Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE DEVELOPMENT OF A DIGITAL PHOTOGRAMMETRIC SOFTCOPY KIT FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES

: This paper shows the current efforts in order to develop a digital photogrammetric softcopy kit which intends to provide a link between theory and practice in the field of Photogrammetry. These efforts have started in 2002, with the development of the first modules of the E-Foto kit: image viewer, project configuration, camera parameters, interior orientation and digital mensuration. The project was based upon a two-principle approach: freedom of software and self-teaching. This means that all software are delivered under a free license (in this case, the GNU GPL), which turns it accessible to users who might compile and use it, study its code or even develop new modules for it. The second principle relies on a considerable amount of teaching material that accompanies the software, including an on line help, the e-book on Digital Photogrammetry and the project's support homepage. Based on these resources, the user will be able to study the main photogrammetric principles, how they work and how to use them. Its main objective is to diminish the gap that exists nowadays between the teaching of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing in universities and Research Institutions of developing countries and the high-tech expensive systems that are used under the spatial data production environment. Currently, there are five modules ready to use, in English and Portuguese, and one under development. Both Linux and Windows versions are available. Thee-book on Digital Photogrammetry is available only in Portuguese and is distributed as a series of portable document files (pdf's).
Methodology and Tools for the evaluation of automatic onset detection algorithms in music

This paper addresses the problem of the performance evaluation of algorithms for the automatic detection of note onsets in music signals. Our experiments show that creating a database of reference files with reliable humanannotated onset times is a complex task, since its subjective part cannot be neglected. This work provides a methodology to construct such a database. With the use of a carefully designed software tool, called SOL (Sound Onset Labellizer), we can obtain a set of reference onset times that are cross-validated amongst different expert listeners. We show that the mean error of annotated times across test subjects is very much signal-dependent. This value can be used, when evaluating automatic labelling, as an indication of the relevant tolerance window. The SOL annotation software is to be released freely for research purposes. Our test library, 17 short sequences containing about 750 onsets, comes from copyright-free music or from the public RWC database. The corresponding validated onset labels are also freely distributed, and are intended to form the starting point for the definition of a reliable benchmark.
Pre- and Postovulatory Aging of Murine Oocytes Affect the Transcript Level and Poly(A) Tail Length of Maternal Effect Genes

Maternal effect genes code for oocyte proteins that are important for early embryogenesis. Transcription in oocytes does not take place from the onset of meiotic progression until zygotic genome activation. During this period, protein levels are regulated posttranscriptionally, for example by poly(A) tail length. Posttranscriptional regulation may be impaired in preovulatory and postovulatory aged oocytes, caused by delayed ovulation or delayed fertilization, respectively, and may lead to developmental defects. We investigated transcript levels and poly(A) tail length of ten maternal effect genes in in vivo- and in vitro- (follicle culture) grown oocytes after pre- and postovulatory aging. Quantitative RT-PCR was performed using random hexamer-primed cDNA to determine total transcript levels and oligo(dT)16-primed cDNA to analyze poly(A) tail length. Transcript levels of in vivo preovulatory-aged oocytes remained stable except for decreases in Brg1 and Tet3. Most genes investigated showed a tendency towards increased poly(A) content. Polyadenylation of in vitro preovulatory-aged oocytes was also increased, along with transcript level declines of Trim28, Nlrp2, Nlrp14 and Zar1. In contrast to preovulatory aging, postovulatory aging of in vivo- and in vitro-grown oocytes led to a shortening of poly(A) tails. Postovulatory aging of in vivo-grown oocytes resulted in deadenylation of Nlrp5 after 12 h, and deadenylation of 4 further genes (Tet3, Trim28, Dnmt1, Oct4) after 24 h. Similarly, transcripts of in vitro-grown oocytes were deadenylated after 12 h of postovulatory aging (Tet3, Trim28, Zfp57, Dnmt1, Nlrp5, Zar1). This impact of aging on poly(A) tail length may affect the timed translation of maternal effect gene transcripts and thereby contribute to developmental defects.
Modeling Expressive Wrinkles and Hair for Virtual Humans

As virtual humans appear more frequently in various fields such as movies, video games, commercial films, and virtual reality, it becomes increasingly important to display them realistically. However, expressive wrinkles and dynamic hair, which play crucial parts in synthesizing an impressive human head model, are generally difficult to model and animate interactively because of their complexity. This thesis presents methods for modeling wrinkles and hair over virtual human head models. Wrinkles are created by displacing the skin surface based on their specified locations and shapes. Wrinkle amplitude is dynamically modulated according to skin surface deformation while animating the face with facial muscles. Hair is modeled with particles, the sampling points of the volume of hair defined over the scalp of the head model, in order to avoid explicit simulation of a large number of hair strands. Complex interactions of hair with the head, the hair itself, and the environment such as wind are rapidly handled with the particle dynamics. Both wrinkles and hair can be animated interactively.
Asymmetric Mushroom-Type Metamaterials

We study the scattering of electromagnetic waves by mushroom-type metamaterials such that the metallic wire array and the patch grids have different symmetry centers. Based on a quasi-static model, we develop an analytical formalism to compute the reflection and transmission characteristics of a metamaterial slab, and derive suitable boundary conditions for the patch grid interfaces. The theory is successfully compared with full-wave simulations.
BK Virus Encephalitis in HIV-Infected Patients: Case Report and Review

Encephalitis and meningitis due to BKPyV are unusual and emerging condition. Only a few cases of BKPyV encephalitis have been reported in hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients, with the majority of cases presenting with concurrent hemorrhagic cystitis and HIV-infected patients. The authors report two HIV-infected patients with the diagnosis of BKPyV encephalitis and discuss the main clinical, diagnostic, and therapeutic aspects of this infection in patients with AIDS. Physicians should be aware to recognize the main clinical features and diagnose BKPyV central nervous infection in the setting of AIDS.
Schistosoma mansoni Tegument Protein Sm29 Is Able to Induce a Th1-Type of Immune Response and Protection against Parasite Infection

Background Schistosomiasis continues to be a significant public health problem. This disease affects 200 million people worldwide and almost 800 million people are at risk of acquiring the infection. Although vaccine development against this disease has experienced more failures than successes, encouraging results have recently been obtained using membrane-spanning protein antigens from the tegument of Schistosoma mansoni. Our group recently identified Sm29, another antigen that is present at the adult worm tegument surface. In this study, we investigated murine cellular immune responses to recombinant (r) Sm29 and tested this protein as a vaccine candidate. Methods and Findings We first show that Sm29 is located on the surface of adult worms and lung-stage schistosomula through confocal microscopy. Next, immunization of mice with rSm29 engendered 51%, 60% and 50% reduction in adult worm burdens, in intestinal eggs and in liver granuloma counts, respectively (p<0.05). Protective immunity in mice was associated with high titers of specific anti-Sm29 IgG1 and IgG2a and elevated production of IFN-γ, TNF-α and IL-12, a typical Th1 response. Gene expression analysis of worms recovered from rSm29 vaccinated mice relative to worms from control mice revealed a significant (q<0.01) down-regulation of 495 genes and up-regulation of only 22 genes. Among down-regulated genes, many of them encode surface antigens and proteins associated with immune signals, suggesting that under immune attack schistosomes reduce the expression of critical surface proteins. Conclusion This study demonstrates that Sm29 surface protein is a new vaccine candidate against schistosomiasis and suggests that Sm29 vaccination associated with other protective critical surface antigens is the next logical strategy for improving protection.
Prodrug-mediated Tumor Cell Killing Semi-Random Sequence Mutagenesis Improve Herpes Simplex Virus-1 Thymidine Kinase Mutants Created by Updated Version

Cancer suicide gene therapy affords the prospect of using the most optimal genes available because the source of the therapeutic gene is often irrelevant. Currently, there are numerous preclinical and clinical trials to develop tumor ablative therapies that use viral, yeast, or bacterial genes. One such gene, the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) thymidine kinase (TK) is widely used as a suicide gene in combination with ganciclovir. In the study reported here, a restricted set of random sequences (semirandom) was introduced into the active site of HSV-1 TK, and the resulting variants were selected on the basis of their ability to confer increased ganciclovir or acyclovir sensitivity toEscherichia coli. Sequence analysis demonstrated that functional mutants contained three to five amino acid substitutions that are unique and novel combinations. On the basis of enzyme assay results, three mutants were identified for further analysis in vitro. These three mutants conferred substantial increased sensitivity to both ganciclovir and acyclovir when compared with IC50s of wild-type TK expressing rat C6 glioma cells. One mutant, SR39, was further evaluated in a xenograft tumor model in nude mice. Expression of SR39 in tumors was shown to prevent tumor growth at prodrug dosages that did not affect wild-type HSV-1 TK-expressing tumors. The use of any of these mutants as a suicide gene should provide a more effective and safer alternative to wild-type TK, because lower, less immunosuppressive doses of ganciclovir will be necessary for tumor ablation, and the use of acyclovir may now be possible.
Extension of the Form-Closure Property to Underactuated Hands

The property of form-closure of a grasp, as generally defined in the literature, is based on the assumption that contact points between the hand and the object are fixed in space. However, this assumption is false when considering a grasp exerted by an underactuated hand, since, in this case, it is not possible to control the position of each phalanx independently. In spite of researchers' interest in studying form-closure, none of the available published work on this subject takes into consideration the particular kinematics of underactuated hands. Actually, there are few available tools to qualify or quantify the stability of a grasp exerted by an underactuated hand; thus, the design of underactuated hands mostly results from an intuitive approach. This paper aims to reduce this gap. A classification of underactuated hands is proposed, which is based on the expression of contact forces. This highlights the influence of nonbackdrivable mechanisms introduced in the transmission of the closing motion of the hand on the stability of the grasp. After demonstrating that the original definition of form-closure is not suitable for the underactuated grasps, a more general definition is formulated, which checks the stability of the assembly ``object + hand. '' Using this new definition, a geometric method is proposed for the analysis of first-order form-closure of an underactuated grasp, as well as a simple rule to design a hand capable of achieving first-order form-closed grasps. Finally, a method is proposed for the analysis of higher order form-closure of an underactuated grasp, which is based on a first-order model of the grasp.
Towards a regional innovation system? The role of a regional university

This is a study of development of a network towards an innovation system in the context of a cluster in mature electronics industry, and how the regional university can contribute as a catalyst in this process. Innovation is acknowledged as one of the most important factors on value creation. Promotion of innovation can be seen as the promotion of clustering and networking because innovation is more and more seen as the product of the co-ordinated efforts of many people distributed in different organisations, private as well as public. Hence a lot of effort and resources have been made to try to create and govern network and innovation systems, but they rarely succeed. A regional university may contribute in developing a network towards an innovation system by organizing tailored interorganizational courses, on the condition of a pedagogy based on network reflections. In this study of the long run effects of such a course I find a significant increased networking, some innovations and the further development of an innovation system. Network Reflections may thus be a concept by which universities can contribute as catalysts to institute forms of collaboration that energize networking, innovation, and the development towards innovation systems. Key-words Regional innovation systems; network; innovation; connectedness; ties; experienced reflections; network reflections Introduction The introduction of the notion ‘regional innovation systems’ (Lundvall, 1992; Cooke, 1998) in the early 1990s was a response to the challenges facing economic growth in Europe, because of globalization and the decreased importance of the national state. The concept combines the acknowledgement of local embedded knowledge as a vital source of innovative activity, and the idea that innovation is firmly linked to networks. Rather than taking place in a single spot, where a few bright actors are able to break out of the mainstream of thoughts and actions, innovation is more and more seen as the product of co-ordinated efforts of many people distributed in different organisations, private as well as public. From this perspective, the promotion of innovation can be seen as the promotion of networking and regional innovation systems. There is a substantial and rapidly growing literature about how innovative networks and regional innovation systems work (for an overview, see Hoang & Antoncic, 2003; Doloreux & Parto, in press; Cooke, in press). One should expect this literature to encompass broad discussion on how to create appropriate forms of co-operation, but such discussions are, however, relatively rare. The purpose of this paper is to raise and discuss this issue, how to create innovative regional networks.
Towards the Understanding of Gestures and Vocalization Coordination in Teaching Context

Nonverbal behaviors such as facial expressions, eye contact, gestures, postures and their coordination with voice tone and prosody have strong impact on the process of communicative interactions. Successful employment of nonverbal behaviors plays an important role in interpersonal communication in the classroom between students and the teacher. Student teachers need to improve their teaching skills, from communication to management, and prior to entering the classroom. To support these aspects of teacher preparation, we developed a virtual classroom environment, TeachLivE for teacher training, reflection and assessment purposes. In this work we investigate the connections between gestures and vocalization characteristics of participants in a teaching context for two settings within the TeachLivE environment. We have developed an immediate feedback application that is presented to the participants in one of the study settings. It provides visual cues to the participant in front of the tracking sensor any time that she exhibits a closed stance. Identification of these type of connections between acoustic and gestural components of communication provides an added dimension that could assist us in using machine learning methodologies to extract multimodal features as teaching competency measures.
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews the Roles of the Reward System in Sleep and Dreaming

Keywords: Sleep Dreaming Emotion Memory Learning Dopamine Mesolimbic dopaminergic system Reward system Ventral tegmental area Hippocampus Amygdala a b s t r a c t The mesolimbic dopaminergic system (ML-DA) allows adapted interactions with the environment and is therefore of critical significance for the individual's survival. The ML-DA system is implicated in reward and emotional functions, and it is perturbed in schizophrenia, addiction, and depression. The ML-DA reward system is not only recruited during wakeful behaviors, it is also active during sleep. Here, we introduce the Reward Activation Model (RAM) for sleep and dreaming, according to which activation of the ML-DA reward system during sleep contributes to memory processes, to the regulation of rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep, and to the generation and motivational content of dreams. In particular, the engagement of ML-DA and associated limbic structures prioritizes information with high emotional or motivational relevance for (re)processing during sleep and dreaming. The RAM provides testable predictions and has clinical implications for our understanding of the pathogenesis of major depression and addiction. to the neurotransmitters known as catecholamines, including dopamine. As a drug it is used to increase dopamine concentrations in the central nervous system for the clinical treatment of Parkinson's disease, for example.
CLASSIFICATION OF SHIPS AND SUBMARINES USING SELF-ORGANISING MAP ARCHITECTURE OF NEURAL NETWORKS

1. Introduction. The ships and submarines are detected and tracked at sea by Sonar, designed for the reception of underwater sound emitted by the vessels. Onboard vessels, the rotational and reciprocatory machinery components used for propulsion control and habitability, generate vibrations, which transmit through hull to appear as under water sound at the Sonar input. The prominent sources of these vibrations are propeller and main propulsion machinery, which generate acoustic characteristics unique to the vessel. The aim of this paper is to present an optimized classification of ship and submarine using Self-Organizing Map architecture of Neural Networks. 2. Classification Problem. The acoustic signals received by the front–end Sonar transducers are processed by the receiver. The target features are thus available at the output of Sonar Information Processor in three distinct signal-processing stages, namely the Broadband Spectrum output, the DEMON (Detection envelop modulation on noise) and the LOFAR output. This paper presents the classification of five distinct classes of vessels based on frequency tonal extracted at the output of LOFAR (Low frequency analysis and recording) receiver stage. The algorithm and the optimization techniques used are selected to provide a real-time classification feature. 3. Self-Organizing Map (SOM). The Kohenen model of SOM [1] is used for the above mentioned classification problem. The three stages of SOM algorithm namely Competitive, Cooperative and Synaptic Adaptation Process are used for training the network. The training input comprises of five dimensional vector space formed by attributes of Machinery frequency, Propeller frequency, Machinery noise level, Propeller noise level and the Speed as determined at the Sonar receiver. (a) Architecture: The SOM architecture is selected of two-dimensional lattice of 100 neurons with grid topology. Each neuron is fully connected to the source nodes through synaptic weights. (b) Input Data: The input layer consists of five nodes representing components of five dimensional input vector X. X = [x1 x2 x3 x4 x5] x1 : propeller frequency x2 : propeller noise level x3 : machinery noise frequency x4 : machinery noise level x5 : vessel speed Total of 10000 input samples, x 1 , x 2 ……. x 10000 , are used for training. Normalized Input vector is randomly generated from a range of values the respective attribute can attain. The uniform distribution is done so as probability of all classes represented for training is even. The distribution of sample vector in input space, for an attribute, is shown in …
Combining eigenvoice speaker modeling and VTS-based environment compensation for robust speech recognition

Eigenvoice and vector Taylor series (VTS) are good models for speaker differences and environmental variations separately. However, speaker and environmental variation always coexist in real-world speech. In this paper, we propose to combine eigenvoice and VTS. Specifically, we introduce eigenvoice speaker modeling for the clean speech into VTS's nonlinear mismatch function. In contrast, the standard VTS uses speaker-independent modeling to represent the clean speech, regardless of speaker differences. The eigenvoice coefficients and the noise model parameters are jointly estimated in the new approach. Experimental results on the Aurora2 task show the improved performances of combining eigenvoice and VTS and demonstrate its ability for speaker and noise factorization.
Dymanic Slicing of Object-Oriented Programs

Program slice has many applications such as program debugging, testing, maintenance, and complexity measurement. A static slice consists of all statements in program P that may a ect the value of variable v at some point p, and a dynamic slice consists only of statements that in uence the value of variable occurrence for speci c program inputs. In this paper, we concern the problem of dynamic slicing of object-oriented programs which, to our knowledge, has not been addressed in the literatures. To solve this problem, we present the dynamic object-oriented dependence graph (DODG) which is an arc-classi ed digraph to explicitly represent various dynamic dependences between statement instances for a particular execution of an object-oriented program. Based on the DODG, we present a two-phase algorithm for conmputing a dynamic slice of an object-oriented program.
An Update on the globcarbon initiative : multi-sensor estimation of global biophysical products for global terrestrial carbon studies

The ESA GLOBCARBON project aims to generate fu lly calibrated estimates of at-land products quasi- independent of the original Earth Observation source for use in Dynamic Global Vegetation Models, a central component of the IGBP-IHDP-WCRP Global Carbon Cycle Joint Project. The service features global estimates of: burned area, fAPAR, LAI and vegetation growth cycle. The demonstrator focused on six complete years, from 1998 to 2003 when overlap exists between ESA Earth Observation sensors (ATSR-2, AATSR and MERIS) and the French SPOT VEGETATION sensor and was extended to process 10 years up to 2007. After analysis, by the beta user community, of the first products the implementation of the algorithms was revisited and a reprocessing initiated. This paper provides details of the GLOBCARBON project and its revised algorithms, describes the re-processed products and gives initial results of their validation.