Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An SOM-based Automatic Facial Expression Recognition System

Recently, a number of applications of automatic facial expression recognition systems havesurfaced in many different research fields. The automatic facial expression recognition problem is a very challenging problem because it involves in three sub-problems: 1) face detection, 2) facial expression feature extraction, and 3) expression classification. This paper presents an automatic facial expression recognition system based on self-organizing feature maps, which provides an effective solution to the aforementioned three sub-problems. The performance of the proposed system was computed on twowell-known facial expression databases. The average correct recognition rates were over 90%.
Effects of fluoxetine treatment in young children with idiopathic autism

Thirty‐seven children, aged between 2 and 7 years, with idiopathic autism underwent an open‐label trial of fluoxetine treatment. All had assessment of diagnosis, developmental status, and family psychiatric history. Independent developmental testing before and after starting fluoxetine permitted quantification of language acquisition in a subgroup. Twenty‐two of the 37 children had a beneficial treatment response sustained during continuing treatment for 13 to 33 months (mean 21 months). Eleven had an excellent response and were able to attend mainstream classrooms. Eleven had a good response though they remained identifiably autistic. Fifteen children had no benefit. Responders showed behavioral, language, cognitive, affective, and social improvements. Responders with adequate testing showed marked increases in language acquisition at every stage of development as compared with (1) pretreatment status, (2) responses to other treatments, (3) ability in non‐language (matching) tasks, and (4) historical controls from the literature. The response to fluoxetine strongly correlated with a family history of major affective disorder. These preliminary findings implicate serotonergic mechanisms in autistic symptomatology and warrant further study with controlled trials.
Does Off-pump Coronary Artery Bypass Reduce the Prevalence ofAtrial Fibrillation?

INTRODUCTION To examine whether or not off-pump CABG (Coronary Artery Bypass Reduce) reduces the incidence of AF after cardiac surgery. METHODS The study was carried out in 939 consecutive coronary artery disease patients with sinus rhythm from which 383 patients underwent off-pump CABG, and 556 patients were operated through on-pump CABG. All patients were monitored postoperatively during intensive care unit (ICU) stay. Then, the incidence and predictive risk factors of post operative AF (POAF) in two groups were determined and compared with each other. RESULTS Overall, the mean age of the patients was 56.0±12.8 years with 234 patients (24.9%) being older than 65 years. POAF developed in 38 patients (9.9%) of the off-pump and in 93 patients (16.7%) of the on-pump CABG. There was significant difference between two groups when considering the incidence of POAF (P=0.002). Among preoperative risk factors, age>65 years had a significant association with the incidence of AF in both groups. This study also showed that most of the POAF cases converted to sinus rhythm after treatment. Moreover, these finding demonstrated that conversion to sinus rhythm is significantly more probable in off-pump group (P=0.006). CONCLUSION A reduced prevalence of POAF could be observed in patients with off-pump as compared with on-pump techniques. Furthermore, conversion to sinus rhythm in off-pump group was significantly more probable than on-pump group.
Finding hyperexponential solutions of linear ODEs by numerical evaluation

We present a new algorithm for computing hyperexponential solutions of linear ordinary differential equations with polynomial coefficients. The algorithm relies on interpreting formal series solutions at the singular points as analytic functions and evaluating them numerically at some common ordinary point. The numerical data is used to determine a small number of combinations of the formal series that may give rise to hyperexponential solutions.
Cerebral Asymmetry: A Quantitative, Multifactorial, and Plastic Brain Phenotype

The longitudinal fissure separates the human brain into two hemispheres that remain connected through the corpus callosum. The left and the right halves of the brain resemble each other, and almost every structure present in one side has an equivalent structure in the other. Despite this exceptional correspondence, the two hemispheres also display important anatomical differences and there is marked lateralization of certain cognitive and motor functions such as language and handedness. However, the mechanisms that underlie the establishment of these hemispheric specializations, as well as their physiological and behavioral implications, remain largely unknown. Thanks to recent advances in neuroimaging, a series of studies documenting variation in symmetry and asymmetry as a function of age, gender, brain region, and pathological state, have been published in the past decade. Here, we review evidence of normal and atypical cerebral asymmetry, and the factors that influence it at the macrostructural level. Given the prominent role that cerebral asymmetry plays in the organization of the brain, and its possible implication in neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions, further research in this area is anticipated.
Reduced-reference image quality assessment using a wavelet-domain natural image statistic model

Reduced-reference (RR) image quality measures aim to predict the visual quality of distorted images with only partial information about the reference images. In this paper, we propose an RR image quality assessment method based on a natural image statistic model in the wavelet transform domain. We use the Kullback-Leibler distance between the marginal probability distributions of wavelet coefficients of the reference and distorted images as a measure of image distortion. A generalized Gaussian model is employed to summarize the marginal distribution of wavelet coefficients of the reference image, so that only a relatively small number of RR features are needed for the evaluation of image quality. The proposed method is easy to implement and computationally efficient. In addition, we find that many well-known types of image distortions lead to significant changes in wavelet coefficient histograms, and thus are readily detectable by our measure. A Matlab implementation of the method has been made available online at http://www.cns. nyu.edu/~lcv/rriqa/.
Towards companion robots behaving with style

Sociability of companion robots is one of the challenges that the field of human-robot interaction faces. Inspired from research in psychology and sociology dealing with inter-personal relationships, we aim to render robots capable of a behaviour compatible to be among humans. In the context of a companion robot for children, we propose different parenting styles (namely authoritative and permissive) and evaluate their effectiveness and acceptability by parents. We implemented behaviours of different styles played out by two robots, Nao and Reeti, with body and facial channels respectively for communication. 94 parents watched videos of the robots and replied to a questionnaire about the authoritativeness, effectiveness and acceptability of the robots. The results showed that robots can be perceived as dominant and authoritative; however their effectiveness as an authoritative figure is limited to young children and is correlated to the style played when giving an order. When given a choice between authoritative and permissive styles, the parents ended up not always choosing a parenting style similar to their own. This work contributes in formalising context dependent personalisation to parent expectation of a companion robot for children using the concept of styles.
Antimicrobial resistance of Staphylococcus spp. from small ruminant mastitis in Brazil

The study aimed to determine the antimicrobial resistance patterns and to identify molecular resistance markers in Staphylococcus spp. (n=210) isolated from small ruminant mastitis in Brazil. The antimicrobial resistance patterns were evaluated by the disk diffusion test and by detection of the presence of mecA, blaZ, ermA, ermB, ermC and msrA genes by PCR. The efflux pump test was performed using ethidium bromide and biofilm production was determined by Congo red agar test along with PCR for detection of the icaD gene. The isolates were most resistant to amoxicillin (50.0%), streptomycin (42.8%), tetracycline (40.4%), lincomycin (39.0%) and erythromycin (33.8%). Pan-susceptibility to all tested drugs was observed in 71 (33.8%) isolates and 41 Staphylococcus isolates were positive for the efflux pump. Although phenotypic resistance to oxacillin was observed in 12.8% of the isolates, none harbored the mecA gene. However, 45.7% of the isolates harbored blaZ indicating that beta-lactamase production was the main mechanism associated with staphylococci resistance to beta-lactams in the present study. The other determinants of resistance to antimicrobial agents ermA, ermB, ermC, and msrA were observed in 1.4%, 10.4%, 16.2%, and 0.9% of the isolates, respectively. In addition, the icaD gen was detected in 32.9% of the isolates. Seventy three isolates (54 from goats and 19 from sheep) were negative for all resistance genes tested and 69 isolates presented two or more resistance genes. Association among blaZ, ermA, ermB, ermC and efflux pump were observed in 17 isolates, 14 of which originated from goats and three from sheep. The data obtained in this study show the resistance of the isolates to beta-lactamics, which may be associated with the use of antimicrobial drugs without veterinary control.
WorldBrush

We present a novel approach for the interactive synthesis and editing of virtual worlds. Our method is inspired by painting operations and uses methods for statistical example-based synthesis to automate content synthesis and deformation. Our real-time approach takes a form of local inverse procedural modeling based on intermediate statistical models: selected regions of procedurally and manually constructed example scenes are analyzed, and their parameters are stored as distributions in a palette, similar to colors on a painter's palette. These distributions can then be interactively applied with brushes and combined in various ways, like in painting systems. Selected regions can also be moved or stretched while maintaining the consistency of their content. Our method captures both distributions of elements and structured objects, and models their interactions. Results range from the interactive editing of 2D artwork maps to the design of 3D virtual worlds, where constraints set by the terrain's slope are also taken into account.
Anterior expression of the caudal homologue cCdx‐B activates a posterior genetic program in avian embryos

Several families of regulatory genes have been implicated in anteroposterior patterning of gastrulation‐stage vertebrate embryos. Members of the Drosophila caudal family of homeobox genes (Cdx) are among the earliest regulators of posterior cell fates. The regulatory cascade initiated by the caudal homologue, cCdx‐B, was examined in avian embryos. During gastrulation, cCdx‐B is expressed with other posterior patterning genes. In the posterior primitive streak, cCdx‐B expression coincides with posteriorly expressed Hox cluster genes and Wnt family members such as Wnt‐8c. The hierarchical relationship between these patterning genes was examined after anterior ectopic expression of cCdx‐B. cCdx‐B expression in anterior cardiogenic cells by means of adenoviral infection leads to the induction of Wnt‐8c and the posterior Hox genes, Hoxa‐7, Hoxc‐6, and Hoxc‐8. Cardiogenesis is not inhibited in cCdx‐B expressing anterior lateral mesoderm, indicating that anterior cell fates are not respecified with the activation of posterior patterning genes after gastrulation. These results support an important role for cCdx‐B in initiating a posterior program of gene expression that includes Wnt signaling molecules and the Hox cluster genes. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Titanosaur Osteoderms from the Upper Cretaceous of Lo Hueco (Spain) and Their Implications on the Armor of Laurasian Titanosaurs

Titanosaurs are the only sauropod dinosaurs known to bear a dermal armor. Their osteoderms are relatively rare finds, with few more than a hundred specimens recovered worldwide. Also, little is known about their intra-individual, intra-specific or inter-specific variability. The macrovertebrate site of Lo Hueco (Upper Cretaceous; Cuenca, Spain) has yielded several complete specimens of osteoderms, some associated with fairly articulated specimens. They are all variations of the morphotype known as bulb and root. The presence of only this morphotype in Europe, which is considered as the primitive condition among titanosaurs, seems to indicate that the known Upper Cretaceous Laurasian titanosaurs only bore these referred bulb and root osteoderms. An eliptic Fourier analysis on the outline of complete specimens from this morphotype reveals: i) that they truly are part of a morphological cline; and ii) the existence of a consistent correlation between the outline and the morphology of the bulb. Such variation along a cline is more consistent with intra-individual rather than inter-specific variation. The osteoderms associated with a single titanosaur individual from Lo Hueco reinforce this hypothesis.
Network Working Group M. Bakke Request for Comments: 4545 Cisco Systems Category: Standards Track Definitions of Managed Objects for Ip Storage User Identity Authorization

Status of This Memo This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Abstract This memo defines a portion of the Management Information Base (MIB) for use with network management protocols in TCP/IP-based internets. In particular, it defines objects for managing user identities and the names, addresses, and credentials required manage access control, for use with various protocols. This document was motivated by the need for the configuration of authorized user identities for the iSCSI protocol, but has been extended to be useful for other protocols that have similar requirements. It is important to note that this MIB module provides only the set of identities to be used within access lists; it is the responsibility of other MIB modules making use of this one to tie them to their own access lists or other authorization control methods.
Architectural exploration for on-chip, online learning in spiking neural networks

In the recent past there has been an increasing demand for area and energy efficient on-chip implementation of Machine Learning techniques. In this context we have proposed area and power optimized architectures for hardware implementation of a recently proposed supervised learning technique named Network Rewiring (NRW) for Dendritically Enhanced Readout(DER). We show that for the most optimized architecture there is a 8.5 times reduction in critical resources while the MAE has increased only by 1.76% compared to the non-optimized architecture. Moreover, for accommodating real-time training, we have also proposed an online version of the NRW rule. We also show that, though this online algorithm uses an averaging circuit having 4200 times lesser time constant compared to batch learning, yet it provides comparable performance due to the introduction of a voting mechanism.
Characterization of Truncated Forms of the KdpD Protein, the Sensor Kinase of the K+-translocating Kdp System of Escherichia coli*

The expression of the kdpFABC operon, coding for the K+-translocating Kdp system, is controlled by the two regulatory proteins, KdpD and KdpE, which belong to the group of sensor kinase/response regulator systems. This study describes the construction and analysis of KdpD sensor kinases, in which different deletions in the N-terminal part of the protein were introduced. Truncated KdpD proteins, in which the membrane-spanning segments were deleted, had lost their phosphorylation capacity. Truncated KdpD proteins, in which the four membrane-spanning helices were untouched, were still phosphorylated, and the phosphoryl group could be transferred to the response regulator KdpE in vitro. Furthermore, these truncated KdpD proteins cause dephosphorylation of KdpE(P), which is comparable with that of the wild-type protein. To investigate the effect of the deletions on signal transduction in vivo the corresponding kdp genes were transferred to the chromosome. Growth studies with the mutant strains are in accord with the data obtained from the in vitro studies. Furthermore, kdp expression was investigated using a KdpA-LacZ fusion. The data obtained support the notion that the extent of kdp expression is modulated by the N-terminal part of KdpD.
Canonical transient receptor potential TRPC7 can function as both a receptor- and store-operated channel in HEK-293 cells.

Previous studies on the activation mechanism of canonical transient receptor potential (TRPC) channels have often produced conflicting conclusions. All seven have been shown to be activated by phospholipase C (PLC)-coupled receptors, but TRPC1, TRPC2, TRPC3, TRPC4, TRPC5, and TRPC7 have also been proposed to function as store-operated channels. (1)1Although PLC activation inevitably leads to activation of store-operated channels, in this report when we refer to PLC-activated channels, we mean those channels that are specifically activated by PLC independently of store depletion. In the case of TRPC3, the expression environment and the expression level appear to determine the mode of regulation. Evidence of a close structural relative of TRPC3, TRPC7, has been presented that this channel is activated by receptor activation or by store depletion. On the basis of previous findings for TRPC3, we reasoned that subtle differences in structure or expression conditions might account for the apparent distinct gating mechanisms of TRPC7. To reexamine the mode of activation of TRPC7, we stably and transiently transfected human embryonic kidney (HEK)-293 cells with cDNA encoding for human TRPC7. We examined the ability of a PLC-activating agonist and an intracellular Ca(2+) store-depleting agent to activate these channels. Our findings demonstrate that when transiently expressed in HEK-293 cells, TRPC7 forms channels that are activated by PLC-stimulating agonists, but not by Ca(2+) store depletion. However, when stably expressed in HEK-293 cells, TRPC7 can be activated by either Ca(2+) store depletion or PLC activation. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a channel protein that can be activated by both receptor- and store-operated modes in the same cell. In addition, the results reconcile the apparently conflicting findings of other laboratories regarding TRPC7 regulation.
Robot therapy at facilities for the elderly in Kanagawa prefecture - a report on the experimental result of the first month

Robot therapy is expected to have psychological, physiological, and social effects similar to those of animal therapy. The therapeutic seal robot, PARO, is used in various facilities for the elderly, and its use spreading throughout the world. In previous studies, the effects of PARO were examined by various types of tests. However, the number of subjects in those studies was low. In this study, PARO was introduced in 10 facilities for the elderly, and 83 elderly individuals interacted with it under “the Nursing-care Robot Promotion Project” sponsored by Kanagawa prefecture, Japan. We reported the results of this experiment during the first week in RO-MAN 2013. This paper reports the follow-up results of this experiment for one month.
Design of the CodeBoost transformation system for domain-specific optimisation of C++ programs

The use of a high-level, abstract coding style can greatly increase developer productivity. For numerical software, this can result in drastically reduced run-time performance. High-level, domain-specific optimisations can eliminate much of the overhead caused by an abstract coding style, but current compilers have poor support for domain-specific optimisation. We present CodeBoost, a source-to-source transformation tool for domain-specific optimisation of C++ programs. CodeBoost performs parsing, semantic analysis and pretty-printing, and transformations can be implemented either in the Stratego program transformation language, or as user-defined rewrite rules embedded within the C++ program. CodeBoost has been used with great success to optimise numerical applications written in the Sophus high-level coding style. We discuss the overall design of the CodeBoost transformation framework, and take a closer look at two important features of CodeBoost: user-defined rules and totem annotations. We also show briefly how CodeBoost is used to optimise Sophus code, resulting in applications that run twice as fast, or more.
Deadlock-free and plane-balanced adaptive routing for 3D networks-on-chip

This paper proposes a new method for designing adaptive routing algorithms for 3D networks-on-chip (NoCs). This method is based on extending the existing 2D turn model adaptive routing to a 3D scenario. A 3-D plane-balanced approach with maximal degree of adaptiveness is achieved by applying a well-defined set of rules for different strata of the 3D NoC. The proposed method is applicable to any of the turn models. In this paper, we employ odd-even turn model as a basis for introducing the proposed strategy. Experimental results show that the new 3D odd-even can achieve up to 23.8% improvement in throughput over conventional odd-even approach. The improvement is consistent for different traffic types. The proposed method enables a new avenue to explore adaptive approaches for future large-scale 3D integration.
Efficient sample processing for proteomics applications—Are we there yet?

The ability to solubilize and digest protein extracts and recover peptides with high efficiency is of paramount importance in proteomics. A novel proteomic sample preparation protocol by Krijgsveld and colleagues (Hughes et al, 2014) provides significant advantages by enabling all sample processing steps to be carried out in a single tube to minimize sample losses, thereby enhancing sensitivity, throughput, and scalability of proteomics analyses.
CAPTCHA Usability and Performance, How to Measure the Usability Level of Human Interactive Applications Quantitatively and Qualitatively?

Measuring the usability and user performance level of any products or services especially in the field of online and computer-based applications is a vital issue, which has been in the centre of attention for the researchers. One of the most common ways of measuring the usability and performance of any online interactive application or service is by conducting a comprehensive user study or by asking users to give their feedback on that particular product or application. In order to achieve valuable user feedback, a good quality survey and questionnaire needs to be designed in order to measure the usability and performance of the model quantitatively and qualitatively. In this paper, some of the most important elements involved in designing of online survey forms especially in the field of computer security and precisely web security have been investigated in order to measure the usability and performance level of different online security applications, such as CAPTCHAs or Human Interactive Proofs (HIPs), which are used to increase the security of online-based service providers.