Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Monocular Pointing Pose Estimator for Gestural Instruction of a Mobile Robot

We present an important aspect of our human-robot communication interface which is being developed in the context of our long-term research framework PERSES dealing with highly interactive mobile companion robots. Based on a multi-modal people detection and tracking system, we present a hierarchical neural architecture that estimates a target point at the floor indicated by a pointing pose, thus enabling a user to navigate a mobile robot to a specific target position in his local surroundings by means of pointing. In this context, we were especially interested in determining whether it is possible to accomplish such a target point estimator using only monocular images of low-cost cameras. The estimator has been implemented and experimentally investigated on our mobile robotic assistant HOROS. Although only monocular image data of relatively poor quality were utilized, the estimator accomplishes a good estimation performance, achieving an accuracy better than that of a human viewer on the same data. The achieved recognition results demonstrate that it is in fact possible to realize a user-independent pointing direction estimation using monocular images only, but further efforts are necessary to improve the robustness of this approach for everyday application.
Amplitude modulation of frication noise by voicing saturates

The two distinct sound sources comprising voiced frication, voicing and frication, interact. One effect is that the periodic source at the glottis modulates the amplitude of the frication source originating in the vocal tract above the constriction. Voicing strength and modulation depth for frication noise were measured for sustained English voiced fricatives using high-pass filtering, spectral analysis in the modulation (envelope) domain, and a variable pitch compensation procedure. Results show a positive relationship between strength of the glottal source and modulation depth at voicing strengths below 66 dB SPL, at which point the modulation index was approximately 0.5 and saturation occurred. The alveolar [z] was found to be more modulated than other fricatives.
Microtubule polarity confers direction to pigment transport in chromatophores

The cellular mechanisms used to direct translocating organelles are poorly understood. It is believed that the intrinsic structural polarity of microtubules may play a role in this process. We have examined the effects that differently oriented microtubules have upon the direction of pigment transport in surgically severed melanophore arms. In a previous paper (McNiven, M. A., M. Wang, and K. R. Porter, 1984, Cell, 37:753-765) we reported that after isolation, arms repolarized and reoriented their microtubules outward from their centers as if to form new "microcells. " Pigment aggregation in these arms was toward a new focal point located at the arm centers. In this study we monitored pigment movement in isolated arms containing taxol- stabilized microtubules to test if the reversal in direction of pigment transport is dependent upon the repolarization of microtubules. We report that taxol delays both the microtubule reorientation and reversal in transport direction in a concentration-dependent manner. These and other presented data suggest that the polarity of the microtubule population within a melanophore confers direction on pigment transport.
Heuristics for register-constrained software pipelining

Software Pipelining is a loop scheduling technique that extracts parallelism from loops by overlapping the execution of several consecutive iterations. There has been a significant effort to produce throughput-optimal schedules under resource constraints, and more recently to produce throughput-optimal schedules with minimum register requirements. Unfortunately even a throughput-optimal schedule with minimum register requirements is useless if it requires more registers than those available in the target machine. This paper evaluates several techniques for producing register-constrained modulo schedules: increasing the initiation interval (II) and adding spill code. We show that, in general, increasing the II performs poorly and might not converge for some loops. The paper also presents an iterative spilling mechanism that can be applied to any software pipelining technique and proposes several heuristics in order to speed-up the scheduling process.
Regulation of CXCR4 expression in human mesenchymal stem cells by cytokine treatment: role in homing efficiency in NOD/SCID mice.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) for cell therapy relies on the capacity of these cells to home and engraft long-term into the appropriate target tissue(s). Homing of MSC to bone marrow (BM) post-transplantation can occur, but does so with only poor efficiency. This study was designed to evaluate the role of the SDF-1/CXCR4 axis in the homing of Flk1+ MSC derived from human fetal BM. DESIGN AND METHODS We investigated the expression of CXCR4 in Flk1+ MSC stimulated with a cytokine cocktail and explored their homing ability 24 hours after intravenous infusion into sublethally irradiated NOD/SCID mice. The peripheral blood was analyzed and human cells in recipients' BM were quantified from 2 to 6 months after transplantation. RESULTS We found that Flk1+ MSC harbored intracellular CXCR4 which can be rapidly induced to the cell surface within a few hours. Short-term (24 hours) stimulation with the cocktail of cytokines resulted in up-regulation of both cell surface and intracellular CXCR4, increasing in vitro migration capacity to SDF-1 and homing to the BM of irradiated NOD/SCID mice. Moreover, compared to non-treated cells, transplantation of cytokine-treated Flk1+ MSC resulted in faster hematologic recovery and higher levels of donor chimerism in BM. Neutralization of CXCR4 significantly reduced homing and engraftment of Flk1+ MSCs in murine BM. INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that the SDF-1/CXCR4 axis plays an important role in the regulation of motility of Flk1+ MSC. Increasing CXCR4 expression might be a potential strategy to improve engraftment of MSC in BM and accelerate the recovery of hematopoiesis.
A Suif Interface Module for Eli

1 What is Eli? Eli 2] is a domain-speciic programming environment for language and translator development. It embodies the standard decomposition of the translation process found in any text on compiler construction 1,6]. An Eli user is invited to describe the characteristics of their problem in terms of this decomposition. The environment then creates C code to solve the problem described. That generated code, which is completely independent of Eli, can be compiled by either a C or a C++ compiler and linked with other modules if desired. Most of the sub-problem descriptions are static-they describe relationships that hold among items of information in various parts of a program. For example, in most languages the type of value resulting from a dyadic operator is related to the operator indication (what the author of the program wrote) and the types of values supplied as operands. This relationship is a static property of programs in the given language, and can be described without stating an algorithm for operator identiication 6]. Signiicant leverage can often be gained by writing the description of a problem in a language speciic to that class of problem. Describing a parsing problem in terms of a context-free grammar is a technique that has been used for many years, and one has only to look at the early literature on expression analysis 5] to get an idea of the simpliication in that case. Context-free grammars are used to describe the phrase structure of a language to Eli, and regular expressions are used to describe the lexical structure of the non-literal terminal symbols appearing in that grammar. Problem-oriented languages are also used to describe computations over trees, storage of entities and their properties, and production of output text. At rst glance, the use of a variety of languages simply makes Eli harder to learn. The payoo, however, is signiicant. For example, most of the interesting tasks of any language processor involve computations over trees. A description of such a computation in a programming language embodies relationships among values at various nodes in the tree, a traversal algorithm, and the necessary intermediate storage. If an attribute grammar is used for the description, however, only the relationships among values need be described-the traversal algorithm and intermediate storage requirements can be deduced from those relationships 7]. Experience shows that hand-coded tree computations have a larger investment in the traversal algorithm and intermediate storage …
The Cpx envelope stress response both facilitates and inhibits elaboration of the enteropathogenic Escherichia coli bundle-forming pilus

The Cpx envelope stress response is induced by the misfolding of periplasmic proteins and restores envelope homeostasis by upregulating several periplasmic protein folding and degrading factors. The Cpx response also regulates the expression of a variety of envelope‐spanning protein complexes, including flagella, secretion systems and pili, which play an important role in pathogenesis. In a previous study, we inactivated the Cpx response in enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC), a causative agent of infant diarrhoea, and observed decreased expression of its major adhesin, the bundle‐forming pilus (BFP). Here, we examined the mechanism underlying this BFP expression defect, and found that this phenotype can be attributed to insufficient expression of periplasmic folding factors, such as DsbA, DegP and CpxP. Hence, a low level of Cpx pathway activity promotes BFP synthesis by upregulating factors important for folding of BFP component proteins. Conversely, we found that full induction of the Cpx response inhibits BFP expression, mainly by repressing transcription of the bfp gene cluster. In combination with a previous report examining EPEC type III secretion, our results demonstrate that the Cpx response co‐ordinates the repression of cell‐surface structures during periods of envelope stress.
Discourse Structures to Reduce Discourse Incoherence in Blog Summarization

Discourse incoherence is an important and typical problem with multi-document extractive summaries. To address this issue, we have developed a schema-based summarization approach for query-based blog summaries that utilizes discourse structures. In our schema design, we tried to model discourse structures which are typically used by humans in their summary writing in response to a particular question type. In our approach, a sentence instantiates a specific slot of the schema based on its discourse structures. To validate our approach, we have built a system named BlogSum and have evaluated its performance through 4 human participants using a likert scale of 1 to 5. The evaluation results show that our approach has significantly improved summary coherence compared to the summaries with no discourse structuring without compromising on content evaluation.
A comparison of TCP behaviour at high speeds using ns-2 and Linux

There is a growing interest in the use of variants of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) in high-speed networks. ns-2 has implementations of many of these high-speed TCP variants, as does Linux. ns-2, through an extension, permits the incorporation of Linux TCP code within ns-2 simulations. As these TCP variants become more widely used, users are concerned about how these different variants of TCP might interact in a real network environment -- how fair are these protocol variants to each other (in their use of the available capacity) when sharing the same network. Typically, the answer to this question might be sought through simulation and/or by use of an experimental testbed. So, we compare with TCP NewReno the fairness of the congestion control algorithms for 5 high-speed TCP variants -- BIC, Cubic, Scalable, High-Speed and Hamilton -- on both ns-2 and on an experimental testbed running Linux. In both cases, we use the same TCP code from Linux. We observe some differences between the behaviour of these TCP variants when comparing the testbed results to the results from ns-2, but also note that there is generally good agreement.
Smart layers and dumb result: IO characterization of an android-based smartphone

In this paper, we offer an in-depth IO characterization of the Android-based smartphone. We analyze the IO behaviors of a total of 14 Android applications from six different categories. We examine the correlations among seven IO attributes: originating application, file type, IO size, IO type (read/write), random/sequential, block semantics (Data/Metadata/Journal), and session type (buffered vs. synchronous IO). For the purposes of our study, we develop Mobile Storage Analyzer (MOST), a framework for collecting IO attributes across layers. Let us summarize our findings briefly. SQLite, which is the most popular tool for maintaining persistent data in Android, puts too much burden on the storage. For example, a single SQLite operation (update or insert) results in at least 11 write operations being sent to the storage. These are for creating short-lived files, updating database tables, and accessing EXT4 Journal. From the storage point of view, more than 50% of writes are for EXT4 Journal updating. Excluding Metadata and Journal accesses, 60-80% of the writes are random. More than 50% of the writes are synchronous. 4KB IO accounts for 70% of all writes. In the Android platform, each SQLite and EXT4 filesystem requires a great amount of effort to ensure reliability in supporting transactions and journaling, respectively. When they are combined, the results are rather dumb. The operations of SQLite and EXT4, when combined, generate unnecessarily excessive write operations to the NAND-based storage. This not only degrades IO performance but also significantly reduces the lifetime of the underlying NAND flash storage. The results of this study clearly suggest that SQLite, EXT4, and the underlying NAND-based storage need to be completely overhauled and vertically integrated so as to properly and effectively incorporate their respective characteristics.
Time Series Bispectrum Analysis of A Magnetorheological Vibrating Platform

A magneto-rheological vibrating platform for semiactive vibrating control is presented. Dynamic characteristics and control of the MR damper can be analyzed varying the frequency, amplitude and damp. Using only the sampled output displacement signals and assuming a nonGaussian white noise interferes with the system, a time series model is conducted, bispectrum analysis is introduced to describe phase coupling, restrain Gaussian noise and reserve phase component. The peaks of bispectra occur in an inner triangular domain, demonstrate that the damping process is nonGaussian and nonlinear coupling do exist in the system
Pain Induced during Both the Acquisition and Retention Phases of Locomotor Adaptation Does Not Interfere with Improvements in Motor Performance

Cutaneous pain experienced during locomotor training was previously reported to interfere with retention assessed in pain-free conditions. To determine whether this interference reflects consolidation deficits or a difficulty to transfer motor skills acquired in the presence of pain to a pain-free context, this study evaluated the effect of pain induced during both the acquisition and retention phases of locomotor learning. Healthy participants performed a locomotor adaptation task (robotized orthosis perturbing ankle movements during swing) on two consecutive days. Capsaicin cream was applied around participants' ankle on both days for the Pain group, while the Control group was always pain-free. Changes in movement errors caused by the perturbation were measured to assess global motor performance; temporal distribution of errors and electromyographic activity were used to characterize motor strategies. Pain did not interfere with global performance during the acquisition or the retention phases but was associated with a shift in movement error center of gravity to later in the swing phase, suggesting a reduction in anticipatory strategy. Therefore, previously reported retention deficits could be explained by contextual changes between acquisition and retention tests. This difficulty in transferring skills from one context to another could be due to pain-related changes in motor strategy.
Impaired Axonal Regeneration in Diabetes. Perspective on the Underlying Mechanism from In Vivo and In Vitro Experimental Studies

Axonal regeneration after peripheral nerve injury is impaired in diabetes, but its precise mechanisms have not been elucidated. In this paper, we summarize the progress of research on altered axonal regeneration in animal models of diabetes and cultured nerve tissues exposed to hyperglycemia. Impaired nerve regeneration in animal diabetes can be attributed to dysfunction of neurons and Schwann cells, unfavorable stromal environment supportive of regenerating axons, and alterations of target tissues receptive to reinnervation. In particular, there are a number of factors such as enhanced activity of the negative regulators of axonal regeneration (e.g., phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 and Rho/Rho kinase), delayed Wallerian degeneration, alterations of the extracellular matrix components, enhanced binding of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) with the receptor for AGE, and delayed muscle reinnervation that can be obstacles to functional recovery after an axonal injury. It is also noteworthy that we and others have observed excessive neurite outgrowth from peripheral sensory ganglion explants from streptozotocin (STZ)-diabetic mice in culture and enhanced regeneration of small nerve fibers after sciatic nerve injury in STZ-induced diabetic rats. The excess of abortive neurite outgrowth may lead to misconnections of axons and target organs, which may interfere with appropriate target reinnervation and functional repair. Amelioration of perturbed nerve regeneration may be crucial for the future management of diabetic neuropathy.
A Case Study of Early Involvement Model through Collaborative Design

In collaborative design model of new product development, the influence factors, like cost consideration, technology and shortening development schedule, etc., will prompt members of collaborative design to early involve the project. This study will use motorcycle industry as a case study to explore organization change, process adjustment and final benefit when project members proceed to involve early under the situation of collaborative design. The purpose is to provide customer, designing company, centre manufacturer, satellite factory and mold manufacturer the process and key point while they implement the collaborative design and early involve in the process of new product development. This study suggests that it could establish the platform of collaborative design system in accordance with the concept of collaborative design. It will substantially shorten designing schedule, reduce uncertain time for product design, key component design, order process from beginning to end, business trip, etc. Also, it will obviously increase the value of early involvement through enterprise created collaborative design and the benefit for cost saving.
Object tracking system based on invariant features

Modern Tracking algorithms treat tracking as a binary classification problem between the object class and the background class. In this paper, we propose the use of Distance Metric Learning (DML) in combination with Nearest Neighbor (NN) classification for object tracking. Initially a video file is read and the frames in the video are accessed individually. The object in that video is first detected using canny edge detector. We assume that the previous appearances of the object and the background are clustered so that a nearest neighbor classifier can be used to distinguish between the new appearance of the object and the appearance of the background. Using Nearest Neighbor classifier it is able to distinguish the object from other objects. The process is repeated for all the frames. Then the object is tracked using the Distance Metric Learning algorithm using normalized correlation between the frames. The human appearance model is identified using the Blob detector which uses the skin color to identify the object. Then the bounding box is fixed for the object in that frame. Then the video is reconstructed with the processed frames. Feature extraction is done using Region Props which threshold the image and extract the features. Measure the gray level co-occurrence matrix and match the best similar one.
Lyapunov Functions for Generalized Discrete-time Multivariable Popov Criterion

Abstract This paper shows the existence of Lur'e-Postkinov Lyapunov functions for the generalized multivariable discrete-time Popov criterion. The nonlinearities in the Lur'e system considered here are monotonic, sector- and slope-restricted. We discuss the cases where the nonlinearities are diagonal and non-diagonal. Our derivation is based on the discrete-time Kalman-Yakubovich-Popov (KYP) lemma and the S-Procedure, and results in Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) conditions which can be solved using convex optimization methods.
An Action-based Task Analysis for Error Prediction in Medical Devices

Since the release of the Institute of Medicine medical error report in 1999, human errors in medicine have become of great interest and concern in the medical field. Like other landmark events in the history of human factors, events like this have increased overall awareness of human factors within this domain. Of particular concern are device level incidents stemming from poorly designed interfaces. For some time, literature has suggested that the number of injuries resulting from these types of problems far exceeds that of injuries due to device failures (e.g., Cooper, Newbower, Long, & McPeek, 1978).
Dictionary Learning-Based Subspace Structure Identification in Spectral Clustering

In this paper, we study dictionary learning (DL) approach to identify the representation of low-dimensional subspaces from high-dimensional and nonnegative data. Such representation can be used to provide an affinity matrix among different subspaces for data clustering. The main contribution of this paper is to consider both nonnegativity and sparsity constraints together in DL such that data can be represented effectively by nonnegative and sparse coding coefficients and nonnegative dictionary bases. In the algorithm, we employ the proximal point technique for the resulting DL and sparsity optimization problem. We make use of coding coefficients to perform spectral clustering (SC) for data partitioning. Extensive experiments on real-world high-dimensional and nonnegative data sets, including text, microarray, and image data demonstrate that the proposed method can discover their subspace structures. Experimental results also show that our algorithm is computationally efficient and effective for obtaining high SC performance and interpreting the clustering results compared with the other testing methods.