Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multimodal Approach to Human-Face Detection and Tracking

The constructive need for robots to coexist with humans requires human-machine interaction. It is a challenge to operate these robots in such dynamic environments, which requires continuous decision-making and environment-attribute update in real-time. An autonomous robot guide is well suitable in places such as museums, libraries, schools, hospital, etc. This paper addresses a scenario where a robot tracks and follows a human. A neural network is utilized to learn the skin and nonskin colors. The skin-color probability map is utilized for skin classification and morphology-based preprocessing. Heuristic rule is used for face-ratio analysis and Bayesian cost analysis for label classification. A face-detection module, based on a 2D color model in the and YUV color space, is selected over the traditional skin-color model in a 3D color space. A modified continuously adaptive mean shift tracking mechanism in a 1D hue, saturation, and value color space is developed and implemented onto the mobile robot. In addition to the visual cues, the tracking process considers 16 sonar scan and tactile sensor readings from the robot to generate a robust measure of the person's distance from the robot. The robot thus decides an appropriate action, namely, to follow the human subject and perform obstacle avoidance. The proposed approach is orientation invariant under varying lighting conditions and invariant to natural transformations such as translation, rotation, and scaling. Such a multimodal solution is effective for face detection and tracking.
The Role of MicroRNAs in the Cellular Response to Ionizing Radiations

Ionising irradiation is a major issue in our society. Although public attention mainly focuses on it when industrial disasters or medical accidents occur, or in military contexts, it is also a permanent natural phenomenon and a powerful tool for diagnosis and therapy, notably in oncology. Understanding the action mechanisms and consequences of these radiations in living organisms is a major aim for public health and environmental conservation. Conceptions have begun to change over the past three decades. Previously, the central theory focused on the irradiated cells themselves, postulating that the biological effects are direct consequences of DNA damage when repair processes fail. More recently, however, there has been accumulating evidence that important biological consequences arise in cells with no direct radiation exposure (Kennedy et al., 1980; Nagasawa & Little, 1992; review in Wright, 2010). On the one hand, progeny cells over many generations present radiationinduced genomic instability, increasing mutation rates and chromosomal abnormality implicating reactive oxygen species. On the other hand, both neighbouring and remote cells are subject to a radiation-induced bystander effect, induced by signals from directly exposed cells via a variety of communication pathways. Both cell response phenomena point to an implication of epigenetic mechanisms, such DNA methylation, chromatin remodelling or small RNA regulation (Aypar et al., 2011). MicroRNA was discovered nearly 20 years ago (Lee et al., 1993; Wightman et al., 1993). The growing family of small RNAs, including small interfering RNA (siRNA), piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA), repeat-associated-siRNA (rasiRNA) and heterochromatic small RNA (hcRNA), forms the most abundant class of endogenous RNA in metazoans, but has also been characterised in plants, unicellular algae (Zhao et al., 2007), DNA viruses (Pfeffer et al., 2004) and, controversially, in retroviruses (Klase et al., 2007). MicroRNAs are involved in numerous cellular processes such as development, viral infection, apoptosis and stress response, by regulating protein-coding gene expression at post-transcriptional and translational levels (review in Bushati & Cohen, 2007). They are also differentially expressed between tumour cells and normal counterparts in both benign proliferation and cancer (Lu et al., 2005). Due to this accumulating evidence, it is worthwhile studying microRNA response to ionising radiation, and this was started few years ago. This chapter will review microRNA studies relating to ionising radiation and discuss the perspectives in this field.
Tactile Working Memory And Multimodal Loading

This work explored the role of spatial grouping, set size, and stimulus probe modality using a recall task for visual, auditory, and tactile information. The effects of different working memory (WM) loading task modalities were also examined. The Gestalt spatial organizing principle of grouping showed improvements in response times for visual and tactile stimulus probes with large set sizes and apparently allowed participants to effectively chunk the information. This research suggests that tactile information may use spatial characteristics typically associated with visual information, as well as sequential characteristics normally associated with verbal information. Based on these results, a reformulation of WM is warranted to remove the constraints of the input modality on processing types. The input modalities appear to access both a spatial sketchpad and a temporally-based sequence loop. Implications for multisensory research and display design are discussed.
De la enseñanza con libros de texto al aprendizaje en espacios online gamificados

This article raises the need for twenty-first century schools to begin transforming their teaching materials by adapting them to the new experiences and expressive forms offered by the digital society. Our study begins by analysing an idiosyncratic school means--textbooks. Text-books are underlying by an encyclopedic understanding of the curriculum made popular by twentieth century’s cultural industries and they play an important mediating role between the official curriculum and teaching practice since they scaffold what should be taught and learned. As an alternative to text-books, we present a new approach to producing educational materials based on the logic of video games: gamification. This approach to learning involves a model based on problem solving, on a better human-machine interactivity and on ludic components. Our conclusion is that these digital gamified materials have profound implications for the restructuring of the publishing industry, as well as for the conceptions and practices of teaching and learning in schools.
Allegories of the End: Classical Sociologies of Economic Sustainability and Cultural Ruin

Against the backdrop of contemporary discourses of “sustainable growth” and “cultures of waste”, this essay considers the arguments of early sociologists concerning the relationship between subsistence economies of reproduction and sacrificial economies of symbolic exchange. In the first few decades of the twentieth century, Marcel Mauss and Thorstein Veblen each formulated influential accounts of the social barriers and physical limits to human life which find an echo in later cultural theories concerning economies of excess and overproduction in (post)modern societies. Rather than assess the empirical validity or theoretical accuracy of these arguments, this essay examines how factual descriptions of excess and decay can be read as sociological allegories of a world in ruins. The model for such a reading can be found in the work of another sociological classic, Georg Simmel, whose systematic account of the self-preservation and expansion of social groups anticipates his later more impressionistic and fragmentary reflections on “the tragedy of culture”, understood as a struggle for individual autonomy against social and natural forces of objectification. Simmel and his classical contemporaries thus anticipate later thinkers who ask whether “the end of an era” should be understood as a terminal point, an ideal purpose, or a cyclical stage in the “progress” of history.
Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus-Encoded Latency-Associated Nuclear Antigen Inhibits Lytic Replication by Targeting Rta: a Potential Mechanism for Virus-Mediated Control of Latency

ABSTRACT Like other herpesviruses, Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV, also designated human herpesvirus 8) can establish a latent infection in the infected host. During latency a small number of genes are expressed. One of those genes encodes latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA), which is constitutively expressed in cells during latent as well as lytic infection. LANA has previously been shown to be important for the establishment of latent episome maintenance through tethering of the viral genome to the host chromosomes. Under specific conditions, KSHV can undergo lytic replication, with the production of viral progeny. The immediate-early Rta, encoded by open reading frame 50 of KSHV, has been shown to play a critical role in switching from viral latent replication to lytic replication. Overexpression of Rta from a heterologous promoter is sufficient for driving KSHV lytic replication and the production of viral progeny. In the present study, we show that LANA down-modulates Rta's promoter activity in transient reporter assays, thus repressing Rta-mediated transactivation. This results in a decrease in the production of KSHV progeny virions. We also found that LANA interacts physically with Rta both in vivo and in vitro. Taken together, our results demonstrate that LANA can inhibit viral lytic replication by inhibiting expression as well as antagonizing the function of Rta. This suggests that LANA may play a critical role in maintaining latency by controlling the switch between viral latency and lytic replication.
Angiotensin II-induced production of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species: potential mechanisms and relevance for cardiovascular disease.

SIGNIFICANCE The role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in angiotensin II (AngII) induced endothelial dysfunction, cardiovascular and renal remodeling, inflammation, and fibrosis has been well documented. The molecular mechanisms of AngII pathophysiological activity involve the stimulation of NADPH oxidases, which produce superoxide and hydrogen peroxide. AngII also increases the production of mitochondrial ROS, while the inhibition of AngII improves mitochondrial function; however, the specific molecular mechanisms of the stimulation of mitochondrial ROS is not clear. RECENT ADVANCES Interestingly, the overexpression of mitochondrial thioredoxin 2 or mitochondrial superoxide dismutase attenuates AngII-induced hypertension, which demonstrates the importance of mitochondrial ROS in AngII-mediated cardiovascular diseases. CRITICAL ISSUES Although mitochondrial ROS plays an important role in normal physiological cell signaling, AngII, high glucose, high fat, or hypoxia may cause the overproduction of mitochondrial ROS, leading to the feed-forward redox stimulation of NADPH oxidases. This vicious cycle may contribute to the development of pathological conditions and facilitate organ damage in hypertension, atherosclerosis, and diabetes. FUTURE DIRECTIONS The development of antioxidant strategies specifically targeting mitochondria could be therapeutically beneficial in these disease conditions.
Pulmonary Function test of Mine workers exposed to Respirable Dust in Jharia Coalfield India

Respiratory chronic airway disorders and early damage of pulmonary system predict by Spirometry. Occupational exposures to coal dust affect the different systems of the body. The present study has focused on the coal workers who are continuously exposed to air pollutants such as coal dust. Study group of 170 male workers working in coal mines for more than ten years, consists of 66 non-alcoholic and non-smokers, 52 tobacco chewers, 29 smokers and 23 alcoholic. The pulmonary function test was assessed using computerized spirometer. Spirometry test revealed 27.64% of workers having Mild, 29.41% moderate, and 5.88% severe obstruction pattern on PFT. For both the age groups of workers (25-40 and 41-55) having smoking and alcoholic habits, FEV1/FVC values were found more significantly declining (65-71% and 46-53%). Cumulative exposures to respirable dust are the most important risk factors for exposed coal workers. The results suggest that there in a need to improve control measures and the health status of workers engaged in coal mine dust.
Projections ascending from the spinal cord to the brain in petromyzontid and myxinoid agnathans

The course of projections ascending through the rostral spinal cord to nuclei in the brains of petromyzontid and myxinoid agnathans was examined with silver staining of anterograde degeneration and horseradish peroxidase histochemistry. As in jawed vertebrates, the ascending spinal projections of lampreys and hagfishes appear to be organized into two major systems, the spinal lemniscal and dorsal column pathways. The spinal lemniscal pathway, extending rostrally along the ventrolateral margin of the spinal and medullary central gray, consists of a spinoreticular and possibly a spinovestibular projection in both aganthan groups. In Pacific hagfish, spinal lemniscal fibers reach the ipsilateral mesencephalic tectum, but no spinal projection to the thalamus was evident. The spinal lemniscus of lampreys ascends to the region of the isthmus and may extend into the mesencephalic tegmentum. Anterograde and retrograde tracing methods indicate that a very small population of cells in the far rostral cord of lampreys may project to the optic tectum and diencephalon; however, spinotectal and spinothalamic projections, if present, are limited in extent. The dorsal column pathway in agnathans, consisting in part of primary spinal afferents, ascends in the dorsal funiculus of the cord. The dorsal column fibers of agnathans, like those of some other anamniotes, continue beyond the spinomedullary junction through the length of the hindbrain, possibly conveying ascending somatosensory input to the sensory nuclei of the alar medulla.
Hemispheric asymmetries in subcortical visual and auditory relay structures in congenital deafness

Neuroplasticity – the capacity of the brain to change as a response to internal and external pressures – has been studied from a number of different perspectives. Perhaps one of the most powerful models is the study of populations that have been congenitally deprived of a sense. It has been shown that the right Auditory Cortex (AC) of congenitally deaf humans is neuroplastically modified in order to represent visual properties of a stimulus. One unresolved question is how this visual information is routed to the AC of congenitally deaf individuals. Here, we performed volumetric analysis of subcortical auditory and visual brains regions – namely the thalamus (along with three thalamic nuclei: the pulvinar, the lateral geniculate nucleus and the medial geniculate nucleus), and the inferior and superior colliculi – in deaf and hearing participants in order to identify which structures may be responsible for relaying visual information toward the altered AC. Because there is a hemispheric asymmetry in the neuroplastic changes observed in the AC of the congenitally deaf, we reasoned that subcortical structures that also showed a similar asymmetry in their total volume could have been enlisted in the effort of relaying visual information to the neuroplastically altered right AC. We show that for deaf, but not for hearing individuals, the right thalamus, right lateral geniculate nucleus and right inferior colliculus are larger than their left counterparts. These results suggest that these subcortical structures may be responsible for rerouting visual information to the AC in congenital deafness.
How early can we efficiently start teaching a foreign language?

The appropriateness of early childhood foreign language education is occasionally a debatable subject among parents, educators, public education administrators and policymakers. A large body of research has been done on this subject and conclusions sometimes appear contradictory. This article first reviews briefly the importance of learning a foreign language, and the advantages of bilingualism. Second, it compiles empirical evidence that concerns early foreign language education of children living in a native language speaking environment and suggests answers to questions regarding the developmentally appropriate timing to start providing foreign language education services.
[Role of spleen tyrosine kinase in phenotypic modulation of vascular smooth muscle cell induced by platelet-derived growth factor-BB].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the role of spleen tyrosine kinase (syk) in the phenotypic modulation induced by platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF-BB) in rat pulmonary vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). METHODS Vascular smooth muscles were isolated from pulmonary media of SD rats, cultured, adopted, and divided into 3 groups: blank control group, control group and medicine intervention group. The changes of proliferation and ultrastructure of vascular smooth muscle cells by using [(3)H] thymidine incorporation and electron microscopy. The mRNA and protein expression level of syk, alpha-smooth muscle-actin (α-SM-actin) and smooth muscle protein 22alpha (SM22α) were detected by RT-PCR and Western blotting. The change of fluorescence intensity was detected by laser scanning confocal microscope. RESULTS Treatment with PDGF-BB for 24 h resulted in a significant increase in [(3)H] thymidine incorporation (2429.25 ± 253.36 vs. 242.75 ± 14.33,P < 0.01) and marked change in phenotype and cytoskeleton, the level of average optical density decreased significantly (263.75 ± 19.21 vs.1146.23 ± 62.61, P < 0.01). Meanwhile, the mRNA (1.70 ± 0.25 vs. 1.01 ± 0.12, P < 0.05) and protein level of syk significantly increased, the mRNA and protein expression of α-SM-actin (0.10 ± 0.00 vs. 1.00 ± 0.00, P < 0.01) and SM22α (0.18 ± 0.00 vs. 1.00 ± 0.01, P < 0.01) significantly decreased in VSMC induced by PDGF-BB. Piceatannol could inhibit significantly these biological effects. Compared with control group, the level of [(3)H] thymidine incorporation (527.00 ± 27.76 vs. 2429.25 ± 253.36,P < 0.01) was significantly down-regulated and the VSMC presented an apoptotic status in medicine intervention group, the level of average optical density increased significantly (810.65 ± 37.94 vs. 263.75 ± 19.21,P < 0.01) in medicine intervention group. Meanwhile, the mRNA (0.36 ± 0.07 vs. 1.70 ± 0.25, P < 0.01) and protein level of syk significantly decreased. The mRNA and protein levels of α-SM-actin (0.22 ± 0.00 vs. 0.10 ± 0.00, P < 0.01) and SM22α (0.31 ± 0.00 vs. 0.18 ± 0.00, P < 0.01) were significantly higher in medicine intervention group than in control group. The level of average optical density increased significantly (810.65 ± 37.94 vs. 263.75 ± 19.21, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION Syk plays an important role in vascular remodeling by changing the phenotypes and cytoskeleton of VSMC stimulated by PDGF-BB.
Inflationary initial data for generic spatial topology.

Initial data sets for Einstein's equations with a positive cosmological constant which guarantee inflation to the future are constructed. The construction is local, allowing pieces to be sewn together to create inflationary initial data with a generic spatial topology. A class of the initial data evolves to have the de Sitter metric locally, but the resulting spacetime cannot be constructed by performing identifications on de Sitter spacetime or subsets of de Sitter spacetime. These solutions provide a new class of spacetimes which can be used to study the global effects of inflation. The space of Kantowski-Sachs solutions, which is the evolution of another special class of the initial data, is also considered
Design of a vertically stackedwaveguide filter with novel cross coupling structures in LTCC

This paper proposes a new cross coupling structure of a vertically stacked waveguide filter in a multilayer low-temperature co-fire ceramic technology. The filter is excited by open-ended microstrip lines. Adjacent cavities are coupled vertically by narrow slots. Cross coupling for quasi-elliptic response is realized by through vias and short-circuited CPW feed line. From the results, the circuit area of the filter can be reduced to about one single cavity size.
A Dexterous Manipulation Example with the New RoBioSS Hand

This paper presents a methodology to perform a fine manipulation task with an anthropomorphic hand. We focus here on a three-finger precision grasp. The robotic hand used is the latest four finger fully actuated hand developed by the RoBioSS team of PPRIME institute. Different steps ranging from the generation of the contact points of the hand with the object to the experimental realization of the task are presented. The optimal grasp is found by implementing a genetic algorithm. The fingertips planning for the desired object motion is done by using the small displacement model. The proposed approach is illustrated by the practical experiment of screwing a light bulb with the hand.
Comparative study of omeprazole, lansoprazole, pantoprazole and esomeprazole for symptom relief in patients with reflux esophagitis.

AIM To clarify whether there is any difference in the symptom relief in patients with reflux esophagitis following the administration of four Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). METHODS Two hundred and seventy-four patients with erosive reflux esophagitis were randomized to receive 8 wk of 20 mg omeprazole (n = 68), 30 mg of lansoprazole (n = 69), 40 mg of pantoprazole (n = 69), 40 mg of esomeprazole (n = 68) once a day in the morning. Daily changes in heartburn and acid reflux symptoms in the first 7 d of administration were assessed using a six-point scale (0: none; 1: mild; 2: mild-moderate; 3: moderate; 4: moderate-severe; 5: severe). RESULTS The mean heartburn score in patients treated with esomeprazole more rapidly decreased than those receiving other PPI. Complete resolution of heartburn was also more rapid in patients treated with esomeprazole for 5 d compared with omeprazole (P = 0.0018, P = 0.0098, P = 0.0027, P = 0.0137, P = 0.0069, respectively), lansoprazole (P = 0.0020, P = 0.0046, P = 0.0037, P = 0.0016, P = 0.0076, respectively), and pantoprazole (P = 0.0006, P = 0.0005, P = 0.0009, P = 0.0031, P = 0.0119, respectively). There were no significant differences between the four groups in the rate of endoscopic healing of reflux esophagitis at week 8. CONCLUSION Esomeprazole may be more effective than omeprazole, lansoprazole, and pantoprazole for the rapid relief of heartburn symptoms and acid reflux symptoms in patients with reflux esophagitis.
Measurement of the energy saving rate of technological progress

Technical progress is so complicated to measure that we are difficult to determine the contribution rate of technological progress to the changes of energy efficiency. After calculating energy saving amount and energy saving rate, this research puts forward measurement method of the energy saving rate of technological progress, and measures Chinese energy saving rate of technological progress based on Chinese data since reform and opening up. We conclude that the meaning of energy saving is similar to energy efficiency, and the mechanism of technological progress to improve energy efficiency is that all of the technical means and measures make the energy demand of additional unit output reduce. The energy saving rate of technological progress is proportional to per capita capital growth rate, but inversely proportional to per capita energy consumption growth rate. Results indicate that the energy saving rate of technological progress is 2.4%, the contribution rate of technological progress to Chinese energy saving rate is 60%, and technological progress has significantly improved energy efficiency.