Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Computer Vision and Image Understanding

Food recognition is an emerging topic in computer vision. The problem is being addressed especially in health-oriented systems where it is used as a support for food diary applications. The goal is to improve current food diaries, where the users have to manually insert their daily food intake, with an automatic recognition of the food type, quantity and consequent calories intake estimation. In addition to the classical recognition challenges, the food recognition problem is characterized by the absence of a rigid structure of the food and by large intra-class variations. To tackle such challenges, a food recognition system based on a committee classiﬁcation is proposed. The aim is to provide a system capable of automatically choosing the optimal features for food recognition out of the existing plethora of available ones (e.g., color, texture, etc.). Following this idea, each committee member, i.e., an Extreme Learning Machine, is trained to specialize on a single feature type. Then, a Structural Support Vector Machine is exploited to produce the ﬁnal ranking of possible matches by ﬁltering out the irrelevant features and thus merging only the relevant ones. Experimental results show that the proposed system outperforms state-of-the-art works on four publicly available benchmark datasets.
Skeletal muscle metabolic adaptations to endurance exercise training are attainable in mice with simvastatin treatment

We tested the hypothesis that a 6-week regimen of simvastatin would attenuate skeletal muscle adaptation to low-intensity exercise. Male C57BL/6J wildtype mice were subjected to 6-weeks of voluntary wheel running or normal cage activities with or without simvastatin treatment (20 mg/kg/d, n = 7–8 per group). Adaptations in in vivo fatigue resistance were determined by a treadmill running test, and by ankle plantarflexor contractile assessment. The tibialis anterior, gastrocnemius, and plantaris muscles were evaluated for exercised-induced mitochondrial adaptations (i.e., biogenesis, function, autophagy). There was no difference in weekly wheel running distance between control and simvastatin-treated mice (P = 0.51). Trained mice had greater treadmill running distance (296%, P<0.001), and ankle plantarflexor contractile fatigue resistance (9%, P<0.05) compared to sedentary mice, independent of simvastatin treatment. At the cellular level, trained mice had greater mitochondrial biogenesis (e.g., ~2-fold greater PGC1α expression, P<0.05) and mitochondrial content (e.g., 25% greater citrate synthase activity, P<0.05), independent of simvastatin treatment. Mitochondrial autophagy-related protein contents were greater in trained mice (e.g., 40% greater Bnip3, P<0.05), independent of simvastatin treatment. However, Drp1, a marker of mitochondrial fission, was less in simvastatin treated mice, independent of exercise training, and there was a significant interaction between training and statin treatment (P<0.022) for LC3-II protein content, a marker of autophagy flux. These data indicate that whole body and skeletal muscle adaptations to endurance exercise training are attainable with simvastatin treatment, but simvastatin may have side effects on muscle mitochondrial maintenance via autophagy, which could have long-term implications on muscle health.
Two-dimensional transistors based on MoS2 lateral heterostructures

We propose two types of transistors based on lateral heterostructures of metallic and semiconducting phases of monolayer MoS2, whose top-down patterning has been recently demonstrated via electron beam irradiation [1]. The proposed transistors a MoS2 lateral heterostructure FET, and a “planar barristor”, a gate Schottky diode that is the full 2D counterpart of the graphene barristor device proposed in [2]. We evaluate their performance with ab-initio simulations using as a benchmark the CMOS technology roadmap.
Oat β-glucan supplementation does not enhance the effectiveness of an energy-restricted diet in overweight women

Epidemiological evidence shows an inverse relationship between dietary fibre intake and body weight gain. Oat β-glucan, a soluble fibre alters appetite hormones and subjective satiety in acute meal test studies, but its effects have not been demonstrated with chronic consumption. The present study aimed to test the effects in women of two different doses of oat β-glucan on weight loss and hormones associated with appetite regulation. In a 3-month parallel trial, sixty-six overweight females were randomised into one of three 2 MJ energy-deficit diets: a control and two interventions including 5–6 g or 8–9 g β-glucan. Anthropometric and metabolic variables (blood glucose level, insulin, total cholesterol (TC), LDL, HDL, TAG and leptin), together with markers of appetite regulation (cholecystokinin (CCK), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), ghrelin, peptide YY (PYY) and PYY3-36) were measured at baseline and at 3 months. After 3 months, all groups lost weight (P < 0·001) and showed a reduced waist circumference (P < 0·001). The study sample also showed reductions in TC, LDL, HDL, leptin, PYY, GLP-1 values (all P < 0·001) and an increase in CCK levels (P < 0·001). No significant differences were noted between the groups for all outcome values except PYY levels (P = 0·018). In broad terms, the addition of oat β-glucan did not enhance the effect of energy restriction on weight loss in mildly overweight women, although wide variations in observed results suggests that individual responsiveness may be an issue.
The enhancement of glucose uptake caused by the collapse of gap junction communication is due to an increase in astrocyte proliferation

We have previously shown that several gap junction uncouplers increase the uptake of glucose in astrocytes. The aim of the present work was to study whether the increase in glucose uptake was a consequence of the inhibition of gap junction communication and the purpose of this effect. Our results show that α‐glycyrrhetinic acid and endothelin‐1 increase the uptake of glucose in highly, but not in poorly, coupled astrocytes. This effect depended on connexin 43 levels and was abolished when the inhibition of gap junction communication was prevented by tolbutamide or ouabain. The inhibition of gap junctions increased the rate of glucose incorporation into DNA and RNA, which was inhibited by treatment with dehydroepiandrosterone, an inhibitor of glucose‐6‐phosphate dehydrogenase, the regulatory enzyme of the pentose phosphate pathway. The inhibition of gap junctions significantly increased astrocyte proliferation, which was counteracted by tolbutamide. These effects were not observed in poorly coupled astrocytes expressing low levels of connexin 43. The increase in astrocyte proliferation caused by gap junction inhibition was prevented when either glucose uptake or the pentose phosphate pathway were inhibited. We conclude that the inhibition of gap junction communication induces astrocyte proliferation, resulting in an enhancement of glucose uptake and its utilization through the pentose phosphate pathway to provide ribose‐5‐phosphate for the synthesis of nucleic acids.
Orchestration of Grid-Enabled Geospatial Web Services in Geoscientific Workflows

The need for computational resources capable of processing geospatial data has accelerated the uptake of geospatial web services. Several academic and commercial organizations now offer geospatial web services for data provision, coordinate transformation, geocoding and several other tasks. These web services adopt specifications developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) - the leading standardization body for Geographic Information Systems. In parallel with efforts of the OGC, the Grid computing community has published specifications for developing Grid applications. The Open Grid Forum (OGF) is the main body that promotes interoperability between Grid computing systems. This study examines the integration of Grid services and geospatial web services into workflows for Geoscientific processing. An architecture is proposed that bridges web services based on the abstract geospatial architecture (ISO19119) and the Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA). The paper presents a workflow management system, called SAW-GEO, that supports orchestration of Grid-enabled geospatial web services. An implementation of SAW-GEO is presented, based on both the Simple Conceptual Unified Flow Language (SCUFL) and the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (WS-BPEL or BPEL for short).
Fra-1/AP-1 Transcription Factor Negatively Regulates Pulmonary Fibrosis In Vivo

The Fra-1/AP-1 transcription factor plays a key role in tumor epithelial cell progression; however, its role in pathogenic lung fibrosis remains unclear. In the present study, using a genetic approach (Fra-1 deficient mice), we have demonstrated a novel regulatory (protective) role for Fra-1 in lung fibrosis. We found greater levels of progressive interstitial fibrosis, characterized by increased levels of inflammation, collagen accumulation, and profibrotic and fibrotic gene expression in the lungs of Fra-1 Δ/Δ mice than in those of Fra-1+/+ mice following bleomycin treatment. Fra-1 knockdown in human lung epithelial cells caused the upregulation of mesenchymal marker N-cadherin, concomitant with a downregulation of the epithelial phenotype marker E-cadherin, under basal conditions and in response to bleomycin and TGF-β1. Furthermore, Fra-1 knockdown caused an enhanced expression of type 1 collagen and the downregulation of collagenase (MMP-1 and MMP-13) gene expression in human lung epithelial cells. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that Fra-1 mediates anti-fibrotic effects in the lung through the modulation of proinflammatory, profibrotic and fibrotic gene expression, and suggests that the Fra-1 transcription factor may be a potential target for pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive disorder with poor prognosis and treatment.
Static vs. dynamic modeling of human nonverbal behavior from multiple cues and modalities

Human nonverbal behavior recognition from multiple cues and modalities has attracted a lot of interest in recent years. Despite the interest, many research questions, including the type of feature representation, choice of static vs. dynamic classification schemes, the number and type of cues or modalities to use, and the optimal way of fusing these, remain open research questions. This paper compares frame-based vs window-based feature representation and employs static vs. dynamic classification schemes for two distinct problems in the field of automatic human nonverbal behavior analysis: multicue discrimination between posed and spontaneous smiles from facial expressions, head and shoulder movements, and audio-visual discrimination between laughter and speech. Single cue and single modality results are compared to multicue and multimodal results by employing Neural Networks, Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), and 2- and 3-chain coupled HMMs. Subject independent experimental evaluation shows that: 1) both for static and dynamic classification, fusing data coming from multiple cues and modalities proves useful to the overall task of recognition, 2) the type of feature representation appears to have a direct impact on the classification performance, and 3) static classification is comparable to dynamic classification both for multicue discrimination between posed and spontaneous smiles, and audio-visual discrimination between laughter and speech.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE ACTIVITY OF ADENOSINE TRIPHOSPHATASE AND OTHER PHOSPHATASES AS MEASURED BY HISTOCHEMICAL TECHNIQUES

Higher phosphatase activity toward ATP and other substrates occurred at alkaline pH in thin (5 µ), unfixed, frozen sections incubated in the medium described by Gomori ('41) than when treated with the medium employed by Maengwyn-Davies et al ('52). This difference in activities was caused principally by the salt content of the media. High sodium acetate concentration was strongly inhibitory to phosphatase activity toward adenosine triphosphate and α, β sodium glycerophosphate The pH optimum of phosphatase activity of frozen sections toward adenosine triphosphate varied with the composition of the incubating medium. The localization of phosphatase activity toward adenosine triphosphate in cardiac muscle varied with substrate concentration, with nuclear staining becoming more prominent with increased adenosine triphosphate concentrations. The localization of phosphatase activity was not affected by the concentrations of α,β sodium glycerophosphate and adenosine-5-phosphate used, but the most rapid staining occurred with the highest concentrations.
Guilt in the body and brain : a psychophysiological and neuroimaging investigation

Guilt in the Body and Brain: A Psychophysiological and Neuroimaging Investigation Melike M. Fourie Guilt has been described as a quintessential moral emotion with an important regulatory function for the individual and society. Few studies have, however, empirically investigated guilt, largely because of challenges associated with its real-time elicitation. I aimed to elucidate the physiological and neural correlates of guilt by developing two novel emotion elicitation paradigms. In Study 1, I examined the cardiovascular physiology of guilt and pride in 49 females to uncover physiological substrates underpinning these emotions‟ behavioural motivations. Although both emotions motivate prosocial behaviour, guilt typically inhibits ongoing behaviour, whereas pride reinforces current behaviour. To succeed in eliciting real emotions, I employed a novel social psychology interaction task. Results pointed to dissociable sympathetic activation during guilt and pride: Guilt participants experienced prolonged cardiac sympathetic arousal as measured by preejection period, whereas Pride participants experienced transient noncardiac somatic arousal and a shift to low frequency power in the cardiac spectrogram. These findings also supported their distinctive motivational functions. For Study 2, I developed an fMRI social prejudice paradigm using a modified version of the Implicit Association Test. The paradigm employed preprogrammed feedback, indicating either high or non-existent implicit prejudice, to elicit guilt and pride in 22 low-prejudice individuals. fMRI results indicated that the current experience of guilt was associated with increased activity in anterior paralimbic structures (anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula), as well as in areas associated with mentalising (medial frontal cortex, posterior cingulate, and precuneus). No significant activations were observed for the pride condition. Significant negative correlations between self-reports of guilt and neural activity were also observed in the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex and right posterior insula. These findings may reflect either decreased vagal efference during guilt, or individual differences in a regulatory response to block affective pain. Both studies confirmed that guilt may be reliably elicited with real-time laboratory paradigms. In addition, acute guilt‟s prominent association with higher self-reported Behavioural Inhibition System sensitivity and conflict-related supragenual anterior cingulate cortex activity provide support for its function as a punishment cue that interrupts ongoing behaviour before ameliorative actions are initiated.
Age-related IQ decline is reduced markedly after adjustment for the Flynn effect

Twenty-year-olds outperform 70-year-olds by as much as 2.3 standard deviations (35 IQ points) on subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). We show that most of the difference can be attributed to an intergenerational rise in IQ known as the Flynn effect. Normative data from different versions of the WAIS enabled us to estimate the degree to which the Flynn effect, rather than age-related decline, contributes to differences between 20- and 70-year-olds. The Flynn effect accounted for 38–67% of the apparent age-related decline on 6 of the 11 subtests. On the other 5 subtests, all of which are categorized as verbal, the Flynn effect was larger than the age-group difference. For these verbal subtests, the Flynn effect masked a modest increase in ability as individuals grow older. Overall, the Flynn effect accounted for at least 85% of the disparity between 20‐ and 70-year-olds.
An exploratory model of MPR offence progression: the role of self-regulation and male peer support in duo rape offences

Multiple perpetrator rape (MPR) has been the focus of relatively little empirical scrutiny, and the difficulty faced by the legal system in securing convictions (Horvath & Kelly, 2009). The primary aim of this thesis is to provide a meaningful exploration of interpersonal dynamics at work in MPR offences with a particular focus on those offences committed by two perpetrators (duos), the most commonly occurring type of MPR (DaSilva, Woodhams, & Harkins, 2012; Lambine, 2012). Better understanding has been sought here through the development of an exploratory offence progression model that attempts to synthesize two empirically supported offending theories: self-regulation and male peer support. Mixed methodological techniques were adopted, beginning with a quantitative study of police recorded MPR cases comparing duo, trio, and 4+ offending groups. This was followed by a qualitative study, focusing upon the possible role of male peer support in propagating atmospheres, dialogue, and behaviours conducive to misogyny and woman abuse, in a sample of sportsmen. Finally, incarcerated duo rapists were interviewed to gain perspective on the possibility of male peer support influencing their offending behaviours. Findings from thematic analyses of the qualitative studies suggest that interactions of certain all-male groups can result in an atmosphere of normalised misogyny that is an important contributor to individual acceptance of woman abuse, and in some cases, MPR in duo offending groups. The proposed model found some empirical support from study findings, and was elucidated and further refined in light of findings from each study, which are further elaborated in the context of reflexivity, limitations, and directions for the future.
Evaluating the effect of information presentation strategies on task success and user perceptions

In this paper we present results of a Wizard-of-Oz (WoZ) experiment comparing two approaches to information presentation in spoken dialogue systems. We show that the usermodel based summarizeand-refine (UMSR) approach leads to increased task efficiency in comparison with the summarize-andrefine (SR) approach. Moreover, user ratings on four evaluation criteria demonstrated a clear preference for recommendations based on the UMSR approach to information presentation. 123
Feeding Preferences of Abyssal Macrofauna Inferred from In Situ Pulse Chase Experiments

Climatic fluctuations may significantly alter the taxonomic and biochemical composition of phytoplankton blooms and subsequently phytodetritus, the food source for the majority of deep-sea communities. To examine the response of abyssal benthic communities to different food resources we simulated a food sedimentation event containing diatoms and coccolithophorids at Station M in the NE Pacific. In one set of experiments we measured incorporation of diatomC and coccoN into the macrofauna using isotopically enriched 13C-diatoms and 15N-coccolithophores. In a second experiment we measured incorporation of C and N from dual-labelled (13C and 15N) diatoms. The second experiment was repeated 2 months later to assess the effect of seasonality. The simulated food pulses represented additions of 650 – 800 mg C m−2 and 120 mg N m−2 to the seafloor. In all cases rapid incorporation of tracer was observed within 4 days, with between 20% and 52% of the macrofauna displaying evidence of enrichment. However, incorporation levels of both diatomC and coccoN were low (<0.05% and 0.005% of the added C and N). Incorporation of labelled diatoms was similar during both June and September suggesting that the community was not food limited during either period. We found no evidence for selective ingestion of the different food types in the metazoan fauna suggesting that macrofauna do not have strong preferences for diatom vs. coccolithophore dominated phytodetrital pulses. C∶N ratios from both experiments suggest that the metazoan macrofauna community appear to have higher C demands and/or assimilation efficiencies compared to N. Concomitantly, the foraminifera preferentially selected for diatomN over coccoN, and we suggest that this may be related to foraminiferal requirements for intracellular nitrate. These experiments provide evidence that abyssal faunal feeding strategies are in part driven by an organism's internal stoichiometric budgets and biochemical requirements.
Hypotonicity and cell volume regulation in shark rectal gland: role of organic osmolytes and F-actin.

Hypotonic stress (reduction of external tonicity from approximately 900 mosM and 295 mM NaCl to approximately 600 mosM and 135 mM NaCl) produced a relatively slow regulatory volume decrease (RVD) in dogfish shark (Squalus acanthias) rectal gland cells. During the 5-h experiment, cell K+ content remained unchanged; cell content of Na+ and Cl- dropped in the initial swelling phase by some 50% (reflecting the corresponding reduction in medium NaCl), and then remained unchanged during volume recovery phase. Also, cellular fluxes of 86Rb+ and urea were not affected by hypotonic stress. However, hypotonicity enhanced 10- to 20-fold the efflux of organic cell osmolytes taurine, betaine, and trimethyloxamine, and this accounted for the loss of osmotically obliged water during RVD. Enhancement of osmolyte efflux by hypotonic stress was abolished by readjusting the low-Na+ saline to isotonicity (approximately 900 mosM) with innocuous cations (choline+, Li+, or N-methylglucamine+). The results suggest that reduction of medium tonicity may be the determinant for the RVD response to hypotonic stress. The above properties of the observed RVD were also displayed when studying changes on cell F-actin at the basolateral cell face; hypotonic stress (medium with 135 mM NaCl) produced a rapid disappearance of fluorescence related to this cytoskeletal component, whereas no such changes were seen in low-Na+ salines made isotonic with choline or N-methylglucamine chloride nor in a saline made hyposmolar by omitting urea. Hence, hypotonicity is required to affect F-actin organization (depolymerization? ). These changes of F-actin fluorescence are transient; they were completed within 5-10 min of hypotonic stress, and afterwards a gradual reconstitution of cell F-actin organization was seen. The above observations are consistent with the assumption that, in shark rectal gland cells, transient loss of cytoskeleton (F-actin) organization at the basolateral cell face, induced by hypotonicity, brings about a selective efflux of organic osmolytes, thus producing the observed RVD.
A cryptographic algorithm based on Linear Feedback Shift Register

With the develop of network security, problems in traditional security encryption mode have appeared, such as low security and flexibility, and high overhead. This paper presents a new security encryption model based on improved LFSR (Linear Feedback Shift Register), which combines the high flexibility and low cost of the shift register and the characteristics of the high-speed and reconfigurable performance of FPGA, thereby allowing the system to achieve the purpose of low-cost, real-time allocation algorithm and reorganization of security policy document. This paper elaborates on the model of improved linear feedback shift register encryption algorithm encryption theory, and then introduced the FPGA algorithms and Reconstructable technologies. Finally, with the diagram analysis about the encryption and the valuation of total function, it has been proved that the arithmetic has good cost advantage and reconfigure ability is assured.