Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automatic Generation of 3D Caricatures Based on Artistic Deformation Styles

Caricatures are a form of humorous visual art, usually created by skilled artists for the intention of amusement and entertainment. In this paper, we present a novel approach for automatic generation of digital caricatures from facial photographs, which capture artistic deformation styles from hand-drawn caricatures. We introduced a pseudo stress-strain model to encode the parameters of an artistic deformation style using “virtual” physical and material properties. We have also developed a software system for performing the caricaturistic deformation in 3D which eliminates the undesirable artifacts in 2D caricaturization. We employed a Multilevel Free-Form Deformation (MFFD) technique to optimize a 3D head model reconstructed from an input facial photograph, and for controlling the caricaturistic deformation. Our results demonstrated the effectiveness and usability of the proposed approach, which allows ordinary users to apply the captured and stored deformation styles to a variety of facial photographs.
Cell proliferation and differentiation during fracture healing are influenced by locally applied IGF-I and TGF-beta1: comparison of two proliferation markers, PCNA and BrdU.

Growth factors IGF-I and TGF-beta1 are known to stimulate fracture healing. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of locally applied IGF-I and TGF-beta1 during the early phase of fracture healing (Days 5, 10, and 15 after fracture) on cellular processes like proliferation and differentiation in a rat model. Two different immunohistochemical markers were used to analyze cell proliferation: (1) injection of the thymidine analogue BrdU and subsequent immunohistochemical staining for BrdU-positive nuclei, and (2) the antibody against the "proliferating cell nuclear antigen" (PCNA). In comparison, both methods revealed similar results concerning the types of proliferating cells at the different time points and the two groups. Labeling indices of both methods showed very good correlation (e.g., r(s): 0.887 and p < 0.001 at day 10 in the control group without growth factors). Comparison of the callus morphology and the proliferation rate showed differences during fracture healing due to the local application of IGF-I and TGF-beta1 from coated implants. At Day 5 the callus of the group treated with growth factors displayed an earlier appearance of cartilage compared to the control group. This was accompanied by an onset of cell proliferation in chondrocytes. Likewise, at the later time points an enhanced maturation of the callus tissue and the proliferation pattern were detectable in the growth-factor group. These results indicate that local application of IGF-I and TGF-beta1 accelerates early cellular processes during fracture healing.
Optical properties of silicon-on-insulator waveguide arrays and cavities

This thesis details work undertaken over the past three and a half years looking at the optical properties of silicon-on-insulator waveguide arrays and 1D photonic crystal microcavities. Chapter 1 contains relevant background information, while chapters 2, 3 and 4 contain results of experimental work. Chapter 5 summarises the results and conclusions of the preceding chapters and also suggests some directions for possible future research. Chapter 1 starts by introducing some of the fundamental aspects of guided wave optics and how these relate to silicon-on-insulator waveguides. The modes of single,uncoupled silicon waveguides are described, along with a brief description of how such waveguides can be fabricated. Following this a short introduction to optical cavities and the relevant parameters that can be used to describe them is provided. In Chapter 2 results are presented that experimentally confirm the presence of couplinginduced dispersion in an array consisting of two strongly-coupled silicon-on-insulator waveguides. This provides an additional mechanism to tailor dispersion and shows that it is possible to achieve anomalous dispersion at wavelengths where the dispersion of a single wire would be normal. In Chapter 3 the focus switches to the linear properties of 1D photonic crystal microcavities in silicon. The optical transmission of a number of different devices are examined allowing the identification of suitable microcavities for use in nonlinear measurements. Microcavities with Q-factors in excess of ∼40,000 were selected for use in the work presented in Chapter 4, whilst the possibility of thermally tuning the microcavity resonances is also investigated. A cavity resonance shift of 0.0770± 0.0004 nm K-1 is measured experimentally. Chapter 4 looks at the nonlinear transmission of those microcavities identified as suitable in Chapter 3. More specifically, the response of the microcavities to thermal and free carrier induced bistability is considered. Thermally induced bistability is observed at a threshold power of 240 μW for the particular cavity chosen, with a thermal time of 0.6 μs also measured. Free carrier induced bistability is then observed for pulses with nanosecond durations and milliwatt peak powers. Following that, the interplay of thermal and free carrier effects is observed using input pulses of a suitable duration.
Enriching Play Experience across Multiple Platforms through Collaborative Real World Actions

What if a person's life choices affected their game experience? What if it affected all of their games? Or, what if the game experience affected all the life choices? That is the central idea behind this paper, we are proposing an integration and collaboration between the real andthe virtual world at an individual level, affecting multitude of digital world that the average gamer inhabit based on their life choices. In our implementation, a parent can reward or encourage an active lifestyle such as walking, hiking or sports in the real world by controlling access to their kid's digital world. A user of our implementation looking for motivation for a more physically active lifestyle could work towards their fitness goal while being rewarded for their physical effort by increasing the amount of time they can play a video game of their choice. We use Unity3D™ game engine to show the feasibility of our implementation. We hope that our system will be considered an innovative way of rewarding good behavior in real-life. Our idea also can be considered an example of novel gameplay mechanics.
Finite-time consensus with disturbance attenuation for directed switching network topologies by discontinuous local interactions

In this paper we investigate the properties of a decentralized consensus algorithm for a network of continuous-time integrators subject to unknown-but-bounded persistent disturbances. The proposed consensus algorithm is based on a discontinuous local interaction rule. Under certain restrictions on the directed switching topology of the communication graph, it is proven that after a finite transient time the agents achieve an approximated consensus condition by attenuating the destabilizing effect of the disturbances. Lyapunov analysis is carried out for characterizing the performance of the suggested algorithm. Simulative analysis are illustrated and commented to validate the developed result.
Opposing Roles for Reactive Astrocytes following Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability in the United States. Current medical therapies exhibit limited efficacy in reducing neurological injury and the prognosis for patients remains poor. While most research is focused on the direct protection of neuronal cells, non-neuronal cells, such as astrocytes, may exert an active role in the pathogenesis of TBI. Astrocytes, the predominant cell type in the human brain, are traditionally associated with providing only structural support within the CNS. However, recent work suggests astrocytes may regulate brain homeostasis and limit brain injury. In contrast, reactive astrocytes may also contribute to increased neuroinflammation, the development of cerebral edema, and elevated intracranial pressure, suggesting possible roles in exacerbating secondary brain injury following neurotrauma. The multiple, opposing roles for astrocytes following neurotrauma may have important implications for the design of directed therapeutics to limit neurological injury. As such, a primary focus of this review is to summarize the emerging evidence suggesting reactive astrocytes influence the response of the brain to TBI.
Lean and robust phenomenon boundary approximation

We present an algorithm for computing a compact polygonal boundary of physical phenomena that nodes in a wireless sensor network can detect. It works strictly local and is robust against measurement errors and packet loss. It can deal with non-convex shapes and assumes nothing but location awareness at the nodes and a loose time synchronization. Other than different schemes described in literature our algorithm does not rely on a hierarchical clustered communication structure. After discussing related approaches and introducing our boundary approximation scheme in detail, we show through an extensive set of simulations that it is robust and accurate.
Loss of merlin expression in sporadic meningiomas, ependymomas and schwannomas

Neurofibromatosis 2 (NF2) is an inherited disorder in which affected individuals develop schwannomas and meningiomas. NF2 is mapped to chromosome 22q in a region where frequent loss of heterozygosity also occurs in sporadic meningiomas, ependymomas, and schwannomas. Using NF2 protein (merlin or schwannomin)-specific antibodies, 11 of 14 sporadic schwannomas, three of eight sporadic ependymomas, and 16 of 19 sporadic meningiomas demonstrated significantly reduced or absent merlin expression, suggesting that NF2 may be involved in the pathogenesis of these sporadic tumors.
Direct Proinflammatory Effect of C-Reactive Protein on Human Endothelial Cells

BackgroundThe acute-phase reactant C-reactive protein (CRP) is an important risk factor for coronary heart disease. However, the possible effects of CRP on vascular cells are not known. Methods and ResultsWe tested the effects of CRP on expression of adhesion molecules in both human umbilical vein and coronary artery endothelial cells. Expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM-1), intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM-1), and E-selectin was assessed by flow cytometry. Incubation with recombinant human CRP (10 &mgr;g/mL) for 24 hours induced an ≈10-fold increase in expression of ICAM-1 and a significant expression of VCAM-1, whereas a 6-hour incubation induced significant E-selectin expression. Adhesion molecule induction was similar to that observed in endothelial cells activated with interleukin-1&bgr;. In coronary artery endothelial cells, induction of ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 was already present at 5 &mgr;g/mL and reached a maximum at 50 &mgr;g/mL, at which point a substantial increase in expression of E-selectin was also evident. The CRP effect was dependent on presence of human serum in the culture medium, because no effect was seen in cells cultured with serum-free medium. In contrast, interleukin-1&bgr; was able to induce adhesion molecule expression in the absence of human serum. ConclusionsCRP induces adhesion molecule expression in human endothelial cells in the presence of serum. These findings support the hypothesis that CRP may play a direct role in promoting the inflammatory component of atherosclerosis and present a potential target for the treatment of atherosclerosis.
Two-Material Ridge Substrate Integrated Waveguide for Ultra-Wideband Applications

A novel ridge substrate integrated waveguide (RSIW) with extended single-mode bandwidth is presented in this paper. The proposed structure is based on a substrate integrated waveguide including two dielectric layers with different permittivity. The ridge is implemented by a row of partial height metal vias, connected at the bottom by a metal strip. An RSIW with cutoff frequency of the fundamental mode at 2.5 GHz and of the second mode at 12 GHz is proposed, thus achieving a bandwidth of almost 5:1. This structure is suitable for applications covering the entire ultra-wideband. The proposed RSIW has been fabricated and tested to verify experimentally the electromagnetic properties of the fundamental and second mode. Finally, the role of the metal strip connecting the bottom of the ridge vias is discussed, showing through numerical and experimental results that the strip plays a fundamental role in avoiding the bandgap in the frequency response of the RSIW.
Embedding inkjet-printed antennas into plywood structures for identification and sensing

The embedding of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags into plywood boards will enable the identification and tracking of individual plywood boards and end products of plywood. Even more benefits can be achieved by adding sensing functions into these tags. We present tags that are embeddable inside plywood by direct inkjet-printing on pure birch veneer. The use of passive UHF RFID technology in the plywood industry is discussed, two tag antenna designs for plywood are presented and the tag fabrication procedures are described. Furthermore, tag performance measurement results from various setups are presented to verify the concept of embedding RFID and sensor antennas into plywood structures. Measurements show that tags printed on veneer and embedded inside 2 mm thick plywood board exhibited theoretical read ranges from 7.9 meters to 10.3 meters. The read ranges obtained meet the demands of the plywood industry and offer reliable identification even in challenging environments.
Providing complete rendezvous guarantee for cognitive radio networks by quorum systems and Latin Squares

In cognitive radio networks (CRNs), a rendezvous between two nodes exists when they tune to the same channel simultaneously. Rendezvous guarantee between any pair of nodes is essential because a rendezvous is a necessary condition for a communication. Several existing works claim that such a guarantee can be provided by using a dedicated common control channel for channel negotiation. A serious problem of these mechanisms is that a globally available channel may not exist. Some channel hopping protocols try to provide rendezvous guarantee without using a common control channel. However, these solutions may suffer from low number of rendezvous and uneven channel utilization. In this paper, we propose a novel distributed channel hopping protocol called Quorum and Latin Squares Channel Hopping, QLCH. QLCH efficiently provides rendezvous guarantee by utilizing the concept of quorum systems and latin squares. The former is utilized to guarantee rendezvous while the latter is adopted to share the rendezvous among channels. Simulation results verify that the proposed QLCH protocol performs better in terms of network throughput and time to rendezvous when compared to existing protocols, L-QCH, ACH, and SYNC-ETCH.
Combination of foveal and peripheral vision for object recognition and pose estimation

In this paper, we present a real-time vision system that integrates a number of algorithms using monocular and binocular cues to achieve robustness in realistic settings, for tasks such as object recognition, tracking and pose estimation. The system consists of two sets of binocular cameras; a peripheral set for disparity based attention and a foveal one for higher level processes. Thus the conflicting requirements of a wide field of view and high resolution can be overcome. One important property of the system is that the step from task specification through object recognition to pose estimation is completely automatic, combining both appearance and geometric models. Experimental evaluation is performed in a realistic indoor environment with occlusions, clutter, changing lighting and background conditions.
Estimation de visibilité dans un nuage de points LiDAR

Cet article presente une nouvelle methodologie pour l'estimation de la visibilite de chaque point d'un nuage de points LiDAR depuis une position de prise de vue donnee, correspondant au centre optique d'une camera pour la fusion de donnees LiDAR et optiques. Le nuage est d'abord projete dans le plan image de cette camera. Nous introduisons un critere sur le voisinage pour determiner automatiquement quels points sont visibles dans cette vue.
Activation of electroneutral K flux in Amphiuma red blood cells by N- ethylmaleimide. Distinction between K/H exchange and KCl cotransport

Exposure of Amphiuma red blood cells to millimolar concentrations of N- ethylmaleimide (NEM) resulted in net K loss. In order to determine whether net K loss was conductive or was by electroneutral K/H exchange or KCl cotransport, studies were performed evaluating K flux in terms of the thermodynamic forces to which K flux by the above pathways should couple. The direction and magnitude of the NEM-induced net K flux did not correspond with the direction and magnitude of the forces relevant to K conductance or electroneutral KCl cotransport. Both the magnitude and direction of the NEM-activated K flux responded to the driving force for K/H exchange. We therefore conclude that NEM-induced K loss, like that by osmotically swollen Amphiuma red blood cells, is by an electroneutral K/H exchanger. In addition to the above studies, we evaluated the kinetic behavior of the volume- and NEM-induced K/H exchange flux pathways in media where Cl was replaced by SCN, NO3, para- aminohippurate (PAH), or gluconate. The anion replacement studies did not permit a distinction between K/H exchange and KCl cotransport, since, depending upon the anion used as a Cl replacement, partial inhibition or stimulation of volume-activated K/H exchange fluxes was observed. In contrast, all anions used were stimulatory to the NEM- induced K loss. Since, on the basis of force-flow analysis, both volume- and NEM-induced K loss are K/H exchange, it was necessary to reevaluate assumptions (i.e., anions serve as substrates and therefore probe the translocation step) associated with the use of anion replacement as a means of flux route identification. When viewed together with the force- flow studies, the Cl replacement studies suggest that anion effects upon K/H exchange are indirect. The different anions appear to alter mechanisms that couple NEM exposure and cell swelling to the activation of K/H exchange, as opposed to exerting direct effects upon K and H translocation.
Effects of the Display Angle and Physical Size on Large Touch Displays in the Work Place

Large display and touch screens are becoming ubiquitous within the work place including multiple display screens. There is limited evidence on what configurations and arrangements of the display screens are most effective for data analysis. We conducted two user studies to understand the effectiveness of the display angle, physical size, resolution, and touch precision for data analysis activities. Our results indicated that touch interaction for data analysis sitting at a workstation was most effective with medium sized screens at 27", high precision touch accuracy (not 4K resolution), and display angle titled at 30°. The results from our studies can guide other researchers and developers who want to integrate large touch display screens into their work place environments.
Ecological drought resistance and adaptability of apple varieties

1University of Debrecen Centre for Agricultural Sciences and Engineering, Institute of Horticultural Sciences, Debrecen, Hungary E-mail: nemeskeri@agr.unideb. hu 2University of Debrecen Centre for Agricultural Sciences and Engineering, Institute for Research and Development, Debrecen, Hungary 3Corvinus University of Budapest, Faculty of Horticultural Science, Department of Genetic and Plant Breeding, Budapest, Hungary 4Research and Extension Centre for Fruit Growing, Újfehértó, Hungary
Healthy daily meal planner

The purpose of this project is to develop a program that solves a bi-objective diet problem to propose the user a "healthy" daily meal according to some parameters specified by the user. The program will interact with the user via a graphical interface to receive information such as age and gender that is necessary to determine daily nutritional and energy requirements and also information on the preferences of the user among the dishes available. The user will be presented all the dishes and is expected to rate some of them on a scale from 1 to 10. The main goal is to present the user a combination of dishes that satisfies the daily nutritional requirements, minimizes the cost of the daily meal and maximizes the total rating of the meal. In this paper, first the diet problem is going to be introduced, then a genetic algorithm to solve the problem will be presented.
Optimization for Remote Monitoring Terrestrial Petroleum Pipeline Cathode Protection System Using Graded Network

Method of cathode protection is employed to slow down the corrosion of terrestrial pipe. This paper aims to develop a system to monitor the terrestrial pipe cathode protection equipment to wholly track the operation status of buried pipe timely. The monitoring system integrates technology of wireless sensor networks, GPRS network and Internet not only to collect the cathode potential data in time and realize remote data transmission but also to regulate the guard mode of cathode protection on demand. Optimization mechanisms are adopted to effectively lower the energy assumption and to ensure data transmission reliability, from architecture design, selection of power saving hardware components, implementation of reliable network traffic mechanism including hierarchical network topology with least-complexity cluster head shift strategy, TDMA protocol with auto-adaptive resending scheme, work-on-duty with radio-awaken mechanism and so on. Trial running of the system has published good results with 96% or higher success ratio of data transmission, low power saving and power balance. In all, this system can meet the requirements of timely detecting physical malfunction of terrestrial pipeline and controlling field monitoring system on demand.
The skew spectrum of graphs

The central issue in representing graph-structured data instances in learning algorithms is designing features which are invariant to permuting the numbering of the vertices. We present a new system of invariant graph features which we call the skew spectrum of graphs. The skew spectrum is based on mapping the adjacency matrix of any (weigted, directed, unlabeled) graph to a function on the symmetric group and computing bispectral invariants. The reduced form of the skew spectrum is computable in O(n3) time, and experiments show that on several benchmark datasets it can outperform state of the art graph kernels.
Antithrombotic treatment in atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) can significantly increase morbidity and mortality. It is gaining in clinical and economic importance, being the most commonly encountered tachyarrhythmia in clinical practice. Stroke is the most serious complication. Evidence from AF antithrombotic treatment trials is reviewed, risk stratification of patients with AF is discussed, and recommendations for anticoagulation are presented.