Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Face recognition from video

In spite of over two decades of intense research, illumination and pose invariance remain prohibitively challenging aspects of face recognition for most practical applications. The objective of this work is to recognize faces using video sequences both for training and recognition input, in a realistic, unconstrained setup in which lighting, pose and user motion pattern have a wide variability and face images are of low resolution. In particular there are three areas of novelty: (i) we show how a photometric model of image formation can be combined with a statistical model of generic face appearance variation, learnt offline, to generalize in the presence of extreme illumination changes; (ii) we use the smoothness of geodesically local appearance manifold structure and a robust same-identity likelihood to achieve invariance to unseen head poses; and (iii) we introduce an accurate video sequence "reillumination" algorithm to achieve robustness to face motion patterns in video. We describe a fully automatic recognition system based on the proposed method and an extensive evaluation on 171 individuals and over 1300 video sequences with extreme illumination, pose and head motion variation. On this challenging data set our system consistently demonstrated a nearly perfect recognition rate (over 99.7%), significantly outperforming state-of-the-art commercial software and methods from the literature. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.
Constrained Compressed Sensing for fast 3D Visualization of Active Catheters

Introduction Fast visualization of catheters in 3D is indispensable for safe and convenient navigation in MR-guided interventions. With standard dynamic 3D imaging methods sufficient spatial resolution is difficult to achieve at the required temporal rates. The advent of MR-safe guidewires [1] holds great promise for operating active devices without hazardous heating effects in-vivo. With respect to accelerated imaging, active devices lend themselves well to undersampling methods given their confined sensitivity volume. Methods such as Compressed Sensing (CS) [2] are ideally suited to exploit the image sparseness inherent to images acquired with active catheter antennae. While CS allows for fast data acquisition times, its iterative reconstruction algorithms are time-expensive. Thus, the number of iterations has to be as low as possible in order to meet the real-time requirements for catheter tracking. In this work, the feasibility of using CS for accelerating 3D imaging of active catheters is investigated. Dedicated constraints are introduced, taking into account the known catheter length and the catheter position, in order to keep the computational burden of the reconstruction step to a minimum.
Memristor pattern recogniser: isolated speech word recognition

A memristor-based pattern-matching circuit for realising a hardware oriented approach to isolated speech word recognition is introduced. As distinct from algorithmic solutions, the approach takes advantage of the memristor to memorise and match speech templates in a fast, parallel, low-power and scalable architecture. When tested for isolated word recognition by simulations on the benchmark (TIMIT) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology database, recognition accuracies of 94.5% on clean words and 88% on words with a SNR of 5 dB were achieved.
Detection and Improvement of Low Efficient Learning Game Made by Automatic Generator

We have already proposed and implemented an automatic generation method of learning games. However, we also found that a few generated learning games were not useful for learning. Therefore, we propose detection method of the low efficient learning games and improvement method of the detected games in this paper. Automatic detection function has been implemented. We also report the results of experimental evaluation of the detection function and the improvement method of the detected games.
KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND CREATION: defining the concepts and relationships between the terms

This study proposes to identify definitions for the terms Knowledge Sharing and Creation, analysing differences, similarities and the relationships between the terms. A qualitative bibliographic study was conducted using a systematic review of the literature and a directed search of the subject as data collection tools to refine the search and expand its scope. The results indicate a close relationship between the terms, but with no consensus about the definitions of these concepts due to the various applications of the terms, because of the variety of applications and understandings of Knowledge Management and the type of knowledge that is being worked with - either tacit or explicit. The study concludes that for Knowledge Management to constitute a field of study without losing an interdisciplinary essence, constant vigilance is needed in relation to the definitions of the key concepts of the field and debate should be encouraged about different translations and classifications used by researchers in the field. A model for an Integrated Knowledge Creation and Sharing Process is presented as a contribution to studies in the field.
Texture and reflection in computer generated images

In 1974 Ed Catmull developed a new algorithm for rendering images of bivariate surface patches. This paper describes extensions of this algorithm in the areas of texture simulation and lighting models.The parametrization of a patch defines a coordinate system which is used as a key for mapping patterns onto the surface. The parametric values within each picture element are input to a pattern definition function. A weighted average of the values of this function over the picture element scales the intensity of that picture element. By suitably defining the pattern function, various surfaces textures can be simulated. The shape and size of this weighting function is chosen using digital signal processing theory.The other problem addressed here concerns lighting models. The patch rendering algorithm allows accurate computation of the surface.
A CRYPTOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUE BASED ON AVL TREE

Cryptography provides confidentiality and privacy by scrambling information. This paper presents a new cryptographic method using English letters frequencies and AVL tree to provide an increased level of confidence for exchanging information over networks especially internet which is insecure network. Experiment results of the proposed method provide better security than the classical methods depending on number of parts used to build the key in this method.
Alcohol use amongst learners in rural high school in South Africa

Background Drinking behaviour by adolescents is a significant public health challenge nationally and internationally. Alcohol use has serious challenges that continue to deprive adolescents of their normal child growth and development. Drinking is associated with dangers that include fighting, crime, unintentional accidents, unprotected sex, violence and others. Aim The aim of the study is to investigate drinking patterns, and factors contributing to drinking, amongst secondary school learners in South Africa. Method The sample included 177 male (46.6%) and 206 female (53.4%) respondents in the age range from 15–23 years, selected by stratified random sampling. Results The results indicated that 35.5% of male and 29.7% of female respondents used alcohol. Both male and female respondents consumed six or more alcohol units (binge drinking) within 30 days; on one occasion the consumption was 17.5% and 15.9% respectively. It was found that alcohol consumption increases with age, 32.2% of 15–17 year-olds and 53.2% of 18–20 year-olds consumed different types of alcohol. It was deduced that 28.9% respondents reported that one of the adults at home drank alcohol regularly, and 9.3% reported that both their parents drank alcohol daily. It was found that 27.6% of the respondents agreed that friends made them conform to drinking. The tenth and eleventh grade reported 15.2% of male and 13.9% of female respondents were aware that alcohol can be addictive. Conclusion This study found that age, gender, parental alcohol use and peer pressure were found to be the major contributing factors to alcohol use amongst learners Prevention campaigns such as introducing the harmful effects of alcohol use amongst learners are of utmost importance in reducing alcohol use amongst learners in South Africa.
Guided Wavelet Shrinkage for Edge-Aware Smoothing

Edge-aware smoothing has been extensively studied due to its wide range of applications in computer vision and graphics. Most published works have been focused on formulating the smoothing problem in the spatial domain. In this paper, we propose a new edge-aware smoothing framework called guided wavelet shrinkage (GWS), which is formulated in the wavelet domain as a maximum a posterior estimation problem. We impose a number of desirable properties on the statistical models and the associated parameters in order to derive an effective and computationally efficient algorithm. We compare the proposed GWS with classical image denoising in the wavelet domain. We have also compared different wavelet representations and found that the double-density dual-tree wavelet transform is the best choice. We show that the GWS can be configured as either self-guidance or external guidance. It can also be configured to operate in an iterative or non-iterative way. Experimental results and comparison with many state-of-the-algorithms demonstrate that the GWS-based algorithm can produce competitive results with $\mathcal {O}(N)$ computational complexity.
The European Union’s Ambient and Assisted Living Joint Programme: An evaluation of its impact on population health and well-being

The Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme, instituted in 2008 by the European Union, aimed to create better living conditions for older adults through the funding of information and communications technology projects. This review aimed to uncover what can be learned from the Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme by determining (1) the target populations served, (2) technology-based interventions used and (3) effects on health and well-being outcomes. Information from the Ambient Assisted Living catalogue, project websites and deliverables and from papers in PubMed and EMBASE was reviewed. Overall, 152 projects from the first six rounds of funding were identified. Sensors, computers, phones, tablets and televisions were used for various purposes, that is, monitoring, feedback, coaching, reminders and communication. In total, 12 projects reported evaluating health and well-being outcomes; however, these evaluations demonstrated poor methodological quality. Only three projects reported exact values. For all other projects, published evidence on the effect of these projects on health and well-being outcomes was not available.
Automated population-based planning for whole brain radiation therapy.

Treatment planning for whole-brain radiation treatment is technically a simple process, but in practice it takes valuable clinical time of repetitive and tedious tasks. This report presents a method that automatically segments the relevant target and normal tissues, and creates a treatment plan in only a few minutes after patient simulation. Segmentation of target and critical structures is performed automatically through morphological operations on the soft tissue and was validated by comparing with manual clinical segmentation using the Dice coefficient and Hausdorff distance. The treatment plan is generated by searching a database of previous cases for patients with similar anatomy. In this search, each database case is ranked in terms of similarity using a customized metric designed for sensitivity by including only geometrical changes that affect the dose distribution. The database case with the best match is automatically modified to replace relevant patient info and isocenter position while maintaining original beam and MLC settings. Fifteen patients with marginally acceptable treatment plans were used to validate the method. In each of these cases the anatomy was accurately segmented, but the beams and MLC settings led to a suboptimal treatment plan by either underdosing the brain or excessively irradiating critical normal tissues. For each case, the anatomy was automatically segmented with the proposed method, and the automated and manual segmentations were then compared. The mean Dice coefficient was 0.97, with a standard deviation of 0.008 for the brain, 0.85±0.009 for the eyes, and 0.67±0.11 for the lens. The mean Euclidian distance was 0.13±0.13 mm for the brain, 0.27±0.31 for the eye, and 2.34±7.23 for the lens. Each case was then subsequently matched against a database of 70 validated treatment plans and the best matching plan (termed autoplanned), was compared retrospectively with the clinical plans in terms of brain coverage and maximum doses to critical structures. Maximum doses were reduced by a maximum of 8.37 Gy for the left eye (mean 2.08), 11.67 for the right eye (1.90) and, respectively, 25.44 (5.59) for the left lens and 24.40 (4.85) for the right lens. Time to generate the autoplan, including the segmentation, was 3-4 min. Automated database- based matching is an alternative to classical treatment planning that improves quality while providing a cost-effective solution to planning through modifying previous validated plans to match a current patient's anatomy. PACS number: 87.55. D, 87.55. tg, 87.57. nm.
Dose reduction in CT urography and vasculature phantom studies using model‐based iterative reconstruction

To evaluate the feasibility of radiation dose reduction using model‐based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) for evaluating the ureters and vasculature in a phantom, a tissue‐equivalent CT dose phantom was scanned using a 64‐channel CT scanner. Tubes of varying diameters filled with different dilutions of a contrast agent, simulating ureters or vessels, were inserted into the center of the phantom. Each combination was scanned using an existing renal protocol at 140 kVp or 120 kVp, yielding a display volumetric CT dose index (CTDIvol) of 24 mGy. The scans were repeated using reduced scan techniques to achieve lower radiation doses down to 0.8 mGy. The images were reconstructed using filtered back‐projection (FBP) and model‐based iterative reconstruction (MBIR). The noise and contrast‐to‐noise ratio (CNR) was measured for each contrast object. Comparisons between the two reconstruction methods at different dose levels were evaluated using a factorial design. At each CTDIvol the measured image noise was lower using MBIR compared to FBP (p<0.0001). At low doses, the percent change in measured image noise between FBP and MBIR was larger. For the 12 mm object simulating a ureter or large vessel with an HU of 600, the measured CNR using MBIR at a CTDIvol of 1.7 mGy was greater than the CNR of FBP at a CTIDvol of 24 mGy (p<0.0001). For the 5 mm object simulating a medium‐sized vessel with a HU of 250, the measured CNR using MBIR at a CTDIvol of 1.7 mGy was equivalent to that of FBP at a CTDIvol of 24 mGy. For the 2 mm, 100 HU object simulating a small vessel, the measured CNR using MBIR at a CTDIvol of 1.7 mGy was equivalent to that of FBP at a CTDIvol of 24 mGy. Low‐dose (3.6 mGy) CT imaging of vasculature and ureter phantoms using MBIR results in similar noise and CNR compared to FBP at approximately one‐sixth the dose. This suggests that, using MBIR, a one milliSievert exam of the ureters and vasculature may be clinically possible whilst still maintaining adequate image quality PACS number(s): 87.57. ‐s, 87.57. Q‐, 87.57. C‐, 87.57. nf, 87.57. cj, 87.57. cm
Difference in performance between 3D and 4D CBCT for lung imaging: a dose and image quality analysis

The study was to describe and to compare the performance of 3D and 4D CBCT imaging modalities by measuring and analyzing the delivered dose and the image quality. The 3D (Chest) and 4D (Symmetry) CBCT Elekta XVI lung IGRT protocols were analyzed. Dose profiles were measured with TLDs inside a dedicated phantom. The dosimetric indicator cone‐beam dose index (CBDI) was evaluated. The image quality analysis was performed by assessing the contrast transfer function (CTF), the noise power spectrum (NPS) and the noise‐equivalent quanta (NEQ). Artifacts were also evaluated by simulating irregular breathing variations. The two imaging modalities showed different dose distributions within the phantom. At the center, the 3D CBCT delivered twice the dose of the 4D CBCT. The CTF was strongly reduced by motion compared to static conditions, resulting in a CTF reduction of 85% for the 3D CBCT and 65% for the 4D CBCT. The amplitude of the NPS was two times higher for the 4D CBCT than for the 3D CBCT. In the presence of motion, the NEQ of the 4D CBCT was 50% higher than the 3D CBCT. In the presence of breathing irregularities, the 4D CBCT protocol was mainly affected by view‐aliasing artifacts, which were typically cone‐beam artifacts, while the 3D CBCT protocol was mainly affected by duplication artifacts. The results showed that the 4D CBCT ensures a reasonable dose and better image quality when moving targets are involved compared to 3D CBCT. Therefore, 4D CBCT is a reliable imaging modality for lung free‐breathing radiation therapy. PACS number(s): 87.57. C‐, 87.57. uq, 87.53. Ly
Discovering Common Interests AndProblems To Improve Working ConditionsAt A Large Company

This work presents the study related to a text database with employees’ opinions and complaints about general situations that occurred in the working environment in a large company. The study intends to discover possible conflicts, recurrent problems inside the company and so on. In order to find these points out, a text mining commercial tool was used to make explicit the hidden knowledge. Thus, we are able to evaluate how text data is organized and the relevant information to be extracted. The results obtained can define possible actions to improve the relationship between employees and the quality of the working environment.
EFFECTS OF THE 5E LEARNING CYCLE ON STUDENT CONTENT COMPREHENSION AND SCIENTIFIC LITERACY

In this investigation the 5E learning cycle was implemented as the primary teaching method, with the purpose of improving student’s content comprehension and scientific literacy skills. The steps of the 5E learning cycle were continuously carried out using a wide variety of assessments. Though content comprehension did not increase dramatically, students did show marked improvement in their scientific literacy and ability to think critically.
A Method of Recommendation the Most Used XML Tags

Processing of a large data set which is known for today as big data processing is still a problem that has not yet a well-defined solution. The data can be both structured and unstructured. For the structured part, eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is a major tool that freely allows document owners to describe and organize their data using their markup tags. One major problem, however, behind this freedom lies in the big data retrieving process. The same or similar information that are described using the different tags or different structures may not be retrieved if the query statements contains different keywords to the one used in the markup tags. The best way to solve this problem is to specify a standard set of the markup tags for each problem domain. The creation of such a standard set if done manually requires a lot of hard work and is a time consuming process. In addition, it may be hard to define terms that are acceptable by all people. This research proposes a model for a new technique, XML Tag Recommendation (XTR) that aims to solve this problem. This technique applies the idea of Case Base Reasoning (CBR) by collecting the most used tags in each domain as a case. These tags come from the collection of related words in WordNet. The WordCount that is the web site to find the frequency of words is applied to choose the most used one. The input (problem) to the XTR system is an XML document contains the tags specified by the document owners. The solution is a set of the recommended tags, which is the most used tags, for the problem domain of the document. Document owners have a freedom to change or not change the tags in their documents and can provide feedback to the XTR system.
Automatic Structuring of Cadastral City Data

Nowadays, procedural geometric city modelling is an open problem which has no standard or open source solutions. This issue is quite important in many different sectors like architectonic and urban design, cinema and theatre, virtual reality and, of course, the videogames industry. Within this, there appear several interesting sub-problems that must be faced. One of those is the modelling of streets, buildings and other architectonic structures. The objective of this project is to provide a robust and generic solution for the 2D restructuring of cadastral city data, correcting errors and ambiguities that might be in the real world input data. In particular, the objective is to generate and include structured and detailed geometry in urban modelling systems; getting base contours of buildings with the objective to get 3D geometry representing a real city. Our goal will be to create a hierarchical and robust data structure that represents, with the most possible fidelity, a city and its blocks of buildings. From cadastral data of the city (provided by the local City Council), we will process it and correct its errors in a uniform way. Consequently, we will get structured data able to recognise the blocks and any interesting urban element from this data. This problem is complex because it is necessary to identify not just simple file elements from the input file, but also their connectivity and structure in the real world. The input data we will use is a 2D map of the city, which usually has been created by a mixture of photographic restitution and, in a second stage, hand-drawn by a council worker using a CAD environment. This situation means that, quite often, many mistakes and anomalies are introduced. With the cadastral information that the Local City Council provide us it is possible to subdivide blocks into component buildings, extrude them to an approximated real height and get some other structural characteristics to model them. In the future this information can be enriched also from pictures allowing the procedural generation of textures for facades and roofs.