Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
End-to-End Face Detection and Cast Grouping in Movies Using Erdös-Rényi Clustering

We present an end-to-end system for detecting and clustering faces by identity in full-length movies. Unlike works that start with a predefined set of detected faces, we consider the end-to-end problem of detection and clustering together. We make three separate contributions. First, we combine a state-of-the-art face detector with a generic tracker to extract high quality face tracklets. We then introduce a novel clustering method, motivated by the classic graph theory results of Erdös and Rényi. It is based on the observations that large clusters can be fully connected by joining just a small fraction of their point pairs, while just a single connection between two different people can lead to poor clustering results. This suggests clustering using a verification system with very few false positives but perhaps moderate recall. We introduce a novel verification method, rank-1 counts verification, that has this property, and use it in a link-based clustering scheme. Finally, we define a novel end-to-end detection and clustering evaluation metric allowing us to assess the accuracy of the entire end-to-end system. We present state-of-the-art results on multiple video data sets and also on standard face databases.
Presence of behavioral and psychological symptoms predicts nursing home placement in community-dwelling elders with cognitive impairment in univariate but not multivariate analysis.

BACKGROUND The role of behavioral and psychological symptoms as an independent risk factor of nursing home placement (NHP) in cognitively impaired elders has been controversial. METHODS A community sample of 449 cognitively impaired elders and their knowledgeable informants (KIs) was followed for 1 year. Subjects were classified as having dementia (n=330) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (n=119) using a neuropsychiatric battery of 4 tests. Subject characteristics (behavioral and psychological symptoms, demographic, health related, and health services use) and KI characteristics were entered into the Cox proportional hazard regression analysis. RESULTS The incidence rate of NHP was 8.9%. At baseline, 57.7% of subjects had at least 1 behavioral and psychological symptom. Presence of these symptoms was associated with shorter time to NHP only in a univariate analysis. Other factors significant in the multivariate Cox modeling were being white (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.17), having fair or poor physical health rating (HR= 2.12), having greater numbers of difficulties with activities of daily living (HR = 1.46), and having a physician's diagnosis of dementia (HR = 6.76). An interaction was found between the last 2 variables (HR = 0.59), indicating that among those with a diagnosis of dementia, a greater number of difficulties with activities of daily living delayed time to NHP. KI characteristics were not associated with NHP. CONCLUSIONS Behavioral and psychological symptoms were common, but having these symptoms was not an independent risk factor of NHP. Caregiver characteristics may not play as important a role in determining NHP as subject characteristics. Interventions aimed at improving or maintaining physical or cognitive functioning may have better chances of delaying NHP.
A performance study of dual-hop transmissions with fixed gain relays

The paper presents a study on the end-to-end performance of dual-hop wireless communication systems equipped with non-regenerative fixed gain relays and operating over flat Rayleigh fading channels. More specifically, it first derives generic closed-form expressions for the outage probability and the average probability of error when the relays have arbitrary fixed gains. It then proposes a specific fixed gain relay that benefits from the knowledge of the first hop's average fading power and compares its performance with previously proposed relay gains that, in contrast, require knowledge of the instantaneous channel state information of the first hop. Finally, the paper investigates the effect of the relay saturation on the performance of the systems under consideration. Numerical results show that non-regenerative systems with fixed gain relays have a comparable performance to non-regenerative systems with variable gain relays. These results also show that relay saturation of these systems results in a minimal loss in performance.
Extracting Simultaneous and Proportional Neural Control Information for Multiple-DOF Prostheses From the Surface Electromyographic Signal

A novel signal processing algorithm for the surface electromyogram (EMG) is proposed to extract simultaneous and proportional control information for multiple DOFs. The algorithm is based on a generative model for the surface EMG. The model assumes that synergistic muscles share spinal neural drives, which correspond to the intended activations of different DOFs of natural movements and are embedded within the surface EMG. A DOF-wise nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) is developed to estimate neural control information from the multichannel surface EMG. It is shown, both by simulation and experimental studies, that the proposed algorithm is able to extract the multidimensional control information simultaneously. A direct application of the proposed method would be providing simultaneous and proportional control of multifunction myoelectric prostheses.
Use of Nanoparticles for Enhancing the Interlaminar Properties of Fiber-Reinforced Composites and Adhesively Bonded Joints—A Review

This review paper aims at reporting some of the notable works carried out concerning the use of nanoparticles (NPs) as a means of improving the resistance of fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials (FRPs) and adhesively bonded joints (ABJs) to delamination initiation and propagation. Applications of various nanoparticles, such as carbon-based, ceramic-based and mineral-based are discussed. The main properties that have been considered for improving the delamination and fatigue resistance of FRPs are the interlaminar shear strength, fracture toughness, and fracture energy. On the other hand, cohesive and interfacial strengths have been the focused parameters in the works that considered enhancement of ABJs. The reported results indicate that inclusion of NPs in polymeric matrices leads to improvement of various material properties, even though some discrepancies in the results have been noted. Notwithstanding, additional research is required to address some of the issues that have not yet been tackled, some of which will be identified throughout this review article.
Bacterial Exchange in Household Washing Machines

Household washing machines (WMs) launder soiled clothes and textiles, but do not sterilize them. We investigated the microbial exchange occurring in five household WMs. Samples from a new cotton T-shirt were laundered together with a normal laundry load. Analyses were performed on the influent water and the ingoing cotton samples, as well as the greywater and the washed cotton samples. The number of living bacteria was generally not lower in the WM eﬄuent water as compared to the influent water. The laundering process caused a microbial exchange of influent water bacteria, skin-, and clothes-related bacteria and biofilm-related bacteria in the WM. A variety of biofilm-producing bacteria were enriched in the eﬄuent after laundering, although their presence in the cotton sample was low. Nearly all bacterial genera detected on the initial cotton sample were still present in the washed cotton samples. A selection for typical skin- and clothes-related microbial species occurred in the cotton samples after laundering. Accordingly, malodour-causing microbial species might be further distributed to other clothes. The bacteria on the ingoing textiles contributed for a large part to the microbiome found in the textiles after laundering.
Raising gestational choline intake alters gene expression in DMBA‐evoked mammary tumors and prolongs survival

Choline is an essential nutrient that serves as a donor of metabolic methyl groups used during gestation to establish the epigenetic DNA methylation patterns that modulate tissue‐specific gene expression. Because the mammary gland begins its development prenatally, we hypothesized that choline availability in utero may affect the gland's susceptibility to cancer. During gestational days 11–17, pregnant rats were fed a control, choline‐supplemented, or choline‐deficient diet (8, 36, and 0 mmol/kg of choline, respectively). On postnatal day 65, the female offspring received 25 mg/kg of a carcinogen 7,12‐dimethylbenz[a]anthracene. Approximately 70% of the rats developed mammary adenocarcinomas; prenatal diet did not affect tumor latency, incidence, size, and multiplicity. Tumor growth rate was inversely related to choline content in the prenatal diet, resulting in 50% longer survival until euthanasia, determined by tumor size, of the prenatally choline‐supplemented rats compared with the prenatally choline‐deficient rats. This was accompanied by distinct expression patterns of ~70 genes in tumors derived from the three dietary groups. Tumors from the prenatally choline‐supple‐mented rats overexpressed genes that confer favorable prognosis in human cancers (Klf6, Kf9, Nid2, Ntn4, Perl, and Txnip) and underexpressed those associated with aggressive disease (Bcar3, Cldn12, Csfl, Jagl, Lgals3, Lypd3, Nmel, Ptges2, Ptgsl, and Smarcbl). DNA methylation within the tumor suppressor gene, stratifin (Sfn, 14‐3‐3σ), was proportional to the prenatal choline supply and correlated inversely with the expression of its mRNA and protein in tumors, suggesting that an epigenetic mechanism may underlie the altered molecular phenotype and tumor growth. Our results suggest a role for adequate maternal choline nutrition during pregnancy in prevention/alleviation of breast cancer in daughters. —Kovacheva, V. P., Davison, J. M. , Mellott, T. J., Rogers, A. E. , Yang, S. , O'Brien, M. J., Blusztajn, J. K. Raising gestational choline intake alters gene expression in DMBA‐evoked mammary tumors and prolongs survival. FASEB J. 23, 1054–1063 (2009)
Activation-Induced TIM-4 Expression Identifies Differential Responsiveness of Intestinal CD103+ CD11b+ Dendritic Cells to a Mucosal Adjuvant

Macrophage and dendritic cell (DC) populations residing in the intestinal lamina propria (LP) are highly heterogeneous and have disparate yet collaborative roles in the promotion of adaptive immune responses towards intestinal antigen. Under steady-state conditions, macrophages are efficient at acquiring antigen but are non-migratory. In comparison, intestinal DC are inefficient at antigen uptake but migrate to the mesenteric lymph nodes (mLN) where they present antigen to T cells. Whether such distinction in the roles of DC and macrophages in the uptake and transport of antigen is maintained under immunostimulatory conditions is less clear. Here we show that the scavenger and phosphatidylserine receptor T cell Immunoglobulin and Mucin (TIM)-4 is expressed by the majority of LP macrophages at steady-state, whereas DC are TIM-4 negative. Oral treatment with the mucosal adjuvant cholera toxin (CT) induces expression of TIM-4 on a proportion of CD103+ CD11b+ DC in the LP. TIM-4+ DC selectively express high levels of co-stimulatory molecules after CT treatment and are detected in the mLN a short time after appearing in the LP. Importantly, intestinal macrophages and DC expressing TIM-4 are more efficient than their TIM-4 negative counterparts at taking up apoptotic cells and soluble antigen ex vivo. Taken together, our results show that CT induces phenotypic changes to migratory intestinal DC that may impact their ability to take up local antigens and in turn promote the priming of mucosal immunity.
Oscillatory movements of monooriented chromosomes and their position relative to the spindle pole result from the ejection properties of the aster and half-spindle

During mitosis a monooriented chromosome oscillates toward and away from its associated spindle pole and may be positioned many micrometers from the pole at the time of anaphase. We tested the hypothesis of Pickett-Heaps et al. (Pickett-Heaps, J. D., D. H. Tippit, and K. R. Porter, 1982, Cell, 29:729-744) that this behavior is generated by the sister kinetochores of a chromosome interacting with, and moving in opposite direction along, the same set of polar microtubules. When the sister chromatids of a monooriented chromosome split at the onset of anaphase in newt lung cells, the proximal chromatid remains stationary or moves closer to the pole, with the kinetochore leading. During this time the distal chromatid moves a variable distance radially away from the pole, with one or both chromatid arms leading. Subsequent electron microscopy of these cells revealed that the kinetochore on the distal chromatid is free of microtubules. These results suggest that the distal kinetochore is not involved in the positioning of a monooriented chromosome relative to the spindle pole or in its oscillatory movements. To test this conclusion we used laser microsurgery to create monooriented chromosomes containing one kinetochore. Correlative light and electron microscopy revealed that chromosomes containing one kinetochore continue to undergo normal oscillations. Additional observations on normal and laser-irradiated monooriented chromosomes indicated that the chromosome does not change shape, and that the kinetochore region is not deformed, during movement away from the pole. Thus movement away from the pole during an oscillation does not appear to arise from a push generated by the single pole-facing kinetochore fiber, as postulated (Bajer, A. S., 1982, J. Cell Biol., 93:33-48). When the chromatid arms of a monooriented chromosome are cut free of the kinetochore, they are immediately ejected radially outward from the spindle pole at a constant velocity of 2 micron/min. This ejection velocity is similar to that of the outward movement of an oscillating chromosome. We conclude that the oscillations of a monooriented chromosome and its position relative to the spindle pole result from an imbalance between poleward pulling forces acting at the proximal kinetochore and an ejection force acting along the chromosome, which is generated within the aster and half-spindle.
Integrating a Parenting Intervention With Routine Primary Health Care: A Cluster Randomized Trial

OBJECTIVE: More than 200 million children globally do not attain their developmental potential. We hypothesized that a parent training program could be integrated into primary health center visits and benefit child development. METHODS: We conducted a cluster randomized trial in the Caribbean (Jamaica, Antigua, and St Lucia). Fifteen centers were randomly assigned to the control (n = 250 mother-child pairs) and 14 to the intervention (n = 251 mother-child pairs) groups. Participants were recruited at the 6- to 8-week child health visit. The intervention used group delivery at 5 routine visits from age 3 to 18 months and comprised short films of child development messages, which were shown in the waiting area; discussion and demonstration led by community health workers; and mothers’ practice of activities. Nurses distributed message cards and a few play materials. Primary outcomes were child cognition, language, and hand-eye coordination and secondary outcomes were caregiver knowledge, practices, maternal depression, and child growth, measured after the 18-month visit. RESULTS: Eight-five percent of enrolled children were tested (control = 210, intervention = 216). Loss did not differ by group. Multilevel analyses showed significant benefits for cognitive development (3.09 points; 95% confidence interval: 1.31 to 4.87 points; effect size: 0.3 SDs). There were no other child benefits. There was a significant benefit to parenting knowledge (treatment effect: 1.59; 95% confidence interval: 1.01 to 2.17; effect size: 0.4). CONCLUSIONS: An innovative parenting intervention, requiring no additional clinic staff or mothers’ time, was integrated into health services, with benefits to child cognitive development and parent knowledge. This is a promising strategy that merits further evaluation at scale.
Cluster Canonical Correlation Analysis

In this paper we present cluster canonical correlation analysis (cluster-CCA) for joint dimensionality reduction of two sets of data points. Unlike the standard pairwise correspondence between the data points, in our problem each set is partitioned into multiple clusters or classes, wheretheclass labelsdefinecorrespondencesbetween the sets. Cluster-CCA is able to learn discriminant low dimensional representations that maximize the correlation between the two sets while segregating the different classes on the learned space. Furthermore, we present a kernel extension, kernel cluster canonical correlation analysis (cluster-KCCA) that extends clusterCCA to account for non-linear relationships. Cluster-(K)CCA is shown to be computationally efficient, the complexity being similar to standard (K)CCA. By means of experimental evaluation on benchmark datasets, cluster-(K)CCA is shown to achieve state of the art performance for cross-modal retrieval tasks.
Credit Portfolio Modelling and its Effect on Capital Requirements

The subprime crisis revealed that the adoption of suitable systems for the management of credit risk is of utmost concern. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (2009) advises banks to use credit portfolio models with caution when assessing the capital adequacy. This paper investigates whether decisions on total risk-based capital ratios are channeled through credit portfolio models. In other words, do credit portfolio models serve as a relevant determinant for banks to adjust their capital allocation? To empirically test the relationship we measure the average treatment effect by conducting a quasi-natural experiment in which we employ a propensity-matching approach to panel data. We find that the adoption of credit portfolio models positively and significantly affects regulatory capital decisions of banks both directly following the introduction as well as over a longer time horizon. By now it is commonly accepted that overreliance on credit portfolio models composes a fundamental cause of the current financial crisis. Our results put the debate about overreliance on quantitative models in a new perspective. This knowledge may prove valuable for regulators who aim to understand bank behaviour and thus advance regulation.
Monopoles in String Theory

A realization of En+1 monopoles in string theory is given. The NS five brane stuck to an Orientifold eight plane is identified as the 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole. Correspondingly, the moduli space of many such NS branes is identified with the moduli space of SU(2) monopoles. These monopoles transform in the spinor representation of an SO(2n) gauge group when n D8 branes are stacked upon the orientifold plane. This leads to a realization of En+1 monopole moduli spaces. Charge conservation leads to a dynamical effect which does not allow the NS branes to leave the orientifold plane. This suggests that the monopole moduli space is smooth for n 8 obeys a similar condition. Using a chain of dualities, we also connect our system to an heterotic background with Kaluza-Klein monopoles.
In situ cardiac function in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua): effects of acute and chronic hypoxia

SUMMARY Recent in vivo experiments on Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) acclimated to chronic hypoxia (6-12 weeks at 10°C; PwO2 ~8-9 kPa) revealed a considerable decrease in the pumping capacity of the heart. To examine whether this diminished cardiac performance was due to the direct effects of chronic moderate hypoxia on the myocardium (as opposed to alterations in neural and/or hormonal control), we measured the resting and maximum in situ function of hearts from normoxia- and hypoxia-acclimated cod: (1) when initially perfused with oxygenated saline; (2) at the end of a 15 min exposure to severe hypoxia (PO2 ~0.6 kPa); and (3) 30 min after the hearts had been reperfused with oxygenated saline. Acclimation to hypoxia did not influence resting (basal) in situ cardiac performance during oxygenated or hypoxic conditions. However, it caused a decrease in maximum cardiac output () under oxygenated conditions (from 49.5 to 40.3 ml min−1 kg−1; by 19%), that was due to diminished values for maximum stroke volume (VS) and scope for VS. Severe hypoxia reduced in both groups to ~20 ml min−1 kg−1, yet, the hearts of hypoxia-acclimated fish were better able to sustain this level of under hypoxia, and the recovery of (as compared with initial values under oxygenated conditions) was significantly improved (94% vs 83%). These data show that acclimation to hypoxia has a direct effect on cod myocardial function and/or physiology, and suggest that the cod heart shows some adaptations to prolonged hypoxia.
Event boundary determination based on attack-defense transition analysis in soccer video

Event detection is the key technology of content based sports video retrieval. Accurate detecting the boundaries of video events can effectively improve the user experience, and reduce the cost of video transmission. However, many existing works mainly focused on how to find the event, fewer on the determination of event boundary. In this work, we proposed an approach to determine the event boundary based on attack-defense transition analysis (ADTA) in soccer video. The main contributions of our work are as follows. A histogram based kickoff circle detection algorithm is proposed to facilitate the field zones partition. The proposed algorithm is fast and robust comparing with the existing methods. By the extracted mid-level features, the soccer playfield is divided into different zones, which imply different semantics in soccer game. Furthermore, the far view shot is segmented into sub-shots with captured zones, which benefit the highlight event and event boundary detection. The highlight events boundaries are accurately determined by attack-defense change points (ADCPs) detection combined with affection arousal curve. Experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed approach.