Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Occluded Fingerprint Recognition Algorithm Based on Multi Association Features Match

Recognition rate of mainstream fingerprint recognition algorithm is very low for occluded fingerprint image. In order to solve this problem, based on multi association matching features this thesis proposes the recognition algorithm (RA-MAMF). Firstly, image is pre-processing, the fingerprint image's Gabor filter is enhanced, and bi-narized and thinning pretreated are involved; secondly, the image is divided into multi homogeneous subsets, in which statistical association features and the bifurcation points of each subset are respectively extracted; finally on the basis of fingerprint, images are to be recognized, they are compared and match with the subset. Complete and occluded fingerprints data sets are used to make tested; the recognition algorithm based on multi association matching features has achieved excellent recognition accuracy; the RA-MAMF algorithm does not significantly increase the operating time, and this method effectively solves the low accuracy of traditional identifying the Occluded fingerprint image.
Real-time automatic multi-style license plate detection in videos

Despite License Plate Recognition is mainly regarded as a solved problem; most of the techniques have been mainly developed for specific country or special formats which can strictly limits their applicability. There have been extensive studies of license plate detection since the 70s. The suggested approaches have difficulties in processing high-resolution imagery in real-time. This paper presents a novel algorithm for real-time automatic multi-style license plate detection in videos. The proposed algorithm can detect in a real time multiple license plates with various sizes in unfamiliar and complex environment. In this system, candidate plate regions are extracted using a preprocessing function to increase accuracy while decreasing computational time. Then a tree of LBP-based cascade classifiers is used to classify the candidate plate regions into one of the learned style. The proposed approach has been applied to Egyptian license plates with four different plate styles. The proposed approach achieved a success rate of 94% at 25 frames/sec using a moderate laptop.
Leptin signaling

Leptin is secreted by adipose tissue and regulates energy homeostasis, glucose and lipid metabolism, immune function, and other systems. The binding of leptin to its specific receptor activates various intracellular signaling pathways, including Janus kinase 2 (JAK2)/ signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), insulin receptor substrate (IRS)/phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K), SH2-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase 2 (SHP2)/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and 5' adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK)/ acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), in the central nervous system and peripheral tissues. Understanding of leptin signaling provides insights into its roles in health and disease.
Seiberg-Witten invariants for 3-manifolds in the case

In this note we give a detailed exposition of the SeibergWitten invariants for closed oriented 3-manifolds paying particular attention to the case of b1 = 0 and b1 = 1. These are extracted from the moduli space of solutions to the SeibergWitten equations which depend on choices of a Riemannian metric on the underlying manifold as well as certain perturbation terms in the equations. In favourable circumstances this moduli space is finite and naturally oriented and we may form the algebraic sum of the points. Given any two sets of choices of metric and perturbation which are connected by a 1-parameter family, we analyse in detail the singularities which may develop in the interpolating moduli space. This leads then to an understanding of how the algebraic sum changes. In the case b1 = 0 a topological invariant can be extracted with the addition of a suitable counter-term, which we identify (this idea is attributed to Donaldson). In the case b1 = 1 a topological invariant is defined which depends only on cohomological information related to the perturbation term. We prove a ‘wall-crossing’ formula which tells us how the invariant changes with different choices of this perturbation. Throughout we pay careful attention to genericity statements and the issue of orientations and signs in all the relations. The equivalence of this invariant in the case of an integral homology sphere with the Casson invariant is treated in Lim, 1999 (see also works of Nicolescu, preprint). The equivalence with Reidemeister Torsion in the case b1 > 0 is a result of Meng & Taubes, 1996. Some related material is in Marcolli, 1996, Froyshov, 1996 and in the survey Donaldson, 1996. Taubes, 1990 contains the originating construction in this article in the context of flat SU(2)-connections.
Adaptive Virtual Cut-Through as a Viable Routing Method 1

Adaptive virtual cut-through is considered as a viable alternative to wormhole switching for fast and hardware-efficient interprocessor communication in multicomputers. Computer simulations are used to show that our implementation of a minimal-path fully-adaptive virtual cut-through algorithm outperforms both deterministic and adaptive wormhole switching methods under both uniform random message distributions and clustered distributions such as the matrix transpose. A hardware-efficient implementation of adaptive virtual cut-through has been implemented using a semi-customdesigned router chip that requires only 2.30 more area than a comparable deterministic wormhole router chip. A network interface controller chip, which is crucial to our adaptive virtual cut-through method, has also been designed and is under fabrication. 1998 Academic Press, Inc.
Maintenance of the Cell Morphology by MinC in Helicobacter pylori

In the model organism Escherichia coli, Min proteins are involved in regulating the division of septa formation. The computational genome analysis of Helicobacter pylori, a gram-negative microaerophilic bacterium causing gastritis and peptic ulceration, also identified MinC, MinD, and MinE. However, MinC (HP1053) shares a low identity with those of other bacteria and its function in H. pylori remains unclear. In this study, we used morphological and genetic approaches to examine the molecular role of MinC. The results were shown that an H. pylori mutant lacking MinC forms filamentous cells, while the wild-type strain retains the shape of short rods. In addition, a minC mutant regains the short rods when complemented with an intact minCHp gene. The overexpression of MinCHp in E. coli did not affect the growth and cell morphology. Immunofluorescence microscopy revealed that MinCHp forms helix-form structures in H. pylori, whereas MinCHp localizes at cell poles and pole of new daughter cell in E. coli. In addition, co-immunoprecipitation showed MinC can interact with MinD but not with FtsZ during mid-exponential stage of H. pylori. Altogether, our results show that MinCHp plays a key role in maintaining proper cell morphology and its function differs from those of MinCEc.
Probabilistic Inferences in Bayesian Networks

Bayesian network is a complete model for the variables and their relationships, it can be used to answer probabilistic queries about them. A Bayesian network can thus be considered a mechanism for automatically applying Bayes' theorem to complex problems. In the application of Bayesian networks, most of the work is related to probabilistic inferences. Any variable updating in any node of Bayesian networks might result in the evidence propagation across the Bayesian networks. This paper sums up various inference techniques in Bayesian networks and provide guidance for the algorithm calculation in probabilistic inference in Bayesian networks.
From Architectural Patterns to Architecture-Based Development

Architectural patterns describe reusable architectural fragments that have proven valuable in a range of system contexts. While their impact on software practice has been significant, their application has been limited to the early stages of the software lifecycle. In this paper, we present an approach to reinforcing the productivity and reliability benefits provided by architectural patterns acrossthe lifecycle. The approach is based on a catalog of precise pattern specifications, and is supported by runtime monitoring and architecture exploration tools. We describe the basic elements of the specification approach, the supporting software tools, and the benefits that they provide. We illustrate the approach with a standard architectural pattern.
Preserving quality during grain drying and techniques for measuring grain quality.

1 Department of Biosystems Engineering, E2-376 Engineering and Information Technology Complex, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3T 5V6, Canada * Corresponding author: Associate Vice President (Research), Distinguished Professor, Canada Research Chair in Stored-Grain Ecosystems, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3T 2N2; Tel: (204)474-6860, Fax: (204)4747568, E-mail: digvir_jayas@umanitoba.ca Abstract
Combining and assessing 2D maps and space-time cubes for trajectory data

Two dimensional static maps and three dimensional space-time cubes are among the most studied techniques to visualize human movement data. Previous research suggests that both techniques are useful in different types of tasks. However, the analysis of trajectory data may not be focused in just one type of task, motivating further studies to quantify the advantages of combining both types of techniques. This paper describes our work-in-progress addressing this issue, proposing the combination of 2D maps and 3D space-time cubes for human trajectory visualization, and overviewing possible metrics for its evaluation.
EmoMeter: Measuring mixed emotions using weighted combinational model

Emotion Recognition is an important area of affective computing and has potential applications. This paper proposes a combinational model to compute the percentage of different emotions jointly present in a given speech input. This model is a weighted combination of the classifier models like Neural Network, k-Nearest Neighbors, Gaussian Mixture Model, Naïve Bayesian Classifier and Support Vector Machines is proposed. The results of classification from the individual models are reported and compared with the proposed combinational model. It shows that the best performance is achieved using the proposed combination than the individual models.
Public interest in sex offenders: A perpetual panic?

All 50 states have laws that require sex offenders to register with law enforcement and for that information to be made publicly available. The rapid passage of sex offender policy, coupled with increased media attention and sensationalized cases, suggests a moral panic. However, if it is a moral panic, we would expect it to expire as quickly as it appeared. But this does not seem to be the case. Political and media interest seem persistent, though the role of public interest is unclear. We use Google Trends data for the U.S, employing an interrupted time-series design to analyze public interest in sex offenders, before and after passage of the Adam Walsh Act in 2006. We found that such interest is fairly stable over time. Our results have implications for how we understand sex offenders, how we understand moral panics, and the ways in which laws are derived from them.
Impaired Transcriptional Activity of Nrf2 in Age-Related Myocardial Oxidative Stress Is Reversible by Moderate Exercise Training

Aging promotes accumulation of reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) in cardiomyocytes, which leads to contractile dysfunction and cardiac abnormalities. These changes may contribute to increased cardiovascular disease in the elderly. Inducible antioxidant pathways are regulated by nuclear erythroid 2 p45-related factor 2 (Nrf2) through antioxidant response cis-elements (AREs) and are impaired in the aging heart. Whereas acute exercise stress (AES) activates Nrf2 signaling and promotes myocardial antioxidant function in young mice (∼2 months), aging mouse (>23 months) hearts exhibit significant oxidative stress as compared to those of the young. The purpose of this study was to investigate age-dependent regulation of Nrf2-antioxidant mechanisms and redox homeostasis in mouse hearts and the impact of exercise. Old mice were highly susceptible to oxidative stress following high endurance exercise stress (EES), but demonstrated increased adaptive redox homeostasis after moderate exercise training (MET; 10m/min, for 45 min/day) for ∼6 weeks. Following EES, transcription and protein levels for most of the ARE-antioxidants were increased in young mice but their induction was blunted in aging mice. In contrast, 6-weeks of chronic MET promoted nuclear levels of Nrf2 along with its target antioxidants in the aging heart to near normal levels as seen in young mice. These observations suggest that enhancing Nrf2 function and endogenous cytoprotective mechanisms by MET, may combat age-induced ROS/RNS and protect the myocardium from oxidative stress diseases.
Analytical model of electrostatic fixed-fixed microbeam for pull-in voltage

The pull-in problem of fixed-fixed beam structures cannot be solved analytically due to its nonlinear from the large deflection and the electrostatic driving force. So to understanding the characters of the devices, the designers have to resort to numerical techniques. Lack of an accurate model for predicting pull-in voltage for basic micromachined beam structures necessitates the clear need for a closed form expression for the pull-in voltage. A new analytical model has been developed based on Rayleigh-Ritz method for determining the pull-in voltage of an electrostatically actuated micro-beam. Three new parameters with the dimension of voltage square have been introduced for considering the contribution from stretch stress gradient non-linear stiffening, bending, and the residual stress. Thus, the model can takes into account the effects of axial stress, residual stress, stretch stress gradient non-linear stiffening, and fringing fields on the pull-in voltage. Modeling result has been compared with published work of other researchers available in the literature and FEM simulation results, it is found the presented model estimation results agree well with FEM simulated results in most common case.
The Antecedence and Consequence of Employee’s Work-family Conflict in Thailand

The main purpose of this study were threefold (1) to specify the level of agreement between work/family related demand and work-family conflict, work-family conflict and job-family satisfaction(2) to identify the effect between work/family related demand and work-family conflict, work-family conflict and job/family satisfaction (3) find work-family conflict mediate work/family related demand and job/family satisfaction, Data were collected from a sample of 415 employees in service and industry companies. LISREL 8.72(student edition) was used to analyzed the model. The findings showed both of work related demand and family related demand have positive effect on work-family conflict, moreover, the work-family conflict had the negative effect on job satisfaction and family satisfaction.
Foraging Habitat Quality Constrains Effectiveness of Artificial Nest-Site Provisioning in Reversing Population Declines in a Colonial Cavity Nester

Among birds, breeding numbers are mainly limited by two resources of major importance: food supply and nest-site availability. Here, we investigated how differences in land-use and nest-site availability affected the foraging behaviour, breeding success and population trends of the colonial cavity-dependent lesser kestrel Falco naumanni inhabiting two protected areas. Both areas were provided with artificial nests to increase nest-site availability. The first area is a pseudo-steppe characterized by traditional extensive cereal cultivation, whereas the second area is a previous agricultural zone now abandoned or replaced by forested areas. In both areas, lesser kestrels selected extensive agricultural habitats, such as fallows and cereal fields, and avoided scrubland and forests. In the second area, tracked birds from one colony travelled significantly farther distances (6.2 km ±1.7 vs. 1.8 km ±0.4 and 1.9 km ±0.6) and had significant larger foraging-ranges (144 km2 vs. 18.8 and 14.8 km2) when compared to the birds of two colonies in the extensive agricultural area. Longer foraging trips were reflected in lower chick feeding rates, lower fledging success and reduced chick fitness. Availability and occupation of artificial nests was high in both areas but population followed opposite trends, with a positive increment recorded exclusively in the first area with a large proportion of agricultural areas. Progressive habitat loss around the studied colony in the second area (suitable habitat decreased from 32% in 1990 to only 7% in 2002) is likely the main driver of the recorded population decline and suggests that the effectiveness of bird species conservation based on nest-site provisioning is highly constrained by habitat quality in the surrounding areas. Therefore, the conservation of cavity-dependent species may be enhanced firstly by finding the best areas of remaining habitat and secondly by increasing the carrying capacity of high-quality habitat areas through safe nest-site provisioning.
Chronic HIV-1 Infection Frequently Fails to Protect against Superinfection

Reports of HIV-1 superinfection (re-infection) have demonstrated that the immune response generated against one strain of HIV-1 does not always protect against other strains. However, studies to determine the incidence of HIV-1 superinfection have yielded conflicting results. Furthermore, few studies have attempted to identify superinfection cases occurring more than a year after initial infection, a time when HIV-1-specific immune responses would be most likely to have developed. We screened a cohort of high-risk Kenyan women for HIV-1 superinfection by comparing partial gag and envelope sequences over a 5-y period beginning at primary infection. Among 36 individuals, we detected seven cases of superinfection, including cases in which both viruses belonged to the same HIV-1 subtype, subtype A. In five of these cases, the superinfecting strain was detected in only one of the two genome regions examined, suggesting that recombination frequently occurs following HIV-1 superinfection. In addition, we found that superinfection occurred throughout the course of the first infection: during acute infection in two cases, between 1–2 y after infection in three cases, and as late as 5 y after infection in two cases. Our results indicate that superinfection commonly occurs after the immune response against the initial infection has had time to develop and mature. Implications from HIV-1 superinfection cases, in which natural re-exposure leads to re-infection, will need to be considered in developing strategies for eliciting protective immunity to HIV-1.
Modification of the visual background increases the conspicuousness of golden-collared manakin displays

Effective visual communication requires signals that are easy to detect, transmit, receive, and discriminate. Animals can increase the probability that their visual signals would be detected by evolving signals that contrast with their visual background. Animals can further enhance this contrast by behaviorally modifying the existing visual background. Male golden-collared manakins (Manacus vitellinus) clear leaf litter from the ground to form courts, which are used as display arenas. Using reflectance measures of the signal (male plumage) and the visual background (cleared court and adjacent litter), the irradiance measures of ambient light during display, and published measures of photoreceptor sensitivity of a Passerine, we test the hypothesis that court-clearing augments the contrast between male plumage and the visual background. We find that the chromatic and brightness contrasts of golden patches used during courtship are greater against the cleared court than against adjacent litter. In addition, we find that cleared courts provide a less variable background for these color patches, resulting in displays that consistently contrast the visual background. These results suggest that behavioral modification of the visual background may act to increase the conspicuousness of colorful male plumage during display, providing an explanation for why golden-collared manakins, and possibly other species, build or clear display courts. Copyright 2004.
Run-time detection of buffer overflow attacks without explicit sensor data objects

This paper presents two schemes for detecting buffer overflow attacks at run-time. One is sensor embedding, which hides sensor data objects inside code pointers, and the other, stack frame inversion checking, which detects attacks by inspecting processor registers. Our methods make it difficult for attackers to guess the locations of sensors so that they cannot easily bypass sensors when they attempt to access code pointers. We have implemented the schemes by extending the GCC toolchain. Experimental data shows that our schemes provide programs with powerful detection and protection capabilities at the reasonable sacrifice of execution efficiency. Operating systems would improve on the defense against buffer overflow attacks by using our toolchain when they are built.
Distribution of a Community of Mammals in Relation to Roads and Other Human Disturbances in Gabon, Central Africa

We present the first community‐level study of the associations of both roads and other human disturbances with the distribution of mammals in Gabon (central Africa). Our study site was in an oil concession within a littoral mosaic landscape. We conducted surveys along 199 line transects and installed camera traps on 99 of these transects to document mammal presence and abundance. We used generalized linear mixed‐effect models to document associations between variables related to the ecosystem (land cover, topography, and hydrology), roads (coating, width of rights of way, condition, type of vehicle used on the road, traffic level, affiliation of users, and general type of road), and other human disturbances (urbanization, agriculture, hunting, logging, gathering, and industrial activities) and the abundance or presence of 17 species or groups of mammals including elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis), buffalo (Syncerus caffer), sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekei), red river hog (Potamochoerus porcus), smaller ungulates, gorilla (Gorilla gorilla), chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), side‐striped jackal (Canis adustus), carnivores, monkeys, and large rodents. Some types of roads and other human disturbances were negatively associated with the abundance or presence of elephants, buffalos, gorillas, sitatungas, some monkeys, and duikers. The pattern of associations of mammals with roads and other human disturbances was diverse and included positive associations with road presence (red river hog, some monkeys, and duikers), agriculture (sitatunga, small carnivores, and large rodents) and industrial activities (sitatunga, red river hog, red duikers, and side‐striped jackal). Our results suggest that the community of mammals we studied was mostly affected by hunting, agriculture, and urbanization, which are facilitated by road presence. We recommend increased regulation of agriculture, hunting, and road building in the area.