Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AttGAN: Facial Attribute Editing by Only Changing What You Want

Facial attribute editing aims to manipulate single or multiple attributes on a given face image, i.e., to generate a new face image with desired attributes while preserving other details. Recently, the generative adversarial net (GAN) and encoder–decoder architecture are usually incorporated to handle this task with promising results. Based on the encoder–decoder architecture, facial attribute editing is achieved by decoding the latent representation of a given face conditioned on the desired attributes. Some existing methods attempt to establish an attribute-independent latent representation for further attribute editing. However, such attribute-independent constraint on the latent representation is excessive because it restricts the capacity of the latent representation and may result in information loss, leading to over-smooth or distorted generation. Instead of imposing constraints on the latent representation, in this work, we propose to apply an attribute classification constraint to the generated image to just guarantee the correct change of desired attributes, i.e., to change what you want. Meanwhile, the reconstruction learning is introduced to preserve attribute-excluding details, in other words, to only change what you want. Besides, the adversarial learning is employed for visually realistic editing. These three components cooperate with each other forming an effective framework for high quality facial attribute editing, referred as AttGAN. Furthermore, the proposed method is extended for attribute style manipulation in an unsupervised manner. Experiments on two wild datasets, CelebA and LFW, show that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art on realistic attribute editing with other facial details well preserved.
Comparative Analysis of Complete Chloroplast Genomes of Anemoclema, Anemone, Pulsatilla, and Hepatica Revealing Structural Variations Among Genera in Tribe Anemoneae (Ranunculaceae)

Structural rearrangements of Anemone species' chloroplast genome has been reported based on genetic mapping of restriction sites but has never been confirmed by genomic studies. We used a next-generation sequencing method to characterize the complete chloroplast genomes of five species in the tribe Anemoneae. Plastid genomes were assembled using de novo assembling methods combined with conventional Sanger sequencing to fill the gaps. The gene order of the chloroplast genomes of tribe Anemoneae was compared with that of other Ranunculaceae species. Multiple inversions and transpositions were detected in tribe Anemoneae. Anemoclema, Anemone, Hepatica, and Pulsatilla shared the same gene order, which contained three inversions in the large single copy region (LSC) compared to other Ranunculaceae genera. Archiclematis, Clematis, and Naravelia shared the same gene order containing two inversions and one transposition in LSC. A roughly 4.4 kb expansion region in inverted repeat (IR) regions was detected in tribe Anemoneae, suggesting that this expansion event may be a synapomorphy for this group. Plastome phylogenomic analyses using parsimony and a Bayesian method with implementation of partitioned models generated a well resolved phylogeny of Ranunculaceae. These results suggest that evaluation of chloroplast genomes may result in improved resolution of family phylogenies. Samples of Anemone, Hepatica, and Pulsatilla were tested to form paraphyletic grades within tribe Anemoneae. Anemoclema was a sister clade to Clematis. Structual variation of the plastid genome within tribe Anemoneae provided strong phylogenetic information for Ranunculaceae.
Endocrine disrupting chemicals and impact on male reproductive health

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) have been known to adversely affect the endocrine system leading to compromised functions of hormones. The presence of these compounds in everyday products such as canned food, water bottles, plastics, cosmetics, fertilizers, kid’s toys and many others goods is a greater concern for general population. The persistent and long-term use of EDCs has deleterious effects on human reproductive health by interfering with the synthesis and mechanism of action of sex hormones. Any change during the synthesis or action of the sex hormones may result in abnormal reproductive functions which includes developmental anomalies in the reproductive tract and decline in semen quality. The present paper provides an overview of the EDCs and their possible impact on male reproductive health with major focus on semen quality which leads to male infertility.
Forearm Motion Recognition With Noncontact Capacitive Sensing

This study presents a noncontact capacitive sensing method for forearm motion recognition. A method is proposed to record upper limb motion information from muscle contractions without contact with human skin, compensating for the limitations of existing sEMG-based methods. The sensing front-ends are designed based on human forearm shapes, and the forearm limb shape changes caused by muscle contractions will be represented by capacitance signals. After implementation of the capacitive sensing system, experiments on healthy subjects are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness. Nine motion patterns combined with 16 motion transitions are investigated on seven participants. We also designed an automatic data labeling method based on inertial signals from the measured hand, which greatly accelerated the training procedure. With the capacitive sensing system and the designed recognition algorithm, the method produced an average recognition of over 92%. Correct decisions could be made with approximately a 347-ms delay from the relaxed state to the time point of motion initiation. The confounding factors that affect the performances are also analyzed, including the sliding window length, the motion types and the external disturbances. We found the average accuracy increased to 98.7% when five motion patterns were recognized. The results of the study proved the feasibility and revealed the problems of the noncontact capacitive sensing approach on upper-limb motion sensing and recognition. Future efforts in this direction could be worthwhile for achieving more promising outcomes.
Iterative Amortized Inference

Inference models are a key component in scaling variational inference to deep latent variable models, most notably as encoder networks in variational auto-encoders (VAEs). By replacing conventional optimization-based inference with a learned model, inference is amortized over data examples and therefore more computationally efficient. However, standard inference models are restricted to direct mappings from data to approximate posterior estimates. The failure of these models to reach fully optimized approximate posterior estimates results in an amortization gap. We aim toward closing this gap by proposing iterative inference models, which learn to perform inference optimization through repeatedly encoding gradients. Our approach generalizes standard inference models in VAEs and provides insight into several empirical findings, including top-down inference techniques. We demonstrate the inference optimization capabilities of iterative inference models and show that they outperform standard inference models on several benchmark data sets of images and text.
Microglia-Specific Expression of Olfml3 Is Directly Regulated by Transforming Growth Factor β1-Induced Smad2 Signaling

Microglia maturation takes place during the postnatal weeks and is characterized by the establishment of a unique microglia-specific gene expression pattern. Tmem119, Fcrls, Hexb, and Olfml3 have been identified among these microglia-specific genes. Transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1) has been reported as a critical factor for microglia maturation and maintenance and active TGFβ signaling precedes the inductions of microglial gene expression. In this study, we demonstrate Olfml3 expression in adult microglia and further provide evidence that TGFβ1 induces upregulation of Olfml3 expression in postnatal microglia. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation and microglia-specific silencing of TGFβ signaling in vitro and in vivo, we in clearly show that Olfml3 is a direct TGFβ1/Smad2 target gene. Together, our data underline the importance of TGFβ1 as a critical regulator of microglia functions and microglia maturation and further broaden our understanding of TGFβ1-mediated effects on the resident immune cells of the central nervous system.
A multi-device dataset for urban acoustic scene classification

This paper introduces the acoustic scene classification task of DCASE 2018 Challenge and the TUT Urban Acoustic Scenes 2018 dataset provided for the task, and evaluates the performance of a baseline system in the task. As in previous years of the challenge, the task is defined for classification of short audio samples into one of predefined acoustic scene classes, using a supervised, closed-set classification setup. The newly recorded TUT Urban Acoustic Scenes 2018 dataset consists of ten different acoustic scenes and was recorded in six large European cities, therefore it has a higher acoustic variability than the previous datasets used for this task, and in addition to high-quality binaural recordings, it also includes data recorded with mobile devices. We also present the baseline system consisting of a convolutional neural network and its performance in the subtasks using the recommended cross-validation setup.
Hyaluronan Regulates Eyelid and Meibomian Gland Morphogenesis

Purpose The Meibomian gland (MG) produces the lipid layer of the tear film, and changes to the MG that lead to a decrease or alteration in lipid quality/content may lead to MG dysfunction, a major cause of evaporative dry eye disease with prevalence ranging from 39% to 50%. Little is known about the developmental cues that regulate MG morphogenesis and homeostasis. Our study investigates the role of hyaluronan (HA), a major extracellular matrix component, in eyelid formation and MG development and function. Methods Hyaluronan synthase (Has) knockout mice were used to determine the role of HA in the eyelid and MG. Eyelids were obtained during different developmental stages and MG morphology was analyzed. Tet-off H2B-GFP/K5tTA mice and 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyurdine (EdU) incorporation were used to determine the role of HA in maintaining slow-cycling and proliferating cells within the MG, respectively. Data were confirmed using an in vitro proliferation assay, differentiation assay and spheroid cultures. Results Has knockout mice present precocious MG development, and adult mice present MG hyperplasia and dysmorphic MGs and eyelids, with hyperplastic growths arising from the palpebral conjunctiva. Our data show that a highly organized HA network encompasses the MG, and basal cells are embedded within this HA matrix, which supports the proliferating cells. Spheroid cultures showed that HA promotes acini formation. Conclusions HA plays an important role in MG and eyelid development. Our findings suggest that Has knockout mice have abnormal HA synthesis, which in turn leads to precocious and exacerbated MG morphogenesis culminating in dysmorphic eyelids and MGs.
Dependence of Sub-Thermionic Swing on Channel Thickness and Drain Bias of Poly-Si Junctionless Thin-Film Transistor

We demonstrate the polycrystalline-silicon (poly-Si) junctionless (JL) thin-film transistor (TFT) with a planar structure and an ultra-thin channel film thickness ~1.5-nm exhibiting subthreshold swing (S.S.) less than 60 mV/decade. The S.S. of the poly-Si JL-TFT shows abnormal drain-voltage dependence, which the higher drain voltage leads to the smaller S.S. The minimum S.S. (S.S.min) observed in this letter is about 30 mV/decade, which is a record low S.S. min. The sub-60-mV/decade S.S. of the poly-Si JL-TFT is attributed to the impact ionization effect resulting from the high lateral electric field at the drain side at OFF-state. It is different from the conventional inversion-mode transistor, whose pinch-off point is observed at ON-state rather than the OFF-state. The lateral electric field is also found to be increasing with decreasing the channel thickness, and as a consequence, the impact ionization effect is more pronounced when the channel thickness is thinner. This letter shows a new concept for JL transistors, which would be helpful for the development of poly-Si JL-TFTs and the applications of 3-D integrated circuit and non-volatile memory.
Dispensing of Antimicrobials in Kenya: A Cross-sectional Pilot Study and Its Implications

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the extent of self-medication of antibiotics and dispensing practices in Kenya. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out at three selected pharmacies in Nairobi (Kenya), between January and March 2017, targeting principally antibiotic prescriptions for systemic use issued and dispensed as well as antibiotics sold over-the-counter without a prescription. The quality of antibiotics prescribed and dispensed was assessed against key WHO and other criteria. Benchmarking was used to assess the quality of antibiotics prescribed as there are no predetermined levels, just guidance and the rationale. Key indicators included: utilization of penicillins, percentage utilization of third-and fourth-generation of cephalosporins versus first and second generation, utilization of macrolides including lincosamides and utilization of quinolones as a percent of total systemic antibiotic use. Findings: There was a low level of dispensing of antibiotics without a prescription with over 90% (94.1%) of antibiotics dispensed with a valid prescription. The most common antibiotics dispensed were the penicillins at just over 50% of all antibiotics, the cephalosporins at over 12% (12.6%) and the fluoroquinolones at just under 12% (11.7%). There were concerns with high use of third and fourth generation cephalosporins versus first- and second-generation as well as co-amoxiclav versus other penicillins. Conclusion: Low levels of self-medication of antibiotics and high adherence to quality standards for dispensing are encouraging and provide direction to other countries. Educational initiatives are needed though to address high levels of co-amoxiclav prescribing.
Robust Communication for Cooperative Driving Maneuvers

The proposed benefits of enabling automated and autonomous vehicles to cooperate are manifold - however, these functions introduce a new level of uncertainty and unreliability inherent of wireless communication into a realm of safety-critical decisions. Since vehicle-to-vehicle communication in either ad hoc or managed environments can be inherently unreliable, it is of highest importance to critically evaluate the level and design of integration of cooperative information into the decision making process of automated functions. Thus, a robust integration of communication as a sensor has to take into account key issues such as penetration rate, reliability of communication and trust and develop appropriate methods of handling these issues to provide fail-safety. In this paper we present an approach to cooperative maneuvers in automated vehicles with emphasis on handling potential hazards introduced by communication. In this regard we propose the complimentary Collaborative Maneuver Protocol (CMP), combining novel approaches to enable robust, functionally safe collaboration between vehicles in vehicle-tovehicle communication.
A syndrome of severe idiopathic pulmonary parenchymal disease with pulmonary hypertension in Pekingese

This paper describes 35 Pekingese dogs with a syndrome characterized by dyspnea, cyanosis, episodic syncope, soft pulmonary “velcro” crackles, pulmonary hypertension (PH), and computed tomography and radiographic changes consistent with pulmonary parenchymal disease. The medical data base was searched with the criteria “Pekingese” and “syncope” or “dyspnea” or “tachypnea” or “pulmonary hypertension”, over a 36-month period. Inclusion criteria were echocardiographic changes consistent with noninvasive diagnosis of PH, either subjectively by B-mode or objectively by Doppler. Dogs were excluded (n=106) if there were insufficient or poor-quality radiographic or echocardiographic records or if diseases other than chronic pulmonary disease were found to be the etiology. The records of 35 dogs met these criteria and presented with a respiratory crises preceded by a history of chronic exercise intolerance and episodic syncope. The average age was 14.5 years (range: 7–19 years), with 21 males and 14 females. Most of the dogs had an interstitial lung pattern with radiographic evidence of right heart enlargement. There was a 77% (n=27) mortality and a median survival of 60 days (interquartile range: 9–210 days). This study highlights a cor pulmonale syndrome from PH due to chronic pulmonary parenchymal disease, with a grave prognosis, in middle-aged to geriatric population of Hong Kong Pekingese.
Pediatric Traumatic Retinal Detachment: Clinical Features, Prognostic Factors, and Surgical Outcomes

Purpose We report the clinical characteristics, prognostic factors, and surgical outcomes for 23-gauge pars plana vitrectomy (23-G PPV) in pediatric cases of traumatic retinal detachment (RD). Methods Medical records of pediatric patients who underwent 23-G PPV to treat traumatic retinal detachment were retrospectively reviewed. These patients underwent a follow-up examination at least 1 year following surgery. Associations between various preoperative factors and anatomical and visual outcomes were analyzed. An Ocular Trauma Score (OTS) and a Pediatric Ocular Trauma Score (POTS) were calculated for each patient. Raw scores were converted to their corresponding OTS and POTS categories. Final visual acuities by categories were compared with those in the OTS and POTS studies. Results The mean age of the patients was 9 ± 4 years, and the male-to-female ratio was 4.7 : 1. The mean follow-up time was 23 ± 14 months. Anatomical success was achieved in 72% of the eyes, and functional success (>5/200) was achieved in 37% of the eyes. Functional success was less common among patients with visual acuities less than hand motion, macula-off retinal detachment, proliferative vitreoretinopathy at presentation, and recurrent retinal detachment during follow-up. When we compared the categorical distribution of final visual acuities in all categories, our results were significantly different than those suggested by OTS and POTS. Conclusions Visual outcomes are poorer compared to anatomical outcomes. OTS and POTS do not provide reliable prognostic information if the patient has RD. Presenting visual acuity, the presence of macula-off RD, and PVR are all important predictors of final visual acuity.
Does putting your emotions into words make you feel better? Measuring the minute-scale dynamics of emotions from online data

Studies of affect labeling, i.e. putting your feelings into words, indicate that it can attenuate positive and negative emotions. Here we track the evolution of individual emotions for tens of thousands of Twitter users by analyzing the emotional content of their tweets before and after they explicitly report having a strong emotion. Our results reveal how emotions and their expression evolve at the temporal resolution of one minute. While the expression of positive emotions is preceded by a short but steep increase in positive valence and followed by short decay to normal levels, negative emotions build up more slowly, followed by a sharp reversal to previous levels, matching earlier findings of the attenuating effects of affect labeling. We estimate that positive and negative emotions last approximately 1.25 and 1.5 hours from onset to evanescence. A separate analysis for male and female subjects is suggestive of possible gender-specific differences in emotional dynamics.
Detection of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Status of Circulating Tumor Cells in Patients with Esophageal Squamous Carcinoma

Purpose To investigate the correlation between the status of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods The demographic data and blood samples of 21 patients with ESCC were collected retrospectively. CTCs were enriched by using optimized CanPatrolTM CTC enrichment technique. CTCs were identified and characterized according to the EMT markers (e-CTCs: epithelial CTCs; mix-CTCs: epithelial-mesenchymal-mixed CTCs; m-CTCs: mesenchymal CTCs). The correlation between CTCs and demographic data was analyzed. Results Total 129 CTCs were detected in all the patients: 11(8.5%) CTCs of them were e-CTCs, 76(58.9%) were mix-CTCs, and 42(32.6%) were m-CTCs. The average number of CTCs from each patient was 6.1 ± 7.1 which included 0.5 ± 0.9 of e-CTCs, 3.6 ± 5.2 of mix-CTCs, and 2.0 ± 2.7 of m-CTCs; the difference between the three groups was significant (P = 0.017): the number of total CTCs was correlated with the number of mix-CTCs (R2 = 0.883, P < 0.01) and m-CTCs (R2 = 0.639, P < 0.01) but not e-CTCs (R2 = 0.012, P = 0.641) and the number of CTCs was correlated with the N stage and TNM stage in this study (R2 = 0.698 and R2 = 0.359). Conclusions Mix-CTCs and m-CTCs might play an important role in progression of ESCC; the number of CTCs in ESCC might have the potential to be a predictor of prognosis.
Effects of Educational Counseling as Solitary Therapy for Chronic Primary Tinnitus and Related Problems

The aim of this study was to evaluate the early and sustained effects of tinnitus educational counseling on chronic primary tinnitus and related problems. A descriptive longitudinal cohort study was conducted with 159 adult patients suffering from chronic primary tinnitus and sleep problems. All patients received tinnitus educational counseling, sleep adjustment, and vegan dietary advice. At short-term assessment within 3 months and long-term follow-up at 6–26 months, perceived changes in tinnitus were assessed with the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) and the Tinnitus Evaluation Questionnaire (TEQ), respectively. In TEQ, the volume of subjective tinnitus was scored according to realistic environments in which tinnitus could be heard. Sleep quality was assessed with questionnaires developed in our laboratory. Most of the subjects showed significant early improvement in their THI scores (96/159, 60.38%; from 46.11 ± 22.74 to 31.94 ± 20.41, t = 11.16, p < 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.66). Tinnitus volume (39/159, 24.53%, from 2,2 to 2,1, z = -3.56, p < 0.001) and sleep quality (68/159, 42.77%; from 7.13 ± 3.11 to 6.31 ± 2.75, t = 3.73, p < 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.28) were also improved. Long-term follow-up TEQ results indicated that tinnitus loudness, the impact of tinnitus on sleep, concentration, and emotional state were all improved since the prior consultation (p = 0.001, 0.026, 0.012, and <0.001). Short-term improvement of tinnitus severity correlated directly with improvement of sleep quality (odds ratio (OR) = 0.30, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.14–0.64, p = 0.002), initial THI score (OR = 1.02, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.04, p = 0.006), compliance with sleep advice (OR = 2.27, 95% CI: 1.02–5.05, p = 0.044), and nervous disposition (OR = 2.80, 95% CI: 1.25–6.30, p = 0.013). A future randomized controlled trial would be carried out to examine the effect of sole tinnitus educational counseling.