Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Robust color-based tracking

Color as a distinct feature is widely used for object representation and tracking. However, color-based tracking is often influenced by clutter background and illumination variation. This paper presents a robust color-based tracking method, in which robust color feature is extracted for constructing the observation model under the modified particle filter tracking framework. The object is represented by its dominant color, and the weighted histogram with spatial information of the dominant color is used to optimize object models. In the particle filter framework, an extended iterated likelihood weighting scheme is employed to utilize more valuable particles. The experimental results show it is a real-time robust tracker, and it can obtain more than 30 fps with 2.4 G CPU and 512 MRAM.
DELEGATION -BASED JAVA PROGRAMS

Interfaces and delegation are fundamental concepts in OO la nguages. Although both concepts have been shown to be beneficial in software dev elopment, sometimes their implementation is cumbersome. Both result in numbers of forwarding methods or numbers of empty methods for respective classes. These tr ivial methods distract the user from non-trivial methods the class comprises. This increases complexity and decreases maintainability. In its current form, Java does n ot provide sufficient mechanisms to avoid this boilerplate code. Instead, all the meth ods that are empty or only E-mail address: mkuhlema@ovgu.de E-mail address: ckaestne@ovgu.de E-mail address: apel@uni-passau.de 2 Martin Kuhlemann, Christian K̈ astner, and Sven Apel forward calls have to be coded manually. In this paper, we int roduce a new lightweight mechanism, that improves the implementation of interfacebased and delegation-based programs. We show, though this mechanism is very simple, it s olve these problems that are well-known in object-oriented software developme nt. In three open-source Java programs of up to over 25.000 lines of source code, we sho w how we use this mechanism to generate up to 5.7 % of all methods per case study that were empty or only forwarding calls.
Progressive Deformation Based Approximation for Deforming Meshes

In computer graphics, investigation has been made in many years in mesh simplification to alleviate the workload of visualization processing. However, most of the algorithms proposed focus on static meshes, only few works have been proposed for simplifying deforming surfaces. In this paper, we propose a novel method for generating progressive multiresolution models of deforming meshes. By the method we use an improved QEM cost as our basic metric to generate a base hierarchy. The sequence of the simplified models is generated progressively. Based on the edge collapse sequence in the previous frame, edge contraction order is adjusted according to the deformation degree in the current frame. Thus our algorithm is deformation oriented, and is aimed at preserving features in large deforming areas. We demonstrate that our method works efficiently and can generate better approximations with well-preserved features than previous methods.
Uniform hashing in constant time and linear space

Many algorithms and data structures employing hashing have been analyzed under the uniform hashing assumption, i.e., the assumption that hash functions behave like truly random functions. Starting with the discovery of universal hash functions, many researchers have studied to what extent this theoretical ideal can be realized by hash functions that do not take up too much space and can be evaluated quickly. In this paper we present an almost ideal solution to this problem: A hash function that, on any set of n inputs, behaves like a truly random function with high probability, can be evaluated in constant time on a RAM, and can be stored in O(n) words, which is optimal. For many hashing schemes this is the first hash function that makes their uniform hashing analysis come true, with high probability, without incurring overhead in time or space.
CSF1R inhibition delays cervical and mammary tumor growth in murine models by attenuating the turnover of tumor-associated macrophages and enhancing infiltration by CD8+ T cells

Increased numbers of tumor-infiltrating macrophages correlate with poor disease outcome in patients affected by several types of cancer, including breast and prostate carcinomas. The colony stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) signaling pathway drives the recruitment of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) to the neoplastic microenvironment and promotes the differentiation of TAMs toward a pro-tumorigenic phenotype. Twelve clinical trials are currently evaluating agents that target the CSF1/CSF1R signaling pathway as a treatment against multiple malignancies, including breast carcinoma, leukemia, and glioblastoma. The blockade of CSF1R signaling has been shown to greatly decrease the number of macrophages in a tissue-specific manner. However, additional mechanistic insights are needed in order to understand how macrophages are depleted and the global effects of CSF1R inhibition on other tumor-infiltrating immune cells. Using BLZ945, a highly selective small molecule inhibitor of CSF1R, we show that CSF1R inhibition attenuates the turnover rate of TAMs while increasing the number of CD8+ T cells that infiltrate cervical and breast carcinomas. Specifically, we find that BLZ945 decreased the growth of malignant cells in the mouse mammary tumor virus-driven polyomavirus middle T antigen (MMTV-PyMT) model of mammary carcinogenesis. Furthermore, we show that BLZ945 prevents tumor progression in the keratin 14-expressing human papillomavirus type 16 (K14-HPV-16) transgenic model of cervical carcinogenesis. Our results demonstrate that TAMs undergo a constant turnover in a CSF1R-dependent manner, and suggest that continuous inhibition of the CSF1R pathway may be essential to maintain efficacious macrophage depletion as an anticancer therapy.
Sonological models for timbre characterization

Abstract In the research on timbre, two important variables have to be assigned from the onset: the instruments used to analyze and to model the physical sound, and the techniques employed to provide an efficient and manageable representation of the data. The experimental methodology which results from these choices defines a sonological model; several different psychoacoustical and analytical tools have been employed to this aim in the past. In this paper we will present a series of experiments conducted at the CSC‐University of Padova, which attempted to define an experimental framework for the development of algorithmically defined timbre spaces. Fundamental to our line of research has been the use of analysis methods borrowed from the speech processing community and of data‐representation techniques such as neural networks and statistical tools. The results show several analogies to the classical timbre spaces defined in the literature; this has proved very important in order to explore the qualities .
Investigation of the site of absorption and metabolism of a novel source of metabolisable methionine : 2 hydroxy 4 ( methyl thio ) butanoic acid isopropyl ester ( HMBi )

Negative energy balance associated with the onset of lactation results in hypoinsulinemia, uncoupling of the IGF-somatotropin axis, attenuation of gonadotropin release and delayed first ovulation. Our objectives were to examine the effects of elevated insulin during the immediate postpartum period on circulating IGF-I concentrations, ovarian follicular growth, estradiol secretion and LH pulse profiles. Holstein cows (n=14) were subjected to either a hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp (INS) or saline infusion (CTL) for 96 hours starting on day 10 postcalving. Blood samples were taken on days 8-9 to establish baseline glucose values. Insulin was infused continuously (1 μg/kg BW/hr) via a jugular catheter. Blood samples were collected hourly, and euglycemia was maintained by infusion of exogenous glucose. During infusion, insulin concentrations were increased 8-fold in INS cows over those in CTL cows (2.4 ± 0.1 vs. 0.3 ± 0.1 ng/ml; P<0.001), while blood glucose concentrations were not different between the treatments (45.4 ± 2.2 vs. 41.7 ± 2.3 mg/dl; P=0.27). Plasma IGF-I increased continuously during the insulin infusion, and reached the highest values at the end of the clamp, being almost 4-fold higher in INS compared with CTL cows (122 ± 11 vs. 33 ± 2 ng/ml; P<0.001). Ultrasound measurements of ovarian follicular growth revealed that 2 cows ovulated, both of which were CTL cows. Among non-ovulatory cows, the dominant follicle reached a greater maximum diameter in the INS cows compared with CTL cows (13.4 ± 0.5 vs. 11.6 ± 0.6 mm; P=0.04). Excluding ovulatory cows, no difference in plasma estradiol was observed between groups during the infusion period (1.3 ± 0.2 vs. 1.1 ± 0.3 pg/ml; P=0.69). Blood samples collected every 10 minutes for 8 hours prior to and at the end of the infusion periods showed no differences between groups in LH pulse frequency, pulse amplitude or area under the curve. In conclusion, insulin appears to be a key metabolic signal in coupling the IGF-somatotropin axis, orchestrating the observed marked elevation in circulating IGF-I.
Efficient Bulk Updates on Multiversion B-trees

Partial persistent index structures support efficient access to current and past versions of objects, while updates are allowed on the current version. The Multiversion B-Tree (MVBT) represents a partially persistent index-structure with both, asymptotic worst-case performance and excellent performance in real life applications. Updates are performed tuple-by-tuple with the same asymptotic performance as for standard B+trees. To the best of our knowledge, there is no efficient algorithm for bulk loading and bulk update of MVBT and other partially persistent index structures. In this paper, we propose the first loading algorithm for MVBT that meets the lower-bound of external sorting. In addition, our approach is also applicable to bulk updates. This is achieved by combining two basic technologies, weight balancing and buffer tree. Our extensive set of experiments confirm the theoretical findings: Our loading algorithm runs considerably faster than performing updates tuple-by-tuple.
Impact of Oxidative Stress and Peroxisome Proliferator–Activated Receptor γ Coactivator-1α in Hepatic Insulin Resistance

OBJECTIVE—Recent studies identified accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as a common pathway causing insulin resistance. However, whether and how the reduction of ROS levels improves insulin resistance remains to be elucidated. The present study was designed to define this mechanism. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—We investigated the effect of overexpression of superoxide dismutase (SOD)1 in liver of obese diabetic model (db/db) mice by adenoviral injection. RESULTS—db/db mice had high ROS levels in liver. Overexpression of SOD1 in liver of db/db mice reduced hepatic ROS and blood glucose level. These changes were accompanied by improvement in insulin resistance and reduction of hepatic gene expression of phosphoenol-pyruvate carboxykinase and peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor γ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α), which is the main regulator of gluconeogenic genes. The inhibition of hepatic insulin resistance was accompanied by attenuation of phosphorylation of cAMP-responsive element-binding protein (CREB), which is a main regulator of PGC-1α expression, and attenuation of Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) phosphorylation. Simultaneously, overexpression of SOD1 in db/db mice enhanced the inactivation of forkhead box class O1, another regulator of PGC-1α expression, without the changes of insulin-induced Akt phosphorylation in liver. In hepatocyte cell lines, ROS induced phosphorylation of JNK and CREB, and the latter, together with PGC-1α expression, was inhibited by a JNK inhibitor. CONCLUSIONS—Our results indicate that the reduction of ROS is a potential therapeutic target of liver insulin resistance, at least partly by the reduced expression of PGC-1α.
Vitrification versus controlled-rate freezing in cryopreservation of human ovarian tissue.

BACKGROUND Controlled-rate freezing of ovarian cortical tissue for preservation of fertility among young women facing chemo- or radio-therapy is a widely accepted procedure. To improve the method for cryopreservation of ovarian tissue, particularly the stroma, we carried out a systematic comparison of vitrification versus slow programmed freezing. METHODS Ovarian tissue from 20 women, donated during Caesarean section, was used for parallel comparison of survival and detailed light and electron microscopic (EM) morphology of oocytes, granulosa cells and ovarian stroma after freezing (slow freezing and vitrification), thawing and 24-h culture. Using tissue obtained from the same patient, we compared four cryopreservation protocols and fresh tissue. The cryoprotectants used in slow freezing were 1,2-propanediol (PrOH)-sucrose and ethylene glycol (EG)-sucrose. For vitrification, tissues were incubated for 5 or 10 min in three solutions containing a combination of dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO), PrOH, EG and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). RESULTS Cryopreservation using controlled-rate freezing and vitrification preserved the morphological characteristics of ovarian tissue generally well. As revealed by morphological analysis, particularly EM, the ovarian stroma was significantly better preserved after vitrification than after slow freezing (P < 0.001). The follicles were similarly preserved after all freezing methods. CONCLUSIONS Vitrification using a combination of PrOH, EG, DMSO and PVP was comparable to slow freezing in terms of preserving follicles in human ovarian tissue. Ovarian stroma had significantly better morphological integrity after vitrification than after controlled-rate freezing.
Capturing order in social interactions [Social Sciences]

As humans appear to be literally wired for social interaction, it is not surprising to observe that social aspects of human behavior and psychology attract interest in the computing community as well. The gap between social animal and unsocial machine was tolerable when computers were nothing else than improved versions of old tools (e.g., word processors replacing typewriters), but today computers go far beyond that simple role. Now computers are the natural means for a wide spectrum of new, inherently social activities like remote communication, distance learning, online gaming, social networking, information seeking and sharing, and training in virtual worlds. In this new context, computers must integrate human-human interaction as seamlessly as possible and deal effectively with spontaneous social behaviors of their users. In concise terms, computers need to become socially intelligent.
Automatic Han Chinese folk song classification using the musical feature density map

Automatic music classification has received increased attention during the past decade. A system employing artificial neural network (ANN) techniques for the classification of Han Chinese folk songs is presented in this paper. Melodies of Han Chinese folk songs are machine-classified according to the different geographical region of the folk song's origin. Both audio and symbolic representations of music are studied. A novel encoding method called musical feature density map (MFDMap) is proposed to encode the symbolic musical features extracted from each folk song for machine classification. Our simulations demonstrate that the regularized extreme learning machine (R-ELM) classifier can achieve 72% classification accuracy using the MFDMap with three of the four suggested symbolic features.
Web page classification based on Schema.org collection

The internet is a library of a huge amount of information and there is a need for categorize its content based on web page classification. Classification of web page content can improve the quality of web search and its accuracy. Unfortunately the high dimensionality of the web pages dataset has made the process of classification difficult. The use of an automatic method for web page classification can simplify the whole process and assist the search engine in getting more relevant results. Nowadays information on the web is generally structured and formatted in a not formal way. This absence of semantics leads to create formal methods to provide more semantics information into web page. Search engines including Bing, Google, Yahoo! and Yandex formed collection of schemas Schema.org to support web page semantics and improve their search results. This paper explores the use of formal source code structure for classifying a large collection of the web content. Is focused on use of schemas collection Schema.org to classify web pages and categorize them unambiguously.
Perceived control relates to better functional health and lower cardio-metabolic risk: the mediating role of physical activity.

OBJECTIVE The objective of the current study was to examine empirically associations between perceived control and indicators of functional health (grip strength) and cardio-metabolic risk (hemoglobin A1C, High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol [HDL-C], Systolic Blood Pressure [SBP], Pulse Rate [PR], and Waist Circumference [WC]) and to explore the mediating role of physical activity. METHOD Using cross-sectional data from the nation-wide Health and Retirement Study (N = 4,292; Mean age = 68, range 50-97; 59% women), we examined whether perceived control was predictive of the various health indicators over and above sociodemographic characteristics. We also used mediation models to test whether those direct associations were mediated by physical activity. RESULTS Findings indicated that perceiving more control related to better grip strength and lower cardio-metabolic risk. To illustrate, a 1 SD increase in control is associated with 2.5 fewer years of aging on grip strength, 10 fewer years of aging for hemoglobin A1C, 14.5 fewer years of aging for HDL-C, 3.7 fewer years of aging for pulse rate, and 5.75 fewer years of aging for waist circumference. We also found that physical activity mediated five of the six control-health associations. CONCLUSIONS Our findings demonstrate the importance of perceived control as predictor of functional and physiological health and the role of physical exercise as a behavioral mediator of these associations. Our results suggest that control may serve as a facilitator of positive health outcomes, including functional health, cardio-metabolic risk, and physical activity. Findings provide impetus for future research to elucidate mechanisms underlying the health implications of perceived control.
Quality of Life Study following Cytoreductive Surgery and Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy for Pseudomyxoma Peritonei including Redo Procedures

Background. Our aim was to evaluate the quality of life following cytoreductive surgery and intraperitoneal chemotherapy for pseudomyxoma peritonei. We also conducted an analysis of all patients who underwent CRS and HIPEC for pseudomyxoma peritonei from 1997 to 2012. Methods. We contacted 87 patients using the FACT C (version 4) quality of life questionnaire, and FACIT-TS-G (version 1) was also used. Results. A total of 63 patients (response rate 72%) were available for quality of life interview and analysis. The median time from surgery to questionnaire evaluation was 31 months (range 6–161 months). 62% were females with an average age of 54 years. 22% of the patients had over one cytoreductive surgical procedure. We analysed our patients postoperatively based on physical, functional, social, and emotional well being who reported favourable outcomes in all sections. Patients who had a single procedure had a significantly higher score (P = 0.016) in the additional concerns section of the questionnaire. The patients who had a single procedure had better gastrointestinal digestion in terms of bowel control, appetite, and food digestion and also body appearance scoring. Conclusions. 79% of the patients stated that they would undergo further cytoreductive surgery and that redo procedures do not result in a significantly worse quality of life.
APPROXIMATE SOLUTION OF QUEUEING NElWORKS BASED ON . EXACf AND BOUNDED AGGREGATION TECHNIQUE

Solution methods for queueing networks based on subnetwork aggregation provide approximate results when applied to networks with general service time distribution. We derive the conditions under which aggregation method applied to markovian networks provides exact results, by defining the characteristics of the single composite node which represents the aggregated subnetwork in terms of subnetwork parameters and conditional probabilities. An approximated aggregation method is presented where these conditional probabilities are approximated by applying a bounded aggregation technique.
Leaf traits drive differences in biomass partitioning among major plant functional types

The partitioning of biomass into leaves and stems is one of the most uncertain and influential components of global vegetation models (GVMs). Although GVMs typically assume that the major woody plant functional types (PFTs) differ in biomass partitioning, empirical studies have not been able to justify these differences. Here we test for differences between PFTs in partitioning of biomass between leaves and stems. We use the recently published Biomass And Allometry Database (BAAD), a large database including observations for individual plants. The database covers the global climate space, allowing us to test for direct climate effects in addition to PFT. The leaf mass fraction (LMF, leaf / total aboveground biomass) varied strongly between PFTs (as defined by deciduous vs. evergreen and gymnosperm vs. angiosperm). We found that LMF, once corrected for plant height, was proportional to leaf mass per area across PFTs. As a result, the PFTs did not differ in the amount of leaf area supported per unit above ground biomass. We found only weak and inconsistent effects of climate on biomass partitioning. Combined, these results uncover fundamental rules in how plants are constructed and allow for systematic benchmarking of biomass partitioning routines in GVMs.
A Quantitative Study and Comparison of AODV, OLSR and TORA Routing Protocols in MANET

Mobile Ad-Hoc Network (MANET) is a collection of wireless mobile hosts forming a temporary network without the aid of any stand-alone infrastructure or centralized administration. Most of the proposed MANET protocols do not address security issues. In MANETs routing algorithm is necessary to find specific routes between source and destination. The primary goal of any ad-hoc network routing protocol is to meet the challenges of the dynamically changing topology and establish an efficient route between any two nodes with minimum routing overhead and bandwidth consumption. The existing routing security is not enough for routing protocols. An ad-hoc network environment introduces new challenges that are not present in fixed networks. A several protocols are introduced for improving the routing mechanism to find route between any source and destination host across the network. In this paper present a logical survey on routing protocols and compare the performance of AODV, OLSR and TORA
Supplemental Material for ” On the Difficulty of Nearest Neighbor Search ”

Symbol Meaning x a random vector x x j the j dimension of x x i a sample in database, each x i a i.i. d. sample of x n the number of samples in database q query d number of dimensions p parameter for L p norm s fraction of non-zero dimensions D d (,) distance for d-dimensional data, abbreviated as D(,) if no ambiguity D q max max