Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mathematically inspired approaches to face recognition in uncontrolled conditions : super resolution and compressive sensing

Face recognition systems under uncontrolled conditions using surveillance cameras is becom-ing essential for establishing the identity of a person at a distance from the camera and providing safety and security against terrorist, attack, robbery and crime. Therefore, the performance of face recognition in low-resolution degraded images with low quality against im-ages with high quality/and of good resolution/size is considered the most challenging tasks and constitutes focus of this thesis. The work in this thesis is designed to further investigate these issues and the following being our main aim: “To investigate face identification from a distance and under uncontrolled conditions by pri-marily addressing the problem of low-resolution images using existing/modified mathemati-cally inspired super resolution schemes that are based on the emerging new paradigm of compressive sensing and non-adaptive dictionaries based super resolution. ” We shall firstly investigate and develop the compressive sensing (CS) based sparse represen-tation of a sample image to reconstruct a high-resolution image for face recognition, by tak-ing different approaches to constructing CS-compliant dictionaries such as Gaussian Random Matrix and Toeplitz Circular Random Matrix. In particular, our focus is on constructing CS non-adaptive dictionaries (independent of face image information), which contrasts with ex-isting image-learnt dictionaries, but satisfies some form of the Restricted Isometry Property (RIP) which is sufficient to comply with the CS theorem regarding the recovery of sparsely represented images. We shall demonstrate that the CS dictionary techniques for resolution enhancement tasks are able to develop scalable face recognition schemes under uncontrolled conditions and at a distance. Secondly, we shall clarify the comparisons of the strength of sufficient CS property for the various types of dictionaries and demonstrate that the image-learnt dictionary far from satisfies the RIP for compressive sensing. Thirdly, we propose dic-tionaries based on the high frequency coefficients of the training set and investigate the im-pact of using dictionaries on the space of feature vectors of the low-resolution image for face recognition when applied to the wavelet domain. Finally, we test the performance of the de-veloped schemes on CCTV images with unknown model of degradation, and show that these schemes significantly outperform existing techniques developed for such a challenging task. However, the performance is still not comparable to what could be achieved in controlled en-vironment, and hence we shall identify remaining challenges to be investigated in the future.
A systematic comparison of quantitative high-resolution DNA methylation analysis and methylation-specific PCR

Assessment of DNA methylation has become a critical factor for the identification, development and application of methylation based biomarkers. Here we describe a systematic comparison of a quantitative high-resolution mass spectrometry-based approach (MassARRAY), pyrosequencing and the broadly used methylation-specific PCR (MSP) technique analyzing clinically relevant epigenetically silenced genes in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). By MassARRAY and pyrosequencing, we identified significant DNA methylation differences at the ID4 gene promoter and in the 5′ region of members of the SFRP gene family in 62 AML patients compared with healthy controls. We found a good correlation between data obtained by MassARRAY and pyrosequencing (correlation coefficient R2 = 0.88). MSP-based assessment of the identical samples showed less pronounced differences between AML patients and controls. By direct comparison of MSP-derived and MassARRAY-based methylation data as well as pyrosequencing, we could determine overestimation of DNA methylation data by MSP. We found sequence-context dependent highly variable cut-off values of quantitative DNA methylation values serving as discriminator for the two MSP methylation categories. Moreover, good agreements between quantitative methods and MSP could not be achieved for all investigated loci. Significant correlation of the quantitative assessment but not of MSP-derived methylation data with clinically important characteristics in our patient cohort demonstrated clinical relevance of quantitative DNA methylation assessment. Taken together, while MSP is still the most commonly applied technique for DNA methylation assessment, our data highlight advantages of quantitative approaches for precise characterization and reliable biomarker use of aberrant DNA methylation in primary patient samples, particularly.
Low-cost simulator for basic radar signals

Most modern radar simulators are costly and need cumbersome operations while used. Besides, they have many features not suitable for preliminary level. Basic training of radio monitoring personnel can be carried out with a simple and inexpensive system capable of producing both staggered and frequency hopping pulse radar signals with radiation pattern modulation. For operator convenience the system is programmed with basic programming language. <<ETX>>
The estimation of intra-industry trade in South Africa

This article uses recently released data to analyse the nature of trade between South Africa and the world. Two variations of the Grubel-Lloyd index are calculated, and they reveal that South Africa has predictably low levels of intra-industry trade among the primary product chapters, as well as low overall levels of intra-industry trade. It is only in certain manufacturing chapters (eg clothing and textiles) that the level of intra-industry trade is generally higher. There is, however, a very definite upward trend in the overall level of intra-industry trade manifested at all levels.
Estimation of Iranian price elasticities of residential electricity demand

Article history: Received December 28, 2013 Received in revised format April 15 2014 Accepted April 18 2014 Available online April 23 2014 This paper presents a study to determine demand for electricity in city of Yazd, Iran over the period of 1998-2008. Using vector error correction model (VECM) based on seasonal information, the study determines that electricity has no elasticity in short term in household expenditure. Therefore, government policy on increasing price of electricity will not influence demand. However, electricity maintains elasticity over the long-term period and an increase on price of electricity could motivate consumers to reduce their consumption by purchasing energy efficient facilities. Therefore, any governmental strategy to increase price may have positive impact on economy. The study also detects a positive and meaningful relationship between temperature and electricity consumption. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
A Variance Spillover Analysis Without Covariances: What Do We Miss?

We evaluate the relevance of covariances in the transmission mechanism of variance spillovers across the US stock, US bond and gold markets from July 2003 to December 2012. For that purpose, we perform a comparative spillover analysis between a model that considers covariances and a model that considers only variances. Our results emphasise the importance of covariances. Including covariances leads to an overall increase of the spillover level and detects the beginnings of the financial crisis and of the US debt ceiling crisis earlier than the spillover measure that considers only variances. Even for the low-dimensional system that we consider, one misses important variance spillover channels when covariances are excluded.
Artesunate Tolerance in Transgenic Plasmodium falciparum Parasites Overexpressing a Tryptophan-Rich Protein

ABSTRACT Due to their rapid, potent action on young and mature intraerythrocytic stages, artemisinin derivatives are central to drug combination therapies for Plasmodium falciparum malaria. However, the evidence for emerging parasite resistance/tolerance to artemisinins in southeast Asia is of great concern. A better understanding of artemisinin-related drug activity and resistance mechanisms is urgently needed. A recent transcriptome study of parasites exposed to artesunate led us to identify a series of genes with modified levels of expression in the presence of the drug. The gene presenting the largest mRNA level increase, Pf10_0026 (PArt), encoding a hypothetical protein of unknown function, was chosen for further study. Immunodetection with PArt-specific sera showed that artesunate induced a dose-dependent increase of the protein level. Bioinformatic analysis showed that PArt belongs to a Plasmodium-specific gene family characterized by the presence of a tryptophan-rich domain with a novel hidden Markov model (HMM) profile. Gene disruption could not be achieved, suggesting an essential function. Transgenic parasites overexpressing PArt protein were generated and exhibited tolerance to a spike exposure to high doses of artesunate, with increased survival and reduced growth retardation compared to that of wild-type-treated controls. These data indicate the involvement of PArt in parasite defense mechanisms against artesunate. This is the first report of genetically manipulated parasites displaying a stable and reproducible decreased susceptibility to artesunate, providing new possibilities to investigate the parasite response to artemisinins.
Properties of promoter regions of mdg1 Drosophila retrotransposon indicate that it belongs to a specific class of promoters.

A sequence 30 bp downstream from the start site of the Drosophila melanogaster retrotransposon mdg1 is shown to be responsible for correct and precise initiation of mdg1 RNA synthesis in combination with the RNA start‐site sequence TCAGTT. A sequence‐specific DNA binding protein is demonstrated to interact with the +30 sequence, and the efficient binding of this factor is necessary for in vivo transcriptional activity of the plasmid constructs containing mdg1 promoter fragments. The nucleotides ‐8/+34 of mdg1 represent a minimal promoter which is able to provide correct initiation of transcription by RNA polymerase II at basal levels. A comparison with properties of some other retrotransposable elements and several developmentally regulated cellular genes allows us to conclude that together they form a specific class of RNA polymerase II promoter. This promoter class characteristically lacks upstream sequences necessary for transcription initiation, such as TATA boxes, but requires a specific downstream promoter element within 40 bp downstream of the RNA start site. The level of transcription can, however, be modulated by upstream regulatory elements. The identified sequence‐specific downstream initiation factor may be responsible for transcription initiation on promoters of some genes which belong to this class.
In Search of Efficient Flexibility: Effects of Software Component Granularity on Development Effort, Defects, and Customization Effort

Simultaneously achieving efficiency and flexibility in enterprise software production has been a considerable challenge for firms. Newer software development paradigms such as component-based and model-driven development attempt to overcome this challenge by emphasizing modular design of complex systems. However, there is a paucity of rigorous empirical research on the use of such software methodologies and the associated extent to which trade-offs between efficiency and flexibility can be influenced. Addressing this gap, we investigate the performance outcomes of a model-driven, component-based software development methodology using data collected from an enterprise software development firm that deployed such a methodology for its product development processes. Examining the design, development, and implementation of 92 business software components of the firm's enterprise resource planning product, we discuss how the design of software components, specifically component granularity, affects development.
DA-IICT Cross-lingual and Multilingual Corpora for Speaker Recognition

In this paper the design and development of the DA-IICT Cross-lingual and Multilingual Speech Corpora is presented which includes unconventional sounds like cough, whistle, whisper, frication, idiosyncrasies, etc. from bilingual subjects (i.e., who can speak Hindi and Indian English) and trilingual subjects (who can speak Hindi, Indian English and mother tongue) for the development of Automatic Speaker Recognition System. Thirteen Indian languages and the Nepali language are considered as the subjects’ mother tongue/native languages. Unconventional sounds are considered to examine how much speaker-specific information they carry. Finally, an ASR system based on spectral or cepstral features (i.e., LPC, LPCC, MFCC) and polynomial classifier of 2nd order approximation is presented to evaluate the developed corpora.
Power/Knowledge in the Governance of Natural Resources: A Case Study of Medicinal Plant Conservation in the Eastern Cape

This article explores the power/knowledge relations at the knowledge generating interface between a modern community development organisation and a traditional health practitioner community in a town in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, through the lens of Foucaldian governmentality. This case study is part of a broader study which explores power/knowledge relationships in the representation and application of indigenous knowledges in selected environmental education and community development contexts. This study traces the various loci of power/knowledge and their implications in a project focusing on the conservation of traditional medicinal plants in which the community development organisation and traditional health practitioner community were involved as key partners. The case study provides a micro-setting to analyse natural resource governance, which reveals how power located in modern institutions is reinforced by the generation and accumulation of disciplinary (scientific) knowledge as a hegemonic regime of truth that is applied in the governance of medicinal resources. It also reveals the location of power within the traditional healer community on the other hand and how this is maintained by the resilient cultural retention of medicinal knowledge and related practices within the community against a background of dominant Western medical practice.
Stress Perception in Public Organisations

Although stress has been a longstanding issue in organizations and management studies, it has never been studied in relation to Public Service Motivation. This article therefore aims to integrate PSM into the job demands–job resources model of stress to determine whether PSM might contribute to stress in public organizations. Drawing on original data from a questionnaire in a Swiss municipality, this study unsurprisingly shows that “red tape” is an antecedent of stress perception, whereas satisfaction with organizational support, positive feedback, and recognition significantly decrease the level of perceived stress. Astonishingly, the empirical results show that PSM is positively and significantly related to stress perception. By increasing individuals’ expectations toward their jobs, PSM might thus contribute to increased pressure on public agents. Ultimately, this article investigates the “dark side” of PSM, which has been neglected by the literature thus far.
The Electricity Contract Market in England and Wales

In England and Wales, wholesale electricity is sold in a spot market partly covered by long-term contracts which hedge the spot price. Two dominant conventional generators can raise spot prices well above marginal costs and this is profitable in the absence of contracts. If fully hedged, however, the generators lose their incentive to raise prices above marginal costs. Competition in the contract market could lead the generators to sell contracts for much of their output. Since privatization the generators have indeed covered most of their sales in the contract market. Copyright 1999 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Does location of vertebral deformity within the spine influence back pain and disability?

OBJECTIVE Vertebral deformity is associated with back pain and disability. The aim of this analysis was to determine whether location within the spine influences the strength of association between vertebral deformity, back pain and disability. METHODS Men and women aged 50 years and over were recruited from population registers in 30 European centres. Subjects were invited for an interviewer administered questionnaire, and for lateral spinal radiographs. The questionnaire included questions about back pain, general health and functional ability. The spinal radiographs were evaluated morphometrically and vertebral deformity defined according to the McCloskey-Kanis method. RESULTS 756 (11.7%) men and 885 (11.8%) women had evidence of one or more vertebral deformities. Among women with a single deformity, after adjusting for age and centre, those with a lumbar deformity were more likely than those with a thoracic deformity to report back pain, both currently (OR=1.4; 95% CI 1.0, 2.0) and in the past year (OR=1.5; 95% CI 1.0, 2.3). No association was observed in men. Among women with two deformities, those with adjacent deformities were more likely than those with non-adjacent deformities to report poor general health (OR=2.2; 95%CI 0.9, 5.6), impaired functional ability (OR=1.9; 95%CI 0.8, 4.7) and current back pain (OR=2.1; 95%CI 0.9, 4.9), though none of these associations were statistically significant. By contrast, among men, non-adjacent deformities were associated with impaired functional ability compared with those with adjacent deformities. CONCLUSION Location within the spine influences the strength of association between self reported health factors and vertebral deformity.
Image Noise Cancellation by Adaptive Filter with Weight-Training Mechanism (AFWTM)

In this paper, we proposed an adaptive filter with weight-training mechanism for image noise cancellation. The processing is divided into the weight-training phase and the block-adaptation phase. The weight-training phase finds a suitable weight matrix to be the initial one of the block-adaptation phase. Simulation results with the block sizes of 8 times 8, 16 times 16, and 32 times 32 verify that this approach perform well.
Mapping Human Settlements and Population at Country Scale From VHR Images

Accurate and topical spatial datasets representing human populations are foundational to solving humanitarian issues. This paper provides unique solutions to accurately map human settlements both at scale and across remote areas. A method of village boundary extraction from very high resolution optical satellite imagery is proposed. Furthermore, the supplement of a crowdsourced validation process to filter the detections for higher accuracy and the automated mosaic techniques are detailed. To demonstrate the computational and informational scalability of the process, four distinct geographic locations in Nigeria, Somalia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan were analyzed for a total processed area of 592 000 km$^2$, comprised of 1159 high-resolution DigitalGlobe images. The geographic variability of the locations and the scale of the projects required dynamic and automated solutions, respectively. The curated results exhibit high recall and precision of human settlement data in remote as well as urban areas. Crowdsourced validation allows complete control over the precision of the final village boundary layer, and given time, an effective 100% precision can be achieved. This highly scalable and precise system is perfectly adequate for processing regional and country-scale areas, with minimal human effort.
An empirical examination of both mediated and moderated effects on followers' commitment to change to the organisational BSC approach

Kaplan and Norton (2001) presented their Balanced Scorecard (BSC) for the measurement of corporate performance and the setting of measures for employees' performance and adaptation to fit into corporate dynamism. Studies show that when a leader is unable to raise his/her followers' level of commitment to change to the organisational BSC approach, the corporation will have difficulty in achieving its mission. The commitment to change to the BSC approach provides for long-run growth and healthy business performance. This study was designed to empirically examine the effect of both mediated and moderated relations for the transformational leadership process on the followers' level of commitment to change to the organisational BSC approach. The results of the findings indicated that: there was a positive association between the transformational leader's people-oriented behaviour and the followers' level of trust, but a negative relationship between the followers' level of trust and their commitment to change to the BSC approach; the level of trust mediated the association between the leader's transformational task- and people-oriented behaviour and the followers' level of commitment to change to the organisational BSC approach. The findings suggest that the followers' attitude towards the leader, such as their level of general satisfaction, should be identified as a moderating effect/contingency approach.
Context adaptive binary arithmetic coding-based data hiding in partially encrypted H.264/AVC videos

Abstract. A scheme of data hiding directly in a partially encrypted version of H.264/AVC videos is proposed which includes three parts, i.e., selective encryption, data embedding and data extraction. Selective encryption is performed on context adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC) bin-strings via stream ciphers. By careful selection of CABAC entropy coder syntax elements for selective encryption, the encrypted bitstream is format-compliant and has exactly the same bit rate. Then a data-hider embeds the additional data into partially encrypted H.264/AVC videos using a CABAC bin-string substitution technique without accessing the plaintext of the video content. Since bin-string substitution is carried out on those residual coefficients with approximately the same magnitude, the quality of the decrypted video is satisfactory. Video file size is strictly preserved even after data embedding. In order to adapt to different application scenarios, data extraction can be done either in the encrypted domain or in the decrypted domain. Experimental results have demonstrated the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed scheme.
In Vitro and In Vivo Trypanocidal Synergistic Activity of N-Butyl-1-(4-Dimethylamino)Phenyl-1,2,3,4-Tetrahydro-β-Carboline-3-Carboxamide Associated with Benznidazole

ABSTRACT American trypanosomiasis, or Chagas' disease, is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi and affects around 15 million people throughout the American continent. The available treatment is based on two nitroheterocyclic drugs, nifurtimox and benznidazole, both only partially effective and toxic. In this context, new drugs must be found. In our previous work, the tetrahydro-β-carboline compound N-butyl-1-(4-dimethylamino)phenyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-β-carboline-3-carboxamide, named C4, showed a potent in vitro trypanocidal effect. The goal of this study was to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo trypanocidal effects of the compound C4 associated with other drugs (benznidazole, ketoconazole, and amphotericin B). For this, we used the checkerboard technique to analyze the effect of combinations of C4 reference drugs. C4 was assayed in a murine model alone as well as in association with benznidazole. We also evaluated the parasitemia, mortality, weight, and presence of amastigote nests in cardiac tissue. A synergic effect of C4 plus benznidazole against epimastigote and trypomastigote forms was observed in vitro, and in the murine model, we observed a substantial reduction in parasitemia levels and lowered mortality rates. These findings encourage supplementary investigations of carboline compounds as potential new trypanocidal drugs.