Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Joint Learning of Siamese CNNs and Temporally Constrained Metrics for Tracklet Association

In this paper, we study the challenging problem of multi-object tracking in a complex scene captured by a single camera. Different from the existing tracklet association-based tracking methods, we propose a novel and efficient way to obtain discriminative appearance-based tracklet affinity models. Our proposed method jointly learns the convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and temporally constrained metrics. In our method, a Siamese convolutional neural network (CNN) is first pre-trained on the auxiliary data. Then the Siamese CNN and temporally constrained metrics are jointly learned online to construct the appearance-based tracklet affinity models. The proposed method can jointly learn the hierarchical deep features and temporally constrained segment-wise metrics under a unified framework. For reliable association between tracklets, a novel loss function incorporating temporally constrained multi-task learning mechanism is proposed. By employing the proposed method, tracklet association can be accomplished even in challenging situations. Moreover, a new dataset with 40 fully annotated sequences is created to facilitate the tracking evaluation. Experimental results on five public datasets and the new large-scale dataset show that our method outperforms several state-of-the-art approaches in multi-object tracking.
Robust face detection and tracking under natural conditions

This paper proposes a new method to find face in real-time videos by combining detection and tracking. Basically, the method contains two complementary modules: detection by Viola Jones method and tracking by correlation filters. Detection in current frame is independent to previous frames, but the performance may downgrade under harsh conditions in terms of lighting, rotation, occlusion and others. Contrarily, the filter tracker is capable of handling such harsh factors at a high speed, but its drawback is that the tracker heavily relies on previous frames and often drifts to the background. The proposed method combines merits of the aforementioned two techniques and could achieve promising face finding performance. In addition, this paper introduces a generalized correlation filter named Generalized Unconstrained Filters (GUF), which works well for online tracking.
A FAMILY OF QUANTUM PROJECTIVE SPACES AND RELATED Q-HYPERGEOMETRIC ORTHOGONAL POLYNOMIALS

We define a one-parameter family of two-sided coideals in U_q(gl(n)) and study the corresponding algebras of infinitesimally right invariant functions on the quantum unitary group U_q(n). The Plancherel decomposition of these algebras with respect to the natural transitive U_q(n)-action is shown to be the same as in the case of a complex projective space. By computing the radial part of a suitable Casimir operator, we identify the zonal spherical functions (i.e. infinitesimally bi-invariant matrix coefficients of finite-dimensional irreducible representations) as Askey-Wilson polynomials containing two continuous and one discrete parameter. In certain limit cases, the zonal spherical functions are expressed as big and little q-Jacobi polynomials depending on one discrete parameter.
Strong Coresets for Hard and Soft Bregman Clustering with Applications to Exponential Family Mixtures

Coresets are efficient representations of data sets such that models trained on the coreset are provably competitive with models trained on the original data set. As such, they have been successfully used to scale up clustering models such as K-Means and Gaussian mixture models to massive data sets. However, until now, the algorithms and the corresponding theory were usually specific to each clustering problem. We propose a single, practical algorithm to construct strong coresets for a large class of hard and soft clustering problems based on Bregman divergences. This class includes hard clustering with popular distortion measures such as the Squared Euclidean distance, the Mahalanobis distance, KL-divergence and Itakura-Saito distance. The corresponding soft clustering problems are directly related to popular mixture models due to a dual relationship between Bregman divergences and Exponential family distributions. Our theoretical results further imply a randomized polynomial-time approximation scheme for hard clustering. We demonstrate the practicality of the proposed algorithm in an empirical evaluation.
Heat Transfer Enhancement in Semicircle Corrugated Channel : Effect of Geometrical Parameters and Nanofluid

Article history: Received 30 October 2018 Received in revised form 28 November 2018 Accepted 1 December 2018 Available online 9 January 2019 Numerical investigations of forced turbulent convective flow and heat transfer in a symmetry semicircle-corrugated channel with SiO2-water nanofluid as the working fluid are carried out in this investigation. The algebraic continuity, momentum, and energy equations were solved by means of a finite volume method (FVM). The top and bottom walls of the corrugated channel are heated at constant heat flux boundary conditions. The effects of geometrical parameters including corrugation height and pitch on the thermal and hydraulic characteristics are studied. The corrugated channel with four different corrugated heights of 0.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 mm with a different corrugation longitudinal pitch of 15.0, 25.0 and 35.0 mm are tested. This investigation covers Reynolds number and nanoparticles volume fraction in the range of 10000– 30,000 and 0-8%, respectively. The results show that the average Nusselt number enhances with increase in Reynolds number and with the height of the corrugated channel, but this enhancement accompanied by increases in pressure drop. In addition, as the corrugation pitch decreases, the average Nusselt number increases and the pressure drop decreases. The numerical results indicate that the corrugated height of 2.5 mm with a corrugation longitudinal pitch of 15.0 mm are the optimum parameters and have shown significant improvement in heat transfer.
THE EFFECT OF WEBSITE DESIGN QUALITY ON THE CUSTOMER ’ S TRUST AND REPURCHASE INTENTION FROM COSMETIC WEBSITES

Considering the ever-increasing variety and competition market of cosmetic brands, directors of these companies need a place with proper facilities for advertising and providing an appropriate position; websites play a significant role for approaching this goal. This paper intends to study the effect of cosmetic website design quality on the customers’ trust and repurchase intention. In terms of goal, this is an applied research and regarding data collection, it is a descriptive and correlational survey. The sample of this study includes students of Allameh Tabatabaei University, who have at least visited a cosmetic website once. 374 samples are collected by appropriate stratified sampling. Data is collected by questionnaire and finally the hypotheses are studied by SEM structural equations and LISREL & SPSS software. The research findings show that the website design quality had a direct and meaningful effect on perceived quality of information, and enjoying the website. It also reveals that it has indirect and meaningful effect on customers’ e-satisfaction & e-trust and repurchases intention.
Analyzing Online Car Reviews Using Text Mining

Consumer reviews on the web have rapidly become an important information source through which consumers can share their experiences and opinions about products and services. It is a form of text-based communication that provides new possibilities and opens vast perspectives in terms of marketing. Reading consumer reviews gives marketers an opportunity to eavesdrop on their own consumers. This paper examines consumer reviews of three different competitive automobile brands and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of each vehicle using text mining and association rule methods. The data were collected from an online resource for automotive information, Edmunds.com, with a scraping tool “ParseHub” and then processed in R software for statistical computing and graphics. The paper provides detailed insights into the superior and problematic sides of each brand and into consumers’ perceptions of automobiles and highlights differences between satisfied and unsatisfied groups regarding the best and worst features of the brands.
Closed-loop speed control of bridgeless PFC buck- boost Converter-Fed BLDC motor drive

This paper presents performance analysis closed loop speed control of bridgeless (BL) power factor corrected (PFC) buck-boost converter fed brushless direct current (BLDC) motor. A wide range of torque and speed control of the electric motor is required in most applications. The use of brushless direct current motor (BLDC) in household applications is becoming very common due to high efficiency, fast response, low inertia and low maintenance. Conventional schemes use diode bridge rectifier at the front end but the proposed single stage PFC converter not only eliminates the conventional system of bridge rectifier but also increases power quality at ac mains. Hence PFC BL buck-boost converter is operated in discontinuous inductor current mode (DICM). The performance of the proposed drive is evaluated for a wide range of speed by carrying out simulation in PSIM environment. Index terms Bridgeless (BL), buck-boost converter, Brushless direct current (BLDC), discontinuous inductor current mode (DCM), power factor converters (PFC)
A five-level multilevel topology utilizing multicarrier modulation technique

This paper presents a new topology for cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter utilizing multicarrier modulation technique. The new five-level topology utilizes a capacitive divider network consisting of two capacitors for producing output voltage levels. The developed circuit has reduced number of switches and dc sources compared to conventional five level inverters. Five main power switches, a single additional diode apart from antiparallel diodes, two capacitors and a dc supply constitute a single five level unit. Simulations as well as experimental results are verified for the new topology utilising multicarrier modulation technique with reduced harmonic distortions in the output.
A Wideband Push-Push VCO Using Common Phase shifter

Microwave and millimeter wave oscillators are extensively required for the modern wireless systems. However, there are still a lot of practical issues such as phase noise, cost reduction, high stability, output power in high frequency bands. A push-push oscillator is very effective for these solutions [1]-[4]. For a wideband VCO, a feedback type oscillator is much more suitable as compared with a negative resistance type one because the electrical length of the feedback loop can be changed easily and widely. The positive feedback push-push oscillators using the double-sided MIC technology [5] have been proposed by the authors [6],[7]. Moreover, a push-push VCO using the double-sided MIC technology was also proposed by the authors[8]. In this paper, a novel push-push VCO using one phase shifter with varactor diodes in the common part of the positive feed back loops is proposed. The structure is very simple and compact because the circuit need only one phase shifter embedded on the common part of the feedback loops. The oscillation frequency is widely tuned by the varactor diodes. The developed push-push VCO provides a wide tuning range of 1.35 GHz (7.6 %) and the phase noise of -103.7 dBc/Hz at the offset frequency of 1 MHz in 18 GHz band.
Pain Control on Demand Based on Pulsed Radio-Frequency Stimulation of the Dorsal Root Ganglion Using a Batteryless Implantable CMOS SoC

This paper presents the implementation of a batteryless CMOS SoC with low voltage pulsed radio-frequency (PRF) stimulation. This implantable SoC uses 402 MHz command signals following the medical implanted communication system (MICS) standard and a low frequency (1 MHz) for RF power transmission. A body floating type rectifier achieves 84% voltage conversion ratio. A bi-phasic pulse train of 1.4 V and 500 kHz is delivered by a PRF driver circuit. The PRF parameters include pulse duration, pulse frequency and repetition rate, which are controllable via 402 MHz RF receiver. The minimal required 3 V RF Vin and 2.2 V VDDr is achieved at 18 mm gap. The SoC chip is fabricated in a 0.35 μm CMOS process and mounted on a PCB with a flexible spiral antenna. The packaged PRF SoC was implanted into rats for the animal study. Von Frey was applied to test the mechanical allodynia in a blinded manner. This work has successfully demonstrated that implanted CMOS SoC stimulating DRG with 1.4 V, 500 kHz PRF could significantly reduce spinal nerve ligation (SNL) induced mechanical allodynia for 3-7 days.
A Proposed Compatibilizer Materials on Banana Skin Powder ( BSP ) Composites Using Different Temperature

Article history: Received 10 January 2018 Received in revised form 20 February 2018 Accepted 27 February 2018 Available online 24 March 2018 In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in materials treatment in order to improve the properties. In this study, the effect of recycled acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBRr) loadings and compatibilization of polypropylene maleic anhydride (PPMAH) in the polypropylene (PP) / recycled acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBRr) / banana skin powder (BSP) composites was analysed. The proposed material involved a few steps such as the Polypropylene (PP) was melt at optimum temperature which is 230 o C. Next, the composites for both uncompatibilized and polypropylene maleic anhydride (PPMAH) compatibilized were mixed using heated two roll mill at specific temperature (180°C) with six different NBRr loadings rate. A few analysis techniques such as tensile properties and Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM) were conducted. The SEM micrographs show good attachment and better distribution of filler in the compatibilizer composite.
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Increasing Ang1/Tie2 expression by simvastatin treatment induces vascular stabilization and neuroblast migration after stroke

In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the Angiopoietin 1 (Ang1)/Tie2 pathway mediates simvastatin‐induced vascular integrity and migration of neuroblasts after stroke. Rats were subjected to 2 hrs of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo) and treated, starting 1 day after stroke with or without simvastatin (1 mg/kg, daily) for 7 days. Simvastatin treatment significantly decreased blood–brain barrier (BBB) leakage and concomitantly, increased Ang1, Tie2 and Occludin expression in the ischaemic border (IBZ) compared to the MCAo control group. Simvastatin also significantly increased doublecortin (DCX, a marker of migrating neuroblasts) expression in the IBZ compared to control MCAo rats. DCX was highly expressed around vessels. To further investigate the signalling pathway of simvastatin‐induced vascular stabilization and angiogenesis, rat brain microvascular endothelial cell (RBMEC) culture was employed. The data show that simvastatin treatment of RBMEC increased Ang1 and Tie2 gene and protein expression and promoted phosphorylated‐Tie2 activity. Simvastatin significantly increased endothelial capillary tube formation, an index of angiogenesis, compared to non‐treated control. Inhibition of Ang1 or knockdown of Tie2 gene expression in endothelial cells significantly attenuated simvastatin‐induced capillary tube formation. In addition, simvastatin significantly increased subventricular zone (SVZ) explant cell migration compared to non‐treatment control. Inhibition of Ang1 significantly attenuated simvastatin‐induced SVZ cell migration. Simvastatin treatment of stroke increases Ang1/Tie2 expression and thereby reduces BBB leakage and promotes vascular stabilization. Ang1/Tie2 expression induced by simvastatin treatment promotes neuroblast micro‐vascular coupling after stroke.
Sparse Structure-Based Channel Estimation for Uplink SCMA System

To fully utilize the performance gain of sparse code multiple access (SCMA) system, the channel state information of multiusers must be obtained at the base station. However, conventional channel estimation approach causes significant training overhead as the number of active users becomes large. In this paper, we propose a channel estimation scheme for the uplink SCMA system to reduce the training overhead, which is based on the unstructured channel estimator (UCE). However, it is ineffective in terms of the resource usage to apply the UCE scheme to the SCMA system directly since the data detection requires only channel information on the nonzero subcarriers of the SCMA codeword. Thus, we introduce a sparse pilot structure where the location of nonzero pilot symbols correspond to the location of nonzero symbols in the SCMA codeword and provide an optimal pilot allocation scheme for the sparse pilot structure, which can achieve the mean square error lower bound. In addition, we consider the codebook reuse scenario to support more users with the existing SCMA codebooks. While the codebook reuse can help realize the massive connectivity, it has a problem that interference on each resource grows irregularly, which in turn leads to overwhelming training overhead. To solve this problem, we propose a channel estimation approach to reduce interference per subcarrier uniformly by the weight-regularization (WR) algorithm, and apply the optimal pilot allocation and least squares algorithm. The puncturing channel information by the WR algorithm can be obtained by a minimum mean square error (MMSE) interpolator or a combined interpolator. Analytical results and simulations shows effectiveness of the proposed channel estimators.
A P ] 2 3 A ug 2 01 1 ON POINTWISE DECAY OF LINEAR WAVES ON A SCHWARZSCHILD BLACK HOLE

We prove sharp pointwise t−3 decay for scalar linear perturbations of a Schwarzschild black hole without symmetry assumptions on the data. We also consider electromagnetic and gravitational perturbations for which we obtain decay rates t−4, and t−6, respectively. We proceed by decomposition into angular momentum l and summation of the decay estimates on the Regge-Wheeler equation for fixed l. We encounter a dichotomy: the decay law in time is entirely determined by the asymptotic behavior of the Regge-Wheeler potential in the far field, whereas the growth of the constants in l is dictated by the behavior of the Regge-Wheeler potential in a small neighborhood around its maximum. In other words, the tails are controlled by small energies, whereas the number of angular derivatives needed on the data is determined by energies close to the top of the Regge-Wheeler potential. This dichotomy corresponds to the well-known principle that for initial times the decay reflects the presence of complex resonances generated by the potential maximum, whereas for later times the tails are determined by the far field. However, we do not invoke complex resonances at all, but rely instead on semiclassical Sigal-Soffer type propagation estimates based on a Mourre bound near the top energy.
In Vivo Neural Recording and Electrochemical Performance of Microelectrode Arrays Modified by Rough-Surfaced AuPt Alloy Nanoparticles with Nanoporosity

In order to reduce the impedance and improve in vivo neural recording performance of our developed Michigan type silicon electrodes, rough-surfaced AuPt alloy nanoparticles with nanoporosity were deposited on gold microelectrode sites through electro-co-deposition of Au-Pt-Cu alloy nanoparticles, followed by chemical dealloying Cu. The AuPt alloy nanoparticles modified gold microelectrode sites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and in vivo neural recording experiment. The SEM images showed that the prepared AuPt alloy nanoparticles exhibited cauliflower-like shapes and possessed very rough surfaces with many different sizes of pores. Average impedance of rough-surfaced AuPt alloy nanoparticles modified sites was 0.23 MΩ at 1 kHz, which was only 4.7% of that of bare gold microelectrode sites (4.9 MΩ), and corresponding in vitro background noise in the range of 1 Hz to 7500 Hz decreased to 7.5 μVrms from 34.1 μVrms at bare gold microelectrode sites. Spontaneous spike signal recording was used to evaluate in vivo neural recording performance of modified microelectrode sites, and results showed that rough-surfaced AuPt alloy nanoparticles modified microelectrode sites exhibited higher average spike signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 4.8 in lateral globus pallidus (GPe) due to lower background noise compared to control microelectrodes. Electro-co-deposition of Au-Pt-Cu alloy nanoparticles combined with chemical dealloying Cu was a convenient way for increasing the effective surface area of microelectrode sites, which could reduce electrode impedance and improve the quality of in vivo spike signal recording.
Care Trajectories of Veterans in the 12 Months After Hospitalization for Acute Ischemic Stroke

Background—Recovery after a stroke varies greatly between individuals and is reflected by wide variation in the use of institutional and home care services. This study sought to classify veterans according to their care trajectories in the 12 months after hospitalization for ischemic stroke. Methods and Results—The sample consisted of 3811 veterans hospitalized for ischemic stroke in Veterans Health Administration facilities in 2007. Three outcomes—nursing home care, home care, and mortality—were modeled jointly >12 months using latent class growth analysis. Data on Veterans’ care use and cost came from the Veterans Administration and Medicare. Covariates included stroke severity (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale), functional status (functional independence measure score), age, marital status, chronic conditions, and prestroke ambulation. Five care trajectories were identified: 49% of Veterans had Rapid Recovery with little or no use of care; 15% had a Steady Recovery with initially high nursing home or home care that tapered off; 9% had Long-Term Home Care; 13% had Long-Term Nursing Home Care; and 14% had an Unstable trajectory with multiple transitions between long-term and acute care settings. Care use was greatest for individuals with more severe strokes, lower functioning at hospital discharge, and older age. Average annual costs were highest for individuals with the Long-Term Nursing Home trajectory ($63 082), closely followed by individuals with the Unstable trajectory ($58 720). Individual with the Rapid Recovery trajectory had the lowest costs ($9271). Conclusions—Care trajectories after stroke were associated with stroke severity and functional dependency and they had a dramatic impact on subsequent costs.