Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conditional Image Generation for Learning the Structure of Visual Objects

In this paper, we consider the problem of learning landmarks for object categories without any manual annotations. We cast this as the problem of conditionally generating an image of an object from another one, where the images differ by acquisition time and/or viewpoint. The process is aided by providing the generator with a keypoint-like representation extracted from the target image through a tight bottleneck. This encourages the representation to distil information about the object geometry, which changes from source to target, while the appearance, which is shared between the source and target, is read off from the source alone. Conditioning simplifies the generation task significantly, to the point that adopting a simple perceptual loss instead of more sophisticated approaches such as adversarial training is sufficient to learn landmarks. We show that our method is applicable to a large variety of datasets — faces, people, 3D objects, and digits — without any modifications. We further demonstrate that we can learn landmarks from synthetic image deformations or videos, all without manual supervision, while outperforming state-of-the-art unsupervised landmark detectors.
A 486 µW All-Digital Bluetooth Low Energy Transmitter with Ring Oscillator Based ADPLL for IoT applications

this paper presents an all-digital Ring Oscillator (RO) based Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) transmitter (TX) for ultra-low-power radios in short range IoT applications. It employs a wideband ADPLL featuring an fRF/4RO, with an embedded 5-bit TDC. A 4X frequency edge combiner is used to generate the 2.4GHz signal. This helps reduce the power consumption and enhance its phase noise performance at the same time. A switch-capacitor PA is optimized for high efficiency in low power mode. The TX is designed at the phase noise limit for BLE and in low power mode it consumes 486 µW while configured as a non-connectable advertiser, which has been validated by wirelessly communicating beacon messages to a mobile phone.
Phylogeny of quill mites of the family Syringophilidae (Acari: Prostigmata) based on their external morphology

External morphological characters were used to reconstruct a phylogeny of the mite family Syringophilidae (Acariformes: Cheyletoidea), which are permanent parasites inhabiting the quills of bird feathers. A total of 53 syringophilid genera and 79 charac- ters were included in the data matrix; maximum parsimony (MP) and Bayesian analyses (BA) were performed to determine their phylogenetic relationships. The consensus of unweighted MP trees was weakly resolved. Only four generic groups were recognized: Aulonastus + Krantziaulonastus (i) and (Creagonycha + Kethleyana) + (Megasyringophilus + Selenonycha) (ii) - both with low Bremer support (BS 1); the subfamily Picobiinae - Picobia, Calamincola, Columbiphilus (Neopicobia + Rafapicobia) (BS 12) (iii) and Psittaciphilus generic group - (Meitingsunes + Psittaciphilus) (Peristerophila + (Neoperisterophila + (Castosyringophilus + Terratosyringophilus))) (BS 2) (iv). BA revealed a consensus tree with a topology similar to MP. The two main groups recognized by MP, the subfamily Picobiinae and Psittaciphilus, both received the highest support of 1; while two other groups recognized by MP - Aulonastus + Krantziaulonastus and (Creagonycha + Kethleyana) + (Megasyringophilus + Selenonycha) received relatively low support of 0.73-74 and 0.76-77, respectively. The consensus of re-weighted MP trees was almost fully resolved but, the majority of the generic groups, excluding the Picobiinae and Psittaciphilus were supported by just a few non-unique synapomorphies with a high probability of homoplastic origin. The most intriguing result is the paraphyly of the Syringophilinae in respect to picobii- nes. The pattern of the re-weighted tree demonstrates only patches of parallel evolution at the level of syringophilid genera and bird orders. Perhaps horizontal shifts on phylogenetically distant hosts and colonization of quill (calamus) types other than primaries and secondaries were also important in the evolution of the syringophilids.
Genome instability of Chironomus riparius Mg. and Chironomus piger Strenzke (Diptera, Chironomidae)

Abstract Intra and interspecific variation was evaluated in two Bulgarian populations (Pancharevo and Kokalijane) of the two sibling and homosequential species Chironomus riparius Mg. and Chironomus piger Strenzke, by analyzing structural and functional alterations in salivary gland polytene chromosomes. In both species genome instability was demonstrated, which was expressed by structural and functional somatic chromosomal alterations. In the C. riparius population from Pancharevo, living in sediments containing high concentrations of Cu, Pb and Zn, salivary gland cells containing romatic rearrangements appeared at a significantly higher frequency (51.92%) than in the Kokalijane C. piger population, living in heavy metal-unpolluted sediments (21.3%). In the C. riparius population, somatic aberrations were distributed at different points along the chromosomes while in the C. piger population, somatic rearrangements were concentrated in the pericentromeric regions of chromosomes CD, EF and in proximal part of arms D and F. At the cytological level using FISH analysis, both species can be identified also by the different location of tandem-repetitive minisatellite DNA clusters of Alu and Hinf families, and insertion sites of the LINE retrotransposon NLRCTh1. While location of the former is fixed, NLRCth1 appeared to have both fixed and inter-individually variable positions in both species. On average, 19.0 ± 9.5 insertions of NLRCth1 per individual were observed in C. riparius and 5.57 ± 2.09 in C. piger. In both species locations of minisatellite DNA clusters, NLRCth1 retrotransposons and aberration breakpoints concentrated in proximal regions of chromosomes, and the majority of the breakpoints were located in sections containing blocks of repetitive DNA clusters.
Combining search strategies for distributed constraint satisfaction

Many real-life problems such as distributed meeting scheduling, mobile frequency allocation and resource allocation can be solved using multi-agent paradigms. Distributed constraint satisfaction problems (DisCSPs) is a framework for describing such problems in terms of related subproblems, called a complex local problem (CLP), which are dispersed over a number of locations, each with its own constraints on the values their variables can take. An agent knows the variables in its CLP plus the variables (and their current value) which are directly related to one of its own variables and the constraints relating them. It knows little about the rest of the problem. Thus, each CLP is solved by an agent which cooperates with other agents to solve the overall problem. Algorithms for solving DisCSPs can be classified as either systematic or local search with the former being complete and the latter incomplete. The algorithms generally assume that each agent has only one variable as they can solve DisCSP with CLPs using “virtual” agents. However, in large DisCSPs where it is appropriate to trade completeness off against timeliness, systematic search algorithms can be expensive when compared to local search algorithms which generally converge quicker to a solution (if a solution is found) when compared to systematic algorithms. A major drawback of local search algorithms is getting stuck at local optima. Significant researches have focused on heuristics which can be used in an attempt to either escape or avoid local optima. This thesis makes significant contributions to local search algorithms for DisCSPs. Firstly, we present a novel combination of heuristics in DynAPP (Dynamic Agent Prioritisation with Penalties), which is a distributed synchronous local search algorithm for solving DisCSPs having one variable per agent. DynAPP combines penalties on values and dynamic agent prioritisation heuristics to escape local optima. Secondly, we develop a divide and conquer approach that handles DisCSP with CLPs by exploiting the structure of the problem. The divide and conquer approach prioritises the finding of variable instantiations which satisfy the constraints between agents which are often more expensive to satisfy when compared to constraints within an agent. The approach also exploits concurrency and combines the following search strategies: (i) both systematic and local searches; (ii) both centralised and distributed searches; and (iii) a modified compilation strategy. We also present an algorithm that implements the divide and conquer approach in Multi-DCA (Divide and Conquer Algorithm for Agents with CLPs). DynAPP and Multi-DCA were evaluated on several benchmark problems and compared to the leading algorithms for DisCSPs and DisCSPs with CLPs respectively. The results show that at the region of difficult problems, combining search heuristics and exploiting problem structure in distributed constraint satisfaction achieve significant benefits (i.e. generally used less computational time and communication costs) over existing competing methods.
Treatment of Low Rectal Cancer Combination of Pseudocontinent Perineal Colostomy and Appendicostomy : A New Approach in the

Background. Abdominal perineal resection (APR) with applied colostomy remains the standard treatment for low rectal cancer; however, to date, a very high morbidity rate has been reported. Aims. The aims of this study were to assess fecal continence, persistence of disease-related symptoms, and quality of life in patients with low rectal cancer after APR and pseudocontinent perineal colostomy and concomitant appendicostomy. Methods. We included 17 patients with low rectal cancer who underwent APR at our hospital in this cross-sectional study. Following APR, pseudocontinent perineal colostomy and concomitant appendicostomy were performed. Patients then underwent antegrade colonic enema with tap water. Patients’ symptoms, fecal continence, and quality of life were evaluated at regular time intervals. Results. After a median follow-up of 12 months, 15 of 17 patients completed the study period. All patients were able to perform an antegrade enema by themselves. Mean continence score was 7 (out of 20) based on the Wexner Scale scoring system. Mean global health status score was 78, physical function was 93, and emotional function was 88. Minor morbidity was observed in 6 patients (40%). Conclusion. Pseudocontinent perineal colostomy with appendicostomy provides an acceptable level of continence and functional and emotional improvement in patients with low rectal cancer undergoing APR. Hence, this combinative method could be considered as an alternative for abdominal colostomy in selected patients.
Evaluating Generalization in Multiagent Systems using Agent-Interaction Graphs

Learning from interactions between agents is a key component for inference in multiagent systems. Depending on the downstream task, there could be multiple criteria for evaluating the generalization performance of learning. In this work, we propose a novel framework for evaluating generalization in multiagent systems based on agent-interaction graphs. An agent-interaction graph models agents as nodes and interactions as hyper-edges between participating agents. Using this abstract data structure, we define three notions of generalization for principled evaluation of learning in multiagent systems.
Towards a framework for identifying and engaging rural tourism route stakeholders in southern Africa

Several southern African governments view rural tourism development as a strategy for employment creation in rural areas where few other opportunities for poverty alleviation exist. Rural tourism routes can attract tourists from developed tourism nodes to rural areas. On both the strategic and operational levels, rural tourism routes can only function effectively if they have the support and co-operation of the wide range of stakeholders in the route. While some stakeholders are readily identified, others are not immediately apparent or may not be recognised as stakeholders in the route. Based on a qualitative study, a framework is developed to identify and link the range of stakeholders in southern African rural tourism routes. Three different groups of stakeholders are identified; each play different roles in the sustainable success of a rural tourism route, namely demand-side stakeholders or visitors, core stakeholders or tourism service providers on the route, and enabling stakeholders, who influence both the route operations and the environment in which the route operates. Finally, recommendations are made for rural tourism route organisations to engage with a range of stakeholders through an inclusive membership structure of the route organisation. Further research is also suggested on the nature and format of route organisation and membership structures to ensure sustainable route development.
Estimating Ordered Categorical Variables Using Panel Data: A Generalized Ordered Probit Model with an Autofit Procedure

Estimation procedures for ordered categories usually assume that the estimated coefficients of independent variables do not vary between the categories (parallel-lines assumption). This view neglects possible heterogeneous effects of some explaining factors. This paper describes the use of an autofit option for identifying variables that meet the parallel-lines assumption when estimating a random effects generalized ordered probit model. We combine the test procedure developed by Richard Williams (gologit2) with the random effects estimation command regoprob by Stefan Boes.
Liquid biopsy: a new source of candidate biomarkers in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Noninvasive tests to diagnose and monitor the progression of neurodegenerative disorders have been a challenge for decades. The aim of this study was to explore the feasibility of applying liquid biopsy procedures to patients with a neurodegenerative disease such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We isolated plasma cell‐free DNA (cfDNA) in 20 ALS patients and 20 controls and used cfDNA to identify a novel differentially methylated mark in RHBDF2 gene in ALS patients compared to controls. Our findings support the notion that liquid biopsy may be applied to living patients as a source of potential epigenetic biomarkers for neurodegenerative disorders.
TWO STAGE SPATIAL DOMAIN IMAGE FUSION TECHNIQUES

The objective of Image fusion is to combine the information from number of images of the same scene from different sensors or the images with focus on different objects. The result of image fusion is an image which is more informative and of better quality. In this paper a detailed survey of Select Maximum /Minimum and principal component analysis for spatial domain image fusion techniques is done. On the basis of the survey an improved spatial domain fusion technique is proposed. The proposed spatial domain technique output performs as the state of the art spatial domain techniques.
Frequency-Dependent Changes of the Resting BOLD Signals Predicts Cognitive Deficits in Asymptomatic Carotid Artery Stenosis

“Asymptomatic” carotid artery stenosis (aCAS) patients usually have cognitive impairment in the domains of executive, psychomotor speed, and memory function. However, the pathophysiology of this impairment in aCAS patients is still unclear. In this study, amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) method was used based on resting-state blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signals, to investigate local brain activity in 19 aCAS patients and 24 healthy controls, aimed to explore this pathophysiology mechanism. We analyzed this intrinsic activity in four individual frequency bands: Slow-2 (0.198–0.25 Hz), Slow-3 (0.073–0.198 Hz), Slow-4 (0.027–0.073 Hz), and Slow-5 (0.01–0.027 Hz). The aCAS-related ALFF changes were mainly distributed in (1) cortical midline structure, including bilateral dorsomedial prefrontal (dmPFC), cingulate cortex (CC) and precuneus (PCu); (2) hippocampus and its adjacent structures, including bilateral hippocampus, thalamus and medial temporal regions. We found these spatial patterns were frequency-dependent. Significant interaction between frequency and group was found distributed in left putamen, triangle part of inferior temporal and bilateral precentral/postcentral gyrus when Slow-4 and Slow-5 were considered. The delay recall ability of aCAS patient was significantly positive correlated to the mean ALFF in dmPFC within Slow-4 band and the mean ALFF in the bilateral hippocampus within Slow-3 band, respectively. We also found the Montreal Cognitive Assessme score of aCAS patient was significantly positive correlated to the mean ALFF in right fusiform and parahippocampus within Slow-3 band. Furthermore, we built the automatic diagnosis and prediction models based on support vector machine (SVM) and back propagation neural network (BPNN), respectively. Both two types of models could achieve relatively competent performance, which meant the frequency-dependent changes in ALFF could not only reveal the pathophysiology mechanism of cognitive impairment of aCAS, but also could be used as neuroimaging marker in the analysis of cognition impairment for aCAS patients.
Integrated Transcript and Metabolite Profiles Reveal That EbCHI Plays an Important Role in Scutellarin Accumulation in Erigeron breviscapus Hairy Roots

Scutellarin, a flavonoid 7-O-glucuronide, is an essential bioactive compound of Erigeron breviscapus (Vaniot) Hand. -Mazz. used for the treatment of cerebrovascular diseases. However, due to overexploitation and overuse, E. breviscapus is facing the problems of extinction and habitat degradation. In this study, a correlation analysis between the transcript and metabolite profiles of methyl jasmonate (MeJA)-treated E. breviscapus at different time points indicated that chalcone isomerase (EbCHI) was the primary contributor to scutellarin accumulation during flavonoid biosynthesis. EbCHI was then further characterized as a chalcone isomerase that efficiently converted chalcone to naringenin in vitro. Optimal parameters derived by comparing different culture conditions were successfully used to establish hairy root cultures of E. breviscapus with a maximum transformation rate of 60% in B5 medium. Furthermore, overexpression of EbCHI significantly enhanced scutellarin accumulation in E. breviscapus hairy roots with a maximum content of 2.21 mg g-1 (dw), 10-fold higher than that of natural roots (0.21 mg g-1 dw). This study sheds new light on a method of effective gene-based metabolic engineering by accurate and appropriate strategies and provides a protocol for hairy root cultures that accumulate high levels of scutellarin, providing a promising prospect for relieving the overexploitation and unavailability of E. breviscapus in the future.
The coordinated effects of Apatinib and Tripterine on the proliferation, invasiveness and apoptosis of human hepatoma Hep3B cells

As a novel vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2) tyrosine kinase inhibitor, Apatinib has exhibited antitumor effects in a variety of solid tumors. Extracts of Chinese herbal medicines have emerged as a promising alternative option to increase the sensitivity of patients to chemotherapeutics while alleviating side effects. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of Apatinib and the traditional Chinese herb Tripterine on the proliferation, invasion and apoptosis of human hepatoma Hep3B cells. The expression of VEGFR-2 in Hep3B cells was detected by western blotting and immunofluorescence assays. Hep3B cells were then divided into four different groups: Control group, Apatinib group, Tripterine group and Apatinib plus Tripterine group. The proliferation, invasion and apoptosis of these four groups of Hep3B cells were assessed by MTS, wound healing and Transwell assays, and flow cytometry, respectively. Finally, the levels of the proliferation-associated proteins phosphorylated protein kinase B (p-Akt) and phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK) and the apoptosis-associated proteins cleaved Caspase-3 and B-cell lymphoma-associated X protein (Bax) were detected by western blotting. The proliferation, migration and invasion of Hep3B cells were significantly inhibited by Apatinib and Tripterine, compared with the control group (P<0.01). The inhibitory effect of the combination group was markedly stronger than that of the Apatinib and Tripterine groups. The downregulation of p-Akt and p-ERK induced by Apatinib and Tripterine was further inhibited in the combination group (P<0.05), and the expression levels of Caspase-3 and Bax were also significantly increased in the combination group (P<0.05). The combination of Apatinib and Tripterine significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion ability and promoted the apoptosis of Hep3B cells by downregulating the expression of p-Akt and p-ERK, and upregulating the expression of Caspase-3 and Bax.
Towards the Construction of a Clustering Algorithm with Overlap Directed by Query

Clustering algorithms are one of the most important element for the data mining and for the automatic learning, also, they keep on being a research topic because algorithms have some limitations. In addition, most of algorithms do not bear overlaps of the groups that they generate, however, in some problems like user profile, clustering algorithms are required for bearing overlaps. Therefore, it pretends to develop an overlapping clustering algorithm using different information retrieval techniques in big data quantities and avoiding computational costs.
Factor footprints for urban climate modeling

Department of Geography and Urban Studies, Temple University, 324 Gladfelter Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA Department of Computer Science, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, PO Box 3049, Kaiserslautern, Germany c School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, 699 S Mill Ave, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA d Laboratory of Hydrology and Water Management, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, 1 Arts Link, Kent Ridge, Singapore 117570 Urban Climate Research Center, Arizona State University, 975 S Myrtle Ave, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
Self-weighted Multiple Kernel Learning for Graph-based Clustering and Semi-supervised Classification

Multiple kernel learning (MKL) method is generally believed to perform better than single kernel method. However, some empirical studies show that this is not always true: the combination of multiple kernels may even yield an even worse performance than using a single kernel. There are two possible reasons for the failure: (i) most existing MKL methods assume that the optimal kernel is a linear combination of base kernels, which may not hold true; and (ii) some kernel weights are inappropriately assigned due to noises and carelessly designed algorithms. In this paper, we propose a novel MKL framework by following two intuitive assumptions: (i) each kernel is a perturbation of the consensus kernel; and (ii) the kernel that is close to the consensus kernel should be assigned a large weight. Impressively, the proposed method can automatically assign an appropriate weight to each kernel without introducing additional parameters, as existing methods do. The proposed framework is integrated into a unified framework for graph-based clustering and semi-supervised classification. We have conducted experiments on multiple benchmark datasets and our empirical results verify the superiority of the proposed framework.