Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Real-time predefined shape cutaway with parametric boundaries

Cutting away part of a 3D outer surface to show some interior objects hidden beneath if can play an important role in visualization and technical illustration. Previous work includes cutaway using rules and Alpha blending employed to achieve an appearance of cutaway drawings. These methods have mainly aimed at showing the presence of the interior objects, and the shape of the hole has been considerably less important than the visibility of the interior objects. However, in some applications, it may be important for the shape of the hole to have particular properties. Our example comes from orthopaedic surgery and the shape of the aperture should represent the shape of the incision made by the surgeon when retractors are applied to it to give access to the tissue beneath. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to cutting a hole of a specific shape in a surface consisting of a 3D polygonal mesh. The user first defines the required shape on the surface; the algorithm then superimposes the shape on the surface and implements the cutaway. Jittering problems associated with the boundary generated by the above steps are resolved and experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of the algorithm.
Sensorimotor coupling via dynamic bayesian networks

In this paper we consider the problem of sensorimotor coordination in a Bayesian framework. To this end we introduce a novel kind of Dynamic Bayesian Network serving as the core tool to integrate active vision and task-constrained motor behaviors. The proposed system is put into work by addressing the challenging task of realistic drawing performed by a robotic agent, namely a 7-DOF anthropomorphic manipulator. Simulation results are compared to those obtained by eye-tracked human subjects involved in drawing experiments.
Preliminary characterization and natural history of hantaviruses in rodents in northern Greece.

To the Editor: Hantaviruses (family Bunyaviridae), cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in Europe and Asia and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in the Ameri-cas. In Greece, hantaviruses are endemic, and small outbreaks or sporadic cases of HFRS have been observed; Dobrava virus is the predominant hantavirus and causes severe HFRS (1,2), while Puumala virus is probably the causative agent of the milder forms of this syndrome (Papa et al., unpub. data). Hantaan virus, associated with Apodemus agrarius, and Seoul virus, associated with Rattus norvegicus, have never been detected in Greece. Dobrava virus is hosted by A. flavicollis in the Balkans (3,4) or by A. agrarius in northern Europe (5). We surveyed two sites where Dobrava virus-caused HFRS was reported (2). The first was Nevrokopi, a small town in the Rhodope Mountains, 12 km from the Greek-Bulgarian border (41° 20.184' N, 23° 49.479' E, elevation approximately 650 m). The second site included Pramanta, a small village in the Pindos Mountains , approximately 67 km southeast of Ioannina (39° 31.722' N, 21° 5.872' E, elevation 790 m), and Matsuki, a small village near Pramanta (39° 33.909' N, 21° 9.713' E, elevation 1080 m). Animals were trapped and sampled outdoors according to established safety guidelines (6). Blood, lung, kidney, and spleen samples were kept in liquid nitrogen until transferred to-70°C freezers for storage. At Nevrokopi, 57 small mammals were captured during 887 trap nights for an overall trap success rate of 6.4%. At Pramanta and Matsuki, 13 small mammals were captured during 400 trap nights (3.3% trap success). The total of 70 captured mammals comprised seven species of rodents and one insectivore. A. flavicollis was the most commonly captured species (87% of captures). Whole-blood specimens were tested for hantavirus immunoglobulin G by indirect immunofluorescence assay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, using Hantaan 76-118 as antigen. Total RNA was extracted from homogenized tissues, and nested reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed with two sets of nested primers (2): one set designed to detect the partial G1 coding region of hantaviruses associated with rodents of the subfamily Murinae (Hantaan, Dobrava, and Seoul viruses), and another to detect the N coding region of hantaviruses associated with rodents of the subfamily Arvicolinae (Prospect Hill virus). Eight A. flavicollis, all from Nevrokopi, were positive for hantavirus infection by serology or molecular methods, for a 13% overall prevalence in A. flavicollis. Some rodents positive by serology were negative by …
A fully tuned sequential interval type-2 fuzzy inference system for motor-imagery task classification

In this paper, we propose an interval type-2 fuzzy inference system using Extended Kalman Filter based learning algorithm. It is referred to as IT2FIS-EKF. This algorithm realizes the Takagi-Sugeno-Kang inference mechanism in a five layered architecture. It starts with no rules and evolves the structure automatically. The sequential learning algorithm regulates the learning process by selecting appropriate learning strategies to evolve the architecture and estimate the antecedent/consequent parameters. The performance of IT2FIS-EKF is evaluated on a set of benchmark classification problems from the UCI machine learning repository. Results show superior performance of IT2FIS-EKF in comparison to other fuzzy neural networks due fully adaptive nature of learning algorithm. Further, IT2FIS-EKF is applied to a practical problem of classification of motor-imagery tasks in motor-imagery based brain computer interface (BCI). Performance is evaluated using the publicly available BCI competition dataset. Results indicate superior performance of IT2FIS-EKF making it suitable for BCI.
A Novel Cysteine Knot Protein for Enhancing Sperm Motility That Might Facilitate the Evolution of Internal Fertilization in Amphibians

Internal fertilization ensures successful reproduction of tetrapod vertebrates on land, although how this mode of reproduction evolved is unknown. Here, we identified a novel gene encoding sperm motility-initiating substance (SMIS), a key protein for the internal fertilization of the urodele Cynops pyrrhogaster by Edman degradation of an isolated protein and subsequent reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. The SMIS gene encoded a 150 amino-acid sequence including the cysteine knot (CK) motif. No gene with substantial similarity to the SMIS was in the data bank of any model organisms. An active site of the SMIS was in the C-terminal region of the 2nd loop of CK motif. A synthetic peptide including the active site sequence bound to the midpiece and initiated/enhanced the circular motion of C. pyrrhogaster sperm, which allows penetration of the egg jelly specialized for the internal fertilization of this species. The synthetic peptide bound to whole sperm of Rhacophorus arboreus and enhanced the rotary motion, which is adapted to propel the sperm through egg coat matrix specialized for arboreal reproduction, while it bound to the tip of head and tail of Bufo japonicus sperm, and enhanced the vibratory motion, which is suited to sperm penetration through the egg jelly specialized for the reproduction of that species in freshwater. The polyclonal antibody against the active site of the SMIS specifically bound to egg coat matrix of R. arboreus. These findings suggest that diversification of amphibian reproductive modes accompanies the specialization of egg coat and the adaptation of sperm motility to penetrate the specialized egg coat, and SMIS acts as the sperm motility enhancer of anurans and urodeles that might facilitate to adaptively optimize sperm motility for allowing the establishment of internal fertilization.
Support, trust, satisfaction, intent to leave and citizenship at organizational level

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose to test a research model to gain a better understanding of the connection between perceived support, trust, satisfaction, intention to quit and citizenship at the organizational level.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 355 white‐collar employees were recruited among alumni of a business school in France. Structural equation modeling was used to test the predicted relationships.Findings – Except for the relation between perceived organizational support (POS) and intention to leave, study results showed strong support in favour of the different hypothetical relations in the research model.Research limitations/implications – The results are based on a single sample and a transversal research design. For these reasons, the data should be approached with caution.Practical implications – The paper highlights the importance of considering trust over and above organizational efforts directed at supporting employees through a show of appreciation for their co.
Harmonization of Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR) from Sea-ViewingWide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) and Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer Instrument (MERIS)

This paper describes the combination of terrestrial vegetation observations from two sensors, providing a historical dataset used for an in-depth analysis of the corresponding spatio-temporal patterns. The Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR) is an important variable suitable for regional to large-scale monitoring of climate impacts on vegetation. In this work, we create an extensive dataset of FAPAR using a 10-day product at ∼1 km resolution from September, 1997, to April, 2012, combining information from two sensors: the NASA/Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) and the European Space Agency (ESA)/Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer Instrument (MERIS). The proposed methodology reduces the noise, fills the gaps and corrects for the spurious trends in the data, providing a time-consistent coverage of FAPAR. We develop a fast merging method and evaluate its performance over Europe and the Horn of Africa.
Overcoming Semantic Drift in Information Extraction

Semantic drift is a common problem in iterative information extraction. Previous approaches for minimizing semantic drift may incur substantial loss in recall. We observe that most semantic drifts are introduced by a small number of questionable extractions in the earlier rounds of iterations. These extractions subsequently introduce a large number of questionable results, which lead to the semantic drift phenomenon. We call these questionable extractions Drifting Points (DPs). If erroneous extractions are the “symptoms” of semantic drift, then DPs are the “causes” of semantic drift. In this paper, we propose a method to minimize semantic drift by identifying the DPs and removing the effect introduced by the DPs. We use isA (concept-instance) extraction as an example to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in cleaning information extraction errors caused by semantic drift. We perform experiments on a isA relation iterative extraction, where 90.5 million of isA pairs are automatically extracted from 1.6 billion web documents with a low precision. The experimental results show our DP cleaning method enables us to clean more than 90% incorrect instances with 95% precision, which outperforms the previous approaches we compare with. As a result, our method greatly improves the prevision of this large isA data set from less than 50% to over 90%.
"Pale as death" or "pâle comme la mort": Frozen similes used as literary clichés

The present study is focused on the automatic identification and description of frozen similes in British and French novels written between the 19 th century and the beginning of the 20 th century. Two main patterns of frozen similes were considered: adjectival ground + simile marker + nominal vehicle (e.g. happy as a lark) and eventuality + simile marker + nominal vehicle (e.g. sleep like a top). All potential similes and their components were first extracted using a rule-based algorithm. Then, frozen similes were identified based on reference lists of existing similes and semantic distance between the tenor and the vehicle. The results obtained tend to confirm the fact that frozen similes are not used haphazardly in literary texts. In addition, contrary to how they are often presented, frozen similes often go beyond the ground or the eventuality and the vehicle to also include the tenor.
Tensions in a Nepali telecenter: An ethnographic look at progress using activity theory

Developing countries such as Nepal struggle to keep up technologically. While advances make it possible for average Nepalis to access mobile phones, computers, and digital cameras, barriers impede access. As with other governments (Huerta & Rodrigo, 2007; Mokhtarian & Meenakshisun, 2002), Nepal responded in 2004 with telecenters to push sustainable technology. Most telecenters still struggle to accomplish their purpose (M. K. Bhattarai, personal communication, June 29, 2009). Developing countries struggle to meet communities’ technological demands (Colle & Raul, 2003). Issues other than technology limit telecenters from fully providing services and meeting the needs of the local community. These issues, which are often cultural and historical in nature, inhibit communities from integrating fully technology. This study explores issues within a telecenter located in Sankhu, a small village outside of Kathmandu. To understand the issues, an ethnographic approach was adopted as the method for data collection. Given the problem, Activity Theory was used as a framework for analyzing and understanding the tensions Sankhu youth face. As a descriptive theory, it fits properly with an ethnographic study (Spradley, 1979). The analysis of tensions provides valuable information for improving current and future telecenter programs. This study takes an ethnographic approach in investigating the tensions that exist at Sankhu. Sankhu is a rural community located about 20 kilometers east of Kathmandu. Research was gathered during 2 months. The researcher embedded himself in the community from late June 2009 and collected data until mid-August. A total of 43 people were interviewed, creating 206
NTCIR-GeoTime Overview: Evaluating Geographic and Temporal Search

the NTCIR Workshop 8 we organized a Geographic and Temporal Information Retrieval Task called "NTCIR GeoTime". The focus of this task is on search with Geographic and Temporal constraints. This overview describes the data collections (Japanese and English news stories), topic development, assessment results and lessons learned from the NTCIR GeoTime task, which combines GIR with time-based search to find specific events in a multilingual collection. Eight teams submitted Japanese runs (including unofficial three teams who provided runs to expand the pools) and six teams submitted English runs. One team participated in both Japanese and English.
Localization in wireless networks based on jointly compressed sensing

Location sensing is fundamental for supporting wireless communications services. This paper exploits the signal correlation structure observed in an indoor localization environment in order to provide accurate position estimation by means of a limited amount of signal-strength measurements. Because the mobile devices have limited processing power and battery capacity, the proposed received signal-strength localization protocol avoids putting on extra computational overhead on the mobile device by performing the position estimation at the Access Points (APs). Since the APs observe correlated signals from the mobile devices, the introduced method exploits the common structure of the received measurements in order to jointly estimate the positions precisely. The evaluation of the proposed protocol is performed on real laboratory data through experiments that quantify the impact of the system parameters on the location error.
Activation of G Proteins by Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors Relies on GTPase Activity

G proteins are an important family of signalling molecules controlled by guanine nucleotide exchange and GTPase activity in what is commonly called an ‘activation/inactivation cycle’. The molecular mechanism by which guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) catalyse the activation of monomeric G proteins is well-established, however the complete reversibility of this mechanism is often overlooked. Here, we use a theoretical approach to prove that GEFs are unable to positively control G protein systems at steady-state in the absence of GTPase activity. Instead, positive regulation of G proteins must be seen as a product of the competition between guanine nucleotide exchange and GTPase activity – emphasising a central role for GTPase activity beyond merely signal termination. We conclude that a more accurate description of the regulation of G proteins via these processes is as a ‘balance/imbalance’ mechanism. This result has implications for the understanding of many intracellular signalling processes, and for experimental strategies that rely on modulating G protein systems.
The power of the standard test for the presence of heterogeneity in meta‐analysis

It has been suggested that the standard test for the presence of heterogeneity in meta‐analysis has low power. Although this has been investigated using simulation, there is little direct analytical evidence of the validity of this claim. Using an established approximate distribution for the test statistic, a procedure for obtaining the power of the test is described. From this, a simple formula for the power is obtained. Although this applies to a special case, the formula gives an indication of the power of the test more generally. In particular, for a given significance level, the power can be calibrated in terms of the proportion of the studies' variances that is provided by between‐study variation. A consideration of this quantity confirms that the test does, in general, have low power. It is suggested that practitioners, who wish to conduct the standard test, use the ideas provided in order to investigate the operating characteristics of the test prior to performing it. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Towards Modeling Energy Consumption of Xeon Phi

In the push for exascale computing, energy efficiency is of utmost concern. System architectures often adopt accelerators to hasten application execution at the cost of power. The Intel Xeon Phi co-processor is unique accelerator that offers application designers high degrees of parallelism, energy-efficient cores, and various execution modes. To explore the vast number of available configurations, a model must be developed to predict execution time, power, and energy for the CPU and Xeon Phi. An experimentation method has been developed which measures power for the CPU and Xeon Phi separately, as well as total system power. Execution time and performance are also captured for two experiments conducted in this work. The experiments, frequency scaling and strong scaling, will help validate the adopted model and assist in the development of a model which defines the host and Xeon Phi. The proxy applications investigated, representative of large-scale real-world applications, are Co-Design Molecular Dynamics (CoMD) and Livermore Unstructured Lagrangian Explicit Shock Hydrodynamics (LULESH). The frequency experiment discussed in this work is used to determine the time on-chip and off-chip to measure the compute- or latencyboundedness of the application. Energy savings were not obtained in symmetric mode for either application.
Locus of control and social variables as they relate to depression at abortion

Since its legalisation in this country, abortion has become a controversial subject in religious, social and judicial circles. However, little is known about the relationship between depression and the possible side effects that may be produced by the procedure. Indeed, the possible impact of social variables and personality traits have been receiving more attention in recent research in an effort to identify those at risk for negative symptoms. This study was carried out on a group of 42 women from the Soweto and Jeppe Street Marie Stopes clinics. The women were assessed according to locus of control, depression and certain psychosocial variables. As expected, the overall levels of depression among these women, who largely represent the underprivileged segment of the community, were very high. Although no significant relationship could be established between locus of control and depression following abortion, certain r social variables were identified as possible risk factors for dep6pession after having an abortion. vi i OPSOMMING Sedert dit wettig verklaar is in Suid Afrika, is aborsie 'n kontroversiele onderwerp in geloofs-, sosialeen regskringe. Daar is tans relatief min inligting beskikbaar met betrekking tot die verwantskap tussen depressie en ander moontlike neweeffekte wat deur aborsie veroorsaak word. Baie aandag word deur navorsers aan die potensiele impak van sosiale veranderlikes en persoonlikheidstrekke op die verwantskap tussen aborsie en depressie gegee. In hierdie studie is gepoog om risiko faktore, wat met simptome van depressie verband hou, to identifiseer. Die deelnemers was 'n groep van 42 vroue van die Soweto en Jeppe Straat Marie Stopes aborsie klinieke. Die vrouens is geevalueer ten opsigte van die volgende faktore: lokus van kontrole, depressie en sekere psigo-sosiale veranderlikes. Die oorhoofse vlakke van depressie in hierdie groep vrouens, wat grootendeels vanaf die minderbevoorregde gedeelte van die gemeenskap afkomstig is, is in ooreenstemming met wat verwag is, bale hoog. Ten spyte van die feit dat geen beduidende verwantskap tussen lokus van kontrole en depressie gevind is nie, is sekere sosiale veranderlikes geklentifiseer as moontlike risiko-faktore vir die ontwikkeling van depressie na aborsie. LIST OF TABLES Page Table1: Marital status of women presenting for abortion 47 Table 2: Locus of Control scores for the entire sample 48 Table 3: Correlation effects of locus of control and depression 49 Table 4: Demographic variables 50
Prolonged exposure of dendritic cells to maturation stimuli favors the induction of type‐2 cytotoxic T lymphocytes

Dendritic cell (DC) maturation influences the priming and polarization of T lymphocytes. We recently found that early activated DC (i.e. DC exposed to pro‐maturation stimuli for 8 h) were more prone to prime in vivo a type‐1 cytotoxic T cell (Tc1) response than DC exposed to pro‐maturation stimuli for 48 h (48h‐DC). We investigated whether 48h‐DC, conversely, allowed the induction of Tc2 cells. Antigen‐pulsed mouse bone‐marrow‐derived DC at any maturation stage, in the presence of exogenous IL‐12, skewed in vitro naive CD8+ T cells towards Tc1 cells, but 48h‐DC most potently, in the presence of exogenous IL‐4, favored the induction of Tc2 cells. In vivo, full maturation of DC promoted expansion of Tc2 and fall of Tc1 cells. Tc2 cells maintained a high cytolytic activity and produced significant amounts of IL‐4, IL‐5, IL‐10 and TGF‐β. Our results indicate that polarization of naive CD8+ T cells to Tc2 cells is dependent on the amount of time DC have been exposed to maturation stimuli, and might be favored in late and/or chronic phases of an immune response.