Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic background subtraction based on appearance and motion pattern

Moving objects detection plays a critical role in computer vision application, since it usually is the first phase in video processing. Most traditional methods are used in static scenes, however not perform well in dynamic situations, or they can only overcome limited perturbation. In this paper, we propose a stereo local binary pattern based on appearance and motion (SLBP-AM) descriptor for back-ground modeling and objects detection. We regard the motion of pixels as dynamic texture in ellipsoidal domain, and combine texture histograms in the XY, XT, YT planes in the ellipsoid as the new descriptor for background subtraction. Compared with traditional local binary pattern (LBP) descriptor, experiment results show that the new proposed method can not only be robust to slight disturbance, but also adapt quickly to the large-scale and sudden changes.
A reduced complexity multi-user massive MIMO precoding method

Considering the upcoming future generation of mobile communication standards, Multi-User Massive MIMO (MU-MMIMO) is a well-known method of increasing the overall cell throughput. Such a scenario suffers from a high computational complexity because of the transmit precoding that is used to eliminate the inter-user interference. The paper proposes a reduced complexity precoding method applicable at the base station (BS) side of a downlink multiuser scenario. The reduction in complexity is achieved by reducing the number of low-level operations involved in the QR decomposition without any effect on the overall system performance. The method is shown to be compatible with two of the most widespread implementations of the QR decomposition: Givens rotations and Householder reflections. The proposed algorithm is evaluated in terms of required number of multiply-and-accumulate (MAC) operations and compared with its unmodified version, showing a net decrease of computational complexity.
Cloning of heat‐shock locus 93D from Drosophila melanogaster.

Using the microcloning approach a number of recombinant lambda phages carrying DNA from the 93D region have been isolated. Screening genomic libraries, cloned in phage lambda or cosmid vectors, with this isolated DNA yielded a series of overlapping DNA fragments from the region 93D6‐7 as shown by in situ hybridization to polytene chromosomes. In vitro 32P‐labelled nuclear RNA prepared from heat‐shocked third instar larvae hybridized specifically to one fragment within 85 kb of cloned DNA. The region which is specifically transcribed after heat shock could be defined to a cluster of internally‐repetitive DNA and its neighbouring proximal sequences. Over a sequence of 10‐12 kb in length the DNA is cut into repeat units of approximately 280 nucleotides by the restriction endonuclease TaqI. The TaqI repeat sequences are unique in the Drosophila genome.
Active MR guidance of interventional devices with target‐navigation

This project incorporated a novel inductive coupling structure of three micro coils into an invasive device tip to determine both its tip position and orientation. Moreover, with the introduction of a new target‐navigation technique the MR scan plane was defined automatically by the invasive device orientation and target tissue location. A time domain multiplexing technique was applied for simultaneous MR imaging and device tracking. Using these techniques, the acquired MR images always showed both the invasive device and its target tissue. Thus, roadmap images and their potential misregistration errors were avoided. A graphical user interface (GUI) was also designed to assist interventional physicians in monitoring and guiding the insertion of the interventional device. Ex vivo phantom and in vivo animal experiments were performed to test this new technique. The methods developed in this project provide a new active technique for interventional device guidance using MRI. Magn Reson Med 44:56–65, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Defining the Localization and Molecular Characteristic of Minor Salivary Gland Label‐Retaining Cells

Adult stem cells (SCs) are important to maintain homeostasis of tissues including several mini‐organs like hair follicles and sweat glands. However, the existence of stem cells in minor salivary glands (SGs) is largely unexplored. In vivo histone2B green fluorescent protein pulse chase strategy has allowed us to identify slow‐cycling, label‐retaining cells (LRCs) of minor SGs that preferentially localize in the basal layer of the lower excretory duct with a few in the acini. Engraftment of isolated SG LRC in vivo demonstrated their potential to differentiate into keratin 5 (basal layer marker) and keratin 8 (luminal layer marker)‐positive structures. Transcriptional analysis revealed activation of TGFβ1 target genes in SG LRC and BMP signaling in SG progenitors. We also provide evidence that minor SGSCs are sensitive to tobacco‐derived tumor‐inducing agent and give rise to tumors resembling low grade adenoma. Our data highlight for the first time the existence of minor SG LRCs with stem cells characteristic and emphasize the role of transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) pathway in their maintenance. Stem Cells 2014;32:2267–2277
Maternal melatonin or agomelatine therapy prevents programmed hypertension in male offspring of mother exposed to continuous light†

Abstract Hypertension can originate from early-life insults, whereas maternal melatonin therapy can be protective in a variety of models of programmed hypertension. We hypothesize that melatonin or melatonin receptor agonist agomelatine can prevent programmed hypertension in adult offspring induced by maternal exposure to continuous light. Female Sprague-Dawley pregnant rats randomly divided into four groups: controls, rats exposed to continuous light, exposed to continuous light plus treated with agomelatine (50 mg/day i.p.), and exposed to continuous light plus treated with 0.01% melatonin in drinking water throughout pregnancy and lactation period. Male offspring (n = 10/group) from three litters were examined at 12 weeks of age. Maternal continuous light exposure-induced hypertension in male offspring, which was prevented by melatonin or agomelatine therapy. Continuous light exposure did not affect melatonin pathway in adult offspring kidney. Genes that belong to the renin-angiotensin system (RAS), sodium transporters, AMP-activated protein kinase pathway, and circadian rhythm were potentially involved in the maternal exposure to continuous light-induced programmed hypertension. Maternal agomelatine therapy decreased Ace expression but increased Agtr2 and Mas1. Maternal melatonin therapy prevented the increases of Slc9a3, Slc12a3, and Atp1a1 expression induced by maternal continuous light exposure. In conclusion, maternal melatonin or agomelatine therapy prevents programmed hypertension induced by maternal exposure to continuous light. Agomelatine and melatonin reprogram the RAS and sodium transporters differentially, to prevent negative programming of continuous light. Our data highlight candidate genes and pathways in renal programming as targets for therapeutic approaches to prevent programmed hypertension caused by early-life disturbance of the circadian rhythm. Summary Sentence Exposure of the mother to continuous light-induced programmed hypertension in adult offspring, which was prevented by maternal agomelatine or melatonin therapy via regulating reninangiotensin system, sodium transporters, AMP-activated protein kinase pathway, and circadian rhythm.
A modified SEPIC converter with soft-switching feature for power factor correction

In this paper, a modified SEPIC converter is presented to function as a power factor corrector (PFC). The modified SEPIC-type PFC not only can achieve unity power factor but reduce DC-link voltage to release component stresses. Therefore, it is suitable for high line-voltage applications. A soft-switching cell composed of an active switch and an inductor-capacitor resonant circuit is embedded into the PFC to obtain zero-voltage switching (ZVS) feature. As a result, the efficiency of the converter is improved significantly. Operation principles are discussed in detail and conceptual key waveforms are also shown in this paper. A prototype is designed, analyzed and implemented. The simulation results and practical measurements have verified the feasibility of the proposed modified soft-switching SEPIC converter.
Comparison between α-LNA and DHA in early developmental stages of Takifugu obscurus and Takifugu rubripes

Rearing experiments were conducted to investigate the essential fatty acid requirements in the early developmental stages of river puffer Takifugu obscurus and tiger puffer T. rubripes using two n−3 series unsaturated fatty acids, α-linolenic acid (18∶3n−3, α-LNA) and docosahexaenoic acid (22∶6n−3, DHA), under salinity of 30 and 18.5–20.3°C. River and tiger puffer larvae used in this study were 15 and 14 days old after hatching, and their average body weights were 30.1 and 20.8 mg, respectively. The results on fatty acid requirements of these two species were evaluated from fish growth, survival, fatty acid composition of the fish body and activity test results. The DHA groups of both river and tiger puffer exhibited better survival and weight gain. However, there was no difference in the mean final body weights of river puffer between two dietary groups. Also, the DHA group of tiger puffer showed better results in the recovery test from anesthetic condition than that obtained in the LNA group. In an examination of the fatty acid compositions of the whole body, the LNA group containing no dietary DHA resulted in 0.5% DHA in tiger puffer and 1.1% DHA in river puffer. These results suggest that α-LNA from Artemia converted to eicosapentaenoic acid (20∶5n−3, EPA) and to DHA successively by their fatty acid metabolism. Symptoms following essential fatty acid deficiency were not observed in any experimental groups. As river puffer did not represent a significant difference in the dietary effects between α-LNA and DHA treatment groups, its essential fatty acid requirement was assumed to be somewhat closer to that of the freshwater fishes in comparison with that of marine fishes, including tiger puffer.
Does One Size Fit All?: A Reexamination of the Finance and Growth Relationship

The relationship between financial development and economic growth has received a lot of attention in the economic literature in recent years. This literature has generally found that financial development has a strong positive effect on growth. In this paper, we propose that the relationship between financial development and growth may not be uniform, but varies according to the level of financial development of the country. In particular, we hypothesize that there exist three distinct regions of financial development. In the low region (countries with very low levels of financial development), additional improvements in financial markets have an uncertain effect on growth. In the intermediate region, financial development has a large, positive effect on growth. Finally, in the high region, additional financial improvements have a positive, but smaller effect on growth. We examine a panel of 74 countries using GMM dynamic panel techniques and find support for the different regions.
A terminal cost for economic model predictive control with local optimality

In this work, we design a terminal cost for economic model predictive control (EMPC) which preserves local optimality. We first show, based on the strong duality and second order sufficient condition (SOSC) of the steady-state optimization problem, that the optimal operation of the system is locally equivalent to an infinite-horizon LQR controller. The proposed terminal cost is constructed as the value function of the LQR controller plus a linear term characterized by the Lagrange multiplier associated with the steady state constraint. EMPC with the proposed terminal cost is stabilizing with an appropriately chosen control horizon, and preserves the local optimality of the LQR controller. Simulation results of an isothermal CSTR verify our analysis.
Antioxidant c-FLIP Inhibits Fas Ligand-Induced NF-κB Activation in a Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase/Akt-Dependent Manner

Fas ligand (FasL) belongs to the TNF family of death ligands, and its binding to the FasR leads to activation of several downstream signaling pathways and proteins, including NF-κB and PI3K/Akt. However, it is not known whether cross-talk exists between NF-κB and PI3K/Akt in the context of FasL signaling. We demonstrate using both human renal epithelial 293T cells and Jurkat T-lymphocyte cells that although FasL activates both Akt and NF-κB, Akt inhibits FasL-dependent NF-κB activity in a reactive oxygen species-dependent manner. Cellular FLICE-inhibitory protein (c-FLIP), an antioxidant and an important component of the death-inducing signaling complex, also represses NF-κB upstream of the regulatory IκB kinase-γ protein subunit in the NF-κB signaling pathway, and positive cross-talk exists between Akt and c-FLIP in the context of inhibition of FasL-induced NF-κB activity. The presence of two death effector domains of c-FLIP and S-nitrosylation of its caspase-like domain were found to be important for mediating c-FLIP–dependent downregulation of NF-κB activity. Taken together, our study reveals a novel link between NF-κB and PI3K/Akt and establishes c-FLIP as an important regulator of FasL-mediated cell death.
Sequential Graph Neural Network for Urban Road Traffic Speed Prediction

Accurate speed predictions for urban roads are highly important for traffic monitoring and route planning, and also help relieve the pressure of traffic congestion. Many existing studies on traffic speed prediction are based on convolutional neural networks, and these have primarily focused on capturing the spatial proximity among different road segments. However, the real cause of the spread of traffic congestion is the connectivity of these road segments, rather than their spatial proximity. This makes it very challenging to improve prediction accuracy. Using graph neural networks (GNNs), the connectivity of these road segments can be modeled as a graph in which the properties of road segments and the connections between them are embedded as the properties of the nodes and edges, respectively. This paper describes a novel approach that combines the advantages of sequence-to-sequence (Seq2Seq) models and GNNs. Specifically, the evolution of traffic conditions on road networks is modeled as a sequence of graphs. Thus, the proposed SeqGNN model represents both the inputs and outputs as graph sequences. Finally, the extensive experiments using real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach and its advantages over the state-of-the-art methods.
Lane and obstacle detection based on fast inverse perspective mapping algorithm

A fast inverse perspective mapping algorithm (FIPMA) is presented for a fast and accurate recovery of road surface from a given 2D road image. FIPMA is able to simplify the system design without losing reliability and flexibility. A novel lane and obstacle detection method, using only a single CCD camera, is proposed based on a recovered road surface image by FIPMA. This method includes five parts: recovering the road surface from the input road image using FIPMA; processing the recovered surface image; detecting lane and estimating lane parameters; updating camera parameters adaptively; and detecting obstacles.
A STATISTICAL MODEL FOR THE γ-RAY VARIABILITY OF THE CRAB NEBULA

A statistical scenario is proposed to explain the γ-ray variability and flares of the Crab Nebula, which were observed recently by the Fermi/LAT. In this scenario electrons are accelerated in a series of knots, whose sizes follow a power-law distribution. These knots presumably move outward from the pulsar and have a distribution in the Doppler boost factor. The maximal electron energy is assumed to be proportional to the size of the knot. Fluctuations at the highest energy end of the overall electron distribution will result in variable γ-ray emission via the synchrotron process in the ∼100 MeV range. Since highly boosted larger knots are rarer than smaller knots, the model predicts that the variability of the synchrotron emission increases with the photon energy. We realize such a scenario with a Monte Carlo simulation and find that the model can reproduce both the two γ-ray flares over a period of ∼1 year and the monthly scale γ-ray flux fluctuations as observed by the Fermi/LAT. The observed γ-ray spectra in both the steady and flaring states are also well reproduced.
Universal Water Channels : Aquaporins

The organization of water is critical to most biological processes, whether on a cellular or multicellular level. Although cell membranes are to some extent water-permeable, they cannot facilitate the rapid exchange of large volumes of water, as required by the kidneys in the human body. Aquaporins (AQPs) are a family of specialized integral membrane proteins which function mainly as water channels. They usually conduct water at a rate of ∼10 molecules per second, which is almost comparable to the free diffusion of water. These highly efficient water channels can explain how we secrete tears, saliva and sweat, how our kidneys concentrate urine, and how our brains maintain spinal fluids [1]. AQPs are present in all domains of life, including archaea, bacteria, plants, and all phyla of animals. Members of the AQP family can be di-
Lipid and Macromolecules Quantitation in Differentiating Glioblastoma From Solitary Metastasis: A Short–Echo Time Single-Voxel Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Study at 3 T

Objective The differentiation between solitary metastasis (MET) and glioblastoma (GBM) is difficult using only magnetic resonance imaging techniques. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) lipid signal indicates cellular necrosis both in GBMs and METs. The purpose of this prospective study was to determine whether a class of lipids and/or macromolecules (MMs), able to efficiently discriminate between these two types of lesions, exists. Methods Forty-one patients with solitary brain tumor (23 GBMs and 18 METs) underwent magnetic resonance imaging and single-voxel MRS. Short–echo time point resolved spectroscopy sequence acquisition with water suppression technique was used. Spectra were analyzed using LCModel. Absolute quantification was performed with “water-scaling” procedure. The analysis was focused on sums of lipid and macromolecular (LM) components at 0.9 and 1.3 ppm. Results The LM13 absolute concentration was statistically different (P < 0.0001) between GBMs and METs. With a cutoff of 81 mM in LM13 absolute concentration, METs and GBMs can be distinguished with a 78% of specificity and an 81% of sensitivity. The presence of the MM12 peak, related to the fucose II complex, in tumors harboring a K-ras gene mutation has been investigated. Conclusions We exploited the performance of a clinically easily implementable method, such as short–echo time single-voxel MRS, for the differentiation between brain metastasis and primary brain tumors. The study showed that MRS absolute lipid and macromolecular signals could be helpful in differentiating GBM from metastasis. LM13 class was found to be a discriminant parameter with an accuracy of 85%. Detection of the MM12-fucose peak may also have a role in understanding molecular biology of brain metastasis and should be further investigated to address specific metabolic phenotypes.
Oligomeric Structure and Functional Characterization of Caenorhabditis elegans Innexin-6 Gap Junction Protein*

Background: Invertebrates possess gap junction channels composed of innexins. Results: The molecular dimension, oligomeric state, and permeability of C. elegans INX-6 channels were determined by structural, biochemical, and functional studies. Conclusion: INX-6 channels have a larger overall structure and higher permeability as compared with connexins. Significance: Innexin channels appear to be distinct from connexin channels in terms of structure and function. Innexin is the molecular component of invertebrate gap junctions. Here we successfully expressed and purified Caenorhabditis elegans innexin-6 (INX-6) gap junction channels and characterized the molecular dimensions and channel permeability using electron microscopy (EM) and microinjection of fluorescent dye tracers, respectively. Negative staining and thin-section EM of isolated INX-6 gap junction membranes revealed a loosely packed hexagonal lattice and a greater cross-sectional width than that of connexin26 and connexin43 (Cx43)-GFP. In gel filtration analysis, the elution profile of purified INX-6 channels in dodecyl maltoside solution exhibited a peak at ∼400 kDa that was shifted to ∼800 kDa in octyl glucose neopentyl glycol. We also obtained the class averages of purified INX-6 channels from these peak fractions by single particle analysis. The class average from the ∼800-kDa fraction showed features of the junction form with a longitudinal height of 220 Å, a channel diameter of 110 Å in the absence of detergent micelles, and an extracellular gap space of 60 Å, whereas the class averages from the ∼400-kDa fraction showed diameters of up to 140 Å in the presence of detergent micelles. These findings indicate that the purified INX-6 channels are predominantly hemichannels in dodecyl maltoside and docked junction channels in octyl glucose neopentyl glycol. Dye transfer experiments revealed that the INX-6-GFP-His channels are permeable to 3- and 10-kDa tracers, whereas no significant amounts of these tracers passed through the Cx43-GFP channels. Based on these findings, INX-6 channels have a larger overall structure and greater permeability than connexin channels.
STRATEGI PENGEMBANGAN POTENSI DESA

Indonesia sedang membangun dalam berbagai bidang, khusunya ditumpukan kepada tingkat wilayah Desa yang merupakan wilayah yang menyentuh langsung kepada kehidupan masyarakat. Pembangunan ini direncanakan secara berkelanjutan untuk menciptakan kesejahtraan bagi rakyat Indonesia. Kawasan perdesaan harus dipandang sebagai bagian yang tak terpisahkan dengan kawasan perkotaan. Pemahaman yang menyeluruh dan tidak dikotomis ini menjadi penting dan mendasar dalam penyusunan peraturan atau aturan main yang berkaitan dengan perdesaan maupun perkotaan, agar terjadi sinergi dan keseimbangan perlakuan wilayah, khususnya oleh pelaku pembangunan. Dengan diberlakukannya Undang-undang nomor 6 tahun 2014 tentang Desa maka menjadi peluang bagi setiap desa untuk bisa mengembangkan setiap potensi yang dimilikinya secara mandiri sesuai kebutuhan masing-masing dalam rangka mewujudkan kesejahteraan masyarakat.