Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Embedding Diffusion in Variational Bayes: a Technique for Segmenting Images

In this paper, we discuss how image segmentation can be handled by using Bayesian learning and inference. In particular variational techniques relying on free energy minimization will be introduced. It will be shown how to embed a spatial diffusion process on segmentation labels within the Variational Bayes learning procedure so as to enforce spatial constraints among labels.
The internationalisation of local production systems: a knowledge-based view

The paper analyses the nature and intensity of changes that the foreign relocation of manufacturing activities are generating inside local production systems (LPSs) in Italy. This is quite a recent phenomenon that has reached considerable proportions in the last few years. Indeed it is unanimously considered one of the forces that will have a more profound effect on the development paths of Italian LPSs. Given that traditional international business studies are not much help in analysing the international expansion of these systems, we will attempt to verify if a knowledge-based perspective could be a useful approach to investigate this issue. In fact, there seems to be a certain convergence in the opinion of international business and LPS scholars on this interpretative framework. Thus, the paper discusses how a knowledge-based view can be employed for our aim, also by applying to the case of the internationalisation processes which are taking place in some LPSs located in the Veneto region.
The Stereochemical Basis of the Genetic Code and the (Mostly) Autotrophic Origin of Life

Spark-tube experiments and analysis of meteorite contents have led to the widespread notion that abiotic organic molecules were the first life components. However, there is a contradiction between the abundance of simple molecules, such as the amino acids glycine and alanine, observed in these studies, and the minimal functional complexity that even the least sophisticated living system should require. I will argue that although simple abiotic molecules must have primed proto-metabolic pathways, only Darwinian evolving systems could have generated life. This condition may have been initially fulfilled by both replicating RNAs and autocatalytic reaction chains, such as the reductive citric acid cycle. The interactions between nucleotides and biotic amino acids, which conferred new functionalities to the former, also resulted in the progressive stereochemical recognition of the latter by cognate anticodons. At this point only large enough amino acids would be recognized by the primordial RNA adaptors and could polymerize forming the first peptides. The gene duplication of RNA adaptors was a crucial event. By removing one of the anticodons from the acceptor stem the new RNA adaptor liberated itself from the stereochemical constraint and could be acylated by smaller amino acids. The emergence of messenger RNA and codon capture followed.
Acquire the Affine Transformation Coefficients in the Chinese Character Intelligent Formation

In the Chinese character intelligent formation, the same basic element has different position, size and shape in different Chinese characters. The transformation from the basic element to the Chinese character can be realized by affine transformation, and a novel approach was proposed to acquire the transformation coefficients of basic elements. The interested region was determined based on the structure of Chinese character, scale invariant and location invariant was extracted with SIFT features; meanwhile, rotation invariant was removed. The matched points was determined by Euclidean distance of eigenvectors, the best of three pairs non-collinear points were selected by using particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm which take normalized correlation coefficient as fitness function. 27533 Chinese characters in National Standards GB18030-2000 character set were taken as the experimental subject. Finally, the experimental processes and results were given in this paper.
Thermoreflectance based thermal microscope

Thermal images of active semiconductor devices are acquired and processed in real time using visible light thermoreflectance imaging with 34mK sensitivity. By using a 16×16 alternating current coupled photodiode array with synchronous frequency domain filtering a dynamic range of 123dB is achieved for 1s averaging. Thus with a stable and higher power light source, fundamentally the camera can reach 6mK sensitivity over a submicron area. The number of pixels in the image is increased to 160×160 by multiple frame image enhancement and submicron spatial resolution is achieved. The photodiode array system has a maximum 40kHz frame rate and generates a synchronous trigger for recovery of the phase signal. Amplitude and phase images of the thermoreflectance signal for 50×50 micron square active SiGe based microcoolers are presented.
Cache Capacity Aware Thread Scheduling for Irregular Memory Access on many-core GPGPUs

On-chip shared cache is effective to alleviate the memory bottleneck in modern many-core systems, such as GPGPUs. However, when scheduling numerous concurrent threads on a GPGPU, a cache capacity agnostic scheduling scheme could lead to severe cache contention among threads and thus significant performance degradation. Moreover, the diverse working sets in irregular applications make the cache contention issue an even more serious problem. As a result, taking cache capacity into account has become a critical scheduling issue of GPGPUs. This paper formulates a Cache Capacity Aware Thread Scheduling Problem to capture the impact of cache capacity as well as different architectural considerations. With a proof to be NP-hard, this paper has proposed two algorithms to perform the cache capacity aware thread scheduling. The simulation results on Nvidia's Fermi configuration have shown that the proposed scheduling scheme can effectively avoid cache contention, and achieve an average of 44.7% cache miss reduction and 28.5% runtime enhancement. The paper also shows the runtime can be enhanced up to 62.5% for more complex applications.
Extended Ionized Gas Emission and Kinematics of the Compact Group Galaxies in Hickson Compact Group 16: Signatures of Mergers

We report on kinematic observations of Hα emission from four late-type galaxies of Hickson Compact Group 16 (H16a, b, c, d) obtained with a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer and samplings of 16 km s-1 and 1''. The velocity fields show kinematic peculiarities for three of the four galaxies: H16b, H16c, and H16d. Misalignments between the kinematic and photometric axes of gas and stellar components (H16b-H16d), double gas systems (H16c) and severe warping of the kinematic major axis (H16b and H16c) were some of the peculiarities detected. We conclude that major merger events have taken place in at least two of the galaxies of the group, H16c and H16d, based on their significant kinematic peculiarities, their double nuclei, and their high infrared luminosities. Their Hα gas content is strongly spatially concentrated; H16d contains a peculiar barlike structure confined to the inner ~1 h-1 kpc region. These observations are in agreement with predictions of simulations, namely, that the gas flows toward the galaxy nucleus during mergers, forms bars, and fuels the central activity. Galaxy H16b, an Sb galaxy, also presents some of the kinematic evidence for past accretion events. Its gas content, however, is very sparse, limiting our ability to find other kinematic merging indicators, if they are present. We find that the merger remnants in the compact group HCG 16 have significantly smoother optical profiles than isolated mergers, i.e., they show an amorphous morphology and no signs of tidal tails. Tidal arms and tails formed during the mergers may have been stripped by the group potential, or, alternatively, they may have never been formed. The velocity field of the galaxy H16a shows grand-design isovelocity lines with no signs of disturbances inside a radius of ~R25. This result is contrary to expectations given that the galaxy has a high infrared luminosity, central activity, tidal tails at large radii, and is embedded in a common group envelope observed in H I and X-rays. The normality of the velocity field suggests that this galaxy may be a fairly recent acquisition of the compact group. Our observations suggest that HCG 16 may be a young compact group in formation through the merging of close-by objects in a dense environment.
Designing a model for explanation of the internet banking acceptance rate

The present article tries to utilize structural equations model to explain internet banking acceptance rate. So, three factors including innovation characteristics of electronic banking system, individual characteristics of bank customers, and market facilitating conditions have been used based on different theories roposed. Measurement of the variables by the use of questionnaires based on the comments of internet customers of Guilan province banks and the analysis of those comments through causal model indicated that the characteristics of internet banking system and individual characteristics of customers affect directly on internet banking acceptance rate.
Comparison of Immunity in Mice Cured of Primary/Metastatic Growth of EMT6 or 4THM Breast Cancer by Chemotherapy or Immunotherapy

Purpose We have compared cure from local/metastatic tumor growth in BALB/c mice receiving EMT6 or the poorly immunogenic, highly metastatic 4THM, breast cancer cells following manipulation of immunosuppressive CD200:CD200R interactions or conventional chemotherapy. Methods We reported previously that EMT6 tumors are cured in CD200R1KO mice following surgical resection and immunization with irradiated EMT6 cells and CpG oligodeoxynucleotide (CpG), while wild-type (WT) animals developed pulmonary and liver metastases within 30 days of surgery. We report growth and metastasis of both EMT6 and a highly metastatic 4THM tumor in WT mice receiving iv infusions of Fab anti-CD200R1 along with CpG/tumor cell immunization. Metastasis was followed both macroscopically (lung/liver nodules) and microscopically by cloning tumor cells at limiting dilution in vitro from draining lymph nodes (DLN) harvested at surgery. We compared these results with local/metastatic tumor growth in mice receiving 4 courses of combination treatment with anti-VEGF and paclitaxel. Results In WT mice receiving Fab anti-CD200R, no tumor cells are detectable following immunotherapy, and CD4+ cells produced increased TNFα/IL-2/IFNγ on stimulation with EMT6 in vitro. No long-term cure was seen following surgery/immunotherapy of 4THM, with both microscopic (tumors in DLN at limiting dilution) and macroscopic metastases present within 14 d of surgery. Chemotherapy attenuated growth/metastases in 4THM tumor-bearers and produced a decline in lung/liver metastases, with no detectable DLN metastases in EMT6 tumor-bearing mice-these latter mice nevertheless showed no significantly increased cytokine production after restimulation with EMT6 in vitro. EMT6 mice receiving immunotherapy were resistant to subsequent re-challenge with EMT6 tumor cells, but not those receiving curative chemotherapy. Anti-CD4 treatment caused tumor recurrence after immunotherapy, but produced no apparent effect in either EMT6 or 4THM tumor bearers after chemotherapy treatment. Conclusion Immunotherapy, but not chemotherapy, enhances CD4+ immunity and affords long-term control of breast cancer growth and resistance to new tumor foci.
Forecasting Stock Returns Using Genetic Programming in C++

This is an investigation of forecasting stock returns using genetic programming. We first test the hypothesis that genetic programming is equally successful in predicting series produced by data generating processes of different structural complexity. After rejecting the hypothesis, we measure the complexity, of thirty-two time series representing four different frequencies of eight stock returns. Then using symbolic regression, it is shown that less complex high frequency data are more predictable than more complex low frequency returns. Although no forecasts are generated here, this investigation provides new insights potentially useful in predicting stock prices.
Services and autonomic computing: a practical approach for designing manageability

IBM defines autonomic computing as "an approach to build computing systems that are self-managed and operate with a minimum of human interference". To build an autonomic system, some characteristics such as self-knowledge, self-optimization, self-healing, self-defense, among others, have to be built into it. Service oriented architecture (SOA) is an architectural paradigm that promotes development of software systems as sets of collaborative and loosely coupled services. It defines principals for achieving service interoperability, agility, reusability, integration and such others across heterogeneous distributed software systems. It is widely accepted that Web services are entities that provide many out-of-the-box capabilities for building service oriented software systems. Since the SOA approach has been proposed recently, various standards for addressing areas such as service orchestration, security, contract definition languages, policy exchange mechanisms and such others, are presently under development. One such key area that is gaining a lot of attention recently is Web service manageability. This paper discusses an approach for modeling the manageability of a Web service at design time and implementing that model to impart autonomic capabilities to it at run time. Of the various characteristics of autonomic systems self-knowledge, self-recovery and self-optimization are discussed herein.
SPARE PARTS INVENTORY SYSTEMS UNDER AN INCREASING FAILURE RATE DEMAND INTERVAL DISTRIBUTION

Managing spare parts inventories is a challenging task and can benefit considerably from any information on the failure rate of the parts. It has often been considered in the stock control literature that parts' failures are only random, caused by external events which results in the assumption of constant failure rate and therefore the consideration of the Poisson process to represent spare parts demand. This is obviously a restricted and an unrealistic modeling assumption. In fact, a spare part recently replaced will unlikely fail shortly again but generally the older it gets, the greater this probability. Moreover, it has been shown that models with a Poisson demand process assumption advise more stock than necessary. That it is to say that it is more appropriate to model spare parts demand by a renewal process with an increasing failure rate demand interval distribution. For a continuous treatment of time, an Erlang distribution covers a large spectrum of spare parts demand interval distributions. In this paper, we develop a model for a spare part inventory system where demand is a renewal process and the supply lead-time is constant. Demand intervals follow an Erlang distribution and the demand sizes follow a Gamma distribution. The stock is controlled according to a base-stock policy which is often used in spare parts inventory control. We determine analytically the expected total inventory cost and the optimal base-stock level for a cost oriented inventory system where unfilled demands are backordered. A numerical investigation is also conducted to analyze the inventory system with respect to the different system parameters.
Blind Signal Separation Using a Criterion Based on Principle of Minimal Disturbance

The concept underlying most on-line gradient-based algorithms for blind signal separation (BSS) is that the unknown demixing matrix is adjusted with an appropriate step-size in the direction of the gradient computed at each sample instant. Associated with these algorithms is a gradient noise problem. In this paper, we develop, from the on-line processing (OP) algorithm derived using the nonstationarity and nonwhiteness properties, a normalized algorithm in which the update of the demixing matrix is based on the minimal disturbance principle. We show that the resulting updates are in the same direction as those of the original algorithm but with a scaling factor whose upper bound is unity. We evaluate the convergence speed and robustness to gradient noise of the new algorithm
Extremal collective behavior

Curves and natural frames can be used for describing and controlling motion in both biological and engineering contexts (e.g., pursuit and formation control). The geometry of curves and frames leads naturally to a Lie group formulation where coordinated motion is represented by interacting particles on Lie groups - specifically, SE(2) or SE(3). Here we consider a particular type of optimal control problem in which the interactions between particles arise from a cost function dependent on each particle's steering, and which penalizes steering differences between the particles (expressed via the graph Laplacian). With this choice of cost function, we are able to perform Lie-Poisson reduction. Furthermore, we are able to derive a closed-form expression (using Jacobi elliptic functions) for certain special solutions of the coupled multi-particle problem on SE(2).
Temporizin and Temporizin-1 Peptides as Novel Candidates for Eliminating Trypanosoma cruzi

Tropical diseases caused by parasitic infections continue to cause socioeconomic distress worldwide. Among these, Chagas disease has become a great concern because of globalization. Caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, there is an increasing need to discover new, more effective methods to manage infections that minimize disease onset. Antimicrobial peptides represent a possible solution to this challenge. As effector molecules of the innate immune response against pathogens, they are the first line of defense found in all multi-cellular organisms. In amphibians, temporins are a large family of antimicrobial peptides found in skin secretions. Their functional roles and modes of action present unique properties that indicate possible candidates for therapeutic applications. Here, we investigated the trypanocide activity of temporizin and temporizin-1. Temporizin is an artificial, hybrid peptide containing the N-terminal region of temporin A, the pore-forming region of gramicidin and a C-terminus consisting of alternating leucine and lysine. Temporizin-1 is a modification of temporizin with a reduction in the region responsible for insertion into membranes. Their activities were evaluated in a cell permeabilization assay by flow cytometry, an LDH release assay, electron microscopy, an MTT assay and patch clamp experiments. Both temporizin and temporizin-1 demonstrated toxicity against T. cruzi with temporizin displaying slightly more potency. At concentrations up to 100 μg/ ml, both peptides exhibited low toxicity in J774 cells, a macrophage lineage cell line, and no toxicity was observed in mouse primary peritoneal macrophages. In contrast, the peptides showed some toxicity in rat adenoma GH3 cells and Jurkat human lymphoma cells with temporizin-1 displaying lower toxicity. In summary, a shortened form of the hybrid temporizin peptide, temporizin-1, was efficient at killing T. cruzi and it has low toxicity in wild-type mammalian cells. These data suggest that temporizin-1 might be a candidate for Chagas disease therapy.
Microhomology-Mediated Mechanisms Underlie Non-Recurrent Disease-Causing Microdeletions of the FOXL2 Gene or Its Regulatory Domain

Genomic disorders are often caused by recurrent copy number variations (CNVs), with nonallelic homologous recombination (NAHR) as the underlying mechanism. Recently, several microhomology-mediated repair mechanisms—such as microhomology-mediated end-joining (MMEJ), fork stalling and template switching (FoSTeS), microhomology-mediated break-induced replication (MMBIR), serial replication slippage (SRS), and break-induced SRS (BISRS)—were described in the etiology of non-recurrent CNVs in human disease. In addition, their formation may be stimulated by genomic architectural features. It is, however, largely unexplored to what extent these mechanisms contribute to rare, locus-specific pathogenic CNVs. Here, fine-mapping of 42 microdeletions of the FOXL2 locus, encompassing FOXL2 (32) or its regulatory domain (10), serves as a model for rare, locus-specific CNVs implicated in genetic disease. These deletions lead to blepharophimosis syndrome (BPES), a developmental condition affecting the eyelids and the ovary. For breakpoint mapping we used targeted array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH), quantitative PCR (qPCR), long-range PCR, and Sanger sequencing of the junction products. Microhomology, ranging from 1 bp to 66 bp, was found in 91.7% of 24 characterized breakpoint junctions, being significantly enriched in comparison with a random control sample. Our results show that microhomology-mediated repair mechanisms underlie at least 50% of these microdeletions. Moreover, genomic architectural features, like sequence motifs, non-B DNA conformations, and repetitive elements, were found in all breakpoint regions. In conclusion, the majority of these microdeletions result from microhomology-mediated mechanisms like MMEJ, FoSTeS, MMBIR, SRS, or BISRS. Moreover, we hypothesize that the genomic architecture might drive their formation by increasing the susceptibility for DNA breakage or promote replication fork stalling. Finally, our locus-centered study, elucidating the etiology of a large set of rare microdeletions involved in a monogenic disorder, can serve as a model for other clustered, non-recurrent microdeletions in genetic disease.
Which Is the Better Prompt in Thinking-Aloud Studies, "What Are You Trying to Achieve?" or "Keep Talking"?

Thinking aloud is widely used for usability evaluation but generally in a relaxed way that conflicts with the prescriptions of the classic model for obtaining valid verbalizations of thought processes. We investigate whether participants that think aloud in the classic or relaxed way behave differently compared to performing in silence. Results indicate that whereas classic thinking aloud has little or no effect on behaviour apart from prolonging tasks, relaxed thinking aloud affects behaviour in multiple ways. During relaxed thinking aloud participants took longer to solve tasks, spent a larger part of tasks on general distributed visual behaviour, issued more commands to navigate both within and between the pages of the web sites used in the experiment, and experienced higher mental workload.
Unseen handset mismatch compensation based on a priori knowledge interpolation for robust speaker recognition

Unseen handset mismatch is the major source of performance degradation for speaker recognition in telecommunication environment since handset distortions are tightly coupled with speaker characteristics. In this paper, a soft-decision unseen handset characteristics estimation method based on a priori knowledge interpolation is proposed to decouple the characteristics of the unseen handset and speaker for robust speaker recognition. Experimental results on HTIMIT database showed that the proposed method improved the speaker recognition rate for both seen and unseen handsets.
Lead induced increase of blood pressure in female lead workers

Aims: Although lead exposure has, in the absence of mathematical modelling, been believed to elevate blood pressure in females, it is necessary to clarify the relation between lead and blood pressure by eliminating confounding factors in the analysis. Methods: Blood lead was measured in 193 female workers, including 123 lead exposed workers. Possible confounding factors were controlled by multiple regression analyses. Results and Conclusion: Blood lead above 40 μg/dl was found to be the most potent factor for elevating systolic/diastolic blood pressure. Aging, urine protein, and plasma triglyceride also contributed to systolic/diastolic/pulse pressure increase, but hypertensive heredity did not. Data suggested that lead induced changes in lipoprotein metabolism may play an important role in the lead induced blood pressure increase in female workers.