Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Virtual Reality Drumkit Simulator System with a Kinect Device

In this paper, an implementation of a virtual reality based application for drumkit simulation is presented. The system tracks user motion through the use of a Kinect camera sensor, and recognizes and detects user-generated drum-hitting gestures in real-time. In order to compensate the effects of latency in the sensing stage and provide real-time interaction, the system uses a gesture detection model to predict user movements. The paper discusses the use of two different machine learning based solutions to this problem: the first one is based on the analysis of velocity and acceleration peaks, the other solution is based on Wiener filtering. This gesture detector was tested and integrated into a full implementation of a drumkit simulator, capable of discriminating up to 3, 5 or 7 different drum sounds. An experiment with 14 participants was conducted to assess the system's viability and impact on user experience and satisfaction.
A Collaborative Filtering Recommendation Based on User Profile Weight and Time Weight

Collaborative Filtering (CF) has proven to be the most widely used recommendation technology. However, the conventional CF ignores the impacts of user similarity caused by user profile, and it also can't reflect the changes of user's interests. To solve this problem, two weights are proposed: the user profile weight and the time weight. Also, the two weights are combined together and applied to a novel personalized recommendation system. The experimental results show that the improved method can obviously increase the recommendation precision.
Automatic Graph Cut Segmentation of Lesions in CT Using Mean Shift Superpixels

This paper presents a new, automatic method of accurately extracting lesions from CT data. It first determines, at each voxel, a five-dimensional (5D) feature vector that contains intensity, shape index, and 3D spatial location. Then, nonparametric mean shift clustering forms superpixels from these 5D features, resulting in an oversegmentation of the image. Finally, a graph cut algorithm groups the superpixels using a novel energy formulation that incorporates shape, intensity, and spatial features. The mean shift superpixels increase the robustness of the result while reducing the computation time. We assume that the lesion is part spherical, resulting in high shape index values in a part of the lesion. From these spherical subregions, foreground and background seeds for the graph cut segmentation can be automatically obtained. The proposed method has been evaluated on a clinical CT dataset. Visual inspection on different types of lesions (lung nodules and colonic polyps), as well as a quantitative evaluation on 101 solid and 80 GGO nodules, both demonstrate the potential of the proposed method. The joint spatial-intensity-shape features provide a powerful cue for successful segmentation of lesions adjacent to structures of similar intensity but different shape, as well as lesions exhibiting partial volume effect.
Go Wild: Free Your Body and Mind from the Afflictions of Civilization

The scientific evidence behind why maintaining a lifestyle more like that of our ancestors will restore our health and well-being. In GO WILD, Harvard Medical School Professor John Ratey, MD, and journalist Richard Manning reveal that although civilization has rapidly evolved, our bodies have not kept pace. This mismatch affects every area of our lives, from our general physical health to our emotional wellbeing. Investigating the power of living according to our genes in the areas of diet, exercise, sleep, nature, mindfulness and more, GO WILD examines how tapping into our core DNA combats modern disease and psychological afflictions, from Autism and Depression to Diabetes and Heart Disease. By focusing on the ways of the past, it is possible to secure a healthier and happier future, and GO WILD will show you how.
Alterations in DNA Replication and Histone Levels Promote Histone Gene Amplification in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Gene amplification, a process that increases the copy number of a gene or a genomic region to two or more, is utilized by many organisms in response to environmental stress or decreased levels of a gene product. Our previous studies in Saccharomyces cerevisiae identified the amplification of a histone H2A-H2B gene pair, HTA2-HTB2, in response to the deletion of the other H2A-H2B gene pair, HTA1-HTB1. This amplification arises from a recombination event between two flanking Ty1 elements to form a new, stable circular chromosome and occurs at a frequency higher than has been observed for other Ty1-Ty1 recombination events. To understand the regulation of this amplification event, we screened the S. cerevisiae nonessential deletion set for mutations that alter the amplification frequency. Among the deletions that increase HTA2-HTB2 amplification frequency, we identified those that either decrease DNA replication fork progression (rrm3Δ, dpb3Δ, dpb4Δ, and clb5Δ) or that reduce histone H3-H4 levels (hht2-hhf2Δ). These two classes are related because reduced histone H3-H4 levels increase replication fork pauses, and impaired replication forks cause a reduction in histone levels. Consistent with our mutant screen, we found that the introduction of DNA replication stress by hydroxyurea induces the HTA2-HTB2 amplification event. Taken together, our results suggest that either reduced histone levels or slowed replication forks stimulate the HTA2-HTB2 amplification event, contributing to the restoration of normal chromatin structure.
MEMORY, NARRATIVES AND IDENTITY. HOW PEOPLE RECALL, TRANSMIT AND LIVE THROUGH HISTORICAL EVENTS

In this article we will review a series of studies concerning the impact of sociopolitical events, identity structures and emotional reactions on the creation, transmission, and maintenance of collective memories. These studies reflect on how historical events are remembered, how these memories are mediated by age cohorts and gender. Moreover, processes of globalization have produced a strong cross-cultural consensus in the recall of these events, although the content of what is recalled may be different in diverse groups. Identities and the need to maintain a positive social identity are also crucial in the recall of events. This derives in the existence of different possible memories in victims, members of a victim’s family or friends, and perpetrators of traumatic events. We will see how these memories have a series of consequences in a person or group’s values, beliefs and general view of the World.
Environmental factor dependent maximum likelihood method for association study targeted to personalized medicine.

The most challenging strategy for analyzing genome-wide polymorphisms and/or expression profiles is to solve multi-factor causal-relationship simultaneously. As the first step, we propose a framework of association study using maximum likelihood method that simultaneously handles genetic polymorphisms and epi-genetic information, e.g. environmental factors. We evaluate the theory by applying it to genotyped data of myocardial infarction (MI) patients.
The Genomic Landscapes of Human Breast and Colorectal Cancers

Human cancer is caused by the accumulation of mutations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. To catalog the genetic changes that occur during tumorigenesis, we isolated DNA from 11 breast and 11 colorectal tumors and determined the sequences of the genes in the Reference Sequence database in these samples. Based on analysis of exons representing 20,857 transcripts from 18,191 genes, we conclude that the genomic landscapes of breast and colorectal cancers are composed of a handful of commonly mutated gene “mountains” and a much larger number of gene “hills” that are mutated at low frequency. We describe statistical and bioinformatic tools that may help identify mutations with a role in tumorigenesis. These results have implications for understanding the nature and heterogeneity of human cancers and for using personal genomics for tumor diagnosis and therapy.
Axonal branching pattern of neurons of the subthalamic nucleus in primates

Axonal projections arising from the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) were traced after labeling small pools (5–15 cells) of neurons with biotinylated dextran amine. Seventy‐five single axons were reconstructed from serial sagittal sections with a camera lucida. Most of the STN labeled cells displayed five to eight long, sparsely spined dendrites that arborized mostly along the main axis of the nucleus. Based on their axonal targets, five distinct types of STN projection neurons have been identified: 1) neurons projecting to the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr), the internal (GPi) and external (GPe) segments of the globus pallidus (21.3%); 2) neurons targeting SNr and GPe (2.7%); 3) neurons projecting to GPi and GPe (48%); 4) neurons targeting GPe only (10.7 %); and 5) neurons with axons that coursed toward the sriatum, but whose terminal arborization could not be visualized in detail (17.3%). Axons of the first two types bifurcated into rostral subthalamopallidal and caudal pallidonigral branches. However, the majority of STN axons had only a single branch that coursed rostrally toward the pallidum and striatum. These results reveal that, in contrast to current beliefs, the primate STN is not a monolithic entity. This nucleus harbors several subtypes of projection neurons, each endowed with a highly patterned set of collaterals. This organization allows STN neurons to exert a multifarious effect not only on the GPe, with which the STN is reciprocally connected, but also on the two major output structures of the basal ganglia, the SNr and the GPi. J. Comp. Neurol. 424:142–152, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The construction of virtual human in virtual environment of marine engine room

To simulate human action in virtual environment of marine engine room, Software Creator and Vega of Multigen-Paradigm, and DI-Guy virtual human module of Boston Dynamics Inc. are introduced to construct the virtual human operation in Virtual Roaming System of marine engine room, body model in DI-Guy is modified, the action model on the hand part is intensified and collision detection of virtual human in real-time movement is studied. Thus real-time operations of virtual marine engineers in virtual engine room environment are realized, including operations of central control console in central control room, assembly, disassembly and maintenance of equipment parts, etc. The result indicates that this method can better simulate the engine room environment, help trained marine engineers knowing more about equipment layout and operations in the engine room, and improve the effectiveness of seafarers training.
The role of hepatic artery lymph node in pancreatic adenocarcinoma: prognostic factor or a selection criterion for surgery.

BACKGROUND Hepatic artery lymph node (HALN) metastasis in pancreatic adenocarcinoma reportedly confers a survival disadvantage. This has led some authors to propose it as an indicator against pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD). METHODS Consecutive patients who underwent PD during 2002-2012 were identified from the University of Louisville prospective hepatopancreaticobiliary database. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were estimated using Kaplan-Meier analysis. The log-rank test and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression were used in further analyses. RESULTS A total of 420 patients underwent PD during the period of study, of whom 197 had lymph node (LN) metastasis. Among these, 41 (20.8%) patients had disease-positive HALNs. The HALN was the only site of LN metastasis in only three of the 247 patients (1.2%). Median follow-up was 18.5 months (interquartile range: 4.1-28.2 months). Median OS and DFS were 22.7 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 19.0-26.3] and 12.6 months (95% CI 10.2-15.2). There was no significant difference in median OS between HALN-positive patients (18.4 months, 95% CI 12.3-24.0) and HALN-negative patients (19.7 months, 95% CI 16.7-22.6) (P = 0.659). On multivariate analysis, the hazard ratio (HR) of death was highest among patients with an LN ratio of >0.2 (HR 1.2, 95% CI 1.1-1.29; P = 0.012) followed by those with poorly differentiated histology (HR 1.09, 95% CI 1.04-1.11; P = 0.029). CONCLUSIONS In pancreatic adenocarcinoma patients with LN disease, survival after PD is comparable regardless of HALN status. Therefore, HALN-positive disease should not preclude the performance of PD.
Distributed Physical Based Simulations for Large VR Applications

We present a novel software framework for developing highly animated virtual reality applications. Using a modular application design, our goal is to alleviate software engineering issues while yielding efficient execution on parallel machines. We target worlds involving numerous animated objects managed by physical based simulations. Mixing rigid objects, fluids, mass-spring or other deformable objects leads to complex interactions between them. Today no unified simulation algorithm with a reasonable complexity is available to manage all these types of objects. We propose a framework for coupling and distributing existing algorithms. We reuse and extend the data-flow model where an application is built from modules exchanging data through connections. The model relies on two main classes of modules, animators and interactors. Animators are responsible for updating objects’ states from forces applied to them. These forces are computed in parallel by interactors using the objects’ states they receive from animators. The network interconnecting modules can be progressively optimized. From a simple fully connected network enforcing a synchronous semantics, it can evolve towards an active network able to implement a bounding volume based dynamic routing or an asynchronous data re-sampling. As a result, we present an application managing interactions between rigid objects, mass-spring objects and a fluid. It is executed in real-time on a 54 processors cluster driving 5 cameras and 16 projectors for user interactions.
Separation of singing voice from music accompaniment using matrix factorization method

Songs play an important role in entertainment. An audio signal separation system should be able to identify different audio signals such as speech, music and background noise. In a song the singing voice provides useful information. An automatic singing voice separation system is used for attenuating or removing the music accompaniment. The singing voice becomes a main attractive focus of attention. Singing is used to produces relevant sound with music by the human voice. The paper present the developed algorithm Robust Principal Component Analysis (RPCA) for separating singing voice from music background. This method is a matrix factorization for solving low-rank and sparse matrices. Singing Voice has been effectively separated from the mixture of music accompaniment. Evaluation results of the algorithm shows that this method can achieve around 5.2 dB higher GNSDR (Global Normalized Source to Distortion Ratio) on the MIR-1K dataset. Moreover, we examine the separation results for different values of k.
Theories for Direct Social Work Practice

Walsh's text provides MSW course instructors and students with a single volume that incorporates concise, comprehensive coverage of eleven major clinical practice theories that social workers commonly use in their assessment, planning, and intervention tasks with individuals, families, and groups. The book's scope encompasses a broad view of the practice field, yet still allows students to look closely at each theory discussed.
The amyloid beta ion channel hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a leading cause of chronic dementia in the US. Its incidence is increasing with an attendant increase in associated health care costs. Since its first description in a patient by Dr. Alois Alzheimer over a century ago, a large body of biomedical literature has established a detailed clinical and molecular profile of this disorder. Amyloid β peptide (Aβ; a 39–42 amino acid molecule) is the major component of senile plaques, the lesions that are one of the pathologic hallmarks of AD (Wong et al 1985). Although many aspects of the biology of amyloid β have been investigated, several fundamental questions about how this peptide causes AD neuropathology remain unanswered. The key question is: How is Aβ toxic to cerebral neurons? Because plaques are extra-neuronal deposits, it is difficult to imagine a structural basis for their toxicity. As an interesting contrast the other pathognomonic feature of AD, neurofibrillary tangles, are intra-axonal structural anomalies that are composed of the hyperphosphorylated microtubule associated (MAP) protein, tau. This review will assess the current thinking that relates to a recent hypothesis of Aβ toxicity. In 1992, Hardy and Higgins reported findings that suggested a new and intriguing possibility. These authors found that Aβ peptides disrupt Ca2+ homeostasis in neurons and increase intracellular Ca2+ [Ca2+]i. This was corroborated by Mattson and his colleagues who demonstrated that Aβ exposure to human cortical neurons raised [Ca2+]i (Mattson, Cheng et al 1992); (Hardy and Higgins 1992). Finally, Nelson Arispe’s group at the NIH specifically investigated the possibility that Aβ peptides might function like Ca2+ ion channels (Arispe et al 1993). This and several subsequent studies have laid the foundation for a novel idea: “Aβ peptides are, in part, toxic to neurons because they form aberrant ion channels in neuronal membranes and thereby disrupt neuronal homeostasis”. In this review we shall critically examine this theory in light of classic and contemporary literature.
Structure behind Mechanics I: Foundation

This paper proposes a basic theory on physical reality and a new foundation for quantum mechanics and classical mechanics. It presents a scenario not only to solve the problem of the arbitrariness on the operator ordering for the quantization procedure, but also to clarify how the classical-limit occurs. This paper is the first of the three papers into which the previous paper quant-ph/9906130 has been separated for readability.
Classics in environmental criminology

Early Work on the Ecology of Crime The Place of Environmental Criminology within Criminological Thought M.A. Andresen Of the Development of the Propensity to Crime (1842) L.A. J. Quetelet Localities of Crime in Suffolk (1856) J. Glyde Juvenile Delinquency in a Small City (1916) E.W. Burgess Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas: A Study of Rates of Delinquency in Relation to Differential Characteristics of Local Communities in American Cities (1969) C.R. Shaw and H.D. McKay Urban Ecological Aspects of Crime in Akron (1974) G.F. Pyle, E.W. Hanten, P.G. Williams, A.L. Pearson II, J.G. Doyle, and K. Kwofie Intraurban Crime Patterns (1974) K.D. Harries Classics in Environmental Criminology Social Change and Crime Rate Trends: A Routine Activity Approach (1979) L.E. Cohen and M. Felson Routine Activities and Crime: An Analysis of Victimization in Canada (1990) L.W. Kennedy and D.R. Forde Notes on the Geometry of Crime (1981) P.L. Brantingham and P.J. Brantingham The Use of Space in Burglary (1985) G.F. Rengert and J. Wasilchick Nodes, Paths, and Edges: Considerations on the Complexity of Crime and the Physical Environment (1993) P.L. Brantingham and P.J. Brantingham Modeling Offenders' Decisions: A Framework for Research and Policy (1985) R.V. Clarke and D.B. Cornish Linking Criminal Choices, Routine Activities, Informal Control, and Criminal Outcomes (1986) M. Felson Understanding Crime Displacement: An Application of Rational Choice Theory (1987) D.B. Cornish and R.V. G. Clarke Environment, Routine, and Situation: Toward a Pattern Theory of Crime (1993) P.L. Brantingham and P.J. Brantingham Environmental Criminology and Crime Prevention A Conceptual Model of Crime Prevention (1976) P.J. Brantingham and F.L. Faust Crime Prevention and Control through Environmental Engineering (1969) C.R. Jeffery Criminal Behavior and the Physical Environment: A Perspective C.R. Jeffery Situational Crime Prevention: Theory and Practice R.V. G. Clarke Routine Activities and Crime Prevention in the Developing Metropolis (1987) M. Felson Future Spaces: Classics in Environmental Criminology-Where Do We Go from Here? B. Kinney References Index
Towards Integrated Query Processing for Object-Relational and XML Data Sources

The recently increased amount of information stored in XML format has lead to the development and wide deployment of so-called native XML database management systems (XML DBMS). In parallel, (object-)relational DBMS remain well known, approved and widely used for persistent storage of data. There are many research and industrial areas, including virtual enterprises, Web portals, digital libraries, data management systems, etc., where applications need to manage both (object-) relational DBMS and XML DBMS to retrieve information from these kinds of data sources. This has created a need for integrated access to (object-)relational and XML data sources. The focus of our investigation in this context comprises design and development of an integration middleware between the application and the data sources, allowing unified access to the entire information for SQL- and XML-based applications. In this paper, we propose a query processing technique supporting integrated access to (object-)relational and XML data sources via both query languages, SQL and XQuery. The local data sources under integration can be queried from the corresponding unified global views, an SQL-View (for SQL-based applications) as well as an XML-View (for XML-based applications), both offering access to the entire integrated information
Act together—implications of symbioses in aquatic ciliates

Mutual interactions in the form of symbioses can increase the fitness of organisms and provide them with the capacity to occupy new ecological niches. The formation of obligate symbioses allows for rapid evolution of new life forms including multitrophic consortia. Microbes are important components of many known endosymbioses and their short generation times and strong potential for genetic exchange may be important drivers of speciation. Hosts provide endo- and ectosymbionts with stable, nutrient-rich environments, and protection from grazers. This is of particular importance in aquatic ecosystems, which are often highly variable, harsh, and nutrient-deficient habitats. It is therefore not surprising that symbioses are widespread in both marine and freshwater environments. Symbioses in aquatic ciliates are good model systems for exploring symbiont-host interactions. Many ciliate species are globally distributed and have been intensively studied in the context of plastid evolution. Their relatively large cell size offers an ideal habitat for numerous microorganisms with different functional traits including commensalism and parasitism. Phagocytosis facilitates the formation of symbiotic relationships, particularly since some ingested microorganisms can escape the digestion. For example, photoautotrophic algae and methanogens represent endosymbionts that greatly extend the biogeochemical functions of their hosts. Consequently, symbiotic relationships between protists and prokaryotes are widespread and often result in new ecological functions of the symbiotic communities. This enables ciliates to thrive under a wide range of environmental conditions including ultraoligotrophic or anoxic habitats. We summarize the current understanding of this exciting research topic to identify the many areas in which knowledge is lacking and to stimulate future research by providing an overview on new methodologies and by formulating a number of emerging questions in this field.