Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ear Recognition using Dual Tree Complex Wavelet Transform

Since last 10 years, various methods have been used for ear recognition. This paper describes the automatic localization of an ear and it’s segmentation from the side poses of face images. In this paper, authors have proposed a novel approach of feature extraction of iris image using 2D Dual Tree Complex Wavelet Transform (2D-DT-CWT) which provides six sub-bands in 06 different orientations, as against three orientations in DWT. DT-CWT being complex, exhibits the property of shift invariance. Ear feature vectors are obtained by computing mean, standard deviation, energy and entropy of these six sub-bands of DT-CWT and three sub-bands of DWT. Canberra distance and Euclidian distance are used for matching. This method is implemented and tested on two image databases, UND database of 219 subjects from the University of Notre Dame and own database created at MCTE, of 40 subjects which is also used for online ear testing of system for access control at MCTE. False Acceptance Rate (FAR), False Rejection Rate (FRR), Equal Error Rate (EER) and Receiver’s Operating Curve (ROC) are compiled at various thresholds. The accuracy of recognition is achieved above 97 %.
Techniques for flow inversion on sampled data

The distribution of flow sizes is a quantity of interest fundamental to traffic engineering and network modelling and only likely to become more important in the future. The recovery of the flow-length distribution from (sampled) packet data is referred to as flow-inversion. Traditional packet sampling methods cause distortions in a recovered distribution of flow-length. We propose an improved method for inverting data sampled using the technique known as sample-and-hold. We show that the technique improves upon existing inversion techniques illustrated using both real and artificial data sets. The technique described may have applications to other inversion problems.
Refinement of the Spitzer Space Telescope Pointing History Based on Image Registration Corrections from Multiple Data Channels

Position reconstruction for images acquired by the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), one of the science instruments onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope, is a multistep procedure that is part of the routine processing done at the Spitzer Science Center (SSC). The IRAC instrument simultaneously images two different sky footprints, each with two independent infrared passbands (channels). The accuracy of the initial Spitzer pointing reconstruction is typically slightly better than 1″. The well‐known technique of position matching imaged point sources to even more accurate star catalogs to refine the pointing further is implemented for SSC processing of IRAC data as well. Beyond that, the optimal processing of redundant pointing information from multiple instrument channels to yield an even better solution is also performed at the SSC. Our multichannel data processing approach is particularly beneficial when the star‐catalog matches are sparse in one channel but copious in others. A thorough review of the algorithm as implemented for the Spitzer mission reveals that the mathematical formalism can be fairly easily generalized for application to other astronomy missions. The computation of pointing uncertainties, the interpolation of pointing corrections and their uncertainties between measurements, and the estimation of random‐walk deviations from linearity are special areas of importance when implementing the method. After performing the operations described in this paper on the initial Spitzer pointing, the uncertainty in the observatory pointing history file is reduced 10–15 fold.
Mechanism of Superoxide and Hydrogen Peroxide Formation by Fumarate Reductase, Succinate Dehydrogenase, and Aspartate Oxidase*

Oxidative stress is created in aerobic organisms when molecular oxygen chemically oxidizes redox enzymes, forming superoxide (O 2 ⨪ ) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Prior work identified several flavoenzymes from Escherichia coli that tend to autoxidize. Of these, fumarate reductase (Frd) is notable both for its high turnover number and for its production of substantial O 2 ⨪ in addition to H2O2. We have sought to identify characteristics of Frd that predispose it to this behavior. The ability of excess succinate to block autoxidation and the inhibitory effect of lowering the flavin potential indicate that all detectable autoxidation occurs from its FAD site, rather than from iron-sulfur clusters or bound quinones. The flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) moiety of Frd is unusually solvent-exposed, as evidenced by its ability to bind sulfite, and this may make it more likely to react adventitiously with O2. The autoxidizing species is apparently fully reduced flavin rather than flavosemiquinone, since treatments that more fully reduce the enzyme do not slow its turnover number. They do, however, switch the major product from O 2 ⨪ to H2O2. A similar effect is achieved by lowering the potential of the proximal [2Fe-2S] cluster. These data suggest that Frd releases O 2 ⨪ into bulk solution if this cluster is available to sequester the semiquinone electron; otherwise, that electron is rapidly transferred to the nascent superoxide, and H2O2 is the product that leaves the active site. This model is supported by the behavior of “aspartate oxidase” (aspartate:fumarate oxidoreductase), an Frd homologue that lacks Fe-S clusters. Its dihydroflavin also reacts avidly with oxygen, and H2O2 is the predominant product. In contrast, succinate dehydrogenase, with high potential clusters, generates O 2 ⨪ exclusively. The identities of enzyme autoxidation products are significant because O 2 ⨪ and H2O2 damage cells in different ways.
Position selectivity in face‐sensitive visual cortex to facial and nonfacial stimuli: an fMRI study†

Evidence for position sensitivity in object‐selective visual areas has been building. On one hand, most of the relevant studies have utilized stimuli for which the areas are optimally selective and examine small sections of cortex. On the other hand, visual field maps established with nonspecific stimuli have been found in increasingly large areas of visual cortex, though generally not in areas primarily responsive to faces.
Doctor of Philosophy Visual Acuity, Eye Movements, the Illusion of Motion and Motion Sickness with Optokinetic Stimuli

Motion sickness and the illusion of self-motion (vection) can be induced by the use of an optokinetic drum (a black and white striped cylinder which rotates around a seated, stationary subject). It has been suggested that vection is a cause of motion sickness in optokinetic drums because the illusion of self-motion, in the absence of real motion, may be a form of sensory conflict. Alternative theories have suggested that motion sickness may arise from eye movements. Motion sickness has been reduced with fixation, where subjects focused on a stationary object in front of the moving stripes, preventing eye movements. This thesis investigated the correlations between motion sickness, vection, eye movements and visual acuity. Six experiments were conducted. The first compared motion sickness and vection in a real and a virtual reality simulation of an optokinetic drum (with the same field of view). There was slightly greater motion sickness in the real drum, but no difference in vection. Vection and motion sickness scores did not correlate within conditions, indicating that vection may not be the main cause of motion sickness. It was found that visual acuity was significantly correlated with motion sickness, in both conditions. Subjects with poor a cuity reported increased symptoms. In the second experiment subjects viewed a normal optokinetic stimulus on the virtual reality display and the same optokinetic stimulus with a stationary cross in front of the moving stripes (fixation). Motion sickness was significantly reduced with fixation but vection was unchanged. Visual acuity was correlated with motion sickness without fixation, as before, but was not correlated with motion sickness with fixation. The fourth experiment found that motion sickness c ould be produced with a single moving dot, tracked by the eyes of subjects, presented on the virtual reality display. Motion sickness symptoms were not significantly different with a single or multiple dot display. Vection was significantly higher with multiple dots, where peripheral visual stimulation was increased. A fifth experiment found that motion sickness was significantly higher when subjects viewed a standard optokinetic drum without vision correction, compared to viewing with vision correction. Visual acuity and contrast sensitivity to higher spatial frequencies were found to be correlated with motion sickness, indicating that a lack of sensitivity at high spatial frequencies, rather than at a wide range of low and high spatial frequencies, were associated with motion sickness. A final experiment measured the slow phase of nystagmus with and …
Bio-Logic: Gene Expression and the Laws of Combinatorial Logic

At the heart of the development of fertilized eggs into fully formed organisms and the adaptation of cells to changed conditions are genetic regulatory networks (GRNs). In higher multicellular organisms, signal selection and multiplexing are performed at the cis-regulatory domains of genes, where combinations of transcription factors (TFs) regulate the rates at which the genes are transcribed into mRNA. To be able to act as activators or repressors of gene transcription, TFs must first bind to target sequences on the regulatory domains. Two TFs that act in concert may bind entirely independently of each other, but more often binding of the first one will alter the affinity of the other for its binding site. This article presents a systematic investigation into the effect of TF binding dependences on the predicted regulatory function of this bio-logic. Four extreme scenarios, commonly used to classify enzyme activation and inhibition patterns, for the binding of two TFs were explored: independent (the TFs bind without affecting each other's affinities), competitive (the TFs compete for the same binding site), ordered (the TFs bind in a compulsory order), and joint binding (the TFs either bind as a preformed complex, or binding of one is virtually impossible in the absence of the other). The conclusions are: (1) the laws of combinatorial logic hold only for systems with independently binding TFs; (2) systems formed according to the other scenarios can mimic the functions of their Boolean logical counterparts, but cannot be combined or decomposed in the same way; and (3) the continuously scaled output of systems consisting of competitively binding activators and repressors can be controlled more robustly than that of single TF or (quasi-)logical multi-TF systems.
SOIL FERTILITY, EMERGY EVALUATION, AND IMPROVEMENTS TO MILPA IN INDIGENOUS ZAPOTEC AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS

Emergy analysis is an important evaluative tool that can be used to understand the sustainability of ecological systems. This methodology normalizes natural and economic inputs to permit a more holistic evaluation of systems. Emergy transformity values of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is commonly not included in analyses of traditionally-designed ecosystems. Instead, non-TEK transformity values of education are used, or evaluation has tended toward a qualitative valuation of TEK. My research evaluated the emergy in the creation, maintenance, and transfer of TEK at the individual and community levels, as well as the biophysical and cultural resources that support this knowledge system. This evaluation took place in the Zapotec Village of Lalopa, Mexico. Interviewees stressed the importance of intergenerational ties, the local forest, and community in their education. I found that TEKeducation transformities (6.54E06 sej/J) are similar to past qualitative estimates. TEK labor will result in minimal impact to the environment (i.e., environmental loading ratio) relative to Western education, which has comparable transformities, due to reliance on renewable local ecosystem inputs rather than fossil fuels and physical infrastructure. This research highlights the importance of preserving TEK-education and the natural resources supporting it, and in developing hands-on educational systems that rely upon the natural world as the primary
Substrate-Driven Mapping of the Degradome by Comparison of Sequence Logos

Sequence logos are frequently used to illustrate substrate preferences and specificity of proteases. Here, we employed the compiled substrates of the MEROPS database to introduce a novel metric for comparison of protease substrate preferences. The constructed similarity matrix of 62 proteases can be used to intuitively visualize similarities in protease substrate readout via principal component analysis and construction of protease specificity trees. Since our new metric is solely based on substrate data, we can engraft the protease tree including proteolytic enzymes of different evolutionary origin. Thereby, our analyses confirm pronounced overlaps in substrate recognition not only between proteases closely related on sequence basis but also between proteolytic enzymes of different evolutionary origin and catalytic type. To illustrate the applicability of our approach we analyze the distribution of targets of small molecules from the ChEMBL database in our substrate-based protease specificity trees. We observe a striking clustering of annotated targets in tree branches even though these grouped targets do not necessarily share similarity on protein sequence level. This highlights the value and applicability of knowledge acquired from peptide substrates in drug design of small molecules, e.g., for the prediction of off-target effects or drug repurposing. Consequently, our similarity metric allows to map the degradome and its associated drug target network via comparison of known substrate peptides. The substrate-driven view of protein-protein interfaces is not limited to the field of proteases but can be applied to any target class where a sufficient amount of known substrate data is available.
Linked data for toponym linking in French literary texts

The present article discusses first experiments in toponym linking of Modern French digital editions aiming to provide an external referent to Linked Data sources. We have so far focused on testing two knowledge bases - French DBpedia and Geonames - for recall. Results highlight quality issues in these data sets for usage in NLP-tasks in domain-specific heritage texts.
Pattern detection using a maximal rejection classifier

Summary form only given. In target detection applications, the aim is to detect occurrences of a specific target in a given signal. In general, the target is subjected to some particular type of transformation, hence we have a set of target signals to be detected. In this context, the set of non-target samples are referred to as clutter. In practice, the target detection problem can be characterized as designing a classifier C(z), which, given an input vector z, has to decide whether z belongs to the target class X or the clutter class Y. In example based classification, this classifier is designed using two training sets -X/spl circ/={xi}/sub i=1.Lx/ (target samples) and Y/spl circ/={y/sub i/}/sub i=1.Ly/ (clutter samples), drawn from the above two classes.
Analysis of an up/down power control algorithm for the CDMA reverse link under fading

We analyze the performance of a code division multiple access (CDMA) reverse link a with an up/down power control algorithm in the presence of fading. We derive a stochastic nonlinear feedback control system model for the power controlled reverse link, and study the power control performance based on the nonlinear model using the technique of statistical linearization. We provide a general analysis framework that allows us to study the effect of mobile speed, power control step size, and fading channel parameters such as correlation coefficient and rate of fading on power control errors. Numerical results show excellent accuracy of our analysis, which can be used to design and optimize the system parameters without going through lengthy simulations. For example, in the presence of shadow fading, it is seen that a power control step size in the range of 0.5-1.3 dB is sufficient to keep power control errors near a minimum. In the case of Rayleigh fading, the standard deviation of power control errors grows quickly even at moderate mobile speeds.
Coupled Mode Theory of Photonic Crystal Lasers

The main property of photonic crystal is the existence of a frequency range, for which the propagation of electromagnetic waves in the medium is not permitted. These frequency ranges are commonly known as photonic band gaps, giving the ability to modify the structure parameters, e.g. group velocity, coherence length, gain, and spontaneous emission. This type of periodic structures is used in both passive and active devices.
The Effect of Diethylene Glycol Monomethyl Ether (DiEGME) on Microbial Contamination of Jet Fuel: A Minimum Concentration Study

Abstract : Diethylene glycol monomethyl ether (DiEGME) is widely used in military aircraft to inhibit both fuel system icing and microbial growth. However, due to the cost of this additive and its deleterious effects of the additive, a study is being conducted to determine if it is possible to reduce the concentration of DiEGME in military aircraft fuel. The study presented here was conducted to support the larger study investigating the possible impact of lowering the DiEGME level from ~0.05-0.15% to ~0.00-0.05% by volume in the fuel phase. The study presented here was confined to the impact upon the biocidal/biostatic properties of the additive. This study suggests that a minimum of ~0.01-0.02% DiEGME is needed to retain biocidal/biostatic effectiveness.
EEG and Topographic Frequency Analysis in Migraine Attack Before and After Sumatriptan Infusion

Electroencephalographic changes occurring in patients with migraine have received much attention. Although in migraineurs a number of studies have been done after nitroglycerin‐induced attacks, there is no reported EEG study before and after nitroglycerin‐induced sumatriptan‐treated attacks. We, therefore, studied the EEG topographic frequency analysis in 19 symptom‐free, otherwise healthy, unmedicated patients with common migraine and in 19 age and sex‐matched controls before nitroglycerin, at the time of maximum pain, and 30 minutes after sumatriptan. During headache attacks, an increase of slow rhythmic activity of the theta and delta range and a decrease of activity in the alpha and beta range were observed. These abnormalities disappeared 30 minutes after a sumatriptan injection. This suggests that common migraine is associated with disturbances of cortical electrogenesis and may provide insight into the causes of migraine and aid in the development of effective therapies.
Far-field speech recognition using CNN-DNN-HMM with convolution in time

Recent studies in speech recognition have shown that the performance of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) is superior to that of fully connected deep neural networks (DNNs). In this paper, we explore the use of CNNs in far-field speech recognition for dealing with reverberation, which blurs spectral energies along the time axis. Unlike most previous CNN applications to speech recognition, we consider convolution in time to examine whether it provides an improved reverberation modelling capability. Experimental results show that a CNN coupled with a fully connected DNN can model short time correlations in feature vectors with fewer parameters than a DNN and thus generalise better to unseen test environments. Combining this approach with signal-space dereverberation, which copes with long-term correlations, is shown to result in further improvement, where the gains from both approaches are almost additive. An initial investigation of the use of restricted convolution forms is also undertaken.
Feedback-Prop: Convolutional Neural Network Inference Under Partial Evidence

We propose an inference procedure for deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) when partial evidence is available. Our method consists of a general feedback-based propagation approach (feedback-prop) that boosts the prediction accuracy for an arbitrary set of unknown target labels when the values for a non-overlapping arbitrary set of target labels are known. We show that existing models trained in a multi-label or multi-task setting can readily take advantage of feedback-prop without any retraining or fine-tuning. Our feedback-prop inference procedure is general, simple, reliable, and works on different challenging visual recognition tasks. We present two variants of feedback-prop based on layer-wise and residual iterative updates. We experiment using several multi-task models and show that feedback-prop is effective in all of them. Our results unveil a previously unreported but interesting dynamic property of deep CNNs. We also present an associated technical approach that takes advantage of this property for inference under partial evidence in general visual recognition tasks.
Overview of the 2010 Carbonaceous Aerosols and Radiative Effects Study (CARES)

Abstract. Substantial uncertainties still exist in the scientific understanding of the possible interactions between urban and natural (biogenic) emissions in the production and transformation of atmospheric aerosol and the resulting impact on climate change. The US Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program's Carbonaceous Aerosol and Radiative Effects Study (CARES) carried out in June 2010 in Central Valley, California, was a comprehensive effort designed to improve this understanding. The primary objective of the field study was to investigate the evolution of secondary organic and black carbon aerosols and their climate-related properties in the Sacramento urban plume as it was routinely transported into the forested Sierra Nevada foothills area. Urban aerosols and trace gases experienced significant physical and chemical transformations as they mixed with the reactive biogenic hydrocarbons emitted from the forest. Two heavily-instrumented ground sites – one within the Sacramento urban area and another about 40 km to the northeast in the foothills area – were set up to characterize the evolution of meteorological variables, trace gases, aerosol precursors, aerosol size, composition, and climate-related properties in freshly polluted and "aged" urban air. On selected days, the DOE G-1 aircraft was deployed to make similar measurements upwind and across the evolving Sacramento plume in the morning and again in the afternoon. The NASA B-200 aircraft, carrying remote sensing instruments, was also deployed to characterize the vertical and horizontal distribution of aerosols and aerosol optical properties within and around the plume. This overview provides: (a) the scientific background and motivation for the study, (b) the operational and logistical information pertinent to the execution of the study, (c) an overview of key observations and initial findings from the aircraft and ground-based sampling platforms, and (d) a roadmap of planned data analyses and focused modeling efforts that will facilitate the integration of new knowledge into improved representations of key aerosol processes and properties in climate models.