Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High-Quality Interactive Lumigraph Rendering Through Warping

We introduce an algorithm for high-quality, interactive light field rendering from only a small number of input images with dense depth information. The algorithm bridges the gap between image warping and interpolation from image databases, which represent the two major approaches in image based rendering. By warping and blending only the necessary parts of each reference image, we are able to generate a single view-corrected texture for every output frame at interactive rates. In contrast to previous light field rendering approaches, our warping-based algorithm is able to fully exploit perpixel depth information in order to depth-correct the light field samples with maximum accuracy. The complexity of the proposed algorithm is nearly independent of the number of stored reference images and of the final screen resolution. It performs with only small overhead and very few visible artifacts. We demonstrate the visual fidelity as well as the performance of our method through various examples.
Sonic Hedgehog Guides Post-Crossing Commissural Axons Both Directly and Indirectly by Regulating Wnt Activity

After midline crossing, axons of dorsolateral commissural neurons turn rostrally into the longitudinal axis of the spinal cord. In mouse, the graded distribution of Wnt4 attracts post-crossing axons rostrally. In contrast, in the chicken embryo, the graded distribution of Sonic hedgehog (Shh) guides post-crossing axons by a repulsive mechanism mediated by hedgehog-interacting protein. Based on these observations, we tested for a possible cooperation between the two types of morphogens. Indeed, we found that Wnts also act as axon guidance cues in the chicken spinal cord. However, in contrast to the mouse, Wnt transcription did not differ along the anteroposterior axis of the spinal cord. Rather, Wnt function was regulated by a gradient of the Wnt antagonist Sfrp1 (Secreted frizzled-related protein 1) that in turn was shaped by the Shh gradient. Thus, Shh affects post-crossing axon guidance both directly and indirectly by regulating Wnt function.
Two New Classes of Two-Parity MDS Array Codes With Optimal Repair

Two-parity maximum distance separable (MDS) array codes achieve the lowest storage overhead for tolerating two erasures. In this letter, we propose two new classes of twoparity MDS array codes over finite field F2, with which each single node failure can be recovered by reading the minimum amount of data from each surviving node.
Conflits de normes de justice distributive dans les fusions entre égaux

Les strictes fusions entre egaux constituent un phenomene tres rare. Pourtant, de nombreux dirigeants communiquent sur l’aspect egalitaire des fusions et acquisitions qu’ils concoivent. Dans cet article, les auteurs expliquent pourquoi les dirigeants « maquillent» leurs FA montrent en quoi le postulat egalitaire initial accroit la probabilite de conflits entre deux normes de justice distributive pourtant complementaires : l’egalite et l’equite ; et illustrent leurs propos avec un cas spectaculaire : la fusion egalitaire, puis la separation des entreprises BioMerieux et Pierre Fabre. Paradoxalement, la simple formulation en termes egalitaire des F&A favorise la diffusion de sentiments d’injustice distributive, qui nuit in fine a la performance de l’operation.
I Am the Fighter Until the Last Moment

Abstract This study examines how race/ethnicity and educational attainment are related to coping strategies and adaptation to age-related visual impairment among older adults. Narrative data from two previous studies of adaptation to vision impairment (n's = 155 and 343, respectively) were analyzed with qualitative methods. Results indicated that ethnicity of informants played an important role in relation to the type of coping strategies reported, which reflected differences in value systems and sociocultural contexts for each racial group. Educational levels were related to differences in the informants' help-seeking behaviors, attitudes toward learning, and the different kinds of coping resources available. These findings underscore the complexity of needs in the older visually impaired population. Implications of these findings for practitioners working with this population are discussed.
Space-based surface change detection with differential synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) interferometry: Potentialities and preliminary investigations

The capability of measuring small crustal deformation by means of differential Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry (DIFSAR) is investigated in this work. After outlining the mathematical background inherent to the principles of differential SAR interferometry and showing the potential and limits of the information content of spaceborne DIFSAR data, the analysis of the impact of this technique is carried out on some interferometric couples gathered in 1996 by the ERS-I/ERS-2 (European Remote Sensing Satellite) tandem mission. The imaged scene is a portion of the Sannio-Matese mountainous area (Southern Italy). Suitable interferometric couples are processed and analyzed in order to show potentialities of detecting surface deformation by means of DIFSAR data, and derive qualitative information on the relationship between DIFSAR-based change detection and the time scale of crustal dynamics, by investigating the effectiveness of the technique as a function of the scene coherence. Preliminary results confirm the feasibility of the technique, even at the cost of sophisticated processing and careful error analysis.
Soft-threshold-based multilayer decision feedback equalizer (STM-DFE) algorithm and VLSI architecture

The decision feedback equalizer (DFE) is an efficient scheme to suppress intersymbol interference (ISI) in various communication and magnetic recording systems. However, most cost-effective DFE implementations suffer from the phenomenon of error propagation, which degrades its bit error rate (BER) performance. This paper proposes a soft-threshold-based multilayer DFE (STM-DFE) technique to reduce the BER. It involves very low hardware overhead costs as compared to the conventional DFE. When applied to a practical Lorentzian channel and channels of different eigenvalue spread, the STM algorithm even outperforms the Ideal DFE (IDFE) system (in the IDFE, symbols are correctly fed back without propagation errors). Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can efficiently reduce the burst error length (BEL) as well as BER. Additionally, the hardware overhead to implement the STM-DFE algorithm is negligible compared with the conventional DFE. By using the concepts of Shanbhag and Parhi and of Yang, Wu, and Lai, we also propose the pipelined STM-DFE (PSTM-DFE) architecture for high-speed communication/storage applications.
THE INFLUENCE OF BABY WALKER USAGE IN THE SENSORY MOTOR MOTOR DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN AT SCHOOLS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Introduction: infant’s healthy development acquisition is related to sensorial and motor experiences acquired in their first living year. As a walking stimulating aid, parents believethat baby walker may anticipate walking. Objective: check the frequency of the use of child walker for infants and the influence of this procedure on the sensory motor development, and correlate the daily time spent with the acquisition of independent walking at 13 months. Methods: Initially, parents answered a questionnaire regarding the use or no use of the baby walker. Infants who used it developed walking skills earlier than those who did not use it (p = 0.044). Results: Daily time of use influenced in the walk acquisition time (p = 0.005); and there was no association between the groups who used or did not use the baby walker compared to their current motor development assessed by Alberta Infant Motor Scale (p = 0.566). Conclusion: We concluded that the vesting period of the march is on the daily use of the walker, which is an important factor for this acquisition.
Monocytic Differentiation Inhibits Infection and Granulocytic Differentiation Potentiates Infection by the Agent of Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis

ABSTRACT Human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) is an emerging tick-borne infection with a specific tropism for granulocytes. We previously isolated and cultivated the HGE agent in the promyelocytic leukemia cell line HL-60 and have also demonstrated the susceptibility of both granulocytic and monocytic human marrow progenitors. Circulating monocytes have not been observed to be infected, suggesting that cell susceptibility may be differentiation specific. To evaluate this hypothesis, HL-60 cells were differentiated towards granulocytes (with dimethyl sulfoxide or all-trans retinoic acid) or toward monocytes-macrophages (with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate [TPA], gamma interferon, or 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3) and then challenged with HGE. HGE binding, internalization, and proliferation were compared in differentiated and untreated control HL-60 cells by immunofluorescence, electron microscopy, and Giemsa staining. Granulocytic differentiation resulted in a doubling of HGE binding and enhanced infection consistent with the agent’s clinical tropism for neutrophils. Granulocytic cells were unable to kill internalized ehrlichiae even after activation induced byN-formyl-Met-Leu-Phe alone or together with tumor necrosis factor alpha. In contrast, monocyte-macrophage differentiation with TPA resulted in complete resistance to infection through at least two distinct mechanisms: (i) reduction in binding and uptake and (ii) killing of any internalized organisms. Diminished binding in TPA-treated cells correlated with their reduced expression of sialyl Lewis x (CD15s), a putative cellular receptor component for HGE. The degree of monocytic differentiation and activation induced (i.e., TPA > gamma interferon > vitamin D3) correlated with resistance to HGE. Thus, HL-60 cells exhibit a striking differentiation-specific susceptibility to HGE. Differentiation-induced changes in bacterial adhesion and killing capacity underlie the tropism of HGE for granulocytic HL-60 cells and, conversely, the resistance of activated macrophages to infection.
Orthophoto Map Feature Extraction Based on Neural Networks

In our paper we use neural networks for tuning of image feature extraction algorithms and for the analysis of orthophoto maps. In our approach we split an aerial photo into a regular grid of segments and for each segment we detect a set of features. These features describe the segment from the viewpoint of general image analysis (color, tint, etc.) as well as from the viewpoint of the shapes in the segment. We also present our computer system that support the process of the validation of extracted features using a neural network. Despite the fact that in our approach we use only general properties of an images, the results of our experiments demonstrate the usefulness of our approach.
HER3 over-expression and overall survival in gastrointestinal cancers

Published studies on the association between human epidermal factor receptor 3 (HER3) expression and overall survival (OS) in gastrointestinal cancers have yielded conflicting results. The aim of this study was to explore the association of HER3 over-expression with OS in gastrointestinal cancers. A systematic search was performed through Medline/PubMed, Embase, Science Direct and Elsevier. The summary odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated to estimate the strength of the association. Overall, we observed that HER3 over-expression was associated with worse OS at five years (OR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.04–1.82); however, HER3 over-expression was not associated with worse OS at three years (OR = 1.33, 95% CI: 0.97–1.84). The cumulative meta-analysis showed similar results. In subgroup analyses by tumor type, HER3 over-expression in gastric cancers was associated with worse OS at both three years (OR = 1.69, 95% CI: 1.28–2.25) and five years (OR = 1.74, 95% CI: 1.26–2.41). In conclusion, our results suggest that HER3 over-expression may be associated with worse overall survival in gastric cancers. Well-designed studies with a large sample size are required to further confirm our findings.
A knowledge based system for measuring faces

Recognising faces is now an attractive computer vision task. Methods used for machine parts; recognizing straight lines or circular arcs, and the use of detailed geometric models, are not directly relevant, yet with many human faces to recognize, it is worthwhile building a system solely for this task. The system described here uses a blackboard architecture and aims to obtain a set of measurements from an image of a face. A key feature is the use of knowledge about faces, including a statistical knowledge base derived from detailed measurements of a large number of sample images.
Alphabetics: From phonemes to letters or from letters to phonemes?

This paper is concerned with the relation between our capacity for alphabetic reading and writing the sound forms of languages on the one hand, and the structure of speech and language on the other. It starts from two questions: (1) What structural properties of human languages enable us to read and write their sound forms with a handful of alphabetic symbols? (2) Why is learning this skill so difficult? Ad (1) it is argued here that the basis for reading and writing in an alphabet is the inherent segmentability of speech, stemming from the synchronization of articulatory gestures during speech production. This synchronization arises from inherent properties of both speech production and speech perception. Ad (2) it is suggested here that learning to read and write with alphabetic letters is so difficult, because in the mental structure of sound forms there are no pre-existing discrete phoneme-sized segments, at least not of a kind that language users are easily aware of. This makes analysis of sound forms into such phoneme-sized segments difficult, although such analysis is a prerequisite skill for alphabetic reading and writing. For easy learning, the relation between letters and speech segments should preferably be systematic and transparent.
European Ancestry Predominates in Neuromyelitis Optica and Multiple Sclerosis Patients from Brazil

Background Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is considered relatively more common in non-Whites, whereas multiple sclerosis (MS) presents a high prevalence rate, particularly in Whites from Western countries populations. However, no study has used ancestry informative markers (AIMs) to estimate the genetic ancestry contribution to NMO patients. Methods Twelve AIMs were selected based on the large allele frequency differences among European, African, and Amerindian populations, in order to investigate the genetic contribution of each ancestral group in 236 patients with MS and NMO, diagnosed using the McDonald and Wingerchuck criteria, respectively. All 128 MS patients were recruited at the Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto (MS-RP), Southeastern Brazil, as well as 108 healthy bone marrow donors considered as healthy controls. A total of 108 NMO patients were recruited from five Neurology centers from different Brazilian regions, including Ribeirão Preto (NMO-RP). Principal Findings European ancestry contribution was higher in MS-RP than in NMO-RP (78.5% vs. 68.7%) patients. In contrast, African ancestry estimates were higher in NMO-RP than in MS-RP (20.5% vs. 12.5%) patients. Moreover, principal component analyses showed that groups of NMO patients from different Brazilian regions were clustered close to the European ancestral population. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that European genetic contribution predominates in NMO and MS patients from Brazil.
Personality and resilience characteristics of Greek primary school principals

The research reported here investigated the personality traits and resilience that a sample of Greek school principals displayed. It probed also for differences associated with sex, age and years of service in the current leadership position, as well as relationships between personality characteristics and resilience strengths. To investigate these matters we used the “The Big Five Inventory” and the “Leader Resilience Profile”. The survey involved almost all school principals in the Magnesia regional government unit in central Greece. Only some of the findings echoed information found in the extant literature; indeed, our results suggest that understandings about school principals that have been developed elsewhere should not be generalized to Greece without considerable caution.
A Sparse Reconstruction Algorithm for Ultrasonic Images in Nondestructive Testing

Ultrasound imaging systems (UIS) are essential tools in nondestructive testing (NDT). In general, the quality of images depends on two factors: system hardware features and image reconstruction algorithms. This paper presents a new image reconstruction algorithm for ultrasonic NDT. The algorithm reconstructs images from A-scan signals acquired by an ultrasonic imaging system with a monostatic transducer in pulse-echo configuration. It is based on regularized least squares using a l1 regularization norm. The method is tested to reconstruct an image of a point-like reflector, using both simulated and real data. The resolution of reconstructed image is compared with four traditional ultrasonic imaging reconstruction algorithms: B-scan, SAFT, ω-k SAFT and regularized least squares (RLS). The method demonstrates significant resolution improvement when compared with B-scan—about 91% using real data. The proposed scheme also outperforms traditional algorithms in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).
PAC-Bayes Risk Bounds for Stochastic Averages and Majority Votes of Sample-Compressed Classifiers

We propose a PAC-Bayes theorem for the sample-compression setting where each classifier is described by a compression subset of the training data and a message string of additional information. This setting, which is the appropriate one to describe many learning algorithms, strictly generalizes the usual data-independent setting where classifiers are represented only by data-independent message strings (or parameters taken from a continuous set). The proposed PAC-Bayes theorem for the sample-compression setting reduces to the PAC-Bayes theorem of Seeger (2002) and Langford (2005) when the compression subset of each classifier vanishes. For posteriors having all their weights on a single sample-compressed classifier, the general risk bound reduces to a bound similar to the tight sample-compression bound proposed in Laviolette et al. (2005). Finally, we extend our results to the case where each sample-compressed classifier of a data-dependent ensemble may abstain of predicting a class label.
Perceptions, Behaviors, and Satisfaction Related to Public Safety for Persons With Disabilities in the United States

Data from the 2008 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation is used to investigate fear of crime and satisfaction with police services among adults with and without disabilities in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas in the United States, controlling for individual-level characteristics. Persons with disabilities feel less safe, are more likely to exhibit protective behaviors due to safety concerns, and are less satisfied with police services than persons without disabilities. Multivariate results suggest that persons with a disability who live in nonmetropolitan areas have fewer concerns around personal safety but are generally less satisfied with local police services than persons with disabilities who live in metropolitan areas. Policy implications and future research directions are discussed.
Blind Seer: A Scalable Private DBMS

Query privacy in secure DBMS is an important feature, although rarely formally considered outside the theoretical community. Because of the high overheads of guaranteeing privacy in complex queries, almost all previous works addressing practical applications consider limited queries (e.g., just keyword search), or provide a weak guarantee of privacy. In this work, we address a major open problem in private DB: efficient sub linear search for arbitrary Boolean queries. We consider scalable DBMS with provable security for all parties, including protection of the data from both server (who stores encrypted data) and client (who searches it), as well as protection of the query, and access control for the query. We design, build, and evaluate the performance of a rich DBMS system, suitable for real-world deployment on today medium-to large-scale DBs. On a modern server, we are able to query a formula over 10TB, 100M-record DB, with 70 searchable index terms per DB row, in time comparable to (insecure) MySQL (many practical queries can be privately executed with work 1.2-3 times slower than MySQL, although some queries are costlier). We support a rich query set, including searching on arbitrary boolean formulas on keywords and ranges, support for stemming, and free keyword searches over text fields. We identify and permit a reasonable and controlled amount of leakage, proving that no further leakage is possible. In particular, we allow leakage of some search pattern information, but protect the query and data, provide a high level of privacy for individual terms in the executed search formula, and hide the difference between a query that returned no results and a query that returned a very small result set. We also support private and complex access policies, integrated in the search process so that a query with empty result set and a query that fails the policy are hard to tell apart.
Topological Evaluation of Methods for Reconstruction of Genetic Regulatory Networks

Network inference is advancing rapidly, and new methods are proposed on a regular basis. Understanding the advantages and limitations of different network inference methods is key to their effective application in different circumstances. The common structural properties shared by diverse networks naturally pose a challenge when it comes to devising accurate inference methods, but surprisingly, there is a paucity of comparison and evaluation methods. Historically, every new methodology has only been tested against "gold standard" purpose-designed synthetic and real-world (validated) biological networks. In this paper we aim to assess the impact of taking into consideration topological aspects on the evaluation of the final accuracy of an inference procedure. Specifically, we will compare the best inference methods, in statistical terms, for preserving the topological properties of synthetic and biological networks. A new method for performance comparison is introduced by borrowing ideas from gene set enrichment analysis. Experimental results show that no individual algorithm stands out among the three inference tasks assessed, and the challenging nature of network inference is evident in the struggle of some of the algorithms to turn in a performance that's better than random guesswork. Therefore care should be taken to suit the method used to the specific purpose.