Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Processing Terrain Point Cloud Data

Terrain point cloud data are typically acquired through some form of Light Detection And Ranging sensing. They form a rich resource that is important in a variety of applications including navigation, line of sight, and terrain visualization. Processing terrain data has not received the attention of other forms of surface reconstruction or of image processing. The goal of terrain data processing is to convert the point cloud into a succinct representation system that is amenable to the various application demands. The present paper presents a platform for terrain processing built on the following principles: (i) measuring distortion in the Hausdorff metric, which we argue is a good match for the application demands, (ii) a multiscale representation based on tree approximation using local polynomial fitting. The basic elements held in the nodes of the tree can be efficiently encoded, transmitted, visualized, and utilized for the various target applications. Several challenges emerge because of the variable.
2DPCA vs. 2DLDA: Face Recognition Using Two-Dimensional Method

Two-dimensional principal component analysis (2DPCA) and two-dimensional linear discriminant analysis (2DLDA) are new techniques for face recognition. The main ideas behind 2DPCA and 2DLDA are that they are based on 2D matrices as opposed to the traditional PCA and LDA, which are based on 1D vector. In some literature, there has been a tendency to prefer 2DLDA over 2DPCA because, as intuition would suggest, the former deals directly with discrimination between classes, whereas the latter deals with the data in its entirely for the principal components analysis without paying any particular attention to the underlying class structure. In this paper, to compare the performances of the two methods, a series of experiments perform on two face image databases: ORL and CAS-PEAL. The experiments results show that the performance of 2DLDA is not always better than that of 2DPCA. Particularly, in the case of large subjects, 2DPCA can outperform 2DLDA.
ROBUST STABILITY ANALYSIS FOR STRUCTURED UNCERTAINTIES WITH BOUNDED VARIATION RATES

Abstract Robust stability analysis problem is considered for the feedback interconnection of a causal and stable linear time-invariant system with causal and stable linear time-varying block-diagonal structured uncertainties having sub-blocks of bounded norms and variation rates. The problem is studied within the recently developed IQC framework of robust stability analysis, and based on a generalized version of the swapping lemma, a multiplier class capturing the considered uncertainties is obtained and thus a robust stability test is developed in terms of an LMI feasibility problem.
Novel signaling pathways mediating reciprocal control of keratinocyte migration and wound epithelialization through M3 and M4 muscarinic receptors

To test the hypothesis that keratinocyte (KC) migration is modulated by distinct muscarinic acetylcholine (ACh) receptor subtypes, we inactivated signaling through specific receptors in in vitro and in vivo models of reepithelialization by subtype-selective antagonists, small interfering RNA, and gene knockout in mice. KC migration and wound reepithelialization were facilitated by M4 and inhibited by M3. Additional studies showed that M4 increases expression of “migratory” integrins α5β1, αVβ5, and αVβ6, whereas M3 up-regulates “sedentary” integrins α2β1 and α3β1. Inhibition of migration by M3 was mediated through Ca2+-dependent guanylyl cyclase–cyclic GMP–protein kinase G signaling pathway. The M4 effects resulted from inhibition of the inhibitory pathway involving the adenylyl cyclase–cyclic AMP–protein kinase A pathway. Both signaling pathways intersected at Rho, indicating that Rho kinase provides a common effector for M3 and M4 regulation of cell migration. These findings offer novel insights into the mechanisms of ACh-mediated modulation of KC migration and wound reepithelialization, and may aid the development of novel methods to promote wound healing.
Tartronate Semialdehyde Reductase Defines a Novel Rate-Limiting Step in Assimilation and Bioconversion of Glycerol in Ustilago maydis

Background Glycerol is a by-product of biodiesel production. Currently, it has limited applications with low bioconversion efficiency to most metabolites reported. This is partly attributed to the poor knowledge on the glycerol metabolic pathway in bacteria and fungi. Methodology/Principal Findings We have established a fast screening method for identification of genes that improve glycerol utilization in Ustilago maydis. This was done by comparing the growth rates of T-DNA tagged mutant colonies on solid medium using glycerol as the sole carbon source. We present a detailed characterization of one of the mutants, GUM1, which contains a T-DNA element inserted into the promoter region of UM02592 locus (MIPS Ustilago maydis database, MUMDB), leading to enhanced and constitutive expression of its mRNA. We have demonstrated that um02592 encodes a functional tartronate semialdehyde reductase (Tsr1), which showed dual specificity to cofactors NAD+ and NADP+ and strong substrate specificity and enantioselectivity for D-glycerate. Improved glycerol assimilation in GUM1 was associated with elevated expression of tsr1 mRNA and this could be phenocopied by over-expression of the gene. Glycolipid accumulation was reduced by 45.2% in the knockout mutant whereas introduction of an extra copy of tsr1 driven by the glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase promoter increased it by 40.4%. Conclusions/Significance Our results demonstrate that tartronate semialdehyde reductase (TSR) plays an important role in glycerol assimilation in U. maydis and defines a novel target in genetic engineering for improved conversion of glycerol to higher value products. Our results add significant depth to the understanding of the glycerol metabolic pathway in fungi. We have demonstrated, for the first time, a biological role of a eukaryotic TSR.
Time-Varying Beta Estimators in the Mexican Emerging Market

This paper compares the performance of three different time-varying betas that have never previously been compared: the rolling OLS estimator, a nonparametric estimator and an estimator based on GARCH models. The study is conducted using returns from the Mexican stock market grouped into six portfolios for the period 2003-2009. The comparison, based on asset pricing perspective and mean-variance space returns, concludes that GARCH based beta estimators outperform the others when the comparison is in terms of time series while the nonparametric estimator is more appropriate in the cross-sectional context.
Free Fall or Restructuring. An Empirical Analysis of Economic Performance of Russian Industries and Regions

Improvements in economic efficiency and productivity are the most important sources for economic growth, however, have yet to occur in Russia. The Soviet Union left an institutional vacuum and large economic distortions behind, which set the stage for an established elite to systematically exploit factors of production for their personal benefit lacking the incentives to restructure. This paper generates some empirical highlights of the outcomes of industrial transformation from 1987 to 1997. The following results are worth mentioning: (1) Early steps of liberalization, the attempts to macro-stabilization and the launch of the privatization package did not bring about improved economic efficiency in industrial production; (2) Less concentrated and highly localized industries performed better, which can mainly be explained by the performance of the resource extracting industries; (3) Price liberalization revealed increasing returns in industrial production and the contribution of capital to output declined rapidly, while the contribution of labor increased.
Predicting disulfide bond connectivity in proteins by correlated mutations analysis

MOTIVATION Prediction of disulfide bond connectivity facilitates structural and functional annotation of proteins. Previous studies suggest that cysteines of a disulfide bond mutate in a correlated manner. RESULTS We developed a method that analyzes correlated mutation patterns in multiple sequence alignments in order to predict disulfide bond connectivity. Proteins with known experimental structures and varying numbers of disulfide bonds, and that spanned various evolutionary distances, were aligned. We observed frequent variation of disulfide bond connectivity within members of the same protein families, and it was also observed that in 99% of the cases, cysteine pairs forming non-conserved disulfide bonds mutated in concert. Our data support the notion that substitution of a cysteine in a disulfide bond prompts the substitution of its cysteine partner and that oxidized cysteines appear in pairs. The method we developed predicts disulfide bond connectivity patterns with accuracies of 73, 69 and 61% for proteins with two, three and four disulfide bonds, respectively.
Platoon lane change maneuvers for automated highway systems

The research in automated highway systems (AHS) is gaining attention within the research fields of intelligent transportation systems. Based on the PATH AHS architecture, when a follower wants to change lanes, it needs to use split maneuvers first. A "lane change within platoons" maneuver can improve the efficiency of a lane change maneuver. However, platoon lane change (PLC) maneuvers are needed in some situations for an entire platoon to change lanes, but little research focuses on this topic. In this paper, we describe three PLC maneuvers and we use SmartAHS to simulate them.
Actin is required for endocytosis at the apical surface of MDCK cells where ARF 6 and clathrin regulate the actin cytoskeleton

In epithelial cell lines, apical but not basolateral clathrin-mediated endocytosis has been shown to be affected by actin-disrupting drugs. Using electron and fluorescence microscopy, as well as biochemical assays, we show that the amount of actin dedicated to endocytosis is limiting at the apical surface of epithelia. In part, this contributes to the low basal rate of clathrin-dependent endocytosis observed at this epithelial surface. ARF6 in its GTP-bound state triggers the recruitment of actin from the cell cortex to the clathrin-coated pit to enable dynamin-dependent endocytosis. In addition, we show that perturbation of the apical endocytic system by expression of a clathrin heavy chain mutant results in the collapse of microvilli. This phenotype was completely reversed by the expression of an ARF6-GTP-locked mutant. These observations indicate that concomitant to actin recruitment, the apical clathrin endocytic system is deeply involved in the morphology of the apical plasma membrane.
Mobile cloud computing: A survey and propose solution framework

The resource demands of specific services develop as well along with the increase of mobile. Nonetheless, mobile certainly will often be restricted performance that is regarding computation, storage, battery life, context adaptation of connectivity, scalability, and heterogeneity included security issue. An outstanding solution to address these limitations is definitely to offload computation is mobile cloud computing (MCC). However, present approaches don't address the complexity which results from quickly and context that is constantly changing in mobile user scenarios and accordingly developing effective and efficient MCC applications continues to be demanding. Consequently, this paper demonstrate a summary of demands for MCC applications along with a classification of present solutions. Additionally, it brings a design lead to the collection of appropriate concepts for various classes of common applications which are cloud augmented tend to be mobile. Finally, we offer open issues that guideline to researchers take into consideration when designing MCC.
OCL Support in MOF Repositories

From metamodels that are defined using OMG’s Meta Object Facility (MOF) it is possible to automatically derive model repositories where models conforming to that metamodel can be stored and accessed through standardized interfaces. But the concepts offered by MOF allow only the description of certain aspects of a metamodel such as its data structure but lack ways to exactly define structural consistence or constraints. For this purpose, the Object Constraint Language (OCL) can be used. This paper discusses how derived repositories can be enabled to monitor and evaluate constraints defined with OCL and how repositories should react on a constraint violation.
Combining Global and Local Features for Detection of License Plates in a Video

This paper presents a license plate detection algor ithm using both global edge features and local Haar -like features. Global classifiers using global statistic al features are constructed through simple learning processes. After applying these global classifiers, most of li cense plate background regions are excluded from further training or testing. Then an AdaBoost learning proc edure is constructed to obtain local classifiers ba sed on selected local Haar-like features. By combining the global and local classifiers, we obtain a cascaded classifier consisting of 6 layers with only 160 features. Ther efore, our cascaded classifier is simple and effici ent. Our proposed cascaded classifier is invariant to the br ightness, colour, size and position of license plat es. Satisfactory detection results showing high detection rate with low false positive rate are demonstrated using a vi deo of moving vehicles. Unlike methods built on either fix ed image backgrounds or fixed cameras, our method does not use any inter-frame information and pre-knowledge. Therefore, our method is more flexible for real-tim e applications.
The Re-Entrant Cross Section and Wide ~ Band % db Hybrid Couplers *

obtaining a spectral match of the laser emission to the maser pump transition is concerned. On the other hand, the liquid nitrogen cooled laser emission is broader than the liquid helium cooled laser when driven above threshold. Consequently, a somewhat more severe limitation arises as to the amount of maser pump power which can actually be coupled into the maser ruby if a nitrogen cooled laser is employed. The magnetic fields required in this scheme are feasible with superconducting solenoids which have critical temperatures below the higher frequency maser operating temperature, however. Consequently, we envisage the maser cryogenic system to consist of a triple dewar, i.e., an outer nitrogen jacket, a second helium jacket for the superconducting magnet, and an inner cold chamber containing the maser ruby and a heater to control the temperature of the maser. A schematic depicting such apparatus is shown in Fig. 5.
An appropriate disconnecting time of distributed generation by optimal protection setting and transformer connection type

This paper analyzes the impacts of Distributed Generation (DG) disconnecting time on utility and DG, especially the impact on utility reclosing time. The reclosing time is a temporary interval that a utility protective device is opened after a fault occurrence. Generally, DG must be disconnected before the end of this reclosing time. Mostly, DG may be requested to be disconnected after a fault occurrence instantaneously. However, the latest IEEE 1547.2 Interconnecting Standard recommends that DG shall remain connected in the system for a period of time. This standard causes both advantages and disadvantages for utility and DG. The remaining DG connecting time pay an important role to the consequent impacts on the connected network, especially protection system. Hence, an appropriate DG disconnecting time is investigated in this paper. The solution is achieved by setting Time Dial Setting (TDS), Pickup Current, Terminal Voltage of DG as well as the types of Transformer Connection with Genetic Algorithm (GA).
Very short cycles of postconditioning have no protective effect against reperfusion injury. Experimental study in rats

Introduction Ischemic postconditioning has been recognized as effective in the prevention of reperfusion injury in situations of ischemia and reperfusion in various organs and tissues. However, it remains unclear what would be the best way to accomplish it, since studies show great variation in the method of their application. Objective To assess the protective effect of ischemic postconditioning on ischemia and reperfusion in rats undergoing five alternating cycles of reperfusion and ischemia of 30 seconds each one. Methods We studied 25 Wistar rats distributed in three groups: group A (10 rats), which underwent mesenteric ischemia (30 minutes) and reperfusion (60 minutes); Group B (10 rats), undergoing ischemia (30 minutes) and reperfusion (60 minutes), intercalated by postconditioning (5 alternating cycles of reperfusion and ischemia of 30 seconds each one); and group C - SHAM (5 rats), undergoing only laparotomy and manipulation of mesenteric artery. All animals underwent resection of an ileum segment for histological analysis. Results The mean lesions degree according to Chiu et al. were: group A, 2.77, group B, 2.67 and group C, 0.12. There was no difference between groups A and B (P>0.05). Conclusion Ischemic postconditioning was not able to minimize or prevent the intestinal tissue injury in rats undergoing ischemia and reperfusion process when used five cycles lasting 30 seconds each one.
Image Recognition System That Uses Visual Word

To deal with a large-scale image database, we design and implement an image recognition system using visual word. First, SIFT (Scale-invariant Feature Transform) features are extracted from the images. Subset of these features is then selected during the feature selection process. Finally selected features are quantized to the visual words. These visual words play an important role at the first search phase and to the overall precision. At the second search, original SIFT features are used to rearrange the result. Experimental results show 93% precision and 2 seconds retrieval time.
A Typical Set Method of Intrusion Detection Technology Base on Computer Audit Data

The signature database of intrusion detection system is usually built by the short sequences of system call. The real-time efficiency and accuracy of intrusion detection is greatly influenced by the scale of signature database and the approach of intrusion data analysis. In this paper, a typical set method is provided to compress the normal signature database. Using the data set of UNM CERT sendmail for testing, the feasibility of typical set method is validated, and a proper rate of typical set for intrusion detection is proposed. Meanwhile, the LSM (Linux Security Modules) framework is presented to hook system calls and other audit data from operation system to build intrusion detection system signature database and identify intrusion activity. A system service process oriented detection idea is also introduced to make the intrusion detection more pertinent and accurate. Abnormal detection experiments results show good performance of our intrusion detection method.
Rate of nutrient allocation to egg production in a parasitic wasp

Recent years have seen a marked increase in our awareness of the need to incorporate greater physiological realism into studies of parasitoid behaviour and population dynamics. Quantification of the number of eggs produced as a result of a host–feeding event, the host–feeding gain, is essential for predicting when a parasitoid should bypass an opportunity for current reproduction (i.e. laying eggs) in order to feed from the host and, thus, increase its chances for future reproduction (i.e. producing further eggs). Using radioactively labelled amino acids, one of the main constituents of insect haemolymph, we followed the incorporation of a known quantity of nutrients into each individual egg laid over a long period of time relative to the average life span of the parasitoid. Although the maximum incorporation of nutrients obtained by the female from a discrete feeding event occurs within a short period of time, a large proportion of nutrients are stored and used gradually for egg production throughout the life of the parasitoid. We therefore provide novel experimental evidence showing that feeding gain is not a discrete event in time occurring shortly after feeding, as has so far been assumed, but is instead spread throughout the parasitoid's lifetime. This has important consequences for calculating the increase in lifetime fitness as a result of a feeding event, a common currency of models that aim to predict feeding and oviposition behaviour in parasitoids.
Land-Use Changes and Their Relationships to Selected Landscape Parameters in Three Cadastral Areas in Moravia (Czech Republic)

Abstract The analysis of changes in landscape use and the related significance of some natural factors is examined in this paper, using three municipal cadastral areas in Moravia, Czech Republic. The relationships between changes in the use of the rural landscape and natural conditions were analyzed with the use of GIS tools and methods of canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). The CCA results showed a correlation between the selected natural factors and landscape changes, with the most significant factors being those of slope and altitude. The CCA models exhibited varying reliability in accounting for the extent of landscape changes related to topographical diversity of the territories. Natural conditions were more influential in periods with lower change dynamics and at the same time in areas with higher topographic heterogeneity. Although the results of the statistical analyses confirmed the significance of natural factors, only a part of land use changes could be explained by their influence. Socio-economic factors are apparently the main forces affecting landscape character and change Shrnutí Článek se soustřeďuje na analýzu změn využití krajiny a význam vybraných přírodních faktorů na příkladu tří katastrálních území obcí v České republice. Vztah mezi změnami ve využití venkovské krajiny a přírodními podmínkami byl analyzován pomocí nástrojů GIS a metod kanonické korespondenční analýzy (CCA). Výsledky CCA prokázaly korelaci vybraných přírodních faktorů a krajinných změn, přičemž nejvýrazněji se projevovaly faktory sklonu svahu a nadmořské výšky. CCA modely vykazovaly rozdílnou spolehlivost v závislosti na rozsahu krajinných změn a topografické různorodosti území. Přírodní podmínky se ve větší míře uplatňovaly v obdobích s nižší dynamikou změn a zároveň v oblastech s vyšší topografickou heterogenitou krajiny. Ačkoliv výsledky statistických analýz potvrdily význam přírodních faktorů, bylo jimi možné vysvětlit jen část celkových změn využití krajiny. Je zřejmé, že socioekonomické faktory jsou hlavními silami, které mají vliv na charakter krajiny.
Deformable face ensemble alignment with robust grouped-L1 anchors

Many methods exist at the moment for deformable face fitting. A drawback to nearly all these approaches is that they are (i) noisy in terms of landmark positions, and (ii) the noise is biased across frames (i.e. the misalignment is toward common directions across all frames). In this paper we propose a grouped L1-norm anchored method for simultaneously aligning an ensemble of deformable face images stemming from the same subject, given noisy heterogeneous landmark estimates. Impressive alignment performance improvement and refinement is obtained using very weak initialization as “anchors”.