Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Face tracking using multiple facial features based on particle filter

In this paper, a multiple features face tracking algorithm based on particle filter is proposed. Particle filter can effectively combine multiple face features information which supply robustness in different environments. Meanwhile, our approach makes use of the invariance to rotation and translation of color histogram central moment and statistical characteristic of multiple resolution Sobel Local Binary Pattern (LBP) histogram which shows the local and enhanced global information, then fuses multiple features information by a weight proportion in particle filter framework to propose a new human face tracking algorithm. The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the algorithm and present a more robust face tracking performance compared with the method based on single feature.
Accretion Disks around Class 0 Protostars: The Case of VLA 1623

Continuum emission at 220 and 355 GHz from the prototype class 0 source VLA 1623 has been detected using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope-Caltech Submillimeter Observatory interferometer. Gaussian fits to the data place an upper limit of 70 AU on the half-width at half-maximum radius of the emission, which implies an upper limit of ~175 AU for the cutoff radius of the circumstellar disk in the system. In the context of existing collapse models, this disk could be magnetically supported on the largest scales and have an age of ~6 × 104 yr, consistent with previous suggestions that class 0 sources are quite young. The innermost region of the disk within ~6 AU is likely to be in centrifugal support, which is likely large enough to provide a drive for the outflow according to current theoretical models. Alternatively, if 175 AU corresponds to the centrifugal radius of the disk, the age of the system is ~2 × 105 yr, closer to age estimates for class I sources.
Ontology Based Dynamic e-Learning Flow Composition of Learning Web Services

Web Services has instigated it's transcend and now education has been made simple through Web Services. With the advent of Web Services, education has become far more personal, flexible and available across global borders. Workflow is a sequence of business tasks to be realized for the execution of user' request. Identifying required e-learning web services and dynamic composition and realization of those services is a challenging process. In this study we have suggested e-learning services workflow composing architecture and relevant algorithms for matching and composing e-learning flow for the learners with different learning styles. We suggested non logic based hybrid matching and composing algorithms which uses OWL-S profile and process ontologies for dynamic workflow composition of e-learning web services.
The optimal concentration of siRNA for gene silencing in primary cultured astrocytes and microglial cells of rats

Background Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) have been used to knockdown specific gene expression in various cells. Astrocytes and microglial cells play a key role in fundamental central nervous system functions and in chronic neuroinflammation. The aims of this study were to determine the optimal concentration of siRNA demonstrating efficient transfection and inhibition of gene expression via RNA interference (RNAi) and lower cytotoxicity, in primary cultured astrocytes and microglial cells of rats. Methods Astrocytes and microglial cells were isolated from the cerebral cortices of 2-day-old rats. Both the cells were transfected using transfection reagent (Lipofectamine™ 2000), and fluorescein-labeled double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) or siRNA targeting green fluorescent protein. Transfection efficiency and cytotoxicity of dsRNA, and the degrees of RNAi induced by siRNA in these cells, were evaluated at various concentrations of RNA. Results Transfection efficiencies of dsRNA in both astrocytes and microglial cells were significantly higher (P < 0.05) at the concentrations of 20, 40, and 80 nM than at the concentrations of 0, 5, and 10 nM. There were no significant cytotoxicities within the applied concentrations of dsRNA (0-80 nM). The degrees of RNAi induced by siRNA were significantly higher (P < 0.05) at the concentrations of 5, 10, 20, 40, 80 nM, and 20, 40, 80 nM in astrocytes and microglial cells, respectively, compared with the control (0 nM). Conclusions The siRNA concentration of 20 nM may be appropriate to induce RNAi in both astrocytes and microglial cells, while demonstrating low cytotoxicity, high transfection efficiency, and effective RNAi.
Applying Causal Models to Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment in Video Games

We have developed a causal model of how various aspects of a computer game influence how much a player enjoys the experience, as well as how long the player will play. This model is organized into three layers: a generic layer that applies to any game, a refinement layer for a particular game genre, and an instantiation layer for a specific game. Two experiments using different games were performed to validate the model. The model was used to design and implement a system and API for Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment(DDA). This DDA system and API uses machine learning techniques to make changes to a game in real time in the hopes of improving the experience of the user and making them play longer. A final experiment is presented that shows the effectiveness of the designed system.
A thermal-aware mapping algorithm for reducing peak temperature of an accelerator deployed in a 3D stack

Thermal management is one of the main concerns in three-dimensional integration due to difficulty of dissipating heat through the stack of the integrated circuit. In a 3D stack involving a data-path accelerator, a base processor and memory components, peak temperature reduction is targeted in this paper. A mapping algorithm has been devised in order to distribute operations of data flow graphs evenly over the processing elements of the target accelerator in two steps involving thermal-aware partitioning of input data flow graphs, and thermal-aware mapping of the partitions onto the processing elements. The efficiency of the proposed technique in reducing peak temperature is demonstrated throughout the experiments.
Phonologically determined nominal concord as post-syntactic: Evidence from Guébie

This paper brings novel data to bear on whether nominal concord relationships are formed in the narrow syntax or post-syntactically. In Guébie, a Kru language spoken in Côte d’Ivoire, nominal concord marking on non-human pronouns and adjectives is determined not by syntactic or semantic features of the concord-triggering noun, but by the phonological form of the noun. Specifically, concord marking on pronouns and adjectives surfaces as a vowel with the same backness features as the vowels of the head noun. Assuming that syntax is phonology-free (Pullum & Zwicky 1986, 1988), the fact that we see phonological features conditioning nominal concord in Guébie means that nominal concord must take place in the post-syntax. I expand on post-syntactic models of nominal concord in Distributed Morphology (Kramer 2010, Norris 2014, Baier 2015) showing that when combined with a constraint-based phonology, such an approach can account for both phonologically and syntactico-semantically determined concord systems. Additionally, the proposed analysis includes a formal account of ellipsis via constraints during the phonological component.
Mechanism for Enhanced Neutrophil Survival Expression by Dexamethasone: Potential Receptor-1 4 Modulation of Leukotriene B

Glucocorticoids can down-regulate many inﬂammatory and immune responses and constitute a powerful therapeutic tool in a number of diseases. However, they have a somewhat paradoxical effect on neutrophils, in that they prolong their survival. Because leukotriene B 4 (LTB 4 ) can also extend neutrophil survival, we proposed that glucocorticoids could prevent neutrophil apoptosis by up-regulating their expression of the high-afﬁnity LTB 4 receptor (BLT1). Here we show that, indeed, dexamethasone (DEX) up-regulates the steady-state levels of BLT1 mRNA in human neutrophils. The effect was time and concentration dependent, being maximal at 4 h and at 10–100 nM DEX. The effect was also dependent on transcriptional activity, whereas BLT1 mRNA stability was not affected. DEX-induced up-regulation of BLT1 expression was prevented by pretreatment with the LTB 4 antagonist LY255283. Moreover, LTB 4 itself up-regulated the expression of BLT1 mRNA. BLT1 protein expression on neutrophils exposed to DEX for 24 h was also up-regulated 2- to 3-fold, and DEX-treated as well as LTB 4 -treated cells showed enhanced responsiveness to LTB 4 in terms of intracellular Ca 2 (cid:1) mobilization and chemotaxis. Whereas DEX and LTB 4 alone decreased neutrophil apoptosis by (cid:1) 50%, neutrophils treated with both LTB 4 and DEX showed > 90% survival at 24 h. Moreover, BLT1 antagonists prevented the increased neutrophil survival induced by DEX as well as by LTB 4 . Taken together, our results suggest that DEX-induced up-regulation of BLT1 expression in neutrophils may be one mechanism through which glucocorticoids can prolong neutrophil survival, namely by enhancing cell responses to the antiapoptotic assessed by direct examination of nuclear morphology by light microscopy and by cell surface binding of phophatidylserine by annexin V. For the latter, neutrophils were stained with annexin V and propidium iodide for dual labeling to detect apoptosis and necrosis, re-spectively. In selected experiments, neutrophils were labeled with anti- caspase 3 Ab (BD PharMingen, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada). Stained cells were examined with a FACScan ﬂow cytometer (BD Biosciences) using CellQuest Pro software.
Cosmological implications of the KATRIN experiment

The upcoming Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment will put unprecedented constraints on the absolute mass of the electron neutrino, mνe. In this paper we investigate how this information on mνe will affect our constraints on cosmological parameters. We consider two scenarios: one where mνe = 0 (i.e., no detection by KATRIN), and one where mνe = 0.3 eV. We find that the constraints on mνe from KATRIN will affect estimates of some important cosmological parameters significantly. For example, the significance of ns<1 and the inferred value of ΩΛ depend on the results from the KATRIN experiment.
Consensus Seeking Using Multi-Hop Relay Protocol

We consider the problem of average consensus seeking in networked multi-agent systems. Based on local information and a simple distributed algorithm, states of all agents automatically converge to the average value of the initial conditions, where the convergence speed is determined by the algebraic connectivity of the underlying communication network. In order to achieve an average consensus quickly, we propose a new type of consensus protocol, multi-hop relay protocol, in which each agent expands its knowledge by employing multi-hop communication links. We explicitly show that multi-hop relay protocol increases the convergence speed without physically changing the network topology. Moreover, accumulated delays along communication links are discussed. We show that, for multi-hop relay protocol, the faster the protocol converges, the more sensitive it is to the delay. This tradeoff is identified when we investigate the stable delay margin using frequency sweep method.
Firing the old or the young: a non-perpetual real options analysis

We model a firm’s choice as to the age composition of dismissed workers for different assumptions about the level of firing costs. We find that with high firing costs (not to mention rising ones), firms will be inclined to fire younger workers while with low costs of firing, the older workers are at risk. Since with high firing costs old workers are better protected against layoffs, an ageing population has the effect of making employment-protection legislation more stringent.
Scanning and measurement of carbon nanofiber nanoelectrode arrays using Atomic Force Microscopy

One of the major limitations in the development of ultrasensitive electrochemical biosensors based on one-dimensional nanostructure is the difficulty involved with reliably fabricating nanoelectrode arrays (NEAs). In previous work, a simple, robust and scalable wafer-scale fabrication method to produce multiplexed biosensors is introduced. Each sensor chip consists of nine individually addressable arrays that uses electron beam patterned vertically aligned carbon nanofibers (VACNFs) as the sensing element. To ensure nanoelectrode behavior with higher sensitivity, VACNFs were precisely grown on 100 nm Ni dots with 1μm spacing on each micro pad. However, in order to examine the quality and measure the height and diameter of the VACNFs, some surface detection and measurement tool at the nanoscale level is needed. In this paper, we introduce an approach to measure these nano-scale features through Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). With this method, both the 2D and 3D images of sample surface are generated and the sizes of carbon nanofibers and cavities are obtained. Furthermore, statistical analysis is carried out to enable improvement of VACNFs growth and fabrication.
Predicting Traffic Congestion in Presence of Planned Special Events

The recent availability of datasets on transportation networks with high spatial and temporal resolution is enabling new research activities in the fields of Territorial Intelligence and Smart Cities. Within these domains, in this paper we focus on the problem of predicting traffic congestion in urban environments caused by attendees leaving a Planned Special Events (PSE), such as a soccer game or a concert. The proposed approach consists of two steps. In the first one, we use the K-Nearest Neighbor algorithm to predict congestions within the vicinity of the venue (e.g. a Stadion) based on the knowledge from past observed events. In the second step, we identify the road segments that are likely to show congestion due to PSEs and map our prediction to these road segments. To visualize the traffic trends and congestion behavior we learned and to allow Domain Experts to evaluate the situation we also provide a Google Earthbased GUI. The proposed solution has been experimentally proven to outperform current state of the art solutions by about 35% and thus it can successfully serve to reliably predict congestions due to PSEs.
Vehicle-to-Grid Power: Battery, Hybrid, and Fuel Cell Vehicles as Resources for Distributed Electric Power in California

Electric-drive vehicles can become and important resource for the California electric utility system, with consequent air pollution, system reliability, and economic benefits. We refer to electric power resources from vehicles as “Vehicle to Grid” power (V2G). The economic value of some forms of V2G appear high, more than enough to offset the initially higher costs of electric-drive vehicles, thus having the potential to accelerate their introduction. To realize this potential, some coordination of vehicle and infrastructure planning will be needed. This study calculates three parameters of electric drive vehicles (EDVs) which are important for their use by the electric system: resources size, availability, and economic potential.
Simulation of Short Term and Long Term Responses of the Tournemire Argillite in a Mine-by-test Experiment

During the excavation of a gallery in 2003 in the Tournemire argillite, a mine-by-test experiment has been performed, enabling measurements of pore pressure and displacements during the excavation (short term) as well as nearly three years after (long term). From these data, it has been possible, by means of bidimensionnal simulations, first to calibrate hydro-mechanical parameters, and then, using the convergenceconfinement method, to simulate the short and long term responses of the rock mass.
Impact of UGT2B17 gene deletion on the steroid profile of an athlete

The measurement of the testosterone to epitestosterone ratio (T/E ratio) in urine is often used as a marker for testosterone administration in the doping control field. This study examines the frequencies of the different expression forms of the UGT2B17 gene, and assesses their effects on this marker in volunteer subjects. The sample for this descriptive study was composed of male and female athletes aged between 16 and 55 years old who practiced different sports disciplines. All participants underwent a sports‐medical physical examination, and subsequently provided 10 urine samples consecutively over a period of 48 h. The dependent variable examined was T/E and the main independent variable was the UGT2B17 gene polymorphism. During 1 year, 1410 urine samples were obtained from 141 athletes. The frequencies of the three genotypes were as follows: wt homozygotes (ins/ins) 48.2% (n = 68), mutant homozygotes (del/del) 12.1% (n = 17), and heterozygotes (ins/del) 39.7% (n = 56). Genotype distributions varied significantly (P < 0.001) according to ethnicity, 80% of Asian subjects being homozygous for the gene deletion (del/del) compared to 6.9% of Caucasian subjects. A multivariate analysis adjusted for genotype, age, sex, and sports discipline revealed that athletes with the del/del polymorphism showed a significantly lower mean T/E than heterozygotes (ins/del). In contrast, homozygous athletes for the gene insertion (ins/ins) showed higher mean T/E ratios than heterozygotes (ins/del). UGT2B17 gene deletion has a strong influence on the T/E ratio in urine, which is the most efficient indicator of testosterone prohormone misuse. Others factors studied seem not to have such an impact. The genotyping of UGT2B17 is an important source of information for understanding steroid profiling in the doping control field; therefore it is suggested that it be included in the Athletes Biological Passport.
Bilateral tangent projection for manifold smoothing

In this paper, we propose a bilateral tangent projection (BTP) algorithm to smooth a set of noisy data assumed to lie on a low-dimensional manifold. The data points are smoothed by a family of local tangent projections adaptively. The BTP algorithm utilizes not only the location information of the data point but also the fitness of the tangent space estimation. The local tangent space with better fitness plays more important role in the smoothing procedure. The experimental results show that our algorithm is effective for noise reduction and preserves the structure of the underlying manifold.
Dynamics of Virus-Receptor Interactions in Virus Binding, Signaling, and Endocytosis

During viral infection the first challenge that viruses have to overcome is gaining access to the intracellular compartment. The infection process starts when the virus contacts the surface of the host cell. A complex series of events ensues, including diffusion at the host cell membrane surface, binding to receptors, signaling, internalization, and delivery of the genetic information. The focus of this review is on the very initial steps of virus entry, from receptor binding to particle uptake into the host cell. We will discuss how viruses find their receptor, move to sub-membranous regions permissive for entry, and how they hijack the receptor-mediated signaling pathway to promote their internalization.
TGFβ-dependent gene expression shows that senescence correlates with abortive differentiation along several lineages in Myc-induced lymphomas

Deregulated expression of Myc under the control of an immunoglobulin enhancer induces lymphoma formation in mice. The development of lymphomas is limited by TGFβ-dependent senescence and high levels of Myc expression are continuously required to antagonize senescence. The biological processes underlying senescence are not fully resolved. We report here a comprehensive analysis of TGFβ-dependent alterations in gene expression when the Myc transgene is switched off. Our data show that Myc-induced target genes are downregulated in a TGFβ-independent manner. In contrast, TGFβ is required to upregulate a broad spectrum of genes that are characteristic for differenT-cell lineages when Myc is turned off. The analysis reveals a significant overlap between these Myc-repressed genes with genes that are targets of polycomb repressive complexes in embryonic stem cells. Therefore, TGFβ-dependent senescence is associated with gene expression patterns indicative of abortive cellular differentiation along several lineages.
In vitro analysis of the interaction between the small RNA SR1 and its primary target ahrC mRNA

Small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) from bacterial chromosomes became the focus of research over the past five years. However, relatively little is known in terms of structural requirements, kinetics of interaction with their targets and degradation in contrast to well-studied plasmid-encoded antisense RNAs. Here, we present a detailed in vitro analysis of SR1, a sRNA of Bacillus subtilis that is involved in regulation of arginine catabolism by basepairing with its target, ahrC mRNA. The secondary structures of SR1 species of different lengths and of the SR1/ahrC RNA complex were determined and functional segments required for complex formation narrowed down. The initial contact between SR1 and its target was shown to involve the 5′ part of the SR1 terminator stem and a region 100 bp downstream from the ahrC transcriptional start site. Toeprinting studies and secondary structure probing of the ahrC/SR1 complex indicated that SR1 inhibits translation initiation by inducing structural changes downstream from the ahrC RBS. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that Hfq, which binds both SR1 and ahrC RNA was not required to promote ahrC/SR1 complex formation but to enable the translation of ahrC mRNA. The intracellular concentrations of SR1 were calculated under different growth conditions.
Reliable fiber-wireless access networks: Less an end than a means to an end

In coming years, broadband access networks are expected to undergo a couple of paradigm shifts. First, copper will play a less important role and eventually give way to bimodal fiber-wireless (FiWi) access networks. Second, broadband access networks will become less an end in itself than a means to an end by exploiting them not only for telecommunications per se but also other relevant economic sectors of the future low carbon society. Despite recent research activities demonstrating that both fiber and wireless media might be also used to transfer small amounts of energy over limited distances, it is anticipated that fiber and wireless technologies represent the two remaining complementary building blocks of future converged communications networks, while copper remains the energy (but not necessarily data) transmission medium of choice in future smart power grids. In this paper, we explore ways of using dependent FiWi access networks to enable or enhance the dependability of other critical infrastructures of today's society, most notably the future smart power grid. After discussing the respective pros and cons of a variety of available access networking technologies, we elaborate on the rationale behind the design choices of our Über-FiWi network and showcase its suitability as a holistic end-to-end smart grid communications infrastructure for next-generation power distribution networks via illustrative experimental and co-simulation studies on emulated power blackouts during a security breach and coordinated plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) charging without a deviated voltage profile and deteriorated power quality.