Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Face Recognition across Pose on Video Using Eigen Light-Fields

We propose an approach to employ eigen light-fields for face recognition across pose on video. Faces of a subject are collected from video frames and combined based on the pose to obtain a set of probe light-fields. These probe data are then projected to the principal subspace of the eigen light-fields within which the classification takes place. We modify the original light-field projection and found that it is more robust in the proposed system. Evaluation on VidTIMIT dataset has demonstrated that the eigen light-fields method is able to take advantage of multiple observations contained in the video.
Predicting protein stability changes upon mutation using database-derived potentials: solvent accessibility determines the importance of local versus non-local interactions along the sequence.

For 238 mutations of residues totally or partially buried in the protein core, we estimate the folding free energy changes upon mutation using database-derived potentials and correlate them with the experimentally measured ones. Several potentials are tested, representing different kinds of interactions. Local interactions along the chain are described by torsion potentials, based on propensities of amino acids to be associated with backbone torsion angle domains. Non-local interactions along the sequence are represented by distance potentials, derived from propensities of amino acid pairs or triplets to be at a given spatial distance. We find that for the set of totally buried residues, the best performing potential is a combination of a distance potential and a torsion potential weighted by a factor of 0.4; it yields a correlation coefficient between computed and measured changes in folding free energy of 0.80. For mutations of partially buried residues, the best potential is a combination of a torsion potential and a distance potential weighted by a factor of 0.7, and for the previously analysed mutations of solvent accessible residues, it is a torsion potential taken individually; the respective correlation coefficients reach 0.82 and 0.87. These results show that distance potentials, dominated by hydrophobic interactions, represent best the main interactions stabilizing the protein core, whereas torsion potentials, describing local interactions along the chain, represent best the interactions at the protein surface. The prediction accuracy reached by the distance potentials is, however, lower than that of the torsion potentials. A possible reason for this is that distance potentials would not describe correctly the effect on protein stability due to cavity formation upon mutating a large into a small amino acid. Last but not least, our results indicate that although local interactions, responsible for secondary structure formation, do not dominate in the protein core, they are not negligible for all that. They have a significant weight in the delicate balance between all the interactions that ensure protein stability.
Mortality in Hepatitis C-Positive Patients Treated with Peritoneal Dialysis

Objective The published mortality data for patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and being treated with peritoneal dialysis (PD) are not available. The aim of this study was to determine the mortality of HCV patients undergoing PD. Methods We retrospectively reviewed 538 PD patients in our hospital from 1996 to 2005. Of these patients, 75 (13.9%) were anti-HCV positive at the beginning of PD. We used Kaplan–Meier analysis to compare mortality between patients with and patients without HCV infection. The association between HCV infection and mortality was analyzed using multivariate Cox regression with adjustment for age, gender, residual renal function, and cardiovascular disease. Results A total of 157 patients (39 HCV positive, 118 HCV negative) died during the 10-year follow-up period. The mortality rate (52%, 39/75) of HCV-positive patients was significantly higher than that of HCV-negative patients (25.5%, 118/463; p < 0.001). Cardiovascular mortality was 57.6% (68/118) among HCV-negative patients and 56.4% (22/39) among HCV-positive patients. Kaplan–Meier estimate showed that patients with HCV infection had higher mortality than those without (p < 0.001, log-rank). The result of Cox regression suggested that chronic HCV infection, independent of diabetes, was associated with 10-year mortality. The adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of HCV infection and diabetes for mortality were 2.195 (95% CI: 1.486 – 3.243, p < 0.001) and 2.242 (95% CI: 1.533 – 3.277, p < 0.001). Conclusion Our results show that the HCV-positive PD patients had a higher 10-year mortality rate than the HCV-negative PD patients. The association between HCV infection and mortality was independent of diabetes. Cardiovascular mortality, infection, and arrhythmia were the leading causes of death among the PD patients with HCV infection.
Effect of daily concentrate intake at weaning on performance of belgian blue double-muscled rearing calves

Abstract Weaning at a different daily concentrate intake was investigated during a 140-d experimental period, using 54 male and 68 female newborn Belgian Blue double-muscled animals. They were divided into three comparable groups and received milk at 10% of their birth weight up to weaning. Concentrate was levelled off at a maximum daily intake of 3 kg, while grass hay was freely available. Weaning occurred at a daily concentrate intake level (CL) of 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 kg, respectively. Weaning at an increased CL prolonged the milk-feeding period by 13.1 and 14.6 days, and resulted in a higher pre- and post-weaning growth rate (p < 0.05). Daily gain during the entire experimental period averaged 0.84, 0.85 and 0.88 kg for the respective groups (p = 0.065). Daily concentrate intake was not different among groups, with only a small effect of CL on intake around weaning. Early weaning resulted in a significant reduction of hay intake (p = 0.032). Total daily net energy intake increased slightly with a higher CL at weaning, so that energy conversion was slightly improved, amounting to 17.7, 17.6 and 17.4 MJ/kg gain, respectively. Energy balance during the first week after weaning was negative for CL 0.5 kg (−22%), while it was close to 0 for CL 0.75 kg (−2%) or positive for CL 1.0 kg. Most effects of CL at weaning were similar for males and females, but male calves tended to have a higher intake and a faster growth rate than females. It can be concluded that weaning should be delayed until Belgian Blue double-muscled calves consume at least 0.75 kg per day or more for reasons of welfare, although performance was hardly improved by weaning at a daily concentrate intake of more than 0.5 kg per day.
Risk and Prognostic Factors of Inpatient Mortality Associated with Unintentional Insecticide and Herbicide Poisonings: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Introduction Pesticide poisoning is an important public health problem worldwide. The study aimed to determine the risk of all-cause and cause-specific inpatient mortality and to identify prognostic factors for inpatient mortality associated with unintentional insecticide and herbicide pesticide poisonings. Methods We performed a retrospective cohort study of 3,986 inpatients recruited at hospitalization between 1999 and 2008 in Taiwan. We used the International Classification of Disease, 9th ed., Clinical Modification external causes of injury codes to classify poisoning agents into accidental poisoning by insecticides and herbicides. Comparisons in mortality rates were made between insecticide poisoning patients and herbicide poisoning patients by using the Cox proportional hazards models to estimate multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results There were 168 deaths during 21,583 person-days of follow-up evaluation (7.8 per 1,000 person-days). The major causes of mortality for insecticide poisonings were the toxic effect of organophosphate and coma, and the major causes of mortality for herbicide poisonings were the toxic effect of other pesticides and the toxic effect of organophosphate. The mortality for herbicide exposure was fourfold higher than that for insecticide exposure. The factors associated with inpatient mortality were herbicide poisonings (HR = 4.58, 95% CI 3.29 to 6.37) and receiving mechanical ventilation treatment (HR = 3.85, 95% CI 2.73 to 5.42). Conclusions We demonstrated that herbicides stand out as the dominant agent for poisoning-related fatalities. The control of and limiting access to herbicide agents and developing appropriate therapeutic regimens, including emergency care, should be priorities.
The effect of rumination and reappraisal on social anxiety symptoms during cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder.

OBJECTIVE There is growing interest in the role of transdiagnostic processes in the onset, maintenance, and treatment of mental disorders (Nolen-Hoeksema & Watkins, 2011). Two such transdiagnostic processes-rumination and reappraisal-are the focus of the present study. The main objective was to examine the roles of rumination (thought to be harmful) and reappraisal (thought to be helpful) in adults with social anxiety disorder (SAD). METHOD We conducted a randomized controlled trial of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with 75 adults with SAD and examined pre- to post-CBT changes as well as weekly fluctuations in rumination, reappraisal, and social anxiety symptoms. RESULTS Socially anxious individuals' baseline rumination (brooding) scores predicted weekly levels of social anxiety, rumination, and reappraisal, whereas baseline reappraisal scores did not. Greater weekly rumination was associated with greater weekly social anxiety, but reappraisal was not related to social anxiety. CONCLUSION These findings suggest that rumination may have a more significant role than reappraisal in understanding fluctuations in social anxiety during CBT for SAD.
An Economic Framework for Routing and Channel Allocation in Cognitive Wireless Mesh Networks

We consider wireless mesh networks with cognitive ability of the wireless routers' radios. The cognitive ability is a cost efficient manner to increase available bandwidth but requires an adaptive bandwidth management mechanism to deal with dynamics of primary users' activities. In this paper, we investigate the joint channel allocation and routing in cognitive wireless mesh networks including the channel reuse opportunities in order to improve the network performance. In particular we propose an economic framework for adaptation and control of the network resources with the goal of network profit maximization. The economic framework is based on the notion of state dependent node shadow price that is derived from Markov decision theory. The node shadow prices are used as routing metrics while their average values are used to allocate the channels among the different nodes. Simulation results illustrate the network profit maximization and effectiveness of the proposed channel allocation scheme that is integrated with a channel reuse algorithm.
The role of jet and film drops in controlling the mixing state of submicron sea spray aerosol particles

Significance Submicrometer sea spray aerosol (SSA) particles play a critical role in determining cloud properties in marine environments. Typically, it is assumed that submicrometer SSA particles mainly originate from bubble-cap films bursting at the sea surface. However, we show that in addition to this formation pathway, a substantial fraction of submicrometer SSA particles are also produced from jet drops. Using an experimental approach that relies on differences in the electrical mobility of jet and film drops, we show that jet drops contribute up to 43% of total submicrometer SSA number concentrations. As shown herein, these two different production pathways result in an externally mixed submicrometer SSA population with two distinct chemical compositions with significantly different ice nucleating activities. The oceans represent a significant global source of atmospheric aerosols. Sea spray aerosol (SSA) particles comprise sea salts and organic species in varying proportions. In addition to size, the overall composition of SSA particles determines how effectively they can form cloud droplets and ice crystals. Thus, understanding the factors controlling SSA composition is critical to predicting aerosol impacts on clouds and climate. It is often assumed that submicrometer SSAs are mainly formed by film drops produced from bursting bubble-cap films, which become enriched with hydrophobic organic species contained within the sea surface microlayer. In contrast, jet drops formed from the base of bursting bubbles are postulated to mainly produce larger supermicrometer particles from bulk seawater, which comprises largely salts and water-soluble organic species. However, here we demonstrate that jet drops produce up to 43% of total submicrometer SSA number concentrations, and that the fraction of SSA produced by jet drops can be modulated by marine biological activity. We show that the chemical composition, organic volume fraction, and ice nucleating ability of submicrometer particles from jet drops differ from those formed from film drops. Thus, the chemical composition of a substantial fraction of submicrometer particles will not be controlled by the composition of the sea surface microlayer, a major assumption in previous studies. This finding has significant ramifications for understanding the factors controlling the mixing state of submicrometer SSA particles and must be taken into consideration when predicting SSA impacts on clouds and climate.
A RESEARCH ON THE INFLUENCE OF POROSITY ON PERLITE SUBSTRATE AND ITS INTERACTION ON POROSITY OF TWO TYPES OF SOIL AND PEAT SUBSTRATE

Perlite is a generic name for an amorphous volcanic rock that expands by a factor of 4–20 when rapidly heated to (760–1100°C). Water trapped in the structure of the material vaporises and escapes, and this causes the expansion of the material to 7–16 times its original volume. The expanded material is a brilliant white, due to the reflectivity of the trapped bubbles. Expanded perlite has several attractive physical properties for commercial applications, including, low bulk density, low thermal conductivity, high heat resistance, low sound transmission, high surface area, and chemical inertness. The perlite supplies the ideal balance between air and water. Perlite is sterile, inert, non-toxic, non-decomposable and easy to handle with, enhanced water retention and aeration capacity. The application of substrates which improve the properties of the soils requires knowledge of their physical and chemical characteristics that are responsible for providing adequate support and a reservoir for air, water and nutrients. Agricultural production is increasingly concerned about the study of the impact of improvers of properties, such as perlite, that affect the properties of soils as well as their impact on yield and plant quality. The goal of this paper is to observe the influence of porosity on the Perlite substrate and its interaction with the porosity of two types of soil and the peat substrate. The laboratory part comprised preparation of the substrate perlite, soils, and substrate peat for analyses and conducting quantitative laboratory analysis. The substrate perlite, soils and substrate peat were analysed in all five of their different ratios: Perlite (Pe) 20%; 30%; 50%; 70%; 80% by volume) and 100% perlite. Fluvial soil (FS) 80%; 70%; 50%; 30%; 20% by volume) and 100% fluvial soil. Mollic Vertic Gleysol (GS) 80%; 70%; 50%; 30%; 20% by volume) and 100% mollic vertic gleysol. Peat (P) 80%; 70%; 50%; 30%; 20% by volume) and 100% Peat. In laboratory conditions the total porosity (in percentage form) was determined with the help of apparent and specific density (apparent density through applying the Koppecki method (specific density was determined
What Counterfactuals Can Be Tested

Counterfactual statements, e.g., "my headache would be gone had I taken an aspirin" are central to scientific discourse, and are formally interpreted as statements derived from "alternative worlds". However, since they invoke hypothetical states of affairs, often incompatible with what is actually known or observed, testing counterfactuals is fraught with conceptual and practical difficulties. In this paper, we provide a complete characterization of "testable counterfactuals," namely, counterfactual statements whose probabilities can be inferred from physical experiments. We provide complete procedures for discerning whether a given counterfactual is testable and, if so, expressing its probability in terms of experimental data.
Replica symmetry breaking in compressive sensing

For noisy compressive sensing systems, the asymptotic distortion with respect to an arbitrary distortion function is determined when a general class of least-square based reconstruction schemes is employed. The sampling matrix is considered to belong to a large ensemble of random matrices including i.i. d. and projector matrices, and the source vector is assumed to be i.i. d. with a desired distribution. We take a statistical mechanical approach by representing the asymptotic distortion as a macroscopic parameter of a spin glass and employing the replica method for the large-system analysis. In contrast to earlier studies, we evaluate the general replica ansatz which includes the RS ansatz as well as RSB. The generality of the solution enables us to study the impact of symmetry breaking. Our numerical investigations depict that for the reconstruction scheme with the “zero-norm” penalty function, the RS fails to predict the asymptotic distortion for relatively large compression rates; however, the one-step RSB ansatz gives a valid prediction of the performance within a larger regime of compression rates.
Management of Severe Rhabdomyolysis and Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia in a Female with Anorexia Nervosa and Excessive Compulsive Exercising

This case report describes the management of a 49-year-old female with restricting-type anorexia nervosa and excessive compulsive exercising associated with rhabdomyolysis, high levels of serum creatine kinase (CK) (3,238 U/L), and marked hyponatremia (Na+: 123 mEq/L) in the absence of purging behaviours or psychogenic polydipsia; it is the first case report to describe exercise-associated hyponatremia in a patient with anorexia nervosa. The patient, who presented with a body mass index (BMI) of 13.4 kg/m2, was successfully treated by means of an adapted inpatient version of an enhanced form of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT-E). Within a few days, careful water restriction, solute refeeding, and the specific cognitive behavioural strategies and procedures used to address the patient's excessive compulsive exercising and undereating produced a marked reduction in CK levels, which normalised within one week. Exercise-associated hyponatremia also gradually improved, with serum sodium levels returning to normal within two weeks. The patient thereby avoided severe complications such as cerebral or pulmonary oedema or acute renal failure and was discharged after 20 weeks of treatment with a BMI of 19.0 kg/m2 and improved eating disorder psychopathology.
Research on Network Teaching System Based on Open Source Framework

In this paper, the generics DAO schema is introduced into the lightweight J2EE application architecture based on open source framework of Spring, Hibernate and Struts. The data access code is enabled to offer the type-safe interface, which can avoid compulsory type conversion that belongs to the fallible repetitive development. The architecture scheme is applied to the development of the network teaching system, and the design and implementation procedure is given by example. Finally, the practice shows that the method presented by this paper enables the architecture to provide high reusability, expansibility and maintainability, and makes the system development more simple and efficient.
Using Short Video Lectures to Enhance Mathematics Learning - Experiences on Differential and Integral Calculus Course for Engineering Students

Mathematics' skills and knowledge lay the basis for engineering studies. However, the resources targeted to mathematics' teaching are in many cases very limited. During the past years in our university the reduction of mathematics' contact hours has been significant while at the same time the study groups have grown. However, the mathematical proficiency of incoming students has not increased. Consequently, during the contact hours, the learning of basics requires more time and the need of personalized learning is increasing. In this article a method based on short video lecturing to enhance mathematics' learning is pre- sented. The study explored how the students experienced the mathematics' studying from videos. In addition, it was investigated if the video lectures have an influence on students' motivation towards mathematics' learning. Overall, the results were encouraging and the short video lecturing seems to be worth considering while developing methods for mathematics' learning. This paper summarizes the observations during the examination.
Functional defects of peripheral regulatory T lymphocytes in patients with progressive vitiligo

Auto‐reactive cytotoxic T lymphocytes play a key role in the progressive loss or destruction of melanocytes in vitiligo but the mechanism underlying the loss of self‐tolerance is unknown. A deregulation of regulatory T‐cell biology has recently been suggested. The analysis of the suppressive effects of peripheral T regulatory cells in vitiligo patients revealed a functional defect in seven of 15 cases. This defect was strongly correlated with disease activity. The evaluation of the percentage of peripheral regulatory T lymphocytes did not reveal any intrinsic quantitative defect. Yet, a decrease in the percentage of such cells was noted in patients with progressive forms, suggesting a recruitment of regulatory T cells from the peripheral blood to the site of injury. This was further corroborated by the significant increase of Forkhead box P3 expression in the vitiliginous skin of patients. Our data support the involvement of a functional defect of peripheral regulatory T cells in the pathogenesis of vitiligo and open new possibilities to advance therapeutic approaches.
Cancer Prevention Mediated by Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester Involves Cyp2b1/2 Modulation in Hepatocarcinogenesis

Studies of cancer chemoprevention with caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) in the resistant hepatocyte model of hepatocarcinogenesis have shown the participation of CYP drug metabolizing enzymes. To prevent neoplastic and preneoplasic lesions, we must specifically identify which CYP activities are modified in the mechanism of action of CAPE. Male Fischer-344 rats were pretreated with CAPE twelve hours before administration of diethylnitrosamine (DEN) and were sacrificed twelve hours after CAPE and twelve hours, twenty-four hours, twenty-four days, and twelve months after DEN. Other rats were treated with the CYP inhibitors α-naphthoflavone or SKF525A and sacrificed twenty-four hours and twenty-four days after DEN. Microsomes were obtained from livers to quantify protein using Western blot. Diethylnitrosamine metabolism was measured based on nitrite formation and liver histology using GGT histochemistry. Caffeic acid phenethyl ester diminished the protein levels of CYP1A2 and CYP2B1/2. The inhibition of CYP2B1/2 prevented the appearance of preneoplastic lesions. Microsomal assays demonstrated that CAPE interfered with DEN activation diminishing nitrites similar to SKF525A and probably mediated by CYP2B1/2 inhibition. A single dose of CAPE before DEN treatment reduced the appearance of tumors by 43%. These results confirmed that CAPE is a promising agent to confer chemoprotection in liver cancer and should be considered for human therapies.