snu-aidas/HVMap-dataset huggingface dataset:
A Boosted Particle Filter: Multitarget Detection and Tracking

The problem of tracking a varying number of non-rigid objects has two major difficulties. First, the observation models and target distributions can be highly non-linear and non-Gaussian. Second, the presence of a large, varying number of objects creates complex interactions with overlap and ambiguities. To surmount these difficulties, we introduce a vision system that is capable of learning, detecting and tracking the objects of interest. The system is demonstrated in the context of tracking hockey players using video sequences. Our approach combines the strengths of two successful algorithms: mixture particle filters and Adaboost. The mixture particle filter [17] is ideally suited to multi-target tracking as it assigns a mixture component to each player. The crucial design issues in mixture particle filters are the choice of the proposal distribution and the treatment of objects leaving and entering the scene. Here, we construct the proposal distribution using a mixture model that incorporates information from the dynamic models of each player and the detection hypotheses generated by Adaboost. The learned Adaboost proposal distribution allows us to quickly detect players entering the scene, while the filtering process enables us to keep track of the individual players. The result of interleaving Adaboost with mixture particle filters is a simple, yet powerful and fully automatic multiple object tracking system.
A Hybrid Course Recommendation System by Integrating Collaborative Filtering and Artificial Immune Systems

Abstract: This research proposes a two-stage user-based collaborative filtering process using an artificial immune system for the prediction of student grades, along with a filter for professor ratings in the course recommendation for college students. We test for cosine similarity and Karl Pearson (KP) correlation in affinity calculations for clustering and prediction. This research uses student information and professor information datasets of Yuan Ze University from the years 2005–2009 for the purpose of testing and training. The mean average error and confusion matrix analysis form the testing parameters. A minimum professor rating was tested to check the results, and observed that the recommendation systems herein provide highly accurate results for students with higher mean grades.
Extensions of compressed sensing

We study the notion of Compressed Sensing (CS) as put forward in [14] and related work [20, 3, 4]. The basic idea behind CS is that a signal or image, unknown but supposed to be compressible by a known transform, (eg. wavelet or Fourier), can be subjected to fewer measurements than the nominal number of pixels, and yet be accurately reconstructed. The samples are nonadaptive and measure ‘random’ linear combinations of the transform coefficients. Approximate reconstruction is obtained by solving for the transform coefficients consistent with measured data and having the smallest possible ` norm. We perform a series of numerical experiments which validate in general terms the basic idea proposed in [14, 3, 5], in the favorable case where the transform coefficients are sparse in the strong sense that the vast majority are zero. We then consider a range of less-favorable cases, in which the object has all coefficients nonzero, but the coefficients obey an ` bound, for some p ∈ (0, 1]. These experiments show that the basic inequalities behind the CS method seem to involve reasonable constants. We next consider synthetic examples modelling problems in spectroscopy and image processing, and note that reconstructions from CS are often visually “noisy” . We post-process using translation-invariant de-noising, and find the visual appearance considerably improved. We also consider a multiscale deployment of compressed sensing, in which various scales are segregated and CS applied separately to each; this gives much better quality reconstructions than a literal deployment of the CS methodology. We also report that several workable families of ‘random’ linear combinations all behave equivalently, including random spherical, random signs, partial Fourier and partial Hadamard. These results show that, when appropriately deployed in a favorable setting, the CS framework is able to save significantly over traditional sampling, and there are many useful extensions of the basic idea.
A Lender-Based Theory of Collateral∗

We consider an imperfectly competitive loan market in which a local relationship lender has an information advantage vis-à-vis distant transaction lenders. Competitive pressure from the transaction lenders prevents the local lender from extracting the full surplus from projects, so that she inefficiently rejects marginally profitable projects. Collateral mitigates the inefficiency by increasing the local lender’s payoff from precisely those marginal projects that she inefficiently rejects. The model predicts that, controlling for observable borrower risk, collateralized loans are more likely to default ex post, which is consistent with the empirical evidence. The model also predicts that borrowers for whom local lenders have a relatively smaller information advantage face higher collateral requirements, and that technological innovations that narrow the information advantage of local lenders, such as small business credit scoring, lead to a greater use of collateral in lending relationships. JEL classification: D82; G21
Finasteride for the treatment of hidradenitis suppurativa in children and adolescents.

IMPORTANCE
Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic debilitating cutaneous disease for which there is no universally effective treatment. Patients typically present at puberty with tender subcutaneous nodules that can progress to dermal abscess formation. Antiandrogens have been used in the treatment of HS, and studies have primarily focused on adult patients.


OBSERVATIONS
We present a case series of 3 pediatric patients with HS who were successfully treated with oral finasteride, resulting in decreased frequency and severity of disease flares with no significant adverse effects.


CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Finasteride is a therapeutic option that provides benefit for pediatric patients with HS. Further prospective data and randomized controlled studies will provide helpful information in the management of this disease.
Morbidity in patients with hidradenitis suppurativa.

BACKGROUND
Although skin diseases are often immediately visible to both patients and society, the morbidity they cause is only poorly defined. It has been suggested that quality-of-life measures may be a relevant surrogate measure of skin disease. Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) leads to painful eruptions and malodorous discharge and is assumed to cause a significant degree of morbidity. The resulting impairment of life quality has not previously been quantitatively assessed, although such an assessment may form a pertinent measure of disease severity in HS.


OBJECTIVES
To measure the impairment of life quality in patients with HS.


METHODS
In total, 160 patients suffering from HS were approached. The following data were gathered: quality-of-life data (Dermatology Life Quality Index, DLQI questionnaire), basic demographic data, age at onset of the condition and the average number of painful lesions per month.


RESULTS
One hundred and fourteen patients participated in the study. The mean +/- SD age of the patients was 40.9 +/- 11.7 years, the mean +/- SD age at onset 21.8 +/- 9.9 years and the mean +/- SD duration of the disease 18.8 +/- 11.4 years. Patients had a mean +/- SD DLQI score of 8.9 +/- 8.3 points. The highest mean score out of the 10 DLQI questions was recorded for question 1, which measures the level of pain, soreness, stinging or itching (mean 1.55 points, median 2 points). Patients experienced a mean of 5.1 lesions per month.


CONCLUSIONS
HS causes a high degree of morbidity, with the highest scores obtained for the level of pain caused by the disease. The mean DLQI score for HS was higher than for previously studied skin diseases, and correlated with disease intensity as expressed by lesions per month. This suggests that the DLQI may be a relevant outcome measure in future therapeutic trials in HS.
Design and Analysis of a Two Stage Operational Amplifier for High Gain and High Bandwidth

In this paper a design and comparison between a fully differential RC Miller compensated CMOS op-amp and conventional op-amp is presented. High gain enables the circuit to operate efficiently in a closed loop feedback system, whereas high bandwidth makes it suitable for high speed applications. A novel RC Miller compensation technique is used to optimize the parameters of gain and bandwidth for high speed applications are illustrated in this research work. The design is also able to address any fluctuation in supply or dc input voltages and stabilizes the operation by nullifying. The design is implemented on TSMC 0.18 m CMOS process at 3.3 V as supply voltage under room temperature 27 C. The simulated result shows that a unity gain bandwidth of 136.8 MHz with a high gain of 92.27 dB is achieved for the proposed op-amp circuit. The total areas of the layouts are 0.000158 mm and 0.000532 mm for conventional and proposed respectively. Key wrods: Two-Stage Op-amp, fully differential, high gain, high bandwidth
An Optimal Algorithm for Generalized Causal Message Ordering (Abstract)

Asynchronous execution of processes and unpredictable communication delays create nondeterminism in distributed systems that complicates the design, verification, and analysis of distributed programs. To simplify the design and development of distributed applications, the idea of “causal message ordering” (CO) was introduced by Birman and Joseph [1]. If for any two messages M and M’ sent to the same destination d, Send(M) + Send(M’), then CO ensures that Delivered + Deliver-yd(lf’) at d. Existing algorithms that provide CO have high message overhead and use more storage than is required by an optimal algorithm, or make simplifying assumptions by assuming certain topolog y/communicat ion pat t ems and inbuilt synchronize ation. We present an optimal CO algorithm [2] under the following framework:
Fetal facial profile markers of Down syndrome in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy.

OBJECTIVES
To investigate the use of the maxilla-nasion-mandible (MNM) angle and fetal profile (FP) line to assess the degree of midfacial hypoplasia in Down-syndrome fetuses in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy.


METHODS
The MNM angle and FP line were measured retrospectively in stored two-dimensional images or three-dimensional volumes of fetuses with Down syndrome. Data collected from January 2006 to July 2013 were retrieved from the digital databases of participating units. The MNM angle was expressed as a continuous variable (degrees) and the FP line as positive, negative or zero. Measurements were obtained from stored images in the midsagittal plane by two experienced examiners and compared with our previously reported normal ranges for euploid fetuses. A MNM angle below the 5(th) centile of the reference range and a positive or negative FP line were considered as abnormal.


RESULTS
A total of 133 fetuses with Down syndrome were available for analysis, eight of which were subsequently excluded because of inadequate images. The MNM angle was not influenced by gestational age (P = 0.48) and was significantly smaller in Down-syndrome fetuses than in euploid fetuses (mean, 12.90° vs 13.53°, respectively; P = 0.015). The MNM angle was below the 5th centile for euploid fetuses in 16.8% of fetuses with Down syndrome (P < 0.01). In the cohort of Down-syndrome fetuses, a positive FP line was present in 41.6% of cases (with a false-positive rate (FPR) of 6.3%) and was positively correlated with Down syndrome and gestational age (P < 0.01). There was no case with a negative FP line. In cases of Down syndrome, a positive FP line was correlated with a small MNM angle (P < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
A small MNM angle and a positive FP line can be regarded as novel markers for Down syndrome. The FP line is an easy marker to measure, has a low FPR, does not require knowledge of normal reference values and has the potential to differentiate between Down syndrome and trisomy 18, as, in the latter, the FP line is often negative.
The effect of shame and shame memories on paranoid ideation and social anxiety.

BACKGROUND
Social wariness and anxiety can take different forms. Paranoid anxiety focuses on the malevolence of others, whereas social anxiety focuses on the inadequacies in the self in competing for social position and social acceptance. This study investigates whether shame and shame memories are differently associated with paranoid and social anxieties.


METHOD
Shame, traumatic impact of shame memory, centrality of shame memory, paranoia and social anxiety were assessed using self-report questionnaires in 328 participants recruited from the general population.


RESULTS
Results from path analyses show that external shame is specifically associated with paranoid anxiety. In contrast, internal shame is specifically associated with social anxiety. In addition, shame memories, which function like traumatic memories, or that are a central reference point to the individual's self-identity and life story, are significantly associated with paranoid anxiety, even when current external and internal shame are considered at the same time. Thus, traumatic impact of shame memory and centrality of shame memory predict paranoia (but not social anxiety) even when considering for current feelings of shame.


CONCLUSION
Our study supports the evolutionary model suggesting there are two different types of 'conspecific' anxiety, with different evolutionary histories, functions and psychological processes. Paranoia, but less so social anxiety, is associated with traumatic impact and the centrality of shame memories. Researchers and clinicians should distinguish between types of shame memory, particularly those where the self might have felt vulnerable and subordinate and perceived others as threatening and hostile, holding malevolent intentions towards the self.
Labelling strategies for hierarchical multi-label classification techniques

Many hierarchical multi-label classification systems predict a real valued score for every (instance, class) couple, with a higher score reflecting more confidence that the instance belongs to that class. These classifiers leave the conversion of these scores to an actual label set to the user, who applies a cut-off value to the scores. The predictive performance of these classifiers is usually evaluated using threshold independent measures like precision-recall curves. However, several applications require actual label sets, and thus an automatic labelling strategy. In this article, we present and evaluate different alternatives to perform the actual labelling in hierarchical multi-label classification. We investigate the selection of both single and multiple thresholds. Despite the existence of multiple threshold selection strategies in non-hierarchical multi-label classification, they can not be applied directly to the hierarchical context. The proposed strategies are implemented within two main approaches: optimisation of a certain performance measure of interest (such as F-measure or hierarchical loss), and simulating training set properties (such as class distribution or label cardinality) in the predictions. We assess the performance of the proposed labelling schemes on 10 datasets from different application domains. Our results show that selecting multiple thresholds may result in ∗Corresponding author. Tel : +32(0)9 331 36 93 Fax : +32(0)9 221 76 73 Email addresses: Isaac.Triguero@irc.vib-UGent.be (Isaac Triguero), Celine.Vens@kuleuven-kulak.be (Celine Vens) Preprint submitted to Elsevier January 29, 2016 an efficient and effective solution for hierarchical multi-label problems.
Building a Robust Implementation of Bearing-only Inertial SLAM for a UAV

This paper presents the on-going design and implementation of a robust inertial sensor based Simultaneous Localisation And Mapping (SLAM) algorithm for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) using bearing-only observations. A single colour vision camera is used to observe the terrain from which image points corresponding to features in the environment are extracted. The SLAM algorithm estimates the complete 6-DoF motion of the UAV along with the three-dimensional position of the features in the environment. An Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) approach is used where a technique of delayed initialisation is performed to initialise the 3D position of features from bearing-only observations. Data association is achieved using a multi-hypothesis innovation gate based on the spatial uncertainty of each feature. Results are presented by running the algorithm off-line using inertial sensor and vision data collected during a flight test of a UAV.
Interacting with Paper on the Digital Desk

real world can be overcome in VR, and physical tools can. be m a d e obsolete by more flexible, virtual alternatives'.. Physical tools can be hard to replace , however. At one time it seemed that paper might become obsolete, for example, and visionaries predicted the "paperlless office" would dominate within a few years. But the trouble is that people like paper. It is easier to read than a screen [5], it is cheap, universally accepted , tactile, and portable. According to some studies, paperwork in the office has increased by a l~actor of six since 1970, and is now growing at 20% annually [14]. Like electronic documents, paper has properties that people just cannot seem to give up, making it resilient in the face of computer-based alternatives [10]. Consequently, we have two desks: one for "paper pushing" and the other for "pixel pushing." Although activities on the two desk.s are often related, the two are quite isolated from each other. Printers and scanners provide a way for documents to move back ;and forth between desk-tops, but this conversion process is inconvenient. Wang's Freestyle system [3], for example, was. a "paper-less office" system that attempted to coexist with partially paper-based processes. A key factor necessary for adoption of that system was to minimize the printing and scanning re-RoE.ALL o quired, because too many of these tasks would cause the process to revert entirely back to paper. Trade-offs between electronic and paper documents can make the choice of medium difficult, but imagine if we did not have to choose, and we had a space where documents could be both paper and electronic at the same time. Instead of putting the user in the virtual world of the computer , we could do the opposite: add the computer to the real world of the user and create a Computer Augmented Environment for paper (see guest editors' introduction.). Instead of replacing paper with computers, we could enhance paper with computation. The Xerox PaperWorks product [8] takes a step in this direction with its fax-based paper user interface (UI) to a storage and retrieval system. With this system, ordinary paper forms are enhanced to control a PC through a fax machine. These paper documents gain some properties of electronic documents, but fax machines are slow compared to computer screens. Response time is limited by the delay it takes to scan and print a …
Review of Charge Pump Topologies for Micro Energy Harvesting Systems

Corresponding Author: Michelle Lim Sern Mi Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics (IMEN), UKM, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia Email: mlsm_2002@yahoo.com Abstract: This paper reviews CMOS based charge pump topologies used within autonomous embedded micro-systems. These charge pump structures have evolved from its simplistic diode-tied, single-branches with major threshold drops to exponential type, dual-branches with sophisticated gate and substrate control for lower voltage operation. Published charge pumps are grouped based on architecture, operation principles and pump optimization techniques with their pros and cons compared and results contrasted. The various charge pump topologies and schemes used are considered based on pumping efficiency, power efficiency, charge transferability, circuit complexity, pumping capacitors, form factor and minimum supply voltages with an optimum load. This article concludes with an overview of suitable techniques and recommendations that will aid a designer in selecting the most suitable charge pump topology especially for low ambient micro energy harvesting applications.
Blockchain challenges and opportunities: a survey

Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. 2 Blockchain has numerous benefits such as decentralization, persistency, anonymity and auditability. There is a wide spectrum of blockchain applications ranging from cryptocurrency, financial services, risk management, Internet of Things to public and social services. Although a number of studies focus on using the blockchain technology in various application aspects, there is no comprehensive survey on the blockchain technology in both technological and application perspectives. To fill this gap, we conduct a comprehensive survey on the blockchain technology. In particular, this paper gives the blockchain taxonomy, introduces typical blockchain consensus algorithms, reviews blockchain applications and discusses technical challenges as well as recent advances in tackling the challenges. Moreover, this paper also points out the future directions in the blockchain technology.
The Experience of Nature A Psychological Perspective
Mobile Media Use, Multitasking and Distractibility

Portable media devices are ubiquitous and their use has become a core component of many people’s daily experience, but to what effect? In this paper, the authors review research on the ways in which media use and multitasking relate to distraction, distractibility and impulsivity. They review recent research on the effects of media multitasking on driving, walking, work, and academic performance. The authors discuss earlier research concerning the nature of media’s impact on attention and review cognitive and neuropsychological findings on the effects of divided attention. Research provides clear evidence that mobile media use is distracting, with consequences for safety, efficiency and learning. Greater use of media is correlated with higher levels of trait impulsivity and distractibility, but the direction of causality has not been established. Individuals may become more skilled at media multitasking over time, but intervention is currently required to improve the safe and effective use of mobile media. DOI: 10.4018/ijcbpl.2012070102 16 International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning, 2(3), 15-29, July-September 2012 Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. and neuropsychological research on the effects of divided attention. Finally, we explore how high levels of media multitasking might alter our general responses to experience in ways that are marked by changes in distractibility and impulsivity. THE DISTRACTING EFFECTS OF MULTITASKING WITH MOBILE MEDIA