Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diffeomorphism Spline

Conventional splines offer powerful means for modeling surfaces and volumes in three-dimensional Euclidean space. A one-dimensional quaternion spline has been applied for animation purpose, where the splines are defined to model a one-dimensional submanifold in the three-dimensional Lie group. Given two surfaces, all of the diffeomorphisms between them form an infinite dimensional manifold, the so-called diffeomorphism space. In this work, we propose a novel scheme to model finite dimensional submanifolds in the diffeomorphism space by generalizing conventional splines. According to quasiconformal geometry theorem, each diffeomorphism determines a Beltrami differential on the source surface. Inversely, the diffeomorphism is determined by its Beltrami differential with normalization conditions. Therefore, the diffeomorphism space has one-to-one correspondence to the space of a special differential form. The convex combination of Beltrami differentials is still a Beltrami differential. Therefore, the conventional spline scheme can be generalized to the Beltrami differential space and, consequently, to the diffeomorphism space. Our experiments demonstrate the efficiency and efficacy of diffeomorphism splines. The diffeomorphism spline has many potential applications, such as surface registration, tracking and animation.
Habitat Heterogeneity of Cycas micronesica Seed Chemistry in Guam's Forest

Understanding spatial structure of secondary metabolites with abiotic and biotic chorographers of chemical heterogeneity in natural populations may allow deeper insights into their function at the plant and community levels. Cycads are an ancient group of plants characterized by opulent secondary chemistry. Cycas micronesica K.D. Hill seed chemistry was determined in seven populations throughout Guam to determine if steryl glucosides would segregate among the habitats. Further, we measured covariables to shed light on habitat characteristics that may help explain the heterogeneity. Seed gameto- phyte content of steryl glucosides stigmasterol ￻ -D-glucoside and ￻￻ sitosterol ￻ -D-glucoside and their precursors stigmasterol and ￻￻ sitosterol significantly differed among habitats. Cycad plants from the littoral habitat on sandy soils produced higher seed concentrations of these compounds than the six upland habitats. Concentration among the other six habitats also differed, but was less pronounced. None of the measured habitat characteristics correlated with seed chemistry across the continuum of habitats. However, the littoral site was the most resource-scarce site. Our results are valuable for informing ongoing attempts to answer critical conservation, ecology, and neurotoxicity questions. Resource manipulation studies are urgently needed to validate the hypothesis that resource limitations increase production of these neurotoxins in this endangered species.
Recursive least square algorithm-based acceleration harmonics identification for an electro-hydraulic shaking table

ABSTRACT Hydraulic shaking tables are important mechanical environmental simulators for such fields as aerospace, nuclear industry, automobile and civil engineering to measure the specimen’s reliability under vibration condition. Sinusoidal shaking tests are widely used in practical applications, but its acceleration response usually contains higher harmonics, due to the nonlinearities in the system. The harmonic distortion lowers the system control performance. A harmonic identification scheme is thus developed by utilizing a transversal filter based on recursive least square method to provide harmonic information for further harmonic cancellation. A harmonic generator generates the harmonic vector, and the parameter vector of the filter is updated by incrementing its old value by an amount equal to the product of the estimation error and the gain vector. The amplitude and phase of each harmonic including the fundamental response are then directly computed from the time-varying parameter vector. Each harmonic is also directly decomposed from the harmonic vector and the estimated parameter vector. Experimentations performed on an electro-hydraulic shaking table are carried out to validate its efficiency and accuracy.
R v Awer and the Dangers of Science in Sheep's Clothing

Canadian courts regularly affirm their commitment to gatekeeping scientific evidence, saying it is fundamentally important to determine the admissibility of such evidence before it can impact the ultimate decision. The significance of gatekeeping is underscored by the fact that unreliable science has been at the heart of many high-profile wrongful convictions. In fact, a leading study demonstrated that invalid forensic science was present in approximately 60% of wrongful convictions. But while pronouncements of commitment to gatekeeping are laudable, they are empty if not rigorously followed. In fact, a recent trend has seen a more permissive approach take hold, with scientific evidence characterized as “specialized knowledge”, and evaluated primarily on the basis of the expert’s qualifications. Exacerbating this issue, trial judges sitting alone are regularly more permissive in their gatekeeping role than those sitting with a jury. Both trends, which insulate scientific evidence from scrutiny, came to a head in a recent 2-1 decision of the Alberta Court of Appeal. In this case, R v Awer, the Crown’s expert presented a theory about DNA transfer supported by his own previous informal observations and journal articles penned by a police crime lab (and of questionable reliability). Despite the Crown’s characterization of the expert’s testimony as science, the majority of the Court of Appeal characterized it as specialized knowledge, and refrained from any inquiry into how the expert performed his tests, his sample size, or any controls for bias. Similarly, despite characterizing the journal articles as science, the majority did not scrutinize them at all. As a result, two highly prejudicial forms of evidence were allowed to impact a critical legal decision with no analysis as to their reliability.
Impact factor: use and abuse.

Extracted from text . 5 A bibliometric quantitative parameter, termed the impact factor (IF), evolved from the 1961 Science Citation Index (SCI) and its by-product, the Journal Citation Reports (JCR). 1 The factor is derived from the total number of citations received from a particular journal in a specific year, divided by the number of papers published in that journal in the previous two years. The IF would be an indicator of reader interest in the journal. It was intended as a useful tool for comparing the performance of different journals. Mainly, it was meant to facilitate the assessment of journals for acquisition by .
Incidence and Risk Factors of Intracranial Atherosclerotic Stroke: The Northern Manhattan Stroke Study

Background: To assess the prevalence of risk factors as determinants of intracranial atherosclerosis (IATH)-related stroke in a multi-ethnic community-based cohort. Methods: The Northern Manhattan Stroke Study included a population-based incidence study and a nested case-control study. Incident cases of first ischemic stroke were 1:2 when matched to community controls by age, sex, and race/ethnicity. Vascular risk factors were assessed among controls and compared against the following stroke subtypes: IATH, extracranial atherosclerosis (EATH), and non-atherosclerotic (NATH: cardioembolic, lacunar, and cryptogenic). Conditional logistic-regression was used to determine the association between risk factors and stroke subtypes. Results: The crude incidence of IATH was 8/100,000 per year and the relative incidence of IATH was higher than that of EATH in blacks (5.9 vs. 3.2/100,000 per year) and in Hispanics (5.0 vs. 1.7/100,000 per year). The IATH group had a higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM; 67% IATH, 60% EATH, 48% NATH, and 23% controls; p < 0.05 IATH vs. control) and of metabolic syndrome (62% IATH, 40% EATH, 40% NATH, and 35% controls; p < 0.05 IATH vs. control). In multivariate analysis, DM conferred a higher risk for IATH versus NATH stroke (OR, 10.8; 95% CI, 2.0–57 vs. OR, 2.7; 95% CI, 1.9–3.9; p < 0.05) and much lower for EATH (OR, 6.2; 95% CI, 1.2–32). The metabolic syndrome conferred a higher risk for IATH stroke subtype (OR, 4.6; 95% CI, 1.1–18.7) when compared to EATH (OR, 2.3; CI, 0.6–9.1) and NATH (OR, 2.4; CI, 1.7–3.3). Conclusions: DM is a more important determinant for IATH-related stroke than EATH or NATH.
A Novel Semantics and Feature Preserving Perspective for Content Aware Image Retargeting

There is an increasing requirement for efficient image retargeting techniques to adapt the content to various forms of digital media. With rapid growth of mobile communications and dynamic web page layouts, one often needs to resize the media content to adapt to the desired display sizes. For various layouts of web pages and typically small sizes of handheld portable devices, the importance in the original image content gets obfuscated after resizing it with the approach of uniform scaling. Thus, there occurs a need for resizing the images in a content aware manner which can automatically discard irrelevant information from the image and present the salient features with more magnitude. There have been proposed some image retargeting techniques keeping in mind the content awareness of the input image. However, these techniques fail to prove globally effective for various kinds of images and desired sizes. The major problem is the inefficiency of these algorithms to process these images with minimal visual distortion while also retaining the meaning conveyed from the image. In this dissertation, we present a novel perspective for content aware image retargeting, which is well implementable in real time. We introduce a novel method of analysing semantic information within the input image while also maintaining the important and visually significant features. We present the various nuances of our algorithm mathematically and logically, and show that the results prove better than the state-of-the-art techniques.
High-Speed Implementation of Length-Compatible Privacy Amplification in Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution

Privacy amplification is an indispensable step in postprocessing of continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD), which is used to distill unconditional secure keys from identical corrected keys between two distant legal parties. The processing speed of privacy amplification has a significant effect on the secret key rate of a CV-QKD system. We report the high-speed parallel implementation of the length-compatible privacy amplification algorithm based on a graphic processing unit. The length-compatible algorithm is used to satisfy the security requirements of privacy amplification at different transmission distances when considering finite-size effect. We achieve the speed of privacy amplification over 1 Gb/s at arbitrary input length and the speed is one to two orders of magnitude faster than previous demonstrations, which supports the high-speed real-time CV-QKD system and ensures the security of privacy amplification.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: epidemiology, pathogenesis and therapeutic implications

The increase of the prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in the context of the explosive epidemy of obesity worldwide over the last decades and the emergence of new effective therapies for viral hepatitis has brought this entity to the forefront of hepatologist concerns. Today is a certainty that fatty liver can complicate with cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma; moreover, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is the main cause of cryptogenic cirrhosis and the second cause of liver transplantation. This review revises the epidemiology of the disease, brings forward some progress in pathogenesis and outlines the directions to be followed in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease prevention and therapy. Today, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is considered to be the liver manifestation of metabolic syndome, with its same prevalence (20-30%). If the patients do not die through cardiovascular disease, it can lead to serious liver complications.
Organising web links semantically with Boek

The World Wide Web serves as the primary source of many informa- tion requirements. The Semantic Web and related technologies provide an in- frastructure to organise data based on its semantics. Since the web has grown exponentially, it is difficult to keep track of all individual preferences. The sys- tem proposed here, Boek, enables users to organise semantically a subset of web data. Boek can store links to web pages and retrieve them later based on semantic information. Boek also holds reserved space for its users to store their favourite data semantically. The individual data models can then be combined to form a universal data store which can then act as a knowledge base for eve- ryone. Future work will involve extending Boek to address a number of do- mains such as business, medicine, education and the creative industries.
Electrical noise as a reliability indicator in electronic devices and components

Low-frequency electrical noise is well accepted as a very sensitive measure of the quality and reliability of electrical components and electronic devices. It shows changes in magnitude very much greater than in the static electrical properties. The excess noise is due to defects and non-ideality in the device. Although the excess noise is a general indicator of quality there can be many physical processes that could be involved. These noise contributions are additive and therefore not easy to distinguish so that the noise is not so valuable as a diagnostic tool. Also, there is not a detailed understanding of some noise sources, such as in some semiconductor devices. Recently devices have continued to become smaller in size so that the noise signal has become more significant compared to the real signal and the number of individual defects involved has become fewer. This has resulted in a growing trend to the study of the time varying signal rather than the noise spectral density. A review is given of the developments in the subject over the last few years.
Assessing Short‐ and Long‐Term Repeatability and Stability of Personality in Captive Zebra Finches Using Longitudinal Data

Assessing behavioural consistency is crucial to understand the evolution of personality traits. In the present study, we examined the short- and long-term repeatability and stability of two unrelated personality traits – exploratory tendencies and struggling rate – using captive female zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata). We performed two experimental sessions of behavioural tests with a 7-mo interval, which represents up to one quarter of a zebra finch's life expectancy. We showed that, overall, exploratory tendencies and struggling rate were significantly repeatable in the short term. However, only exploratory tendencies were repeatable in the long term. We found interindividual differences in short-term stability of exploratory tendencies, but not struggling rate, providing evidence for differences in intraindividual variability. In the long term, struggling rate significantly decreased between the two experimental sessions, whereas exploratory tendencies remained stable. Finally, the amount of interindividual variation measured at both sessions did not differ. Our results suggest that short- and long-term repeatability and stability of personality may vary between individuals, depending on the behavioural trait under scrutiny. As a consequence, deducing personality from measures realized earlier in a subject's life should be performed with caution. We discuss the implications of inter- and intraindividual variation in personality consistency on individual fitness.
On the foundations of measurement

The paper relates novel theories of one-dimensional measurement and scale type to earlier theories. A paper by J. Barzilai ( see ibid., p.395-400) presents definitions, notation, and further details regarding these new theories. The following areas are covered: inadequacy of the homomorphic model; terminology and notation; scale type; concatenation and Holder's axioms; and the foundations of decision theory.
Cost-effectiveness of a New Opportunistic Screening Strategy for Walk-in Fingertip HbA1c Testing at Community Pharmacies in Japan

OBJECTIVE A new opportunistic community-based strategy was launched in Japan in April 2014 to detect lifestyle-related diseases, including diabetes, by creating Specimen Measurement Offices (SMOs). SMOs offer walk-in fingertip HbA1c testing. This article aimed to assess the value-for-money of HbA1c testing services at SMOs by conducting a cost-effectiveness analysis. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We compared two scenarios: 1) status quo, defined as HbA1c testing that is available only through conventional screening, and 2) HbA1c testing available at SMOs as a complement to the status quo scenario. The model consisted of a screening module with a decision tree and a disease progression module with a Markov model. We calculated incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (i.e., cost per quality-adjusted life-years [QALYs]) over the lifetime analytic horizon as the primary end point of the cost-effectiveness analysis. In this model, we assumed the participant cohort to be people 40–74 years of age who sought walk-in fingertip HbA1c testing at SMOs on the premises of community pharmacies. Costs and outcomes were discounted at a rate of 3%. The cost-effectiveness was analyzed from a societal perspective. RESULTS The incremental cost per individual for those 40–74 years of age was estimated to be −527 U.S. dollars (USD) (−52,722 Japanese yen [JPY]) for HbA1c testing at SMOs compared with the status quo. Incremental effectiveness was estimated to be 0.0203 QALYs for HbA1c testing at SMOs compared with the status quo. Therefore, this cost-effectiveness analysis showed that compared with the status quo, HbA1c testing at SMOs was more effective and had lower cost for the population studied. CONCLUSIONS We consider our results to be robust because most simulations were under the threshold of USD 50,000 (JPY 5,000,000) per QALYs gained, by sensitivity analysis. These results will be useful to managers of pharmacies or other health institutions and/or policy makers in local government.
Valsa mali Pathogenic Effector VmPxE1 Contributes to Full Virulence and Interacts With the Host Peroxidase MdAPX1 as a Potential Target

The Valsa canker, caused by Valsa mali (V. mali), is a destructive disease of apple in Eastern Asia. Effector proteins are important for fungal pathogenicity. We studied a candidate effector VmPxE1 isolated based on the genome information of V. mali. By using the yeast invertase secretion assay system, VmPxE1 was shown to contain a signal peptide with secretory functions. VmPxE1 can suppress BCL-2-associated X protein (BAX)-induced cell death with a high efficacy of 92% in Nicotiana benthamiana. The expression of VmPxE1 was upregulated during the early infection stage and deletion of VmPxE1 led to significant reductions in virulence on both apple twigs and leaves. VmPxE1 was also shown to target an apple ascorbate peroxidase (MdAPX1) by the yeast two-hybrid screening, bimolecular fluorescence complementation and in vivo co-immunoprecipitation. Sequence phylogenetic analysis suggested that MdAPX1 was an ascorbate peroxidase belonging to a subgroup of heme-dependent peroxidases of the plant superfamily. The ectopic expression of MdAPX1 in the mutant of VmPxE1 significantly enhanced resistance to H2O2, while the presence of VmPxE1 seems to disturb MdAPX1 function. The present results provide insights into the functions of VmPxE1 as a candidate effector of V. mali in causing apple canker.
Detection of Cyberbullying Incidents on the Instagram Social Network

Cyberbullying is a growing problem affecting more than half of all American teens. The main goal of this paper is to investigate fundamentally new approaches to understand and automatically detect incidents of cyberbullying over images in Instagram, a media-based mobile social network. To this end, we have collected a sample Instagram data set consisting of images and their associated comments, and designed a labeling study for cyberbullying as well as image content using human labelers at the crowd-sourced Crowdflower Web site. An analysis of the labeled data is then presented, including a study of correlations between different features and cyberbullying as well as cyberaggression. Using the labeled data, we further design and evaluate the accuracy of a classifier to automatically detect incidents of cyberbullying.
Fungal Communities Respond to Long-Term CO2 Elevation by Community Reassembly

ABSTRACT Fungal communities play a major role as decomposers in the Earth's ecosystems. Their community-level responses to elevated CO2 (eCO2), one of the major global change factors impacting ecosystems, are not well understood. Using 28S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and co-occurrence ecological network approaches, we analyzed the response of soil fungal communities in the BioCON (biodiversity, CO2, and N deposition) experimental site in Minnesota, USA, in which a grassland ecosystem has been exposed to eCO2 for 12 years. Long-term eCO2 did not significantly change the overall fungal community structure and species richness, but significantly increased community evenness and diversity. The relative abundances of 119 operational taxonomic units (OTU; ∼27% of the total captured sequences) were changed significantly. Significantly changed OTU under eCO2 were associated with decreased overall relative abundance of Ascomycota, but increased relative abundance of Basidiomycota. Co-occurrence ecological network analysis indicated that eCO2 increased fungal community network complexity, as evidenced by higher intermodular and intramodular connectivity and shorter geodesic distance. In contrast, decreased connections for dominant fungal species were observed in the eCO2 network. Community reassembly of unrelated fungal species into highly connected dense modules was observed. Such changes in the co-occurrence network topology were significantly associated with altered soil and plant properties under eCO2, especially with increased plant biomass and NH4 + availability. This study provided novel insights into how eCO2 shapes soil fungal communities in grassland ecosystems.
Does Retirement Promote Healthy Behaviors in Young Elderly Korean People

Research Highlights • The study sought to examine the association between retirement and health behaviors in South Korea • Study adopted stress theory framework to assess the relationship between retirement and health behavior of Korean young elderly, specifically. • Gender differences were noted in the relationship between retirement and health behaviors. • Retired men were less likely to engage in heavy smoking or drinking than employed men • Retired men and women were more likely to engage in physical activity than employed individuals • Retired women were more likely to be overweight than employed women
The Art, Science, and Technology of Charcoal Production†

In this review, we summarize the knowledge of the production and properties of charcoal that has been accumulated over the past 38 millenia. The manipulation of pressure, moisture content, and gas flow enables biomass carbonization with fixed-carbon yields that approachor attainthe theoretical limit after reaction times of a few tens of minutes. Much of the heat needed to carbonize the feed is released by vigorous, exothermic secondary reactions that reduce the formation of unwanted tars by augmenting the charcoal yield in a well-designed carbonizer. As a renewable fuel, charcoal has many attractive features: it contains virtually no sulfur or mercury and is low in nitrogen and ash; it is highly reactive yet easy to store and handle. Carbonized charcoal can be a good adsorbent with a large surface area and a semimetal with an electrical resistivity comparable to that of graphite. Recent advances in knowledge about the production and properties of charcoal presage its expanded use as a renewable fuel, red.