Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pedestrian detection: A comparative study using HOG and CoHOG

Pedestrian accidents still represent the second largest source of traffic related injuries and fatalities after accidents involving passenger cars. Pedestrian detection is a key problem in computer vision, with several applications that have the potential to positively impact quality of life. In recent years, many pedestrian classification approaches have been proposed. The pedestrian classification consists of two stages: feature extraction and feature classification. Recently several robust feature extracting methods have been proposed in literature like Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT), Histogram of Gradients (HOG), Co-occurrence of Histogram of Gradients (CoHOG). Also several classifiers exists like Hidden Markov Model (HMM), Support Vector Machines (SVM), and Neural Network. In this paper, we examine the two feature extraction method and we use neural network as classifier instead of SVM. An extensive evaluation and comparison of these methods are presented. The advantages and shortcomings of the underlying design mechanisms in these methods are discussed and analyzed through analytical evaluation and empirical evaluation.
The Fellowship of the Ring Test: DNAqua-Net WG2 initiative to compare diatom metabarcoding protocols used in routine freshwater biomonitoring for standardisation

During the past decade genetic approaches have been developed to monitor biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems. These enable access to taxonomic and genetic information from biological communities using DNA from environmental samples (e.g. water, biofilm, soil) and methods based on high-throughput sequencing technologies, such as DNA metabarcoding. Within the context of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), such approaches could be applied to assess Biological Quality Elements (BQE). These are used as indicators of the ecological status of aquatic ecosystems as part of national monitoring programs of the european network of 110,000 surface water monitoring sites with 79.5% rivers and 11% lake sites (Charles et al. 2020). A high-throughput method has the potential to increase our spatio-temporal monitoring capacity and to accelerate the transfer of information to water managers with the aim to increase protection of aquatic ecosystems. Good progress has been made with developing DNA metabarcoding approaches for benthic diatom assemblages. Technological innovation and protocol optimization have allowed robust taxonomic (species) and genetic (OTU, ESV) information to be obtained from which diatom quality indices can be calculated to infer ecological status to rivers and lakes. Diatom DNA metabarcoding has been successfully applied for biomonitoring at the scale of national river monitoring networks in several countries around the world and can now be considered technically ready for routine application (e.g. Apothéloz-Perret-Gentil et al. 2017, Bailet et al. 2019, Mortágua et al. 2019, Vasselon et al. 2019, Kelly et al. 2020, Pérez-Burillo et al. 2020, Pissaridou et al. 2021). However, protocols and methods used by each laboratory still vary between and within countries, limiting their operational transferability and the ability to compare results. Thus, routine use of DNA metabarcoding for diatom biomonitoring requires standardization of all steps of the metabarcoding procedure, from the sampling to the final ecological status assessment in order to define good practices and standards. Following previous initiatives which resulted in a CEN technical report for biofilm sampling and preservation (CEN 2018), a set of experiments was initiated during the DNAqua-Net WG2 diatom workshop (Cyprus, 2019) to focus on DNA extraction and PCR amplification steps in order to evaluate: i) the transferability and reproducibility of a protocol between 2 Vasselon V et al
From Online Content to Offline Results: A Field Experiment Examining the Effects of an Enterprise Social Network “Best Practices” Initiative

Enterprise social networks (ESNs) supplement traditional top-down knowledge-sharing channels within organizations with knowledge from a broad set of employees. This enables participants facing different circumstances to benefit from a wide range of ideas (Nonaka and von Krogh 2009). However, the large volume and varied quality of user (employee)-generated contents can make it difficult to find relevant and trustworthy information to achieve better performance. We conducted a natural field experiment in collaboration with a large grocery store chain in Europe that introduced a “best practices initiative” on its ESN encouraging high-performing units to share business practices. This intervention shifted more of the employees’ activities (i.e., posts and comments) to the ESN groups where the best practices were introduced. We do not find a significant, immediate improvement in sales. However, our results show a significant change on the sales trend for the treatment stores implementing the initiative relative to the control stores (resulting in 3.67-percent higher sales over the course of the four-month initiative). These results suggest that best practices initiatives on ESNs lead to performance improvement over time consistent with gradual learning from the best practices posts. This sales trend effect was driven by the regions showing greater activity related to their “best practices” posts (i.e., more employees seeing and reacting to the posts on the ESN). Furthermore, the effects of the initiative were more positive in stores with lower ex-ante exposure to information on business practices from peer stores, in stores serving markets that were more similar to those of the best-practices (“sharing”) units, in stores that had lower performance prior to the intervention, and in regions where employees had lower (rather than higher) trust in their regional managers’ competence before the intervention. Overall, these results suggest that systematically sharing contents from highperforming units on an ESN could focus employees’ attention to productive knowledge sharing on an ESN and improve sales, especially under the aforementioned conditions.
IN VITRO AND IN VIVO NF-Κ B INHIBITORY EFFECTS OF THE CELL-PENETRATING PENETRATIN PEPTIDE

Penetratin is a cationic cell-penetrating peptide that has been frequently used for the intracellular delivery of polar bioactive compounds. Recent studies have just revealed the major role of polyanionic membrane proteoglycans and cholesterol-enriched lipid rafts in the uptake of the peptide. Both proteoglycans and lipid-rafts influence inflammatory processes by binding a wide array of proinflammatory mediators, thus we decided to analyze the effect of penetratin on in vitro and in vivo inflammatory responses. Our in vitro luciferase gene assays demonstrated that penetratin decreased transcriptional activity of NF-κ B in TNF-stimulated L929 fibroblasts and LPS-activated RAW 264.7 macrophages. Penetratin also inhibited TNF-induced ICAM-1 expression in human endothelial HMEC-1 cells. Exogenous heparan sulfate abolished the in vitro NF-κ B-inhibitory effects of the peptide. Uptake experiments showed that penetratin was internalized by all of the above mentioned cell lines in vitro and rapidly entered the cells of the lung and pancreas in vivo . In an in vivo rat model of acute pancreatitis, a disease induced by elevated activities of stress-responsive transcription factors like NF-κ B, pretreatment with only 2 mg/kg of penetratin attenuated the severity of pancreatic inflammation by interfering with I κ B degradation and subsequent nuclear import of NF-κ B, inhibiting the expression of proinflammatory genes and improving the monitored laboratory and histological parameters of pancreatitis and associated oxidative stress.
Deception against Deception: Toward A Deception Framework for Deception against Deception: Toward A Deception Framework for Detection and Characterization of Covert Micro-targeting Detection and Characterization of Covert Micro-targeting Campaigns on Online Social Networks Campaigns on Online Social

Micro-targeting campaigns on online social networks are an emerging class of social engineering attacks that prime individuals via personalized content for malicious purposes. Detecting micro-targeting campaigns is challenging due to their clandestine nature and the lack of visibility around users’ private communications. Our work aims to devise theories, methods, and tools to detect suspected micro-targeting campaigns. To this end, we propose to design and generate a network of decoy personas with characteristics similar to those of targeted groups in order to trap, engage, and identify micro-targeting campaigns. In this paper, we discuss our motivation to conduct this interdisciplinary research effort and introduce our focal research questions and preliminary design for a network of decoy personas.
Context-Robust Object Recognition via Object Manipulations in a Synthetic 3D Environment

The remote control is a small object that does not fly in the air and is generally found on a table, not in the sink. Such contextual regularities are ingrained in our perception of the world and previous research suggests that they can even influence human and computational models object recognition ability. However, the exact effects of contextual information on object recognition are still unknown for both humans and machine learning models. Here, we introduce a novel way of studying the effects of different contextual cues in a qualitative and systematic way. We present a diverse synthetic dataset created via a 3D simulation engine that allows for complex object modifications. Our dataset consists of more than 15000 images across 36 object categories and it is designed specifically for studying the effects of gravity, object co-occurrence statistics, and relative size regularities. We conduct a series of psychophysics experiments to assess human performance and establish a benchmark for computational models on the dataset. Additionally, we test state-of-the-art deep learning models on the same dataset and study how contextual information influences their object recognition accuracy. Finally, we propose a context-aware recognition transformer network that integrates contextual and object information via multi-head attention mechanism. Our model captures useful contextual information that allows it to achieve human-level performance and significantly better robustness in out-of-context conditions compared to baseline models across our dataset and another existing out-of-context natural image dataset. Moreover, our model performs in a way that is consistent with human object recognition and shows similar recognition artefacts.
Real-Time Scattering-Contrast Imaging of a Supported Cobalt-Based Catalyst Body during Activation and Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis Revealing Spatial Dependence of Particle Size and Phase on Catalytic Properties

A combination of time-resolved synchrotron μ-X-ray diffraction computed tomography (μ-XRD-CT) and μ-pair distribution function computed tomography (μ-PDF-CT) has been applied for the study of an individual Co/γ-Al2O3 catalyst pellet during reduction and the early stages of the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) reaction, revealing insight into the solid-state changes occurring from within such crystalline materials. Both sets of data were of sufficient quality so as to be able to follow the spatial dependency of Co speciation evolution from Co3O4 to CoO to face-centered cubic (fcc) Co metal nanoparticles. These data revealed the samples to be highly heterogeneous and contain two types of Co species: small (≤6.5 nm) nanoparticles that interact strongly with the γ-Al2O3 support which are difficult to reduce (remaining as CoO) and nanoparticles that agglomerate and have little interaction or else are weakly interacting with the support but readily reduce in H2. The Co phase evolution under FTS conditions shows .
Analysis Of Thyroid Profile In Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients

Diabetes mellitus and thyroid gland abnormalities are interlinked and coexist with influencing each other. Current study was planned and conducted to evaluate thyroid status in patients with type-2 diabetics. The main aim of the study was to understand the relationship between diabetes mellitus and thyroid abnormalities. Total 100 known diabetic patients were studied, out of them 37 were males with the mean age 59.81 ± 12.8 years, and 63 females with average age of 55.31 ±11.10 years. 50 non-diabetic healthy subjects included 13 males and 37 female of mean age 48.86 ± 12.9 and 48.86 ± 17.94 years respectively selected as a control. All the patients were evaluated for thyroid profile (TSH, FT3, and FT4) and diabetic profile (RBS and HbA1c) by using Cobas C-311 and Cobas E411 fully automated immunoassay analyzer. The observations were recorded. The result showed that, out of 100 diabetic subjects 41.03% male and 58.97% female were faced with euthyroid and the remaining 22% had thyroid dysfunctions. Hypothyroidism was more common in females (78.97%) as compared to men (21.05%). The mean values for TSH, FT3 and FT4 at (p> 0.05%) probability level shows statistically no significant difference. The relationship between diabetes and thyroid abnormalities was significantly difference, interdependency of these two conditions and evaluation of thyroid hormones status with the diabetic profile in the early days of diabetes is recommended. This will induce the management strategies of diabetes and can delay and avoid the progression of the secondary complications in diabetic patients with uncontrolled diabetes.
Exploitative Innovation and the Impact of Realized Absorptive Capability and Technology Orientation

This paper aims to identify the impact of Technology Orientation on the relationship of Realized Absorptive Capability and Exploitative Innovation. Using a sample of 194 firms located in Albania, we empirically test the mediating role of Technology Orientation. Nowadays, Innovation is not anymore a new phenomenon. In the literature a lot of studies have seen it with a close connection to technology. In some other study, in case of a dynamic environment, firms with realized absorptive capability are more predisposed to absorb technology and to be able to be update with it. Since technology is considered as an auxiliary tool to innovation, we considered it specifically for exploitative innovation which can increase even the efficiency of firms. The focus of this study is placed on knowledge-intensive sector in order to better capture the effect of these variables. The results demonstrate that the Technology Orientation has a full mediating role on this relationship. The Realized Absorptive Capability has not any impact on Exploitative Innovation in case of the lack of Technology Orientation.
PEMODELAN EKSPONENTIAL GARCH

Quorum sensing is known as a communication mechanism among bacteria to control gene expression such as bioluminescence, pigmentation, and pathogenicity. Quorum quenching is known as inhibition of quorum sensing activity. In order to block quorum sensing activity, some bacteria produced enzymes which could degrade AHL, such as AHL-acylase, AHLlactonase, and AHL-oxidase and reductase. In this study, soil bacteria were isolated and screened for their quorum quenching activity. These isolates were divided into Streptomyces and non-Streptomyces isolates. Detection were done by using Chromobacterium violaceum as an indicator bacteria for pigment inhibition by quorum quenching activity. About 10 out of 695 isolates were shown to possess quorum quenching activity. These isolates were further identified by biochemical tests, Gram staining, and identified by 16S rRNA sequencing. Four positive isolates showed similarity with Streptomyces sp. , and 6 positive isolates were non-Streptomyces which showed similarity with Pseudomonas putida, Bacillus pumilus, Bacillus sp. , Enterobacter ludwigii, and Enterobacter sp.
Review of The Oxford Handbook of Critical Concepts in Music Theory, edited by Alexander Rehding and Steven Rings (Oxford University Press, 2019)

[1.1] In their introduction to The Oxford Handbook of Critical Concepts in Music Theory, editors Alexander Rehding and Steven Rings explain that the word “critical” signals two guiding principles for the collection. First, the selected terms are foundational—“theorists cannot do without them. ” Second, despite their fundamental nature, the authors approach them “not as se led knowledge but as sites for critical scrutiny” (xv). The authors in the first section, “Starting Points,” take up this cause with gusto, invoking historical narratives, mathematical equations, and emergent perceptual phenomena to illustrate the complexities of seemingly simple concepts. In this sense, the essays are delightfully varied, bold, and rich. They are also uniformly well wri en (several authors have an enviable talent for wordplay) and beautifully typeset. (1) Below, I a empt to do some justice to each of the seven essays, although space will only allow a full summary of a few, before concluding with some general thoughts on the section.
Savory cereal bars made with seed, fruit peel, and fish meal

Article history Cereal bars are practical, popular, and represent a multicomponent food with market potential. This work aimed to develop tasty cereal bars with kabocha seeds (Cucurbita moschata), kabocha peels, pineapple peel (Ananas sp.), and passion fruit peel (Passiflora sp.) with different levels of fishmeal, as nutritional enrichment. To this purpose, the fish meal was prepared with tilapia and salmon carcasses added to the basic ingredients of the bar. The fish concentrate levels used were 0% (control), 5%, 10% and 15%, amounting to four treatments, with five replications. The elaborated bars were analyzed for proximate compositional, sensory properties, and microbiological contamination. The results indicated high levels of protein (49.65%) and lipid (32.40%) for fishmeal. The inclusion of this concentrate in cereal bars interfered with their composition by increasing protein content and reducing the content of carbohydrates and caloric value. As for sensory properties, the average scores were around 6, which indicates that the panelists slightly liked the product. It can be concluded that the addition of up to 15% of tilapia fishmeal with salmon in savory cereal bars containing seed and fruit peel, improve their nutritional composition without adversely affecting their sensory quality. Received 08 June 2020 Accepted 01 October 2020
INTERGROWTH-21 Identifies High Prevalence of Low Symphysis–Fundal Height in Indigenous Pregnant Women Experiencing Multiple Infections, Nutrient Deficiencies, and Inflammation: The Maternal Infections, Nutrient Deficiencies, and Inflammation (MINDI) Cohort

ABSTRACT Background In the absence of ultrasound, symphysis–fundal height (SFH) can assess maternal–fetal well-being as it is associated with gestational age, fetal weight, and amniotic fluid volume. However, other modifiers of SFH, including maternal infections, nutrient deficiencies, and inflammation (MINDI), have not been widely explored. Objectives Our objectives were 2-fold: 1) to assess prevalence of low SFH in indigenous Panamanian women using both Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and INTERGROWTH-21 standards and 2) to explore associations of SFH with maternal health indicators: infections (oral, skin, urogenital, nematode infections), nutrient deficiencies [protein and iron indicators (ferritin, serum iron, serum transferrin receptor, hepcidin), folate, and vitamins A, D, and B-12], and inflammation [leukocytes, C-reactive protein (CRP), cytokines]. Methods For this cross-sectional study, low-SFH-for-gestational-age was assessed using PAHO and INTERGROWTH <10th centile in 174 women at ≥16 weeks of gestation. Bootstrapping selected MINDI variables for inclusion in multivariable fractional polynomial (MFP) logistic regressions for low SFH. Associations of MINDI variables with hepcidin were also investigated. Results Prevalence of low SFH was 8% using PAHO, but using INTERGROWTH, 50.6% had SFH <10th centile, including 37.9% <3rd centile. Both PAHO-SFH <10th centile and INTERGROWTH-SFH <3rd centile were associated with higher hepcidin (OR = 1.12, P = 0.008, and OR = 3.04, P = 0.001, respectively) and with lower TNF-α (OR = 0.73, P = 0.012, and OR = 0.93, P = 0.015, respectively). Wood-smoke exposure increased the odds of PAHO-SFH <10th centile (OR = 1.19, P = 0.009), whereas higher BMI decreased the odds of INTERGROWTH-SFH <3rd centile (OR = 0.87, P = 0.012). Lower pulse pressure (OR = 0.90, P = 0.009) and lower inflammatory responses [lower lymphocytes (OR = 0.21, P = 0.026), IL-17 (OR = 0.89, P = 0.011)] distinguished SFH <3rd centile from SFH ≥3rd to <10th centiles using INTERGROWTH-21 standards. The MFP regression for hepcidin controlling for SFH (adjusted R2 = 0.40, P = 0.001) revealed associations with indicators of inflammation (CRP, P < 0.0001; IL-17, P = 0.012), acidic urinary pH (P = 0.008), and higher intake of supplements (P = 0.035). Conclusions Associations of low SFH with MINDI variables, including hepcidin, highlight its potential for early detection of multicausal in utero growth faltering.
Network Pharmacology-Based Investigation of the Mechanism of Action of Plantaginis Herba in Hyperuricemia Treatment

This study used a network pharmacology approach to investigate the potential active ingredients of Plantaginis Herba and its underlying mechanisms in hyperuricemia treatment. The potential active ingredients of Plantaginis Herba were obtained from TCMSP and ETCM databases, and the potential targets of the active ingredients were predicted using the Swiss TargetPrediction database. The potential therapeutic targets of hyperuricemia were retrieved from the GeneCards, DisGeNET, and Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) databases. Then, the integrative bioinformatics analyses of candidates were performed by GO analysis, KEGG analysis, and PPI network construction. There were 15 predicted active ingredients in Plantaginis Herba and 41 common targets that may be involved in the treatment of hyperuricemia. A total of 61 GO annotations and 35 signaling pathways were identified by enrichment analysis (P < 0.01). The underlying mechanisms of Plantaginis Herba may be related to insulin resistance, PI3K/AKT, TNF, VEGF, AMPK, and glucagon signaling pathways. Thus, the present study provided potential and promising strategies of Plantaginis Herba for hyperuricemia treatment.
Effect of self-assembly on fluorescence in magnetic multiphase flows and its application on the novel detection for COVID-19

In the present study, the magnetic field induced self-assembly processes of magnetic microparticles in an aqueous liquid (the pure magnetic fluid) and nonmagnetic microparticles in ferrofluid (the inverse magnetic fluid) are experimentally investigated. The microparticles are formed into chain-like microstructures in both the pure magnetic fluid and the inverse magnetic fluid by applying the external magnetic field. The fluorescence parameters of these self-assembled chain-like microstructures are measured and compared to those without the effect of magnetic field. It is found that the fluorescence in the pure magnetic fluid is weakened, because the scattering and illuminating areas are reduced in the microstructures. On the contrary, the fluorescence in the inverse magnetic fluid is enhanced, because more fluorescent nonmagnetic microparticles are enriched and become detectable under the effect of the magnetic dipole force and the magnetic levitational force, and their unnecessary scattering can be absorbed by the surrounding ferrofluid. The average enhancement of the fluorescence area ratio in the inverse magnetic fluid with 3 μm nonmagnetic microparticles reaches 112.92%. The present work shows that the inverse magnetic fluid has advantages such as low cost, no scattering effect, stable fluorescence intensity, and relatively low magnetic resistance. In the end, a prototype design for the novel detection of coronavirus disease 2019 based on the magnetic field induced self-assembly in the inverse magnetic fluid is proposed, which could support the epidemic prevention and control.