Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Image matching between visually protected images with one-time key based phase scrambling

We propose an image matching method using one-time key based phase scrambling. The phase scrambling is used for protection of the original information of templates visually in order to secure privacy. In the proposed method, a key is used to scramble an image once, but the key is not required in the image matching. An appropriately determined key allows image matching for visually protected images without the key. In the previously proposed image matching technique, a key was required for both scrambling and image matching.
On the complementarity of short-time fourier analysis windows of different lengths for improved language recognition

Previous works have shown that remarkable performance improvements can be attained in speaker and language recognition tasks by combining several heterogeneous systems that provide complementary information. In this work, the complementarity of several i-vector language recognition systems, using Mel-Frequency Cepstral-Coefficient (MFCC) features computed on ShortTime Fourier Analysis windows of different sizes, is studied. Language recognition experiments carried out on the NIST 2007 and 2009 LRE datasets reveal relative performance gains of up to 33% when fusing the systems, with regard to the best single system. Results suggest that combining acoustic systems based on analysis windows of different sizes may allow to get advantage from both the sharper characterization of short events provided by short windows and the better frequency resolution of stationary events provided by long windows.
Max-margin latent feature relational models for entity-attribute networks

Link prediction is a fundamental task in statistical analysis of network data. Though much research has concentrated on predicting entity-entity relationships in homogeneous networks, it has attracted increasing attentions to predict relationships in heterogeneous networks, which consist of multiple types of nodes and relational links. Existing work on heterogeneous network link prediction mainly focuses on using input features that are explicitly extracted by humans. This paper presents an approach to automatically learn latent features from partially observed heterogeneous networks, with a particular focus on entity-attribute networks (EANs), and making predictions for unseen pairs. To make the latent features discriminative, we adopt the max-margin idea under the framework of maximum entropy discrimination (MED). Our maximum entropy discrimination joint relational model (MED-JRM) can jointly predict entity-entity relationships as well as the missing attributes of entities in EANs. Experimental results on several real networks demonstrate that our model has improved performance over state-of-the-art homogeneous and heterogeneous network link prediction algorithms.
A Mozart is not a Pavarotti: singers outperform instrumentalists on foreign accent imitation

Recent findings have shown that people with higher musical aptitude were also better in oral language imitation tasks. However, whether singing capacity and instrument playing contribute differently to the imitation of speech has been ignored so far. Research has just recently started to understand that instrumentalists develop quite distinct skills when compared to vocalists. In the same vein the role of the vocal motor system in language acquisition processes has poorly been investigated as most investigations (neurobiological and behavioral) favor to examine speech perception. We set out to test whether the vocal motor system can influence an ability to learn, produce and perceive new languages by contrasting instrumentalists and vocalists. Therefore, we investigated 96 participants, 27 instrumentalists, 33 vocalists and 36 non-musicians/non-singers. They were tested for their abilities to imitate foreign speech: unknown language (Hindi), second language (English) and their musical aptitude. Results revealed that both instrumentalists and vocalists have a higher ability to imitate unintelligible speech and foreign accents than non-musicians/non-singers. Within the musician group, vocalists outperformed instrumentalists significantly. Conclusion: First, adaptive plasticity for speech imitation is not reliant on audition alone but also on vocal-motor induced processes. Second, vocal flexibility of singers goes together with higher speech imitation aptitude. Third, vocal motor training, as of singers, may speed up foreign language acquisition processes.
A new IFNTSM controller design for the BWB aircraft with parameter uncertainties

Aiming at attitude control of the advanced Blendwing-body (BWB) layout aircraft with aerodynamic, center of gravity and inertial parameters' uncertainties, a new improved fast non-singular terminal sliding mode control (IFNTSM) method is proposed in this paper. Compared to the conventional terminal sliding mode (TSM) control method, IFNTSM guarantees to reach the equilibrium in an improved finite time for any initial state and also effectively deals with system uncertainties. Moreover, the proposed method addresses the singularity problem in the conventional TSM controller design. Simulation results verify the ability and effectiveness of the IFNTSM controller to improve the convergence rate and cope with strong uncertainties.
Long‐term observations of southern winters on Mars: Estimations of column thickness, mass, and volume density of the seasonal CO2 deposit from HEND/Odyssey data

[1] In this paper, we have analyzed neutron spectroscopy data gathered by the High Energy Neutron Detector (HEND) instrument on board Mars Odyssey for two Martian years of orbital mapping. We focused on the observations of the Martian southern seasonal cap for this period of time. Nuclear methods based on numerical modeling allow us to derive an estimation of the distribution of CO2 frost column density and mass from the temporal variations of neutron flux between summer and winter seasons. We have estimated the seasonal behavior of both the column density and mass of CO2 frost. Comparison between two Martian years revealed minor (<10%) interannual variations of CO2 thickness at the south pole during the middle of southern winter. It was found that maximal mass of the southern seasonal cap is achieved at Ls = 160° and is equal to 6.6 ± 0.6 × 1015 kg. We found that this result corresponds well with previous HEND results, NASA Ames GCM predictions, Gamma Ray Spectrometer estimates, and estimations from gravity models based on MGS and Mars Odyssey tracking data. In our analysis, we also compared to processed MOLA data (linear thicknesses of snow depths) to measure the value of the volume density of the Southern seasonal cap, and we found that it may vary in the range 400–1250 kg/m3.
A New Path to Construct Parametric Orientation Field: Sparse FOMFE Model and Compressed Sparse FOMFE Model

Orientation field, representing the fingerprint ridge structure direction, plays a crucial role in fingerprint-related image processing tasks. Orientation field is able to be constructed by either non-parametric or parametric methods. In this paper, the advantages and disadvantages regarding to the existing non-parametric and parametric approaches are briefly summarized. With the further investigation for constructing the orientation field by parametric technique, two new models - sparse FOMFE model and compressed sparse FOMFE model are introduced, based on the rapidly developing signal sparse representation and compressed sensing theories. The experiments on high-quality fingerprint image dataset (plain and rolled print) and poor-quality fingerprint image dataset (latent print) demonstrate their feasibilities to construct the orientation field in a sparse or even compressed sparse mode. The comparisons among the state-of-art orientation field modeling approaches show that the proposed two models have the potential availability in big data-oriented fingerprint indexing tasks.
Correlation of changes of (non)exfoliated endometrial organelles and expressions of Musashi-1 and β-catenin with endometriosis in menstrual period

Abstract This study aims to investigate the correlation of structural changes of endometrial organelles and expressions of Musashi-1 (Msi-1) and β-catenin with the endometriosis (EMs) in the menstrual period. The structural changes of exfoliated and nonexfoliated endometrial organelles in the experimental group and the control group were observed by the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) on the first and fifth day of menstruation. (1) TEM: compared with the control group, the exfoliated endometrial organelles in the experimental group on the first day were rich, with irregular nucleus, the bi-nucleolus could be seen, with rich chromatin; while the shapes of epithelial secretory cells in the nonexfoliated endometrial gland were irregular, with abundant organelles, the basal film varied in width, with abnormal curvature, and a lot of intercellular collagen fibers could be seen. (2) The expressions of Msi-1 and β-catenin in the exfoliated and nonexfoliated endometrium of the experimental group were higher than those of the control group and exhibited positively correlation, while no correlation could be found within the control group. (1) The organelles’ structural changes might cause the changes of endometrial cellular functions. (2) Msi-1 might participate in the formation of EMs through activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Chinese abstract 本研究旨在探讨月经期子宫内膜细胞器结构的变化与子宫内膜异位症（EMs）Musashi-1蛋白（Msi-1）和β-联蛋白表达的相关性。 我们在月经第1天和第5天通过透射电子显微镜（TEM）观察实验组和对照组脱落与非脱落子宫内膜细胞结构的变化。 （1）透射镜结果：与对照组相比，实验组月经第1天子宫内膜脱落细胞丰富，核型不规则，可见双核，染色质丰富；而非脱落子宫内膜腺体上皮细胞形态不规则，细胞器丰富，基底膜薄厚不一、可见异常弯曲和大量的细胞间胶原纤维。 （2）实验组脱落与非脱落子宫内膜Msi-1蛋白和β-联蛋白的表达明显高于对照组并显示正相关，而对照组中两者无相关性。 （1）细胞器结果的变化可能会引起子宫内膜功能的改变。 （2）Msi-1蛋白可能是通过激活Wnt/β-联蛋白信号通路参与子宫内膜异位症的形成。
Mechanism of the planetary Rossby wave energy amplification and transformation in the ionosphere with an inhomogeneous zonal smooth shear wind

[1] The generation and further dynamics of planetary magnetized Rossby waves and inertia waves are investigated in the rotating dissipative ionosphere in the presence of a smooth inhomogeneous zonal wind (shear flow). Magnetized Rossby waves appear as a result of the interaction of the medium with the spatially inhomogeneous geomagnetic field and are an ionospheric manifestation of usual tropospheric Rossby waves. An effective linear mechanism responsible for the intensification and mutual transformation of Rossby and inertia waves is found. For shear flows, the operators of the linear problem are not self-adjoint, and therefore the eigenfunctions of the problem maybe nonorthogonal and can hardly be studied by the canonical modal approach. Hence it becomes necessary to use the so-called nonmodal mathematical analysis which has been actively developed in recent years. The nonmodal approach shows that the transformation of wave disturbances in shear flows is due to the nonorthogonality of eigenfunctions of the problem in the conditions of linear dynamics. Thus there arises a new degree of freedom and a new way for the evolution of disturbances in the medium. Using numerical modeling, we illustrate the peculiar features of the interaction of waves with the background flow as well as the mutual transformation of wave disturbances in the D, E, and F regions of the ionosphere. It is established that the presence of a geomagnetic field, Hall and Pedersen currents in the ionospheric medium, improves the interaction and mutual energy exchange between waves and a shear flow.
Transmission Properties of a Qubit-Coupled-Two-Resonator System

We investigated the transmission properties of two coplanar waveguide resonators coupled with a flux qubit inductively. It is found that the transmission coefficients spectrum depends on not only the geometric resonator-resonator coupling constant, but also on the qubit-resonator coupling strength. Therefore, we can use the qubit to tune the coupling between the resonators in situ, realizing a quantum switch to generate entanglement of two resonators.
Aliasing Probability Calculations in Testing Sequential Circuits

This paper focuses on testing sequential circuits using a simple form of signature analysis as a compaction technique. More specifically, the paper describes a systematic methodology for calculating the probability of aliasing when a randomly generated test input vector sequence is applied to a given finite state machine (FSM) and the final FSM output is used to verify the functionality of the FSM. We also explore how the aliasing probability is affected when the output mapping (from the set of states to the set of outputs) of the FSM under test changes.
Improving tool support for Personal Task Management (PTM)

Personal Task Management (PTM) describes the planning, prioritising and list-making of tasks employed by an individual user. There are hundreds of commercial electronic PTM tools available on the market which users can choose from. There appears to be little attempt to develop a framework for describing people’s task management behaviour, making it difficult to determine the extent to which these tools meet users’ needs. The aims of this thesis were therefore to understand how academics manage their tasks, to identify the conceptual gaps between them and the existing electronic tools, and to establish requirements for guiding the design and evaluation of PTM tools. The research adopts a user-centred design methodology. This includes both empirical and analytical approaches, conducted through four different studies. Firstly, a semi-structured interview study develops a PTM framework, describing the components of PTM (i.e. the underlying activities and contextual factors). Secondly, a member-checking study tests the accuracy of the framework. Thirdly, a video-diary study examines the inconsistencies discovered between the interview and member-checking studies. The findings extend the PTM framework to include other aspects of users (e.g. challenges, context awareness, etc.), broadening the understanding of the complexity of PTM behaviours. The data gathered in the user studies was analysed using a grounded theory (GT) approach, and the findings were then used to build personas of academics. Finally, an in-depth expert analytical evaluation of a set of existing tools using CASSM identifies the conceptual misfits between users and the existing tools. The contributions of this thesis are a development of the PTM framework, describing the key factors that influence academics in managing their tasks; a development of personas, explaining characteristics of different groups of academics and PTM strategies that they employ over time; and an evaluation of existing PTM tools, determining their strengths and limitations and providing recommendations.
Pulse shape adaptivity in OFDM/OQAM systems

Adaptation is crucial to realise high data rate transmission in multicarrier communication systems over dispersive channels. Apart from rate/power adaptation enabled by orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), OFDM/offset QAM (OFDM/OQAM) systems provide possibility to adjust pulse shapes depending on the channel characteristics. In this paper we discuss and evaluate pulse shape adaptivity in OFDM/OQAM systems with focus on the extended Gaussian functions (EGF) which have been shown to be good candidates for pulse shape adaptation. By investigating the time frequency dispersion robustness and carrier frequency offset sensitivity, both analysis and simulation results show that pulse shape adaptation with respect to the channel state information can improve the system performance.
Abnormal glucose tolerance post-gestational diabetes mellitus as defined by the International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups criteria.

OBJECTIVE An increase in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) prevalence has been demonstrated across many countries with adoption of the International Association of the Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups (IADPSG) diagnostic criteria. Here, we determine the cumulative incidence of abnormal glucose tolerance among women with previous GDM, and identify clinical risk factors predicting this. DESIGN Two hundred and seventy women with previous IADPSG-defined GDM were prospectively followed up for 5years (mean 2.6) post-index pregnancy, and compared with 388 women with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) in pregnancy. METHODS Cumulative incidence of abnormal glucose tolerance (using American Diabetes Association criteria for impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance and diabetes) was determined using the Kaplan-Meier method of survival analysis. Cox regression models were constructed to test for factors predicting abnormal glucose tolerance. RESULTS Twenty-six percent of women with previous GDM had abnormal glucose tolerance vs 4% with NGT, with the log-rank test demonstrating significantly different survival curves (P<0.001). Women meeting IADPSG, but not the World Health Organization (WHO) 1999 criteria, had a lower cumulative incidence than women meeting both sets of criteria, both in the early post-partum period (4.2% vs 21.7%, P<0.001) and at longer-term follow-up (13.7% vs 32.6%, P<0.001). Predictive factors were glucose levels on the pregnancy oral glucose tolerance test, family history of diabetes, gestational week at testing, and BMI at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS The proportion of women developing abnormal glucose tolerance remains high among those with IADPSG-defined GDM. This demonstrates the need for continued close follow-up, although the optimal frequency and method needs further study.
X‐chromosome duplications in males with mental retardation: pathogenic or benign variants?

Gijsbers ACJ, den Hollander NS, Helderman‐van de Enden ATJM, Schuurs‐Hoeijmakers JHM, Vijfhuizen L, Bijlsma EK, van Haeringen A, Hansson KBM, Bakker E, Breuning MH, Ruivenkamp CAL. X‐chromosome duplications in males with mental retardation: pathogenic or benign variants?
Robust global motion estimation for video stabilization

Global motion estimation is an important task for video stabilization. Since the global motion is heavily related to the motion of the background (BG), the moving foreground (FG) objects can cause inaccurate global motion estimation. In this paper, we propose a robust global motion estimation method for video stabilization. The proposed method iteratively finds the feature points (FPs) in the BG and estimates the global motion using the BG FPs. The experimental results show that the proposed method can estimate the global motion even when the moving FG objects occupy a large part of image.
Intraseasonal Sea Surface Temperature Variability across the Indonesian Seas

AbstractSea surface temperature (SST) variability at intraseasonal time scales across the Indonesian Seas during January 1998–mid-2012 is examined. The intraseasonal variability is most energetic in the Banda and Timor Seas, with a standard deviation of 0.4°–0.5°C, representing 55%–60% of total nonseasonal SST variance. A slab ocean model demonstrates that intraseasonal air–sea heat flux variability, largely attributed to the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO), accounts for 69%–78% intraseasonal SST variability in the Banda and Timor Seas. While the slab ocean model accurately reproduces the observed intraseasonal SST variations during the northern winter months, it underestimates the summer variability. The authors posit that this is a consequence of a more vigorous cooling effect induced by ocean processes during the summer. Two strong MJO cycles occurred in late 2007–early 2008, and their imprints were clearly evident in the SST of the Banda and Timor Seas. The passive phase of the MJO [enhanced outgoing .
Acute hyperammonemic encephalopathy after fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy

Abstract Acute hyperammonemic encephalopathy induced by fluoropyrimidines (FPs) is a rare complication. Its pathophysiology remains unclear, especially given the currently used regimens, including intermediate-doses of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or oral FP agents. We aimed to characterize the clinical manifestations in cancer patients who developed hyperammonemic encephalopathy after receiving FP-based chemotherapy. We retrospectively reviewed 1786 patients with gastrointestinal or primary-unknown cancer who received FP-based regimens between 2007 and 2012. Eleven patients (0.6%) developed acute hyperammonemic encephalopathy. The incidence according to the administered anticancer drugs were as follows: 5-FU (8 of 1176, 0.7%), S-1 (1 of 679, 0.1%), capecitabine (2 of 225, 0.9%), and tegafur-uracil (UFT) (0 of 39, 0%). Ten patients (90.9%) had at least 1 aggravating factor, including infection, dehydration, constipation, renal dysfunction, and muscle loss. All the 10 patients met the definition of sarcopenia. Median time to the onset of hyperammonemic encephalopathy in the cycle was 3 days (range: 2–21). Three patients (27.3%) developed encephalopathy during the first cycle of the regimen and the remaining 8 patients during the second or more cycles. Seven patients (63.6%) had received at least 1 other FP-containing regimen before without episodes of encephalopathy. All patients recovered soon after immediate discontinuation of chemotherapy and supportive therapies, such as hydration, infusion of branched-chain amino acids, and oral lactulose intake, with a median time to recovery of 2 days (range: <1–7). Four patients (36.4%) received FP-based regimens after improvement of symptoms; 3 patients were successfully managed with dose reduction, and 1 patient, who had developed encephalopathy due to S-1 monotherapy, received modified FOLFOX-6 therapy without encephalopathy later. FP-associated acute hyperammonemic encephalopathy is extremely rare, but a possible event at any time and even during the administration of oral FP agents. Particular attention is warranted when giving FP-based therapy for patients with aggravating factors, such as sarcopenia. This complication can be properly managed with early detection.
Signal space alignment for asymmetric multi-pair two-way relay X channels

In this paper, we study the two-way relay channel (TWRC) with multi-user (MU), each of which exchanges information with its partners via a common access relay. All users are divided into two groups. Every user exchanges messages with each user in the other group. The two communication terminals use different modulation schemes. We term this system an asymmetric multi-pair two-way relay X channel (TWRXC), in which signal space alignment for network coding (SSA-NC) and network-coding-based interference nulling beamforming are employed. Considering modulation schemes of two communication terminals are different, we propose a novel reencode function at the relay and decoding rule at the user side to realize the reliable communication. The bit error rates (BERs) of the proposed system is derived. Monte Carlo simulations show that the proposed scheme can improve system performance significantly.
SYNTHESIS AND BIOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF HALOGEN SUBSTITUTED 1,4-NAPHTHOQUINONES AS POTENT ANTIFUNGAL AGENTS

A series of halogen containing 1,4-naphthoquinon derivatives (1-4,5a-f) were synthesized and studied for their antifungal activities against C. albicans ATCC10231, C. albicans 955, T. mentagrophytes and M. gypseum. The results indicate that compound 2-hydroxy-3-chloro-1,4-naphthoquinone (2), 2-(N-acetyl)- acetamido-3-chloro- 1,4-napthoquinone (3) and 2-(N-acetyl)-acetamido-3-chloro- 1,4- napthoquinone (4) have potent antifungal activity. Among these promising antifungal candidates, 2 and 4 showed better activity than that of clinically antifungal drug clotrimazole (MIC = 8 μg/ml) with MIC = 1 μg/ml and 4 μg/ml, respectively against C.albicans ATCC10231. Compound 2 also exhibited an extremely potent activity (MIC = 0.25 μg/ml) against C.albicans 955 strain compared with clotrimazole (MIC = 16 μg/ml). Structure and activity relationship (SAR) study demonstrated that replacing of 3-position in 1,4- naphthoquinon by a Cl group is essential for antifungal activity. Meanwhile, antifungal activity was decreased considerably when the hydrogen atom at position-2 in naphthoquinone structure were replaced by a bulky group (e.g. diacetyl of phenyl group).