Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Heart Rate Estimation from Phonocardiogram Signals Using Non-negative Matrix Factorization

Electrocardiogram (ECG) is classically considered for heart rate (HR) estimation. However in certain conditions, its use may be difficult and alternative techniques, such as phonocardiograhpy (PCG), are investigated. For PCG signals, in most studies, the challenge is to detect and annotate the heart sounds ${S_1}$ and ${S_2}$, which may become quasi-impossible in case of noise. In this paper, we present a novel approach of HR estimation from PCG signals based on non-negative matrix factorization (NMF), applied to the spectrogram of PCG, considered as a source-filter model. Compared to state of the art methods, specific considerations based on the signal properties have been included to ensure the reliability of the decomposition. HR estimations obtained from noise-free and noisy real PCG signals are evaluated by comparison to HR estimation from synchronous ECG.
Including Dialects and Language Varieties in Author Profiling

This paper presents a computational approach to author profiling taking gender and language variety into account. We apply an ensemble system with the output of multiple linear SVM classifiers trained on character and word $n$-grams. We evaluate the system using the dataset provided by the organizers of the 2017 PAN lab on author profiling. Our approach achieved 75% average accuracy on gender identification on tweets written in four languages and 97% accuracy on language variety identification for Portuguese.
Beyond Comprehension

When making decisions, people must frequently take into account numerical information, but not all individuals have the ability to understand and use numbers. Less numerate individuals comprehend less numerical information; but numeracy goes beyond comprehension, relating systematically to psychological mechanisms. In particular, greater numeracy has been associated with reduced susceptibility to framing effects, less influence of nonnumerical information such as mood states, and greater sensitivity to different levels of numerical risk. This greater number sensitivity has been linked with number-related affective reactions reported by the highly numerate. I briefly discuss methods to increase number use in decisions and policy implications of numeracy research.
An effective skeletal muscle prefractionation method to remove abundant structural proteins for optimized two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis

Proteomic analysis of biological samples in disease models or therapeutic intervention studies requires the ability to detect and identify biologically relevant proteins present in relatively low concentrations. The detection and analysis of these low‐level proteins is hindered by the presence of a few proteins that are expressed in relatively high concentrations. In the case of muscle tissue, highly abundant structural proteins, such as actin, myosin, and tropomyosin, compromise the detection and analysis of more biologically relevant proteins. We have developed a practical protocol which exploits high‐pH extraction to reduce or remove abundant structural proteins from skeletal muscle crude membrane preparations in a manner suitable for two dimensional gel electrophoresis. An initial whole‐cell muscle lysate is generated by homogenization of powdered tissue in Tris‐base. This lysate is subsequently partitioned into a supernatant and pellet containing the majority of structural proteins. Treatment of the pellet with high‐pH conditions effectively releases structural proteins from membrane compartments which are then removed through ultracentrifugation. Mass spectrometric identification shows that the majority of protein spots reduced or removed by high‐pH treatment were contractile proteins or contractile‐related proteins. Removal of these proteins enabled successful detection and identification of minor proteins. Structural protein removal also results in significant improvement of gel quality and the ability to load higher amounts of total protein for the detection of lower abundant protein classes.
SORLA-Mediated Trafficking of TrkB Enhances the Response of Neurons to BDNF

Stimulation of neurons with brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) results in robust induction of SORLA, an intracellular sorting receptor of the VPS10P domain receptor gene family. However, the relevance of SORLA for BDNF-induced neuronal responses has not previously been investigated. We now demonstrate that SORLA is a sorting factor for the tropomyosin-related kinase receptor B (TrkB) that facilitates trafficking of this BDNF receptor between synaptic plasma membranes, post-synaptic densities, and cell soma, a step critical for neuronal signal transduction. Loss of SORLA expression results in impaired neuritic transport of TrkB and in blunted response to BDNF in primary neurons; and it aggravates neuromotoric deficits caused by low BDNF activity in a mouse model of Huntington’s disease. Thus, our studies revealed a key role for SORLA in mediating BDNF trophic signaling by regulating the intracellular location of TrkB.
Constructing knowledge bases for e-learning using Protege 2000 and Web services

This paper presents an approach to designing and developing knowledge bases in e-learning systems. We explore the use of Protege 2000 as a knowledge editor for course material, with the addition of Web service interfaces on top of it to facilitate retrieval of the content. Protege 2000 provides an extensible infrastructure and allows the easy construction of domain ontologies, customized data entry forms, and provides an API that can easily be extended by Web services for the purpose of dynamic course material creation. The use of ontology and Web services makes the knowledge bases for e-learning sharable, reusable, and interoperable with other technologies, such as . Net, which have standard Web service implementations.
A Statistical Approach for Identifying Videos of Child Pornography at Crime Scenes

The identification of child pornographic files at crime scenes can take a pedophile to jail immediately. However, this type of live analysis is a difficult task, since a computer storage device can actually store millions of files. NuDetective Forensic Tool was developed for this purpose and provides satisfactory results in the identification of these files, especially images, through automatic nudity detection. However, this tool does not analyze video file content, which is a temporal media, requiring a more complex analysis. In literature, the main studies of automatic pornography detection in videos do not have the primary purpose of being quick, and are not focused in the detection of child pornography. This work presents a new strategy for automatic detection of child pornographic videos. The new approach uses nudity detection on extracted video frames and statistics to perform the automatic identification of these illegal videos. Experiments showed that our new approach is quick enough to be performed at crime scenes with detection rates around 85%, bringing new benefits for forensic examiners in the identification of child pornographic files.
Electrode dependence of resistive switching characteristics in copper (II) oxide memory devices

In this paper, resistive switching (RS) characteristics of copper (II) oxide (CuO) memory devices with top electrodes of Ag and Al were studied. When using Ag as the top electrode, a resistance switch of the CuO memory from a high-resistance state (HRS) to a low-resistance state (LRS), corresponding to a SET process, can be obtained. However, the SET process was voltage-polarity independent, and the resistance switch was irreversible. The HRS/LRS ratio observed in a single I–V curve was only ∼40. When using Al instead of a Ag electrode, the SET and RESET processes were stable in the negative and positive voltage regions, respectively. An enlarged resistive window of ∼103 was observed. In addition to an endurance test, data retention and read disturb tests at room temperature and at an elevated temperature of 85 °C were performed to examine the stability. The CuO RS layer was characterized by SEM, EDS, Raman, UV–vis, and XRD. The RS mechanisms were proposed and investigated by the electrical characteristics with different voltage sweeps and different measurement temperatures.
Arabidopsis thaliana RESISTANCE TO FUSARIUM OXYSPORUM 2 Implicates Tyrosine-Sulfated Peptide Signaling in Susceptibility and Resistance to Root Infection

In the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, multiple quantitative trait loci (QTLs), including RFO2, account for the strong resistance of accession Columbia-0 (Col-0) and relative susceptibility of Taynuilt-0 (Ty-0) to the vascular wilt fungus Fusarium oxysporum forma specialis matthioli. We find that RFO2 corresponds to diversity in receptor-like protein (RLP) genes. In Col-0, there is a tandem pair of RLP genes: RFO2/At1g17250 confers resistance while RLP2 does not. In Ty-0, the highly diverged RFO2 locus has one RLP gene conferring weaker resistance. While the endogenous RFO2 makes a modest contribution to resistance, transgenic RFO2 provides strong pathogen-specific resistance. The extracellular leucine-rich repeats (eLRRs) in RFO2 and RLP2 are interchangeable for resistance and remarkably similar to eLRRs in the receptor-like kinase PSY1R, which perceives tyrosine-sulfated peptide PSY1. Reduced infection in psy1r and mutants of related phytosulfokine (PSK) receptor genes PSKR1 and PSKR2 shows that tyrosine-sulfated peptide signaling promotes susceptibility. The related eLRRs in RFO2 and PSY1R are not interchangeable; and expression of the RLP nPcR, in which eLRRs in RFO2 are replaced with eLRRs in PSY1R, results in constitutive resistance. Counterintuitively, PSY1 signaling suppresses nPcR because psy1r nPcR is lethal. The fact that PSK signaling does not similarly affect nPcR argues that PSY1 signaling directly downregulates the expression of nPcR. Our results support a speculative but intriguing model to explain RFO2's role in resistance. We propose that F. oxysporum produces an effector that inhibits the normal negative feedback regulation of PSY1R, which stabilizes PSY1 signaling and induces susceptibility. However, RFO2, acting as a decoy receptor for PSY1R, is also stabilized by the effector and instead induces host immunity. Overall, the quantitative resistance of RFO2 is reminiscent of the better-studied monogenic resistance traits.
A prototype manipulation system for Mars rover science operations

This paper provides an overview of a new manipulation system developed for sampling and instrument placement from small autonomous mobile robots for Mars exploration. Selected out of the design space, two manipulators have been constructed and integrated into the Rocky 7 Mars rover prototype. This paper describes the design objectives and constraints for these manipulators, and presents the finished system and some results from its operation.
Synthesis of 18O-labeled RNA for application to kinetic studies and imaging

Radioisotopes and fluorescent compounds are frequently used for RNA labeling but are unsuitable for clinical studies of RNA drugs because of the risk from radiation exposure or the nonequivalence arising from covalently attached fluorophores. Here, we report a practical phosphoramidite solid-phase synthesis of 18O-labeled RNA that avoids these disadvantages, and we demonstrate its application to quantification and imaging. The synthesis involves the introduction of a nonbridging 18O atom into the phosphate group during the oxidation step of the synthetic cycle by using 18O water as the oxygen donor. The 18O label in the RNA was stable at pH 3–8.5, while the physicochemical and biological properties of labeled and unlabeled short interfering RNA were indistinguishable by circular dichroism, melting temperature and RNA-interference activity. The 18O/16O ratio as measured by isotope ratio mass spectrometry increased linearly with the concentration of 18O-labeled RNA, and this technique was used to determine the blood concentration of 18O-labeled RNA after administration to mice. 18O-labeled RNA transfected into human A549 cells was visualized by isotope microscopy. The RNA was observed in foci in the cytoplasm around the nucleus, presumably corresponding to endosomes. These methodologies may be useful for kinetic and cellular-localization studies of RNA in basic and pharmaceutical studies.
Draft Genome Sequence of Veillonella tobetsuensis ATCC BAA-2400T Isolated from Human Tongue Biofilm

ABSTRACT Here, we report the draft genome sequence of Veillonella tobetsuensis ATCC-BAA 2400T. This bacterium has the remarkable ability to form oral biofilms. The genome is predicted to encode the necessary enzymes involved in the pathway that facilitates the conversion of lactate to propionate.
Inclination Effects and Beaming in Black Hole X-Ray Binaries

We investigate the dependence of observational properties of black hole X-ray binaries on the inclination angle i of their orbits. We find the following: (1) Transient black hole binaries show no trend in their quiescent X-ray luminosities as a function of i, suggesting that the radiation is not significantly beamed. This is consistent with emission from an accretion disk. If the X-rays are from a jet, then the Lorentz factor γ of the jet is <1.24 at the 90% confidence level. (2) The X-ray binary 4U 1543-47 with i ~ 21° has a surprisingly strong fluorescent iron line in the high soft state. Quantifying an earlier argument by Park et al., we conclude that if the continuum X-ray emission in this source is from a jet, then γ < 1.04. (3) None of the known binaries has cos i < 0.25 or i > 75°. This fact, plus the lack of eclipses among the 20 black hole binaries in our sample, strongly suggests at the 99.5% confidence level that systems with large inclination angles are hidden from view. The obscuration could be the result of disk flaring, as suggested by Milgrom for neutron star X-ray binaries. (4) Transient black hole binaries with i ~ 70°-75° have significantly more complex X-ray light curves than systems with i ≲ 65°. This may be the result of variable obscuration and/or variable height above the disk of the radiating gas.
Cluster-Based Forwarding for Reliable End-to-End Delivery in Wireless Sensor Networks

Providing efficient and reliable communication in wireless sensor networks is a challenging problem. To recover from corrupted packets, previous approaches have tried to use retransmissions and FEC mechanisms. The energy efficiency of these mechanisms, however, is very sensitive to unreliable links. In this paper, we present cluster-based forwarding, where each node forms a cluster such that any node in the next-hop's cluster can take forwarding responsibility. This architecture, designed specifically for wireless sensor networks, achieves better energy-efficiency by reducing retransmissions. Cluster-based forwarding is not a routing protocol. Rather, it is designed as an extension layer that can augment existing routing protocols. Using simulations, we demonstrate that cluster-based forwarding is effective in improving both end-to-end energy efficiency and latency of current routing protocols.
Efficient Three-view Triangulation Based on 3D Optimization

Triangulation of a 3D point from two or more views can be solved in several ways depending on how perturbations in the image coordinates are dealt with. A common approach is optimal triangulation which minimizes the total L2 reprojection error in the images, corresponding to finding a maximum likelihood estimate of the 3D point assuming independent Gaussian noise in the image spaces. Computational approaches for optimal triangulation have been published for the stereo case and, recently, also for the three-view case. In short, they solve an independent optimization problem for each 3D point, using relatively complex computations such as finding roots of high order polynomials or matrix decompositions. This paper discuss three-view triangulation and reports the following results: (1) the 3D point can be computed as multi-linear mapping (tensor) applied on the homogeneous image coordinates, (2) the set of triangulation tensors forms a 7-dimensional space determined by the camera matrices, (3) given a set of corresponding 3D/2D calibration points, the 3D residual L1 errors can be optimized over the elements in the 7-dimensional space, (4) using the resulting tensor as initial value, the error can be further reduced by tuning the tensor in a two-step iterative process, (5) the 3D residual L1 error for a set of evaluation points which lie close to the calibration set is comparable to the three-view optimal method. In summary, three-view triangulation can be done by first performing an optimization of the triangulation tensor and once this is done, triangulation can be made with 3D residual error at the same level as the optimal method, but at a much lower computational cost. This makes the proposed method attractive for real-time three-view triangulation of large data sets provided that the necessary calibration process can be performed.
An optimization algorithm to design fast and robust analog controls for Buck converters

Ripple-based controls are popular to achieve a fast dynamic response, but the design of these controls assuring robustness is not easy due to its intrinsic nonlinear nature. These techniques often rely on sensing networks heavily dependent on parasitic elements to estimate the inductor current or the capacitor current. Consequently, a modeling technique that takes into account these sensors and parasitic elements is needed. This paper proposes an optimization algorithm to design a wide variety of controls that can take into account the parasitic elements and tolerances of the converter. The proposed algorithm can be used to design very fast controls that are also robust in a real-world implementation. This algorithm is verified on a 300kHz Buck converter with Voltage mode and a 1.3MHz Buck converter with V2Ic control.
Synoptic weather patterns and modification of the association between air pollution and human mortality

Abstract To assess whether meteorological conditions modify the relationship between short-term exposure to ambient air pollution and mortality, an examination of air pollution and human mortality associations (ecologic) using hybrid spatial synoptic classification procedures was conducted. Concentrations of air pollutants and human mortality from all non-accidental and cardiorespiratory causes were examined according to typical winter and summer synoptic climatologies in Toronto, Canada, between 1981 and 1999. Air masses were derived using a hybrid spatial synoptic classification procedure associating each day over the 19-year period with one of six different typical weather types, or a transition between two weather types. Generalized linear models (GLMs) were used to assess the risk of mortality from air pollution within specific air mass type subsets. Mortality follows a distinct seasonal pattern with a maximum in winter and a minimum in summer. Average air pollution concentrations were similar in both seasons with the exception of elevated sulfur dioxide levels in winter and elevated ozone levels in summer. Subtle changes in meteorological composition can alter the strength of pollutant associations with health outcomes, especially in the summer season. Although there does not appear to be any systematic patterning of modification, variation in pollutant concentrations seems dependent on the type of synoptic category present.
Unifying Adversarial Training Algorithms with Data Gradient Regularization

Many previous proposals for adversarial training of deep neural nets have included directly modifying the gradient, training on a mix of original and adversarial examples, using contractive penalties, and approximately optimizing constrained adversarial objective functions. In this article, we show that these proposals are actually all instances of optimizing a general, regularized objective we call DataGrad. Our proposed DataGrad framework, which can be viewed as a deep extension of the layerwise contractive autoencoder penalty, cleanly simplifies prior work and easily allows extensions such as adversarial training with multitask cues. In our experiments, we find that the deep gradient regularization of DataGrad (which also has L1 and L2 flavors of regularization) outperforms alternative forms of regularization, including classical L1, L2, and multitask, on both the original data set and adversarial sets. Furthermore, we find that combining multitask optimization with DataGrad adversarial training results in the most robust performance.
Fast Iris Localization Based on Image Algebra and Morphological Operations

The localization of the iris is the most significant factor in biometrics of the iris, which traditionally assumes strictly controlled environments. The proposed method includes the pupillary and limbic iris boundaries localization. A primary advantage of image arithmetic operations is that the process is straightforward and therefore fast, these characteristics are employed and combined with the morphological operators in the designing of the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm takes into account the noise area which is found in various parts of the eye image such as light reflections, focus, and small visible iris. The experimental results are conducted on a collection of iris images consist of 756 images belong to Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Automation (CASIA V-1) and 450 images belong to Multi Media University (MMU V-1) databases. The results indicate a high level of accuracy using the proposed technique. Moreover, the comparison results with the state-of-the-art iris localization algorithms expose considerable improvement in segmentation accuracy while being computationally more efficient.
sphalerite geobarometry in the Balmat-Edwards district , New yorkl

Sphaleri te-pyri te-pyrrhoti te barometry was undertaken in the Balmat-Edwards distr ict in the NW Adirondacks to determine the pressures in the metamorphosed ore body. Metamorphic temperatures were estimated at 625 t 25"C using calcite-dolomite thermometry. Sphaleri tes with extensive exsolut ion of chalcopyrite are very inhomogeneous, even within ten microns of the po + py + sp tr iple point, and have iron contents of 16-12 mole percent FeS, corresponding to 3-7 kbar (Scott, 1973). This local variat ion in pressure is unreasonable; either the system did not equi l ibrate during metamorphism, errat ical ly reequil ibrated afterwards, or exsolved chalcopyrite has variably affected the barometer. A few sphaleri tes without microscopic chalcopyrite blebs yielded consistent FeS contents of 13-12 mole percent where touching pyrrhoti te-pyri te and correspond to pressures of 6.5-7.5 kbar. These data and the presence of si l l imanite, indicative of pressures less than 6-6.5 kbar at 600-650.C, in the adjacent paragneisses uggest hat the Balmat distr ict was subject to a regional metamorphism of 6.5 a 0.5 kbar. Incautious application of the sphaleri te barometer based on a few samples or on heterogeneous materials can lead to large errors in est imated pressures.