Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fast Simplex-HMM for One-Shot Learning Activity Recognition

The work presented in this paper deals with the challenging task of learning an activity class representation using a single sequence for training. Recently, Simplex-HMM framework has been shown to be an efficient representation for activity classes, however, it presents high computational costs making it impractical in several situations. A dimensionality reduction of the features spaces based on a Maximum at Posteriori adaptation combined with a fast estimation of the optimal parameters in the Expectation Maximization algorithm are presented in this paper. As confirmed by the experimental results, these two modifications not only reduce the computational cost but also maintain the performance or even improve it. The process suitability is experimentally confirmed using the human activity datasets Weizmann, KTH and IXMAS and the gesture dataset ChaLearn.
Introduction: Transnationalism and its edges

Work on transnationalism potentially reshapes the way we think of key concepts which serve to 'ground' contemporary social life in specific localities as well as those which 'transgress' or 'destabilize' these groundings. Focusing on the 'edges' of transnationalism as sites of analysis allows us to consider these local identifications and transgressive unmoorings within the same frame. We discuss two main themes which have emerged in the literature: 'transnational morphologies', in terms of the shape, contours and structure of transnationality as well as the processes and agencies which sustain transnational trajectories and edifices; and 'transnational identities', focusing on identity formation and identity politics at the borderlands - both material and imagined - of the 'nation', 'nationalities' and other 'communities of affinity'.
Hidden Terminal-Aware Contention Resolution with an Optimal Distribution

Achieving low-power operation in wireless sensor networks with high data load or bursty traffic is challenging. The hidden terminal problem is aggravated with increased amounts of data in which traditional backoff-based contention resolution mechanisms fail or induce high latency and energy costs. We analyze and optimize Strawman, a receiver-initiated contention resolution mechanism that copes with hidden terminals. We propose new techniques to boost the performance of Strawman while keeping the resolution overhead small. We finally validate our improved mechanism via experiments.
A New NPR Approach for Image Stylization: Combining Edges, Color Reduction and Facial Exaggerations

This paper presents an innovative non-photorealistic rendering approach which combines three techniques for the stylization of digital images. These techniques consist of: (i) an existing state-of-the art edge-based sketching; (ii) a proposed novel color reduction and stylization process; and (iii) a proposed novel caricature generation process (when faces are visible). By comparing the outputs of the approach with existing photo-to-cartoon rendering systems, for a set of test images, it was possible to see that the appeal of the resulting images was noticeably better for the proposed approach.
Pioneers of the Modern Lifestyle?

In many Western countries, including the Netherlands, couples marrying in the interwar period experienced unprecedentedly high levels of childlessness. Only recently do we witness a return to these levels, as part and parcel of the so-called second demographic transition. Looking back on the interwar period, many scholars have attributed the decline of fertility and the increase of childlessness to rampant economic and political instability. However, contemporary social scientists ascribed the phenomenon to individualization, secularization, and the priority newlywed couples gave to a career and a luxurious lifestyle. From this perspective, childless couples in the interwar period could be seen as “pioneers” of the second demographic transition. To disentangle “traditional” and “modern” backgrounds of childlessness, we have studied the fertility histories of nearly 3,000 Dutch couples married between 1919 and 1938. Our results, in particular the strong association of childlessness with religiously mixed marriage, confirm that an important part of childlessness in the interwar period can be associated with a modern, individualized lifestyle.
A Theory of Portability

To discuss the portability of human natural language techno logy, it is necessary to define the portability precisely firs t. If one claims that his or her language technology works for other language s, how can we verify such claim when every language has a diffe rent set of features, i.e. speech or text tagging system? This paper p resents a view of protabilty as a function of a common represe ntable set of features and argues that the development of such representa tion is critical in discussing portability issues.
Prevalence of Adhesion and Regulation of Biofilm-Related Genes in Different Clones of Staphylococcus aureus

Clinical information about genotypically different clones of biofilm-producing Staphylococcus aureus is largely unknown. We examined whether different clones of methicillin-sensitive and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MSSA and MRSA) differ with respect to staphylococcal microbial surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecules (MSCRAMMs) in biofilm formation. The study used 60 different types of spa and determined the phenotypes, the prevalence of the 13 MSCRAMM, and biofilm genes for each clone. The current investigation was carried out using a modified Congo red agar (MCRA), a microtiter plate assay (MPA), polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Clones belonging to the same spa type were found to have similar properties in adheringto the polystyrene microtiter plate surface. However, their ability to produce slime on MCRA medium was different. PCR experiments showed that 60 clones of MSSA and MRSA were positive for 5 genes (out of 9 MSCRAMM genes). icaADBC genes were found to be present in all the 60 clones tested indicating a high prevalence, and these genes were equally distributed among the clones associated with MSSA and those with MRSA. The prevalence of other MSCRAMM genes among MSSA and MRSA clones was found to be variable. MRSA and MSSA gene expression (MSCRAMM and icaADBC) was confirmed by RT-PCR.
Device and Circuit Design Challenges in the Digital Subthreshold Region for Ultralow-Power Applications

In recent years, subthreshold operation has gained a lot of attention due to ultra low-power consumption in applications requiring low to medium performance. It has also been shown that by optimizing the device structure, power consumption of digital subthreshold logic can be further minimized while improving its performance. Therefore, subthreshold circuit design is very promising for future ultra low-energy sensor applications as well as high-performance parallel processing. This paper deals with various device and circuit design challenges associated with the state of the art in optimal digital subthreshold circuit design and reviews device design methodologies and circuit topologies for optimal digital subthreshold operation. This paper identifies the suitable candidates for subthreshold operation at device and circuit levels for optimal subthreshold circuit design and provides an effective roadmap for digital designers interested to work with ultra low-power applications.
P53 Inhibits α6β4 Integrin Survival Signaling by Promoting the Caspase 3–Dependent Cleavage of Akt/PKB

Although the interaction of matrix proteins with integrins is known to initiate signaling pathways that are essential for cell survival, a role for tumor suppressors in the regulation of these pathways has not been established. We demonstrate here that p53 can inhibit the survival function of integrins by inducing the caspase-dependent cleavage and inactivation of the serine/threonine kinase AKT/PKB. Specifically, we show that the α6β4 integrin promotes the survival of p53-deficient carcinoma cells by activating AKT/PKB. In contrast, this integrin does not activate AKT/PKB in carcinoma cells that express wild-type p53 and it actually stimulates their apoptosis, in agreement with our previous findings (Bachelder, R.E., A. Marchetti, R. Falcioni, S. Soddu, and A.M. Mercurio. 1999. J. Biol. Chem. 274:20733–20737). Interestingly, we observed reduced levels of AKT/PKB protein after antibody clustering of α6β4 in carcinoma cells that express wild-type p53. In contrast, α6β4 clustering did not reduce the level of AKT/PKB in carcinoma cells that lack functional p53. The involvement of caspase 3 in AKT/PKB regulation was indicated by the ability of Z-DEVD-FMK, a caspase 3 inhibitor, to block the α6β4-associated reduction in AKT/PKB levels in vivo, and by the ability of recombinant caspase 3 to promote the cleavage of AKT/PKB in vitro. In addition, the ability of α6β4 to activate AKT/PKB could be restored in p53 wild-type carcinoma cells by inhibiting caspase 3 activity. These studies demonstrate that the p53 tumor suppressor can inhibit integrin-associated survival signaling pathways.
The Importance of Subsyndromal Depression in Older Primary Care Patients: Prevalence and Associated Functional Disability

OBJECTIVE: Existing diagnostic categories for depression may not encompass the majority of older people suffering clinically significant depressive symptoms. We have described the prevalence of subsyndromal depressive symptoms and tested the hypothesis that patients with subsyndromal depression have greater functional disability and general medical burden than nondepressed subjects but less than patients with diagnosable depressions.
Accuracy of home blood glucose meters during hypoglycemia

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the accuracy of home blood glucose meters during hypoglycemia. METHODS Six blood glucose meters—One Touch II (LifeScan, Milpitas, CA), Companion II (Medisense, Cambridge, U.K.), Reflolux (Boehringer Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany), Accutrend (Boehringer Mannheim), Elite (Bayer, Munich, Germany), and HemoCue (HemoCue, Ängelholm, Sweden)—were compared with a reference method (Beckman Glucose Analyzer 2). Glucose concentrations from arterialized venous blood samples were measured using all glucose meters (whole blood) and the reference method (plasma) during hypoglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamps in 15 subjects. RESULTS In total, 663 blood glucose monitor readings and 119 reference values ranging from 2.28 to 3.89 mmol/l were analyzed. The correlation coefficients and the percentage of measurements within 20% and outside 40% of the reference values for each glucose meter were as follows: One Touch II: 0.91, 99.2% and 0%; Companion II: 0.81, 88.2% and 2.5%; Reflolux: 0.78, 85.0% and 0.9%; Accutrend: 0.88, 46.0% and 6.6%; Elite: 0.78, 75.6% and 4.2%; and HemoCue: 0.93, 96.6% and 0% (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS There were substantial differences between the blood glucose meters during hypoglycemia, and none of the devices met the latest criteria recommended by the American Diabetes Association.
Consumer Acceptance of Mobile Services toward a Integrated view

An Integrated Technology Acceptance Model, which comes from the Theory of Planned Behavior and the extended Technology Acceptance Model with Perceived Credibility based on the mobile services’ characteristics, is used to identify the factors that affect consumer intention to use mobile services. The results indicate that the Integrated Technology Acceptance Model has significant effect on explaining behavioral intention to use mobile services.
Research on Impacts of Depression Among the Aged in the Long-Term Care

This research study was to examine the relationships of social supports and depression among long-term care center residents. Depression of long-term care center residents is the most common mental health problem confronting older adults. It is estimated that 13 percent of people aged 65 years and over have a major depressive disorder in Korean Society of Welfare for the Aged. Social support is a key ingredient in dealing with emotional distress and a critical in helping people to cope with all kinds of extreme circumstance. As the result of this research, Perceived social support was found to be related to depression. However, network size was not a predictor of depression, and high health status is accounted for a lower portion of the variance in depression. , the poor health status was one of the most powerful predictors of depression, From results of this research study, for social workers who are employed institutional-based agencies.
Characterization of a New Rhamnogalacturonan Acetyl Esterase from Bacillus halodurans C-125 with a New Putative Carbohydrate Binding Domain

ABSTRACT BH1115 is a gene from Bacillus halodurans strain C-125 that hypothetically encodes a rhamnogalacturonan acetyl esterase (RGAE) of the CE-12 family. As confirmation, this gene was cloned, and the product was expressed in Escherichia coli strain Rosetta (DE3) cells and purified. The enzyme obtained was monomeric, with a molecular mass of 45 kDa, and exhibited alkaliphilic properties. A study of the inhibition of the activity by some modulators confirmed that the catalytic triad for the esterase activity was Ser-His-Asp. This enzyme also presents broad substrate specificity and is active toward 7-aminocephalosporanic acid, cephalosporin C, p-nitrophenyl acetate, β-naphthyl acetate, glucose pentaacetate, and acetylated xylan. Moreover, RGAE from B. halodurans achieves a synergistic effect with xylanase A toward acetylated xylan. As a member of the SGNH family, it does not adopt the common α/β hydrolase fold. The homology between the folds of RGAE from Aspergillus aculeatus and the hypothetical YxiM precursor from Bacillus subtilis, which both belong to the SGNH family, illustrates the divergence of such proteins from a common ancestor. Furthermore, the enzyme possesses a putative substrate binding region at the N terminus of the protein which has never been described to date for any RGAE.
Efficient Event Correlation over Distributed Systems

Event correlation is a cornerstone for process discovery over event logs crossing multiple data sources. The computed correlation rules and process instances will greatly help us to unleash the power of process mining. However, exploring all possible event correlations over a log could be time consuming, especially when the log is large. State-of-the-art methods based on MapReduce designed to handle this challenge have offered significant performance improvements over standalone implementations. However, all existing techniques are still based on a conventional generating-and-pruning scheme. Therefore, event partitioning across multiple machines is often inefficient. In this paper, following the principle of filtering-and-verification, we propose a new algorithm, called RF-GraP, which provides a more efficient correlation over distributed systems. We present the detailed implementation of our approach and conduct a quantitative evaluation using the Spark platform. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is indeed efficient. Compared to the state-of-the-art, we are able to achieve significant performance speedups with obviously less network communication.
The evaluative face of a descriptive model: Communion and agency in Peabody's tetradic model of trait organization

An important strand of research on cognitive trait organization is connected with Peabody’s (1967) tetradic model stressing two non-evaluative dimensions: tight–loose and assertive–unassertive. The relationship of this model with the communion/agency model involving two evaluative dimensions is discussed and empirically investigated. It is shown that the models are orthogonally related suggesting four trait categories: agentic tight–loose, communal tight–loose, agentic assertive–unassertive and communal assertive–unassertive. Implications are discussed regarding the interpretation of stereotype contents, the validity of the tetradic and communion/agency models and the development of a functionalist approach of social perception and judgment. Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
European guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of insomnia

This European guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of insomnia was developed by a task force of the European Sleep Research Society, with the aim of providing clinical recommendations for the management of adult patients with insomnia. The guideline is based on a systematic review of relevant meta‐analyses published till June 2016. The target audience for this guideline includes all clinicians involved in the management of insomnia, and the target patient population includes adults with chronic insomnia disorder. The GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) system was used to grade the evidence and guide recommendations. The diagnostic procedure for insomnia, and its co‐morbidities, should include a clinical interview consisting of a sleep history (sleep habits, sleep environment, work schedules, circadian factors), the use of sleep questionnaires and sleep diaries, questions about somatic and mental health, a physical examination and additional measures if indicated (i.e. blood tests, electrocardiogram, electroencephalogram; strong recommendation, moderate‐ to high‐quality evidence). Polysomnography can be used to evaluate other sleep disorders if suspected (i.e. periodic limb movement disorder, sleep‐related breathing disorders), in treatment‐resistant insomnia, for professional at‐risk populations and when substantial sleep state misperception is suspected (strong recommendation, high‐quality evidence). Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia is recommended as the first‐line treatment for chronic insomnia in adults of any age (strong recommendation, high‐quality evidence). A pharmacological intervention can be offered if cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia is not sufficiently effective or not available. Benzodiazepines, benzodiazepine receptor agonists and some antidepressants are effective in the short‐term treatment of insomnia (≤4 weeks; weak recommendation, moderate‐quality evidence). Antihistamines, antipsychotics, melatonin and phytotherapeutics are not recommended for insomnia treatment (strong to weak recommendations, low‐ to very‐low‐quality evidence). Light therapy and exercise need to be further evaluated to judge their usefulness in the treatment of insomnia (weak recommendation, low‐quality evidence). Complementary and alternative treatments (e.g. homeopathy, acupuncture) are not recommended for insomnia treatment (weak recommendation, very‐low‐quality evidence).
Basis reduction and the complexity of branch-and-bound

The classical branch-and-bound algorithm for the integer feasibility problem [EQUATION] has exponential worst case complexity. We prove that it is surprisingly efficient on reformulations of (0.1), in which the columns of the constraint matrix are short and near orthogonal, i.e., a reduced basis of the generated lattice: when the entries of A are from {1, . , M} for a large enough M, branch-and-bound solves almost all reformulated instances at the root node. For all A matrices we prove an upper bound on the width of the reformulations along the last unit vector. Our results generalize the results of Furst and Kannan on the solvability of subset sum problems; also, we prove them via branch-and-bound, an algorithm traditionally considered inefficient from the theoretical point of view. We use two main tools: first, we find a bound on the size of the branch-and-bound tree based on the norms of the Gram-Schmidt vectors of the constraint matrix. Second, building on the ideas of Furst and Kannan, we bound the number of integral matrices for which the shortest nonzero vectors of certain lattices are long. We explore practical aspects of these results. We compute numerical values of M which guarantee that 90 and 99 percent of the reformulated problems solve at the root: these turn out to be surprisingly small when the problem size is moderate. We also confirm with a computational study that random integer programs become easier, as the coefficients grow.
Tracking multiple speakers using CPHD filter

In this paper, we present an efficient method for tracking multiple speakers in a reverberant environment. The proposed method is based on the cardinalized probability hypothesis density (CPHD) filter. Because the CPHD filter can handle a large amount of clutter measurements, our method has a high reliability when tracking multiple speakers. Simulation experiments are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method.
Novel engineered targeted interferon‐gamma blocks hepatic fibrogenesis in mice

Liver fibrogenesis is a process tightly controlled by endogenous anti‐ and pro‐fibrogenic factors. Interferon gamma (IFNγ) is a potent antifibrogenic cytokine in vitro and might therefore represent a powerful therapeutic entity. However, its poor pharmacokinetics and adverse effects, due to the presence of IFNγ receptors on nearly all cells, prevented its clinical application so far. We hypothesized that delivery of IFNγ specifically to the disease‐inducing cells and concurrently avoiding its binding to nontarget cells might increase therapeutic efficacy and avoid side effects. We conjugated IFNγ to a cyclic peptide recognizing the platelet‐derived growth factor beta receptor (PDGFβR) which is strongly up‐regulated on activated hepatic stellate cells (HSC), the key effector cells responsible for hepatic fibrogenesis. The IFNγ conjugates were analyzed in vitro for PDGFβR‐specific binding and biological effects and in vivo in acute (early) and chronic (progressive and established) carbon‐tetrachloride‐induced liver fibrosis in mice. The targeted‐IFNγ construct showed PDGFβR‐specific binding to fibroblasts and HSC and inhibited their activation in vitro. In vivo, the targeted‐IFNγ construct attenuated local HSC activation in an acute liver injury model. In the established liver fibrosis model, it not only strongly inhibited fibrogenesis but also induced fibrolysis. In contrast, nontargeted IFNγ was ineffective in both models. Moreover, in contrast to unmodified IFNγ, our engineered targeted‐IFNγ did not induce IFNγ‐related side effects such as systemic inflammation, hyperthermia, elevated plasma triglyceride levels, and neurotropic effects. Conclusion: This study presents a novel HSC‐targeted engineered‐IFNγ, which in contrast to systemic IFNγ, blocked liver fibrogenesis and is devoid of side effects, by specifically acting on the key pathogenic cells within the liver. (HEPATOLOGY 2011;)
A toy climbing robot

We built a simple toy climbing robot in order to explore problems related to minimalist grasping, path planning, and robot control. The robot is capable of climbing a wall of pegs either under remote control, or on the basis of a set of pre-recorded keyframes. In addition, the robot can climb certain peg configurations using a cyclic gait. All communications are sent through an infrared connection, and the tether to the robot consists only of two power wires. Due to the minimalist, nonprehensile grasping method, the robot is capable of actively removing error while climbing, which is necessary to enable the robot to climb without sensing the environment.