Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SICKLE CELL DISEASE, EDUCATION, AND LATER LIFE OUTCOMES

Melanie McCabe: Sickle Cell Disease, Education, and Later Life Outcomes (Under the direction of Rune J. Simeonsson) The goal of the study was to investigate the impact of education on life outcomes of adults with sickle cell disease (SCD) while accounting for personal and disease variables. Five hierarchical regressions were conducted to determine if gender, educational attainment, and disease severity, entered sequentially, were predictive of later life outcomes in adults with SCD. Outcomes assessed were depressive symptomatology, pain intensity level, satisfaction with support in relationships, income, and employment status in adults with SCD. Models predicting income and employment status were significant when educational attainment and disease severity were included in the prediction. Study findings indicate that educational attainment accounts for a significant amount of variance in later life outcomes for individuals with SCD. Specific recommendations for support of individuals with SCD are made for school psychologists. iv To my family. Without the unending support of Kevin, my husband, this dissertation would not have been possible. He provided me with the encouragement, time, and patience to help continue as we experienced many changes, including the birth of our daughters. To my father, Harald, for ensuring me this was in my best interest and worth the journey. He has, since my first breath, encouraged me to pursue higher education with unrelenting enthusiasm. To my mother, Gisela, for providing the reassurance needed to start and finish this process. When moments seemed the most complicated, she provided me with a listening ear and was always there to ensure that I was following the path of my choosing for the reasons that were most important to me. To my sister Sheila, the one who has always been there to cheer me on. She always found a way to show her support, even when there was little to no time to spare. To my daughters Amelia and Annabel, for putting life into perspective and providing the motivation for finishing.
Synthesis of multiple pose facial images using tensor-based subspace learning method

Facial pose synthesis has many useful applications in practice. How to synthesize facial pose images robustly and simply is still a challenging problem. In this paper we proposed a tensor-based subspace learning method (TSL) that makes possible the synthesis of human multi-pose facial images from a single 2D image. We organize 2D multi-pose images in a tensor form and apply tensor decomposition to build a projection subspace. An input 2D image is projected into the projection subspace to get a corresponding identity vector. The identity vector is used to generate the novel pose images. The experiments are performed on MaVIC (KAO-Ritsumeikan Multi-angle View, Illumination and Cosmetic Facial Database) and preliminary experimental results show the effectiveness of our proposed method.
Haptic Rendering of Cutting: A Fracture Mechanics Approach

Cutting a deformable body may be viewed as an interchange between three forms of energy: the elastic energy stored in the deformed body, the work done by a sharp tool as it moves against it, and the irreversible work spent in creating a fracture. Other dissipative phenomena such as friction can optionally also be considered. The force applied can be found by evaluating the work done by a tool which is sufficiently sharp to cause local deformation only. To evaluate this work, we propose a computational model that reduces cutting to the existence of three modes of interaction: deformation, rupture, and cutting, each of which considers the exchange between two forms of energy. During deformation, the work done by a tool is recoverable. During rupture, this work is zero. During cutting, it is equal to the irreversible work spent by fracture formation. The work spent in separating the sample is a function of its fracture toughness and of the area of a crack extension. It is in principle necessary to compute the deformation caused by a sharp tool in order to recover the force. This is in general an unsolved problem. However, for the case of a sharp interaction, measurements from tests performed on samples used in conjunction with analytical approximations to the contact problem, make it possible to propose a model which is applicable to haptic rendering. The technique is then compared to experimental results which confirms the model hypotheses. An implementation of the model that yields realistic results is also described.
Under Consideration for Publication in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming Implementing Query Rewriting for Consistent Query Answering in Databases

For several reasons, databases may be inconsistent with respect to a set of integrity constraints. Those inconsistent states must be somehow resolved in order to be able to use the information stored in them. In some cases, data cleaning could be an approach to get rid of these inconsistencies. However, this may be a complex and nondeterministic process that may lead to the loss of potentially useful information. To avoid this, we present in this paper an alternative approach, which consists in computing only those answers to queries that are consistent with the integrity constraints by means of an algorithm called QUECA. Given a first order query Q, the algorithm generates a new query QUECA(Q), such that, when posed to a database, its answers correspond to the answers to Q that are consistent with the given integrity constraints. We prove QUECA to be sound, terminating and complete for a class of integrity constraints that includes most of the constraints found in traditional relational database systems. Complexity issues are also addressed. Finally, we describe the implementation of the algorithm in XSB. We take advantage of the functionalities of XSB, as a deductive database with tabling capabilities, and the possibility of coupling it to a relational database systems.
Structure of Nitrosocystis oceanus and Comparison with Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter

Murray, R. G. E. (University of Western Ontario, London, Ont., Canada), and S. W. Watson. Structure of Nitrosocystis oceanus and comparison with Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter. J. Bacteriol. 89:1594–1609. 1965. —Nitrosocystis oceanus has distinctive features: the cell wall (overall thickness, 250 A) has an inner triplet structure and a dense enveloping layer; between these lie the “cell-wall organelles” (two or more per cell; plaques about 0.5 μ in diameter and 0.1 μ thick) of unknown function and genesis. The plasma membrane (ca. 80 A) shows rare intrusions that form irregular peripheral vesicles, which appear to form the component lamellae of the “membranous organelle” and probably detach from the periphery. The membranous organelles consist of about 20 vesicles so flattened that the lumen is only 100 A thick. The outer surfaces are in contact and form a triplet structure with an accentuated center line; these lamellae almost traverse the cell, displace the cytoplasm and the nucleoplasms, and form the prominent, seemingly permanent, feature of the cell. Division is constrictive without trace of a septum, and the act of division divides the membranous organelle. No mesosomes appear to be formed. Nitrosomonas europaea shows no sign of a cell-wall organelle or of the outer enveloping layer of wall. The cytoplasm contains intrusive paired lamellae, which might or might not remain connected to the periphery, and they do not fuse or form regular associations. These are thought to be the equivalent of the vesicles in Nitrosocystis but remaining almost parallel and close to the plasma membrane. Nitrobacter agilis has a unique plasma membrane with a (50 A) dense layer applied to the inside of the usual unit membrane. All of the components are represented in the intrusions, which are arranged over and shape the poles of the cells, with close and regular spacing. Each nitrifier was distinctive; in common they have membrane systems which, it is considered, must relate to the specialized mechanisms for acquiring energy adopted by these organisms.
Mono‐ and dual‐frequency fast cerebellar oscillation in mice lacking parvalbumin and/or calbindin D‐28k

Calbindin is a fast Ca2+‐binding protein expressed by Purkinje cells and involved in their firing regulation. Its deletion produced ∼160‐Hz oscillation sustained by synchronous, rhythmic Purkinje cells in the cerebellar cortex of mice. Parvalbumin is a slow‐onset Ca2+‐binding protein expressed in Purkinje cells and interneurons. In order to assess its function in Purkinje cell firing regulation, we studied the firing behavior of Purkinje cells in alert mice lacking parvalbumin (PV–/–), calbindin (CB–/–) or both (PV–/–CB–/–) and in wild‐type controls. The absence of either protein resulted in Purkinje cell firing alterations (decreased complex spike duration and pause, increased simple spike firing rate) that were more pronounced in CB–/– than in PV–/– mice. Cumulative effects were found in complex spike alterations in PV–/–CB–/– mice. PV–/– and CB–/– mice manifested ∼160‐Hz oscillation that was sustained by Purkinje cells firing rhythmically and synchronously along the parallel fiber axis. This oscillation was dependent on GABAA, N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate and gap junction transmission. PV–/–CB–/– mice exhibited a dual‐frequency (110 and 240 Hz) oscillation. The instantaneous spectral densities of both components were inversely correlated. Simple and complex spikes of Purkinje cells were phase‐locked to one of the two oscillation frequencies. Mono‐ and dual‐frequency oscillations presented similar pharmacological properties. These results demonstrate that the absence of the Ca2+ buffers parvalbumin and calbindin disrupts the regulation of Purkinje cell firing rate and rhythmicity in vivo and suggest that precise Ca2+ transient control is required to maintain the normal spontaneous arrhythmic and asynchronous firing pattern of the Purkinje cells.
MusicDB : A Query by Humming System

We engineer an end-to-end music search system called MusicDB that supports query by humming. We represent musical tunes and hums as time series and use a time warping distance metric for similarity comparisons. A multidimensional index structure is used to prune the search space of songs and efficiently return the top hits back to an intuitive UI. Our user experiments on a database of fifty midis are promising; we find that MusicDB returns the desired song within the top 10 hits with 52% accuracy and as the top hit with 24% accuracy. Moreover, we believe that substantial room for improvement in search quality can be achieved with more accurate pitch extraction software and a more solid midi parsing library than the ones we used. Because few query-by-humming solutions have been fully documented in the research literature, we document all the core components of the MusicDB architecture to enable readers to build and extend our system if desired.
The graphs with the max-Mader-flow-min-multiway-cut property

We are given a graph $G$, an independant set $\mathcal{S} \subset V(G)$ of \emph{terminals}, and a function $w:V(G) \to \mathbb{N}$. We want to know if the maximum $w$-packing of vertex-disjoint paths with extremities in $\mathcal{S}$ is equal to the minimum weight of a vertex-cut separating $\mathcal{S}$. We call \emph{Mader-Mengerian} the graphs with this property for each independant set $\mathcal{S}$ and each weight function $w$. We give a characterization of these graphs in term of forbidden minors, as well as a recognition algorithm and a simple algorithm to find maximum packing of paths and minimum multicuts in those graphs.
Effects on Automatic Attention Due to Exposure to Pictures of Emotional Faces while Performing Chinese Word Judgment Tasks

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the automatic processing of emotional facial expressions while performing low or high demand cognitive tasks under unattended conditions. In Experiment 1, 35 subjects performed low (judging the structure of Chinese words) and high (judging the tone of Chinese words) cognitive load tasks while exposed to unattended pictures of fearful, neutral, or happy faces. The results revealed that the reaction time was slower and the performance accuracy was higher while performing the low cognitive load task than while performing the high cognitive load task. Exposure to fearful faces resulted in significantly longer reaction times and lower accuracy than exposure to neutral faces on the low cognitive load task. In Experiment 2, 26 subjects performed the same word judgment tasks and their brain event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured for a period of 800 ms after the onset of the task stimulus. The amplitudes of the early component of ERP around 176 ms (P2) elicited by unattended fearful faces over frontal-central-parietal recording sites was significantly larger than those elicited by unattended neutral faces while performing the word structure judgment task. Together, the findings of the two experiments indicated that unattended fearful faces captured significantly more attention resources than unattended neutral faces on a low cognitive load task, but not on a high cognitive load task. It was concluded that fearful faces could automatically capture attention if residues of attention resources were available under the unattended condition.
Alignment seeding strategies using contiguous pyrimidine purine matches

Large-scale genomic pairwise aligners usually start with a seeding procedure, which scans two sequences to obtain base matches (called hits) that follow a certain pattern (called a seed). The seed pattern and size determine the sensitivity and specificity of the seeding procedure and greatly affect the alignment accuracy and computational efficiency. Much effort has been focused on obtaining an optimal (set of) spaced seed(s) to improve sensitivity. However, specificity also becomes a big concern when aligning very long genomic sequences. We present a seeding strategy that identifies contiguous pyrimidine purine (py·pu) matches. This model may improve sensitivity and specificity simultaneously compared to a contiguous base match model. We further present a seeding strategy that identifies contiguous py·pu matches with at least a certain number of contiguous base matches. This model significantly improves sensitivity and specificity simultaneously compared to the base match model. It can also achieve better sensitivity than an optimal spaced seed without loss of specificity, when the ratio of transition to transversion is high. Our examination on the CFTR region of 2M bases between human and mouse shows that this new model can have very high specificity without much loss of sensitivity compared to an optimal spaced seed. Based on the characteristics (e.g. the sequence similarity, the ratio between transition and transversion, and the lengths of gapless alignments) of alignments between human and other mammals, the new seeding strategies are promising in improving alignment quality of a wide selection of species pairs. This paper also lays the groundwork for future advancement of applying spaced patterns in these seeding strategies.
Segmentation of abnormal cells by using level set model

Segmentation of image is used from a long time in medical image applications and its study is increased for enhanced the medical diagnosis. This paper concerns a deformable segmentation method for abnormal cells detection by using an improved Level set model which is solved several problems and disadvantages of others segmentation technique. Our approach employed by using real data of carcinoma cells obtained from optical microscopy. Preliminary simulation results showed high performance metrics of the proposed model. Comparative study with manual segmentation demonstrated and confirmed that the level set can be a promise model of abnormal cells detection and in a particularly an irregular shape like carcinoma cells type.
STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY EVALUATION OF WIND TURBINE BLADES USING PATTERN RECOGNITION ANALYSIS ON ACOUSTIC EMISSION DATA

Current Wind Turbine (W/T) Blade certification practices require the conduction of static and fatigue tests on new blades, in order to assess whether the blade can sustain the applied loads. Within the scopes of a current EC-funded research project, Acoustic Emission (AE) monitoring has been extensively applied during testing of various W/T Blades of similar design. All blades were loaded to failure by, either, gradually increasing the static test loads, or fatiguing the blade until it failed. It has, already, been reported that AE could well locate the damage imposed on the blade during such tests (static and fatigue), and in most cases before the damage had become visible or audible, enhancing, thus, the assessment capabilities and the understanding of the failure process of the blades. Additionally, application of typical AE load-and-hold proof tests at intermediate loading stages, prior to failure, has enabled the assessment of the damage criticality for the particular proof load, denoted by high acoustic emission rates during load-holds. Furthermore, it has been observed that the AE behaviour of all tested blades during load-holds exhibited very similar trends right prior to failure, despite the fact that blades failed differently. The present paper reports on the use of (specially created for the Project) Pattern Recognition (PR) software which has revealed the existence of a “critical” class of AE data appearing close to failure. This has enabled the formulation of evaluation criteria used for the automated assessment of the blade’s integrity, based on the amount of hits from critical classes appearing during the hold period. It is shown that, for similar blades, common grading criteria can be applied successfully, enabling a fast and effective “grading” (from “good” to “severely damaged”), and providing very successful warnings of impending failure. This is particularly important for an effective analysis of fatigue tests that have lasted for months and have produced huge amounts of AE data. The software and the automated blade evaluation will be verified with future tests on large, commercial scale blades.
Failure of Asset Pricing Models: Transaction Cost, Irrationality, or Missing Factors

The reason for the failure of asset pricing models can be divided into three categories: Transaction costs, investor irrationality, or missing risk factors. This study investigates which of the three categories best explains the poor performance of asset pricing models. We regress the differences between the expected return and the realized return on variables related to the failure of asset pricing models. First, we find that both transaction costs and investor irrationality are significantly related to the differences between the realized return and the expected return from the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) even after size and book-to-market are con-trolled. Second, we implement the same testing procedure for the CAPM to other 6 asset pricing models. The results of these regressions are all similar to those for the CAPM. Moreover, most of the Wald tests cannot reject the null hypothesis that the coefficients of asset pricing models are the same except for the consumption CAPM and the conditional CAPM. These results indicate that models with more risk factors than the CAPM cannot improve the CAPM's failure caused by transaction costs and investor irrationality. There-fore, we argue that transaction costs and investor irrationality present a fundamental limit to the improvement of an asset pricing model that cannot be compensated by additional factors.
Design and implementation of flyback converters

In switch mode power supplies(SMPS), flyback converters are very popular because of, design simplicity, low cost, multiple isolated outputs, high output voltages and high efficiency. They are preferred especially for low power applications (150W). In this work, flyback converters are analyzed, mathematical modeled, designed with given parameters, tested with simulation software and practically results.
ICT adoption and development: issues in rural accommodation

Purpose – The work described in this paper is of direct relevance to those with an interest in the phenomena surrounding information and communication technologies adoption by the rural accommodation sector. The paper aims to provide the results from a preliminary study, which examined differences in the level of inter‐firm technology adoption between rural and urban accommodation establishments within a major tourism destination, Scotland.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted, and the results set out here suggest that these differences are only presented with two types of technology, i.e. systems requiring networking infrastructure and sector‐specific applications.Findings – The discussion suggests that the neoclassical theory of growth and theory of development are contradictory but that they complementarily explain different levels of adoption between rural and urban setting.Research limitations/implications – Not only theoretical, but also industry implications and suggestions for furth.
Human Activity Recognition in Videos

Our project deals with the problem of classifying real-world videos by human activity. Such videos usually have a large variation in background and camera motion. This makes the performance of models using low-level appearance and motion features unsatisfactory, particularly in the case of video classes sharing similar objects and background (e.g. ”snatch” and ”clean-jerk” weightlifting actions). Objects present in a video, and the event label are mutually related. For instance, the presence of a “barbell” in a video would help classify it as a “weightlifting” event. Similarly, we would expect to see a “barbell” in a “weightlifting” video . Thus, recognizing the object presence and motion in a video should aid the event classification task. However, this requires an accurate detection of object tracks, which is a highly challenging task in itself. Works like [12], use humans in the loop to obtain good quality object tracks. However this requires significant human effort. We address this issue by extracting candidate tracks from a video, and modeling the choice of correct tracks as latent variables in a Latent SVM (LSVM) [14]. This formulation enables us to peform action recognition and weakly supervised object tracking in a joint framework. This leads to a more robust as well as discriminative choice of object tracks for event classification. Candidate object tracks are extracted using Deformable Part based Models (DPM) [2] and a tracking algorithm from [12]. We capture the object appearance and motion in a video through features extracted from the object tracks to use in our LSVM model. Finally, we test the performance of our model against different baselines, and show imporvement over the stateof-the-art method on the Olympic Sports Dataset introduced in [7]. 2. Related work