Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spectral Edge : Gradient Preserving Spectral Mapping for Image Fusion

This paper describes a novel approach to image fusion for colour display. Our goal is to generate an output image whose gradient matches that of the input as closely as possible. We achieve this using a constrained contrast mapping paradigm in the gradient domain, where the structure tensor of a highdimensional gradient representation is mapped exactly to that of a low-dimensional gradient field which is then reintegrated to form an output. Constraints on output colours are provided by an initial RGB rendering. Initially we motivate our solution with a simple ‘ansatz’ (educated guess) for projecting higherD contrast onto colour gradients, which we expand to a more rigorous theorem to incorporate colour constraints. The solution to these constrained optimisations is closed-form, allowing for simple and hence fast and efficient algorithms. The approach can map any N-D image data to any M-D output, and can be used in a variety of applications using the same basic algorithm. In this paper we focus on the problem of mapping N-D inputs to 3-D colour outputs. We present results in five applications: hyperspectral remote sensing, fusion of colour and near-infrared or clear-filter images, multi-lighting imaging, dark flash, and colour visualisation of MRI Diffusion-Tensor imaging. © 2015 Optical Society of America
Separability versus Prototypicality in Handwritten Word Retrieval

User appreciation of a word-image retrieval system is based on the quality of a hit list for a query. Using support vector machines for ranking in large scale, handwritten document collections, we observed that many hit lists suffered from bad instances in the top ranks. An analysis of this problem revealed that two functions needed to be optimised concerning both separability and prototypicality. By ranking images in two stages, the number of distracting images is reduced, making the method very convenient for massive scale, continuously trainable retrieval engines. Instead of cumbersome SVM training, we present a nearest-centroid method and show that precision improvements of up to 35 percentage points can be achieved, yielding up to 100% precision in data sets with a large amount of instances, while maintaining high recall performances.
Characterizing the behavior of sparse algorithms on caches

A methodology is presented for modeling the irregular references of sparse codes using probabilistic methods. The behavior on cache of one of the most frequent primitives, SpMxV sparse matrix vector multiply, is analyzed. A model of its references is built, and performance bottlenecks of SpMxV are analyzed using the model and simulations. The main parameters are identified and their role is explained and quantified. This analysis is then used to discuss optimizations of SpMxV. A blocking technique which takes into account the specifics of sparse codes is proposed. <<ETX>>
Joint Routing and Spectrum Allocation for Multi-Hop Cognitive Radio Networks with Route Robustness Consideration

In this paper, we introduce the concept of "route robustness" for path selection in multi-hop cognitive radio networks. We demonstrate that the aggregate throughput and the robustness of routes determined by the proposed route selection strategy are superior to existing rate-based selection strategies. The rationale behind our approach is to guarantee a basic level of robustness for a set of routes (referred to as skeletons in this paper). Then, we select some routes from this robust route set and determine the spectrum to be allocated on each link along these routes such that the system throughput is maximized. We also design a polynomial time algorithm for this problem, and evaluate our proposed mechanism via simulations. The results show that our proposed algorithm indeed achieves a near optimal solution of this problem for multi-hop overlay CR networks.
Principal component analysis based methods in bioinformatics studies

In analysis of bioinformatics data, a unique challenge arises from the high dimensionality of measurements. Without loss of generality, we use genomic study with gene expression measurements as a representative example but note that analysis techniques discussed in this article are also applicable to other types of bioinformatics studies. Principal component analysis (PCA) is a classic dimension reduction approach. It constructs linear combinations of gene expressions, called principal components (PCs). The PCs are orthogonal to each other, can effectively explain variation of gene expressions, and may have a much lower dimensionality. PCA is computationally simple and can be realized using many existing software packages. This article consists of the following parts. First, we review the standard PCA technique and their applications in bioinformatics data analysis. Second, we describe recent 'non-standard' applications of PCA, including accommodating interactions among genes, pathways and network modules and conducting PCA with estimating equations as opposed to gene expressions. Third, we introduce several recently proposed PCA-based techniques, including the supervised PCA, sparse PCA and functional PCA. The supervised PCA and sparse PCA have been shown to have better empirical performance than the standard PCA. The functional PCA can analyze time-course gene expression data. Last, we raise the awareness of several critical but unsolved problems related to PCA. The goal of this article is to make bioinformatics researchers aware of the PCA technique and more importantly its most recent development, so that this simple yet effective dimension reduction technique can be better employed in bioinformatics data analysis.
Evaluation of antibacterial activity of Asparagus racemosus Willd. root

Different concentrations (50, 100, 150 µg/mL) of the methanol extract of the roots of Asparagus racemosus Willd. showed considerable in vitro antibacterial efficacy against Escherichia coli, Shigella dysenteriae, Shigella sonnei, Shigella flexneri, Vibrio cholerae, Salmonella typhi, Salmonella typhimurium, Pseudomonas putida, Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus. The effects produced by the methanol extract were compared with chloramphenicol. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
France’s State of the Art Distributed Optical Fibre Sensors Qualified for the Monitoring of the French Underground Repository for High Level and Intermediate Level Long Lived Radioactive Wastes

This paper presents the state of the art distributed sensing systems, based on optical fibres, developed and qualified for the French Cigéo project, the underground repository for high level and intermediate level long-lived radioactive wastes. Four main parameters, namely strain, temperature, radiation and hydrogen concentration are currently investigated by optical fibre sensors, as well as the tolerances of selected technologies to the unique constraints of the Cigéo’s severe environment. Using fluorine-doped silica optical fibre surrounded by a carbon layer and polyimide coating, it is possible to exploit its Raman, Brillouin and Rayleigh scattering signatures to achieve the distributed sensing of the temperature and the strain inside the repository cells of radioactive wastes. Regarding the dose measurement, promising solutions are proposed based on Radiation Induced Attenuation (RIA) responses of sensitive fibres such as the P-doped ones. While for hydrogen measurements, the potential of specialty optical fibres with Pd particles embedded in their silica matrix is currently studied for this gas monitoring through its impact on the fibre Brillouin signature evolution.
VLT optical observations of V821 Ara(=GX339-4) in an extended ``off'' state

We report on low-resolution spectroscopy of GX339-4 during its current, extended X-ray "off" state in May 2000 ($r=20.1$) obtained with the VLT Focal Reducer/low dispersion Spectrograph (FORS1). Although we do not positively detect the secondary star in GX339-4 we place an upper limit of 30 percent on the contribution of a "normal" K-type secondary star spectrum to the observed flux. Using this limit for the observed magnitude of the secondary star, we find a lower limit for the distance of GX339-4 to be 5.6 kpc.
A Feature Selection Method Based on Concept Extraction and SOM Text Clustering Analysis

The feature selection is an important part in automatic classification. In this paper, we use the HowNet to extract the concept attributes from word to build a feature set. However, as the concept defi4nition sometimes is too weak in expression, we set a shielded level in the sememe Tree and filter the concept attributes which can not give enough information for classification, and reserve the word whose definition is too weak in expression. By this method, we build a feature set composing of both sememes from the HowNet and the Chinese words. We also give different sememes different values according to their expression ability and relation to the word when we extract them from the word. After comparing the weight theories and classification precise, we give the CHI-MCOR weight method, which is derived from two normal methods. Then we use the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) to realize automatic text clustering. The experiment result shows that if we can extract the sememes properly, we can not only reduce the feature dimension but also improve the classification precise. The combined weight method makes a good balance between the fuzzy words which have a high occurrence and the dividing words which have a middle or low occurrence, and the classification precise is higher than other weight methods. SOM can be used in text clustering in large scales and the clustering results are good when the concept feature is selected. Between-cluster distance of the texts of concept features is bigger than that of texts of word features, word features data nevertheless exhibit some clusters.
Linguistic tools for embodied minds

In this paper, we outline the embodied perspective of language comprehension indicating some of its limitations. We claim that t he notions of language as a tool (CLARK 2006a, 2006b), might be useful to overcome a view f ocused only on referential aspects of language. Words, in quality of tools, can: a. facil itate communication among speakers; b. influence categorization; c. have a different impac t on concrete and abstract words; d. allow us to construct an inner speech. Finally, we discus s how thinking about language as tool can help inform future research on thought, language an d body.
Initiation and Growth of Short Cracks during Cycling in an Aged Superduplex Stainless Steel

The kinetics of short crack growth during cycling has been studied in a superduplex stainless steel in aged condition. After few cycles, slip lines appear distributed in both phases but the preferred phase for microcrack nucleation is the ferrite. Contrary to the exponential behavior observed in the as-received material, the growth rate of microcracks in aged condition follows a rather linear law. Internal dislocation structures were studied in the near surface region; microbands that sometimes extend over several grains were found at approximately 45º of the tensile axis on ferrite grains. The origin of the microbands has been analyzed and correlated with the microcracks.
Energy-Efficient Long-Reach Passive Optical Network: A Network Planning Approach Based on User Behaviors

Long-reach passive optical network (LR-PON) is a cost-effective solution for providing broadband access spanning large areas. LR-PON extends the coverage span of PONs from the traditional 20 km range to 100 km and consolidates the multiple optical line terminals (OLTs) and central offices, thus reducing the operational cost and serving many more users. There are two type of LR-PONs: “tree-and-branch” and “ring-and-spur” LR-PON. To “green” the LR-PON and make it energy-efficient, we study a network planning approach based on user behaviors. By considering the different network usage behaviors of different kind of users (i.e., daily bandwidth demand profiles), we can assign users (e.g., business and residential users) efficiently to different wavelengths in “tree-and-branch” or “ring-and-spur” LR-PONs at networking planning stage and achieve high network utilization at all times. Heuristic searches can provide such assignments and their approximate solutions are very close to the lower bound. The behavior-aware user assignment achieves significant improvement over the traditional method in terms of used wavelengths and could thus saves the energy consumed by the LR-PON.
An unsuspected autoregulatory pathway involving apocytochrome TorC and sensor TorS in Escherichia coli

Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) respiration is carried out mainly by the Tor system in Escherichia coli. This system is encoded by the torCAD operon and comprises a periplasmic TMAO reductase (TorA) and a c-type cytochrome (TorC), which shuttles electrons to TorA. Expression of the tor operon is positively controlled by the TorS/TorR phosphorelay system in response to TMAO availability and negatively regulated by apocytochrome TorC. Interaction studies showed that, when immature, TorC can no longer bind TorA efficiently but can bind the periplasmic detector region of sensor TorS. ApoTorC negative autoregulation and TMAO induction are thus mediated by the same sensor protein. As apocytochromes related to TorC could not down-regulate the tor operon, we concluded that this negative control is highly specific. Moreover, the N-terminal half of apoTorC played no role in this control but the immature C-terminal domain of TorC strongly down-regulated the tor operon and interacted with the TorS detector region. This sophisticated autoregulatory pathway thus involves the C-terminal domain of apoTorC and allows optimal TorC biogenesis by preventing from saturation the c-type cytochrome maturation machinery.
Price Behavior in an Inflationary Environment: Evidence from Supermarket Data

This paper analyzes several important aspects of price behavior using disaggregated weekly data on prices of supermarket products in Colombia between 1991 and 1994. The analysis shows that despite high and persistent rates of inflation in the economy, price quotations persist on average for two months. The large proportion of observations for which stores opt not to change prices highlight the importance of menu costs, even in an economy accustomed to persistent double-digit inflation. Despite the seemingly high levels of rigidity, the degree of real price erosion found before prices change are lower than those found in other inflationary economies. Price declines are not uncommon, and downward rigidity does not seem to be an issue in the Colombian inflationary environment. Aggregate price changes are also found to exert an important effect on relative price variation at the aggregate and commodity level.
The 'Big C': Identifying and Mitigating Contagion

This paper defines "interdependence" as high correlations across markets during all states of the world and "contagion" as the spillovers from extreme negative events. Interdependence has increased dramatically over time, especially within the euro area, even after controlling for global shocks and changes in volatility. Not surprisingly, negative events in one country also quickly affect others. Regression analysis shows that a country is more vulnerable to contagion if it has a more levered banking system, greater trade exposure, weaker macroeconomic fundamentals, and larger international portfolio investment liabilities. Countries are less vulnerable, however, if they have larger international financial portfolio investment assets (which can provide a buffer against shocks) and are less reliant on debt (versus equity) for international financing. The analysis has a number of implications for evaluating policies aimed at mitigating contagion. Instead of limiting integration through trade and financial flows, countries should focus on reducing leverage in their domestic banking systems, strengthening macroeconomic fundamentals, balancing investment liabilities with international assets, and avoiding preferential treatment for debt financing. Countries that face imminent risks of contagion should evaluate additional policies based on whether they can permanently thwart a channel for contagion versus simply delay an inevitable adjustment. Any analysis of policy options should also consider the international externalities generated by contagion. Although this paper does not provide a complete analysis of current challenges in the euro area, the analysis and framework can help prioritize various proposals. Certain policies (such as well-designed deposit insurance to prevent bank runs) can be better justified to mitigate contagion than several other proposals that could instead increase contagion through other channels.
Equation of state and wave propagation in hysteretic nonlinear elastic materials

Heterogeneous materials, such as rock, have extreme nonlinear elastic behavior (the coefficient characterizing cubic anharmonicity is orders of magnitude greater than that of homogeneous materials) and striking hysteretic behavior (the stress-strain equation of state has discrete memory). A model of these materials, taking their macroscopic elastic properties to result from many mesoscopic hysteretic elastic units, is developed. The Preisach-Mayergoyz description of hysteretic systems and effective medium theory are combined to find the quasistatic stress-strain equation of state, the quasistatic modulus-stress relationship, and the dynamic modulus-stress relationship. Hysteresis with discrete memory is inherent in all three relationships. The dynamic modulus-stress relationship is characterized and used as input to the equation of motion for nonlinear elastic wave propagation. This equation of motion is examined for one-dimensional propagation using a Green function method. The out-of-phase component of the dynamic modulus due to hysteresis is found to be responsible for the generation of odd harmonics and to determine the amplitude of the nonlinear attenuation.
Cell Cycle Arrest by Glucocorticoids May Protect Normal Tissue and Solid Tumors from Cancer Therapy

Glucocorticoids have been widely used as co-treatment for patients with cancer due to potent pro-apoptotic properties in lymphoid cells, reduction of nausea and diminishing acute toxicity on normal tissue. There are now data from preclinical and, to some extent, clinical studies, demonstrating that these medicaments are highly suspicious to induce therapy resistance in the majority of malignant solid tumors – irrespective of tumor origin and the nature of specific anticancer drugs or irradiation used for treatment. Despite these huge amount of data, the underlying mechanisms of cell type-specific signaling by these steroid hormones are just beginning to be described. This review summarizes our present understanding of a relationship between glucocorticoid-induced reversible cell cycle arrest and therapy resistance in solid tumors. We give a summary of our current knowledge of decreased proliferation rates in response to glucocorticoid pre- and combination treatment which are suspicious to be involved not only in protection of normal tissues, but also in protection of solid tumors from cytotoxic effects of anticancer agents. The inhibition of cell cycle progression by pretreatment with GCs may be crucially involved in switching the balance of several interacting pathways to survival upon treatment with GCs.
Retrieving information lost by image denoising

Removing noise from images usually results in smoothing of edges and areas with discontinuities. Such nonsmooth areas however play a significant role in the perception of image quality. This paper studies the restoration of these regions during denoising. We exploit the fact that the discontinuities in the pixel chromaticity in these regions are less abrupt than those in the pixel luminance. We derive a Bayesian method that estimates the parts of the latent image data in the nonsmooth areas that a denoiser erroneously removes. We demonstrate that adding back this recovered part of the latent image data improves the denoising performance.
Principes et étude de cas d'adaptation d'IHM dans les SI en fonction du contexte d'interaction de l'utilisateur

With the mobility, new needs have been found. From now on, the cellular phone, the personal assistant and other modern communication means are used by users for realizing their tasks. The users wish using services specific to this mobility and also applications used usually at office. The user interface has to be adaptable to the interaction context of user. This paper describes an approach of design of information systems equipped with adaptable UI. Our approach allows generating UI and adapting it dynamically to the context while preserving its usability. UI design patterns are used to connect UI adaptation problems and the context of use to usable design solutions in order to better taking into account the user. The case study showing access to a supervision information system by a nomadic user allows illustrating our approach. MOTS-CLES : conception d'IHM, interface homme-machine plastique, patrons, prise en compte de l'utilisateur, contexte, adaptation.
Similar active genes cluster in specialized transcription factories

How transcription affects the way specific genes are arranged within the nucleus remains to be fully understood. We examine here whether transcription occurs in discrete sites (factories) containing the required machinery and whether these sites specialize in transcribing different genes. We cotransfected plasmids encoding a common origin of replication but different transcription units into cells, where they are assembled into minichromosomes that the cellular machinery replicates and transcribes. In cells containing thousands of minichromosomes, we found (using fluorescence in situ hybridization) active templates concentrated in only a few factories that transcribe particular units depending on the promoter type and the presence of an intron. Close proximity between similar transcription units, whether on two different minichromosomes or on host chromosomes and minichromosomes, is confirmed using chromosome conformation capture. We conclude that factories specialize in producing a particular type of transcript depending on promoter type and whether or not the gene contains an intron.
Innovation in the Metal Manufacturing Industry: Facilitating Innovation with Electronic Business Applications

Innovation is studied to great extent in many disciplines. Especially consumer focused innovation studies are popular. Inspired by this fact the purpose of this paper is to study the new product innovation process of a specialized metal manufacturer in Northern Europe. New product innovation process is depicted and specific focus is given to new technology development to create new products for existing customers. Theory purports that new product development and new technology development are separate stages. However, unlike in theory this paper suggests that management should focus on the entire innovation process to manage both ends (new product and technology development) of the process of innovation to encapsulate the totality of the phenomenon. Especially usage of electronic business applications to facilitate the process is suggested.