Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microstimulation of area V 4 has little effect on spatial attention and on perception of phosphenes evoked in area V 1

Previous transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies suggested that feedback from higher to lower areas of the visual cortex is important for the access of visual information to awareness. However, the influence of cortico-cortical feedback on awareness and the nature of the feedback effects are not yet completely understood. In the present study, we used electrical microstimulation in the visual cortex of monkeys to test the hypothesis that cortico-cortical feedback plays a role in visual awareness. We investigated the interactions between the primary visual cortex (V1) and area V4 by applying microstimulation in both cortical areas at various delays. We report that the monkeys detected the phosphenes produced by V1 microstimulation but subthreshold V4 microstimulation did not influence V1 phosphene detection thresholds. A second experiment examined the influence of V4 microstimulation on the monkeys' ability to detect the dimming of one of three peripheral visual stimuli. Again, microstimulation of a group of V4 neurons failed to modulate the monkeys' perception of a stimulus in their receptive field. We conclude that conditions exist where microstimulation of area V4 has only a limited influence on visual perception.
An Enzymatic Bioassay for Perchlorate SERDP Project ER-1530 JULY 2010

4 Introduction. 6 Proposed project objective: . 6 Background. 6 Toxicity and regulation. 7 Sources of perchlorate . 8 Microbial perchlorate reduction. 10 Perchlorate analysis . 13 The chlorite bioassay . 15 Initial conceptual flaw and correction . 16 Materials and Methods. 18 Overview. 18 Cell culturing. 18 Cell lysate preparation. 18 Protein analyses. 20 Chemical analyses. 20 Protein activity. 21 Results and Discussion . 21 Initial Assay Development. 21 Testing the Assay under Various Conditions. 23 Lower Detection Limits of an Enzyme Based Assay . 26 Strategy for a Field Assay . 27 Development of a colorimetric bioassay using stable reductants . 28 Development of an Aerobic assay for perchlorate . 35 Optimizing the purification of PCR:. 42 Analysis of perchlorate using whole cell lysate . 46 Set up of Thorne assay: . 47 Trouble Shooting and Optimizing the Thorne Assay . 49 Detecting perchlorate in the presence of various groundwater contaminants: Purifying perchlorate from anionic contaminants . 53 Analyzing tapwater, groundwater, and samples of various ionic strengths . 55 Developed bioassay application . 59 Bioassay functional optimization (extraction protocol) . 61 Clone expression of function perchlorate reductase in E. coli. 63 Conclusions . 67 Summary of Assay . 70 References. 72 Appendix A . 77
The Tully-Fisher relations of early-type spiral and S0 galaxies

We demonstrate that the comparison of Tully-Fisher relations (TFRs) derived from global H I line widths to TFRs derived from the circular velocity profiles of dynamical models (or stellar kinematic observations corrected for asymmetric drift) is vulnerable to systematic and uncertain biases introduced by the different measures of rotation used. We therefore argue that to constrain the relative locations of the TFRs of spiral and S0 galaxies, the same tracer and measure must be used for both samples. Using detailed near-infrared imaging and the circular velocities of axisymmetric Jeans models of 14 nearby edge-on Sa‐Sb spirals and 14 nearby edge-on S0s drawn from a range of environments, we find that S0s lie on a TFR with the same slope as the spirals, but are on average 0:53 0:15 mag fainter at KS-band at a given rotational velocity. This is a significantly smaller offset than that measured in earlier studies of the S0 TFR, which we attribute to our elimination of the bias associated with using different rotation measures and our use of earlier type spirals as a reference. Since our measurement of the offset avoids systematic biases, it should be preferred to previous estimates. A spiral stellar population in which star formation is truncated would take 1 Gyr to fade by 0.53 mag at KS-band. If S0s are the products of a simple truncation of star formation in spirals, then this finding is difficult to reconcile with the observed evolution of the spiral/S0 fraction with redshift. Recent star formation could explain the observed lack of fading in S0s, but the offset of the S0 TFR persists as a function of both stellar and dynamical mass. We show that the offset of the S0 TFR could therefore be explained by a systematic difference between the total mass distributions of S0s and spirals, in the sense that S0s need to be smaller or more concentrated than spirals.
First steps towards an integration of a Personal Learning Environment at university level

Ebner, M. , Schon, S. , Taraghi, B. , Drachsler, H. , & Tsang, P. (2011). First steps towards an integration of a Personal Learning Environment at university level. In R. Kwan et al. (Eds.), ICT 2011, CCIS 177 (pp. 22–36), Springer-Verlag Berlin: Heidelberg 2011.
Conjugate gradient neural network in prediction of clay behavior and parameters sensitivities

The use of artificial neural networks has increased in many areas of engineering. In particular, this method has been applied to many geotechnical engineering problems and demonstrated some degree of success. A review of the literature reveals that it has been used successfully in modeling soil behavior, site characterization, earth retaining structures, settlement of structures, slope stability, design of tunnels and underground openings, liquefaction, soil permeability and hydraulic conductivity, soil compaction, soil swelling and classification of soils. The method of conjugate gradients provides a very effective way to optimize large, deterministic systems by gradient descent. In its standard form, however, it is not amenable to stochastic approximation of the gradient. Here we explore a number of ways to adopt ideas from conjugate gradient and Back Propagation in the stochastic setting, using fast Hessian-vector products to obtain curvature information effectively. In our benchmark experiments the resulting highly scalable algorithms converge about an order of magnitude faster than ordinary stochastic gradient descent. The objective of this paper is to provide a general view to describe this method in predicting mechanical behavior and constitutive modeling issues in geo-mechanical behavior of cohesive soil to be used in geo-mechanics. In this research the Batching Back Propagation method (BBP) has been employed and the characterized parameters are introduced as initial void ratio, liquid limit, plasticity index, natural density, moisture percent, solid density of grain, over consolidation ratio, and pre-consolidation pressure. The paper also intends to present how much the input memory may cover the accuracy of predicted behavior of standard triaxial drained and undrained tests. The paper also discusses the strengths and limitations of the proposed method compared to the other modeling approaches. Also, the sensitivity of intended parameters is investigated. D
Magnetic airborne survey – geophysical flight

Abstract. This paper provides a technical review process in the area of airborne acquisition of geophysical data, with emphasis for magnetometry. In summary, it addresses the calibration processes of geophysical equipment as well as the aircraft to minimize possible errors in measurements. The corrections used in data processing and filtering are demonstrated with the same results as well as the evolution of these techniques in Brazil and worldwide.
Continuous Action Recognition and Segmentation in Untrimmed Videos

Recognizing continuous human action is a fundamental task in many real-world computer vision applications including video surveillance, video retrieval, and human-computer interaction, etc. It requires to recognize each action performed as well as their segmentation boundaries in a continuous sequence. In previous works, great progress has been reported for single action recognition, by using deep convolutional networks. In order to further improve the performance for continuous action recognition, in this paper, we introduce a discriminative approach consisting of three modules. The first feature extraction module uses a two stream Convolutional Neural Network to capture the appearance and the short-term motion information from the raw video input. Based on the obtained features, the second classification module performs spatial and temporal recognition and then fuses the two scores from respective feature stream. In the final segmentation module, a semi-Markov Conditional Field model, capable of handling long-term action interactions, is built to partition the action sequence. As can be seen in the experimental results, our approach obtains state-of-the-art performance on public datasets including 50Salads, Breakfast, and MERL Shopping. We have also visualized the continuous actions segmentation results for more insightful discussion in the paper.
Perceptual Face Completion using a Local-Global Generative Adversarial Network

Face completion is one of the most challenging problems, as the reconstruction algorithm should render the missing pixels with semantically plausible contents. Recent methods have achieved promising advances in photorealistic human face synthesis. However, these approaches are limited to deal with general or structure specified faces. In this paper, we propose a Two-Pathway Perceptual Generative Adversarial Network (TPP-GAN) for face completion by perceiving semantic representations from both global structures and local details of a face. We combine a reconstruction network and a perceptual network containing two pathway adversarial networks (local and global) into our framework to efficiently ensure the transfer of the prominent facial features to the occluded parts, which encourages a visually high-quality image completion results. Experimental results well demonstrate that our proposed framework not only generates locally semantic and globally consistent fragments, but also outperforms existing methods on unaligned faces and synthesis of part components.
10.3% Efficient CuIn(S,Se)2 Solar Cells from DMF Molecular Solution with the Absorber Selenized under High Argon Pressure

Recently, a 22.6% efficiency CIGS solar cell fabricated from co-evaporation has been reported, exceeding the efficiency of polysilicon solar cells. However, the high cost and low throughput makeit hard for large scale manufacturing. Here, we report that highly efficient copper indium sulfoselenide solar cells can be fabricated from single DMF molecular precursor solution without any etching when the CIS precursor film was annealed with selenium vapor under 0.16 MPa argon pressure. A power conversion efficiency of 10.3% with a current density of 35.5 mA/cm$^{\mathbf{2}}$, an open circuit voltage of 0.44 V, and a fill factor of 65.3% was achieved without an antireflective coating. The enhanced device performance is due to a densely packed top absorber layer without any voids by a 0.16 MPa argon pressure during selenization process. Our results demonstrate that annealing precursor film under increased atmosphere pressure is a new and promising strategy to achieve high performing thin film solar cells, which can be applied to all solution processed thin film chalcogenide solar cell including CIS, CIGS and CZTS.
Estimation of Off Shore Wind Power Potential and Cost Optimization of Wind Farm in Indian Coastal Region by Using GAMS

This paper presented an optimization based analysis to minimize the levelized cost of energy to find the effective cost model based on different offshore wind energy cost parameter. A numerical study is carried out to demonstrate the model. India is fast growing country in the economy but it is still in its initial stage where policy frameworks are formed by MNRE and getting with the tools to enter into the offshore market. The energy potential along the Indian coastal region (Shallow water region i.e. less than 50m water depth) is immense and it is approximately equal to 42% of present wind power capacity. Generation cost of 1 MWh or KWh of electricity is an important consideration for development and operation of any wind farm. This study examines the economic keys regarding cost for offshore wind farms to formulate an effective cost model so that we can get optimal solution for levelized production cost. In this paper, the optimization model is solved by using CONOPT solver in GAMS. The results obtained by solving problem with GAMS are better and effective in terms of LPC.
Does the Future Price Help Forecast the Spot Price ?

This paper proposes a futures-based unobserved components model for the commodity spot price which proves to have superior forecasting ability. The commodity spot price is decomposed into long-term and short-term components, while the futures price is decomposed into expected future spot price and risk premium. Under this model, information from the whole futures curve could be utilized to improve forecasting accuracy of the spot price. Applying this model to oil market data, I find that the model forecasts outperform in multiple dimensions the benchmark of the literature optimal forecast (the random walk) as well as simple futures prices forecasts. The model forecasts overall have smaller error variation over the 20-year sample period, and are also more possible to have smaller absolute error when compared to the benchmark forecasts period by period.
Consumers' Preference for Sweet Peppers with different Process Attributes: A Discrete Choice Experiment in Taiwan

Based on an online discrete choice experiment (DCE) this study investigates the relative importance of food label information (country of origin, production methods, chemical residue testing (CRT)) and price for Taiwanese consumers’ in their purchase of sweet peppers. Results show that respondents focus mostly on the COO labeling during their sweet-pepper shopping, followed by price. Information concerning CRT results and production methods are of less importance. Our findings also indicate that interaction between attributes matter and that preference for attribute levels differs depending on socioeconomic characteristics.
Analysis of DNA structure in the human insulin gene \ x = req-\ linked polymorphic region in vivo

An altered DNA structure exists within the hypervariable region located 360 bp upstream of the human insulin gene. The aim of the present study was to determine whether this structure exists in the insulin gene in vivo, and whether its presence is related to the expression of the insulin gene. However, since there were no clonal human \g=b\-celllines available for such studies, the human insulin gene was transfected into a rat insulinoma-derived \g=b\-cell line and several human insulin-expressing clones were selected. One such cell line was treated in vivo with the DNA structural probe bromoacetaldehyde and the chromosomal DNA was extracted. Following digestion with TaqI and subsequent digestion with S1-nuclease to cleave at the bromoacetaldehydereactive sites, the DNA was subjected to agarose gel electrophoresis, and insulin gene fragments were detected by Southern blot analysis. Bromoacetaldehyde generated subfragments of 2500, 1700 and 800 bp in the human insulin gene isolated from the rat \g=b\-cellline, while the human insulin gene in the non-expressing HeLa cell line was unreactive to bromoacetaldehyde. These results suggest that an altered structure might exist in the insulin gene\x=req-\ linked polymorphic region of the human insulin gene in vivo, and that this structure may play a role in the expression of the insulin gene. Journal ofMolecular Endocrinology (1992) 9, 221-225
Local Regression Based Hourglass Network for Hand Pose Estimation from a Single Depth Image

Hand pose estimation plays an important role in many applications such as human-computer interaction. With the advent of commodity depth sensors and the developments of deep learning, noticeable improvements have been made in this field recently. Nevertheless, the accuracy and robustness of existing approaches are still dissatisfying. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end local regression based hourglass network with a modified loss function to estimate the 3D pose of the hand in a depth image. We use a third order hourglass block to extract features of the hand. At the top of our network, we slice the feature map into several regions and regress the regions independently first. Then, we merge the regression results and feed them to the final regressor. Besides, we compare performances of different loss functions for the task. The results indicate that the structure of the network and the loss function designed here lead to an obvious improvement. And the proposed approach is comparable to, or superior to the state-of-the-art on a public challenging dataset. Our system can run at over 910 FPS on a single GPU, and the mean error of estimation is reduced to 12.36 mm.
Defensin-immunology in infl ammatory bowel disease Rôle des défensines dans la physiopathologie des maladies infl ammatoires chroniques intestinales

Defensins are endogenous antibiotics with microbicidal activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, fungi, enveloped viruses and protozoa. A disturbed antimicrobial defense, as provided by Panethand other epithelial cell defensins, seems to be a critical factor in the pathogenesis of infl ammatory bowel diseases. Conspicuously, there is a relative lack of Paneth cell β-defensins HD-5 and HD-6 in ileal Crohn ́s disease, both in the absence of a pattern recognition receptor NOD2 mutation and, even more pronounced, in its presence. This defi cit is independent of concurrent active infl ammation and results in a diminished antibacterial killing by the mucosa. The Crohn’s disease mucosa has not only a signifi cant lack in killing different Escherichia coli but also an impaired ability in clearing Staphylococcus aureus as well as anaerobic micro-organisms. Thus, this dysfunction in antibacterial barrier seems to be broad and is not restricted to a single bacterial strain. In addition to directly controlling barrier function, Paneth cell defensins also regulate the composition of the bacterial stool fl ora. In the majority of patients, the Paneth cell defi ciency is mediated by WNT signalling which suggests a disturbed Paneth cell differentiation in ileal Crohn’s disease. In contrast, colonic Crohn’s disease is characterised by an impaired induction of mucosal β-defensins, partly due to a low copy number of the β-defensin gene cluster. Therefore it seems plausible that bacteria take advantage of a niche formed by defensin defi ciency. This would represent a paradigm shift in understanding Crohn ́s disease and provides a target for future therapeutic strategies. © 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
BeppoSAX/PDS identification of the true counterpart of the Piccinotti source H0917-074

High energy emission has been discovered serendipitously by the BeppoSAX/PDS telescope in the1.3 field of view around the Piccinotti source H0917-074. A re-pointing of BeppoSAX/NFI has allowed the association of this emission with the Seyfert 2 galaxy MCG 1 24 12 which lies within the original HEAO1/A2 error box of H0917-074. This is the first PDS serendipitous discovery of a Seyfert 2 galaxy and the first detection of MCG 1 24 12 in the X-ray domain. The measured 2-10 keV flux of MCG 1 24 12 is1 10 11 erg cm 2 s 1 compatible with the Piccinotti HEAO-1/A2 observation. This is a factor of6 greater than that observed from EXO0917.3-0722, originally suggested as the counterpart of the Piccinotti source. The 2-10 keV spectrum of MCG 1 24 12 shows the presence of Fe K emission together with an absorption feature at8.7 keV. At high energies, the Seyfert 2 still dominates and the observed 20-100 keV flux is4 10 11 erg cm 2 s 1 .
Towards Automatic Detection of Monkey Faces

An automated monkey face detection system confers distinct advantages in the protection of wild monkeys, sociological studies, monkey feeding and management and so on. The monkey face and human face have similar structures, but still hold some very important differences in appearance. Therefore, whether the mainstream human face detection algorithms can be adapted to the detection of monkey face is still unknown. To investigate this problem, we collected a database of monkey face (with more than 20,000 macaque faces) and conducted several experiments in our database. Experimental results reveal some interesting results. Firstly, the classical Viola-Jones Adaboost algorithm on monkey faces does not work as well as that on human faces. A in-depth study for this result will be given by taking insight into the selected features by Adaboost. In particular, lips and eyebrows are very important to human face recognition. However, the lack of these prominent features in the monkey's face causes the Viola-Jones algorithm to choose more local Haar-like features, resulting in a higher false positive rate. Secondly, the Faster R-CNN works effectively for monkey face detection but requires a large number of training samples. A pre-training with human faces helps to tackle the problem of shortage of monkey faces for training. Above conclusion indicate that an automatic monkey face detector can be learnt from a human face detector, yet a model with complex features should be employed.
Differing effects of eelgrass Zostera marina on recruitment and growth of associated blue mussels Mytilus edulis

I studied the effects of habitat structure, provided by an eelgrass Zostera marina canopy, on shell growth rate and recruitment of co-occurring blue mussels Mytilus edulis in the Western Baltic Sea. M. edulis in clumps consisting of 10 and 30 individuals were tagged and placed in unvegetated areas and in the centers of small, medium and large eelgrass patches (0.8 to 1.6 m, 1.6 to 3.2 m, and >4 m across, respectively). Inside eelgrass, M. edulis growth was approximately one-third of that in adjacent unvegetated areas, regardless of vegetated patch size and mussel clump size. In contrast, mussel recruitment, assessed as abundance of 1 to 5 mm long juveniles, was enhanced by the presence of eelgrass, and was highest in medium-size eelgrass patches where juveniles were similar to 3x as dense as in clumps on the sand flat. Populations of animals associated with seagrasses can thus be enhanced and depressed simultaneously by the plant canopy, depending on the response variable. Moreover, the spatial structure of the vegetation, in this case eelgrass patch diameter, may be important for one response Variable (recruitment) but irrelevant for another (shell growth).