Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Novel 3D video conversion from down-sampled stereo video

Stereo video has become the main-stream 3D video format in recent years due to its simplicity in data representation and acquisition. Under stereo settings, the twin problems of video super-resolution and high-resolution disparity estimation are intertwined. In this paper, we present a novel 3D video conversion system that converts down-sampled stereo video to high-resolution stereo sequences with a Bayesian framework. In addition, we estimate the finer-resolution disparity maps with a two-step CRF model. Our super-resolution system can also be incorporated into the video coding process, which can significantly lower the data amount as well as preserving high-quality details. Experimental results demonstrate that our system can enhance image resolution in both stereo video and disparity map. Objective evaluation of the proposed video coding scheme combined with super-resolution at different compression ratios also shows competitive performance of proposed system for video compression.
A Conserved Domain in Axonal Targeting of Kv1 (Shaker) Voltage-Gated Potassium Channels

Axonal voltage-gated potassium (Kv1) channels regulate action-potential invasion and hence transmitter release. Although evolutionarily conserved, what mediates their axonal targeting is not known. We found that Kv1 axonal targeting required its T1 tetramerization domain. When fused to unpolarized CD4 or dendritic transferrin receptor, T1 promoted their axonal surface expression. Moreover, T1 mutations eliminating Kvβ association compromised axonal targeting, but not surface expression, of CD4-T1 fusion proteins. Thus, proper association of Kvβ with the Kv1 T1 domain is essential for axonal targeting.
Parametric Imaging of Ligand-Receptor Binding in PET Using a Simplified Reference Region Model

A method is presented for the generation of parametric images of radioligand-receptor binding using PET. The method is based on a simplified reference region compartmental model, which requires no arterial blood sampling, and gives parametric images of both the binding potential of the radioligand and its local rate of delivery relative to the reference region. The technique presented for the estimation of parameters in the model employs a set of basis functions which enables the incorporation of parameter bounds. This basis function method (BFM) is compared with conventional nonlinear least squares estimation of parameters (NLM), using both simulated and real data. BFM is shown to be more stable than NLM at the voxel level and is computationally much faster. Application of the technique is illustrated for three radiotracers: [11C]raclopride (a marker of the D2 receptor), [11C]SCH 23390 (a marker of the D1 receptor) in human studies, and [11C]CFT (a marker of the dopamine transporter) in rats. The assumptions implicit in the model and its implementation using BFM are discussed.
The Relationship between Students' Course Perception and their Approaches to Studying in Undergraduate Science Courses: A Canadian experience

Research on students' approaches to learning in higher education has consistently demonstrated strong relationships between approaches to studying and perceptions of the learning environment. The vast majority of these studies have been carried out with Australian and British students. Using the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) and the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ), this study investigated these relationships with a large sample of Canadian undergraduates. The factor structure of the ASSIST was confirmed at the main scale level. The factor structure of the CEQ was largely confirmed, though some small changes were noted. Previous findings of significant correlations between approaches and CEQ scales were supported. The strongest relationships were found between heavy workload/inappropriate assessment and surface approach, and between generic skills and deep approach. Consistent with other studies, age was found to be a significant variable with regard to approaches. Implications for the practice of higher education staff development are discussed.
Optimizing Task Migration Transfers Using Multistage Cube Networks

As hardware and software technology progresses, the interest in large-scale parallel processing systems is increasing. Making such a system partitionable into independent subsystems has many advantages. To maximize these benefits, it may be necessary to move (migrate) a job from one submachine (partition) to another. Here, machines based on multistage cube networks are considered. Assume the task is to be migrated from a given set of K source PEs, Ps, to a given set of K destination PEs, P j . A mapping to determine which PE in Pd is to receive data from each PE in Ps is given. It is proven that this mapping will allow the task migration to be performed in the minimum amount of time. An equation for determining this minimum time is derived. The results are shown for both packetand circuit-switched multistage cube networks. The techniques presented can be used as part of a strategy for making decisions as to whether to migrate a task and which partitions to use as source and destination of the migration.
New Single-bottle Ceramic Primer: 6-month Case Report and Laboratory Performance.

INTRODUCTION This article presents a 6-month case report and an in vitro evaluation of the performance of the new self-etching glass-ceramic monobond etch and prime (MEP) when applied in a lithium disilicate (LD). The MEP contains in the same bottle, along with acid conditioner and silanes. This simplifies the bonding procedures by reducing not only the number of steps, but also the working time. A 42-year-old female patient sought for esthetic treatment, and the main complaint was the darkened appearance of the upper lateral incisor. The esthetic treatment includes dental bleaching and gingivectomy, all-ceramic zirco-nia crowns, and all-ceramic crown and laminate veneer LD. After 6 months of esthetic treatment, marginal staining, gap, or chip fracturing damaging margins after sharp explorer in the margins was not observed. Furthermore, the inferior etching pattern of MEP was compared with traditional hydrofluoric acid (HF) conditioning. The microshear bond strength to the intaglio surface of LD was statistically similar when HF was compared with MEP. This new self-etching glass-ceramic showed good in vitro and 6 months clinical results in this case report. Future long-term clinical studies with more clinical case need to be done to confirm the performance of the use of this new conditioner. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE The use of a new self-etching glass-ceramic showed a good in vitro and 6 months clinical results. This new product can be an easy, simple, and alternative approach for esthetics bonding procedure.
Epidemiology of Isoniazid Resistance Mutations and Their Effect on Tuberculosis Treatment Outcomes

ABSTRACT Isoniazid resistance is highly prevalent in Vietnam. We investigated the molecular and epidemiological characteristics and the association with first-line treatment outcomes of the main isoniazid resistance mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis in codon 315 of the katG and in the promoter region of the inhA gene. Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains with phenotypic resistance to isoniazid from consecutively diagnosed smear-positive tuberculosis patients in rural Vietnam were subjected to Genotype MTBDRplus testing to identify katG and inhA mutations. Treatment failure and relapse were determined by sputum culture. In total, 227 of 251 isoniazid-resistant strains (90.4%) had detectable mutations: 75.3% in katG codon 315 (katG315) and 28.2% in the inhA promoter region. katG315 mutations were significantly associated with pretreatment resistance to streptomycin, rifampin, and ethambutol but not with the Beijing genotype and predicted both unfavorable treatment outcome (treatment failure or death) and relapse; inhA promoter region mutations were only associated with resistance to streptomycin and relapse. In tuberculosis patients, M. tuberculosis katG315 mutations but not inhA mutations are associated with unfavorable treatment outcome. inhA mutations do, however, increase the risk of relapse, at least with treatment regimens that contain only isoniazid and ethambutol in the continuation phase.
Social and Nonsocial Determinants of Acceptability in Handicapped Preschool Children

Various social and nonsocial behaviors of 72 severely handicapped preschool children were assessed. One-half of these children were judged to be more highly rated sociometrically (by normal peers) than their handicapped counterparts. While clear social behavior differences emerged between more and less accepted children, equally powerful differences were noted in certain nonsocial skills and attributes: physical attractiveness, toy play skill, level of disruption in class, and athletic skill. In fact, social and nonsocial variables were found to contribute equally important information for predicting sociometric status.
Enhanced image capture through fusion

The authors present an extension to the pyramid approach to image fusion. The modifications address problems that were encountered with past implementations of pyramid-based fusion. In particular, the modifications provide greater shift invariance and immunity to video noise, and provide at least a partial solution to the problem of combining components that have roughly equal salience but opposite contrasts. The fusion algorithm was found to perform well for a range of tasks without requiring adjustment of the algorithm parameters. Results were remarkably insensitive to changes in these parameters, suggesting that the procedure is both robust and generic. A composite imaging technique is outlined that may provide a powerful tool for image capture. By fusing a set of images obtained under restricted, narrowband, imaging conditions, it is often possible to construct an image that has enhanced information content when compared to a single image obtained directly with a broadband sensor. <<ETX>>
Handling structural plant-model mismatch via multi-stage nonlinear model predictive control

In this paper we present an approach to deal with structural uncertainties (structure and dimension of the model are not perfectly known) in the framework of nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC). The presented method is based on robust multi-stage NMPC which represents the uncertainty as a scenario tree with the possibility of recourse, reducing the conservativeness of the approach. In the case of structural mismatch, the unmodeled dynamics can cause a significant difference between the model used for the predictions and the reality, which can cause violations of constraints. We generate a scenario tree to account for the mismatch between the plant and the model by assuming a bound on the effect of the structural mismatch on the model. Thus the proposed scheme will be robust to the structural mismatch present in the model. We demonstrate the advantages of the proposed approach for a nonlinear continuous stirred tank reactor example.
Missing-feature method for speaker recognition in band-restricted conditions

In this study, the missing-feature method is considered to address band-limited speech for speaker recognition. In an effort to mitigate possible degradation due to the general speaker independent model, a two-step reconstruction scheme is developed, where speaker class independent/dependent models are used separately. An advanced marginalization in the cepstral domain is proposed employing a high order extension method in order to address loss of model accuracy in the conventional method due to cepstrum truncation. To detect the cut-off regions from incoming speech, a blind mask estimation scheme is employed which uses a synthesized band-limited speech model. Experimental results on band-limited conditions indicate that our two-step reconstruction scheme with missing-feature processing is effective in improving in-set/out-of-set speaker recognition performance for band-limited speech, particularly in severely band-restricted conditions (i.e., 4.72% EER improvement in 2, 3, and 4kHz band-limited conditions over a conventional data-driven method). The improvement of the proposed marginalization method proves its effectiveness for acoustic model conversion by employing high order extension, showing 0.57% EER improvement over conventional marginal-ization.
Isolation and characterization of high protein and phycocyanin producing mutants of Arthrospira platensis

Cyanobacteria are known to exhibit their efficiency in producing high concentrations of compounds of commercial value. Arthrospira is one such cyanobacterium which is considered as important source of protein (65%) and other nutrients. In present study, chemical mutagenesis using N‐methyl‐Ń‐Nitro‐nitrosoguanidine (NTG), a proven potent mutagen for cyanobacteria was used to bring stable and desirable alteration in Arthrospira platensis ARM 730. Three morphological mutants (G‐1, G‐2, and SF) were selected and characterized. The G‐1 and G‐2 were helical, more bluish in pigmentation than the wild type strain where G‐1 also showed enlarged cell size. The SF mutant was an altered straight‐filament having maximum biomass. Among three mutants, higher protein and phycocyanin contents were observed in G‐1 and G‐2 mutants whereas chlorophyll was less in these mutants as compared to wild type strain indicating change in the pigment ratio. Carotenoid content was higher in SF mutant as compared to wild type and other mutants. Variation in total sugar content was not observed in comparison to wild type strain. The analysis of amino acid spectrum of all the mutants and wild type showed significant increase in proline content. Overall, it is revealed from the results that G‐1 and G‐2 mutants showed higher biomass, phycocyanin, and protein contents in comparison to wild type which indicated their great potential to be used in food and pharmaceutical industries.
Object tracking and dynamic estimation on evidential grids

Autonomous driving is one of the most challenging tasks of the automotive industry. As a subtask, the estimation of driveable and non driveable space is often solved by applying occupancy grids. The information about non driveable space can be used to improve object tracking. This paper presents an approach for object tracking and modelling in an occupancy grid map. Tracking objects on grid cells yields the advantage of a consistent environmental model on the occupancy grid map. We introduce the occupancy grid map as the only information source for the object tracking module. Taking advantage of the Dempster Shafer theory, a dynamic belief of conflicting cells can be estimated. This dynamic belief is then accumulated in a tracked object model. This is a grid based free form object model that uses detached grid cells to model vehicles in urban environment. We reduce false positives and initialization time by maintaining a dynamic belief for each object.
Psychometric Properties of the Hong Psychological Reactance Scale

The Hong Psychological Reactance Scale (HPRS; Hong & Felda, 1996) was developed to measure the individual difference in reactance proneness, that is, a person's trait propensity to experience psychological reactance. We performed confirmatory factor analyses to test the dimensionality of the 11-item version of the HPRS. Three message outcome variables (i.e., perceived threat to freedom, attitude, and intention) served as reference variables to test the construct validity of the HPRS. Data from 3 studies (Ns = 188, 200, and 233) of reactions to persuasive health messages confirmed the existence of 4 first-order factors but also provided evidence that the HPRS can be treated as unidimensional at the second order. The relationships between the second-order factor and the message outcome variables provided evidence of the validity of the scale.
EPIZOOTIOLOGY OF MORBILLIVIRUS INFECTION IN HARP, HOODED, AND RINGED SEALS FROM THE CANADIAN ARCTIC AND WESTERN ATLANTIC

Using a virus neutralization technique, we found phocine distemper virus (PDV) antibody in 130 (83% of 157) harp seals (Phoca groenlandica) from the western North Atlantic sampled between 1988 and 1993 inclusive. In contrast, only 44 (24% of 185) hooded seals (Cystophora cristata) had antibodies against PDV even though they were sympatric with harp seals and were sampled over a similar period, from 1989 to 1994 inclusive. Antibodies occurred in 106 (41%) of 259 ringed seals (Phoca hispida); this prevalence was higher than expected given the solitary behavior and territoriality characteristic of this species. Seropositive ringed seals were found at each of seven locations across Arctic Canada from Baffin Bay to Amundsen Gulf at which samples were collected between 1992 and 1994. However, the prevalence of infection was highest where ringed seals are sympatric with harp seals in the eastern Canadian Arctic.
The Gly482Ser Missense Mutation of the Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor γ Coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) Gene Associates with Reduced Insulin Sensitivity in Normal and Glucose-Intolerant Obese Subjects

Among the putative candidate genes for insulin resistance, the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) is a transcriptional coactivator of PPARγ and α, regulating a wide range of processes involved in energy production and utilization, such as thermogenesis, liver gluconeogenesis, glucose uptake in muscle. In population studies a Gly482Ser substitution in PGC-1α has been reported to be associated with increased risk of type diabetes 2 and insulin resistance. In the present study we have analysed the association between the Gly482Ser missense mutation of the PGC-1α gene and insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance in a population of obese non-diabetic subjects. The Gly482Ser SNPs was detected by PCR-RFLP in a cohort of 358 Caucasian obese subjects (223 with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) and 125 with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). We observed a significant association (p < 0.007) between carriers of the Gly482Ser variant of the PGC-1α gene and insulin resistance measured by HOMAIR. Multivariate analysis confirmed that the Gly482Ser SNP was a significant (p < 0.02) determinant of decreased insulin sensitivity, independently from other well-known modulators of insulin action. In conclusion, we have found significant association between the Gly482Ser variant of the PGC-1α gene and reduced insulin sensitivity in obese subjects. This association resulted independent from all other known modulators of insulin resistance, and suggests a primary role for the PGC-1α gene on the genetic susceptibility to insulin resistance in obesity.
Teacher Educators, Student Teachers and Biographical Influences: implications for teacher education

Abstract The importance of acknowledging the influence of biography in understanding teachers’ work is well established in recent literature. Drawing upon data arising from a study of teacher educators and their students, we consider the influence of biography on the work of teacher educators and student teachers. We draw comparisons between the ways in which they make connections with their demographic characteristics, their personal and educational histories and their understanding of their work. We evaluate the data against two major positions in the literature on biography and draw some implications for teacher education.
Differentiated muscles are mandatory for gas-filling of the Drosophila airway system

ABSTRACT At the end of development, organs acquire functionality, thereby ensuring autonomy of an organism when it separates from its mother or a protective egg. In insects, respiratory competence starts when the tracheal system fills with gas just before hatching of the juvenile animal. Cellular and molecular mechanisms of this process are not fully understood. Analyses of the phenotype of Drosophila embryos with malformed muscles revealed that they fail to gas-fill their tracheal system. Indeed, we show that major regulators of muscle formation like Lame duck and Blown fuse are important, while factors involved in the development of subsets of muscles including cardiac and visceral muscles are dispensable for this process, suggesting that somatic muscles (or parts of them) are essential to enable tracheal terminal differentiation. Based on our phenotypic data, we assume that somatic muscle defect severity correlates with the penetrance of the gas-filling phenotype. This argues that a limiting molecular or mechanical muscle-borne signal tunes tracheal differentiation. We think that in analogy to the function of smooth muscles in vertebrate lungs, a balance of physical forces between muscles and the elasticity of tracheal walls may be decisive for tracheal terminal differentiation in Drosophila. Summary: During embryogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster, without involving the nervous system, somatic muscles control terminal differentiation of the airway system by stimulating gas-filling before hatching.
Evolution of the Antiretroviral Restriction Factor TRIMCyp in Old World Primates

The retroviral restriction factor TRIMCyp, which is a fusion protein derived from the TRIM5 gene, blocks replication at a post-entry step. Among Old World primates, TRIMCyp has been found in four species of Asian macaques, but not in African monkeys. To further define the evolutionary origin of Old World TRIMCyp, we examined two species of baboons (genus Papio) and three additional macaque species, including M. sylvanus, which is the only macaque species found outside Asia, and represents the earliest diverging branch of the macaque lineage. None of four P. cynocephalus anubis, one P. hamadryas, and 36 M. sylvanus had either TRIMCyp mRNA or the genetic features required for its expression. M. sylvanus genomic sequences indicated that the lack of TRIMCyp in this species was not due to genetic homogeneity among specimens studied and revealed the existence of four TRIM5α alleles, all distinct from M. mulatta and Papio counterparts. Together with existing data on macaque evolution, our findings indicate that TRIMCyp evolved in the ancestors of Asian macaques approximately 5–6 million years before present (ybp), likely as a result of a retroviral threat. TRIMCyp then became fixed in the M. nemestrina lineage after it diverged from M. nigra, approximately 2 million ybp. The macaque lineage is unique among primates studied so far due to the presence and diversity of both TRIM5 and TRIMCyp restriction factors. Studies of these antiviral proteins may provide valuable information about natural antiviral mechanisms, and give further insight into the factors that shaped the evolution of macaque species.
Driver cognitive workload estimation: a data-driven perspective

Driver workload estimation (DWE) refers to the activities of monitoring a driver and the driving environment in real-time and acquiring the knowledge of the driver's workload continuously. With this knowledge of the driver's workload, the in-vehicle information systems (IVIS) can provide information on when the driver has the spare capacity to receive and comprehend it, which is both effective and efficient. However, after years of study, it is still difficult to build a robust DWE system. In this paper, we analyze the difficulties facing the existing methodology of developing DWE systems and propose a machine-learning-based DWE development process. Some preliminary but promising results are reported using a popular machine-learning method, the decision tree.