Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hidden Markov Model Based Real-Time Motion Recognition and Following

In this paper, we present a comparison between four HMM-based real-time decoding algorithms for stylistic gait recognition and following. The approach is based on a probabilistic modelling of walking gestures recorded through motion capture. The algorithms are evaluated on their ability to recover the progression of the performed gestures over time in real-time, i.e. as the gestures are performed, and their robustness when the decoding is only performed on a subset of the model dimensions. The performance of studied algorithms are also evaluated in the context of a framework for "gait reconstruction", i.e. where the walking gestures recognised on lower body dimensions are used to synchronously regenerate the upper body dimensions (and vice-versa).
Anti-inflammatory Effect of Isaria sinclairii Glycosaminoglycan in an Adjuvant-treated Arthritis Rat Model

The anti-inflammatory effects of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) derived from Isaria sinclairii (IS) and of IS extracts were investigated in a complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA)-treated chronic arthritis rat model. Groups of rats were treated orally with 30 mg/kg one of the following: [1] saline control, extracts of [2] water-IS, [3] methanol-IS, [4] butanol-IS, [5] ethyl acetate-IS, or [6] Indomethacin® as the positive control for a period of two weeks. The anti-paw edema effects of the individual extracts were in the following order: water-IS ex. > methanol ex. > butanol ex. > ethyl acetate ex. The water/methanol extract from I. sinclairii remarkably inhibited UV-mediated upregulation of NF-κB activity in transfected HaCaT cells. GAG as a water-soluble alcohol precipitated fraction also produced a noticeable anti-edema effect. This GAG also inhibited the pro-inflammatory cytokine levels of prostaglandin E_2-stimulated lipopolysaccharide in LAW 264.7 cells, cytokine TNF-α production in splenocytes, and atherogenesis cytokine levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) production in HUVEC cells in a dose-dependent manner. In the histological analysis, the LV dorsal root ganglion, including the articular cartilage, and linked to the paw-treated IS GAG, was repaired against CFA-induced cartilage destruction. Combined treatment with Indomethacin® (5 mg/kg) and IS GAG (10 mg/kg) also more effectively inhibited CFA-induced paw edema at 3 hr, 24 hr, and 48 hr to levels comparable to the anti-inflammatory drug, indomethacin. Thus, the IS GAG described here holds great promise as an anti-inflammatory drug in the future.
FRASH: Exploiting storage class memory in hybrid file system for hierarchical storage

In this work, we develop a novel hybrid file system, FRASH, for storage-class memory and NAND Flash. Despite the promising physical characteristics of storage-class memory, its scale is an order of magnitude smaller than the current storage device scale. This fact makes it less than desirable for use as an independent storage device. We carefully analyze in-memory and on-disk file system objects in a log-structured file system, and exploit memory and storage aspects of the storage-class memory to overcome the drawbacks of the current log-structured file system. FRASH provides a hybrid view storage-class memory. It harbors an in-memory data structure as well as a on-disk structure. It provides nonvolatility to key data structures which have been maintained in-memory in a legacy log-structured file system. This approach greatly improves the mount latency and effectively resolves the robustness issue. By maintaining on-disk structure in storage-class memory, FRASH provides byte-addressability to the file system object and metadata for page, and subsequently greatly improves the I/O performance compared to the legacy log-structured approach. While storage-class memory offers byte granularity, it is still far slower than its DRAM counter part. We develop a copy-on-mount technique to overcome the access latency difference between main memory and storage-class memory. Our file system was able to reduce the mount time by 92% and file system I/O performance was increased by 16%.
Tracking Using CamShift Algorithm and Multiple Quantized Feature Spaces

The Continuously Adaptive Mean Shift Algorithm (CamShift) is an adaptation of the Mean Shift algorithm for object tracking that is intended as a step towards head and face tracking for a perceptual user interface. In this paper, we review the CamShift Algorithm and extend a default implementation to allow tracking in an arbitrary number and type of feature spaces.In order to compute the new probability that a pixel value belongs to the target model, we weight the multidimensional histogram with a simple monotonically decreasing kernel profile prior to histogram back-projection.We evaluate the effectiveness of this approach by comparing the results with a generic implementation of the Mean Shift algorithm in a quantized feature space of equivalent dimension.The aim if this paper is to examine the effectiveness of the CamShift algorithm as a general-purpose object tracking approach in the case where no assumptions have been made about the target to be tracked.
Poststroke fatigue and depression are related to mortality in young adults: a cohort study

Objectives To investigate the relationship between poststroke fatigue and depression and subsequent mortality in young ischaemic stroke patients in a population-based study. Design A prospective cohort study. Setting All surviving young ischaemic stroke patients living in Hordaland County. Participants Young ischaemic stroke patients aged 15–50 years at the time of the stroke were invited to a follow-up on an average 6 years after the index stroke. Psychosocial factors and risk factors were registered. Fatigue was self-assessed by the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). Depression was measured by Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). Intervention No intervention was performed. Primary and secondary outcome measure Mortality on follow-up. Results In total, 190 patients were included. The mean age on follow-up was 48 years and subsequent follow-up period was 12 years. Cox regression analysis showed that mortality was associated with FSS score (p=0.005) after adjusting for age (p=0.06) and sex (p=0.19). Cox regression analysis showed that mortality was associated with MADRS score (p=0.006) after adjusting for age (p=0.10) and sex (p=0.11). Conclusions Both fatigue and depression are associated with long-term mortality in young adults with ischaemic stroke. Depression may be linked to higher mortality because of psychosocial factors and unhealthy lifestyles whereas the link between fatigue and mortality is broader including connection to diabetes mellitus, myocardial infarction and psychosocial factors.
Invariant lighting hand posture classification

Hand posture classification is a key problem for many human computer interaction applications. However, this is not a simple problem. In this paper, we propose to decompose the hand posture classification problem into 2 steps. In the first step, we detect skin regions using a very fast algorithm of color segmentation based on thresholding technique. This segmentation is robust to lighting condition thank to a step of color normalization using neural network. In the second step, each skin region will be classified into one of hand posture class using Cascaded Adaboost technique. The contributions of this paper are: (i) By applying a step of color normalization, the posture classification rate is significantly improved under varying lighting condition; (ii) The cascaded Adaboost technique has been studied for the problem of face detection (2 classes). In this paper, it will be studied and evaluated in more detail in a problem of classification of hand postures (multi-classes).
Multi-Resolution Analysis of Dynamical Systems using Dynamic Mode Decomposition

We introduce the method of dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) for robustly separating complex systems into a hierarchy of multi-resolution time-scaled components. The method includes a methodology for background (low-rank) and foreground (sparse) separation of dynamical data. The method involves a technique used for characterizing nonlinear dynamical systems in an equation-free manner by decomposing the state of the system into low-rank terms whose Fourier components in time are known. DMD terms with Fourier frequencies near the origin (zero-modes) are interpreted as background (low-rank) portions of the given dynamics, and the terms with Fourier frequencies bounded away from the origin are their sparse counterparts. The DMD method is demonstrated on video content where a time-frequency analysis can be made of multiple time-scales in video.
The Intervals and Absences of Temporal Query

In our burgeoning world of ubiquitous sensors and affordable data storage, records of timestamped events are being produced across nearly every domain of personal and professional computing. This data ranges from government-funded medical databases, to the meticulously tabulated comings and goings of obsessive self-trackers. Across all domains, however, is the need to search these records for meaningful patterns of events. This paper reports on a two-part user study, as well as a series of early tests and interviews with clinical researchers, that informed the development of two temporal query interfaces: a basic, menu-based interface and an advanced, graphic-based interface. While the scope of temporal query is very broad, this work focuses on two particularly complex and critical facets of temporal event sequences: intervals (events with both a start time and an end time), and the absence of an event. We describe how uses encounter a common set of difficulties when expressing such queries, and propose solutions to help overcome them. Finally, we report on 2 case studies with epidemiologists at the US Army Pharmacovigilance Center, illustrating how both query interfaces were used to study patterns of drug use. Author Keywords
The Nature of Markets in the World Wide Web

Much has been said about the possibility that in the information age, ease of entry and global access will lead to market characteristics with few inefficiencies. While several arguments have been articulated on the nature of markets and electronic commerce, little is known about their characteristics and performance. We have studied the statistics in the number of visitors to sites of the World Wide Web by examining AOL usage logs covering 120,000 sites. We found out that, among all sites as well as for specific categories, the distribution of visitors per site follows a universal power law similar to that found by Pareto for income distributions. This implies that a small number of sites commands the traffic of a large segment of the Web population, a phenomenon reminiscent of winner-take-all markets. We have also developed a dynamic theory of site popularity that takes into account the stochastic nature of user decisions to visit given sites as well as the fact that newer sites are appearing at an ever increasing rate. The model accounts for the observed power law behavior and naturally provides the amplification factor responsible for the increased performance of the top performers.
Dynamic virtual network connectivity services to support C-RAN backhauling

Traditional distributed radio access networks (RANs) are evolving toward centralized architectures, with the aim of satisfying in a cost-effective manner the forecast traffic growth that future mobile networks will need to support. Specifically, the cloud RAN (C-RAN) architecture has shown that it can alleviate to some extent the everincreasing total cost of ownership in mobile networks. The current trend in C-RAN is to separate remote radio heads with radio frequency (RF) functions and baseband unit (BBU) gathering baseband processing. This functional split allows the RF modules to be kept close to the antennas while placing BBUs at centralized locations so they can be shared among different sites and even be virtualized. However, some issues still need to be addressed in future mobile networks, especially due to the dynamicity of services and the strict constraints imposed by the interfaces needed. In fact, connectivity reconfiguration for X2 and S1 backhaul interfaces needs to be provided as an all-or-nothing request to enable mobile resource reconfiguration in a geographical area. In view of this, in this paper we propose dynamic customer virtual network (CVN) reconfiguration to be supported in metro and core network segments. Such CVN requests must include quality of service constraints to ensure specific delay constraints, as well as bitrate guarantees to avoid service interruption. A mathematical formulation and heuristic algorithm are presented for the CVN reconfiguration problem, and exhaustive simulation results study its performance in realistic scenarios.
The 19 kDa Mycobacterium tuberculosis Lipoprotein (LpqH) Induces Macrophage Apoptosis through Extrinsic and Intrinsic Pathways: A Role for the Mitochondrial Apoptosis-Inducing Factor

We describe the association of caspase-dependent and caspase-independent mechanisms in macrophage apoptosis induced by LpqH, a 19 kDa Mycobacterium tuberculosis lipoprotein. LpqH triggered TLR2 activation, with upregulation of death receptors and ligands, which was followed by a death receptor signaling cascade with activation of initiator caspase 8 and executioner caspase 3. In this caspase-mediated phase, mitochondrial factors were involved in loss of mitochondrial transmembrane potential (ΔΨm), release of cytochrome c, and caspase 9 activation. Interestingly, a caspase-independent pathway was also identified; by immunoblot, the mitochondrial apoptosis inducing factor (AIF) was demonstrated in nuclei and cytosol of LpqH-treated macrophages. Confocal microscopy revealed translocation of AIF to the nuclei of the majority of apoptotic cells. These findings emphasize the complex and redundant nature of the macrophage death response to mycobacteria.
Increase in preterm births in Brazil: review of population-based studies.

OBJECTIVE The greatest cause of infant mortality in Brazil is perinatal conditions, mostly associated with preterm delivery. The objective of the study was to evaluate the evolution of preterm delivery rates in Brazil. METHODS A review was conducted using the Medline and Lilacs databases, including published studies in periodicals, thesis and dissertations since 1950. Exclusion criteria were: studies related to clinical trials and those with complications at gestation and preterm delivery and care. Inclusion criteria were: population-based studies on prevalence of preterm delivery in Brazil, with representative sample of the studied population, and using primary data. Out of 71 studies found, analysis was carried out on 12. RESULTS The prevalence of preterm delivery found ranged from 3.4% to 15.0% in the Southern and Southeastern regions between 1978 and 2004, with a rising trend from the 1990s onwards. Studies in the Northeastern region between 1984 and 1998 found prevalences of preterm delivery ranging from 3.8% to 10.2%, also with a rising trend. CONCLUSIONS Data from the national live birth information system do not corroborate these trends. Rather, they show differences between the preterm rates given by this system and the rates measured in the studies included in this review. Because of the important role of preterm birth in relation to infant mortality in Brazil, it is important to identify the cause of these increases and to plan interventions that can diminish their occurrence.
Characterization of the energy spectral density for a potash mine

Monitoring seismic activity in mines, produced by high stress faults in the vicinity of mining operations, is an important issue for mine planning. A seismic event produces a short-time duration acoustic pressure wave that travels through the rock. This low-energy seismic activity in mines is typically referred to as micro seismic events. The location of a micro seismic event is very important for mine planning since these events indicate unstable areas. Their location can be estimated using the pressure wave signals recorded at a set of sensors distributed throughout the mine. One method of localization searches over a grid of hypothesized source locations to find the one that best explains the observed measurements. The expression for the variance of error of this method depends upon the energy spectral density of the sensor signal. It is, therefore, important to have an estimate of the actual energy spectral density from sensor signals taken in the mine. This paper presents the results of the characterization of the energy spectral density using one year of data, which is approximately 2000 micro seismic events, taken from a potash mine near Saskatoon. Only signals which are closer than 2000 ft to the event source are analyzed
The PLOS ONE Synthetic Biology Collection: Six Years and Counting

Since it was launched in 2006, PLOS ONE has published over fifty articles illustrating the many facets of the emerging field of synthetic biology. This article reviews these publications by organizing them into broad categories focused on DNA synthesis and assembly techniques, the development of libraries of biological parts, the use of synthetic biology in protein engineering applications, and the engineering of gene regulatory networks and metabolic pathways. Finally, we review articles that describe enabling technologies such as software and modeling, along with new instrumentation. In order to increase the visibility of this body of work, the papers have been assembled into the PLOS ONE Synthetic Biology Collection (www.ploscollections.org/synbio). Many of the innovative features of the PLOS ONE web site will help make this collection a resource that will support a lively dialogue between readers and authors of PLOS ONE synthetic biology papers. The content of the collection will be updated periodically by including relevant articles as they are published by the journal. Thus, we hope that this collection will continue to meet the publishing needs of the synthetic biology community.
Bias decreases in proportion to the number of annotators

The eect of the individual biases of corpus annotators on the value of reliability coecien ts is inversely proportional to the number of annotators (less one). As the number of annotators increases, the eect of their individual preferences becomes more similar to random noise. This suggests using multiple annotators as a means to control individual biases.
Metal–insulator–semiconductor electrostatics of carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotube metal–insulator–semiconductor capacitors are examined theoretically. For the densely packed array of nanotubes on a planar insulator, the capacitance per tube is reduced due to the screening of the charge on the gate plane by the neighboring nanotubes. In contrast to the silicon metal–oxide–semiconductor capacitors, the calculated C–V curves reflect the local peaks of the one-dimensional density-of-states in the nanotube. This effect provides the possibility to use C–V measurements to diagnose the electronic structures of nanotubes. Results of the electrostatic calculations can also be applied to estimate the upper-limit on-current of carbon nanotube field-effect transistors.
How Does the Monetary Model of Exchange Rate Determination Look When It Really Works

This paper shows that the Mexican experience from 1945 to 2002 is, like the German hyperinflation period, a unique monetary ``natural experiment,'' where fundamental relationships, like money demand, PPP and the monetary model of exchange rate determination can be analyzed with unparalleled clarity. They hold for the whole period and nonoverlapping subsamples. The long span and a conspicuous structural change might be useful in explaining why these theoretical relationships are hard to prove elsewhere. A fascinating switch in the weak exogeneity properties helps to clarify simultaneously the controversies surrounding the exchange rate forecastability and the absence of money in models of inflation
Policies to Rebalance the Global Economy After the Financial Crisis

This paper considers some of the main risks and opportunities currently facing the world economy. Against a baseline forecast of October 2009, it first discusses a number of policy mistakes or policy failures that could lead to even worse outcomes than currently envisaged. It then describes the policy choices that would help to support global demand on a more sustainable basis while rebalancing its regional elements and therefore current accounts. Using the United States as an example, the paper also provides estimates of the long-term damage from protracted excessive fiscal deficits, and of the benefits from significant fiscal consolidation.
Professional Development: Planning and Design

Two leaders in education reform -- NSTA and NSELA -- join forces to highlight best practices in the effort to get better at teaching better science. For the thoughtful teacher, these are not "cookbooks, " but worthy companions on the road to greater classroom effectiveness. There's got to be more to professional development than in-service workshops. This thoughtful book paves the way to change. It shows the circumstances under which professional development has the most impact on student learning, reviews programs that work, and offers practical ideas about how professional development can sustain science education reform. Among the topics: -- Changing professional development to help with standards-based reform -- Building a professional development program -- Using achievement data and assessment tools to modify teaching practices
The influence of advertising on compulsive buying – The role of persuasion knowledge

Background and aims: The growing concern over compulsive buying (CB) among consumers has led to vast amount of research examining the antecedents of this maladaptive behaviour. The focus of previous research was, however, mainly on examining the internal, psychological factors contributing to CB. The current research, on the other hand, sheds light on one of the external triggers which can possibly stimulate CB, namely advertising. Methods: An online survey has been conducted to identify the attitudes and scepticism towards advertising as well as ad avoidance and persuasion knowledge among a sample of 582 Belgian consumers. Furthermore, all participants were screened with regard to compulsive buying tendencies. Results: This research provides evidence that positive attitudes towards advertising can lead to CB. An important factor in this relation is persuasion knowledge. Conclusions: The study results lead to the conclusion that people higher in persuasion knowledge dispose less positive attitudes towards advertising which can subsequently prevent them from engaging in CB. Moreover high scores on scepticism towards advertising and ad avoidance among Belgian consumers in our sample point to a need for advertisers to modify their practices in order to gain more trust from consumers. This study also shows that advertising in particular attracts and seems to affect an already disadvantaged group of people – namely compulsive buyers.
ALTERNATIVE TEMPORAL CROSS-SECTION SPECIFICATIONS OF THE DEMAND FOR DEMAND DEPOSITS

This paper examines a broad set of alternative temporal cross- section specifications of the demand for money as a means of estimating the degree of substitution between demand deposits and other liquid assets. Despite differences in data bases, model specifications and estimation techniques, the results are surprisingly robust; suggesting that the own rate of return on demand deposits is an important argument of the demand function ; that other liquid assets are relatively weak substitutes for demand deposits; and that the income elasticity of demand deposits is less than unity. Reference: The Journal of Finance, Vol. XXIX No. 3, June 1974.