Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
FFS-VA: A Fast Filtering System for Large-scale Video Analytics

Surveillance video cameras are ubiquitous around us. Full-feature object-detection models such as YOLOv2 can automatically analyze surveillance videos in real-time with high accuracy while consuming huge computational resources. Directly applying these models for practical scenarios with large-scale deployed cameras requires prohibitively expensive computation. This, however, is both wasteful and unnecessary considering the fact that the concerned anomalous events occur rarely among these massive volumes of video streams. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a Fast Filtering System for Video Analytics (FFS-VA), a pipelined multi-stage video analyzing system, to make video analytics much cost-effective. FFS-VA is designed to filter out vast but non-target-object frames by two prepositive stream-specialized filters and a small full-function tiny-YOLO model, to drastically reduce the number of video frames arriving at the full-feature model in the back-end. FFS-VA presents a global feedback-queue mechanism to balance the processing rates of different filters in both intra-stream and inter-stream processes. FFS-VA also designs a dynamic batch technique to achieve an adjustable trade-off between throughput and latency. FFS-VA reasonably distributes all tasks on CPUs and GPUs to fully exploit the underlying hardware resources. We implement a FFS-VA prototype and evaluate FFS-VA against the state-of-the-art YOLOv2 under the same hardware and representative video workloads. The experimental results show that under a 10% target-object occurrence rate on two GPUs, FFS-VA can support up to 30 concurrent video streams (7x more than YOLOv2) in the online case, and obtain 3x speedup when offline analyzing a stream, with an accuracy loss of less than 2%.
Inequality in Responsiveness

Objective: Responsiveness refers to meeting the legitimate expectations of people who interact with the health system. This study aimed to assess the presence of any inequality in responsiveness based on the different sociodemographic groups. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in Tehran. A total of 610 people with a physical disability from 10 comprehensive physical rehabilitation centers (5 public and 5 private) were included in the study through quota sampling. Data were gathered using the World Health Organization Standard Responsiveness Questionnaire and a sociodemographic checklist. Relative inequality indices were used for the analytical statistics. Results: Study respondents between 18 and 59 years and those equal to or older than 60 years formed 78.1% (475/610) and 21.9% (133/610) of the total study sample, respectively. The study sample consisted of 298 (48.7%) women and 312 (51.3%) men, and their mean age was 46.4 and 45.6 years, respectively. No significant inequality was found in responsiveness of total centers based on the socioeconomic status of the study participants. However, in the private comprehensive physical rehabilitation centers, significant inequality was found in responsiveness based on residential area per capita, with more reporting of poor responsiveness by people with physical disability in the lower residential area per capita quintiles (Wagstaff index [WI] = −0.262; P = .01). Inequality in responsiveness was also found in the public centers based on education level, with poorer experience in people with higher level of education quintiles (WI = 0.163; P = .02). Conclusion: In the private sector, economic issues are the main reason for the poorer experiences. Furthermore, residential area per capita showed to be a more sensitive index among economic indices to measure inequality. In public sector, education level was the key social factor. More attention and interventions need to be implemented by mid-level policymakers and rehabilitation service providers to meet the needs of people with physical disability.
2D shading for cel animation

We present a semi-automatic method for creating shades and self-shadows in cel animation. Besides producing attractive images, shades and shadows provide important visual cues about depth, shapes, movement and lighting of the scene. In conventional cel animation, shades and shadows are drawn by hand. As opposed to previous approaches, this method does not rely on a complex 3D reconstruction of the scene: its key advantages are simplicity and ease of use. The tool was designed to stay as close as possible to the natural 2D creative environment and therefore provides an intuitive and user-friendly interface. Our system creates shading based on hand-drawn objects or characters, given very limited guidance from the user. The method employs simple yet very efficient algorithms to create shading directly out of drawn strokes. We evaluate our system through a subjective user study and provide qualitative comparison of our method versus existing professional tools and state of the art.
The Cranberry Extract Oximacro® Exerts in vitro Virucidal Activity Against Influenza Virus by Interfering With Hemagglutinin

The defense against influenza virus (IV) infections still poses a series of challenges. The current antiviral arsenal against influenza viruses is in fact limited; therefore, the development of new anti-influenza strategies effective against antigenically different viruses is an urgent priority. Bioactive compounds derived from medicinal plants and fruits may provide a natural source of candidates for such broad-spectrum antivirals. In this regard, cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton) extracts on the basis of their recognized anti-adhesive activities against bacteria, may provide potential compounds able to prevent viral attachment to target cells. Nevertheless, only few studies have so far investigated the possible use of cranberry extracts as an antiviral tool. This study focuses on the suitability of a cranberry extract as a direct-acting anti-influenza compound. We show that the novel cranberry extract Oximacro® inhibits influenza A and B viruses (IAV, IBV) replication in vitro because of its high content of A-type proanthocyanidins (PAC-A) dimers and trimers. Mechanistic studies revealed that Oximacro® prevents attachment and entry of IAV and IBV into target cells and exerts a virucidal activity. Oximacro® was observed to interact with the ectodomain of viral hemagglutinin (HA) glycoprotein, thus suggesting the interference with HA functions and a consequent loss of infectivity of IV particles. Fluorescence spectroscopy revealed a reduction in the intrinsic fluorescence of HA protein after incubation with purified dimeric PAC-A (PAC-A2), thus confirming a direct interaction between HA and Oximacro® PAC-A2. In silico docking simulations further supported the in vitro results and indicated that among the different components of the Oximacro® chemical profile, PAC-A2 exhibited the best binding propensity with an affinity below 10 nM. The role of PAC-A2 in the anti-IV activity of Oximacro® was eventually confirmed by the observation that it prevented IAV and IVB replication and caused the loss of infectivity of IV particles, thus indicating PAC-A2 as the major active component of Oximacro®. As a whole, these results suggest Oximacro® as a potential candidate to create novel antiviral agents of natural origin for the prevention of IV infections.
Relative validity and reproducibility of dietary quality scores from a short diet screener in a multi-ethnic Asian population

Abstract Objective Short screeners for assessing dietary quality are lacking in Asia. We recently developed a short thirty-seven-item diet screener (DS). The present study aimed to evaluate reproducibility and relative validity of the DS in assessing a priori dietary quality indices (DQI; i.e. the Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 (AHEI-2010), alternate Mediterranean Diet (aMed) and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet) and intakes of selected foods. Design DS administration and biomarker measurement took place twice within a 4-month interval. A 163-item FFQ was administered one month after the second DS administration. Setting Singapore, a multi-ethnic urban Asian country. Subjects Singapore residents (n 161) aged 18–79 years, of Chinese, Malay and Indian ethnicity. Results Reproducibility coefficients for the two DS were 0·71 (DQI) and 0·65 (food groups). Correlations (ρ) between mean DS and FFQ DQI scores were 0·51 (AHEI-2010), 0·50 (aMed) and 0·61 (DASH; all P<0·05). Cohen’s weighted kappa indicated moderate agreement between the two measures (κ w=0·48–0·58). DS DQI scores were associated with concentrations of β-cryptoxanthin (AHEI-2010, ρ=0·26; P<0·05), odd-chain SFA (aMed, ρ=0·24; DASH, ρ=0·25; both P<0·05), and enterolactone, total carotenoids, PUFA and α-linolenic acid (all scores, ρ=0·17–0·30; all P<0·05). Scores were not associated with isoflavone or long-chain n-3 PUFA concentrations. Conclusions A short screener can be used to assess DQI with good reproducibility and relative validity compared with a longer FFQ in an Asian population.
Debugging P4 programs with vera

We present Vera, a tool that verifies P4 programs using symbolic execution. Vera automatically uncovers a number of common bugs including parsing/deparsing errors, invalid memory accesses, loops and tunneling errors, among others. Vera can also be used to verify user-specified properties in a novel language we call NetCTL. To enable scalable, exhaustive verification of P4 program snapshots, Vera automatically generates all valid header layouts and uses a novel data-structure for match-action processing optimized for verification. These techniques allow Vera to scale very well: it only takes between 5s-15s to track the execution of a purely symbolic packet in the largest P4 program currently available (6KLOC) and can compute SEFL model updates in milliseconds. Vera can also explore multiple concrete dataplanes at once by allowing the programmer to insert symbolic table entries; the resulting verification highlights possible control plane errors. We have used Vera to analyze many P4 programs including the P4 tutorials, P4 programs in the research literature and the switch code from https://p4.org. Vera has found several bugs in each of them in seconds/minutes.
Investigating perception time in the far peripheral vision for virtual and augmented reality

Far peripheral vision (beyond 60° eccentricity) is beginning to be supported in the latest virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) headsets. This benefits the VR and AR experiences by allowing a greater amount of information to be conveyed, reducing visual clutter, and enabling subtle visual attention management. However, the visual properties of the far periphery are different from those of the central vision, because of the physiological differences between the areas on the visual cortex responsible for the respective vision types. In this paper, we investigate the perception time in the far peripheral vision, specifically the time it takes for a user to perceive a pattern at a high eccentricity. We have characterized the perception time in the far peripheral vision by conducting a user study on 40 participants in which the participants distinguish between two types of patterns displayed at several sizes and at various eccentricities in their field of view. Our results show that at higher eccentricities, participants take longer to perceive a pattern. Based on user study data, we are able to characterize the desired scaling of patterns at higher eccentricities, so that they can be perceived within a similar amount of time as in the central vision.
Bionic Reflex Control Strategy for Robotic Finger with Kinematic Constraints

Estimating a proper grasping force for a prosthetic hand is a difficult problem. This is partly due to a lack of detailed sensory feedback. Application of too small a grasping force may allow an object to slip; on the contrary a large applied force may deform the grasped object. For a prosthetic hand, bionic reflex refers to reconstruction of the humanoid reflex control function. This paper presents a bionic reflex control strategy for a kinematically constrained robotic finger. Here, the bionic reflex is achieved through a force tracking impedance control strategy. The dynamic model of the finger is reduced subject to kinematic constraints. Thereafter, an impedance control strategy that allows exact tracking of forces is discussed. Simulation results for a single finger holding a rectangular object against a flat surface are presented. The response time for the proposed bionic reflex is of the order of milliseconds.
Joint Allocation of Computing and Wireless Resources to Autonomous Devices in Mobile Edge Computing

We consider the interaction between mobile edge computing (MEC) resource management and wireless devices that offload computationally intensive tasks through shared wireless links to edge cloud servers, so as to minimize their completion times. We model the interaction between the devices and the operator that optimizes the allocation of the wireless and computing resources as a Stackelberg game. We show that a pure strategy Stackelberg equilibrium exists, and we provide an efficient algorithm for computing equilibrium allocations. Our simulation results show that joint optimization of the wireless and computing resources can provide a significant reduction of completion times at little increase in computational complexity compared to a system where resource allocation is not optimized.
Scheduling at the Edge for Assisting Cloud Real-Time Systems

We study edge server support for multiple periodic real-time applications located in different clouds. The edge communicates both with sensor devices over wireless sensor networks and with applications over Internet type networks. The edge caches sensor data and can respond to multiple applications with different timing requirements to the data. The purpose of caching is to reduce the number of multiple direct accesses to the sensor since sensor communication is very energy expensive. However, the data will then age in the cache and eventually become stale for some application. A push update method and the concept of age of information is used to schedule data updates to the applications. An aging model for periodic updates is derived. We propose that the scheduling should take into account periodic sensor updates, the differences in the periodic application updates, the aging in the cache and communication variance. By numerical analysis we study the number of deadline misses for two different scheduling policies with respect to different periods.
Tree-sequent calculi and decision procedures for intuitionistic modal logics

In this article we define label-free sequent calculi for the intuitionistic modal logics obtained from the combinations of the axioms T, B, 4 and 5. These calculi are based on a multi-contextual sequent structure, called Tree-sequent, which allows us to define such calculi for such intuitionistic modal logics. From the calculi defined for the IK, IT, IB4 and ITB logics, we also provide new decision procedures and alternative syntactic proofs of decidability.
Multicomponent Model for the Prediction of Nuclear Waste/Rare-Earth Extraction Processes

We develop a minimal model for the prediction of solvent extraction. We consider a rare earth extraction system for which the solvent phase is similar to water-poor microemulsions. All physical molecular quantities used in the calculation can be measured separately. The model takes into account competition complexation, mixing entropy of complexed species, differences of salt concentrations between the two phases, and the surfactant nature of extractant molecules. We consider the practical case where rare earths are extracted from iron nitrates in the presence of acids with a common neutral complexing extractant. The solvent wetting of the reverse aggregates is taken into account via the spontaneous packing. All the water-in-oil reverse aggregates are supposed to be spherical on average. The minimal model captures several features observed in practice: reverse aggregates with different water and extractant content coexist dynamically with monomeric extractant molecules at and above a critical aggregate concentration (CAC). The CAC decreases upon the addition of electrolytes in the aqueous phase. The free energy of transfer of an ion to the organic phase is lower than the driving complexation. The commonly observed log–log relation used to determine the apparent stoichiometry of complexation is valid as a guideline but should be used with care. The results point to the fact that stoichiometry, as well as the probabilities of a particular aggregate, is dependent on the composition of the entire system, namely the extractant and the target solutes’ concentrations. Moreover, the experimentally observed dependence of the extraction efficiency on branching of the extractant chains in a given solvent can be quantified. The evolution of the distribution coefficient of particular rare earth, acid, or other different metallic cations can be studied as a function of initial extractant concentration through the whole region that is typically used by chemical engineers. For every chemical species involved in the calculation, the model is able to predict the exact equilibrium concentration in both the aqueous and the solvent phases at a given thermodynamic temperature.
Indirect Root Defenses Cause Induced Fitness Costs in Bt-Resistant Western Corn Rootworm

Abstract Plants genetically modified to produce insecticidal toxins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner (Bt) have been extensively used to manage the western corn rootworm (WCR), Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) in the United States. Evolution of WCR resistance to Bt toxins has forced the consideration of alternative pest management and improved insect resistance management. Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs), obligate insect parasites, are attracted toward volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by maize roots after WCR herbivory.The production of VOCs of two types of Bt maize (MON88017 and MIR604) and their near-isolines was evaluated after induction with Bt-susceptible and resistant WCR.The attraction of EPNs toward the Bt hybrids was tested in the laboratory and the field. Bt hybrids emitted VOCs when induced by Bt-resistant insects whereas induction by Bt-susceptible WCR did not elicit a plant response. Survival of Bt-resistant WCR was lower on the hybrid attracting EPNs and similar to the survival of Bt-susceptible WCR without EPNs. This trade-off of Bt-resistance is defined here as an induced fitness cost, and offers a viable tool to management of Bt-resistant WCR.
Picking a Partner: A Fair Blockchain Based Scoring Protocol for Autonomous Systems

We tackle the problem of enabling Autonomous Systems to evaluate network providers on the basis of their adherence to Service Level Agreements (SLAs) regarding interconnection agreements. In current Internet practices, choices of interconnection partners are driven by factors such as word of mouth, personal relationships, brand recognition and market intelligence, and not by proofs of previous performance. Given that Internet eXchange Points provide increasingly more peering choices, rudimentary schemes for picking interconnection partners are not adequate anymore. Although the current interconnection ecosystem is shrouded in confidentiality, our key observation is that recently-emerged blockchain technology and advances in cryptography enable a privacy-preserving decentralized solution based on actual performance measurements. We propose the concept of SLA score to evaluate network providers and introduce a privacy-preserving protocol that allows networks to compute and verify SLA scores.
Hybrid Subspace Learning for High-Dimensional Data

The high-dimensional data setting, in which p >> n, is a challenging statistical paradigm that appears in many real-world problems. In this setting, learning a compact, low-dimensional representation of the data can substantially help distinguish signal from noise. One way to achieve this goal is to perform subspace learning to estimate a small set of latent features that capture the majority of the variance in the original data. Most existing subspace learning models, such as PCA, assume that the data can be fully represented by its embedding in one or more latent subspaces. However, in this work, we argue that this assumption is not suitable for many high-dimensional datasets; often only some variables can easily be projected to a low-dimensional space. We propose a hybrid dimensionality reduction technique in which some features are mapped to a low-dimensional subspace while others remain in the original space. Our model leads to more accurate estimation of the latent space and lower reconstruction error. We present a simple optimization procedure for the resulting biconvex problem and show synthetic data results that demonstrate the advantages of our approach over existing methods. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of this method for extracting meaningful features from both gene expression and video background subtraction datasets.
Carboxylic Acid Derivatives of Amlexanox Display Enhanced Potency toward TBK1 and IKKε and Reveal Mechanisms for Selective Inhibition

Chronic low-grade inflammation is a hallmark of obesity, which is a risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes. The drug amlexanox inhibits IκB kinase ε (IKKε) and TANK binding kinase 1 (TBK1) to promote energy expenditure and improve insulin sensitivity. Clinical studies have demonstrated efficacy in a subset of diabetic patients with underlying adipose tissue inflammation, albeit with moderate potency, necessitating the need for improved analogs. Herein we report crystal structures of TBK1 in complex with amlexanox and a series of analogs that modify its carboxylic acid moiety. Removal of the carboxylic acid or mutation of the adjacent Thr156 residue significantly reduces potency toward TBK1, whereas conversion to a short amide or ester nearly abolishes the inhibitory effects. IKKε is less affected by these modifications, possibly due to variation in its hinge that allows for increased conformational plasticity. Installation of a tetrazole carboxylic acid bioisostere improved potency to 200 and 400 nM toward IKKε and TBK1, respectively. Despite improvements in the in vitro potency, no analog produced a greater response in adipocytes than amlexanox, perhaps because of altered absorption and distribution. The structure-activity relationships and cocrystal structures described herein will aid in future structure-guided inhibitor development using the amlexanox pharmacophore for the treatment of obesity and type 2 diabetes.