Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ChaLearn Looking at People 2015: Apparent Age and Cultural Event Recognition Datasets and Results

Following previous series on Looking at People (LAP) competitions [14, 13, 11, 12, 2], in 2015 ChaLearn ran two new competitions within the field of Looking at People: (1) age estimation, and (2) cultural event recognition, both in still images. We developed a crowd-sourcing application to collect and label data about the apparent age of people (as opposed to the real age). In terms of cultural event recognition, one hundred categories had to be recognized. These tasks involved scene understanding and human body analysis. This paper summarizes both challenges and data, as well as the results achieved by the participants of the competition. Details of the ChaLearn LAP competitions can be found at http://gesture.chalearn. org/.
Capacity Bounds for Joint Transmit and Receive Antenna Selection Systems with Correlated Fading Channels

In this paper, we investigate the capacity for antenna selection systems in the spatial correlated Rayleigh fading channels. Antenna selection is performed both at the transmitter and receiver, one transmit antenna is selected from N transmit antennas and m receive antennas are selected from M receive antennas. Upper and lower bounds of the capacity are derived. For a special antenna selection system in which one transmit antenna and two receive antennas are selected, the exact forms of the upper bound and lower bound are given . The simulation results show that both upper bound and lower bound are tight with the ergodic capacity and the exact form of the bounds fits the Monte Carlo results exactly.
Towards a Trustworthy and Controllable Peer-Server-Peer Media Streaming: An Analytical Study and An Industrial Perspective

Peer-to-peer technology gives novel opportunities to define a cost-effective multimedia streaming application, but at the same time, it brings a set of technical challenges due to its dynamic and heterogeneous nature. To guarantee QoS and facilitate management in large scale high-performance media streaming, we extend the current P2P networking towards a novel Peer-Server-Peer (PSP) architecture for media streaming, in which carefully-deployed servers form a trustworthy and controllable overlay network to stream P2P cluster peers. An analytical model is presented to calculate the quality of experience (QoE) and mapping QoS parameters to prove the effectiveness of Peer-Server-Peer streaming. Joint with the efforts in industry, we explore the feasibility of PSP streaming in the historical context of "demand economy" for media streaming and "best effort" Internet. The value of this paper lies not in its analytical study of this promising PSP concept with practical implementation but also its insight industrial perspective to attract further application.
Polyadenylation Regulates the Stability of Trypanosoma brucei Mitochondrial RNAs*

Polyadenylation of RNAs plays a critical role in modulating rates of RNA turnover and ultimately in controlling gene expression in all systems examined to date. In mitochondria, the precise mechanisms by which RNAs are degraded, including the role of polyadenylation, are not well understood. Our previous in organello pulse-chase experiments suggest that poly(A) tails stimulate degradation of mRNAs in the mitochondria of the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei (Militello, K. T., and Read, L. K. (2000) Mol. Cell. Biol. 21, 731–742). In this report, we developed an in vitro assay to directly examine the effects of specific 3′-sequences on RNA degradation. We found that a salt-extracted mitochondrial membrane fraction preferentially degraded polyadenylated mitochondrially and non-mitochondrially encoded RNAs over their non-adenylated counterparts. A poly(A) tail as short as 5 nucleotides was sufficient to stimulate rapid degradation, although an in vivo tail length of 20 adenosines supported the most rapid decay. A poly(U) extension did not promote rapid RNA degradation, and RNA turnover was slowed by the addition of uridine residues to the poly(A) tail. To stimulate degradation, the poly(A) element must be located at the 3′ terminus of the RNA. Finally, we demonstrate that degradation of polyadenylated RNAs occurs in the 3′ to 5′ direction through the action of a hydrolytic exonuclease. These experiments demonstrate that the poly(A) tail can act as a cis-acting element to facilitate degradation of T. brucei mitochondrial mRNAs.
Continuously Parameterized Symmetries and Buchberger's Algorithm

Systems of polynomial equations often have symmetries. In solving such a system using Buchberger? s algorithm, the symmetries are neglected. Incorporating symmetries into the solution process enables us to solve larger problems than with Buchberger? s algorithm alone. This paper presents a method that shows how this can be achieved and also gives an algorithm that brings together continuously parameterized symmetries with Buchberger? s algorithm.
High-Frequency Reversion of Geminivirus Replication Protein Mutants during Infection

ABSTRACT The geminivirus replication protein AL1 interacts with retinoblastoma-related protein (RBR), a key regulator of the plant division cell cycle, to induce conditions permissive for viral DNA replication. Previous studies of tomato golden mosaic virus (TGMV) AL1 showed that amino acid L148 in the conserved helix 4 motif is critical for RBR binding. In this work, we examined the effect of an L148V mutation on TGMV replication in tobacco cells and during infection of Nicotiana benthamiana plants. The L148V mutant replicated 100 times less efficiently than wild-type TGMV in protoplasts but produced severe symptoms that were delayed compared to those of wild-type infection in plants. Analysis of progeny viruses revealed that the L148V mutation reverted at 100% frequency in planta to methionine, leucine, isoleucine, or a second-site mutation depending on the valine codon in the initial DNA sequence. Similar results were seen with another geminivirus, cabbage leaf curl virus (CaLCuV), carrying an L145A mutation in the equivalent residue. Valine was the predominant amino acid recovered from N. benthamiana plants inoculated with the CaLCuV L145A mutant, while threonine was the major residue in Arabidopsis thaliana plants. Together, these data demonstrated that there is strong selection for reversion of the TGMV L148V and CaLCuV L145A mutations but that the nature of the selected revertants is influenced by both the viral background and host components. These data also suggested that high mutation rates contribute to the rapid evolution of geminivirus genomes in plants.
An Interactive Visualisation Interface for Virtual Museums

Cultural institutions, such as museums are particularly interested in making their collections accessible to people with physical disabilities. New technologies, such as Web3D and augmented reality (AR) can aid museums to respond to this challenge by building virtual museums accessible over the Internet or through kiosks located in accessible places within the museum. In this paper, we propose a prototype user-friendly visualisation interface that uses Web3D and AR techniques to visualise cultural heritage artefacts for virtual museum exhibitions. User interactions within the virtual museum are performed in an effective way with the help of assistive technology, so that users can feel completely related with the virtual museum artefacts and so benefit in terms of education and entertainment.
Problems Facing Group Membership Specifications for X-by-Wire Protocols

A guarantee is only as good as its assumptions. Three group membership areas defy firm, practical guarantees: transient faults, reintegration, and large groups. We show why these areas are problematic, discuss current approaches, and illustrate alternative approaches that may lead to a more dependable system. Ultimately, designs should be tested against a comprehensive fault model, and a probabilistic analysis cannot be avoided.
User Preference Profiling Based on Speech Recognition for Personalized Recommendation

In this paper, we propose a user preference profiling method with speech recognized information for personalized recommendation. Advances in speech recognition technology enable it to be widely incorporated in native application of several operating systems, and also be deployed as Web service application program interface. The accuracy of recognition is high and has shown good performance, however, it is not perfect at 100% yet. With the aim of realizing a personalized recommender system based on a user's preference, we have designed and implemented a profiling method utilizing a user's preferred terms. These important terms are extracted based on a user's browsing behavior. In this study, we extend our method to refine the result of speech recognition and automatically incorporate it into a user preference term database for profiling purpose. By means of several experiments using our prototype, we show the feasibility of our proposed method.
Molecular identification, genotyping, and antifungal susceptibility testing of clinically relevant Trichosporon species from Argentina.

Trichosporon species are emerging causative agents of mycoses; most are documented in immunocompromised patients. Species identification is important for epidemiological purposes in order to better define species clinical associations and to improve antifungal treatment. Here, we studied a collection of 41 Trichosporon strains recovered from hospitalized patients in Argentina. All strains were identified by sequencing the D1/D2 domain of 26S, internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions, and intergenic spacer 1 (IGS1) region. In addition, we determined the IGS1 region genotypes of the suspected T. asahii strains. Antifungal susceptibility of all strains was investigated. Thirty-eight of the 41 strains in this study were identified as follows: 29 T. asahii, 3 T. inkin, 3 T. montevideense, 2 T. faecale, and 1 T. dermatis. The identity of the three remaining strains could not be confirmed. Strain DMic 114126 (Culture collection of the Mycology Department (DMic), National Institute of Infectious Diseases "Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán". ) may represent a T. asahii subspecies or a new Trichosporon species, strain DMic 94750 was identified as T. cf. guehoae and strain DMic 114132 as T. cf. akiyoshidainum. The distribution of T. asahii genotypes was as follows: 12 genotype 3, 9 genotype 1, 4 genotype 4, 2 genotype 5, and 2 genotype 7. Amphotericin B minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were ≤1 mg/l for 78% (32/41) of the strains. Fluconazole MICs were ≥2 mg/l for 90% of the strains. However, itraconazole, voriconazole, ketoconazole, and posaconazole MICs were ≤1 mg/l for 100% of the strains. Terbinafine MICs were ≤1 mg/l for 98% 40/41 of the strains.
3 D TERRAIN RECONSTRUCTION BASED ON COMPOUND TECHNIQUES

Digital Elevation Models (DEM) produced by digital photogrammetry workstations supply important information on land form for cartographers and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) developers and users. Since the accuracy of maps, orthophotographs and GIS databases must be within a specified range for appropriate analysis of the information and subsequent decision making, an accurate DEM is needed. Current image matching methods for DEM determination only supply a Digital Surface Model (DSM). This means that matching may not occur on the terrain surface, but on the tops of man-made objects such as houses, or on the top of the vegetation. Hence the assumption, that the elevations comprised within a DEM refer to the terrain surface, is incorrect. A 3D terrain reconstruction method using compound techniques is proposed, which will determine terrain elevations more accurately from overlapping digital aerial images and satellite images. It combines image analysis and image matching methods and hence overcomes errors in the DEM caused by matching on tops of trees or man-made objects.
A genetic algorithm for training recognizers of latent abnormal behavior of dynamic systems

We consider the problem of automatic construction of algorithms for recognition of abnormal behavior segments in phase trajectories of dynamic systems. The recognition algorithm is trained on a set of trajectories containing normal and abnormal behavior of the system. The exact position of segments corresponding to abnormal behavior in the trajectories of the training set is unknown. To construct recognition algorithm, we use axiomatic approach to abnormal behavior recognition. In this paper we propose a novel two-stage training algorithm which uses ideas of unsupervised learning and evolutonary computation. The results of experimental evaluation of the proposed algorithm and its variations on synthetic data show statistically significant increase in recognition quality for the recognizers constructed by the proposed algorithm compared to the existing training algorithm.
Targeting Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition with Met Inhibitors Reverts Chemoresistance in Small Cell Lung Cancer

Purpose: Met receptor phosphorylation is associated with poor prognosis in human small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The aim of our work was to investigate the effects of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/Met–mediated epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in SCLC and to evaluate the role of Met inhibition in mesenchymal/chemorefractory SCLC models. Experimental Design: SCLC models of HGF-induced EMT were evaluated in vitro and in vivo (subcutaneous xenografts in BALB/c nude mice) for chemosensitivity and response to Met inhibition with PF-2341066 (crizotinib). Human SCLC samples at diagnosis (N = 87) and relapse (N = 5) were evaluated by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence for EMT markers and Met status and these were correlated with patient outcome. Results: We identified that the activation of the Met receptor through HGF induced expression of mesenchymal markers, an aggressive phenotype, and chemoresistance. Blockade of this process with the Met inhibitor resensitized cells to chemotherapy in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, mesenchymal markers in human SCLC specimens were associated with Met activation, predicted worse survival, and were upregulated in chemorefractory disease. Conclusion: These results provide novel evidence on an important role of Met-dependent EMT in the adverse clinical behavior of SCLC and support clinical trials of Met inhibitors and chemotherapy in this fatal disease. Clin Cancer Res; 20(4); 938–50. ©2013 AACR.
Madgets: actuating widgets on interactive tabletops

We present a system for the actuation of tangible magnetic widgets (Madgets) on interactive tabletops. Our system combines electromagnetic actuation with fiber optic tracking to move and operate physical controls. The presented mechanism supports actuating complex tangibles that consist of multiple parts. A grid of optical fibers transmits marker positions past our actuation hardware to cameras below the table. We introduce a visual tracking algorithm that is able to detect objects and touches from the strongly sub-sampled video input of that grid. Six sample Madgets illustrate the capabilities of our approach, ranging from tangential movement and height actuation to inductive power transfer. Madgets combine the benefits of passive, untethered, and translucent tangibles with the ability to actuate them with multiple degrees of freedom.
International trade, minimum quality standards and the prisoners' dilemma

Unilateral minimum quality standards are endogenously determined as the outcome of a non-cooperative standard-setting game between the governments of two countries. Cross-country externalities from the implementation of minimum quality standards are shown to give rise to a Prisoners' Dilemma structure in the incentives of policy-makers leading to inefficient policy outcomes. The role of minimum quality standards as non-tariff barriers is examined and the scope for mutual gains from reciprocal adjustment in minimum standards analysed. The analysis delivers four results. First, there exist four unregulated Nash equilibria in minimum standards, two symmetric and two asymmetric, depending on the quality ranking of firms in each market. The analysis establishes that in all four cases, unilaterally selected minimum quality standards are inefficient as a result of cross-country externalities. Second, minimum quality standards are shown to operate as non-tariff barriers to trade. Third, the world welfare maximising symmetric standard can be reached through reciprocal adjustments in national minimum standards from either of the two symmetric Nash equilibria. Finally, the scope for mutually beneficial cooperation is shown to be significantly restricted when cross-country externalities are asymmetric. Asymmetric externalities make a cooperative agreement at the world optimum infeasible.
Bayesian source separation for reference function determination in fMRI

In analyzing fMRI results, identification of significant activation in voxels is a crucial task. A standard method selects a “known” reference function and performs a regression of the time courses on it and a linear trend. Once the linear trend is found, the correlation between the assumed to be known reference function and the detrended observed time‐course in each voxel is computed. But the most important question is: How does one choose the reference function? Here, a Bayesian source separation approach to determining the underlying reference function is described and applied to real fMRI data. This underlying reference function is the unobserved response due to the presentation of the experimental stimulus. Magn Reson Med 46:374–378, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Combined speech and speaker recognition with speaker-adapted connectionist models

One approach to speaker adaptation for the neural-network acoustic models of a hybrid connectionist-HMM speech recognizer is to adapt a speaker-independent network by performing a small amount of additional training using data from the target speaker, giving an acoustic model specifically tuned to that speaker. This adapted model might be useful for speaker recognition too, especially since state-of-the-art speaker recognition typically performs a speech-recognition labelling of the input speech as a first stage. However, in order to exploit the discriminant nature of the neural nets, it is better to train a single model to discriminate both between the different phone classes (as in conventional speech recognition) and between the target speaker and the ‘rest of the world’ (a common approach to speaker recognition). We present the results of using such an approach for a set of 12 speakers selected from the DARPA/NIST Broadcast News corpus. The speaker-adapted nets showed a 17% relative improvement in worderror rate on their target speakers, and were able to identify among the 12 speakers with an average equal-error rate of 6.6%.
Supporting the Extraction of Timed Properties for Passive Testing by Using Probabilistic User Models

Testing is one of the most widely used techniques to increase the quality and reliability of complex software systems. In this paper we extend our previous work on passive testing with invariants to incorporate (probabilistic) knowledge obtained from users of the system under test. In order to apply our technique, we need to obtain a set of invariants compiling the relevant properties of the system under test, and this is a time-intensive task. We present a novel approach to extract invariants from a specification, based on the idea that an invariant is better than another one if it can be checked more times in a given log. We present a formal approach where probabilistic user models are incorporated.
SPINS: Security Protocols for Sensor Networks

Sensor network is a dominant technology among different wireless communication technologies due to its great deal of efficiency. Security is the critical issue for every types of network whether it is sensor networks or other networks. So far, many of the researchers have thought to physically implement the sensor nodes and sensor networks but their work was not enough to create any valuable security for different communicating devices during communication processes.This paper presents a model that works on SPINS security building blocks because Sensor network works in very resource constraint environment and only SPINS security protocol can fulfill those requirements of the proposed model. SPINS provides two security building blocks, SNEP and µTESLA. This model presents some unique processing units features such as Beacon message, Data controller unit etc. This security model is best to achieve targets but main issue in sensor network is still not solved about the management of power (short battery life), computation overhead and low storage capacity of memory. The proposed model scenarios have been simulated in QualNet 4.5.
STUDY OF THE SPECTRAL AND TEMPORAL CHARACTERISTICS OF X-RAY EMISSION OF THE GAMMA-RAY BINARY LS 5039 WITH SUZAKU

We report on the results from Suzaku broadband X-ray observations of the galactic binary source LS 5039. The Suzaku data, which have continuous coverage of more than one orbital period, show strong modulation of the X-ray emission at the orbital period of this TeV gamma-ray emitting system. The X-ray emission shows a minimum at orbital phase ∼0.1, close to the so-called superior conjunction of the compact object, and a maximum at phase ∼0.7, very close to the inferior conjunction of the compact object. The X-ray spectral data up to 70 keV are described by a hard power law with a phase-dependent photon index which varies within Γ ≃ 1.45– 1.61. The amplitude of the flux variation is a factor of 2.5, but is significantly less than that of the factor ∼8 variation in the TeV flux. Otherwise the two light curves are similar, but not identical. Although periodic X-ray emission has been found from many galactic binary systems, the Suzaku result implies a phenomenon different from the “standard” origin of X-rays related to the emission of the hot accretion plasma formed around the compact companion object. The X-ray radiation of LS 5039 is likely to be linked to very high energy electrons which are also responsible for the TeV gamma-ray emission. While the gamma rays are the result of inverse Compton (IC) scattering by electrons on optical stellar photons, X-rays are produced via synchrotron radiation. Yet, while the modulation of the TeV gamma-ray signal can be naturally explained by the photon–photon pair production and anisotropic IC scattering, the observed modulation of synchrotron X-rays requires an additional process, the most natural one being adiabatic expansion in the radiation production region.
Modelling of factors influencing gender difference in mathematics achievement using TIMSS 2011 data for Singaporean eighth grade students

Abstract Numerous studies have attributed gender difference in mathematics achievement to various sociocultural influences. Singapore is a country of higher gender equality as represented in the Global Gender Gap Index and Singaporean girls perform as well or higher than boys in international mathematics assessments. This study develops a conceptual model to examine the relationship and effects of parental involvement in education, teacher efficacy, and students’ attitudes towards mathematics on mathematics achievement for Singaporean eighth grade students using Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011 data. The study finds that there is no significant gender difference in parental involvement in education and teacher efficacy and there is no gender difference in the attitude of like learning mathematics among Singaporean eighth grade students. The attitude of confidence in mathematics has positive and significant effect on mathematics achievement and the effect is greater for girls than boys. Parental involvement in education and teacher efficacy were found to have greater effect on girls’ confidence in mathematics than on boys’. As such, increasing involvement in mathematics education and providing positive reinforcement to raise girls’ self-confidence in mathematics by parents and teachers should be an integral part of any initiative to reduce gender gap in mathematics achievement.