Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automatic Registration of Images With Inconsistent Content Through Line-Support Region Segmentation and Geometrical Outlier Removal

The implementation of automatic image registration is still difficult in various applications. In this paper, an automatic image registration approach through line-support region segmentation and geometrical outlier removal is proposed. This new approach is designed to address the problems associated with the registration of images with affine deformations and inconsistent content, such as remote sensing images with different spectral content or noise interference, or map images with inconsistent annotations. To begin with, line-support regions, namely a straight region whose points share roughly the same image gradient angle, are extracted to address the issues of inconsistent content existing in images. To alleviate the incompleteness of line segments, an iterative strategy with multi-resolution is employed to preserve global structures that are masked at full resolution by image details or noise. Then, geometrical outlier removal is developed to provide reliable feature point matching, which is based on affine-invariant geometrical classifications for corresponding matches initialized by scale invariant feature transform. The candidate outliers are selected by comparing the disparity of accumulated classifications among all matches, instead of conventional methods which only rely on local geometrical relations. Various image sets have been considered in this paper for the evaluation of the proposed approach, including aerial images with simulated affine deformations, remote sensing optical and synthetic aperture radar images taken at different situations (multispectral, multisensor, and multitemporal), and map images with inconsistent annotations. Experimental results demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method over the existing approaches for the whole data set.
Aurora kinase A promotes inflammation and tumorigenesis in mice and human gastric neoplasia.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Chronic inflammation contributes to the pathogenesis of gastric tumorigenesis. The aurora kinase A (AURKA) gene is frequently amplified and overexpressed in gastrointestinal cancers. We investigated the roles of AURKA in inflammation and gastric tumorigenesis. METHODS We used quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, luciferase reporter, immunoblot, co-immunoprecipitation, and in vitro kinase assays to analyze AGS and MKN28 gastric cancer cells. We also analyzed Tff1(-/-) mice, growth of tumor xenografts, and human tissues. RESULTS We correlated increased expression of AURKA with increased levels of tumor necrosis factor-α and inflammation in the gastric mucosa of Tff1(-/-) mice (r = 0.62; P = .0001). MLN8237, an investigational small-molecule selective inhibitor of AURKA, reduced nuclear staining of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) p65 in human gastric cancer samples and mouse epithelial cells, suppressed NF-κB reporter activity, and reduced expression of NF-κB target genes that regulate inflammation and cell survival. Inhibition of AURKA also reduced growth of xenograft tumors from human gastric cancer cells in mice and reversed the development of gastric tumors in Tff1(-/-) mice. AURKA was found to regulate NF-κB activity by binding directly and phosphorylating IκBα in cells. Premalignant and malignant lesions from the gastric mucosa of patients had increased levels of AURKA protein and nuclear NF-κB, compared with healthy gastric tissue. CONCLUSIONS In analyses of gastric cancer cell lines, human tissue samples, and mouse models, we found AURKA to be up-regulated during chronic inflammation to promote activation of NF-κB and tumorigenesis. AURKA inhibitors might be developed as therapeutic agents for gastric cancer.
Anytime Exploration for Multi-armed Bandits using Confidence Information

We introduce anytime Explore-m, a pure exploration problem for multi-armed bandits (MAB) that requires making a prediction of the top-m arms at every time step. Anytime Explore-m is more practical than fixed budget or fixed confidence formulations of the top-m problem, since many applications involve a finite, but unpredictable, budget. However, the development and analysis of anytime algorithms present many challenges. We propose AT-LUCB (AnyTime Lower and Upper Confidence Bound), the first nontrivial algorithm that provably solves anytime Explore-m. Our analysis shows that the sample complexity of AT-LUCB is competitive to anytime variants of existing algorithms. Moreover, our empirical evaluation on AT-LUCB shows that AT-LUCB performs as well as or better than state-of-the-art baseline methods for anytime Explore-m.
Glyphosate Use Predicts ADHD Hospital Discharges in the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Net (HCUPnet): A Two-Way Fixed-Effects Analysis

There has been considerable international study on the etiology of rising mental disorders, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in human populations. As glyphosate is the most commonly used herbicide in the world, we sought to test the hypothesis that glyphosate use in agriculture may be a contributing environmental factor to the rise of ADHD in human populations. State estimates for glyphosate use and nitrogen fertilizer use were obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). We queried the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project net (HCUPNET) for state-level hospitalization discharge data in all patients for all-listed ADHD from 2007 to 2010. We used rural-urban continuum codes from the USDA-Economic Research Service when exploring the effect of urbanization on the relationship between herbicide use and ADHD. Least squares dummy variable (LSDV) method and within method using two-way fixed effects was used to elucidate the relationship between glyphosate use and all-listed ADHD hospital discharges. We show that a one kilogram increase in glyphosate use, in particular, in one year significantly positively predicts state-level all-listed ADHD discharges, expressed as a percent of total mental disorders, the following year (coefficient = 5.54E-08, p<.01). A study on the effect of urbanization on the relationship between glyphosate and ADHD indicates that the relationship is marginally significantly positive after multiple comparison correction only in urban U.S. counties (p<.025). Furthermore, total glyphosate use is strongly positively associated with total farm use of nitrogen fertilizers from 1992 to 2006 (p<.001). We present evidence from the biomedical research literature of a plausible link among glyphosate, nitrogen dysbiosis and ADHD. Glyphosate use is a significant predictor of state hospitalizations for all-listed ADHD hospital discharges, with the effect concentrated in urban U.S. counties. This effect is seen even after controlling for individual state characteristics, strong correlations over time, and other significant associations with ADHD in the literature. We draw upon the econometric results to propose unique mechanisms, borrowing principles from soil and atmospheric sciences, for how glyphosate-based herbicides may be contributing to the rise of ADHD in all populations.
Secret Communication Over Broadcast Erasure Channels With State-Feedback

We consider a 1-to-K communication scenario, where a source transmits private messages to K receivers through a broadcast erasure channel, and the receivers feedback strictly, causally, and publicly their channel states after each transmission. We explore the achievable rate region when we require that the message to each receiver remains secret-in the information theoretical sense-from all the other receivers. We characterize the capacity of secure communication in all the cases where the capacity of the 1-to-K communication scenario without the requirement of security is known. As a special case, we characterize the secret-message capacity of a single receiver point-to-point erasure channel with public state-feedback in the presence of a passive eavesdropper. We find that in all the cases where we have an exact characterization, we can achieve the capacity using linear complexity two-phase schemes: in the first phase, we create appropriate secret keys, and in the second phase, we use them to encrypt each message. We find that the amount of key we need is smaller than the size of the message, and equal to the amount of encrypted message the potential eavesdroppers jointly collect. Moreover, we prove that a dishonest receiver that provides deceptive feedback cannot diminish the rate experienced by the honest receivers. We also develop a converse proof which reflects the two-phase structure of our achievability scheme. As a side result, our technique leads to a new outer bound proof for the nonsecure communication problem.
Speaker Transformation Using Quadratic Surface Interpolation

Speaker transformation is a technique that modifies a source speaker’s speech to be perceived as if a target speaker has spoken it. Compared to statistical techniques, warping function based transformation techniques require less training data and time. The objective of this paper is to investigate the transformation using quadratic surface interpolation. Source and target utterances were analyzed using harmonic plus noise model (HNM) and harmonic magnitudes were converted to line spectral frequencies (LSFs). Transformation function was found using LSFs of the time aligned source and target frames using dynamic time warping. The transformed LSFs were converted back to harmonic magnitudes for HNM synthesis. This method was able to transform speech with satisfactory quality. Further, the results were better if pitch frequency was included in the frame vectors.
Spontaneous hemolytic uremic syndrome triggered by complement factor H lacking surface recognition domains

Factor H (FH) is an abundant serum glycoprotein that regulates the alternative pathway of complement-preventing uncontrolled plasma C3 activation and nonspecific damage to host tissues. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS), and membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis type II (MPGN2) are associated with polymorphisms or mutations in the FH gene (Cfh), suggesting the existence of a genotype–phenotype relationship. Although AMD and MPGN2 share pathological similarities with the accumulation of complement-containing debris within the eye and kidney, respectively, aHUS is characterized by renal endothelial injury. This pathological distinction was reflected in our Cfh association analysis, which demonstrated that although AMD and MPGN2 share a Cfh at-risk haplotype, the haplotype for aHUS was unique. FH-deficient mice have uncontrolled plasma C3 activation and spontaneously develop MPGN2 but not aHUS. We show that these mice, transgenically expressing a mouse FH protein functionally equivalent to aHUS-associated human FH mutants, regulate C3 activation in plasma and spontaneously develop aHUS but not MPGN2. These animals represent the first model of aHUS and provide in vivo evidence that effective plasma C3 regulation and the defective control of complement activation on renal endothelium are the critical events in the molecular pathogenesis of FH-associated aHUS.
Nanoscale Accumulated Body Si nMOSFETs

Narrow- and short-channel inversion-mode nMOSFETs with an accumulated body are experimentally demonstrated down to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${W} \times {L} = \textsf {17}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-nm <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times37$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-nm scale. Accumulation of holes on the p-type body is achieved by applying a negative bias on an independently controlled p+ polysilicon side-gate structure surrounding the FET body. Affecting the channel from two sides, electrical characteristics of the transistor can be modified, especially the threshold voltage (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V} _{T}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>). <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V} _{T}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> sensitivity to the side-gate bias (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V} _{\textsf {side}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) shows a strong dependence on the device width for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${W} < \textsf {40}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> nm, exponentially increasing to above 1 V/V for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${W} = \textsf {17}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> nm. This sensitivity is significantly larger than what is predicted by 3-D Technology Computer Aided Design simulations. The devices exhibit very low leakage, good subthreshold slope, and improved drain-induced barrier lowering with the accumulation of the body.
Relative Importance of Coral Cover, Habitat Complexity and Diversity in Determining the Structure of Reef Fish Communities

The structure of coral reef habitat has a pronounced influence on the diversity, composition and abundance of reef-associated fishes. However, the particular features of the habitat that are most critical are not always known. Coral habitats can vary in many characteristics, notably live coral cover, topographic complexity and coral diversity, but the relative effects of these habitat characteristics are often not distinguished. Here, we investigate the strength of the relationships between these habitat features and local fish diversity, abundance and community structure in the lagoon of Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef. In a spatial comparison using sixty-six 2m2 quadrats, fish species richness, total abundance and community structure were examined in relation to a wide range of habitat variables, including topographic complexity, habitat diversity, coral diversity, coral species richness, hard coral cover, branching coral cover and the cover of corymbose corals. Fish species richness and total abundance were strongly associated with coral species richness and cover, but only weakly associated with topographic complexity. Regression tree analysis showed that coral species richness accounted for most of the variation in fish species richness (63.6%), while hard coral cover explained more variation in total fish abundance (17.4%), than any other variable. In contrast, topographic complexity accounted for little spatial variation in reef fish assemblages. In degrading coral reef environments, the potential effects of loss of coral cover and topographic complexity are often emphasized, but these findings suggest that reduced coral biodiversity may ultimately have an equal, or greater, impact on reef-associated fish communities.
Effects of Polishing Bur Application Force and Reuse on Sintered Zirconia Surface Topography.

OBJECTIVE Limited information is available on how to polish and finish zirconia surfaces following computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM), specifically, how differing application forces and reuse of zirconia polishing systems affect zirconia topography. PURPOSE To determine the effect of differing, clinically relevant, polishing application forces and multiple usages of polishing burs on the surface topography of CAD/CAM zirconia. METHODS One hundred twenty 220-grit carbide finished zirconia disks were sintered according to manufacturer's directions and divided into two groups for the study of two coarse polishing bur types. Each group was divided into subgroups for polishing (15,000 rpm) at 15 seconds for 1.0 N, 4.5 N, or 11 N of force using a purpose-built fixture. Subgroups were further divided to study the effects of polishing for the first, fifth, 15th, and 30th bur use, simulating clinical procedures. Unpolished surfaces served as a control group. Surfaces were imaged with noncontact optical profilometry (OP) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) to measure average roughness values (Ra). Polishing burs were optically examined for wear. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was performed on burs and zirconia surfaces. One-way ANOVA with post hoc Tukey HSD (honest significant difference) tests (α=0.05) were used for statistical analyses. RESULTS AFM and OP Ra values of all polished surfaces were significantly lower than those of the unpolished control. Different polishing forces and bur reuse showed no significant differences in AFM Ra. However, significant differences in OP Ra were found due to differing application forces and bur reuse between the first and subsequent uses. SEM and optical micrographs revealed notable bur wear, increasing with increasing reuse. SEM and AFM micrographs clearly showed polished, periodic zirconia surfaces. Nanoscale topography, as analyzed with kurtosis and average groove depth, was found dependent on the specific polishing bur type. CONCLUSIONS These in vitro results suggest changes in OP Ra due to bur reuse and polishing application force. Within the parameters of this study, the resultant topography of zirconia polishing is force-dependent and the reuse of coarse polishing burs is possible without statistically significant differences in Ra values after initial use. Nanoscale and microscale topography were shown to depend on specific polishing bur type.
Molecular phylogeny of the marine dinoflagellate genus Heterodinium (Dinophyceae)

The dinoflagellate genus Heterodinium has unusual morphological characters such as a mid-ventral intercalary plate with a pore, a small plate in the left side of the dorsal epitheca, three antapical plates, and a well-developed anterior cingular list. We obtained the first SSU rDNA sequences from single cells of six species of Heterodinium from Mediterranean coastal and open waters. They included the type species H. scrippsii and H. rigdeniae and representatives of the other subgenera, Sphaerodinium (H. doma, H. milneri, H. globosum) and Platydinium (H. pavillardii). SSU rDNA phylogeny showed that Heterodinium spp. formed a well-supported monophyletic group (100% bootstrap support) composed of two subclades: one comprising H. doma, H. pavillardii, H. globosum and H. rigdeniae, and another comprising H. milneri and H. scrippsii. This whole heterodiniacean clade branched among the poorly resolved short-branching sequences of the lineage comprising groups of Gymnodiniales, Peridiniales, Dinophysales and Prorocentrales. The current classification into subgenera, and even into morphological groups, is not supported by the molecular data. In contrast to previous classifications, our SSU rDNA phylogeny suggests that the genus Heterodinium is divergent from the clade of Gonyaulacales. Accordingly, the supposed homology of pores and plate patterns of Heterodinium and gonyaulacoids may require revision. In Heterodinium, the first antapical and postcingular plates may be interpreted as sulcal plates, suggesting a more typical hypothecal tabulation (5′′′, 2′′′′). Our new data and analysis indicate that the systematic position of Heterodinium is uncertain at present.
Energy Efficient Downlink Transmission Schemes for Multi-Cell Massive Distributed Antenna Systems

In this paper, downlink transmission schemes that are able to improve the energy efficiency of multi-cell massive distributed antenna systems (DAS) are investigated. We employ a power consumption model by considering the transmit power, the backhaul power, the uplink pilot transmit power and the circuit power, in contrast to existing works which focus on co-located antenna systems where the backhaul power is negligible. By applying random matrix theory and given the power consumption model, we derive the asymptotic energy efficiency achieved by two transmission schemes, first a full transmission scheme where all remote radio heads (RRHs) in a cell jointly transmit, and second single-RRH user association transmission scheme where each user is associated with only one RRH. A new algorithm to associate user with RRH is proposed based on the asymptotic energy efficiency. The proposed algorithm takes into consideration the power attached to antennas as well as the backhauling power of RRH. Simulations show that the proposed user association algorithm for DAS achieves higher energy efficiency than full transmission scheme and the baseline nearest RRH association scheme, especially when the number of antennas is large.
Supply Chain Object Discovery with Semantic-enhanced Blockchain

Supply chains can be seen as cyber-physical networks grounded on object identification and tracking. Conventional trust models featuring centralized information management architectures and simplistic things classification lend two of the most relevant limitations to current solutions. Blockchain introduces novel and a valuable trust approaches while semantic technologies better permit a things description. This paper introduces a semantic-enhanced blockchain platform allowing a flexible object discovery. It is based on validation by consensus of smart contracts and adopt a semantic matchmaking between queries and object annotations expressed w.r. t. ontology models. Early experiments assess the good behaviour of the proposed framework.
Correction: Talin tension sensor reveals novel features of focal adhesion force transmission and mechanosensitivity

In the original version of this article, the Discussion included the following text: While this manuscript was in revision, Austen et al. (2015) described an alternative talin-TS based on folded peptide hairpins that denature at forces in the 7–11-pN range. Although most of their results are consistent with ours, they found that a significant fraction of their 11-pN sensor was open in FAs, suggesting higher force. The hairpin, however, as expected for a folded domain, showed hysteresis when stretched in vitro; thus, it requires relatively high force to open but then can be maintained in the open state under lower tension. This sensor thus will report values that are biased toward the maximal forces, whereas the flagelliform spring is reversible and so should report mean tension. Analysis of forces on immobilized RGD peptides using folded domains or DNA hairpins also support the idea that peak forces can be high (Wang and Ha, 2013; Zhang et al., 2014; Galior et al., 2016), but these results cannot be interpreted as mean forces.
STPP: Spatial-Temporal Phase Profiling-Based Method for Relative RFID Tag Localization

Many object localization applications need the relative locations of a set of objects as oppose to their absolute locations. Although many schemes for object localization using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags have been proposed, they mostly focus on absolute object localization and are not suitable for relative object localization because of large error margins and the special hardware that they require. In this paper, we propose an approach called spatial-temporal phase profiling (STPP) to RFID-based relative object localization. The basic idea of STPP is that by moving a reader over a set of tags during which the reader continuously interrogating the tags, for each tag, the reader obtains a sequence of RF phase values, which we call a phase profile, from the tag’s responses over time. By analyzing the spatial-temporal dynamics in the phase profiles, STPP can calculate the spatial ordering among the tags. In comparison with prior absolute object localization schemes, STPP requires neither dedicated infrastructure nor special hardware. We implemented STPP and evaluated its performance in two real-world applications: locating misplaced books in a library and determining the baggage order in an airport. The experimental results show that STPP achieves about 84% ordering accuracy for misplaced books and 95% ordering accuracy for baggage handling. We further leverage the controllable reader antenna and upgrade STPP to infer the spacing between each pair of tags. The result shows that STPP could achieve promising performance on distance ranging.