Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A mass spring model for hair simulation

Our goal is to simulate the full hair geometry, consisting of approximately one hundred thousand hairs on a typical human head. This will require scalable methods that can simulate every hair as opposed to only a few guide hairs. Novel to this approach is that the individual hair/hair interactions can be modeled with physical parameters (friction, static attraction, etc.) at the scale of a single hair as opposed to clumped or continuum interactions. In this vein, we first propose a new altitude spring model for preventing collapse in the simulation of volumetric tetrahedra, and we show that it is also applicable both to bending in cloth and torsion in hair. We demonstrate that this new torsion model for hair behaves in a fashion similar to more sophisticated models with significantly reduced computational cost. For added efficiency, we introduce a semi-implicit discretization of standard springs that makes them truly linear in multiple spatial dimensions and thus unconditionally stable without requiring Newton-Raphson iteration. We also simulate complex hair/hair interactions including sticking and clumping behavior, collisions with objects (e.g. head and shoulders) and self-collisions. Notably, in line with our goal to simulate the full head of hair, we do not generate any new hairs at render time.
2016 Ieee International Conference on Big Data (big Data) Implementing Connected Component Labeling as a User Defined Operator for Scidb

—We have implemented a flexible User Defined Operator (UDO) for labeling connected components of a binary mask expressed as an array in SciDB, a parallel distributed database management system based on the array data model. This UDO is able to process very large multidimensional arrays by exploiting SciDB's memory management mechanism that efficiently manipulates arrays whose memory requirements far exceed available physical memory. The UDO takes as primary inputs a binary mask array and a binary stencil array that specifies the connectivity of a given cell to its neighbors. The UDO returns an array of the same shape as the input mask array with each foreground cell containing the label of the component it belongs to. By default, dimensions are treated as non-periodic, but the UDO also accepts optional input parameters to specify periodicity in any of the array dimensions. The UDO requires four stages to completely label connected components. In the first stage, labels are computed for each subarray or chunk of the mask array in parallel across SciDB instances using the weighted quick union (WQU) with half-path compression algorithm. In the second stage, labels around chunk boundaries from the first stage are stored in a temporary SciDB array that is then replicated across all SciDB instances. Equivalences are resolved by again applying the WQU algorithm to these boundary labels. In the third stage, relabeling is done for each chunk using the resolved equivalences. In the fourth stage, the resolved labels, which so far are "flattened" coordinates of the original binary mask array, are renamed with sequential integers for legibility. The UDO is demonstrated on a 3-D mask of O(10 11) elements, with O(10 8) foreground cells and O(10 6) connected components. The operator completes in 19 minutes using 84 SciDB instances.
Non-specific binding of Na+ and Mg2+ to RNA determined by force spectroscopy methods

RNA duplex stability depends strongly on ionic conditions, and inside cells RNAs are exposed to both monovalent and multivalent ions. Despite recent advances, we do not have general methods to quantitatively account for the effects of monovalent and multivalent ions on RNA stability, and the thermodynamic parameters for secondary structure prediction have only been derived at 1M [Na+]. Here, by mechanically unfolding and folding a 20 bp RNA hairpin using optical tweezers, we study the RNA thermodynamics and kinetics at different monovalent and mixed monovalent/Mg2+ salt conditions. We measure the unfolding and folding rupture forces and apply Kramers theory to extract accurate information about the hairpin free energy landscape under tension at a wide range of ionic conditions. We obtain non-specific corrections for the free energy of formation of the RNA hairpin and measure how the distance of the transition state to the folded state changes with force and ionic strength. We experimentally validate the Tightly Bound Ion model and obtain values for the persistence length of ssRNA. Finally, we test the approximate rule by which the non-specific binding affinity of divalent cations at a given concentration is equivalent to that of monovalent cations taken at 100-fold concentration for small molecular constructs.
Evaluation of physical parameters during the plasma-induced ablation of teeth

The physical parameters of the plasma-induced ablation mechanism were investigated using a picosecond Nd:YLF laser system. The laser consists of a diode-pumped oscillator and a lamp- pumped regenerative amplifier. It operates at a wavelength of 1.053 micrometers with pulse durations of 30 ps and pulse energies up to 1 mJ. The laser beam was expanded to a diameter of 4 mm and focussed to spot sizes of about 30 micrometers . At these high power densities a localized plasma was induced at the focal spot. Surfaces of extracted human teeth were used as target material. In order to study the effect of accompanying shock waves, dye penetration tests, hardness tests and polarized microscopy were performed. At moderate pulse energies no significant impact of shock waves was observed. Because of this result, the terms `plasma- induced ablation' or `plasma-mediated ablation' are more appropriate for ablations solely induced by plasma ionization, and should be distinguished from photodisruptive ablations. In another series of experiments the generated plasma sparks were spectroscopically analyzed. From the measured spectra, mean plasma temperatures of about 5 eV and mean electron densities of about 1018/cm3 were estimated.
Multi-Domain Orchestration for NFV: Challenges and Research Directions

In this paper we focus on the problem of multidomain orchestration for Network Function Virtualization (NFV), over multi-technology environments. In order to facilitate service deployment in end-to-end setups, new orchestration designs are required that exploit and advance existing methodologies. We examine in detail the challenges on multi-domain NFV orchestration for the general case and we provide the current landscape and existing technologies. We also describe a reference architecture for the problem of multi-domain NFV orchestration, that also supports the concept of Network Slicing. Finally, we present a realization of the architecture proposed for the LTE network and we describe a use case with LTE-specific considerations.
Spin‐echo and gradient‐echo epi of human brain activation using bold contrast: A comparative study at 1.5 T

In this study, Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) contrast in the detection of human brain activation was compared between spin‐echo and gradient‐echo echo‐planar sequences at 1.5 T. Time course series of spin‐echo and gradient‐echo images containing the primary motor cortex were collected during rest (no finger movement) and activation (finger movement). Each time course series was collected using a different TE. Resting and active state signal intensities at each TE were measured in identical regions in the motor cortex. From these data, resting and active state R2 (1/T2) and R 2* (1/T 2* ) values were obtained. Across four subjects, brain activation produced an average R2 change of −0.16±0.02/s (±SE), and an average R 2* change of −0.55±0.08/s. The average ΔR 2* /ΔR2 ratio was 3.52±0.56. The average gradient‐echo/spin‐echo ratio of activation‐induced signal changes at the TE for maximal BOLD contrast for each sequence (TE≈T 2* and T2) was calculated to be 1.87±0.40.
A Passivity-based Approach to Deployment in Multi-agent Networks

Surveillance and convoy tracking applications often require groups of networked agents for redundancy and better coverage. An important goal upon deployment is to establish a formation around a target. Although there exist distributed algorithms using only local communication that achieve this goal, they typically ignore destabilizing effects resulting from implementation uncertainties, such as network delays and data loss. This paper resolves these issues by introducing a discrete-time distributed design framework that uses a compositional, passivity-based approach to ensure lm 2 -stability regardless of overlay network topology, in the presence of network delays and data loss. For the restricted case of a uniform node degree in the overlay network topology, the paper shows that asymptotic formation establishment is achieved. Finally, simulations of velocity-limited unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) are presented that demonstrate the robustness of the network architecture to network delays and data loss. This paper will appear in the Proceedings of ICINCO 2010 Seventh International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics, Funchal, Madeira Portugal. http://www.icinco. org/
Route search method by normalized cost

あらまし 本論文は画像中から物体領域を抽出する手法を提案する. 最初に輪郭を抽出する手法として提案さ れている Intelligent Scissors 法(IS 法)の性質を調べた. その結果,IS 法のコスト総和による経路探索では, 複雑な輪郭を抽出するには多くのシード点が必要であることが判明した. 次に,コスト総和を経路長で正規化し たコストを最小とすることにより,この問題を解決することを示す. この原理に基づき,本論文では正規化コス トに基づく輪郭抽出法(Normalized Cost 法,NC 法)を提案する. また輪郭抽出法を組み込むユーザインタ フェースを構築し,定量的な比較実験を行った. IS 法との比較実験より,NC 法は少ないシード点数で,かつ高 速に領域抽出が行えることを確認した. これにより本手法の有効性を示した. キーワード Intelligent Scissors 法,輪郭抽出,インタラクティブ抽出
A Survey of Bandwidth and Latency Enhancement Approaches for Mobile Cloud Game Multicasting

Among mobile cloud applications, mobile cloud gaming has gained a significant popularity in the recent years. In mobile cloud games, textures, game objects, and game events are typically streamed from a server to the mobile client. One of the challenges in cloud mobile gaming is how to efficiently multicast gaming contents and updates in Massively Multi-player Online Games (MMOGs). This report surveys the state of art techniques introduced for game synchronization and multicasting mechanisms to decrease latency and bandwidth consumption, and discuss several schemes that have been proposed in this area that can be applied to any networked gaming context. From our point of view, gaming applications demand high interactivity. Therefore, concentrating on gaming applications will eventually cover a wide range of applications without violating the limited scope of this survey.
Flexographic printing of graphene nanoplatelet ink to replace platinum as counter electrode catalyst in flexible dye sensitised solar cell

Abstract A semitransparent catalytically active graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) ink was developed suitable for roll to roll printing onto a flexible indium tin oxide substrate at a speed of 0·4 m s−1. Dye sensitised solar cells using this ink as a catalyst demonstrated efficiencies of 2·0%, compared with 2·6% for sputtered platinum. Given further optimisation, GNP inks have the potential to replace chemically reduced or sputtered platinum. This would have the benefit of replacing the chemical reduction or sputtering operations as well as providing potential material cost benefits.
Growth of branched single-crystalline GaAs whiskers on Si nanowire trunks

In this paper we present the hetero-epitaxial growth of single-crystalline GaAs whiskers on Si(111)-nanowire trunks forming hierarchical star-like structures with a six-fold symmetry. These hierarchical nanostructures have been successfully formed utilizing both vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) growth by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) and molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) techniques. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) studies revealed the [111] growth direction of the core Si nanowires (Si-NWs) with six {112} facet planes. The sequentially grown branches are single-crystalline hexagonal GaAs nanowhiskers which grow preferably in the [0001] direction and are perpendicular to the {112} facets of the Si-NW backbone. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements confirm the good crystalline quality of the GaAs nanowhiskers and a blueshift of about 30 meV compared to bulk zinc blende-type GaAs. The ability to prepare rotationally branched NW structures should open new opportunities for both fundamental research and applications including monolithic three-dimensional nanoelectronics and nanophotonics.
Effects of Tannic Acid, Green Tea and Red Wine on hERG Channels Expressed in HEK293 Cells

Tannic acid presents in varying concentrations in plant foods, and in relatively high concentrations in green teas and red wines. Human ether-à-go-go-related gene (hERG) channels expressed in multiple tissues (e.g. heart, neurons, smooth muscle and cancer cells), and play important roles in modulating cardiac action potential repolarization and tumor cell biology. The present study investigated the effects of tannic acid, green teas and red wines on hERG currents. The effects of tannic acid, teas and red wines on hERG currents stably transfected in HEK293 cells were studied with a perforated patch clamp technique. In this study, we demonstrated that tannic acid inhibited hERG currents with an IC50 of 3.4 μM and ~100% inhibition at higher concentrations, and significantly shifted the voltage dependent activation to more positive potentials (Δ23.2 mV). Remarkably, a 100-fold dilution of multiple types of tea (green tea, oolong tea and black tea) or red wine inhibited hERG currents by ~90%, and significantly shifted the voltage dependent activation to more positive potentials (Δ30.8 mV and Δ26.0 mV, respectively). Green tea Lung Ching and red wine inhibited hERG currents, with IC50 of 0.04% and 0.19%, respectively. The effects of tannic acid, teas and red wine on hERG currents were irreversible. These results suggest tannic acid is a novel hERG channel blocker and consequently provide a new mechanistic evidence for understanding the effects of tannic acid. They also revealed the potential pharmacological basis of tea- and red wine-induced biology activities.
Dietary models for inducing hypercholesterolemia in rats

The present work aimed at finding a dietetical model capable of promoting the highest hypercholesterolemia without affecting the development of the rats. Sixty female Fisher rats were divided into five groups. The first one was fed a control diet; the remaining four were fed hypercholesterolemic diets with cholesterol and different contents of soybean oil, starch, casein, micronutrients and fiber and, consequently, different caloric values. After eight weeks animals were evaluated in relation to growth, fecal excretion, liver weight and fat, cholesterol and its fractions, serum biochemical parameters and sistolic pressure and compared with controls. The best result was obtained with the diet containing 25 % soybean oil, 1.0 % cholesterol, 13 % fiber and 4,538.4 Kcal/Kg, since it promoted an increase in LDL-cholesterol, a decrease in the HDL fraction and affected less the hepatic function of the animals.
Forgiveness as a mediator of the relationship between PTSD and hostility in survivors of childhood abuse

It was hypothesised that forgiveness mediates the relationship between PTSD and hostility within a population of adult childhood abuse survivors. Of the three components of forgiveness—self, other, and situation—self and situation forgiveness were posited as potent mediators of the PTSD and hostility relationship. No differences in the mediational role of forgiveness in sexual versus physical abuse and female versus male abuse survivors were hypothesised. As posited, overall forgiveness mediated the PTSD‐hostility relationship and the forgiveness of self and situation were strong mediators. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.
Optimal Content Placement for a Large-Scale VoD System

IPTV service providers offering Video-on-Demand currently use servers at each metropolitan office to store all the videos in their library. With the rapid increase in library sizes, it will soon become infeasible to replicate the entire library at each office. We present an approach for intelligent content placement that scales to large library sizes (e.g., 100 Ks of videos). We formulate the problem as a mixed integer program (MIP) that takes into account constraints such as disk space, link bandwidth, and content popularity. To overcome the challenges of scale, we employ a Lagrangian relaxation-based decomposition technique combined with integer rounding. Our technique finds a near-optimal solution (e.g., within 1%-2%) with orders of magnitude speedup relative to solving even the linear programming (LP) relaxation via standard software. We also present simple strategies to address practical issues such as popularity estimation, content updates, short-term popularity fluctuation, and frequency of placement updates. Using traces from an operational system, we show that our approach significantly outperforms simpler placement strategies. For instance, our MIP-based solution can serve all requests using only half the link bandwidth used by least recently used (LRU) or least frequently used (LFU) cache replacement policies. We also investigate the tradeoff between disk space and network bandwidth.
CcpC-Dependent Regulation of citB and lmo0847 in Listeria monocytogenes

ABSTRACT In Bacillus subtilis, the catabolite control protein C (CcpC) plays a critical role in regulating the genes encoding the enzymes of the tricarboxylic acid branch of the Krebs citric acid cycle. A gene encoding a potential CcpC homolog and two potential target genes were identified in the Listeria monocytogenes genome. In vitro gel mobility shift assays and DNase I footprinting experiments showed that L. monocytogenes CcpC (CcpCLm) interacts with the promoter regions of citBLm (the gene that is likely to encode aconitase) and lmo0847 (encoding a possible glutamine transporter) and that citrate is a specific inhibitor of this interaction. To study in vivo promoter activity, a new lacZ reporter system was developed. This system allows stable integration into the chromosome of a promoter region transcriptionally fused to a promoterless lacZ gene at a nonessential, ectopic locus. Analysis of strains carrying a citBLm-lacZ or lmo0847-lacZ fusion revealed that CcpCLm represses citBLm and lmo0847 in media containing an excess of glucose and glutamine. In addition, regulation of citBLm expression in rich medium was growth phase dependent; during exponential growth phase, expression was very low even in the absence of CcpCLm, but a higher level of citBLm expression was induced in stationary phase, suggesting the involvement of another, as yet unidentified regulatory factor.
Solar light trapping in slanted conical-pore photonic crystals

We show that with only one micron, equivalent bulk thickness, of crystalline silicon, sculpted into the form of a slanted conical-pore photonic crystal and placed on a silver back-reflector, it is possible to attain a maximum achievable photocurrent density (MAPD) of 35.5mA/cm2 from impinging sunlight [1]. This corresponds to absorbing roughly 85% of sunlight in the wavelength range 300-1100nm and exceeds the Lambertian limit suggested by previous “statistical ray trapping” arguments. When the silicon volume is reduced to an equivalent thickness of only 380nm, the MAPD remains as high as 32mA/cm2. This suggests the possibility of very high efficiency, ultra-thin-film silicon solar cells. Our one-micron structure consists of a photonic crystal square lattice constant of 850nm and slightly overlapping inverted cones with upper (base) radius of 500nm and 1600nm cone depth. When the solar cell is packaged with silica (each pore filled with SiO2 and modulation on the top is added), the MAPD in the wavelength range of 400-1100nm becomes 32.6mA/cm2 still higher than the Lambertian 4n2 benchmark of 31.2mA/cm2. Thinner structures are considered by keeping the lattice constant and cone radius fixed but by decreasing the cone depth. The MAPD dependence on the overall depth of nanopores indicates that using roughly half the amount of silicon leads to only about 5% drop in the MAPD. In the near infrared regime light is absorbed within slow group velocity modes, that propagate nearly parallel to the interface and exhibit localized high intensity vortex-like flow in the Poynting vector-field.
Representing and Recognizing Human Motion : From Motion Templates to Movement Categories

For reactive computers, embodied robots, or artificial creatures to effectively interact with us, it will be necessary for them to discern the various types of human movements that abound in the world. Additional applied significance for machines capable of human motion recognition can be found in automatic surveillance and monitoring systems, video content analysis, and perceptual user interfaces. The tracking and recognition of human motion, action, and events using computer vision has recently gained widespread interest in both academic and industrial research, with much emphasis on real-time systems (See [14, 56, 55, 34, 1, 68] for reviews of current research). It is well known that certain types of biological movement patterns can be unambiguously recognized from their own organization of motion [46]. Though people generally cannot identify a static collection of bright dots in a dark scene as any meaningful object (See Fig. 1.a), they can easily interpret the moving dots as a set of lights attached to the joints of a walking person. People can further determine above chance the gender of the walker [17], even from viewing only two moving ankle points [47, 48]. In fact, babies have been found to stare longer at such biological point-light displays than at dots moving randomly [31]. This problem of recognizing biological movement has intrigued both psychologists and computer vision researches for decades, and has generated multiple controversial theories regarding reconstruction and recognition [36, 75, 46, 53, 70]. We have shown that even very low-resolution (blurred) video was sufficient for perceptual identification of common human (and animal) movements [22, 19]. A single frame from a blurred video sequence is shown in Fig. 1.b, which when subjects viewed this image (in color) reported seeing “an antelope in a field”, “an ice skater”, “maybe a plot of trees in the distance”, “the hood of a car”, or most originally “an impressionist painting viewed through a dirty window”. [What is your guess? ] However, once the video is started from this frame, the immediate percept of a
Combining Natural Logic and Shallow Reasoning for Question Answering

Broad domain question answering is often difﬁcult in the absence of structured knowledge bases, and can beneﬁt from shallow lexical methods (broad coverage) and logical reasoning (high precision). We propose an approach for incorporating both of these signals in a uniﬁed framework based on natural logic. We extend the breadth of inferences afforded by nat-ural logic to include relational entailment (e.g., buy → own ) and meronymy (e.g., a person born in a city is born the city’s country). Furthermore, we train an evaluation function – akin to gameplaying – to evaluate the expected truth of candidate premises on the ﬂy. We evaluate our approach on answering multiple choice science questions, achieving strong results on the dataset.