Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tracking interacting targets in multi-modal sensors

Object tracking is one of the fundamental tasks in various applications such as surveillance, sports, video conferencing and activity recognition. Factors such as occlusions, illumination changes and limited field of observance of the sensor make tracking a challenging task. To overcome these challenges the focus of this thesis is on using multiple modalities such as audio and video for multi-target, multi-modal tracking. Particularly, this thesis presents contributions to four related research topics, namely, pre-processing of input signals to reduce noise, multi-modal tracking, simultaneous detection and tracking, and interaction recognition. To improve the performance of detection algorithms, especially in the presence of noise, this thesis investigate filtering of the input data through spatio-temporal feature analysis as well as through frequency band analysis. The pre-processed data from multiple modalities is then fused within Particle filtering (PF). To further minimise the discrepancy between the real and the estimated positions, we propose a strategy that associates the hypotheses and the measurements with a real target, using a Weighted Probabilistic Data Association (WPDA). Since the filtering involved in the detection process reduces the available information and is inapplicable on low signal-to-noise ratio data, we investigate simultaneous detection and tracking approaches and propose a multi-target track-beforedetect Particle filtering (MT-TBD-PF). The proposed MT-TBD-PF algorithm bypasses the detection step and performs tracking in the raw signal. Finally, we apply the proposed multi-modal tracking to recognise interactions between targets in regions within, as well as outside the cameras’ fields of view. The efficiency of the proposed approaches are demonstrated on large uni-modal, multi-modal and multi-sensor scenarios from real world detections, tracking and event recognition datasets and through participation in evaluation campaigns.
RSEL: revocable secure efficient lightweight RFID authentication scheme

Radio frequency identification (RFID) has been regarded as one of the 10 important technologies in the 21st century. Because of its capability to rapidly and accurately collect and process data in real‐time, RFID has been widely applied in many areas, such as Internet of Things and Smart Grid. However, the existing security threats become more severe toward RFID authentication scheme. The traditional security mechanisms cannot be used in RFID directly because of the limitations of processing capability, storage space, and power supply of RFID tags. In this paper, we propose a revocable secure efficient lightweight RFID authentication scheme (RSEL). To achieve authentication efficiency, the key of the tag is chosen to reduce the number of hash computing in the database. Furthermore, the key is stored in the database and updated constantly with the tag to prevent the tracking and synchronization attacks. The valid period of each tag is stored in the database so that RSEL can revoke the expired tag. The correctness of RSEL has been proved using GNY logic. The performance of RSEL in terms of security and efficiency is evaluated. Compared with other existing approaches, RSEL achieves stronger security and higher efficiency. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Polymeric Slippery Coatings: Nature and Applications

We review recent developments in nature-inspired superhydrophobic and omniphobic surfaces. Water droplets beading on a surface at significantly high static contact angles and low contact-angle hystereses characterize superhydrophobicity. Microscopically, rough hydrophobic surfaces could entrap air in their pores resulting in a portion of a submerged surface with air–water interface, which is responsible for the slip effect. Suberhydrophobicity enhances the mobility of droplets on lotus leaves for self-cleaning purposes, so-called lotus effect. Amongst other applications, superhydrophobicity could be used to design slippery surfaces with minimal skin-friction drag for energy conservation. Another kind of slippery coatings is the recently invented slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS), which are one type of omniphobic surfaces. Certain plants such as the carnivorous Nepenthes pitcher inspired SLIPS. Their interior surfaces have microstructural roughness, which can lock in place an infused lubricating liquid. The lubricant is then utilized as a repellent surface for other liquids such as water, blood, crude oil, and alcohol. In this review, we discuss the concepts of both lotus effect and Nepenthes slippery mechanism. We then present a review of recent advances in manufacturing polymeric and non-polymeric slippery surfaces with ordered and disordered micro/nanostructures. Furthermore, we discuss the performance and longevity of such surfaces. Techniques used to characterize the surfaces are also detailed. We conclude the article with an overview of the latest advances in characterizing and using slippery surfaces for different applications.
New control strategy for energy conversion based on coupled magnetic structures

In this paper, a new strategy for energy conversion based on a coupled magnetic structure is presented. A proper control of the input voltages provides constant output voltage at any time and ideally no output filter is required and no energy is stored, enabling very fast dynamics and low losses in the converter since switching frequency can be very small. Ideal features and actual limitations of the proposed concept are analyzed. A prototype with a two-input magnetic structure is built in order to prove the concept.
The construct of minor and major depression in Alzheimer's disease.

OBJECTIVE This study examined the frequency of major and minor depression in Alzheimer's disease and determined whether these types of depression have a different functional and psychopathological impact and whether there is a change in the prevalence of major and minor depression throughout the stages of Alzheimer's disease. METHOD A consecutive series of 670 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV; specific instruments to rate the presence and severity of depression, anxiety, apathy, irritability, delusions, pathological affective crying, performance of activities of daily living, and social functioning; and a standardized neuropsychological evaluation. Diagnoses of major and minor depression were generated from DSM-IV criteria. RESULTS Twenty-six percent of the patients had major depression, 26% had minor depression, and 48% were not depressed. Major depression was significantly associated with sad mood in all three stages of the illness, although this association dropped significantly for minor depression in severe Alzheimer's disease. Both major and minor depression were significantly associated with more severe psychopathology, functional impairments, and social dysfunction. Depressive symptoms that most strongly discriminated between Alzheimer's disease patients with and without sad mood were guilty ideation, suicidal ideation, loss of energy, insomnia, weight loss, psychomotor retardation/agitation, poor concentration, and loss of interest. CONCLUSIONS Our study demonstrates that DSM-IV criteria for major and minor depression identify clinically relevant syndromes of depression in Alzheimer's disease, mild levels of depression can produce significant functional impairment, and the severity of psychopathological and neurological impairments increases with increasing severity of depression.
Electron microscopic studies on the intra-flagellar structures of trypanosomes.

SYNOPSIS. The intraflagellar structure (IFS) of the flagella of Trypanosoma brucei was examined on the basis of ultrathin sections in various planes. The IFS is composed of filaments approximately 50 A thick. These filaments seem to be identical with the protofilaments found earlier to be the basic elements of the contractile flagellar fibrils. The fibrillar system is firmly connected with the IFS and the latter is attached to the flagellar membrane by filaments. The lattice-like appearance of the IFS is caused by longitudinal and oblique filaments running in different planes. The structure of this network is discussed in detail. The IFS may serve as an abutment for the contractile flagellar fibrils.
Public Perceptions of Credibility of Male and Female Sportscasters

While there has been considerable growth in the success and involvement of women athletes in all levels of sport, the opportunity to participate is not enough to guarantee equality in the field of athletics. In society, one must have a voice that is not only heard but is considered credible. This voice is considered sport media, and the right of women to own a place in the field of sport media is as important as their right to participate in professional sport (Staurowsky & DiManno, 2002). While the appearance of women behind the sportscasters desk has grown in both local and network markets, are they deemed less credible than their male counterparts? Cast within impression formation theory, this study was designed to explore the impact of attractiveness and knowledge in the formation of impressions of credibility of male and female sportscasters. Using a repeated measures analysis of variance, the findings illustrated that a sex stereotype does indeed exist concerning the perceptions of credibility regarding male and female sportscasters. Even the most attractive and most knowledgeable female sportscaster can’t overcome the stereotype of another pretty face who cannot talk sports. Her sex prevents her from being judged as credible as the least attractive and least knowledgeable male sportscaster. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Rotavirus infection in children in Japan

Abstract Currently, a high morbidity of rotavirus diarrhea has been seen in children in developed and developing countries. Improvement of the vaccines is necessary in order to reduce the burden of diarrhea caused by rotavirus. A survey of rotavirus infection from diarrheal stool specimens in children of seven regions in Japan was conducted from 1984 to 1999. The present study discusses the survey results and reviews the national and international data of more than 23 papers and congress proceedings about rotavirus infection in Japan. We analyze the prevalence of rotavirus infection in acute diarrheal in‐ and outpatients, the distribution of rotavirus G‐serotypes and surveillance data for seasonality and age groups in Japan. The data indicated that rotavirus is the most important cause of diarrhea in Japan among young children, with the prevalence ranging from approximately 9.7 to 88%. The most common rotavirus strains belonged to serotype G1, specifically since 1993. Serotypes G2, G3 and G4 had also been documented to be predominantly based in the area and year before 1992. However, untypeable rotavirus strains had been found each year, with a prevalence up to 56.7% which suggests that rare serotypes (except G1–4) or new serotypes might exist. Unexpectedly, in Tokyo and Sapporo from 1998 to 1999, G9 was found to be the first most prevailing serotype with a high prevalence of 52.9 and 71.4%, respectively. Despite these data from different geographic areas, the year under investigation was relatively clear in respect to seasonality, with a peak of rotavirus activity in late winter (February) through early spring (March). Age distribution had also characterized that the infection was predominant among children aged 1–2 years of age, although it was also common in children of 2–3 years. In addition, mixed infection with bacteria was documented.
Automatic classification of patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease and progressive supranuclear palsy using diffusion MRI datasets

Parkinsonian syndromes encompass a spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases, which can be classified into various subtypes. The differentiation of these subtypes is typically conducted based on clinical criteria. Due to the overlap of intra-syndrome symptoms, the accurate differential diagnosis based on clinical guidelines remains a challenge with failure rates up to 25%. The aim of this study is to present an image-based classification method of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), an atypical variant of PD. Therefore, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) parameter maps were calculated based on diffusion-tensor magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) datasets. Mean ADC values were determined in 82 brain regions using an atlas-based approach. The extracted mean ADC values for each patient were then used as features for classification using a linear kernel support vector machine classifier. To increase the classification accuracy, a feature selection was performed, which resulted in the top 17 attributes to be used as the final input features. A leave-one-out cross validation based on 56 PD and 21 PSP subjects revealed that the proposed method is capable of differentiating PD and PSP patients with an accuracy of 94.8%. In conclusion, the classification of PD and PSP patients based on ADC features obtained from diffusion MRI datasets is a promising new approach for the differentiation of Parkinsonian syndromes in the broader context of decision support systems.
Course of Distress Experienced by Persons at Risk for an Autosomal Dominant Inheritable Disorder Participating in a Predictive Testing Program: An Explorative Study

Objective To compare the effects of predictive DNA testing on participants at risk for either Huntington disease (HD), or familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), or hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC). Method Psychological distress was measured with the Impact of Event Scale before testing and at 1 week and 6 months after the test result, in individuals at 50% risk for either HD (N = 25), FAP (N = 23), or HBOC (N = 10). Results A marginally significant trend was found indicating that carriers of the disease genes tended to show unchanged levels of distress during the study period whereas noncarriers showed the expected decrease. Men reported significantly less distress than women, and 1 week after the test result male noncarriers showed a sharp significant increase in the reported distress followed by a steady decline up to 6 months later. Conclusions The course of distress over time reported by carriers and noncarriers of the three disease genes was similar, which leads one to conclude that the previous experience with predictive testing for Huntington Disease may be a useful paradigm. However, those formerly at risk for HD reported more distress than those at risk for FAP and HBOC. From our clinical experience we learned that individuals at risk for FAP and HBOC are more inclined to ward off the emotions involved. Additional qualitative studies should be undertaken to investigate this.
Using Drosophila to study regulation of neural stem cell quiescence by nucleocytoplasmic transport

Cellular quiescence is a reversible non-dividing state. Subsets of adult mammalian stem cells, namely neural stem cells, spend the majority of their time in quiescence. The ability of stem cells to adopt the quiescent state appears to be crucial for long-term maintenance of the stem cell compartment. Tumour cells can also become quiescent and this renders them resistance to most chemotherapeutics, which target proliferating cells. Despite its importance, the molecular mechanisms that regulate the quiescent state still remain to be fully elucidated. In particular, the use of Drosophila melanogaster as a genetic model organism has provided important insights into various molecular mechanisms and cellular processes, including neurogenesis and neural stem cell quiescence. Drosophila neural stem cells, called neuroblasts, undergo two waves of neurogenesis separated by a period of quiescence. This project aimed to study the role of nucleocytoplasmic transport in regulating neuroblast quiescence. Here, we show evidence of a role for key components of nuclear transport machinery in the regulation of neuroblast quiescence. Furthermore, we investigate nucleocytoplasmic partitioning of key regulators of growth and/or cell-cycle progression. This work provides preliminary data implicating nucleoporins and casein kinase II as determinants of the quiescent state.
A framework for advanced fuzzy logic inference systems

Abstract This paper describes how high-level of Object-Oriented concepts can be used to provide a generic, portable and polymorphic Fuzzy Logic framework. It highlights the way in which such OO concepts allow the extension of the programming language idioms with the semantics of the fuzzy logic field. A progressive approach presents; in a first step Fuzzy Logic systems; then, relevant classes, design patterns and architectures are identified. The considered aspects cover the composite structure, the polymorphic behaviour and the building of a system of fuzzy expressions. Finally, an example illustrates how the framework can be used in a conventional design strategy.
Complex Interaction of Dendritic Connectivity and Hierarchical Patch Size on Biodiversity in River-Like Landscapes

Habitat fragmentation and land use changes are causing major biodiversity losses. Connectivity of the landscape or environmental conditions alone can shape biodiversity patterns. In nature, however, local habitat characteristics are often intrinsically linked to a specific connectivity. Such a link is evident in riverine ecosystems, where hierarchical dendritic structures command related scaling on habitat capacity. We experimentally disentangled the effect of local habitat capacity (i.e., the patch size) and dendritic connectivity on biodiversity in aquatic microcosm metacommunities by suitably arranging patch sizes within river-like networks. Overall, more connected communities that occupy a central position in the network exhibited higher species richness, irrespective of patch size arrangement. High regional evenness in community composition was found only in landscapes preserving geomorphological scaling properties of patch sizes. In these landscapes, some of the rarer species sustained regionally more abundant populations better tracking their own niche requirements compared to landscapes with homogeneous patch size or landscapes with spatially uncorrelated patch size. Our analysis suggests that altering the natural link between dendritic connectivity and patch size strongly affects community composition and population persistence at multiple scales. The experimental results are demonstrating a principle that can be tested in theoretical metacommunity models and eventually be projected to real riverine ecosystems.
Advanced Persistent Threat Detection using Malware Infection

: APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) is a genuine risk to the Internet. With the help of APT malware, attackers can remotely control infected machine and steal the personal information. DNS is well known for malware to find command and control (C&C) servers. The proposed novel system placed at the network departure guide that points toward effectively and efficiently detect APT malware infections based on malicious DNS and traffic analysis. To detect suspicious APT malware C&C domains the system utilizes malicious DNS analysis method, and afterward analyse the traffic of the comparing suspicious IP utilizing anomaly-based and signature based detection innovation. There are separated features in view of big data to describe properties of malware-related DNS. This manufactured a reputation engine to compute a score for an IP address by utilizing these elements vector together.
An efficient procedure to analyze locally-modified scattering problems by using the characteristic basis function method

In recent years, the advent of fast digital computers has facilitated the use of numerical methods for the solution of large scattering problems. The Method of Moment (MoM) has been widely used to solve integral equations in the frequency-domain. Its application entails approximating the unknown current distribution on the scatterer and transforming the integral equation into a set of linear algebraic that is generally solved by using direct or iterative methods. For electrically large scattering problems, the number of unknowns can reach several millions; hence the use of a direct solver, such as LU decomposition, becomes impracticable because of heavy burden it imposes on the CPU.
The numerical solution of systems of polynomials - arising in engineering and science

Background: Polynomial Systems Homotopy Continuation Projective Spaces Probability One Polynomials of One Variable Other Methods Isolated Solutions: Coefficient-Parameter Homotopy Polynomial Structures Case Studies Endpoint Estimation Checking Positive Dimensional Solution Sets: Some Concepts from Algebraic Geometry Basic Numerical Algebraic Geometry Cascading Through Embedded Systems The Numerical Irreducible Decomposition Intersection of Algebraic Sets.
Perturbations in Mouse Embryo Development and Viability Caused by Ammonium Are More Severe after Exposure at the Cleavage Stages1

Abstract The presence of ammonium in culture medium has a detrimental effect on embryo physiology and biochemistry; however, the stage at which the embryo is most sensitive to this effect is unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the exact stage at which the embryo is most vulnerable to ammonium by exposing the preimplantation embryo to 300 μM ammonium either at the precompaction stage (between the zygote and two-cell or the two-cell to eight-cell) or at the postcompaction stage (between the eight-cell and blastocyst). This study determined that exposure of embryos to ammonium at the precompaction stage from either the zygote to two-cell stage or from the two-cell to the eight-cell stage did not affect the rate of development to the blastocyst stage; however, the resultant blastocysts had decreased cell numbers and inner cell mass cells. Furthermore, these blastocysts had increased levels of cellular apoptosis and perturbed levels of Slc2a3 expression and glucose uptake. Transfer of these blastocysts revealed that, while implantation was not affected, the number of fetuses was reduced by culture with ammonium at the precompaction stage and fetal development was delayed, as observed by reduced crown-rump length and maturity. In contrast, the later stage embryo was more resistant to the negative effects of ammonium, with only Slc2a3 expression and fetal maturity affected. This raises the possibility that the later stage embryo is more able to protect itself from in vitro-derived stress and that the majority of in vitro-induced damage to mouse embryos is inflicted at the early stages of development.
Distance education in energy efficient drive technologies by using remote workplace

This paper describes design and experience in using remote workplace for education in the field of energy efficient drive technologies. Presented workplace is a three level load elevator with 5 kW of power, controlled by a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and realized within Integrated Service Real-time Remote Network CEyeClon. Together with suitable e-learning material this workplace presents an integral solution for distance education in the addressed field. By enrolling into the training the learners: (1) learn theoretical concepts of energy efficient drive technologies; (2) gain practical experience with energy recuperation concept; and (3) gain practice in programming and operating of newest industrial equipment. The integral solution was tested with two target groups: (1) students and (2) over 200 professionals from electro-mechanical industry from whole Europe which were involved in extensive international distance training from mechatronics and alternative technology. The developed solution is now used for regular education and for in-house training in a large European company.