Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Visual Tracking Using Multi-stage Random Simple Features

In recent years, deep models offer a promising solution to extract powerful features. Motivated by the effectiveness of the Convolutional Networks (ConvNets) model in image classification and object detection, we present a visual tracking algorithm using the ConvNets model to extract multistage features. The key point of this paper is to show that the multi-stage features extracted by the ConvNets are very proper for visual tracking. In addition, we design a general procedure to generate simple rectangle filters with different complexity, and employ the rectangle filters to construct the ConvNets. The computational cost is reduced by using integral images. The filters are kept constant, thus the update of our tracker would not cost much time. The tracking is formulated as a binary classification problem, and we use an online naive Bayes classifier to build our tracker. The experimental results demonstrate that our tracker achieves comparable results against several state-of-the-art methods.
A formal analysis of alexia in persistent aura and a comparison to acquired pure alexia

ABSTRACT A patient is reported with reversible pure alexia in the context of migraine with aura. Following previous, anecdotal reports, the present study is the first to formally assess word reading, writing, and other linguistic and visual processing and to compare these to a patient with stroke-related pure alexia. The reading impairment, suggestive of letter-by-letter reading, was observed across 7 days but had remitted at a 3-month follow-up. The deficit also affected recognition of letters, suggesting a functional impairment at the level of letter recognition, not just word reading. It went along with reversible abnormalities in diffusion-weighted and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery imaging in areas known to be involved in word reading.
Advanced Topics In Lithography Modeling

The model PROLITH is used to simulate advanced topics in lithography such as multi-level resists, contrast enhancement lithography, linewidth variations over topography, antireflective coatings, post-exposure bakes, and dyed photoresists. The applicability and usefulness of this model for these topics is discussed. Other areas in which the model PROLITH may be applied are suggested.
Study on in situ synthesis of konjac glucomannan/silver nanocomposites via photochemical reduction

Konjac glucomannan (KGM)/Silver nanocomposites have been prepared directly in the dilute hydrosol of KGM using photochemical reduction of Ag+. The KGM/Ag nanocomposites have been characterized by means of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and thermalgravimetry (TG). The results of FTIR showed that the wavenumbers and the strengths of some characteristic peaks of KGM treated by silver nanoparticles were changed obviously, the characteristic peaks of the OH stretching and the CO (H) stretching became wider with increasing concentrations of the reactants, and the characteristic peaks of the OH stretching and the CO (H) stretching shifted to high wavenumbers with increasing time of photochemical reduction. The images of TEM indicated that Ag nanoparticles were finely dispersed inside the KGM films with different shapes, such as sphere-like (average diameters of 9 ± 4 nm) and star-like (edge lengths of about 20 nm), respectively. These suggested that the morphology and the agglomerated state of Ag nanoparticles in the composites changed with the conditions of the preparation, especially with the concentrations of Ag+ and KGM as well as the time of photochemical reduction. The KGM and KGM/Ag films had remarkably different thermal properties from the TG curves. The mechanism of interaction between the polysaccharide and the silver nanoparticles has also been generally discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 1323–1327, 2006
Unhappy Developers: Bad for Themselves, Bad for Process, and Bad for Software Product

Recent research in software engineering supports the "happy-productive" thesis, and the desire of flourishing happiness among programmers is often expressed by industry practitioners. Recent literature has suggested that a cost-effective way to foster happiness and productivity among workers could be to limit unhappiness of developers due to its negative impact. However, possible negative effects of unhappiness are still largely unknown in the software development context. In this paper, we present the first results from a study exploring the consequences of the unhappy developers. Using qualitative data analysis of the survey responses given by 181 participants, we identified 49 potential consequences of unhappiness while developing software. These results have several implications. While raising the awareness of the role of moods, emotions and feelings in software development, we foresee that our classification scheme will spawn new happiness studies linking causes and effects, and it can act as a guideline for developers and managers to foster happiness at work.
Panero et al. (2016): Failure to Replicate Methods Caused the Failure to Replicate Results

Contrary to Kidd and Castano (2013), Panero et al. (2016) fail to find that reading literary fiction improves performance on an advanced test of theory of mind (ToM), the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test. However, this commentary shows that the findings presented in Panero et al. (2016) are not reliable due to two striking threats to the internal validity of their studies that were not clearly disclosed or discussed in the manuscript or supplementary materials. First, no effective strategy was implemented to ensure that participants read their assigned texts, and examination of the data revealed many participants whose reading times indicate that they were not exposed to the manipulation. Second, further examination shows that two of the largest studies contributing to Panero et al. (2016) are not valid experiments due to a clear failure of random assignment to conditions. These threats to experimental internal validity make the conclusions presented in Panero et al. (2016) untenable. After removing cases in which participants were not exposed to the manipulation and the data from the two studies without random assignment, an analysis reveals that reading literary fiction improves ToM compared to reading popular genre fiction. This result is consistent with prior studies and indicates that a failure to carefully replicate the methods of Kidd and Castano (2013) led to the failure to replicate Kidd and Castano’s (2013) results.
Chemistry and Biology of HPAs: A Family of Ceramide Trafficking Inhibitors.

In 2001, two years before the disclosure of the CERT-associated Cer transfer machinery, N-(3-hydroxy-1-hydroxymethyl-3-phenylpropyl)alkanamides (HPAs) were described as the first, and to date unique, family of intracellular Cer trafficking inhibitors. The dodecanamide derivative, HPA-12, turned out to be a benchmark as a cellular inhibitor of CERT-mediated de novo sphingomyelin biosynthesis. In only 15 years after its first disclosure, this compound has prompted a growing number of biological and chemical studies. Its initial chemical development closely paralleled the study of the CERT protein. It was only after its structural revision in 2011 that HPA-12 received broad attention from the synthetic chemistry community, leading to novel analogues with enhanced protein binding. This Minireview aims at presenting an exhaustive report of the syntheses of HPA-12 and analogues. Biological activities of this CERT inhibitor and structure-activity relationships are also presented to afford a comprehensive overview of the chemistry and biology of the HPA series.
Mind the Gap: The Effects of Temporal and Spatial Separation in Localization of Dual Touches on the Hand

In this study, we aimed to relate the findings from two predominantly separate streams of literature, one reporting on the localization of single touches on the skin, and the other on the distance perception of dual touches. Participants were touched with two points, delivered either simultaneously or separated by a short delay to various locations on their left hand dorsum. They then indicated on a size-matched hand silhouette the perceived locations of tactile stimuli. We quantified the deviations between the actual stimulus grid and the corresponding perceptual map which was constructed from the perceived tactile locations, and we calculated the precision of tactile localization (i.e., the variability across localization attempts). The evidence showed that the dual touches, akin to single touch stimulations, were mislocalized distally and that their variable localization error was reduced near joints, particularly near knuckles. However, contrary to single-touch localization literature, we observed for the dual touches to be mislocalized towards the ulnar side of the hand, particularly when they were presented sequentially. Further, the touches presented in a sequential order were slightly “repelled” from each other and their perceived distance increased, while the simultaneous tactile pairs were localized closer to each other and their distance was compressed. Whereas the sequential touches may have been localized with reference to the body, the compression of tactile perceptual space for simultaneous touches was related in the previous literature to signal summation and inhibition and the low-level factors, including the innervation density and properties of receptive fields (RFs) of somatosensory neurons.
Treatment outcomes for Hodgkin lymphoma: First report from the Brazilian Prospective Registry

Data about Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) in developing countries are scarce and suggest the existence of substantial disparities in healthcare and outcomes in large areas of the world. In 2009, a prospective registry of HL was implemented in Brazil. Web‐based data were contributed by 20 institutions across the country participating in the Brazilian Prospective Hodgkin's Lymphoma Registry. The aim of this study was to present the clinical features and outcomes of newly diagnosed patients with HL aged 13 to 90 years. Multivariate Cox regression models were used to estimate progression‐free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) by clinical factors. A total of 674 patients with classical HL were analysed, with a median follow‐up of 37 months. Median age was 30 years (13‐90). The median time from the onset of symptoms to diagnosis was 6 months (0‐60). Only 6% of patients had early favourable disease, while 65% had advanced disease. Stage IVB was present in 26% and a high‐risk International Prognostic Score in 38%. Doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine was used in 93%. The median dose of radiotherapy was 36 Gy for localized disease and 32 Gy for advanced disease. The 3 year PFS in early favourable, early unfavourable, and advanced disease were 95%, 88%, and 66%, respectively. High‐risk International Prognostic Score, advanced disease, and age greater than or equal to 60 were independently associated with poorer PFS and OS; performance status greater than or equal to 2 was also associated with a poorer OS. Poor‐risk patients predominated. Radiation doses for localized disease appear higher than current recommendations. Outcomes appear inferior in developing countries than in developed countries. Delayed diagnosis is probably a major factor underlying these findings. Scattered reports from developing nations suggest that many aspects of standard care in developed countries remain unmet needs for populations living in developing countries. The present report contributes to this body of data, with a proper description of what is currently achieved in urban areas in Brazil.
Does Extensive Training at Individuating Novel Objects in Adulthood Lead to Visual Expertise? The Role of Facelikeness

Abstract Human adults have a rich visual experience thanks to seeing human faces since birth, which may contribute to the acquisition of perceptual processes that rapidly and automatically individuate faces. According to a generic visual expertise hypothesis, extensive experience with nonface objects may similarly lead to efficient processing of objects at the individual level. However, whether extensive training in adulthood leads to visual expertise remains debated. One key issue is the extent to which the acquisition of visual expertise depends on the resemblance of objects to faces in terms of the spatial configuration of parts. We therefore trained naive human adults to individuate a large set of novel parametric multipart objects. Critically, one group of participants trained with the objects in a “facelike” stimulus orientation, whereas a second group trained with the same objects but with the objects rotated 180° in the picture plane into a “nonfacelike” orientation. We used a fast periodic visual stimulation EEG protocol to objectively quantify participants' ability to discriminate untrained exemplars before and after training. EEG responses associated with the frequency of identity change in a fast stimulation sequence, which reflects rapid and automatic perceptual processes, were observed over lateral occipital sites for both groups before training. There was a significant, albeit small, increase in these responses after training but only for the facelike group and only to facelike stimuli. Our findings indicate that perceived facelikeness plays a role in visual expertise and highlight how the adult perceptual system exploits familiar spatial configurations when learning new object categories.
Short-term and mid-term survival in bronchial sleeve resection by robotic system versus thoracotomy for centrally located lung cancer

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to compare the short-term and mid-term results of patients with centrally located lung cancer who underwent bronchial sleeve resection by robotic system or thoracotomy. METHODS From September 2014 to September 2015, 103 patients, including 17 robotic and 86 open cases, were included in our study. All the clinicopathological data, operative details and follow-up information were investigated. RESULTS There were no intraoperative deaths. The mean console time was 113.59 min. The operative time for robotic surgery (155.06 ± 44.75 min), even in our initial cases, was comparable to that for thoracotomy (150.30 ± 47.84 min, P = 0.71). The 30-day mortality rate in the robotic and thoracotomy groups was 1 (6%) patient and 2 (2%) patients, respectively, with no significant difference (P = 0.43). A total of 4 (24%) patients in the robotic group and 22 (26%) patients in the thoracotomy group experienced postoperative complications (P = 0.86). In multivariable analysis, tumour size and postoperative radiotherapy were significant predictors of relapse-free survival, whereas only the intensive care unit stay was a significant predictor of overall survival. There was no significant difference in relapse-free survival (log-rank P = 0.16) and overall survival (log-rank P = 0.59) between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS Robotic surgery for bronchial sleeve resection is safe and feasible and has similar oncological outcomes compared with open procedures. But long-term survival still needs to be investigated.
Inhibition of Growth and Ammonia Production of Ruminal Hyper Ammonia-Producing Bacteria by Chinook or Galena Hops after Long-Term Storage

Surplus hops (Humulus lupulus L.) that are not needed by the brewing industry could be used as a feed supplement for cattle and other ruminants. Previous research indicates that antimicrobial hops plant secondary metabolites (i.e., α- and β-acids) inhibit methane and ammonia production and promote the growth of ruminant animals. The goal was to determine that hop pellets produced for brewing still possessed the requisite antimicrobial activity after 5-year storage. HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) analysis indicated that the α- and β-acid concentrations in two varieties of hops were relatively stable after 5 years of storage under N2. Either hop variety inhibited the growth of the ruminal hyper ammonia-producing bacterium, Clostridium sticklandii SR, in broth culture and Petri plate bioassays. Either hop variety inhibited ammonia production from amino acids or peptides by mixed rumen microorganisms from Holstein steers. These results are similar to those previously obtained with fresh hops, hops extracts, other antimicrobial phytochemicals and typical feed ionophores, such as monensin. The rumen-active antimicrobial phytochemicals in hops can still be present and active after years under certain storage conditions. Further investigation is warranted to determine how surplus and older hops can be used to benefit ruminant nutrition and ruminant industries.
CGRA-ME: A unified framework for CGRA modelling and exploration

Coarse-grained reconfigurable arrays (CGRAs) are a style of programmable logic device situated between FPGAs and custom ASICs on the spectrum of programmability, performance, power and cost. CGRAs have been proposed by both academia and industry; however, prior works have been mainly self-contained without broad architectural exploration and comparisons with competing CGRAs. We present CGRA-ME - a unified CGRA framework that encompasses generic architecture description, architecture modelling, application mapping, and physical implementation. Within this framework, we discuss our architecture description language CGRA-ADL, a generic LLVM-based simulated annealing mapper, and a standard cell flow for physical implementation. An architecture exploration case study is presented, highlighting the capabilities of CGRA-ME by exploring a variety of architectures with varying functionality, interconnect, array size, and execution contexts through the mapping of application benchmarks and the production of standard cell designs.
An Application of Semantic Distance between Short Texts to Inventive Design

The gradual development of inventive design techniques makes that numerous knowledge sources are available for experts to solve inventive problems in different technical and non-technical fields. Real-world problems are established in terms of parameters that are inherent to the artefact being developed, but inventive design techniques use generalized engineering parameters to propose solutions to the problem. An abstraction effort needs to be provided to choose, then, the best generalized parameter. In this paper, we firstly present the inventive principles ontology we have established as a support for our approach. According to this ontology, we propose a method to calculate the semantic distance between short texts and use it to fill the semantic gap between the parameter and the generalized one, to facilitate the use of inventive design techniques.
Identification of Two Major Conformational Aquaporin-4 Epitopes for Neuromyelitis Optica Autoantibody Binding*

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is an autoimmune demyelinating disease characterized by the presence of anti-aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibodies in the patient sera. We recently reported that these autoantibodies are able to bind AQP4 when organized in the supramolecular structure called the orthogonal array of particles (OAP). To map the antigenic determinants, we produced a series of AQP4 mutants based on multiple alignment sequence analysis between AQP4 and other OAP-forming AQPs. Mutations were introduced in the three extracellular loops (A, C, and E), and the binding capacity of NMO sera was tested on AQP4 mutants. Results indicate that one group of sera was able to recognize a limited portion of loop C containing the amino acid sequence 146GVT(T/M)V150. A second group of sera was characterized by a predominant role of loop A. Deletion of four AQP4-specific amino acids (61G(S/T)E(N/K)64) in loop A substantially affected the binding of this group of sera. However, the binding capacity was further reduced when amino acids in loop A were mutated together with those in loop E or when those in loop C were mutated in combination with loop E. Finally, a series of AQP0 mutants were produced in which the extracellular loops were progressively changed to make them identical to AQP4. Results showed that none of the mutants was able to reproduce in AQP0 the NMO-IgG epitopes, indicating that the extracellular loop sequence by itself was not sufficient to determine the rearrangement required to create the epitopes. Although our data highlight the complexity of the disease, this study identifies key immunodominant epitopes and provides direct evidence that the transition from AQP4 tetramers to AQP4-OAPs involves conformational changes of the extracellular loops.
Control strategies for integration of electric motor assist and functional electrical stimulation in paraplegic cycling: utility for exercise testing and mobile cycling

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate feedback control strategies for integration of electric motor assist and functional electrical stimulation (FES) for paraplegic cycling, with particular focus on development of a testbed for exercise testing in FES cycling, in which both cycling cadence and workrate are simultaneously well controlled and contemporary physiological measures of exercise performance derived. A second aim was to investigate the possible benefits of the approach for mobile, recreational cycling. Methods: A recumbent tricycle with an auxiliary electric motor is used, which is adapted for paraplegic users, and instrumented for stimulation control. We propose a novel integrated control strategy which simultaneously provides feedback control of leg power output (via automatic adjustment of stimulation intensity) and cycling cadence (via electric motor control). Both loops are designed using system identification and analytical (model-based) feedback design methods. Ventilatory and pulmonary gas exchange response profiles are derived using a portable system for real-time breath-by-breath acquisition. Results: We provide indicative results from one paraplegic subject in which a series of feedback-control tests illustrate accurate control of cycling cadence, leg power control, and external disturbance rejection. We also provide physiological response profiles from a submaximal exercise step test and a maximal incremental exercise test, as facilitated by the control strategy. Conclusion: The integrated control strategy is effective in facilitating exercise testing under conditions of well-controlled cadence and power output. Our control approach significantly extends the achievable workrate range and enhances exercise-test sensitivity for FES cycling, thus allowing a more stringent characterization of physiological response profiles and estimation of key parameters of aerobic function. We further conclude that the control approach can significantly improve the overall performance of mobile recreational cycling.