Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multiscale corner detection for gray level images using Plessey method

This paper proposes an improved Plessey corner detection method for gray level images using multiscale analysis. Plessey corner detector is well known for its good performance. But, as we understand, Plessey corner detection method has three drawbacks. Firstly, it works only in the spatial domain, so it can only detect corners belonging to a specific scale. On the other hand, the proposed detector works in the scale-space domain, thus, it can detect the corner points belonging to different scales. Secondly, three parameters are needed to be set manually in the original Plessey method, while the proposed method requires to set only one parameter. Thirdly, the delocalization is a well-known inherent problem for the Plessey corner operator. And it can be increased with the scale at which it operates. The proposed algorithm partially solves this problem by detecting the corners from smaller scale to larger scales. Our proposed multiscale scheme can also be applied to other spatial corner detectors to improve their performances. Better simulation results are shown and compared with the original Plessey and SUSAN corner detectors.
Spatial Auditory Representation In The Case Of The Visually Impaired People

Over the years, it has been widely believed that the blind individuals possess enhanced sound localization abilities that help them to navigate and orient in space in the lack of visual stimuli. In addition to this, it has been argued that the visually impaired people develop increased capacities of the remaining senses (auditory skills, in particular) that exceed those of the normally sighted individuals. The following paper aims to present and compare the most notable sound localization experiments that involved the participation of both blind and sighted control subjects. As the results of these studies provided different results, they have been classified in experiments that show a better localization performance for the blind participants and on the other hand, experiments that yielded equal or worst localization accuracy in the case of the visually impaired subjects. The underlying purpose of our research is to understand the modality and the degree at which the presence or absence of visual stimuli affect the spatial auditory resolution for each of the two target groups.
Pupal Remodeling and the Development and Evolution of Sexual Dimorphism in Horned Beetles

Horns or hornlike structures in beetles have become an increasingly popular study system for exploring the evolution and development of secondary sexual trait diversity and sexual dimorphisms. The horns of adult beetles originate during a rapid growth phase during the prepupal stage of larval development, and differential activation of growth during this time is either implicitly or explicitly assumed to be the sole mechanism underlying intra‐ and interspecific differences in adult horn expression. Here I show that this assumption is not based on developmental reality. Instead, after their initial prepupal growth phase, beetle horns are extensively remodeled during the subsequent pupal stage via sex‐ and size‐dependent resorption of horn tissue. I show that adult sexual dimorphism in four Onthophagus species is shaped partly or entirely by such pupal remodeling rather than by differential growth. Specifically, I show that after a sexually monomorphic growth phase, differential pupal horn resorption can generate both regular and reversed sexual dimorphism. Furthermore, I show that in cases in which initial growth is already dimorphic, pupal horn resorption can both magnify and reverse initial dimorphism resulting from differential growth. Finally, I show that complete resorption of pupal horns in both sexes can remove any trace of horn expression from all resulting adults. In such species, examination of adults only would result in the false conclusion that this species lacks the ability to develop a horn. Instead, such species appear to differ from those with sexually dimorphic adults merely in that they activate pupal horn resorption in both sexes rather than in just one. Combined, these results suggest that pupal remodeling of secondary trait expression is taxonomically widespread, at least among Onthophagus species, and is developmentally extensive and remarkably evolutionarily labile. These results have immediate implications for reconstructing the evolutionary history of horned beetles and the role of developmental processes in guiding evolutionary trajectories. I use these results to revise current understanding of the evolutionary developmental biology of secondary sexual traits in horned beetles in particular and holometabolous insects in general. The results presented here seriously call into question whether descriptions of adult diversity patterns alone suffice for meaningful inferences toward understanding the developmental and evolutionary origin of these patterns. These results illustrate that a lasting integration of development into an evolutionary framework must integrate development as a process rather than define it solely by some of its products.
Unoriented minimal type 0 strings

We define a family of string equations with perturbative expansions that admit an interpretation as an unoriented minimal string theory with background D-branes and R-R fluxes. The theory also has a well-defined non-perturbative sector and we expect it to have a continuum interpretation as an orientifold projection of the non–critical type 0A string for ĉ = 0, the (2,4) model. There is a second perturbative region which is consistent with an interpretation in terms of background R-R fluxes. We identify a natural parameter in the formulation that we speculate may have an interpretation as characterizing the contribution of a new type of background D-brane. There is a non-perturbative map to a family of string equations which we expect to be the ĉ = 0 type 0B string. The map exchanges D-branes and R-R fluxes. We present the general structure of the string equations for the (2,4k) type 0A models.
Differential Host Immune Responses to Epidemic and Endemic Strains of Shigella dysenteriae Type 1

Shigella dysenteriae type 1 causes devastating epidemics in developing countries with high case-fatality rates in all age-groups. The aim of the study was to compare host immune responses to epidemic (T2218) and endemic strains of S. dysenteriae type 1. Shigellacidal activity of serum from rabbits immunized with epidemic or endemic strains, S. dysenteriae type 1-infected patients, and healthy adult controls from Shigella endemic and non-endemic regions was measured. Immunogenic cross-reactivity of antibodies against Shigella antigens was evaluated by Western blot analysis. Oxidative burst and phagocytic responses of monocytes and neutrophils to selected S. dysenteriae type 1 strains were assessed by flow cytometry. Rabbit antisera against epidemic strain were less effective in killing heterologous bacteria compared to endemic antisera (p=0.0002). Patients showed an increased serum shigellacidal response after two weeks of onset of diarrhoea compared to the acute stage (3-4 days after onset) against their respective homologous strains; the response against T2218 and heterologous endemic S. dysenteriae type 1 strains was not significant. The serum shigellacidal response against all the S. dysenteriae type 1 strains was similar among healthy controls from endemic and non-endemic regions and was comparable with the acute stage response by patients. Compared to endemic strains of S. dysenteriae type 1, T2218 was significantly resistant to phagocytosis by both monocytes and neutrophils. No obvious differences were obtained in the induction of oxidative burst activity and cathelicidin-mediated killing. Cross-reactivity of antibody against antigens present in the epidemic and endemic strains showed some differences in protein/peptide complexity and intensity by Western blot analysis. In summary, epidemic T2218 strain was more resistant to antibody-mediated defenses, namely phagocytosis and shigellacidal activity, compared to endemic S. dysenteriae type 1 strains. Part of this variation may be attributed to the differential complexity of protein/peptide antigens.
Omslag SSE04-01.pmd

iii Acronyms . v 1. Background . 1 2. The Partners’ Purposes and Interests . 2 3. Deepening Partnerships by levelling imbalances . 5 4. Examples of Changing Evaluation Practices . 9 4.1 RSP and Macro Approaches . 9 4.2 Sector-Wide Programme Approaches (SWAP) . 13 4.3 Stakeholder participation . 16 4.4 Evaluation Capacity Development (ECD) . 19 5. Conclusions and Recommendations . 21 References . 24
Periodic variations in the ratio of free to thylakoid-bound chloroplast ribosomes during the cell cycle of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

The ratio of free to thylakoid-bound chloroplast ribosomes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii undergoes periodic changes during the synchronous light-dark cycle. In the light, when there is an increase in the chlorophyll content and synthesis of thylakoid membrane proteins, about 20-30% of the chloroplast ribosomes are bound to the thylakoid membranes. On the other hand, only a few or no bound ribosomes are present in the dark when there is no increase in the chlorophyll content. The ribosome-membrane interaction depends not only on the developmental stage of the cell but also on light. Thus, bound ribosomes were converted to the free variety after cultures at 4 h in the light had been transferred to the dark for 10 min. Conversely, a larger number of chloroplast ribosomes became attached to the membranes after cultures at 4 h in the dark had been illuminated for 10 min. Under normal conditions, when there was slow cooling of the cultures during cell harvesting, chloroplast polysomal runoff occurred in vivo leading to low levels of thylakoid-bound ribosomes. This polysomal runoff could be arrested by either rapid cooling of the cells or the addition of chloramphenicol or erythromycin. Each of these treatments prevented polypeptide chain elongation on chloroplast ribosomes and thus allowed the polyosomes to remain bound to the thylakoids. Addition of lincomycin, an inhibitor of chain initiation on 70S ribosomes, inhibited the assembly of polysome-thylakoid membrane complex in the light. These results support a model in which initiation of mRNA translation begins in the chloroplast stroma, and the polysome subsequently becomes attached to the thylakoid membrane. Upon natural chain termination, the chloroplast ribosomes are released from the membrane into the stroma.
Shaping the meristem by mechanical forces

A recent report shows that cells in the Arabidopsis apical meristem orientate their cortical microtubules along mechanical stress patterns generated during tissue morphogenesis. This in turn is expected to influence the mechanical properties of the cell via the modification of the cortical microtubule network and the cell wall. This feedback loop controlling the shape of the meristem may act in parallel with auxin signalling, which determines the site of organ primordium formation.
Influences of peers’ and family members’ body shapes on perception of body image and desire for thinness in Japanese female students

Purpose The present study investigated the influence of peers’ and family members’ body shapes on the perception of body image and desire for thinness in Japanese female students. Methods The study included 342 female, Japanese university students between the ages of 18 years and 22 years. They completed an anonymous questionnaire, which included questions related to anthropometry and body perception. Eating behavior was assessed by the Japanese version of the Eating Attitude Test-26. Results Many students overestimated their body shape (81.2% of underweight students and 74.6% of normal students) and had a desire for thinness (41.0% of underweight students, 88.2% of normal students, and 100% of overweight students). One of the main reasons for the overestimation of their body shape was comparison with others. Participants who were interested in a friend’s body shape were almost three times more likely to have a desire for thinness than those who were not interested in a female friend’s body shape (odds ratio: 3.06, P=0.014). Conclusion The results indicate a possibility that a female Japanese student’s young female friends’ body shapes, influences her desire for thinness or her perception of her own body shape.
Robot Therapy for Prevention of Dementia at Home - Results of Preliminary Experiment

In robot therapy for senile dementia patients, a seal-like robot, Paro, was left in patients’ homes for a week to determine its neuropsychological inﬂuence. Efﬁcacy was evaluated by the diagnosis method of neuronal dysfunction (DIMENSION), which detects a lack of smoothness of scalp potential distribution resulting from cortical neuronal impairment by analyzing recorded a patient’s electroencephalogram (EEG). Interaction with Paro by patients was observed by their families. In a preliminary experiment, 5 subjects were studied after informed consent was received from them or their families in accordance with the medical ethics committee of the University of Tsukuba and the AIST ethics committee.
High-speed, energy-efficient 2-cycle Multiply-Accumulate architecture

We propose a high-speed and energy-efficient 2-cycle multiply-accumulate (MAC) architecture. Our architecture is based on two's complement representation, it uses guarding bits to efficiently support longer MAC loops, and it includes output saturation. By performing carry propagation only in the second stage of the MAC pipeline, multiplication and accumulation have similar delays. But in contrast to previous MAC architectures that propose to only use one carry-propagation stage, our architecture requires no extra cycles to produce the final result. Instead it correctly produces the sum of the accumulated value and the product in each cycle. Our place-and-route evaluation shows that the proposed architecture, averaged across several operand sizes, offers a 33% improvement in speed and a 37% reduction of energy over a conventional 2-cycle MAC architecture.
Responsible Corporate Governance: Towards a Stakeholder Board of Directors?

The central question posed in this paper will be how to organize board composition in order to ensure responsible corporate governance both from a CSR and a good governance perspective. Adopting a stakeholder approach to corporate governance, we analyze the arguments given by different theoretical approaches for linking specific board composition with financial performance and CSR, and discuss the empirical research conducted. Despite the inconclusive findings of empirical research, it can be argued that diverse stakeholders on the board will promote CSR activities of the firm, but at the same time will increase board capital (which ultimately may lead to a better financial performance). Finally, we propose a model for selecting board members based both on ethical and pragmatic arguments.
Applications of Bioinformatics Databases to Predict the Secondary Structure

A computing engine, innovative structure prediction parameters (ISPP) has been developed using Python programming. The proposed computing engine has several utilities to enable structural biologists to predict the secondary structural elements from amino acid sequence using Bioinformatics Databases (25% threshold of 3693 non-homologous proteins). Information about the secondary structure of a protein sequence can greatly assist biologists in the generation and testing of hypotheses, as well as design of experiments. The sequential information of proteins has been increasing many folds than their three-dimensional counterpart. In this paper, structure prediction parameters using chi square value with respect to a-helix, B-strand and random structures were generated for the 20 amino acid singlets, 400 amino acid doublets and 8000 amino acid triplets. An innovative method, ISPBD (Innovative Structure Prediction using Bioinformatics Databases), was developed to predict the secondary structure of the proteins from amino acid sequences using the generated structure prediction parameters. The result clearly indicates that the average value of the percentage of prediction accuracy for a-helix by ISPBD, SSPDP, NNPREDICT, DSC, NNSSP and PHD methods was found to be 61%, 57%, 44%, 55%, 59% and 67%. The average percentage value of prediction for B-strand is 70%, 69%, 21% 34%, 56% and 53% respectively by ISPBD, SSPDP, NNPREDICT, DSC, NNSSP and PHD methods. This clearly indicates that for helical prediction my method (ISPBD) has comparable prediction accuracy as that of SSPDP,PHD method but much better prediction than DSC, NNSSP and NNPREDICT. The method (ISPBD) can be used as a candidature for secondary structure prediction from amino acid sequence.
Leg Muscle Activation Patterns of Sit-to-Stand Movement in Stroke Patients

Cheng PT, Chen CL, Wang CM, Hong WH: Leg muscle activation patterns of sit-to-stand movement in stroke patients. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2004;83:10–16. ObjectiveTo describe the characteristics of leg muscle activation patterns in hemiplegic stroke patients during the movement of rising from a chair and to determine the differences of leg muscle activation patterns between stroke fallers and nonfallers. DesignSubjects stood up from an armless chair at a comfortable, self-paced speed. Leg muscle activation time and patterns during the sit-to-stand movement were analyzed using multichannel surface electromyography and a force platform. The differences between stroke fallers and nonfallers were compared. ResultsThe mean onset time of muscle activity in the affected limbs of stroke fallers was markedly delayed for the tibialis anterior muscle and earlier for the soleus muscle. The muscle activation patterns in the affected side of the stroke fallers exhibited a wide range of variation. Seventy percent of our stroke fallers exhibited no or merely low-amplitude activity in their tibialis anterior muscle when the patients were rising from a chair. Half of the stroke fallers exhibited premature or excessive activation of their soleus muscle when the rising activity was initiated. ConclusionsStroke patients who exhibited no or low-amplitude muscle activity in the tibialis anterior, associated with premature or excessive activation of the soleus muscle in their hemiplegic limbs, when rising from a chair were prone to falling. The compensatory excessive tibialis anterior and quadriceps muscle activation in the unaffected limbs of stroke patients might have a role in preventing them from falling.
The Case for Extensible Operating Systems

Many of the performance improvements cited in recent operating systems research describe specific enhancements to normal operating system functionality that improve performance in a set of designated test cases. Global changes of this sort can improve performance for one application, at the cost of decreasing performance for others. We argue that this flurry of global kernel tweaking is an indication that our current operating system model is inappropriate. Existing interfaces do not provide the flexibility to tune the kernel on a per-application basis, to suit the variety of applications that we now see. We have failed in the past to be omniscient about future operating system requirements; there is no reason to believe that we will fare any better designing a new, fixed kernel interface today. Instead, the only general-purpose solution is to build an operating system interface that is easily extended. We present a kernel framework designed to support the application-specific customization that is beginning to dominate the operating system literature. We show how this model enables easy implementation of many of the earlier research results. We then analyze two specific kernel policies: page read-ahead and locking-granting. We show that application-control over read-ahead policy produces performance improvements of up to 16%. We then show how application-control over the lock-granting policy can choose between fairness and response time. Reader priority algorithms produce lower read response time at the cost of writer starvation. FIFO algorithms avoid the starvation problem, but increase read response time.
Morpheo: Traceable Machine Learning on Hidden data

Morpheo is a transparent and secure machine learning platform collecting and analysing large datasets. It aims at building state-of-the art prediction models in various fields where data are sensitive. Indeed, it offers strong privacy of data and algorithm, by preventing anyone to read the data, apart from the owner and the chosen algorithms. Computations in Morpheo are orchestrated by a blockchain infrastructure, thus offering total traceability of operations. Morpheo aims at building an attractive economic ecosystem around data prediction by channelling crypto-money from prediction requests to useful data and algorithms providers. Morpheo is designed to handle multiple data sources in a transfer learning approach in order to mutualize knowledge acquired from large datasets for applications with smaller but similar datasets.
Mere Expectation to Move Causes Attenuation of Sensory Signals

When a part of the body moves, the sensation evoked by a probe stimulus to that body part is attenuated. Two mechanisms have been proposed to explain this robust and general effect. First, feedforward motor signals may modulate activity evoked by incoming sensory signals. Second, reafferent sensation from body movements may mask the stimulus. Here we delivered probe stimuli to the right index finger just before a cue which instructed subjects to make left or right index finger movements. When left and right cues were equiprobable, we found attenuation for stimuli to the right index finger just before this finger was cued (and subsequently moved). However, there was no attenuation in the right finger just before the left finger was cued. This result suggests that the movement made in response to the cue caused ‘postdictive’ attenuation of a sensation occurring prior to the cue. In a second experiment, the right cue was more frequent than the left. We now found attenuation in the right index finger even when the left finger was cued and moved. This attenuation linked to a movement that was likely but did not in fact occur, suggests a new expectation-based mechanism, distinct from both feedforward motor signals and postdiction. Our results suggest a new mechanism in motor-sensory interactions in which the motor system tunes the sensory inputs based on expectations about future possible actions that may not, in fact, be implemented.
Hypergraph Training and Decoding of System Combination in SMT

Tranditional n-best based training and decoding method of system combination can propogate the error because of imprecision parameter estimation and too early prunning. In order to alleviate the problem, the paper proposes hypergraph (HG) based three-pass training and three-pass decoding for different features. In order to construct HG, this paper introduces simplified bracket transduction grammar (SBTG) into HG based system combination. At three-pass decoding, decoder uses each-pass features to generate target translation. At threepass training, we introduce minimum risk (MR) with deterministic annealing (DA) into the training criterion in order to overcome overfitting, and furthermore compare two training procedures: minimum error training (MERT) on n-best and MR&DA on HG. The unified training and decoding approaches of HG based system combination outperform baseline using conventional Cube Prunning on Chinese-toEnglish benchmark corpus NIST08 test set.