Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transforming architectures inspired by origami

Paper folding is found across cultures for both aesthetic and functional purposes, with its most widely recognized exponent being the ancient art form of origami. More recently, there has been an upsurge of interest for translating origami designs into mathematics, natural sciences, engineering, and architecture. Across these different fields, origami is becoming a fountain of inspiration for new reconfigurable and multifunctional materials and structures. However, the use of origami designs as engineering elements is typically compromised by limitations in structural performance. A new study by Filipov et al. (1) presents an innovative approach for the design of strikingly rigid deployable structures. Their strategy is based on tubular building blocks, which are themselves built on Miura-ori; a regular folding pattern that maps a flat sheet into a one degree-of-freedom deployable structure (2). Two neighboring Miura tubes can be set in a zig-zag (“zipper”) arrangement; together, the pair is remarkably stiff and effectively possesses a single degree of freedom by resisting other bending and twisting modes. These zipper tubes can then be combined to generate other structures, including more complex tubular systems and cellular assemblies. In Fig. 1 A and B, we present two particular examples from their study: a model bridge with load-bearing capacity and an architectural canopy that can be deployed to cover a wide span. Filipov et al. (1) borrow well-established tools from structural mechanics that are commonly used in civil and mechanical engineering and port them to this new emerging field of origami-inspired design.
Polychromatic X-ray CT Image Reconstruction and Mass-Attenuation Spectrum Estimation

We develop a method for sparse image reconstruction from polychromatic computed tomography (CT) measurements under the blind scenario where the material of the inspected object and the incident-energy spectrum are unknown. We obtain a parsimonious measurement-model parameterization by changing the integral variable from photon energy to mass attenuation, which allows us to combine the variations brought by the unknown incident spectrum and mass attenuation into a single unknown mass-attenuation spectrum function; the resulting measurement equation has the Laplace integral form. The mass-attenuation spectrum is then expanded into basis functions using B-splines of order one. We derive a block coordinate-descent algorithm for constrained minimization of a penalized negative log-likelihood (NLL) cost function, where penalty terms ensure nonnegativity of the spline coefficients and nonnegativity and sparsity of the density map image. The image sparsity is imposed using convex total-variation (TV) and `1 norms, applied to the density-map image and its discrete wavelet transform (DWT) coefficients, respectively. This algorithm alternates between Nesterov’s proximal-gradient (NPG) and limited-memory BroydenFletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno with box constraints (L-BFGS-B) steps for updating the image and mass-attenuation spectrum parameters. To accelerate convergence of the density-map NPG step, we apply a step-size selection scheme that accounts for varying local Lipschitz constant of the NLL. We consider lognormal and Poisson noise models and establish conditions for biconvexity of the corresponding NLLs with respect to the density map and mass-attenuation spectrum parameters. We also prove the Kurdyka-Łojasiewicz property of the objective function, which is important for establishing local convergence of block-coordinate schemes in biconvex optimization problems. Numerical experiments with simulated and real X-ray CT data demonstrate the performance of the proposed scheme.
Loughborough University Institutional Repository Efficient privacy-preserving facial expression classification

This paper proposes an efficient algorithm to perform privacy-preserving (PP) facial expression classification (FEC) in the client-server model. The server holds a database and offers the classification service to the clients. The client uses the service to classify the facial expression (FaE) of subject. It should be noted that the client and server are mutually untrusted parties and they want to perform the classification without revealing their inputs to each other. In contrast to the existing works, which rely on computationally expensive cryptographic operations, this paper proposes a lightweight algorithm based on the randomization technique. The proposed algorithm is validated using the widely used JAFFE and MUG FaE databases. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm does not degrade the performance compared to existing works. However, it preserves the privacy of inputs while improving the computational complexity by 120 times and communication complexity by 31 percent against the existing homomorphic cryptography based approach.
A Novel ENU-Mutation in Ankyrin-1 Disrupts Malaria Parasite Maturation in Red Blood Cells of Mice

The blood stage of the plasmodium parasite life cycle is responsible for the clinical symptoms of malaria. Epidemiological studies have identified coincidental malarial endemicity and multiple red blood cell (RBC) disorders. Many RBC disorders result from mutations in genes encoding cytoskeletal proteins and these are associated with increased protection against malarial infections. However the mechanisms underpinning these genetic, host responses remain obscure. We have performed an N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) mutagenesis screen and have identified a novel dominant (haploinsufficient) mutation in the Ank-1 gene (Ank1MRI23420) of mice displaying hereditary spherocytosis (HS). Female mice, heterozygous for the Ank-1 mutation showed increased survival to infection by Plasmodium chabaudi adami DS with a concomitant 30% decrease in parasitemia compared to wild-type, isogenic mice (wt). A comparative in vivo red cell invasion and parasite growth assay showed a RBC-autonomous effect characterised by decreased proportion of infected heterozygous RBCs. Within approximately 6–8 hours post-invasion, TUNEL staining of intraerythrocytic parasites, showed a significant increase in dead parasites in heterozygotes. This was especially notable at the ring and trophozoite stages in the blood of infected heterozygous mutant mice compared to wt (p<0.05). We conclude that increased malaria resistance due to ankyrin-1 deficiency is caused by the intraerythrocytic death of P. chabaudi parasites.
An application of a self-organizing model to the design of urban transport networks

A 2D triangle mesh simplification model is described in this paper, with the main objective of preserving the shape of the original mesh. The proposed model consists of a self-organizing algorithm whose objective is to generate the positions of the nodes of the simplified mesh; afterwards, a triangulation algorithm is performed to reconstruct the triangles of the new simplified mesh. The self-organizing algorithm is an unsupervised learning algorithm that provides a set of nodes representing the best approximation of the original mesh. An adaptation of the neural network algorithm is proposed with the primary objective to work in the context of urban transport networks. We verify the effectiveness of this model through the design and development of some urban network problems. Specifically, the algorithm is applied to two real problems, the first one is the design of a tramway network in a town, and the second one is the design of an information point network within a real bus transport network.
The effect of stimulus variability on children's judgements of quantity

This study investigates the effect of stimulus variability on development of the ability to make quantity judgements related to area. Participants were 241 children (aged 4, 5, 6, 8, and 12 years) and 82 university students, who were asked to compare the quantities in 2 sets of 5 chocolate bars of constant width but variable length. Participants indicated which set contained more chocolate or that the amounts of chocolate were equal. Judgement accuracy of 12-year-olds and adults decreased monotonically as the variance of bar lengths increased. In younger children, performance was low when variance was very low or very high, but accuracy was higher for intermediate levels of variance, thus resulting in an inverted U-shaped effect. This pattern was confirmed in a second experiment in which we controlled for a possible age-related response bias against “equal” judgements. Findings suggest that judgements of quantity are based on a mixture of learned heuristics and comparisons of approximate quantity representations, both of which develop throughout childhood.
"Born Frees", Negotiating the Terrain towards Selfhood and Wellness: A Life Orientation Perspective.

This study was contextualised within the Life Orientation subject of â€˜Self in Societyâ€™. It acknowledges that the present time is uniquely significant in South African history as the generation of youth leaving school are now considered â€˜born freesâ€™. This generation is considered to be free from the first-hand trauma that was experienced in the past; they supposedly live in a society free from the shackles of apartheid, and enjoy equality and human rights that affect their entire well-being. â€˜Born freesâ€™, it appears, are still negotiating the journey towards a new identity and freedom. The sample size was nine Grade 11 female learners who attend an urban school in Gauteng Province. The school was purposefully chosen because it had a good track record of class attendance and the learners are proficient in English. Questions revolved around the multiple aspects of self and well-being in society. Focus group sessions were held after which six of the learners completed a questionnaire with open-ended questions based on the sub-topics. All ethical considerations were observed. Findings revealed that these youths are in fact traversing a far more complex political, social, psychological, spiritual and economic landscape than that captured in the phrase â€˜born freesâ€™.
CS 229 Project Final Report A Method for Modifying Facial Features

Many present day facial recognition systems focus on making verification or identification facial feature invariant. While these systems are highly effective for fully automated tasks, manual facial recognition is still required in numerous real life scenarios that involve comparing against ID photos. Our goal is to build a system that is capable of transforming faces to include or exclude glasses and beard. Such a system should be able to handle a wider range of facial features with small modifications. A few network structures have been tested for this purpose and we have found that CycleGAN[1] is the most capable compared to other vanilla GAN systems. Generated images from test set are presented and their inception scores [2] are analyzed. Details regarding characteristics of these generated images are also included in our discussion. Potential future improvements could involve making our system more generic or introducing semi-supervised learning to expand usable data sources. Source code for this project is available on Github.
Valuing Jobs via Retirement: European Evidence

While much has been made of the value of employment relative to unemployment, much less is known about the value of work relative to retirement. Here we use two European panel datasets to show first that psychological well-being (measured on the EURO-D and GHQ scales) barely changes on average when individuals retire. However, there is a great deal of heterogeneity in the size of this change between job type and between individuals. Some gain on leaving work, while others experience substantial falls in well-being on retiring, suggesting that they may have preferred to carry on working. We suggest that the results of these analyses can help to inform policy aiming to encourage labour supply by older workers.
De novo Assembly and Characterization of the Fruit Transcriptome of Idesia polycarpa Reveals Candidate Genes for Lipid Biosynthesis

Idesia polycarpa, is a valuable oilseed-producing tree of the Flacourtiaceae family that has the potential to fulfill edible oil production and is also a possible biofuel feedstock. The fruit is unique in that it contains both saturated and unsaturated lipids present in pericarp and seed, respectively. However, triglyceride synthesis and storage in tissues outside of the seeds has been poorly studied in previous researches. To gain insight into the unique properties of I. polycarpa fruit lipid synthesis, biochemical, and transcriptomic approaches were used to compare the lipid accumulation between pericarp and seed of the fruit. Lipid accumulation rates, final lipid content and composition were significantly different between two tissues. Furthermore, we described the annotated transcriptome assembly and differential gene expression analysis generated from the pericarp and seed tissues. The data allowed the identification of distinct candidate genes and reconstruction of lipid pathways, which may explain the differences of oil synthesis between the two tissues. The results may be useful for engineering alternative pathways for lipid production in non-seed or vegetative tissues.
Nonline-of-sight error mitigation in mobile location

The location of mobile terminals has received considerable attention in the recent years. The performance of mobile location systems is limited by errors primarily caused by nonline-of-sight (NLOS) propagation conditions. In this paper, we investigate the NLOS error identification and correction techniques for mobile user location in wireless cellular systems. Based on how much a priori knowledge of the NLOS error is available, two NLOS mitigation algorithms are proposed. Simulation results demonstrate that, with the prior information database, the location estimate can he obtained with good accuracy even in severe NLOS propagation conditions.
Competitive Preferences and Ethnicity: Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh

We investigate whether aversion to competing against members of the ethnically dominant group could be a contributing factor to the persistent disadvantageous socioeconomic position of ethnic minorities. We conducted a lab-in-the-field experiment in rural Bangladesh, randomly assigning participants into groups with different ethnic composition. We find that the ethnic minority group (Santal) are less likely to compete in groups where they are a numerical minority than when all competitors are co-ethnic, whereas the reverse is true for the ethnic majority group (Bengali). Further analysis suggests that differences in social power and status underpin these differences in preferences for interethnic competition.
Towards Understanding the Rhetoric of Small Changes -- Extended Abstract --

Understanding the impact of software changes has been a challenge since software systems were first developed. With the increasing size and complexity of systems, this problem has become more difficult. There are many ways to identify change impact from the plethora of software artifacts produced during development and maintenance. We present the analysis of the software development process using change and defect history data. Specifically, we address the problem of small changes. The studies revealed that (1) there is less than 4 percent probability that a one-line change will introduce an error in the code; (2) nearly 10 percent of all changes made during the maintenance of the software under consideration were one-line changes; (3 the phenomena of change differs for additions, deletions and modifications as well as for the number of lines affected.
Non linear elastic properties of the lingual and facial tissues assessed by indentation technique . Application to the biomechanics of speech production

This paper aims at characterizing the mechanical behavior of two human anatomical structures, namely the tongue and the cheek. For this, an indentation experiment was provided, by measuring the mechanical response of tongue and cheek tissues removed from the fresh cadaver of a 74 years old woman. Non-linear relationships were observed between the force applied to the tissues and the corresponding displacements. To infer the mechanical constitutive laws from these measurements, a Finite Element (FE) Analysis was provided. This analysis aimed at simulating the indentation experiment. An optimization process was used to determine the FE constitutive laws that provided the non-linear force/displacements observed during the indentation experiments. The tongue constitutive law was used for simulations provided by a 3D FE biomechanical model of the human tongue. This dynamical model was designed to study speech production. Given a set of tongue muscular commands which levels correspond to the force classically measured during speech production, the FE model successfully simulated the main tongue movements observed during speech data. Non linear elastic properties of the lingual and facial tissues assessed by indentation technique. Application to the biomechanics of speech production Gerard J.M. , Ohayon J., Luboz V. , Perrier P. and Payan Y. a Laboratoire TIMC/IMAG, CNRS, Université Joseph Fourier de Grenoble, France b Institut de la Communication Parlée, CNRS, INP Grenoble, France Corresponding author: Yohan Payan, PhD Laboratoire TIMC/IMAG, UMR CNRS 5525, Institut d'Ingénierie de l'Information de Santé Pavillon Taillefer Faculté de Médecine de Grenoble 38706 La Tronche France Tel: +33 4 76 52 00 01 Fax: +33 4 76 52 00 55 e-mail: Yohan.Payan@imag.fr Abstact: This paper aims at characterizing the mechanical behavior of two human anatomical structures, namely the tongue and the cheek. For this, an indentation experiment was provided, by measuring the mechanical response of tongue and cheek tissues removed from the fresh cadaver of a 74 years old woman. Non-linear relationships were observed between the force applied to the tissues and the corresponding displacements. To infer the mechanical constitutive laws from these measurements, a Finite Element (FE) Analysis was provided. This analysis aimed at simulating the indentation experiment. An optimization process was used to determine the FE constitutive laws that provided the non-linear force/displacements observed during the indentation experiments. The tongue constitutive law was used for simulations provided by a 3D FE biomechanical model of the human tongue. This dynamical model was designed to study speech production. Given a set of tongue muscular commands which levels correspond to the force classically measured during speech production, the FE model successfully simulated the main tongue movements observed during speech data.
Age differences in proactive interference in verbal and visuospatial working memory

The current study examined the benefit of reducing proactive interference in verbal and visuospatial working memory tasks in young (25–30 years), young–old (65–75 years), and old–old (older than 75 years) adults. To reduce proactive interference, the verbal and visuospatial working memory tasks were administered in an ascending (the shortest lists presented first) or in descending (the longest lists presented first) format. Results showed that whereas old–old adults benefit from decreased exposure to proactive interference in working memory independently from the task content, young–old adults benefited only in the verbal task, and young adults did not show any benefit. Overall, these findings suggest that the ability to resist proactive interference in working memory tasks depends on the task content and is particularly impaired in late adulthood.
LOW LIGHTNESS ENHANCEMENT USING NONLINEAR FILTER BASED ON POWER FUNCTION 1 NABEEL

In fact, optical imaging systems produce images that demand to enhance low contrast, poor illumination, and other reasons. Thus, it is essential that those images pass through an improvement stage before testing them by specialists in many different applicative fields. Therefore, this research aims at improving the low lightness by a Nonlinear Filter Power Function (NFPF) algorithm. NFPF is applied to enhance the illumination of color images; it consists of three steps sequential: intensity enhancement, contrast enhancement, and color restoration of RGB channels. The interest of the proposed enhancement method has been evaluated depending on three criteria, namely: entropy, Normalize Mean Squared Error for Hue (NMSEH) and Normalize Mean Squared Error for Saturation (NMSES). The suggested algorithm (NFPF) was compared with four previous algorithms such as a Parallel Nonlinear Adaptive Enhancement (PNAE), New Nonlinear Adaptive Enhancement (NNAE), Multi-Scale Retinex with Color Restoration (MSRCR), and Histogram Equalization (HE). Qualitative results show that the proposed algorithm (NFPF) has outperformed other algorithms accordance to subjective and objective assessment.
Twisted string actuation with sliding surfaces

In this paper, an ongoing work for verifying the behavior of a twisted string actuator in contact with a sliding surface or guided through a sheath is presented. The twisted string actuation system is particularly suitable for very compact and light-weight robotic devices, like artificial limbs and exoskeletons, since it allows the implementation of powerful tendon-based driving systems, based on small-size DC motors characterized by high speed, low torque and very limited inertia. One of the major limitations of this actuation system is by now related to the fact that the string should not be in contact with any obstacle, because this contact will alter the twisting angle propagation along the string and, eventually, completely stop the string twisting. This design constraint imposes a straight path between the motor and the linear load attached to the other string end. After the presentation of the basic properties of the twisted string actuation system, the model of the twisted string in contact with a sliding surface is discussed. The behavior of the system has been then experimentally verified and discussed. A preliminary evaluation of control strategies for compensating the side effects generated by the contact of the twisted string with the sliding surface is also presented.
Threshold of biologic responses of the small airway epithelium to low levels of tobacco smoke.

RATIONALE Epidemiologic data demonstrate that individuals exposed to low levels of tobacco smoke have decrements in lung function and higher risk for lung disease compared with unexposed individuals. Although this risk is small, low-level tobacco smoke exposure is so widespread, it is a significant public health concern. OBJECTIVES To identify biologic correlates of this risk we hypothesized that, compared with unexposed individuals, individuals exposed to low levels of tobacco smoke have biologic changes in the small airway epithelium, the site of the first abnormalities associated with smoking. METHODS Small airway epithelium was obtained by bronchoscopy from 121 individuals; microarrays were used to assess genome-wide gene expression; urine nicotine and cotinine were used to categorize subjects as "nonsmokers," "active smokers," and "low exposure. " Gene expression data were used to determine the threshold and induction half maximal level (ID₅₀) of urine nicotine and cotinine at which the small airway epithelium showed abnormal responses. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS There was no threshold of urine nicotine without a small airway epithelial response, and only slightly above detectable urine cotinine threshold with a small airway epithelium response. The ID₅₀ for nicotine was 25 ng/ml and for cotinine it was 104 ng/ml. CONCLUSIONS The small airway epithelium detects and responds to low levels of tobacco smoke with transcriptome modifications. This provides biologic correlates of epidemiologic studies linking low-level tobacco smoke exposure to lung health risk, identifies the genes most sensitive to tobacco smoke, and defines thresholds at which the lung epithelium responds to low levels of tobacco smoke.