Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Addressing the challenge of visual information access from digital image and video libraries

While it would seem that digital video libraries should benefit from access mechanisms directed to their visual contents, years of TREC video retrieval evaluation (TRECVID) research have shown that text search against transcript narrative text provides almost all the retrieval capability, even with visually oriented generic topics. A within-subjects study involving 24 novice participants on TRECVID 2004 tasks again confirms this result. The study shows that satisfaction is greater and performance is significantly better on specific and generic information retrieval tasks from news broadcasts when transcripts are available for search. Additional runs with 7 expert users reveal different novice and expert interaction patterns with the video library interface, helping explain the novices' lack of success with image search and visual feature browsing for visual information needs. Analysis of TRECVID visual features well suited for particular tasks provides additional insights into the role of automated feature classification for digital image and video libraries
Learning-based distance evaluation in robot vision: A comparison of ANFIS, MLP, SVR and bilinear interpolation models

This paper deals with visual evaluation of object distances using Soft-Computing based approaches and pseudo-3D standard low-cost sensor, namely the Kinect. The investigated technique points toward robots' vision and visual metrology of the robot's surrounding environment. The objective is providing the robot the ability of evaluating distances between objects in its surrounding environment. In fact, although presenting appealing advantages, the Kinect has not been designed for metrological aims. The investigated approach offers the possibility to use this low-cost pseudo-3D sensor for distance evaluation avoiding 3D feature extraction and thus exploiting the simplicity of only 2D image' processing. Experimental results show the viability of the proposed approach and provide comparison between different machine learning techniques as Adaptive-network-based fuzzy inference (ANFIS), Multi-layer Perceptron (MLP), Support vector regression (SVR), Bilinear interpolation.
The Role of CEO Personality in Company Management: Examining how CEO Narcissism Influences and is Influenced by Individual and Organizational Characteristics

Combining upper echelons theory with other theory lenses, this dissertation consists of three independent but interlinked studies that add further understanding of the important role of executive traits in company management. The first focus of this dissertation is to further explore the role of narcissism in influencing a CEO’s decisions and behaviors in corporate governance. The second focus is to figure out whether and how individual and organizational factors influence a CEO’s narcissistic tendency or his/her decision making process. At the same time, this dissertation also tries to investigate the relationship between CEO narcissism and firm performance.
Database Marketing Process Supported by Ontologies: a Data Mining System Architecture Proposal

Marketing departments handles with a great volume of data which are normally task or marketing activity dependent. This requires the use of certain, and perhaps unique, specific knowledge background and framework approach. Database marketing provides in depth analysis of marketing databases. Knowledge discovery in database techniques is one of the most prominent approaches to support some of the database marketing process phases. However, in many cases, the benefits of these tools are not fully exploited by marketers. Complexity and amount of data constitute two major factors limiting the application of knowledge discovery techniques in marketing activities. Here, ontologies may play an important role in the marketing discipline. Motivated by its success in the area of artificial intelligence, we propose an ontologysupported database marketing approach. The approach aims to enhance database marketing process supported by a data mining system architecture proposal which provides detailed step-phase specific information. From a data mining framework, issues raised in this work both respond and contribute to calls for a database marketing process improvement. Our work was evaluated throughout a relationship marketing program database. The findings of this study not only advance the state of database marketing research but also shed light on future research directions using a data mining approach. Therefore we propose a framework supported by ontologies and knowledge extraction from databases techniques. Thus, this paper has two purposes: to integrate the ontological approach into Database Marketing and to make use of a domain ontology a knowledge base that will enhance the entire process at both levels, marketing and knowledge extraction techniques.
Monte Carlo Simulations of Globular Cluster Evolution. I. Method and Test Calculations

We present a new parallel supercomputer implementation of the Monte Carlo method for simulating the dynamical evolution of globular star clusters. Our method is based on a modified version of Hénon's Monte Carlo algorithm for solving the Fokker-Planck equation. Our code allows us to follow the evolution of a cluster containing up to 5 × 105 stars to core collapse in ≲40 hours of computing time. In this paper we present the results of test calculations for clusters with equal-mass stars, starting from both Plummer and King model initial conditions. We consider isolated as well as tidally truncated clusters. Our results are compared to those obtained from approximate, self-similar analytic solutions, from direct numerical integrations of the Fokker-Planck equation, and from direct N-body integrations performed on a GRAPE-4 special-purpose computer with N = 16384. In all cases we find excellent agreement with other methods, establishing our new code as a robust tool for the numerical study of globular cluster dynamics using a realistic number of stars.
First Evidence of a Retrograde Orbit of a Transiting Exoplanet HAT-P-7b

We present the first evidence of a retrograde orbit of a transiting exoplanet HAT-P-7b. The discovery is based on a measurement of the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect with the Subaru HDS during a transit of HAT-P-7b, which occurred on 2008 May 30 UT. Our best-fit model shows that the spin–orbit alignment angle of this planet is
Highly Linear Fully Integrated Wideband RF PA for LTE-Advanced in 180-nm SOI

A highly linear fully integrated RF power amplifier (PA) for advanced long-term evolution (LTE-advanced) is fabricated in a 180-nm standard silicon-on-insulator process. To improve the linearity, several harmonic traps are introduced to minimize the second- and third-order harmonics, and hence, the third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3). The impact on the linearity of the RF PA of each of the harmonic controls is studied and simulated. Finally, both the linearity of a standalone RF PA and an RF PA with proposed linearity enhancement circuitry is investigated by comparing their measured IMD3. For an LTE uplink signal with 20-MHz signal bandwidth and a 64-QAM 8.7-dB peak-to-average power ratio, the RF PA achieves 21.7% power-added efficiency (PAE) with 11-dB gain while delivering an average output power of 22.4 dBm in LTE-band VII. Simultaneously, the RF PA obeys the stringent spectral mask and the -30-dBc adjacent channel leakage ratio linearity requirement and achieves an error vector magnitude of only 4.05%. The linearized wideband RF PA is also verified for LTE-band I and achieves similar performance from 1.9 to 2.8 GHz. Thanks to the applied linearization technique, the proposed RF PA is able to transmit an LTE-advanced (release 12) signal with a carrier-aggregated bandwidth up to 60 MHz while satisfying the linearity requirements. For a 40-MHz (2 × 20 MHz) and 60-MHz (3 × 20 MHz) LTE-advanced signal at band VII, the RF PA produces an average output power of 19.2 and 17.6 dBm while achieving a PAE of 17.2% and 13.7%, respectively.
Development of a robot MKW-II for hand and wrist rehabilitation training

With the aggravation of ageing society, the number of hemiplegic patients has increased rapidly. As a result, the requirement of rehabilitation training has made a huge increase. In order to help hemiplegic patients to get a better rehabilitation and help occupational therapists to reduce working pressure, series of rehabilitation training robot has been developed. Although the rehabilitation robot has been improved greatly for meeting various requirements, most of rehabilitation robots still just focus on rehabilitation training of single joint and neglect the recovery of damaged nervous system. In order to offer patients comprehensive rehabilitation training and help recovering nervous system, a new MKW series rehabilitation robots are designed to realize wrist and hand independent and cooperative training in our team. As the MKW-I is not convenient for use and its sensors' accuracy would be heavily influenced by environment. Therefore, MKW-II is designed for better rehabilitation effectiveness. For these reasons, we propose the MKW-II, which can perfectly solve these problems. The improvement of mechanism structure and improvement of related sensors will be introduced detailly in this paper.
Impact of Eating Attitude and Impairment of Physical Quality of Life Between Tertiary Clinic and Primary Clinic Functional Dyspepsia Outpatients in Japan

Background/Aims There is no available data on factors associated with healthcare-seeking behavior for functional dyspepsia (FD) symptoms at either tertiary or primary clinics in Japan. Therefore, we aimed to compare clinical symptoms and life styles such as sleep disorders and eating attitude in FD patients visiting general practitioners at primary clinics with those consulting gastroenterologists at tertiary clinics to clarify healthcare-seeking patterns in Japanese patients. Methods Fifty-one FD outpatients in a tertiary clinic (college hospital), 50 FD outpatients visiting primary clinics and 50 healthy volunteers were enrolled. Clinical symptoms, quality of life, sleep disorders, eating attitude and anxiety were estimated using the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS), Social Functioning-8 (SF-8) test, Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) test and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) for FD outpatients and healthy volunteers. Results FD outpatients exhibited higher mean scores of GSRS than healthy volunteers. The SF-8 physical component summary scores in the tertiary clinic group were significantly lower than those in the primary clinic group. GSRS scores were significantly (P < 0.001, P = 0.002) associated with global PSQI scores in FD outpatients as well as with STAI-trait scores (P = 0.006, P = 0.001) compared to healthy volunteers. The frequency of eating between meals in the primary clinic group was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than that in the tertiary clinic group. Conclusions It may be important for clarification of healthcare-seeking behavior to determine the difference in both impairment of physical quality of life and eating attitudes between tertiary clinic and primary clinic FD outpatients in Japan.
Effect of Switching Therapy to Pegaptanib in Eyes With the Persistent Cases of Exudative Age-Related Macular Degeneration

AbstractPurpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of switching to pegaptanib monotherapy for persistent cases of exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Out of 296 eyes of 296 patients treated with ranibizumab or ranibizumab combined with photodynamic therapy (PDT), 50 eyes of 50 AMD patients were found to be resistant to these treatments. Over a 12-month period, intravitreal pegaptanib (IVP) 0.3 mg was administered at intervals of 6 weeks until the exudation disappeared prospectively. All patients were examined with the following tests: best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central retinal thickness (CRT), determined at the initial visit, before the first IVP (baseline), and at 12 months. The factors responsible for achieving dry macula with IVP were examined statistically.The rate of persistent cases with intravitreal ranibizumab (IVR) and/or PDT was 17.0%. The mean number of IVPs administered was 5.4 (range, 2–9). Logarithm of the minimal angle of resolution BCVA at 12 months was stable or improved by ≥0.3 in 49 eyes (98.0%), with a significant improvement noted between the baseline and final BCVA (P = 0.01, paired t test). The CRT (mean ± standard deviation) was 446.9 ± 150.6 µm at the initial visit, 414.5 ± 146.5 µm at baseline, and 318.7 ± 99.0 µm at 12 months. There was a significant decrease in the mean CRT between the measurements at baseline and at 12 months after the first IVP (P = 0.002, Bonferroni correction). At 12 months, the exudative change was completely resolved in 27 eyes (54.0%) and reduced in 21 eyes (42.0%). The number of previous IVR treatments was significantly correlated with dry macula at 12 months.After switching therapy to pegaptanib in persistent cases of AMD, most patients maintained or improved their BCVA and exhibited a positive treatment response at 12 months.
An Efficient and Topological Correct Polygonisation Algorithm for Finite Element Data Sets

We present a system for interactively modelling and styling hair on an arbitrary surface using texture maps . Texture maps are used to modulate characteristics of hair strands on the surface, and combinations of these texture maps represent a great deal of information about a hairstyle. We render the scenes in real-time, enabling the user to interactively design and style hair to their liking. Our techniques are designed for real-time facial animation, though they can be applied to the simulation of hair in general.
Separating Work and Play: Privacy, Anonymity and the Politics of Interactive Pedagogy in Deploying Facebook in Learning and Teaching

This paper addresses some questions which have arisen around the separation between study and social life in the author’s use of Facebook as a first-year teaching and learning tool. A frequent comment made by students who participated in the use of Facebook as a course learning tool is that contributions they made to study forums which appear on their own page’s wall can be “embarrassing” or “awkward” when read by friends who are not also students in the same course. The comment raises questions as to how the semi-public site of Facebook operating in teaching and learning modes has implications for privacy and anonymity. Students’ questions about such comments expressed a desire for their work to remain “private” (unseen by those other than the examiner or moderator), although were choosing a career in media production, publication, journalism or other writing. What is it about Facebook in particular that evokes questions of privacy? As a teaching and learning tool, Facebook provides an environment in which anonymity and the separation of different elements of one’s learning, study and social or personal lives are made more complex. What does the breakdown of context and distinction do for processes of learning? Theorising the relationship between privacy and the use of Facebook and other social networking sites as teaching and learning tools, this article presents a summary of its use in media and communications teaching, the mechanisms by which privacy questions are invoked in this context, the ways in which its use opens new and unexpected ways of thinking about pedagogy in relation to the everyday, and the factors that invoke questions as to how online social networking identity is managed by students using Facebook as a prescribed learning tool.
FLIM FRET Visualization of Cdc42 Activation by Netrin-1 in Embryonic Spinal Commissural Neuron Growth Cones

Netrin-1 is an essential extracellular chemoattractant that signals through its receptor DCC to guide commissural axon extension in the embryonic spinal cord. DCC directs the organization of F-actin in growth cones by activating an intracellular protein complex that includes the Rho GTPase Cdc42, a critical regulator of cell polarity and directional migration. To address the spatial distribution of signaling events downstream of netrin-1, we expressed the FRET biosensor Raichu-Cdc42 in cultured embryonic rat spinal commissural neurons. Using FLIM-FRET imaging we detected rapid activation of Cdc42 in neuronal growth cones following application of netrin-1. Investigating the signaling mechanisms that control Cdc42 activation by netrin-1, we demonstrate that netrin-1 rapidly enriches DCC at the leading edge of commissural neuron growth cones and that netrin-1 induced activation of Cdc42 in the growth cone is blocked by inhibiting src family kinase signaling. These findings reveal the activation of Cdc42 in embryonic spinal commissural axon growth cones and support the conclusion that src family kinase activation downstream of DCC is required for Cdc42 activation by netrin-1.
Robust visual tracking through deep learning-based confidence evaluation

In this paper, we propose an object tracking method through deep learning-based confidence evaluation, aiming at correctly updating an object template and on-line training a deep neural network. Our method updats both a deep neural network and a detector in Tracking-Learning-Detection(TLD) framework by robustly finding object regions highly similar to the target. We detect tracking failure points by measuring spatiotemporal similarity from Forward-Backward Error and output of the deep neural network. In addition, the proposed method adaptively updates the templates of tracker by finding the region with highest confidence of neural network within both tracking and detection results. Our experiment results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in severe environmental changes.
Towards bridging the gap between academic and industrial heterogeneous system architecture design space exploration

Heterogeneous system architectures (HSA) have become a focal point and a commodity not only in high-performance but also in embedded systems. In existing freely available or open-sourced design space exploration (DSE) tools, we typically find software-only models of proprietary architectures without any register-transfer level (RTL) hardware descriptions available, leading to a shortage in research tools for academia. This prevents the DSE and does also not suit the requirements for designing the resulting HSAs in the way that simulation results cannot immediately be fed back into realistic hardware models, therefore making it hard if not infeasible to properly verify and validate novel findings against real-world implementations. Here, tools are required that enable a holistic DSE in order to achieve a desired hardware/software co-design for heterogeneous systems. In this paper we present an approach that closes this gap, enabling a holistic DSE for academia and academic research by establishing a freely available HSA virtual platform (VP) with its software as well as its corresponding RTL description.
Fast model-based control and prediction of the safety factor profile evolution in tokamak plasmas

Advanced tokamak operation requires control over the q-profile evolution during current ramp-up and flat-top phase, as it determines both stability and performance of the plasma. This can be done by feedback controlling the q-profile evolution. For ITER, simultaneous control of the q-profile and additional control tasks needs to be demonstrated, where a governing supervisory controller (SC) needs to share the same actuators for both tasks. This implies that the q-profile controller should be able to handle real-time varying constraints on actuators and plasma physics, set by the SC. This paper describes an algorithm to control and predict the q-profile evolution using Model Predictive Control (MPC). MPC is a general optimal control technology which uses a predictive model to compute the control action and can deal routinely with real-time varying actuator and state constraints [1]. The prediction can be made available to the SC. Simulation results show the effectiveness of this approach.
Sequential And Parallel Algorithms For Causal Explanation With Background Knowledge

This paper presents a new sequential algorithm to answer the question about the existence of a causal explanation for a set of independence statements (a dependency model), which is consistent with a given set of background knowledge. Emphasis is placed on generality, efficiency and ease of parallelization of the algorithm. From this sequential algorithm, an efficient, scalable, and easy to implement parallel algorithm with very little inter-processor communication is derived.
Persistent organic pollutants and abnormal geometry of the left ventricle in the elderly

Background: Established risk factors for left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) are hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. However, as these risk factors explain only part of the variation in left ventricular mass, we investigated whether persistent organic pollutants (POPs) might also play a role in LVH, because exposure to polychlorinated biphenyl 126 induced cardiac growth in rats. Methods: In the Prospective Investigation of the Vasculature in Uppsala Seniors (PIVUS), left ventricular mass index (LVMI), relative wall thickness (RWT), and geometric groups of LVH, were determined by echocardiography and 21 POPs were measured by high-resolution chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS) in 1016 individuals aged 70 years. All individuals with a history of myocardial infarction were excluded from analysis (n = 72). Results: Several of the POPs were related to abnormal left ventricular geometry before adjustment for established risk factors, but lost in significance following adjustment. However, the pesticide hexachlorobenzene (HCB) levels were significantly related to RWT, and concentric left ventricular remodeling, also following adjustment for sex, blood pressure, antihypertensive treatment, diabetes, and BMI (P <0.0001). Conclusion: In this cross-sectional study, circulating levels of HCB were related to increased wall thickness of the left ventricle and concentric left ventricular remodeling, independently of LVH risk factors, suggesting a role of this environmental contaminant in abnormal growth of the left ventricle.
Petrogenesis of the crust‐mantle transition zone and the origin of lower crustal wehrlite in the Oman ophiolite

We studied trace element geochemistry and petrology of the crust‐mantle transition zone (MTZ) in the Samail massif of the Oman ophiolite to constrain the location where different primitive magmas mix beneath an oceanic spreading ridge. The MTZ is the deepest location where crystallization took place and thus is an ideal place to determine the compositional diversity of melts leaving the mantle, with various sources and degrees of depletion. We have reached three main conclusions: (1) More than 90% of our samples record equilibration with compositionally indistinguishable parental melts, similar to mid‐ocean ridge basalts (MORB) and the melts that formed the crust in Oman. This suggests that mixing of diverse, polybaric partial melts of mantle peridotite occurred at or below the depth of the MTZ. The presence of distinct heterogeneity in less than 10% of our samples is similar to the nature and frequency of heterogeneity observed in melt inclusions in olivines from MORB. (2) Among the samples recording trace element equilibrium with MORB‐like liquids are wehrlitic rocks, previously suggested to be cumulates from an unusual parental melt on the basis of petrological observation. (3) Systematics of Eu distribution among plagioclase and clinopyroxene in “impregnated peridotites” demonstrate that these minerals did not crystallize from “trapped melt. ” As a consequence, it is not possible to use the modal proportion or texture of plagioclase + clinopyroxene impregnations to estimate the instantaneous melt porosity or the shape of melt pores at any time during the formation of these rocks.