Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bilinear Factor Matrix Norm Minimization for Robust PCA: Algorithms and Applications

The heavy-tailed distributions of corrupted outliers and singular values of all channels in low-level vision have proven effective priors for many applications such as background modeling, photometric stereo and image alignment. And they can be well modeled by a hyper-Laplacian. However, the use of such distributions generally leads to challenging non-convex, non-smooth and non-Lipschitz problems, and makes existing algorithms very slow for large-scale applications. Together with the analytic solutions to <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell _{p}$</tex-math> <alternatives><inline-graphic xlink:href="shang-ieq1-2748590.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-norm minimization with two specific values of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p$</tex-math><alternatives> <inline-graphic xlink:href="shang-ieq2-2748590.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>, i.e., <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p=1/2$</tex-math><alternatives><inline-graphic xlink:href="shang-ieq3-2748590.gif"/> </alternatives></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p=2/3$</tex-math><alternatives> <inline-graphic xlink:href="shang-ieq4-2748590.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>, we propose two novel bilinear factor matrix norm minimization models for robust principal component analysis. We first define the double nuclear norm and Frobenius/nuclear hybrid norm penalties, and then prove that they are in essence the Schatten-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1/2$</tex-math><alternatives><inline-graphic xlink:href="shang-ieq5-2748590.gif"/> </alternatives></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2/3$</tex-math><alternatives> <inline-graphic xlink:href="shang-ieq6-2748590.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula> quasi-norms, respectively, which lead to much more tractable and scalable Lipschitz optimization problems. Our experimental analysis shows that both our methods yield more accurate solutions than original Schatten quasi-norm minimization, even when the number of observations is very limited. Finally, we apply our penalties to various low-level vision problems, e.g., text removal, moving object detection, image alignment and inpainting, and show that our methods usually outperform the state-of-the-art methods.
Development of a Permanent Magnet Motor Utilizing Amorphous Wound Cores

An axial-gap permanent-magnet motor that utilized tape wound amorphous cores was designed, manufactured and tested. The motor employs two 8-pole rotors and one 12-slot amorphous cores stator. In order to reduce iron loss, the magnetic and iron loss properties of ring-shaped amorphous cores with different lamination direction are investigated determine a suitable core structure for motor application. Tape wound core was chosen because of its simple manufacture process. In the motor design, lamination direction of AMM core was designed perpendicular to field produced by rotors to decrease eddy current loss. Three-dimensional finite element analysis (3D FEA) was used to model and analyze the motor performance. No-load tests and load tests of the trial motor were conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the motor design and verify the 3-D FEA calculation. This paper presents the details of amorphous cores' properties, motor design and test results.
Promoting bone morphogenetic protein signaling through negative regulation of inhibitory Smads

Inhibitory Smads, i.e. Smad6 and Smad7, are potent antagonists of the BMP–Smad pathway by interacting with activated bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) type I receptors and thereby preventing the activation of receptor‐regulated Smads, or by competing with activated R‐Smads for heteromeric complex formation with Smad4. The molecular mechanisms that underlie the regulation of I‐Smad activity have remained elusive. Here we report the identification of a cytoplasmic protein, previously termed associated molecule with the SH3 domain of STAM (AMSH), as a direct binding partner for Smad6. AMSH interacts with Smad6, but not with R‐ and Co‐Smads, upon BMP receptor activation in cultured cells. Consistent with this finding, stimulation of cells with BMP induces a co‐localization of Smad6 with AMSH in the cytoplasm. Ectopic expression of AMSH prolongs BMP‐induced Smad1 phosphorylation, and potentiates BMP‐induced activation of transcriptional reporter activity, growth arrest and apoptosis. The data strongly suggest that the molecular mechanism by which AMSH exerts its action is by inhibiting the binding of Smad6 to activated type I receptors or activated R‐Smads.
Analysis of Cloud Computing in Open Source Platform

There is an increasing interest in the use of open source cloud computing infrastructure platform by larger companies, academic researchers, scientists and service providers that can tailor the platform for specific users. The open source cloud computing has joined the mainstream where it is starting to offer companies a lot of flexibility and cost savings to combine public and private clouds. These tools could let companies to build and customize their own computing clouds to work alongside with more powerful commercial solutions. To understand these issues, this paper outlines an analysis study of open source cloud computing platform using six of the most advanced platforms (Eucalyptus, OpenNebula, Nimbus, abiCloud, openQRM and Xen Cloud Platform) in order to gauge whether its potential opportunities could outweigh their possible
A robust correlation receiver for distance estimation

Many methods for distance estimation, such as the ultrasonic pulse-echo method, involve the estimation of a time-of-flight (TOF). In this paper, a signal model is developed that, apart from the TOF, accounts for an unknown, linear frequency dependent distortion as well as for additive noise. We derive a TOF estimator for this model based on the criteria of maximum likelihood. The resulting receiver can be seen as an extension or generalization of the well known cross-correlation, or "matched filter", estimator described, e.g., by Nilsson. The novel receiver is found to be more robust against unknown pulse shape distortion than the cross-correlation estimator, giving less biased TOF estimates. Also, bias versus noise sensitivity can be controlled by proper model order selection. <<ETX>>
Entanglement and Bell ’ s Inequalities

Our goal for this experiment was to demonstrate violation of Bell’s inequalties. This was accomplished by producing two polarization entangled photons via spontaneous parametric down-conversion using two type 1 beta barium borate crystals. With polarizers placed in front of two avalanche photodiodes, we observed how the alignment of the polarizers affected the number of observed photon pairs coincident on the photodiodes. The data obtained in this way was used to construct the S value described by the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality. This inequality states that S is no greater than 2, but we observed a value of S = 2.64. Thus, we demonstrated violation of a Bell’s inequality, refuting the family of local realist theories of quantum mechanics.
Selective lectin binding of the developing mouse retina

A battery of eight lectins with different carbohydrate specificities was used to study changes in glycoconjugate expression during cell differentiation in the mouse retina. The lectins tested included concanavalin A (Con A), wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), soybean agglutinin (SB A), peanut agglutinin (PNA), Ulex europaeus agglutinin (UEA), Ricinus communis agglutinin I (RCA), Dolichos biflorus agglutinin (DBA), and Limulus polyphemus agglutinin (LPA). Unfixed frozen sections of adult and early postnatal mouse retina were treated with fluorescein isothiocyanate‐conjugated lectins and examined by fluorescence microscopy.
Hormonal and barrier contraception and risk of upper genital tract disease in the PID Evaluation and Clinical Health (PEACH) study.

OBJECTIVE Among women diagnosed with pelvic inflammatory disease, we examined the associations between hormonal or barrier methods of contraception and upper genital tract infection or inflammation. METHODS Participants were 563 patients from a treatment trial for pelvic inflammatory disease. All had pelvic pain; pelvic organ tenderness; and leukorrhea, mucopurulent cervicitis, or untreated cervicitis. Contraceptive use within the prior 4 weeks was compared among women with baseline upper genital tract gonorrhea or chlamydia, women with endometritis without upper genital tract gonorrhea or chlamydia, and women with neither upper genital tract gonorrhea or chlamydia nor endometritis. RESULTS Inconsistent condom use was significantly and independently associated with a 2 to 3 times elevated risk for upper genital tract infection. Upper genital tract gonorrhea or chlamydia was not significantly associated with use of oral contraceptives, use of medroxyprogesterone, condoms used consistently, nor other barrier methods. CONCLUSION No hormonal or barrier contraceptive method was related to a reduction in upper genital tract disease among women with clinical pelvic inflammatory diseases.
eXRUP: A Hybrid Software Development Model for Small to Medium Scale Projects

The conventional and agile software development process models are proposed and used nowadays in software industry to meet emergent requirements of the customers. Conventional software development models such as Waterfall, V model and RUP have been predominant in industry until mid 1990s, but these models are mainly focused on extensive planning, heavy documentation and team expertise which suit only to medium and large scale projects. The Rational Unified Process is one of the widely used conventional models. Agile process models got attention of the software industry in last decade due to limitations of conventional models such as slow adaptation to rapidly changing business requirements and they overcome problems of schedule and cost. Extreme Programming is one of the most useful agile methods that provide best engineering practices for a good quality product at small scale. XP follows the iterative and incremental approach, but its key focus is on programming, and reusability becomes arduous. In this paper, we present characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of RUP and XP process models, and propose a new hybrid software development model eXRUP (eXtreme Programming and Rational Unified Process), which integrates the strengths of RUP and XP while suppressing their weaknesses. The proposed process model is validated through a controlled case study.
Inhibition of inducible nitric oxide synthase reduces renal ischemia/reperfusion injury.

BACKGROUND Nitric oxide (NO), produced via inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), is implicated in the pathophysiology of renal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the iNOS inhibitors L-N6-(1-iminoethyl)lysine (L-NIL) and aminoethyl-isothiourea (AE-ITU) on (a) renal dysfunction and injury mediated by bilateral I/R of rat kidneys in vivo and (b) cytokine-stimulated NO production by primary cultures of rat proximal tubule (PT) cells. METHODS Male Wistar rats subjected to bilateral renal ischemia (45 min) followed by reperfusion (6 h). Rats were administered either L-NIL (3 mg/kg IV bolus 15 min prior to I/R followed by 1 mg/kg/h throughout I/R) or AE-ITU (1 mg/kg IV bolus 15 min prior to I/R followed by 1 mg/kg/h throughout I/R). Serum and urinary biochemical indicators of renal dysfunction and injury were measured; serum creatinine (SCr, glomerular dysfunction), fractional excretion of Na+ (FENa, tubular dysfunction), serum aspartate aminotransferase (sAST, I/R injury) and urinary N-acetyl-beta-d-glucosaminidase (uNAG, tubular injury). Additionally, renal sections were used for histological grading of renal injury and for immunological evidence of nitrotyrosine formation. Nitrate/nitrate levels in plasma were measured using the Griess assay and used as an indicator of NO production. Primary cultures of rat PT cells were incubated with interferon-gamma(IFN-gamma, 100 IU/mL) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 10 microg/mL) for 24 h, either in the absence or presence of increasing concentrations of L-NIL or AE-ITU (0.001 to 1 mmol/L) after which nitrite/nitrate levels were measured using the Griess assay. RESULTS L-NIL and AE-ITU significantly reduced the I/R-mediated increases in SCr, FENa, sAST and uNAG, indicating attenuation of I/R-mediated renal dysfunction and injury. Specifically, L-NIL and AE-ITU reduced the I/R-mediated glomerular and tubular dysfunction and biochemical and histological evidence of tubular injury. Both L-NIL and AE-ITU attenuated the plasma levels of nitrate (indicating reduced NO production) and the immunohistochemical evidence of the formation of nitrotyrosine. In vitro, L-NIL and AE-ITU both significantly reduced cytokine-stimulated NO production by primary cultures of rat PT cells in a dose-dependent manner. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that L-NIL and AE-ITU reduce the renal dysfunction and injury associated with I/R of the kidney, via inhibition of iNOS activity and subsequent reduction of NO (and peroxynitrite) generation. We propose that selective and specific inhibitors of iNOS activity may be useful against the NO-mediated renal dysfunction and injury associated with I/R of the kidney.
Low-bit rate video codec parameter evaluation and optimization

The US military will use digital video compression for many different operations and applications. System requirements result in the need to transmit video streams within limited bandwidth, and often over harsh transmission environments. To deliver video with sufficient quality, the most modern video encoders and decoders (codecs) need to be employed with parameters optimized for high compression ratios and tolerance to network loss.
Energy-saving cloud computing platform based on micro-embedded system

Energy consumption and computing performance are two essential considerations when service providers establish new data centres. The energy-saving cloud computing platform proposed in this study as potential applications in internet network information centres because of its excellent energy efficiency when manage large datasets. Increased in distributed computing systems greatly enhance data processing capacity. Compared to a standard platform, the proposed energy-saving cloud computing platform achieves the goals of energy-saving and high-performance computing which reduce power consumption by 45.5% and reduce computation time by 22.6%.
The structure design of an intelligent decision support system for navigation collision avoidance

A synergic multi-base structure of an intelligent decision support system for navigation collision avoidance is presented in this article. Each base, including rule knowledge base, fuzzy case base, object oriented model base and rule text base, is established and discussed. The multi-base cooperator can control, coordinate, schedule and communicate among these bases. Harmony knowledge base, dynamic database and multiple inference engines, which consist of the cooperator, are also explained. And finally, several pictures about system running and interface are given.
Artistic Image Colorization with Visual Generative Networks

Visual generative models, such as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) [1] and Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) [2], have achieve remarkable results in generating visual images [3, 4, 5, 6]. While most existing work [3, 4] focus on photorealistic images, the problem of generating artistic images is relatively underinvestigated. Different from photorealistic images, artistic images exhibit larger variations in color, visual style and emotion. Therefore, it is challenging for generative models, to capture the richer space of artistic visual domain. In this project, we aim to design visual generative models for the problem of artistic image colorization. We would like to explore multiple settings of colorizing artistic images of different styles. We are interested in the following settings. First, given a gray-scale input image, we expect our system to automatically generate vivid color scheme of the input. Second, given a colorful input image, we would like the generated color scheme to follow user control. To enable this, besides input gray-scale image, our system takes as input one additional k × k color grid, where user can specify color spatially. Moreover, we would like to evaluate our system on various visual styles/media types, for example oil painting and water color, which are both extremely rich in color. The overall design of our systems is illustrated in Figure 1.
Unified linear time-invariant model predictive control for strong nonlinear chaotic systems

Abstract. It is well known that an alone linear controller is difficult to control a chaotic system, because intensive nonlinearities exist in such system. Meanwhile, depending closely on a precise mathematical modeling of the system and high computational complexity, model predictive control has its inherent drawback in controlling nonlinear systems. In this paper, a unified linear timeinvariant model predictive control for intensive nonlinear chaotic systems is presented. The presented model predictive control algorithm is based on an extended state observer, and the precise mathematical modeling is not required. Through this method, not only the required coefficient matrix of impulse response can be derived analytically, but also the future output prediction is explicitly calculated by only using the current output sample. Therefore, the computational complexity can be reduced sufficiently. The merits of this method include, the Diophantine equation needing no calculation, and independence of precise mathematical modeling. According to the variation of the cost function, the order of the controller can be reduced, and the system stability is enhanced. Finally, numerical simulations of three kinds of chaotic systems confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.
A panel study in congestive heart failure to estimate the short-term effects from personal factors and environmental conditions on oxygen saturation and pulse rate

Objectives: Recent studies suggest that persons with congestive heart failure (CHF) may be at higher risk for short-term effects of air pollution. This daily diary panel study in Montreal, Quebec, was carried out to determine whether oxygen saturation and pulse rate were associated with selected personal factors, weather conditions and air pollution. Methods: Thirty-one subjects with CHF participated in this study in 2002 and 2003. Over a 2-month period, the investigators measured their oxygen saturation, pulse rate, weight and temperature each morning and recorded these and other data in a daily diary. Air pollution and weather conditions were obtained from fixed-site monitoring stations. The study made use of mixed regression models, adjusting for within-subject serial correlation and temporal trends, to determine the association between oxygen saturation and pulse rate and personal and environmental variables. Depending on the model, we accounted for the effects of a variety of personal variables (eg, body temperature, salt consumption) as well as nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone, maximum temperature and change in barometric pressure at 8:00 from the previous day. Results: In multivariable analyses, the study found that oxygen saturation was reduced when subjects reported that they were ill, consumed salt, or drank liquids on the previous day and had higher body temperatures on the concurrent day (only the latter was statistically significant). Relative humidity and decreased atmospheric pressure from the previous day were associated with oxygen saturation. In univariate analyses, there was negative associations with concentrations of fine particulates, ozone, and sulphur dioxide (SO2), but only SO2 was significant after adjustment for the effects of weather. For pulse rate, no associations were found for the personal variables and in univariate analyses the study found positive associations with NO2, fine particulates (aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm or under, PM2.5), SO2, and maximum temperature, although only the latter two were significant after adjustment for environmental effects. Conclusions: The findings from the present investigation suggest that personal and environmental conditions affect intermediate physiological parameters that may affect the health of CHF patients.
RECENT ADVANCES IN HYDROGEOCHEMISTRY

INTRODUCTION This abstract describes some activities of the hydrogeochemistry group at ARRC over the previous year. Our goal is to develop useful regional vectoring techniques to mineralisation using groundwater chemistry, with particular emphasis on the Yilgarn Craton and surrounds. In order to do this effectively requires developing a model of groundwater evolution, consistent and realizable sampling/analytical techniques and, ultimately, straight-forward interpretation procedures.
THIN ICE AREA EXTRACTION IN THE SEA OF OKHOTSK FROM GCOM-W1/AMSR2 DATA

Abstract. Passive microwave radiometers on-board satellites can penetrate clouds and can monitor the global sea ice distribution on daily basis. The authors have developed an algorithm to extract thin ice area in the Sea of Okhotsk from the passive microwave sensor AMSR2 on-board GCOM-W1 satellite. The algorithm uses the brightness temperature scatter plots of AMSR2 19 GHz polarization difference(V–H) vs. 19 GHz V polarization. The results were verified using simultaneously collected MODIS images in the Sea of Okhotsk. The most of the thin ice areas visually identified in the MODIS images were automatically extracted from AMSR2 data using the algorithm.
The protein kinase C-related PKC-L(eta) gene product is localized in the cell nucleus

The tumor promoters phorbol esters are thought to induce changes in cell growth and gene expression by direct activation of protein kinase C (PKC). However, the molecular mechanisms by which PKC molecules transduce signals into the cell nucleus are unknown. In this study, we provide evidence for a direct target for phorbol esters in the nucleus. We demonstrate that the new PKC-related family member, PKC-L, recently isolated by us, is expressed specifically in the cell nucleus. Localization of PKC-L in the cell nucleus is shown both by immunofluorescence staining and by subcellular fractionation experiments of several human cell lines, including the human epidermoid carcinoma line A431. Treatment of these cells by phorbol esters does not induce the down-regulation of PKC-L, in contrast to their effect on classical PKC family members. This is the only PKC isoenzyme described so far that resides permanently and specifically in the cell nucleus. PKC-L may function as an important link in tumor promoting, e.g., as a nuclear regulator of gene expression that changes the phosphorylation state of transcriptional components such as the AP-1 complex.
INFORMATION WOMEN RECEIVE ABOUT HEART ATTACKS AND HOW IT AFFECTS THEIR KNOWLEDGE, BELIEFS, AND INTENTIONS TO ACT IN A CARDIAC EMERGENCY

In this study we investigate (a) what information women receive on acute myocardial infarction (AMI) from different information sources, (b) how women evaluate this information, and (c) how information acquisition is related to women's knowledge of AMI, personal risk perceptions, and behavioral intentions regarding a cardiac emergency. A random sample of 844 women 50 years and over were telephoned in the state of Washington. Repeated measures regression analyses showed that women receive most of their information on AMI from the mass media, even though they evaluated the media as less believable, less useful, less clear, and making less of an impression than information received from health care providers. Logistic regression analyses showed that the total number of information sources from which heart attack information was received in the past year was positively related to knowledge of AMI symptoms, beliefs about AMI, and personal risk perceptions. The results are discussed in terms of their pragmatic implications.