Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SUOMEN GEODEETTISEN LAITOKSEN JULKAISUJA VERFFENTLICHUNGEN DES FINNISCHEN GEODTISCHEN INSTITUTES PUBLICATIONS OF THE FINNISH GEODETIC INSTITUTE ================== N:o 151 ================== Vision-Aided Pedestrian Navigation for Challenging GNSS Environments

There is a strong need for an accurate pedestrian navigation system, functional also in GNSS challenging environments, namely urban areas and indoors, for improved safety and to enhance everyday life. Pedestrian navigation is mainly needed in these environments that are challenging for GNSS but also for other RF positioning systems and some non-RF systems such as the magnetometry used for heading due to the presence of ferrous material. Indoor and urban navigation has been an active research area for years. There is no individual system at this time that can address all needs set for pedestrian navigation in these environments, but a fused solution of different sensors can provide better accuracy, availability and continuity. Self-contained sensors, namely digital compasses for measuring heading, gyroscopes for heading changes and accelerometers for the user speed, constitute a good option for pedestrian navigation. However, their performance suffers from noise and biases that result in large position errors increasing with time. Such errors can however be mitigated using information about the user motion obtained from consecutive images taken by a camera carried by the user, provided that its position and orientation with respect to the user’s body are known. The motion of the features in the images may then be transformed into information about the user’s motion. Due to its distinctive characteristics, this vision-aiding complements other positioning technologies in order to provide better pedestrian navigation accuracy and reliability. This thesis discusses the concepts of a visual gyroscope that provides the relative user heading and a visual odometer that provides the translation of the user between the consecutive images. Both methods use a monocular camera carried by the user. The visual gyroscope monitors the motion of virtual features, called vanishing points, arising from parallel straight lines in the scene, and from the change of their location that resolves heading, roll and pitch. The method is applicable to the human environments as the straight lines in the structures enable the vanishing point perception. For the visual odometer, the ambiguous scale arising when using the homography
Overview and outlook of through‐silicon via (TSV) and 3D integrations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on through‐silicon via (TSV), with a new concept that every chip or interposer could have two surfaces with circuits. Emphasis is placed on the 3D IC integration, especially the interposer (both active and passive) technologies and their roadmaps. The origin of 3D integration is also briefly presented.Design/methodology/approach – This design addresses the electronic packaging of 3D IC integration with a passive TSV interposer for high‐power, high‐performance, high pin‐count, ultra fine‐pitch, small real‐estate, and low‐cost applications. To achieve this, the design uses chip‐to‐chip interconnections through a passive TSV interposer in a 3D IC integration system‐in‐package (SiP) format with excellent thermal management.Findings – A generic, low‐cost and thermal‐enhanced 3D IC integration SiP with a passive interposer has been proposed for high‐performance applications. Also, the origin of 3D integration and the overview and outlook of 3D Si integration and 3.
Art and strategy: The case study of the fashion industry in Colombia

Nowadays a bigger interest in Fashion has developed in Colombia, which is why it can be interesting to study some companies from the fashion industry, to propose a concept that will allow us to explain the management strategies used through the study of cases like Onda del Mar, Leonisa and Silvia Tcherassi. Through book consultation and interviews, we get to triangulate the information and determine a contrast between theory and actual business reality.
The mineralocorticoid receptor in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major public health concern, affecting approximately 10% of the population worldwide. CKD of glomerular or tubular origin leads to the activation of stress mechanisms, including the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) activation. Over the last two decades, blockade of the MR has arisen as a potential therapeutic approach against various forms of kidney disease. In this review, we summarize the experimental studies that have shown a protective effect of MR antagonists (MRAs) in nondiabetic and diabetic CKD animal models. Moreover, we review the main clinical trials that have shown the clinical application of MRAs to reduce albuminuria and, importantly, to slow CKD progression. Recent evidence from the FIDELIO trial showed that the MRA finerenone can reduce hard kidney outcomes when added to the standard of care in CKD associated with type 2 diabetes. Finally, we discuss the effects of MRAs relative to those of SGLT2 inhibitors, as well as the potential benefit of combination therapy to maximize organ protection.
Back-illuminated photodiodes for multislice CT

Conventional 2D photodiodes used in multislice CT detectors impose a limitation on the number of slices that can be achieved. The limitations encountered are in the number of metal lines that can be run between photodiode elements without significantly reducing the photodiode active area and in the density of wirebonds that can be accomodated at the edge of the chip. In addition, the photodiodes cannot easily be tiled in two directions due to the need for wirebonding on at least one edge. We have developed a 2D back illuminated photodiode array for multislice CT that overcomes the above limitations. The light sensitivity, sensitivity profiles, risetime, crosstalk, linearity and shunt resistance of the back illuminated photodiodes have been evaluated. The results show that these parameters either meet or exceed the specifications required for CT. The back illuminated photodiode represents an enabling technology for truly large area CT detection systems.
HARDROID: Transparent Integration of Crypto Accelerators in Android

Accelerators have become fundamental building blocks of any modern architecture. Accelerators are often deployed on a platform by evaluating performance and energy consumption, while assuming that the software applications can be modified to invoke the accelerators. In some contexts, however, this is impractical. For instance, in an Android-based platform changing the applications to invoke an accelerator can affect their portability. We present Hardroid, a heterogeneous platform that allows an Android application to offload tasks to loosely-coupled accelerators on an FPGA in a transparent way, i.e., without modifying the code of the application. To demonstrate the Hardroid capabilities, we design four accelerators for cryptography with high-level synthesis (HLS) and we compare their efficiency with two libraries for cryptography, by executing 29 Android applications. While we use FPGAs to implement and evaluate Hardroid, our accelerators are designed so that they can be integrated in a system-on-chip (SoC) and we report their energy efficiency also for an ASIC implementation. The experimental results show that Hardroid is an effective platform that can be used to evaluate the costs and benefits of integrating accelerators, when these are called by real-world Android applications. We show that invoking accelerators without modifying the code of the applications can affect the energy efficiency of the accelerators.
Three‐dimensional wideband electromagnetic modeling on massively parallel computers

A method is presented for modeling the wideband, frequency domain electromagnetic (EM) response of a three-dimensional (3-D) earth to dipole sources operating at frequencies where EM diffusion dominates the response (less than 100 kHz) up into the range where propagation dominates (greater than 10 MHz). The scheme employs the modified form of the vector Helmholtz equation for the scattered electric fields to model variations in electrical conductivity, dielectric permitivity and magnetic permeability. The use of the modified form of the Helmholtz equation allows for perfectly matched layer ( PML) absorbing boundary conditions to be employed through the use of complex grid stretching. Applying the finite difference operator to the modified Helmholtz equation produces a linear system of equations for which the matrix is sparse and complex symmetrical. The solution is obtained using either the biconjugate gradient (BICG) or quasi-minimum residual (QMR) methods with preconditioning; in general we employ the QMR method with Jacobi scaling preconditioning due to stability. In order to simulate larger, more realistic models than has been previously possible, the scheme has been modified to run on massively parallel (MP) computer architectures. Execution on the 1840-processor Intel Paragon has indicated a maximum model size of 280 × 260 × 200 cells with a maximum flop rate of 14.7 Gflops. Three different geologic models are simulated to demonstrate the use of the code for frequencies ranging from 100 Hz to 30 MHz and for different source types and polarizations. The simulations show that the scheme is correctly able to model the air-earth interface and the jump in the electric and magnetic fields normal to discontinuities. For frequencies greater than 10 MHz, complex grid stretching must be employed to incorporate absorbing boundaries while below this normal (real) grid stretching can be employed.
A Framework for Mask-Wearing Recognition in Complex Scenes for Different Face Sizes

People are required to wear masks in many countries, now a days with the Covid-19 pandemic. Automated mask detection is very crucial to help identify people who do not wear masks. Other important applications is for surveillance issues to be able to detect concealed faces that might be a safety threat. However, automated mask wearing detection might be difficult in complex scenes such as hospitals and shopping malls where many people are at present. In this paper, we present analysis of several detection techniques and their performances. We are facing different face sizes and orientation, therefore, we propose one technique to detect faces of different sizes and orientations. In this research, we propose a framework to incorporate two deep learning procedures to develop a technique for mask-wearing recognition especially in complex scenes and various resolution images. A regional convolutional neural network (R-CNN) is used to detect regions of faces, which is further enhanced by introducing a different size face detection even for smaller targets. We combined that by an algorithm that can detect faces even in low resolution images. We propose a mask-wearing detection algorithms in complex situations under different resolution and face sizes. We use a convolutional neural network (CNN) to detect the presence of the mask around the detected face. Experimental results prove our process enhances the precision and recall for the combined detection algorithm. The proposed technique achieves Precision of 94.5%, and is better than other techniques under comparison.
Plant leaf classification using shape features and Bayesian Network

Environment pollution and overwhelming development by human in recent decades has lead to rise in global warming which cause the plants are at risk of extinction. Therefore, it is very important to have a plant protection plan to manage and archive them from being forgotten by our future generation. With the rapid development of computer technology, plant classification has broken through the traditional methods, rapid identification for plant can be achieved by the image processing and pattern recognition technology with the leaf images provided. There are several features on the leaf that can be used to perform classification. Among of these features, shape is chosen for classification in the research presented in this report because the shape of a leaf is the most distinguishing feature compared to other features. The research presented proposed an approach to classify plant leaf using shape features extracted from the leaf shape images, which will then be forwarded as an input to classifier. A supervised method Bayesian Network that applied search and scoring metrics approach for structure learning is used as classifier. The experiments result is measured in term of average accuracy and standard deviation. The best accuracy obtained from the method proposed is 71.38%. Although the classifier proposed does not perform well, the proposed features are able to produce an accuracy of 83.56% with Neural Network classifier. This result outperformed most of the work in literature reviews that used different features. This shows that the features proposed is capable to produce better accuracy.
Safety Distance Determination for 500 kV AC Transmission Line's Helicopter Inspection

As an efficient and advanced line inspection method, helicopter line patrol is gradually more and more used in transmission lines inspection, promoting the elaborate operation of transmission lines and reducing the management cost. However, as a 'floating-potential conductor' near to a high-voltage transmission line, the helicopter would be at a high electric field region; and bring security risk to equipment and operating personnel. In this paper, the electric field strength near the cabin at locations of different distance from transmission lines is investigated by calculation, and the field in the helicopter cabin is also calculated with finite element method (FEM). The result indicates that the potential difference becomes higher with the decrease of the distance between the helicopter and transmission line. Considering the discharge energy and the guarantee of the persons’ safety, the safety distance is determined as d≥15 m.
Fronthaul-Aware Scheduling Strategies for Dynamic Modulation Compression in Next Generation RANs

Next generation Radio Access Networks (RANs) consider virtualized architectures in which base station functions are distributed in different logical nodes, connected through fronthaul (FH) links. To reduce the FH deployment costs and the required FH capacity, operators may install a single FH link shared among multiple cells and exploit key enabling techniques, such as modulation compression, to reduce FH data. In shared FH capacity scenarios, it is essential to provide efficient methods to control and optimize the FH resources’ utilization with limited impact on the air interface performance. In this paper, a multi-cell multi-user scenario with a shared FH link across multiple cells is considered. We focus on optimizing the resource allocation and modulation compression of each user, in a centralized and dynamic manner, aiming to maximize the air interface performance subject to a shared FH capacity constraint. The problem is formulated as a convex optimization problem, which allows deriving the optimal resource allocation and modulation compression per user. Then, we evaluate the proposed FH-aware scheduling methods against baseline holistic strategies over an end-to-end dynamic 5G NR system-level simulator based on ns-3. Under a tight available FH capacity, results show gains that vary from 16% to 567% in different percentile statistics of the user-perceived throughput.
Al Qaeda in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan and Beyond

After the U.S. led coalition forces attacked Al Qaeda and Taliban infrastructure in Afghanistan beginning in October 2001, the epicenter of global terrorism moved from Afghanistan to tribal Pakistan. Known as the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) in Pakistan, this region has emerged as the premier hunting ground for the Al Qaeda leadership. With the co-option of new groups in FATA and its adjacent North Western Frontier Province (NWFP), the Al Qaeda threat has proliferated. The threat posed by the Afghan Taliban has been compounded with the addition of a new range of actors notably the Pakistani Taliban. Working together with multiple threat groups, both foreign and Pakistani, Al Qaeda directs its global jihad campaign from FATA. Unless the terrorist enclave is cleared on the Afghan-Pakistan border, the threat to Afghanistan and mainland Pakistan will continue. This article seeks to map the evolution of Al Qaeda and its associated groups since their relocation to FATA.
Tools for evaluating the sustainability of urban design: a review

The present policy objective of sustainable urban development has created the need for methods of ex ante evaluation of local area development projects that assess the contribution of alternative solutions to the general sustainability goals. For this reason, we have seen the evolution of building energy assessment methods into sustainable neighbourhood assessment methods that are more integrative and contextual to accommodate the complexities of the urban scale. This article identifies and reviews a selection of sustainable urban development evaluation tools that are applicable to the early stages of urban design projects, to provide a clearer picture of the state of play to those needing to use such tools and those wanting to develop new ones. The review follows an analytical framework covering the format, structure, content and output of the tools, based on the recommendations of planning evaluation theory and the requirements of urban design practice. Since no single tool stands out from the review, the choice is not simple and there is scope both to further improve existing tools and develop new ones. The paper concludes proposing a strategy for the development of robust and compatible sustainable urban development evaluation methods based on four goals: collaboration, compatibility, customisation and combination.
IR system field performance with superresolution

Superresolution processing is currently being used to improve the performance of infrared imagers through an increase in sampling, the removal of aliasing, and the reduction of fixed-pattern noise. The performance improvement of superresolution has not been previously tested on military targets. This paper presents the results of human perception experiments to determine field performance on the NVESD standard military eight (8)-target set using a prototype LWIR camera. These experiments test and compare human performance of both still images and movie clips, each generated with and without superresolution processing. Lockheed Martin's XR® algorithm is tested as a specific example of a modern combined superresolution and image processing algorithm. Basic superresolution with no additional processing is tested to help determine the benefit of separate processes. The superresolution processing is modeled in NVThermIP for comparison to the perception test. The measured range to 70% probability of identification using XR® is increased by approximately 34% while the 50% range is increased by approximately 19% for this camera. A comparison case is modeled using a more undersampled commercial MWIR sensor that predicts a 45% increase in range performance from superresolution.
Wideband multilayer dual circularly-polarised antenna for array application

A wideband multilayer antenna with dual circular polarisations (CPs) is presented. The antenna consists of stacked square patches fed by striplines and a branch line coupler. Two orthogonally positioned H-shaped slots are used as the coupling aperture for the striplines. The dual-CP radiation is obtained by exciting the TM01 and TM10 modes of the radiating element with 90° phase differences. The presented dual-CP antenna has a multilayer configuration with a compact size and it is suitable to be applied to the design of array antennas. To verify this design concept, one prototype operating in the K-band is designed and fabricated. The measurement results show that the prototype has more than 13% impedance bandwidth with good CP radiations.
A broadband sierpinski gasket-shaped triangular dielectric resonator antenna for X-band

In this work, a wideband Sierpinski gasket patterned equilateral triangular Dielectric Resonator Antenna (DRA) operating in the X–Band is proposed. This DRA is realised using Teflon. Its resonance and radiation characteristics are discussed. The resonance characteristics of Sierpinski gasket triangular DRA of first iteration and second iteration are reported that show an improvement in impedance bandwidth. An impedance bandwidth of 40% is obtained covering the entire X–band with similar radiation pattern throughout the band. The average peak gain within the band is about 6.5 dBi.
The Safety and Liveness Properties of Composite E-Services Based on Activity Chain

E-service composition is most impressing method for development and deployment of e-business. Description and modeling the behavior requirements of composite E-services for users and verifying composite E-service compliance to specific requirements is an important step in design of services. But most work does not address the issue of how to model the requirements that the BPEL4WS processes are supposed to satisfy. The specifications in verification works are general temporal relation based on activity or scenario in essence. Distinguish with these work, we propose a novel concept of behavior specification based on activity chain in which granularity is between activity and scenario. Chain existence mode, chain absence mode are designed to express such behavioral requirements based on activity chain that is similar with safety or liveness property based on activity respectively. Encode them on Labeled Transition System LTS and then give them exact operation semantics. Finally, an example is illustrated.
Tacit knowledge in rock construction work: a study and a critique of the use of the term

Tacit knowledge is one of the perennial issues of discussion in both the knowledge management and construction management literature. Being by definition that which cannot be properly explained in existing operative vocabularies, tacit knowledge is a residual category in prescribed analytical frameworks in the knowledge management literature. However, knowledge that is not easily explained verbally or in written form plays a decisive role in the construction industry. For instance, in the case of rock construction work, the most skilled construction workers are capable of carrying out certain procedures without fully mastering accompanying operative vocabularies, thereby demonstrating the capacity to use what has been called aesthetic knowledge, a specific form of tacit knowledge recognizing the limits of verbal and written communication. Aesthetic knowledge is an emergent competence residing in everyday practices and is therefore capable of transcending operative vocabularies. In practical terms, both managers and practitioners should pay attention to the importance of tacit knowledge and aesthetic knowledge and construction companies should seek to provide arenas where tacit and aesthetic knowledge should be shared effectively.
Evaluation of Drug Label Designs Using Eye Tracking

Eye movement measures and conventional performance metrics were used to compare existing drug labels to a new label template that was created based on human factors principles and user research. Twenty pharmacy practitioners were asked to locate a particular drug among others using sets of existing labels and their redesigned counterparts. For most tasks, the new design led to faster responses, either due to a decrease in the number of fixations required to complete a task or a decrease in the mean fixation length. The number and sequence of fixations within a single label and across labels (used as indicators of search efficiency) and fixation duration (used as a measure of information processing efficiency) provided insight into the origins of the noted speed improvements, helping assess which of the multiple design changes introduced in the new template had impact on performance. Application of eye tracking to redesign evaluation is discussed.