Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gaussian Mixture Model Mapping in face recognition

It is difficult to appropriately measure the similarity between human faces under different settings, e.g. pose, illumination, expression and shield. In this paper, a new method called Gaussian Mixture Model Mapping (G3M) is proposed to solve the difficulties. The distribution of faces is divided into many Gaussian functions to cover different settings. A generic identity data set, in which each identity contains multiple images with large intra-personal variation, is adopted to construct the Gaussian mixture model. When considering two faces under significantly different settings, we can judge their feature space distribution by Gaussian mixture model and normalize them into standard space. And then, the normalized faces can be compared by feature in standard space. Finally, we use Multi-pie database to compute the spline functions and test this mode, and LFW is also considered. This method can substantially improve the performance in our test experiment.
Hypoxia-inducible factor 2a regulates key neutrophil functions in humans, mice, and zebrafish

A. A. Roger Thompson, Philip M. Elks, Helen M. Marriott, Suttida Eamsamarng, Kathryn R. Higgins, Amy Lewis, Lynne Williams, Selina Parmar, Gary Shaw, Emmet E. McGrath, Federico Formenti, Fredericus J. Van Eeden, Vuokko L. Kinnula, Christopher W. Pugh, Ian Sabroe, David H. Dockrell, Edwin R. Chilvers, Peter A. Robbins, Melanie J. Percy, M. Celeste Simon, Randall S. Johnson, Stephen A. Renshaw, Moira K. B. Whyte, and Sarah R. Walmsley
Would you Pay for Transparently Useless Advice? A Test of Boundaries of Beliefs in The Folly of Predictions

Abstract Standard economic models assume that the demand for expert predictions arises only under the conditions in which individuals are uncertain about the underlying process generating the data and there is a strong belief that past performances predict future performances. We set up the strongest possible test of these assumptions. In contrast to the theoretical suggestions made in the literature, people are willing to pay for predictions of truly random outcomes after witnessing only a short streak of accurate predictions live in the lab. We discuss potential explanations and implications of such irrational learning in the contexts of economics and finance.
The Diagnosis Accuracy of PLA2R-AB in the Diagnosis of Idiopathic Membranous Nephropathy: A Meta-Analysis

Background The presence of antibodies against the M-type phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R-AB) is considered to be a promising serological diagnostic biomarker of idiopathic membranous nephropathy (iMN). However, controversy remains about the diagnostic accuracy of serum PLA2R-AB testing. Here, we performed a comprehensive meta-analysis to assess the overall diagnostic value of serum PLA2R-AB testing in iMN detection. Methods PubMed, Embase, and CNKI (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure) were searched for relevant original articles through January 31, 2014. The summary sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were estimated using the bivariate model. The heterogeneity among studies was explored by subgroup and meta-regression analysis. Results 9 articles, including 15 studies, were eventually identified with a total of 2212 patients. The summary sensitivity of all studies is 78% (95% CI: 66% to 87%) and the specificity is 99% (95% CI: 96% to 100%). The summary positive and negative likelihood ratios are 96.1 (95% CI, 19.5 to 472.1) and 0.22 (95% CI: 0.14 to 0.35), respectively. The DOR is 437 (95%CI, 74 to 2592). The subgroup analysis and meta-regression suggest the test interval is the main source of heterogeneity. Conclusions Serum PLA2R-AB testing is a useful tool to detect iMN. In addition, considering the high heterogeneity and potential publication bias, further high quality studies are needed in the future.
Requesting heterogeneous data sources with array comprehensions in hop.js

During the past few years the volume of accumulated data has increased dramatically. New kinds of data stores have emerged as NoSQL family stores. Many modern applications now collect, analyze, and produce data from several heterogeneous sources. However implementing such applications is still difficult because of lack of appropriate tools and formalisms. We propose a solution to this problem in the context of the JavaScript programming language by extending array comprehensions. Our extension allows programmers to query data from usual stores, such as SQL databases, NoSQL databases, Semantic Web data repositories, Web pages, or even custom user defined data structures. The extension has been implemented in the Hop.js system. It is the subject of this paper.
Ectomycorrhizal Influence on Particle Size, Surface Structure, Mineral Crystallinity, Functional Groups, and Elemental Composition of Soil Colloids from Different Soil Origins

Limited data are available on the ectomycorrhizae-induced changes in surface structure and composition of soil colloids, the most active portion in soil matrix, although such data may benefit the understanding of mycorrhizal-aided soil improvements. By using ectomycorrhizae (Gomphidius viscidus) and soil colloids from dark brown forest soil (a good loam) and saline-alkali soil (heavily degraded soil), we tried to approach the changes here. For the good loam either from the surface or deep soils, the fungus treatment induced physical absorption of covering materials on colloid surface with nonsignificant increases in soil particle size (P > 0.05). These increased the amount of variable functional groups (O–H stretching and bending, C–H stretching, C=O stretching, etc.) by 3–26% and the crystallinity of variable soil minerals (kaolinite, hydromica, and quartz) by 40–300%. However, the fungus treatment of saline-alkali soil obviously differed from the dark brown forest soil. There were 12–35% decreases in most functional groups, 15–55% decreases in crystallinity of most soil minerals but general increases in their grain size, and significant increases in soil particle size (P < 0.05). These different responses sharply decreased element ratios (C : O, C : N, and C : Si) in soil colloids from saline-alkali soil, moving them close to those of the good loam of dark brown forest soil.
Efficient Table Anonymization for Aggregate Query Answering

Privacy protection is a major concern when microdata is released for ad hoc analyses. Anonymization schemes have to guarantee privacy goals, as well as preserve sufficient information to support reasonably accurate answers to ad hoc queries. In this paper, we focus on the case when the sensitive attributes are numerical (e.g., salary) for which $(k,e)$-anonymity was shown to be an appropriate privacy goal. We develop efficient algorithms for two optimization criteria for $(k,e)$-anonymity schemes, significantly improving on previous results. We evaluate our methods on a large real dataset, and show that they are scalable and accurate.
Chaotic trajectory tracking of an electro-hydraulic actuator system using discrete sliding mode control

Electro-hydraulic actuator (EHA) system inherently suffers from uncertainties, nonlinearities and time-varying in its model parameters which makes the modeling and controller designs are more complicated. The main objective of this paper is to perform a robust control design using discrete-time sliding mode control (DSMC) with perfect tracking control strategy. The proposed controller consists of feedback and feedforward combination which capable to reduce phase lag during the trajectory tracking of EHA system. Chaotic trajectory tracking is performed in the experimental works to show the robustness of DSMC controller and performance comparison is made with Linear-Quadratic-Regulator (LQR) and Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controllers. The findings show that the proposed controller outperforms the LQR and PID controllers in terms of tracking accuracy.
Supporting Manual Mapping Revision using Logical Reasoning

Finding correct semantic correspondences between ontologies is one of the most challenging problems in the area of semantic web technologies. Experiences with benchmarking matching systems revealed that even the manual revision of automatically generated mappings is a very difficult problem because it has to take the semantics of the ontologies as well as interactions between correspondences into account. In this paper, we propose methods for supporting human experts in the task of reviSing automatically created mappings. In particular, we present non-standard reasoning methods for detecting and propagating implications of expert decisions on the correctness of a mapping. We show that the use of these reasoning methods significantly reduces the effort of mapping revision in terms of the number of decisions that have to be made by the expert.
Non-truth-functional Order Norms

I defend the introduction of triangular (semi)norms and (semi)conorms on bounded partially ordered sets. First, I give a brief survey of the general properties of these binary operators. Then, I work out a number of examples in diverse elds of mathematics, to show that it is indeed useful and natural to generalize the deenition of triangular (semi)norms and (semi)conorms from the unit interval towards bounded posets. If we take a closer look at the deenition of triangular norms and conorms 18], we see that none on the deening conditions require the extra-ordinal characteristics of the unit interval 0; 1]. Indeed, it is easily veriied that the most general structure for which these deening conditions still make sense, is that of a bounded partially ordered set. This leads to the following deenition. In what follows, and unless explicitly stated otherwise, (L;) will denote at least a bounded poset, with bottom 0 L and top 1 L 7]. Deenition 1 (Order Norms) (i) A triangular seminorm P on (L;) is a binary operator on L that is isotonic and satisses the boundary condition: (8 2 L)(P(1 L ;) = P(; 1 L) =). A triangular norm T on (L;) is a triangular seminorm on (L;) that is furthermore associative and commutative. (ii) A triangular semiconorm Q on (L;) is a binary operator on L that is isotonic and satisses the boundary condition: (8 2 L)(Q(0 L ;) = Q(; 0 L) =). A triangular conorm S on (L;) is a triangular seminorm on (L;) that is furthermore associative and commutative. Triangular seminorms and semiconorms are collectively called order norms. It is not surprising that many of the well-known properties of order norms on ((0; 1];) that can be expressed solely in terms of order, remain valid for their counterparts on (L;), although the potential incomparability of elements of L tends to somewhat complicate their proofs. Let me brieey mention the most important ones. For a detailed account of the properties of order norms on bounded posets, I refer to 13]. First of all, order norms show the following additional boundary behavour. For arbitrary in L: P(0 L ;) = P(; 0 L) = 0 L and Q(1 L ;) = Q(; 1 L) = 1 L. This already implies that a triangular (semi)norm and a triangular (semi)conorm can never completely coincide unless 0 L = 1 L. Obviously, a triangular (semi)norm on …
The Candidate TB Vaccine, MVA85A, Induces Highly Durable Th1 Responses

Background Vaccination against tuberculosis (TB) should provide long-term protective immunity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb). The current TB vaccine, Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG), protects against disseminated childhood TB, but protection against lung TB in adolescents and adults is variable and mostly poor. One potential reason for the limited durability of protection may be waning of immunity through gradual attrition of BCG-induced T cells. We determined if a MVA85A viral-vector boost could enhance the durability of mycobacteria-specific T cell responses above those induced by BCG alone. Methods We describe a long-term follow-up study of persons previously vaccinated with MVA85A. We performed a medical history and clinical examination, a tuberculin skin test and measured vaccine-specific T cell responses in persons previously enrolled as adults, adolescents, children or infants into three different Phase II trials, between 2005 and 2011. Results Of 252 potential participants, 183 (72.6%) consented and completed the study visit. Vaccine-induced Ag85A-specific CD4+ T cell responses were remarkably persistent in healthy, HIV-uninfected adults, adolescents, children and infants, up to 6 years after MVA85A vaccination. Specific CD4+ T cells expressed surface markers consistent with either CD45RA−CCR7+ central memory or CD45RA−CCR7− effector memory T cells. Similarly durable Ag85A-specific CD4+ T cell responses were detected in HIV-infected persons who were on successful antiretroviral therapy when MVA85A was administered. By contrast, Ag85A-specific CD4+ T cell frequencies in untreated MVA85A-vaccinated HIV-infected persons were mostly undetectable 3–5 years after vaccination. Conclusion MVA85A induces remarkably durable T cell responses in immunocompetent persons. However, results from a recent phase IIb trial of MVA85A, conducted in infants from the same geographic area and study population, showed no vaccine efficacy, suggesting that these durable T cell responses do not enhance BCG-induced protection against TB in infants.
A community randomized controlled trial of insecticide‐treated bednets for the prevention of malaria and anaemia among primigravid women on the Kenyan coast

SummaryThe effectiveness of insecticide‐treated bednets (ITBN) in preventing malaria and anaemia among primigravidae living in Kilifi District, Kenya, was assessed by a randomized controlled trial between September 1994 and November 1995. All residents within 28 community clusters received ITBN in July 1993, whilst residents of another 28 clusters served as contemporaneous controls. All resident primigravid women with singleton pregnancies attending antenatal care at Kilifi District Hospital were eligible for recruitment. 503 primigravidae were recruited. 91.4% were anaemic antenatally (Hb < 11 g/dl): 91.0% from the intervention arm and 92.0% from the control arm. Severe anaemia (Hb < 7 g/dl) was found among 15.1% of intervention women and 20.1% of control women (P= 0.28). No significant differences were observed in reports of febrile illness or the presence of chloroquine in the serum or peripheral parasitaemia during the third trimester between the two groups. In the women delivering in hospital (n= 130), there was no association between placental malaria infection and the intervention: 77.4% of placentas from control women had evidence of past or active infection, compared with 72.0% of placentas from intervention women (P= 0.76). Similarly, in the women delivering in hospital, ITBN did not improve birth weight, and there were no differences in perinatal mortality between the two study groups. Despite ITBN having a great impact on paediatric severe malaria and mortality in this transmission setting, there was very little impact of ITBN on the morbidity associated with malaria infection in primigravidae. Alternative strategies are required to tackle this continued public health problem for pregnant women living in endemic areas similar to the Kenyan Coast.
The Na conductance in the sarcolemma and the transverse tubular system membranes of mammalian skeletal muscle fibers

Na (and Li) currents and fluorescence transients were recorded simultaneously under voltage-clamp conditions from mouse flexor digitorum brevis fibers stained with the potentiometric dye di-8-ANEPPS to investigate the distribution of Na channels between the surface and transverse tubular system (TTS) membranes. In fibers rendered electrically passive, voltage pulses resulted in step-like fluorescence changes that were used to calibrate the dye response. The effects of Na channel activation on the TTS voltage were investigated using Li, instead of Na, because di-8-ANEPPS transients show anomalies in the presence of the latter. Na and Li inward currents (INa, ILi; using half of the physiological ion concentration) showed very steep voltage dependences, with no reversal for depolarizations beyond the calculated equilibrium potential, suggesting that most of the current originates from a noncontrolled membrane compartment. Maximum peak ILi was ∼30% smaller than for INa, suggesting a Li-blocking effect. ILi activation resulted in the appearance of overshoots in otherwise step-like di-8-ANEPPS transients. Overshoots had comparable durations and voltage dependence as those of ILi. Simultaneously measured maximal overshoot and peak ILi were 54 ± 5% and 773 ± 53 µA/cm2, respectively. Radial cable model simulations predicted the properties of ILi and di-8-ANEPPS transients when TTS access resistances of 10–20 Ωcm2, and TTS-to-surface Na permeability density ratios in the range of 40:60 to 70:30, were used. Formamide-based osmotic shock resulted in incomplete detubulation. However, results from a subpopulation of treated fibers (low capacitance) provide confirmatory evidence that a significant proportion of ILi, and the overshoot in the optical signals, arises from the TTS in normal fibers. The quantitative evaluation of the distribution of Na channels between the sarcolemma and the TTS membranes, as provided here, is crucial for the understanding of the radial and longitudinal propagation of the action potential, which ultimately govern the mechanical activation of muscle in normal and diseased conditions.
The Enabling of an Execute-In-Place Architecture to Reduce the Embedded System Memory Footprint and Boot Time

Success in the embedded world revolves around two key concepts: cost effectiveness and performance. The ability for an operating system to boot quickly combined with speedy application usage at runtime is important to consumer unit adoption. The most common memory sub-system setup in cellular phone architectures today is what is called an eXecute-In-Place architecture. This type of memory subsystem defines the execution of code and data directly from NOR flash memory. An additional memory architecture of choice is called a Store and Download architecture. This is a memory sub-system where the code gets copied to RAM at boot time and executes out of the RAM. This paper explores the addition of a new memory usage model called a Balanced XIP System. By choosing to use a Balanced XIP System you will save battery life while utilizing system resources. This is important in an age where lifestyle is driven by quick data access and electronic device energy longevity. The result is a system that combines a small RAM memory requirement with a performance increase for improved targeted application and boot time execution.
Reconciling OWL and Rules

We report on a recent advance in integrating Rules and OWL. We discuss a recent proposal, known as nominal schemas, which realizes a seamless integration of Datalog rules into the description logic SROIQ which underlies OWL 2 DL. We present extensions of the standardized OWL syntaxes to incorporate nominal schemas, reasoning algorithms, and a first naive implementation. And we argue why this approach goes a long way towards overcoming the present paradigm split.
Dental Pulp: Correspondences and Contradictions between Clinical and Histological Diagnosis

Dental pulp represents a specialized connective tissue enclosed by dentin and enamel, the most highly mineralized tissues of the body. Consequently, the direct examination as well as pathological evaluation of dental pulp is difficult. Within this anatomical context, our study aimed to evaluate the correlation between dental pulp lesions and clinical diagnosis. Pulpectomies were performed for 54 patients with acute and chronic irreversible pulpitides and for 5 patients (control group) with orthodontic extractions. The morphological features were semiquantitatively assessed by specific score values. The clinical and morphological correspondence was noted for 35 cases (68.62%), whereas inconsistency was recorded for 16 cases (31.38%). The results of the statistical analysis revealed the correlations between clinically and pathologically diagnosed acute/chronic pulpitides. No significant differences were established between the score values for inflammatory infiltrate intensity, collagen depositions, calcifications and necrosis, and acute, respectively chronic pulpitides. We also obtained significant differences between acute pulpitides and inflammatory infiltrate and calcifications and between chronic pulpitides and inflammatory infiltrate, collagen deposition, and calcifications. On the basis of the predominant pathological aspects, namely, acute and chronic pulpitis, we consider that the classification schemes can be simplified by adequately reducing the number of clinical entities.
Analog implementation of MOS-translinear Morlet Wavelets

The design of a low-voltage current-mode Morlet Wavelet, using MOS transistors in weak inversion, is presented. The proposed design is based on two translinear building blocks: a normalized gaussian-function generator and a four-quadrant analog-multiplier. Simulation results using BSIM3.v3 model for a 0.6 /spl mu/m AMS process parameters, in a CADENCE environment, are presented.
Feedback Control Based Test Case Instantiation for Firewall Testing

A firewall’s proper functioning is critical to the network it protects. Thus, a firewall should be tested with respect to its intended security policy. We propose a feedback control based approach for test case generation to detect mismatches between firewall’s expected and executed behavior. In the proposed approach, abstract test cases are generated from firewall decision diagrams and instantiated with the test input values chosen using the proposed feedback control based selection algorithm. A case study is presented to validate the presented approach.
Direct Measurement of Neutron Star Recoil in the Oxygen-rich Supernova Remnant Puppis A

A sequence of three Chandra X-Ray Observatory High Resolution Camera images taken over a span of five years reveals arcsecond-scale displacement of RX J0822-4300, the stellar remnant (presumably a neutron star) near the center of the Puppis A supernova remnant. We measure its proper motion to be 0.165′′ ± 0.025′′ yr-1 toward the west-southwest. At a distance of 2 kpc, this corresponds to a transverse space velocity of ~1600 km s-1. The space velocity is consistent with the explosion center inferred from proper motions of the oxygen-rich optical filaments and confirms the idea that Puppis A resulted from an asymmetric explosion accompanied by a kick that imparted roughly 3×1049 ergs of kinetic energy (some 3% of the kinetic energy for a typical supernova) to the stellar remnant. We discuss constraints on core-collapse supernova models that have been proposed to explain neutron star kick velocities.
Trimetazidine improves endothelial dysfunction in chronic heart failure: an antioxidant effect.

AIMS To determine whether trimetazidine (TMZ) improves the endothelium-dependent relaxation (EDR) in chronic heart failure (CHF) and whether this effect is associated with its antioxidant properties. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied 51 patients (mean age 51.4 +/- 6 years) with CHF secondary to ischaemic cardiomyopathy (ejection fraction 32.5 +/- 4.5%). Plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) and lipid hydroperoxides (LOOHs) were measured from an antecubital vein on study entry and after a 4 week treatment with oral TMZ (20 mg tid) (group T, n = 23) or placebo (group C, n = 22) given randomly. Endothelium-dependent vasodilation of the radial artery (RA) was determined by intra-arterial infusion of acetylcholine (7.5, 15 and 30 microg/min). Patients receiving TMZ had an increased radial artery diameter (RAD) in response to each dose of acetylcholine infusion and a greater peak oxygen uptake (P < 0.01 vs. placebo). Plasma MDA and LOOHs levels were reduced at 4 weeks only in patients receiving TMZ (P < 0.001 for both vs. placebo). The improvement in ED-vasodilation was correlated with changes in peak VO(2) (r = 0.68; P = 0.0001), MDA (r = -0.61; P = 0.0002) and LOOHs (r = -0.59; P = 0.005). CONCLUSION TMZ improves the ED-relaxation in patients with ischaemic cardiomyopathy. The antioxidant properties of TMZ may play a role.