Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Binocular depth perception of stereoscopic 3D line drawings

Stereoscopic 3D exploits the effects of stereopsis where the depth perception is triggered by binocular disparity, a difference in image location of an object by the left and right eyes. Despite the dissimilarity of stereo projections in terms of disparity and shape, the human visual system can find the matching stereo pair to fuse using their similarities in terms of color, size, shading, texture, shadows, that are normally present in photorealistic stereo imaging. Now if some of these elements (or depth cues) are missing, such as in non-photorealistic stereo imaging, how will it affect the depth perception and stereo fusion? In this paper, we investigate this issue by conducting a perceptual study on stereoscopic 3D line drawing, in which many of these cues have been abstracted away. We first evaluate the validity of using stereo images composed of lines only, and then compare its performance to stereo images of normal shading. We also examine the effect of changing line style as well as the prospect of using lines as an additional depth cue. Our study shows that stereo line drawing, when compared to stereo shading, does weaken the depth perception but only to a minor degree. On the other hand, modification of line style, and superimposition of stereo lines both have potentials to strengthen the perception of depth.
Somatostatin Selectively Couples to Goα in HIT-T15 Cells

Previously, we have demonstrated that somatostatin mediates all of its inhibitory effects on glucose-induced insulin secretion from the HIT-T15 cell through pertussis toxin-sensitive G-proteins and that the membrane fraction of this clonal line of pancreatic β-cells contains six such proteins: Giα1, Giα2, Giα3, and three forms of Goα. To determine the specificity of somatostatin receptor–G-protein coupling in HIT-T15 cells, we examined the ability of antisera specific for the COOH-terminus of G α subtypes to inhibit somatostatin-induced augmentation of membrane GTPase activity. GTPase activity increased in membranes as a function of GTP. At all concentrations of GTP studied, 1 μmol/l somatostatin stimulated GTPase activity. Pertussis-toxin pretreatment prevented the effects of somatostatin. Antisera selective for Goα subtypes reduced the effects of somatostatin on GTPase activity (GTPase activity in absence of antisera, 125 ± 3% of control; in the presence of antisera 976, 110 ± 2% of control; n = 13, P < 0.001), whereas antisera directed against Giα1, Giα2, Giα3, and Gsα were without effect. Somatostatin also significantly prevented cyclic AMP accumulation during perifusion with 11.1 mmol/l glucose through a pertussis toxin–sensitive mechanism. These data indicate that the somatostatin receptor couples to Goα in the HIT-T15 cell and suggest that Goα may link somatostatin to cyclic AMP metabolism in pancreatic β-cells.
Efeitos da justiça organizacional percebida sobre a satisfação no trabalho e as opções comportamentais

Este estudo de campo analisam-se as consequencias da justica organizacional percebida sobre a satisfacao no trabalho e a implicacao organizacional, assim como a influencia destas variaveis sobre duas estrategias comportamentais: saida externa e “saida” interna, definidas, respectivamente, como intencao para abandonar a organizacao e para se transferir internamente. Foram operacionalizadas tres dimensoes da justica percebida: distributiva, procedimental e relacional. Analisaram-se tres dimensoes da satisfacao no trabalho: com o funcionamento da organizacao, com a supervisao, e com o ambiente de trabalho. Os dados foram recolhidos por 427 colaboradores de uma empresa industrial e analisados atraves de modelos casuais. Os resultados da path analysis revelam que a saida interna e negativamente influenciada pela implicacao organizacional e pela justica procedimental e relacional. A intencao de saida externa e ainda negativamente influenciada pela implicacao organizacional e pela justica relacional. A implicacao organizacional e influenciada pela satisfacao com o funcionamento organizacional e pelo ambiente de trabalho. Os resultados revelam tambem efeitos distintos das tres dimensoes da justica organizacional percebida sobre as dimensoes de satisfacao no trabalho analisadas. Discute-se o interesse desses resultados para pesquisas futuras, nomeadamente no que se refere as distintas consequencias das diferentes dimensoes de justica. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.17575/rpsicol.v13i1/2.560
CACO-PS: a general purpose cycle-accurate configurable power simulator

This paper presents a cycle-accurate and configurable simulator that estimates the power consumed by an embedded system. The simulator accepts as input a structural system architecture description, at a level of abstraction that can be configured by the user. The simulator has been used to study the power dissipation of different micro-architectures of a Java microcontroller while executing several applications. Thanks to the cycle-driven behavior and the structural system description, the simulator is both flexible and accurate, and it may also be fast, depending on the desired level of abstraction. It represents a valuable support in a design space exploration methodology, allowing a power consumption evaluation that can be applied to any processor and system architecture at an early design stage.
Abductive Explanation-based Learning Improves Parsing Accuracy and Efficiency

Natural language parsing has to be accurate and quick. Explanation-based Learning (EBL) is a technique to speed-up parsing. The accuracy however often declines with EBL. The paper shows that this accuracy loss is not due to the EBL framework as such, but to deductive parsing. Abductive EBL allows extending the deductive closure of the parser. We present a Chinese parser based on abduction. Experiments show improvements in accuracy and efficiency.1
Dude, where is my sex gene? — Persistence of sex over evolutionary time in cellular automata

We created a simple evolutionary system, F-sexyloop, on a deterministic twelve-state five-neighbour cellular automaton (CA) where self-reproducing loops have the capability of sex. This work was based on the sexyloop which was transformed by adding two new states and new rules. In the F-sexyloop, the loops can carry a sex gene used to facilitate the transfer of genetic material from a loop to another. This gene is analogous to the F factor plasmid in bacterial conjugation which confers the capacity to act as a donor of genetic material (including the gene itself). Therefore, the sex gene could potentially be maintained in the population during evolution or disappear. We show that in a wide variety of cases, the sex gene persists over evolutionary time and is present in the genomes of the dominant species.
Factorized Topic Models

In this paper we present a modification to a latent topic model, which makes the model exploit supervision to produce a factorized representation of the observed data. The structured parameterization separately encodes variance that is shared between classes from variance that is private to each class by the introduction of a new prior over the topic space. The approach allows for a more eff{}icient inference and provides an intuitive interpretation of the data in terms of an informative signal together with structured noise. The factorized representation is shown to enhance inference performance for image, text, and video classification.
Expression Quantitative Trait Loci Analysis of BAN, F3H and TT19 Genes in Brassica napus

Flavonone 3-hydroxylase (F3H), anthocyanidin reductase (ANR) encoded by BANYULS (BAN) gene and glutathione S-transferase encoded by TRANSPARENT TESTA 19 (TT19) gene are three key enzymes in flavonoid pathway, playing important roles in the synthesis and transport of anthocyanin and proanthocyanidin. However, little is known about the expression variations and the regulatory network in Brassica. In this study, we examined their expression levels in seeds of 30 days after flowering (DAF) in F7 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from a cross between Brassica nap us cultivars Youyan2 (black-seeded) and GH06 (yellow-seeded), and characterized the locus-level regulatory network related to B. nap us BAN, F3H and TT19 genes. Expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) mapping revealed five, seven and eight eQTLs for BAN, F3H and TT19 genes, respectively. Marker E4M8 was associated with qBAN-8-2 and qTT19-8-2, while marker H022L18-2 was linked with qBAN-16-4 and qF3H-16-6, implying that there might be upstream regulatory genes in E4M8 and H022L18-2 marker flanking regions. In further analysis, we identified four trans-eQTLs (qBAN-16-5, qF3H-16-5, qBAN-16-4 and qF3H-11-2) close to the location of the major QTL controlling yellow-seeded trait of B. nap us. The 200-kb flanking sequences of the four eQTL on B. rapa chromosome A09 showed well synteny to B. oleracea genome sequence and partial continuous fragment of chromosome 1 of Arabidopsis genome, suitable for candidate gene predication of eQTLs. Based on gene finding results, seven transcription factors were suggested to be the potential upstream candidate(s) controlling expression variations of BAN, F3H and TT19 genes. These results could provide a new approach for constructing regulatory pathways that contribute to complex traits, such as yellow-seeded trait.
Reduced phase space: quotienting procedure for gauge theories

We present a reduction procedure for gauge theories based on quotienting out the kernel of the presymplectic form in configuration-velocity space. Local expressions for a basis of this kernel are obtained using phase-space procedures; the obstructions to the formulation of the dynamics in the reduced phase space are identified and circumvented. We show that this reduction procedure is equivalent to the standard Dirac method as long as the Dirac conjecture holds: that the Dirac Hamiltonian, containing the primary first-class constraints, with their Lagrange multipliers, can be enlarged to an extended Dirac Hamiltonian which includes all first-class constraints without any change of the dynamics. The quotienting procedure is always equivalent to the extended Dirac theory, even when it differs from the standard Dirac theory. The differences occur when there are ineffective constraints, and in these situations we conclude that the standard Dirac method is preferable - at least for classical theories. An example is given to illustrate these features, as well as the possibility of having phase-space formulations with an odd number of physical degrees of freedom.
An NFV Orchestration Framework for Interference-Free Policy Enforcement

Network functions virtualization is a new paradigm to offer flexibility of software network function processing on demand. Policy enforcement satisfies network function policies that requires flows to traverse through given sequences of network functions. We summarize three desired properties of virtual network function placement, namely policy enforcement, interference freedom, and resource isolation. However, none of existing solutions can satisfy all of them. In this paper, we present a novel SDN-based NFV orchestration framework, called APPLE, to enforce network function policies while providing the above properties. We present detailed design considerations and prototype implementation. We conduct experiments using representative network topologies, traffic matrices, and policy chains. The results from both prototype experiments and simulations show that APPLE is resource efficient and can quickly react to traffic changes.
Automatic Extraction of Citation Contexts for Research Paper Summarization: A Coreference-chain based Approach

This paper proposes a new method based on coreference-chains for extracting citations from research papers. To evaluate our method we created a corpus of citations comprised of citing papers for 4 cited papers. We analyze some phenomena of citations that are present in our corpus, and then evaluate our method against a cue-phrase-based technique. Our method demonstrates higher precision by 7--10%.
A cognitive informatics theory for visual information processing

This paper presents a cognitive informatics theory of visual information and knowledge processing in the brain and natural intelligence. A set of cognitive principles of visual perception is reviewed, such as the gestalt principles, the cognitive informatics principles, and the hypercolumn theory. A visual frame theory is developed to explain the visual information processing mechanisms of human vision, where the size of a unit visual frame is tested and calibrated based on vision experiments. Then, the framework of human visual information processing is established. Based on it, the mechanisms of visual information processing and the compatibility of internal representations between visual and abstract information and knowledge are elaborated.
The effect of competitive motivation on the attentional focus of distance runners

3 Acknowledgements.5 List of Figures . 7 List of Tables . 8 Introduction.9 Literature Review.11 Attentional Focus: Definition and Measurement.11 Why Study Attention in Sport Psychology Research? 16 Attentional Focus and Running Performance . 17 Attentional Focus and Performance on Other Exercise Tasks.28 Attentional Focus and Perceived Effort/Exertion . 32 Attentional Focus and Injury . 37 What Determines Attentional Focus? 38 Attentional Focus and Motivation of Distance Runners.43 Hypotheses.48 Method . 50 Participants.50 Measures . 52 Procedure . 54 Results.55 Preliminary Analyses . 55 Tests of the Major Hypotheses . 57 Discussion.60 Limitations . 70 Conclusions and Suggestions for Further Research.73 References.78 Appendices.96
Model predictive control-based gait pattern generation for wearable exoskeletons

This paper introduces a new method for controlling wearable exoskeletons that do not need predefined joint trajectories. Instead, it only needs basic gait descriptors such as step length, swing duration, and walking speed. End point Model Predictive Control (MPC) is used to generate the online joint trajectories based on these gait parameters. Real-time ability and control performance of the method during the swing phase of gait cycle is studied in this paper. Experiments are performed by helping a human subject swing his leg with different patterns in the LOPES gait trainer. Results show that the method is able to assist subjects to make steps with different step length and step duration without predefined joint trajectories and is fast enough for real-time implementation. Future study of the method will focus on controlling the exoskeletons in the entire gait cycle.
VeMAC: A TDMA-Based MAC Protocol for Reliable Broadcast in VANETs

The need of a medium access control (MAC) protocol for an efficient broadcast service is of great importance to support the high-priority safety applications in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). This paper introduces VeMAC, a novel multichannel TDMA MAC protocol proposed specifically for a VANET scenario. The VeMAC supports efficient one-hop and multihop broadcast services on the control channel by using implicit acknowledgments and eliminating the hidden terminal problem. The protocol reduces transmission collisions due to node mobility on the control channel by assigning disjoint sets of time slots to vehicles moving in opposite directions and to road side units. Analysis and simulation results in highway and city scenarios are presented to evaluate the performance of VeMAC and compare it with ADHOC MAC, an existing TDMA MAC protocol for VANETs. It is shown that, due to its ability to decrease the rate of transmission collisions, the VeMAC protocol can provide significantly higher throughput on the control channel than ADHOC MAC.
Is radiation therapy a preferred alternative to surgery for squamous cell carcinoma of the base of tongue?

PURPOSE To evaluate irradiation alone for treatment of base-of-tongue cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS Two hundred seventeen patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the base of tongue were treated with radiation alone and had follow-up for >/= 2 years. RESULTS Local control rates at 5 years were as follows: T1, 96%; T2, 91%; T3, 81%; and T4, 38%. Multivariate analysis revealed that T stage (P =.0001) and overall treatment time (P =.0006) significantly influenced local control. The 5-year rates of local-regional control were as follows: I, 100%; II, 100%; III, 83%; IVA, 64%; and IVB, 65%. Multivariate analysis revealed that the following parameters significantly affect the probability of this end point: T stage (P =.0001), overall treatment time (P =.0001), overall stage (P =.0131), and addition of a neck dissection (P =.0021). The rates of absolute and cause-specific survival at 5 years were as follows: I, 50% and 100%; II, 81% and 100%; III, 65% and 76%; IVA, 42% and 56%; and IVB, 44% and 52%. Severe radiation complications developed in eight patients (4%). CONCLUSION The likelihood of cure after external-beam irradiation was related to stage, overall treatment time, and addition of a planned neck dissection. The local-regional control rates and survival rates after radiation therapy were comparable to those after surgery, and the morbidity associated with irradiation was less.
Prospective Study of Serum Adiponectin and Incident Metabolic Syndrome

OBJECTIVE Increased adiponectin levels may play a protective role in the development of metabolic abnormalities, but prospective studies of the predictive value of serum adiponectin to identify individuals at high risk of new-onset metabolic syndrome are lacking. We investigated whether serum adiponectin predicts incident cases of the metabolic syndrome in a population-based longitudinal study. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A prospective cohort study was conducted of 2,044 adults (831 men and 1,213 women) aged 40–70 years without metabolic syndrome examined in 2005–2008 (baseline) and 2008–2011 (follow-up). Baseline serum adiponectin concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay. RESULTS During an average of 2.6 years of follow-up, 153 men (18.4%) and 199 women (16.4%) developed metabolic syndrome. In multivariable-adjusted models, the odds ratio for incident metabolic syndrome comparing the highest with the lowest quartiles of adiponectin levels was 0.25 (95% CI 0.14–0.47) in men and 0.45 (0.28–0.74) in women. While serum adiponectin did not improve the area under the ROC curve for predicting new-onset metabolic syndrome based on information from metabolic syndrome components, the net reclassification improvement and the integrated discrimination improvement of prediction models including adiponectin were significantly higher compared with those of models not including adiponectin among men, with a significant difference between men and women (P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Increased adiponectin is an independent protective factor for incident metabolic syndrome in men and women, and it may have a clinical role in predicting new-onset metabolic syndrome among men.
Abduction with Bounded Treewidth: From Theoretical Tractability to Practically Efficient Computation

Abductive diagnosis is an important method to identify explanations for a given set of observations. Unfortunately, most of the algorithmic problems in this area are intractable. We have recently shown (Gottlob, Pichler, and Wei 2006) that these problems become tractable if the underlying clausal theory has bounded treewidth. However, turning these theoretical tractability results into practically efficient algorithms turned out to be very problematical. In (Gottlob, Pichler, and Wei 2007), we have established a new method based on monadic datalog which remedies this unsatisfactory situation. Specifically, we designed an efficient algorithm for a strongly related problem in the database area. In the current paper, we show that these favorable results can be carried over to logic-based abduction.
Estimation of biological half-life of urinary cadmium in inhabitants after cessation of environmental cadmium pollution using a mixed linear model

We investigated the biological half-life of urinary cadmium concentration (U-Cd) based on a 22-year follow-up study after cessation of environmental Cd pollution. Spot urine samples were obtained from the inhabitants (32 men and 36 women) in the target area in 1986, 1991, 1999, 2003 and 2008. These inhabitants were divided into higher or lower baseline U-Cd group by the cut-off of 5 μg l–1 or 5 μg g–1 creatinine. Biological half-life of U-Cd was estimated using a linear mixed model adjusted for the baseline age. In the higher baseline U-Cd groups, the estimated half-life and 95% confidence intervals were 12.4 years (9.3–18.8 years) and 11.4 years (9.3–14.6 years) for unadjusted U-Cd in men and women, respectively. For creatinine-adjusted U-Cd, they were 16.0 years (13.0–20.7 years) and 20.4 years (16.6–26.2 years) in men and women, respectively. In the lower baseline U-Cd groups, biological half-life for unadjusted U-Cd in men was solely significant (23.4 years) and longer than the corresponding half-life in the higher baseline U-Cd group. The biological half-lives of U-Cd obtained in this study were identical with the values for U-Cd or total body burden determined by a different method.
Chimeric RXFP1 and RXFP2 Receptors Highlight the Similar Mechanism of Activation Utilizing Their N-Terminal Low-Density Lipoprotein Class A Modules

Relaxin family peptide (RXFP) receptors 1 and 2 are unique G-protein coupled receptors in that they contain an N-terminal low-density lipoprotein type A (LDLa) module which is necessary for receptor activation. The current hypothesis suggests that upon ligand binding the LDLa module interacts with the transmembrane (TM) domain of a homodimer partner receptor to induce the active receptor conformations. We recently demonstrated that three residues in the N-terminus of the RXFP1 LDLa module are potentially involved in hydrophobic interactions with the receptor to drive activation. RXFP2 shares two out of three of the residues implicated, suggesting that the two LDLa modules could be interchanged without adversely affecting activity. However, in 2007 it was shown that a chimera consisting of the RXFP1 receptor with its LDLa swapped for that of RXFP2 did not signal. We noticed this construct also contained the RXFP2 region linking the LDLa to the leucine-rich repeats. We therefore constructed chimeric RXFP1 and RXFP2 receptors with their LDLa modules swapped immediately C-terminally to the final cysteine residue of the module, retaining the native linker. In addition, we exchanged the TM domains of the chimeras to explore if matching the LDLa module with the TM domain of its native receptor altered activity. All of the chimeras were expressed at the surface of HEK293T cells with ligand binding profiles similar to the wild-type receptors. Importantly, as predicted, ligand binding was able to induce cAMP-based signaling. Chimeras of RXFP1 with the LDLa of RXFP2 demonstrated reduced H2 relaxin potency with the pairing of the RXFP2 TM with the RXFP2 LDLa necessary for full ligand efficacy. In contrast the ligand-mediated potencies and efficacies on the RXFP2 chimeras were similar suggesting the RXFP1 LDLa module has similar efficacy on the RXFP2 TM domain. Our studies demonstrate the LDLa modules of RXFP1 and RXFP2 modulate receptor activation via a similar mechanism.