Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A novel approach for fast and robust multiple license plate detection

License Plate Detection (LPD) is the most difficult, critical and time consuming task in license plate recognition (LPR) systems. In this paper, a novel texture-based method is proposed for fast and robust LPD. First, a new filter called Peak-Valley filter is applied on the lines of the image. This filter not only extracts the remarkable gray level changes as consecutive peaks and valleys, but also simultaneously removes the undesirable small variations. Secondly, a sequential Peak-Valley partitioning is utilized to segment the transitions into some groups. Afterward, a neural network is employed to find true candidate lines and finally the candidate lines are aggregated to form the plates regions. According to our experiments, the proposed method correctly detects all plates presented in the image regardless of their styles and without considering the whole image. Experimental results showed that this approach can apply on real-time application for outdoor complex scenes.
The rfaE Gene from Escherichia coli Encodes a Bifunctional Protein Involved in Biosynthesis of the Lipopolysaccharide Core Precursor ADP-l-glycero-d-manno-Heptose

ABSTRACT The intermediate steps in the biosynthesis of the ADP-l-glycero-d-manno-heptose precursor of inner core lipopolysaccharide (LPS) are not yet elucidated. We isolated a mini-Tn10 insertion that confers a heptoseless LPS phenotype in the chromosome of Escherichia coli K-12. The mutation was in a gene homologous to the previously reported rfaE gene from Haemophilus influenzae. The E. coli rfaE gene was cloned into an expression vector, and an in vitro transcription-translation experiment revealed a polypeptide of approximately 55 kDa in mass. Comparisons of the predicted amino acid sequence with other proteins in the database showed the presence of two clearly separate domains. Domain I (amino acids 1 to 318) shared structural features with members of the ribokinase family, while Domain II (amino acids 344 to 477) had conserved features of the cytidylyltransferase superfamily that includes the aut gene product of Ralstonia eutrophus. Each domain was expressed individually, demonstrating that only Domain I could complement therfaE::Tn10 mutation in E. coli, as well as the rfaE543 mutation ofSalmonella enterica SL1102. DNA sequencing of therfaE543 gene revealed that Domain I had one amino acid substitution and a 12-bp in-frame deletion resulting in the loss of four amino acids, while Domain II remained intact. We also demonstrated that the aut::Tn5 mutation inR. eutrophus is associated with heptoseless LPS, and this phenotype was restored following the introduction of a plasmid expressing the E. coli Domain II. Thus, both domains ofrfaE are functionally different and genetically separable confirming that the encoded protein is bifunctional. We propose that Domain I is involved in the synthesis ofd-glycero-d-manno-heptose 1-phosphate, whereas Domain II catalyzes the ADP transfer to form ADP-d-glycero-d-manno-heptose.
System Architecture ofA Massively Parallel Programmable Video Co-ProcessorAn

Modern video applications call for computationally intensive data processing at very high data rate. In order to meet the high-performance/low-cost constraints, the state-of-the-art video processor should be a programmable design which performs various tasks in video applications without sacriicing the computational power and the manufacturing cost in exchange for such exibility. In this paper, we present a programmable video co-processor design for numerically intensive front-end video/image communications. The proposed system is a massively parallel architecture that is capable of performing most low-level com-putationally intensive tasks including FIR/IIR ltering, subband ltering, discrete orthogonal transforms (DT), adaptive ltering, and motion estimation for the host processor in video applications. Since the properties of each programmed function such as parallelism and pipelinability have been fully exploited in this design, the computational speed of this co-processor is as fast as that of ASIC designs which are optimized for individual speciic applications. We also show that the system can be easily reconngurated to perform multirate FIR/IIR/DT operations at negligible hardware overhead. Hence, we can either double the processing speed on-they based on the same processing elements, or apply this feature to the low-power implementation of this co-processor. The programmable/high-speed properties of the proposed design makes it very suitable for cost-eeective video-rate applications.
Analysis and compensation of I/Q imbalance in amplify-and-forward cooperative systems

In this paper, dual-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) cooperative systems in the presence of in-phase and quadrature-phase (I/Q) imbalance, which refers to the mismatch between components in I and Q branches, are investigated. First, we analyze the performance of the considered AF cooperative protocol without compensation for I/Q imbalance as the benchmark. Furthermore, a compensation algorithm for I/Q imbalance is proposed, which makes use of the received signals at the destination, from the source and relay nodes, together with their conjugations to detect the transmitted signal. The performance of the AF cooperative system under study is evaluated in terms of average symbol error probability (SEP), which is derived considering transmission over Rayleigh fading channels. Numerical results are provided and show that the proposed compensation algorithm can efficiently mitigate the effect of I/Q imbalance.
Polo-Like Kinase 1 Inhibits the Activity of Positive Transcription Elongation Factor of RNA Pol II b (P-TEFb)

Polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) is a highly conserved Ser/Thr kinase in eukaryotes and plays a critical role in various aspects of the cell cycle. Plk1 exerts its multiple functions by phosphorylating its substrates. In this study, we found that Plk1 can interact with cyclin T1/Cdk9 complex-the main form of the positive transcription elongation complex b (P-TEFb), and its C-terminal polo-box domain is responsible for the binding. Further analysis indicated that Plk1 could phosphorylate cyclin T1 at Ser564 and inhibit the kinase activity of cyclin T1/Cdk9 complex on phosphorylation of the C-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase II. By taking the approach of luciferase assay, we demonstrated that over-expression of both wild type Plk1 and constitutively active form of Plk1 inhibits the P-TEFb dependent HIV-1 LTR transcription, while knockdown of Plk1 increases the HIV-1 LTR transcription. Consistently, the data from the HIV-1 pseudovirus reporter assay indicated that Plk1 blocks the gene expression of HIV-1 pseudovirus. Taken together, our results revealed that Plk1 negatively regulates the RNA polymerase II-dependent transcription through inhibiting the activity of cyclin T1/Cdk9 complex.
Research on Mobile Agent System for Agile Supply Chain Management

Today’s competition between companies has been turned into the competition between their supply chains. To satisfy the rapidly changing demand in global market, Supply Chain Management (SCM) must be agile and flexible enough. In agile SCM, some intelligent activities, such as negotiation, decision and collaboration, have become the “bottleneck” to improve its performance. This paper explored the application of Mobile Agent (MA) to deal with the intelligent activities in SCM and thereof improve its agile capability. First, a mobile agent-based agile SCM work model was presented, and then the development of mobile agent and its application in that SCM were discussed. Finally, the mobile agent system for agile SCM was described by the case of flower trading. It can deal with the trading processes intelligently and automatically.
The Role of Extracellular Adenosine in Chemical Neurotransmission in the Hippocampus and Basal Ganglia: Pharmacological and Clinical Aspects

Now there is general agreement that the purine nucleoside adenosine is an important neuromodulator in the central nervous system, playing a crucial role in neuronal excitability and synaptic/non-synaptic transmission in the hippocampus and basal ganglia. Adenosine is derived from the breakdown of extra- or intracellular ATP and is released upon a variety of physiological and pathological stimuli from neuronal and non-neuronal sources, i.e. from glial cells and exerts effects diffusing far away from release sites. The resultant elevation of adenosine levels in the extracellular space reaches micromolar level, and leads to the activation A1, A2A, A2B and A3 receptors, localized to pre- and postsynaptic as well as extrasynaptic sites. Activation of presynaptic A1 receptors inhibits the release of the majority of transmitters including glutamate, acetylcholine, noradrenaline, 5-HT and dopamine, whilst the stimulation of A2A receptors facilitates the release of glutamate and acetylcholine and inhibits the release of GABA. These actions underlie modulation of neuronal excitability, synaptic plasticity and coordination of neural networks and provide intriguing target sites for pharmacological intervention in ischemia and Parkinson’s disease. However, despite that adenosine is also released during ischemia, A1 adenosine receptors do not participate in the modulation of excitotoxic glutamate release, which is nonsynaptic and is due to the reverse operation of transporters. Instead, extrasynaptic A1 receptors might be responsible for the neuroprotection afforded by A1 receptor activation.
Ethics 2.0: Social media implications for professional communicators

This paper examines ethical implications in the use of social media by professional communicators. Using its research into the experiences of New Zealand practitioners, it identifies major ethical challenges for the profession. It also illustrates how social media intensify ethical issues that public relations has struggled with in the off-line world. At the same time, it shows how social media open opportunities for increasing practitioner influence on organisational ethics in ways long desired by traditional practitioners and recently advocated by public relations academics. It concludes that, despite enabling a lack of transparency and easier deception, social media can help public relations both improve ethical communication with stakeholders, and gain a greater ethical leadership role.
VALUE FROM SYMBOLIC LOGIC FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Knowledge processing can be viewed in three stages. The first stage involves the formation of concepts, the basic primitives and objects with which we wish to reason. The second stage involves the formation of knowledge about the concepts we have isolated. The final stage involves efficiently processing the knowledge to its desired ends. 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I acknowledge several colleagues and friends who have helped with this project. In particular, special thanks to the members of the KVO laboratory who have helped me prepare the materials for this paper and inaugural lecture: Prof. In addition I thank the GFLS folks who contributed ideas for a multimedia presentation of this material, for managing the inaugural lecture process for me. Any comments and criticism would be appreciated. Please reply to:
A System Design for the Testing Platform of Robot Teleoperation with Enhanced Reality Based on Binocular Vision

Robot Teleoperation is one of the cutting-edge research topics in the study of robot technologies, among which the Internet-based robot teleoperation attracts more and more attention from researchers working in this field. In this paper, based on a critical analysis we will propose a system design for the testing platform of robot teleoperation with enhanced reality based on binocular vision. The proposed platform is based on Internet. One of the innovative points in our system design is the introduction of a binocular vision system, by which the positioning of an object of interest in the teleoperation environment could be calculated in a real time by means of the parallax. In addition, an enhanced reality environment has been designed incorporating with the User Interface (UI), so that a highly immersive interaction could be achieved in the teleoperation.
Install-time vaccination of Windows executables to defend against stack smashing attacks

Stack smashing is still one of the most popular techniques for computer system attack. In this work, we present an anti-stack-smashing defense technique for Microsoft Windows systems. Our approach works at install-time, and does not rely on having access to the source-code: The user decides when and which executables to vaccinate. Our technique consists of instrumenting a given executable with a mechanism to detect stack smashing attacks. We developed a prototype implementing our technique and verified that it successfully defends against actual exploit code. We then extended our prototype to vaccinate DLLs, multithreaded applications, and DLLs used by multithreaded applications, which present significant additional complications. We present promising performance results measured on SPEC2000 benchmarks: Vaccinated executables were no more than 8 percent slower than their un-vaccinated originals.
Local electric field screening in bi-layer graphene devices

We present experimental studies of both local and macroscopic electrical effects in uniform single- (1LG) and bi-layer graphene (2LG) devices as well as in devices with non-uniform graphene coverage, under ambient conditions. DC transport measurements on sub-micron scale Hall bar devices were used to show a linear rise in carrier density with increasing amounts of 2LG coverage. Electrical scanning gate microscopy was used to locally top gate uniform and non-uniform devices in order to observe the effect of local electrical gating. We experimentally show a significant level of electric field screening by 2LG. We demonstrate that SGM technique is an extremely useful research tool for studies of local screening effects, which provides a complementary view on phenomena that are usually considered only within a macroscopic experimental scheme.
Latent Additivity: Combining Homogeneous Evidence

The relevance ranking problem in information retrieval and Web search is basically the task of computing aggregated scores from potentially large amounts of evidence. This paper focuses on computing an aggregated score for a homogeneous-evidence-set (HES), an evidence collection in which all evidence items are symmetric. Since the evidence items in an HES are typically highly dependent on one another, and the numbers of evidence items may vary from document to document, many existing techniques fail to properly deal with the problem. In this paper, we propose a simple, intuitive, and efficient approach for homogeneous evidence score combination. Our proposed approach can be derived in two different ways by utilizing two separate information retrieval models: The first way is to extend the BM25 formula by making a latent additivity assumption. The second is to adopt the recently proposed gravitational information retrieval model. The proposed approach could be seen as a generalization of some existing score combination formulas by considering the dependency between evidence items. We have tested our approach on both Text Retrieval Conference (TREC) collections and a dataset collected by a large scale commercial Web search engine. This approach could be a practical choice for homogeneous evidence combination, and act as a replacement for some of the existing heuristic formulas.
Web application security: Improving critical web-based applications quality through in-depth security analysis

The Internet, and in particular the World Wide Web, have become one of the most common communication mediums in the World. Millions of users connect everyday to different web-based applications to search for information, exchange messages, interact with each other, conduct business, pay taxes, perform financial operations and many more. Some of these critical web-based services are targeted by several malicious users intending to exploit possible weaknesses and vulnerabilities, which could cause not only the disruption of the service, but also compromise the users and organizations information. Most of the times, these malicious users succeed in exploiting different types of vulnerabilities and the consequences can be disastrous. Most of these vulnerabilities are directly related with the web-based applications lack of quality as a result from a poorly implemented software development life cycle (SDLC). This paper will discuss the direct implication of the lack of security and the importance of quality on the SDLC, and the major factors that influence them. On the other hand the authors propose a set of security automated tools and methodologies that can be used throughout the SDLC as a mean to improve critical web-based applications security and quality.
Video Capture System Based on PXA270 Platform

In this paper, the author introduces a video capture system based on embedded Linux PXA270 platform. First, the paper briefly introduces PXA270 platform. The author then describes implementation of video capture on the platform. The system captures a real-time video stream by USB camera and designs video program by Video 4 Linux APIs. The paper particularly presents the method and process of realizing video data capture, as well as how to implement the application to target board.
FDTD analysis of EM field effected by the motion of source and vehicle

A numerical technique for the analysis of the electromagnetic (EM) fields by moving sources and moving bodies can be significantly important for the realization of next generation nano-electronic devices particularly for mobile communication system. However, most of the analysis were primarily focused on the stationary source. We have previously proposed the Overset Grid Generation method combined with the FDTD method for the analysis of the EM field with moving body. In this paper, this technique is applied for the analysis of the EM field in a street cross section from moving vehicle and moving source. Here, the Doppler effect is observed by the moving vehicle and moving source.
Few-cycle self-induced-transparency solitons

We reveal the existence of an optical self-induced-transparency soliton family in a two-level absorbing system down to the few-cycle limit. Based on the few-cycle envelope approximation, we introduce a systematical method of reducing the Maxwell-Bloch equations beyond the slowly varying envelope approximation and characterize the parameter space to achieve slow and fast lights. Verified by direct numerical simulations with full vectorial Maxwell-Bloch equations, we also give the relationships for a number of optical cycles on area theory and pulse group velocity, which demonstrate possible coherent photon-matter interactions.
Investigating Occupant Behaviour to Improve Energy Efficiency in Social Housing: Case Study

In this paper an investigation into the energy efficiency in social housing is presented. Means of improving energy efficiency in 40 homes grouped in 9 different archetypes are studied. Improving building fabric is initially investigated. Occupant's behavioural pattern will be studied to make informed decision and consequently reduce the energy consumption. The project aims to highlight important correlation between external ambient temperature and building fabrics, occupancy behavioural pattern in relationship with the ambient temperature and using contemporary energy efficiency measures to reduce energy consumption.
The development of a schema for semantic annotation: Gain brought by a formal ontological method

In this paper, we will report annotation experiments which show the advantage of applying a formal ontological methodology for constructing a schema for semantic annotation to mark up terms in the public health domain. We demonstrate that (1) a traditional task-oriented approach with a simple schema can cause several critical problems, and (2) the performance of annotators and the quality of annotated corpus is improved by applying formal ontological methodology in analyzing ‘markable’ categories of concepts and restructuring the schema. These results show that disciplined methods are useful for controlling the development of even quite modest semantic structures like annotation schema for entity recognition. We also report philosophical/logical considerations and decisions we made when we adopted the formal approach.
Random Linear Network Coding with Cooperating in Wireless Sensor Network

In order to improve the throughput and transmission reliability in wireless sensor network with limited resources, multicast network coding technology is imported in. On this basis, through random linear network coding by nodes' cooperation to make improvement in delayed and expense. The simulation results show that the transmission, to the opportunity routing, by cooperation network coding strategies is improved in making full use of space-time reusability, reducing the delay and enhancing the throughput and transmission reliability of wireless sensor network.
Wireless access

5G is the next step in the evolution of mobile communication and a key component of the future networked society. It will include the evolution of LTE as well as new non-backwards-compatible technology. With capabilities such as massive system capacity, higher data rates, very low latency and ultra-high reliability, 5G will provide significantly enhanced mobile-broadband experience but also support a wide range of new wireless applications and use cases. Key technology components include operation at higher frequency bands and flexible spectrum usage, advanced multi-antenna/multi-site transmission, lean transmission, access/backhaul integration, and possibility for direct device-to-device communication. key words: 5G, 5G mobile communication, 5G wireless access, future wireless access
Leveraging medical thesauri and physician feedback for improving medical literature retrieval for case queries

OBJECTIVE This paper presents a study of methods for medical literature retrieval for case queries, in which the goal is to retrieve literature articles similar to a given patient case. In particular, it focuses on analyzing the performance of state-of-the-art general retrieval methods and improving them by the use of medical thesauri and physician feedback. MATERIALS AND METHODS The Kullback-Leibler divergence retrieval model with Dirichlet smoothing is used as the state-of-the-art general retrieval method. Pseudorelevance feedback and term weighing methods are proposed by leveraging MeSH and UMLS thesauri. Evaluation is performed on a test collection recently created for the ImageCLEF medical case retrieval challenge. RESULTS Experimental results show that a well-tuned state-of-the-art general retrieval model achieves a mean average precision of 0.2754, but the performance can be improved by over 40% to 0.3980, through the proposed methods. DISCUSSION The results over the ImageCLEF test collection, which is currently the best collection available for the task, are encouraging. There are, however, limitations due to small evaluation set size. The analysis shows that further refinement of the methods is necessary before they can be really useful in a clinical setting. CONCLUSION Medical case-based literature retrieval is a critical search application that presents a number of unique challenges. This analysis shows that the state-of-the-art general retrieval models are reasonably good for the task, but the performance can be significantly improved by developing new task-specific retrieval models that incorporate medical thesauri and physician feedback.