Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
All together now : Simultaneous Object Detection and Continuous Pose Estimation using a Hough Forest with Probabilistic Locally Enhanced Voting

Simultaneous object detection and pose estimation is a challenging task in computer vision. In this paper, we tackle the problem using Hough Forests. Unlike most methods in the literature, we focus on the problem of continuous pose estimation. Moreover, we aim for a probabilistic output. We first introduce a new pose purity criterion for splitting a node during the forest training. Second, we propose the concept of Probabilistic Locally Enhanced Voting (PLEV), a novel regression strategy which consists in modulating the regression with a kernel density estimation to consolidate the votes in a local region near the maxima detected in the Hough space. And third, we propose a pose-based backprojection strategy to improve the bounding box estimation. With these three additions, we show that our Hough Forest can achieve state-of-the-art results without needing 3D CAD models. We present a quite versatile method, showing results for different categories (cars as well as faces) and for different modalities (RGB as well as depth images).
Implicit meshes for modeling and reconstruction

Explicit surfaces, such as triangulations or wireframe models, have been extensively used to represent the deformable 3D models that are used to fit 3D point and 2D silhouette data. The resulting approaches, however, suffer from the fact that fitting typically involves finding the facets that are closest to the 3D data points or most likely to be silhouette facets. This requires searching, which is slow, and dealing with the non-differentiability of the distance function. By contrast, implicit surface representations allow fitting without search, since one can simply evaluate a differentiable field function at every data point. However, implicit representations are not necessarily the most intuitive ones and users, such as graphics designers, tend to prefer explicit models.
Nitride coatings on widia substrate for mechanical applications

Abstract During chemical vapour deposition (CVD) process the surface properties of the metallic or non-metallic materials are modified by the generation of a new layer with special chemical and physical properties. This modification in the surface properties is produced by subjecting the substrate materials to a single gas or a combination of gases at elevated temperatures. One type of CVD process is carried out in a heated retort and the chemical reactions that occur are initiated in the space around or on the surface of the substrate. In the present paper, titanium nitride layers on widia substrate have been obtained by an original CVD method, in a heat treatment chamber. Thin layers of 1·5–10 μm using ferrotitanium as raw materials were obtained as a function of exposure time at 1050°C. The microhardness of the coated materials ranges between 25 000 and 25 520 MPa. Although widia is well known as a very good material for cutting devices, cutting experiments on these coated widia plates show that the endurance increases by 3 to 5 times as compared with that of uncoated plates.
Sarcoplasmic reticulum and Na+/Ca2+exchanger function during early and late relaxation in ventricular myocytes.

The relative importance of the Na+/Ca2+exchanger in the initial and terminal phases of relaxation and the decline in the [Ca2+]itransient was investigated in adult rabbit ventricular myocytes loaded with the Ca2+ indicator fluo 3. For electrically stimulated contractions, the peak intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) was 700 ± 87 nM and end-diastolic [Ca2+]iwas 239 ± 30 nM (0.25 Hz, 37°C, 1.08 mM extracellular Ca2+ concentration; n = 14). Abrupt inhibition of Na+/Ca2+exchange was produced by removal of extracellular Na+ (KCl substitution) and Ca2+ [2 mM Ca2+-free ethylene glycol-bis(β-aminoethyl ether)- N, N, N', N'-tetraacetic acid] by means of a rapid switcher device (SW). Abrupt exposure to high K+ induced an action potential, although sufficient Ca2+ remained adjacent to the sarcolemma to induce a contraction (SW beat) and [Ca2+]itransient that were identical in amplitude to those induced by electrical stimulation (ES beat). The initial relaxation and decline in the [Ca2+]itransient was not significantly prolonged by abrupt elimination of the Na+/Ca2+exchanger, but the rate and extent of the terminal phase of the decline in the [Ca2+]itransient were significantly reduced. The first derivative of [Ca2+]iwith respect to time versus [Ca2+]iduring the decline of the [Ca2+]itransient attributable to sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) function was estimated from the average SW transients, and that attributable to Na+/Ca2+exchange was estimated from the difference between SW and ES transients. By this analysis, the Na+/Ca2+exchanger produces 13% of the first half of the decline in [Ca2+]iand 45% of the second half of the decline. We conclude that abrupt inhibition of forward Na+/Ca2+exchange does not significantly affect the amplitude or the initial rate of decline of the [Ca2+]itransient and relaxation. However, its contribution to the reduction of [Ca2+]ibecomes apparent late during the [Ca2+]itransient, when cytosolic [Ca2+]ihas been reduced.
The Crystal Structure of Recombinant proDer p 1, a Major House Dust Mite Proteolytic Allergen1

Allergy to house dust mite is among the most prevalent allergic diseases worldwide. Most house dust mite allergic patients react to Der p 1 from Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, which is a cysteine protease. To avoid heterogeneity in the sample used for crystallization, a modified recombinant molecule was produced. The sequence of the proDer p 1 allergen was modified to reduce glycosylation and to abolish enzymatic activity. The resulting rproDer p 1 preparation was homogenous and stable and yielded crystals diffracting to a resolution of 1.61 Å. The active site is located in a large cleft on the surface of the molecule. The 80-aa pro-peptide adopts a unique fold that interacts with the active site cleft and a substantial adjacent area on the mature region, excluding access to the cleft and the active site. Studies performed using crossed-line immunoelectrophoresis and IgE inhibition experiments indicated that several epitopes are covered by the pro-peptide and that the epitopes on the recombinant mature molecule are indistinguishable from those on the natural one. The structure confirms previous results suggesting a preference for aliphatic residues in the important P2 position in substrates. Sequence variations in related species are concentrated on the surface, which explains the existence of cross-reacting and species-specific antibodies. This study describes the first crystal structure of one of the clinically most important house dust mite allergens, the cysteine protease Der p 1.
trans-Carbonylchloridobis(tri-o-tolylphosphane-κP)rhodium(I)

In the title compound, [RhCl(C21H21P)2(CO)], the coordination geometry around the RhI atom is slightly distorted square-planar with the phosphane ligands in trans positions with respect to each other. The chloride and carbonyl ligands show positional disorder, and the RhI atom lies on a center of inversion. The effective cone angle ΘE for the title compound is 169.0 (3)°. There are no significant intermolecular interactions.
Using Speech Acts to Categorize Email and Identify Email Genres

We define genres of email as well as a subset of "speech acts" relevant to email enhanced for email specific discourse. After creating a ground truth set of emails based on these email acts, we compare the performance of two classifiers (Random Forests and SVM-light) in identifying the primary communicative intent of the email and its corresponding genre. We experiment with using feature sets derived from two verb lexicons as well as a feature set containing selected characteristics of email. Results show better classifier accuracy using the verb lexicon with the smaller number of classes over the larger, and that using part of speech tagging to focus on selecting only verbs, causes a slight drop in performance. Using the email characteristics set alone results in better performance than either of the verb lexicons alone, but the best results are obtained using a combination of the smaller verb lexicon and the email characteristics set.
Expansion RSS-based Indoor Localization Using 5G WiFi Signal

Indoor localization based on existent WiFi signal strength is becoming more and more prevalent and ubiquitous. Unfortunately, the WiFi received signal strength (RSS) is susceptible by multipath, signal attenuation and environmental changes, it is the major challenge for accurate indoor localization. In this paper, to overcome these limitations, we propose an indoor localization based on expansion RSS algorithm (ERA) to reduce the environmental interference. In addition, according to the detailed analysis of the 2.4G and 5G signal, we get that 5G WiFi signal is more stable than 2.4G, and experiment indicates the 5G signal is more accurate than 2.4G for indoor localization. Experimental results demonstrate the proposed algorithm exhibits superior performance in terms of localization accuracy and stabilization.
Efficient processing of large 3D meshes

Due to their simplicity triangle meshes are often used to represent geometric surfaces. Their main drawback is the large number of triangles that are required to represent a smooth surface. This problem has been addressed by a large number of mesh simplification algorithms which reduce the number of triangles and approximate the initial mesh. Hierarchical triangle mesh representations provide access to a triangle mesh at a desired resolution, without omitting any information. In this paper we present an infrastructure for mesh decimation, geometric mesh smoothing, and interactive multiresolution editing of arbitrary unstructured triangle meshes. In particular, we demonstrate how mesh reduction and geometric mesh smoothing can be combined to provide a powerful and numerically efficient multiresolution smoothing and editing paradigm.
Investigation of snow cover change using multi-temporal PALSAR InSAR data at Dagu Glacier, China

The aim was to study seasonal snow and permanent snow variation in alpine regions using coherence component data derived from a multi-temporal of PALSAR InSAR data. With coherence decomposition technique, we obtained the multi-temporal data of temporal-coherence component near Mt. Dagu, China, where vegetated surface, seasonal snow cover or grazing area, and permanent snow cover exist. The variation of temporal-coherence component through time indicated changes of snow cover and status within the grazing zone and permanent snow area or areas above tree line. After the analyses of the temporal-coherence components from January to February, February to April, April to May, and January to May of 2008, we were able to identify snow status and change of snow cover above local tree line. The overall accuracy level greater than 71% was achieved in the identification when compared to those derived from multi-temporal TM images of Landsat 5. The results were promising.
Misalignments in ERP Implementation: A Dialectic Perspective

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are often not fully aligned with the implementing organization. It is important to understand their sources of misalignments because they can have significant implications for the organization. From a dialectic perspective, such misalignments are the result of opposing forces that arise from structures embedded in the ERP package and the organization.
A System Architecture for Low Bit Rate Traffic Aggregation in Control Applications

This paper describes the results of research work aimed at providing an efficient solution to the aggregation of low bit rate traffic in control applications. It includes the proposal and analysis of an architecture that integrates terminal adapters and a concentrator connected to a remote control application through a communication network. The ATM technology was selected to implement the proposed system due to its properties of multiplexing efficiency and control of packet delay. Scheduling algorithms for the terminal adapter and concentrator have been developed in order to satisfy two main goals: to guarantee committed delays for time sensitive services, and to increase the network transmission efficiency. The results, obtained by simulation, show that the system performance complies with the requirements of the majority of control applications
Peroxisome proliferation and antioxidant enzymes in transplanted mussels of four basque estuaries with different levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and polychlorinated biphenyl pollution

We aimed to determine the effects of changes in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) bioavailability on peroxisome proliferation and antioxidant enzymes to assess their potential use as pollution biomarkers. For this, mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) were sampled in Txatxarramendi and transplanted to Arriluze, Muskiz, and Plentzia (northern Spain), and vice versa. Arriluze was the most heavily polluted site, followed by Plentzia, Txatxarramendi, and Muskiz. Animals transplanted from a polluted station to a cleaner station lost contaminant load in three to six weeks, and when transplanted to a more polluted station, they accumulated PAHs and PCBs accordingly. Peroxisomal acyl‐A oxidase (AOX) activity was the highest in animals from Arriluze, and animals transplanted to Arriluze showed increased AOX activity, reaching the levels of native mussels. Mussels from Txatxarramendi showed the lowest peroxisomal volume density (Vvp). Among mussels from Txatxarramendi, only those transplanted to Plentzia showed increased Vvp, whereas animals from Arriluze and Muskiz transplanted to Txatxarramendi after 2 d and six weeks, respectively, had decreased Vvp. Two days after transplant, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase activities were significantly lower in mussels from Arriluze and Muskiz, respectively, than in those from Txatxarramendi and than in animals transplanted to Txatxarramendi from these stations. In conclusion, transplant experiments with mussels are useful to assess the effects of pollution. Peroxisome proliferation, measured as induction of AOX or increased Vvp, shows great potential as a biomarker of pollution to be included in pollution monitoring programs. In the present work, we have demonstrated that peroxisome proliferation is a reversible phenomenon in mussels.
Mixture of Factor Analyzers Using Priors From Non-Parallel Speech for Voice Conversion

A robust voice conversion function relies on a large amount of parallel training data, which is difficult to collect in practice. To tackle the sparse parallel training data problem in voice conversion, this paper describes a mixture of factor analyzers method which integrates prior knowledge from non-parallel speech into the training of conversion function. The experiments on CMU ARCTIC corpus show that the proposed method improves the quality and similarity of converted speech. With both objective and subjective evaluations, we show the proposed method outperforms the baseline GMM method.
The complete mitochondrial genome of the loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta (Testudines: Cheloniidae): Genome description and phylogenetic considerations

The marine turtle Caretta caretta is a widely distributed species that is facing critical population decline, especially in the Mediterranean rookeries. Molecular markers, such as mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences, are of great importance for the description and monitoring of turtle migratory populations. The complete sequence of the C. caretta mitochondrial genome is presented here. The genome comprises 16,440 base pairs, containing 37 genes (13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, and 2 rRNA genes), and a control region, all organized similar to the majority of vertebrate mitogenomes. MtDNA length polymorphism and heteroplasmy were observed among, and within, individuals due to the variable size of a microsatellite repeat residing at the 3′ end of the control region. The use of the above repeat as a marker for individual fingerprinting is discussed. Furthermore, phylogenetic analyses among Testudines based on complete mitogenomes, as well as among marine turtles based on partial mtDNA sequences, are considered.
Behavior of Concrete Under Triaxial Compressive-Compressive-Tensile Stresses

Seventy-nine 10 x 10 x 55-cm prisms for triaxial compression-compression-tension specimens were tested. The tests were taken in a special device containing 2 compression testing apparatus to exert lateral compressive loadings and an ordinary universal material-testing machine to exert longitudinal tensile loading. One 3 mm fluorine-based resin sheet (Teflon) was used as a friction-reducing pad. Test results of strength and stress-strain relationships are analyzed, and formulas of concrete strength are suggested. Failure modes of specimens are also described.
Screening Tests for Thrombophilic Patients: Which Tests, for Which Patient, by Whom, When, and Why?

In the past two decades, several mechanisms leading to thrombophilia have been elucidated, and corresponding laboratory tests developed. At a time of financial constraints, it is crucial to distinguish between the tests of proven value (which can modify the therapeutic attitude toward the patient and/or his family) from those of unproven value. We have listed in the first category determination or measurement of factor V Leiden, factor II G20210A, antithrombin, protein C, protein S, as well as antiphospholipid antibodies and hyperhomocysteinemia. A combined clinical and laboratory approach taking into account the history of the patient and his family, the prevalence of the defects, and also the accuracy of the tests should allow tailoring a laboratory testing program to each individual patient. It is essential to keep in mind that the more difficult task is not to perform the tests, but to consider who will benefit from testing both for prevention and therapy of venous thromboembolism. The present review provides answers to some of these issues. These answers should, however, be considered as provisional because new findings and study results will certainly modify them in the future.
The Cross Rate: Linear Processing for the Two User Broadcast Channel

A novel linear precoding technique for the two user broadcast channel is presented. The performance measure used is the cross rate, defined as the difference between the sum throughputs of the system and its transpose. We show that the cross rate optimization problem can be reformulated as an alternating optimization of the steering matrix and power allocation. We solve the power allocation problem in closed form and give an efficient algorithm to compute the steering matrix. The algorithm is iterative and consists of simple operations, only requiring a single eigen-decomposition of a certain matrix. Simulation results indicate a 10% achievable rate gain over the regularized zero forcing algorithm with similar complexity, over a wide range of signal to noise (SNR) values.
Simulations of Long-Period Ground Motions during the 1995 Hyogoken-Nanbu ( Kobe ) Earthquake using 3 D Finite Element Method

Long-period strong motions (> 0.9 second) are simulated in the Kobe area for the mainshock (1/17/95) and the aftershock (2/2/95) of the Hyogoken-Nanbu (Kobe) earthquake. In order to model ground motions in the realistic and highly heterogeneous basin structure, an unstructured 3D FEM (Finite Element Method) is used, which runs efficiently on parallel computers. The simulation results show strong 3D basin effects, especially within the disaster belt at the target sites from KBU to RKI.
Incidence, severity, mortality, and confounding factors for dissecting AAA detection in angiotensin II-infused mice: a meta-analysis.

AIMS While angiotensin II-infused mice are the most popular model for preclinical aneurysm research, representative data on incidence, severity, and mortality of dissecting abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) have never been established, and the influence of confounding factors is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS We performed a meta-analysis including 194 manuscripts representing 1679 saline-infused, 4729 non-treated angiotensin II-infused, and 4057 treated angiotensin II-infused mice. Incidence (60%) and mortality (20%) rates are reported overall as well as for grade I (22%), grade II (26%), grade III (29%), and grade IV (24%) aneurysms. Dissecting AAA incidence was significantly (P < 0.05) influenced by sex, age, genetic background, infusion time, and dose of angiotensin II. Mortality was influenced by sex, genetic background, and dose, but not by age or infusion time. Surprisingly, both incidence and mortality were significantly different (P < 0.05) when comparing angiotensin II-infused mice in descriptive studies (56% incidence and 19% mortality) with angiotensin II-infused mice that served as control animals in treatment studies designed to either enhance (35% incidence and 13% mortality) or reduce (73% incidence and 25% mortality) dissecting AAA formation. After stratification to account for confounding factors (selection bias), the observed effect was still present for incidence, but not for mortality. Possible underlying causes are detection bias (non-uniform definition for detection and quantification of dissecting AAA in mice) or publication bias (studies with negative results, related to incidence in the control group, not being published). CONCLUSIONS Our data provide a new meta-analysis-based reference for incidence and mortality of dissecting AAA in angiotensin II-infused mice, and indicate that treatment studies using this mouse model should be interpreted with caution.
Enterogastric Reflux and Gastric Clearance of Refluxate in Normal Subjects and in Patients with and without Bile Vomiting Following Peptic Ulcer Surgery

A noninvasive scintigraphic technique was used to estimate enterogastric reflux and subsequent gastric evacuation of refluxate in 35 normal, healthy subjects and 55 patients previously treated by vagotomy or partial gastrectomy. Reflux was provoked by a milk drink and quantitated by counting 99Tcm-EHIDA activity within the gastric area during gamma camera imaging. Seven normal subjects (20%) showed reflux of 5–18% of initial activity (mean: 10%), with peak values occurring at 5–30 minutes (mean: 14 minutes) following the milk. Gastric evacuation of activity in these subjects was monoexponential (r = 0.993, T1/2 = 24.1 minutes). Reflux occurred more frequently than normal in patients with truncal vagotomy and drainage (22/28 patients) and partial gastrectomy (20/21 patients). All of 16 patients with Billroth II anastomoses exhibited reflux, which was excessive compared with refluxing normal subjects (mean: 25%; p lt; 0.01) and occurred later into the study (mean: 34 minutes; p lt; 0.01). Ten of 11 asymptomatic patients showed reflux of similar amounts of activity (mean: 21%) compared with 16 patients who complained of bile vomiting (mean: 22%). However, asymptomatic patients exhibited gastric evacuation of refluxate at a rate similar to that of refluxing normal subjects, while bile vomiters showed significant gastric retention of refluxate at 25–30 minutes following peak gastric activity (p lt; 0.05). This result confirms that postoperative bile vomiting is essentially a problem of gastric emptying.