Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adaptive models for the recognition of human gesture

Tomorrow's ubiquitous computing environments will go beyond the keyboard, mouse and monitor paradigm of interaction rind will require the automatic interpretation of human motion using a variety of sensors including video cameras. I present several techniques for human motion recognition that are inspired by observations on human gesture, the class of communicative human movement. Typically gesture recognition systems sire unable to handle systematic variation in the input signal, and so are too brittle to be applied successfully in many real-world situations. To address this problem. I present modeling rind recognition techniques to adapt gesture models to the situation at hand. A number of systems and frameworks that use adaptive gesture models are presented. First, the parametric hidden Markov model (PHMM) addresses the representation and recognition of gesture families, to extract how a gesture is executed. Second, strong temporal models drawn from natural gesture theory are exploited to segment two kinds of natural gestures from video sequences. Third, a realtime computer vision system learns gesture models online from time-varying context. Fourth, a realtime computer vision system employs hybrid Bayesian networks to unify and extend the previous approaches, as well as point the way for future work. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
Reproductive Toxicity Evaluation of the Dental Resin Monomer Triethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate (CASRN 109-16-0) in Mice

The reproductive toxicity potential of the resin monomer triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA; Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number 109-16-0) was investigated in male and female Crl:CD1(ICR) mice, 4 dosage groups, 25 mice/sex/group. Formulations of TEGDMA (0, 0.01, 0.1, or 1.0 mg/kg/d) in reverse osmosis-processed deionized water were intubated once daily beginning 28 days before cohabitation and continuing through mating (males) or through gestation day 17 (females). The following parameters were evaluated: viability, clinical signs, body weights, estrous cyclicity, necropsy observations, organ weights, sperm concentration/motility/morphology, cesarean-sectioning and litter observations, and histopathological evaluation of select tissues. No deaths or clinical signs related to TEGDMA occurred. No significant changes in male and female body weights and body weight gains were recorded for any of the administered dosages of TEGMDA. All mating and fertility parameters and all litter and fetal data were considered to be unaffected by dosages of TEGMDA as high as 1 mg/kg/d. Gross or histopathologic tissue changes attributable to the test article were not observed. Reproductive and developmental no observed adverse effect levels (NOAELs) for TEGMDA were 1.0 mg/kg/d, the highest dose tested. Comparison of conservatively estimated TEGDMA exposures from dental treatments to the NOAEL of 1.0 mg/kg/d identified in this study indicates margins of exposure of at least 120- to 3000-fold depending on the exposure scenario. The results of this study support the continued safe use of TEGDMA in polymeric dental products applied according to the manufacturers’ instructions.
Reusable Sampling-Based Techniques for Manipulation via Pushing

In this work, we consider the problem of manipulating a polygonal object through an obstacle-filled environment using only push interactions, or nudges. For this problem, we propose a manipulation planner that could handle multiple queries and offer solutions with a higher probability of success than traditional planners, especially in the face of uncertainty. We have implemented our approach in simulation, and offer some preliminary results to demonstrate the technique.
Stability of energy metabolites—An often overlooked issue in metabolomics studies: A review

Recent advances in analytical chemistry have set the stage for metabolite profiling to help understand complex molecular processes in physiology. Despite ongoing efforts, there are concerns regarding metabolomics workflows, since it has been shown that internal (enzyme activity, blood contamination, and the dynamic nature of metabolite concentrations) as well as external factors (storage, handling, and analysis method) may affect the metabolome profile. Many metabolites are intrinsically instable, particularly some of those associated with central carbon metabolism. While enzymatic conversions have been studied in great detail, nonenzymatic, chemical conversions received comparatively little attention. This review aims to give an in‐depth overview of nonenzymatic energy metabolite degradation/interconversion chemistry focusing on a selected range of metabolites. Special attention will be given to qualitative (degradation pathways) as well as quantitative aspects, that may affect the acquisition of accurate data in the context of metabolomics studies. Problems related to the use of isotopically labeled internal standards hindering the quantitative analysis of common metabolites will be presented with an experimental example. Finally, general conclusions and perspectives are given.
Local Pinsker Inequalities via Stein's Discrete Density Approach

Pinsker's inequality states that the relative entropy between two random variables X and Y dominates the square of the total variation distance between X and Y. In this paper, we introduce generalized Fisher information distances and prove that these also dominate the square of the total variation distance. To this end, we introduce a general discrete Stein operator for which we prove a useful covariance identity. We illustrate our approach with several examples. Whenever competitor inequalities are available in the literature, the constants in ours are at least as good, and, in several cases, better.
Building robust wavelet estimators for multicomponent images using Stein's principle

Multichannel imaging systems provide several observations of the same scene which are often corrupted by noise. In this paper, we are interested in multispectral image denoising in the wavelet domain. We adopt a multivariate statistical approach in order to exploit the correlations existing between the different spectral components. Our main contribution is the application of Stein's principle to build a new estimator for arbitrary multichannel images embedded in additive Gaussian noise. Simulation tests carried out on optical satellite images show that the proposed method outperforms conventional wavelet shrinkage techniques.
A miR-200b/200c/429-Binding Site Polymorphism in the 3′ Untranslated Region of the AP-2α Gene Is Associated with Cisplatin Resistance

The transcription factor AP-2α functions as a tumor suppressor by regulating various genes that are involved in cell proliferation and apoptosis. Chemotherapeutic drugs including cisplatin induce post-transcriptionally endogenous AP-2α, which contributes to chemosensitivity by enhancing therapy-induced apoptosis. microRNAs (miRNAs) miR-200b, miR-200c and miR-429 (miR-200b/200c/429) are up-regulated in endometrial and esophageal cancers, and their overexpression correlates with resistance to cisplatin treatment. Using computational programs, we predicted that the 3′ untranslated region (UTR) of AP-2α gene contains a potential miRNA response element (MRE) for the miR-200b/200c/429 family, and the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) site rs1045385 (A or C allele) resided within the predicted MRE. Luciferase assays and Western blot analysis demonstrated that the miR-200b/200c/429 family recognized the MRE in the 3′ UTR of AP-2α gene and negatively regulated the expression of endogenous AP-2α proteins. SNP rs1045385 A>C variation enhanced AP-2α expression by disrupting the binding of the miR-200b/200c/429 family to the 3′ UTR of AP-2α. The effects of the two polymorphic variants on cisplatin sensitivity were determined by clonogenic assay. The overexpression of AP-2α with mutant 3′ UTR (C allele) in the endometrial cancer cell line HEC-1A, which has high levels of endogenous miR-200b/200c/429 and low levels of AP-2α protein, significantly increased cisplatin sensitivity, but overexpression of A allele of AP-2α has no significant effects, compared with mock transfection. We concluded that miR-200b/200c/429 induced cisplatin resistance by repressing AP-2α expression in endometrial cancer cells. The SNP (rs1045385) A>C variation decreased the binding of miR-200b/200c/429 to the 3′ UTR of AP-2α, which upregulated AP-2α protein expression and increased cisplatin sensitivity. Our results suggest that SNP (rs1045385) may be a potential prognostic marker for cisplatin treatment.
Human parainfluenza type 3 virus hemagglutinin-neuraminidase glycoprotein: nucleotide sequence of mRNA and limited amino acid sequence of the purified protein

The nucleotide sequence of mRNA for the hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) protein of human parainfluenza type 3 virus obtained from the corresponding cDNA clone had a single long open reading frame encoding a putative protein of 64,254 daltons consisting of 572 amino acids. The deduced protein sequence was confirmed by limited N-terminal amino acid microsequencing of CNBr cleavage fragments of native HN that was purified by immunoprecipitation. The HN protein is moderately hydrophobic and has four potential sites (Asn-X-Ser/Thr) of N-glycosylation in the C-terminal half of the molecule. It is devoid of both the N-terminal signal sequence and the C-terminal membrane anchorage domain characteristic of the hemagglutinin of influenza virus and the fusion (F0) protein of the paramyxoviruses. Instead, it has a single prominent hydrophobic region capable of membrane insertion beginning at 32 residues from the N terminus. This N-terminal membrane insertion is similar to that of influenza virus neuraminidase and the recently reported structures of HN proteins of Sendai virus and simian virus 5.
Adherence of French GPs to Chronic Neuropathic Pain Clinical Guidelines: Results of a Cross-Sectional, Randomized, “e” Case-Vignette Survey

Background and aims The French Pain Society published guidelines for neuropathic pain management in 2010. Our aim was to evaluate the compliance of GPs with these guidelines three years later. Methods We used “e” case vignette methodology for this non interventional study. A national panel of randomly selected GPs was included. We used eight “e” case-vignettes relating to chronic pain, differing in terms of the type of pain (neuropathic/non neuropathic), etiology (cancer, postoperative pain, low back pain with or without radicular pain, diabetes) and symptoms. GPs received two randomly selected consecutive “e” case vignettes (with/without neuropathic pain). We analyzed their ability to recognize neuropathic pain and to prescribe appropriate first-line treatment. Results From the 1265 GPs in the database, we recruited 443 (35.0%), 334 of whom logged onto the web site (26.4%) and 319 (25.2%) of whom completed the survey. Among these GPs, 170 (53.3%) were aware of the guidelines, 136 (42.6%) were able to follow them, and 110 (34.5%) used the DN4 diagnostic tool. Sensitivity for neuropathic pain recognition was 87.8% (CI: 84.2%; 91.4%). However, postoperative neuropathic pain was less well diagnosed (77.9%; CI: 69.6%; 86.2%) than diabetic pain (95.2%; CI: 90.0%; 100.0%), cancer pain (90.6%; CI: 83.5%; 97.8%) and typical radicular pain (90.7%; CI: 84.9%; 96.5%). When neuropathic pain was correctly recognized, the likelihood of appropriate first-line treatment prescription was 90.6% (CI: 87.4%; 93.8%). The treatments proposed were pregabaline (71.8%), gabapentine (43.9%), amiptriptylline (23.2%) and duloxetine (18.2%). However, ibuprofen (11%), acetaminophen-codeine (29.5%) and clonazepam (10%) were still prescribed. Conclusions The compliance of GPs with clinical practice guidelines appeared to be satisfactory, but differed between etiologies.
Automatic sign segmentation from continuous signing via multiple sequence alignment

In order to build a sign language recognition framework, one needs to collect sign databases that contain multiple samples of isolated signs, which is a hard and time consuming task. In this study, our aim is to obtain such a database by automatically extracting isolated signs from continuous signing, recorded from the broadcast news for the hearing-impaired. We present an unsupervised, multiple alignment-based approach for sign segmentation. Among the modalities used to form a sign, hand gestures carry most of the information, manifested as hand motion and shape. To handle these two sources of information, we experimented with different feature sets, with different fusion methods on different alignment approaches: feature concatenation on Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) and Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), modeling via coupled and parallel HMMs, and sequential fusion of DTW and HMM. Our experiments on Turkish broadcast news videos show that (1) using low level shape descriptors is suitable for the alignment task, (2) the highest accuracy is obtained by modeling the signs with HMM using the intervals found previously by DTW.
Design of SMS commanded-and-controlled and P2P-structured mobile botnets

Botnets are one of the most serious security threats to the Internet and personal computer (PC) users. Although botnets have not yet caused major outbreaks in the mobile world, with the rapidly-growing popularity of smartphones such as Apple's iPhone and Android-based phones that store more personal data and gain more capabilities than earlier generation handsets, botnets are expected to become a severe threat to smartphones soon. In this paper, we propose the design of a mobile botnet that makes the most of mobile services and is resilient to disruption. The mobile botnet utilizes SMS messages for C&C and a P2P structure as its topology. Our simulation results demonstrate that a modified Kademlia---a structured architecture---is a better choice for the mobile botnet's topology. In addition, we discuss potential countermeasures to defend against this mobile botnet threat.
Perceptual integration across natural monocular regions.

Natural scenes contain hidden regions, or occlusions, that differ in the two eyes, resulting in monocular regions that can only be seen by one eye. Such monocular regions appear to not be suppressed but seem to be integrated into the scene percept. Here we explore how the two eyes' views are combined to represent a scene that contains monocular regions, partially hidden behind a foreground occluding "fence. " We measured performance in a density/numerosity discrimination task for scenes containing differing amounts of binocular and monocular information. We find that information from a number of separate monocular regions can be integrated into our overall percept of dot density/numerosity, although different observers use different strategies. If, however, both monocular and binocular information is present, observers appear to ignore the purely monocular regions, relying solely on the binocular information when making density/numerosity judgments. Our work suggests that binocular regions are favored over monocular regions, such that information from monocular regions is effectively ignored when binocular regions are present in a scene.
Saliency of Interest Points under Scale Changes

Interest point detectors are commonly employed to reduce the amount of data to be processed. The ideal interest point detector would robustly select those features which are most appropriate or salient for the application and data at hand. There is however a tradeoff between the robustness and the discriminance of the selected features. Whereas robustness in terms of repeatability is relatively well explored, the discriminance of interest points is rarely discussed. This paper formalizes the notion of saliency and evaluates three state-of-the-art interest point detectors with respect to their capability of selecting salient image features in two recognition settings.
Dual RAID technique for ensuring high reliability and performance in SSD

The use of MLC/TLC (Multiple/Triple Level Cell) flash memory increases bit error rate, and declines its reliability. To remedy this loss, the Redundancy Array of Inexpensive Disk (RAID) have been widely used to enhance the reliability of the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and the Solid State Drive (SSD). RAID 5 and RAID 6 ensure high reliability among the various RAID techniques. These RAID techniques exploit parity to recover failures, it is updated whenever data renewed. The RAID 5 technique contains separated parity in a page of different stripes. In the RAID 6 technique, however, parity is written to double. So, RAID 6 guarantees more reliability. These RAID techniques enhance reliability, stability and data recovery capability in SSD. In this paper, we propose the dual RAID technique to use both RAID 5 and RAID 6 in a particular way depending on the data reliability. Reliability of data is divided to relatively high and low, these allows to be determined by user. At this time, data which requires high reliability is managed by the RAID 6 technique, and data which requires low reliability is managed by the RAID 5 technique. The purpose of this technique is to improve data recovery capability and I/O performance in SSD. This technique is evaluated by the trace-driven simulator with Financial1, Financial2, Exchange, and MSN traces. We confirm that the dual RAID technique improves I/O performance with ensuring high reliability.
Echocardiographic Assessment of Left Ventricular Function: With Special Reference to Normalized Velocities

The concept of “normalized velocity’ has been applied in this study to the echocardiographic (echo) assessment of left ventricular (LV) function in 87 patients. The following normalized velocities were calculated from the ultrasound recording of LV wall motion: 1) the mean circumferential fiber shortening rate (mean VCF), 2) the mean normalized posterior wall velocity (VPW), and 3) the mean normalized interventricular septal velocity (VIVS). Systolic ejection fraction (SEF), and mean (non-normalized) posterior wall velocity (PWV) were also determined. There were 19 patients with normal LV function, 5 with atrial septal defect (mean VCF, VIVS and SEF were not calculated in these patients), 16 with LV volume overload, 29 with myocardial disease, 6 with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and 12 with coronary artery disease (CAD). Single plane cineangiographic (angio) determinations of mean VCF and SEF were obtained in 50 of the 87 patients (including all 12 patients with CAD). Mean VCF and SEF done by echo correlated very well with mean VCF and SEF done by angio in the patients without CAD (r = 0.94 and 0.91, respectively). Mean VCF (by echo or by angio) adequately separated normal from abnormal LV function. Although correlation between mean VCF and SEF was good, mean VCF was reduced while SEF was well preserved in several patients. In spite of LV asynergy, most of the patients with CAD had good correlation between echo and angio measurements of mean VCF and SEF. Although PWV correlated with echo and angio mean VCF in the patients without CAD, the overlap of normal and abnormal values made PWV an unreliable index of LV function. In contrast, VPW proved to be a reliable indicator of LV performance in patients without LV asynergy. Agreement between VPW and mean VCF (by echo or angio) was seen in 94% of the patients; in the presence of CAD, however, greater discrepancy was seen between these two measurements. Agreement between VIVS and VPW was present in 90% of the patients without CAD, but in only 58% of the patients with CAD.The analysis of LV wall motion by echocardiography utilizing the “normalized velocity’ concept appears to be a rational and practical method for evaluation of LV performance. In the absence of asynergy, VPW provides a reliable index of LV performance which may be of particular value when abnormal septal motion precludes the determination of SEF and mean VCF. In the presence of asynergy, however, mean VCF, VPW and VIVS may reflect only the performance of the visualized segment of myocardium.
Ultrasound echolocation with frequency-modulated signals in cluttered background

Ultrasonic sensor is being used widely for its simplicity and cheap cost. It can measure the distance to objects just measuring the time of flight of the ultrasound. Inspired by studies about the bat's echolocation system, we tested the cross-correlation of FM ultrasonic signals and its possibility for the echolocation system. In this paper we simulate object discrimination experiments which are supposed to distinguish a prey object from the background objects with ultrasonic signals. We assume a prey object is located in the cluttered environment. The cross-correlation between the transmitted signal and the echoed signal produces an impulse-like signal for objects in the environment. The simulation result suggests that the prey object can be discriminated from the cluttered background better with a higher sweep rate of FM ultrasonic signals.
unimelb: Topic Modelling-based Word Sense Induction for Web Snippet Clustering

This paper describes our system for Task 11 of SemEval-2013. In the task, participants are provided with a set of ambiguous search queries and the snippets returned by a search engine, and are asked to associate senses with the snippets. The snippets are then clustered using the sense assignments and systems are evaluated based on the quality of the snippet clusters. Our system adopts a preexisting Word Sense Induction (WSI) methodology based on Hierarchical Dirichlet Process (HDP), a non-parametric topic model. Our system is trained over extracts from the full text of English Wikipedia, and is shown to perform well in the shared task.
Multi-class EEG classification of voluntary hand movement directions

Objective. Studies have shown that low frequency components of brain recordings provide information on voluntary hand movement directions. However, non-invasive techniques face more challenges compared to invasive techniques. Approach. This study presents a novel signal processing technique to extract features from non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) recordings for classifying voluntary hand movement directions. The proposed technique comprises the regularized wavelet-common spatial pattern algorithm to extract the features, mutual information-based feature selection, and multi-class classification using the Fisher linear discriminant. EEG data from seven healthy human subjects were collected while they performed voluntary right hand center-out movement in four orthogonal directions. In this study, the movement direction dependent signal-to-noise ratio is used as a parameter to denote the effectiveness of each temporal frequency bin in the classification of movement directions. Main results. Significant (p < 0.005) movement direction dependent modulation in the EEG data was identified largely towards the end of movement at low frequencies (≤6 Hz) from the midline parietal and contralateral motor areas. Experimental results on single trial classification of the EEG data collected yielded an average accuracy of (80.24 ± 9.41)% in discriminating the four different directions using the proposed technique on features extracted from low frequency components. Significance. The proposed feature extraction strategy provides very high multi-class classification accuracies, and the results are proven to be more statistically significant than existing methods. The results obtained suggest the possibility of multi-directional movement classification from single-trial EEG recordings using the proposed technique in low frequency components.