Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Real-Time Face Identification via CNN and Boosted Hashing Forest

The family of real-time face representations is obtained via Convolutional Network with Hashing Forest (CNHF). We learn the CNN, then transform CNN to the multiple convolution architecture and finally learn the output hashing transform via new Boosted Hashing Forest (BHF) technique. This BHF generalizes the Boosted SSC approach for hashing learning with joint optimization of face verification and identification. CNHF is trained on CASIA-WebFace dataset and evaluated on LFW dataset. We code the output of single CNN with 97% on LFW. For Hamming embedding we get CBHF-200 bit (25 byte) code with 96.3% and 2000-bit code with 98.14% on LFW. CNHF with 2000×7-bit hashing trees achieves 93% rank-1 on LFW relative to basic CNN 89.9% rank-1. CNHF generates templates at the rate of 40+ fps with CPU Core i7 and 120+ fps with GPU GeForce GTX 650.
Glucocorticoids Enhance the Excitability of Principal Basolateral Amygdala Neurons

A large body of pharmaco-behavioral data implicates the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (BLA) in the facilitation of memory consolidation by emotions. Overall, this evidence suggests that stress hormones released during emotional arousal increase the activity of BLA neurons. In turn, this increased BLA activity would facilitate synaptic plasticity elsewhere in the brain, to which the BLA projects. However, the direct effects of glucocorticoids on BLA neurons are incompletely understood. In the present study, we examined the direct effects of corticosterone (CORT) on principal neurons of the rat BLA in vitro using whole-cell patch-clamp recordings. We found that application of a stress level of CORT for 20 min caused significant changes in the passive properties and responsiveness of BLA cells measured 1–2 h later. Indeed, CORT application produced a depolarization of the resting potential, an increase in input resistance, and a dramatic decrease in spike-frequency adaptation. In addition, GABAA IPSPs evoked by stimulation of the external capsule were significantly reduced by CORT application. This effect of CORT was not attributable to a reduction in the amount of GABA released because GABAB IPSPs were unchanged and the resistance drop associated with GABAA IPSPs was not altered. Rather, we found that this effect of CORT resulted from a positive shift of the GABAA reversal potential. Overall, these results suggest that, in agreement with previous behavioral findings, glucocorticoids enhance the excitability of principal BLA cells by increasing their intrinsic excitability and decreasing the impact of GABAA IPSPs.
Metabonomics Study of the Therapeutic Mechanism of Gynostemma pentaphyllum and Atorvastatin for Hyperlipidemia in Rats

Gynostemma pentaphyllum (GP) is widely used for the treatment of diseases such as hyperlipidemia, fatty liver and obesity in China, and atorvastatin is broadly used as an anti-hyperlipidemia drug. This research focuses on the plasma and liver metabolites in the following four groups of rats: control, a hyperlipidemia model, a hyperlipidemia model treated with GP and a hyperlipidemia model treated with atorvastatin. Using 1H-NMR-based metabonomics, we elucidated the therapeutic mechanisms of GP and atorvastatin. Orthogonal Partial Least Squares-Discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) plotting of the metabolic state and analysis of potential biomarkers in the plasma and liver correlated well with the results of biochemical assays. GP can effectively affect lipid metabolism, and it exerts its anti-hyperlipidemia effect by elevating the level of phosphatidylcholine and decreasing the level of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO). In contrast, atorvastatin affects hyperlipidemia mainly during lipid metabolism and protein metabolism in vivo.
Recharge estimation and soil moisture dynamics in a Mediterranean, semi-arid karst region

Knowledge of soil moisture dynamics in the unsaturated soil zone provides valuable information on the temporal and spatial variability of groundwater recharge. This is especially true for the Mediterranean region, where a substantial fraction of long-term groundwater recharge is expected to occur during high magnitude precipitation events of above-average wet winters. To elucidate process understanding of infiltration processes during these extreme events, a monitoring network of precipitation gauges, meteorological stations, and soil moisture plots was installed in an area with a steep climatic gradient in the Jordan Valley region. In three soil moisture plots, Hydrus-1D was used to simulate water movement in the unsaturated soil zone with soil hydraulic parameters estimated by the Shuffled Complex Evolution Metropolis algorithm. To generalize our results, we modified soil depth and rainfall input to simulate the effect of the pronounced climatic gradient and soil depth variability on percolation fluxes and applied the calibrated model to a time series with 62 years of meteorological data. Soil moisture measurements showed a pronounced seasonality and suggested rapid infiltration during heavy rainstorms. Hydrus-1D successfully simulated short and long-term soil moisture patterns, with the majority of simulated deep percolation occurring during a few intensive rainfall events. Temperature drops in a nearby groundwater well were observed synchronously with simulated percolation pulses, indicating rapid groundwater recharge mechanisms. The 62-year model run yielded annual percolation fluxes of up to 66% of precipitation depths during wet years and of 0% during dry years. Furthermore, a dependence of recharge on the temporal rainfall distribution could be shown. Strong correlations between depth of recharge and soil depth were also observed.
Robust prediction in many parameter models: Speci c control of variance and bias

The specification discloses a pair of valve caps for a phase contacting column in which the valve caps of the pair are linked together underneath the separator plate. The caps may be formed as a single composite unit, as a pair of complete caps for connecting one to another, or as a collection of at least three components which may be assembled to form a composite unit of two caps.
Environmental enrichment and voluntary exercise massively increase neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus via dissociable pathways

Environmental enrichment (EE) and voluntary exercise (VEx) have consistently been shown to increase adult hippocampal neurogenesis and improve spatial learning ability. Although it appears that these two manipulations are equivalent in this regard, evidence exists that EE and VEx affect different phases of the neurogenic process in distinct ways. We review the data suggesting that EE increases the likelihood of survival of new cells, whereas VEx increases the level of proliferation of progenitor cells. We then outline the factors that may mediate these relationships. Finally, we provide a model showing that VEx leads to the convergence of key somatic and cerebral factors in the dentate gyrus (DG) to induce cell proliferation. Although insufficient evidence exists to provide a similar model for EE, we suggest that EE‐induced cell survival in the DG involves cortical restructuring as a means of promoting survival. We conclude that EE and VEx lead to an increase in overall hippocampal neurogenesis via dissociable pathways, and should therefore, be considered distinct interventions with regard to hippocampal plasticity and associated behaviors. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Requirements Traceability for Object Oriented Systems by Partitioning Source Code

Requirements trace ability ensures that source code is consistent with documentation and that all requirements have been implemented. During software evolution, features are added, removed, or modified, the code drifts away from its original requirements. Thus trace ability recovery approaches becomes necessary to re-establish the trace ability relations between requirements and source code. This paper presents an approach (Coparvo) complementary to existing trace ability recovery approaches for object-oriented programs. Coparvo reduces false positive links recovered by traditional trace ability recovery processes thus reducing the manual validation effort. Coparvo assumes that information extracted from different entities (i.e., class names, comments, class variables, or methods signatures) are different information sources, they may have different level of reliability in requirements trace ability and each information source may act as a different expert recommending trace ability links. We applied Coparvo on three data sets, Pooka, SIP Communicator, and iTrust, to filter out false positive links recovered via the information retrieval approach, i.e., vector space model. The results show that Coparvo significantly improves the of the recovered links accuracy and also reduces up to 83% effort required to manually remove false positive links.
Is BGP update storm a sign of trouble: Observing the internet control and data planes during internet worms

There are considerable reasons to wish to understand the relationship between the Internet’s control and data plane s in times for stress. For example, the much publicized Internet worms—Code Red, Nimda and SQL Slammer—caused BGP storms, but there has been comparatively little study of whether the storms impacted network performance. In this paper, we study these worm events and see whether the BGP storms observed during the worms actually corresponded to problems in the Internet’s data plane. By processing and analyzing two datasets from RIPE, we have found that while BGP update storms occurred in all three worms, the performance of the data plane degraded during the Slammer worm but did not during the Code Red and the Nimda. No direct correlation should be drawn between the degradation of the Internet data plane and the occurrence of a BGP update storm—it may not be a sign of trouble but a sign of the Internet control plane doing its job.
Automatic Segmentation of Ovarian Follicle Using K-Means Clustering

Automatic detection of human ovarian follicles has been of increasing interest in recent years and is a significant area of women's health. Improper development of ovarian follicles has been an important reason for infertility in women. Currently, detection of ovarian follicle is done through diagnostic imaging technique called ultrasonography. Follicles differ in shape and colour. Further, the camouflaging characteristic of ultrasound images and the presence of speckle noise make the follicle detection a challenging task. In this paper, a novel method for automatic recognition of follicles in ultrasound images is proposed. Discrete wavelet transform based k-means clustering is proposed. Discrete wavelet transform is preferred due to its superior spectral temporal resolution that helps in despeckling the ultrasound images. K-means clustering is used to segment the image into different anatomical structures to yield better segmentation. Structural Similarity (SSIM), False Acceptance Rate (FAR) and False Rejection Rate (FRR) are used to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method.
Regional Rainfall Forecasting using Large Scale Climate Teleconnections and Artificial Intelligence Techniques

This paper presents an Artificial Intelligence approach for regional rainfall forecasting for Orissa state, India on monthly and seasonal time scales. The possible relation between regional rainfall over Orissa and the large scale climate indices like El-Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), EQUitorial INdian Ocean Oscillation (EQUINOO) and a local climate index of Ocean-Land Temperature Contrast (OLTC) are studied first and then used to forecast monsoon rainfall. To handle the highly non-linear and complex behavior of the climatic variables for forecasting the rainfall, this study employs Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) methodology. To optimize the ANN architecture, Genetic Optimizer (GO) is used. After identifying the lagged relation between climate indices and monthly rainfall, the rainfall values are forecast for the summer monsoon months of June, July, August, and September (JJAS) individually, as well as for total monsoon rainfall. The models are trained individually for monthly and for seasonal rainfall forecasting. Then the trained models are tested to evaluate the performance of the model. The results show reasonably good accuracy for monthly and seasonal rainfall forecasting. This study emphasizes the value of using large-scale climate teleconnections for regional rainfall forecasting and the significance of Artificial Intelligence approaches like GO and ANNs in predicting the uncertain rainfall.
Partition test and sexual motivation in male mice

Theoretical analysis of own and literature investigations of sexual motivation with the use of the partition test [Kudryavtseva, 1987, 1994] in male mice was carried out. It has been shown that appearance of a receptive female in the neighboring compartment of common cage separated by perforated transparent partition produces the enhancement of testosterone level in blood and stimulates the behavioral activity near partition as a reaction to the receptive female in naive males. In many studies this behavioral activity is considered as sexual motivation, arising in this experimental context in male mice. The lack of correlation between behavioral parameters and gonad reaction of males on receptive female, uninterconnected changes of these two parameters as well as the lack of sexual behavior between naive male and female when partition is removed cast doubt on this data interpretation. It has been supposed that in naive males behavioral reaction to a receptive female is induced by positive incentive - odor of the female associated with nursing and warmth from mother and other females which look after posterity. Short-term increase of the level of testosterone (possessing rewarding properties) is innate stimulus-response reaction which stimulates and prolongs behavioral interest of male to receptive female. It has been supposed that after sexual experience female odor is associated in experienced males with sexual behavior directed to the sexual partner and resulted in the formation of sexual motivation. The data are considered also in the light of the theory of motivated behavior including "liking", "wanting" and "learning" [Robinson and Berridge, 1993, 2000].
Antecedents Of Information Systems Habit In Sporadic Use Of Learning Systems: Personalization And Peer Effects

Research on Information Systems (IS) habit formation has been focused mostly on IS habit’s effect on IS continuance. Antecedents of IS habit formation, as reported in the literature, are primarily on users’ prior behavior and comprehensiveness of usage. Most of the literature focus on analyzing the relationship between users’ IS usage behavior and IS habit. Limited work has been reported to investigate genuine and practical ways to develop IS habit, as well as to address the issue of sporadic IS usage, which leads to different interpretations on IS habit and continuance. This study purports to address the theoretical gap on issues related to IS habit antecedents and sporadic IS usage habit in the educational context. Adopting an empirical survey in universities’ (sub-degree and postgraduate settings) learning systems usage, data from cross-sectional survey on learning systems usage on percourse basis is analyzed. Theoretically, our results suggest that IT functionality design (personalization) and social factor (peer effect) have strong and positive relationship on IS habit with respect to the sporadic usage nature of course based learning systems. Practically, we suggest some dimensions for teachers on curriculum design that facilitate IS habit development, e.g., maintaining an online community with substantial student peer input at the early stage of a course.
Nonadiabatic Molecular Dynamics Based on Trajectories

Performing molecular dynamics in electronically excited states requires the inclusion of nonadiabatic effects to properly describe phenomena beyond the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. This article provides a survey of selected nonadiabatic methods based on quantum or classical trajectories. Among these techniques, trajectory surface hopping constitutes an interesting compromise between accuracy and efficiency for the simulation of medium- to large-scale molecular systems. This approach is, however, based on non-rigorous approximations that could compromise, in some cases, the correct description of the nonadiabatic effects under consideration and hamper a systematic improvement of the theory. With the help of an in principle exact description of nonadiabatic dynamics based on Bohmian quantum trajectories, we will investigate the origin of the main approximations in trajectory surface hopping and illustrate some of the limits of this approach by means of a few simple examples.
Evaluation of the Melbourne street to home program: final report

This report examines the 24 month outcomes of the Melbourne Street to Home service. Melbourne Street to Home is designed to end chronic homelessness using a Housing First approach. The report found that 70% of the participants were housed and most (80%) had maintained their housing for over a year. The report notes however that those who became homeless at a younger age (18 or younger) were less successful at exiting homelessness than those who first became homeless as adults.
Converging measurement of horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism

The constructs of horizontal (H) and vertical (V) individualism (I) and collectivism (C) were theoretically defined and empirically supported. Study 1 confirmed, via factor analysis, that the 4 constructs, HI, VI, HC, and VC, which were previously found in the United States, which has an individualist culture, also were found in Korea, which has a collectivist culture. Study 2 investigated multimethod-multitrait matrices measuring the constructs and generally supported their convergent and divergent validity. Study 3 showed how these 4 constructs relate to previously identified components by H. C. Triandis and colleagues. Study 4 showed the relationships of the measurement of the 4 constructs to some of the measures used by other researchers.
A new kind of learning algorithm with the mechanism of intrinsic motivation

This paper presents a new kind of learning algorithm to help agents learn sensorimotor skills through their contact with the environment. The learning mechanism is based on Skinner's theory of operant conditioning (OC), which is improving the probabilities of good actions, and reducing the probabilities of bad actions. The concept of curiosity is introduced as the intrinsic motivation for an agent to learn. Using this algorithm to a robot with the task of right handshaking, the effectiveness of the algorithm is proved. The curiosity in this paper is new designed, and introduced as one factor that may affect the learning process. Its role and function are analyzed at the end of the paper.
Properties of three iridovirus-like agents associated with systemic infections of fish.

Three iridovirus-like agents associated with systemic infections in fish were examined by electron microscopy, gel electrophoresis of virion polypeptides and serological cross reactions with hyperimmune rabbit sera. The virus associated with epizootic hematopoietic necrosis (EHN) of redfin perch Perca fluviatilis in Australia, the virus from sheatfish Siluris glanis in Germany and a recently isolated iridovirus-like agent from catfish Ictalurus melas in France shared similar virion morphology and size, number and weight of structural polypeptides and common antigens as shown by cross immunofluorescence tests. The characteristics of these 3 piscine viruses and their strilung similarity to frog virus 3, the type strain of the Ranavirus genus in the family Iridoviridae, suggest that they should be grouped into the same genus. The presence of similar agents in fish and amphibians emphasizes the potential adaptation and evolution of serious viral pathogens among these aquatic hosts and further complicates programs aimed at preventing or controlling the spread of fish viruses.
Memory Trace in Feeding Neural Circuitry Underlying Conditioned Taste Aversion in Lymnaea

Background The pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis can maintain a conditioned taste aversion (CTA) as a long-term memory. Previous studies have shown that the inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP) evoked in the neuron 1 medial (N1M) cell by activation of the cerebral giant cell (CGC) in taste aversion-trained snails was larger and lasted longer than that in control snails. The N1M cell is one of the interneurons in the feeding central pattern generator (CPG), and the CGC is a key regulatory neuron for the feeding CPG. Methodology/Principle Findings Previous studies have suggested that the neural circuit between the CGC and the N1M cell consists of two synaptic connections: (1) the excitatory connection from the CGC to the neuron 3 tonic (N3t) cell and (2) the inhibitory connection from the N3t cell to the N1M cell. However, because the N3t cell is too small to access consistently by electrophysiological methods, in the present study the synaptic inputs from the CGC to the N3t cell and those from the N3t cell to the N1M cell were monitored as the monosynaptic excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) recorded in the large B1 and B3 motor neurons, respectively. The evoked monosynaptic EPSPs of the B1 motor neurons in the brains isolated from the taste aversion-trained snails were identical to those in the control snails, whereas the spontaneous monosynaptic EPSPs of the B3 motor neurons were significantly enlarged. Conclusion/Significance These results suggest that, after taste aversion training, the monosynaptic inputs from the N3t cell to the following neurons including the N1M cell are specifically facilitated. That is, one of the memory traces for taste aversion remains as an increase in neurotransmitter released from the N3t cell. We thus conclude that the N3t cell suppresses the N1M cell in the feeding CPG, in response to the conditioned stimulus in Lymnaea CTA.
Upper limits on neutrino masses from the 2dFGRS and WMAP: the role of priors

Solar, atmospheric, and reactor neutrino experiments have confirmed neutrino oscillations, implying that neutrinos have non-zero mass, but without pinning down their absolute masses. While it is established that the effect of neutrinos on the evolution of cosmic structure is small, the upper limits derived from large-scale structure could help significantly to constrain the absolute scale of the neutrino masses. In a recent paper the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS) team provided an upper limit mν, tot < 2.2 eV, i.e. approximately 0.7 eV for each of the three neutrino flavours or, phrased in terms of their contribution to the matter density, Ων/Ωm < 0.16. Here we discuss this analysis in greater detail, considering issues of assumed `priors' like the matter density Ωm and the bias of the galaxy distribution with respect to the dark matter distribution. As the suppression of the power spectrum depends on the ratio Ων/Ωm, we find that the out-of-fashion mixed dark matter model, with Ων = 0.2, Ωm = 1 and no cosmological constant, fits both the 2dFGRS power spectrum and the CMB data reasonably well, but only for a Hubble constant H0 < 50 km s−1 Mpc−1. As a consequence, excluding low values of the Hubble constant, e.g. with the HST Key Project, is important in order to get a strong upper limit on the neutrino masses. We also comment on the improved limit obtained by the WMAP team, and point out that the main neutrino signature comes from the 2dFGRS and the Lyman α forest.