Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Video retargeting with nonlinear spatial-temporal saliency fusion

Video retargeting (resolution adaptation) is a challenging problem for its highly subjective nature. In this paper, a nonlinear saliency fusing approach, that considers human perceptual characteristics for automatic video retargeting, is being proposed. First, we incorporate features from phase spectrum of quaternion Fourier Transform (PQFT) in spatial domain and global motion residual based on matched feature points by the Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) tracker in temporal domain. In addition, under a cropping-and-scaling retargeting framework, we propose content-aware information loss metrics and a hierarchical search to find optimal cropping window parameters. Results show the success of our approach on detecting saliency regions and retargeting on images and videos.
Velocity asymmetry of Dzyaloshinskii domain walls in the creep and flow regimes

We have carried out measurements of domain wall dynamics in a Pt/Co/GdOx(t) wedge sample with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. When driven by an easy-axis field Hz in the presence of an in-plane field Hx, the domain wall propagation is different along ± ? >x, as expected for samples presenting Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya (DMI) interaction. In the creep regime, the sign and the value of the domain wall velocity asymmetry changes along the wedge. We show that in our samples the domain wall speed versus Hx curves in the creep regime cannot be explained simply in terms of the variation of the domain wall energy with Hx, as suggested by previous works. For this reason the strength and the sign of the DMI cannot be extracted from these measurements. To obtain reliable information on the DMI strength using magnetic field-induced domain wall dynamics, measurements have been performed with high fields, bringing the DW close to the flow regime of propagation. In this case we find large values of the DMI, consistent in magnitude and sign with those obtained from Brillouin light scattering measurements.
Obesity has a greater impact on cardiovascular mortality in younger men than in older men among non-smoking Koreans.

INTRODUCTION We investigated the effects of age on the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular mortality in non-smoking Korean men. METHODS We performed a prospective cohort study of 246,146 non-smoking Korean men aged 20-69 years at baseline (1992) who were initially without history of cancer or weight change. The associations between BMI and cardiovascular risk factors and mortality during an 9-year follow-up period (2000) were stratified by age group after adjustment for family history, alcohol consumption, exercise habits, and economic status. RESULTS Calculations of odds ratios (ORs) revealed that younger men (<40 years) with greater BMI (>or=28 kg/m2) were at greater risk of high blood pressure, high blood glucose, and high total cholesterol than older men. The ORs for cardiovascular risk factors associated with greater BMI declined linearly with age. The relative risks for mortality from stroke and from all cardiovascular diseases associated with greater BMI were also higher among younger men and declined linearly with age. CONCLUSIONS The cardiovascular risk factors and mortality associated with greater BMI were higher among younger than older non-smoking Korean men. These findings indicate that obesity has a greater impact among younger men with respect to premature cardiovascular related deaths.
A Local-global Summation Formula for Abelian Varieties

Let $K$ be a field finitely generated over ${\Q}$, and $A$ an Abelian variety defined over $K$. Then by the Mordell-Weil Theorem, the set of rational points $A(K)$ is a finitely-generated Abelian group. In this paper, assuming Tate's Conjecture on algebraic cycles, we prove a limit formula for the Mordell-Weil rank of an arbitrary family of Abelian varieties $A$ over a number field $k$; this is the Abelian fibration analogue of the Nagao formula for elliptic surfaces $E$, originally conjectured by Nagao, and proven by Rosen and Silverman to be equivalent to Tate's Conjecture for $E$. We also give a short exact sequence relating the Picard Varieties of the family $A$, the parameter space, and the generic fiber, and use this to obtain an isomorphism (modulo torsion) relating the Neron-Severi group of $A$ to the Mordell-Weil group of $A$.
A Companion Galaxy to the Poststarburst Quasar UN J1025−0040

UN J1025-0040 is a quasar at z = 0.6344 that shows an extremely bright post starburst population of age ∼400 Myr (Brotherton et al.). Images of UN J1025-0040 show a nearly stellar object 4. ″2 south-southwest of the quasar. We present imaging and spectroscopy that confirm that this object is a companion galaxy at redshift z = 0.6341. We estimate an age of ∼800 Myr for the dominant stellar population in the companion. The companion appears to be interacting with the quasar host galaxy, and this interaction may have triggered both the starburst and the quasar activity in UN J1025-0040.
Diagnostic Potential of Differentially Expressed Homer1, IL-1β, and TNF-α in Coronary Artery Disease

Increasing evidences suggest that inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of coronary artery disease (CAD). Numerous inflammatory cytokines and related genes mediate adverse cardiovascular events in patients with CAD, such as interleukin-1β (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and Homer in the present study. The study was carried out on 163 CAD patients at different stages and 68 controls. The gene expression of Homer1, Homer2, Homer3, IL-1β, and TNF-α in the peripheral blood leukocytes were measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction. The mRNA levels of Homer1, IL-1β, and TNF-α in CAD patients were significantly higher than those in the control group, but not Homer2 and Homer3. However, there was no considerable difference in the mRNA levels of Homer1, IL-1β, and TNF-α among AMI, UAP, and SAP three subgroups of CAD. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves showed that Homer1 had a better diagnostic value for UAP patients compared with IL-1β and TNF-α. Like IL-1β and TNF-α, Homer1 may also be an important participant of atherosclerotic plaque development and eventually rupture. The results of the present study may provide an important basis for diagnosing CAD patients, and provide new therapeutic targets for CAD.
ATM regulation of IL-8 links oxidative stress to cancer cell migration and invasion

Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) protein kinase regulates the DNA damage response (DDR) and is associated with cancer suppression. Here we report a cancer-promoting role for ATM. ATM depletion in metastatic cancer cells reduced cell migration and invasion. Transcription analyses identified a gene network, including the chemokine IL-8, regulated by ATM. IL-8 expression required ATM and was regulated by oxidative stress. IL-8 was validated as an ATM target by its ability to rescue cell migration and invasion defects in ATM-depleted cells. Finally, ATM-depletion in human breast cancer cells reduced lung tumors in a mouse xenograft model and clinical data validated IL-8 in lung metastasis. These findings provide insights into how ATM activation by oxidative stress regulates IL-8 to sustain cell migration and invasion in cancer cells to promote metastatic potential. Thus, in addition to well-established roles in tumor suppression, these findings identify a role for ATM in tumor progression. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.07270. 001
How Do U.K. Companies Set Prices?

This paper reports the main results of a survey carried out by the Bank in the autumn of 1995 of the price-setting behaviour of 654 UK companies. It elaborates on an article in the May 1996 Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin. In the year preceding the survey, the average company reviewed its prices once a month. The extent and source of price rigidity varied across different types of company and market. Retailers reviewed and changed their prices more frequently than manufacturers. Companies operating in more competitive markets reviewed prices more often than companies with few direct competitors; but long-term relationships with customers appeared to reduce price flexibility. Despite the frequency of reviews, actual prices were only changed twice on average, indicating that there may be substantial costs of changing prices. Companies stated that the need to preserve customer relationships (due to explicit or implicit contractual arrangements) or to maintain market share were important sources of price rigidity. In addition, the overwhelming majority of companies indicated that they would be more likely to increase overtime and capacity than change their price in response to a boom in demand. There were substantial asymmetries in the factors which drive prices up and those that push prices down. Time-dependent pricing rules appeared to be much more widespread than state-dependent pricing rules, suggesting that the short-run real effects of monetary policy could increase at lower rates of inflation. Overall, the survey results indicate that UK markets do not behave as if prices are costlessly and instantaneously determined. It appears that uncertainty about the extent or permanence of changes in market conditions combined with costs of adjusting prices means that many companies' short-run response to a change in demand is to adjust output rather than price. Taking account of such behaviour could be important in explaining the short-run real effects of monetary policy.
Nanorobotic Investigation Identifies Novel Visual, Structural and Functional Correlates of Autoimmune Pathology in a Blistering Skin Disease Model

There remain major gaps in our knowledge regarding the detailed mechanisms by which autoantibodies mediate damage at the tissue level. We have undertaken novel strategies at the interface of engineering and clinical medicine to integrate nanoscale visual and structural data using nanorobotic atomic force microscopy with cell functional analyses to reveal previously unattainable details of autoimmune processes in real-time. Pemphigus vulgaris is a life-threatening autoimmune blistering skin condition in which there is disruption of desmosomal cell-cell adhesion structures that are associated with the presence of antibodies directed against specific epithelial proteins including Desmoglein (Dsg) 3. We demonstrate that pathogenic (blister-forming) anti-Dsg3 antibodies, distinct from non-pathogenic (non-blister forming) anti-Dsg3 antibodies, alter the structural and functional properties of keratinocytes in two sequential steps - an initial loss of cell adhesion and a later induction of apoptosis-related signaling pathways, but not full apoptotic cell death. We propose a “2-Hit” model for autoimmune disruption associated with skin-specific pathogenic autoantibodies. These data provide unprecedented details of autoimmune processes at the tissue level and offer a novel conceptual framework for understanding the action of self-reactive antibodies.
On Parallelepiped-Shaped Passbands for Multidimensional Nonseparable ${\bf M}$th-Band Low-Pass Filters

The ldquoshaperdquo of the desired frequency passband is an important consideration in the design of nonseparable multidimensional ( M-D) filters in M-D multirate systems. For M-D Mth-band filters, the passband shape should be chosen such that the Mth-band constraint is satisfied. The most commonly used shape of the passband for M-D Mth-band low-pass filters is the so-called symmetric parallelepiped (SPD) SPD(piM-T) . In this paper, we consider the more general parallelepiped passband SPD (piLT), and derive conditions on L such that the Mth-band constraint is satisfied. This result gives some flexibility in designing M-D Mth-band filters with parallelepiped shapes other than the commonly used case of L = M-1. We present design examples of 2-D Mth-band filters to illustrate this flexibility in the choice of L.
Melatonin reduces neuronal loss and cytoskeletal deterioration: implications for Psychiatry

This review article summarizes the potential role of circadian rhythmicity and melatonin in psychiatric disorders. The melatonin rhythm, with high blood levels at night and low values during the day, is a reflection of the biological clock, i.e., the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). The SCN receive information about the prevailing light: dark conditions from specialized ganglion cells (only 1-2% of the total ganglion cells) in the retina. These unique cells contain a newly-discovered photopigment, melanopsin, which responds to a rather narrow band width of light that peaks at roughly 480 nm. The axons of these ganglion cells project via the
Glycoform Analysis of Recombinant and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Envelope Protein gp120 via Higher Energy Collisional Dissociation and Spectral-Aligning Strategy

Envelope protein gp120 of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is armored with a dense glycan shield, which plays critical roles in envelope folding, immune-evasion, infectivity, and immunogenicity. Site-specific glycosylation profiling of recombinant gp120 is very challenging. Therefore, glycoproteomic analysis of native viral gp120 is still formidable to date. This challenge promoted us to employ a Q-Exactive mass spectrometer to identify low abundant glycopeptides from virion-associated gp120. To search the HCD-MS data for glycopeptides, a novel spectral-aligning strategy was developed. This strategy depends on the observation that glycopeptides and the corresponding deglycosylated peptides share very similar MS/MS pattern in terms of b- and y-ions that do not contain the site of glycosylation. Moreover, glycopeptides with an identical peptide backbone show nearly resembling spectra regardless of the attached glycan structures. For the recombinant gp120, this “copy–paste” spectral pattern of glycopeptides facilitated identification of 2224 spectra using only 18 spectral templates, and after precursor mass correction, 1268 (57%) spectra were assigned to 460 unique glycopeptides accommodating 19 N-linked and one O-linked glycosylation sites (glycosites). Strikingly, we were able to observe five N- and one O-linked glycosites in native gp120. We further revealed that except for Asn276 in the C2 region, glycans were processed to contain both high mannose and hybrid/complex glycans; an additional four N-linked glycosites were decorated with high mannose type. Core 1 O-linked glycan Gal1GalNAc1 was seen for the O-linked glycosite at Thr499. This direct observation of site-specific glycosylation of virion-derived gp120 has implications in HIV glycobiology and vaccine design.
Automated Energy Optimization of HTTP Requests for Mobile Applications

Energy is a critical resource for apps that run on mobile de- vices. Among all operations, making HTTP requests is one of the most energy consuming. Previous studies have shown that bundling smaller HTTP requests into a single larger HTTP request can be an effective way to improve energy efficiency of network communication, but have not defined an automated way to detect when apps can be bundled nor to transform the apps to do this bundling. In this paper we propose an approach to reduce the energy consumption of HTTP requests in Android apps by automatically detecting and then bundling multiple HTTP requests. Our approach first detects HTTP requests that can be bundled using static analysis, then uses a proxy based technique to bundle HTTP requests at runtime. We evaluated our approach on a set of real world marketplace Android apps. In this evaluation, our approach achieved an average energy reduction of 15% for the subject apps and did not impose a significant runtime overhead on the optimized apps.
Substructure in lensing clusters and simulations

We present high-resolution mass reconstructions for five massive cluster-lenses spanning a redshift range from z = 0.18 to 0.57 utilizing archival Hubble Space Telescope data and applying galaxy-galaxy lensing techniques. These detailed mass models were obtained from the observations by combining constraints from the strong and weak lensing regimes. We ascribe local weak distortions in the shear maps to perturbations induced by the presence of galaxy haloes around individual bright early-type cluster member galaxies. This technique constrains the mass enclosed within an aperture for these subhaloes. We are sensitive to a specific mass range for these subhaloes, 10 11 -10 12. 5 M ⊙ , which we associate with galaxy-scale subhaloes. Adopting a parametric model for the subhaloes, we also derive their velocity dispersion function and the aperture radius function. The mass spectrum of substructure in the inner regions of the observed clusters is directly compared with that in simulated clusters extracted from the Millennium Simulation. The mass function, aperture radii and velocity dispersion function are compared in detail. Overall, we find good agreement between the distribution of substructure properties retrieved using the lensing analysis and those obtained from the simulation. We find that the fraction of total cluster mass associated with individual subhaloes within the inner 0.5-0.8 h -1 Mpc of our clusters ranges from 10-20 per cent, in broad agreement with simulations. Our work provides a powerful test of the Lambda cold dark matter model, which appears consistent with the amount of observed substructure in massive, lensing clusters based on the present data.
Similar phenomena at different scales: black holes, the Sun, γ-ray bursts, supernovae, galaxies and galaxy clusters

Abstract Many similar phenomena occur in astrophysical systems with spatial and mass scales different by many orders of magnitudes. For examples, collimated outflows are produced from the Sun, proto-stellar systems, gamma-ray bursts, neutron star and black hole X-ray binaries, and supermassive black holes; various kinds of flares occur from the Sun, stellar coronae, X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei; shocks and particle acceleration exist in supernova remnants, gamma-ray bursts, clusters of galaxies, etc. In this report I summarize briefly these phenomena and possible physical mechanisms responsible for them. I emphasize the importance of using the Sun as an astrophysical laboratory in studying these physical processes, especially the roles magnetic fields play in them; it is quite likely that magnetic activities dominate the fundamental physical processes in all of these systems. As a case study, I show that X-ray lightcurves from solar flares, black hole binaries and gamma-ray bursts exhibit a common scaling law of non-linear dynamical properties, over a dynamical range of several orders of magnitudes in intensities, implying that many basic X-ray emission nodes or elements are inter-connected over multi-scales. A future high timing and imaging resolution solar X-ray instrument, aimed at isolating and resolving the fundamental elements of solar X-ray lightcurves, may shed new lights onto the fundamental physical mechanisms, which are common in astrophysical systems with vastly different mass and spatial scales. Using the Sun as an astrophysical laboratory, “Applied Solar Astrophysics” will deepen our understanding of many important astrophysical problems.
AN ASSESSMENT OF THE NON-GRADED SYSTEM BASED ON LEARNERS’ LEARNING SATISFACTION, BEHAVIOR, AND OUTCOMES

This study aimed to assess the Non-graded System of a progressive school which advocates self-paced and individualized mode of learning, mastery learning program, and modular approach to learning based on learners’ Learning Satisfaction, Behavior, and Outcomes. A combined evaluation model was used which is Outcome Evaluation with influence of Kirkpatrick’s’ Four Level training evaluation. The concurrent mixed method design was used in gathering and interpreting the answers provided by the respondents. Data gathering tools used include a learning satisfaction survey, school archives, individual interviews, and focused group discussions. For the learning satisfaction, 217 higher level learners were chosen using stratified random sampling and for the learning outcomes, K4-10 Summary of Learners’ Academic Performance (SLAP) of all the learners were included. Results showed that non-graded system causes less academic pressure but gives opportunities to correct mistakes; provides more engaging learning experiences; strengthens independent and individualized learning; offers opportunities for academic advancement and academic freedom; and highlights the advantages of non-existence of grades. In general, the respondents were satisfied with the non-graded system. In terms of learning outcomes, the proportions of the learners who finished their academic requirements for two academic years were very high (94.30%). Moreso, report on periodical accomplishments that focus on the self-paced learning showed that on average, 69.36% of the total learners accomplished the set targets. The identified positive changes in the behavior of the learners as a result of their learning experiences were strengthened self-reliance and self-esteem, improved patience, and appreciation towards studying. However, it was also revealed that there are a number of learners who needed to be more motivated to become more academically productive.
Colonialidade: O Lado Mais Escuro da Modernidade

Este trabalho e uma traducao da introducao do livro mais recente do semiotico e professor argentino Walter D. Mignolo: The Darker Side of Western Modernity: Global Futures, Decolonial Options (2011). Mignolo, uma das vozes contemporâneas mais importantes do chamado “pensamento descolonial”, argumenta que a “colonialidade” e o lado mais escuro da modernidade ocidental, uma matriz de poder que surgiu entre o Renascimento e o Iluminismo durante a colonizacao das Americas, e que esta culminando com o neoliberalismo capitalista dos tempos atuais. Primeiro, estabelece a tese de que a colonialidade, um conceito que foi introduzido pelo sociologo Anibal Quijano, e a “pauta oculta” da modernidade. Em seguida, explica a origem desse “monstro de quatro cabecas e duas pernas”, e analisa a formacao e as transformacoes historicas dessa “matriz colonial do poder”. Para concluir, oferece uma previa do livro, que vislumbra certos “futuros globais” enquanto explora possiveis “opcoes descoloniais”.
How reliable are the results of large-scale information retrieval experiments?

Two stages in measurement of techniques for informationretrieval are gathering of documents for relevance assessment anduse of the assessments to numerically evaluate effectiveness. Weconsider both of these stages in the context of the TRECexperiments, to determine whether they lead to measurements thatare trustworthy and fair. Our detailed empirical investigation ofthe TREC results shows that the measured relative performance ofsystems appears to be reliable, but that recall is overestimated:it is likely that many relevant documents have not been found. Wepropose a new pooling strategy that can significantly in- creasethe number of relevant documents found for given effort, withoutcompromising fairness.