Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Indexing text events in digital video databases

Like shot changes, the presence of text in digital video is an important event that can be used to index digital video and provide extremely useful semantic information about the scene content. The special characteristics of digital video compared to document images both require and allow new robust approaches to recognition of text in video. We discuss the characteristics and special challenges of text in video and present a strategy of detecting, localizing, and segmenting text from video data for the text indexing problem. Preliminary results from our approach are presented.
The Perivascular Phagocyte of the Mouse Pineal Gland: an Antigen‐Presenting Cell

The perivascular space of the rat pineal gland is known to contain phagocytic cells that are immunoreactive for leukocyte antigens, and thus they appear to belong to the macrophage/microglial cell line. These cells also contain MHC class II proteins. We investigated this cell type in the pineal gland of mice. Actively phagocytosing cells with a prominent lysosomal system were found in the pericapillary spaces of the mouse pineal gland following intravenous injection of horseradish peroxidase. The cells also exhibited strong acid phosphatase activity. Perivascular cells were immunopositive for MHC class II protein and for CD68, a marker of monocytes/phagocytes. This study verifies that perivascular phagocytes with antigen‐presenting properties are present in the mouse pineal gland.
On the assessment of MIDA method for mid-rise steel structures with non-symmetrical plan

Determination of nonlinear dynamic behavior of structures has always been one of the main goals for both structural and earthquake engineers. One of the newest methods for analyzing seismic behavior of structures is Modal Incremental Dynamic Analysis (MIDA). In fact, this method is an alternative to the Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) which is a difficult and time-consuming method. Despite the MIDA's approximate results, advantages such as adequate accuracy, high speed, and low cost has made this method an efficient and appropriate approach. In all previous studies, the proposed models have had a regularized plan, hence, all the analyses have been carried out on a frame. In this study, the MIDA analysis is developed in an unsymmetric-plan type building by considering three structures with 4, 7, and 10 stories having irregularity in plan and thereafter, the accuracy of work has been examined. In this study, by a simplification, instead of considering an unconventional plan, we used a rectangular plan with an eccentricity of 15% between the center of mass and the center of rigidity. Comparing the results of this study with the IDA method proves the high level of accuracy of this method in assessing seismic demands.
Trade-Off between spectral efficiency and energy efficiency in multi-cell uplink networks

In this paper, we investigate the effect of user scheduling and transmit power control on trade-off between spectral efficiency and energy efficiency in multi-cell uplink networks. We assume that each user adaptively controls the transmit power according to its generating interference to other cell base stations (BSs) and each BS schedules the user having the largest effective channel gain among users in a cell. The users transmit data with the peak power, Pmax, if the generating interference to other cell BSs is smaller than a particular threshold, With the joint interference-aware power control (IAPC) and user scheduling, the trade-off between spectral efficiency and energy efficiency becomes significantly improved as the number of users in each cell increased, compared with the conventional maximum signal-to-noise ratio (maxSNR) user scheduling and minimum interference-to-noise ratio (minINR) user scheduling. In addition, the power consumption becomes significantly reduced with the IAPC and user scheduling for a given spectral efficiency.
Training and burn care in rural India

Burn care is a huge challenge in India, having the highest female mortality globally due to flame burns. Burns can happen anywhere, but are more common in the rural region, affecting the poor. Most common cause is flame burns, the culprit being kerosene and flammable flowing garments worn by the women. The infrastructure of healthcare network is good but there is a severe resource crunch. In order to bring a positive change, there will have to be more trained personnel willing to work in the rural areas. Strategies for prevention and training of burn team are discussed along with suggestions on making the career package attractive and satisfying. This will positively translate into improved outcomes in the burns managed in the rural region and quick transfer to appropriate facility for those requiring specialised attention.
Age-variation face recognition based on bayes inference

Studies have discovered that face recognition will benefit from age information. However, since the age estimation is unstable in practice, it is still an open question how to improve face recognition using age estimation algorithms. This paper presents to improve the performance of face recognition by automatic age estimation. The main contribution is a new age-variational face recognition algorithm based on Bayesian framework (FRAB). By introducing the age estimation result as a prior, the recognition problem is divided into several age-specific sub-problems. As a result, the proposed algorithm leads to two algorithms according to how the age is given. The first one is FRAB-AE, which introduces age estimation result as the age prior. The second one is FRAB-GT, which considers that the ground truth of age information is given. Experimental results are conducted on FG-NET dataset to evaluate the performance of the proposed framework. It shows that the proposed algorithms is able to make use of age priors to improve the face recognition.
The Efficacy of Red Flags in Predicting the SEC's Targets: An Artificial Neural Networks Approach

This paper illustrates the application of artificial neural networks (ANN) to test the ability of selected SAS 53 red flags in predicting the targets of the SEC investigations. ANN models classify the membership in target (investigated) versus control (non-investigated) firms with an average accuracy of 81%. These results confirm the value of red flags ,i.e., financial ratios available from trial balance in conjunction with non-financial red flags such as the turnover of CEO,CFO, and auditors do have predictive value.
Developing a continuous flow-square wave voltammetry method for determination of atrazine in soil solutions using the hanging mercury drop electrode

This work describes the development of a Continuous Flow-Square Wave Voltammetry method for determination of atrazine using the hanging mercury drop electrode. The best signal to noise ratio was obtained at the square wave frequency of 350 Hz and flow rate of 0.47 mL min-1. Under these conditions, the analytical curve obtained in 0.010 mol L-1 CaCl2 soil extracts in presence of 40 mmol L-1 BR buffer and 0.25 mol L-1 NaNO3 was linear for atrazine concentrations between 0.10 and 2.0 µg mL-1, with detection and quantification limits of 0.030 and 0.10 µg mL-1, respectively. The proposed method increased the analytical throughput in comparison with the batch methodology, allowing a sampling frequency of 72 h-1 to be accomplished. Besides, the sample consumption is significantly reduced, and only 341 µL are necessary for each analysis. The results obtained were similar to the ones obtained by HPLC, but the proposed method is faster and does not use organic solvents.
Cardioprotective Effect of Marine Astaxanthin on Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity in Normal Rats

Background: Doxorubicin (DOX) is an effective antineoplastic drug indicated to treat many cancerous diseases but its clinical usefulness is limited by many side effects. The main and the most serious one is DOX induced cardiotoxicity. Many strategies have been tried to minimize this side effect such as addition of cardioprotective agent to DOX treatment protocols. Aims: The aim of this work was directed to investigate whether marine astaxanthin (ATX), a xanthophyll carotenoid pigment with potent antioxidant effect, could protect heart against the cardiotoxicity induced by DOX. Methodology: Forty Male Wister rats were divided into four equal groups and treated for one week as follow: Group I rats were treated with normal saline (2 ml/kg, x7, i.p.) and considered a control group. Group II rats were treated with ATX (40 mg/kg, x7, i.p.). Group III rats were treated with normal saline (2 ml/kg, x7, i.p.) and a single dose of DOX (20 mg/kg, i.p.) at day 7. Finally, group IV rats were treated with ATX (40 mg/kg, x7, i.p) and with a single dose of DOX (20 mg/kg, i.p.) at day 7. After 24 and 48 hrs of treatment, rats were anesthetized and prepared for collection of blood samples and heart isolation. The cardioprotective effect of ATX against DOX induced cardiotoxicity were evaluated by measurement of the serum level of cardiac enzymes CPK by colorimetric assay and CK-MB by Eliza. Also the levels of serum total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were measured colorimetrically. In addition, the Malondialdehyde (MDA), reduced glutathione, glutathione peroxidase (GPx) levels and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were determined in heart tissues homogenate by colorimetric method. In addition, Heart sample were taken for histopathology studies. Results: The Addition of ATX to DOX significantly (p<0.05) decreased the serum level of cardiac enzymes (CPK, CK-MB) and increased the serum total antioxidant capacity in compare with these levels in sera of rats treated with DOX only. This addition also significantly decreased the level of malondialdehyde and increased the reduced glutathione and glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase significantly in the heart tissues homogenate in compare to corresponding levels in rats treated with DOX alone. Histopathological investigation of cardiac tissues confirmed the biochemical studies, where addition of ATX to DOX treatment protocol showed that the fragmentation of the muscle fiber revealed normal with central vesicular nuclei and prevented a marked disruption of normal cardiac architecture which resulted from DOX treatment. Conclusion: Marine astaxanthin provides excellent cardioprotective effect against doxorubicin induced cardiotoxicity in rats.
A prospective latent analysis study of Axis I psychiatric co-morbidity of DSM-IV major depressive disorder

Background We tested the degree to which longitudinal observations fit two hypotheses of psychiatric co-morbidity in DSM-IV major depressive disorder (MDD) among adult patients: (1) Axis I co-morbidity is dependent on major depressive episode (MDE) course, and (2) Axis I co-morbidity is independent of MDE course. Method In the Vantaa Depression Study (VDS), 269 psychiatric secondary-care patients with a DSM-IV MDD were evaluated with the Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN) at intake and at 6 and 18 months. Three evaluations of co-morbidity were available for 193 out of 259 living patients (75%). A latent curve model (LCM) was used to examine individual-level changes in depressive and anxiety symptoms across time. Outcome of MDD was modeled in terms of categorical DSM-IV diagnosis and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) scores, and co-morbidity in terms of categorical DSM-IV anxiety and alcohol use disorder (AUD) diagnoses and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) scores. Results Depression and anxiety correlated cross-sectionally at baseline. Longitudinally, changes in depression and anxiety correlated in both the 0–6 and 6–18 months time windows. Higher baseline depression raised the likelihood of an AUD at 6 months, and patients with more depressive symptoms in the 0–6 months time window were more likely to have had an AUD at 6 months, which further linked to less improvement in depression symptoms in the 6–18 months time window. Conclusions Longitudinal and individual-level courses of both internalizing and externalizing disorders in adult patients with MDD seem to be dependent, albeit to differing degrees, on the course of depressive symptoms.
Multicenter assessment of HIV‐1 RNA quantitation in semen in the CREAThE network

Detection of HIV‐1 RNA in semen is used commonly to determine the safety of semen processing procedures before assisted reproductive technology (ART). Using two panels of prepared semen samples containing HIV‐1 the performances of protocols from 14 centers have been compared. No false‐positive results were detected but false‐negative results were frequent when the concentration was below 500 HIV‐1 RNA copies/ml of seminal plasma. Frequency of HIV‐1 RNA detection was higher on seminal cells than on seminal plasma. Assays (or protocols) for quantifying HIV‐1 RNA in semen performed less well than standardized blood plasma assays. The HIV load in seminal plasma could be a useful marker of the risk of sexual transmission of the virus. Its use as a marker of global HAART efficiency in the HIV reservoir needs further study. Standardized assays are required for detection and measurement of HIV‐1 RNA in semen samples. J. Med. Virol. 84:183–187, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Radical Ring-Opening Copolymerization-Induced Self-Assembly (rROPISA)

Radical ring-opening copolymerization-induced self-assembly (rROPISA) was performed by copolymerizing benzyl methacrylate and cyclic ketene acetals (CKA), such as 2-methylene-4-phenyl-1,3-dioxolane or 5,6-benzo-2-methylene-1,3-dioxepane, in heptane at 90 °C by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization from a poly(lauryl methacrylate) macro-RAFT agent. The chain lengths of both the solvophilic macro-RAFT agent and the solvophobic block, together with the initial amount of CKA, were independently varied to achieve various compositions. The amount of CKA in the copolymers ranged from 4 to ∼40 mol % by adjusting the monomer stoichiometry, leading to nearly complete degradation for CKA contents above ∼15 mol %. rROPISA led to stable nanoparticles in all cases, ranging from 40 to 500 nm in diameter, depending on the experimental conditions, as assessed by dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy. Low average diameters and very narrow particle size distributions .
PROSE: Perceptual Risk Optimization for Speech Enhancement

The goal in speech enhancement is to obtain an estimate of clean speech starting from the noisy signal by minimizing a chosen distortion measure, which results in an estimate that depends on the unknown clean signal or its statistics. Since access to such prior knowledge is limited or not possible in practice, one has to estimate the clean signal statistics. In this paper, we develop a new risk minimization framework for speech enhancement, in which, one optimizes an unbiased estimate of the distortion/risk instead of the actual risk. The estimated risk is expressed solely as a function of the noisy observations. We consider several perceptually relevant distortion measures and develop corresponding unbiased estimates under realistic assumptions on the noise distribution and a priori signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Minimizing the risk estimates gives rise to the corresponding denoisers, which are nonlinear functions of the a posteriori SNR. Perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ), average segmental SNR (SSNR) computations, and listening tests show that the proposed risk optimization approach employing Itakura-Saito and weighted hyperbolic cosine distortions gives better performance than the other distortion measures. For SNRs greater than 5 dB, the proposed approach gives superior denoising performance over the benchmark techniques based on the Wiener filter, log-MMSE minimization, and Bayesian nonnegative matrix factorization.
Karkheh Storage Dam Cutoff Wall Analysis and Design

Karkheh dam cut-off wall with an area of about 150000 m is the largest plastic concrete cut-off wall ever built in the world. The wall was designed on the basis of seepage and material behavior analysis. The design and construction of the wall was a great challenge in which in different stages, major design modifications were made based on existing construction facilities, updated geological conditions and cost optimization. The philosophy of “design as you go” was tried to be perfectly accomplished in this project. The cut-off wall connections to the dam body and other appurtenant structures such as power tunnels; diversion culvert and spillway were designed and constructed to provide a tight and deformable interface. In this paper, the analysis results are briefly described. The technical specification of execution and material is also summarized.
Effects of Bacillus Serine Proteases on the Bacterial Biofilms

Serratia marcescens is an emerging opportunistic pathogen responsible for many hospital-acquired infections including catheter-associated bacteremia and urinary tract and respiratory tract infections. Biofilm formation is one of the mechanisms employed by S. marcescens to increase its virulence and pathogenicity. Here, we have investigated the main steps of the biofilm formation by S. marcescens SR 41-8000. It was found that the biofilm growth is stimulated by the nutrient-rich environment. The time-course experiments showed that S. marcescens cells adhere to the surface of the catheter and start to produce extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) within the first 2 days of growth. After 7 days, S. marcescens biofilms maturate and consist of bacterial cells embedded in a self-produced matrix of hydrated EPS. In this study, the effect of Bacillus pumilus 3-19 proteolytic enzymes on the structure of 7-day-old S. marcescens biofilms was examined. Using quantitative methods and scanning electron microscopy for the detection of biofilm, we demonstrated a high efficacy of subtilisin-like protease and glutamyl endopeptidase in biofilm removal. Enzymatic treatment resulted in the degradation of the EPS components and significant eradication of the biofilms.
The spatial organization and extraction of the wall-forming bodies of Eimeria maxima

SUMMARY Eimeria maxima has been used as a model apicomplexan parasite to study sexual stage development and oocyst wall formation. A complete understanding of the wall's biochemical and biophysical properties is of great interest in research on all apicomplexan parasites. Purified gametocytes, zygotes and oocysts were analysed by three-dimensional confocal microscopy, and wide-field fluorescent microscopy was used to investigate the appearance and spatial organization of the 2 types of wall-forming bodies (WFBs). In addition, a variety of staining procedures and immunoassays were used to assess the biosynthesis, metabolic activity, intactness and molecular composition of the WFBs in situ. WFBs were extracted from gametocytes/zygotes and their composition was assessed by microscopy and SDS-PAGE analysis. It was concluded that isolated gametocytes are intact and metabolically active. Additionally, it was observed that the Type 1 WFBs are aligned at the periphery of the parasite and fuse together producing neutral lipid rich patches that appear to be inserted into the space between 2 parasite-specific membranes. Finally, it was shown that the WFBs extracted from purified gametocytes had the same shape, size and staining properties as those observed in situ, and contained the major glycoprotein antigens known to be present in these organelles.
Copy Number Differences of Y Chromosomal Genes Between Superior and Inferior Quality Semen Producing Crossbred (Bos taurus × Bos indicus) Bulls

The removal of crossbred bulls from semen collection programs due to the production of poor quality semen causes substantial monetary losses to the dairy industry. Seminal quality, a quantitative trait, is greatly influenced by genome level variations. Deletion and/or duplication of Y chromosomal genes and subsequent changes in gene copy number have a major role in determining spermatogenic efficiency and, therefore, seminal quality. In this study, copy numbers of three Y chromosomal genes TSPY, DDX3Y, and USP9Y in genomic DNA were estimated and compared in two groups of crossbred (Bos taurus × Bos indicus) bulls of ten each, superior and inferior quality semen producing bulls, which were classified based on their seminal quality parameters. For TSPY gene, the inferior quality semen donor group has significantly lower copy number than superior quality semen donor group (p < 0.05). No significant difference was found in DDX3Y and USP9Y gene copy numbers between two groups (p > 0.05). In conclusion, this study demonstrates that the copy number of TSPY, a Y chromosomal spermatogenesis related gene, may be an important determinant to predict the quality of bull semen, facilitating better selection of bulls in a herd for semen collection program.
Constructing lexicons of relational phrases

Knowledge Bases are one of the key components of Natural Language Understanding systems. For example, DBpedia, YAGO, and Wikidata capture and organize knowledge about named entities and relations between them, which is often crucial for tasks like Question Answering and Named Entity Disambiguation. While Knowledge Bases have good coverage of prominent entities, they are often limited with respect to relations. The goal of this thesis is to bridge this gap and automatically create lexicons of textual representations of relations, namely relational phrases. The lexicons should contain information about paraphrases, hierarchy, as well as semantic types of arguments of relational phrases. The thesis makes three main contributions. The first contribution addresses disambiguating relational phrases by aligning them with the WordNet dictionary. Moreover, the alignment allows imposing the WordNet hierarchy on the relational phrases. The second contribution proposes a method for graph construction of relations using Probabilistic Graphical Models. In addition, we apply this model to relation paraphrasing. The third contribution presents a method for constructing a lexicon of relational paraphrases with fine-grained semantic typing of arguments. This method is based on information from a multilingual parallel corpus.
Satellite-based soil moisture validation and field experiments; skylab to smap

Field experiments have played a critical role in the development and implementation of satellite soil moisture missions. A review of key experiments is presented that includes tower-, aircraft, and satellite-focused efforts conducted over four decades that have supported two dedicated satellite missions; Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and Soil Moisture Active passive (SMAP).
Regulatory T Cells Suppress In Vitro Proliferation of Virus-Specific CD 8 T Cells during Persistent Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Department of Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2SP, United Kingdom; Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3SY, United Kingdom; and Centre for Applied Medical Statistics, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2SP, United Kingdom
THE Jewish/Nephite Lunar Calendar

Nephite record keepers were very meticulous in monitoring the passage of time. Lehi’s departure from Jerusalem in the reign of Zedekiah marks the beginning of one formal reckoning of time. The prophesied 600-year window to the birth of Christ could well have been measured in lunar years. Lehi must have drawn on familiar Israelite calendrical practices to establish his calendar. Lehi’s descendants likely used twelve lunar months for their calendar without adding an occasional thirteenth month to adjust for the length of a solar year, which would solve the chronological problem of dating Lehi’s departure 600 years before the birth of Christ. Title