Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Image Splicing Detection via Camera Response Function Analysis

Recent advances on image manipulation techniques have made image forgery detection increasingly more challenging. An important component in such tools is to fake motion and/or defocus blurs through boundary splicing and copy-move operators, to emulate wide aperture and slow shutter effects. In this paper, we present a new technique based on the analysis of the camera response functions (CRF) for efficient and robust splicing and copy-move forgery detection and localization. We first analyze how non-linear CRFs affect edges in terms of the intensity-gradient bivariable histograms. We show distinguishable shape differences on real vs. forged blurs near edges after a splicing operation. Based on our analysis, we introduce a deep-learning framework to detect and localize forged edges. In particular, we show the problem can be transformed to a handwriting recognition problem an resolved by using a convolutional neural network. We generate a large dataset of forged images produced by splicing followed by retouching and comprehensive experiments show our proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art techniques in accuracy and robustness.
An efficient method for motif discovery in CPU host load

Mining repeated patterns, or motifs, in CPU host load is of fundamental importance. Many recently emerging applications running on high performance computing systems rely on motif discovery for various purposes, including efficient task scheduling, energy saving, etc. In this paper, we propose an efficient motif discovery framework for CPU host load. The framework is elaborately designed to take into account the important properties in host load data. The framework benefits from its ability of on-line discovery and the adaptivity to work with massive data. The experiments are conducted in this paper and the experimental results show that the proposed method is effective and efficient.
Comparative “Omics” of the Fusarium fujikuroi Species Complex Highlights Differences in Genetic Potential and Metabolite Synthesis

Species of the Fusarium fujikuroi species complex (FFC) cause a wide spectrum of often devastating diseases on diverse agricultural crops, including coffee, fig, mango, maize, rice, and sugarcane. Although species within the FFC are difficult to distinguish by morphology, and their genes often share 90% sequence similarity, they can differ in host plant specificity and life style. FFC species can also produce structurally diverse secondary metabolites (SMs), including the mycotoxins fumonisins, fusarins, fusaric acid, and beauvericin, and the phytohormones gibberellins, auxins, and cytokinins. The spectrum of SMs produced can differ among closely related species, suggesting that SMs might be determinants of host specificity. To date, genomes of only a limited number of FFC species have been sequenced. Here, we provide draft genome sequences of three more members of the FFC: a single isolate of F. mangiferae, the cause of mango malformation, and two isolates of F. proliferatum, one a pathogen of maize and the other an orchid endophyte. We compared these genomes to publicly available genome sequences of three other FFC species. The comparisons revealed species-specific and isolate-specific differences in the composition and expression (in vitro and in planta) of genes involved in SM production including those for phytohormome biosynthesis. Such differences have the potential to impact host specificity and, as in the case of F. proliferatum, the pathogenic versus endophytic life style.
Compressive color sensing using random complementary color filter array

We propose a new color imaging system based on a compressive sensing technique. Our system consists of a random complementary color filter array (CFA) for random projection and a color reconstruction method for demosaicing. Our CFA overlaps two complementary color filters and consists of six color filters: cyan (C), yellow (Y), magenta (M), C+Y, C+M, and Y+M. By arranging these six color filters randomly, our imaging system achieves pseudo random projection among red (R) /green (G) / blue (B) colors, which is the key technology of compressive sensing. Because this CFA can retain more color information than RGB CFA, the proposed color reconstruction method reduces artifacts at monochromatic edges and in high-frequency regions, and obtains better image quality. As an additional contribution, we introduce saturation consistency to suppress color artifacts in saturated areas, then achieve to 3.3 dB higher quality images than the conventional method.
Sub-60-nm Extremely Thin Body ${\rm In}_{x}{\rm Ga}_{1-x}{\rm As}$-On-Insulator MOSFETs on Si With Ni-InGaAs Metal S/D and MOS Interface Buffer Engineering and Its Scalability

We report the operation of sub-60-nm deeply scaled InGaAs- and InAs-on-insulator (-OI) MOSFETs on Si substrates with MOS interface buffer engineering and Ni-InGaAs metal source/drain (S/D). InAs-OI MOSFETs provide 400% Ion enhancement, compared with an In0.53Ga0. 47As control device with the same drain-induced-barrier-lowering (DIBL) of 100 mV/V, which is attributable to the mobility enhancement and the S/D parasitic resistance (RSD) reduction. In addition, InAs-OI MOSFETs with the MOS interface buffers show excellent electrostatic characteristics. InAs-OI MOSFETs with a channel length (Lch) of 55 nm shows small DIBL of 84 mV/V and subthreshold slope (S.S.) of 105 mV/dec, both of which do not significantly degrade with a decrease of Lch, thanks to the extremely thin channel thickness. In addition, from the simulation study, we have found that further vertical scaling and back biasing techniques can improve the control of short channel effect in InAs-OI MOSFETs.
Release of Proteins from Intact Chloroplasts Induced by Reactive Oxygen Species during Biotic and Abiotic Stress

Plastids sustain life on this planet by providing food, feed, essential biomolecules and oxygen. Such diverse metabolic and biosynthetic functions require efficient communication between plastids and the nucleus. However, specific factors, especially large molecules, released from plastids that regulate nuclear genes have not yet been fully elucidated. When tobacco and lettuce transplastomic plants expressing GFP within chloroplasts, were challenged with Erwinia carotovora (biotic stress) or paraquat (abiotic stress), GFP was released into the cytoplasm. During this process GFP moves gradually towards the envelope, creating a central red zone of chlorophyll fluorescence. GFP was then gradually released from intact chloroplasts into the cytoplasm with an intact vacuole and no other visible cellular damage. Different stages of GFP release were observed inside the same cell with a few chloroplasts completely releasing GFP with detection of only red chlorophyll fluorescence or with no reduction in GFP fluorescence or transitional steps between these two phases. Time lapse imaging by confocal microscopy clearly identified sequence of these events. Intactness of chloroplasts during this process was evident from chlorophyll fluorescence emanated from thylakoid membranes and in vivo Chla fluorescence measurements (maximum quantum yield of photosystem II) made before or after infection with pathogens to evaluate their photosynthetic competence. Hydrogen peroxide and superoxide anion serve as signal molecules for generation of reactive oxygen species and Tiron, scavenger of superoxide anion, blocked release of GFP from chloroplasts. Significant increase in ion leakage in the presence of paraquat and light suggests changes in the chloroplast envelope to facilitate protein release. Release of GFP-RC101 (an antimicrobial peptide), which was triggered by Erwinia infection, ceased after conferring protection, further confirming this export phenomenon. These results suggest a novel signaling mechanism, especially for participation of chloroplast proteins (e.g. transcription factors) in retrograde signaling, thereby offering new opportunities to regulate pathways outside chloroplasts.
Nonuniform Sampling and Reconstruction in Shift-Invariant Spaces

This article discusses modern techniques for nonuniform sampling and reconstruction of functions in shift-invariant spaces. It is a survey as well as a research paper and provides a unified framework for uniform and nonuniform sampling and reconstruction in shift-invariant subspaces by bringing together wavelet theory, frame theory, reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, approximation theory, amalgam spaces, and sampling. Inspired by applications taken from communication, astronomy, and medicine, the following aspects will be emphasized: (a) The sampling problem is well defined within the setting of shift-invariant spaces. (b) The general theory works in arbitrary dimension and for a broad class of generators. (c) The reconstruction of a function from any sufficiently dense nonuniform sampling set is obtained by efficient iterative algorithms. These algorithms converge geometrically and are robust in the presence of noise. (d) To model the natural decay conditions of real signals and images, the sampling theory is developed in weighted L p-spaces.
Microscopic Theory of the Two-Dimensional Quantum Antiferromagnet in a Paramagnetic Phase

We have developed a consistent theory of the Heisenberg quantum antiferromagnet in the disordered phase with a short range antiferromagnetic order on the basis of the path integral for spin coherent states. In the framework of our approach we have obtained the response function for the spin fluctuations for all values of the frequency ω and the wave vector k and have calculated the free energy of the system. We have also reproduced the known results for the spin correlation length in the lowest order in 1/N. We have presented the Lagrangian of the theory in a form which is explicitly invariant under rotations and found natural variables in terms of which one can construct a natural perturbation theory. The short wave spin fluctuations are similar to those in the spin wave theory and they are on the order of the smallness parameter 1/2s where s is the spin magnitude. The long-wave spin fluctuations are governed by the nonlinear sigma model and are on the order of the smallness parameter 1/N, where N is the number of field components. We also have shown that the short wave spin fluctuations must be evaluated accurately and the continuum limit in time of the path integral must be performed after the summation over the frequencies ω.
A class of decomposition methods for convex optimization and monotone variational inclusions via the hybrid inexact proximal point framework

We show that the decomposition method for convex programming proposed by Chen and Teboulle can be regarded as a special case in the hybrid inexact proximal point framework. We further demonstrate that the more general decomposition algorithms for variational inequalities introduced by Tseng are also either a special case in this framework or very closely related to it. This analysis provides a new insight into the nature of those decomposition schemes, as well as paves the way for deriving more practical methods by solving subproblems approximately (for example, using appropriate bundle methods). As a by-product, we also improve some convergence results and extend the approach to a more general class of problems.
Politics of Inclusion: Castes, Minorities, and Affirmative Action

After India achieved its independence, policymakers, founding fathers of the constitution, politicians and the social reformers were concerned about the upliftment of the downtrodden masses through the inclusive strategies to integrate them in to the mainstream for fulfilling the constitutional obligations of a democratic, socialistic and secular country. Nevertheless the newly independent state as India took a radical shift in its approach from the imperialist’s mere political representation to welfare stance in social policy. As a result the state’s approach of inclusion to bring equality and social justice emphasised preferential treatment to certain social groups based on their hitherto backwardness and social disabilities. However, the policy discourse did not take into account the real sense of backwardness which was present in every realm of these social groups irrespective of religions. From the very beginning of the constitutional frame, the state has adopted differential strategies for the inclusion of different social groups. While minorities are included under the banner of cultural identities protection, disadvantaged castes are included in the framework of social justice. Such policies are contentious because there is a controversy over who should be targeted, why they should be targeted and under what conditions? More or less, this raises a question of neutrality of affirmative policies in India. Further, whether to identify groups on the basis of their historical status or in terms of deprivation by a combination of criteria of social, economic and cultural backwardness, these are the questions, which are critically examined in this present work of Zoya Hasan.
Inhibition of p38 MAPK activation protects cardiac mitochondria from ischemia/reperfusion injury

Abstract Context: Cardiac cell death and fatal arrhythmias during myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) can be reduced by p38 MAPK inhibition. However, the effects of p38 MAPK inhibition on cardiac mitochondria have not been investigated. Objective: We tested the hypothesis that p38 MAPK inhibition at different times during I/R protects cardiac mitochondrial functions. Materials and methods: Adult Wistar rats were subjected to 30 min of left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) occlusion, followed by 120 min of reperfusion. A 2 mg/kg bolus infusion of p38 MAPK inhibitor, SB203580, was given before or during ischemia, or at reperfusion. Mitochondrial function and ultrastructure were assessed and Western blots were performed. Results: Administration of SB203580 at any time point of I/R significantly attenuated the mitochondrial ultrastructure change, mitochondrial swelling, by increasing the absorbance at 540 nm (I/R control 0.42 ± 0.03; pretreatment 0.58 ± 0.04; during ischemia 0.49 ± 0.02; at reperfusion 0.51 ± 0.02, p < 0.05), similar to reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation (I/R control 1300 ± 48; pretreatment 1150 ± 30; during ischemia 1000 ± 50; at reperfusion 1050 ± 55, p < 0.05). Only SB203580 given before or during ischemia attenuated mitochondrial membrane depolarization (I/R control 0.78 ± 0.04; pretreatment 1.02 ± 0.03; during ischemia 1.05 ± 0.12, p < 0.05). In addition, pre-treatment of SB203580 significantly reduced the phosphorylation of p53, CREB, Bax, cytochrome c, and cleaved caspase 3. Discussion and conclusion: The results from this study showed for the first time that p38 MAPK inhibition protects mitochondria from I/R injury.
Human detection for multiple pose by boosted randomized trees

In this paper we propose a robust pose invariant human detection framework. Most of the existing human detection frameworks assume a standing posture and needing a separate detectors for supporting other human postures. We propose a single framework with a hierarchical tree structure that can detect various poses. The proposed method is based on Randomized trees. Candidate features are selected as shown below, to learn high performing decision trees, 1)each node of the decision tree is constrained with classes based on class likelihood, 2)effective features are pre-selected with Joint Boosting for the above classes, 3)the candidate features are randomly generated based on these effective features. From 1) and 2), the root nodes can be trained for discriminating the human from the background, and leaf nodes can be trained for specific poses. Performance comparison was performed for various poses that arise for a “shopping scenario”, and the proposed method outperformed other multi-class classifiers based on Joint boosting, Randomized trees and Adatree.
Algorithmic analysis of complex audio scenes

In this thesis, we examine the problem of algorithmic analysis of complex audio scenes with a special emphasis on natural audio scenes. One of the driving goals behind this work is to develop tools for monitoring the presence of animals in areas of interest based on their vocalisations. This task, which often occurs in the evaluation of nature conservation measures, leads to a number of subproblems in audio scene analysis. In order to develop and evaluate pattern recognition algorithms for animal sounds, a representative collection of such sounds is necessary. Building such a collection is beyond the scope of a single researcher and we therefore use data from the Animal Sound Archive of the Humboldt University of Berlin. Although a large portion of well annotated recordings from this archive has been available in digital form, little infrastructure for searching and sharing this data has been available. We describe a distributed infrastructure for searching, sharing and annotating animal sound collections collaboratively, which we have developed in this context. Although searching animal sound databases by metadata gives good results for many applications, annotating all occurences of a specific sound is beyond the scope of human annotators. Moreover, finding similar vocalisations to that of an example is not feasible by using only metadata. We therefore propose an algorithm for content-based similarity search in animal sound databases. Based on principles of image processing, we develop suitable features for the description of animal sounds. We enhance a concept for content-based multimedia retrieval by a ranking scheme which makes it an efficient tool for similarity search. One of the main sources of complexity in natural audio scenes, and the most difficult problem for pattern recognition, is the large number of sound sources which are active at the same time. We therefore examine methods for source separation based on microphone arrays. In particular, we propose an algorithm for the extraction of simpler components from complex audio scenes based on a sound complexity measure. Finally, we introduce pattern recognition algorithms for the vocalisations of a number of bird species. Some of these species are interesting for reasons of nature conservation, while one of the species serves as a prototype for song birds with strongly structured songs.
QSPR Study of the Absorption Maxima of Azobenzene Dyes

A quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR) study was performed for the prediction of the absorption maxima of azobenzene dyes. The entire set of 191 azobenzenes was divided into a training set of 150 azobenzenes and a test set of 41 azobenzenes according to Kennard and Stones algorithm. A seven-descriptor model, with squared correlation coefficient () of 0.8755 and standard error of estimation (s) of 14.476, was developed by applying stepwise multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis on the training set. The reliability of the proposed model was further illustrated using various evaluation techniques: leave-many-out crossvalidation procedure, randomization tests, and validation through the test set.
Role of Bassoon and Piccolo in Assembly and Molecular Organization of the Active Zone

Bassoon and Piccolo are two very large scaffolding proteins of the cytomatrix assembled at the active zone (CAZ) where neurotransmitter is released. They share regions of high sequence similarity distributed along their entire length and seem to share both overlapping and distinct functions in organizing the CAZ. Here, we survey our present knowledge on protein-protein interactions and recent progress in understanding of molecular functions of these two giant proteins. These include roles in the assembly of active zones (AZ), the localization of voltage-gated Ca2+ channels (VGCCs) in the vicinity of release sites, synaptic vesicle (SV) priming and in the case of Piccolo, a role in the dynamic assembly of the actin cytoskeleton. Piccolo and Bassoon are also important for the maintenance of presynaptic structure and function, as well as for the assembly of CAZ specializations such as synaptic ribbons. Recent findings suggest that they are also involved in the regulation activity-dependent communication between presynaptic boutons and the neuronal nucleus. Together these observations suggest that Bassoon and Piccolo use their modular structure to organize super-molecular complexes essential for various aspects of presynaptic function.
Self-Affirmation through the Choice of Highly Aesthetic Products

Just as good looks bestow an unconscious “beauty premium” on people, high aesthetics bestows an unrecognized benefit on consumer goods. Specifically, choosing a product with good design affirms the consumer’s sense of self. Choice of a highly aesthetic product was compared with choice of products superior on other attributes including function, brand, and hedonics to show that only aesthetics influences a consumer’s personal values. In study 1 a prior self-affirming task leads to a decrease in choice share of a highly aesthetic option. Studies 2 and 3 mimic prior research on self-affirmation with, however, choice of a highly aesthetic product replacing a traditional self-affirmation manipulation. Choosing a product with good design resulted in increased openness to counter-attitudinal arguments and reduced propensity to escalate commitment toward a failing course of action. There are numerous implications of this form of self-affirmation, from public policy to retail therapy.
Editorial and retrospective 2008

The state of the journal continues to be strong. We are particularly pleased to report another increase in impact factor, from 4.83 in 2006 to 5.17 in 2007 (Fig. 1). Molecular Ecology currently ranks sixth in impact among 116 journals listed in the ISI’s Web of Knowledge Ecology category, and second among Ecology journals that publish primary research results. Likewise, Molecular Ecology ranks fifth out of 35 journals listed in ISI’s Evolutionary Biology journal category, and third among Evolutionary Biology journals that publish primary research results. Molecular Ecology also continues to expand in size, from 341 articles in 2006 to 395 articles in 2007 (Fig. 1). It currently is the largest journal in ISI’s Evolutionary Biology category and the third largest journal in the Ecology category. Despite changes in our editorial office and manuscript management system (see below), publication times at Molecular Ecology continue to be excellent. The time from manuscript receipt to an editorial decision averages 33 days (44 days for manuscripts that received a full peer review). Our production staff moves accepted manuscripts to Online Early publication in 35 days, with the print version appearing approximately 32 days later. We thank journal secretaries Elinor Smith and Simmoné Fellowes, Editorial Assistant Elyse Mitchell, and Production Editor Gillian Carmichael, for their efforts in ensuring that manuscripts are efficiently processed, reviewed, and published. Editorial policy
Race and Health in Guyana: An Empirical Assessment from Survey Data

This paper examines racial differences in physical health and mental well-being in Guyana, South America: a country with cultural ties to the Caribbean. It explores the complex relationship among race, socioeconomic status and health outcomes which in developed societies continues to be of significant research interest. Utilizing a random probability sample of over 900 adults, the analyses provide information on the general physical and mental health status of this population and examine the differences by racial groups when other factors are controlled. The results indicate significant age-specific racial differences in physical and mental health in Guyana. Higher rates of diabetes, arthritis or rheumatism, back and breathing problems among Indo-Guyanese when compared to other groups were noted. Racial differences in physical health were attenuated when gender and educational levels were controlled.