Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficient and Effective Querying by Image Content

In the QBIC (Query By Image Content) project we are studying methods to query large on-line image databases using the images' content as the basis of the queries. Examples of the content we use include color, texture, and shape of image objects and regions. Potential applications include medical (\Give me other images that contain a tumor with a texture like this one"), photo-journalism (\Give me images that have blue at the top and red at the bottom"), and many others in art, fashion, cataloging, retailing, and industry. We describe a set of novel features and similarity measures allowing query by color, texture, and shape of image object. We demonstrate the e ectiveness of the QBIC system with normalized precision and recall experiments on test databases containing over 1000 images and 1000 objects populated from commercially available photo clip art images, and of images of airplane silhouettes. We also consider the e cient indexing of these features, speci cally addressing two problems: (a) for our feature vectors, the desired distance function is not Euclidean, and/or (b) the vectors have high dimensionality. We propose novel, general solutions to both problems by allowing some \false alarms" (\false hits", or \false positives") but no false dismissals. For the rst problem, we introduce a new theorem that makes indexing possible by bounding the non-Euclidean, full cross-term quadratic distance expression with a simple Euclidean distance. For the second, we illustrate how orthogonal transforms, such as the Karhunen Loeve transform, can help reduce the dimensionality, without introducing false dismissals. The resulting QBIC system o ers high quality of output, and signi cant speedup over straightforward indexing alternatives. The system is implemented in X/Motif and C running on an RS/6000. On sabbatical from Univ. of Maryland, College Park. His work was partially supported by SRC, by the National Science Foundation under the grant IRI-8958546 (PYI).
The ISL statistical translation system for spoken language translation

In this paper we describe the components of our statistical machine translation system used for the spoken language translation evaluation campaign. This system is based on phrase-to-phrase translations extracted from a bilingual corpus. A new phrase alignment approaches will be introduced, which finds the target phrase by optimizing the overall word-to-word alignment for the sentence pair under the constraint that words within the source phrase are only aligned to words within the target phrase. The system will be used for Chinese-to-English translations under the small, additional and unlimited data conditions, and for the small Japanese-to-English translation track.
An exploration of the issues affecting the development of software-based safety-critical systems

A safety-critical system is a system whose failure could result in loss of life, significant property damage, or damage to the environment (Knight, 1990). Miniaturisation and processing improvements have enabled the spread of safety-critical devices from nuclear and military applications to domains as diverse as implanted medical devices, traffic control, smart vehicles, and interactive virtual environments. This paper provides an examination of the techniques used in the specification, design, implementation and testing of safety-critical software. The techniques used to successfully combat faults; fault avoidance, fault elimination, fault tolerance, fault evasion, are examined and structured according to the relevant software development phase they are most applicable to.
Resistance of previously infected chimpanzees to successive challenges with a heterologous intraclade B strain of human immunodeficiency virus type 1

To test whether the protective effects of attenuated simian immunodeficiency virus vaccines in macaques were applicable to the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-chimpanzee system, two groups of animals, previously infected with HIV-1(IIIB) or HIV-1(SF2) were each challenged with a heterologous clade B virus, HIV-1(DH12). Following challenge, the parameters measured included virus isolation (from plasma, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and lymph node tissue); quantitative DNA PCR using primers capable of distinguishing HIV-1(IIIB), HIV-1(SF2), and HIV-1(DH12) from one another; and serologic assays to monitor changes in binding and neutralizing antibodies. In contrast to an HIV-1-naive chimpanzee that rapidly became infected following the inoculation of HIV-1(DH12), the two chimpanzees previously infected with HIV-1(IIIB) resisted repeated and escalating inoculations of HIV-1(DH12), as monitored by virus isolation and PCR. The two animals previously infected with HIV-1(SF2) became infected with HIV-1(DH12) but in contrast to the case with the HIV-1-naive chimpanzee, no cell-free viral RNA was detected in the plasma by the branched DNA procedure and levels of peripheral blood mononuclear cell-associated viral DNA were reduced 35- to 50-fold.
The effects of team cognitive on creative design: Improving the creativity and quality of product

Nowadays, the competition among modern manufacturing enterprises is actually relied on quality and efficiency of innovative design based on teamwork. The role of innovative design based on teamwork manufacturing sector is more important than ever. In the modern manufacturing context, in order to study teamwork innovative design quality and efficiency evaluation technical issues based on cognitive process, the human brain memory model of cognitive processes is studied. Based on analyzing the memory model of cognitive design process, creative design process cognitive models and innovative design team cognitive process model, the creative design cognitive processes in the individual and team level are elaborated. After analyzing the connotation of quality and efficiency, the creative design of the five quality dimensions and five rating scale and the relationship between team innovation design quality and the consistent of individuals design result are extracted. Then theory hypotheses are verified with experiment raw data. Finally experimental results obtained are as follows, in the aspect of design quality, the higher the design consistency among individual members design results are, the higher the design quality is.
Automatic human body segmentation using level-set based active contours followed by optical flow in video surveillance

Human body segmentation is a critical module in video-based activity recognition (AR) because it defines the image area necessary and sufficient for the follow-up modules like feature extraction. Existing methods often involve modeling of the human body and/or the background, which normally requires extensive amount of training data and cannot efficiently handle changes over time. Recently, active contours have been emerging as an effective segmentation technique in still images. In this paper, an active contour model is adapted that is robust to illumination and clothing changes, typical issues in practical AR systems. To make the model work smoothly with video data, the optical flow is used, which is estimated in two consecutive frames, to position the initial contour in the current frame. The proposed approach is unsupervised, i.e., no training data or prior human model is needed. The proposed model gives prominent results of segmentation.
Caveolae – mechanosensitive membrane invaginations linked to actin filaments

ABSTRACT An essential property of the plasma membrane of mammalian cells is its plasticity, which is required for sensing and transmitting of signals, and for accommodating the tensional changes imposed by its environment or its own biomechanics. Caveolae are unique invaginated membrane nanodomains that play a major role in organizing signaling, lipid homeostasis and adaptation to membrane tension. Caveolae are frequently associated with stress fibers, a major regulator of membrane tension and cell shape. In this Commentary, we discuss recent studies that have provided new insights into the function of caveolae and have shown that trafficking and organization of caveolae are tightly regulated by stress-fiber regulators, providing a functional link between caveolae and stress fibers. Furthermore, the tension in the plasma membrane determines the curvature of caveolae because they flatten at high tension and invaginate at low tension, thus providing a tension-buffering system. Caveolae also regulate multiple cellular pathways, including RhoA-driven actomyosin contractility and other mechanosensitive pathways, suggesting that caveolae could couple mechanotransduction pathways to actin-controlled changes in tension through their association with stress fibers. Therefore, we argue here that the association of caveolae with stress fibers could provide an important strategy for cells to deal with mechanical stress. Summary: Caveolae and stress fibers are two essential players in the cell response to mechanical forces. The physical association of these two mechanosensors could ensure a coordinated response during mechanotransduction.
Designing a Runtime System for Volunteer Computing

Volunteer computing is a form of distributed computing in which the general public volunteers processing and storage to scientific research projects. BOINC, a middleware system for volunteer computing, is currently used by about 20 projects, to which 300,000 volunteers and 450,000 computers supply 350 TeraFLOPS of processing power. A BOINC client program runs on the volunteered hosts and manages the execution of applications. Together with a library linked to applications, it implements a runtime system providing process management, graphics control, checkpointing, file access, and other functions. This runtime system must handle widely varying applications, must provide features and properties desired by volunteers, and must work on many platforms. This paper describes the problems in designing a runtime system having these properties, and how these problems are solved in BOINC
Combined TiO2 membrane filtration and ozonation for efficient water treatment to enhance the reuse of wastewater

A mesoporous titania (TiO2) membrane on an alumina support was successfully fabricated via the sol–gel processing method. The effects of combined ozonation and TiO2 membrane filtration on the permeate flux and permeate quality were investigated. Ozone injection into the feed water during the filtration resulted in an increase in the permeate flux within the first 0.5 h. Ozonation decreased the fouling on the membrane surface. However, at the end of 2 h filtration, ozonation did not significantly impact on the permeate flux. It is likely that there would be minimal ozone residual remaining in the feed after 2 h filtration, which is why fouling was evident after this time, probably in the form of an organic film on the membrane surface reducing the flux. Under the hybrid ozonation-membrane filtration system, the removal of colour, A254 (UV absorbance measured at a wavelength of 254 nm) and total organic carbon (TOC) was found to be 88.5%, 75.4% and 48.7%, respectively. Membrane filtration or ozonation alone.
The COMET Sleep Research Platform

Introduction: The Comparative Outcomes Management with Electronic Data Technology (COMET) platform is extensible and designed for facilitating multicenter electronic clinical research. Background: Our research goals were the following: (1) to conduct a comparative effectiveness trial (CET) for two obstructive sleep apnea treatments—positive airway pressure versus oral appliance therapy; and (2) to establish a new electronic network infrastructure that would support this study and other clinical research studies. Discussion: The COMET platform was created to satisfy the needs of CET with a focus on creating a platform that provides comprehensive toolsets, multisite collaboration, and end-to-end data management. The platform also provides medical researchers the ability to visualize and interpret data using business intelligence (BI) tools. Conclusion: COMET is a research platform that is scalable and extensible, and which, in a future version, can accommodate big data sets and enable efficient and effective research across multiple studies and medical specialties. The COMET platform components were designed for an eventual move to a cloud computing infrastructure that enhances sustainability, overall cost effectiveness, and return on investment.
Coupling of design patterns: common practices and their benefits

Object-oriented (OO) design patterns define collections of interconnected classes that serve a particular purpose. A design pattern is a structural unit in a system built out of patterns, not unlike the way a function is a structural unit in a procedural program or a class is a structural unit in an OO system designed without patterns. When designers treat patterns as structural units, they become concerned with issues such as coupling and cohesion at a new level of abstraction. We examine the notion of pattern coupling to classify how designs may include coupled patterns. We find many examples of coupled patterns; this coupling may be "tight" or "loose", and provides both benefits and costs. We qualitatively assess the goodness of pattern coupling in terms of effects on maintainability, factorability, and reusability when patterns are coupled in various ways.
Net radiative effect of dust aerosols from satellite measurements over Sahara

The clear‐sky aerosol top of atmosphere shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) radiative effects over the Saharan desert (15–30°N, 10°W–30°E) are investigated based entirely on the satellite observations of aerosol optical thickness (AOT), surface albedo, surface temperature, surface emissivity, atmospheric water vapor content, and SW/LW fluxes. The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on Aura and the Multi‐angle SpectroRadiometer (MISR) on Terra satellite are used to estimate AOT at 558 nm (EAOT) for June to September, 2005–2006 when the predominant aerosol type is dust. We then use these EAOT values in conjunction with broadband measurements from the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) to calculate the top‐of‐atmosphere SW and LW flux radiative effect due to these aerosols. The difference in SW flux between desert surface and dust aerosols is found to be negligible due to the high surface reflectance over the Sahara desert. The instantaneous area‐averaged LW radiative effect is calculated as +11.4 Wm−2 with radiative efficiencies ranging from +11 to +26 Wm−2/AOT. The results indicate that net radiative effect of dust over the Sahara desert is dominated by the longwave effect in contrast to oceans where the shortwave effect dominates.
Transcription start site classication

Understanding the mechanisms of gene expression is a central problem in biology. Important to gene expression is the binding of RNA polymerase at transcription start sites (TSSs). TSS detection from sequence is a well-studied problem, but recent innovations in data collection have made a much richer feature set available. Furthermore, these innovations allow for the large-scale study of TSS activity, which had not previously been aordable. We developed a machine learning model to detect TSSs as well as predict their activity, using newly collected epigenetic data from the ENCODE project. To improve interpretability of our results, we used a learning model that produces a classifer easily understood by a human. Our results improved upon the state of the art in TSS detection, and achieved very high accuracy in predicting TSS activity.
Automatic snoring signal analysis in sleep studies

Snoring has been related to vibration of upper airway during sleep. It has been reported in the literature as a risk factor of different diseases, such as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) and other breathing abnormalities during sleep. Recently, our group has developed an automatic detector of snores to be applied in long-term sleep studies. This detector includes segmentation and classification blocs, based on a feedforward multilayer neural network. In this work, a complete procedure for detector validation is proposed, including annotation of different episodes: snores, sounds during inspiration and exhalation, speech and noise artifacts. A database of 948 episodes was manually annotated by a medical doctor in respiratory sound signals from 8 male subjects (4 normal snorers and 4 OSAS patients). The ratio non-snores/total annotated episodes was 53%. The detector shown a good performance, obtaining a sensitivity of 76,1%, a positive predictive value of 75,6% and a specificity of 82,8%. The automatic detector was applied to 6-hour snoring signals, corresponding to 37 subjects (12 females/25 males, 20 snorers/17 OSAS). Significant results shown differences between snorers and OSAS patients, and suggest that snore variability could be higher in OSAS patients.
'Think secure from the beginning': A Survey with Software Developers

Vulnerabilities persist despite existing software security initiatives and best practices. This paper focuses on the human factors of software security, including human behaviour and motivation. We conducted an online survey to explore the interplay between developers and software security processes, e.g., we looked into how developers influence and are influenced by these processes. Our data included responses from 123 software developers currently employed in North America who work on various types of software applications. Whereas developers are often held responsible for security vulnerabilities, our analysis shows that the real issues frequently stem from a lack of organizational or process support to handle security throughout development tasks. Our participants are self-motivated towards software security, and the majority did not dismiss it but identified obstacles to achieving secure code. Our work highlights the need to look beyond the individual, and take a holistic approach to investigate organizational issues influencing software security.
Timing (not just amount) of sleep makes the difference: Event-related potential correlates of delayed sleep phase in adolescent female students

Adolescents tend to experience alterations in their sleep cycles inducing them to go to sleep and wake up at later times than they typically would at younger age (Delayed Sleep Phase, DSP). We asked a relatively homogeneous sample (N = 22) of female high-school students to maintain an exhaustive sleep log during two weeks. Within this period, we randomly assigned each participant to a morning or afternoon testing condition (morning vs. afternoon group), in which we measured performance data along with ERPs during a standard Stroop task. The sleep log data confirmed a two-hour DSP in both groups. Participants in the afternoon group performed significantly better (less Stroop interference) than those in the morning group and showed a differential ERP pattern to incongruent and congruent stimuli, not shown by the morning group. We conclude that DSP can be associated with an attentional impairment in the morning.
Inhibition of succinate dehydrogenase by the mitochondrial chaperone TRAP1 has anti-oxidant and anti-apoptotic effects on tumor cells

TRAP1 is a mitochondrial chaperone highly expressed in many tumor types; it inhibits respiratory complex II, down-modulating its succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) enzymatic activity. SDH inhibition in turn leads to a pseudohypoxic state caused by succinate-dependent HIF1α stabilization and promotes neoplastic growth. Here we report that TRAP1 inhibition of SDH also shields cells from oxidative insults and from the ensuing lethal opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore. This anti-oxidant activity of TRAP1 protects tumor cells from death in conditions of nutrient paucity that mimic those encountered in the neoplasm during the process of malignant accrual, and it is required for in vitro tumorigenic growth. Our findings demonstrate that SDH inhibition by TRAP1 is oncogenic not only by inducing pseudohypoxia, but also by protecting tumor cells from oxidative stress.
CDM models with a BSI step-like primordial spectrum and a cosmological constant

A class of spatially-flat models with cold dark matter (CDM), a cosmological constant and a broken-scale-invariant (BSI) steplike primordial (initial) spectrum of adiabatic perturbations, generated in an exactly solvable inflationary model where the inflaton potential has a rapid change of its first derivative at some point, is confronted with existing observational data on angular fluctuations of the CMB temperature, galaxy clustering and peculiar velocities of galaxies. If we locate the step in the initial spectrum at k ≃ 0.05 h Mpc 1 , where some feature in the spectrum of Abell clusters of galaxies was found that could reflect a property of the initial spectrum, and if the large scales flat plateau of the spectrum is normalized according to the COBE data, the only remaining parameter of the spectrum is p - the ratio of amplitudes of the metric perturbations between the small scales and large scales flat plateaux. Allowed regions in the plane of parameters ( = 1 − �, H0) satisfying all data have been found for p lying in the region (0.8-1.7). Especially good agreement of the form of the present power spectrum in this model with the form of the cluster power spectrum is obtained for the inverted step (p < 1, p = 0.7 − 0.8), when the initial spectrum has slightly more power on small scales.
PhoneEar: interactions for mobile devices that hear high-frequency sound-encoded data

We present PhoneEar, a new approach that enables mobile devices to understand the broadcasted audio and sounds that we hear every day using existing infrastructure. PhoneEar audio streams are embedded with sound-encoded data using nearly inaudible high frequencies. Mobile devices then listen for messages in the sounds around us, taking actions to ensure we don't miss any important info. In this paper, we detail our implementation of PhoneEar, describe a study demonstrating that mobile devices can effectively receive sound-based data, and describe the results of a user study that shows that embedding data in sounds is not detrimental to sound quality. We also exemplify the space of new interactions, through four PhoneEar-enabled applications. Finally, we discuss the challenges to deploying apps that can hear and react to data in the sounds around us.
Assessment of Distress Associated to Psychopathology in Children and Adolescents

The aim of this paper was to study the distress associated to psychopathology in children and adolescents. The sample included 330 children aged 8 to 17 years attending outpatient mental health services of the public network in Barcelona (Spain) assessed using a structured diagnostic interview. A substantial part of children brought to treatment suffered distress associated to internalizing and externalizing psychological symptoms. Psychological distress was most frequent among girls and among adolescents, and was more frequently reported by children and adolescents than by their parents. It was also a marker of perception of need of psychological help, and it was significantly related to diagnosis, subthreshold conditions and functional impairment. Individual symptoms of depression, dysthymia, generalized anxiety disorder and oppositional defiant disorder were most associated with psychological distress. Given the potential importance of subjective distress as well as impairment for the identification and definition of psychopathology and planning of treatment, diagnostic assessment should include questions related to distress.