Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Simple Method to Animate Vegetation in Images Using Simulation-Guided Grid-Based Warping

In this paper, we propose a simple method to animate vegetation in images. The proposed method enables users to interactively animate vegetation in real-time. It can be used to enhance a vegetation photograph or painting with animated motions as well as to help animators to create cartoon animation of vegetation. Our method is suitable for simulating vegetation-wind interaction for a dense vegetation field which exhibit non-rigid property, especially in cartoon style images. In our method, wind field is modeled using fluid simulation. We adopt a harmonic oscillator based on wave simulation as the numerical model for the dynamics of vegetation. The velocity generated from the wind field is used to drive the wave simulation to determine the velocity of vegetation. Based on the velocity of vegetation, we employ a grid-based warping approach to animate different types of vegetation such as grass and trees. As a result, for vegetation in images, we can simulate grass and trees swaying in wind as well as under water plants swaying in water. Our method can produce natural-looking output motions comparable with real cartoons. Users can interactively control the location of the source, direction and strength of the wind or water flow and the property of vegetation on the fly.
Robust group sparse representation via half-quadratic optimization for face recognition

Sparse representation-based classifier (SRC), which represents a test sample with a linear combination of training samples, has shown promise in pattern classification. However, there are two shortcomings in SRC: (1) the ℓ1-norm used to measure the reconstruction fidelity is noise-sensitive and (2) the ℓ2-norm induced sparsity did not consider the correlation among the training samples. Furthermore, in real applications, face images with similar variations, such as illumination or expression, often have higher correlation than those from the same subject. Therefore, we propose to improve the performance of SRC from two aspects: (1) replace the noise-sensitive ℓ2-norm with an M-estimator to enhance its robustness and (2) emphasize the sparsity of the number of classes instead of the number of training samples, which leads to the group sparsity. The proposed robust group sparse representation (RGSR) can be efficiently optimized via alternating minimization under the Half-Quadratic (HQ) framework. Extensive experiments on representative face data sets show that RGSR can achieve competitive performance in face recognition and outperforms several state-of-the-art methods in dealing with various types of noise such as corruption, occlusion and disguise.
Fuzzy model for assessment of causality of factors

Is devoted to the study of models of the causality of factors in socio-economic systems and processes. The author suggests a study of the causality of factors based on the theory of fuzzy binary relations using the mathematical apparatus of fuzzy implication (according to Goguen J.). As an example, the impact of corporate culture indicators on key performance indicators of the organization is given.
Social Media Marketing – from Tool to Capability

Abstract Whereas the application of social media marketing has been trending in business, the theoretical research that analyses the phenomenon of social media marketing is to some extent lagging behind. In practice, social media marketing is often viewed as a customer relationship management (CRM) tool or technique and not as a capability. This paper builds on the theories of the resourced-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities to explore the concept of social media marketing capability. The aim of this paper is to redefine the phenomenon of social media marketing capability and to contribute to the existing literature. In addition, it urges firms to look into social media marketing not only as a tool or technique, but also as an organizational capability.
Sell-Side Debt Analysts and Debt Market Efficiency

We explore sell-side debt analysts’ contributions to the efficiency of securities markets. We document that debt returns lag equity returns less when debt research coverage exists, consistent with debt analysts facilitating the process by which available information is impounded in debt prices. The effect is incremental to, but comparable in magnitude to, hedge fund ownership’s effect. No such effect exists for credit rating agencies. We also find that the dissemination of debt reports has an immediate effect on return volatility in both markets, consistent with debt analysts providing new information to securities markets. Increased return covariation suggests that this information impacts the pricing of debt and equity in the same direction. A large percentage of debt reports do not induce any immediate debt market return reaction but do induce an equity return reaction, consistent with new information being provided despite the absence of a debt market reaction. Finally, there is systematic variation in the debt market’s trading and return reactions to debt research. Timely reports and those by high-reputation brokers induce a quicker trading response, thus enhancing liquidity, while only timely reports induce a greater return response. This study illuminates the institutional underpinnings of debt market efficiency, and it has important implications for information content tests in the debt market, where trading is limited.
An Ontological Analysis of the ISO/IEC 24744 Metamodel

This paper presents an ontological analysis of the Software Engineering Metamodel for Development Methodologies (SEMDM), provided by the ISO/IEC 24744 Standard. An ISO initiative intends to use SEMDM as source of an ontology for standards harmonization purposes, and the ontological analysis can help to ensure the required semantics. This analysis is done in the light of the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO). As result, we present some of the problems identified in SEMDM, as well as alternative model fragments solving them.
ACTIONS OF VARIOUS MUSCARINIC AGONISTS ON MEMBRANE POTENTIAL, POTASSIUM EFFLUX, AND CONTRACTION OF LONGITUDINAL MUSCLE OF GUINEA‐PIG INTESTINE

1 Depolarizations were recorded intracellularly in smooth muscle from the taenia of the guinea‐pig caecum in response to the iontophoretic application of acetylcholine, carbachol, oxotremorine‐M, methylfurmethide, hexyl trimethylammonium and tetramethylammonium (TMA). 2 No differences between the iontophoretic responses to agonists stable to cholinesterase were detected. 3 The latency and time to peak of acetylcholine‐induced depolarizations were less than those to stable agonists, and the response was briefer and less complex in shape. These differences were reduced, or disappeared, upon inhibition of cholinesterase. 4 The rate of loss of 42K and changes in length were measured in superfused strips weighing about 10 mg of separated longitudinal muscle of guinea‐pig ileum. 5 Acetylcholine, carbachol, methylfurmethide, butyltrimethylammonium and TMA contracted the muscle and increased the rate of loss of 42K. 6 Contrary to previous reports, no evidence of a selective action of any of these agonists on 42K loss was detected. TMA appeared to be a partial agonist in evoking 42K loss, although it produced a maximum contraction. 7 The maximum 42K efflux produced by acetylcholine was about 40% of the maximum evoked by application of carbachol or methylfurmethide. If cholinesterase was inhibited, the 42K efflux evoked by maximally effective concentrations of acetylcholine was comparable to that evoked by a stable agonist. 8 These results are consistent with the idea that the muscarinic agonists used interact in an essentially similar way with muscarinic receptors to produce their effects on membrane potential, permeability, and tension.
Regularized semi-blind estimator over MIMO-OFDM systems

In semi-blind channel estimation techniques, the choice of the regularizing parameter that weights the blind criterion when linearly combined to the training-based least square criterion has a great impact on channel estimation performance. If a scalar regularization is considered, it has been noted that the optimal value of the regularizing factor has no closed-form expression. In a recent work, we proved that by using a regularization matrix instead, we not only enhance the performance but also can determine a closed-form expression for the optimal regularizing matrix that minimizes the asymptotic mean-square-error of the channel estimate. In this paper, we generalize our work to the context of multiple-input-multiple-output-orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM). As an application, we propose to make a performance comparison between linear prediction and subspace semi-blind estimators. In particular, we assess by simulations the accuracy of the derived results and investigate the bit error rate performance as well as the impact of channel over modeling.
The structure of Toho1 β‐lactamase in complex with penicillin reveals the role of Tyr105 in substrate recognition

The role of the conserved residue Tyr105 in class A β‐lactamases has been the subject of investigation using both structural studies and saturation mutagenesis. Both have shown that while it does not need to be strictly conserved for activity, it is important for substrate recognition. With this in mind we determined the crystal structure of Toho1 β‐lactamase at 15 K to 1.10 Å resolution in complex with penicillin. As expected a ring‐opened penicillin molecule bound to Ser70 the catalytic nucleophile, can clearly be seen in electron density in the active site. In addition to the trapped penicillin, however, are two additional intact ring‐closed penicillin molecules, captured by the enzyme through noncovalent interactions at the edge of the active site.
TWO Assessing Coupled Protein Folding and Binding Through Temperature-Dependent Isothermal Titration Calorimetry

Broad interest in the thermodynamic driving forces of coupled macromolecular folding and binding is motivated by the prevalence of disorder-to-order transitions observed when intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) bind to their partners. Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) is one of the fewmethods available for completely evaluating the thermodynamic parameters describing a protein–ligand binding event. Significantly, when the effectiveΔH° for the coupled folding and binding process is determined by ITC in a 1 Present address: Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99354. Methods in Enzymology, Volume 567 # 2016 Elsevier Inc. ISSN 0076-6879 All rights reserved. http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/bs.mie. 2015.07. 032 23 temperature series, the constant-pressure heat capacity change (ΔCp) associated with these coupled equilibria is experimentally accessible, offering a unique opportunity to investigate the driving forces behind them. Notably, each of these molecular-scale events is often accompanied by strongly temperature-dependent enthalpy changes, even over the narrow temperature range experimentally accessible for biomolecules, making single temperature determinations of ΔH° less informative than typically assumed. Here, we will document the procedures we have adopted in our laboratory for designing, executing, and globally analyzing temperature-dependent ITC studies of coupled folding and binding in IDP interactions. As a biologically significant example, our recent evaluation of temperature-dependent interactions between the disordered tail of FCP1 and the winged-helix domain from Rap74 will be presented. Emphasis will be placed on the use of publically available analysis programs written in MATLAB that facilitate quantification of the thermodynamic forces governing IDP interactions. Although motivated from the perspective of IDPs, the experimental design principles and data fitting procedures presented here are general to the study of most noncooperative ligand binding equilibria.
Robust averaging during perceptual judgment

An optimal agent will base judgments on the strength and reliability of decision-relevant evidence. However, previous investigations of the computational mechanisms of perceptual judgments have focused on integration of the evidence mean (i.e., strength), and overlooked the contribution of evidence variance (i.e., reliability). Here, using a multielement averaging task, we show that human observers process heterogeneous decision-relevant evidence more slowly and less accurately, even when signal strength, signal-to-noise ratio, category uncertainty, and low-level perceptual variability are controlled for. Moreover, observers tend to exclude or downweight extreme samples of perceptual evidence, as a statistician might exclude an outlying data point. These phenomena are captured by a probabilistic optimal model in which observers integrate the log odds of each choice option. Robust averaging may have evolved to mitigate the influence of untrustworthy evidence in perceptual judgments.
Monadic functional reactive programming

Functional Reactive Programming (FRP) is a way to program reactive systems in functional style, eliminating many of the problems that arise from imperative techniques. In this paper, we present an alternative FRP formulation that is based on the notion of a reactive computation: a monadic computation which may require the occurrence of external events to continue. A signal computation is a reactive computation that may also emit values. In contrast to signals in other FRP formulations, signal computations can end, leading to a monadic interface for sequencing signal phases. This interface has several advantages: routing is implicit, sequencing signal phases is easier and more intuitive than when using the switching combinators found in other FRP approaches, and dynamic lists require much less boilerplate code. In other FRP approaches, either the entire FRP expression is re-evaluated on each external stimulus, or impure techniques are used to prevent redundant re-computations. We show how Monadic FRP can be implemented straightforwardly in a purely functional way while preventing redundant re-computations.
Oral Language and Reading in Bilingual Children

This article examines the question: Do lexical, syntactic, fluency, and discourse measures of oral language collected under narrative conditions predict reading achievement both within and across languages for bilingual children? More than 1,500 Spanish–English bilingual children attending kindergarten–third grade participated. Oral narratives were collected in each language along with measures of Passage Comprehension and Word Reading Efficiency. Results indicate that measures of oral language in Spanish predict reading scores in Spanish and that measures of oral language skill in English predict reading scores in English. Cross–language comparisons revealed that English oral language measures predicted Spanish reading scores and Spanish oral language measures predicted English reading scores beyond the variance accounted for by grade. Results indicate that Spanish and English oral language skills contribute to reading within and across languages.
In-Line Separation by Capillary Electrophoresis Prior to Analysis by Top-Down Mass Spectrometry Enables Sensitive Characterization of Protein Complexes

Intact protein analysis via top-down mass spectrometry (MS) provides a bird’s eye view over the protein complexes and complex protein mixtures with the unique capability of characterizing protein variants, splice isoforms, and combinatorial post-translational modifications (PTMs). Here we applied capillary electrophoresis (CE) through a sheathless CE–electrospray ionization interface coupled to an LTQ Velos Orbitrap Elite mass spectrometer to analyze the Dam1 complex from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We achieved a 100-fold increase in sensitivity compared to a reversed-phase liquid chromatography coupled MS analysis of recombinant Dam1 complex with a total loading of 2.5 ng (12 amol). N-terminal processing forms of individual subunits of the Dam1 complex were observed as well as their phosphorylation stoichiometry upon Mps1p kinase treatment.
A Business Process Management Perspective on Creativity: Creativity Intensive Processes

Although creativity is a core competitive factor and an important element of primary activities of modern organizations in many domains, there has not been an in-depth investigation on how creativity influences business processes and business process management. Within interviews with creative workers, managers and teaching professionals from the Screen Business it became evident that the existence of creativity in an organization influences business processes and has significant impact on how these should be designed and can be supported. Based on a definition of Business Process Management and on a literature review on Creativity and Creative Processes I introduce the notion of the Creativity Intensive Process. These processes are characterized by the existence of creative tasks that are carried out by creative persons in creative environments in order to create creative products. Based on the results of the initial activities of this research I introduce research questions along with the research design and a set of propositions related to the research questions. These propositions will serve as guidance for further in-depth case studies to develop a theoretical model of Creativity Intensive Processes. The paper concludes with an outlook to the future research agenda.
Pharmacological approach to cardiovascular risk in metabolic syndrome

Metabolic syndrome is not a discrete entity with a single pathogenesis, but different complex mechanisms, especially those inducing oxidative stress, play a major role in the genesis of this condition. This consideration suggests that treatment of recognized cardiovascular risk factors alone cannot be enough to prevent cardiovascular events in patients with a diagnosed metabolic syndrome. However, it has been reported that oxidative stress is involved in the transduction of the effects of haemodynamic and metabolic pathological conditions. Thus, drugs acting on the renin-angiotensin system [angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers], or on the glucose or lipid metabolism as substrate of oxidative mechanisms (statins and nutraceuticals) in association with a dietary restriction may be taken in account, because they play a synergistic effect in preventing functional and structural changes responsible for the high cardiovascular risk in metabolic syndrome.
Golden Gate Shuffling: A One-Pot DNA Shuffling Method Based on Type IIs Restriction Enzymes

We have developed a protocol to assemble in one step and one tube at least nine separate DNA fragments together into an acceptor vector, with 90% of recombinant clones obtained containing the desired construct. This protocol is based on the use of type IIs restriction enzymes and is performed by simply subjecting a mix of 10 undigested input plasmids (nine insert plasmids and the acceptor vector) to a restriction-ligation and transforming the resulting mix in competent cells. The efficiency of this protocol allows generating libraries of recombinant genes by combining in one reaction several fragment sets prepared from different parental templates. As an example, we have applied this strategy for shuffling of trypsinogen from three parental templates (bovine cationic trypsinogen, bovine anionic trypsinogen and human cationic trypsinogen) each divided in 9 separate modules. We show that one round of shuffling using the 27 trypsinogen entry plasmids can easily produce the 19,683 different possible combinations in one single restriction-ligation and that expression screening of a subset of the library allows identification of variants that can lead to higher expression levels of trypsin activity. This protocol, that we call ‘Golden Gate shuffling’, is robust, simple and efficient, can be performed with templates that have no homology, and can be combined with other shuffling protocols in order to introduce any variation in any part of a given gene.
The profitability of sustainable agriculture on a representative grain farm in the Mid-Atlantic region 1981-89.

A long-term whole-farm analysis compared conventional and low-input farming systems. Data from a nine-year agronomic study at the Rodale Research Farm, Kutztown, Pennsylvania, were used to analyze profitability, liquidity, solvency, and risk on a representative commercial grain farm. Conventional and low-input farms participating in government programs are the most profitable scenarios, followed by conventional and low-input farms not participating in government programs. All farms increased their net worth. The low-input approach is advantageous for risk-averse farmers using a safety-first criterion.
Camera Traps on Wildlife Crossing Structures as a Tool in Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) Management - Five-Years Monitoring of Wolf Abundance Trends in Croatia

The conservation of gray wolf (Canis lupus) and its coexistence with humans presents a challenge and requires continuous monitoring and management efforts. One of the non-invasive methods that produces high-quality wolf monitoring datasets is camera trapping. We present a novel monitoring approach where camera traps are positioned on wildlife crossing structures that channel the animals, thereby increasing trapping success and increasing the cost-efficiency of the method. In this way we have followed abundance trends of five wolf packs whose home ranges are intersected by a motorway which spans throughout the wolf distribution range in Croatia. During the five-year monitoring of six green bridges we have recorded 28 250 camera-events, 132 with wolves. Four viaducts were monitored for two years, recording 4914 camera-events, 185 with wolves. We have detected a negative abundance trend of the monitored Croatian wolf packs since 2011, especially severe in the northern part of the study area. Further, we have pinpointed the legal cull as probable major negative influence on the wolf pack abundance trends (linear regression, r2 > 0.75, P < 0.05). Using the same approach we did not find evidence for a negative impact of wolves on the prey populations, both wild ungulates and livestock. We encourage strict protection of wolf in Croatia until there is more data proving population stability. In conclusion, quantitative methods, such as the one presented here, should be used as much as possible when assessing wolf abundance trends.
The Criminological Scale of Affectional Attachment: A Measure of Hirschi's Construct of Attachment in a Variety of Close Interpersonal Relationships as A Source of Social Control

This article examines a measure of affectional attachment derived from Hirschi’s (1969) social control theory and pertinent to other criminological theories: the Criminological Scale of Affectional Attachment (CSAA). The CSAA looks at the most critical element of a social bond, namely attachment, in a variety of close interpersonal relationships (i.e., parent, sibling, peer and intimate partner). In particular, it considers several dimensions of attachment and assesses their reliability in providing a comprehensive measure of affectional attachment for each relationship. Unlike existing attachment scales, the CSAA is not psychologically driven but rather motivated by and framed for criminological research. It is the first scale of its kind aimed at providing a simple and standard means of investigating attachment as a criminological construct. It is also one of the first to allow for testing multiple relationships rather than focusing on one or two alone. Evaluation of the CSAA reveals that internal consistency reliability is demonstrated. The CSAA is particularly relevant for studies interested in social control and crime and can be modified to fit any interpersonal relationship.