Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Staple: Complementary Learners for Real-Time Tracking

Correlation Filter-based trackers have recently achieved excellent performance, showing great robustness to challenging situations exhibiting motion blur and illumination changes. However, since the model that they learn depends strongly on the spatial layout of the tracked object, they are notoriously sensitive to deformation. Models based on colour statistics have complementary traits: they cope well with variation in shape, but suffer when illumination is not consistent throughout a sequence. Moreover, colour distributions alone can be insufficiently discriminative. In this paper, we show that a simple tracker combining complementary cues in a ridge regression framework can operate faster than 80 FPS and outperform not only all entries in the popular VOT14 competition, but also recent and far more sophisticated trackers according to multiple benchmarks.
The Role of Ovarian Surface Epithelium in Folliculogenesis during Fetal Development of the Bovine Ovary: A Histological and Immunohistochemical Study

Although many aspects of ovarian differentiation have been established, comparatively little is known about prenatal follicle formation and differentiation of bovine ovaries. The objective of this investigation was to study the role of the surface epithelium during the development of germ cell nests, germ cell cords and follicle formation in the fetal bovine ovary. Associated important proliferation and apoptotic features were further investigated. Additionally, the expression pattern of the S100 protein was detected. A strong increase of mitotic figures was detected in the surface epithelium, germ cell nests and germ cell cords of ovaries with a crown-rump length (CRL) of 13.0-58.0 cm. Oocytes were positively stained with S100 in bovine ovaries from fetuses with a CRL of 21.0 cm. The staining intensity enhanced parallel to increasing oocyte and follicle sizes during the ovary development. In later stages, a strong staining for S100 was observed in healthy oocytes in contradistinction to atretic oocytes where no expression of the S100 protein could be found. In conclusion, increasing mitosis index of surface epithelium cells, as well as oogonia directly beneath the surface epithelium, in combination with open surface connection during stages from a CRL of 11.0-94.0 cm of bovine fetal ovaries could play an important role in the period of time of ongoing folliculogenesis and derivation of granulosa cells. Additionally, S100-positive oocytes in primordial and later follicle stages joined by a high rate of Ki67-positive index in surrounding granulosa cells indicate that in the oocytes the S100 protein can perhaps be a useful marker for intact oocytes in bovine ovaries.
Eye-Movement Analysis of Search Effectiveness

Advances in eye-tracking technology have promoted its widespread use to understand and improve target searches in psychology, industrial engineering, human factors, medical diagnostics, and marketing. Eye movements are the realization of a complex, unobserved spatiotemporal attention process with many sources of variation. Eye-tracking data often have been aggregated and/or summarized descriptively, because few adequate statistical models are available for their analysis. This article proposes a model that may serve to uncover the latent attention processes of people searching for targets in complex scenes. It recognizes the spatial nature of eye movements and represents two latent attention states, a localization state and an identification state, between which people may switch over time according to a Markov process. A saliency map, based on low-level perceptual features and the scene's organization, guide target searches in the localization state. In the identification state, people verify whether a selected candidate object is the target. The model is applied to analyze commercial eye-tracking data from more than 100 people engaged in a target search task on a computer-simulated retail shelf display. Rapid switching between attention states over time is revealed. Estimates of the feature and saliency maps are provided and found to be related to search performance. The results facilitate the evaluation of the effectiveness of alternative visual search strategies.
Characterization of the Expression of Ang1, Ang2, and Tie2 in the Corpus Cavernosum of the Rat during Aging

Abstract Aging is the single most significant risk factor for erectile dysfunction (ED), leading to structural modification of cavernous tissue and altering expression of vascular growth factors. The angiopoietin/Tie2 system has been recently considered as a potential target for therapy of vascular disorders, including ED. Hence, the aim of this study was to analyze expression of angiopoietin1 (Ang1), angiopoietin2 (Ang2), and their receptor Tie2 in corpus cavernosum (CC) of rat during aging (6, 12, 18, and 24 months). The expression of Ang1, Ang2, and Tie2 was studied by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence, followed by semiquantification after Western blotting. Both Ang1 and Ang2 were localized mainly in perivascular smooth muscle and endothelial cells, while Tie2 was strictly detected at the vascular endothelium. A significant decrease in Ang2's expression was observed at 12 months when compared with 6-month-old rats, a tendency that reverses in older animals. No significant differences were demonstrated for Ang1 or Tie2, which is consistent with their constitutive expression in CC. The ratios Ang1/Tie2 and Ang2/Tie2 were also calculated and both decrease during aging, while no marked variation was observed for Ang1/Ang2. Our results suggest that the angiopoietin/Tie2 system participate in the vascular maintenance and remodeling of the CC during aging.
Learning complex-valued latent filters with absolute cosine similarity

We propose a new sparse coding technique based on the power mean of phase-invariant cosine distances. Our approach is a generalization of sparse filtering and K-hyperlines clustering. It offers a better sparsity enforcer than the L1/L2 norm ratio that is typically used in sparse filtering. At the same time, the proposed approach scales better than the clustering counterparts for high-dimensional input. Our algorithm fully exploits the prior information obtained by preprocessing the observed data with whitening via an efficient row-wise decoupling scheme. In our simulating experiments, the algorithm produces better estimates than previous approaches do. It yields better separation of live recorded speech mixtures as well.
Pattern Association and Consolidation Emerges from Connectivity Properties between Cortex and Hippocampus

The basic structure of the cortico-hippocampal system is highly conserved across mammalian species. Comparatively few hippocampal neurons can represent and address a multitude of cortical patterns, establish associations between cortical patterns and consolidate these associations in the cortex. In this study, we investigate how elementary anatomical properties in the cortex-hippocampus loop along with synaptic plasticity contribute to these functions. Specifically, we focus on the high degree of connectivity between cortex and hippocampus leading to converging and diverging forward and backward projections and heterogenous synaptic transmission delays that result from the detached location of the hippocampus and its multiple loops. We found that in a model incorporating these concepts, each cortical pattern can evoke a unique spatio-temporal spiking pattern in hippocampal neurons. This hippocampal response facilitates a reliable disambiguation of learned associations and a bridging of a time interval larger than the time window of spike-timing dependent plasticity in the cortex. Moreover, we found that repeated retrieval of a stored association leads to a compression of the interval between cue presentation and retrieval of the associated pattern from the cortex. Neither a high degree of connectivity nor heterogenous synaptic delays alone is sufficient for this behavior. We conclude that basic anatomical properties between cortex and hippocampus implement mechanisms for representing and consolidating temporal information. Since our model reveals the observed functions for a range of parameters, we suggest that these functions are robust to evolutionary changes consistent with the preserved function of the hippocampal loop across different species.
Breaking the O(n2) bit barrier: scalable byzantine agreement with an adaptive adversary

We describe an algorithm for Byzantine agreement that is scalable in the sense that each processor sends only Õ(√n) bits, where n is the total number of processors. Our algorithm succeeds with high probability against an adaptive adversary, which can take over processors at any time during the protocol, up to the point of taking over arbitrarily close to a 1/3 fraction. We assume synchronous communication but a rushing adversary. Moreover, our algorithm works in the presence of flooding: processors controlled by the adversary can send out any number of messages. We assume the existence of private channels between all pairs of processors but make no other cryptographic assumptions. Finally, our algorithm has latency that is polylogarithmic in n. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first algorithm to solve Byzantine agreement against an adaptive adversary, while requiring o(n2) total bits of communication.
Analysis of Movement, Orientation and Rotation-Based Sensing for Phone Placement Recognition

Phone placement, i.e., where the phone is carried/stored, is an important source of information for context-aware applications. Extracting information from the integrated smart phone sensors, such as motion, light and proximity, is a common technique for phone placement detection. In this paper, the efficiency of an accelerometer-only solution is explored, and it is investigated whether the phone position can be detected with high accuracy by analyzing the movement, orientation and rotation changes. The impact of these changes on the performance is analyzed individually and both in combination to explore which features are more efficient, whether they should be fused and, if yes, how they should be fused. Using three different datasets, collected from 35 people from eight different positions, the performance of different classification algorithms is explored. It is shown that while utilizing only motion information can achieve accuracies around 70%, this ratio increases up to 85% by utilizing information also from orientation and rotation changes. The performance of an accelerometer-only solution is compared to solutions where linear acceleration, gyroscope and magnetic field sensors are used, and it is shown that the accelerometer-only solution performs as well as utilizing other sensing information. Hence, it is not necessary to use extra sensing information where battery power consumption may increase. Additionally, I explore the impact of the performed activities on position recognition and show that the accelerometer-only solution can achieve 80% recognition accuracy with stationary activities where movement data are very limited. Finally, other phone placement problems, such as in-pocket and on-body detections, are also investigated, and higher accuracies, ranging from 88% to 93%, are reported, with an accelerometer-only solution.
Inhibition of Btk with CC-292 Provides Early Pharmacodynamic Assessment of Activity in Mice and Humans

Targeted therapies that suppress B cell receptor (BCR) signaling have emerged as promising agents in autoimmune disease and B cell malignancies. Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (Btk) plays a crucial role in B cell development and activation through the BCR signaling pathway and represents a new target for diseases characterized by inappropriate B cell activity. N-(3-(5-fluoro-2-(4-(2-methoxyethoxy)phenylamino)pyrimidin-4-ylamino)phenyl)acrylamide (CC-292) is a highly selective, covalent Btk inhibitor and a sensitive and quantitative assay that measures CC-292-Btk engagement has been developed. This translational pharmacodynamic assay has accompanied CC-292 through each step of drug discovery and development. These studies demonstrate the quantity of Btk bound by CC-292 correlates with the efficacy of CC-292 in vitro and in the collagen-induced arthritis model of autoimmune disease. Recently, CC-292 has entered human clinical trials with a trial design that has provided rapid insight into safety, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics. This first-in-human healthy volunteer trial has demonstrated that a single oral dose of 2 mg/kg CC-292 consistently engaged all circulating Btk protein and provides the basis for rational dose selection in future clinical trials. This targeted covalent drug design approach has enabled the discovery and early clinical development of CC-292 and has provided support for Btk as a valuable drug target for B-cell mediated disorders.
The tempered spectrum of quasi-split classical groups III: The odd orthogonal groups

Abstract. We study the tempered spectrum of special orthogonal groups of odd degree over p-adic fields of characteristic zero. Residues of intertwining operators for representations parabolically induced from arbitrary maximal parabolic subgroups are determined in terms of non-vanishing of weighted sums of twisted orbital integrals. This is connected with the theory of twisted endoscopy, and poles of the Langlands L-functions, in particular, with the Rankin product L-function between irreducible (generic) supercuspidal representations of the classical group SO2m+1(F) and those of GLk(F). These poles are described for, any m and k, explicitly in terms of twisted endoscopy. Moreover, we show these poles describe precisely when a supercuspidal representation of GLk(F) is the local component of the transfer from a special odd orthogonal group.
Na+-Ca2+ Exchange Current and Submembrane [Ca2+] During the Cardiac Action Potential

Na+-Ca2+ exchange (NCX) is crucial in the regulation of [Ca2+]i and cardiac contractility, but key details of its dynamic function during the heartbeat are not known. In the present study, we assess how NCX current (INCX) varies during a rabbit ventricular action potential (AP). First, we measured the steady-state voltage and [Ca2+]i dependence of INCX under conditions when [Ca2+]i was heavily buffered. We then used this relationship to infer the submembrane [Ca2+]i ([Ca2+]sm) sensed by NCX during a normal AP and [Ca2+]i transient (when the AP was interrupted to produce an INCX tail current). The [Ca2+]i dependence of INCX at −90 mV allowed us to convert the peak inward INCX tail currents to [Ca2+]sm. Peak [Ca2+]sm measured via this technique was >3.2 &mgr;mol/L within <32 ms of the AP upstroke (versus peak [Ca2+]i of 1.1 &mgr;mol/L at 81 ms measured with the global Ca2+ indicator indo-1). The voltage and [Ca2+]sm dependence of INCX allowed us to infer INCX during the normal AP and Ca2+ transient. The early rise in [Ca2+]sm causes INCX to be inward for the majority of the AP. Thus, little Ca2+ influx via NCX is expected under physiological conditions, but this can differ among species and in pathophysiological conditions.
Prevalence of Human Calicivirus Infections in Kenya as Determined by Enzyme Immunoassays for Three Genogroups of the Virus

ABSTRACT An epidemiological survey on human calicivirus (HuCV) infections and associated gastroenteritis in infants was conducted to clarify the prevalence of HuCV infections in infants and adults in Kenya. Enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) for three genogroups of HuCVs, Norwalk virus (NV), Mexico virus (MXV), and Sapporo virus (SV), were used to detect antigen or antibody. We tested 1,431 stool samples obtained from children younger than 6 years old with acute gastroenteritis who visited outpatient clinics in three districts in Kenya from August 1991 to July 1994. Thirty-two (2.2%) of these stool samples were positive for SV antigen. Only one (0.1%) of 1,186 samples was positive for NV antigen and none of 246 samples was positive for MXV antigen. One hundred ninety-three serum samples were tested for antibodies to NV and MXV, and 64 of them were examined for antibody to SV. The pattern of the age-related prevalence of serum antibody to NV was different from that of antibodies to MXV and SV. The acquisition of serum antibodies to HuCVs in the three genogroups appeared in early childhood, at about 1 to 2 years of age. The prevalence of serum antibody to NV was low (about 60%) throughout adulthood compared with a high prevalence of antibody (∼80 to 90%) to MXV and SV. These data indicate that infections with viruses in the three genogroups of HuCVs are common in Kenya, and immunological responses to NV may be different from those to MXV and SV. The EIAs for the detection of NV and MXV antigens appear to be quite specific for prototype NV and MXV strains, respectively, so that they can detect only a few strains of HuCVs related to them. Alternatively, NV and MXV caused less severe infections that did not bring children to the outpatient clinics for gastroenteritis in Kenya.
Amplifying side channels through performance degradation

Interference between processes executing on shared hardware can be used to mount performance-degradation attacks. However, in most cases, such attacks offer little benefit for the adversary. In this paper, we demonstrate that software-based performance-degradation attacks can be used to amplify side-channel leaks, enabling the adversary to increase both the amount and the quality of information captured. We identify a new information leak in the OpenSSL implementation of the ECDSA digital signature algorithm, albeit seemingly unexploitable due to the limited granularity of previous trace procurement techniques. To overcome this imposing hurdle, we combine the information leak with a microarchitectural performance-degradation attack that can slow victims down by a factor of over 150. We demonstrate how this combination enables the amplification of a side-channel sufficiently to exploit this new information leak. Using the combined attack, an adversary can break a private key of the secp256k1 curve, used in the Bitcoin protocol, after observing only 6 signatures---a four-fold improvement over all previously described attacks.
Quasispecies heterogeneity and constraints on the evolution of the 5' noncoding region of hepatitis C virus (HCV): relationship with HCV resistance to interferon-alpha therapy.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) polyprotein translation depends on direct internal entry of the 40S ribosomal subunit mediated by an internal ribosome entry segment (IRES) located in the 5' noncoding (5'NC) region of the viral genome. HCV is genetically heterogeneous and is characterized by the existence of a quasispecies distribution of the virus population within a single infected individual. Cloning and sequencing strategies were used to characterize 5'NC quasispecies genetically. Similar to coding regions, the HCV 5'NC region was distributed as a quasispecies, but it appeared to be subjected to stronger conservatory constraints than other regions of the HCV genome, probably due to the need for structural (and functional) conservation of the IRES. Indeed, most of the quasispecies substitutions were in unpaired regions of the IRES or clustered such that base-pairing was maintained, whereas only 21% were expected to result in a loss of base-pairing. Quasispecies-related structural changes could be predicted in the core cruciform of IRES domain III composed of the RNA helices which extend from the four-way junction JIIIabc, mostly in minor variants, but sometimes in major ones. The results presented here suggest the simultaneous presence in infected patients of a mixture of genetically distinct but closely related IRES sequences that may have different structures. No significant genetic changes of 5'NC quasispecies were observed after interferon-alpha treatment, except in patients with mixed genotype infection who cleared one of the infecting strains during therapy, suggesting that the quasispecies distribution of IRES sequences does not play a role in HCV resistance to interferon-alpha therapy. In contrast, the overall quasispecies distribution of HCV genomes (including IRES sequences) might participate in regulation of hepatic and extrahepatic HCV replication.
Reproductive preferences and subsequent behaviour in an rural area of Bangladesh

This thesis reports on a study of married women in Matlab, a rural area of Bangladesh. On the basis of both cross-sectional (quantitative and qualitative) and longitudinal data from the treatment and comparison areas, the study investigated reproductive preferences and their determinants, intensity of desire for more children and contraceptive use, reliability of preferences in predicting subsequent fertility and change in preferences over time. Desired family size, ideal family size and desire for more children were similar in the treatment and comparison areas; sociocultural differentials in desired family size and desire for more children were also absent. Desired family size declined by about 25 per cent over the period 1975-90 in each area and the decline was more marked for sons than for daughters; the decline was homogeneous across the woman's age and number of living children categories. For those who changed their preferences from wanting more children in 1984 to wanting no more in 1990, the interim birth had no influence on subsequent change. There were no sociocultural differentials in use of contraception except by religion in the treatment area among those who wanted no more children either in 1984 or 1990, while in the comparison area there were differentials by religion in 1984 and by education of woman in 1990. Among women who wanted a child after one year, the sociocultural differential in use of contraception existed in the treatment area in 1984 but disappeared in 1990 while in the comparison area the differentials existed by possession of items in 1984 and by education of woman in 1990. Among those who wanted a child after one year, use of contraception was lower for those who had no son than for those who had one or more sons in each year in the treatment area, but only in 1990 in the comparison area. The abortion ratio was higher for those who
Asthma: A Study in Prognosis of 1,000 Patients

It is not easy to find adequate information about the prognosis in asthma. The condition is notoriously liable to spontaneous variation, the disease is not always clearly defined, and most studies have been small, only covering short periods. In this paper I report a follow-up of 1,000 patients with asthma seen by me over a period of more than 25 years at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle.