Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Online self-supervised multi-instance segmentation of dynamic objects

This paper presents a method for the continuous segmentation of dynamic objects using only a vehicle mounted monocular camera without any prior knowledge of the object's appearance. Prior work in online static/dynamic segmentation [1] is extended to identify multiple instances of dynamic objects by introducing an unsupervised motion clustering step. These clusters are then used to update a multi-class classifier within a self-supervised framework. In contrast to many tracking-by-detection based methods, our system is able to detect dynamic objects without any prior knowledge of their visual appearance shape or location. Furthermore, the classifier is used to propagate labels of the same object in previous frames, which facilitates the continuous tracking of individual objects based on motion. The proposed system is evaluated using recall and false alarm metrics in addition to a new multi-instance labelled dataset to measure the performance of segmenting multiple instances of objects.
Building product populations with software components

Two trends have made reuse of embedded software for consumer electronics an urgent issue: the software of individual products becomes more and more complex, and the market demands a larger variety of products at an increasing rate. For that reason, various business groups within Philips organize their products as product families. A third trend is the integration of functions that until now were only found in separate products (e.g. a TV with Dolby Digital sound and a built-in DVD player). This requires software reuse between product families, which (when organized systematically), leads to a product population approach. We have set up such a product population approach, and applied it in various business groups within our organization. We use a component technology that stimulates context independence, and allows the composition of new products out of existing parts. We use an architectural description language to explicitly describe the architecture, and also to generate efficient bindings. We have aligned our development process and organization with the new 'compositional' way of working. The paper outlines our approach and reports on our experiences with it.
Cross Language Text Categorization Using a Bilingual Lexicon

With the popularity of the Internet at a phenomenal rate, an ever-increasing number of documents in languages other than English are available in the Internet. Cross language text categorization has attracted more and more attention for the organization of these heterogeneous document collections. In this paper, we focus on how to conduct effective cross language text categorization. To this end, we propose a cross language naive Bayes algorithm. The preliminary experiments on collected document collections show the effectiveness of the proposed method and verify the feasibility of achieving performance close to monolingual text categorization, using a bilingual lexicon alone. Also, our algorithm is more efficient than our baselines.
An Electronic Publication Dedicated to Early Stellar Evolution and Molecular Clouds Spitzer Spectroscopy of the Circumprimary Disk in the Binary Brown Dwarf 2mass J04414489+2301513 X-ray Impact on the Protoplanetary Disks around T Tauri Stars

Using the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph, we have performed mid-infrared spectroscopy on the young binary brown dwarf 2MASS J04414489+2301513 (15 AU) in the Taurus star-forming region. The spectrum exhibits excess continuum emission that likely arises from a circumstellar disk around the primary. Silicate emission is not detected in these data, indicating the presence of significant grain growth. This is one of the few brown dwarf disks at such a young age (∼ 1 Myr) that has been found to lack silicate emission. To quantitatively constrain the properties of the disk, we have compared the spectral energy distribution of 2MASS J04414489+2301513 to the predictions of our vertical structure codes for irradiated accretion disks. Our models suggest that the remaining atmospheric grains of moderately depleted layers may have grown to a size of ∼ >5 µm. In addition, our model fits indicate an outer radius of 0.2–0.3 AU for the disk. The small size of this circumprimary disk could be due to truncation by the secondary. The absence of an outer disk containing a reservoir of small, primordial grains, combined with a weak turbulent mechanism, may be responsible for the advanced grain growth in this disk.
Synthesis of Prostaglandin E2 Ethanolamide from Anandamide by Cyclooxygenase-2*

Because of its structural similarity to polyunsaturated fatty acids, anandamide could serve as substrate for enzymes such as lipoxygenases and cyclooxygenases, which metabolize polyunsaturated fatty acids to potent bioactive metabolites. Here the ability of recombinant human cyclooxygenase-1 (hCOX-1) and cyclooxygenase-2 (hCOX-2) to metabolize anandamide was studied. Baculovirus-expressed and -purified hCOX-2, but not hCOX-1, effectively oxygenated anandamide. Reverse phase high pressure liquid chromatography analysis of the products derived from 1-14C-labeled anandamide showed that the products formed are similar to those formed with arachidonic acid as substrate. The major prostanoid product derived from anandamide was determined by mass spectrometry to be prostaglandin E2 ethanolamide. Incubation of anandamide with lysates and the intact cell line expressing COX-2 but not that of COX-1 produced prostaglandin E2 ethanolamide. These results demonstrate the existence of a COX-2-mediated pathway for anandamide metabolism, and the metabolites formed represent a novel class of prostaglandins.
AN EXPERIMENTAL MANIPULATION OF LIFE‐HISTORY TRAJECTORIES AND RESISTANCE TO OXIDATIVE STRESS

Abstract Optimal investment into life‐history traits depends on the environmental conditions that organisms are likely to experience during their life. Evolutionary theory tells us that optimal investment in reproduction versus maintenance is likely to shape the pattern of age‐associated decline in performance, also known as aging. The currency that is traded against different vital functions is, however, still debated. Here, we took advantage of a phenotypic manipulation of individual quality in early life to explore (1) long‐term consequences on life‐history trajectories, and (2) the possible physiological mechanism underlying the life‐history adjustments. We manipulated phenotypic quality of a cohort of captive zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) by assigning breeding pairs to either an enlarged or a reduced brood. Nestlings raised in enlarged broods were in poorer condition than nestlings raised in reduced broods. Interestingly, the effect of environmental conditions experienced during early life extended to the age at first reproduction. Birds from enlarged broods delayed reproduction. Birds that delayed reproduction produced less offspring but lived longer, although neither fecundity nor longevity were directly affected by the experimental brood size. Using the framework of the life‐table response experiment modeling, we also explored the effect of early environmental condition on population growth rate and aging. Birds raised in reduced broods tended to have a higher population growth rate, and a steeper decrease of reproductive value with age than birds reared in enlarged broods. Metabolic resources necessary to fight off the damaging effect of reactive oxygen species (ROS) could be the mechanism underlying the observed results, as (1) birds that engaged in a higher number of breeding events had a weaker red blood cell resistance to oxidative stress, (2) red blood cell resistance to oxidative stress predicted short‐term mortality (but not longevity), and (3) was related with a parabolic function to age. Overall, these results highlight that early condition can have long‐term effects on life‐history trajectories by affecting key life‐history traits such as age at first reproduction, and suggest that the trade‐off between reproduction and self‐maintenance might be mediated by the cumulative deleterious effect of ROS.
Stability and change in intelligence from age 11 to ages 70, 79, and 87: the Lothian Birth Cohorts of 1921 and 1936.

Investigating the predictors of age-related cognitive change is a research priority. However, it is first necessary to discover the long-term stability of measures of cognitive ability because prior cognitive ability level might contribute to the amount of cognitive change experienced within old age. These two issues were examined in the Lothian Birth Cohorts of 1921 and 1936. Cognitive ability data were available from age 11 years when the participants completed the Moray House Test No. 12 (MHT). The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (LBC1936) completed the MHT a second time at age 70. The Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 (LBC1921) completed the MHT at ages 79 and 87. We examined cognitive stability and change from childhood to old age in both cohorts, and within old age in the LBC1921. Raw stability coefficients for the MHT from 11-70, 11-79, and 11-87 years were . 67, . 66, and . 51, respectively; and larger when corrected for range restriction in the samples. Therefore, minimum estimates of the variance in later-life MHT accounted for by childhood performance on the same test ranged from 26-44%. This study also examined, in the LBC1921, whether MHT score at age 11 influenced the amount of change in MHT between ages 79 and 87. It did not. Higher intelligence from early life was apparently protective of intelligence in old age due to the stability of cognitive function across the lifespan, rather than because it slowed the decline experienced in later life.
A Blind Image Watermarking Algorithm Based on Dual Tree Complex Wavelet Transform

watermark image as copyright sign is preprocessed with a random location matrix. The original image is transformed in the complex wavelet domain by using DT-CWT, then, according to the characteristics of the image data, the preprocessed watermark image is adaptively spread spectrum and added into the host image DT-CWT coefficients. The proposed watermark algorithm needs two keys: a random location matrix ensures the security of watermarking procedure and spread spectrum watermark sequence guarantees its robustness. Simulation results demonstrate the robustness of our image watermarking procedure, especially under the typical attacks of geometric operations.
Recognizing emotions from videos by studying facial expressions, body postures and hand gestures

A system for recognizing emotions from videos by studying facial expressions, hand gestures and body postures is presented. A stochastic context-free grammar (SCFG) containing 8 combinations of hand gestures and body postures for each emotion is used and we show that increasing the number of combinations in SCFG improves the system's generalization for new hand gesture and body posture combinations. We show that hand gestures and body postures contribute to improving the emotion recognition rate with up to 5% for Anger, Sadness and Fear compared to the standard facial emotion recognition system, while for Happiness, Surprise and Disgust no significant improvement was noticed.
Impact of myocardial function on perfusion

The coronary tree has to ensure adequate blood flow to the needs of the working myocardium, which is a direct expression of the metabolic activity of all other organs and systems. Indeed, a variety of mechanisms all together orchestrate myocardial perfusion in order to match the central and peripheral requests. In the next article the regulation of coronary blood flow will be investigated, focusing particularly on the role played by the coronary microcirculation and the metabolic dilation.
An automated code smell and anti-pattern detection approach

Today, software maintenance is more expensive than development costs. As class complexity increases, it is increasingly difficult for new programmers to adapt to software projects, causing the cost of the software to go up. Therefore, it's important to produce faultless and understandable code. Moreover, software projects are not developed by one person alone; even a small-scale project needs 3 or more participants working on the code at the same time. Producing well designed code during the development stage has a significant value because this process makes software projects more understandable and leads to higher code quality. Consequently, the cost of software project maintenance will decrease. Code smells and anti-patterns are symptoms of poorly designed code. The aforementioned tendencies of software projects increase the possibility of poor implementations and code imperfections. Therefore it is necessary to detect and refactor poorly designed code. This paper describes an attempt to achieve their detection.
Hydrogel Microencapsulated Insulin-Secreting Cells Increase Keratinocyte Migration, Epidermal Thickness, Collagen Fiber Density, and Wound Closure in a Diabetic Mouse Model of Wound Healing

Wound healing is a hierarchical process of intracellular and intercellular signaling. Insulin is a potent chemoattractant and mitogen for cells involved in wound healing. Insulin's potential to promote keratinocyte growth and stimulate collagen synthesis in fibroblasts is well described. However, there currently lacks an appropriate delivery mechanism capable of consistently supplying a wound environment with insulin; current approaches require repeated applications of insulin, which increase the chances of infecting the wound. In this study, we present a novel cell-based therapy that delivers insulin to the wound area in a constant or glucose-dependent manner by encapsulating insulin-secreting cells in nonimmunogenic poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogel microspheres. We evaluated cell viability and insulin secretory characteristics of microencapsulated cells. Glucose stimulation studies verified free diffusion of glucose and insulin through the microspheres, while no statistical difference in insulin secretion was observed between cells in microspheres and cells in monolayers. Scratch assays demonstrated accelerated keratinocyte migration in vitro when treated with microencapsulated cells. In excisional wounds on the dorsa of diabetic mice, microencapsulated RIN-m cells accelerated wound closure by postoperative day 7; a statistically significant increase over AtT-20ins-treated and control groups. Histological results indicated significantly greater epidermal thickness in both microencapsulated RIN-m and AtT-20ins-treated wounds. The results suggest that microencapsulation enables insulin-secreting cells to persist long enough at the wound site for a therapeutic effect and thereby functions as an effective delivery vehicle to accelerate wound healing.
Contribution of Many Charged Residues at the Stator-Rotor Interface of the Na+-Driven Flagellar Motor to Torque Generation in Vibrio alginolyticus

ABSTRACT In torque generation by the bacterial flagellar motor, it has been suggested that electrostatic interactions between charged residues of MotA and FliG at the rotor-stator interface are important. However, the actual role(s) of those charged residues has not yet been clarified. In this study, we systematically made mutants of Vibrio alginolyticus whose charged residues of PomA (MotA homologue) and FliG were replaced by uncharged or charge-reversed residues and characterized the motilities of those mutants. We found that the members of a group of charged residues, 7 in PomA and 6 in FliG, collectively participate in torque generation of the Na+-driven flagellar motor in Vibrio. An additional specific interaction between PomA-E97 and FliG-K284 is critical for proper performance of the Vibrio motor. Our results also reveal that more charged residues are involved in the PomA-FliG interactions in the Vibrio Na+-driven motor than in the MotA-FliG interactions in the H+-driven one. This suggests that a larger number of conserved charged residues at the PomA-FliG interface contributes to the robustness of the Vibrio motor against mutations. The interaction surfaces of the stator and rotor of the Na+-driven motor seem to be more complex than those previously proposed in the H+-driven motor.
A practical user mobility prediction algorithm for supporting adaptive QoS in wireless networks

A number of user mobility prediction algorithms have been reported in the literature. These may be used for resource reservation and service pre-configuration/adaptation in future wireless networks to provide QoS guarantees. However, our analysis of some of these techniques using measured cellular performance shows that these models do not accurately represent the mobility patterns of users. As a result, resource reservation schemes need to reserve excessive resources, and the pre-configuration/adaptation does not work well. To overcome this, we propose an adaptive user mobility prediction algorithm that limits the reservation and configuration procedure to a subset of cells around the user. The viability and effectiveness of the proposed scheme is then demonstrated through a simulation based on measured data.
Draft Genome Sequence of a Nonhemolytic Fish-Pathogenic Streptococcus agalactiae Strain

ABSTRACT Streptococcus agalactiae is a significant Gram-positive bacterial pathogen of terrestrial and aquatic animals. A subpopulation of nonhemolytic strains which appear to be pathogenic only for poikilotherms exists. We report here the first draft genome sequence of a nonhemolytic S. agalactiae isolate recovered from a diseased fish.
A five year perspective of traffic pattern evolution in a residential broadband access network

In this paper we describe a systematic study on long-term evolution of residential broadband Internet traffic covering 5 calendar years from June 2007 to May 2011. The traffic evolution is characterized both in the term of the total traffic volume, as well as the traffic volumes and shares for different application categories (file sharing, video streaming etc.), with the focus on comparing the traffic on the per IP user basis and among different broadband subscription groups. The results show that the average daily total traffic generated by each private end user increased only by about 33 % during the past 5 years. Further, the results show that the P2P file-sharing has been dominating the network total traffic, but the daily file-sharing traffic volume per end user largely remains the same. Also, the daily streaming-media traffic volume per end user has increased dramatically by over 500% during the studied period of time. In the meantime, the daily web-browsing traffic volume per end user has increased by about 300%. Finally, a further investigation among 4 different FTTH broadband subscription groups with 1, 10, 30, and 100 Mbit/s symmetric access speeds shows that the lower the access speed, the more diversified the end user traffic tend to be.
Oral cancer prevention and early detection knowledge and practices of Illinois dentists--a brief communication.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of the study was to assess Illinois dentists' self-reported knowledge and practices concerning oral cancer prevention, early detection, and management as a baseline prior to conducting interventions designed to increase dentists' capacity to detect and manage oral cancers and counsel their patients about risk reduction. METHODS A weighted sample to represent licensed dentists in 19 counties yielded 518 dentists who responded to a 38-item mailed survey in 2004. RESULTS Over 92 percent of the dentists reported providing oral cancer exams. However, many are not doing them properly or at frequent intervals. Over two-thirds had oral cancer continuing education, but 40 percent had it more than 2 years prior to the survey. Training in risk counseling was rare. CONCLUSIONS Interventions are needed to assure appropriate skill and knowledge levels for oral cancer early detection, management, and risk counseling by Illinois dentists.
Development of biomarker classifiers from high-dimensional data

Recent development of high-throughput technology has accelerated interest in the development of molecular biomarker classifiers for safety assessment, disease diagnostics and prognostics, and prediction of response for patient assignment. This article reviews and evaluates some important aspects and key issues in the development of biomarker classifiers. Development of a biomarker classifier for high-throughput data involves two components: (i) model building and (ii) performance assessment. This article focuses on feature selection in model building and cross validation for performance assessment. A 'frequency' approach to feature selection is presented and compared to the 'conventional' approach in terms of the predictive accuracy and stability of the selected feature set. The two approaches are compared based on four biomarker classifiers, each with a different feature selection method and well-known classification algorithm. In each of the four classifiers the feature predictor set selected by the frequency approach is more stable than the feature set selected by the conventional approach.
Butyrate and Propionate Protect against Diet-Induced Obesity and Regulate Gut Hormones via Free Fatty Acid Receptor 3-Independent Mechanisms

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), primarily acetate, propionate, and butyrate, are metabolites formed by gut microbiota from complex dietary carbohydrates. Butyrate and acetate were reported to protect against diet-induced obesity without causing hypophagia, while propionate was shown to reduce food intake. However, the underlying mechanisms for these effects are unclear. It was suggested that SCFAs may regulate gut hormones via their endogenous receptors Free fatty acid receptors 2 (FFAR2) and 3 (FFAR3), but direct evidence is lacking. We examined the effects of SCFA administration in mice, and show that butyrate, propionate, and acetate all protected against diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance. Butyrate and propionate, but not acetate, induce gut hormones and reduce food intake. As FFAR3 is the common receptor activated by butyrate and propionate, we examined these effects in FFAR3-deficient mice. The effects of butyrate and propionate on body weight and food intake are independent of FFAR3. In addition, FFAR3 plays a minor role in butyrate stimulation of Glucagon-like peptide-1, and is not required for butyrate- and propionate-dependent induction of Glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide. Finally, FFAR3-deficient mice show normal body weight and glucose homeostasis. Stimulation of gut hormones and food intake inhibition by butyrate and propionate may represent a novel mechanism by which gut microbiota regulates host metabolism. These effects are largely intact in FFAR3-deficient mice, indicating additional mediators are required for these beneficial effects.