Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integration of deep features and hand-crafted features for person re-identification

Person re-identification, which matches specific persons across non-overlapping camera views, remains a challenging problem in computer vision area. Feature representation with metric learning and deep neural network are two prevailing yet relatively independent strategies of previous researches in this field. To take the advantages of these two branches, this paper introduces a strategy known as AdaRank to integrate ‘weak rankers’ constructed by both deep features and hand-crafted features with metric learning algorithms, and enhance the over-all property by boosting algorithm. While most of existing studies rely on single-shot images, we work on multi-shot image sequences that contains richer information but are simultaneously more challenging to handle. Experiments on iLIDS-VID and PRID2011 image sequences datasets show that the proposed approach outperforms the state-of-the-art multi-shot matching methods.
A distributed Pi-calculus

Distributed systems are fast becoming the norm in computer science. Formal mathematical models and theories of distributed behaviour are needed in order to understand them. This book proposes a distributed pi-calculus called Dpi, for describing the behaviour of mobile agents in a distributed world. It is based on an existing formal language, the pi-calculus, to which it adds a network layer and a primitive migration construct. A mathematical theory of the behaviour of these distributed systems is developed, in which the presence of types plays a major role. It is also shown how in principle this theory can be used to develop verification techniques for guaranteeing the behavior of distributed agents. The text is accessible to computer scientists with a minimal background in discrete mathematics. It contains an elementary account of the pi-calculus, and the associated theory of bisimulations. It also develops the type theory required by Dpi from first principles. • First book on formal foundations of distributed computation • Accessible introduction to the theory of the pi-calculus, with many exercises • Contains many worked examples and over 70 exercises
Crystal structure of 5′‐methylthioadenosine nucleosidase from Arabidopsis thaliana at 1.5‐Å resolution

Introduction. Methylthioadenosine (50-deoxy-50-methylthioadenosine; adenine-9-b-D-(50-deoxy-50-methylthio)-ribofuranoside, MTA) is an important metabolite in all living organisms. MTA is involved in methionine (Met) and S-adenosyl-Met (AdoMet) recycling, polyamine biosynthesis, and bacterial quorum sensing. The metabolism of MTA is clearly characterized by extensive studies on the identification and characterization of enzymes in reaction pathways and the examination of reaction intermediates, particularly in bacterial systems. Several gene products in the pathways are attractive targets for antibiotics in prokaryotes and have been demonstrated as potential therapeutics in mammals. The MTA cycle has also been studied extensively in plant because of the synthesis of ethylene and polyamines, where the maintenance of their levels is important in plant physiology. Many genes involved in the MTA cycle in plant have also been isolated and characterized. One of the key enzymes in this cycle is 50-methylthioadenosine nucleosidase (MTAN). MTAN (EC 3.2.2.16) is an enzyme that irreversibly cleaves the ribosidic bond of MTA to produce 50-methylthioribose (MTR) and adenine. In bacteria and plants, MTR kinase subsequently phosphorylates the C1 hydroxyl group of the ribose moiety of MTR to yield MTR-1-phosphate, while MTA phosphorylase (MTAP) is known to carry out both functions in a single step in mammals. Mammals utilize two separate enzymes, MTAP and S-adenosylhomocysteine (AdoHcy) hydrolase, to catabolize MTA and AdoHcy, whereas bacteria use a dual substrate-specific MTA/AdoHcy nucleosidase. Plants hydrolyze MTA and AdoHcy differently. The biochemical characterization of MTAN from Lupinus leteus and Pisum sativum seeds has indicated an ability to discriminate between the analogs with and without an a-amino group at the 50-alkylthiomoiety.9,10 Plants utilize MTAN and AdoHcy hydrolase separately to cleave the ribosidic bond of MTA and AdoHcy, respectively. Thus, the AdoHcy hydrolase activity in plant has been lost compared with the bacterial enzyme. Sequence alignment of E. coli MTA/AdoHcy nucleosidase (EcMTAN) and plant MTAN shows a high degree of sequence conservation among the residues in the active site, despite limited overall sequence identity. Extensive biochemical and structural studies on EcMTAN have provided a wealth of information regarding the catalytic mechanism, specific interactions with MTA, and conformational changes for the enzymatic reaction. No structural information is available, however, on a plant MTAN, a similar enzyme with different specificity. To gain insight into the structural basis of the differences in substrate specificity, we have determined the high-resolution structure of MTAN from Arabidopsis thaliana (AtMTAN).
Presence of mitochondrial D-loop DNA in scrapie-infected brain preparations enriched for the prion protein

The prion preparation has, in recent years, been the focal point of scrapie research. The inability to identify agent-specific nucleic acids in this sample has led to the formulation of the infectious protein or prion hypothesis. In this study, we analyzed three different prion protein-enriched preparations and found all to contain significant amounts of mitochondrial nucleic acid. Southern blot analyses indicated that they are enriched for a specific component of the mitochondrial genome, the single-stranded displacement loop fragment. Our results suggest that if mitochondrial nucleic acids are involved in scrapie infection, it is the displacement loop fragment that is specifically responsible.
Purity of Different Preparations of Sodium 3,5-dibromo-4-nitrosobenzenesulphonate and Their Applicability for EPR Spin Trapping

During the preparation of sodium 3,5-dibromo-4-nitrosobenzenesulphonate (DBNBS) of high purity for electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spin-trapping purposes, it was found that the material synthesised as part of the present study differed significantly from some commercially available samples of DBNBS. A thorough chemical characterisation of the contents of the various samples led to the conclusion that the preparations synthesised in the present study, as well as one of four commercially available samples, contained essentially pure DBNBS and had efficient spin-trapping activity. In contrast, the remaining three commercially available samples contained almost exclusively sodium 3,5-dibromo-4-nitrobenzenesulphonate, i.e. a one-oxygen oxidation product of DBNBS, and had little spin-trapping activity. The two compounds were readily separated by reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). It was further found that the quality of DBNBS preparations may be determined by NMR spectrometry, IR spectrometry, fast atom bombardment-mass spectrometry (FAB-MS) and EPR spectrometry. In particular, UV-Visible spectroscopy may be used to determine A 308 /A 280 , which should be greater than 1.8 for a high purity DBNBS preparation.
Patch Clamp Electrophysiology and Capillary Electrophoresis–Mass Spectrometry Metabolomics for Single Cell Characterization

The visual selection of specific cells within an ex vivo brain slice, combined with whole-cell patch clamp recording and capillary electrophoresis (CE)–mass spectrometry (MS)-based metabolomics, yields high chemical information on the selected cells. By providing access to a cell’s intracellular environment, the whole-cell patch clamp technique allows one to record the cell’s physiological activity. A patch clamp pipet is used to withdraw ∼3 pL of cytoplasm for metabolomic analysis using CE–MS. Sampling the cytoplasm, rather than an intact isolated neuron, ensures that the sample arises from the cell of interest and that structures such as presynaptic terminals from surrounding, nontargeted neurons are not sampled. We sampled the rat thalamus, a well-defined system containing gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic and glutamatergic neurons. The approach was validated by recording and sampling from glutamatergic thalamocortical neurons, which receive major synaptic input from GABAergic thalamic reticular nucleus neurons, as well as neurons and astrocytes from the ventral basal nucleus and the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus. From the analysis of the cytoplasm of glutamatergic cells, approximately 60 metabolites were detected, none of which corresponded to the compound GABA. However, GABA was successfully detected when sampling the cytoplasm of GABAergic neurons, demonstrating the exclusive nature of our cytoplasmic sampling approach. The combination of whole-cell patch clamp with single cell cytoplasm metabolomics provides the ability to link the physiological activity of neurons and astrocytes with their neurochemical state. The observed differences in the metabolome of these neurons underscore the striking cell to cell heterogeneity in the brain.
Research on Speech Signal Analysis and Synthesis for Aural Rehabilitation for the Deaf

A set of computer speech synthesizer and simulator has been developed, based on the speech signal processing, for the deaf children who had accept artificial electronic cochlea cured for aural apperception and rehabilitation. And it could sound the non-speech and speech sounds, including music sounds. The synthesis speech would be used in hearing skill training of aural rehabilitation. The paper will firstly introduce the theory of aural rehabilitation for deaf and speech synthesis technology, and then the demand of speech signal process technology in four stages belonging to the rehabilitation theory. Finally, we address the system architecture of functionality and modularization with more details. We also will introduce the breakthrough and bottleneck of it in the following.
SEMIPARAMETRIC ESTIMATORS FOR HEAVY TAILED DISTRIBUTIONS

In this paper we describe and apply estimating function theory to evaluate the parameters of parametric distributions uniquely defined by their characteristic functions. We first implement an estimating function model based on the first four moments of a parametric function of the underlying random variables. For instance we propose two parametric functions of the underlying random variables so as to obtain its first moments more easily by the simple knowledge of the characteristic function. Thus we consider the estimates that present the minimal asymptotic variance with respect to the parameter of the function. Then we propose an empirical analysis based on simulated stable Paretian distributions. Using simulated data of stable distributions we evaluate the forecasting power of the proposed methodology comparing it with the analogous maximum likelihood estimates. Moreover we show how to apply the same methodology to some well-known infinitely divisible distributions.
Role of Biofilm in Cerebrospinal Fluid Shunt Infections: A Study at Tertiary Neurocare Center from South India

ABSTRACT Introduction: Biofilms are the source of persistent infections of many pathogenic microbes. They are responsible for nosocomial infection and also associated with many surgical conditions including indwelling medical devices such as ventriculoperitoneal shunt. A significant problem encountered in shunt procedures is obstruction followed by infection, with infection rate ranging from 2 to 27 , often with poor outcome. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in the Department of Neuromicrobiology at a tertiary neuroinstitute for 6 months from July 1 to December 31, 2014. The samples comprised cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from suspected cases of shunt infections. Laboratory diagnosis of causative agent was established by adopting standard procedures. Then, isolates were evaluated for production of biofilm by tissue culture plate (TCP) method and tube method. Results: Of the 1642 shunt CSF samples obtained from neurosurgery, 14.79 were culture positive which yielded 254 isolates. About 51.97 were Gram-negative bacilli (GNB), 46.46 were Gram-positive cocci (GPC), and 1.57 were Candida albicans. Among GNB, nonfermenters were the most common (51.52) followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (15.9). Among GPC, coagulase-negative Staphylococci were 88.13 , out of which 43.26 were methicillin-resistant. Other GPC were Enterococcus spp. (4.24), Staphylococcus aureus (5.08), and Streptococcus spp. (2.54). Among all isolates, 120 were tested for biofilm production, out of which 57.5 were biofilm producers and 42.5 were nonproducers. Conclusions: TCP was the better method to detect biofilm. Most of the biofilm producers were resistant pathogens.
IEEE and IEC Codes to Interpret Incipient Faults in Transformers, Using Gas in Oil Analysis

The detection of incipient faults in oil immersed transformers by examination of the gases dissolved in the oil developed from the original Buchholz relay application. The gases produced during the deterioration of mineral oil and cellulose were examined and techniques were established to assist in the interpretation of the type of fault, incipient or growing, occurring within the transformer. The major technique now employed is the study of ratios of pairs of certain deterioration gases. The concepts used in the development of this technique and the modifications made to enable the technique to be established as the present method of fault interpretation, recommended by the IEC are discussed.
Effects of combination of melatonin and dexamethasone on acute lung injury in a mice model of carrageenan‐induced pleurisy

Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of combination therapy with melatonin and dexamethasone (DEX) on acute lung injury. In particular, we investigated the effects of combination therapy in animal models of acute lung inflammation (carrageenan‐induced pleurisy). Injection of carrageenan into the pleural cavity of rats elicited an acute inflammatory response characterized by fluid accumulation in the pleural cavity which contained a large number of neutrophils [polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN)] as well as an infiltration of PMN in lung tissues and subsequent lipid peroxidation, and increased production of nitrite/nitrate (NOx), and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). Furthermore, carrageenan induced an upregulation of the adhesion molecules ICAM‐1 and P‐selectin, inducible nitric oxide synthase, cycloxygenase‐2 as well as nitrotyrosine as determined by immunohistochemical analysis of lung tissues. No anti‐inflammatory effect was observed in animals treated with melatonin (10 mg/kg) or with DEX (0.01 mg/kg) alone. This study shows that the combination therapy with melatonin and DEX reduced the degree of acute lung inflammation and tissue damage associated with carrageenan‐induced pleurisy in mice and supports the possible use of melatonin in combination with steroids in order to reduce the dose and the side effects related with the use of steroids for the management of inflammatory disease.
Effect of Internet-based Intervention on Obesity among Adolescents in Kuala Lumpur: A School-based Cluster Randomised Trial.

Co-morbidities in adulthood is a significant problem and is associated with obesity during adolescent.This 3-months randomised controlled trial was aimed at determining the effectiveness of having internet-based intervention (obeseGO! ) toward obesity among adolescents in Kuala Lumpur. Forty seven students were assigned randomly to the obeseGO! (intervention) group for internet-based intervention i.e., information on healthy lifestyle and diet were provided via the internet. Fifty students were assigned to the control group, where pamphlets containing health education were provided to these students. The measurement of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and the body fat percentage was taken at baseline and after 12 weeks of intervention.The multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) analysis found that obeseGO! had a small effect in reducing BMI, waist circumference and body fat percentage.The internet-based obesity intervention program may be an effective medium for promoting healthy diet and physical activity among the obese adolescents.
Clients Server 1 Server 2 Server 3 Adversary payload payload t 1 t 2

Modern applications share user-generated data over the cloud, often exposing sensitive information. Talek is a private publish-subscribe (pub/sub) system that shares user data through potentially untrustworthy servers, while hiding both data content and the communication patterns among its users. Talek is designed with two goals that distinguish it from the prior work in private messaging. First, Talek is designed with the strong security goal of access sequence indistinguishability, where clients leak no information to adversarial servers that might help an adversary distinguish between two arbitrary-length client access sequences. Second, our system aims to be practical for general-purpose workloads, from one-to-one messaging to one-to-many news feeds. To achieve these properties, we introduce two novel techniques. Oblivious logging is a mechanism for supporting private reads and writes to shared logs stored on servers without coordination between clients. Private notifications provide a private and efficient mechanism for subscribers to learn which topics have new messages without polling. We demonstrate a 3-server Talek cluster that achieves throughput of 566,000 messages/minute with 5.57-second end-to-end latency on commodity servers, a 3–4 order of magnitude improvement over related work with similar security goals.
Method for Inactivating and Fixing Unstained Smear Preparations of Mycobacterium tuberculosis for Improved Laboratory Safety

ABSTRACT The inactivation of smears that contain Mycobacterium tuberculosis for microscopy before removal of the material from a biosafety cabinet is an important safety factor in preventing the potential transmission of tuberculosis to laboratory workers. The fixing and inactivating properties of heat flaming, 70% ethanol, and 1, 3, and 5% phenol in ethanol for smears containing M. tuberculosis were investigated. Heat flaming failed to inactivate the smear material, whereas 5% phenol in ethanol successfully fixed and inactivated all smears containing M. tuberculosis both from concentrated sputum samples and from culture material.
Success Story: The History and Development of the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California, Berkeley

The University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) has diverse roles in the university, national and international science and education communities, providing resources for research, teaching and outreach. These programs developed over the last 150 years, and are substantial mainstays of the natural history program at UC Berkeley. UCMP’s history is rooted in the formation of the State of California, and its early decisions about resources and education. After an initial attempt to gather information on the mineral and natural historical wealth of California, the Legislature appointed J.D. Whitney as State Geologist and Director of the Geological Survey of California (1860–1874). Some of the Survey’s collections formed the foundation of the paleontological, zoological and botanical museums of the University of California, founded in 1868. Joseph LeConte, the first geologist, natural historian and botanist appointed to the faculty of the university, encouraged paleontology through his lecturing, particularly on evolution and fossils, his students, and his acquisition of fossil collections for the university. His most brilliant student, John C. Merriam became the first professor of paleontology, and though his interactions with Annie Alexander, a wealthy woman with a paleontological avocation willing to support the field at Berkeley, the first Department and later Museum of Paleontology were formed in 1909 and 1921. Although developments were not always smooth, a strong and internationally-recognized paleontology program emerged before World War II, followed by increasing strength and diversity of programs in the years after the war. Strong educational programs were assembled in the Department of Paleontology, and the Museum continued to gather fossils until it now has the largest fossil collection in any university in the world and second in size only to the Smithsonian in the USA. In the last decade and a half, the paleontology program has emerged at the top in America, in large part because of the research and educational resources of UCMP. In addition, a very powerful Internet-based outreach program for the public, teachers and students attracts millions of visitors and international attention. UCMP, its associated faculty and its students are a highly regarded, unique resource of the University of California that continues to inform studies of conservation biology, biodiversity, evolution, systematics, paleoenvironments, astrobiology, and environmental biology. Paleontology at Berkeley interfaces with a larger number of other disciplines in the life and earth sciences than ever before and it continues to make significant contributions on all fronts of research, teaching and outreach. UCMP and the paleontology program are very big on-going success stories!
Realistic road path reconstruction from GIS data

We introduce a new approach to construct smooth piecewise curves representing realistic road paths. Given a GIS database of road networks in which sampled points are organized in 3D polylines, our method creates horizontal, then vertical curves, and finally combines them to produce 3D road paths. We first estimate the possibility of each point of being a junction between two separate primitive curve segments. Next, we design a tree‐traversal algorithm to expand sequences of local best fit primitives which are then merged together with respect to the G1 continuity constraint and civil engineering rules. We apply the Levenberg‐Marquardt method to minimize the error between the resulting curve and the sampled points while preserving the G1 continuity.
Fluorigenic Substrates for the Protease Activities of Botulinum Neurotoxins, Serotypes A, B, and F

ABSTRACT The seven botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are zinc metalloproteases that cleave neuronal proteins involved in neurotransmitter release and are among the most toxic natural products known. High-throughput BoNT assays are needed for use in antibotulinum drug discovery and to characterize BoNT protease activities. Compared to other proteases, BoNTs exhibit unusually stringent substrate requirements with respect to amino acid sequences and polypeptide lengths. Nonetheless, we have devised a strategy for development of fluorigenic BoNT protease assays, based on earlier structure-function studies, that has proven successful for three of the seven serotypes: A, B, and F. In synthetic peptide substrates, the P1 and P3′ residues were substituted with 2,4-dinitrophenyl-lysine and S-(N-[4-methyl-7-dimethylamino-coumarin-3-yl]-carboxamidomethyl)-cysteine, respectively. By monitoring the BoNT-catalyzed increase in fluorescence over time, initial hydrolysis rates could be obtained in 1 to 2 min when BoNT concentrations were 60 ng/ml (about 1 nM) or higher. Each BoNT cleaved its fluorigenic substrate at the same location as in the neuronal target protein, and kinetic constants indicated that the substrates were selective and efficient. The fluorigenic assay for BoNT B was used to characterize a new competitive inhibitor of BoNT B protease activity with a Ki value of 4 μM. In addition to real-time activity measurements, toxin concentration determinations, and kinetic studies, the BoNT substrates described herein may be directly incorporated into automated high-throughput assay systems to screen large numbers of compounds for potential antibotulinum drugs.