Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Data‐Driven Sparse Priors of 3D Shapes

We present a sparse optimization framework for extracting sparse shape priors from a collection of 3D models. Shape priors are defined as point‐set neighborhoods sampled from shape surfaces which convey important information encompassing normals and local shape characterization. A 3D shape model can be considered to be formed with a set of 3D local shape priors, while most of them are likely to have similar geometry. Our key observation is that the local priors extracted from a family of 3D shapes lie in a very low‐dimensional manifold. Consequently, a compact and informative subset of priors can be learned to efficiently encode all shapes of the same family. A comprehensive library of local shape priors is first built with the given collection of 3D models of the same family. We then formulate a global, sparse optimization problem which enforces selecting representative priors while minimizing the reconstruction error. To solve the optimization problem, we design an efficient solver based on the Augmented Lagrangian Multipliers method (ALM). Extensive experiments exhibit the power of our data‐driven sparse priors in elegantly solving several high‐level shape analysis applications and geometry processing tasks, such as shape retrieval, style analysis and symmetry detection.
Novel Effect of Oxidized Low-Density Lipoprotein: Cellular ATP Depletion via Downregulation of Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase

Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) is a classical glycolytic enzyme that is involved in cellular energy production and has important housekeeping functions. We used the natural prooxidant and proatherogenic molecule oxidized low-density lipoprotein (OxLDL) to determine a potential link between OxLDL-promoted oxidative stress, GAPDH expression, and smooth muscle cell energy metabolism. OxLDL but not native LDL (nLDL) produced a 60% to 100% dose- and time-dependent reduction of GAPDH protein. OxLDL increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation, including rapid elevation of H2O2 levels. OxLDL decreased intracellular catalase expression, likely contributing to the increase in H2O2. Antioxidants, anti-CD36 receptor antibody, NADPH oxidase, or lipoxygenase blockers decreased OxLDL-specific ROS and prevented GAPDH downregulation. 12/15-Lipoxygenase or p47phox deficiency resulted in attenuation of GAPDH downregulation, but 5-lipoxygenase suppression had no effect. OxLDL or exogenous H2O2 oxidized GAPDH thiols, decreasing GAPDH protein half-life and increasing GAPDH sensitivity to proteasome-mediated protein degradation in vitro. OxLDL- or small interfering RNA–specific downregulation of GAPDH resulted in 65% reduction in glycolysis rate and 82% decrease in ATP levels. In conclusion, our data demonstrate that OxLDL downregulated GAPDH via a H2O2-dependent decrease in protein stability. GAPDH protein damage resulted in marked depletion of cellular ATP levels. Our data have important implications for understanding the metabolic effect of OxLDL on the vessel wall and mechanism of atherogenesis.
Phase II trial of bevacizumab and dose/dense chemotherapy with cisplatin and metronomic daily oral etoposide in advanced non-small-cell-lung cancer patients

Bevacizumab, is a humanized monoclonal antibody to vasculo-endothelial-growth-factor, with anticancer activity in non-small-cell-lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Our previous results from a dose/finding phase I trial in NSCLC patients, demonstrated the anti-angiogenic effects and toxicity of a newest bevacizumab-based combination with fractioned cisplatin and daily oral etoposide. We designed a phase II trial to evaluate in advanced NSCLC patients the antitumor activity and the safety of this novel regimen. In particular, 45 patients (36 males and 9 females), with a mean age of 54 years, an ECOG ≤ 2, stage IIIB/IV and NSCLC (28 adenocarcinomas, 11 squamous-cell carcinomas, 2 large-cell carcinomas, 4 undifferentiated carcinomas), were enrolled. They received cisplatin (30 mg/sqm, days 1-3), oral etoposide (50 mg, days 1-15) and bevacizumab (5 mg/kg, day 3) every three weeks (mPEBev regimen). Patients who achieved an objective response or stable disease received maintenance treatment with bevacizumab in combination with erlotinib until progression. Grade I-II hematological, mucosal toxicity and alopecia were the most common adverse events. The occurrence of infections (17%), thromboembolic events (4.4%) and severe mood depression (6.7%) was also recorded. A partial response was achieved in 31 (68.8%) patients, disease remained stable in 8 (17.8%), and disease progressed in 6 (13.3%) with a progression-free-survival of 9.53 months (95%CI, 7.7-11.46). Our bio-chemotherapy regimen resulted very active in advanced NSCLC, however, the toxicity associated with the treatment requires strict selection of the patients to enroll in future studies.
Bridging the gap between discrete symbolic planning and optimization-based robot control

Symbolic reasoners generate plans which are often not exploiting the robot capabilities and are sensitive to runtime disturbances. This work proposes a scheduler as an interface between a discrete, symbolic plan and a motion control based on constraint optimization. Acting as a local reasoner, the scheduler valuates a set of predicates to decide when an action will be executed. Given a task specification which describes how the action should be realized, the scheduler configures the controller at runtime. A demonstration will be provided considering an “open drawer” scenario.
Gate-size selection for standard cell libraries

The paper presents an algorithm to select a good set of gate sizes for the primitive gates of a standard cell library. A measurement error on a gate is defined to quantify the discrepancy resulting from replacing the size required by a synthesis sizing algorithm with a size available in a discrete cell library. The criterion for gate size selection is a set of gate sizes that minimizes the cumulative error of a prescribed measurement. Optimal solutions to the gate size selection problem targetting size and delay measurements are presented for cases when the probability distribution and the delay equations are simple. A realistic probability distribution is obtained using a sample space of gates derived from a group of designs that is synthesized under the semi-custom synthesis methodology (K. Shepard et al., 1997). A "delay match" (minimizing delay error) and a "size match" (minimizing size error) set of gate sizes are obtained numerically and are subsequently realized as discrete cell libraries. The previous group of designs are synthesized using the two selected cell libraries and two other cell libraries, one with "equal spacing" of cell sizes and the other with "exponential spacing" of cell sizes. The "size match" library gives the best overall slack and area results.
Causes of homelessness in the UK: a dynamic analysis

This article presents an analysis of the causes of homelessness in the UK, and develops the notion that the bulk of the research has focused on ‘discrete’ causes of homelessness, which has been important for enhancing our knowledge, but has also led to gaps in our understanding. To this end, the article begins outlining the benefits of the pathways approach, acknowledging the potential contributions of this approach rather than fully developing the argument, and placing it in a wider context. This article concludes by discussing implications for a more dynamic explanation of homelessness and the impact that it is likely to have on both policy and research in the UK. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Variations in Spelling Style among Lexical and Sublexical Readers

Abstract This study examined whether whole-word (or lexical ) and spelling–sound rule (or sublexical ) patterns of reliance could be identified in children's spelling and whether there was consistency across reading and spelling domains. A group of 128 children was assessed on their reading and spelling of regular, irregular, and nonwords. Compatible with Treiman (1984), the pairwise correlations indicated that both lexical and sublexical processes were involved in spelling. When two subgroups differing in reading reliance were selected, their respective spelling patterns were found to be consistent with their reading styles: The sublexically reliant group performed better at spelling nonwords and made more regularization errors on irregular words, while the lexically reliant subjects were more likely to make errors containing partial lexical information when spelling irregular words. The results are consistent with dual-route accounts of the skilled spelling system and also have implications for lexical acquisition processes.
Are People More Aggressive When They Are Worse Off or Better Off Than Others?

Who is more likely to behave aggressively? Is it someone outperformed by others or is it someone who outperformed others? For safety reasons, it is important to know the answer to this question. In Studies 1 and 2, participants were told that they did worse or better than an ostensible partner on a first task. Then they aggressed against this partner on a second task using loud, painful noise blasts. Results showed that participants aggressed more against someone they outperformed (the loser) than against someone who outperformed them (the winner). However, these results do not indicate whether participants were especially aggressive against someone they outperformed, or whether they were especially nonaggressive against someone who outperformed them. Study 3 included a control group and showed it was the former. These studies suggest that one should pay particular attention to winners rather than losers, because winners tend to aggress against losers.
Psychologie de la connaissance des objets. Catégories et propriétés, tâches et domaines d'investigation

A « category » is a cognitive entity associated with a number of mechanisms, processes, types of computation and actions called « categorization ». Every research domain in psychology uses this concept, which is studied using various tasks as investigation tools. This paper presents a critical description of these tasks and points out how this concept is used in the different fields of psychology. The aim is to provide a comparative description, which is as complete as possible, of the use of what appears to be one of the fundamental concepts in psychology.
Evaluation of an extraction-based approach to answering definitional questions

This paper evaluates an extraction-based approach to answering definitional questions. Our system extracted useful linguistic constructs called linguistic features from raw text using information extraction tools and formulated answers based on such features. The features employed include appositives, copulas, structured patterns, relations, propositions and raw sentences. The features were ranked based on feature type and similarity to a question profile. Redundant features were detected using a simple heuristic-based strategy. The approach achieved state of the art performance at the TREC 2003 QA evaluation. Component analysis of the system was carried out using an automatic scoring function called Rouge (Lin and Hovy, 2003). Major findings include 1) answers using linguistic features are significantly better than those using raw sentences; 2) the most useful features are appositives and copulas; 3) question profiles, as a means of modeling user interests, can significantly improve system performance; 4) the Rouge scores are closely correlated with subjective evaluation results, indicating the suitability of using Rouge for evaluating definitional QA systems.
Designing electronic shops, persuading consumers to buy

The purpose of this article is to show how to design persuasive and successful Web shops. An approach to commercial site design that draws on theories of visual persuasion is proposed. We focus on the role of emotion. Images in an ad are typically meant to create some emotional disposition toward the product, or social cause. The importance of emotions in the on-line shopping context is highlighted. Mechanisms found in visual persuasion showing ways of capturing the audience's attention and emotions are discussed. To illustrate these mechanisms, examples drawn from electronic shopping are considered. To strengthen the discussion, an evaluation of shop home pages, situated within the perspective of visual persuasion is presented. This study has given some indications that viewers form distinctive emotional impressions from shop designs. Thus, by building on visual persuasion theories, we can learn how to design seductive Web shops.
Pathotyping and Phylogenetic Characterization of Newcastle Disease Viruses Isolated in Peru: Defining Two Novel Subgenotypes Within Genotype XII

SUMMARY Infections of poultry with virulent strains of avian paramyxovirus 1 (APMV-1), also known as Newcastle disease viruses (NDVs), cause Newcastle disease (ND). This highly contagious disease affects poultry and many other species of birds worldwide. In countries where the disease is prevalent, constant monitoring and characterization of isolates causing outbreaks are necessary. In this study, we report the results of pathogenicity testing and phylogenetic analyses of seven NDVs isolated from several regions of Peru between 2004 and 2015. Six viruses had intracerebral pathogenicity indices (ICPIs) of between 1.75 and 1.88, corresponding to a velogenic pathotype. The remaining virus had an ICPI of 0.00, corresponding to a lentogenic pathotype. These results were consistent with amino acid sequences at the fusion protein (F) cleavage site. All velogenic isolates had the polybasic amino acid sequence 112RRQKR↓F117 at the F cleavage site. Phylogenetic analyses of complete F gene sequences showed that all isolates are classified in class II of APMV-1. The velogenic viruses are classified in genotype XII, while the lentogenic virus is classified in genotype II, closely related to the LaSota vaccine strain. Moreover, tree topology, bootstrap values, and genetic distances observed within genotype XII resulted in the identification of novel subgenotypes XIIa (in South America) and XIIb (in China) and possibly two clades within genotype XIIa. All velogenic Peruvian viruses belonged to subgenotype XIIa. Overall, our results confirm the presence of genotype XII in Peru and suggest that it is the prevalent genotype currently circulating in our country. The phylogenetic characterization of these isolates helps to characterize the evolution of NDV and may help with the development of vaccines specific to our regional necessities.
The intestinal epithelial cell: processing and presentation of antigen to the mucosal immune system

Summary: The immunologic tone of the intestinal tract is one of suppressed or highly regulated responses. While there arc several components (intrinsic and extrinsic to the gut‐associated lymphoid tissue) responsible for this immunologically suppressed tone, the intestinal epithelial call (IEC) has been proposed as a key player in this process, IECs can take up and process antigen but distinct surface molecules and restriction elements allow them to present these antigens to unique regulatory T tells. These include the expression of the class II molecule CD I d as well as a novel CD8 ligand, gp180. These molecules come together to activate a subpopulation of CD8+ regulatory cells whose function is to suppress immune responses in an antigen non‐specific fashion most likely through cognate interactions. This form of regulation may be unique to the gut‐associated lymphoid tissue which is consistent with the unsual demands upon this part of the immune system.
An environment for the analysis and reconstruction of archaeological objects

To assist archaeologists in their work of analysis and reconstruction of archaeological objects from their fragments, several environments have been developped in which virtual fragments can be manipulated. As a part of these environments, an important tool consists in automating the search for correct assemblages between two 3D objects by evaluating their matching surfaces. In this paper, we describe a new environment for computer aided reconstruction of archaeological objects and we propose a new method to estimate the quality of an association based on a surface area evaluation.
Are synesthetes exceptional beyond their synesthetic associations? A systematic comparison of creativity, personality, cognition, and mental imagery in synesthetes and controls

Synesthesia has historically been linked with enhanced creativity, but this had never been demonstrated in a systematically recruited sample. The current study offers a broad examination of creativity, personality, cognition, and mental imagery in a small sample of systematically recruited synesthetes and controls (n = 65). Synesthetes scored higher on some measures of creativity, personality traits of absorption and openness, and cognitive abilities of verbal comprehension and mental imagery. The differences were smaller than those reported in the literature, indicating that previous studies may have overestimated group differences, perhaps due to biased recruitment procedures. Nonetheless, most of our results replicated literature findings, yielding two possibilities: (1) our study was influenced by similar biases, or (2) differences between synesthetes and controls, though modest, are robust across recruitment methods. The covariance among our measures warrants interpretation of these differences as a pattern of associations with synesthesia, leaving open the possibility that this pattern could be explained by differences on a single measured trait, or even a hidden, untested trait. More generally, this study highlights the difficulty of comparing groups of people in psychology, not to mention neuropsychology and neuroimaging studies. The requirements discussed here – systematic recruitment procedures, large battery of tests, and large cohorts – are best fulfilled through collaborative efforts and cumulative science.
Is there really trouble with UNIX?

Donald Norman has claimed that UNIX has cryptic and inconsistent command names. As Michael Lesk has remarked, the lack of objective data makes it difficult to evaluate the significance of Norman's criticisms. In an effort to explore this controversy we taught one group of novice users the UNIX command language and another group an English-based command language (NUIX). The number of errors and calls for on-line assistance were compared. The subjects in this study were 22 high school women with no formal exposure to computers. The results reveal that the UNIX group made fewer errors than the NUIX group in two training sessions a week apart. Although calls for on-line assistance for the two groups in the first session were comparable, the UNIX group made over twice as many calls for on-line assistance in the second session as the NUIX group. Our findings suggest that even though the UNIX command language may not be harder for novice users to learn, it is probably more difficult for them to use.
Conscious and unconscious processing of fear after right amygdala damage: A single case ERP-study

In this study, we describe a 58-year-old male patient (FZ) with a right-amygdala lesion after temporal lobe infarction. FZ is unable to recognize fearful facial expressions. Instead, he consistently misinterprets expressions of fear for expressions of surprise. Employing EEG/ERP measures, we investigated whether presentation of fearful and surprised facial expressions would lead to different response patterns. We also measured ERPs to aversively conditioned and unconditioned fearful faces. We compared ERPs elicited by supraliminally and subliminally presented conditioned fearful faces (CS+), unconditioned fearful faces (CS–) and surprised faces. Despite FZ's inability to recognize fearful facial expressions in emotion recognition tasks, ERP components showed different response patterns to pictures of surprised and fearful facial expressions, indicating that covert or implicit recognition of fear is still intact. Differences between ERPs to CS+ and CS– were only found when these stimuli were presented subliminally. This indicates that intact right amygdala function is not necessary for aversive conditioning. Previous studies have stressed the importance of the right amygdala for discriminating facial emotional expressions and for classical conditioning. Our study suggests that the right amygdala is necessary for explicit recognition of fear, while implicit recognition of fear and classical conditioning may still occur following lesion of the right amygdala.
Engineered (Lys)6-Tagged Recombinant Sulfide-Reactive Hemoglobin I for Covalent Immobilization at Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes

The recombinant HbI was fused with a poly-Lys tag ((Lys)6-tagged rHbI) for specific-site covalent immobilization on two carbon nanotube transducer surfaces, i.e., powder and vertically aligned carbon nanotubes. The immobilization was achieved by following two steps: (1) generation of amine-reactive ester from the carboxylic acid groups of the surfaces and (2) coupling these groups with the amine groups of the Lys-tag. We analyzed the immobilization process using different conditions and techniques to differentiate protein covalent attachment from physical adsorption. Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy data showed a 14 cm–1 displacement of the protein’s amide I and amide II peaks to lower the frequency after immobilization. This result indicates a covalent attachment of the protein to the surface. Differences in the morphology of the carbon substrate with and without (Lys)6-tagged rHbI confirmed protein immobilization, as observed by transmission electron microscopy. The electrochemical studies, which were performed to evaluate the redox center of the immobilized protein, show a confinement suitable for an efficient electron transfer system. More importantly, the electrochemical studies allowed determination of a redox potential for the new (Lys)6-tagged rHbI. The data show that the protein is electrochemically active and retains its biological activity toward H2S.
Diversity-multiplexing tradeoff in multiple-relay network-part I: Proposed scheme and single-antenna networks

This paper studies the setup of a multiple-relay network in which K half-duplex multiple-antenna relays assist in the transmission between a/several multiple-antenna source(s) and a multiple-antenna destination. Each two nodes are assumed to be either connected through a quasi-static Rayleigh fading channel, or disconnected. This paper is comprised of two parts. In this part of the paper, we propose a new scheme, which we call random sequential (RS), based on the amplify-and-forward relaying. We derive diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT) of the proposed RS scheme for general single-antenna multiple-relay networks. As a result, we show that for single-antenna two-hop multiple-access multiple-relay (K > 1) networks (without direct link between the source(s) and the destination), the proposed RS scheme achieves the optimum DMT. However, for the case of multiple access single relay setup, we show that the RS scheme reduces to the naive amplify-and-forward relaying and is not optimum in terms of DMT, while the dynamic decode-and-forward scheme is shown to be optimum for this scenario.