Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Target Tracking Algorithm Based on an Adaptive Feature and Particle Filter

To boost the robustness of the traditional particle-filter-based tracking algorithm under complex scenes and to tackle the drift problem that is caused by the fast moving target, an improved particle-filter-based tracking algorithm is proposed. Firstly, all of the particles are divided into two parts and put separately. The number of particles that are put for the first time is large enough to ensure that the number of the particles that can cover the target is as many as possible, and then the second part of the particles are put at the location of the particle with the highest similarity to the template in the particles that are first put, to improve the tracking accuracy. Secondly, in order to obtain a sparser solution, a novel minimization model for an Lp tracker is proposed. Finally, an adaptive multi-feature fusion strategy is proposed, to deal with more complex scenes. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can not only improve the tracking robustness, but can also enhance the tracking accuracy in the case of complex scenes. In addition, our tracker can get better accuracy and robustness than several state-of-the-art trackers.
"Feet of Clay": Organisational Culture and Localism

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and influence of organisational culture and respective values and norms on implementation of the Localism Act by English local authorities. Specific implications for dealing with strategic change are identified, explained and critically evaluated. Data were collected using exploratory in-depth interviews with officers in English local authorities. The focus was on operational complexity, identification of organisational culture and its impact on implementation of strategic change. Professionals indicated that local authorities are currently hit by cost-cutting measures, but real strategic change is inhibited by both powerful organisational culture and lack of government-supplied resources. Findings also showed that local authorities face a variety of contemporary challenges in dealing with change due to contextual idiosyncrasies. The paper builds on and extends existing literature that has applied organisational theories to the public sector. The paper highlights substantive barriers to change in English local authorities that have potential negative implications for community empowerment and service provision, and effectively hinder strategy implementation. The empirical paper is novel in reviewing, developing and applying models of organisational culture and strategic change to local government by looking specifically at the challenges of strategy implementation at operational levels using the example of localism. Its specific theoretical contribution is data generation that shows a tangible impact of organisational culture on policy implementation in local authorities.
Concentric gravity waves over northern China observed by an airglow imager network and satellites

The first no‐gap OH airglow all‐sky imager network was established in northern China in February 2012. The network is composed of six all‐sky airglow imagers that make observations of OH airglow gravity waves and cover an area of about 2000 km east and west and about 1400 km south and north. An unusual outbreak of Concentric Gravity Wave (CGW) events were observed by the network nearly every night during the first half of August 2013. These events were coincidentally observed by satellite sensors from Fengyun‐2 (FY‐2), Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)/Aqua, and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)/Suomi National Polar‐orbiting Partnership (NPP). Combination of the ground imager network with satellites provides multilevel observations of the CGWs from the stratosphere to the mesopause region. In this paper, two representative CGW events in August 2013 are studied in detail: first is the CGW on the night of 13 August 2013, likely launched by a single thunderstorm. The temporal and spatial analyses indicate that the CGW horizontal wavelengths follow freely propagating waves based on a GW dispersion relation within 300 km from the storm center. In contrast, the more distant observed gravity wave field exhibits a smaller horizontal wavelength of ~20 km, and our analysis strongly suggest this wave field represents a ducted wave. A second event, exhibiting multiple CGWs, was induced by two very strong thunderstorms on 9 August 2013. Multiscale waves with horizontal wavelengths ranging from less than 10 km to 200 km were observed.
Hydrodynamics of an Anguilliform Swimming Motion using Morison’s Equation

In this study, the hydrodynamic performance of anguilliform swimming motion is computed using Morison’s equation. This method was shown to predict the servo motor torques well. The anguilliform swimming motion is sinusoidal with increasing amplitude from head to tail. A “wakeless” swimming motion proposed by Vorus and Taravella (2011) with zero net circulation is considered. This method is compared to the existing slender body theory and is validated with reference to the experimental results of NEELBOT-1.1 (Potts, 2015). The results for the study indicates that self-propulsion speed of the motion is independent of the oscillating tail amplitude at a constant advance ratio. At a constant wave speed, the self-propulsion speed attains a local maximum at an advance ratio of 0.5. Where the nominal length is equal to half the wavelength.
R-CRNN: Region-based Convolutional Recurrent Neural Network for Audio Event Detection

This paper proposes a Region-based Convolutional Recurrent Neural Network (R-CRNN) for audio event detection (AED). The proposed network is inspired by Faster-RCNN, a well known region-based convolutional network framework for visual object detection. Different from the original Faster-RCNN, a recurrent layer is added on top of the convolutional network to capture the long-term temporal context from the extracted high level features. While most of the previous works on AED generate predictions at frame level first, and then use post-processing to predict the onset/offset timestamps of events from a probability sequence; the proposed method generates predictions at event level directly and can be trained end-to-end with a multitask loss, which optimizes the classification and localization of audio events simultaneously. The proposed method is tested on DCASE 2017 Challenge dataset. To the best of our knowledge, R-CRNN is the best performing single-model method among all methods without using ensembles both on development and evaluation sets. Compared to the other region-based network for AED (R-FCN) with an event-based error rate (ER) of 0.18 on the development set, our method reduced the ER to half.
BRUNA GABRIELLY DE MORAES ARAÚJO QUANTUM LOGIC OPERATIONS WITH CONTINUOS VARIABLES IN A SINGLE TRAPPED ION Recife 2015 BRUNA GABRIELLY DE MORAES ARAÚJO QUANTUM LOGIC OPERATIONS WITH CONTINUOS VARIABLES IN A SINGLE TRAPPED ION

In this monography, we propose the realization of quantum computation over continuous variables using the ion trap as physical platform. The central idea of our work is to provide a toolbox of Gaussian logic gates from the coherent manipulation of the vibrational modes of a trapped ion. By irradiating monochromatic and bichromatic classical laser beams in a confined ion, we propose gaussian logic gates similar to the operations of linear and nonlinear optics. We connect these gates with operations already employed in the discrete case, such as Fourier, CNOT and CPHASE gates. The execution of each of these logical operations is selected by the frequency of the interacting laser and the Lamb-Dicke parameters. Bringing together all the proposed operations, Gaussian and non-Gaussian, we show the simulation of Hamiltonians with polynomial expansion in the phase space coordinates.
Current progress with serological assays for exotic emerging/re-emerging viruses

Recent decades have witnessed an unprecedented rise in the outbreak occurrence of infectious and primarily zoonotic viruses. Contributing factors to this phenomenon include heightened global connectivity via air travel and international trade links, as well as man-made environmental alterations, such as deforestation and climate change, which all serve to bring humans into closer contact with animal reservoirs and alter the habitat of vectors, thus facilitating the transmission of viruses between species. Serological assays are integral to tracking the epidemiological spread of a virus and evaluating mass vaccination programs by quantifying neutralizing antibody responses raised against antigenic epitopes on the viral surface. However, conventional serological tests are somewhat marred by equipment and reagent costs, the necessity for high-containment laboratories for studying many emerging viruses, and interlaboratory variability, among other issues. This review details ‘next-generation’ assays aimed at addressing some of the persistent problems with viral serology, focusing on how manipulating the genomes of RNA viruses can produce attenuated or chimeric viruses that can be exploited as surrogate viruses in neutralization assays. Despite the undoubted promise of such novel serological platforms, it must be remembered that these assays have to withstand rigorous validation and standardization measures before they can play an integral role in curtailing the severity of future emerging virus outbreaks.
Interferon-α Therapy for Chronic Hepatitis B in Children: A Meta-Analysis

A meta-analysis of six randomized clinical trials involving 240 children with chronic hepatitis B treated with recombinant interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) was performed. IFN-alpha treatment was effective in blocking viral replication. Clearance of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA from sera occurred in 44 of 127 treated patients (P 6 months) was associated with a better response, whereas high dosages of IFN-alpha were not. These findings could be biased by limited follow-up. Children with high ALT levels had a better response. However, these randomized clinical trials had some methodological flaws, including the lack of information on histologic response to IFN-alpha treatment by pediatric patients and the absence of "hard outcomes" (such as survival or development of cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma).
A residence time theory for biodiversity : Appendices and supplemental results

Appendix B: ODD protocol for describing individual-based models (IBM) 2 B1. Platform description . 2 B2. Purpose . 3 B3. Entities & their state variables . 3 B4. System level state variables . 3 B5. Process overview and scheduling . 4 B6. Design concepts . 7 B7. Other design concepts of the ODD protocol . 7 B8. Simulation data files . 8 B9. Metrics quantified by the IBM platform . 12 B10. General ecological patterns generated by the IBM platform . 13
Apparent nutrient digestibility, gut pH and digesta viscosity of broiler chickens fed acidified water

Provision of both quality and adequate feed to broiler chickens is essential for optimum performance. Quality feed is one which supplies all the nutrients required for productivity while adequate feeding means provision of the daily feed requirement free choice.1 Earlier reports indicated that access to quality feed and attainment of daily requirement has been suggested to be better ways to achieve faster growth in broiler chickens.2,3 But the quality and quantity of feed cannot guarantee optimum productivity if the feed so supplied is not well utilized by the animal.4 The breakdown of each macro nutrient (starch, protein, fats and oils) of the feed into their respective micro forms (glucose, amino acids and fatty acids absorbable by the chicken is important. This process is known as digestion which is measured as digestibility.
Special collection on recent advances in sensor-based smart car technology

eprints@whiterose.ac.uk https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Reuse This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. This licence allows you to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the work, even commercially, as long as you credit the authors for the original work. More information and the full terms of the licence here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/
The Untold Story of Pyrocumulonimbus

Wildfire is becoming the focus of increasing attention. It is now realized that changes in the occurrence frequency and intensity of wildfires has important significant consequences for a variety of important problems, including atmospheric change and safety in the urban–wildland interface. One important but poorly understood aspect of wildfire behavior—pyrocumulonimbus firestorm dynamics and atmospheric impact—has a curious history of theory and observation. The “pyroCb” is a fire-started or fire-augmented thunderstorm that in its most extreme manifestation injects huge abundances of smoke and other biomass-burning emissions into the lower stratosphere. The observed hemispheric spread of smoke and other biomass-burning emissions could have important climate consequences. PyroCbs have been spawned naturally and through anthropogenesis, and they are hypothesized as being part of the theoretical “Nuclear nuclear winter” work. However, direct attribution of the stratospheric aerosols to the pyroCb only occur.
Foreshadow-NG: Breaking the virtual memory abstraction with transient out-of-order execution

In January 2018, we discovered the Foreshadow transient execution attack (USENIX Security’18) targeting Intel SGX technology. Intel’s subsequent investigation of our attack uncovered two closely related variants, which we collectively call Foreshadow-NG and which Intel refers to as L1 Terminal Fault. Current analyses focus mostly on mitigation strategies, providing only limited insight into the attacks themselves and their consequences. The aim of this report is to alleviate this situation by thoroughly analyzing Foreshadow-type attacks and their implications in the light of the emerging transient execution research area. At a high level, whereas previous generation Meltdown-type attacks are limited to reading privileged supervisor data within the attacker’s virtual address space, Foreshadow-NG attacks completely bypass the virtual memory abstraction by directly exposing cached physical memory contents to unprivileged applications and guest virtual machines. We review mitigation strategies proposed by Intel, and explain how Foreshadow-NG necessitates additional OS and hypervisor-level defense mechanisms on top of existing Meltdown mitigations. Disclaimer. This is an evolving document, which presents our understanding of Foreshadow / L1 Terminal Fault attacks and their implications at the time of writing. Due to the recent disclosure of the attacks, and in particular of Foreshadow-NG, our understanding may be incomplete, and while we have done our best to verify the correctness of the description, inaccuracies may have fallen. We aim to correct such inaccuracies and omissions in future revisions of this document.
Dynamic Adaptations of Synchronization Granularity in Concurrent Data Structures

Winblad, K. 2018. Dynamic Adaptations of Synchronization Granularity in Concurrent Data Structures. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 1684. 92 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-0367-3. The multicore revolution means that programmers have many cores at their disposal in everything from phones to large server systems. Concurrent data structures are needed to make good use of all the cores. Designing a concurrent data structure that performs well across many different scenarios is a difficult task. The reason for this is that the best synchronization granularity and data organization vary between scenarios. Furthermore, the number of parallel threads and the types of operations that are accessing a data structure may even change over time. This dissertation tackles the problem mentioned above by proposing concurrent data structures that dynamically adapt their synchronization granularity and organization based on usage statistics collected at run-time. Two of these data structures (one lock-free and one lock-based) implement concurrent sets with support for range queries and other multi-item operations. These data structures adapt their synchronization granularity based on detected contention and the number of items that are involved in multi-item operations such as range queries. This dissertation also proposes a concurrent priority queue that dynamically changes its precision based on detected contention. Experimental evaluations of the proposed data structures indicate that they outperform nonadaptive data structures over a wide range of scenarios because they adapt their synchronization based on usage statistics. Possible practical consequences of the work described in this dissertation are faster parallel programs and a reduced need to manually tune the synchronization granularities of concurrent data structures.
Adaptive Co-Management and the Gospel of Resilience

Two new environmental management paradigms have emerged in the past few decades: cooperative management (co-management) and adaptive management. Although the two arose largely independently of one another, some scholars and resource managers have recently begun advocating a new approach integrating the two: adaptive co-management. They view this strategy as potentially offering solutions to some of the problems identified by critics of more standard forms of co-management. Indeed, the title of this volume suggests that the fusion of adaptive and cooperative strategies might be the key to overcoming some of the problems of co-management. In this chapter, I consider how adaptive co-management fares against one set of critiques that have been levelled at standard co-management: that despite the rhetoric of local empowerment that generally accompanies such processes, they often actually serve to perpetuate colonial-style relations by concentrating power in administrative centres rather than in the hands of local/Aboriginal people (Cruikshank 1998; Feit 1998; Nadasdy 2003). To this end, I examine the political and cultural assumptions implicit in the project of adaptive management, particularly the key concept of resilience. I begin with a brief look at the principles of adaptive management before considering how these principles play out in a co-management context.
The Effect of long Distance TransportationStress on Cattle: a Review

The aim of this article is to review scholarly work carried out on the effect of long transportation stress. Stress due to long transportation of cattle can be measured by comparing baseline measurements when the animal is not subjected to a stress inducing factors, to those measured when an animal is experiencing a stressful event. Cattle transport produces physical, psychological, and climatic factors that affect animals with different intensities and duration. The most pervasive factors of long transportation of cattle include, pre-transport management, the attitudes of stakeholders and inappropriate driving skills, laws and codes of practice, methods used during handling, loading and unloading, the design of vehicle and equipment used for loading, and poor road conditions. Other important factors causing stress are insufficient ventilation, high stocking densities, mixing of unfamiliar groups and social regrouping, feed and water deprivation, noise, vibration, novelty, time of transit and length of the journey, genetic differences between breeds, and payment of persons working with animals, actual physical climatic condition and risk of disease transmission. The effect of stress during long transport is assessed using a range of behavioral, physiological and carcass quality measures. Stress may result in induced changes in the secretion of pituitary hormones, thus leading to altered metabolism, immune competence and behavior, as well as failures in reproduction. Thus, stressful conditions can reduce the fitness of an animal, which can be expressed through failure to achieve reproductive and production performance standards, or through morbidity and mortality. This review article argues that, to mitigate the negative effect of long transport stress on cattle physiology, remedial strategies such as administration of vitamins, vaccines, feeding highenergy diets, and electrolyte therapy should be considered.
Lim, L. H. I. and Loh, A. P.(2008) Sinusoidal Dither in a Relay Feedback

This paper examines the effect of a sinusoidal dither in a relay feedback system. The use of dither in achieving signal stabilization and quenching of limit cycles is well known in nonlinear systems. This paper shows that forced oscillations (FO) of higher frequencies will produce a lower amplitude and achieve a reduction in the amplitude of oscillations for dither periods below a certain value,T ∗ f . The analytical expression and numerical value of T ∗ f are obtained for first and second order plants. For higher order systems, a series of the delayed version of the Tsypkin Locus is used to identify T ∗ f . For the desired frequency of FO, the required dither amplitude is determined accordingly. Simulation studies are presented to illustrate the results.
Effect of Motor Imagery After Motor Learning for 30 sec on Excitabilityof Spinal Neural Function and its Impact on Accurate Control of MuscleForce

This study aimed to examine the effects of motor imagery on the excitability of spinal neural function and accurate control of muscle force. In total, 30 healthy volunteers (15 men and 15 women; mean age, 21.1 ± 1.2 years) participated in the study. The methodology involved recording F-waves under resting conditions with a touching sensor. Also, the subjects learned to maintain the 50% maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) value of the pinch by viewing a meter display for 30 sec. Next, the pinch force was measured for 10 sec without using visual feedback (1st trial of pinch task). Subsequently, the subjects engaged in motor imagery and the F-waves were recorded. Finally, the pinch force was measured again, as in 1st trial of the pinch task (2nd trial of pinch task). In the control group, the subjects did not use motor imagery on similar processes as in the motor imagery condition phase from different days. F-waves were analyzed with persistence. Correction time and the 50% MVC error were calculated from the pinch force. Persistence was more increased under motor imagery than in the resting and touching sensor. In addition, no significant differences were observed in correction time and the 50% MVC error in the motor imagery group. But in the control group, correction time was decreased and the 50% MVC error was increased in the 2nd trial of pinch task as compared to the 1st trial. In conclusion, motor imagery after motor learning for 30 sec increased spinal neural excitability function. Moreover, motor imagery might allow accurate control and maintenance of muscle force.
Preliminary Analysis and Simulation of Railroad Dispatcher Workload

Railroad dispatch centers increasingly use technology to assist dispatchers as they interact with multiple entities across a variety of tasks to ensure trains and track personnel function safely on an efficient schedule. A railroad dispatcher workload simulation could, therefore, be useful in estimating the impact of new technologies on dispatchers’ workload and overall system performance, particularly in the concept generation phase of a systems engineering process. This paper first discusses railroad dispatchers’ work analysis based on a large dispatch center and then presents the development of the Railroad Dispatcher Workload Simulation (RDWS), which generates models of dispatcher workload given various settings.