Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Deeper Look at Saliency: Feature Contrast, Semantics, and Beyond

In this paper we consider the problem of visual saliency modeling, including both human gaze prediction and salient object segmentation. The overarching goal of the paper is to identify high level considerations relevant to deriving more sophisticated visual saliency models. A deep learning model based on fully convolutional networks (FCNs) is presented, which shows very favorable performance across a wide variety of benchmarks relative to existing proposals. We also demonstrate that the manner in which training data is selected, and ground truth treated is critical to resulting model behaviour. Recent efforts have explored the relationship between human gaze and salient objects, and we also examine this point further in the context of FCNs. Close examination of the proposed and alternative models serves as a vehicle for identifying problems important to developing more comprehensive models going forward.
Adaptive Q–V Scheme for the Voltage Control of a DFIG-Based Wind Power Plant

Wind generators within a wind power plant (WPP) will produce different amounts of active power because of the wake effect, and therefore, they have different reactive power capabilities. This paper proposes an adaptive reactive power to the voltage (Q-V) scheme for the voltage control of a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG)-based WPP. In the proposed scheme, the WPP controller uses a voltage control mode and sends a voltage error signal to each DFIG. The DFIG controller also employs a voltage control mode utilizing the adaptive Q-V characteristics depending on the reactive power capability such that a DFIG with a larger reactive power capability will inject more reactive power to ensure fast voltage recovery. Test results indicate that the proposed scheme can recover the voltage within a short time, even for a grid fault with a small short-circuit ratio, by making use of the available reactive power of a WPP and differentiating the reactive power injection in proportion to the reactive power capability. This will, therefore, help to reduce the additional reactive power and ensure fast voltage recovery.
On syntactic versus computational views of approximability

We attempt to reconcile the two distinct views of approximation classes: syntactic and computational. Syntactic classes such as MAX SNP permit structural results and have natural complete problems, while computational classes such as APX allow us to work with classes of problems whose approximability is well-understood. Our results provide a syntactic characterization of computational classes, and give a computational framework for syntactic classes. <<ETX>>
Strain behavior of magnetostrictive particulate composites

A new theory is presented of the nonlinear magneto-elastic behavior of magnetically dilute magnetostrictive particulate composites. The theory assumes a uniform external magnetic field is operating on a large number of well distributed, crystallographically and shape parallel ellipsoidal magnetostrictive particles encased in an elastic, nonmagnetic composite matrix. The aspect ratio of the particulates may vary between 1 to infinity and the volume fraction of the particulates may vary between zero and one. Example calculations show that the model is able to provide qualitatively correct magnetostriction curves for both homogeneous Terfenol-D rod and experimental Terfenol-D particulate actuated epoxy matrix composites.
Acquisition of locational information about reference points during locomotion with and without a concurrent task: effects of number of reference points.

Maintenance of orientation relative to reference points along a locomotion path and acquisition of locational information about these reference points were investigated by requiring subjects with and without a concurrent backwards counting task to walk in alleys and estimate direction and distance to the reference points when stopped. One or three reference points were presented on each trial in different groups of subjects. Acquisition of locational information was indicated by decreased latencies and variable errors with repeated exposure to the same locomotion path. Neither the larger number of reference points nor the concurrent task seemed to affect acquisition, but both lead to increased latencies indicating that the subjects under these conditions were unable to keep track of the locations of the reference points whilst walking. However, they may still have been able to infer these locations after the locomotion path had been traversed.
ThinPrep®‐processed fine‐needle samples of breast are effective material for RNA‐ and DNA‐based molecular diagnosis

Fine‐needle sampling is the least invasive method of in vivo breast carcinoma sampling and can provide material for breast carcinoma diagnosis. The aim of the current study was to assess the accuracy of molecular diagnosis techniques using fine‐needle sample (FNS) material stored in PreservCyt® (Cytyc Corp., Boxborough, MA).
English-to-Japanese Translation vs. Dictation vs. Post-editing: Comparing Translation Modes in a Multilingual Setting

Speech-enabled interfaces have the potential to become one of the most efficient and ergonomic environments for human-computer interaction and for text production. However, not much research has been carried out to investigate in detail the processes and strategies involved in the different modes of text production. This paper introduces and evaluates a corpus of more than 55 hours of English-to-Japanese user activity data that were collected within the ENJA15 project, in which translators were observed while writing and speaking translations (translation dictation) and during machine translation post-editing. The transcription of the spoken data, keyboard logging and eye-tracking data were recorded with Translog-II, post-processed and integrated into the CRITT Translation Process Research-DB (TPR-DB), which is publicly available under a creative commons license. The paper presents the ENJA15 data as part of a large multilingual Chinese, Danish, German, Hindi and Spanish translation process data collection of more than 760 translation sessions. It compares the ENJA15 data with the other language pairs and reviews some of its particularities.
The Role of the Exercise Test in the Evaluation of Patients for Ischemic Heart Disease

A cohort of 1472 patients who underwent both exercise stress testing and coronary angiography within six weeks was examined. The data indicated that a combination of exercise parameters is both diagnostically and prognostically important. Almost all patients (> 97%) who had positive exercise tests at Stage I or Stage II had significant coronary artery disease. More than half of these (> 60%) had three vessel disease and over 25% had significant narrowing (> 50%) of the left main coronary artery. Patients who achieved Stage IV or greater exercise durations with either negative or indeterminate ST-segment response had less than a 15% prevalence of three vessel disease and less than a 1% prevalence of left main coronary artery disease. A low risk subgroup (75% of all nonoperated patients) was identified with a twelve month survival greater than 99%. A high risk subgroup (11% of all nonoperated patients) was identified with a twelve month survival of less than 85%. The exercise test is a noninvasive, reproducible method to assess the presence and extent of anatomic disease and the prognosis when significant disease has been defined. It should be used in conjunction with other noninvasive tests to determine optimal management in patients evaluated for ischemic heart disease.
Impacts of Airborne Lidar Pulse Density on Estimating Biomass Stocks and Changes in a Selectively Logged Tropical Forest

Airborne lidar is a technology well-suited for mapping many forest attributes, including aboveground biomass (AGB) stocks and changes in selective logging in tropical forests. However, trade-offs still exist between lidar pulse density and accuracy of AGB estimates. We assessed the impacts of lidar pulse density on the estimation of AGB stocks and changes using airborne lidar and field plot data in a selectively logged tropical forest located near Paragominas, Para, Brazil. Field-derived AGB was computed at 85 square 50 × 50 m plots in 2014. Lidar data were acquired in 2012 and 2014, and for each dataset the pulse density was subsampled from its original density of 13.8 and 37.5 pulses·m−2 to lower densities of 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 0.8, 0.6, 0.4 and 0.2 pulses·m−2. For each pulse density dataset, a power-law model was developed to estimate AGB stocks from lidar-derived mean height and corresponding changes between the years 2012 and 2014. We found that AGB change estimates at the plot level were only slightly affected by pulse density. However, at the landscape level we observed differences in estimated AGB change of >20 Mg·ha−1 when pulse density decreased from 12 to 0.2 pulses·m−2. The effects of pulse density were more pronounced in areas of steep slope, especially when the digital terrain models (DTMs) used in the lidar derived forest height were created from reduced pulse density data. In particular, when the DTM from high pulse density in 2014 was used to derive the forest height from both years, the effects on forest height and the estimated AGB stock and changes did not exceed 20 Mg·ha−1. The results suggest that AGB change can be monitored in selective logging in tropical forests with reasonable accuracy and low cost with low pulse density lidar surveys if a baseline high-quality DTM is available from at least one lidar survey. We recommend the results of this study to be considered in developing projects and national level MRV systems for REDD+ emission reduction programs for tropical forests.
Risk factors for hypocalcemia and hypoparathyroidism following thyroidectomy: a retrospective Chinese population study

Background Hypocalcemia is one of the most common postoperative complications following thyroid surgery in clinical practice. The occurrence of hypocalcemia is mainly attributed to hypoparathyroidism when parathyroid glands are devascularized, injured, or dissected during the surgery. The aim of this study was to analyze the risk factors for hypocalcemia and hypoparathyroidism following thyroidectomy. Patients and methods A total of 278 patients who underwent thyroid surgery were analyzed retrospectively. Univariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression were performed to discover the risk factors for hypocalcemia and hypoparathyroidism. Results Postoperative hypocalcemia occurred in 76 (27.3%) patients and hypoparathyroidism occurred in 42 (15.1%) patients. Seven factors were significantly related to the presence of postoperative hypocalcemia, namely, age (P=0.049), gender (P=0.015), lateral lymph node dissection (P=0.017), operation type (P<0.001), preoperative parathyroid hormone (PTH) level (P=0.035), operation time (P=0.001), and applying carbon nanoparticles (CNs; P=0.007). Our result revealed that gender (P=0.014), lateral lymph node dissection (P=0.038), operation type (P<0.001), operative time (P<0.001), and applying CNs (P=0.001) had a significant correlation with postoperative hypoparathyroidism. Conclusion These findings were crucial for guiding surgeons to prevent the occurrence of hypocalcemia and hypoparathyroidism.
An entropy proof of the switching lemma and tight bounds on the decision-tree size of AC 0

We first show — by a simple entropy argument — that every m-clause DNF with expected value λ ∈ [0, 1] under the uniform distribution has average sensitivity (a.k.a. total influence) at most 2λ log(m/λ). Using a similar idea, we then show the following switching lemma for m-clause DNFs F : P[ DTdepth(F Rp) ≥ t ] ≤ O(p log(m+ 1)). (1) for all p ∈ [0, 1] and t ∈ N where Rp is the p-random restriction and DTdepth(·) denotes decisiontree depth. Our proof replaces the counting arguments in previous proofs of H̊astad’s O(pw) switching lemma for width-w DNFs [5, 9, 2] with an entropy argument that naturally applies to unbounded-width DNFs with a bounded number of clauses. With respect to AC circuits, ourmclause switching lemma has similar applications as H̊astad’s width-w switching lemma, including a 2 1/(d−1)) lower bound for PARITY. Moreover, the entropy proof of (1) is potentially more amenable to certain generalizations of Rp, as we illustrate for the class of p-pseudorandom restrictions. An additional result of this paper extends inequality (1) to AC circuits via a combination of H̊astad’s switching and multi-switching lemmas [5, 6]. For boolean functions f : {0, 1} → {0, 1} computable by AC circuits of depth d and size s, we show that (2) P[ DTdepth(f Rp) ≥ t ] ≤ (p ·O(log s)d−1)t for all p ∈ [0, 1] and t ∈ N. As a corollary, we obtain a tight bound on decision-tree size (3) DTsize(f Rp) ≤ O(2(1−ε)n) where ε = 1/O(log s)d−1. Qualitatively, (2) strengthens a similar inequality of Tal [12] with degree in place of DTdepth, and (3) strengthens a similar inequality of Impagliazzo, Matthews and Paturi [7] with subcube partition number in place of DTsize. ∗Supported by NSERC and a Sloan Research Fellowship
Internet connectivity for mobile ad hoc networks: solutions and challenges

The interconnection of mobile ad hoc networks to fixed IP networks is one of the topics receiving more attention within the MANET working group of the IETF as well as in many research projects funded by the European Union. Several solutions have recently been proposed, but at this time it is unclear which ones offer the best performance compared to the others. In addition to introducing the main challenges and design options that need to be considered, we perform a simulation-based evaluation aiming at providing some insight on the performance of these approaches. These simulation results have proven themselves valuable by showing that some of the most eye-catching features of the proposed approaches have practical performance issues which need to be enhanced.
Chemical Analysis of Nutritional Content of Prickly Pads (Opuntia ficus indica) at Varied Ages in an Organic Harvest

Opuntia ficus indica, also known as prickly pads, are an important part of the human diet and are also used as forage for livestock. This is an interesting vegetable due the environmental conditions in which it grows and its resistance to climatic extremes; however, little is known about its nutritional properties, especially in the later stages of maturity. The objective of this study was to determine the composition of organic prickly pads (Opuntia ficus indica) at differing stages of growth maturity. Chemical proximate analysis and mineral constituent analysis at different maturation stages were carried out in this investigation. As a result, older prickly pads were found to be an important source of nutritional components such as calcium.
Expression of a phosphorylated p130Cas substrate domain attenuates the phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase/Akt survival pathway in tamoxifen resistant breast cancer cells

Elevated expression of p130Cas/BCAR1 (breast cancer anti estrogen resistance 1) in human breast tumors is a marker of poor prognosis and poor overall survival. Specifically, p130Cas signaling has been associated with antiestrogen resistance, for which the mechanism is currently unknown. TAM‐R cells, which were established by long‐term exposure of estrogen (E2)‐dependent MCF‐7 cells to tamoxifen, displayed elevated levels of total and activated p130Cas. Here we have investigated the effects of p130Cas inhibition on growth factor signaling in tamoxifen resistance. To inhibit p130Cas, a phosphorylated substrate domain of p130Cas, that acts as a dominant‐negative (DN) p130Cas molecule by blocking signal transduction downstream of the p130Cas substrate domain, as well as knockdown by siRNA was employed. Interference with p130Cas signaling/expression induced morphological changes, which were consistent with a more epithelial‐like phenotype. The phenotypic reversion was accompanied by reduced migration, attenuation of the ERK and phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase/Akt pathways, and induction of apoptosis. Apoptosis was accompanied by downregulation of the expression of the anti‐apoptotic protein Bcl‐2. Importantly, these changes re‐sensitized TAM‐R cells to tamoxifen treatment by inducing cell death. Therefore, our findings suggest that targeting the product of the BCAR1 gene by a peptide which mimics the phosphorylated substrate domain may provide a new molecular avenue for treatment of antiestrogen resistant breast cancers. J. Cell. Biochem. 107: 364–375, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Human Procedural Skill Acquisition: Theory, Model and Psychological Validation

It is widely held that ordinary natural language conversations are governed by tacit conventions, called felicity conditions or conversational postulates (Austin. 1962: Grice. 1975: Gordon & Lakoff, 1975). Learning a procedural skill is also a communication act. The teacher communicates a procedure to the student over the course of several lessons. The central idea of the theory to be presented is that there are specific felicity conditions that govern learning. In particular, five newly discovered felicity conditions govern the kind of skill acquisition studied here. The theory has been embedded in a learning model, a large Al-based computer program. The model's performance has been compared to data from several thousand students learning ordinary mathematical procedures: subtracting multidigit numbers, adding fractions, and solving simple algebraic equations. A key criterion for the theory is that the set of procedures that the model learns should exactly match the set of procedures that students actually acquire, including their "buggy" procedures. However, much more is needed for psychological validation of this theory, or any complex Al-based theory, than merely testing its predictions. The method used with this theory is presented.
Aging and asthma: pathophysiological mechanisms

Asthma is common in all age groups and emerges as significant problem for elderly people ( 1 1–5). It is often underperceived, underdiagnosed, and undertreated (6, 7). There are several reports of acute, severe asthma in this age group (8, 9). From the clinical perspective, asthma in an elderly person may be difficult to diagnose because of lower sensitivity to symptoms, nonspecific presentation, and the frequently confounding effect of comorbidity. The latter can, in turn, increase the severity of the clinical picture and make treatment more difficult (10, 11). Other important issues concerning the treatment of asthma in the elderly relate to changes in pharmacokinetics, a higher risk of untoward effects, and poorer compliance. An important aspect of this phenomenon is the limited ability of this age group to use inhalers (12). Polypharmacy is inherent in treating older people and accurate drug histories are essential for identifying those in whom concurrent treatment may induce bronchospasm or may interact with asthma medication. Morphologic and physiologic abnormalities have been observed in the aging human lung (13). A decrease in mucociliary function, dilatation of the air spaces, loss of elastic recoil, loss of elastin fibers, diminished diffusion capacity, and evidence of low grade inflammation of the respiratory tract have all been found in elderly people. These changes have superimposed effects on those induced by the asthma-related chronic inflammation of the airways, and cannot be without effect on the evolution of the remodeling process in the airways (14–21). Aging also has a profound effect on the immune system and cells that have a regulatory role in asthma (22). A decline in humoral immunity has been documented in older people (23). Advanced age has also been shown to be associated with an increased vulnerability to infectious agents (24). These specific events may depend on many age-related changes in various organ systems, such as environmental factors, nutritional status, and the frequent presence of multiple chronic debilitating diseases. However, it is still unclear whether, and to what extent, immunosenescence plays a role in the increased susceptibility to inflammatory agents involved in the pathogenesis of asthma, and in the dynamics of development of structural airway changes.
Ehrlichia chaffeensis Expresses Macrophage- and Tick Cell-Specific 28-Kilodalton Outer Membrane Proteins

ABSTRACT Ehrlichia chaffeensis, a tick-transmitted rickettsial agent, causes human monocyte/macrophage-tropic ehrlichiosis. In this study, proteomic approaches were used to demonstrate host cell-specific antigenic expression by E. chaffeensis. The differentially expressed antigens include those from the 28-kDa outer membrane protein (p28-Omp) multigene locus. The proteins expressed in infected macrophages are the products of p28-Omp19 and p28-Omp20 genes, whereas in tick cells, the protein expressed is the p28-Omp14 gene product. The differentially expressed proteins are posttranslationally modified by phosphorylation and glycosylation to generate multiple expressed forms. Host cell-specific protein expression is not influenced by growth temperatures and is reversible. Host cell-specific protein expression coupled with posttranslational modifications may be a hallmark for the pathogen's adaptation to a dual-host life cycle and its persistence.
Performance and simulation between conventional and improved perturb & observe MPPT algorithm for solar PVcell using MATLAB/Simulink

Among the renewable energy sources, the energy obtained by the photovoltaic effects is to be considered the most sustainable energy source using Photovoltaic (PV) cell because of its affluence and pervasiveness. Basically the use of PV cells in solar energy generation are widely used because they directly convert the sun's light into electrical energy. The main drawback is that the solar radiation changes with time to time. So there are many maximum power point tracking algorithms to track maximum power point. One of the most widely used algorithm is perturb and observe algorithm. It has advantage of less complexity and less maintenance. But the problem is that this algorithm cannot perform due to sudden change in temperature and solar irradiance. Therefore there is an algorithm which is called improved perturb and observe or variable step size algorithm which overcomes the drawbacks of conventional perturb and observe algorithm. This algorithm has better efficiency and faster response rather than conventional perturb and observe algorithm. All the simulations are done by using MATLAB/SIMULINK.
INNATE HOST DEFENSE FUNCTIONS OF SECRETORY LEUCOPROTEASE INHIBITOR

Chronic lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis and emphysema are characterized by a protease burden, an infective process and a dominant proinflammatory profile. Secretory leucoprotease inhibitor (SLPI) is a prominent innate immune protein of the respiratory tract, possessing serine protease inhibitor activity, antibacterial activity, and anti-inflammatory/immunomodulatory activity. In the course of this review, the authors highlight the findings from a range of studies that illustrate the multiple functions of SLPI and its role in the resolution of the immune response.