Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bent Normals and Cones in Screen-space

Ambient occlusion (AO) is a popular technique for real-time as well as offline rendering. One of its benefits is a gain in efficiency due to the fact that occlusion and shading are decoupled which results in an average occlusion that modulates the surface shading. Its main drawback is a loss of realism due to the lack of directional occlusion and lighting. As a solution, the use of bent normals was proposed for offline rendering. This work describes how to compute bent normals and bent cones in combination with screen-space ambient occlusion. These extensions combine the speed and simplicity of AO with physically more plausible lighting. The definitive version is available at diglib.eg. org.
OM Algorithm for Multi-level Queue Scheduling

Today being the era of supercomputing, managing multiple tasks with a single processor is an old story. It is the time of multitasking and multiprogramming. There exist numerous scheduling algorithms that are invented to provide more efficiency and ease of use in field of multiprocessor scheduling. Though these are competent, but the best is yet to be uncovered. This paper is an effort to add to the list of scheduling algorithms. It takes into account the SJF (Shortest Job First) scheduling algorithm to enhance and modify the concept of multi-level queue scheduling to conceptualize a new and innovative algorithm for the same.
Longitudinal qPCR Study of the Dynamics of L. crispatus, L. iners, A. vaginae, (Sialidase Positive) G. vaginalis, and P. bivia in the Vagina

Background To obtain more detailed understanding of the causes of disturbance of the vaginal microflora (VMF), a longitudinal study was carried out for 17 women during two menstrual cycles. Methods Vaginal swabs were obtained daily from 17 non-pregnant, menarchal volunteers. For each woman, Gram stains were scored, the quantitative changes of 5 key vaginal species, i.e. Atopobium vaginae, Lactobacillus crispatus, L. iners, (sialidase positive) Gardnerella vaginalis and Prevotella bivia were quantified with qPCR and hydrogen-peroxide production was assessed on TMB+ agar. Results Women could be divided in 9 subjects with predominantly normal VMF (grades Ia, Ib and Iab, group N) and 8 with predominantly disturbed VMF (grades I-like, II, III and IV, group D). VMF was variable between women, but overall stable for most of the women. Menses were the strongest disturbing factor of the VMF. L. crispatus was present at log7–9 cells/ml in grade Ia, Iab and II VMF, but concentrations declined 100-fold during menses. L. crispatus below log7 cells/ml corresponded with poor H2O2-production. L. iners was present at log 10 cells/ml in grade Ib, II and III VMF. Sialidase negative G. vaginalis strains (average log5 cells/ml) were detected in grade I, I-like and IV VMF. In grade II VMF, predominantly a mixture of both sialidase negative and positive G. vaginalis strains (average log9 cells/ml) were present, and predominantly sialidase positive strains in grade III VMF. The presence of A. vaginae (average log9 cells/ml) coincided with grade II and III VMF. P. bivia (log4–8 cells/ml) was mostly present in grade III vaginal microflora. L. iners, G. vaginalis, A. vaginae and P. bivia all increased around menses for group N women, and as such L. iners was considered a member of disturbed VMF. Conclusions This qPCR-based study confirms largely the results of previous culture-based, microscopy-based and pyrosequencing-based studies.
Hostile marital interactions, proinflammatory cytokine production, and wound healing.

CONTEXT A growing epidemiological literature has suggested that marital discord is a risk factor for morbidity and mortality. In addition, depression and stress are associated with enhanced production of proinflammatory cytokines that influence a spectrum of conditions associated with aging. OBJECTIVE To assess how hostile marital behaviors modulate wound healing, as well as local and systemic proinflammatory cytokine production. DESIGN AND SETTING Couples were admitted twice to a hospital research unit for 24 hours in a crossover trial. Wound healing was assessed daily following research unit discharge. PARTICIPANTS Volunteer sample of 42 healthy married couples, aged 22 to 77 years (mean [SD], 37.04 [13.05]), married a mean (SD) of 12.55 (11.01) years. INTERVENTIONS During the first research unit admission, couples had a structured social support interaction, and during the second admission, they discussed a marital disagreement. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Couples' interpersonal behavior, wound healing, and local and systemic changes in proinflammatory cytokine production were assessed during each research unit admission. RESULTS Couples' blister wounds healed more slowly and local cytokine production (IL-6, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and IL-1beta) was lower at wound sites following marital conflicts than after social support interactions. Couples who demonstrated consistently higher levels of hostile behaviors across both their interactions healed at 60% of the rate of low-hostile couples. High-hostile couples also produced relatively larger increases in plasma IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha values the morning after a conflict than after a social support interaction compared with low-hostile couples. CONCLUSIONS These data provide further mechanistic evidence of the sensitivity of wound healing to everyday stressors. Moreover, more frequent and amplified increases in proinflammatory cytokine levels could accelerate a range of age-related diseases. Thus, these data also provide a window on the pathways through which hostile or abrasive relationships affect physiological functioning and health.
Article 4 A Comparison of Two Tests of Visual-Motor Integration

Background: Visual-motor integration is the degree to which visual perception and body movement are coordinated. This study investigated the relationship between two tests used to evaluate visual-motor integration, the Developmental Test of Visual Perception (DTVP-2) and the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI). Methods: Fifty-three children (ages 7 years, 0 months to 11 years, 11 months) were evaluated using the eye-hand coordination subtest of the DTVP-2 and the VMI. They were patients in either the Pediatrics or Vision Therapy departments at The Eye Center at Southern College of Optometry. Thirty-two of the 53 were currently enrolled in, or had completed, a vision therapy program. Further correlations were studied between subsamples of patients who were currently enrolled in, or had completed, a vision therapy program and those who had not. Results: There was no significant correlation between the VMI and age (r=-0.005, p=0.9686) or the DTVP-2 and age (r=-0.2699, p=0.0506) in the main group. A significant positive correlation was found between the two tests (r=0.2744, p=0.0467). In the subsample of those subjects who had never been enrolled in a vision therapy program, there was no significant correlation between the VMI and age (r=0.1108, p=0.5459) or between the DTVP-2 and age (r=-0.3306, p=0.0646). A statistically significant positive correlation between the two tests was found (r=0.4513, p=0.0095). Likewise, in the subsample who were currently either enrolled in or had completed a vision therapy program, there was no significant correlation between the VMI and age (r=-0.0236, p=0.3029) or DTVP-2 and age (r=-0.1654, p=0.4736). However, contrary to the subsample of those not in a vision therapy program, the two tests were not correlated (r=0.0437, p=0.8510). Conclusion: Performance on the VMI and the eye-hand coordination subtest of the DTVP-2 correlated with one another, but cannot be used interchangeably. The two tests assess different aspects of visual perceptual and visual motor integration abilities. Both tests accurately discriminated between the subsample of patients who had participated in vision therapy and those who had not.
TIME AND FREQUENCY SYNTHESIS PARAMETERS OF SEVERELY PATHOLOGICAL VOICE QUALITIES

This paper describes a pilot study into the mechanics of synthesizing severely pathological voices. Successful synthesis of such voices may ultimately provide a quantitative method for evaluating and documenting voice qualities. An analysis-by-synthesis approach using the formant synthesizer KLSYN was used to model the voices of 24 patients su ering from voice disorders. Results suggest a number of modi cations to KLSYN that would facilitate synthesis of these voices.
The TROOTH Recommendation System

In this paper we present TROOTH as a robust, partially decentralized, collaborative, and personalized recommendation system. We examine a voting scheme where users have to assess a continuous stream of items to be either good or bad-either manually or, assisted by TROOTH, automatically based on previous votes. For this purpose, TROOTH implicitly creates special interest groups containing users who share similar opinions expressed by assenting votes. To evaluate an item with TROOTH, a user trusts those votes most which have been cast by other users in the same group. TROOTH has been implemented in the SPAMATO spam filter system where it is used in the context of collaborative spam filtering.
The Infostations challenge: balancing cost and ubiquity in delivering wireless data

Infostations provide a new way to look at the problem of providing high-data-rate wireless access. By allowing delayed message delivery, we can lift the constraint on ubiquitous coverage inherited from voice cellular systems. The reduction of coverage results in significant capacity gains, showing the possibility for low-cost broadband wireless data services. We give an overview of ongoing research on the Infostation concept.
Les effets du vieillissement sur les réponses auditives et audiovisuelles des neurones du collicule supérieur chez le rat

Age-related physiological changes affect the peripheral auditory structures; this also applies to the superior colliculus (SC) auditory and visual processes. In aged rats, the peripheral hearing sensitivity decreases and at more central regions, particularly the first central node, in the ascending auditory projections, auditory processing of sounds is altered. Furthermore, at the level of the SC, spectral, temporal and directional properties of auditory neurons are also altered during aging. In addition, no systematic directional spatial arrangement is encountered among the neurons of aged rats, implying that the topographical organization of the auditory directional map is abolished in the deep layers of the SC. Moreover, in a condition where SC visual neurons are stimulated with looming concentric sinusoidal gratings (in the presence or in the absence of modulated audio signals), visual deficits in aged animals are particularly marked by a decrease in sensitivity to fast moving visual and audiovisual stimuli during self-motion. Given the links of age-related changes in the peripheral and in the central structures, inevitably, the mechanisms underlying the neuronal audiovisual plasticity, in the low-level (SC), are somehow disrupted. Specifically, in aged animals, the presence of the auditory stimulus when coupled with the visual signal did not enhance the response activity of the visual neurons. This seems to suggest that the mechanism that may serve to amplify the visual signal under weak or ambiguous and noisy conditions thus improving greater behavioral relevance of detecting rapidly approaching visual and audiovisual moving objects during self-motion is altered with aging. Overall, these results show that aging disrupts the SC neuronal activity that enables detection of relevant sensory information in a complex audiovisual environment.
Using a Complementary Emulation-Simulation Co-Design Approach to Assess Application Readiness for Processing-in-Memory Systems

Disruptive changes to computer architecture are paving the way toward extreme scale computing. The co-design strategy of collaborative research and development among computer architects, system software designers, and application teams can help to ensure that applications not only cope but thrive with these changes. In this paper, we present a novel combined co-design approach of emulation and simulation in the context of investigating future Processing in Memory (PIM) architectures. PIM enables co-location of data and computation to decrease data movement, to provide increases in memory speed and capacity compared to existing technologies and, perhaps most importantly for extreme scale, to improve energy efficiency. Our evaluation of PIM focuses on three mini-applications representing important production applications. The emulation and simulation studies examine the effects of locality-aware versus locality-oblivious data distribution and computation, and they compare PIM to conventional architectures. Both studies contribute in their own way to the overall understanding of the application-architecture interactions, and our results suggest that PIM technology shows great potential for efficient computation without negatively impacting productivity.
The alcohol dehydrogenase isoenzyme alcohol dehydrogenase IV as a candidate marker of Helicobacter pylori infection

Introduction Helicobacter pylori infection is associated with decreased alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity in the gastric mucosa. The decrease in gastric ADH activity depends on the severity of inflammation and mucosal injury. This damage can be a reason of the release of enzyme from gastric mucosa and leads to the increase of the ADH activity in the sera of patients with H. pylori infection. Material and methods Serum samples were taken from 140 patients with H. pylori infection. Total ADH activity was measured by photometric method with p-nitrosodimethylaniline as a substrate and ALDH activity by the fluorometric method with 6-methoxy-2-naphtaldehyde. For the measurement of the activity of class I and II isoenzymes we employed the fluorometric methods, with class-specific fluorogenic substrates. The activity of class III ADH was measured by the photometric method with n-octanol and class IV with m-nitrobenzaldehyde as a substrate. Results The activity of ADH IV in the serum of patients with H. pylori infection increased about 42% (7.86 mU/l) in the comparison to the control level (4.52 mU/l). Total activity of ADH was 1105 mU/l in patients group and 682 mU/l in control. The diagnostic sensitivity for ADH IV was 88%, specificity 90%, positive and negative predictive values were 91% and 84% respectively. Area under ROC curve for ADH IV was 0.84. Conclusions Helicobacter pylori infection of gastric mucosa is reflected in the serum by significant increase of class IV and total ADH activity. The results suggest a potential role for ADH IV as a marker of H. pylori infection.
AN IMPROVED NO-REFERENCE SHARPNESS METRIC BASED ON THE PROBABILITY OF BLUR DETECTION

In this work, a no-reference objective image sharpness metric is presented based on the cumulative probability of blur detection (CPBD). In order to obtain a discrete number of quality classes that can be easily mapped into qualitative scores, a classification-based metric, which corresponds to a discretized version of the CPBD metric, is proposed. The proposed CPBD metric and classification-based metric are tested using Gaussian-blurred images and JPEG2000compressed images. It is shown that the proposed metrics are able to predict well the quality of the tested images. Compared to existing sharpness metrics, the proposed CPBD-based metrics are found to correlate significantly better with subjective scores.
Universal Background Sparse Coding and Multilayer Bootstrap Network for Speaker Recognition

In speaker recognition, Gaussian mixture model based universal background model is a standard for extracting high-dimensional supervectors, and factor-analysis-based i-vector is a recent state-of-the-art method for reducing the high-dimensional supervectors to low-dimensional representations. In this abstract paper, we propose an alternative to the aforementioned techniques by multilayer bootstrap networks (MBN). We first learn a high-dimensional sparse code for each frame by a universal background MBN, and then accumulate the sparse codes of the frames in a session (a.k.a. utterance) into a single high-dimensional sparse supervector. Finally, we reduce the session-level sparse supervectors to a low-dimensional subspace by MBN for unsupervised speaker clustering, or principle component analysis for supervised speaker classification. Our initial result on a small-scale problem demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method. Note that this abstract paper is used to protect the idea. A full version with large-scale experiments will be announced later.
Intraluminal Administration of Poly I:C Causes an Enteropathy That Is Exacerbated by Administration of Oral Dietary Antigen

Systemic administration of polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (poly I:C), mimics virally-induced activation of TLR3 signalling causing acute small intestine damage, but whether and how mucosal administration of poly I:C causes enteropathy is less clear. Our aim was to investigate the inflammatory pathways elicited after intraluminal administration of poly I:C and determine acute and delayed consequences of this locally induced immune activation. Intraluminal poly I:C induced rapid mucosal immune activation in C57BL/6 mice involving IFNβ and the CXCL10/CXCR3 axis, that may drive inflammation towards a Th1 profile. Intraluminal poly I:C also caused enteropathy and gut dysfunction in gliadin-sensitive NOD-DQ8 mice, and this was prolonged by concomitant oral administration of gliadin. Our results indicate that small intestine pathology can be induced in mice by intraluminal administration of poly I:C and that this is exacerbated by subsequent oral delivery of a relevant dietary antigen.
Effect Separation in Regression Models with Multiple Scales

Regressionsanalysen sind von Konfundierungseffekten betroffen, wenn Drittvariablen gleichzeitig mit Zielgrosen und Kovariablen korreliert sind. Klassische Regressionsmodelle sind in diesen Fallen nicht in der Lage, Kovariablen- und Drittvariableneffekte voneinander zu unterscheiden. Die resultierenden Schatzer sind folglich in der Regel verzerrt. Motivation fur diese Dissertation ist der Spezialfall von raumlicher Konfundierung, der auftritt wenn Drittvariablen eine ahnliche raumliche Struktur in Kovariablen und Zielgrosen induzieren. Um der Verzerrung des geschatzten Kovariableneffektes entgegen zu wirken, werden ublicherweise die raumlichen Komponenten bezuglich der untersuchten Kovariablen orthogonalisiert. Einerseits wird auf diese Weise sichergestellt, dass der Kovariableneffekt unverzerrt geschatzt werden kann. Auf der anderen Seite werden jedoch so die raumlichen Effekte stark eingeschrankt und sind nicht mehr direkt interpretierbar. In dieser Dissertation wird eine Modellklasse entwickelt, die die Zusammenhange zwischen Zielgrosen, Kovariablen und Drittvariablen abbildet und interpretierbare Effektschatzer fur alle auftretenden Variablen ermoglicht. Grundlage fur diese Modelle bilden Strukturgleichungsmodelle, die in dieser Arbeit neben raumlichen zusatzlich um nichtlineare und zufallige Effekte erweitert werden. Die Anwendbarkeit der Methodik wird anhand von Beispielen aus Wirtschaftwissenschaften, Gesundheitsforschung und Okologie illustriert.
Reusable integrated components of inter-related patterns for software development

Patterns are a means for capturing experience in solving general problems. They give general solutions to common and recurring problems. They exist at various phases of the software development life-cycle (SDLC), namely the analysis phase, the design phase, the coding phase and the testing phase. Patterns in each phase are identified independently. It is possible for the patterns of one phase to be related to patterns in other phases. This paper proposes pattern mapping to inter-relate the patterns of various phases in SDLC to address this issue. It is advantageous to capture the related patterns of different phases as a single unit for software development. Reusable integrated components (ICs) of patterns are proposed to capture the related patterns. A software IC is a group of inter-related patterns, that gives solutions for a recurring problem at various phases of SDLC. A representation mechanism for ICs is presented using the URA (Unified Representation of an Artifact) model, which captures the software development process. Also, this paper proposes a software development process that is based on reusable ICs of patterns. The representation of a software project developed using ICs is also discussed.
In Your Face(t) Impact of Personality and Context on Gameplay Behavior

Video games are now acknowledged as a prominent part of popular culture and played by an audience wider and more varied than ever before. Considerable recent research shows that people engage with games differently, and these variations may be attributable to individual differences. Understanding the impact of personality on behavior in games has several benefits: more inclusive design practices, accurate user models for adaptive applications and articulated toolsets to segment players for game user research. Nonetheless the work done so far to explore the interplay between personality and behavior in virtual environments does not always account for personality at a granular level, nor does it take into consideration the different contexts of the environment beyond pooling variables together. We hypothesize, first, that by considering the individual facets that compose broad personality traits we will be able to identify stronger links between them and gameplay behavior. Second, we expect that dividing the game environment into its component areas with different situational affordances will also improve correlations, as behavior modulation by personality is highly context-dependent. Using the Five-Factor personality model as an interpretive framework, we confirmed that the correlations between traits and behaviors were specific to game areas that carry different situational affordances, and were enhanced by inclusion of the facets. In the future, a verified database of game behavior correlations could have predictive value for inferring personality attitudes. This will help carve the way to more inclusive design, and the development of better adaptive strategies for games beyond what is currently in practice.
The Effect of Ca2+ and Mg2+ on the Dispersion and Flocculation Behaviors of Muscovite Particles

The dispersion and flocculation behavior of muscovite suspensions in the presence of Ca2+ and Mg2+ are relevant for industrial processing of pre-concentrated muscovite from stone coal, a primary source of vanadium. In this study, the dispersion and flocculation behavior were investigated by means of sedimentation, zeta potential, and ion absorption experiments, as well as the force between particles and ion speciation calculations. The results indicated that the dispersion and flocculation behavior of muscovite particles without excess ions were in qualitative agreement with the classical DLVO theory. The muscovite particles aggregated mainly due to basal surface-edge interactions in acidic suspensions but were dispersed in alkaline suspension by electrostatic repulsion of the total particle surface. In acidic suspensions, the ability of muscovite to form dispersions of muscovite was increased with the decrease in the electrostatic attraction between the basal surface and the edge caused by the compression of the electric double layers withCa2+ and Mg2+. In alkaline suspension, the main adsorption form of Ca2+ and Mg2+ on muscovite surface was the ion-hydroxy complexes. The flocculation behavior of muscovite was affected by the static bridge effect of the ion-hydroxy complexes.