Real-time multiple tracking using a combined technique

[[abstract]]This paper considers a real-time multi-object tracking algorithm for rigid and non-rigid objects. The major components of the tracking object system are extraction of the background image, adaptation of the background image, and identification of the extracted object. In each component, we improved existing methods without increasing the complexity of computation. The system was tested on our fish tank experiment that solves dynamic occlusions problems.[[sponsorship]]IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Distributed Processing (TCDP); Tamkung University[[notice]]補正完畢[[conferencetype]]國際[[conferencetkucampus]]淡水校園[[conferencedate]]20050328~20050330[[booktype]]紙本[[iscallforpapers]]Y[[conferencelocation]]臺北縣, 臺

Detection of treatment effects by covariate-adjusted expected shortfall

The statistical tests that are commonly used for detecting mean or median treatment effects suffer from low power when the two distribution functions differ only in the upper (or lower) tail, as in the assessment of the Total Sharp Score (TSS) under different treatments for rheumatoid arthritis. In this article, we propose a more powerful test that detects treatment effects through the expected shortfalls. We show how the expected shortfall can be adjusted for covariates, and demonstrate that the proposed test can achieve a substantial sample size reduction over the conventional tests on the mean effects.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/10-AOAS347 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

DOES PRIVACY THREAT MATTER IN MOBILE HEALTH SERVICE? FROM HEALTH BELIEF MODEL PERSPECTIVE

A lot of mobile health (mHealth) service apps have been launched in the market with advances in technology. When people decide to use these mHealth service apps, they have to provide their personal data or personal health data more or less to the service providers. However, the health data is more sensitive data than general personal data. In addition, the behaviour of using mHealth service apps includes technology use behaviour and health promotion behaviour. Therefore, we employed HBM to be the theory foundation to find out what factors will impact on the intention to upload personal health data via a mHealth service app. Online questionnaires were distributed and 133 valid questionnaires were returned. The results showed the perceived benefits is the only factor to influence an individual intention to upload personal health data. The specific information privacy concerns has no significant effect on the behaviour intention. That means people value the benefits that the mhealth service app can bring more than the threat of privacy they perceived. The construct, disposition to value privacy (DTVP), have strong effects on perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, and specific information privacy concerns. Future studies will be recommended

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationFoxA forkhead are conserved transcription factors that function in regulating foregut development of animals. FoxA factors regulate organogenesis from early cell fate specification to cell differentiation and functional morphogenesis by orchestrating timely transcriptional programs that drive these events at each developmental stage. Using the PHA-4/FoxA-dependent pharynx development in C. elegans as a model, we revealed that PHA-4 modulates temporal pharyngeal gene expression partly through DNA binding affinity. Pharyngeal genes with high affinity PHA-4 binding sites are competent to activate earlier when compared to genes with low affinity sites. We further demonstrated that affinity affects the level of PHA-4 occupancy at pharyngeal promoters and the decompaction of chromatin induced after PHA-4 binding. We tested the effect of affinity in response to changes in PHA-4 level and showed that temporal pharyngeal gene expression was sensitive to PHA-4 levels but was maintained properly within a range of PHA-4 level fluctuation. The dynamic level of PHA-4 during embryogenesis coordinates with the different binding affinity between PHA-4 and its targets to mediate the proper temporal order of pharyngeal gene expression. Sequence-specific transcription factors are involved in regulating gene expression by recruiting RNA Pol II and/or mediating the release of paused RNA iv Pol II at target genes. Poised Pol II at developmental regulated genes is shown to play an important role in controlling gene expression during embryogenesis in different organisms. However, poised Pol II is relatively rare in C. elegans. By examining the dynamic genome-wide Pol II occupancy at different embryonic stages, we discovered that poised Pol II was temporally regulated at different genes. Among poised pharyngeal genes, Pol II is found at genes that are either activated at later stages or highly expressed at earlier stages with a reduction in expression later. This result suggests that poised Pol II serves as a preparation for future gene expression or as a memory of past gene expression. Moreover, we showed that PHA-4 activity was required to load Pol II at poised pharyngeal genes. We propose that PHA-4/FoxA functions as a pioneer factor that primes gene activation by regulating Pol II. In summary, PHA-4 utilizes DNA binding affinity by differentially binding its targets to control the timing of activation. The binding of PHA-4 also regulates Pol II occupancy at pharyngeal promoters. Our studies delineate the role of PHA- 4 in regulating temporal gene expression during pharynx development and suggest that FoxA factors might function similarly in other systems

Identity integration and intergroup bias in the communication behavior of Asian Americans

textTraditional studies of ethnic relations focus on racialization between Whites and Blacks, or ethnic stratification between Whites and people of color. The increasingly integrated world has ensured continued movements of humans and goods and the inevitable contacts between people of different cultural background. This dissertation aims at broadening conventional studies of interethnic relations to examine racial attitudes among people who have internalized more than one culture -- i.e. the biculturals and multiculturals. Social psychological research suggests that bicultural individuals are capable of switching between two cultural meaning frames depending on contextual demands. Bicultural individuals vary in how well they integrate the two cultural identities internalized in them -- i.e., their bicultural identity integration levels (BII levels). Their BII levels lead to either culturally congruent or culturally incongruent behaviors among bicultural individuals. The underlying assumption of linguistic intergroup bias indicates that people tend to describe more abstractly observed positive ingroup behaviors and negative outgroup behaviors and describe more concretely observed negative ingroup behaviors and positive outgroup behaviors. In this study, bicultural Asian American participants are hypothesized to use language of either higher or lower abstraction to describe actions of positive and negative valence performed by either ethnic Asians or European Americans depending on the cultural priming they received and their BII levels. The study results point out the perceived ingroup/outgroup orientation of the bicultural participants towards their coethnics and people of the mainstream culture. Effects of the cultural priming and impact of BII levels are also discussed.Communication Studie

The solo string works of J. S. Bach: the relationship between dance and musical elements

In 1685, the Doge of Genoa made a visit to the French court and asked Louis XIV to host a ball. Louis XIV responded affirmatively and arranged a magnificent dance in his private apartment. The type of dance that took place was a kind of social dancing which later became the standard included Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue, Minuet, Gavotte, Bourée, Loure and Chaconne. These dances were called theatrical dances when they were used in theatrical production by professional dancers. During this period, the relationship between composer and choreographer was sometimes inseparable. Maestro Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) and his well-known choreographer Pierre Beauchamp (1631-1705) collaborated on several operas for Louis XIV. The dance part, also called dance notation, was published by Raoul-Auger Feuillet (1653-1709). The purpose of this research paper is to present the relationship between dance and musical elements in Bach’s solo string works. Before the chapters, I will briefly introduce a survey of dance in European music. King Louis XIV of France (1638-1715) was a great dancer. Under his regime, his noble dance style became the fashion throughout Europe in the seventeenth century. Following the discussion of French fashion and taste, I will explain the interrelationship between dance and music in the first chapter. In the next chapter, I will discuss the basic step structure and aspects from the dance notation system of Beauchamp-Feuillet as they apply dance to the music in the Baroque era. In the third chapter, I will combine Bach’s dance music with French noble dances, especially for the dances in triple meter, which were Courante, Sarabande, Minuet, and discuss these titled dances used in Bach’s solo works for strings. In the final chapter, chapter four, I will provide my own experiences as a string player and suggest how to choose a good tempo when performing Bach’s dance music. The consideration of the dance components in music, whether literal or implied, should influence and even inspire any musical performance today. If a dancer needs to study the music before he dances, shouldn’t musicians be aware of the proper dance elements in their art form

Auditor Industry Specialization and Real Earnings Management

Empirical research examining auditors and real earnings management is limited and inconsistent. In this study, I focus on firms with the same auditor and view the change in audit quality as exogenous when the auditor gains other clients and becomes an industry leader. I examine the impact of firms’ earnings management associated with this change in audit quality. Consistent with the notion that industryspecialized auditors try to alleviate their discomfort associated with real earnings management, I find a significant decrease in the extent of real earnings management after a firm’s auditor becomes an industry specialist. In addition, this decrease is significantly larger than that for firms audited by non-specialized auditors

An integrated approach with new strategies for QSAR models and lead optimization

Compound testing set for huAChE collected from Guo et al. (PDF 52 kb