Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fast Motion Capture Matching with Replicated Motion Editing

The possibility of storing large quantities of human motion capture, or mocap, has resulted in a growing demand for content-based retrieval of motion sequences without using annotations or other meta-data. We address the issue of rapidly retrieving perceptually similar occurrences of a particular motion in a long mocap sequence or unstructured mocap database for the purpose of replicating editing operations with minimal user-input. One or more editing operations on a given motion are made to affect all similar matching motions. This general approach is applied to standard mocap editing operations such as timewarping, filtering or motion-warping. The style of interaction lies between automation and complete user control. Unlike recent mocap synthesis systems [1], where new motion is generated by searching for plausible transitions between motion segments, our method efficiently searches for similar motions using a query-by-example paradigm, while still allowing for extensive parameterization over the nature of the matching.
TEM and Electron Diffraction

Electron microscopes, such as the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) are instruments used in the analysis of materials on a scale much smaller than possible by optical microscopy. The electron microscopes also use the many interactions that the electron beam has on the sample (Figure 1) to produce various imaging and diffraction modes that can be used to analyze the material down to the atomic scale. A SEM uses the electrons that are scattered off of the sample surface to produce images of the sample. In a TEM, the electron beam passes through the sample and produces an image using the transmitted electron beam; which contains both diffracted and unscattered electrons. Detectors in both SEM and TEM instruments collect the characteristic x-rays that are generated from the sample to allow for compositional analysis of the material. This type of x-ray production in the sample is the same principle as that of the generation of x-rays used in x-ray diffraction instruments.
A modified sum-product algorithm over graphs with isolated short cycles

We investigate into the limitations of the sum-product algorithm in the probability domain over graphs with isolated short cycles. By considering the statistical dependency of messages passed in a cycle of length 4, we modify the update equations for the beliefs at the variable and check nodes. We highlight an approximate log domain algebra for the modified variable node update to ensure numerical stability. At higher signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), the performance of decoding over graphs with isolated short cycles using the modified algorithm is improved compared to the original message passing algorithm (MPA).
An Antibiotic That Inhibits a Late Step in Wall Teichoic Acid Biosynthesis Induces the Cell Wall Stress Stimulon in Staphylococcus aureus

ABSTRACT Wall teichoic acids (WTAs) are phosphate-rich, sugar-based polymers attached to the cell walls of most Gram-positive bacteria. In Staphylococcus aureus, these anionic polymers regulate cell division, protect cells from osmotic stress, mediate host colonization, and mask enzymatically susceptible peptidoglycan bonds. Although WTAs are not required for survival in vitro, blocking the pathway at a late stage of synthesis is lethal. We recently discovered a novel antibiotic, targocil, that inhibits a late acting step in the WTA pathway. Its target is TarG, the transmembrane component of the ABC transporter (TarGH) that exports WTAs to the cell surface. We examined here the effects of targocil on S. aureus using transmission electron microscopy and gene expression profiling. We report that targocil treatment leads to multicellular clusters containing swollen cells displaying evidence of osmotic stress, strongly induces the cell wall stress stimulon, and reduces the expression of key virulence genes, including dltABCD and capsule genes. We conclude that WTA inhibitors that act at a late stage of the biosynthetic pathway may be useful as antibiotics, and we present evidence that they could be particularly useful in combination with beta-lactams.
Assessment of P-wave dispersion in children with atrial septal aneurysm

Abstract Background This was a prospective controlled study to determine the P-wave duration and P-wave dispersion in patients with atrial septal aneurysm. Methods A total of 41 children with atrial septal aneurysm, including 21 boys and 20 girls (mean age 11.85 ± 3.8 years), and 32 controls, including 17 boys and 15 girls (mean age 12.3 ± 2.9 years), were included. P-wave dispersion was calculated from the 12-lead electrocardiogram. Cardiac functions, morphology of the aneurysm, and left atrial diameter were measured using conventional echocardiography. The diagnosis of atrial septal aneurysm was made when the base of the aneurysms with an excursion ratio ≥25% was found on echocardiography. Results There was no significant difference between the patient and control groups in demographic, clinical findings, and M-mode echocardiographic parameters. The P-wave dispersion in patients with atrial septal aneurysm was significantly longer compared with the control group (64.4 ± 13.4 ms; p < 0.0001). Similarly, the the maximum duration of the P wave in the patient group was significantly longer compared with the control group (106.1 ± 13.3 ms; p < 0.001). The P-wave duration and dispersion were not correlated with age, gender, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, or m-mode echocardiographic parameters. Conclusions This study shows that P-wave dispersion is delayed in atrial septal aneurysm patients. Prolonged P-wave dispersion was determined to indicate electrical disturbance, and therefore it has an increased electrocardiographic risk of atrial arrhythmia in children with atrial septal aneurysm.
Risks and Benefits of Early Antithrombotic Therapy after Thrombolytic Treatment in Patients with Acute Stroke

Background Current guidelines recommend withholding antithrombotic therapy (ATT) for at least 24 h in patients with acute ischemic stroke treated with thrombolytic therapy. Herein, we report a retrospective analysis of a single-centre experience on the safety and efficacy of antithrombotic therapy (ATT) started before or after 24 h of intravenous thrombolysis in a cohort of acute ischemic stroke patients. Methods A total of 139 patients (Rapid ATT group) received antithrombotic therapy before 24 h of thrombolysis, and 33 patients (Standard ATT group) after 24 h. The brain parenchyma and vessel status were assessed using simple CT scan on admission, multimodal CT scan at the end of thrombolysis, and angio-CT/MRI scan at day 3. Functional outcome was scored using the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) at day 90. Results The two ATT groups had similar demographics, stroke subtypes, baseline NIHSS, thrombolytic strategies, vessel-patency rates at the end of thrombolysis, and incidence of bleeding complications at follow up. At day 3, the Rapid ATT group had a non-significant improved vessel-patency rate than the Standard ATT group. At day 90, a greater proportion of patients in the rapid ATT group had shifted down the mRS, and had improved in the NIHSS score. Conclusions ATT initiated before 24 h of intravenous thrombolytic therapy in acute stroke patients disclosed no safety concerns compared with a conventional antithrombotic therapy delay of 24 h and showed better functional outcome at follow up. The value of early initiation of ATT after thrombolysis deserves further assessment in randomized controlled trials.
Relative age effect in european professional football. Analysis by position

The relative age effect (RAE) in sport consists in the lower presence of athletes born in the months furthest from the cut off date established by the competitive system, which normally coincides with the last months of the year. The purpose of this study is to assess if there is an RAE in European professional football, where the current cut off age for training in the different categories is based on the calendar year; and its analysis by position on the playing field. The analysis has included all the footballers playing in the league championships in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France and Spain (N= 2763). The results of our study confirm an RAE in professional football in Italy, France and Spain. When differentiated by playing position there is a different RAE incidence in the five championships analyzed.
Flow-based anomaly intrusion detection system using two neural network stages

Computer systems and networks suffer due to rapid increase of attacks, and in order to keep them safe from malicious activities or policy violations, there is need for effective security monitoring systems, such as Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS). Many researchers concentrate their efforts on this area using different approaches to build reliable intrusion detection systems. Flow-based intrusion detection systems are one of these approaches that rely on aggregated flow statistics of network traffic. Their main advantages are host independence and usability on high speed networks, since the metrics may be collected by network device hardware or standalone probes. In this paper, an intrusion detection system using two neural network stages based on flow-data is proposed for detecting and classifying attacks in network traffic. The first stage detects significant changes in the traffic that could be a potential attack, while the second stage defines if there is a known attack and in that case classifies the type of attack. The first stage is crucial for selecting time windows where attacks, known or unknown, are more probable. Two different neural network structures have been used, multilayer and radial basis function networks, with the objective to compare performance, memory consumption and the time required for network training. The experimental results demonstrate that the designed models are promising in terms of accuracy and computational time, with low probability of false alarms.
Sub-optimal importance sampling for fast simulation of linear block codes over BSC channels

Estimation of very low word-error probability of hard-decoded linear block codes can be performed through Monte-Carlo simulation. The computational complexity of the standard method however increases as the probability of error to be estimated decreases. In this paper we propose a general algorithm for fast estimation of probability of error of linear block codes on BSC channels based on the importance sampling and the cross-entropy method for rare-events that can be employed for any hard-decision decoder. When optimal decoding is used the algorithm reduces to a single simulation run that can estimate, with a given accuracy, performances for a whole range of sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratios.
A computational study of RNA binding and specificity in the tandem zinc finger domain of TIS11d

TIS11d is a member of the CCCH‐type family of tandem zinc finger (TZF) proteins; the TZF domain of TIS11d (residues 151–220) is sufficient to bind and destabilize its target mRNAs with high specificity. In this study, the TZF domain of TIS11d is simulated in an aqueous environment in both the free and RNA‐bound states. Multiple nanosecond timescale molecular dynamics trajectories of TIS11d wild‐type and E157R/E195K mutant with different RNA sequences were performed to investigate the molecular basis for RNA binding specificities of this TZF domain. A variety of measures of the protein structure, fluctuations, and dynamics were used to analyze the trajectories. The results of this study support the following conclusions: (1) the structure of the two fingers is maintained in the free state but a global reorientation occurs to yield a more compact structure; (2) mutation of the glutamate residues at positions 157 and 195 to arginine and lysine, respectively, affects the RNA recognition by this TIS11d mutant in agreement with the findings of Pagano et al. (J Biol Chem 2007; 282:8883–8894); and (3) we predict that the E157R/E195K mutant will present a more relaxed RNA binding specificity relative to wild‐type TIS11d based on the more favorable nonsequence‐specific Coulomb interaction of the two positively charged residues at positions 157 and 195 with the RNA backbone, which compensates for a partial loss of the stacking interaction of aromatic side chains with the RNA bases.
Chapter 7: The Role of Volition in Learning and Performance

Substitute "best employee," "best student," "best parent," or virtually any role for "best teacher" in this quotation, and change the goals accordingly. Most people find it difficult to carry out even their best intentions. Those who do so seem more than motivated somehow; they seem conscientious, disciplined, and striving. Modern psychology calls buckling down when we need to volition, and research is under way to understand the thinking and behavior that reflects this capability—in both children and adults. Educators have long recognized, at least implicitly, the importance of volition in learning and performance. Recently, however, concern about what educators can accomplish in less than ideal classroom situations has accelerated interest in volition, or, specifically, in the processes that underlie student initiative and persistence when there are obstacles to goaldirected learning (e.g., Deci & Ryan, 1985; Halisch & Kuhl, 1987; Kanfer & Kanfer, 1991; Wentzel, 1991). Much learning and performance takes place in less than ideal conditions. Classrooms, for example, are often crowded and noisy; they also require public displays of competence (Ames, 1985). Even under favor-
Smartphone's popularity measurement by investigating Twitter profiles

Social media has obtained significant importance in the recent years and is being effectively used for the propagation of information and obtaining the user feedback. This paper reviews the popularity of the two leading smartphone brands, Apple and Samsung. By considering their Twitter profile, the comparisons have been made on the location, number of followers and language and a continental assessment has been presented. The data retrieval was made possible by developing an API that crawled data of the required Twitter accounts. The paper presents the results of this experimental review.
Regulation of Rb and E2F by signal transduction cascades: divergent effects of JNK1 and p38 kinases

The E2F transcription factor plays a major role in cell cycle regulation, differentiation and apoptosis, but it is not clear how it is regulated by non‐mitogenic signaling cascades. Here we report that two kinases involved in signal transduction have opposite effects on E2F function: the stress‐induced kinase JNK1 inhibits E2F1 activity whereas the related p38 kinase reverses Rb‐mediated repression of E2F1. JNK1 phosphorylates E2F1 in vitro, and co‐transfection of JNK1 reduces the DNA binding activity of E2F1; treatment of cells with TNFα had a similar effect. Fas stimulation of Jurkat cells is known to induce p38 kinase and we find a pronounced increase in Rb phosphorylation within 30 min of Fas stimulation. Phosphorylation of Rb correlated with a dissociation of E2F and increased transcriptional activity. The inactivation of Rb by Fas was blocked by SB203580, a p38‐specific inhibitor, as well as a dominant‐negative p38 construct; cyclin‐dependent kinase (cdk) inhibitors as well as dominant‐negative cdks had no effect. These results suggest that Fas‐mediated inactivation of Rb is mediated via the p38 kinase, independent of cdks. The Rb/E2F‐mediated cell cycle regulatory pathway appears to be a normal target for non‐mitogenic signaling cascades and could be involved in mediating the cellular effects of such signals.
Analysis of functional polymorphisms in apoptosis-related genes in primary open angle glaucoma

Purpose Glaucoma is a disease with high heritability in which the degradation of retinal ganglion cells occurs via apoptosis. Therefore, we investigated the role of four functional apoptosis-related gene variants (Akt1 rs1130233, Bax rs4645878, Fas rs223476, and FasL rs763110) in patients with primary open angle glaucoma. Methods 334 patients with primary open angle glaucoma and 334 controls were recruited for this case–control study. The main outcome measures were genotype distribution and allelic frequencies determined with PCR. Results After adjustment for multiple testing, no significant difference in either the genotype distribution or the allelic frequencies of any investigated gene variant was found. Conclusions Our findings indicate that the investigated gene polymorphisms are unlikely to be major risk factors for primary open angle glaucoma in Caucasian patients.
Transformerless topologies for medium voltage converters

Medium voltage adjustable speed converters are a trend for high power applications. The products released in the last decade showed maturity of the technology and brought more confidence to use medium voltage converters in industry applications. Besides high power capability, some segments require optimized footprint for the machines installed inside the plant site. This requirement is pushing the development of a branch of new voltage source converters, called Transformerless Voltage Source Converters. These converters bring the possibility to operate the system without phase-shifting transformers in the connection with the power supply. This paper discusses the well-known topologies applied to medium voltage high power converters, their characteristics, requirements and drawbacks. In addition, it is discussed the recent topologies applied to transformerless converters, with their challenges and developments, presenting a general understanding of this new branch of converters. Additionally, it is presented an example of implementation and evaluation of a transformerless topology.
A new hierarchical simultaneous localization and mapping method based on local shape context of environment

A new kind of local shape context (LSC) is proposed for hierarchical simultaneous localization and mapping (HSLAM) by taking account of the features of informa­tion from laser range Ander. In the process of HSLAM, LSC is used to incrementally segment the map that has been created into topological node. And at the same time an active loop closing method for HSLAM is pro­posed based on the information of LSC. Experiments are carried out with the robot designed by our lab and the experimental results prove that our method per­forms well for map building in large environments.
Object Segmentation in Image Sequences Using Reinforcement Learning

This paper proposes a reinforcement learningframework for the extraction of objects' borders in sequentialimages. In this method, an agent-based approach is proposedto find the appropriate local values and detect the edges ofobjects in the images. Due to its dynamic nature, this methodcould have potential for segmenting similar objects in imagesequences that have the same nature.
Automatic Distortion Correction of Endoscopic Images Captured With Wide-Angle Zoom Lens

Operation in minimally invasive surgery is more difficult since the surgeons perform operations without haptic feedback or depth perception. Moreover, the field of view perceived by the surgeons through endoscopy is usually quite limited. The goal of this paper is to allow surgeons to see wide-angle images from endoscopy without the drawback of lens distortion. The proposed distortion correction process consists of lens calibration and real-time image warping. The calibration step is to estimate the parameters in the lens distortion model. We propose a fully automatic Hough-entropy-based calibration algorithm, which provides calibration results comparable to the previous manual calibration method. To achieve real-time correction, we use graphics processing unit to warp the image in parallel. In addition, surgeons may adjust the focal length of a lens during the operation. Real-time distortion correction of a zoomable lens is impossible by using traditional calibration methods because the tedious calibration process has to repeat again if focal length is changed. We derive a formula to describe the relationship between the distortion parameter, focal length, and image boundary. Hence, we can estimate the focal length for a zoomable lens from endoscopic images online and achieve real-time lens distortion correction.
On uniform quantization for successive cancellation decoder of polar codes

Polar codes have a regular-recursive structure, which can efficiently be mapped to hardware for practical applications. A good quantization scheme plays a great important role in hardware implementation. In this paper, three uniform quantizers are designed for successive cancellation (SC) decoding of polar codes based on either optimizing the equivalent channel capacity, cutoff rate or mean-squared error (MSE). Moreover, exploiting the cutoff rate maximizing criterion, a modified Gaussian approximation (GA) method is proposed to construct polar codes and estimate frame error rate (FER) performance under the quantized decoding algorithms. Simulation results have shown that a 6-bit uniform quantized SC decoder can achieve a near floating point performance and the upperbound of FER can be estimated precisely using the modified GA method under quantized decoding algorithms.
Graph Colouring with No Large Monochromatic Components

For a graph G and an integer t we let mcct(G) be the smallest m such that there exists a colouring of the vertices of G by t colours with no monochromatic connected subgraph having more than m vertices. Let be any non-trivial minor-closed family of graphs. We show that mcc2(G) = O(n2/3) for any n-vertex graph G ∈ . This bound is asymptotically optimal and it is attained for planar graphs. More generally, for every such , and every fixed t we show that mcct(G)=O(n2/(t+1)). On the other hand, we have examples of graphs G with no Kt+3 minor and with mcct(G)=Ω(n2/(2t−1)). It is also interesting to consider graphs of bounded degrees. Haxell, Szabó and Tardos proved mcc2(G) ≤ 20000 for every graph G of maximum degree 5. We show that there are n-vertex 7-regular graphs G with mcc2(G)=Ω(n), and more sharply, for every ϵ > 0 there exists cϵ > 0 and n-vertex graphs of maximum degree 7, average degree at most 6 + ϵ for all subgraphs, and with mcc2(G) ≥ cϵn. For 6-regular graphs it is known only that the maximum order of magnitude of mcc2 is between $\sqrt n$ and n. We also offer a Ramsey-theoretic perspective of the quantity mcct(G).