Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Illumination Quality Measure for Face Recognition

A method to determine whether face images are affected or not by lighting problems is proposed. The method is the result of combining the analysis of lighting effect on face regions with the analysis of special areas which have a weight on the decision. Good results were obtained classifying well and badly illuminated images. The proposed method was inserted on a face recognition framework in order to apply the preprocessing step only to those images affected by illumination variations. The good performance achieved on verification and identification experiments, confirm that it is better to apply the proposed methodology than to preprocess all images when the lighting conditions are variable.
Drug effects on intracellular mycobacteria determined by mass spectrometric analysis of the Na(+)-to-K+ ratios of individual bacterial organisms

The successful establishment of a drug screening system for intracellular cultivable and noncultivable mycobacteria based on the mass spectrometric determination of bacterial viability is described. To compare drug efficacies on intra- and extracellular mycobacteria, the mycobacteria were subjected to drug treatment either after phagocytosis by the mouse macrophage cell line RAW 264.7 or in cell-free medium. After reisolation, their viability was monitored by analyzing the intrabacterial sodium-to-potassium ratios for a limited number of individual organisms. This approach offers a reliable and quick tool for monitoring the influence of intracellular growth and of additional permeation barriers on intracellular drug efficacy and will thus provide useful information for the rational development and testing of optimized antimycobacterial drugs. In particular, the methodology is applicable to the noncultivable species Mycobacterium leprae, because the mass spectrometric analysis of the intrabacterial sodium-to-potassium ratio allows the determination of bacterial viability independent from their ability to multiply in vitro. Because of the improved metabolic activity of intracellularly growing M. leprae compared with that of extracellularly growing M. leprae, the spectrum of antileprosy drugs that can be tested in vitro could even be extended to those interfering with DNA replication and cell division.
Supplemental Materials for : “ The Likelihood Ratio Test in High-Dimensional Logistic Regression Is Asymptotically a Rescaled Chi-Square ”

This document presents the proof of Lemma 6(ii) given in the paper [1]: “The Likelihood Ratio Test in High-Dimensional Logistic Regression Is Asymptotically a Rescaled Chi-Square”. 1 Proof of Lemma 6(ii) We shall prove that V(τ) < τ whenever τ is sufficiently large. Before proceeding, we recall from the main text and [2, Proposition 6.4] that V(τ) := 1 κ E [ Ψ(τZ; b(τ)) ] = 1 κ E [( b(τ)ρ′ ( proxb(τ)ρ (τZ) ))2] , (1) where b(τ) obeys κ = E [Ψ′ (τZ; b(τ))] = 1− E  1 1 + b(τ)ρ′′ ( proxb(τ)ρ (τZ) )  . (2) In what follows, we study the logistic and probit models separately. 1.1 The logistic case Consider the bivariate functions h (b, τ) : = E [ 1 1 + bρ′′ ( proxbρ (τZ) )] , w (b, τ) = E [( ρ′ ( proxbρ (τZ) ))2] , which plays a central role in (1) and (2). In the sequel, we will first analyze these two functions for any b obeying b = c0τ (3) for some constant c0 > 0. The result is this: ∗Department of Statistics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, U.S.A. †Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, U.S.A. ‡Department of Mathematics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, U.S.A.
Fabrication of gold nanodot array for the localized surface plasmon resonance

Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is a promising method for detecting antigen-antibody binding in label-free biosensors. In this study, the fabrication of a LSPR substrate with a gold nanodot array through the lift-off process of an alumina mask is reported. The substrate showed an extinction peak in its extinction spectrum, and the peak position was dependent on the height of the gold nanodot array, and the change of extinction peak with the height could be predicted by the numerical simulation. In addition, the peak position was observed to be red-shifted with the increasing RIU value of the medium surrounding the gold nanodot array. In particular, the peak position in the 10nm thick gold nanodot array was approximately 710nm in air, and the sensitivity, defined as the ratio of the shift of peak position to the RIU of the medium, was 323.6 nm/RIU. The fabrication procedure could be applied to fabricate the LSPR substrates with a large area.
RREB-1 Is a Transcriptional Repressor of HLA-G1

The nonclassical HLA-G is a molecule specifically involved in immune tolerance with highly restricted tissue distribution in healthy conditions. Yet it is overexpressed in numerous tumors and in allografts with better acceptance. Major mechanisms involved in regulation of HLA-G transcription are still poorly described. Thus, to characterize these mechanisms we have developed a specific proteomic approach to identify proteins that bind differentially to the HLA-G gene promoter by promoter pull-down assay followed by spectrometry mass analysis. Among specific binding factors, we focused on RREB-1, a ras-responsive element binding protein 1. We demonstrated that RREB-1 represses HLA-G transcriptional activity and binds three ras response elements within the HLA-G promoter. RREB-1 protein, specifically in HLA-G-negative cells, interacts with subunits of CtBP complex implicated in chromatin remodeling. This demonstration is the first of a repressor factor of HLA-G transcriptional activity taking part in HLA-G repression by epigenetic mechanisms.
Ownership and control of point of view in remote assistance

In this paper we investigate user performance and user behavior, related to the issue of who controls the point of view in a remote assistance scenario. We describe an experiment that examined users completing two different tasks with the aid of a remote gesturing device under two conditions: when control of the camera and gesturing point of view was in the hands of the remote helper, and when it was in the hands of the worker. Results indicate that in general, when most of the knowledge is with the helper, it is preferable to leave control in the hands of the helper. However, these results may depend on the situation and task at hand.
Concatenation of LDPC codes with Golden space-time block codes over the block fading MIMO channels: System design and performance analysis

The use of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes over the multi-input multi-output (MIMO) channels has shown the performance to be achieved to the capacity limit. For the 2 × 2 MIMO system, the Golden codes were recently developed as the optimal space-time codes with a full rate and a full diversity gain. In this paper, we give the detailed system design for the concatenated coding scheme, which consists of the LDPC codes as the outer code and the Golden space-time block codes (STBC) as the inner code. The outer binary block codeword transforms itself onto the sequence of the internal space-time (IST) symbols according to a fixed constellation map. The soft-input soft-output (SISO) message passing decoder of the LDPC codes can be combined with a SISO constellation de-mapper as the Golden STBC decoder. They exchange the extrinsic messages in turbo-iterations. We evaluate the error performance for different block lengths of the proposed system. For the Golden codes concatenated with the LDPC codes, the maximum-likelihood union bound analysis is used for performance benchmarking.
Non-linear analysis of smart annular plates using cylindrically orthotropic piezoelectric fiber-reinforced composite

This article deals with geometrically non-linear finite element analysis of substrate annular plates integrated with the annular patches of the piezoelectric fiber reinforced composite (PFRC) material. The PFRC material is a cylindrically orthotropic smart composite material in which the piezoelectric fibers are circumferentially reinforced in the epoxy matrix material. The annular PFRC patches are activated by the externally applied voltage across their thickness and act as the distributed actuators for controlling the non-linear deformations of the substrate annular plates. Based on the first-order shear deformation theory and the von Karman non-linear strain–displacement relations, the non-linear governing finite element equations of equilibrium of this electro-elastic coupled problem are derived employing the principle of minimum potential energy. The governing non-linear finite element equations are then solved using direct iteration method. The numerical illustrations reveal the significant control authority of the cylindrically orthotropic annular PFRC patches in counteracting the non-linear deformations of the substrate annular plates. The numerical illustrations also reveal that for the constant circumferential stretch of the annular PFRC patches, if their radial span is less than that of the substrate annular plate, then the radial location of the annular patches attached to the top surface of the substrate plate plays an important role for their effective control authority. Along with this location, the minimum radial length of the annular PFRC patches is also assessed without affecting the performance of the overall smart plate significantly.
Devices Based on Co-Integrated MEMS Actuators and Optical Waveguide: A Review

The convergence of Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and optics was, at the end of the last century, a fertile ground for a new breed of technological and scientific achievements. The weightlessness of light has been identified very early as a key advantage for micro-actuator application, giving rise to optical free-space MEMS devices. In parallel to these developments, the past 20 years saw the emergence of a less pursued approach relying on guided optical wave, where, pushed by the similarities in fabrication process, researchers explored the possibilities offered by merging integrated optics and MEMS technology. The interest of using guided waves is well known (absence of diffraction, tight light confinement, small size, compatibility with fiber optics) but it was less clear how they could be harnessed with MEMS technology. Actually, it is possible to use MEMS actuators for modifying waveguide properties (length, direction, index of refraction) or for coupling light between waveguide, enabling many new devices for optical telecommunication, astronomy or sensing. With the recent expansion to nanophotonics and optomechanics, it seems that this field still holds a lot of promises.
Synthesis and Characterization of a Novel Poly(methyl methacrylate) Composites using Copper-4, 4'- Trimethylenedipyridine Metal-Organic Framework as Fillers

A novel Poly (methyl methacrylate) Composites using Copper-4, 4’Trimethylenedipyridine Metal-Organic Framework as Fillers (CTMOF) had been synthesized and analyzed. The CTMOF structure had been characterized by X-ray crystallography. The thermal and mechanical properties of CTMOF-PMMA composites had been examined via optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), microhardness, and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA). The results showed the increase of Glass transition temperatures and the improvement of mechanical properties of the PMMA composites as the concentration of CBMOF loading increased.
The Role of Phoneme in Mandarin Chinese Production: Evidence from ERPs

Established linguistic theoretical frameworks propose that alphabetic language speakers use phonemes as phonological encoding units during speech production whereas Mandarin Chinese speakers use syllables. This framework was challenged by recent neural evidence of facilitation induced by overlapping initial phonemes, raising the possibility that phonemes also contribute to the phonological encoding process in Chinese. However, there is no evidence of non-initial phoneme involvement in Chinese phonological encoding among representative Chinese speakers, rendering the functional role of phonemes in spoken Chinese controversial. Here, we addressed this issue by systematically investigating the word-initial and non-initial phoneme repetition effect on the electrophysiological signal using a picture-naming priming task in which native Chinese speakers produced disyllabic word pairs. We found that overlapping phonemes in both the initial and non-initial position evoked more positive ERPs in the 180- to 300-ms interval, indicating position-invariant repetition facilitation effect during phonological encoding. Our findings thus revealed the fundamental role of phonemes as independent phonological encoding units in Mandarin Chinese.
CrowdForge: crowdsourcing complex work

Micro-task markets such as Amazon's Mechanical Turk represent a new paradigm for accomplishing work, in which employers can tap into a large population of workers around the globe to accomplish tasks in a fraction of the time and money of more traditional methods. However, such markets typically support only simple, independent tasks, such as labeling an image or judging the relevance of a search result. Here we present a general purpose framework for micro-task markets that provides a scaffolding for more complex human computation tasks which require coordination among many individuals, such as writing an article.
A Power Factor Corrected Bridgeless Type III Cuk Derived Converter fed BLDC Motor Drive

This paper deals with the power factor correction in BLDC motor drive with different cuk derived converter topologies and the best one is simulated for power factor correction operation. Power quality issues is the major concern in the BLDC motor drive due to recommended limits of harmonics in the supply current. Conventionally the BLDC motors are powered with the help of diode bridge rectifiers which results in highly distorted supply current and poor power factor. So modification in converter topology is the research hotspot in recent years. Alternatively bridgeless converter topologies are used in place of diode bridge rectifiers (DBR). Among the bridgeless topologies cuk derived converters suited well for power factor correction. In this paper the different cuk topologies are investigated and the best one is simulated with the help of neuro-fuzzy controller in MATLAB/Simulink platform . DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.11591/telkomnika.v14i3. 7893
Data cache locking for higher program predictability

Caches have become increasingly important with the widening gap between main memory and processor speeds. However, they are a source of unpredictability due to their characteristics, resulting in programs behaving in a different way than expected.Cache locking mechanisms adapt caches to the needs of real-time systems. Locking the cache is a solution that trades performance for predictability: at a cost of generally lower performance, the time of accessing the memory becomes predictable.This paper combines compile-time cache analysis with data cache locking to estimate the worst-case memory performance (WCMP) in a safe, tight and fast way. In order to get predictable cache behavior, we first lock the cache for those parts of the code where the static analysis fails. To minimize the performance degradation, our method loads the cache, if necessary, with data likely to be accessed.Experimental results show that this scheme is fully predictable, without compromising the performance of the transformed program. When compared to an algorithm that assumes compulsory misses when the state of the cache is unknown, our approach eliminates all overestimation for the set of benchmarks, giving an exact WCMP of the transformed program without any significant decrease in performance.
Robust wavelet denoising

For extracting a signal from noisy data, waveshrink and basis pursuit are powerful tools both from an empirical and asymptotic point of view. They are especially efficient at estimating spatially inhomogeneous signals when the noise is Gaussian. Their performance is altered when the noise has a long tail distribution, for instance, when outliers are present. We propose a robust wavelet-based estimator using a robust loss function. This entails solving a nontrivial optimization problem and appropriately choosing the smoothing and robustness parameters. We illustrate the advantage of the robust wavelet denoising procedure on simulated and real data.
Emulation of a Downlink Spreading Factor Allocation Strategy for Rel'99 UMTS

Based on the end-to-end delay experienced by the user, this paper derives a spreading factor allocation map for the four UMTS traffic classes and for four user profiles with the help of a computer testbed emulating the UTRAN. Using this allocation map, the performance of the UTRAN is measured in terms of cell throughput and blocking rate in different scenarios.
Combined Decision Making with Multiple Agents

In a wide range of applications, decisions must be made by combining information from multiple agents with varying levels of trust and expertise. For example, citizen science involves large numbers of human volunteers with differing skills, while disaster management requires aggregating information from multiple people and devices to make timely decisions. This thesis introduces efficient and scalable Bayesian inference for decision combination, allowing us to fuse the responses of multiple agents in large, real-world problems and account for the agents’ unreliability in a principled manner. As the behaviour of individual agents can change significantly, for example if agents move in a physical space or learn to perform an analysis task, this work proposes a novel combination method that accounts for these time variations in a fully Bayesian manner using a dynamic generalised linear model. This approach can also be used to augment agents’ responses with continuous feature data, thus permitting decision-making when agents’ responses are in limited supply. Working with information inferred using the proposed Bayesian techniques, an information-theoretic approach is developed for choosing optimal pairs of tasks and agents. This approach is demonstrated by an algorithm that maintains a trustworthy pool of workers and enables efficient learning by selecting informative tasks. The novel methods developed here are compared theoretically and empirically to a range of existing decision combination methods, using both simulated and real data. The results show that the methodology proposed in this thesis improves accuracy and computational efficiency over alternative approaches, and allows for insights to be determined into the behavioural groupings of agents.
The Impact of Local Microclimate Boundary Conditions on Building Energy Performance

Local environmental boundaries play an important role in determining microclimate conditions affecting thermal-energy behavior of buildings. In this scenario, the purpose of the present work is to investigate how residential buildings are affected by different local microclimate conditions. To this aim, the continuous microclimate monitoring of (i) a rural area; (ii) a suburban area; and (iii) an urban area is carried out, and the comparative analysis of the different boundary conditions is performed. In particular, the effect of the presence of a large lake in the rural area on building energy demand for heating and cooling is evaluated, both in winter and summer. Coupled degree hour method and numerical analysis are performed in order to predict the energy requirement of buildings subject to local microclimate boundary conditions. The main results show higher air temperature and relative humidity values for the rural area. No significant mitigation effect due to the lake presence is found in urban and suburban areas because of the peculiar wind regime of the region. Additionally, the dynamic thermal-energy simulation shows a decrease of 14% and 25% in the heating consumption and an increase of 58% and 194% in cooling requirements of buildings situated in the rural area around the lake compared to the urban and suburban areas, respectively.
Role of Transcranial Doppler in the Evaluation of Vasculopathy in Tuberculous Meningitis

Background Vascular complications are important causes of cerebral infarction in tuberculous meningitis (TBM). Transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (TCD) is a non-invasive tool that can provide real-time information about cerebral hemodynamics. However, the literature on the role of TCD in the diagnosis or monitoring of vasculopathy associated with TBM is scarce. We explored the role of TCD in the diagnosis and monitoring of TBM-related vasculopathy of the major intracranial arteries. Methods Consecutive patients with TBM admitted to our tertiary center between 2011 and 2015 were included. All patients underwent TCD evaluation within 2 weeks of hospitalisation and it was repeated 2 weeks later. Mean flow velocity (Vmean) and pulsatility index (PI) were recorded. Flow velocities obtained from the submandibular internal carotid artery were also measured to calculate the Lindegaard ratio. A correlation was made between the patients who demonstrated vasculopathy on TCD, and patients with confirmed focal narrowing on computed tomography angiography (CTA) or magnetic resonance angiography (MRA). The modified Rankin scale (mRS) was used to assess the clinical outcome at three and six months. Results A total of 36 patients were recruited. Focally elevated flow velocities in the middle cerebral artery (MCA) were observed in 11 (30.6%) patients, bilaterally in 6 of them. The Lindegaard ratio was elevated (>3) in 10 (90.9%) of them, which occurred as early as the fourth day of hospitalization and persisted as long as four months. Eighty percent of patients with TBM vasculopathy by TCD criteria, also had narrowing on CTA or MRA. Ten patients (27.8%) achieved good outcome (mRS 0–2) at 3 months, which increased to 13 (36.1%) at 6 months. Conclusion A considerable proportion of patients with TBM develops intracranial vasculopathy, which can be reliably diagnosed and monitored using TCD.
An Ancient Evolutionary Origin of Genes Associated with Human Genetic Diseases

Several thousand genes in the human genome have been linked to a heritable genetic disease. The majority of these appear to be nonessential genes (i.e., are not embryonically lethal when inactivated), and one could therefore speculate that they are late additions in the evolutionary lineage toward humans. Contrary to this expectation, we find that they are in fact significantly overrepresented among the genes that have emerged during the early evolution of the metazoa. Using a phylostratigraphic approach, we have studied the evolutionary emergence of such genes at 19 phylogenetic levels. The majority of disease genes was already present in the eukaryotic ancestor, and the second largest number has arisen around the time of evolution of multicellularity. Conversely, genes specific to the mammalian lineage are highly underrepresented. Hence, genes involved in genetic diseases are not simply a random subset of all genes in the genome but are biased toward ancient genes.
Experience Using Active and Passive Mapping for Network Situational Awareness

Passive network mapping has often been proposed as an approach to maintain up-to-date information on networks between active scans. This paper presents a comparison of active and passive mapping on an operational network. On this network, active and passive tools found largely disjoint sets of services and the passive system took weeks to discover the last 15% of active services. Active and passive mapping tools provided different, not complimentary information. Deploying passive mapping on an enterprise network does not reduce the need for timely active scans due to non-overlapping coverage and potentially long discovery times