Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Augmented reality, smart codes and cloud computing for personalized interactive advertising on billboards

We present a system that enables m-commerce interactions with roadside billboards, featuring augmented reality enhancements over the video captured by smart mobile devices. The system comprises a mobile application that reads 2D codes placed along with the advertising imagery to recognize the ads and deliver some local interactions, plus a cloud computing environment that assembles tailor-made interactive spots presenting product offers and allowing to put orders, ask for directions, etc. Early validation experiments are reported that reveal positive reception of the concept among different end-users.
Exposure to Disturbance Motion During Practice in an Analog of a Flight Task Influences Flight Control of Naive Participants

ABSTRACT Objective: This article examines whether strategies and performance differed depending on whether naive participants were exposed to motion disturbance during practice of a tracking task. Background: Despite several decades of research, there is still debate regarding whether physical motion during flight simulation training improves later performance. Evidence suggests that presence of disturbance affects the utility of motion on transfer of training studies. Therefore, an important question is whether performance with disturbance motion (e.g., wind gusts) at test depends on whether participants practice with disturbance motion. Method: Naïve participants flew through a series of suspended rings in a motion-based simulator. Practice was with or without correlated (joystick control) and random motion (disturbance). The task was an analog of a flight task, modified to accommodate nonpilots. A quasi-transfer design included two practice blocks followed by two test blocks that incorporated both correlated and random motion. Results: No differences were detected in accuracy, but groups who practiced without disturbance made smaller joystick movements during both practice and test phases compared to those who practiced with disturbance. Conclusion: Practice without disturbance resulted in adoption of a different (possibly more efficient) joystick control strategy compared to practice with disturbance. The results suggest that during training, some control elements should be learned under relatively easy conditions, subsequently increasing in difficulty (e.g., add disturbance) at an optimal point in training.
Performance analysis of spatial OFDM for pixelated optical wireless systems

Pixelated optical wireless systems can transmit at high speed by encoding data in transmitted images using spatial orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (spatial OFDM) but are susceptible to a number of limiting factors including defocus, linear fractional misalignment (LFM) and vignetting. This paper investigates the effects of these impairments on the performance of both forms of spatial OFDM: spatial DC‐biased optical OFDM (SDCO‐OFDM) and spatial asymmetrically clipped optical OFDM (SACO‐OFDM). The novelty of this paper is in the theoretical analysis of the effect of defocus on a spatial OFDM based pixelated system. The theoretical results for defocus are found to be in agreement with the simulation results reported in the literature. Furthermore, the joint effects of defocus, LFM and vignetting are mathematically described. Analytical and simulation results show that these three factors are largely independent of each other. Simulation results indicate that these impairments and their associated mitigation techniques influence the optimum choice of DC bias for SDCO‐OFDM. Finally, it is shown that for the case of the joint impairments and for a given data rate, the bit error rate performance of SDCO‐OFDM with the optimum bias is slightly better than that of SACO‐OFDM. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Reproducibility of an Isokinetic Strength-Testing Protocol of the Knee and Ankle in Older Adults

Background: Muscle power assessed by isokinetic dynamometers has the potential for playing an important role in investigating functional status in older subjects. Researchers and clinicians are interested in the reliability of isokinetic test protocols for the confidential assessment of status, as this affects the interpretation of the results of an intervention program. Objective: The current study investigated the inter- and intrarater reliability of an isokinetic strength-testing protocol of the knee and ankle preceded by a familiarization session. Methods: Twenty-four independently living elderly subjects (6 males, 18 females, mean age 71.2 ± 5.5 years) were assessed 3 times in two test sessions. The main outcomes were the intraclass correlation coefficient, standard error of measurements (SEM) and ratio of limits of agreement (RLOA) for isokinetic knee and ankle contractions, as measured with the Biodex System 3. Results: The intraclass correlation coefficients of the isokinetic variables varied from 0.81 to 0.99 representing ‘good’ to ‘very good’ reliability. Most SEM and RLOA indexes represented acceptable agreement which varied from 6 to 13 and 18 to 37%, respectively. Nonacceptable agreement was found for ankle plantar flexion with SEMs that varied from 14 to 17% and RLOAs from 39 to 48%. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate that the Biodex System 3 is a reliable device when used for elderly living independently. The ability of the device to determine a real change in isokinetic ankle and knee contractions is better on a group level than on an individual level. The Biodex System 3 can be employed with confidence in studies to determine the effect of exercise intervention programs on physical activity.
Acoustic and linguistics features related to speech planning appearing at weak clause boundaries in Japanese monologs

In this paper, we focus on weak clause boundaries in Japanese monologs in order to investigate the relationship of the length of constituents following weak boundaries to three acoustic and linguistic features: 1) occurrence rate of fillers, 2) occurrence rate of boundary pitch movements, and 3) degree of lengthening of clause-final morae. We found that all these features were significantly correlated with the length of following constituents. Most importantly, boundary pitch movements had an additional effect that can be distinct from the effect of clause-final lengthening. These results suggest that Japanese speakers have earlier-occurring items that help them deal with cognitive load in speech planning, in addition to fillers and other clause-initial disfluencies.
Original Papers

The study examines the question of how personal self-esteem, collective self-esteem and readiness for selfimprovement are linked to satisfaction with life in women from countries differing with regard to level of collectivism. Our study participants were Polish (less collectivistic) and Indian (more collectivistic) female students. The obtained results indicate that personal self-esteem plays a very important role in satisfaction with life of women from the two countries. However, collective self-esteem is not directly related to satisfaction with life among women from the two cultures analyzed. Structural Equation Modeling showed that: a) in the Indian group readiness for self-improvement is more important for satisfaction with life than in the Polish group and it is significantly related to satisfaction with life through collectivistic self-esteem, b) the direct influence of both personal and collective self-esteem on satisfaction with life is more significant in the Polish group than in the Indian group.
Flux de gènes et évolution des ressources génétiques du mil (Pennisetum glaucum) dans le Bassin du Lac Tchad : rôle de la diversité socio-culturelle

La resilience des agricultures subsahariennes face aux perturbations environnementales et socio-economiques repose en partie sur le maintien des diversites specifique, varietale et genetique presentes au sein des agrosystemes, mais aussi sur la preservation du droit pour les cultivateurs de reproduire et d'echanger librement les semences et les savoirs relatifs aux varietes. Pourtant, peu de donnees sont reellement disponibles sur la circulation effective des semences et les mecanismes modulant les flux de genes et les introgressions genetiques entre varietes cultivees dans les agrosystemes saheliens. Chez le mil en particulier, il n’existe que des donnees tres parcellaires sur les relations entre la diversite de la plante d’une part et la diversite socio-culturelle des agriculteurs d'autre part. Dans la premiere partie je me suis interesse aux interactions entre l’organisation en groupes socio-culturels des agriculteurs et la structure genetique des populations de mil dans le bassin du lac Tchad. Les analyses de la diversite genetique suggerent l’existence d’une barriere sociale a la diffusion des genes sur l’ensemble de cette region. Neanmoins ces barrieres ne sont pas suffisantes pour empecher les introgressions genetiques entre populations cultivees par des agriculteurs appartenant a des groupes ethnolinguistiques differents. Dans le deuxieme chapitre, je me suis interesse au role des processus d’adaptation locale sur la circulation des genes. Les resultats m’ont conduit a proposer l’hypothese selon laquelle les flux de genes entre types nommes precoces et tardifs sont plus importants dans les regions du nord ou la pluviometrie est faible. Enfin dans le troisieme chapitre j’ai quantifie la diversite biochimique des grains de mil de plusieurs varietes de mil, dont les usages culinaires varient selon les groupes ethnolinguistiques ou dont les qualites gustatives sont appreciees differemment. J’ai utilise pour cela une approche combinee de proteomique et de metabolique. Parmi les 1072 spots proteiques quantifies seulement 7 permettent de distinguer les types nommes photoperiodiques des types nommes non ou peu photoperiodiques. Les donnees de metabolomique suggerent la presence de champignons, qui pourraient etre des endophytes, dans certains des echantillons analyses.
Polyketide Glycosides from Bionectria ochroleuca Inhibit Candida albicans Biofilm Formation

One of the challenges presented by Candida infections is that many of the isolates encountered in the clinic produce biofilms, which can decrease these pathogens’ susceptibilities to standard-of-care antibiotic therapies. Inhibitors of fungal biofilm formation offer a potential solution to counteracting some of the problems associated with Candida infections. A screening campaign utilizing samples from our fungal extract library revealed that a Bionectria ochroleuca isolate cultured on Cheerios breakfast cereal produced metabolites that blocked the in vitro formation of Candida albicans biofilms. A scale-up culture of the fungus was undertaken using mycobags (also known as mushroom bags or spawn bags), which afforded four known [TMC-151s C–F (1–4)] and three new [bionectriols B–D (5–7)] polyketide glycosides. All seven metabolites exhibited potent biofilm inhibition against C. albicans SC5314, as well as exerted synergistic antifungal activities in combination with amphotericin B. In this report, we describe the structure determination of the new metabolites, as well as compare the secondary metabolome profiles of fungi grown in flasks and mycobags. These studies demonstrate that mycobags offer a useful alternative to flask-based cultures for the preparative production of fungal secondary metabolites.
Distinct Rab 27 A binding affinities of Slp 2-a and Slac 2-a / melanophilin : Hierarchy of Rab 27 A effectors q

The small GTPase Rab27A has recently been shown to regulate melanosome transport in mammalian skin melanocytes through sequentially interacting with two Rab27A effectors, Slac2-a/melanophilin and Slp2-a. Although Slac2-a and Slp2-a contain a similar N-terminal Rab27A-binding domain (named SHD, Slp homology domain), nothing is known about the functional differences between the Slac2-a SHD and Slp2-a SHD. In this study, the Rab27A-binding affinity of ten putative Rab27A effector proteins has been investigated. It has been found that they could be classified into a low-affinity group (e.g., Slac2-a) and a high-affinity group (e.g., Slp2-a and Slp4-a) based on their Rab27A-binding affinity. Kinetic analysis of the GTP-Rab27A-binding to the SHD of Slp2-a, Slp4-a, and Slac2-a by surface plasmon resonance further indicated that the kinetic parameters of Rab27A for the Slp2-a SHD, Slp4-a SHD, and Slac2-a SHD consisted of a fast association rate constant (3.35 · 10, 2.06 · 10, and 2.11 · 10 M 1 s , respectively) and a slow dissociation rate constant (4.48 · 10 , 3.96 · 10 , and 2.37 · 10 3 s 1 respectively), and their equilibrium dissociation constants were determined to be 13.4, 19.2, and 112 nM, respectively. Our data suggest that distinct Rab27A binding activities of Slac2-a and Slp2-a ensure the order (or hierarchy) of Rab27A effectors that sequentially function in melanosome transport in melanocytes. 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Saccadic Suppression Is Embedded Within Extended Oscillatory Modulation of Sensitivity

Action and perception are intimately coupled systems. One clear case is saccadic suppression, the reduced visibility around the time of saccades, which is important in mediating visual stability; another is the oscillatory modulation of visibility synchronized with hand action. To suppress effectively the spurious retinal motion generated by the eye movements, it is crucial that saccadic suppression and saccadic onset be temporally synchronous. However, the mechanisms that determine this temporal synchrony are unknown. We investigated the effect of saccades on contrast discrimination sensitivity over a long period stretching over >1 s before and after saccade execution. Human subjects made horizontal saccades at will to two stationary saccadic targets separated by 20°. At a random interval, a brief Gabor patch was displayed between the two fixations in either the upper or lower visual field and the subject had to detect its location. Strong saccadic suppression was measured between −50 and 50 ms from saccadic onset. However, the suppression was systematically embedded in a trough of oscillations of contrast sensitivity that fluctuated rhythmically in the delta range (at ∼3 Hz), commencing ∼1 s before saccade execution and lasting for up to 1 s after the saccade. The results show that saccadic preparation and visual sensitivity oscillations are coupled and the coupling might be instrumental in temporally aligning the initiation of the saccade with the visual suppression. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Saccades are known to produce a suppression of contrast sensitivity at saccadic onset and an enhancement after saccadic offset. Here, we show that these dynamics are systematically embedded in visual oscillations of contrast sensitivity that fluctuate rhythmically in the delta range (at ∼3 Hz), commencing ∼1 s before saccade execution and lasting for up to 1 s after the saccade. The results show that saccadic preparation and visual sensitivity oscillations are coupled and the coupling might be instrumental in aligning temporally the initiation of the saccade with the visual suppression.
Surface Ground-penetrating Radar monitoring of water infiltration inside a ring infiltrometer

In this study, we test the use of a surface Ground-penetrating Radar (GPR) for monitoring the water infiltration using a single ring infiltrometer similar to the Muntz apparatus [1]. We performed an experiment in a natural Fontainebleau sand, with 1600 MHz antennae, using a 60-cm diameter metallic ring partially buried down to 10 cm. During the infiltration of a 5-cm layer of water and the following drainage, GPR traces are acquired every 5 s from a static position inside the ring. We performed gravimetric measurements on several soil samples, evaluated the retention curve function using a laboratory hanging water column and used hydrodynamical and electromagnetic simulations to help with the GPR data interpretation.
Development of maneuvering support system for ship docking

A dock master who was specialist of docking maneuvered a ship to a dock. The dock master was required high maneuvering skill, then, retired captain became the dock master. However, Japanese shipyard started to employ young seafarers as the dock master because of luck of human resource. It took a long time young dock master might acquire the maneuvering skill for the docking. Therefore, this study proposed a maneuvering support system for ship docking by using augmented realty technique.
Upper critical field of KFe2As2 under pressure: A test for the change in the superconducting gap structure

We report measurements of electrical resistivity under pressure to 5.8 GPa, magnetization to 6.7 GPa, and ac susceptibility to 7.1 GPa in KFe2As2. The previously reported change of slope in the pressure dependence of the superconducting transition temperature Tc(p) at a pressure p*~1.8 GPa is confirmed, and Tc(p) is found to be nearly constant above p* up to 7.1 GPa. The T-p phase diagram is very sensitive to the pressure conditions as a consequence of the anisotropic uniaxial pressure dependence of Tc. Across p*, a change in the behavior of the upper critical field is revealed through a scaling analysis of the slope of Hc2 with the effective mass as determined from the A coefficient of the T2 term of the temperature-dependent resistivity. We show that this scaling provides a quantitative test for the changes of the superconducting gap structure and suggests the development of a kz modulation of the superconducting gap above p* as a most likely explanation.
DESCRIPTION OF INDEXES BASED ON THE ADHERENCE TO THE MEDITERRANEAN DIETARY PATTERN: A REVIEW.

INTRODUCTION diet quality indexes are tools are aimed at quantifying the compliance to a defined dietary pattern. These indexes are a combined measure of dietary factors (food groups, foods, nutrients and ratios) and/ or lifestyles factors. The Mediterranean Diet (MD) is a dietary pattern characterized by their positive effects against chronic diseases. There have been many indexes proposed for the assessment of this dietary pattern. An evaluation of their composition and health benefits is therefore convenient. OBJECTIVE the objective is to evaluate indexes of adherence to the MD with regard to their definition, methodological issues and validation as reported in epidemiological studies. METHODS we searched in PubMed for studies that developed MD Indexes up to October 2014. RESULTS a total number of 22 indexes were identified, with differences regarding the number of components (7-28), scoring (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 or 10, in case of compliance), range (0-100) and type of components (which could be food groups/foods or their combination, with nutrients). Among the positive components, fruits and vegetables were the most common and meats, among the negative components. There were also differences with regard to their composition and evaluation (e.g. criteria of moderate alcohol consumption), as well as with the scoring system (in medians, terciles or established servings). CONCLUSIONS this review suggests that since there is great heterogeneity in the definition of MD. It would be therefore convenient to establish more clearly the components to be included and to establish commonly defined criteria to quantify this dietary pattern.
New Lower Bounds and Hierarchy Results for Restricted Branching Programs

Known lower bound techniques for depth restricted branching programs are not sensitive enough to lead to tight hierarchies. A new lower bound technique implies the separation of the classes of polynomial-size branching programs, where on each path k variables may be tested more than once and k≤(1−e)(n/3)1/3/ log2/3n for some e>0. Methods from communication complexity theory are adopted to separate the classes of polynomial-size ordered read k times branching programs, where k=o(n1/2/ log2n).
Molecular product and free radical yields of ionizing radiations in aqueous solutions.

Ionizing radiations of different energies and masses cause a perplexing variety of chemical and biological effects. Generally speaking, the chemical yield per unit expenditure of energy in aqueous solutions is higher for light-particle than for heavy-particle radiations. This is due in part to a pronounced "oxygen effect" for systems irradiated with X-rays, y-rays, and electrons. Normally, heavy-particle radiation is as effective in promoting chemical changes in the presence of oxygen as in its absence. However, there is a marked selectivity of action in the systems studied, and generalizations, unless carefully stated, may be misleading. The decomposition of water affords an excellent example of a striking difference between the actions of the a-rays and X-rays. Pure water, if irradiated in vessels containing no gas phase, was found by Fricke and Brownscombe (1) to be stable to X-rays, whereas water containing certain types of impurities of the order of 10-5 M is decomposed. Consequently, it is not surprising that Lea (2), as late as 1947, found the evidence for the decomposition of water by X-rays most contradictory. Alpha rays, on the other hand, decompose pure water in high yield in either the presence or absence of oxygen. These characteristics of ionizing radiations may be explained by the differences existing in the ion density along the track of the particle and by the interaction of free radicals with molecular products. The energy necessary for ion-pair formation in air is only slightly lower for X-rays than for a-rays (32.5 and 35 ev/ip, respectively). Within the limits of experimental error, the energy required per measurable water molecule decomposed in dilute aqueous solutions is 29 ? 3 ev, regardless of the type of radiation. The appreciable differences found in the chemical effects produced by different types of radiation depend solely on the relative numbers of the water molecules yielding molecular products (hydrogen and hydrogen peroxide) and hydrogen and hydroxylfree radicals.
Macroprudential Capital Requirements with Non-Bank Finance

I analyze the impact of raising capital requirements on the quantity, composition, and riskiness of aggregate investment in a model in which firms borrow from both bank and non-bank lenders. The bank funds loans with insured deposits and costly equity, monitors borrowers, and must maintain a minimum capital to asset ratio. Non-banks have deep pockets and competitively price loans. A tight capital requirement on the bank reduces risk-shifting and decreases bank leverage, reducing the risk of costly bank failure. In response, though, the bank can change both price and non-price contract terms. This may induce firms to substitute out of bank finance, leading to a theoretically ambiguous effect on the profile of aggregate investment. Quantitatively, I find that the bank's incentive to insure itself against issuing costly equity and competition from the non-bank sector mutes the long run impact of raising capital requirements. Increasing the capital requirement from 8% to 26% eliminates bank failures with effectively no change in the quantity or riskiness of aggregate investment.