Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Image Recognition and Retrieval by Using Distance Information (Mathematical Foundations and Applications of Computer Science and Algorithms)

Image retrieval system is a system for retrieving images from a large database of digital images such as searching images on the Web. In this paper proposes an image retrieval system to perform shapebased image query by using distance description refined by an exact geometric matching method. In geometric pattern recognition and information $t$ retrieval, shape descriptions based on geometric in$t$ variants play an important roles to differentiate one $s$ shape to the others. Distributional pairwise dis1 tances is one of such description methods that is 1 applied in image recognition [5, 7, 9]. However, it $f$ is known that the set of pairwise distances is not enough to describe the differeces of one shape to $1\langle$ the others. Though the pairwise distance is unable $u$ to uniquely describe the object, efficiency in pat$r$ $c$ tern matching by using distance distribution is an
Off-Policy Reinforcement Learning for Optimal Preview Tracking Control of Linear Discrete-Time systems with unknown dynamics

In this paper. , an off-policy reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm is presented to solve the optimal preview tracking control of discrete time systems with unknown dynamics. Firstly. , an augmented state-space system that includes the available preview knowledge as a part of the state vector is constructed to cast the preview tracking control problem as a standard linear quadratic regulator (LQR) one. Secondly. , the reinforcement learning technique is utilized to solve the algebraic Riccati equation (ARE) using online measurable data without requiring the a priori knowledge of the system matrices. Compared with the existing off-policy RL algorithm. , the proposed scheme solves a preview tracking control problem. A numerical simulation example is given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.
Xie's Veterinary Acupuncture

Contributors. Preface. 1. Introduction to Meridians (Huisheng Xie and Vanessa Preast). 2. Introduction to Acupuncture Points (Huisheng Xie and Vanessa Preast). 3. Equine Transpositional Acupoints (Huisheng Xie and Lisa Trevisanello). 4. Equine Classical Acupoints (Huisheng Xie and Kosei Yamagiwa). 5. Canine Transpositional Acupoints. 6. Canine Classical Acupoints (Cheryl Chrisman and Huisheng Xie). 7. General Rules of Acupuncture Therapy (Huisheng Xie and Vanessa Preast). 8. Acupuncture for Treatment of Musculoskeletal and Neurological Disorders (Huisheng Xie and Vanessa Preast). 9. Acupuncture for Internal Medicine (Huisheng Xie). 10. Acupuncture for Acute and Miscellaneous Conditions (Huisheng Xie). 11. Techniques of Veterinary Acupuncture and Moxibustion (Bruce Ferguson). 12. Functional Neuroanatomical Physiology of Acupuncture (Roger M. Clemmons). Index.
Mathematical Derivation of Fast Singular Value Thresholding for Low-rank Optimization 佐々木崇元

1. はじめに データや物理現象に潜在する低ランク性 1 に基づく データ解析手法(以降,低ランクモデリング)が,コン ピュータビジョンや画像処理,ゲノムデータ解析など の多くの分野で近年活発に研究されている [1–10]. 低 ランクモデリングでは着目した行列の階数 (rank) を最 小化する数理計画問題を立式し,この解を求めて所望 の解析を実現する. 関数 rankは不連続で微分不能,非凸であり,これに 基づく計画問題は NP困難な組合せ最適化となる. こ のため,rank関数の代わりに核型ノルムを正則化する 緩和アプローチが広く用いられる. 核型ノルムは rank 関数の凸包絡である [11]ため,核型ノルムを最小化す ることで間接的に低ランク性を高められる. 核型ノル ムを含む最適化問題は Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) [12]等の 1次法の反復計算で 解を求められ,核型ノルムの近接写像である特異値閾 値処理 (Singular Value Thresholding, 以降 SVT) [3] が繰り返し実行される. しかし,SVT 算出には計算量の大きい特異値分解 (Singular Value Decomposition, 以降 SVD) の算出が 必要なため,解析結果を得るのに多くの時間を要する. ここで,各解析法で立式される核型ノルム正則化問題 を (1)少数の大型行列を正則化する問題と (2)多数の 小型行列を正則化する問題に分類する (表 1). 前者 (1) の場合には,計算量を抑えて SVT を高速化する手法 がいくつか提案されている. Caiら [13]は行列を事前 に Complete Orthogonal Decomposition (COD)した 後にニュートン法で反復更新し,SVDを行わずに SVT を求める Fast SVT (FSVT)を提案している. またOh ら [14]は大型行列を直交行列と小型のコア行列の積に 近似することで,SVDの入力サイズを小さくして高速 化するFast Randomized SVT (FRSVT)を提案してい る. いずれの手法も入力行列のサイズが大きい (行数, 列数=500∼2000)ときに計算量を抑え,大幅な速度改 善結果を示している. 一方で後者 (2)の場合,上記手法による高速化の効 果は限定的であると考えられる. FSVTは入力が小型 の場合,直接の SVD計算と比較してCODとニュート ン法の計算量が大きい. また FRSVTは入力が小型の 場合,コア行列の縮退効果が小さく高速化できず,ま た近似法のため計算誤差が大きい. 加えてこれらの手 法は,多数の行列を同時に処理するデータ並列のアプ
Algoritmo de um teste adaptativo informatizado com base na teoria da resposta ao item para a estimação da usabilidade de sites de e-commerce

Abstract This paper proposes an algorithm of a computerized adaptive testing based on Item Response Theory, designed to estimate the degree of usability of e-commerce sites. Five algorithms were tested by simulation. The algorithm with the best performance was applied to real data from 361 e-commerce sites. The results showed that the algorithm could obtain good estimates for the degree of usability of e-commerce sites with the application of 13 items. Keywords Computerized adaptive testing. Item response theory. Usability. e-commerce sites. SCHENKMAN, B. N. ; JONSSON, F. U. Aesthetics and preferences of web pages. Behaviour & Information Technology, v. 19, n. 5, p. 367-377, 2000. http://dx.doi. org/10.1080/014492900750000063SUKAMOLSON, S. Computerized Test/Item Banking and Computerized Adaptive Testing for Teachers and Lecturers. Information Technology and Universities in Asia TOIT, M. – ITUA, 2002.STRAUB, D. W. Validating instruments in MIS research. MIS Quarterly, v. 13, n. 2, p. 147-169, 1989. http://dx.doi. org/10.2307/248922TAVARES, H. R. ; ANDRADE, D. F. ; PEREIRA, C. A. Detection of determinant genes and diagnostic via item response theory. Genetics and Molecular Biology, v. 27, n. 4, p. 679-685,http://dx.doi. org/10.1590/ 2004. S1415-47572004000400033TEJADA, A. J. R. Pasado, presente y futuro de los Tests Adaptativos Informatizados: entrevista con Isaac I. Bejar. Psicothema, v. 13, n. 4, p. 685-690, 2001.TEZZA, R. ; BORNIA, A. C. ; ANDRADE, D. F. Measuring web usability using item response theory: Principles, features and opportunities. Interacting with Computers, v. 23, n. 2, p. 167-175,http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j. 2011. intcom.2011. 02.004IRT from SSI: BILOG-MG, MULTILOG, PARSCALE, TESTFACT. Scientific Software International, 2003.VAN DER LINDEN, W. J.; GLAS, C. A. W. Computerized Adaptive Testing: Theory and Practice. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 2000.WAINER, H. CATs: Whither and whence. Psicologica: revista de metodologia y psicologia experimental, v. 21, n. 1, p. 121-133, 2000a.WAINER, H. Computerized Adaptive Testing: A Primer. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000b.
The Japanization of British Industry: New Developments in the 1990s

List of Figures. List of Tables. Foreword. Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. Western Interest in Japan. 2. Japanese Industrial Practice. 3. Theoretical Perspectives. 4. Case Studies in Emulation. 5. Manufacturing Practices and UK Companies. 6. Personnel Practices and UK Companies. 7. Suppliers, Retailers and UK Companies. 8. Cases: Three Japanese Companies in the UK. 9. Japanese Companies in Britain. 10. Industrial Relations and Trade Unions. 11. Policy Implications and Conclusions.
RESPONSE LETTER TO DR. HEMILÄ

in elderly nursing home residents: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2004;292:828–836. 7. Graat JM, Schouten EG, Kok FJ. Effect of daily vitamin E and multivitaminmineral supplementation on acute respiratory tract infections in elderly persons: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2002;288:715–721. 8. Harman D, Miller RA. Effect of vitamin E on the immune response to influenza virus vaccine and the incidence of infectious disease in man. Age 1986;9: 21–23. 9. Hemilä H, Kaprio J, Albanes D et al. Physical activity and the risk of pneumonia in male smokers administered vitamin E and b-carotene. Int J Sports Med 2006;27:336–341. 10. Hemilä H. Do vitamins C and E affect respiratory infections? [Dissertation]. Helsinki, Finland: University of Helsinki, 2006 [on-line]. Available at http:// ethesis.helsinki. fi/julkaisut/laa/kansa/vk/hemila/ Accessed February 14, 2007. 11. Chandra RK. Effect of vitamin and trace-element supplementation on immune responses and infection in elderly subjects. Lancet 1992;340:1124–1127. 12. White C. Three journals raise doubts on validity of Canadian studies. BMJ 2004; 328:67 [correction in: 2004;328:257; discussion in: 2005;331:288–291]. 13. Meguid MM. Retraction. Nutrition 2005;21:286 [discussions in: 2002;18: 364–365, 2003;19:955–956, 976–980]. 14. Carpenter KJ, Roberts S, Sternberg S. Nutrition and immune function: A 1992 report. Lancet 2003;361:2247 [comment in: 2003;361:2247–2248].
Chronic renal disease and stroke in atrial fibrillation: balancing the prevention of thromboembolism and bleeding risk.

This editorial refers to ‘Warfarin in haemodialysis patients with atrial fibrillation: what benefit? ’ by F. Yang et al. , Europace 2010, 12(12):1666–1672 Atrial fibrillation (AF) confers a substantial risk of stroke and thromboembolism, and recent guidelines have advocated a risk factor-based approach to thromboprophylaxis.1 Common risk factors in everyday clinical practice have been investigated in datasets from clinical trials and cohort studies,2,3 and have been used to formulate various risk-stratification schemes, such as the CHADS2 [Cardiac Failure, Hypertension, Age, Diabetes, Stroke (Doubled)] score.4 Given the limitations of the latter and the non-inclusion of various ‘stroke-modifier’ risk factors,5 more comprehensive stroke-risk schemes such as the CHA2DS2-VASc [Cardiac Failure, Hypertension, Age ≥75 (Doubled), Diabetes, Stroke (Doubled)—Vascular disease, Age 65–74, and Sex category (Female)] score have been proposed.6 This comprehensive risk factor-based approach has been advocated in the 2010 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines on AF management.1 Even the CHA2DS2-VASc score has been (slightly) criticized for not including some risk factors associated with thromboembolism in non-valvular AF, such as cardiomyopathies (e.g. hypertrophic cardiomyopathy), infiltrative heart disease (e.g. amyloid), and renal failure. Conditions such as cardiomyopathy and amyloid are rare and while case reports and small series have suggested that such patients are at risk of stroke,7,8 they have not been specifically studied in the large randomized trials of stroke prevention in AF, to allow assessment of its predictive value for stroke on multivariate analysis. Another important consideration is the need for simplicity in any risk-stratification scheme and to have a risk score that at least can be used in everyday clinical practice, applicable to the majority of AF patients. Patients with chronic renal disease represent a complex management problem in relation to decision-making …
Staff attitude towards cocaine/crack-cocaine use amongst individuals with severe mental health problems in an inner city area of the UK

Background: Cocaine/crack-cocaine use is associated with a number of negative outcomes in people with mental health problems. Aims: To explore the extent of use in individuals with severe mental health problems and impact of client use on mental health service staff. Method: Following Graham et al. (2001), care coordinators within community mental health teams in Birmingham, UK completed a prevalence survey of cocaine/crack-cocaine use in clients on their current caseload to determine the extent of use. Findings were compared to those of Graham et al. Interviews with staff explored the impact of cocaine/crack-cocaine on client outcome and effects on staff within the teams under study. Results: An increase in cocaine/crack-cocaine use is reported (from 5.6% to 11.5% over 8 years). Interview data indicate that despite this increase, staff declare themselves more competent and confident in dealing with cocaine/crack-cocaine use. Conclusions: We propose that the integration of substance use treatment within m.
Testing a jump-diffusion stochastic interest rates model in currency options markets

The paper examines the ability of the jump-diffusion models to explain systematic deviations in implicit distributions from the benchmark assumption of lognormality. Jumps that occur in the spot exchange rate due to supply and demand fluctuations in the currency market impose distributions for spot and futures prices that have degrees of skewness and kurtosis different from those of the lognormal distribution. R.C. Merton's (1976) model allows for non diversifiable jump risk. D.S. Bates' (1991, 1996) model allows the jump exchange risk to be systematic and derives the correct functional form of the market price of risk. Recent transactions data on futures and futures options are used to test the jump-diffusion stochastic interest rates model developed by A. Doffou and J.E. Hilliard (1998), as well as D.S. Bates' (1991, 1996) and F. Black's (1976) models to price out-of-sample options in a British pound, German mark, and Japanese yen futures market. The test results show that the jump-diffusion stochastic interest rates model performs better than Bates' model which in turn performs better than Black's model.
On Evaluating Boolean Functions with Unreliable Tests

We consider the problem of evaluating a boolean function P(x1,…,xn), by asking queries of the form “xi=? ”, and receiving answers which may not always be truthful. Assuming that the total number of lies does not exceed E, we present an algorithm with cost O(n+sPE+tPE), where sP is the maximal size of a minterm of P(x) and tP ‘is the maximal size of a maxterm. We also prove that if P is monotone, then any algorithm for evaluating P must ask Ω(sPE+tPE) queries for some input.
Spot-checkers

On Labor Day weekend, the highway patrol sets up spot-checks at random points on the freeways with the intention of deterring a large fraction of motorists from driving incorrectly. We explore a very similar idea in the context of program checking to ascertain with minimal overhead that a program output is reasonably correct. Our model of spot-checking requires that the spot-checker must run asymptotically much faster than the combined length of the input and output. We then show that the spot-checking model can be applied to problems in a wide range of areas, including problems regarding graphs, sets, and algebra. In particular, we present spot-checkers for sorting, convex hull, element distinctness, set containment, set equality, total orders, and correctness of group and field operations. All of our spot-checkers are very simple to state and rely on testing that the input and/or output have certain simple properties that depend on very few bits. Our results also give property tests as defined by Rubinfeld and Sudan (1996, SIAM J. Comput.25, 252? 271), Rubinfeld (1994, “Proc. 35th Foundations of Computer Science,” pp. 288? 299), and Goldreich et al. (1998, J. Assoc. Comput. Mach.45, 653? 750).
Observations Based on the Variation in Alkaline Earth Elements' (Ca, Mg, Ba and Sr) Distribution in the Porites Skeleton of the Central West Coast of Saudi Arabia

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A Review on Security Challenges and Issues in Cloud Computing

In today’s world, cloud computing plays an important role. It provides user with many services and facilities like software, platform, and infrastructure services. By using cloud computing user can access resources from anywhere, anytime whenever they need it. One of the factors for cloud computing is cloud services such as IAAS, PAAS, and SAAS. Resources get allocated according to the customer requirements, but many of them thinks that it is unsafe to use cloud services. It is said to be unsafe because there is no guarantee that all the information which is stored in cloud is secured and protected. Now a days, a major challenges in this cloud technology is security. Data stored in the cloud by the customers must be kept safe and should be easily accessible. Here we discuss about the various security issues in the data storage and challenges in cloud computing.
Discovery of Shared Semantic Spaces for Multiscene Video Query and Summarization

The growing rate of public space closed-circuit television (CCTV) installations has generated a need for automated methods for exploiting video surveillance data, including scene understanding, query, behavior annotation, and summarization. For this reason, extensive research has been performed on surveillance scene understanding and analysis. However, most studies have considered single scenes or groups of adjacent scenes. The semantic similarity between different but related scenes (e.g., many different traffic scenes of a similar layout) is not generally exploited to improve any automated surveillance tasks and reduce manual effort. Exploiting commonality and sharing any supervised annotations between different scenes is, however, challenging due to the following reason: some scenes are totally unrelated and thus any information sharing between them would be detrimental, whereas others may share only a subset of common activities and thus information sharing is only useful if it is selective. Moreover, semantically similar activities that should be modeled together and shared across scenes may have quite different pixel-level appearances in each scene. To address these issues, we develop a new framework for distributed multiple-scene global understanding that clusters surveillance scenes by their ability to explain each other’s behaviors and further discovers which subset of activities are shared versus scene specific within each cluster. We show how to use this structured representation of multiple scenes to improve common surveillance tasks, including scene activity understanding, cross-scene query-by-example, behavior classification with reduced supervised labeling requirements, and video summarization. In each case, we demonstrate how our multiscene model improves on a collection of standard single-scene models and a flat model of all scenes.
Prevalence of obstructive sleep apnoea among adolescents in the general population

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is associated with a variety of important complications, namely cardiovascular, neurocognitive and metabolic disturbances. The prevalence of OSA is well studied in children and adults. However, adolescence – an interface between childhood and adulthood, and a period of developmental changes known to affect sleep is largely unexplored in relation to OSA. The only published prevalence study on adolescents is limited by its small sample size, not a true representation of the general population and primarily focused on Caucasians. In this proposed study, we aim to determine the prevalence of OSA and associated clinical features in a large population-based sample of adolescents aged between 12 and 16 years. The sample selection will be based on a stratified (by districts) and clustered (subjects within randomly selected schools) randomised sampling frame. We will stratify all secondary schools registered under the Education Bureau according to the four geographic regions in Hong Kong. In order to avoid sampling bias towards the region that has less population, the final number of schools to be recruited from each of the 4 geographical regions will be in proportion to the adolescent population that resides in that region. Students in each year grade from the chosen school will be randomly selected and invited to take part. Each participant will fill in a sleep habit questionnaire, undergo anthropometric measurements, complete polysomnographic recordings at home and will also have phenotyping for cardiovascular and metabolic risk. The primary outcome is prevalence of OSA, assessed by the obstructive apnoea hypopnoea index. Secondary outcomes include use of logistic regression models to assess association between different severities of OSA and various demographic and clinical variables, and risk of diabetes, hypertension and metabolic syndrome. The obtained result will provide the much needed OSA prevalence in adolescents which is essential for estimating the true burden of disease within this population. This information is also vital when considering population-based health policies and interventional strategies. Globally, the findings from currently evidence-sparse region of the world allow future international comparison of disease burden. Our study will also form a platform from which repeated measurements can be made to assess time trends and to answer the important question of whether adulthood OSA takes its origin from adolescence. Hypothesis We hypothesize that the prevalence of obstructive sleep apnoea among adolescents is different from that reported for children. Key Issues (1) Our research group has demonstrated that childhood OSA is common in Hong Kong. We found OSA prevalence for boys and girls aged between 5 and 13 years being 5.8% and 3.8% respectively. [1] However, the prevalence of OSA in adolescents remains unknown. It is inaccurate to extrapolate prevalence of childhood OSA to adolescents as they go through a period of critical transition. In fact adolescence is associated with various developmental changes,
Numerical study of waste heat recovery by direct heat exchanger systems

Dependency on fossil fuel and associated carbon footprints have increased the urge to look for methods to increase the thermal efficiency of heating and cooling systems. Exhaust air heat recovery system is one of the promising solutions with viable potential in industrial applications such as mine ventilation and so on. Direct contact heat exchangers can be feasibly used in these applications due to their characteristic advantages such as the ability to exchange at low temperature differences. Given the numerous advantages of such systems, there is a need for thorough understanding of the complex fluid flow and heat transfer performance of these heat exchangers. While water spray is commonly used for capturing the heat from exhaust air in direct heat exchange systems, performance of such system is highly dependent on the various operating parameters such as droplet size distribution, continuous phase temperature, velocity and relative humidity, spray nozzle angle and discrete phase temperature and velocity which is required to be studied in greater depth. Computational Fluid Dynamics can play a key role to investigate the performance of these two-phase flow systems. In this paper, a three-dimensional two-phase model has been presented to study heat recovery from exhaust air by using direct spray water heat recovery systems. Also, an analytical model has been developed using a self-written MATLAB code and compared to the numerical one. The results of the study show that the analytical model can capture the CFD runs outcomes with a high degree of accuracy. Also, the conducted parametric study confirms the dominant impacts of droplet size distribution and air flow rate on the performance of the system.