Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AR-Supported Sketch Learning Environment by Drawing from Learner-Selectable Viewpoint

Abstract: We constructed a sketch learning Environment. Instead of a real bowl and a real glass, virtual objects represented as 3D CG objects in a computer are used as motifs and are displayed in real space using augmented reality techniques. Consequently learners are able to compose freely. We conducted an evaluation experiment. The experimental results obtained from an experimental group and a control group were compared, revealing that the learning effect was more pronounced in the experimental group. Keywords: Sketch, augmented reality, learning environment 1. Introduction Numerous tools and software, ranging from software used for case studies to commercial software, have been produced to support drawing of pictures and diagrams on a virtual plane in computers. Bill Baxter and others, for instance, have developed a system to draw pictures on a virtual canvas by operating a paintbrush in virtual space. It uses a force display device, a Phantom, as the interface and operates a stylus pen as the paintbrush [1]. The system can be positioned at the highest point in conventional painting tools. However, the system provides only tools sufficient for drawing pictures within a virtual space and does not present information to support learning to draw. Before we started our study, no system had been reported as supporting the learning of sketching or drawing by providing information about the correctness of a sketch or picture. Our group has been producing learning support environments for about 10 years to fill the role of supporting a drawing teacher when beginners are learning to sketch or draw. To date, we have proposed and constructed various learning support environments for sketching and drawing [2–7]. They are designed and constructed based on cognitive scientific considerations when learners draw a sketch. In the process, with the intention of offering advice during drawing, we developed an area information display system as a supportive environment for recognition [4,5]. It is a system with drawings produced by fixing a drawing paper on a graphics tablet (intuos2; Wacom), and using a pen with an attached pencil lead on the tip of an associated stylus pen. This produces a system that enables detection of the pen tip position on the drawing paper. When motifs, a bowl and a glass, are arranged in a designated position and a viewpoint is also fixed in a predetermined position, it will be determined what should be depicted in which area on the drawing paper. By making correspondence between information about a drawing to be drawn and a learner’s drawing, it offers audio advice on what should be drawn at the position of the learner’s pen tip. Results of an evaluation experiment about the system verified the effectiveness of the advice in learning drawing
Zero-knowledge Proofs: Efficient Techniques for Combination Statements and their Applications

Zero-knowledge proofs provide a powerful tool, which allows a prover to convince a verifier that a statement is true without revealing any further information. It is known that every language in NP has a zero knowledge proof system, thus opening up several cryptographic applications. While true in theory, designing proof systems that are efficient to be used in practice remains challenging. The most common and most efficient systems implemented are approaches based on sigma protocols, and approaches based on SNARKs (Succinct Non-interactive ARguments of Knowledge). Each approach has its own advantages and shortcomings, and each is suited for proving certain statements. While sigma protocols are efficient for algebraic statements, they are expensive for non-algebraic statements. For example, proving statements about hash functions that are expressed as Boolean circuits would entail writing each gate in the circuit as an algebraic relation, resulting in several exponentiations per gate in the circuit. SNARKs, on the other hand, result in short proofs and efficient verification, and are better suited for proving statements about hash functions. But proving an algebraic statement, for instance, knowledge of discrete logarithm, is expensive as the prover needs to perform public-key operations proportional to the size of the circuit. Recent works achieve zero-knowledge proofs that are efficient for statements phrased as Boolean circuits based on Garbled circuits (GC). This, again, is expensive for large circuits, in addition to being inherently interactive. Thus, SNARKs, and GC-based approaches are better suited for non-algebraic statements, and sigma protocols are efficient for algebraic statements. But in some applications, one is interested in proving combination statements, that is, statements that have both algebraic and non-algebraic components. For example, consider proving knowledge of x such that H(g) = y for a hash function H, and public y. The state of the art fails to take advantage of the best of all worlds and has to forgo the efficiency of one approach to obtain the other’s. In this work, we ask how to efficiently prove a statement that is a combination of algebraic and non-algebraic statements. 1. We first show how to combine the GC-based approach with sigma protocols: we give protocols for combination statements where a garbled circuit is used for the Boolean circuit component of the statement and sigma protocol for the algebraic component. We show applications of our protocols in achieving anonymous credentials based on standard signatures. 2. Then, we study how to combine sigma protocol proofs with SNARKs to obtain non-interactive arguments for combination statements. We show appli-
Scaling Multi-user Virtual and Augmented Reality

The Virtual and Augmented Reality (XR) ecosystems have been gaining substantial momentum and traction within the gaming, entertainment, enterprise, and training markets in the past half-decade, but have been hampered by limitations in concurrent user count, throughput, and accessibility to mass audiences. Although a litany of XR devices have been made available for public purchase, most XR experiences have been developed for either a single user or a small set of users at a time. Few systems or experiments in co-located XR environments have expanded past a small set of users, leaving the paradigm of being part of a larger virtual audience relatively untested. This thesis presents a set of components, systems, and experiments that assist in the creation and scaling of multi-user virtual and augmented reality experiences, and outlines the strengths of techniques found in traditional co-located media for the design space of scaled co-located XR.
LSU Digital Commons LSU Digital Commons When trees grow too long: Investigating the causes of highly When trees grow too long: Investigating the causes of highly inaccurate bayesian branch-length estimates inaccurate bayesian branch-length estimates

—A surprising number of recent Bayesian phylogenetic analyses contain branch-length estimates that are several orders of magnitude longer than corresponding maximum-likelihood estimates. The levels of divergence implied by such branch lengths are unreasonable for studies using biological data and are known to be false for studies using simulated data. We conducted additional Bayesian analyses and studied approximate-posterior surfaces to investigate the causes underlying these large errors. We manipulated the starting parameter values of the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analyses, the moves used by the MCMC analyses, and the prior-probability distribution on branch lengths. We demonstrate that inaccurate branch-length estimates result from either 1) poor mixing of MCMC chains or 2) posterior distributions with excessive weight at long tree lengths. Both effects are caused by a rapid increase in the volume of branch-length space as branches become longer. In the former case, both an MCMC move that scales all branch lengths in the tree simultaneously and the use of overdispersed starting branch lengths allow the chain to accurately sample the posterior distribution and should be used in Bayesian analyses of phylogeny. In the latter case, branch-length priors can have strong effects on resulting inferences and should be carefully chosen to reflect biological expectations. We provide a formula to calculate an exponential rate parameter for the branch-length prior that should eliminate inference of biased branch lengths in many cases. In any phylogenetic analysis, the biological plausibility of branch-length output must be carefully considered. [Bayesian; branch length; Markov chain Monte Carlo; parameter space; phylogeny; posterior; prior. ]
A Multi-Tenant Resource Management System for Multi-FPGA Systems

SUMMARY FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) based accelerators are attracting signiﬁcant interest in cloud computing systems. Combining multi-FPGA systems with cloud computing brings a new perspective to the reconﬁgurable computing research. However, the multi-tenancy of a multi-FPGA system has not been fully discussed in the previous re-searches. In this paper, we propose a multi-tenant resource management system, named FiC-RM, for a multi-FPGA cloud system. FiC-RM provides users with a set of FPGA resources according to their requirements and allows them to exclusively access FPGA boards and the interconnection network. To achieve this, we propose a placement algorithm which is a key to e ﬃ ciently share the limited resources. We demonstrate FiC-RM controls a practical scale multi-FPGA system. Moreover, Our simulation study shows that our placement algorithm achieved 3 to 4% improvement in the average resource usage and a 20-second reduction in the response time, compared to other existing naive algorithms.
Circuit Complexity: New Techniques and Their Limitations

We study the problem of proving circuit lower bounds. Although it can be easily shown by counting that almost all Boolean predicates of n variables have circuit size Ω(2/n), we have no example of a function from NP requiring even a superlinear number of gates. Moreover, only modest linear lower bounds are known. Until this work, the strongest known lower bound was 3n − o(n) (Blum 1984). Essentially, the only known method for proving lower bounds on general Boolean circuits is gate elimination. We extend and generalize this method in order to get stronger circuit lower bounds, and we get better algorithms for the Circuit SAT problem. We also study the limitations of gate elimination. • We extend gate elimination to prove a lower bound of ( 3 + 1 86 ) n − o(n) for the circuit size of an affine disperser for sublinear dimension. There are known explicit constructions of such functions. • We introduce the weighted gate elimination method, which runs a more sophisticated induction than gate elimination. This method gives a much simpler proof of a stronger lower bound of 3.11n for quadratic dispersers. Currently, there is no known example of a quadratic disperser in NP (al-
Glycaemic Response to Selected Pulse Based Products

lycaemic response to eight commonly consumed pulse based recipes namely khaman , besan chila, chole chat, parantha, moong chat, dah i wada, cowpea cha t and cutlet was assessed. Recipes were standardized for 40g carbohydrate per serving size and acceptabil ity. All the recipes scored between 7 and 9 on nine points hedonic rating scale revealing that they were l iked moderately to very much by 10 panel member as well as diabetic and non-diabetic subjects. Moisture , fat, protein, ash, fibre and calorie contents o f the recipes ranged from 20.0 to 326.0g, 1 . 5 to 5.7g, 5.9to 14.8g, 1.9 to 4.3g and 189 to 298 Kcal per serving of the recipes respectively. An interview schedule was developed to col lect the information from 5 healthy and 5 5 NIDDM subjects in the age range of 40-60 years, not suffe ring from any other known disease and wil ling to participate in the study. Glucose response was assessed for 40g glucose (GTT) and test recipes at fasting (0) and at 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes after feeding to calculate the GI. Health habits i . e. exercise, smoking and drinking alcohol, tea or cof fee did not vary much between diabetics and non-diabetics. Family history of the disease was prevalent in 60 percent diabetics and 40 percent non-diabetics. Diet of diabetics and non-diabetics was deficient in iron (47.5 and 55.36 percent o f RDA) in addition diet of non-diabetes was deficient in energy (79%) as well as Niacin (76.2%) when compared with RDA. Intake of other nutrients was either adequate or more than adequate among diabetics as well as non-diabetics. Mean height and weight of the subjects was 161.4 cm and 69.0 kg respectively. Weight of both the groups was more than weight of the refe rence Indian man (60kg) and woman (50 kg) and the required ideal body weight (55.8 kg) for diabetics. Obesity was prevalent in 70% of the subject by BMI and in 60% by WHR. Glucose tolerance test revealed that the fasting blood glucose levels among diabetics was higher than the normal levels and the non-diabetics. Glucose response in diabetics as well as non diabetics reached its peak at 1 to 11⁄2 hours of test recipes whereas at 1⁄2 to 1 hour for 40g glucose which indicates delay in glucose absorption of the test recipes. This is needed for G the management of diabetes. Overall GI of al l the recipes was less than the lower category of GI i.e . < 55. GI of moong chat and chole chat was lowest (24.9). The low GI of the recipes was may be due to the pulses used in the preparations. Several studies showed that high protein, viscous fibre and anti nutrients present in pulses are responsible low GI. The results of the study conclude that the pulse based recipes having low GI are suitable in diabetes management.
Impact of globalisation on food safety of fresh produce

Fresh produce are an important part of a healthy diet. They provide dietary source of fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. There is a high consumption of fresh, fresh-cut or ready-to-eat (minimally processed) produce including raw produce such as leafy (consumer sized packaged) vegetables (e.g. lettuce, spinach, cabbage, chicory, endive and radicchio), tomatoes, peppers, fresh herbs (e.g. cilantro, basil, coriander, parsley), sprouted seeds, soft red fruit (e.g. raspberries, strawberries), melons and exotic fruit mixes. Also there is trend towards sustainable, fresh(like) healthy convenience foods (e.g. smoothies) and organic produce and culinary promotion of “healthy fast-food”. At present Europe is the largest importer and exporter of food products in the world, the safety of which is presumed EU food policy is developed to support and manage the safety and the consumer’s confidence in it. For example, the EU General Food Law (Anonymous, 2002) states, that “a high level of protection of human life and health should be assured in the pursuit of Community policies”. However, food borne outbreaks appear to be on the increase again, with a shift from traditional problems with foods from animal origin to fresh foods such as produce (Anonymous, 2008; EFSA, 2010). One consequence of trade liberalisation and the resulting globalisation is the progressive shift away from the marketing of bulk, undifferentiated products towards specific product farming and marketing. This is designed to service emerging niche markets (OECD 1998, Meyer, 2007). These trends open up numerous possibilities for innovative fresh produce, as it has been already shown by market experts on consumer trends. In fact, new vegetable products are daily incorporated in healthy diets proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO). These new emerging trends also include different preparation habits, such as woken, molecular cooking and freeze drying, and addition of fresh herbs (e.g. Van der Linden et al, 2008).
Survey on the Latest Development of Pedestrian Detection System and Its Key Technologies Expectation

Pedestrian detection system(PDS) is an active safety technique which guarantees pedestrians and vehicles safety.It has become a hot research topic and made good progresse in the latest 5 years with the development and application of sensor technologies,kernel algorithms and so on.Different with other PDS survey papers,this paper surveys the major works in this field during the last five years from the aspects of techniques and prototype systems;some problems are pointed out and analyzed to be solved.The expectation of the future work is given at the end.
Lipopolysaccharide and Responses to Respiratory Syncytial Virus TLR4 Polymorphisms Mediate Impaired

Severe bronchiolitis following respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection occurs in only a small subset of infected infants and the basis for variations in disease severity is not understood. Innate immune responses to RSV are mediated by TLR-4, and the 299 Gly and 399 Ile alleles of the TLR4 gene have been linked epidemiologically with increased severity of RSV disease in children. We hypothesized that cellular immune responses to RSV mediated by these variant forms of the receptor are defective relative to responses mediated via the common form of the receptor. Human bronchial epithelial cells were transfected with TLR4 constructs encoding the common TLR4 gene sequence ( 299 Asp/ 399 Thr), or the 299 Gly or 399 Ile alleles, and cytokine responses to in vitro RSV challenge were analyzed in the different transfected cells. Follow-up studies compared RSV-induced responses in PBMC from children expressing these same TLR4 genotypes. Human bronchial epithelial expressing 299 Gly or 399 Ile displayed normal levels of intracellular TLR4 but failed to efﬁciently translocate the receptor to the cell surface. This was associated with reduced NF- (cid:1) B signaling post-TLR4 engagement, reduced production of IFNs, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12p35, IL-18, and CCL8, and the absence of acute-phase TNF- (cid:2) . These ﬁndings were mirrored by blunted PBMC responses to RSV in children expressing the same TLR4 variants. Compromised ﬁrst-line defense against RSV at the airway-epithelial surface of children expressing these TLR4 variants may thus confer increased susceptibility to severe infections with this virus. The Journal of Immunology, 2007, 179: 132–140.
The Effectiveness of Polypropylene Mesh in the Open and LaparoscopicRepair of Divarication of the Recti

Background and objectives: There are no current guidelines for the optimal treatmentof divarication of the recti. Few papers addressed the clinical utilization of polypropylene mesh in the management of divarication of the recti, but none investigated the effectiveness regarding the functional and cosmetic outcome. Therefore, in this article, we aim to evaluate the effectiveness of polypropylene mesh implant in the surgical management of divarication of the recti. Materials and methods: A retrospective cohort database analysis of the treatment outcome of 216 patients who were treated surgically, open and laparoscopic, for divarication of the recti between January 2004 and December 2013 was done. Results: 31 (14.4%) patients were males and 185 (85.6%) were females. The mean age was 40.9 ± 2.7 years. The mean body mass index was 26.39 ± 2.8 kg/m2. The mean preoperative inter-recti distance was 10 cm. Polypropylene mesh reinforcement repair was done through open method to 179 (82.9%) and laparoscopic to 37 (17.1%). The mean decrease in abdominal girth for the laparoscopic method patients was 11 ± 1.27 cm, and for the open method patients was 12.5 ± 1.53 cm. In both groups, 197 (91.2%) reported a good abdominal muscle tone. The recurrence rate was 0% in both groups after 24 months follow-up. Conclusion: Polypropylene prosthetic mesh repair for divarication of the recti, open or laparoscopic, is an effective, safe and durable modality. It is associated with a favourable outcome and minor complications, although it requires a meticulous dissection and skillful, well-conducted implantation of the mesh.
Using Drones to Assess Volitional Swimming Kinematics of Manta Ray Behaviors in the Wild

: Drones have become increasingly popular tools to study marine megafauna but are under-utilized in batoid research. We used drones to collect video data of manta ray ( Mobula cf. birostris ) swimming and assessed behavior-speciﬁc kinematics in Kinovea, a semi-automated point-tracking software. We describe a ‘resting’ behavior of mantas making use of strong currents in man-made inlets in addition to known ‘traveling’ and ‘feeding’ behaviors. No signiﬁcant differences were found between the swimming speed of traveling and feeding behaviors, although feeding mantas had a signiﬁcantly higher wingbeat frequency than traveling mantas. Resting mantas swam at a signiﬁcantly slower speed and wingbeat frequency, suggesting that they were continuously swimming with the minimum effort required to maintain position and buoyancy. Swimming speed and wingbeat frequency of traveling and feeding behaviors overlapped, which could point to other factors such as prey availability and a transitional behavior, inﬂuencing how manta rays swim. These baseline swimming kinematic data have valuable applications to other emerging technologies in manta ray research.
Mixed Reality to Design Lower Limb Prosthesis

This paper presents a Mixed Reality environment, named Virtual Orthopedic LABoratory (VOLAB), which permits to emulate an orthopedic lab and design lower limb prosthesis, in particular, the socket component. The proposed solution is based on low cost devices (e.g., Microsoft Kinect) and open source libraries (e.g., OpenCL and VTK). In detail, the hardware architecture consists of three Microsoft Kinect v2, Oculus Rift for 3D environment visualization and Leap Motion device for hand/fingers tracking. The software development has been based on the modular structure of the prosthetic CAD system, named Socket Modelling Assistant (SMA) and modules have been developed to guarantee the communication among the devices and the performance. Finally, preliminary tests are illustrated as well as results reached so far and future development.
Isotonic and Isometric Exercise Interventions Improve the Hamstring Muscles’ Strength and Flexibility: A Narrative Review

Background: Hamstring weakness has been associated with an increased risk of hamstring strain, a common sports injury that occurs when athletes perform actions such as quick sprints. The hamstring complex comprises three distinct muscles: the long and short heads of the bicep femoris, the semimembranosus, and the semitendinosus. Methods: The researchers collected the data from different electronic databases: PubMed, Google Scholar, and the Web of Science. Results: Many studies have been conducted on the numerous benefits of hamstring strength, in terms of athletic performance and injury prevention. Isotonic and isometric exercises are commonly used to improve hamstring strength, with each exercise type having a unique effect on the hamstring muscles. Isotonic exercise improves the muscles’ strength, increasing their ability to resist any force, while isometric training increases strength and the muscles’ ability to produce power by changing the muscle length. Conclusions: These exercises, when performed at low intensity, but with high repetition, can be used by the healthy general population to prepare for training and daily exercise. This can improve hamstring muscle strength and flexibility, leading to enhanced performance and reduced injury risk.