Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detecting anaglyph images with channel alignment features

An anaglyph image is typically created by combining the color channels from a pair of stereo images to create a new three-channel image. Presently, when an imaging system encounters a three-channel image (such as a JPEG image), it is treated in a similar fashion as is any other three-color image. There currently is no method for determining whether the image is an anaglyph image or a single-view image. In this paper, we propose a set of features for detecting anaglyph images. The algorithm extracts features based on stereo matching, edge coincidence between channels, channel correlation, and distributions of chroma values. On an independent test set with an even number of anaglyph and non-anaglyph images, the algorithm achieves a recognition accuracy of 95.2%.
Extracting Mobile Behavioral Patterns with the Distant N-Gram Topic Model

Mining patterns of human behavior from large-scale mobile phone data has potential to understand certain phenomena in society. The study of such human-centric massive datasets requires new mathematical models. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic topic model that we call the distant n-gram topic model (DNTM) to address the problem of learning long duration human location sequences. The DNTM is based on Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). We define the generative process for the model, derive the inference procedure and evaluate our model on real mobile data. We consider two different real-life human datasets, collected by mobile phone locations, the first considering GPS locations and the second considering cell tower connections. The DNTM successfully discovers topics on the two datasets. Finally, the DNTM is compared to LDA by considering log-likelihood performance on unseen data, showing the predictive power of the model on unseen data. We find that the DNTM consistantly outperforms LDA as the sequence length increases.
Very high resolution mapping of coral reef state using airborne bathymetric LiDAR surface-intensity and drone imagery

ABSTRACT Very high resolution (VHR) airborne data enable detection and physical measurements of individual coral reef colonies. The bathymetric LiDAR system, as an active remote sensing technique, accurately computes the coral reef ecosystem’s surface and reflectance using a single green wavelength at the decimetre scale over 1-to-100 km2 areas. A passive multispectral camera mounted on an airborne drone can build a blue-green-red (BGR) orthorectified mosaic at the centimetre scale over 0.01-to-0.1 km2 areas. A combination of these technologies is used for the first time here to map coral reef ecological state at the submeter scale. Airborne drone BGR values (0.03 m pixel size) serve to calibrate airborne bathymetric LiDAR surface and intensity data (0.5 m pixel size). A classification of five ecological states is then mapped through an artificial neural network (ANN). The classification was developed over a small area (0.01 km2) in the lagoon of Moorea Island (French Polynesia) at VHR (0.5 m pixel size) and then extended to the whole lagoon (46.83 km2). The ANN was first calibrated with 275 samples to determine the class of coral state through LiDAR-based predictors; then, the classification was validated through 135 samples, reaching a satisfactory performance (overall accuracy = 0.75).
Hybrid System to Determine the Ranking of a Returning Participant in Eurovision

Many problems involve not structured environments which can be solved from the perspective of particle swarm optimization (PSO). In this research analyze the voting behavior in a popular song contest held every year in Europe. The dataset makes it possible to analyze the determinants of success, and gives a rare opportunity to run a direct test of vote trading from logrolling. We show that they are rather driven by linguistic and cultural proximities between singers and voting countries. With this information it is possible to predict the score of a new country, redistributed the assigned votes for a lot of the participants, this paper tries to explain this social behavior.
Unsupervised Training on Large Amounts of Broadcast News Data

This paper presents our recent effort that aims at improving our Arabic broadcast news (BN) recognition system by using thousands of hours of un-transcribed Arabic audio in the way of unsupervised training. Unsupervised training is first carried out on the 1,900-hour English topic detection and tracking (TDT) data and is compared with the lightly-supervised training method that we have used for the DARPA EARS evaluations. The comparison shows that unsupervised training produces a 21.7% relative reduction in word error rate (WER), which is comparable to the gain obtained with light supervision methods. The same unsupervised training strategy carried out on a similar amount of Arabic BN data produces an 11.6% relative gain. The gain, though considerable, is substantially smaller than what is observed on the English data. Our initial work towards understanding the reasons for this difference is also described
Environmental Distribution Processes of Persistent Organic Pollutants in Polar Regions

Global atmospheric transport has led to the dispersal of many Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) generated at lower latitudes, allowing them to reach Polar latitudes. Although the ice has long been considered simply as a means of immobilising these toxic chemicals, it is in fact an annual source to the local environment during seasonal spring melt. This results in pulse exposure to Polar biota during summer periods of high marine productivity. In the global warming context, the progressive melt of ice shelves is also expected to release historically trapped POPs back into the local environment. This PhD study was designed around a growing need to understand environmental chemical partitioning, as part of resolving biogeochemical cycling uncertainties of these chemicals in the Polar landscape. The aims of this PhD were a) to acquire empirical data regarding POP partitioning and determine the associated air-seawater exchange status in the marine environment of the Indian-Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean, b) to investigate and compare Arctic and Antarctic air/snow/sea-ice/seawater POP reservoirs and their dynamics during spring and c) to evaluate the potential to determine historical POP accumulation levels from archived Antarctic firn cores.
Phytoplankton in the embayments of King George Island (Antarctic Peninsula): a review with emphasis on diatoms

ABSTRACT Considering that phytoplankton assemblages are good bioindicators of environmental conditions, the sensitivity of the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) to climate change, and the importance of some areas of its islands as Antarctic Specially Managed Areas, this work assembles published datasets on phytoplankton biodiversity and ecology in confined coastal areas (embayments) of King George Island, WAP. Over 33 years (1980–2013), 415 species from 122 genera have been identified to species level, being mostly diatoms (371 species), with 10 new species described with local material (6 diatoms, 4 cyanobacteria). The importance of diatoms was indicated by the frequent occurrence of Corethron pennatum, Pseudogomphonema kamtshaticum, and abundant benthic genera in the plankton (e.g. Navicula, Cocconeis). The increased contribution of dinoflagellates after 2010 suggests marked changes in the water column. Early-summer blooms differ between the bays' eastern and western shores, with terrestrial melting and wind-driven upwelling inducing the dominance of benthic species at eastern shores, whereas planktonic diatoms (Thalassiosira, Pseudo-nizschia, and Chaetoceros) are most abundant along western shores and central areas. The importance of an accurate identification of organisms that are becoming key ecological components of the region is discussed, as recent changes in the microflora may affect the entire marine food web.
On the Sum-Rate of Opportunistic Beamforming Schemes with Multiple Antennas at the Receiver

The capacity region of gaussian multi-input- multiple-output (MIMO) broadcast channels has been shown to be achieved by dirty paper coding (DPC). However, due to the high complexity of DPC and the infeasibility of the channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter, in this paper we focus on random beamforming with multiple beams (RB- MUX). The main advantages of RB-MUX are multiuser diversity and spatial multiplexing gain at limited feedback load. In this paper we analytically assess the ergodic sum-rate of RB-MUX scheme with multiple antennas at the receiver by considering three combining techniques: maximum ratio combiner (MRC), optimum combiner (OC) and antenna selection (AS). The analysis relies on the assumption of large average SNR, so that the additive noise can be assumed negligible as compared to the beams mutual interference. Simulation results corroborate our analysis.
Activation of Brain B-Raf Protein Kinase by Rap1B Small GTP-binding Protein (*)

Rap1 small GTP-binding protein has the same amino acid sequence at its effector domain as that of Ras. Rap1 has been shown to antagonize the Ras functions, such as the Ras-induced transformation of NIH 3T3 cells and the Ras-induced activation of the c-Raf-1 protein kinase-dependent mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase cascade in Rat-1 cells, whereas we have shown that Rap1 as well as Ras stimulates DNA synthesis in Swiss 3T3 cells. We have established a cell-free assay system in which Ras activates bovine brain B-Raf protein kinase. Here we have used this assay system and examined the effect of Rap1 on the B-Raf activity to phosphorylate recombinant MAP kinase kinase (MEK). Recombinant Rap1B stimulated the activity of B-Raf, which was partially purified from bovine brain and immunoprecipitated by an anti-B-Raf antibody. The GTP-bound form was active, but the GDP-bound form was inactive. The fully post-translationally lipid-modified form was active, but the unmodified form was nearly inactive. The maximum B-Raf activity stimulated by Rap1B was nearly the same as that stimulated by Ki-Ras. Rap1B enhanced the Ki-Ras-stimulated B-Raf activity in an additive manner. These results indicate that not only Ras but also Rap1 is involved in the activation of the B-Raf-dependent MAP kinase cascade.
Nutritional Influence on Epigenetic Marks and Effect on Livestock Production

Nutrition represents one of the greatest environmental determinants of an individual’s health. While nutrient quantity and quality impart direct effects, the interaction of nutrition with genetic and epigenetic modifications is often overlooked despite being shown to influence biological variation in mammals. Dissecting complex traits, such as those that are diet or nutrition related, to determine the genetic and epigenetic contributions toward a phenotype can be a formidable process. Epigenetic modifications add another layer of complexity as they do not change the DNA sequence itself but can affect transcription and are important mediators of gene expression and ensuing phenotypic variation. Altered carbohydrate metabolism and rates of fat and protein deposition resulting from diet-induced hypo- or hyper-methylation highlight the capability of nutritional epigenetics to influence livestock commodity quality and quantity. This interaction can yield either products tailored to consumer preference, such as marbling in meat cuts, or potentially increasing productivity and yield both in terms of carcass yield and/or offspring performance. Understanding how these and other desirable phenotypes result from epigenetic mechanisms will facilitate their inducible potential in livestock systems. Here, we discuss the establishment of the epigenome, examples of nutritional mediated alterations of epigenetics and epigenetic effects on livestock production.
Launching Swiss Computer Science Education Week

The systemic introduction of computer science education in federalist countries such as the United States, Germany, and Switzerland can be extremely difficult. The lack of top down dissemination mechanisms makes it hard to scale up even successful Computer Science Education strategies to national levels, necessitating bottom up approaches. High profile initiatives such as Computer Science EducationWeek, including the Hour of Code tutorials, provide an alternate route to reaching potentially large numbers of students, but in international contexts require proper adaptation to local languages and cultures. In 2014, Scalable Game Design Switzerland launched the Swiss computer science education Week featuring a multi-lingual "Frogger 3D" game creation activity. Results show the power of this bottom up approach to help jump-start student exposure to computer science in a relatively short amount of time. The first Swiss Computer Science EducationWeek reached 10,000 Swiss students, from 21 out of 26 Swiss cantons, with qualitative feedback and quantitative retention data indicating a sustainable and enjoyable experience for students and teachers.
The Continuum of North Pacific Sea Level Pressure Patterns: Intraseasonal, Interannual, and Interdecadal Variability

This study combines k-means cluster analysis with linear unidimensional scaling to illustrate the spatial and temporal variability of the wintertime North Pacific sea level pressure (SLP) field. Daily wintertime SLP data derived from the NCEP‐NCAR reanalysis are used to produce 16 SLP anomaly patterns that represent a discretized approximation of the continuum of North Pacific SLP patterns. This study adopts the continuum perspective for teleconnection patterns, which provides a much simpler framework for understanding North Pacific variability than the more commonly used discrete modal approach. The primary focus of this research is to show that variability in the North Pacific—on intraseasonal, interannual, and interdecadal time scales—can be understood in terms of changes in the frequency distribution of the cluster patterns that compose the continuum, each of which has a time scale of about 10 days. This analysis reveals 5‐6 Pacific‐North American‐like (PNA-like) patterns for each phase, as well as dipoles and wave trains. A self-organizing map (SOM) analysis of coupled SLP and outgoing longwave radiation data shows that many of these patterns are associated with convection in the tropical Indo-Pacific region. On intraseasonal time scales, the frequency distribution of these patterns, in particular the PNA-like patterns, is
Differential Type I IFN-Inducing Abilities of Wild-Type versus Vaccine Strains of Measles Virus1

Laboratory adapted and vaccine strains of measles virus (MV) induced type I IFN in infected cells. The wild-type strains in contrast induced it to a far lesser extent. We have investigated the mechanism for this differential type I IFN induction in monocyte-derived dendritic cells infected with representative MV strains. Laboratory adapted strains Nagahata and Edmonston infected monocyte-derived dendritic cells and activated IRF-3 followed by IFN-β production, while wild-type MS failed to activate IRF-3. The viral IRF-3 activation is induced within 2 h, an early response occurring before protein synthesis. Receptor usage of CD46 or CD150 and nucleocapsid (N) protein variations barely affected the strain-to-strain difference in IFN-inducing abilities. Strikingly, most of the IFN-inducing strains possessed defective interference (DI) RNAs of varying sizes. In addition, an artificially produced DI RNA consisting of stem (the leader and trailer of MV) and loop (the GFP sequence) exhibited potential IFN-inducing ability. In this case, however, cytoplasmic introduction was needed for DI RNA to induce type I IFN in target cells. By gene-silencing analysis, DI RNA activated the RIG-I/MDA5-mitochondria antiviral signaling pathway, but not the TLR3-TICAM-1 pathway. DI RNA-containing strains induced IFN-β mRNA within 2 h while the same recombinant strains with no DI RNA required >12 h postinfection to attain similar levels of IFN-β mRNA. Thus, the stem-loop structure, rather than full genome replication or specific internal sequences of the MV genome, is required for an early phase of type I IFN induction by MV in host cells.
The moderating role of equity sensitivity on the optimism and stress relationship

All Rights Reserved iv ABSTRACT Research supports optimism as a predictor of how well individuals are able to cope with to which individuals perceive inequity is determined by equity sensitivity (Miles, Hatfield, Huseman, 1989). The present research proposes a new framework in which the relationship between optimism and feelings of inequity is moderated by equity sensitivity. The final part of the framework analyzes perceived inequity's relationship to perceived stress. The results indicated that optimism's relationship was actually mediated by positive affect. There was mixed support for a significant interaction between optimism and equity sensitivity in its relationship to perceived inequity. Perceived inequity was a predictor of stress. v DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this research to my friends and family for all of their support. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all of the individuals that have helped make completion of this thesis project possible. First I would like to thank my thesis committee chairperson, Dr. Bart Weathington for his patience in answering my abundance of questions and guidance throughout the process. Additionally I would like to thank Dr. Chris Cunningham and Dr. Brian O'leary for their invaluable and insightful feedback. Finally I would to express my gratitude towards the individuals who participated in my study. Without them, this thesis would not be possible.
Reduction of intraocular pressure and glaucoma progression: results from the Early Manifest Glaucoma Trial.

OBJECTIVE To provide the results of the Early Manifest Glaucoma Trial, which compared the effect of immediately lowering the intraocular pressure (IOP), vs no treatment or later treatment, on the progression of newly detected open-angle glaucoma. DESIGN Randomized clinical trial. PARTICIPANTS Two hundred fifty-five patients aged 50 to 80 years (median, 68 years) with early glaucoma, visual field defects (median mean deviation, -4 dB), and a median IOP of 20 mm Hg, mainly identified through a population screening. Patients with an IOP greater than 30 mm Hg or advanced visual field loss were ineligible. INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to either laser trabeculoplasty plus topical betaxolol hydrochloride (n = 129) or no initial treatment (n = 126). Study visits included Humphrey Full Threshold 30-2 visual field tests and tonometry every 3 months, and optic disc photography every 6 months. Decisions regarding treatment were made jointly with the patient when progression occurred and thereafter. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Glaucoma progression was defined by specific visual field and optic disc outcomes. Criteria for perimetric progression were computer based and defined as the same 3 or more test point locations showing significant deterioration from baseline in glaucoma change probability maps from 3 consecutive tests. Optic disc progression was determined by masked graders using flicker chronoscopy plus side-by-side photogradings. RESULTS After a median follow-up period of 6 years (range, 51-102 months), retention was excellent, with only 6 patients lost to follow-up for reasons other than death. On average, treatment reduced the IOP by 5.1 mm Hg or 25%, a reduction maintained throughout follow-up. Progression was less frequent in the treatment group (58/129; 45%) than in controls (78/126; 62%) (P =.007) and occurred significantly later in treated patients. Treatment effects were also evident when stratifying patients by median IOP, mean deviation, and age as well as exfoliation status. Although patients reported few systemic or ocular conditions, increases in clinical nuclear lens opacity gradings were associated with treatment (P =.002). CONCLUSIONS The Early Manifest Glaucoma Trial is the first adequately powered randomized trial with an untreated control arm to evaluate the effects of IOP reduction in patients with open-angle glaucoma who have elevated and normal IOP. Its intent-to-treat analysis showed considerable beneficial effects of treatment that significantly delayed progression. Whereas progression varied across patient categories, treatment effects were present in both older and younger patients, high- and normal-tension glaucoma, and eyes with less and greater visual field loss.
Intrinsic biodegradation potential of crude oil in salt marshes

Understanding the influence of different perturbations on the fate of spilled oil in marine ecosystems is useful in assessing the environmental impact and remedial investigation. The effect of flooding and spill recurrence on the fate of an experimental crude oil spill (2 L/m) was investigated using salt marsh intact cores, incubated for about 3 months, by monitoring residual petroleum hydrocarbons, heterotrophic microbial activity (fluorescein diacetate assay) and soluble organic carbon (SOC). For the flooding study, biodegradation rate of crude oil (with half-lives varying between 16.50 and 49.51 days and turnover times between 23.81 and 71.43 days) and microbial activity increased significantly (P>0.05) in the order from continuouslyflooded (CF), intermittently-flooded (IF) to non-flooded (NF) regime. The SOC increased significantly (P>0.05) in the opposite order. The results signify the influence of flooding on microbial activity and indirectly affecting biodegradation of crude oil and decomposition and accumulation of organic matter in salt marshes. For the oil spill recurrence study (single, two, three and four successive oilings; each totaling to 2 L/m), biodegradation rate of crude oil (with half-lives varying between 11.95 and 69.31 days and turnover times between 17.24 and 100.00 days), microbial activity and SOC increased significantly (P>0.05) with each subsequent oiling. The results suggest that, microbial degradation might not be significant in a pristine tidal marsh particularly immediate to an oil spill event as opposed to a previously contaminated one. The lack of significant linear relationships (P>0.05) among the parameters measured in both experiments, as indicated by both (forward) stepwise regression and Pearson correlation, reflects the challenge in understanding the complex interaction of environmental factors and microbial ecology in predicting the fate of spilled crude oil in the salt marshes at least under the experimental conditions.
Myocyte recovery after mechanical circulatory support in humans with end-stage heart failure.

BACKGROUND The failing myocardium is characterized by decreased force production, slowed relaxation, and depressed responses to beta-adrenergic stimulation. In some heart failure patients, heart function is so poor that a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is inserted as a bridge to transplantation. In the present research, we investigated whether circulatory support with an LVAD influenced the functional properties of myocytes from the failing heart. METHODS AND RESULTS Myocytes were isolated from human explanted failing hearts (HF-myocytes) and failing hearts with antecedent LVAD support (HF-LVAD-myocytes). Studies of myocyte function indicated that the magnitude of contraction was greater (9.6+/-0.7% versus 6.9+/-0.5% shortening), the time to peak contraction was significantly abbreviated (0.37+/-0.01 versus 0.75+/-0.04 seconds), and the time to 50% relaxation was reduced (0.55+/-0.02 versus 1.45+/-0.11 seconds) in the HF-LVAD-myocytes compared with the HF-myocytes (P<0.05). The HF-LVAD-myocytes had larger contractions than the HF-myocytes at all frequencies of stimulation tested. The negative force-frequency relationship of the HF-myocytes was improved in HF-LVAD-myocytes but was not reversed. Responses to beta-adrenergic stimulation (by isoproterenol) were greater in HF-LVAD-myocytes versus HF-myocytes. CONCLUSIONS The results of the study strongly support the idea that circulatory support with an LVAD improves myocyte contractile properties and increases beta-adrenergic responsiveness.