Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Towards valuation-aware agent-based traffic control

Traffic authorities work hard to improve resource utilization in traffic. But these efforts do not consider that the valuations of waiting time can be different for each driver, e.g., a driver of a courier service delivering express mail typically has a higher valuation of reduced waiting time than other motorists. We propose that traffic-control mechanisms should be valuation-aware and propose and describe such a mechanism called Time-Slot Exchange. The idea of this mechanism is that vehicles are assigned time slots to cross the intersection, and vehicles, or, more specifically, agent-based driver-assistance systems of the vehicles can then trade these time slots. Simulations show that our mechanism increases overall satisfaction considerably, compared to a state-of-the-art traffic-control mechanism.
Research on modeling and fault analysis of permanent magnet operating mechanism of vacuum circuit breaker

In this paper, a kind of permanent magnet operating mechanism was modeled and studied by using ADAMS and Ansoft software, and the model was verified by experiments. Then, six common faults were chosen to do simulated analysis, and opening and closing process was divided into three stages according to its force analysis, respectively. The angle displacement of main axis, which related to the moving contact's displacement, was treated as the objective to study the performance of permanent magnet operating mechanism. When the research is combined with on-line monitoring technology, it can be used to guide fault diagnosis and condition prediction of vacuum circuit breaker.
The Social Dynamics of Family Violence

CHAPTER 1 Social Dynamics of Family Violence: Setting the Stage CHAPTER 2 Historical Perspectives on Family Violence CHAPTER 3 Theories for Studying Family Violence CHAPTER 4 Methods for Studying Family Violence CHAPTER 5 Abuse Across the Life Course: Elder Abuse CHAPTER 6 Abuse Across the Life Course: Child Abuse CHAPTER 7 Outcomes of Child Abuse: Increased Risk for Experiencing Violence in Adulthood CHAPTER 8 The Economy and Intimate Partner Violence CHAPTER 9 Cultural Factors and Intimate Partner Violence CHAPTER 10 Religion and Family Violence CHAPTER 11 Violence in Same-Sex Couple Families CHAPTER 12 Prevention and Avoidance: The Early Warning Signs CHAPTER 13 The Response to Family Violence: The Criminal Justice System and the Social Welfare System CHAPTER 14 Where Do We Go from Here?
Using Graph Model for Face Analysis

Previous work has demonstrated that the image variations of many objects (human faces in particular) under variable lighting can be effectively modelled by low dimensional linear spaces. The typical methods for learning a face subspace include Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), and Locality Preserving Projection (LPP). Theoretical analysis shows that all these three methods can be obtained from different graph models which correspond to different geometrical structures. In this paper, we systematically analyze the relationship between these three subspace methods. We shows that LPP provides a more general framework for subspace learning and a natural solution to the small sample issue in LDA. Extensive experiments on face recognition and clustering are performed on Yale, ORL and PIE databases.
Complement drives Th17 cell differentiation and triggers autoimmune arthritis

Activation of serum complement triggers Th17 cell–dependent spontaneous autoimmune disease in an animal model. In genetically autoimmune-prone SKG mice, administration of mannan or β-glucan, both of which activate serum complement, evoked Th17 cell–mediated chronic autoimmune arthritis. C5a, a chief component of complement activation produced via all three complement pathways (i.e., lectin, classical, and alternative), stimulated tissue-resident macrophages, but not dendritic cells, to produce inflammatory cytokines including IL-6, in synergy with Toll-like receptor signaling or, notably, granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). GM-CSF secreted by activated T cells indeed enhanced in vitro IL-6 production by C5a-stimulated macrophages. In vivo, C5a receptor (C5aR) deficiency in SKG mice inhibited the differentiation/expansion of Th17 cells after mannan or β-glucan treatment, and consequently suppressed the development of arthritis. Transfer of SKG T cells induced Th17 cell differentiation/expansion and produced arthritis in C5aR-sufficient recombination activating gene (RAG)−/− mice but not in C5aR-deficient RAG−/− recipients. In vivo macrophage depletion also inhibited disease development in SKG mice. Collectively, the data suggest that complement activation by exogenous or endogenous stimulation can initiate Th17 cell differentiation and expansion in certain autoimmune diseases and presumably in microbial infections. Blockade of C5aR may thus be beneficial for controlling Th17-mediated inflammation and autoimmune disease.
Storage and secretion of the peritrophic matrix protein Ag‐Aper1 and trypsin in the midgut of Anopheles gambiae

The gene Ag‐Aper1 encodes a peritrophic matrix (PM) protein from the mosquito Anopheles gambiae. Ag‐Aper1 gene expression and protein localization in the mosquito midgut were studied during the course of a blood meal. Ag‐Aper1 mRNA abundance does not change appreciably during the course of blood ingestion and digestion. Prior to a blood meal, the protein is stored in secretory vesicles of midgut epithelial cells. Moreover, Ag‐Aper1 colocalizes to the same secretory vesicles as trypsin, indicating that these proteins use a common secretory pathway. Blood feeding triggers the secretion of vesicle contents into the midgut lumen, after which Ag‐Aper1 is incorporated into the PM. Newly synthesized Ag‐Aper1 protein was again detected within the midgut epithelial cells at 60 h after blood ingestion.
Male Circumcision and Women's Risk of Incident Chlamydial, Gonococcal, and Trichomonal Infections

Background: Male circumcision (MC) decreases the risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) acquisition in men. We explored associations between MC of the primary sex partner and women's risk of acquisition of chlamydial (Ct), gonococcal (GC), or trichomonal (Tv) infections. Methods: We analyzed data from a prospective study on hormonal contraception and incident human immunodeficiency virus/sexually transmitted infection (STI) among women from Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Thailand. At enrollment and each follow-up visit, we collected endocervical swabs for polymerase chain reaction identification of Ct and GC; Tv was diagnosed by wet mount. Using Cox proportional hazards models, we compared time to STI acquisition for women according to their partner's MC status. Results: Among 5925 women (2180 from Uganda, 2228 from Zimbabwe, and 1517 from Thailand), 18.6% reported a circumcised primary partner at baseline, 70.8% reported an uncircumcised partner, and 9.7% did not know their partner's circumcision status. During follow-up, 408, 305, and 362 participants had a first incident Ct, GC, or Tv infection, respectively. In multivariate analysis, after controlling for contraceptive method, age, age at coital debut, and country, the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) comparing women with circumcised partners with those with uncircumcised partners for Ct was 1.25 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.96–1.63]; for GC, adjusted HR 0.99 (95% CI 0.74–1.31); for Tv, adjusted HR 1.05 (95% CI 0.80–1.36), and for the 3 STIs combined, adjusted HR 1.02 (95% CI 0.85–1.21). Conclusions: MC was not associated with women's risk of acquisition of Ct, GC, or Tv infection in this cohort.
A Prediction Approach of Transmembrane Helical Segments in Membrane Proteins Based on Wavelet Transform

The increasing protein sequences from the genome project require theoretical methods to predict transmembrane helical segments (TMHs). In this paper, a method based on discrete wavelet transform (DWT) has been developed to predict the number and location of TMHs in membrane proteins. PDB coded as 1F88 is chosen as an example to describe the prediction process with this method. One group of test data sets that contain total 25 protein sequences were utilized to access the effect of this method. Compared with main prediction results of five common prediction methods, the obtained results indicate that the proposed method has higher prediction accuracy.
A discriminative model-constrained EM approach to 3D MRI brain tissue classification and intensity non-uniformity correction

We describe a fully automated method for tissue classification, which is the segmentation into cerebral gray matter (GM), cerebral white matter (WM), and cerebral spinal fluid (CSF), and intensity non-uniformity (INU) correction in brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) volumes. It combines supervised MRI modality-specific discriminative modeling and unsupervised statistical expectation maximization (EM) segmentation into an integrated Bayesian framework. While both the parametric observation models and the non-parametrically modeled INUs are estimated via EM during segmentation itself, a Markov random field (MRF) prior model regularizes segmentation and parameter estimation. Firstly, the regularization takes into account knowledge about spatial and appearance-related homogeneity of segments in terms of pairwise clique potentials of adjacent voxels. Secondly and more importantly, patient-specific knowledge about the global spatial distribution of brain tissue is incorporated into the segmentation process via unary clique potentials. They are based on a strong discriminative model provided by a probabilistic boosting tree (PBT) for classifying image voxels. It relies on the surrounding context and alignment-based features derived from a probabilistic anatomical atlas. The context considered is encoded by 3D Haar-like features of reduced INU sensitivity. Alignment is carried out fully automatically by means of an affine registration algorithm minimizing cross-correlation. Both types of features do not immediately use the observed intensities provided by the MRI modality but instead rely on specifically transformed features, which are less sensitive to MRI artifacts. Detailed quantitative evaluations on standard phantom scans and standard real-world data show the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method. They also demonstrate relative superiority in comparison to other state-of-the-art approaches to this kind of computational task: our method achieves average Dice coefficients of 0.93 ± 0.03 (WM) and 0.90 ± 0.05 (GM) on simulated mono-spectral and 0.94 ± 0.02 (WM) and 0.92 ± 0.04 (GM) on simulated multi-spectral data from the BrainWeb repository. The scores are 0.81 ± 0.09 (WM) and 0.82 ± 0.06 (GM) and 0.87 ± 0.05 (WM) and 0.83 ± 0.12 (GM) for the two collections of real-world data sets—consisting of 20 and 18 volumes, respectively—provided by the Internet Brain Segmentation Repository.
Mixed methods in the research of sciences of physical activity and sport.

Mixed methods research of Sciences of Physical Activity and Sport Research in the field of sports science has traditionally been based on quantitative procedures adapted from other areas of knowledge, such as the biomedical sciences, psychology and, more recently, sociology. However, the emergence of new paradigms, methods and procedures has opened the door to new ways of combining instruments for the analysis of physical activity and sport. Furthermore, this affects all stages of the research process: the definition of the problem, the data collection and analysis, the interpretation of results and the production of the final report. This paper uses examples and applications to illustrate the main designs associated with what has come to be known as the Mixed Method Approach. This new methodological perspective is increasing in the last decade according to the current need for procedures more integrated to the investigation of the human mobility.
Influence of weight status on physical and mental health in Moroccan perimenopausal women

Introduction There is a lack of information about fitness and other health indicators in women from countries such as Morocco. This study aims to explore the association of weight status with physical and mental health in Moroccan perimenopausal women. Methods 151 women (45-65 years) from the North of Morocco were analyzed by standardized field-based fitness tests to assess cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, flexibility, agility and balance. Quality of life was assessed by means of the Short-Form-36 Health Survey. Resting heart rate, blood pressure and plasma fasting glucose, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides were also measured. Results Blood pressure (P=0.001), plasma triglycerides (P=0.041) and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (P<0.001) increased as weight status increased. Levels of cardiorespiratory fitness, upper-body flexibility (both, P<0.001), static balance (P<0.05) and dynamic balance (P<0.01) decreased as weight status increased. Pairwise comparisons showed differences mainly between normal-weight and overweight vs. obese groups. No differences between groups were observed on quality of life. Conclusion Cardiovascular and lipid profile and fitness, important indicators of cardiovascular disease risk, worsened as weight status increased, whereas quality of life appears to be independent of weight status. Exercise and nutritional programs focus on weight management may be advisable in this under studied population.
Interaction of Protein C Inhibitor with the Type II Transmembrane Serine Protease Enteropeptidase

The serine protease inhibitor protein C inhibitor (PCI) is expressed in many human tissues and exhibits broad protease reactivity. PCI binds glycosaminoglycans and certain phospholipids, which modulate its inhibitory activity. Enteropeptidase (EP) is a type II transmembrane serine protease mainly found on the brush border membrane of epithelial cells in the duodenum, where it activates trypsinogen to initiate the digestion of food proteins. Some active EP is also present in duodenal fluid and has been made responsible for causing pancreatitis in case of duodeno-pancreatic reflux. Together with its substrate trypsinogen, EP is furthermore present in the epidermis and in some cancer cells. In this report, we show that PCI inhibited EP with an apparent 2nd order rate constant of 4.48×104 M−1 s−1. Low molecular weight (LMWH) and unfractionated heparin (UFH) slightly reduced the inhibitory effect of PCI. The SI (stoichiometry of inhibition) value for the inhibition of EP by PCI was 10.8 in the absence and 17.9 in the presence of UFH (10 U/ml). By inhibiting trypsin, chymotrypsin, and additionally EP, PCI might play a role in the protection of the pancreas from autodigestion. Furthermore the interaction of PCI with EP may influence the regulation of epithelial differentiation.
In Vitro Effect of Soy Isoflavone and Equol on Soluble CD40L Release Stimulated by Ristocetin in Platelets from Postmenopause Women

The inhibition of specific flavonoid on the in vitro platelet aggregation induced by collagen, arachidonic acid and thromboxane A2 (TxA2) agonist, seems to be related mostly to their ability to compete for binding to the TxA2 receptor (TP). The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of soy isoflavone and equol in terms of inhibiting the platelet aggregation and sCD40L release stimulated by ristocetin, an in vitro-activator of glycoprotein Ib/IX/V, in platelets from postmenopausal women. When platelets were stimulated by 0.75 mg/ml ristocetin, equol (10 μM) exhibited a greater inhibitory activity on platelet aggregation (~68%) than genistein or daidzein. The effect of equol was dependent on the concentration of platelet aggregation agonist. In the presence of ristocetin (0.75 mg/ml, 1.125 mg/ml and 1.5 mg/ml), the inhibitory effect of 10 μM equol was 68% ± 5%, 54% ± 4% and 31% ± 5%, respectively. Equol (10 μM) was a potent inhibitor (~35%) of sCD40L release when stimulated with 1.5 mg/ml ristocetin. However, no significant differences were noted in platelets incubated in the presence of genistein or daidzein and stimulated by ristocetin. On the other hand, SQ29548, a high TP antagonist, also inhibited the sCD40L release stimulated by ristocetin. Finally, 10 μM of genistein, daidzein or equol did not significantly affect the thromboxane B2 production when platelets were incubated with 1.5 mg/ml ristocetin. The relevance of this study was to find that equol exhibits a potent activity by inhibiting ristocetin-induced sCD40L release, suggesting that soy isoflavone has important biological effects on the hemostatic system. However, clinical trials will be necessary to assess the effect of equol on platelet and their impact on inflammatory markers.
Sharp interface limit in a phase field model of cell motility

We consider a system of two coupled parabolic PDEs introduced in [1] to model motility of eukaryotic cells. We study the asymptotic behavior of solutions in the limit of a small parameter related to the width of the interface in phase field function (sharp interface limit). We formally derive an equation of motion of the interface, which is mean curvature motion with an additional nonlinear term. In a 1D model parabolic problem we rigorously justify the sharp interface limit. To this end, a special form of asymptotic expansion is introduced to reduce analysis to a single nonlinear PDE. Further stability analysis reveals a qualitative change in the behavior of the system for small and large values of the coupling parameter. Using numerical simulations we also show discontinuities of the interface velocity and hysteresis. Also, in the 1D case we establish nontrivial traveling waves when the coupling parameter is large enough.
Designing a system for the automatic generation of sport video summaries

This paper describes the design and implementation of video summaries based on external and internal content. The system uses the emotions shared by the spectators during a football (soccer) match, the audio of the broadcast video, the analysis of the movement present in the video and manual annotations (when available). The paper describes the design decisions to take user interaction and user information into account when generating the final resulting video. The system also supports queries to extract specific clips, such as dangerous attacking plays of a certain team. The paper presents our preliminary evaluation studies, performance assessment and user evaluation, and the corresponding results, which were encouraging, showing that the creation of these summaries can be successfully done in relatively little time.
Defining the Molecular Forces That Determine the Impact of Neomycin on Bacterial Protein Synthesis: Importance of the 2′-Amino Functionality

ABSTRACT 2-Deoxystreptamine (2-DOS) aminoglycosides exert their antibiotic actions by binding to the A site of the 16S rRNA and interfering with bacterial protein synthesis. However, the molecular forces that govern the antitranslational activities of aminoglycosides are poorly understood. Here, we describe studies aimed at elucidating these molecular forces. In this connection, we compare the bactericidal, antitranslational, and rRNA binding properties of the 4,5-disubstituted 2-DOS aminoglycoside neomycin (Neo) and a conformationally restricted analog of Neo (CR-Neo) in which the 2′-nitrogen atom is covalently conjugated to the 5′′-carbon atom. The bactericidal potency of Neo exceeds that of CR-Neo, with this enhanced antibacterial activity reflecting a correspondingly enhanced antitranslational potency. Time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy studies suggest that the enhanced antitranslational potency of Neo relative to that of CR-Neo is due to a greater extent of drug-induced reduction in the mobilities of the nucleotides at positions 1492 and 1493 of the rRNA A site. Buffer- and salt-dependent binding studies, coupled with high-resolution structural information, point to electrostatic contacts between the 2′-amino functionality of Neo and the host rRNA as being an important modulator of 1492 and 1493 base mobilities and therefore antitranslational activities.
PRIMARY LYMPHANGIECTASIA IN A DINGO (CANIS FAMILIARIS DINGO)

Abstract A 3-yr-old intact male dingo (Canis familiaris dingo) presented with a 3-mo history of diarrhea. The diarrhea did not resolve with antibiotics or intestinal protectants. Fecal examination for parasites, fecal cultures, physical examination, and radiographs were unremarkable. Enteroscopic duodenal biopsies showed dilated lacteals without inflammation. Results of serum folate, cobalamin, and trypsin-like immunoreactivity were normal. Low serum total protein and albumin combined with increased fecal levels of alpha-1 protease inhibitor suggested the diagnosis of lymphangiectasia. Full-thickness intestinal biopsies of the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum revealed dilated mucosal and submucosal lacteals without associated inflammation, confirming the diagnosis of primary lymphangiectasia. Currently, the dingo is being maintained with nutritional management.
Acquisition of a dense 3D model database for robotic vision

Service Robots in real world environments need to have computer vision capability for detecting a large class of objects. We discuss how freely available 3D model databases can be used to enable robots to know the appearance of a wide variety of objects in human environments with special application to our Assistive Kitchen. However, the open and free nature of such databases pose problems for example the presence of incorrectly annotated 3D models, or objects for which very few models exist online. We have previously proposed techniques to automatically select the useful models from the search result, and utilizing such models to perform simple manipulation tasks. Here, we build upon that work, to describe a technique based on Morphing to form new 3D models if we only have a few models corresponding to a label. However, morphing in computer graphics requires a human operator and is computationally burdensome, due to which we present our own automatic morphing technique. We also present a simple technique to speed the matching process of 3D models against real scenes using Visibility culling. This technique can potentially speed-up the matching process by 2–3 times while using less memory, if we have some prior information model and world pose.
Latent-variable decomposition based dereverberation of monaural and multi-channel signals

We present an algorithm to dereverberate single- and multi-channel audio recordings. The proposed algorithm models the magnitude spectrograms of clean audio signals as histograms drawn from a multinomial process. Spectrograms of reverberated signals are obtained as histograms of draws from the PDF of the sum of two random variables, one representing the spectrogram of clean speech and the second the frequency decomposition of the room response. The spectrogram of the clean signal is computed as a maximum-likelihood estimate from the spectrogram of reverberant speech using an EM algorithm. Experimental evaluations show that the proposed algorithm is able to greatly reduce the reverberation effects in even highly reverberant signals captured in auditoria and other open spaces.