Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Towards Social Autonomous Vehicles: Understanding Pedestrian-Driver Interactions

Cooperative interaction in traffic is vital for resolving a wide range of ambiguities arising from road users' actions. Autonomous vehicles are no exception and require the ability to understand the intention of road users and communicate with them in order to ensure their safety and maintain traffic flow. In this paper, we address the problem of traffic interaction by analyzing a large sample of pedestrians communicating with drivers. We highlight the ways pedestrians communicate and use a logistic regression model to identify what factors influence communication patterns of pedestrians and how. We also discuss practical challenges regarding the recognizing and understanding of pedestrians' intention and how our theoretical findings can help to solve them. Our analysis suggests that pedestrians predominantly rely on implicit communication cues such as stepping onto the road to transmit their intention of crossing. In addition, we found that the presence of traffic signal, street width, and pedestrian group size can influence the frequency and type of pedestrian communication, while factors such as pedestrians' age and gender did not show any significant impact.
What Influences a Plastic Surgery Resident to Pursue an Academic Career?

Background: A previous study demonstrated that independent model plastic surgery residents are less likely to pursue a career in academic surgery than those graduating from other surgical fellowships. This study was designed to evaluate whether a significant curriculum change emphasizing academic plastic surgery skills would be significant in influencing a plastic surgery resident’s decision to pursue a career in academic plastic surgery. Methods: A survey was sent to 30 consecutive graduates of a university plastic surgery residency program. This program had transitioned from a clinically focused independent residency-training model to an integrated model with a new and structured academic emphasis. Respondents who graduated after this transition (“ACADEMIC” n = 19) were compared with those who graduated before (“CLINICAL” n = 9). Results were analyzed using Fisher’s exact test and Wilcoxon rank sum test. Results: There were a total of 28 respondents (response rate = 93%). A higher percentage of the ACADEMIC group, in contrast to the CLINICAL group reported that they spent time during residency performing clinical research (84% versus 33%, P = 0.013), and that they are currently conducting clinical research in their practices (79% versus 0%, P < 0.001). These graduates were also more likely to have engaged their mentor both regarding professional issues (61% versus 0%, P = 0.016), and as a role model when choosing a career plan (72% versus 17%, P = 0.050). Finally, a higher percentage of the ACADEMIC exposed group entered an academic practice after training (44% versus 0%, P = 0.026). Conclusion: In a single plastic surgery residency program, the transition to strong academic mentorship with a structured academic educational program focus correlated with an increase in academic careers among program graduates. A proactive academically oriented educational and mentoring environment may help attract residents to careers in academic surgery.
Extensive Nicolau Syndrome Following Intramuscular Injection of Paracetamol in a Patient Who Is HIV Positive

Nicolau syndrome (NS) is a type of adverse skin reaction occurring after parenteral drug injection. In certain conditions, it can cause ischemic necrosis of the skin and the underlying adipose tissue. The actual cause of NS is not clear though inflammation, vasospasm, and thromboembolic occlusion of blood vessels have been proposed. In this case presentation, we report an interesting case of a 30-year-old man who turned out be human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive on investigations, developed extensive purpuric lesions of his skin on left buttock and then spread to the trunk and shoulders after receiving intramuscular injection of paracetamol. With a suggestive history and further supported by clinical examination, a diagnosis of NS following injection of paracetamol was made. Though NS is considered to be rare, at times it can be devastating. Being a common procedure in the life of a health-care professional, the awareness regarding this entity is very essential. Despite intense medical literature search in, we could not find a single report of NS after intramuscular injection of paracetamol in a patient who is HIV positive, thus obliging this communication.
Semi-Blind Millimeter-Wave Channel Estimation Using Atomic Norm Minimization

Exploiting the inherent sparsity of millimeter-wave channels, the channel estimation problem is formulated as an atomic norm minimization that enhances sparsity in the continuous angles of arrival and departure. A semi-blind channel estimator is developed to track the time-varying channel dynamics, which is formulated as a non-convex problem. To solve the formulated channel estimation problem, we develop a computationally efficient conjugate gradient descent method based on non-convex factorization which restricts the search space to low-rank matrices. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the superior channel estimation performance of the proposed algorithms compared with the existing compressed-sensing-based estimators with finely quantized angle grids.
Data-Driven Modeling and Prediction of Complex Spatio-Temporal Dynamics in Excitable Media

Spatio-temporal chaotic dynamics in a two-dimensional excitable medium is (cross-) estimated using a machine learning method based on a convolutional neural network combined with a conditional random field. The performance of this approach is demonstrated using the four variables of the Bueno-Orovio-Fenton-Cherry model describing electrical excitation waves in cardiac tissue. Using temporal sequences of two-dimensional fields representing the values of one or more of the model variables as input the network successfully cross-estimated all variables and provides excellent forecasts when applied iteratively.
MiR-3188 Inhibits Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Cell Proliferation Through FOXO1-Mediated mTOR-p-PI3K/AKT-c-JUN Signaling Pathway

This study investigated the role of miR-3188 on the proliferation of non-small cell lung cancer cells and its relationship to FOXO1-modulated feedback loop. Two non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines A549 and H1299 were used. RNA silencing was achieved by lentiviral transfection. Cell proliferation was assessed by immunohistochemical staining of Ki67 and PCNA, Edu incorporation, and colony formation assay. Western blotting was used to examine expression of FOXO1, mTOR, p-mTOR, CCND1, p21, c-JUN, AKT, pAKT, PI3K, p-PI3K, and p27 proteins. It was found that miR-3188 reduced cell proliferation in NSCLC cells. Molecular analyses indicated that the effect of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) was directly mediated by miR-3188, leading to p-PI3K/p-AKT/c-JUN inactivation. The inhibition of this signaling pathway further caused cell-cycle suppression. Moreover, FOXO1 was found to be involved in regulating the interaction of miR-3188 and mTOR through p-PI3K/p-AKT/c-JUN signaling pathway. Taken together, our study demonstrated that miR-3188 interacts with mTOR and FOXO1 to inhibit NSCLC cell proliferation through a mTOR-p-PI3K/AKT-c-JUN signaling pathway. Therefore, miR-3188 might be a potential target for the treatment of NSCLC.
A linear programming based approach to the Steiner tree problem with a fixed number of terminals

We present a set of integer programs (IPs) for the Steiner tree problem with the property that the best solution obtained by solving all IPs provides an optimal Steiner tree. Each IP is polynomial in the size of the underlying graph and our main result is that the linear programming (LP) relaxation of each IP is integral so that it can be solved as a linear program. However, the number of IPs grows exponentially with the number of terminals in the Steiner tree. As a consequence, we are able to solve the Steiner tree problem by solving a polynomial number of LPs, when the number of terminals is fixed.
Instance Segmentation by Learning Pixel Neighbour Relations with a CNN

Instance segmentation is an important task in the context of automated vehicles. It allows to get precise object locations and shapes from camera images. In this paper, we propose an approach to instance segmentation based on deep learning. A convolutional neural network predicts relations between neighbour pixels. It also predicts which regions of the image lie inside instances. This representation is then decoded to get the object instances. Our approach achieves an average precision of 13.9 % over all classes on the validation dataset of the challenging Cityscapes benchmark. In contrast to other encoding based approaches, the presented approach can associate freestanding (unconnected) areas of the same instance. This problem can arise if an object is partially occluded. It is solved by learning long-range neighbour relations that do not only consider direct neighbour pixels. We show that these long-range neighbour relations result in higher accuracies for all classes.
Human T2R38 Bitter Taste Receptor Expression in Resting and Activated Lymphocytes

The human G-protein-coupled bitter taste receptor T2R38 has recently been demonstrated to be expressed on peripheral blood neutrophils, monocytes and lymphocytes. To further define a potential contribution of the T2R38 receptor in adaptive immune response, the objective of this study was to analyze its expression in resting and activated lymphocytes and T cell subpopulations. Freshly isolated PBMC from healthy donors were used for expression analysis by flow cytometry. Quantum™ MESF beads were applied for quantification in absolute fluorescence units. Activation methods of T cells were anti-CD3/CD28, phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) or phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) together with ionomycin. Lymphocytes from young donors expressed higher levels of T2R38 compared to the elderly. CD3+ T cells expressed higher levels that CD19+ B cells. Receptor expression followed T cell activation with an upregulation within 24 h and a peak at 72 h. Higher levels of T2R38 were produced in lymphocytes by stimulation with anti-CD3/CD28 compared to PHA or PMA/ionomycin. Both subpopulations of CD4+ as well as CD8+ T cells were found to express the T2R38 receptor; this was higher in CD4+ than CD8+ cells; the amount of T2R38 in central and effector memory cells was higher as compared to naïve cells, although this was not statistically significant for CD8+ cells without prior activation by anti-CD3/CD28. Upon treatment of PBMC with the natural T2R38 agonist goitrin Calcium flux was activated in the lymphocyte population with functional T2R38 receptor at >20 μM which was completely blocked by phospholipase Cβ-2 inhibitor U73211. Further, goitrin selectively inhibited TNF-alpha secretion in PBMC with functional T2R38. This quantitative analysis of T2R38 expression in distinct PBMC subsets may provide a basis for understanding the significance of bitter compounds in immune modulation. Whether these findings can have implications for the treatment of inflammatory and immunologic disorders by bitter tasting pharmaceuticals or foods needs further investigation.
The physics of a ring polymeric melt: from structure to dynamics

A ring polymer is one of the novel topological classes in polymer physics. Unlike linear and branched polymers, its two ends are connected to each other, thus two intrinsic constraints, non-knotting and non-concatenation inhere in the ring polymer. Due to these constraints, a ring in a melt phase adopts a compact globular structure with high fractal dimension. Interestingly, the structure of a ring in a melt resembles chromosomes in eukaryotic nuclei during the interphase. Although a chromatin fiber is a polymer with open ends, its structure in a nucleus seems not tangled to each other. Therefore, to understand the nature of the chromosome packing, it is instructive to study the physics of a ring in a melt from the polymer physics point of view. In this thesis, we first present a theory and molecular dynamics simulation results for the ring polymer melt structure in a bulk phase. Unlike a linear polymer, it is found that the Flory exponent of a ring varies from 1/2 to 1/3 as degree of polymerization increases. Especially for longer rings, it turns out that compact and segregated structures are favored due to the topological constraints. A theoretical study of Flory-type free energy minimization by considering the topological constraints as an effective excluded volume supports the numerical results. We also study structural properties of a ring polymeric melt confined in a film in comparison to a linear counterpart using molecular dynamics simula-
Cytology of the fallopian tube: A screening model for high-grade serous carcinoma

Ovarian cancer is a heterogeneous disease having the highest gynecologic fatality in the United States with a 5-year survival rate of 46.5%. Poor overall prognosis is mostly attributed to inadequate screening tools, and the majority of diagnoses occur at late stages of the disease. Due to genetic and biological underpinnings, ovarian high-grade serous carcinomas (HGSC) have etiologic evidence in the distal fallopian tube. Fallopian tube screening modalities are aggressively investigated, but few describe cytological characteristics of benign tubal specimens to help in the comparative detection of HGSC precursor cells. Here, we describe fimbrial cytomorphological and nuclear features of tubal specimens (n = 75) from patients clinically indicated for salpingectomy, bilateral or unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and hysterectomies for any diagnosis other than ovarian or peritoneal cancer. Fallopian tube histology was used as the diagnostic reference. A total of 75 samples had benign diagnoses. The benign cytological characteristics of fimbrial tubal specimens included ciliated cells in clustered arrangements with mild nuclear membrane irregularity, mild anisonucleosis, round and/or oval nuclei, hyperchromatic chromatin, and mild nuclear membrane irregularity. In contrast, none of the cytology samples had spindle-shaped nuclei, significantly marked anisonucleosis (n = 1), nor had hypochromasia as a characteristic feature. These cytological characteristics could be a potential area of distinction from HGSC precursor cells. Our study establishes cytomorphological characteristics of nonmalignant tubal cells which help underscore the importance of distinguishing malignant HGSC precursors through fimbrial brush sampling in minimally invasive approach.
Occurrence of Alkaloids in Grass Seeds Symbiotic With Vertically-Transmitted Epichloë Fungal Endophytes and Its Relationship With Antioxidants

Host organisms can acquire new functional traits through symbiosis. Seed-transmitted Epichloe fungal endophytes are known to protect host plants against herbivores and increase tolerance to abiotic stresses by alkaloids and antioxidants, respectively (currencies of mutualism). Whereas alkaloids are fungal products with demonstrated effects at plant vegetative stage, few studies have focused on alkaloids in seeds. We assessed the occurrence of fungal alkaloids and determined their concentration in seeds of two host grasses, Festuca rubra and Lolium multiflorum. Then, we sought for a relationship with the antioxidants tocochromanols and glutathione, which are involved in the control of oxidative stress. Different alkaloids were detected depending on the species and plant genotype. Most notably, loline alkaloids were not detected in F. rubra seeds, whereas ergovaline and peramine were absent in L. multiflorum. In F. rubra, ergovaline concentration was dependent on the maternal line in interaction with the production year, diminishing in seeds after one year of storage. The exposure of L. multiflorum plants to ozone had no effect on the seed concentration of lolines. There was a positive relationship between concentrations of ergovaline and tocochromanol in both species, and between ergovaline concentration and EGSSG/2GSH (glutathione half-cell reduction potential) in RAB maternal line of F. rubra. These results suggest that alkaloid and antioxidants have a close association in seeds of host grasses, and that the alkaloid bioactivity could be related with the antioxidant capacity to control stress. This has important implications for the ecology of partner species, thus supporting its consideration for further research.
Reputation Based Trust In Human-Agent Teamwork Without Explicit Coordination

Interacting with strangers and agents through computer networks has become a routine aspect of our daily lives. In such environments, reputation plays a critical role in determining our future interactions and satisfaction derived from them. This paper empirically investigates the effects of agent reputation on humantrust in andbehavior towards "peer'' level agent teammates over repeated interactions. We developed a team coordination game, the Game of Trust, in which a human player and an agent player repeatedly cooperate to complete team tasks without prior assignment of subtasks. Before the game begins, the agent player is introduced with either positive or negative reputation to the human player. The effects of agent reputation are evaluated by performing an extensive set of controlled experiments with participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing marketplace. We collect both teamwork performance data as well as surveys to gauge participants' trust in their agent teammates. The empirical results show that positive (negative) agent reputation led to greater (lower) human trust in agent teammates. Moreover, the interplay between the game expertise and expectation from agent teammate significantly affected the influence of reputation. These findings enhance our understanding of changes in human trust with respect to agent reputation towards achieving successful human-agent teamwork.
Cuff-Less Blood Pressure Estimation Using Only the ECG Signal in Frequency Domain

The relationship between the heart's electrical and mechanical activities is expressed by Mechano-Electric Coupling (MEC) term, and blood pressure (BP) is the output of these activities. Electrocardiogram (ECG) is a representation of heart's electrical activity. Previous studies show that there is a nonlinear relationship between the ECG signal and BP values. This paper presents a new algorithm for estimating BP using only the ECG signal and without any cuff. A new feature vector extraction method in the frequency domain, called the frequency whole-based method, is proposed. According to the British Hypertension Society (BHS) standards, the proposed algorithm achieves grade B for the Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) and grade C for Mean Atrial Blood Pressure (MAP) estimations on MIMIC II dataset.
Teneurins: Domain Architecture, Evolutionary Origins, and Patterns of Expression

Disruption of teneurin expression results in abnormal neural networks, but just how teneurins support the development of the central nervous system remains an area of active research. This review summarizes some of what we know about the functions of the various domains of teneurins, the possible evolution of teneurins from a bacterial toxin, and the intriguing patterns of teneurin expression. Teneurins are a family of type-2 transmembrane proteins. The N-terminal intracellular domain can be processed and localized to the nucleus, but the significance of this nuclear localization is unknown. The extracellular domain of teneurins is largely composed of tyrosine-aspartic acid repeats that fold into a hollow barrel, and the C-terminal domains of teneurins are stuffed, and least partly, into the barrel. A 6-bladed beta-propeller is found at the other end of the barrel. The same arrangement—6-bladed beta-propeller, tyrosine-aspartic acid repeat barrel, and the C-terminal domain inside the barrel—is seen in toxic proteins from bacteria, and there is evidence that teneurins may have evolved from a gene encoding a prokaryotic toxin via horizontal gene transfer into an ancestral choanoflagellate. Patterns of teneurin expression are often, but not always, complementary. In the central nervous system, where teneurins are best studied, interconnected populations of neurons often express the same teneurin. For example, in the chicken embryo neurons forming the tectofugal pathway express teneurin-1, whereas neurons forming the thalamofugal pathway express teneurin-2. In Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans, zebrafish and mice, misexpression or knocking out teneurin expression leads to abnormal connections in the neural networks that normally express the relevant teneurin. Teneurins are also expressed in non-neuronal tissue during development, and in at least some regions the patterns of non-neuronal expression are also complementary. The function of teneurins outside the nervous system remains unclear.
Unsupervised Learning of Monocular Depth Estimation with Bundle Adjustment, Super-Resolution and Clip Loss

We present a novel unsupervised learning framework for single view depth estimation using monocular videos. It is well known in 3D vision that enlarging the baseline can increase the depth estimation accuracy, and jointly optimizing a set of camera poses and landmarks is essential. In previous monocular unsupervised learning frameworks, only part of the photometric and geometric constraints within a sequence are used as supervisory signals. This may result in a short baseline and overfitting. Besides, previous works generally estimate a low resolution depth from a low resolution impute image. The low resolution depth is then interpolated to recover the original resolution. This strategy may generate large errors on object boundaries, as the depth of background and foreground are mixed to yield the high resolution depth. In this paper, we introduce a bundle adjustment framework and a super-resolution network to solve the above two problems. In bundle adjustment, depths and poses of an image sequence are jointly optimized, which increases the baseline by establishing the relationship between farther frames. The super resolution network learns to estimate a high resolution depth from a low resolution image. Additionally, we introduce the clip loss to deal with moving objects and occlusion. Experimental results on the KITTI dataset show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art unsupervised methods using monocular sequences, and achieves comparable or even better result compared to unsupervised methods using stereo sequences.
Dual-Layer Single-Varactor Driven Reflectarray Cell for Broad-Band Beam-Steering and Frequency Tunable Applications

A dual-layer active reflectarray configuration is proposed for broad-band beam-steering and/or frequency-tunable applications. A unit cell composed by two stacked fixed-size rectangular patches, properly loaded with a single varactor diode, is designed to realize the dynamic phase tuning mechanism. The proposed approach offers wider bandwidths, with respect to the existing varactor-based reflectarray cells, and quite good frequency reconfigurability features, as demanded by several radar or satellite communication applications. An X-band reflectarray cell is fabricated and tested, to prove the effectiveness of the proposed approach, achieving a 318° phase agility within a measured frequency range of about 14.6% with respect to the central design frequency (i.e., 11 GHz). Wideband beam-steering reflectarray designs are demonstrated, showing 1-dB gain bandwidths equal to 9–10%.