Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Face recognition improvement with distortions of images in training set

The results and comparative analysis of two face recognition methods are presented in this article. The Permutation Coding Neural Classifier (PCNC) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) methods were selected. The main idea is to improve the image recognition rate. For this purpose we increase the training set by including distortions of initial images. Different numbers of distortions can increase the training image set and improve the quality of the classifier. The goal is to investigate the influence of the number of distortions on the PCNC recognition rate. Using distortions it is possible to improve the PCNC recognition rate. Sometimes it is possible to decrease the number of errors by 10 times or more. The PCNC with 12 distortions outperforms the results of SVM.
Religious pluralism and affiliation among Canadian counties and cities

A central debate in the sociology of religion concerns whether religious pluralism enhances or diminishes religious involvement. Contrary to Finke and Stark, much previous research using U.S. counties, both contemporary and historical, finds a negative relationship. However Finke, Guest, and Stark (1996) argue that counties are too large to measure the effects of religious pluralism most relevant to their theories and suggest that if smaller areas such as cities are used, the relationship is positive. Using data from the 1991 Canadian Census we show that the relationship between pluralism and religious affiliation is strongly and consistently negative both for census divisions (counties) and census subdivisions (cities, towns, and townships). We argue that religious pluralism may reduce social reinforcement for religious involvement by reducing the number of close social ties individuals have with others who share a common religious identity.
Consumer Perceived Risk, Attitude and Online Shopping Behaviour; Empirical Evidence from Malaysia

The development of e-commerce has increased the popularity of online shopping worldwide. In Malaysia, it was reported that online shopping market size was RM1.8 billion in 2013 and it is estimated to reach RM5 billion by 2015. However, online shopping was rated 11th out of 15 purposes of using internet in 2012. Consumers' perceived risks of online shopping becomes a hot topic to research as it will directly influence users' attitude towards online purchasing, and their attitude will have significant impact to the online purchasing behaviour. The conceptualization of consumers' perceived risk, attitude and online shopping behaviour of this study provides empirical evidence in the study of consumer online behaviour. Four types of risks – product risk, financial, convenience and non-delivery risks – were examined in term of their effect on consumers' online attitude. A web-based survey was employed, and a total of 300 online shoppers of a Malaysia largest online marketplace participated in this study. The findings indicated that product risk, financial and non-delivery risks are hazardous and negatively affect the attitude of online shoppers. Convenience risk was found to have positive effect on consumers' attitude, denoting that online buyers of this site trusted the online seller and they encountered less troublesome with the site. It also implies that consumers did not really concern on non-convenience aspect of online shopping, such as handling of returned products and examine the quality of products featured in the online seller website. The online buyers' attitude was significantly and positively affects their online purchasing behaviour. The findings provide useful model for measuring and managing consumers' perceived risk in internet-based transaction to increase their involvement in online shopping and to reduce their cognitive dissonance in the e-commerce setting.
Red blood cell pulmonary capillary transit time during exercise in athletes.

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the exercise-induced hypoxemia observed in endurance athletes is due to a reduction in the mean red blood cell pulmonary capillary transit time consequent to a plateau in pulmonary capillary blood volume (Vc) as exercise intensity progresses from moderate to heavy levels. Measurements of Vc, mean transit time, arterial O2 tension (PaO2), and end tidal-arterial O2 tension difference (AaDO2) were made in 16 subjects (mean maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) = 4.90 l.min-1) at rest and during five cycle exercise bouts designed to elicit 55, 65, 75, 85, and 95% VO2max. Mean PaO2 fell from 101 mm Hg at rest to 85 mm Hg during heavy exercise. Mean AaDO2 increased linearly from one stage to the next and at the highest work rate equaled 22.3 mm Hg. Mean Vc failed to plateau with increasing exercise intensity and increased on average by 16 ml from one stage to the next. Mean transit time, on average, dropped from 1.05 s at rest to 0.46 s at the lowest work rate. Mean transit time did not decrease further with increasing exercise intensity (range, 0.42-0.46 s). We conclude that, under the conditions of this study, the AaDO2 increases and PaO2 decreases observed in endurance athletes during exercise of increasing intensity is not caused by a plateau in Vc and a consequent reduction in mean transit time.
Decreased Prefrontal Lobe Interhemispheric Functional Connectivity in Adolescents with Internet Gaming Disorder: A Primary Study Using Resting-State fMRI

Purposes Recent neuroimaging studies have shown that people with Internet gaming disorder (IGD) have structural and functional abnormalities in specific brain areas and connections. However, little is known about the alterations of the interhemispheric resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in participants with IGD. In the present study, we used a newly developed voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) method to investigate the interhemispheric rsFC of the whole brain in participants with IGD. Methods We compared interhemispheric rsFC between 17 participants with IGD and 24 healthy controls, group-matched on age, gender, and education status. All participants were provided written informed consent. Resting-state functional and structural magnetic resonance images were acquired for all participants. The rsFC between bilateral homotopic voxels was calculated. Regions showing abnormal VMHC in IGD participants were adopted as regions of interest for correlation analyses. Results Compared to healthy controls, IGD participants showed decreased VMHC between the left and right superior frontal gyrus (orbital part), inferior frontal gyrus (orbital part), middle frontal gyrus and superior frontal gyrus. Further analyses showed Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS)-related VMHC in superior frontal gyrus (orbital part) and CIAS (r = −0.55, p = 0.02, uncorrected). Conclusions Our findings implicate the important role of altered interhemispheric rsFC in the bilateral prefrontal lobe in the neuropathological mechanism of IGD, and provide further supportive evidence for the reclassification of IGD as a behavioral addiction.
On Unique Satisfiability and the Threshold Behavior of Randomized Reductions

The research presented in this paper is motivated by the some new results on the complexity of the unique satisfiability problem, USAT. These results, which are shown for the first time in the paper, are: ? if USAT ? , then D = co-D and PH collapses. if USAT ? co-D, then PH collapses. if USAT has OR, then PH collapses. The proofs of these results use only the fact that USAT is complete for DP under randomized reductions-even though the probability bound of these reductions may be low. Furthermore, these results show that the structural complexity of USAT and of DP many-one complete sets are very similar, and so they lend support to the argument that even sets complete under "weak" randomized reductions can capture the properties of the many-one complete sets. However, under these "weak" randomized reductions, USAT is complete for PSATlog n] as well, and in this case, USAT does not capture the properties of the sets many-one complete for PSATlog n]. To explain this anomaly, the concept of the threshold behavior of randomized reductions is developed. Tight bounds on the thresholds are shown for NP, co-NP, DP, and co-DP. Furthermore, these results can be generalized to give upper and lower bounds on the thresholds for the Boolean hierarchy. These upper bounds are expressed in terms of Fibonacci numbers.
How Crawling and Manual Object Exploration are Related to the Mental Rotation Abilities of 9-Month-Old Infants

The present experiment examined whether the mental rotation ability of 9-month-old infants was related to their abilities to crawl and manually explore objects. Forty-eight 9-month-old infants were tested; half of them had been crawling for an average of 9.3 weeks. The infants were habituated to a video of a simplified Shepard–Metzler object rotating back and forth through a 240° angle around the longitudinal axis of the object. They were tested with videos of the same object rotating through a previously unseen 120° angle and with a mirror image of the display. All of the infants also participated in a manual object exploration task, in which they freely explored five toy blocks. The results showed that the crawlers looked significantly longer at the novel (mirror) object than at the familiar object, independent of their manual exploration scores. The non-crawlers looking times, in contrast, were influenced by the manual exploration scores. The infants who did not spontaneously explore the toy blocks tended to show a familiarity preference, whereas those who explored the toy blocks preferred to look at the novel object. Thus, all of the infants were able to master the mental rotation task but it seemed to be the most complex process for infants who had no crawling experience and who did not spontaneously explore objects.
The Role of Communication and Cohesion in Reducing Social Loafing in Group Projects

This study examines previously untested variables that influence social loafing in professional and technical communication group projects by determining the influence of communication quality and task cohesion on social loafing. A set-up factors model, which included group size, peer review, project scope, and method of team formation, was also tested for means of comparison. The results indicated the communication quality and task cohesion model significantly reduced social loafing, explaining 53% of the variance in social loafing. The model of set-up factors only explained about 4% of the variance. The article discusses instructional strategies that foster quality communication to reduce loafing.
Increased progerin expression associated with unusual LMNA mutations causes severe progeroid syndromes

Hutchinson‐Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) is a rare precocious aging syndrome caused by mutations in LMNA that lead to synthesis of a mutant form of prelamin A, generally called progerin, that cannot be processed to mature lamin A. Most HGPS patients have a recurrent heterozygous de novo mutation in exon 11 of LMNA, c.1824C>T/p.G608G; this synonymous mutation activates a nearby cryptic splice donor site, resulting in synthesis of the mutant prelamin A, progerin, which lacks 50 amino acids within the carboxyl‐terminal domain. Abnormal splicing is incomplete, so the mutant allele produces some normally‐spliced transcripts. Nevertheless, the synthesis of progerin is sufficient to cause misshapen nuclei in cultured cells and severe disease phenotypes in affected patients. Here we present two patients with extraordinarily severe forms of progeria caused by unusual mutations in LMNA. One had a splice site mutation (c.1968+1G>A; or IVS11+1G>A), and the other had a novel synonymous coding region mutation (c.1821G>A/p.V607V). Both mutations caused very frequent use of the same exon 11 splice donor site that is activated in typical HGPS patients. As a consequence, the ratios of progerin mRNA and protein to wild‐type were higher than in typical HGPS patients. Fibroblasts from both patients exhibited nuclear shape abnormalities typical of HGPS, and cells treated with a protein farnesyltransferase inhibitor exhibited fewer misshapen nuclei. Thus, farnesyltransferase inhibitors may prove to be useful even when progerin expression levels are higher than those in typical HGPS patients. Hum Mutat 28(9), 882–889, 2007. Published 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Road to Paris: Contending Climate Governance Discourses in the Post-Copenhagen Era

ABSTRACT In this paper, we advance discourse analysis to interpret how the state and direction of climate governance is imagined or interpreted by the multitude of actors present at UN climate conferences. We approach the annual Conferences of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as active political sites that project ideas, assumptions and standards for the conduct of global politics. This paper examines to what extent the discourses of green governmentality, ecological modernization and civic environmentalism identified by Bäckstrand and Lövbrand [(2006). Planting trees to mitigate climate change. Contested discourses of ecological modernization, green governmentality and civic environmentalism. Global Environmental Politics, 6(1), 51–71; Bäckstrand, K. , & Lövbrand, E. (2007). Climate governance beyond 2012. Competing discourses of green governmentality, ecological modernization and civic environmentalism. In M. Pettenger (Ed.), The social construction of climate change. Ashgate] a decade ago still inform how climate governance is imagined and enacted in the post-Copenhagen era. After reviewing scholarship on climate governance and International Relations, we introduce our discursive framework and systematically compare three contending discourses of climate governance articulated at COP 17 in Durban (2011), COP 19 in Warsaw (2013) and COP 20 in Lima (2014). We end by discussing whether the discursive struggles played out at UN climate conferences represent a shift in the ways in which climate governance was imagined and enacted on the road to Paris, and to what extent our findings may help to extend scholarship in this field.
Interaction of AQM schemes and adaptive streaming with Internet traffic on access networks

We tested AQM techniques on their ability to influence end-user QoE, especially HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) based video traffic on fixed access networks. Using ns-2 we built a set of simulation scenarios for realistic Internet traffic. Based on data from recent Internet measurements, there are three major types of traffic flowing through the Internet: HTTP web traffic; HAS video traffic and progressive download (PD) video traffic. We modeled HTTP web traffic using Internet statistics published by Google. We generated dynamic HAS traffic by implementing a HAS client. We modeled PD video traffic using statistics from Youtube. We used published research to convert data from simulation traces into QoE metrics. We used realistic mixes of the three types of traffic with different loading conditions to test Random Early Detection (RED), CoDel and Tail-drop queuing on DSL access networks. We also tested various options in HAS for their impact on its QoE. Most AQM configurations improved the QoE metrics of HAS and web traffic. They improved fairness among HAS streams, avoided HAS underflow in a majority of the cases where it would occur with Tail-drop, and tangibly reduced the latency for web page downloads. Sensitivity analysis with RED parameters confirmed that the improved QoE of HAS and web traffic was relatively insensitive to the exact RED parameter set.
Protease dead separase inhibits chromosome segregation and RAB-11 vesicle trafficking

ABSTRACT Separase cleaves cohesin to allow chromosome segregation. Separase also regulates cortical granule exocytosis and vesicle trafficking during cytokinesis, both of which involve RAB-11. We investigated whether separase regulates exocytosis through a proteolytic or non-proteolytic mechanism. In C. elegans, protease-dead separase (SEP-1PD::GFP) is dominant negative. Consistent with its role in cohesin cleavage, SEP-1PD::GFP causes chromosome segregation defects. As expected, partial depletion of cohesin rescues this defect, confirming that SEP-1PD::GFP acts through a substrate trapping mechanism. SEP-1PD::GFP causes cytokinetic defects that are synergistically exacerbated by depletion of the t-SNARE SYX-4. Furthermore, SEP-1PD::GFP delays furrow ingression, causes an accumulation of RAB-11 vesicles at the cleavage furrow site and delays the exocytosis of cortical granules during anaphase I. Depletion of syx-4 further enhanced RAB-11::mCherry and SEP-1PD::GFP plasma membrane accumulation during cytokinesis, while depletion of cohesin had no effect. In contrast, centriole disengagement appears normal in SEP-1PD::GFP embryos, indicating that chromosome segregation and vesicle trafficking are more sensitive to inhibition by the inactive protease. These findings suggest that separase cleaves an unknown substrate to promote the exocytosis of RAB-11 vesicles and paves the way for biochemical identification of substrates.
Ultralow Interface State Density Achieved by Light-Induced Anodization of Aluminum on Silicon Solar Cell Surfaces

A light-induced anodization (LIA) method, which uses the light-induced current of a silicon solar cell to anodize aluminum and form an anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) layer that can reduce recombination at a p-type surface of the cell, is reported. This method can result in anodic oxides with uniform properties over the surfaces of industrially sized silicon wafers since the current flows through the wafer rather than in the surface aluminum layer, as it does when the aluminum is directly electrically contacted. Uniform AAO layers can be formed within 4 min on p-type silicon surfaces by anodizing 300-nm-thick aluminum layers, and when formed over a thin interfacial silicon dioxide layer, the interface state density at the p-type silicon wafer interface can be reduced to values as low as 1 × 1010 cm-2·eV-1 and a fixed charge density of 2 × 1011 cm-2. Photoconductance carrier lifetime measurements indicate that these AAO dielectric stack layers are capable of passivating silicon surfaces to a level similar to that provided by silicon nitride layers, which are deposited using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, although at potentially a much-reduced cost. The high-quality surface passivation, rapid room temperature processing, and large-area uniformity of LIA make it a promising method for producing passivation materials that can further improve efficiency and potentially reduce the cost of photovoltaic solar cells and other p-n junction devices.
A virtualized usage control bus system

Usage control is an extension of access control that additionally defines what must and must not happen to data after access has been granted. The process of enforcing usage control requirements on data must take into account all the different representations that the data may assume at different levels of abstraction (e.g. file, window content, network packet). Therefore, multiple data flow tracking and usage control enforcement monitors are likely to exist, one at each relevant layer. Whenever data flows from a representation at one layer to a representation at another layer (e.g. a file is loaded and interpreted by an application), then the monitor for the initiating layer (in the example, the operating system) must notify the monitor for the receiving layer (in this example, an application, like a browser) about the data being transfered. This is required in order to associate both representations to the same data. In this paper, we present a bus system to support system-wide usage control enforcement that, for security and performance reasons, is implemented in a hypervisor. We provide an example application for enforcing usage control across layers of abstraction in the context of social networks. We evaluate security and performance of our bus system.
Differential Inhibition by Nimesulide of the Early and Late Phases of Intravenous- and Intracerebroventricular-LPS-Induced Fever in Guinea Pigs

Objectives: The findings that inducible cyclooxygenase (COX)-2, but not constitutive COX-1, is upregulated in the brain of conscious rats ∼1.5 h after intraperitoneal pyrogen administration, that the systemic administration of COX-2 inhibitors abolishes fever, and that COX-2-deficient mice do not develop fever in response to intraperitoneal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) have strongly implicated COX-2 in the mediation of the febrile response. However, the biosynthesis of COX-2 is significantly slower than the onset of the fever produced by intravenously injected LPS. It consequently seems improbable that inducible COX-2 could play a role in the initiation of this febrile response, but a role for COX-1 has not yet been categorically ruled out; or, alternatively, a constitutive isoform of COX-2 could have such a role. We have studied, therefore, the effects of the non-selective COX inhibitor indomethacin, the COX-1-selective inhibitor SC-560, and the COX-2-selective inhibitor nimesulide on the characteristically biphasic fever induced by intravenous LPS in conscious guinea pigs; it has an onset latency of ∼10 min. Methods: We injected the inhibitors 30 min before LPS, in various combinations of doses and routes; their respective vehicles were the control solutions. Core temperatures (Tc) were monitored continuously, and plasma and brain PGE2 levels were measured before and at 2-hour intervals after LPS administration. Results: Intraperitoneal indomethacin at 10 mg kg–1 attenuated both phases of intravenous LPS (2 µg kg–1) fever, but the first more so than the second; at 50 mg kg–1, it inhibited the febrile response completely. Intraperitoneal SC-560 (5 mg kg–1) did not affect the febrile response to intravenous LPS (2 µg kg–1). Intraperitoneal nimesulide (0.3, 1.0, and 3.0 mg kg–1) dose dependently attenuated intravenous LPS (0.1 and 2 µg kg–1) fever; the second phase of the biphasic Tc rise was affected significantly more than the first. Intraperitoneal nimesulide also prevented the associated rises in plasma and brain PGE2 levels. Intracerebroventricular LPS (150 ng kg–1) evoked a monophasic fever with a long onset latency (∼30 min); it was accompanied by a rise in brain PGE2 only, implying that the febrigenic PGE2 was generated directly in the brain. This response, however, was completely abolished by intraperitoneal nimesulide (3 mg kg–1), indicating that nimesulide crosses the blood-brain barrier. Intracerebroventricular nimesulide at 0.3 mg kg–1 prevented the rise in plasma PGE2 after intravenous LPS (2 µg kg–1) and again attenuated the second febrile peak significantly more than the first. Conclusions: COX-1 is not involved in intravenous LPS fever production, and COX-2 appears to play a greater role in the late than in the early phase of intravenous LPS fever in guinea pigs. The involvement of a constitutive COX-2 is inferred in the early phase.
Recognizing driver inattention by convolutional neural networks

Driver inattention has long been recognized as the main contributing factors in traffic accidents. Development of intelligent driver assistance systems with embedded functionality of driver vigilance monitoring is therefore an urgent and challenging task. This paper presents a novel system which applies convolutional neural network to automatically learn and predict the state of driver's eye, mouth and ear. The initial inspiration is to predict driver fatigue and distraction by analysing these states. In our works, a CNN model was trained with six classes of labeled data. The Approach was verified using self-specified Driving Dataset, which comprised of four activities, including normal driving, responding to a cell phone call, eating and falling asleep. Experiment results demonstrate that our design achieves a promising performance with a overall accuracy of 95.56% in classifying six states of the driver's eye, mouth and ear.