Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Holistic processing of human body postures: evidence from the composite effect

The perception of socially relevant stimuli (e.g., faces and bodies) has received considerable attention in the vision science community. It is now widely accepted that human faces are processed holistically and not only analytically. One observation that has been taken as evidence for holistic face processing is the face composite effect: two identical top halves of a face tend to be perceived as being different when combined with different bottom halves. This supports the hypothesis that face processing proceeds holistically. Indeed, the interference effect disappears when the two face parts are misaligned (blocking holistic perception). In the present study, we investigated whether there is also a composite effect for the perception of body postures: are two identical body halves perceived as being in different poses when the irrelevant body halves differ from each other? Both a horizontal (i.e., top-bottom body halves; Experiment 1) and a vertical composite effect (i.e., left-right body halves; Experiment 2) were examined by means of a delayed matching-to-sample task. Results of both experiments indicate the existence of a body posture composite effect. This provides evidence for the hypothesis that body postures, as faces, are processed holistically.
Moving obstacle path detection for mobile robot

This paper presents a system that detects the path of a moving obstacle that appears in the path of a navigating robot. The objective of the system is to avoid collision between the mobile robot and moving obstacles. The system uses polar mapping to simplify the segmentation of the moving object from the background. In the transformed space, qualitative estimation of moving obstacles is obtained by detecting the vertical motion of edges extracted in a few specified directions. The moving obstacle area is computed by component labeling and matching components of the same class over the two images. From the moving area we present the method to compute the moving-angle which shows the path of moving obstacles related to the path of the robot. Finally we present the collision-angle which shows the collision path of the moving obstacle. Results of experiment with a mobile robot under realistic conditions are given and discussed.
Masked priming effect reflects evidence accumulated by the prime

In the same–different match task, masked priming is observed with the same responses but not different responses. Norris and Kinoshita's (2008) Bayesian reader account of masked priming explains this pattern based on the same principle as that explaining the absence of priming for nonwords in the lexical decision task. The pattern of priming follows from the way the model makes optimal decisions in the two tasks; priming does not depend on first activating the prime and then the target. An alternative explanation is in terms of a bias towards responding “same” that exactly counters the facilitatory effect of lexical access. The present study tested these two views by varying both the degree to which the prime predicts the response and the visibility of the prime. Unmasked primes produced effects expected from the view that priming is influenced by the degree to which the prime predicts the response. In contrast, with masked primes, the size of priming for the same response was completely unaffected by predictability. These results rule out response bias as an explanation of the absence of masked priming for different responses and, in turn, indicate that masked priming is not a consequence of automatic lexical access of the prime.
Cardiac mast cell-mediated activation of gelatinase and alteration of ventricular diastolic function.

Mast cells contain proteases capable of activating matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). However, given the relatively low density of mast cells in the myocardium (i.e., 1.5-5.3 cells/mm(2)), it is unknown whether these enzymes are present in sufficient quantities in the normal heart to mediate MMP activation. Accordingly, this study sought to determine whether chemically induced degranulation of cardiac mast cells (with compound 48/80) would have an effect in isolated, blood-perfused, functioning rat hearts. Mast cell degranulation produced a 15% increase in histamine levels present in the coronary efflux, a significant increase in myocardial water (i.e., edema) relative to normal values (80.1 +/- 3.4% vs. 77.4 +/- 1.08%, P < or = 0.03), a substantial activation of MMP-2 (126% increase relative to controls, P < or = 0.02), and a marked decrease in myocardial collagen volume fraction (0.46 +/- 0.10% vs. 0.97 +/- 0.33%, P < or = 0.001). Furthermore, although an increase in ventricular stiffness was expected due to the extent of edema resulting from mast cell degranulation, modest ventricular dilatation was observed. These findings clearly demonstrate that the number of mast cells present in normal hearts is sufficient to mediate activation of MMPs and produce extracellular matrix degradation, thereby potentially causing subsequent ventricular dilatation.
On the maintenance of toxigenicity of seed cultures of Clostridium perfringens PB6K with special reference to alpha toxin.

preceeding paper. As stated before (Murata et al., 1965), it appeared that the repetition of transfer of a strain in PYF resulted in a decrease in the toxigenicity . Table 1 shows that a seed culture derived after a few transfers produced a potent toxin , while one after many transfers was poorly toxigenic and low in the final pH of the test culture . Seed cultures of the former type will be tentatively called •ggood seed•h and the latter ones
A Specular Reflection Removal Method for Large Scale Ocean Surface Images

Capturing high-quality ocean surface images plays an important role in lots of visual tasks about ocean such as marine oil spill tracking and Ulva (U.) prolifera detection. In the natural scene, sun shines the surface of ocean directly and causes specular reflection, the images of ocean surface captured by camera often have large number of specular highlight component which has great negative impact to visual tasks of ocean. Different from the samples adopted in current highlight removal method, the specular highlight component is distributed in whole ocean surface images. And in many pixels, the specular reflection component is much larger than the pure diffuse reflection and even goes beyond the dynamic range of brightness that image can store. So if just separating highlight component from the original image, many dark spots will remain in the original image and high quality images cannot be obtained. In this paper, we propose a specular reflection removal method for large-scale ocean surface images captured by UVA. The method proposed in this paper includes two parts: highlight detection and image inpainting in highlight regions. The method based on intensity ratio is used to extract the highlight regions in ocean surface images and then image inpainting method based on FMM can inpaint these regions in a relatively short time. Experimental results show that our method can effectively remove the highlight component and get higher quality images of ocean surface.
Feedback Stabilization and Lyapunov Functions

Given a locally defined, nondifferentiable but Lipschitz Lyapunov function, we employ it in order to construct a (discontinuous) feedback law which stabilizes the underlying system to any given tolerance. A converse result shows that suitable Lyapunov functions of this type exist under mild assumptions. We also establish that the feedback in question possesses a robustness property relative to measurement error, despite the fact that it may not be continuous.
Getting Emotional About News

News is not simply a straight re-telling of events, but rather an interpretation of those events by a reporter, where the feelings and opinions of that reporter can often become part of the story itself. Research on automatic summarization of news articles has historically focused on facts and not emotions, but perhaps emotions can be significant in these stories too. In this article you will read about the work of several researchers, primarily from the University of Ottawa, in their attempt to identify emotions common to different kinds of news articles and incorporate this into the summarization process. This article also describes the University of Ottawa’s contribution to the Automatically Evaluating Summaries of Peers (AESOP) challenge.
Rapid preparation of DNA dot blots from tissue samples, using hot alkaline lysis and filtration onto charge-modified nylon membrane.

The ability of positively charge modified nylon (PCMN) membranes to bind nucleic acids irreversibly at high pH has been utilised in rapid procedures for alkaline Southern blotting (1-3), Northern blotting (4) and dot blotting of purified DNA (1). Dot blotting (5) is a particularly convenient means of quantifying specific DNA sequences in large numbers of tissue samples. We have extended its utility by combining the capacity of hot alkali to disperse and dissolve the components of soft tissues with the unique characteristics ofPCMN membranes such as Zeta-Probe" (Bio-Rad), GeneScreenTm Plus (DuPont), HybondTm-N + (Amersham) and BioDyneTm (Pall). Single-step sample preparation avoids the necessity of purifying DNA while ensuring it is partially degraded, denatured and applied under conditions that promote rapid fixation. Tissue samples are heated in 0.5 ml of 0.4M NaOH, 10 mM EDTA at 95°C for 20 min. A sample may be any of purified or crude DNA ( c 5 ,tg), whole tissue (e.g. liver or muscle, < 0.5 mg), whole blood (c 10 ,ul), cultured cells or lymphocytes (' 105 cells), or sperm ( c 5 x 104). The dot blot vacuum filtration manifold is assembled with a sheet ofPCMN membrane (pre-wetted in hot distilled water) and samples of 0.5 ml (prepared as above or serial dilutions in the same solvent) are applied to eight wells without vacuum, then vacuum is applied filtration of samples while they are hot increases hybridization sensitivity approximately two-fold. When the samples have filtered the vacuum is released; remaining samples are applied similarly in batches of eight, thereby avoiding the common problem of diffusion 'halos' around dots. All wells are rinsed by adding 0.5 ml of 0.4 M NaOH and applying vacuum. The membrane is removed and rinsed in 2 xPE (PE = 0.133 M sodium phosphate, pH 6.9, 1 mM EDTA; 6), 0.1 % SDS then washed by agitating for 1 h in 5xPE, 1% SDS at 70°C. Figure 1 illustrates the application of this procedure to analysis of somatic cell hybrids generated by fusion of bovine lymphocytes with mouse myeloma X63.Ag8. 653. Duplicate dot blots of alkaline digested cells (approximately 105) were hybridized with cloned species-specific autosomal satellite elements of cattle and mouse (pBKS and pMBS, the prominent KpnI and BamHI fragments of cattle and mouse genomic DNA, respectively). Comparison of relative signal intensities provides a good estimate of the number of bovine autosomes in specific subclones, allowing rapid selection for loss of bovine autosomes. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Trajectory Outlier Detection Algorithm Based on Structural Features

As the development of location based service, such as GPS and RFID, a great volume of trajectory data can be collected. As a result, mining knowledge from these data has become an attractive topic. The trajectory outlier detection algorithm, proposed in this paper, can be used to detect trajectory outliers by comparing the structure between each trajectory segment pairs. Firstly, a new concept of trajectory structure, taking full advantage of trajectory implicit features, is introduced to analyze trajectory similarity. Secondly, an outlier detection algorithm is put forward to match the two segments by computing their structural similarity. Thirdly, segment and trajectory outliers are detected by analyzing their both external and internal features. Experiments on real dataset demonstrate the efficiency, effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, feature sensitivity can be adjusted by the parameters flexibly, and the detected outliers are more practical significant.
Genome wide search for identification of potential drug targets in Bacillus anthracis

With the heightened interest in Bacillus anthracis as a potential biological threat agent, novel drug targets identification is of great importance in drug discovery. This study considered a genome-wide approach to identify 270 non-redundant, non-human homologous genes and 103 essential genes of the bacteria as putative drug targets. Sub-cellular localisation of each drug target was annotated using PSORTb 3.0 and confirmation by a hybrid support vector machine analysis identified 16 membrane-bound genes with reliability index ≥4. SPAAN analysis predicted 3 adhesion-like proteins and BLAST against the MEROPS database identified 7 peptidases with inhibitors. As a case study, a homology model was built for the ptsG gene using Modeller 9v8. The work reported here identified a small subset of potential drug targets involved in vital aspects of the metabolism of pathogen, persistence, virulence and cell wall biosynthesis. Thus, this manifold workflow can speed up the process of drug target discovery.
Deploying power grid-integrated electric vehicles as a multi-agent system

Grid-Integrated Vehicles (GIVs) are plug-in Electric Drive Vehicles (EDVs) with power-management and other controls that allow them to respond to external commands sent by power-grid operators, or their affiliates, when parked and plugged-in to the grid. At a bare minimum, such GIVs should respond to demand-management commands or pricing signals to delay, reduce or switch-off the rate of charging when the demand for electricity is high. In more advanced cases, these GIVs might sell both power and storage capacity back to the grid in any of the several electric power markets --- a concept known as Vehicle-to-Grid power or V2G power. Although individual EDVs control too little power to sell in the market at an individual level, a large group of EDVs may form an aggregate or coalition that controls enough power to meaningfully sell, at a profit, in these markets. The profits made by such a coalition can then be used by the coalition members to offset the costs of the electric vehicles and batteries themselves. In this paper we describe an implemented and deployed multi-agent system that is used to integrate EDVs into the electricity grid managed by PJM, the largest transmission service operator in the world. We provide a brief introduction to GIVs and the various power markets and discuss why multi-agent systems are a good match for this application.
Graph sketching-based Massive Data Clustering

In this paper, we address the problem of recovering arbitrary-shaped data clusters from massive datasets. We present DBMSTClu a new density-based non-parametric method working on a limited number of linear measurements i.e. a sketched version of the similarity graph $G$ between the $N$ objects to cluster. Unlike $k$-means, $k$-medians or $k$-medoids algorithms, it does not fail at distinguishing clusters with particular structures. No input parameter is needed contrarily to DBSCAN or the Spectral Clustering method. DBMSTClu as a graph-based technique relies on the similarity graph $G$ which costs theoretically $O(N^2)$ in memory. However, our algorithm follows the dynamic semi-streaming model by handling $G$ as a stream of edge weight updates and sketches it in one pass over the data into a compact structure requiring $O(N \operatorname{poly} \operatorname{log} (N))$ space. Thanks to the property of the Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) for expressing the underlying structure of a graph, our algorithm successfully detects the right number of non-convex clusters by recovering an approximate MST from the graph sketch of $G$. We provide theoretical guarantees on the quality of the clustering partition and also demonstrate its advantage over the existing state-of-the-art on several datasets.
Using Real Options to Evaluate Producer Investment in New Generation Cooperatives

New Generation Cooperatives have emerged as a contemporary means for farmers to invest in further processing activities. This paper considers real options as the basis for evaluating producer investment in a start-up cooperative that involves technological uncertainty. The investment and risk inherent in producer membership in an NGC is analyzed using real options theory logic. Real options theory has recently been extended to technology positioning projects and how the extent of uncertainty influences the value of a technology "option". Conventional net present value formulas have been shown to be limited when the conditions of the investment require substantial commitment under uncertainty, such as investments in technology. Implications for producers are drawn from the analysis. Producers always have the alternative of not investing in the initial start-up but waiting and buying in at a later time, perhaps when less uncertainty prevails. Results indicate that producers are better able to evaluate investment in a NGC using real options.
Contact lens physical properties and lipid deposition in a novel characterized artificial tear solution

Purpose To characterize various properties of a physiologically-relevant artificial tear solution (ATS) containing a range of tear film components within a complex salt solution, and to measure contact lens parameters and lipid deposition of a variety of contact lens materials after incubation in this ATS. Methods A complex ATS was developed that contains a range of salts, proteins, lipids, mucin, and other tear film constituents in tear-film relevant concentrations. This ATS was tested to confirm that its pH, osmolality, surface tension, and homogeneity are similar to human tears and remain so throughout the material incubation process, for up to 4 weeks. To confirm that silicone hydrogel and conventional hydrogel contact lens materials do not alter in physical characteristics beyond what is allowed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 18369–2. The diameter, center thickness, and calculated base curve were measured for five different lens materials directly out of the blister pack, after a rinse in saline and then following a two week incubation in the modified ATS. To test the ATS and the effect of its composition on lipid deposition, two lens materials were incubated in the ATS and a modified version for several time points. Both ATS solutions contained trace amounts of carbon-14 cholesterol and phosphatidylcholine, such that deposition of these specific lipids could be quantified using standard methods. Results This ATS is a complex mixture that remains stable at physiologically relevant pH (7.3–7.6), osmolality (304–306 mmol/kg), surface tension (40–46 dynes/cm) and homogeneity over an incubation period of three weeks or more. The physical parameters of the lenses tested showed no changes beyond that allowed by the ISO guidelines. Incubations with the ATS found that balafilcon A lenses deposit significantly more cholesterol and phosphatidylcholine than omafilcon A lenses (p<0.05) and that removing lactoferrin and immunoglobulin G from the ATS can significantly decrease the mass of lipid deposited. Conclusions This paper describes a novel complex artificial tear solution specially designed for in-vial incubation of contact lens materials. This solution was stable and did not adversely affect the physical parameters of the soft contact lenses incubated within it and showed that lipid deposition was responsive to changes in ATS composition.
Regional anti-windup compensation for linear systems with input saturation

In this paper we propose LMI methods for designing dynamic/static anti-windup compensators to improve regional performance and stability of linear control systems with saturating actuators. Algorithms are developed for minimizing the upper bound on the regional /spl Lscr//sub 2/ gain for exogenous inputs with /spl Lscr//sub 2/ norm bounded by a given value, and for minimizing this upper bound with a guaranteed reachable set or domain of attraction. Based on the structure of the optimization problems, it is shown that for systems whose plants have poles in the closed left-half plane, plant order dynamic anti-windup can achieve semiglobal stability and finite /spl Lscr//sub 2/ gain for exogenous inputs with /spl Lscr//sub 2/ norm hounded by any finite value. The problems are studied in a general setting where the only requirement on the linear control system is well-posedness and internal stability.
Automatically maintaining wrappers for Web sources

A substantial subset of the Web data follows some kind of underlying structure. Nevertheless, HTML does not contain any schema or semantic information about the data it represents. A program able to provide software applications with a structured view of those semi-structured Web sources is usually called a wrapper. Wrappers are able to accept a query against the source and return a set of structured results, thus enabling applications to access Web data in a similar manner to that of information from databases. A significant problem in this approach arises because Web sources may experiment changes that invalidate the current wrappers. In this paper, we present novel heuristics and algorithms to address this problem. Our approach is based on collecting some query results during wrapper operation. Then, when the source changes, they are used to generate a set of labeled examples that are then provided as input to a wrapper induction algorithm able to regenerate the wrapper. We have tested our methods in several real-world Web data extraction domains, obtaining high accuracy in all the steps of the process.
Loss of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor Prolyl Hydroxylase Activity in Cardiomyocytes Phenocopies Ischemic Cardiomyopathy

Background— Ischemic cardiomyopathy is the major cause of heart failure and a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. The degree of left ventricular dysfunction in this setting is often out of proportion to the amount of overtly infarcted tissue, and how decreased delivery of oxygen and nutrients leads to impaired contractility remains incompletely understood. The Prolyl Hydroxylase Domain-Containing Protein (PHD) prolyl hydroxylases are oxygen-sensitive enzymes that transduce changes in oxygen availability into changes in the stability of the hypoxia-inducible factor transcription factor, a master regulator of genes that promote survival in a low-oxygen environment. Methods and Results— We found that cardiac-specific PHD inactivation causes ultrastructural, histological, and functional changes reminiscent of ischemic cardiomyopathy over time. Moreover, long-term expression of a stabilized hypoxia-inducible factor &agr; variant in cardiomyocytes also led to dilated cardiomyopathy. Conclusion— Sustained loss of PHD activity and subsequent hypoxia-inducible factor activation, as would occur in the setting of chronic ischemia, are sufficient to account for many of the changes in the hearts of individuals with chronic coronary artery disease.
Belief Tracking Interaction Quality Reward Estimation Semantic Decoding Speech Recognition Speech Synthesis Language Generation Environment

Learning suitable and well-performing dialogue behaviour in statistical spoken dialogue systems has been in the focus of research for many years. While most work which is based on reinforcement learning employs an objective measure like task success for modelling the reward signal, we propose to use a reward based on user satisfaction. We will show in simulated experiments that a live user satisfaction estimation model may be applied resulting in higher estimated satisfaction whilst achieving similar success rates. Moreover, we will show that one satisfaction estimation model which has been trained on one domain may be applied in many other domains which cover a similar task. We will verify our findings by employing the model to one of the domains for learning a policy from real users and compare its performance to policies using the user satisfaction and task success acquired directly from the users as reward.