Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Face Spoof Attack Recognition Using Discriminative Image Patches

Face recognition systems are now being used in many applications such as border crossings, banks, and mobile payments. The wide scale deployment of facial recognition systems has attracted intensive attention to the reliability of face biometrics against spoof attacks, where a photo, a video, or a 3D mask of a genuine user’s face can be used to gain illegitimate access to facilities or services. Though several face antispoofing or liveness detection methods (which determine at the time of capture whether a face is live or spoof) have been proposed, the issue is still unsolved due to difficulty in finding discriminative and computationally inexpensive features and methods for spoof attacks. In addition, existing techniques use whole face image or complete video for liveness detection. However, often certain face regions (video frames) are redundant or correspond to the clutter in the image (video), thus leading generally to low performances. Therefore, we propose seven novel methods to find discriminative image patches, which we define as regions that are salient, instrumental, and class-specific. Four well-known classifiers, namely, support vector machine (SVM), Naive-Bayes, Quadratic Discriminant Analysis (QDA), and Ensemble, are then used to distinguish between genuine and spoof faces using a voting based scheme. Experimental analysis on two publicly available databases (Idiap REPLAY-ATTACK and CASIA-FASD) shows promising results compared to existing works.
Cucarachas: biología e importancia en salud pública

Las cucarachas pertenecen a uno de los grupos de insectos mejor conocidos y mas antiguos; los organismos pertenecientes a este grupo, tienen la caracteristica de adaptarse a una gran variedad de habitat. Presentan una gran variedad de formas, tamanos, colores y habitat en los que subsisten, siendo solo unas cuantas las que representan importancia en salud publica; en la actualidad se conocen alrededor de 45 patogenos que pueden transmitir de manera mecanica y natural, principalmente bacterias, hongos protozoarios, helmintos y virus. Mostrandolos como un riesgo para salud publica en las colectividades humanas. Palabras claves: cucarachas, vectores, salud publica cockrach, vector, public health
Image denoising based on adaptive spatial segmentation and multi-scale correlation in directionlet domain

Directionlet transform DT has become popular over the last few years as an efficient image representation tool due to its fine frequency tiling and directional vanishing moments along any two directions. A novel denoising algorithm based on DT is proposed here for images corrupted with Gaussian noise. The image is first spatially segmented based on the content directionality. Then an undecimated version of DT is applied to effectively capture the directional features and edge information of these segments. The DT coefficients so obtained are then modelled using a bivariate heavy tailed Gaussian distribution and the noise free coefficients are computed using MAP estimator. By employing bivariate probability distribution, the heavy-tail behaviour of natural images is accurately modelled and the interscale properties of DT coefficients are properly exploited. In addition, the local variance parameter of the model is estimated based on classification of DT coefficients within a particular scale using context modelling. Due to this the intrascale dependency of the directionlet coefficients is also well exploited in the enhancement process. The proposed algorithm is competitive with the existing algorithms with better results in terms of output peak signal-to-noise ratio while having comparable computational complexity. It exhibits good capability to preserve edges, contours and textures especially in images with abundant high frequency contents.
The lowest levels at Dikili Tash, northern Greece: a missing link in the Early Neolithic of Europe

Tells famously capture the historical sequences of the earliest farmers—but digging them is not easy. With a depth of strata of 17m at Dikili Tash, the earliest occupation was out of reach of a trench. But our researchers got there by coring, extending the date of the first occupation back 1000 years, and deducing, from small samples, the changing environment and possible connections with Anatolia.
MECHANISMS OF NEAR SURFACE MOUNTED FRP BARS AND STRIPS FOR FLEXURAL STRENGTHENING OF CONCRETE STRUCTURES

Flexural strengthening of concrete structures and bridges with Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites is an attractive alternative to traditional techniques. Externally bonded FRP sheets and strips have been widely accepted for strengthening civil infrastructure. In spite of the significant research being reported on their structural mechanism and performance, there are still heightened concerns regarding possible premature failure due to debonding, especially in zones of combined high flexural and shear stresses. Recently, considerable research has been directed to characterize the use of FRP bars and strips mounted in grooves at the tension zones. This paper proposes two different analytical models to evaluate the bond characteristics of near surface mounted FRP bars and strips, respectively. The models are proposed to predict the interfacial shear stresses and the minimum anchorage length needed for the reinforcement. The proposed analytical models are validated by comparing the predicted values with test results as well as non-linear finite element modelling. Quantitative criteria governing debonding failure of near surface mounted FRP bars and strips are established. Tarek Hassan Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Civil Engineering, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7533, Raleigh, NC, USA 27695-7533 Sami Rizkalla Distinguished Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7533, Raleigh, NC, USA 27695-7533 HASSAN, “Bond mechanism of near surface mounted FRP reinforcement”, 1/10
Parental interest in children's education, children's self-esteem and locus of control, and later educational attainment: twenty-six year follow-up of the 1970 British Birth Cohort.

BACKGROUND Few studies have investigated if mother's interest and father's interest in child's education are linked to educational attainment via their impact on child's self-esteem and locus of control. AIMS (1) To investigate (after controlling for known confounding factors) the long-term effect of mother's and father's interest in child's education at age 10 and child's locus of control and self-esteem at age 10 in educational attainment at age 26; and (2) to explore if mother's interest and father's interest in child's education are linked to child's educational attainment via their effect in increasing child's self-esteem and internal locus of control. SAMPLE The study used longitudinal data from sweeps of the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70). The initial sample was those 1,737 men and 2,033 women with valid data on age 10 self-esteem, locus of control, father's interest, mother's interest, and age 26 educational attainment. Of these, 1,326 men and 1,578 women were included in the final analysis. METHOD The birth to age 10 factors that were controlled for were birth weight, parental social class, socio-economic disadvantage, emotional/behavioural problems, cognitive ability, and mother's educational attainment. RESULTS At the multivariate level, internal locus of control and mother's interest (but not self-esteem) were significantly related to educational attainment in both men and women. Father's interest was a significant predictor of educational attainment only in women. Parent's interest was not linked to educational attainment via its impact on child's self-esteem or locus of control. Self-esteem predicted educational attainment in both genders by increasing internal locus of control, and fathers' interest predicted educational attainment in men by increasing mother's involvement. CONCLUSION Although mothers' and fathers' interest in their children's education were not linked to educational attainment via their impact on children's self-esteem or locus of control, they were significant predictors of educational attainment especially in daughters.
Presynaptic Ca2+ influx and vesicle exocytosis at the mouse endbulb of Held: a comparison of two auditory nerve terminals

Non‐technical summary The release of neurotransmitter from presynaptic nerve endings is triggered by Ca2+ influx through voltage‐gated Ca2+ channels (VGCCs) that open when an action potential (AP) invades the presynaptic terminal. The functional properties of VGCCs expressed in presynaptic terminals remain elusive because most terminals are too small to be accessible to electrophysiological recordings. We performed direct presynaptic recordings to characterize Ca2+ channels and transmitter release in a large mammalian presynaptic terminal, the endbulb of Held. Endbulb terminals are formed by the endings of auditory nerve fibres that contact bushy cells located in the anterior ventral cochlear nucleus. We find that endbulb terminals are endowed with >1000 readily releasable vesicles and express an average number of >6000 VGCCs. About half of the VGCCs open during a single AP. Thus, multiple Ca2+ channels control the release of a single transmitter vesicle at the endbulb of Held.
A Natural Case of Chronic Wasting Disease in a Free-ranging Moose (Alces alces shirasi)

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) was diagnosed in a free-ranging moose (Alces alces shirasi) killed by a hunter in Jackson County, Colorado, USA, in September 2005. The diagnosis was based upon immunohistochemistry (IHC) demonstrating the presence of accumulations of CWD-associated prion protein (PrPCWD) in tissue sections of medulla oblongata at the level of the obex (dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus) and in retropharyngeal lymph node (RPLN); additional testing by IHC revealed deposits of PrPCWD in multiple sections of medulla oblongata and cervical spinal cord as well as palatine tonsil and submandibular lymph node tissues. Western blot confirmed the presence of PrPCWD in RPLN and tonsil tissue. The PrPCWD also was detected via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of RPLN tissue. Spongiform encephalopathy was observed in sections of the brainstem and cervical spinal cord, although no clinical signs were noted by the hunter who killed the animal. The affected moose was homozygous for methionine at codon 209 of the prion protein coding region. In October 2006, two additional free-ranging moose were diagnosed with CWD. Epidemiology and implications of CWD in moose remain to be determined.
The Susceptibility of  ${\hbox {TaO}}_{\rm x}$-Based Memristors to High Dose Rate Ionizing Radiation and Total Ionizing Dose

This paper investigates the effects of high dose rate ionizing radiation and total ionizing dose (TID) on tantalum oxide ( TaOx) memristors. Transient data were obtained during the pulsed exposures for dose rates ranging from approximately 5.0 ×107 rad(Si)/s to 4.7 ×108 rad(Si)/s and for pulse widths ranging from 50 ns to 50 μs. The cumulative dose in these tests did not appear to impact the observed dose rate response. Static dose rate upset tests were also performed at a dose rate of ~ 3.0 ×108 rad(Si)/s. This is the first dose rate study on any type of memristive memory technology. In addition to assessing the tolerance of TaOx memristors to high dose rate ionizing radiation, we also evaluated their susceptibility to TID. The data indicate that it is possible for the devices to switch from a high resistance off-state to a low resistance on-state in both dose rate and TID environments. The observed radiation-induced switching is dependent on the irradiation conditions and bias configuration. Furthermore, the dose rate or ionizing dose level at which a device switches resistance states varies from device to device; the enhanced susceptibility observed in some devices is still under investigation. Numerical simulations are used to qualitatively capture the observed transient radiation response and provide insight into the physics of the induced current/voltages.
Prophylactic vs postoperative antibiotic use in complex septorhinoplasty surgery: a prospective, randomized, single-blind trial comparing efficacy.

OBJECTIVE To compare the efficacy of prophylactic vs postoperative antibiotic use in complex septorhinoplasty and strengthen the evidence base for antibiotic use in nasal surgery. DESIGN A randomized, prospective, single-blinded trial. One hundred sixty-four patients requiring complex septorhinoplasty surgery were recruited sequentially from the waiting lists of the 2 senior authors. Power was calculated at 80% at the 5% significance level. Patients randomized to the prophylactic arm of the study received three 1200-mg intravenous doses of amoxicillin-clavulanate, given at induction of anesthesia and at 6 and 12 hours postoperatively. Patients in the postoperative antibiotic arm received a 7-day course of 375 mg of amoxicillin-clavulanate 3 times a day. Patients allergic to penicillin were given erythromycin. Clinical and microbiological evidence of infection on the 10th postoperative day was categorized as either minor (vestibulitis) or major (nasal or septal cellulitis, septal abscess, secondary hemorrhage, or donor-site infection) infections. RESULTS At follow-up, 6 (7%) of 82 patients in the prophylactic arm and 9 (11%) of 82 of patients in the postoperative arm showed evidence of infection. Most (80%) of infections were minor. There was no significant difference in infection rates between the prophylactic and postoperative arms on chi2 analysis (P = .42). All 164 patients completed the study on an intention-to-treat basis. CONCLUSION We recommend the use of prophylactic antibiotics rather than empirical postoperative antibiotics for patients undergoing complex septorhinoplasty.
Presentation and Management of Depression in People with Learning Disability

The occurrence of depression in people with learning disability is not a late-20th century phenomenon. Reports were first published in the 1800s describing the existence of depression in individuals with intellectual impairment (Clouston, 1883). However, as we enter a new millennium, the appropriate diagnosis, assessment and treatment of depression, and indeed all forms of mental illness in people with learning disability, will become the focus of considerable concern for all professionals working in this field. With recent national trends towards de-institutionalisation, referral of individ uals with learning disability to psychiatrists to 'rule out a possible depressive illness' and to 'advise about further treatment' will increase. It remains
Ultrahigh-Resolution NMR Spectroscopy

All psyched up: A flexible and general pure shift experiment (PSYCHE) has been developed that offers superior sensitivity, spectral purity, and tolerance of strong coupling over existing methods for broadband homonuclear decoupling. The partial spectra of estradiol in [D6]DMSO obtained by normal 1H NMR spectroscopy and PSYCHE are shown for comparison.
Seroprevalence of Pandemic 2009 (H1N1) Influenza A Virus among Schoolchildren and Their Parents in Tokyo, Japan

ABSTRACT Since its emergence, the 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus has spread rapidly throughout the world. Previously, we reported that most individuals born after 1920 do not have cross-reactive virus-neutralizing antibodies against pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus, indicating that they were immunologically naïve to the pandemic virus prior to its emergence. This finding provided us with an excellent opportunity for a seroepidemiological investigation of the transmission mode of the pandemic virus in the community. To gain insight into its transmission within communities, we performed a serosurvey for pandemic virus infection with schoolchildren at an elementary school in Tokyo, Japan, and their parents. We observed a high prevalence of neutralizing antibodies to the pandemic virus in the children at this school, although the percentage of children positive for the neutralizing antibodies varied among classrooms. While a much lower prevalence was observed among parents, seropositivity of the parents correlated with that of their schoolchildren. Moreover, many adults appeared to have experienced asymptomatic infection with the pandemic virus. These data suggest that the pandemic virus was readily transmitted among schoolchildren in elementary schools and that it was also transmitted from schoolchildren to their parents.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from patients with cystic fibrosis: a class of serum-sensitive, nontypable strains deficient in lipopolysaccharide O side chains

Twenty-six Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains from patients with cystic fibrosis were typed by the Fisher immunotyping scheme. Only 6 strains were agglutinated by a single typing serum, whereas 15 strains were agglutinated with more than one serum and 5 were not agglutinated by any serum. Neither the polyagglutinable nor the nonagglutinable strains were typable by hemagglutination inhibition or immunodiffusion, suggesting that these polyagglutinable strains did not express multiple serotype antigens, but were instead being agglutinated by antibody to nonserotype determinants. Four typable isolates were resistant to pooled normal human serum, whereas the 12 polyagglutinable and nonagglutinable isolates studied were very sensitive to normal human serum. The outer membranes of 16 strains were isolated and characterized. The data suggested, in general, strong conservation of outer membrane protein patterns. Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) were purified by a new technique which allowed isolation of both rough and smooth LPS in high yields. Three of four typable, serum-resistant strains examined had amounts of smooth, O-antigen-containing LPS equivalent to our laboratory wild type, P. aeruginosa PAO1 strain H103. In contrast, 10 of 12 polyagglutinable or nonagglutinable, serum-sensitive strains had very little or no smooth, O-antigen-containing LPS, and the other two contained less smooth LPS than our wild-type strain H103. In agreement with this data, five independent, rough, LPS O-antigen-deficient mutants of strain H103 were nontypable and serum sensitive. We suggest that the LPS defects described here represent a significant new property of many P. aeruginosa strains associated with cystic fibrosis.
Video understanding using part based object detection models

We will explore the use of event specific object detectors (part based models) in multimedia event detection. The challenge is to choose a well-trained object detector specific to the event videos. The presence of dataset bias would make an object detection model trained on an unrelated generic image database less useful for the video dataset in hand. Given such a generic object model, we propose an iterative method to build a more effective detector, trained only on frames from the training video dataset. The generic model, in combination with an optical flow based filtering method is used to extract objects with high confidence from training videos, which are then used to train a new object detection model. This model is again used to extract objects, used for training in the next iteration. The process is repeated to finally obtain a dataset specific model trained only on frames from training videos. The performance of the final model is evaluated on manually annotated frames form test videos. It is compared with the original object detector to show the gain of the proposed method. A group of such dataset specific object models corresponding to different objects can be used to build features from videos for high level vision tasks. Finally, in order to evaluate the new model in the context of video understanding, the two models are used to extract some simple features from a set of videos belonging to two event classes and corresponding Precision Recall curves are presented for the two models in this binary classification setup.
Cardiac resting and action potentials recorded with an intracellular electrode

Microelectrodes with an external diameter of less than 05p,. penetrate the surface membrane of skeletal muscle fibres without causing appreciable damage and can be used to record the resting potential and action potential (Ling & Gerard, 1949; Nastuk & Hodgkin, 1950). This technique has rapidly been extended to other tissues such as frog heart (Woodbury, Woodbury & Hecht, 1950), myelinated nerve (Woodbury & Woodbury, 1950) and the giant axon of the cuttlefish (Weidmann, 1951 a). The present paper contains an account of similar experiments with a preparation of mammalian cardiac muscle, and is a sequel to the preliminary reports by Coraboeuf & Weidmann (1949a, b) and Draper & Weidmann (1950). Most of the experiments were performed on the 'false tendons' of the dog heart. These are slender bundles of the conductive system which run through the ventricular cavity of birds and mammals. Their muscular component is a syncytium of parallel fibres which in the dog have a diameter of about 30,u. In ungulates where the conductive elements are histologically well differentiated they are known as Purkinje threads (Purkinje strands, Purkinje fibres). In canine and human hearts the conductive fibres are said to differ in no essential histological feature from the fibres of typical cardiac muscle (Glomset & Glomset, 1940). We shall therefore employ the term false tendon to describe the dog preparation in preference to the better known one of Purkinje fibres. The principal results reported here are those concerned with the absolute magnitude of the action potential and resting potential. The effect of sodium concentration has also been examined, and the results support the view that electrical activity is due to a large and specific increase in the membrane permeability to sodium (Hodgkin & Katz, 1949; Hodgkin, Huxley & Katz, 1949).
Proximal and distal gastro‐oesophageal reflux in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchiectasis

The aims of this observational study were (i) to examine the prevalence of symptomatic and clinically silent proximal and distal gastro‐oesophageal reflux (GOR) in adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or bronchiectasis, (ii) the presence of gastric aspiration, and (iii) to explore the possible clinical significance of this comorbidity in these conditions.
Antidepressant-like effects of rosiglitazone, a PPAR&ggr; agonist, in the rat forced swim and mouse tail suspension tests

Several studies have evaluated thiazolidinedione therapy as medical treatments for some central nervous system disorders, such as cognitive deficits associated with neurodegenerative disorders. However, there is limited data to support a direct role for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-&ggr; agonists in depression. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate antidepressant-like activity of rosiglitazone using the mouse tail suspension test and the rat forced swimming test, two models sensitive to the effects of antidepressants. In the tail suspension test, 5 days of treatment with rosiglitazone (8.5 or 17 mg/kg, orally) reduced immobility time. In the forced swimming test, rosiglitazone (6 or 12 mg/kg, orally) treatment decreased immobility time and increased climbing. These effects were not accompanied by any alteration in locomotor activity in the open field test. Rosiglitazone treatment (6 or 12 mg/kg, orally) significantly reduced plasma corticosterone levels in rats. GW9662 significantly inhibited the rosiglitazone-induced reduction in the duration of immobility. In summary, this study suggests that rosiglitazone possesses a specific antidepressant-like activity in behavioral models and that this effect may be mediated by reduction of plasma corticosterone level.