Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An efficient self-learning people counting system

People counting is a challenging task and has attracted much attention in the area of video surveillance. In this paper, we present an efficient self-learning people counting system which can count the exact number of people in a region of interest. This system based on bag-of-features model can effectively detect the pedestrians some of which are usually treated as background because they are static or move slowly. The system can also select pedestrian and non-pedestrian samples automatically and update the classifier in real-time to make it more suitable for certain specific scene. Experimental results on a practical public dataset named CASIA Pedestrian Counting Dataset show that the proposed people counting system is robust and accurate.
Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Supplied by Highly Integrated Dual-Side Dual-Output Switched-Capacitor DC-DC Converter With Only Two Flying Capacitors

This paper proposes a highly integrated dual-side dual-output (DSDO) switched-capacitor (SC) converter with only two flying capacitors. Generally, a dual-phase voltage doubler and an inverter are used to supply positive and negative voltages for thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) gate drivers, respectively. Four flying capacitors, eight pin-outs for the four flying capacitors, and 16 power switches are necessary for their operations in the driver integrated chip (IC). The proposed DSDO SC converter combines both dual-phase voltage doubler and inverter converter in one channel through the use of time multiplexing technique with minimal performance degradation. As a result, the proposed converter not only reduces the number of flying capacitors from four to two, but also removes four IC pin-outs for lower cost and more compact size. Moreover, the 16 required power switches are reduced to 12, resulting in an approximated 27% decrease of the silicon area.
Skeletal myotube integration with planar microelectrode arrays in vitro for spatially selective recording and stimulation: A comparison of neuronal and myotube extracellular action potentials

Microelectrode array (MEA) technology holds tremendous potential in the fields of biodetection, lab‐on‐a‐chip applications, and tissue engineering by facilitating noninvasive electrical interaction with cells in vitro. To date, significant efforts at integrating the cellular component with this detection technology have worked exclusively with neurons or cardiac myocytes. We investigate the feasibility of using MEAs to record from skeletal myotubes derived from primary myoblasts as a way of introducing a third electrogenic cell type and expanding the potential end applications for MEA‐based biosensors. We find that the extracellular action potentials (EAPs) produced by spontaneously contractile myotubes have similar amplitudes to neuronal EAPs. It is possible to classify myotube EAPs by biological signal source using a shape‐based spike sorting process similar to that used to analyze neural spike trains. Successful spike‐sorting is indicated by a low within‐unit variability of myotube EAPs. Additionally, myotube activity can cause simultaneous activation of multiple electrodes, in a similar fashion to the activation of electrodes by networks of neurons. The existence of multiple electrode activation patterns indicates the presence of several large, independent myotubes. The ability to identify these patterns suggests that MEAs may provide an electrophysiological basis for examining the process by which myotube independence is maintained despite rapid myoblast fusion during differentiation. Finally, it is possible to use the underlying electrodes to selectively stimulate individual myotubes without stimulating others nearby. Potential uses of skeletal myotubes grown on MEA substrates include lab‐on‐a‐chip applications, tissue engineering, co‐cultures with motor neurons, and neural interfaces. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog. , 2011
The polysaccharide capsule of the pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans enlarges by distal growth and is rearranged during budding

The capsule of Cryptococcus neoformans can undergo dramatic enlargement, a phenomenon associated with virulence. A prior study that used Ab to the capsule as a marker for older capsular material concluded that capsule growth involved the intermixing of new and old capsular material with displacement of older capsular polysaccharide towards the surface. Here we have revisited that question using complement (C), which binds to capsular polysaccharide covalently, and cannot redistribute by dissociation and binding at different sites. The experimental approach involved binding of C to cells with small capsules, inducing capsule growth, and following the location of C relative to the cell wall as the capsule enlarged. C remained close to the cell wall during capsule growth, indicating that capsule enlargement occurred by addition of new polysaccharide near the capsule edge. This conclusion was confirmed by an independent method that employed radioactive metabolic labelling of newly synthesized capsule with 3H‐mannose followed by gradual capsular stripping with γ‐radiation. Capsule growth proceeded to a certain size, which was a function of cell size, and was not degraded when the cells were transferred to a non‐inducing medium. During budding, an opening appeared in the capsule of the mother cell that permitted the nascent bud to separate. Scanning EM suggested that a physical separation formed between the capsules of the mother and daughter cells during budding, which may avoid mixture between both capsules. Our results indicate that C. neoformans capsular enlargement also occurs by apical growth and that budding results in capsular rearrangements.
Extended-reach transmission of single-wavelength 112-Gbps PAM4 channel enabled by MLSE for intra data center applications

We experimentally demonstrate single-wavelength 56-GBd PAM4 transmission at 1550 nm, without chromatic dispersion compensation in the optical domain, focusing on short-reach intra data center applications. We obtained an extended-reach of 33% employing low-complexity digital equalizers and maximum likelihood sequence estimation, achieving error-free operation up to 4 km, considering 7% FEC-overhead.
Comparison of positive lymph node ratio with an inflammation‐based prognostic score in colorectal cancer

Two prognostic scoring systems have been proposed in colorectal cancer: the pathologically based positive lymph node ratio (pLNR) and the inflammation‐based modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (mGPS). This study compared these two scores with the tumour node metastasis (TNM) staging system in terms of cancer survival.
Effects of different warm-up periods on knee proprioception and balance in healthy young individuals.

CONTEXT There is limited information on the effects of different warm-up periods on proprioception and balance in the context of injury prevention. OBJECTIVE To determine the effects of warm-up exercises on knee proprioception and balance and to compare the effectiveness of warming up periods. DESIGN Pretest/posttest. SETTING Research laboratory. PARTICIPANTS 30 healthy subjects (19 women, 11 men; mean age 20.70 +/- 0.99 years). INTERVENTIONS Exercise groups performed warm-up exercises (group 1, 5 minutes; group 2, 10 minutes). Joint Position Sense (JPS) was tested at 15 degrees , 30 degrees , and 60 degrees knee flexion (KF) on a JPS device. Balance was measured using the Neurocom Balance Master System. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES JPS absolute error (AE) was measured at 15 degrees , 30 degrees , and 60 degrees KF and postural control was measured. RESULTS After exercise, we found significant improvements for AE of JPSs of 30 degrees right (R) KF, 15 degrees left (L) KF, and 60 degrees L KF in group 1. In group 2, AE of JPS values increased for all angles of both knees except 60 degrees R KF. AE of JPS values of 15 degrees R KF, 30 degrees R KF, 15 degrees L KF, 60 degrees L KF were significantly different in group 2 compared with group 1. In balance measurements, there were significant improvements for standing on foam with eyes closed (EC) position, velocity and R-L unilateral stance EC in group 1. There were significant improvements for velocity, end point, maximum excursion, and L unilateral stance EC in group 2. CONCLUSIONS Both warm-up periods have positive effects on knee proprioception and balance. The 10-minute warm-up exercise improved proprioception by a greater amount than the 5 minutes warm-up exercise.
Robust partial control design for non-linear control systems: a guidance application

In this paper, a general approach for robust partial stabilization of uncertain non-linear systems is presented. In this approach, the non-linear dynamic system is divided into two subsystems, called the first and the second subsystems. This division is done based on the required stability properties of the system’s states. The reduced input vector (the vector that includes components of the input vector appearing in the first subsystem) is designed to asymptotically stabilize the first subsystem. The proposed scheme is then applied for designing a guidance law as a potential application. Indeed, the paper presents a new approach to the missile guidance problem and shows that asymptotic stability behaviour is not realistic for all states of the guidance system. The effectiveness of the proposed guidance law in interception of manoeuvring targets is demonstrated analytically and through computer simulations.
Cascaded multilevel qZSI powered single-phase induction motor for water pump application

In this paper, Solar powered Single-Phase Capacitor Start Induction motor for water pump application is discussed. Output of solar panel is connected to quasi Z Source Inverter (qZSI). Three modules of qZSI are connected in cascade to give seven level output voltage. Single phase motor is powered with cascaded qZSI to obtain the improved performance due to multilevel inverter. As the power generated from PV system is highly variable due to its dependency on various parameters, qZSI with variable boosting is controlled for achieving the desired rms voltage. Voltage boosting feature of qZSI allows for reliable operation of Single Phase Induction motor. Closed loop control of virtual dc bus voltage is achieved. Simulation results showing the performance of single phase motor powered with cascaded qZSI for various load torque are shown and discussed. Model of Solar panel is used as input supply for qZSI. Experimental results for closed loop voltage control of multilevel qZSI for RL load are discussed. Future work includes the development of hardware setup for observation of Single phase capacitor start Induction motor when it powered with Cascaded multilevel qZSI.
Object appearance and picture-specific viewpoint are not integrated in long-term memory

Previous work has demonstrated that visual long-term memory (VLTM) stores detailed information about object appearance. The current experiments investigate whether object appearance information in VLTM is integrated within representations that contain picture-specific viewpoint information. In three experiments using both incidental and intentional encoding instructions, participants were unable to perform above chance on recognition tests that required recognizing the conjunction of object appearance and viewpoint information (Experiments 1a, 1b, 2, and 3). However, performance was better when object appearance information (Experiments 1a, 1b, and 2) or picture-specific viewpoint information (Experiment 3) alone was sufficient to succeed on the memory test. These results replicate previous work demonstrating good memory for object appearance and viewpoint. However the current results suggest that object appearance and viewpoint are not episodically integrated in VLTM.
Multi-agent based Modeling of the Tunisian Pastoral Dynamic - Multi-level Organization

Pastoral systems in arid and semi arid areas are characterized by a continued deterioration. This degradation is the result of the mismanagement of resources in response to natural, economic and social mutations. These systems are considered as complex systems, given the large number of stakeholders in interaction and levels of granularity. To address this situation, analytical and systemic approaches are no longer adequate. In this paper, we propose a multi-agent based model of Tunisian pastoral dynamics taking into account the interaction dynamics of the different stakeholders and the different levels of granularity. The completion of this work is within the scope of the development of the Intelligent Decision Support System PASDES (Pastoral Strategies Definition System). PASDES aims to support pastoral strategic decision making in short
Optimal circuit access policies in an ISDN environment: a Markov decision approach

The problem of determining optimal access policies for circuit-switched networks that support traffic types with varying bandwidth requirements is addressed. The authors suppose that the network supports K classes of calls where each class is determined by a fixed route and a bandwidth requirement. A Markov decision process (MDP) approach is used to obtain optimal access policies for three models: the flexible scheme access-port model where a single link is shared; the contiguous scheme access-port model where wideband calls are required to occupy specific contiguous regions of the TDM frame; and the network-access model where a call holds several channels in different links simultaneously. Both linear programming and value-iteration MDP algorithms are coupled with a novel state descriptor in order to locate the optimal policy for reasonable-size problems (several T1 carriers in parallel for the access-port case, and small networks of T1 carriers for the network-access case). >
Boolean Logic Operations and Computing Circuits Based on Memristors

This brief contributes to the design of computational and reconfigurable structures that exploit unique threshold-dependent switching response of single memristors and their compositions. A new logic circuit design paradigm, which assumes parallel processing of input signals, is proposed, along with a methodology for the construction of robust programmable composite memristive switches of variable precision. This methodology is applied to the design of memristive computing circuits. A SPICE simulation-based validation of the proposed circuits and systems is provided.
Face recognition in unconstrained environments

This paper proposes a novel face recognition system having good recognition performance through elaborate face region detection in unconstrained illumination environments. The proposed system consists of face and eyes detection, rotated-angle compensation, face region cropping, preprocessing, and classification modules as sequential steps. In particular, the elaborate face region is obtained from automatic face cropping procedure based on distance information between the eyes. The performance evaluation was carried out with various preprocessing images on the Yale B and the CMU-PIE databases. From the experimental results, we confirmed that the proposed method showed the best recognition accuracy compared to different approaches.
Hierarchical Clustering with Membrane Computing

In this paper we approach the problem of hierarchical clustering through membrane computing. A specific P system with external output is designed for each Boolean matrix associated with a finite set of individuals. The computation of the system allows us to obtain one of the possible classifications in a non-deterministic way. The amount of resources required in the construction is polynomial in the number of individuals and of characteristics analyzed.
Validity of the Self-administered Food Frequency Questionnaire Used in the 5-year Follow-up Survey for the JPHC Study to Assess Folate, Vitamin B6 and B12 Intake: Comparison with Dietary Records and Blood Level

To validate a self-administered food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) for the estimation of dietary intake of folate, vitamins B6 and B12, we compared measures of these vitamins by the FFQ and plasma concentrations among 87 male volunteers aged 40-69 years in the Japan Public Health Center-based prospective study (JPHC Study). No men used folate, vitamins B6 or B12 as supplements. There was a moderate association between energy-adjusted dietary intake and plasma concentration for folate and vitamin B6. The Spearman correlation coefficient was 0.26 and 0.23, respectively, in the total samples. These correlation coefficients were slightly higher when men in the Ishikawa PHC area were excluded from the analysis; the correlation coefficient was 0.29 for folate and 0.26 for vitamin B6. No significant correlation was found between dietary vitamin B12 intake and serum B12 concentration; the correlation coefficient was 0.06 in the total sample and 0.15 when the Ishikawa men were excluded from the analysis. In conclusion, we found that the FFQ used for the 5-year follow-up survey of JPHC Study could reasonably rank individuals by dietary intake of folate and vitamin B6, but not vitamin B12, among Japanese community-dwelling population samples.
Hypermethylation of the GABRE∼miR-452∼miR-224 Promoter in Prostate Cancer Predicts Biochemical Recurrence after Radical Prostatectomy

Purpose: Available tools for prostate cancer diagnosis and prognosis are suboptimal and novel biomarkers are urgently needed. Here, we investigated the regulation and biomarker potential of the GABRE∼miR-452∼miR-224 genomic locus. Experimental Design: GABRE/miR-452/miR-224 transcriptional expression was quantified in 80 nonmalignant and 281 prostate cancer tissue samples. GABRE∼miR-452∼miR-224 promoter methylation was determined by methylation-specific qPCR (MethyLight) in 35 nonmalignant, 293 prostate cancer [radical prostatectomy (RP) cohort 1] and 198 prostate cancer tissue samples (RP cohort 2). Diagnostic/prognostic biomarker potential of GABRE∼miR-452∼miR-224 methylation was evaluated by ROC, Kaplan–Meier, uni- and multivariate Cox regression analyses. Functional roles of miR-224 and miR-452 were investigated in PC3 and DU145 cells by viability, migration, and invasion assays and gene-set enrichment analysis (GSEA) of posttransfection transcriptional profiling data. Results: GABRE∼miR-452∼miR-224 was significantly downregulated in prostate cancer compared with nonmalignant prostate tissue and had highly cancer-specific aberrant promoter hypermethylation (AUC = 0.98). Functional studies and GSEA suggested that miR-224 and miR-452 inhibit proliferation, migration, and invasion of PC3 and DU145 cells by direct/indirect regulation of pathways related to the cell cycle and cellular adhesion and motility. Finally, in uni- and multivariate analyses, high GABRE∼miR-452∼miR-224 promoter methylation was significantly associated with biochemical recurrence in RP cohort 1, which was successfully validated in RP cohort 2. Conclusion: The GABRE∼miR-452∼miR-224 locus is downregulated and hypermethylated in prostate cancer and is a new promising epigenetic candidate biomarker for prostate cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Tumor-suppressive functions of the intronic miR-224 and miR-452 were demonstrated in two prostate cancer cell lines, suggesting that epigenetic silencing of GABRE∼miR-452∼miR-224 may be selected for in prostate cancer. Clin Cancer Res; 20(8); 2169–81. ©2014 AACR.
The tuberculin reaction in the pleural cavity and its suppression by antilymphocyte serum.

Abstract Tuberculin (PPD) injected into the pleural cavity of sensitized guinea-pigs results in the development of a large protein-rich effusion over a period of 24 hours. In the early stages the effusion contains large numbers of polymorphonuclear leucocytes, but later mononuclear cells (lymphocytes and monocytes) predominate. At 24 hours a small percentage of the lymphocytes have the character of lymphoid blast cells, while some of the monocytes contain phagocytosed polymorphonuclear cells or nuclear debris. A similar phenomenon can be elicited in mice sensitized with complete Freund's adjuvant. However, in these animals the volume of the effusion is small and difficult to measure accurately. The effusion in the guinea-pig is completely suppressed by antilymphocyte serum (ALS). This effect is relatively long lasting (compared with its transient action on a nonspecific inflammatory lesion due to turpentine) and recovery parallels the return of the tuberculin reaction in the skin—providing further confirmation that the effusion is due to delayed hypersensitivity. The tuberculin PPD reaction in the pleural cavity provides a useful model of delayed hypersensitivity in which exudate and viable inflammatory cells can be collected for study during the development of the lesion.
On-Wafer Optical Loss Measurements Using Ring Resonators With Integrated Sources and Detectors

We demonstrate for the first time a fully integrated test structure dedicated to on-wafer propagation loss measurement. An integrated light source is used in combination with a resonant cavity and a full absorbing detector. It is fabricated in a multi project wafer run in an InP based foundry process. The probing of the integrated light source and detector with electrical signals avoids the reproducibility issues and time-overhead associated with high-precision optical alignment. The measurement accuracy, estimated to be ~±0.2, the compact footprint (~1.5 mm2), and the simple and fast measurement procedure make this approach an ideal candidate for the future characterization of propagation losses in both research and manufacturing environments.
A force feedback algorithm for the wave-variable teleoperator with high stability

The transmission of wave variables rather than power variables in time-delay teleoperation system ensures system passivity - rendering the entire system stable, however the delayed force feedback will still lead to the unanticipated motion of master, which makes the system difficult to control and unstable. The aim of this work is to propose an force feedback algorithm, which is easy to implement, to depress unanticipated and disturbing motion. This algorithm would not affect passivity of the whole teleoperation system. The simulation experiments show that the teleoperation system with designed algorithm is stable and easy to be operated by human operator.