Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A robust facial landmark detection method in multi-views

Facial landmark detection is a vital step in face recognition. Current facial landmark detection methods have not obtained the satisfied results to handle multi-view face images. In this paper, we propose a Multi-ESR method based on Explicit Shape Regression method, in which different ESR models are trained in different views. Furthermore, a simple and effective method to estimate the head pose is also described, the estimation result is used in Multi-ESR to choose the corresponding model. Experimental results show the proposed method yielding better performance comparing to the state-of-art methods handling multi-view face images.
Professional tennis is getting older: Age for the top 100 ranked tennis players

The aim of this investigation was to determine age-related factors of the top 100 ranked men and women tennis players over the last few decades. The birth date and the ranking position of 1,040 top-100 tennis players (647 men and 393 women) were obtained from official public websites. The mean age of top 100 male tennis players increased significantly from 1984 to 2013 (24.6 ± 3.9 to 27.6 ± 3.2 yr; P < 0.01) and it was also observed in female tennis players from 1998 to 2013 (23.5 ± 3.5 to 24.8 ± 4.2 yr; P < 0.01). On average, a top 100 ranking was reached earlier in women than in men (21.6 ± 3.4 vs 22.8 ± 3.1 yr; P < 0.05). Peak performance was also attained significantly earlier in women than in men (23.6 ± 3.5 vs 24.8 ± 2.9 yr; P < 0.01). Nevertheless, men remained in the top 100 ranking for a slightly longer period than women (4.1 ± 3.1 and 4.6 ± 3.8 yr; P < 0.01). These data indicate a movement towards older ages in top 100 women and men tennis players. This information might be useful for developing process/plans towards longer-term careers.
Smartphone based indoor tracking using magnetic and indoor maps

Tracking target user's indoor location with sub meter accuracy using low cost or no infrastructure is an active research topic. Indoor localization uses short range signals like WiFi, radio, ultrasound or Bluetooth signals that are affected by multipath errors and human presence. Recent studies have used stable magnetic field maps along with inertial sensors for indoor localization. In this paper, we propose a method that uses inertial sensors, magnetic field maps and indoor maps in a particle filter based implementation to improve accuracy of localization and tracking. Our method uses gradient descent algorithm to correct inaccurate user heading direction estimates due to magnetic perturbations. The tracking performance of our method is tested for four different implementations of Particle filter algorithm using magnetic maps (magnitude or vector) with and without indoor maps. We have developed an Android application to implement these four approaches and performed several experiments in a test area. The best approach out of these four achieves a mean localization accuracy of 0.75 m with a standard deviation of 0.52 m.
Under Consideration for Publication in J. Functional Programming Outsidein(x) Modular Type Inference with Local Assumptions

Advanced type system features, such as GADTs, type classes, and type families, have proven to be invaluable language extensions for ensuring data invariants and program correctness. Unfortunately, they pose a tough problem for type inference when they are used as local type assumptions. Local type assumptions often result in the lack of principal types and cast the generalisation of local let-bindings prohibitively difficult to implement and specify. User-declared axioms only make this situation worse. In this article, we explain the problems and – perhaps controversially – argue for abandoning local let-binding generalisation. We give empirical results that local let generalisation is only sporadically used by Haskell programmers. Moving on, we present a novel constraint-based type inference approach for local type assumptions. Our system, called OutsideIn(X), is parameterised over the particular underlying constraint domain X, in the same way as HM(X). This stratification allows us to use a common metatheory and inference algorithm. OutsideIn(X) extends the constraints of X by introducing implication constraints on top. We describe the strategy for solving these implication constraints, which in turn relies on a constraint solver for X. We char-acterise the properties of the constraint solver for X so that the resulting algorithm only accepts programs with principal types, even when the type system specification accepts programs that do not enjoy principal types. Going beyond the general framework we give a particular constraint solver for X = type classes + GADTs + type families, a non-trivial challenge in its own right. This constraint solver has been implemented and distributed as part of GHC 7.
Dense body part trajectories for human action recognition

Several techniques have been proposed for human action recognition from videos. It has been observed that incorporating mid-level viz. human body and/or high-level information viz. pose estimation in the computation of low-level features viz. trajectories yields the best performance in action recognition where full body is presumed. However, in datasets with a large number of classes, where the full body may not be visible at all times, incorporating such mid- and high-level information is unexplored. Moreover, changes and developments in any stage will require a recompute of all low-level features. We decouple mid-level and low-level feature computation and study on benchmark action recognition datasets such as UCF50, UCF101 and HMDB51, containing the largest number of action classes to date. Further, we employ a part-based model for human body part detection in frames statically, thus also investigating classes where the full body is not present. We also track dense regions around the detected human body parts by Hungarian particle linking, thus minimising most of the wrongly detected body parts and enriching the mid-level information.
Bayesian Clustering and Model Exploration

The arrival of longitudinal microarray data in biology demands the development of new types of clustering algorithms. Clustering is required over tens of thousands of time series (gene expression profiles) with perhaps only ten time points. Further, the experiments are designed to determine which genes exhibit a particular qualitative structure: we shall focus on circadian genes. An alternative to clustering over points in Euclidean space is thus needed. We modify a recent Bayesian clustering algorithm to address these issues. This adaptation employs the posterior distributions of the parameters in the Bayesian models. These were originally used to score cluster partitions. We propose their utility in categorising interesting clusters and then enlist this classification in a more effective and efficient search of the vast space of possible partitions. These methods are applicable to the clustering of any time series data.
STBC CDMA System Simulation in MIMO Channels with Correlative Model

In this contribution, Space-Time Block Coding (STBC) Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system is simulated to investigate the effect of spatial correlation of Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless channels. In practical situations the MIMO antennas are spatially correlated, due to the lack of spacing between them or weak scattering. The correlative model is considered for MIMO channel and simulation results declare that spatial correlation degrades the performance of STBC CDMA system. However, having some information about the channel of each active user at the transmitter, a linear precoder can be exploited, in conjunction with the coding block, to mitigate the effect of correlation in multiuser system which has not been addressed before. In order to design this precoder, the equations of STBC CDMA system, are reconfigured in this paper. Simulation results illustrate that despite the number of interfering users, the anti-correlation precoder could mitigate the performance degradation produced in correlative model.
Report of a Korean Patient with Cystic Fibrosis, Carrying Q98R and Q220X Mutations in the CFTR Gene

Although cystic fibrosis (CF) is one of the most frequently seen autosomal-recessive disorders in Caucasians, it is extremely rare in the Korean population. Recently, a 15-yr-old Korean boy was admitted to our hospital complaining of coughing, sputum, and exertional dyspnea. Chest radiographs and computed tomographic chest and paranasal sinus scans revealed diffuse bronchiectasis and pansinusitis. Pulmonary function tests revealed severe obstructive impairment. The average sweat chloride concentrations on both of the patients' forearms were 63.0 mM/L (reference limit: <40 mM/L). Upon mutation analysis, two different mutations (Q98R and Q220X) were identified in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene, both of which had been previously detected in CF patients, one from France and the other from England. As CF is quite rare in Korea, the diagnosis of CF in this patient might be delayed. Therefore, we recommend that a diagnosis of CF should be suspected in patients exhibiting unexplained chronic respiratory symptoms.
Biotechnologically Relevant Enzymes and Proteins

A family 5 β-mannanase from the thermophilic fungus Thielavia arenaria XZ7 with typical thermophilic enzyme features Abstract A novel β-mannanase gene, man5XZ7, was cloned from thermophilic fungus Thielavia arenaria XZ7, and successfully expressed in Pichia pastoris. The gene (1,110 bp) encodes a 369-amino acid polypeptide with a molecular mass of approximately 40.8 kDa. The deduced sequence of Man5XZ7 consists of a putative 17-residue signal peptide and a catalytic module belonging to glycoside hydrolase (GH) family 5, and displays 76 % identity with the experimentally verified GH 5 endo-β-1,4-mannanase from Podospora anserina. Recombinant Man5XZ7 was optimally active at 75 °C and pH5.0 and exhibited high activity at a wide temperature range (>50.0 % activity at 50–85 °C). Moreover, it had good adaptability to acidic to basic pH (>74.1 % activity at pH4.0–7.0 and 25.6 % even at pH9.0) and good stability from pH3.0 to 10.0. These enzymatic properties showed that Man5XZ7 was a new thermophilic and alkali-tolerant β-mannanase. Further amino acid composition analysis indicated that Man5XZ7 has several characteristic features of thermophilic enzymes.
Race, Age, and Obesity Disparities in Adult Physical Activity Levels in Breast Cancer Patients And Controls

Physical activity has been shown to be inversely associated with breast cancer recurrence and survival. Although physical activity is known to decline with age, rates of change in physical activity have not been well characterized in breast cancer patients and subgroups with known disparities in breast cancer survival, especially in minorities, the elderly, and the obese. We evaluated moderate and strenuous physical activity from high school through diagnosis in 1,220 breast cancer patients, and from high school to recruitment in 935 controls. We compared the proportion of patients and controls meeting the American Cancer Society (ACS) guidelines for physical activity and differences in declines in level of physical activity by race, age, and obesity. At diagnosis, only 33.2% of breast cancer patients met the ACS physical activity guidelines. Only 13.2, 24.7, and 30.5% of African-American (AA), obese, and older (≥65 years) patients met the guidelines, respectively. Controls showed slightly higher rates, with 36.4% overall, 23.7% of AA, 29.0% of obese, and 32.4% of older women meeting the guidelines. AA patients were less likely to meet guidelines compared to White patients (p < 0.0001). Obese patients were less likely to meet guidelines compared to non-obese (p < 0.0001). We found that both moderate and strenuous physical activity declined after high school in patients and controls. AA patients reported steeper declines in strenuous (p = 0.0027), and total (p = 0.0009) physical activity compared to Whites. Obese patients reported steeper declines in total physical activity compared to non-obese (p = 0.022). Differences in average slopes of declines in physical activity were not observed by age. Our results suggest that strategies and programs to encourage women to maintain recommended levels of physical activity after high school are needed. Furthermore, breast cancer patients, particularly AA and obese patients, should be targeted to help reduce disparities.
Effect of Frequent Clipping on the Development of Roots and Tops of Grasses in Prairie Sod

A study has been made of the regeneration of bluestem grasses in exclosures in continuously grazed native pastures. The persistence of remnants of the bunches or mats of sod in old pastures for a long period of years is of interest, as is also their gradual but slow rate of recovery under protection when they are greatly weakened. Even in low, fertile, well watered soil, a period of three or four years must elapse before such species as Andropogon furcatus and SorghastriUm nittans produce the usual abundance of flowers stalks and large quantities of viable seed. The first summer only a poor growth of scattered foliage outlines in a fragmentary manner the location of the underground parts that have been thoroughly weakened by continuous depletion of their food supplies. A second growing season shows a marked filling in of the sodded areas or clumps and about half the normal productionl of foliage. During the third summer the area is further extended and at least a few flower stalks and some seed are usually produced. During this process of recovery it was repeatedly noticed that these grasses were much more subject to wilting than were similar species in adjacent areas that had not been grazed. The leaves would roll or fold and many of the lower ones dry and lose their green color. The evidence pointed clearly to a meager or inefficient root system. The quantitative development of roots or their degree of deterioration is difficult to study under field conditions because of the labor involved in separating the living rhizomes and fibrous roots from those that are dead and from partially decomposed fragments of leaves, etc., intermixed with them. Earlier experiments where blocks of sod were transplanted showed that new roots were rapidly developed (Clements and Wleaver, '24). Hence it was decided to select representative samples of the several most important native grasses, cut out blocks of soil containing them, and transplant these into large containers filled with soil free from roots and debris. One lot of each was to be clipped at I4-day intervals and the duplicates were to be grown as controls. Grazing is a more or less destructive process since it periodically removes much of the photosynthetic area of the plants and an abrupt decrease in the photosynthetic activity causes a corresponding decrease in the growth of the
Genome-wide identification of microRNAs and their targets in wild type and phyB mutant provides a key link between microRNAs and the phyB-mediated light signaling pathway in rice

Phytochrome B (phyB), a member of the phytochrome family in rice, plays important roles in regulating a range of developmental processes and stress responses. However, little information about the mechanisms involved in the phyB-mediated light signaling pathway has been reported in rice. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) also perform important roles in plant development and stress responses. Thus, it is intriguing to explore the role of miRNAs in the phyB-mediated light signaling pathway in rice. In this study, comparative high-throughput sequencing and degradome analysis were used to identify candidate miRNAs and their targets that participate in the phyB-mediated light signaling pathway. A total of 720 known miRNAs, 704 novel miRNAs and 1957 target genes were identified from the fourth leaves of wild-type (WT) and phyB mutant rice at the five-leaf stage. Among them, 135 miRNAs showed differential expression, suggesting that the expression of these miRNAs is directly or indirectly under the control of phyB. In addition, 32 out of the 135 differentially expressed miRNAs were found to slice 70 genes in the rice genome. Analysis of these target genes showed that members of various transcription factor families constituted the largest proportion, indicating miRNAs are probably involved in the phyB-mediated light signaling pathway mainly by regulating the expression of transcription factors. Our results provide new clues for functional characterization of miRNAs in the phyB-mediated light signaling pathway, which should be helpful in comprehensively uncovering the molecular mechanisms of phytochrome-mediated photomorphogenesis and stress responses in plants.
Expert problem solving strategies for program comprehension

Program comprehension is a complex problem solving process. We report on an experiment that studies expert programmers’ comprehension behavior in the context of modifying a complex PASCAL program. Our data suggests that program comprehension is best understood as a goal– oriented, hypotheses-driven problem–solving process. Programmers follow a pragmatic as-needed rather than a systematic strategy, they restrict their understanding to those parts of a program they find relevant for a given task, and they use bottom-up comprehension only for directly relevant code and in cases of missing, insufficient, or failing hypotheses. These findings have important consequences for the design of cognitively adequate computer–aided software engineering tools.
Optimal release strategies for biological control agents: an application of stochastic dynamic programming to population management

1. Establishing biological control agents in the field is a major step in any classical biocontrol programme, yet there are few general guidelines to help the practitioner decide what factors might enhance the establishment of such agents. 2. A stochastic dynamic programming (SDP) approach, linked to a metapopulation model, was used to find optimal release strategies (number and size of releases), given constraints on time and the number of biocontrol agents available. By modelling within a decision-making framework we derived rules of thumb that will enable biocontrol workers to choose between management options, depending on the current state of the system. 3. When there are few well-established sites, making a few large releases is the optimal strategy. For other states of the system, the optimal strategy ranges from a few large releases, through a mixed strategy (a variety of release sizes), to many small releases, as the probability of establishment of smaller inocula increases. 4. Given that the probability of establishment is rarely a known entity, we also strongly recommend a mixed strategy in the early stages of a release programme, to accelerate learning and improve the chances of finding the optimal approach.
DTN gateway design and semi-physical simulation based on OPNET

Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) is an approach applied to computer network architecture to address the technical issues in heterogeneous networks that may lack continuous network connectivity. Examples of these networks are those operating in the mobile or extreme terrestrial environments, or planned networks in space. In this paper, we optimize the implementation of DTN gateway and tested with the Video-On-Demand service (VLC). The whole process is in the semi-physical simulation scenario that we built based on OPNET. Our test results show that the DTN gateway has a good adaptability for the real data stream.
Planning on demand in BDI systems

The primary goals and contributions of our work are: 1)incorporating planning at specific points in a BDI application,on an as needed basis, under control of the programmer;2) planning using only limited subsets of the application,making the planning more efficient, and; 3) incorporating the plan generated back into the BDI system, for regular BDI execution, identifying plan steps that could be pursued in parallel.
A Distributed Interoffice Mail System

ty of electronic inter_ multimedia documents , graphics, images, and e is playing an important lining office procedures oping integrated office syswide variety of systems, such ronic mail and computer-based ge systems, is now available, eng document processing in distribdenvironments. However, for dese systems to realize their full potential as effective office facilities, they must provide a variety ofunified document-processing functions, including composing, editing, filing, retrieving, and transmitting, as well as multimedia document handling. This article presents an experimental mail system in which computer-based integration of office procedures is achieved in terms of the documentprocessing functions and the information media supported. Interoffice document exchange is based on an office communication architecture with a two-layered structure: the Information Interchange Architecture, or IIA, and the Information Content Architecture, or ICA.1'2 The IIA defines an office system model of distributed en-
A theoretical basis for brain waves with implications for a large scale integration required for cognitive processes

We propose a theoretical framework for EEG and MEG based on transmission line model and cortical network activity. Using known properties of forward and backward propagating waves, an electromagnetic-physiological theory of “brain waves” based on known (but highly idealized) properties of synaptic action has been formulated which could potentially account for some experimental findings as well as can predict several salient features. We conjecture that brain waves can be treated as “Bloch waves” which may provide an important mechanism for a large scale integration required between the constantly interacting areas of the brain.
Azilsartan Improves Salt Sensitivity by Modulating the Proximal Tubular Na+-H+ Exchanger-3 in Mice

A potent angiotensin II type-1 receptor blocker, azilsartan, has been reported to reduce blood pressure more effectively than candesartan. Interestingly, azilsartan can also restore the circadian rhythm of blood pressure. We hypothesized that azilsartan could also improve salt sensitivity; thus, we examined the effect of azilsartan on sodium handling in renal tubules. Subtotal nephrectomized C57BL/6 mice received azilsartan (1.0 mg/kg/day), candesartan (0.3 mg/kg/day), or vehicle via the oral route in conjunction with a normal- (0.3%) or high-salt (8.0%) diet. Two weeks later, the azilsartan group showed significantly lower blood pressure during the light period than the candesartan and vehicle groups (azilsartan: 103.1 ± 1.0; candesartan: 111.7 ± 2.7; vehicle: 125.5 ± 2.5 mmHg; P < 0.05; azilsartan or candesartan vs. vehicle). The azilsartan group also showed higher urinary fractional excretion of sodium during the dark period than the candesartan and vehicle groups (azilsartan: 21.37 ± 3.69%; candesartan: 14.17 ± 1.42%; vehicle: 13.85 ± 5.30%; P < 0.05 azilsartan vs. candesartan or vehicle). A pressure—natriuresis curve demonstrated that azilsartan treatment restored salt sensitivity. Immunofluorescence and western blotting showed lower levels of Na+-H+ exchanger-3 (NHE3) protein (the major sodium transporter in renal proximal tubules) in the azilsartan group, but not in the candesartan or vehicle groups. However, azilsartan did not affect NHE3 transcription levels. Interestingly, we did not observe increased expression of downstream sodium transporters, which would have compensated for the increased flow of sodium and water due to non-absorption by NHE3. We also confirmed the mechanism stated above using cultured opossum kidney proximal tubular cells. Results revealed that a proteasomal inhibitor (but not a lysosomal inhibitor) blocked the azilsartan-induced decrease in NHE3 protein expression, suggesting that azilsartan increases NHE3 ubiquitination. In conclusion, azilsartan (but not candesartan) improved salt sensitivity possibly by decreasing NHE3 expression via ubiquitin—proteasomal degradation.