Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cloning and Expression Analysis of MEP Pathway Enzyme-encoding Genes in Osmanthus fragrans

The 2-C-methyl-d-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway is responsible for the biosynthesis of many crucial secondary metabolites, such as carotenoids, monoterpenes, plastoquinone, and tocopherols. In this study, we isolated and identified 10 MEP pathway genes in the important aromatic plant sweet osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans). Multiple sequence alignments revealed that 10 MEP pathway genes shared high identities with other reported proteins. The genes showed distinctive expression profiles in various tissues, or at different flower stages and diel time points. The qRT-PCR results demonstrated that these genes were highly expressed in inflorescences, which suggested a tissue-specific transcript pattern. Our results also showed that OfDXS1, OfDXS2, and OfHDR1 had a clear diurnal oscillation pattern. The isolation and expression analysis provides a strong foundation for further research on the MEP pathway involved in gene function and molecular evolution, and improves our understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying this pathway in plants.
Recognition of Human Iris Patterns for Biometric Identification

A biometric system provides automatic identification of an individual based on a unique feature or characteristic possessed by the individual. Iris recognition is regarded as the most reliable and accurate biometric identification system available. Most commercial iris recognition systems use patented algorithms developed by Daugman, and these algorithms are able to produce perfect recognition rates. However, published results have usually been produced under favourable conditions, and there have been no independent trials of the technology. The work presented in this thesis involved developing an ‘open-source’ iris recognition system in order to verify both the uniqueness of the human iris and also its performance as a biometric. For determining the recognition performance of the system two databases of digitised greyscale eye images were used. The iris recognition system consists of an automatic segmentation system that is based on the Hough transform, and is able to localise the circular iris and pupil region, occluding eyelids and eyelashes, and reflections. The extracted iris region was then normalised into a rectangular block with constant dimensions to account for imaging inconsistencies. Finally, the phase data from 1D Log-Gabor filters was extracted and quantised to four levels to encode the unique pattern of the iris into a bit-wise biometric template. The Hamming distance was employed for classification of iris templates, and two templates were found to match if a test of statistical independence was failed. The system performed with perfect recognition on a set of 75 eye images; however, tests on another set of 624 images resulted in false accept and false reject rates of 0.005% and 0.238% respectively. Therefore, iris recognition is shown to be a reliable and accurate biometric technology.
Energy-rate based MAC protocol for wireless sensor networks and key pre-distribution schemes

Sensor networks are typically unattended because of their deployment in hazardous, hostile or remote environments. This makes the problem of conserving energy at individual sensor nodes challenging. S-MAC and PAMAS are two MAC protocols which periodically put nodes (selected at random) to sleep in order to achieve energy savings. Unlike these protocols, we propose an approach in which node duty cycles (i.e sleep and wake schedules) are based on their criticality. A distributed algorithm is used to (cid:12)nd sets of winners and losers, who are then assigned appropriate slots in our TDMA based MAC protocol. We introduce the concept of energy-criticality of a sensor node as a function of energies and tra(cid:14)c rates. Our protocol makes more critical nodes sleep longer, thereby balancing the energy consumption. Security in sensor networks is more
2011the International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection a Novel Fault Locator for Power Distribution System with Neutral Non-effectively Grounded

Fault locator for power distribution system with neutral non-effectively grounded should locate phase-to-phase fault and single-phase-to-ground fault respectively. For phase-to-phase fault, the point can be located by power-frequency impedance. However, for single-phase-to-ground fault with limited power-frequency current not more than load current, a novel fault location technology should be developed. The paper will present a practical single-phase-to-ground fault location based on fault generated traveling waves acquired from one phase current transducer and zero sequence current transducer at first. Then implementation of the novel fault locator is proposed including hardware design and software flowchart. At last field tests will be made to verify the feasibility of the fault locator.
Conceptions of Immigrant Integration and Racism Among Social Workers in Sweden

ABSTRACT Drawing on 22 qualitative interviews with social workers in Sweden, this article analyzes how social workers conceive immigrant integration and racism and tackle racism within their institutions and the wider Swedish society. The majority of the white social workers framed integration in relation to cultural differences and denied or minimized the role of racism in structuring their services and the ethnic relations in Sweden. In contrast, social workers with immigrant backgrounds were less compromising in discussing racism and assumed it as a problem both for themselves as institutional actors and as immigrants in everyday life and institutional settings. Social institutions in Sweden have been important actors in endorsing equality and accommodating differences. However, it is of paramount importance for social justice-minded social workers to identify and unsettle those structures and discourses that enable racist and discriminatory policies and practices against those groups who are not viewed as “core” members of the Swedish society. The absence of anti-racist social work within Swedish social work is primarily related to the idea of color-blind welfare universalism that is assumed to transcend the particularity of the needs, experiences, and perspectives of different groups in Sweden. While integration is envisioned and framed as a political project of inclusion of non-white immigrants, it tends to become a political device through which hierarchies of belonging are constructed. Following such conception of integration, cultural/religious differences and equality are framed as conflicting where cultural conformity underpinned by assimilationist discourses becomes a requirement for political, social, and economic equality.
The Queensland Cloud Seeding Research Program

As a response to extreme water shortages in southeast Queensland, Australia, brought about by reduced rainfall and increasing population, the Queensland government decided to explore the potential for cloud seeding to enhance rainfall. The Queensland Cloud Seeding Research Program (QCSRP) was conducted in the southeast Queensland region near Brisbane during the 2008/09 wet seasons. In addition to conducting an initial exploratory, randomized (statistical) cloud seeding study, multiparameter radar measurements and in situ aircraft microphysical data were collected. This comprehensive set of observational platforms was designed to improve the physical understanding of the effects of both ambient aerosols and seeding material on precipitation formation in southeast Queensland clouds. This focus on gaining physical understanding, along with the unique combination of modern observational platforms utilized in the program, set it apart from previous cloud seeding research programs. The overarching goals of the .
Indian sign language translator using gesture recognition algorithm

Sign Language is a natural language which deaf community uses for communication. Sign Language (SL) is a subset of gestures or signs made with fingers, hands, arms, eyes, and head, face etc. Each gesture in SL has a meaning assigned to it. Understanding SL is nothing but understanding the meaning of these gestures. There exists a problem in communication when a person who completely relies on this gestural SL for communication tries to converse with a person who does not understand the SL. Every country has its own developed SL. In India, this language is called as "Indian Sign Language (ISL). This paper aims to develop an algorithm that will translate the ISL into English. This paper has implemented a system named as "Indian Sign Language (ISL) Translator using Gesture recognition algorithm". The system translates gestures made in ISL into English. The gestures that have been translated include numbers, alphabets and few phrases. The algorithm first performs data acquisition, then the pre-processing of gestures is performed to track hand movement using a combinational algorithm, and recognition is done using template matching. The database used for implementation has been self-created and includes total 130,000 videos; out of which 72,000 videos were used to create the system database and remaining 58,000 videos have been tested for checking the performance of the system. The accuracy of this system is as high as 97.5%.
INTERACTION BETWEEN RESISTANCE TRAINING AND FLEXIBILITY TRAINING IN HEALTHY YOUNG ADULTS

To test the hypothesis that increases in muscle strength and flexibility are developed by specific training programs, 43 healthy young adults were tested before and after 4 different interventions conducted twice a week for 12 weeks: (a) resistance training only (n = 13); (b) flexibility training only (n = 11); (c) resistance and flexibility training (n = 9); and (d) no intervention (n = 10). There was no change in either strength or flexibility in the control group (p > 0.05). Resistance training improved muscle strength either alone (114%; effect size = 0.53; p < 0.001) or in combination with flexibility training (116%; effect size = 0.66; p = 0.032), but did not change flexibility (p = 0.610). Flexibility increased with specific training alone (133%; p < 0.001) or in combination with resistance training (118%; p < 0.001). In conclusion, in young, healthy subjects, resistance training alone did not increase flexibility, but resistance training did not interfere with the increase in joint range of motion during flexibility training. These results support the concept that specific training should be employed in order to increase either muscle strength or flexibility.
Compton effect in dielectric medium

We determine the Compton effect from the Volkov solution of the Dirac equation for a process in medium with the index of refraction n. Volkov solution involves the mass shift, or, the mass renormalization of an electron. We determine the modified Compton formula for the considered physical situation. The index of refraction causes that the wave lengths of the scattered photons are shorter for some angles than the wave lengths of the original photons. This is anomalous Compton effect. Since the wave length shift for the visible light is only 0,01 percent, it means that the Compton effect for the visible light in the dielectric medium needs experimental virtuosity.
Psychology-based agent architecture for whole-of-user interface to the web

This paper argues that the user interface of a workstation connected continuously (24x7) to a network would be most effective with a sophisticated agent architecture embedded deep in the workstation system software. In the user’s absence an embedded agent system could act as something more than a proxy for the user, the multiple sub-agents within it should act in concert as a Digital Self, one representing and empowering the user. Our proposed agent architecture, called Shadowboard, is based on a sophisticated model of the user drawn from the Psychology of Subselves, a modern stream of Analytical Psychology.
High-Accuracy Subpixel Image Registration Based on Phase-Only Correlation

SUMMARY This paper presents a high-accuracy image reg- istration technique using a Phase-Only Correlation (POC) function. Conventional techniques of phase-based image registration employ heuristic methods in estimating the location of the correlation peak, which corresponds to image displacement. This paper proposes a technique to improve registration performance by ﬁtting the closed-form analytical model of the correlation peak to actual two-dimensional numerical data. This method can also be extended to a spectrum weighting POC technique, where we modify cross-phase spectrum with some weighting functions to enhance registration accuracy. The proposed method makes pos- sible to estimate image displacements with 1/100-pixel accuracy.
Genome-Wide Association Study in East Asians Identifies Novel Susceptibility Loci for Breast Cancer

Genetic factors play an important role in the etiology of both sporadic and familial breast cancer. We aimed to discover novel genetic susceptibility loci for breast cancer. We conducted a four-stage genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 19,091 cases and 20,606 controls of East-Asian descent including Chinese, Korean, and Japanese women. After analyzing 690,947 SNPs in 2,918 cases and 2,324 controls, we evaluated 5,365 SNPs for replication in 3,972 cases and 3,852 controls. Ninety-four SNPs were further evaluated in 5,203 cases and 5,138 controls, and finally the top 22 SNPs were investigated in up to 17,423 additional subjects (7,489 cases and 9,934 controls). SNP rs9485372, near the TGF-β activated kinase (TAB2) gene in chromosome 6q25.1, showed a consistent association with breast cancer risk across all four stages, with a P-value of 3.8×10−12 in the combined analysis of all samples. Adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) were 0.89 (0.85–0.94) and 0.80 (0.75–0.86) for the A/G and A/A genotypes, respectively, compared with the genotype G/G. SNP rs9383951 (P = 1.9×10−6 from the combined analysis of all samples), located in intron 5 of the ESR1 gene, and SNP rs7107217 (P = 4.6×10−7), located at 11q24.3, also showed a consistent association in each of the four stages. This study provides strong evidence for a novel breast cancer susceptibility locus represented by rs9485372, near the TAB2 gene (6q25.1), and identifies two possible susceptibility loci located in the ESR1 gene and 11q24.3, respectively.
Image Denoising Using A New Hybrid Neuro-Fuzzy Filtering Technique

:- Digital images are often contaminated by impulse noise during image acquisition and/or transmission over communication channel. A new Hybrid Neuro-Fuzzy (HNF) filter for restoring digital images corrupted by impulse noise is proposed in this paper. The proposed filter is a hybrid filter obtained by aptly combining a Nonlinear Filter (NF), Canny Edge Detector (CED) and an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). The internal parameters of the neuro-fuzzy network are adaptively optimized by training of well known images. The most distinctive feature of the proposed filter offers excellent line, edge, and fine detail preservation performance and also effectively removes impulse noise from the image. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed hybrid filter can be used for efficient restoration of digital images corrupted by impulse noise without distorting the useful information in the image. The performance of the proposed hybrid filter is compared with median based filters and hybrid filter [16] and shown to be more effective in terms of eliminating impulse noise and preserving edges and fine details of digital images.
Vision-based hand gesture spotting and recognition

In this paper, we propose a dynamic gesture spotting and recognition algorithm using our stereovision system. The 3D trajectories of hand gestures are first reconstructed by a stereovision-based motion capture platform. Hand gestures can then be segmented from the trajectory in real time by using proposed gesture spotting algorithm. Discrete cosine transforms coefficients, complex index and gesture entropy features are extracted to represent the gestures. With these features, one-class SVM is adopted for gesture classification. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of proposed spotting and recognition algorithm.
Measuring touch bias of one thumb posture on direct touch-based mobile devices

Direct-touch interactive surfaces become pervasive in our daily lives due to personal mobile devices such as smartphones. However, inaccurate target pointing on direct touch-based mobile devices, which occurs due to the ambiguity of the user-aimed point estimation from the finger contact region, often causes trouble for users. To understand this problem of direct-touch interactions, we conducted an experimental study where we explored the touch bias of one thumb posture on direct touch-based mobile devices. Moreover, we proposed a novel method of splitting a touch surface into several regions; this method enables an analysis of the touch bias according to angular and longitudinal criteria.
Workers, Capitalists, Wages, and Employment

Standard new Keynesian models assume the functional distribution of income is irrelevant. This stands in contrast to much of the public debate which presumes that a shift in the distribution of income towards workers will boost aggregate demand and employment. Under this latter view, falling wages during a recession can worsen unemployment. In contrast, neoclassical economics often views unemployment as a direct re‡ection of the failure of wages to fall. In this paper, I construct a sticky-price, sticky-wage model of workers and capitalists in which the functional distribution of income matters. Wage income directly
NONPARAMETRIC STOCHASTIC APPROXIMATION WITH LARGE STEP-SIZES1 BY AYMERIC DIEULEVEUT

We consider the random-design least-squares regression problem within the reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) framework. Given a stream of independent and identically distributed input/output data, we aim to learn a regression function within an RKHS H, even if the optimal predictor (i.e., the conditional expectation) is not in H. In a stochastic approximation framework where the estimator is updated after each observation, we show that the averaged unregularized least-mean-square algorithm (a form of stochastic gradient descent), given a sufficient large step-size, attains optimal rates of convergence for a variety of regimes for the smoothnesses of the optimal prediction function and the functions in H. Our results apply as well in the usual finite-dimensional setting of parametric least-squares regression, showing adaptivity of our estimator to the spectral decay of the covariance matrix of the covariates.
Efficacy of testicular sperm chromatin condensation assay using aniline blue-eosin staining in the IVF-ET cycle

Objective This study was performed to evaluate testicular sperm chromatin condensation using aniline blue-eosin (AB-E) staining and its effects on IVF-ET. Methods Chromatin condensation was analyzed using AB-E staining in 27 cases of testicular sperm extraction. There were 19 cases of obstructive azoospermia (OA) and 8 cases of non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) in IVF-ET. Mature sperm heads were stained red-pink whereas immature sperm heads were stained dark blue. The percentage of sperm chromatin condensation was calculated from the ratio of the number of red-pink sperm to the total number of sperm analyzed. Results The overall percentages of chromatin condensation in OA and NOA were 31.1±11.2% and 26.3±14.4%, respectively. The fertilization rate was significant higher in OA than NOA (p<0.05); however, the rates of good embryos and clinical pregnancy did not show statistical differences. In OA and NOA, statistical differences were not observed in the rate of chromatin condensation, fertilization, good embryos, and clinical pregnancy between the pregnant group and non-pregnant group. Conclusion Chromatin condensation is less stable than OA and showed a low fertilization rate in NOA. While there were no significant differences in chromatin condensation results between NOA and OA, we propose that a pattern of decreased chromatin condensation in NOA is one of the factors of low fertilization results requiring further study.
Antioxidant activities of essential oil of Bidens pilosa (Linn. Var. Radita) used for the preservation of food qualities in North Cameroon

Abstract This study aimed to determine the total antioxidant capacity of the essential oil (EO) of leaves of Bidens pilosa (Linn. Var. Radita) used as protectant of stored grains in Northern Cameroon. EO was characterized by GC‐FID, antioxidant activity (AA) was determined by combining: evaluation of radical‐scavenging activity, reducing power (RP) and co‐oxidation of β‐carotene methods. Tests were carried out on crude and stored EO kept for two weeks at 31.48 ± 2.88°C and 58.56 ± 6.78% relative humidity. These conditions are the same as those of grain storage. GC analyses enabled the identification of 27 compounds, representing around 97.57% of the total oil contents. The major constituents of the EO were α‐pinene (14.7%), ε‐caryophyllene (13.5), and β‐ocimene (12.8%). The AA of the crude and stored EO are proportional to the concentrations and time of exposition. Exposed at the day light, this EO inhibit 77.4–18.69% for the DPPH system, 59.55–19.14% for RP method and 91.88–21.8% for β‐carotene‐linoleate model system, respectively, from crude and 15 days storage EO at 20 mg L−1. For the EC50 values, β‐carotene method is excellent and in the decreasing order of DPPH method, PR with 2.52 mg L−1, 2.77 mg L−1 and 4.13 mg L−1, respectively, for the crude oil. The ET50 were 1.59 days for the RP method and 2.88 days DPPH system and β‐carotene‐linoleate model system at 20 mg L−1. These results showed that the EO of B. pilosa leaves exhibits AA that might be an added value for this EO preventing stored products from pest attacks.
BeWell: A Sentiment Aggregator for Proactive Community Management

Granular, localized information can be unobtrusively gathered to assess public sentiment as a superior measure of policy impact. This information is already abundant and available via Online Social Media. The missing link is a rigorous, anonymized and open source artefact that gives feedback to stakeholders and constituents. To address this, BeWell, an unobtrusive, low latency multi-resolution measurement for the observation, analysis and modelling of community dynamics, is proposed. To assess communal well-being, 42 Facebook pages of a large public university in Germany are analyzed with a dictionary-based text analytics program, LIWC. We establish the baseline of emotive discourse across the sample, and detect significant campus-wide events in this proof of concept implementation, then discuss future iterations including a community dashboard and a participatory management plan.
Deciding on units of analysis within Centering Theory

Abstract Many efforts in corpora annotation start with segmenting discourse into units of analysis. In this paper, we present a method for deciding on segmentation units within Centering Theory (Grosz et al. 1995). We survey the different existing methods to break down discourse into utterances and discuss the results of a comparison study among them. The contribution of our study is that it was carried out with spoken data and in two different languages (English and Spanish). Our comparison suggests that the best unit of analysis for Centering-based annotation is the finite clause. The final result is a set of guidelines for how to segment discourse for Centering analysis, which is also potentially applicable to other analyses.