter that quantify departures from the benchmark assumption. We motivate and illustrate our approach using data from a randomized trial comparing the effectiveness of two treatments for adult TB patients in Brazil.
B-spline signal processing. II. Efficiency design and applications

For pt.I see ibid., vol.41, no.2, p.821-33 (1993). A class of recursive filtering algorithms for the efficient implementation of B-spline interpolation and approximation techniques is described. In terms of simplicity of realization and reduction of computational complexity, these algorithms compare favorably with conventional matrix approaches. A filtering interpretation (low-pass filter followed by an exact polynomial spline interpolator) of smoothing spline and least-squares approximation methods is proposed. These techniques are applied to the design of digital filters for cubic spline signal processing. An efficient implementation of a smoothing spline edge detector is proposed. It is also shown how to construct a cubic spline image pyramid that minimizes the loss of information in passage from one resolution level to the next. In terms of common measures of fidelity, this data structure appears to be superior to the Gaussian/Laplacian pyramid. >
Multi-modal Multi-view Topic-opinion Mining for Social Event Analysis

In this paper, we propose a novel multi-modal multi-view topic-opinion mining (MMTOM) model for social event analysis in multiple collection sources. Compared with existing topic-opinion mining methods, our proposed model has several advantages: (1) The proposed MMTOM can effectively take into account multi-modal and multi-view properties jointly in a unified and principled way for social event modeling. (2) Our model is general and can be applied to many other applications in multimedia, such as opinion mining and sentiment analysis, multi-view association visualization, and topic-opinion mining for movie review. (3) The proposed MMTOM is able to not only discover multi-modal common topics from all collections as well as summarize the similarities and differences of these collections along each specific topic, but also automatically mine multi-view opinions on the learned topics across different collections. (4) Our topic-opinion mining results can be effectively applied to many applications including multi-modal multi-view topic-opinion retrieval and visualization, which achieve much better performance than existing methods. To evaluate the proposed model, we collect a real-world dataset for research on multi-modal multi-view social event analysis, and will release it for academic use. We have conducted extensive experiments, and both qualitative and quantitative evaluation results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed MMTOM.
Grouping and Structure Recovery for Images of Objects with Finite Rotational Symmetry

It is shown that 3D objects with discrete rotational symmetry induce geometric relations in the image. Symmetry related points on the object are imaged to points which satisfy these image geometric relations. These relations are unaffected by camera calibration (interior orientation) and object pose. The relations can be utilised to group features in the image arising from the object. Furthermore, 3D structure of the object can be recovered from a single image up to a specified ambiguity. The paper illustrates these mechanisms on real image examples.
Forensic Protocol Filtering of Phone Managers

Phone managers are non-forensic tools sometimes used by forensic investigators to recover data from a cell phone when no suitable forensic tool is available for the device. While precautions can be taken to preserve the integrity of data on a cell phone, inherent risks exist. Applying a forensic filter to phone manager exchanges with a device is suggested as a safer alternative that could be pursued as a solution to reduce risk.
Second‐generation operational algorithm: Retrieval of aerosol properties over land from inversion of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer spectral reflectance

[1] Since first light in early 2000, operational global quantitative retrievals of aerosol properties over land have been made from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observed spectral reflectance. These products have been continuously evaluated and validated, and opportunities for improvements have been noted. We have replaced the surface reflectance assumptions, the set of aerosol model optical properties, and the aerosol lookup table (LUT). This second-generation operational algorithm performs a simultaneous inversion of two visible (0.47 and 0.66 μm) and one shortwave-IR (2.12 μm) channel, making use of the coarse aerosol information content contained in the 2.12 μm channel. Inversion of the three channels yields three nearly independent parameters, the aerosol optical depth (τ) at 0.55 μm, the nondust or fine weighting (η), and the surface reflectance at 2.12 μm. Retrievals of small-magnitude negative τ values (down to −0.05) are considered valid, thus balancing the statistics of τ in near zero τ conditions. Preliminary validation of this algorithm shows much improved retrievals of τ, where the MODIS/Aerosol Robotic Network τ (at 0.55 μm) regression has an equation of: y = 1.01x + 0.03, R = 0.90. Global mean τ for the test bed is reduced from ∼0.28 to ∼0.21.
Blind Detection of Spread Spectrum Flow Watermarks

Recently, the direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS)-based technique has been proposed to trace anonymous network flows. In this technique, homogeneous pseudo-noise (PN) codes are used to modulate multiple bit signals that are embedded into the target flow as watermarks. This technique could be maliciously used to degrade an anonymous communication network. In this paper, we propose an effective single flow-based scheme to detect the existence of these watermarks. Our investigation shows that, even if we have no knowledge of the applied PN code, we are still able to detect malicious DSSS watermarks via mean-square autocorrelation (MSAC) of a single modulated flow's traffic rate time series. MSAC shows periodic peaks because of self-similarity in the modulated traffic caused by homogeneous PN codes that are used in modulating multiple bit signals. Our scheme has low complexity and does not require any PN code synchronization. We evaluate this detection scheme's effectiveness via simulations. Our results demonstrate a high detection rate with a low false positive rate. Real-world experiments on Tor also validate the feasibility of the detection scheme. Our scheme is more flexible and accurate than the existing multiflow-based approach in DSSS watermark detection. We also present a theory for reconstructing the DSSS code once the DSSS code length is known and simulations validate the feasibility. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Dual-task interference and brain structural connectivity in people with Parkinson's disease who freeze

Background Freezing of gait in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) is likely related to attentional control (ie, ability to divide and switch attention). However, the neural pathophysiology of altered attentional control in individuals with PD who freeze is unknown. Structural connectivity of the pedunculopontine nucleus has been related to freezing and may play a role in altered attentional control; however, this relationship has not been investigated. We measured whether dual-task interference, defined as the reduction in gait performance during dual-task walking, is more pronounced in individuals with PD who freeze, and whether dual-task interference is associated with structural connectivity and/or executive function in this population. Methods We measured stride length in 13 people with PD with and 12 without freezing of gait during normal and dual-task walking. We also assessed asymmetry of pedunculopontine nucleus structural connectivity via diffusion tensor imaging and performance on cognitive tests assessing inhibition and set-shifting, cognitive domains related to freezing. Results Although stride length was not different across groups, change in stride length between normal and dual-task gait (ie, dual-task interference) was more pronounced in people with PD who freeze compared to non-freezers. Further, in people with PD who freeze, dual-task interference was correlated with asymmetry of pedunculopontine nucleus structural connectivity, Go-NoGo target accuracy (ability to release a response) and simple reaction time. Conclusions These results support the hypothesis that freezing is related to altered attentional control during gait, and suggest that differences in pedunculopontine nucleus connectivity contribute to poorer attentional control in people with PD who freeze.