Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detecting Mutual Awareness Events

It is quite common that multiple human observers attend to a single static interest point. This is known as a mutual awareness event (MAWE). A preferred way to monitor these situations is with a camera that captures the human observers while using existing face detection and head pose estimation algorithms. The current work studies the underlying geometric constraints of MAWEs and reformulates them in terms of image measurements. The constraints are then used in a method that 1) detects whether such an interest point does exist, 2) determines where it is located, 3) identifies who was attending to it, and 4) reports where and when each observer was while attending to it. The method is also applied on another interesting event when a single moving human observer fixates on a single static interest point. The method can deal with the general case of an uncalibrated camera in a general environment. This is in contrast to other work on similar problems that inherently assumes a known environment or a calibrated camera. The method was tested on about 75 images from various scenes and robustly detects MAWEs and estimates their related attributes. Most of the images were found by searching the Internet.
Medical education in the Sudan: its strengths and weaknesses

The history of medical education in the Sudan is both long and interesting. It began in 1924 and has passed through several different phases and stages. Despite numerous difficulties and constraints along the way, vast experience has been gained and many achievements made, all of which have had positive impacts on the health system in the Sudan and the Region. This paper aims to share the experiences and lessons that have emerged from the journey of medical education in the Sudan, and explores the future need for continuing support and dialogue from international colleagues to maintain momentum.
A storm-type classifier using support vector machines and fuzzy logic [presentation]

This paper details our methodology for entry in the 2008 American Meteorological Society’s 6 Conference on Artificial Intelligence Applications to Environmental Science AI competition. We trained probabilistic Support Vector Machine models with several separations of a multicategory storm type data set. We experimented with two fuzzy logic approaches to combine the model outputs into a coherent prediction for our contest entry.
Effect of gender differences on the regulation of renal ischemia-reperfusion-induced inflammation in mice

Inflammation is a key mediator of renal ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury. Gender disparities have been reported in acute and chronic kidney disease. In particular, males are considered to be more susceptible to renal ischemic injury compared with females according to animal studies. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of gender on the renal inflammatory response following acute renal IR injury in mice. Experiments were performed in male and female C57BL/6 mice. Two weeks prior to the study, castration or ovariectomy were performed and testosterone propionate (100 μg/kg) or 17β-estradiol (100 μg/kg) was injected. Acute kidney injury (AKI) was induced by bilateral clamping of the renal pedicle for 23 min. Histological examination, western blot analysis and quantitative polymerase chain reaction were performed. In the acute renal IR injury model, the female mice were more resistant to kidney injury compared with the male mice. However, castration of the male mice reduced the levels of IR-induced tubular injury and macrophage infiltration compared with those in the injured male mice. Supplementation of testosterone reversed this protective effect in the male AKI model. Depletion of estrogen in the female mice increased the levels of IR-induced tubular injury and macrophage infiltration compared with those in the injured female mice. However, supplementation of estrogen in the ovariectomized female mice attenuated the IR-induced tubular injury and reduced the levels of macrophage infiltration. The expression levels of inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-α, monocyte chemotactic protein-1, interferon-γ and chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 17, were elevated in the male AKI mice compared with those in the control male mice, and were attenuated by castration. Estrogen depletion in the female mice significantly increased the expression levels of the renal inflammatory cytokines compared with those in the injured female mice, and were attenuated by estrogen supplementation in the ovariectomized female mice. These results suggested that the male gender confers greater susceptibility to IR renal injury due to an enhanced inflammatory response.
Causes and Management of Thunderclap Headache: A Comprehensive Review

BACKGROUND–Thunderclap headache (or sudden severe headache) is an uncommon type of headache. Recognition and accurate diagnosis of this headache are important, because there is often a serious underlying brain disorder. SUMMARY–In this article, causes and management of thunderclap headache are discussed. In the primary care setting, there is a serious cause in one third of patients, but in the hospital setting, up to two thirds of patients have a serious underlying brain disorder. Clues in history and physical examination can point to a possible serious underlying cause of thunderclap headache, such as subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracranial hematoma, or cerebral venous thrombosis. The remaining patients with thunderclap headache, however, have a primary headache disorder, such as migraine or (less frequently) tension headache with an unusual sudden onset, exertional headache, coital headache, cough headache, or cluster headache. The concept of thunderclap headache as a distinct clinical entity is discussed, with implications for its evaluation. Present radiological techniques are reviewed with regard to their diagnostic utility in detecting a serious brain disorder. CONCLUSIONS–Thunderclap headache is an uncommon type of headache, and a serious underlying cause should be excluded.
QoS-aware proportional fair energy-efficient resource allocation with imperfect CSI in downlink OFDMA systems

With the widespread application of wireless networks and the requirements of different user equipments (UEs), energy has become a scarcer resource as well as spectrum. In this paper, considering the actual scenarios of imperfect channel state information (CSI), we study a resource allocation scheme in the downlink orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems. To balance between energy efficiency (EE) and proportional fairness (PF), the problem is formulated as maximizing average achievable EE with the constraints of PF of users and QoS assurance. To solve the optimal problem, we divide it into two layers. The sub-problem P1 of inner layer is solved to maximize PF, with the parameter of total transmit power which is updated by the sub-problem P2 of outer layer. In outer layer, with the allocation scheme from P1, a gradient-based adaptation resource allocation algorithm is proposed to achieve the maximum EE with total transmit power updated in every gradient iteration. Moreover, the impacts of the imperfect CSI on EE and PF are analysed. Simulation results are presented to show the superior performance of the proposed algorithms and verify the analytical findings.
Experimental demonstration of multi-hop RF energy transfer

Batteries of field nodes in a wireless sensor network pose an upper limit on the network lifetime. Energy harvesting and harvesting aware medium access control protocols have the potential to provide uninterrupted network operation, as they aim to replenish the lost energy so that energy neutral operation of the energy harvesting nodes can be achieved. To further improve the energy harvesting process, there is a need for novel schemes so that maximum energy is harvested in a minimum possible time. Multi-hop radio frequency (RF) energy transfer is one such solution that addresses these needs. With the optimal placement of energy relay nodes, multi-hop RF energy transfer can save energy of the source as well as time for the harvesting process. In this work we experimentally demonstrate multi-hop RF energy transfer, wherein two-hop energy transfer is shown to achieve significant energy and time savings with respect to the single-hop case. It is also shown that the gain obtained can be translated to energy transfer range extension.
A probabilistic prior knowledge integration method: Application to generative and discriminative models

Prior knowledge integration aims at taking advantage of cheap plentiful data to improve the efficiency of supervised learning procedures. For parametric models, however, it is a challenging task. In this contribution, we introduce a novel simple methodology to incorporate prior knowledge into a supervised objective function. We propose to introduce the prior knowledge in the form of joint probability of observations and labels. We discuss the nature of features in discriminative and generative models and hence, differences in priors integration. We illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method both by synthetic data sets and by our results on a realistic large-scale sequence labeling task.
A 3-D model-based approach for key failures control of multi-layer product

Traditional failure analysis results are mostly in text/graphics/tabular form, which brings challenges to intuitional and quick reliability design evaluation, and makes it difficult to recognize the complex interrelationships of failures. A 3-D modelbased failure model was proposed. Two types of failure visualization method oriented component and assembly are provided respectively. For a component, spheres along with their colour and radius are introduced to visualize its failures, severity classes and failure probabilities of occurrence levels. As to reflect the combined failure characteristics of an assembly, a mapping model is given to achieve the RGB value, which is used to colour the corresponding assembly cuboid. By the combination of dynamic filtering of hierarchy-related network, a multi-layer interaction model is constructed, where failures and their hierarchical link are described. Being exemplified by a nozzle signal processor, the present studies illustrate how the failures visualization model be established to monitor and locate key failures quickly and exactly.
Detection of T cell responses to a ubiquitous cellular protein in autoimmune disease

T cells that mediate autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are difficult to characterize because they are likely to be deleted or inactivated in the thymus if the self antigens they recognize are ubiquitously expressed. One way to obtain and analyze these autoimmune T cells is to alter T cell receptor (TCR) signaling in developing T cells to change their sensitivity to thymic negative selection, thereby allowing their thymic production. From mice thus engineered to generate T cells mediating autoimmune arthritis, we isolated arthritogenic TCRs and characterized the self antigens they recognized. One of them was the ubiquitously expressed 60S ribosomal protein L23a (RPL23A), with which T cells and autoantibodies from RA patients reacted. This strategy may improve our understanding of the underlying drivers of autoimmunity. In a mouse model of rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune T cells recognize a protein from the ribosome. Finding the targets of T cells gone bad Autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis can result when the immune system attacks its own body. If we could identify the specific proteins targeted by autoimmune T cells, we might then be able to block this interaction, which might be useful therapeutically. Ito et al. identified one such target in mice that develop a disease similar to rheumatoid arthritis. Disease-causing T cells recognized a protein that is part of the ribosome, a large protein complex that catalyzes protein synthesis. They also found T cells specific for this protein in people with rheumatoid arthritis. Science, this issue p. 363
Some Reflections from the Entrepreneurship Educator's Mirror *

The context of this research is based on the European reference framework, which presented ‘Entrepreneurship and a sense of initiative’ as one of eight key competences for lifelong learning that citizens require in a knowledge-based society. The key competence ‘sense of initiative and entrepreneurship’ is defined as “an individual’s ability to turn ideas into action. It includes creativity, innovation and risk-taking, as well as the ability to plan and manage projects in order to achieve objectives” (EU, 2013, p.8). These European developments and initiatives contribute to the growing evidence of the need for individually based entrepreneurial learning and for more entrepreneurship educators. “Teachers are key actors”, (EU, 2015, p.89). Duening (2010) has attempted to develop the five minds of the future specifically to the five minds of the entrepreneurial future. However, realising that there is a difference between the cognitive thinking process for an entrepreneur and for a non entrepreneur means we will need to provide entrepreneurship educators “with a conviction that we know why we are doing and what we are doing in the entrepreneurship classroom”, (Duening, 2010, p. 20). Wilson and Beard (2003) have developed the learning combination lock model which acknowledges the inclusion of the five elements in the model: stimuli, our senses, the filtering process, interpretation and responses. This model is a key component to this research. This paper is a small initial exploratory study based on a literature review and on four interviews across the primary, secondary and tertiary education levels to help establish a platform for a deeper analysis at the tertiary education level. To date, reflective based interviews using the Pictor Technique have helped to understand the role of learning, experience and key influencers in becoming an entrepreneurship educator. The proposed deeper analysis will continue this approach in an attempt to develop the typology (ies) of an entrepreneurship educator.
The impact of Greenland's deglaciation on the Arctic circulation

The influence of Greenland's deglaciation on the atmospheric winter and summer circulation of the Arctic have been quantified with the high‐resolution regional atmospheric model HIRHAM4. Greenland's deglaciation exerts a pronounced influence on the atmospheric winter circulation of the Arctic. The land areas over Siberia and the Canadian archipelago are warmed by up to 5°C. Parts of the Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean are cooled by up to 3°C. A north‐eastward shift of the storm tracks occurs over the North Atlantic as well as an increase of synoptic activity over Alaska. The pronounced P‐E changes connected with shifts in the synoptic storm tracks during winter would have important consequences for the atmospheric freshwater input into the Arctic Ocean and the Nordic sea with the potential to cause variability in the Arctic Ocean dynamics on centennial to millennial time scales. The significant differences between simulations with and without Greenland result in a decrease of the geopotential height and a dominant barotropic response of the Arctic atmosphere. These changes correspond to an enhanced winter polar vortex and stratospheric conditions more favorable for large Arctic ozone losses.
Bit rate comparison between MIMO cyclically prefixed single carrier and multicarrier transmissions

We consider cyclically prefixed block transmission over frequency selective wireless multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channels. We make a bit rate comparison between MIMO cyclically prefixed single carrier (CP-SC) and MIMO orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. We analytically prove that MIMO CP-SC with decision feedback equalization (DFE) outperforms MIMO OFDM with linear receiver. Moreover, we show that spatial linear precoding on the OFDM tones, leading to a discrete matrix multitone (DMMT) scheme, enables to close the gap and to perform as well as MIMO CP-SC with DFE.
Effects of singing classes on pulmonary function and quality of life of COPD patients

This study aimed to investigate the effects of weekly singings classes on pulmonary function parameters and quality of life (QoL) of COPD patients. Forty-three patients were randomized to weekly classes of singing practice, or handcraft work. They performed spirometry and completed maximal respiratory pressure measurements, evaluations of dyspnea, and the Saint George’s Respiratory Questionnaire, before and after 24 training classes. A functional evaluation, immediately after 10 minutes of singing practice, was also performed at the end of the study. Fifteen subjects completed the study in each group. In comparison to controls the singing group exhibited transitory elevations on the dyspnea Borg scale (p = 0.02), and inspiratory capacity (p = 0.01), and decreases of expiratory reserve volume (p = 0.03), just after a short session of singing. There was a significant difference on changes of maximal expiratory pressures in the comparison between groups at the end of training. While the control group showed deterioration of maximal expiratory pressure, the singing group exhibited a small improvement (p = 0.05). Both groups showed significant improvements of QoL in within group comparisons. We have concluded that singing classes are a well tolerated activity for selected subjects with COPD. Regular practice of singing may improve QoL, and preserve the maximal expiratory pressure of these patients.
Acupuncture for acute non-specific low back pain: a protocol for a randomised, controlled multicentre intervention study in general practice—the Acuback Study

Introduction Some general practitioners (GPs) treat acute low back pain (LBP) with acupuncture, despite lacking evidence of its effectiveness for this condition. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether a single treatment session with acupuncture can reduce time to recovery when applied in addition to standard LBP treatment according to the Norwegian national guidelines. Analyses of prognostic factors for recovery and cost-effectiveness will also be carried out. Methods and analysis In this randomised, controlled multicentre study in general practice in Southern Norway, 270 patients will be allocated into one of two treatment groups, using a web-based application based on block randomisation. Outcome assessor will be blinded for group allocation of the patients. The control group will receive standard treatment, while the intervention group will receive standard treatment plus acupuncture treatment. There will be different GPs treating the two groups, and both groups will just have one consultation. Adults who consult their GP because of acute LBP will be included. Patients with nerve root affection, ‘red flags’, pregnancy, previous sick leave more than 14 days and disability pension will be excluded. The primary outcome of the study is the median time to recovery (in days). The secondary outcomes are rated global improvement, back-specific functional status, sick leave, medication, GP visits and side effects. A pilot study will be conducted. Ethics and dissemination Participation is based on informed written consent. The authors will apply for an ethical approval from the Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics when the study protocol is published. Results from this study, positive or negative, will be disseminated in scientific medical journals. Trial Registration Number ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01439412.
Identification and Characterization of a Dual-Acting Antinematodal Agent against the Pinewood Nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus

The pinewood nematode (PWN), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, is a mycophagous and phytophagous pathogen responsible for the current widespread epidemic of the pine wilt disease, which has become a major threat to pine forests throughout the world. Despite the availability of several preventive trunk-injection agents, no therapeutic trunk-injection agent for eradication of PWN currently exists. In the characterization of basic physiological properties of B. xylophilus YB-1 isolates, we established a high-throughput screening (HTS) method that identifies potential hits within approximately 7 h. Using this HTS method, we screened 206 compounds with known activities, mostly antifungal, for antinematodal activities and identified HWY-4213 (1-n-undecyl-2-[2-fluorphenyl] methyl-3,4-dihydro-6,7-dimethoxy-isoquinolinium chloride), a highly water-soluble protoberberine derivative, as a potent nematicidal and antifungal agent. When tested on 4 year-old pinewood seedlings that were infected with YB-1 isolates, HWY-4213 exhibited a potent therapeutic nematicidal activity. Further tests of screening 39 Caenorhabditis elegans mutants deficient in channel proteins and B. xylophilus sensitivity to Ca2+ channel blockers suggested that HWY-4213 targets the calcium channel proteins. Our study marks a technical breakthrough by developing a novel HTS method that leads to the discovery HWY-4213 as a dual-acting antinematodal and antifungal compound.
Ca2+/Calmodulin Kinase II–Dependent Phosphorylation of Ryanodine Receptors Suppresses Ca2+ Sparks and Ca2+ Waves in Cardiac Myocytes

The multifunctional Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II &dgr;C (CaMKII&dgr;C) is found in the macromolecular complex of type 2 ryanodine receptor (RyR2) Ca2+ release channels in the heart. However, the functional role of CaMKII-dependent phosphorylation of RyR2 is highly controversial. To address this issue, we expressed wild-type, constitutively active, or dominant-negative CaMKII&dgr;C via adenoviral gene transfer in cultured adult rat ventricular myocytes. CaMKII-mediated phosphorylation of RyR2 was reduced, enhanced, or unaltered by dominant-negative, constitutively active, or wild-type CaMKII&dgr;C expression, whereas phosphorylation of phospholamban at Thr17, an endogenous indicator of CaMKII activity, was at 73%, 161%, or 115% of the control group expressing β-galactosidase (β-gal), respectively. In parallel with the phospholamban phosphorylation, the decay kinetics of global Ca2+ transients was slowed, accelerated, or unchanged, whereas spontaneous Ca2+ spark activity was hyperactive, depressed, or unchanged in dominant-negative, constitutively active, or wild-type CaMKII&dgr;C groups, respectively. When challenged by high extracellular Ca2+, both wild-type and constitutively active CaMKII&dgr;C protected the cells from store overload–induced Ca2+ release, manifested by a ≈60% suppression of Ca2+ waves (at 2 to 20 mmol/L extracellular Ca2+) in spite of an elevated sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ content, whereas dominant-negative CaMKII&dgr;C promoted Ca2+ wave production (at 20 mmol/L Ca2+) with significantly depleted sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+. Taken together, our data support the notion that CaMKII&dgr;C negatively regulates RyR2 activity and spontaneous sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ release, thereby affording a negative feedback that stabilizes local and global Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release in the heart.
Adaptivity and variational stabilization for convection-diffusion equations∗

In this paper we propose and analyze stable variational formulations for convection diffu- sion problems starting from concepts introduced by Sangalli. We derive efficient and reliable ap osteri- ori error estimators that are based on these formulations. The analysis of resulting adaptive solution concepts, when specialized to the setting suggested by Sangalli's work, reveals partly unexpected phe- nomena related to the specific nature of the norms induced by the variational formulation. Several remedies, based on other specifications, are explored and illustrated by numerical experiments.