Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Neural Network Based Facial Expression Analysis using Gabor Wavelets

— Facial expression analysis is rapidly becoming an area of intense interest in computer science and human-computer interaction design communities. The most expressive way humans display emotions is through facial expressions. In this paper we present a method to analyze facial expression from images by applying Gabor wavelet transform (GWT) and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) on face images. Radial Basis Function (RBF) Network is used to classify the facial expressions. As a second stage, the images are preprocessed to enhance the edge details and non uniform down sampling is done to reduce the computational complexity and processing time. Our method reliably works even with faces, which carry heavy expressions.
Extending Concurrent Pascal to Allow Dynamic Resource Management

In Concurrent Pascal, the syntactic and semantic definition of the language prevents the inadvertent definition of a program that might violate the integrity of a shared data object. However, the language also does not allow the dynamic allocation of reusable resources among processes, and this restriction seems unnecessarily stingent. This paper proposes the addition to Concurrent Pascal of a new type of program component, to be called a resource manager. By this means, dynamic resource allocation can be accomplished both safely and efficiently. The notion that a process holds access rights to a resource is generalized to the notion that it holds capability rights, but the capability to atually make use of a resource is granted dynamically. The anonymity of dynamically allocatable resources is also guaranteed.
ON THE PROTECTIVE NATURE OF WAX COATINGS FOR CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT OUTDOOR METALWORKS: MICROSTRUCTURAL FLAWS, OXIDATIVE CHANGES, AND BARRIER PROPERTIES

Abstract Changes in chemical, microstructural, and barrier properties of two commonly used and commercially available waxes – a microcrystalline wax (Renaissance wax) and a microcrystalline and carnauba blended wax (Butcher's Boston Polish Amber Paste Wax) – for the prevention of corrosion on outdoor metalwork were investigated. The waxes were applied to both plain and patinated substrates of bronze and steel, and properties of the films were measured before and after weathering. Accelerated weathering was performed by accelerated UV-B illumination/condensation and outdoor weathering under standard South Florida exposures and in Portland, OR. Comparison of Fourier transformed micro-infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectra enabled characterization of chemical functional groups of these waxes as they weathered and showed relative increases in methylene character suggestive of cross-linking, appearance of terminal vinyl bands suggestive of chain-scission, and evidence of oxidative film damage. After annealing, microstructural changes were observed by thin-film X-ray diffraction and showed a decrease in crystallinity, which indicates a decrease in barrier properties. The barrier properties of the wax films after weathering were studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and equivalent electrical circuits provided insights into the physical state of the films. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy data showed that the permittivity of the weathered waxed panels increased, which was observed as a decrease in coating resistance and an increase in coating capacitance. Photographic documentation of the substrates showed extensive visible corrosion upon weathering. Our results demonstrate that waxed metal panels exposed outdoors do not have a period of stability when the protective qualities of the film do not change. This suggests that while waxes are commonly used to protect against corrosion, their barrier properties are affected by flaws in the microstructure and their susceptibility to chemical alteration during weathering. Results from a blind study with professional conservators as the participants are presented, to elucidate how they rank the importance of such factors as gloss and working lifetime when selecting protective coatings.
Camouflaging Timing Channels in Web Traffic

Web traffic accounts for more than half of Internet traffic tod ay. Camouflaging covert timing channels in Web traffic would be advantageous for concealment. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of disguising network covert timing channels as HTTP traffic to av id detection. Extensive research has shown that Internet traffic, including HTTP traffic, exhibit s self-similarity and long range persistence. Existing covert timing channels that mimic i.i. d. legitima te traffic cannot imitate HTTP traffic because these covert traffic patterns are not long range dependent. T he goal of this work is to design a covert timing channel that can be camouflaged as HTTP traffic. To this end, we design a covert timing channel whose inter-arrival times are long range dependent and have the same marginal distribution as the interarrival times for new HTTP connection traffic. These inter-a rrival times are constructed by combining a Fractional Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (FA RIMA) time series and an i.i. d. cryptographically secure random sequence. Experiments are conducted o n PlanetLab, and the results are validated against recent real traffic trace data. Our experiments demo nstrate that the traffic from this timing channel traffic is statistically indistinguishable from legiti mate HTTP traffic and undetectable by all current detection schemes for timing channels.
TLR3, TRIF, and Caspase 8 Determine Double-Stranded RNA-Induced Epithelial Cell Death and Survival In Vivo

TLR3 signaling is activated by dsRNA, a virus-associated molecular pattern. Injection of dsRNA into mice induced a rapid, dramatic, and reversible remodeling of the small intestinal mucosa with significant villus shortening. Villus shortening was preceded by increased caspase 3 and 8 activation and apoptosis of intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) located in the mid to upper villus with ensuing luminal fluid accumulation and diarrhea because of an increased secretory state. Mice lacking TLR3 or the adaptor molelcule TRIF mice were completely protected from dsRNA-induced IEC apoptosis, villus shortening, and diarrhea. dsRNA-induced apoptosis was independent of TNF signaling. Notably, NF-κB signaling through IκB kinase β protected crypt IECs but did not protect villus IECs from dsRNA-induced or TNF-induced apoptosis. dsRNA did not induce early caspase 3 activation with subsequent villus shortening in mice lacking caspase 8 in IECs but instead caused villus destruction with a loss of small intestinal surface epithelium and death. Consistent with direct activation of the TLR3–TRIF–caspase 8 signaling pathway by dsRNA in IECs, dsRNA-induced signaling of apoptosis was independent of non-TLR3 dsRNA signaling pathways, IL-15, TNF, IL-1, IL-6, IFN regulatory factor 3, type I IFN receptor, adaptive immunity, as well as dendritic cells, NK cells, and other hematopoietic cells. We conclude that dsRNA activation of the TLR3–TRIF–caspase 8 signaling pathway in IECs has a significant impact on the structure and function of the small intestinal mucosa and suggest signaling through this pathway has a host protective role during infection with viral pathogens.
RESIN BOND STRENGTH TO SILICOATED METAL

The effect of air abrasion particle size on the shear bond strengths of a silicoated metal surface was evaluated. Eighty square metal specimens were prepared by casting Rexillium III into 1 cm × 1 cm × 1 mm units. One side of the metal specimens was ground flat to a 600 grit. Forty of the specimens were air abraded with 50-micron and 40 with 250-micron aluminum oxide. All specimens were then silicoated. Microfil Pontic was applied to the silicoated surface in a cylindrically shaped matrix (3.66 mm in diameter). All specimens were stored in distilled water at 37°C for 24 hours. One group was tested at 24 hours (20 of the 50-micron and 20 of the 250-micron), while the second group (20 of the 50-micron and 20 of the 250-micron) was thermocycled (2,500 cycles at 6°C-60°C). The specimens were stressed to fracture in an Instron testing machine with a crosshead speed of 5 mm/min. At 24 hours, the 250-micron air abraded surface had a higher mean bond strength (21.79 MPa ± 5.02) than the 50-micron group (18.92 MPa ± 4.48). After thermocycling, the mean bond strengths were practically identical: the 250-micron group was 17.04 ± 4.49 and the 50-micron group was 17.05 MPa±4.43. When this data was subjected to a t-test, no statistical difference (p ± 0.05) was found between the 50-micron and 250-micron air abraded groups either at 24 hours or after thermocycling. However, there was a significant decrease (p < 0.05) in bond strength of the 250-micron group after thermocycling when compared to the 24-hour group.
Epitaxial growth of rutile thin films on titanium carbide single crystals

Abstract Thin single crystal flakes of rutile (titanium dioxide) have been grown epitaxially on the {100} faces of titanium carbide crystals by oxidation. Electron diffraction patterns show that the orientation relationship of the epitaxial growth is given by:(110)TiO2 , | (100)Tic with [001]TiO2 | [010]TiC. Transmission electron microscopy of the single crystal flakes shows evidence of contrast from dislocations which takes the form of small-angle boundaries, partial dislocations and stacking faults. The results are discussed in terms of the macroscopic plastic behaviour of TiO2 and TiC.
Development of microstructure in FCC metals during cold work

The evolution in microstructure and local crystallography is described, with emphasis on the behaviour of medium to high stacking fault energy FCC metals deformed at low temperature. This evolution is analysed within a common framework of grain subdivision on different size scales. The largest scale is the macroscopic subdivision of crystals or grains, which will be presented using the behaviour of single crystals as an example. Subdivision on smaller scales is demonstrated for polycrystals, with emphasis on the effects of strain and grain orientation on the evolution in microstructure and local crystallography. This leads to an introduction of structural parameters and their analysis using a scaling hypothesis. A key finding is the correlation between structure and crystallographic orientation, which allows a slip pattern description by standard crystal plasticity models leading to an analysis of the relationship between slip pattern and microstructure. These findings are briefly related to the macroscopic properties of deformed metals.
Induction of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Expression by Epstein-Barr Virus Latent Membrane Protein 1 C-Terminal-Activating Region 1 Is Mediated by NF-κB p50 Homodimer/Bcl-3 Complexes

ABSTRACT The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with the development of numerous malignancies, including the epithelial malignancy nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The viral oncoprotein latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) is expressed in almost all EBV-associated malignancies and has profound effects on gene expression. LMP1 acts as a constitutively active tumor necrosis factor receptor and activates multiple forms of the NF-κB family of transcription factors. LMP1 has two domains that both activate NF-κB. In epithelial cells, LMP1 C-terminal activating region 1 (CTAR1) uniquely activates p50/p50-, p50/p52-, and p65-containing complexes while CTAR2 activates canonical p50/p65 complexes. CTAR1 also uniquely upregulates the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). In NPC, NF-κB p50/p50 homodimers and the transactivator Bcl-3 were detected on the EGFR promoter. In this study, the role of NF-κB p50 and Bcl-3 in LMP1-mediated upregulation of EGFR was analyzed. In LMP1-CTAR1-expressing cells, chromatin immunoprecipitation detected p50 and Bcl-3 on the NF-κB consensus sites within the egfr promoter. Transient overexpression of p50 and Bcl-3 increased EGFR expression, confirming the regulation of EGFR by these factors. Treatment with p105/p50 siRNA effectively reduced p105/p50 levels but unexpectedly increased Bcl-3 expression and levels of p50/Bcl-3 complexes, resulting in increased EGFR expression. These data suggest that induction of p50/p50/Bcl-3 complexes by LMP1 CTAR1 mediates LMP1-induced EGFR upregulation and that formation of the p50/p50/Bcl-3 complex is negatively regulated by the p105 precursor. The distinct forms of NF-κB that are induced by LMP1 CTAR1 likely activate distinct cellular genes.
Exploiting chromatic aberration to spectrally encode depth in reflectance confocal microscopy

We present chromatic confocal microscopy as a technique to axially scan the sample by spectrally encoding depth information to avoid mechanical scanning of the lens or sample. We have achieved an 800 μm focal shift over a range of 680-1080 nm using a hyperchromat lens as the imaging lens. A more complex system that incorporates a water immersion objective to improve axial resolution was built and tested. We determined that increasing objective magnification decreases chromatic shift while improving axial resolution. Furthermore, collimating after the hyperchromat at longer wavelengths yields an increase in focal shift.
Diffraction‐Based Residual Stress Analysis Applied to Problems in the Aircraft Industry

Cost reduction and weight saving are most important principles governing design and construction of aircrafts. Advanced alloys and thermo‐mechanical treatments as well as new and optimized production processes are being developed. For example, welding of fuselage components like stringers or clips made of Al alloys can have several advantages over riveting. Retention of optimum weld microstructure and properties as well as control of welding related residual stresses and distortion is essential. In the context of risk analysis and damage tolerance it will be of growing importance to study residual stress fields in weld configurations and their influence on fatigue crack propagation. In this paper, methods to evaluate residual stresses in turbine discs and laser welded Al joints are reviewed.
Control and Cybernetics a Linear Support Vector Machine Solver for a Large Number of Training Examples *

A new linear Support Vector Machine algorithm and solver are presented. The algorithm is in a twofold way well-suited for problems with a large number of training examples. First, unlike many optimization algorithms, it does not simultaneously keep all the examples in RAM and thus does not exhaust the memory (moreover, it smartly passes through disk files storing the data: two mechanisms reduce the computation time by disregarding some input data without a loss in solution quality). Second, it uses the analytical center cutting plane scheme, appearing as more efficient for hard parameter settings than the Kelley's scheme used in other solvers, like SVM_perf. The experiments with both real-life and artificial examples are described. In one of them the solver proved to be capable of solving a problem with one billion training examples. A critical analysis of the complexity of SVM_perf is given.
Key Drivers of Foreign Firms ’ Locational Choice : Knowledge Nodes , Cross-Cultural Differences and Investment Motivation ( A Quantitative Case Study for New York City )

We identified the sectors of finance, services and retail/wholesale as key global “knowledge nodes” for New York City. We found that firms from culturally distance countries that pursued “asset augmenting” behaviors located closer to establish New York City knowledge nodes, than firms from culturally similar countries that pursued asset exploiting behaviors. The analysis of a micro-knowledge node, banking, revealed similar but more precise results.
Political Patronage in Ukrainian Banking

This paper empirically investigates the link between political patronage and bank performance for Ukraine during 2003Q3-2005Q2. We find significant differences between politically affiliated and non-affiliated banks. The data suggest that affiliated banks have significantly lower interest margins. The gap between affiliated banks' and non-affiliated banks' capitalization ratios, is narrowing over time. Parliamentary deputies might use financial institutions to achieve political goals which reduces their banks' performance.
Indoor mapping using planes extracted from noisy RGB-D sensors

This paper presents a fast and robust plane feature extraction and matching technique for RGB-D type sensors. We propose three algorithm components required to utilize the plane features in an online Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) problem: fast plane extraction, frame-to-frame constraint estimation, and plane merging. For the fast plane extraction, we estimate local surface normals and curvatures by a simple spherical model and then segment points using a modified flood fill algorithm. In plane parameter estimation, we suggest a new uncertainty estimation method which is robust against the measurement bias, and also introduce a fast boundary modeling method. We associate the plane features based on both the parameters and the spatial coverage, and estimate the stable constraints by the cost function with a regulation term. Also, our plane merging technique provides a way of generating local maps that are useful for estimating loop closure constraints. We have performed real-world experiments at our lab environment. The results demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed algorithm.
Exact switchbox routing with search space reduction

We present an approach for exact switchbox routing that complements traditional routing techniques. It is particularly well suited for an application to dense problem instances and the completion of routing in subregions which turn out to be difficult for routing tools based on heuristic methods. The exact router proposed used symbolic methods i.e. MDDs (Multi-valued Decision Diagrams) for representation of the routing space. All possible solutions to the routing problem are represented by one single MDD and once this MDD is given, routability can be decided within constraint time. To reduce the search space of possible routing solutions, so-called forced cells are computed. Finally, experimental results are given. They show the feasibility and the practicability of the approach.
Isolation and characterization of muscle phosphofructokinases with varying degrees of phosphorylation.

Phosphofructokinase has been purified from the skeletal muscle of a rat (200 g) and a rabbit (3 kg) 20 h after intraperitoneal injection of [32P]phosphate (40 mCi). The specific radioactivities of the labeled phosphofructokinases were 3000 and 140 cpm/mg, respectively. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in sodium dodecyl sulfate and peptide mapping of the tryptic digest of the rat enzyme showed that one specific peptide is phosphorylated and that the phosphate is covalently linked to a serine residue. Rabbit muscle phosphofructokinase has been separated by DEAE-cellulose chromatography into two fractions with lower and higher phosphate contents, which contain an average of 0.3 and 0.8 mol of phosphate/mol of enzyme (320,000 daltons), respectively. The lower phosphate form differs from the phosphofructokinase fractions reported by other workers not only in the phosphate content but also in its aggregation state. Sedimentation velocity patterns of the lower phosphate fraction showed two major peaks (12 and 18 S) and also a minor peak (24 S), but no 30 S material. The higher phosphate fraction, however, consisted mainly of 30 S material (40%) and also 24, 18, and 12 S polymers. Upon decreasing the protein concentration from 7 to 0.4 mg/ml, the 24 and 18 S polymers in the lower and the higher phosphate fractions dissociated to 12 S material in a stepwise manner. The relative amount of 30 S material in the latter fraction remained constant, indicating that it is a stable polymer. Additional information concerning the dissociation process came from examination of three subfractions from molecular sieve chromatography of the lower phosphate and higher phosphate fractions. Within each set of three subfractions, the phosphate content was the same. However, all subfractions contained several polymeric species, with smaller polymers appearing in the trailing subfractions. The polymers appearing at comparable positions in the elution profiles were always smaller in the lower phosphate than the higher phosphate fraction. Thus, there is heterogeneity among the polymers of a given size, in phosphate content and perhaps conformation. We conclude that the association-dissociation system is too complex to be described in terms of any simple model. The specific activities of over 20 samples of phosphofructokinase with different phosphate content (0.2 to
Urban air pollution monitoring using differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) and wind lidar

The technique of differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) is applied to monitor concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and aerosol, the major pollutants in the urban atmosphere. Two DOAS paths with optical distances of a few kilometers have been set up in the Chiba city area. The spectra of visible radiation emitted from xenon flashlights installed on tall constructions are analyzed in comparison with the laboratory spectrum of NO2. The intensity stability of the light sources enables the retrieval of aerosol extinction along the paths. It is found that the temporal behavior of both pollutants is similar to those observed at nearby ground sampling stations, though the effect of difference in the observation height often appears. Wind Doppler lidar measurement has also been undertaken from an observation site near an industrial complex along the Tokyo Bay, suggesting the influence of wind direction on the pollutant concentrations observed in the region.
Mechanical Measurement of the Plasticization of Polymers by High-Pressure Carbon Dioxide

Abstract A linear variable displacement transducer has been used to measure the central deflection of 2–3 mm thick polymer samples undergoing three-point bending while exposed to CO2 at pressures of up to 120 bar. Significant reductions in the bending onset temperatures were observed on the application of CO2 for polycarbonate, polystyrene, and poly(methyl methacrylate) of typically 20–40 K over the range of pressures applied. Initial onset temperatures correlated reasonably well with literature values for glass transition temperatures, but complete softening of the sample required further time for CO2 to diffuse into the samples.
Cross-language Information Retrieval with Explicit Semantic Analysis

We have participated on the monolingual and bilingual CLEF Ad-Hoc Retrieval Tasks, using a novel extension of the by now well-known Explicit Semantic Analysis (ESA) approach. We call this extension Cross-Language Explicit Semantic Analysis (CL-ESA) as it allows to apply ESA in a cross-lingual information retrieval setting. In essence, ESA represents documents as vectors in the space of Wikipedia articles, using the tfidf measure to capture how “important” a Wikipedia article is for a specific word. The interesting property of ESA is that arbitrary documents can be represented as a vector with respect to the Wikipedia article space. ESA thus replaces the standard BOW model for retrieval. In our cross-lingual extension of ESA, the cross-language links of Wikipedia are used in order to map the ESA vectors between different languages, thus allowing retrieval across languages. Our results are far behind the ones of other systems on the monolingual and ad-hoc retrieval tasks, but our motivation was to find out the potential of the CL-ESA approach using a first and unoptimized implementation thereof.
Comments on Born-Infeld Theory

The low-energy effective action of supersymmetric D-brane systems consists of two terms, one of which is of the Born-Infeld type and one of which is of the Chern-Simons type. I briefly review the status of our understanding of these terms for both the Abelian and non-Abelian cases.