Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Segment-Based Storage and Transcoding Trade-off Strategy for Multi-version VoD Systems in the Cloud

Multi-version video-on-demand (VoD) providers either store multiple versions of the same video or transcode video to multiple versions in real time to offer multiple-bitrate streaming services to heterogeneous clients. However, this could incur tremendous storage cost or transcoding computation cost. There have been some works regarding trading off between transcoding and storing whole videos, but they did not take into account video segmentation and internal popularity. As a result, they were not cost-efficient. This paper introduces video segmentation and proposes a segment-based storage and transcoding trade-off strategy for multi-version VoD systems in the cloud. First, we split each video into multiple segments depending on the video internal popularity. Second, we describe the transcoding relationships among versions using a transcoding weighted graph, which can be used to calculate the version-aware transcoding cost from one version to another. Third, we take the video segmentation, version-aware transcoding weighted graph, and video internal popularity into account to propose a storage and transcoding trade-off strategy, which stores multiple versions of popular segments and transcodes unpopular segments. We then formulate it as an optimization problem and present a heuristic divide-and-conquer algorithm to get an approximate optimal solution. Finally, we conduct extensive simulations to evaluate the solution; the results show that it can significantly lower the storage and transcoding cost of multi-version VoD systems.
The two Escherichia coli chromosome arms locate to separate cell halves.

DNA replication divides the circular Escherichia coli chromosome into equal arms (replichores). Visualization of pairwise combinations of multiple genetic loci reveals that the two replichores occupy separate nucleoid halves, with the replication origin between; positions of loci on each replichore recapitulate the genetic map. Sequential replication-segregation regenerates the structure by sequentially layering newly replicated replichore DNA to specific inner and outer edges of the developing sister nucleoids. Replication fork-dependent locus positions are imprinted, so that in most generations the chromosome orientation in a mother cell is recreated as a arrangement of sister chromosomes in daughter cells.
Object Image Relighting through Patch Match Warping and Color Transfer

In this paper, we propose a novel method for image based object relighting through patch match warping and color transfer. According to our method, a pair of reference object images (A and B), without any knowledge of the 3D geometry or material information of the input object image, are needed. The input image has similar illumination condition as that of the reference image A. The reference image B has the target illumination condition. We first modify the color of the reference object images according to the color of the input object image. Then the modified reference image A is warped to the input image using the image patch match. The reference B has the same warping to that of A. At last, the illumination of the reference B is transferred to the input image through a local and global transfer model learned from the warped reference B and A. We test our method on the ALOI dataset (Amsterdam Library of Object Images) and acquire convincing relit result on numerous input and reference object images with different illumination conditions.
A Prospective Analysis of Elevated Fasting Glucose Levels and Cognitive Function in Older People

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between fasting glucose levels, insulin resistance, and cognitive impairment in old age. Diabetes is associated with cognitive impairment in older people. However, the link between elevated fasting glucose levels and insulin resistance in nondiabetic individuals, and the risk of cognitive impairment is unclear. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We analyzed data from, in total, 8,447 participants in two independent prospective studies: the PROspective Study of Pravastatin in the Elderly at Risk (PROSPER), 5,019 participants, aged 69–84 years, and the Rotterdam Study, 3,428 participants, aged 61–97 years. Fasting glucose levels were assessed at baseline in both studies; fasting insulin levels were assessed in the Rotterdam Study only. Cognitive function was assessed in both studies at baseline and during follow-up. RESULTS Subjects with diabetes had impaired cognitive function at baseline. In contrast, in people without a history of diabetes, there was no clear association between baseline fasting glucose levels and executive function and memory, nor was there a consistent relationship between elevated baseline fasting glucose levels and the rate of cognitive decline in either cohort. Insulin resistance (homeostasis model assessment index) was also unrelated to cognitive function and decline. CONCLUSIONS Elevated fasting glucose levels and insulin resistance are not associated with worse cognitive function in older people without a history of diabetes. These data suggest either that there is a threshold for effects of dysglycemia on cognitive function or that factors other than hyperglycemia contribute to cognitive impairment in individuals with frank diabetes.
Position and speed tracking control of inverted pendulum based on double PID controllers

Position and speed tracking control are two kinds of important attitude control of inverted pendulum. In this paper, double PID controllers are applied in position and speed tracking control of inverted pendulum. Two design schemes with different structure of double PID controllers are given. One scheme is double series PID controllers. And the other is double parallel PID controllers. The detailed comparison of two schemes is given. Simulation results show that the double parallel PID controllers can not only realize better position and speed tracking control of inverted pendulum, but also have better robustness than the double series PID controllers.
Evaluation of the antileishmanial potency, toxicity and phytochemical constituents of methanol bark extract of Sterculia villosa

Abstract Context: Visceral leishmaniasis is a protozoan disease caused by Leishmania donovani parasite. The genus Sterculia (Malvaceae) possesses ethnobotanical potential against this protozoan infection. Objective: Determining the potential role of methanol bark extracts from Sterculia villosa Roxb (SVE) and its phytoconstituents against Leishmania donovani promastigotes. Materials and methods: SVE was analysed by TLC, UV–Vis, IR spectroscopy and biochemical assays. Antileishmanial potential of SVE (0.5–130 μg/mL for 72 h) was characterized by MTT assay. Fluorescent microscopy was performed to validate the IC50 dose. To determine the effect of SVE on promastigotes, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and superoxide generation, lipid peroxidation and DNA fragmentation assays were performed. Molecular aggregation of compounds was determined by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Extent of cytotoxicity of SVE at IC50 dose was determined against RAW 264.7 macrophages, peritoneal macrophages and murine RBCs. In vivo cytotoxicity of SVE was evaluated in BALB/c mice. Result: SVE exhibited reverse dose dependent antileishmanial activity when 130–0 μg/mL doses were tested against promastigotes. The IC50 and IC70 values were found to be 17.5 and 10 μg/mL, respectively. SVE at IC50 dose demonstrated elevated level of ROS, superoxide, lipid peroxidation and DNA fragmentation against promastigotes with no cytotoxicity. AFM analysis suggested increasing size of molecular aggregation (31.3 nm < 35.2 nm < 2.93 μm) with increase in concentration (10 μg < 17.5 μg < 130 μg). Discussion and conclusions: The study elucidates the antileishmanial potential of SVE against Leishmania donovani promastigotes by exerting oxidative stress and DNA damage. In sum, SVE can be explored as an immunotherapeutic candidate against leishmaniasis and other infectious diseases.
Resolution enhancement in multiple-quantum MAS NMR spectroscopy.

Two techniques for resolution and sensitivity enhancement are introduced in multiple-quantum (MQ) MAS spectroscopy of rigid solids. The first makes use of ultrafast MAS with spinning frequencies of up to 35 kHz, while the second combines MAS at moderately fast spinning frequencies of about 13 kHz with multiple-pulse (MP) dipolar decoupling. For the latter approach, a semiwindowless WHH-4 sequence is applied during the MQ evolution period (MQ dimension) and/or detection period (single-quantum dimension). In the MQ dimension, the MP sequence has to be supplemented by two bracketing pulses in order to preserve the order and the intensities of the evolving MQ coherences. Double-quantum 1H NMR spectra of l-alanine recorded using both decoupling techniques are shown and compared to each other. Triple-quantum 1H NMR spectra under ultrafast MAS conditions are also presented.
Energetically Optimal Gait Transition Velocities of a Quadruped Robot

Determining gait patterns with low energy consumption per distance traveled are important for increasing robots operation range. These gait patterns, a function of the robot's speed and structure, are generally determined by optimization processes. In contrast to previous studies that examined the energy consumption of several gait patterns at specific travel velocities, this study presents an optimization process that determines the optimal gait pattern for a range of velocities. In the first part of the study, three optimization methods are compared - the genetic algorithm, the radial-basis function method and the Nelder-Mead simplex. Results indicated that the preferred optimization method is genetic algorithm. In the second part of the study, we reduced the number of optimization variables, using constraints that represent known gait patterns. This led to a reduction of approximately 50% in optimization runtime, while maintaining similar energy consumption per distance as achieved in the first part of the study.
Report on a pseudolysogenic mycobacterium and a review of the literature concerning pseudolysogeny.

A description is given of a rapidly-growing mycobacterium (designated C.U.) which produces bacteriophages spontaneously. The strain was isolated from an abscess that occurred 2 months after a BCG vaccination. The phage content was maintained after subculture. Since only some of the colonies produced phages and the content of phages could be eliminated after growth in antiserum against the phage (designated BK5) it is concluded that' C.U. is a pseudolysogenic mycobacterium. No phage-mediated changes in the characteristics of the bacterium were: demonstrated. The literature and various forms of pseudo-lysogeny are reported.
A High-Resolution In Vivo Atlas of the Human Brain's Serotonin System

The serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) system modulates many important brain functions and is critically involved in many neuropsychiatric disorders. Here, we present a high-resolution, multidimensional, in vivo atlas of four of the human brain's 5-HT receptors (5-HT1A, 5-HT1B, 5-HT2A, and 5-HT4) and the 5-HT transporter (5-HTT). The atlas is created from molecular and structural high-resolution neuroimaging data consisting of positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans acquired in a total of 210 healthy individuals. Comparison of the regional PET binding measures with postmortem human brain autoradiography outcomes showed a high correlation for the five 5-HT targets and this enabled us to transform the atlas to represent protein densities (in picomoles per milliliter). We also assessed the regional association between protein concentration and mRNA expression in the human brain by comparing the 5-HT density across the atlas with data from the Allen Human Brain atlas and identified receptor- and transporter-specific associations that show the regional relation between the two measures. Together, these data provide unparalleled insight into the serotonin system of the human brain. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We present a high-resolution positron emission tomography (PET)- and magnetic resonance imaging-based human brain atlas of important serotonin receptors and the transporter. The regional PET-derived binding measures correlate strongly with the corresponding autoradiography protein levels. The strong correlation enables the transformation of the PET-derived human brain atlas into a protein density map of the serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) system. Next, we compared the regional receptor/transporter protein densities with mRNA levels and uncovered unique associations between protein expression and density at high detail. This new in vivo neuroimaging atlas of the 5-HT system not only provides insight in the human brain's regional protein synthesis, transport, and density, but also represents a valuable source of information for the neuroscience community as a comparative instrument to assess brain disorders.
Eye tracking and the translation process: reflections on the analysis and interpretation of eye-tracking data

Eye tracking has become increasingly popular as a quantitative research method in translation research. This paper discusses some of the major methodological issues involved in the use of eye tracking in translation research. It focuses specifically on challenges in the analysis and interpretation of eye-tracking data as reflections of cognitive processes during translation. Four types of methodological issues are discussed in the paper. The first part discusses the preparatory steps that precede the actual recording of eye-tracking data. The second part examines critically the general assumptions linking eye movements to cognitive processing in the context of translation research. The third part of the paper discusses two popular eye-tracking measures often used in translation research, fixations and pupil size, while the fourth part proposes a method to evaluate the quality of eye-tracking data.
An Affect Prediction Approach Through Depression Severity Parameter Incorporation in Neural Networks

Humans use emotional expressions to communicate their internal affective states. These behavioral expressions are often multi-modal (e.g. facial expression, voice and gestures) and researchers have proposed several schemes to predict the latent affective states based on these expressions. The relationship between the latent affective states and their expression is hypothesized to be affected by several factors; depression disorder being one of them. Despite a wide interest in affect prediction, and several studies linking the effect of depression on affective expressions, only a limited number of affect prediction models account for the depression severity. In this work, we present a novel scheme that incorporates depression severity as a parameter in Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). In order to predict affective dimensions for an individual at hand, our scheme alters the DNN activation function based on the subject’s depression severity. We perform experiments on affect prediction in two different sessions of the Audio-Visual Depressive language Corpus, which involves patients with varying degree of depression. Our results show improvements in arousal and valence prediction on both the sessions using the proposed DNN modeling. We also present analysis of the impact of such an alteration in DNNs during training and testing.
Mussel Adhesive Plaque Protein Gene Is a Novel Member of Epidermal Growth Factor-like Gene Family (*)

A mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis) cDNA encoding Mgfp2, a major component of the adhesive plaque that anchors mussels tightly to underwater surfaces was isolated. It encoded a protein mainly consisted of epidermal growth factor-like repeats, containing tyrosine residues that will be converted to 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine near C and N termini. Amino acid residues important for cell-cell interaction in other epidermal growth factor-like proteins were, however, not conserved in the structure of Mgfp2. RNA blot analysis on adult tissues showed foot-specific expression of this gene, while the analysis on developing larvae showed that the expression starts with formation of the foot. These results suggest that the function of Mgfp2 has been specialized to form the adhesive plaque.
Children designing software for children: what can we learn?

group of researchers has worked on designing technology for children and on how to involve children as participants in the design process . Allison Druin's books "Designing Multimedia Environments for Children" (with Cynthia Solomon, 1996) and "The Design of Children's Technology" (1999) illustrate different approaches of this process . They build on a venerable tradition started by Papert's design of the programming language Logo as a tool for children's mathematical learning and expression and Alan Kay's design of Smalltalk, the first object-oriented programming language, and the Dynabook . A common theme underlying all these efforts is that adult experts, and not children, are the ones who design the technology for children and who work with children as their prospective users .
Liquid Core ARROW Waveguides by Atomic Layer Deposition

We report on the use of the atomic layer deposition (ALD) process for fabricating liquid core antiresonant reflecting optical waveguides (ARROWs). The ALD permits the deposition of a very conformal sub-100-nm titanium dioxide antiresonant layer. This results in a low loss liquid core ARROW waveguide with a broadband output transmission spectrum. Optical transmitted spectrum from the fabricated structure has been reported, and the measured attenuation losses agree with the theoretical predictions.
An unified state avoidance policy to solve forbidden state problems in generalized controlled Petri nets

In this paper, an unified approach is proposed to solve forbidden state problems in a general class of controlled Petri nets (CPNs). A new subnet called the step-aligned subnet, which can describe various kinds of PN structures such as marked graphs, state machines and asymmetric nets, is introduced. The step-evaluation method is developed to efficiently investigate the reachable marking problem in step-aligned subnets instead of the full search of reachability graph. The crucial idea of the method is to decompose a large reachable marking problem into a number of smaller subproblems. This paper derives a necessary and sufficient condition in order to find maximally permissive controls in the context of step-aligned subnets. Theoretic results are applied to modeling and control of a flexible assembly cell.
The hepatic circadian clock fine-tunes the lipogenic response to feeding through RORα/γ

In this study, Zhang et al. investigated the mechanisms by which liver lipid metabolism is controlled by the timing of both the circadian clock and feeding. Their results show that liver-specific depletion of nuclear receptors RORα and RORγ, key components of the molecular circadian clock, up-regulate expression of lipogenic genes only under fed conditions, but not under fasting conditions, and establish ROR/Insig2/SREBP as a molecular pathway by which circadian clock components anticipatorily regulate lipogenic responses to feeding.
Clinical Utility of Three-Dimensional Echocardiography for the Evaluation of Ventricular Function

The evaluation of ventricular function is a core component of 2-dimensional echocardiography (2DE). Given the known limitations of 2DE, a more accurate assessment of ventricular function has long been desired. Three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) holds promise to fulfill this role while still maintaining the same benefits of low cost, portability, and efficiency of 2DE. Although 3DE has been investigated for over 30 years, the technology has seen little use in the modern clinical echocardiography lab. Although the benefit provided by the additional dimension of 2DE over M-Mode was immediately apparent, the clinical advantages of 3DE over 2DE have been difficult to appreciate. Several reasons for the lack of adoption include the learning curve, concerns about workflow, skepticism about clinical validity, and perceptions that the technology is too unrefined. Nonetheless, the past 2 decades have seen tremendous technical improvements in the field and a wealth of clinically applicable research. In particular, 3DE now has an established role in evaluating left ventricular systolic function. This review highlights the clinical relevancy of 3DE in evaluating ventricular function in terms of the history, relevant data, advantages, and the limitations of current generation 3DE.
MCMC methods for non-linear state space models

MCMC Methods for Non-linear State Space Models Alexander Y. Shestopaloff Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Statistical Sciences University of Toronto 2016 This thesis is concerned with developing efficient MCMC (Markov Chain Monte Carlo) techniques for non-linear, non-Gaussian state space models. These models are widely applicable in many fields, such as population ecology and economics. However, Bayesian inference in such models remains challenging, since sampling the latent variables and parameters in them can be difficult. We begin by showing how an efficient MCMC method can be developed for a queueing model, inference for which has previously been done with ABC (Approximate Bayesian Computation). This example is an illustration of how we can do inference with MCMC in a model in which inference is considered difficult and for which ABC was used. We do this by expanding the state to include variables involved in the process used to generate the observed data. We then proceed to the main contributions of the thesis, which are developing general MCMC methods for non-linear, non-Gaussian state space models based on the ensemble MCMC and embedded HMM MCMC frameworks. The embedded HMM and ensemble MCMC methods we introduce provide a unified framework that is sufficiently flexible to often address difficult issues in MCMC sampling for non-linear, non-Gaussian state space models, without having to resort to specialized methods for different cases. We start with the basic embedded HMM method of Neal (2003), and Neal, Beal and Roweis (2004), designed for sampling latent state sequences given known parameter values, and develop an efficient ensemble MCMC method for sampling parameters when the parameters and the latent sequence are strongly dependent. This method is tested
Forest fire preventing system: Requirements and challenges

Wireless Sensors Networks began to be highly appreciated during last decade because of the large variety of monitoring areas where they can be used: forests, medicine, cities, tools, people. In the paper, it has been decided to use Wireless Sensors Networks to monitor a forest and prevent forest fire. Three main functionalities of the application were identified such as real-time monitoring, alarms and forest fire prediction. To meet these requirements, the authors propose ForestFireWeb platform, a web-based application which collects data from a wireless sensor network, processes the specific data and displays it as graphs in GUI to be used by people. Taking into consideration the proposed application and integrating different sensor requirements, the research activity has been focused on: Communication Protocols Challenges, Prediction Algorithms Challenges and finally Application Software Challenges.