Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Arbitrary viewpoint video synthesis from multiple uncalibrated cameras

We propose a method for arbitrary view synthesis from uncalibrated multiple camera system, targeting large spaces such as soccer stadiums. In Projective Grid Space (PGS), which is a three-dimensional space defined by epipolar geometry between two basis cameras in the camera system, we reconstruct three-dimensional shape models from silhouette images. Using the three-dimensional shape models reconstructed in the PGS, we obtain a dense map of the point correspondence between reference images. The obtained correspondence can synthesize the image of arbitrary view between the reference images. We also propose a method for merging the synthesized images with the virtual background scene in the PGS. We apply the proposed methods to image sequences taken by a multiple camera system, which installed in a large concert hall. The synthesized image sequences of virtual camera have enough quality to demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed method.
DOES CONTROL MEDIATE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-COMPLEXITY AND POSTTRAUMATIC PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENT?

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may develop following exposure to actual or threatened traumatic experiences. Research has shown that experiencing a trauma may alter, disrupt or distort ones identity. This thesis focused on the relationship between self-complexity (SC; Linville, 1985, 1987) and posttraumatic psychological adjustment. SC is defined as the number of non-overlapping self-aspects (i.e., traits, roles and behaviours) that one uses to describe themselves. Greater SC (i.e., where the self-aspects are many and differentiated) has been associated with better coping in response to adversity. The SC theory had only been tested once in relation to trauma (Morgan & Janoff-Bulman, 1994). The evidence-base has revealed mixed support for the SC theory; potentially due to methodological differences across studies. Furthermore, research found that greater SC may only be beneficial when people perceive the different parts of themselves to be under their control (McConnell et al., 2005). Using a single group, cross-sectional, quantitative design, the research question ‘does control mediate the relationship between self-complexity and posttraumatic psychological adjustment? ’ was investigated. Efforts were made to overcome the methodological limitations identified by previous research. One-hundred and ninety-four adult trauma survivors from the general public were recruited. The study was administered online and involved the completion of a SC task, three measures of posttraumatic psychological adjustment, a depression measure and brief demographic questions. A significant positive correlation was found between negative SC and poorer posttraumatic psychological adjustment. A significant negative relationship was Doctoral thesis: Does control mediate the relationship between Kerrie Channer self-complexity and posttraumatic psychological adjustment? ii found between positive SC and depression scores. The relationship between PTSD symptomatology and SC (of both valences) was significantly mediated by control. In the discussion the theoretical implications of the research findings for both the SC theory and the PTSD models are explored. Also the clinical implications, including the potential utility of the SC measure in assessment and treatment of PTSD are considered.
On Decoupling of Quasi-Orthogonal Space-Time Block Codes based on Inherent Structure

In this paper we propose a linear decoupling scheme for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna systems where spatial diversity is exploited through complex orthogonal (COD) or quasi-orthogonal (CQOD) designs. The proposed scheme is based on rewriting the space-time block code (STBC) in an alternative form via generalized permutation matrices (GPM) and transforming the original system to an equivalent one, where all the transmitted symbols are decoupled, allowing thus a single symbol or symbol pair-wise maximum likelihood decoding (MLD) through a closed form expression (CFE).
Intelligent Network-Based Stepping Stone Detection Approach

— This research intends to introduce a new usage of Artificial Intelligent (AI) approaches in Stepping Stone Detection (SSD) fields of research. By using Self-Organizing Map (SOM) approaches as the engine, through the experiment, it is shown that SOM has the capability to detect the number of connection chains that involved in a stepping stones. Realizing that by counting the number of connection chain is one of the important steps of stepping stone detection and it become the research focus currently, this research has chosen SOM as the AI techniques because of its capabilities. Through the experiment, it is shown that SOM can detect the number of involved connection chains in Network-based Stepping Stone Detection (NSSD).
Sensor Fault Diagnosis in Quadrotors Using Nonlinear Adaptive Estimators

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have attracted significant attentions in recent years due to their potentials in various military and civilian applications. Small UAVs are often e- quipped with low-cost and lightweight micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) inertial measurement units including 3-axis gyro, accelerometer and magnetometer. The measurements provided by gyros and accelerometers often suffer from bias and excessive noise as a result of temperature variations, vibration, etc. This paper presents a sensor fault diagnostic method for quadrotor UAVs. Specifically, we consider the faults in the gyro and accelerometer. A model-based sensor fault detection and isolation (FDI) estimation method is presented. The proposed FDI method adopts the idea that accelerometer and gyroscopic measurements coincide with the translational and rotational forces represented in the UAV dynamics. Thus, the faults in accelerometer and gyroscope can be represented as virtual actuator faults in the quadrotor state equations. Two diagnostic estimators are designed to provide structured FDI residuals allowing simultaneous detection and isolation of gyroscope and accelerometer sensor bias. In addition, nonlinear adaptive estimators are designed to provide an estimate of the unknown sensor bias. The parameter convergence property of the adaptive estimation scheme is an- alyzed. Simulation studies utilizing a nonlinear quadrotor UAV model are used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Method for Improving EEG Based Emotion Recognition by Combining It with Synchronized Biometric and Eye Tracking Technologies in a Non-invasive and Low Cost Way

Technical advances, particularly the integration of wearable and embedded sensors, facilitate tracking of physiological responses in a less intrusive way. Currently, there are many devices that allow gathering biometric measurements from human beings, such as EEG Headsets or Health Bracelets. The massive data sets generated by tracking of EEG and physiology may be used, among other things, to infer knowledge about human moods and emotions. Apart from direct biometric signal measurement, eye tracking systems are nowadays capable of determining the point of gaze of the users when interacting in ICT environments, which provides an added value research on many different areas, such as psychology or marketing. We present a process in which devices for eye tracking, biometric, and EEG signal measurements are synchronously used for studying both basic and complex emotions. We selected the least intrusive devices for different signal data collection given the study requirements and cost constraints, so users would behave in the most natural way possible. On the one hand, we have been able to determine basic emotions participants were experiencing by means of valence and arousal. On the other hand, a complex emotion such as empathy has also been detected. To validate the usefulness of this approach, a study involving forty-four people has been carried out, where they were exposed to a series of affective stimuli while their EEG activity, biometric signals, and eye position were synchronously recorded to detect self-regulation. The hypothesis of the work was that people who self-regulated would show significantly different results when analyzing their EEG data. Participants were divided into two groups depending on whether Electro Dermal Activity (EDA) data indicated they self-regulated or not. The comparison of the results obtained using different machine learning algorithms for emotion recognition shows that using EEG activity alone as a predictor for self-regulation does not allow properly determining whether a person in self-regulation its emotions while watching affective stimuli. However, adequately combining different data sources in a synchronous way to detect emotions makes it possible to overcome the limitations of single detection methods.
Bis[2-phenyl-1-(phenyliminio)isoindoline] di-μ-chlorido-bis[dichloridopalladate(II)] benzene disolvate

In the title compound, (C20H17N2)2[Pd2Cl6]·2C6H6, the dichloride-bridged [Pd2Cl6]2− anion lies across an inversion center with each PdII ion in a slightly distorted square-planar environment. In the crystal structure, two cations and an anion are connected via N—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds between the NH groups of the iminioisoindoline cations and terminal Cl atoms of a hexachloridodipalladate(II) anion. The Pd—Cl distance of the terminal chloride engaged in hydrogen bonding is slightly longer than the Pd—Cl distance of the adjacent terminal chloride which is not involved in hydrogen bonding.
Book Reviews: Practicing What We Teach: Confronting Diversity in Teacher Education edited by Renee J. Martin, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995. 292 pp., $19.95 paper only

The Book Review section features reviews of current books and monographs on topics and issues related to teacher education and special education. Members of the Teacher Education Division who wish to recommend books for review or to serve as reviewers should contact Barbara Ludlow, TESE Book Review Editor, Department of Special Education, West Virginia University, P.O. Box 6122, Morgantown, WV 26506; 304-293-3450. The purpose of Practicing What We T’each: Confronting Diversity in Teacher
Exact Transversal Hypergraphs and Application to Boolean µ-Functions

Call an hypergraph, that is a family of subsets (edges) from a finite vertex set, an exact transversal hypergraph iff each of its minimal transversals, i.e., minimal vertex subsets that intersect each edge, meets each edge in a singleton. We show that such hypergraphs are recognizable in polynomial time and that their minimal transversals as well as their maximal independent sets can be generated in lexicographic order with polynomial delay between subsequent outputs, which is impossible in the general case unless P= NP. The results obtained are applied to monotone Boolean ? -functions, that are Boolean functions defined by a monotone Boolean expression (that is, built with ? , ? only) in which no variable occurs repeatedly. We also show that recognizing such functions from monotone Boolean expressions is co-NP-hard, thus complementing Mundici's result that this problem is in co-NP.
Reordering adverbial chunks in Chinese-English patent machine translation

Adverbial chunks are widely distributed in Chinese patent document, this paper proposes a rule-based method of reordering long distance adverbial chunks for Chinese-English patent MT system. After analyzing common types of adverbials, different reordering ideas and formal rules are designed for various adverbials according to semantic and expression features of them, as well as systematic differences of word orders between Chinese and English. Related BLEU evaluation scores have improved efficiently compared with baseline, indicating the reordering method was helpful to improve final translation results.
Privilege Separation in HTML5 Applications

The standard approach for privilege separation in web applications is to execute application components in different web origins. This limits the practicality of privilege separation since each web origin has financial and administrative cost. In this paper, we propose a new design for achieving effective privilege separation in HTML5 applications that shows how applications can cheaply create arbitrary number of components. Our approach utilizes standardized abstractions already implemented in modern browsers. We do not advocate any changes to the underlying browser or require learning new high-level languages, which contrasts prior approaches. We empirically show that we can retrofit our design to real-world HTML5 applications (browser extensions and rich client-side applications) and achieve reduction of 6x to 10000x in TCB for our case studies. Our mechanism requires less than 13 lines of application-specific code changes and considerably improves auditability.
Direct numerical simulation of the thermal effects of plasmas on turbulent flows

The thermal effects of plasmas on isotropic turbulence are studied using direct numerical simulations. The temperature ratio of the plasma region to the background region is moderate. Two idealizations of the plasma are considered – spherical and conical. The conical idealization is found preferable in that it approximates the tear–drop shape of the plasma region that is observed experimentally, and produces baroclinic vorticity. The variation of the magnitude of the vorticity with temperature ratio and size of plasma region is examined. A blast wave followed by a region of expansion propagates normal to the axis of the plasma region. The turbulence is observed to be suppressed in the core of the plasma, presumably due to bulk expansion.
Cognition, material culture and religious ritual

In this paper I argue that material artifacts and other environmental structures that are present during religious rituals both enable and restrict forms of action as well as our capabilities to perform these actions. Moreover, these external prompts have far-reaching consequences on the way the ritual action is established and reproduced within cultures. My main focus is on the cognitive dimension of the problem, however I understand this to be in concert with visible and tangible practice. I argue that religious ritual material artifacts enable a whole range of higher cognitive abilities such as memory, decision-making or computing, and I support this claim by the theory of extended and situated cognition as well as by various specific examples from religious worlds and evidence from experimental research. This paper also contains a brief case study that discusses two religious artifacts (prayer beads and mechanical clicker). I argue that each of them supports a different mix of cognitive abilities and as such they are key elements in religious practice and vital elements constituting the practitioner's competence. This article is a part of the project Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion (LEVYNA, CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.048) co-financed by the European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic
Lifestyle Intervention for Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes in Primary Health Care

OBJECTIVE To investigate 1-year outcomes of a national diabetes prevention program in Finland. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Altogether 10,149 individuals at high risk for diabetes were identified with the Finnish Diabetes Risk Score (FINDRISC; scoring ≥15 points), by a history of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), cardiovascular disease, or gestational diabetes mellitus in 400 primary health care centers. One-year follow-up data were available for 2,798 participants who were nondiabetic at baseline (919 men and 1,879 women, aged 56.0 ± 9.9 and 54.0 ± 10.7 years [mean ± SD] with BMI 30.9 ± 4.6 and 31.6 ± 5.4 kg/m2). RESULTS The incidence of diabetes was 2.0 and 1.2% in men and women with normal glucose tolerance at baseline, 13.5 and 7.4% in those with IFG, and 16.1 and 11.3% in those with IGT, respectively. Altogether 17.5% of the subjects lost ≥5% weight with no sex difference. The relative risk of diabetes was 0.31 (95% CI 0.16–0.59) in the group who lost ≥5% weight, 0.72 (0.46–1.13) in the group who lost 2.5–4.9% weight, and 1.10 (0.77–1.58) in the group who gained ≥2.5% compared with the group who maintained weight. CONCLUSIONS The FIN-D2D was the first national effort to implement the prevention of diabetes in a primary health care setting. Methods for recruiting high-risk subjects were simple and easy to use. Moderate weight loss in this very high-risk group was especially effective in reducing risk of diabetes among those participating in the program.
The mote connectivity protocol

An attractive architecture for sensor networks is to have the sensing devices mounted on small computers, called motes. Motes are battery-powered, and can communicate in a wireless fashion by broadcasting messages over radio frequency. In mote networks, the connectivity of a mote u can be defined by those motes that can receive messages from u with high probability and those motes from which u can receive messages with high probability. In this paper, we describe a protocol that can be triggered by any mote in a mote network in order that each mote in the network computes its connectivity. The protocol is simple and has several energy saving features. We implemented this protocol over TinyOS and discuss the results of some execution runs of this implementation.
Performance improvement of MIMO VLC using V-BLAST technique

In recent years, Visible Light Communication (VLC) is becoming an emerging means of communication. The idea of using light source for both illumination and communication purpose has led to many researches. Implementation of Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system in VLC offers increased link range and higher data rate without the need for extra power or bandwidth because it has higher spectral efficiency, link reliability and diversity. In this paper, Vertical Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time (V-BLAST) technology is used for data transmission through VLC links. A VLC channel is modeled for V-BLAST transmission and six equalizer techniques for data reception are discussed. Then the Bit-Error-Rates (BERs) of six equalization techniques for Binary Phase-Shift Keying (BPSK) modulation are compared and an efficient way for transmission and reception in VLC system is proposed.
Optimal cross-over designs under a mixed effects model

For a general cross-over design, combined intra-inter unit reduced normal equations for estimating linear functions of direct and residual effects are obtained under a mixed effects, non-additive model. The unit effects are considered as random and the model allows for possible interactions among treatments applied at successive periods. Several existing families of designs which are optimal under a fixed effects model are shown to be so under the considered mixed model as well.
Nature of glomerular dysfunction in pre-eclampsia.

BACKGROUND Pre-eclampsia is characterized by hypertension, proteinuria and edema. Simultaneous studies of kidney function and structure have not been reported. We wished to explore the degree and nature of glomerular dysfunction in pre-eclampsia. METHODS Physiologic techniques were used to estimate glomerular filtration rate (GFR), renal plasma flow and afferent oncotic pressure immediately after delivery in consecutive patients with pre-eclampsia (PET; N = 13). Healthy mothers completing an uncomplicated pregnancy served as functional controls (N = 12). A morphometric analysis of glomeruli obtained by biopsy and mathematical modeling were used to estimate the glomerular ultrafiltration coefficient (Kf). Glomeruli from healthy female kidney transplant donors served as structural controls (N = 8). RESULTS The GFR in PET was depressed below the control level, 91 +/- 23 versus 149 +/- 34 ml/min/1.73 m2, respectively (P < 0.0001). In contrast, renal plasma flow and oncotic pressure were similar in the two groups (P = NS). A reduction in the density and size of endothelial fenestrae and subendothelial accumulation of fibrinoid deposits lowered glomerular hydraulic permeability in PET compared to controls, 1.81 versus 2.58 x 10(-9) m/sec/PA. Mesangial cell interposition also curtailed effective filtration surface area. Together, these changes lowered the computed single nephron Kf in PET below control, 4.26 versus 6.78 nl/min x mm Hg, respectively. CONCLUSION The proportionate (approximately 40%) depression of Kf for single nephrons and GFR suggests that hypofiltration in PET does not have a hemodynamic basis, but is a consequence of structural changes that lead to impairment of intrinsic glomerular ultrafiltration capacity.
Improving Resource Utilization in MapReduce

MapReduce has been adopted widely in both academia and industry to run large-scale data parallel applications. In MapReduce, each slave node hosts a number of task slots to which tasks can be assigned. So they limit the maximum number of tasks that can execute concurrently on each node. When all task slots of a node are not used, the resources “reserved” for idle slots are unutilized. To improve resource utilization, we propose resource stealing to enable running tasks to steal resources reserved for idle slots and give them back proportionally whenever new tasks are assigned. Resource stealing makes the otherwise wasted resources get fully utilized without interfering with normal job scheduling. MapReduce uses speculative execution to improve fault tolerance. Current Hadoop implementation decides whether to run speculative tasks based on the progress rates of running tasks, which does not take into consideration the absolute progress of each task. We propose Benefit Aware Speculative Execution which evaluates the potential benefit of speculative tasks and eliminates unnecessary runs. We implement the proposed algorithms in Hadoop, and our experiments show that our algorithms can significantly shorten job execution time and reduce the number of non-beneficial speculative tasks.
Alternative Splicing of the C-Terminal Domain Regulates Cell Surface Expression of the NMDA Receptor NR1 Subunit

Subcellular localization of the NMDA receptor NR1 splice forms was studied by expressing individual splice variants and their epitope-tagged derivatives in mouse fibroblasts and in hippocampal neurons. When NR1 splice variants were expressed in fibroblasts, the amount of NR1 molecules expressed on the cell surface varied among forms with different C-terminal cytoplasmic domains. The splice forms with the longest C-terminal cytoplasmic tail (NR1–1a and NR1-1b) showed the lowest amount of cell surface expression, and the splice forms with the shortest C-terminal cytoplasmic tail (NR1–4a and NR1-4b) showed the highest cell surface expression. Cell surface expression of NR1 was enhanced by the coexpression of the NR2 subunit. We measured the glutamate-induced increase of calcium concentration in fibroblasts expressing one of the NR1 splice forms and the NR2B subunit. The increase of calcium concentration after glutamate application had a positive correlation with the amount of NR1 splice forms expressed on the cell surface. When epitope-tagged NR1 splice variants were expressed in primary hippocampal neurons using recombinant adenoviruses, we also observed the differential expression on the cell surface between splice variants. These results suggest that the splicing of the C-terminal domain of the NR1 subunit regulates the cell surface expression of the functional NMDA receptors.