Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new hand gesture recognition algorithm based on joint color-depth Superpixel Earth Mover's Distance

This paper presents a novel hand gesture recognition algorithm based on Kinect. Using the depth and skeleton from Kinect, mark-less hand extraction is achieved. The hand shapes (depth) and corresponded textures (color) are represented in the form of superpixels, which better retain the overall shapes and color of the gestures to be recognized. Based on this representation, a novel distance metric, Superpixel Earth Mover's Distance (SP-EMD), is proposed to measure the dissimilarity between the hand gestures. The effectiveness of the proposed distance metric and recognition algorithm is illustrated by experimental results and a high mean accuracy of 98.8% for hand gesture recognition is achieved based on the joint color-depth SP-EMD.
Ameliorative effects of angiotensin receptor blockers against scopolamine-induced memory impairment in rats

ABSTRACT Objective: The present study was designed to investigate the cognitive enhancing property of angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) in scopolamineinduced amnesic rats. Methods: A total of 42 male Wistar rats were divided into seven groups. Group 1 received 2% gum acacia orally for 4 weeks, Group 2 received normal saline, and Group 3 received scopolamine (2 mg/kg/i.p.) as a single dose. Groups 4 and 5 received telmisartan (1.80 mg/kg and 3.60 mg/kg, respectively) while Groups 6 and 7 received losartan (2.25 mg/kg and 4.50 mg/kg, respectively), orally for 4 weeks, followed by scopolamine (2 mg/kg/i.p.) given 45 minutes prior to experimental procedure. Evaluation of learning and memory was assessed by using morris water maze test followed by estimation of hippocampal choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity. Alterations in hippocampal morphology and degree of neuronal survival were also analyzed following drug treatments. Results: Scopolamine-induced marked impairment of memory in the behavioral test which correlated with reduced ChAT activity and morphological changes in the hippocampus. Treatment with higher doses of telmisartan and losartan improved memory deficits in scopolamine-induced amnesic rats while increasing the hippocampal ChAT activity. The treatments also attenuated hippocampal degeneration and increased the number of surviving neurons in hippocampus scopolamine-induced amnesic rats. Conclusion: Pre-treatment with ARBs attenuated scopolamine-induced memory deficits which may be attributed to their angiotensin receptor blockade property or to improved cholinergic activity, and thus highlighting the potential of these drugs in dementia. Keywords: Angiotensin scopolamine, Amnesia, Angiotensin receptor blockers, Losartan, telmisartan
Energy-based surveillance systems for ATM machines

This paper presents a video surveillance system which can detect and deal with typical abnormal behaviors on Automatic Teller Machine (ATM), such as fraud and robbery, etc. Based on the case study of violent incident video records, a weighted kinetic energy extraction approach for violence identification is proposed. By using the new approach, the motion field is weighted with angle coefficient, thus reducing the video stream to a one-dimension energy series. Experimental results show that the ATM video surveillance system with energy approach is effective for typical incident classification and that the corresponding alarm signal is reliable.
On the Cramer-Rao lower bound and the performance of synchronizers for (turbo) encoded systems

We derive the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) for joint estimation of carrier phase, carrier frequency and timing from a noisy linearly modulated signal with coded data symbols. We obtain a closed-form expression for the CRB in terms of the marginal a posteriori probabilities of the coded symbols, allowing efficient numerical evaluation of the bound. We find that at low SNR, the CRB for coded transmission is considerably smaller than the CRB for uncoded transmission. We show that practical synchronizers that make clever use of the code properties yield a mean-square estimation error that is close to the CRB for coded transmission.
Promoting Joint Attention with Computer Supported Collaboration in Children with Autism

There exists mounting evidence in favor of computer supported autism interventions at the individual level. However, the potential benefits of using computer supported collaboration to encourage social interactions between individuals with autism and typically developed individuals are underexplored, particularly in developing regions. We present an exploratory study of a collaborative gesture-based application, Balloons. The application encourages joint attention, which is defined as the shared attention between two individuals towards the same object. Using mixed methods, we evaluated Balloons for three weeks in New Delhi with ten medium-low functioning autistic children. Our findings suggest that employing CSC interventions for children with autism in India provide (a) observable improvements in social interaction with typically developed peers, (b) the opportunity to customize and individualize intervention to cater to a large spectrum of children and (c) the potential opportunity of reducing fears of certain objects.
Unique clustering of A‐type potassium channels on different cell types of the main olfactory bulb

Theoretical and functional studies predicted a highly non‐uniform distribution of voltage‐gated ion channels on the neuronal surface. This was confirmed by recent immunolocalization experiments for Na+, Ca2+, hyperpolarization activated mixed cation and K+ channels. These experiments also indicated that some K+ channels were clustered in synaptic or non‐synaptic membrane specializations. Here we analysed the subcellular distribution of Kv4.2 and Kv4.3 subunits in the rat main olfactory bulb at high resolution to address whether clustering characterizes their distribution, and whether they are concentrated in synaptic or non‐synaptic junctions. The cell surface distribution of the Kv4.2 and Kv4.3 subunits is highly non‐uniform. Strong Kv4.2 subunit‐immunopositive clusters were detected in intercellular junctions made by mitral, external tufted and granule cells (GCs). We also found Kv4.3 subunit‐immunopositive clusters in periglomerular (PGC), deep short‐axon and GCs. In the juxtaglomerular region some calretinin‐immunopositive glial cells enwrap neighboring PGC somata in a cap‐like manner. Kv4.3 subunit clusters are present in the cap membrane that directly contacts the PGC, but not the one that faces the neuropil. In membrane specializations established by members of the same cell type, K+ channels are enriched in both membranes, whereas specializations between different cell types contain a high density of channels asymmetrically. None of the K+ channel‐rich junctions showed any of the ultrastructural features of known chemical synapses. Our study provides evidence for highly non‐uniform subcellular distributions of A‐type K+ channels and predicts their involvements in novel forms of intercellular communication in the olfactory pathway.
Population Growth, Agricultural Capital, and the Development of a Dual Economy

David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus saw the problem of population growth and attendant diminishing returns to labor as a major economic problem. Diminishing returns to labor led, of course, to the gloomy Malthusian law of population growth limited only by the subsistence wage of labor. In contrast, neoclassical growth theory which is characterized by its optimistic outlook on an economy's ability to achieve balanced growth shunts aside the problem of population growth and diminishing returns to labor as a mere qualification to the main argument. The difference between the conclusions of classical and neoclassical growth theories stems from their assumptions concerning the production function. In classical theory, land enters the production function as a factor limiting the level of output; its fixity in supply then characterizes the production function by diminishing returns to scale. The neoclassical conclusion of a stable balanced growth, on the other hand, is based on the assumption that production processes proceed by constant returns to scale with respect to capital and labor; land does not enter the production function as a factor limiting the level of output. The neoclassical conclusion may be valid in a situation in which land is a-free good: its supply increases in proportion to other factors at zero price. The United States in the early nineteenth century represented such a situation when the frontier was defined simply as uncleared land. The neoclassical conclusion may also be applied to a highly indtustrialized state of an economy in which the proportion of agriculture is small and in which the agricultural sector is highly modernized. In today's less developed countries, however, a traditional agricultural sector is dominant in the national economy. For such an economv, classical theory, rather than neoclassical, is the more relevant. Conventional theories of development, such as those developed by Arthur Lewis, John Fei and Gustav Ranis, Dale Jorgenson, Paul Zarembka, Ryuzo Sato and the author, have specified the agricultural production condition by the classical assumption of diminishing returns to scale. ' Conclusions derived by these studies clarified the problem of development as one of the balance between two forces: productivity increases in agriculture caused by various forms of technical progress; and the forces of diminishing
MODIS leaf area index products: from validation to algorithm improvement

Global products of vegetation green Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation absorbed by vegetation (FPAR) are being operationally produced from Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) at 1-km resolution and eight-day frequency. This paper summarizes the experience of several collaborating investigators on validation of MODIS LAI products and demonstrates the close connection between product validation and algorithm refinement activities. The validation of moderate resolution LAI products includes three steps: 1) field sampling representative of LAI spatial distribution and dynamic range within each major land cover type at the validation site; 2) development of a transfer function between field LAI measurements and high resolution satellite data to generate a reference LAI map over an extended area; and 3) comparison of MODIS LAI with aggregated reference LAI map at patch (multipixel) scale in view of geo-location and pixel shift uncertainties. The MODIS LAI validation experiences, summarized here, suggest three key factors that influence the accuracy of LAI retrievals: 1) uncertainties in input land cover data, 2) uncertainties in input surface reflectances, and 3) uncertainties from the model used to build the look-up tables accompanying the algorithm. This strategy of validation efforts guiding algorithm refinements has led to progressively more accurate LAI products from the MODIS sensors aboard NASA's Terra and Aqua platforms
emembrance of things touched : How sensorimotor experience affects the eural instantiation of object form obyn

Numerous neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies have highlighted the role of the ventral, occipitotemporal visual processing stream in the representation and retrieval of semantic memory for the appearance of objects. Here, we examine the role of the parietal cortex in retrieval of object shape information. fMRI data were acquired as subjects listened to the names of common objects and made judgments vailable online 7 August 2008
Exact and efficient analytical calculation of the accessible surface areas and their gradients for macromolecules

A new method for exact analytical calculation of the accessible surface areas and their gradients with respect to atomic coordinates is described. The new surface routine, GETAREA, finds solvent‐exposed vertices of intersecting atoms, and thereby avoids calculating buried vertices which are not needed to determine the accessible surface area by the Gauss–Bonnet theorem. The surface routine was implemented in FANTOM, a program for energy minimization and Monte Carlo simulation, and tested for accuracy and efficiency in extensive energy minimizations of Met‐enkephalin, the α‐amylase inhibitor tendamistat, and avian pancreatic polypeptide (APP). The CPU time for the exact calculation of the accessible surface areas and their gradients has been reduced by factors of 2.2 (Met‐enkephalin) and 3.2 (tendamistat) compared with our previous approach. The efficiency of our exact method is similar to the recently described approximate methods MSEED and SASAD. The performance of several atomic solvation parameter sets was tested in searches for low energy conformations of APP among conformations near the native X‐ray crystal structure and highly distorted structures. The protein solvation parameters from Ooi et al. [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 84, 3086 (1987)] and from Wesson and Eisenberg [Prot. Sci., 1, 227 (1992)] showed a good correlation between solvation energies of the conformations and their root‐mean‐square deviations from the X‐ray crystal structure of APP. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 19: 319–333, 1998
Regional Air Quality and Happiness in Germany

Previous research has analyzed the impact of air pollution on life satisfaction (“happiness”) based on both subjective perceptions of environmental quality and objectively measured pollution data. This article combines these two types of environmental data in life satisfaction regressions and investigates using an instrumental variable (IV)-ordered probit approach whether perceived air quality is endogenous with respect to happiness. We find combining German 2004 socioeconomic panel data with annual readings for sulfur dioxide (SO2), NO x , and PM10 by the Umweltbundesamt (UBA; German Environmental Protection Agency) for counties that people bothered by air pollution feel less happy but that simultaneously unhappy people feel more disturbed by air pollution. Controlling for this simultaneity in an IV-ordered probit approach reveals that perceived air pollution does not have a statistically significant effect on life satisfaction anymore. We also find econometric evidence that air pollution is fully capitalized in the housing market.
RNA Sensors Enable Human Mast Cell Anti-Viral Chemokine Production and IFN-Mediated Protection in Response to Antibody-Enhanced Dengue Virus Infection

Dengue hemorrhagic fever and/or dengue shock syndrome represent the most serious pathophysiological manifestations of human dengue virus infection. Despite intensive research, the mechanisms and important cellular players that contribute to dengue disease are unclear. Mast cells are tissue-resident innate immune cells that play a sentinel cell role in host protection against infectious agents via pathogen-recognition receptors by producing potent mediators that modulate inflammation, cell recruitment and normal vascular homeostasis. Most importantly, mast cells are susceptible to antibody-enhanced dengue virus infection and respond with selective cytokine and chemokine responses. In order to obtain a global view of dengue virus-induced gene regulation in mast cells, primary human cord blood-derived mast cells (CBMCs) and the KU812 and HMC-1 mast cell lines were infected with dengue virus in the presence of dengue-immune sera and their responses were evaluated at the mRNA and protein levels. Mast cells responded to antibody-enhanced dengue virus infection or polyinosiniċpolycytidylic acid treatment with the production of type I interferons and the rapid and potent production of chemokines including CCL4, CCL5 and CXCL10. Multiple interferon-stimulated genes were also upregulated as well as mRNA and protein for the RNA sensors PKR, RIG-I and MDA5. Dengue virus-induced chemokine production by KU812 cells was significantly modulated by siRNA knockdown of RIG-I and PKR, in a negative and positive manner, respectively. Pretreatment of fresh KU812 cells with supernatants from dengue virus-infected mast cells provided protection from subsequent infection with dengue virus in a type I interferon-dependent manner. These findings support a role for tissue-resident mast cells in the early detection of antibody-enhanced dengue virus infection via RNA sensors, the protection of neighbouring cells through interferon production and the potential recruitment of leukocytes via chemokine production.
A Resource Minimizing Scheduling Algorithm with Ensuring the Deadline and Reliability in Heterogeneous Systems

The distributed system made the large-scale scientific computing possible in a cost effective way. And the hardware resources in such systems are also getting much cheaper than years before. However, the problem of executing the job using minimum resources is still reasonable and important, especially for the cloud environment, who has to save energy and control cost. Unfortunately, only a few existing scheduling algorithms have taken into account the resource usage issue. In this study, with considering the realistic network topology and communication model, we firstly propose the Deadline, Reliability, Resources-aware (DRR) scheduling algorithm. The theory analysis fully demonstrate that, the output schedule of our algorithm can satisfy the user's requirement on reliability and deadline. Through the experiments, with setting the deadline less than the make span of the MaxRe algorithm's output schedule, we find that our algorithm can complete the job under this deadline. Besides, our algorithm can save almost 50% computation resources and 70% communication resources than FTSA (bl) and FTSA (tl+bl) algorithms.
A far-infrared survey of molecular cloud cores

We present a catalogue of molecular cloud cores drawn from high-latitude, medium-opacity clouds, using the all-sky IRAS Sky Survey Atlas (ISSA) images at 60 and 100 μm. The typical column densities of the cores are N(H2)∼3.8×1021 cm−2 and the typical volume densities are n(H2)∼2×103 cm−3. They are therefore significantly less dense than many other samples obtained in other ways. Those cloud cores with IRAS point sources are seen to be already forming stars, but this is found to be only a small fraction of the total number of cores. The fraction of the cores at the protostellar stage is used to estimate the pre-stellar time-scale – the time until the formation of a hydrostatically supported protostellar object. We argue, on the basis of a comparison with other samples, that a trend exists for the pre-stellar lifetime of a cloud core to decrease with the mean column density and number density of the core. We compare this with model predictions and show that the data are consistent with star formation regulated by the ionization fraction.
Optimizing 3D triangulations using discrete curvature analysis

A tool for constructing a "good" 3D triangulation of a given set of vertices in 3D is developed and studied. The constructed triangulation is "optimal" in the sense that it locally minimizes a cost function which measures a certain discrete curvature over the resulting triangle mesh. Th algorithm for obtaining the optimal trianulation is that of swapping edges sequentially, such that the cost function is reduced maximally by each swap. In this paper three easy-to-compute cost functions are derived using a simple model for defining discrete curvatures of triangle meshes. The results obtained by the different cost functions are compared. Operating on data sampled from simple 3D models, we compare the approximation error of the resulting optimal triangle meshes to the sampled model in various nornms. The conclusion is that all three cost functions lead to similar results, and none of them can be said to be superior to the others. The triangle meshes generated by our algorithm, when serving as initial triangle meshes for the butterfly subdivision scheme, are found to improve significantly the limit butterfly-surfaces compared to arbitrary initial triangulation of the given sets of vertices. Based upon this observation, we believe that any algorithm operating on triangle meshes such as subdivision, finite element solution of PDE, or mesh simplification, can obtain better results if applied to a "good" triangle mesh with small discrete curvatures. Thus our algorithm can serve for modelling surfaces from sampled data as well as for initialization of other triangle mesh based algorithms.
TCP for Wireless Networks ` 1 TCP for Wireless Networks

TCP is a reliable end-to-end transport protocol tuned to perform well in traditional wired networks where the packet losses are primarily due to congestion. However, networks with wireless links show a marked increase in losses because of higher bit error rates (BER) and handoffs. If TCP is applied to such networks without any modification, it interprets these transmission losses as congestion losses and invokes congestion control mechanisms that unnecessarily decrease the network throughput. In this paper, we have discussed various approaches for improved TCP performance over networks with
Removal of High Density Noise in Digital Images using Decision based IQA Algorithm

A New decision based algorithm is proposed for restoration of images that are highly corrupted by impulse noise. The new algorithm shows significantly better image quality than a standard median filter adaptive median filter, threshold decomposition filter and Non-linear filters . The proposed method unlike other non-linear filters, removes only corrupted pixel by the median value or by its neighboring pixel value. As the result of this, the proposed method removes the noise effectively even at noise level as high as 90% and preserves the edges without any lose up to 80% of noisy level the proposed algorithm is tested on different images and is found to produce better results in terms of the qualitative and quantitative measures of the image. I. Introduction Noise removal from a contaminated image signal is still a challenging problem for researchers. Many researchers have suggested a large number of algorithms and compared their results. The main thrust on all such algorithms is to remove impulsive noise while preserving image details. Impulse noises are short duration noises which degrade an image. They may occur during image acquisition, due to switching, sensor temperature. They may also occur due to interference in the channel and due to atmospheric disturbances during image transmission. These schemes differ in their basic methodologies applied to suppress noise. Some schemes utilize detection of impulsive noise followed by filtering whereas others filter all the pixels irrespective of corruption. The goal of the filtering action is to cancel noise while preserving the integrity of edge and detail information. In this paper, different filtering algorithms are used for the removal of impulse noise in digital images. The performance of filtering methods is evaluated with different noise density using ROI-SSIM[14] image quality assessment method. This paper is organized as follows: Section II present different filtering algorithms, Section III presents Decision based image quality assessment method, Section IV presents Experimental results and finally Section V reports conclusion.