Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Segmentation and Shape Extraction from Convolutional Neural Networks

We propose a novel method for creating high-resolution class activation maps from a given deep convolutional neural network which was trained for image classification. The resulting class activation maps not only provide information about the localization of the main objects and their instances in the image, but are also accurate enough to predict their shapes. Rather than pursuing a weakly supervised learning strategy, the proposed algorithm is a multiscale extension of the classical class activation maps using a principal component analysis of the classification network feature maps, guided filtering, and a conditional random field. Nevertheless, the resulting shape information is competitive with state-of-the-art weakly supervised segmentation methods on datasets on which the latter have been trained, while being significantly better at generalizing to other datasets and unknown classes.
Parental Communication, Engagement, and Support During the Adolescent Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision Experience

Abstract Background Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) is one of few opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa to engage male adolescents in the healthcare system. Limited data are available on the level of parental communication, engagement, and support adolescents receive during the VMMC experience. Methods We conducted 24 focus group discussions with parents/guardians of adolescents (N = 192) who agreed to be circumcised or were recently circumcised in South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. In addition, male adolescents (N = 1293) in South Africa (n = 299), Tanzania (n = 498), and Zimbabwe (n = 496) were interviewed about their VMMC experience within 7–10 days postprocedure. We estimated adjusted prevalence ratios (aPRs) using multivariable Poisson regression with generalized estimating equations and robust standard errors. Results Parents/guardians noted challenges and gaps in communicating with their sons about VMMC, especially when they did not accompany them to the clinic. Adolescents aged 10–14 years were significantly more likely than 15- to 19-year-olds to report that their parent accompanied them to a preprocedure counseling session (56.5% vs 12.5%; P < .001). Among adolescents, younger age (aPR, 0.86; 95% confidence interval [CI], .76–.99) and rural setting (aPR, 0.34; 95% CI, .13–.89) were less likely to be associated with parental–adolescent communication barriers, while lower socioeconomic status (aPR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.00–1.87), being agnostic (or of a nondominant religion; aPR, 2.87; 95% CI, 2.21–3.72), and living in South Africa (aPR, 2.63; 95% CI, 1.29–4.73) were associated with greater perceived barriers to parental–adolescent communication about VMMC. Parents/guardians found it more difficult to be involved in wound care for older adolescents than for adolescents <15 years of age. Conclusions Parents play a vital role in the VMMC experience, especially for younger male adolescents. Strategies are needed to inform parents completely throughout the VMMC adolescent experience, whether or not they accompany their sons to clinics.
Biochemical and MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometric Characterization of a Novel Native and Recombinant Cystine Knot Miniprotein from Solanum tuberosum subsp. andigenum cv. Churqueña

Cystine-knot miniproteins (CKMPs) are an intriguing group of cysteine-rich molecules that combine the characteristics of proteins and peptides. Typically, CKMPs are fewer than 50 residues in length and share a characteristic knotted scaffold characterized by the presence of three intramolecular disulfide bonds that form the singular knotted structure. The knot scaffold confers on these proteins remarkable chemical, thermal, and proteolytic stability. Recently, CKMPs have emerged as a novel class of natural molecules with interesting pharmacological properties. In the present work, a novel cystine-knot metallocarboxypeptidase inhibitor (chuPCI) was isolated from tubers of Solanum tuberosum, subsp. andigenum cv. Churqueña. Our results demonstrated that chuPCI is a member of the A/B-type family of metallocarboxypeptidases inhibitors. chuPCI was expressed and characterized by a combination of biochemical and mass spectrometric techniques. Direct comparison of the MALDI-TOF mass spectra for the native and recombinant molecules allowed us to confirm the presence of four different forms of chuPCI in the tubers. The majority of such forms have a molecular weight of 4309 Da and contain a cyclized Gln in the N-terminus. The other three forms are derived from N-terminal and/or C-terminal proteolytic cleavages. Taken together, our results contribute to increase the current repertoire of natural CKMPs.
Linear prediction-based dereverberation with very deep convolutional neural networks for reverberant speech recognition

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been shown to improve classification tasks such as automatic speech recognition (ASR). Furthermore, the CNN with very deep architecture lowered the word error rate (WER) in reverberant and noisy environments. However, DNN-based ASR systems still perform poorly in unseen reverberant conditions. In this paper, we use the weighted prediction error (WPE)-based preprocessing for dereverberation. In our experiments on the ASR task of the REVERB Challenge 2014, the WPE-based processing with eight channels reduced the WER by 20% for the real-condition data using CNN acoustic models with 10 layers.
Vanlearning: A Machine Learning SaaS Application for People Without Programming Backgrounds

Although we have tons of machine learning tools to analyze data, most of them require users have some programming backgrounds. Here we introduce a SaaS application which allows users analyze their data without any coding and even without any knowledge of machine learning. Users can upload, train, predict and download their data by simply clicks their mouses. Our system uses data pre-processor and validator to relieve the computational cost of our server. The simple architecture of Vanlearning helps developers can easily maintain and extend it.
Executive Functions and Prosodic Abilities in Children With High-Functioning Autism

Little is known about the relationship between prosodic abilities and executive function skills. As deficits in executive functions (EFs) and prosodic impairments are characteristics of autism, we examined how EFs are related to prosodic performance in children with high-functioning autism (HFA). Fifteen children with HFA (M = 7.4 years; SD = 1.12), matched to 15 typically developing peers on age, gender, and non-verbal intelligence participated in the study. The Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech-Communication (PEPS-C) was used to assess prosodic performance. The Children’s Color Trails Test (CCTT-1, CCTT-2, and CCTT Interference Index) was used as an indicator of executive control abilities. Our findings suggest no relation between prosodic abilities and visual search and processing speed (assessed by CCTT-1), but a significant link between prosodic skills and divided attention, working memory/sequencing, set-switching, and inhibition (assessed by CCTT-2 and CCTT Interference Index). These findings may be of clinical relevance since difficulties in EFs and prosodic deficits are characteristic of many neurodevelopmental disorders. Future studies are needed to further investigate the nature of the relationship between impaired prosody and executive (dys)function.
The relationship between cardiovascular risk estimated by use of SCORE system and intima media thickness and flow mediated dilatation in a low risk population.

BACKGROUND The SCORE system is a simple, currently recommended method of cardiovascular risk assessment. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between SCORE risk and intima media thickness (IMT) and flow mediated dilatation (FMD) in a low risk population. METHODS 119 people (59 men) without known cardiovascular disease and estimated by means of SCORE system risk < 5%, were included in the study. The ultrasound method was used to assess brachial artery diameter (BAd), FMD, nitroglycerin mediated dilatation (NMD) of brachial artery and IMT of common carotid. FMD x BAd and FMD/NMD indexes representing hyperemia-induced vasodilatation independent of brachial artery properties were analyzed. RESULTS IMT measured was 0.52 +/- 0.08 mm; FMD: 17.5 +/- 7.8%; NMD: 27.0 +/- 9.0%; FMD x BAd: 58.2 +/- 22.4, FMD/NMD: 0.64 +/- 0.19. Independent predictor for both FMD and NMD was BAd (R(2) -0.31; p < 0.001; R(2) -0.44; p < 0.001; respectively), for FMD x BAd index and FMD/NMD index was IMT (R(2) -0.04; p = 0.02; R(2) -0.04; p = 0.015) in a multivariate analysis. Risk estimated by use of the SCORE system was between 0 and 4% (median-1, 25-75 Q: 0-2). A relationship between SCORE risk and IMT (ANOVA p < 0.001), FMD (ANOVA p < 0.001), NMD (ANOVA p < 0.001), FMD x BAd index (ANOVA p = 0.017), but not FMD/NMD index (ANOVA p = 0.27), was found. CONCLUSIONS The association of a simple stratifying scale (SCORE system) with indices of early vascular remodeling in a low risk population supports its clinical significance.
Correction: Tissue Expression Pattern of PMK-2 p38 MAPK Is Established by the miR-58 Family in C. elegans

Analyses of gene expression profiles in evolutionarily diverse organisms have revealed a role for microRNAs in tuning tissue-specific gene expression. Here, we show that the relatively abundant and constitutively expressed miR-58 family of microRNAs sharply defines the tissue-specific expression of the broadly transcribed gene encoding PMK-2 p38 MAPK in Caenorhabditis elegans. Whereas PMK-2 functions redundantly with PMK-1 in the nervous system to regulate neuronal development and behavioral responses to pathogenic bacteria, the miR-58, miR-80, miR-81, and miR-82 microRNAs function redundantly to destabilize pmk-2 mRNA in non-neuronal cells with switch-like potency. Our data suggest a role for the miR-58 family in the establishment of neuronal-specific gene expression in C. elegans, and support a more general role for microRNAs in the establishment of tissue-specific gene expression.
Numerical analysis of Residual Stresses in Welding Process Using Shell to Solid Coupling Technique

It is well known that in the process of welding, due to localised heating and subsequent sudden cooling, some undesirable residual stresses and deformations could appear in the welded material. Such stresses and deformations may cause serious problems in welded construction. Combination of strong tensile residual stresses and stresses due to a workload in the area of welded joint could accelerate the initiation of a fatigue crack, brittle fracture or stress corrosion cracking. In order to estimate residual stresses, in the past 30 years, finite element method has successfully been used, by which it is tried to substitute a rather expensive experiment. In so doing, there are still numerous questions to be answered in order to get numerical analysis of the welding process more precise and efficient. With the aim to increase the accuracy of the numerical analysis, in the research presented in this article, the analysis of residual stresses in butt-weld of two pipes and in butt-weld two plates were carried out with the application of shell to solid coupling technique and element birth and death technique. Shell to solid coupling technique, based on junction of three-dimensional and shell model, was proved to be very efficient for this purpose. The influence of the three-dimensional model size on accuracy of results was examined. The accuracy of the computational procedure is tested by comparing the computed results with the real experimental data.
Spectral-efficiency of multicarrier sparse-mapping non-orthogonal multiple-access systems: Downlink

In this paper, we propose a non-orthogonal multiple-access (NOMA) scheme, namely the multicarrier sparse-mapping NOMA (MC/SM-NOMA), for supporting downlink data transmission in the scenarios where user load might be very heavy. Our MC/SM-NOMA scheme allows information to one user to be conveyed by multiple subcarrier channels, and each subcarrier channel to be shared by multiple (two or more) users. We consider two subcarrier-allocation schemes and the subcarrier-by-subcarrier optimum power-allocation. The performance of the MC/SM-NOMA systems employing the proposed subcarrier- and power-allocation schemes is investigated in terms of spectral-efficiency based on simulations. Our studies demonstrate that the MC/SM-NOMA scheme is beneficial to high-flexibility implementation of NOMA for various purposes. Furthermore, allowing more users to share one subcarrier channel is capable of significantly increasing the achievable spectral-efficiency.
Exploration of the 3D World on the Internet Using Commodity Virtual Reality Devices

This article describes technical basics and applications of graphically interactive and online Virtual Reality (VR) frameworks. It automatically extracts and displays left and right stereo images from the Internet search engines, e.g., Google Image Search. Within a short waiting time, many 3D related results are returned to the users regarding aligned left and right stereo photos; these results are viewable through VR glasses. The system automatically filters different types of available 3D data from redundant pictorial datasets on the public networks (the Internet). To reduce possible copyright issues, only the search for images that are “labelled for reuse” is performed; meaning that the obtained pictures can be used for any purpose, in any area, without being modified. The system then automatically specifies if the picture is a side-by-side stereo pair, an anaglyph, a stereogram, or just a “normal” 2D image (not optically 3D viewable). The system then generates a stereo pair from the collected dataset, to seamlessly display 3D visualisation on State-of-the-art VR devices such as the low-cost Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear VR or Google Daydream. These devices are used to provide an immediate, controllable 3D display. In this article, we propose an image type classification technique that dynamically extracts co-aligned stereo pairs with rich 3D visualisation to VR viewers. This system is portable, simple to set up and operate. From some initial experiment results; our system is shown to be relatively fast, accurate, and easy to implement. With such system, Internet users all over theWorld could easily visualise millions of real life stereo datasets publicly available on the Internet; which are believed to be useful for VR testing and learning purposes.
An Extension of the Nemhauser--Trotter Theorem to Generalized Vertex Cover with Applications

The Nemhauser-Trotter theorem provides an algorithm which is frequently used as a subroutine in approximation algorithms for the classical Vertex Cover problem. In this paper we present an extension of this theorem so it fits a more general variant of Vertex Cover, namely, the Generalized Vertex Cover problem, where edges are allowed not to be covered at a certain predetermined penalty. We show that many applications of the original Nemhauser-Trotter theorem can be applied using our extension to Generalized Vertex Cover. These applications include a $(2-2/d)$-approximation algorithm for graphs of bounded degree $d$, a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) for planar graphs, a $(2-\lg\lg n/2\lg n)$-approximation algorithm for general graphs, and a $2k$ kernel for the parameterized Generalized Vertex Cover problem.
Optimization of Location–Routing Problem for Cold Chain Logistics Considering Carbon Footprint

In order to solve the optimization problem of logistics distribution system for fresh food, this paper provides a low-carbon and environmental protection point of view, based on the characteristics of perishable products, and combines with the overall optimization idea of cold chain logistics distribution network, where the green and low-carbon location–routing problem (LRP) model in cold chain logistics is developed with the minimum total costs as the objective function, which includes carbon emission costs. A hybrid genetic algorithm with heuristic rules is designed to solve the model, and an example is used to verify the effectiveness of the algorithm. Furthermore, the simulation results obtained by a practical numerical example show the applicability of the model while provide green and environmentally friendly location-distribution schemes for the cold chain logistics enterprise. Finally, carbon tax policies are introduced to analyze the impact of carbon tax on the total costs and carbon emissions, which proves that carbon tax policy can effectively reduce carbon dioxide emissions in cold chain logistics network.
The Relationship among Complex Fractionated Electrograms, Wavebreak, Phase Singularity, and Local Dominant Frequency in Fibrillation Wave-Dynamics: a Modeling Comparison Study

Although complex fractionated electrogram (CFE) is known to be a target for catheter ablation of fibrillation, its physiological meaning in fibrillation wave-dynamics remains to be clarified. We evaluated the spatiotemporal relationships among the parameters of fibrillation wave-dynamics by simulation modeling. We generated maps of CFE-cycle length (CFE-CL), local dominant frequency (LDF), wave break (WB), and phase singularity (PS) of fibrillation in 2-dimensional homogeneous bidomain cardiac modeling (1,000 × 1,000 cells ten Tusscher model). We compared spatiotemporal correlations by dichotomizing each maps into 10 × 10 lattice zones. In spatial distribution, WB and PS showed excellent correlation (R = 0.963, P < 0.001). CFE-CL had weak correlations with WB (R = 0.288, P < 0.001), PS (R = 0.313, P < 0.001), and LDF (R = -0.411, P < 0.001). However, LDF did not show correlation with PS or WB. PSs were mostly distributed at the periphery of low CFE-CL area. Virtual ablation (5% of critical mass) of CFE-CL < 100 ms terminated fibrillation at 14.3 sec, and high LDF ablation (5% of critical mass) changed fibrillation to organized tachycardia, respectively. In homogeneous 2D fibrillation modeling, CFE-CL was weakly correlated with WB, PS, and LDF, spatiotemporally. PSs are mostly positioned at the periphery of low CFE-CL areas, and virtual ablation targeting low CFE-CL regions terminated fibrillation successfully. Graphical Abstract
Secure Retrospective Interference Alignment

In this paper, the K-user interference channel with secrecy constraints is considered with delayed channel state information at transmitters (CSIT). We propose a novel secure retrospective interference alignment scheme in which the transmitters carefully mix information symbols with artificial noises to ensure confidentiality. Achieving positive secure degrees of freedom (SDoF) is challenging due to the delayed nature of CSIT, and the distributed nature of the transmitters. Our scheme works over two phases: Phase one, in which each transmitter sends information symbols mixed with artificial noises, and repeats such transmission over multiple rounds. In the next phase, each transmitter uses the delayed CSIT of the previous phase and sends a function of the net interference and artificial noises (generated in previous phase), which is simultaneously useful for all receivers. These phases are designed to ensure the decodability of the desired messages while satisfying the secrecy constraints. We present our achievable scheme for three models, namely: (1) K-user interference channel with confidential messages (IC-CM), and we show that 12(K−6) SDoF is achievable; (2) K-user interference channel with an external eavesdropper (IC-EE); and (3) K-user IC with confidential messages and an external eavesdropper (IC-CM-EE). We show that for the K-user IC-EE, 12(K−3) SDoF is achievable, and for the K-user IC-CM-EE, 12(K−6) is achievable. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first result on the K-user interference channel with secrecy constrained models and delayed CSIT that achieves an SDoF which scales with K, square-root of number of users.
Understanding the Relationship Between Female Sex Workers and Their Intimate Partners: Lessons and Initial Findings From Participatory Research in North Karnataka, South India

While traditional HIV prevention programs with female sex workers (FSWs) in Karnataka, India, have focused on reducing HIV transmission between FSWs and clients through increased condom use, these programs have not fully addressed the transmission risk between FSWs and their nonpaying intimate partners (IPs). Condom use is infrequent and violence is recurrent in these relationships: Furthermore, there is little evidence on the precise nature of FSW–IP relationships. Our study addresses this knowledge gap to inform HIV programs targeted at FSWs. A series of workshops, using participatory tools, was held to explore FSW-IP relationships; 31 FSWs and 37 IPs participated. Three aspects of FSW–IP relationships were examined: how FSWs and IPs understand and interpret their relationships, factors influencing condom use, and the role of violence and its consequences. FSWs wish to be perceived as their IPs’ wives, while IPs expect their FSW partners to accept their dominance in the relationship. Nonuse of condoms signals fidelity and elevates the status of the relationship almost to that of marriage, which helps FSWs enter the category of “good” (married) women. Tolerating and accepting violence in these relationships is normative, as in other marital relationships; IPs justify violence as necessary to establish and maintain their power within the relationship. Both FSWs and IPs value their relationships despite the high degree of risk posed by low condom use and high levels of violence. Implications for program design include addressing current norms around masculinity and gender roles, and improving communication within relationships.
What Makes a Video a Video: Analyzing Temporal Information in Video Understanding Models and Datasets

The ability to capture temporal information has been critical to the development of video understanding models. While there have been numerous attempts at modeling motion in videos, an explicit analysis of the effect of temporal information for video understanding is still missing. In this work, we aim to bridge this gap and ask the following question: How important is the motion in the video for recognizing the action? To this end, we propose two novel frameworks: (i) class-agnostic temporal generator and (ii) motion-invariant frame selector to reduce/remove motion for an ablation analysis without introducing other artifacts. This isolates the analysis of motion from other aspects of the video. The proposed frameworks provide a much tighter estimate of the effect of motion (from 25% to 6% on UCF101 and 15% to 5% on Kinetics) compared to baselines in our analysis. Our analysis provides critical insights about existing models like C3D, and how it could be made to achieve comparable results with a sparser set of frames.