Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Planar Motion and Hand-Eye Calibration Using Inter-Image Homographies from a Planar

In this paper we consider a mobile platform performing partial hand-eye calibration and Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) using images of the floor along with the assumptions of planar motion and constant internal camera parameters. The method used is based on a direct parametrisation of the camera motion, combined with an iterative scheme for determining the motion parameters from inter-image homographies. Experiments are carried out on both real and synthetic data. For the real data, the estimates obtained are compared to measurements by an industrial robot, which serve as ground truth. The results demonstrate that our method produces consistent estimates of the camera position and orientation. We also make some remarks about patterns of motion for which the method fails.
Exploring the Initial Impact of COVID-19 Sentiment on US Stock Market Using Big Data

This study explores the initial impact of COVID-19 sentiment on US stock market using big data. Using the Daily News Sentiment Index (DNSI) and Google Trends data on coronavirus-related searches, this study investigates the correlation between COVID-19 sentiment and 11 select sector indices of the Unites States (US) stock market over the period from 21st of January 2020 to 20th of May 2020. While extensive research on sentiment analysis for predicting stock market movement use tweeter data, not much has used DNSI or Google Trends data. In addition, this study examines whether changes in DNSI predict US industry returns differently by estimating the time series regression model with excess returns of industry as the dependent variable. The excess returns are obtained from the Fama-French three factor model. The results of this study offer a comprehensive view of the initial impact of COVID-19 sentiment on the US stock market by industry and furthermore suggests the strategic investment planning considering the time lag perspectives by visualizing changes in the correlation level by time lag differences.
A Non-Destructive Optical Method for the DP Measurement of Paper Insulation Based on the Free Fibers in Transformer Oil

In order to explore a non-destructive method for measuring the polymerization degree (DP) of paper insulation in transformer, a new method that based on the optical properties of free fiber particles in transformer oil was studied. The chromatic dispersion images of fibers with different aging degree were obtained by polarizing microscope, and the eigenvalues (r, b, and Mahalanobis distance) of the images were extracted by the RGB (red, blue, and green) tricolor analysis method. Then, the correlation between the three eigenvalues and DP of paper insulation were simulated respectively. The results showed that the color of images changed from blue-purple to orange-yellow gradually with the increase of aging degree. For the three eigenvalues, the relationship between Mahalanobis distance and DP had the best goodness of fit (R2 = 0.98), higher than that of r (0.94) and b (0.94). The mean square error of the relationship between Mahalanobis distance and DP (52.17) was also significantly lower than that of r and b (97.58, 98.05). Therefore, the DP of unknown paper insulation could be calculated by the simulated relationship of Mahalanobis distance and DP.
EXTRACTION FROM GREY SCALE PAGE IMAGES BY SIMPLE EDGE DETECTORS

Text extraction is one of key tasks in document image analysis. Many methods proposed for this purpose require a binary image as an input. However, binarisation can sometimes lead to a loss of significant information contained in the grey scale or colour images, and it is also unsuitable if the original image is noisy or the background is complex. In this paper, we propose a simple method based on edge detectors, such as the Sobel operator, for document image filtering and text extraction. Promising results are obtained for degraded document images and for images with complex coloured and textured backgrounds.
GDA and AUV Control 2 . 1 The GDA Conceptual Model

Goal-Driven Autonomy (GDA) is a model for online planning extended with dynamic goal selection. GDA has been investigated in the context of numerous abstract planning domains, and there has been recent interest in applying GDA to control unmanned vehicles. In robotic domains, certain continuous state features from sensor data must be modeled for reasoning. However, modeling these features precisely during planning and execution monitoring may be problematic, due to the inefficiency of computing exact values or sensitivity to noise. We present PHOBOS, a Hierarchical Task Network planner with bounded expectations, which we apply with a GDA agent in an underwater vehicle domain. Bounded expectations allow an agent to plan and detect discrepancies more efficiently and with fewer false discrepancies (i.e., detected but semantically meaningless differences from expectations during execution). We describe an initial simulation study that supports this claim.
Groove Experience: Emotional and Physiological Responses to Groove-Based Music

Theories of music and emotion suggest that subjective affective experience and physiological arousal are elicited by anticipation of musical-structural events. However, little is known about to what extent groove-based music elicits such expectancies, and consequently how it is experienced. Due to the repetitiveness of the groove, it was hypothesised that microtiming in groove might facilitate a type of arousal that is not peak-based, but rather reflects the groove state of listening, which has been conceptualized as a steady mental state in synchronization with the music. An initial qualitative interview study with three groove-based music producers and musicians investigated the subjective affective experience of groove, the extent to which musical structures facilitated the experience, and to what degree the experience could be understood as emotional. A second experimental study investigated the extent to which structural deviations within and across the groove affect physiological responses by measuring heart rate, skin conductance and respiration of 10 participants. The GEMS-model was used to investigate to what extent emotions and feelings were elicited. Interviews were also conducted to obtain subjective accounts of the experience. The results reveal that large-scale variations in groove-based music can be understood as ‘peak events’ that elicit ‘peak physiological responses’. Effects of microtiming could not be identified using physiological measurements. A groove listening state was however reported in the interviews, albeit with differing understandings of its emotional quality. The research therefore poses implications for future investigations of alternative conceptualizations of the affective experience of groove-based
Heat and Mass transfer on MHD flow of Nanofluid with thermal slip effects

In this paper, we have discussed on heat and mass transfer of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow of Eyring-Powel Nanofluid through an Isothermal Sphere with thermal slip effects. The governing partial differential equations are reduced to a system of non-linear ordinary differential equations, using appropriate non-similarity transformations, and then solved numerically by using a Keller box method. The influence of the leading parameters i.e. Eyring-Powel fluid parameter, Buoyancy ratio parameter, Brownian motion parameter, Hartmann number and Prandtl number on velocity, temperature, and Nano-particle concentration distributions illustrated graphically.
DNS based Measurement and Analysis of IPv6 Domain Name Support

At present, the IPv4 addresses has been fully allocated, and the worldwide deployment of IPv6 addresses is accelerating due to its advantages. In order to investigate current development of IPv6, the IPv6 addresses of domain names are firstly resolved by DNS servers, and the obtained IPv6 addresses data, mainly including the geographic location statistics of IPv6, the proportion of southeast coastal cities, the comprehensive statistics of top-level domain names, etc., can be used to analyze the domain name supported by IPv6. The analysis of the measurement results has great guiding significance for further understanding the future development and application of IPv6.
Candida albicans UPC 2 is transcriptionally induced in response to antifungal drugs and anaerobicity through Upc 2 p-dependent and-independent mechanisms

Received 11 February 2008 Revised 4 June 2008 Accepted 8 June 2008 Many genes in the Candida albicans ergosterol biosynthetic pathway are controlled by the transcriptional activator Upc2p, which is upregulated in the presence of azole drugs and has been suggested to regulate its own transcription by an autoregulatory mechanism. The UPC2 promoter was cloned upstream of a luciferase reporter gene (RLUC). UPC2–RLUC activity was induced in response to ergosterol biosynthesis inhibitors and in response to anaerobicity. Under both conditions, induction correlates with the magnitude of sterol depletion. Azole inducibility in the parental strain was approximately 100-fold, and in a UPC2 homozygous deletion strain was 17fold, suggesting that, in addition to autoregulation, UPC2 transcription is controlled by a novel, Upc2p-independent mechanism(s). Curiously, basal UPC2–RLUC activity was fivefold higher in the deletion strain, which may be an indirect consequence of the lower sterol level in this strain, or a direct consequence of repression by an autoregulatory mechanism. These results suggest that transcriptional regulation of UPC2 expression is important in the response to antifungal drugs, and that this regulation occurs through Upc2p-dependent as well as novel Upc2pindependent mechanisms.
Contracts for Systems Design: Methodology and Application cases

Recently, contract based design has been proposed as an ”orthogonal” approach that can be applied to all methodologies proposed so far to cope with the complexity of system design. Contract based design provides a rigorous scaffolding for verification, analysis and abstraction/refinement. Companion report RR-8759 proposes a unified treatment of the topic that can help in putting contract-based design in perspective. This paper complements RR-8759 by further discussing methodological aspects of system design with contracts in perspective and presenting two application cases. The first application case illustrates the use of contracts in requirement engineering, an area of system design where formal methods were scarcely considered, yet are stringently needed. We focus in particular to the critical design step by which sub-contracts are generated for suppliers from a set of different viewpoints (specified as contracts) on the global system. We also discuss important issues regarding certification in requirement engineering, such as consistency, compatibility, and completeness of requirements. The second example is developed in the context of the Autosar methodology now widely advocated in the automotive sector. We propose a contract framework to support schedulability analysis, a key step in Autosar methodology. Our aim differs from the many proposals for compositional schedulability analysis in that we aim at defining sub-contracts for suppliers, not just performing the analysis by parts—we know from companion paper RR-8759 that sub-contracting to suppliers differs from a compositional analysis entirely performed by the OEM. We observe that the methodology advocated by Autosar is in contradiction with contract based design in that some recommended design steps cannot be refinements. We show how to circumvent this difficulty by precisely bounding the risk at system integration phase. Another feature of this application case is the combination of manual reasoning for local properties and use of the formal contract algebra to lift a collection of local checks to a system wide analysis.
MRI for the diagnosis and staging of deeply infiltrating endometriosis: A national survey of BSGE accredited endometriosis centres and review of the literature.

OBJECTIVES Our objective was to establish the primary mode of imaging and MR protocols utilised in the preoperative staging of deeply infiltrating endometriosis in centres accredited by the British Society of Gynaecological Endoscopy (BSGE). METHODS The lead consultant radiologist in each centre was invited to complete an online survey detailing their protocols. RESULTS Out of 49 centres, 32 (65%) responded to the survey. Two centres performed transvaginal ultrasound as the primary method for preoperative staging of deeply infiltrating endometriosis and the remainder performed MRI. 21/25 centres did not recommend a period of fasting prior to MRI and 22/25 administered hyoscine butylbromide. None of the centres routinely offered bowel preparation or recommended a specific pre-procedure diet. 21/25 centres did not time imaging according to the female's menstrual cycle, and instructions regarding bladder filling were varied. Rectal and vaginal opacification methods were infrequently utilised. All centres preferentially performed MRI in the supine position - six used an abdominal strap and four could facilitate prone imaging. Just under half of centres used pelvic phased array coils and three centres used gadolinium contrast agents routinely. All centres performed T1-weighted with fat-suppression and T2-weighted without fat-suppression sequences. There was significant variation relating to other MR sequences depending on the unit. CONCLUSIONS There was significant inconsistency between centres in terms of MR protocols, patient preparation and the sequences performed. Many practices were out of line with current published evidence. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE Our survey demonstrates a need for evidence based standardisation of imaging in BSGE accredited endometriosis centres.
Input waves for seismic design of power substation equipment for near and far Iranian earthquake records

Dynamic analysis of the seismic performance of power substation equipment is time-consuming, expensive and uses responses that are sensitive to ground motion. This research proposes a method to derive input waves for dynamic analysis in place of original records from seismic events in Iran. In this study, a power transformer, current transformer, circuit breaker and disconnect switch are analyzed using fifty records from the far-field and near-field earthquake ground motions. Statistical analysis is done on the maximum acceleration and displacement responses to obtain their pushover curves. Sinusoidal waves were created using the fundamental frequencies of the equipments and PGA of 0.1g through 0.5 g as the amplitude. Compared with the original records, the results show that the proposed input waves provide a reasonable fit for an extensive range of near-field and far-field ground motion results.
FABRY-PÉROT INTERFEROMETER PICOSECONDS DISPERSIVE PROPERTIES

Fabry-Perot interferometers are used in optical modems, spectroscopy, lasers, and astronomy. In this paper we used the coupled mode equation to design the Fabry-Perot interferometers and study the picosecond dispersion. Coupled mode analysis is widely used in the field of integrated optoelectronics for the description of two coupled waves traveling in the same direction. The program is written in MATLAB to simulate and analysis the Fabry- Perot properties.
A Model Of The Laser Printing

In a laser printer system a thin layer, sandwiched between two plastic sheets, is heated by a laser. The dye melts and diffuses into the sheets, the diffusion coefficient being a sensitive function of temperature. The problem is to determine the amount of dye which has diffused into the sheets at time t . The axisymmetric unsteady temperature field produced by the laser is determined and then the dye field is found by solving a diffusion equation using a temperature sensitive diffusion coefficient. The model is used to predict the fraction of dye transferred to the receiver sheet at each radial position after a time which is long compared with the heating time.
There Can Be Composite Services When You Believe

Abstract—Web services on the internet are distributed, heterogeneous, autonomous and dynamic, which leads to uncertainty of web services. These uncertain factors affect success rate of service composition. The web service composition problem should be considered as an uncertain planning problem. Therefore, we use an uncertainty planning method to deal with the uncertain planning problem for service composition. Without knowing complete information, our method uses an estimated value function to obtain a composite service. We give details and examples that how to compose services by our method. In addition, we shows relations among user requirements, service invocations and Quality of services. The experiments verify the validity of the algorithm.
Non-Parametric Identification and Estimation of Truncated Regression Models

In this paper, we consider non-parametric identification and estimation of truncated regression models in both cross-sectional and panel data settings. For the cross-sectional case, Lewbel and Linton (2002) considered non-parametric identification and estimation through continuous variation under a log-concavity condition on the error distribution. We obtain non-parametric identification under weaker conditions. In particular, we obtain non-parametric identification through discrete variation under a non-periodicity condition on the hazard function of the error distribution. Furthermore, we show that the presence of continuous regressors may lead to stronger identification results. Our non-parametric estimator is shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal, and outperforms that of Lewbel and Linton (2002) in a simulation study. For the panel data setting, we provide the first systematic treatment of non-parametric identification and estimation of the truncated panel data model with fixed effects by extending our treatment of the cross-sectional case. We also consider various other extensions. Copyright , Wiley-Blackwell.
Symbolic Relation Networks for Reinforcement Learning

In recent years, reinforcement learning techniques have enjoyed considerable success in a variety of challenging domains, but are typically sample inefﬁcient and often fail to generalize well to new environments or tasks. Humans, by contrast, are able to learn robust skills with orders of magnitude less training. One hypothesis for this discrepancy is that humans view the world in terms of objects and relations between them. Such a bias may be useful reducing sample complexity and improving interpretability and generalization. In this paper, we present a novel relational architecture which has multiple neural network sub-modules called relational units which operate on objects and output values in the unit interval. Our model transforms the input state representation into a relational representation, which is then supplied as input to a Q-learner. Experiments on a goal-seeking game with random boards show better performance over several baselines: a multi-headed attention model, a standard MLP, a pixel MLP and a symbolic RL model. We also ﬁnd that the relations learned in the network are interpretable.
A comparison of pre-service, in-service and formation program for teachers perceptions of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) in English language teaching (ELT)

In view of the rapid advancement of technology, technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) has been extensively studied. However, research on technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) in teaching English appear to be scarce and addressed either pre-service or in-service teachers, but not their comparison. Additionally, although teacher-certificate programs are employed in many countries, none of the existing studies have examined teacher-candidates’ TPACK, especially in English language teaching (ELT). To fill the gap, this study aims to compare TPACK among teacher-candidates, pre-service and in-service English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in Turkey. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis indicated significant differences among them. Based on these findings, suggestions for teacher education and future research were made. Key words: Pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, teacher certificate program, English language teaching (ELT), technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), self-perception.
Temporal Variability in the Response of a Linear Time-Invariant Catchment System to a Non-Stationary Inflow Concentration Field

Predicting the effects of changes in dissolved input concentration on the variability of discharge concentration at the outlet of the catchment is essential to improve our ability to address the problem of surface water quality. The goal of this study is therefore dedicated to the stochastic quantification of temporal variability of concentration fields in outflow from a catchment system that exhibits linearity and time invariance. A convolution integral is used to determine the output of a linear time-invariant system from knowledge of the input and the transfer function. This work considers that the nonstationary input concentration time series of an inert solute to the catchment system can be characterized completely by the Langevin equation. The closed-form expressions for the variances of inflow and outflow concentrations at the catchment scale are derived using the Fourier–Stieltjes representation approach. The variance is viewed as an index of temporal variability. The closed-form expressions therefore allow to evaluate the impacts of the controlling parameters on the temporal variability of outflow concentration.
Wave-like Properties of Phasor Fields: Experimental Demonstrations

Recently, an optical meta concept called the Phasor Field (P-Field) was proposed that yields great quality in the reconstruction of hidden objects imaged by non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging. It is based on virtual sinusoidal modulation of the light with frequencies in the MHz range. Phasor Field propagation was shown to be described by the Rayleigh-Sommerfeld diffraction integral. We extend this concept and stress the analogy between electric field and Phasor Field. We introduce Phasor Field optical elements and present experiments demonstrating the validity of the approach. Straightforward use of the Phasor Field concept in real-world applications is also discussed.
A general-purpose element-based approach to compute dispersion relations in periodic materials with existing finite element codes

The numerical determination of dispersion relations in periodic materials via the finite element method is a difficult task in most standard codes. Here, we propose a novel technique which allows the computation of these band structures from local elemental subroutines in contrast with existing methods which impose Bloch boundary conditions on the global arrays. The proposed local approach is thus readily applicable to several physical contexts and space dimensionalities. Here we present the details of this element-based algorithm and provide verification results for three different kinematic assumptions applied to phononic crystals in a classical and a micropolar elastic medium. The paper also includes in the form of supplementary material, a fully-coded user subroutine and a test-problem to be used in a commercial finite element code.