Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Generation method of synthetic training data for mobile OCR system

This paper addresses one of the fundamental problems of machine learning - training data acquiring. Obtaining enough natural training data is rather difficult and expensive. In last years usage of synthetic images has become more beneficial as it allows to save human time and also to provide a huge number of images which otherwise would be difficult to obtain. However, for successful learning on artificial dataset one should try to reduce the gap between natural and synthetic data distributions. In this paper we describe an algorithm which allows to create artificial training datasets for OCR systems using russian passport as a case study.
Fast Template Matching of Repetitive Objects in Stereoscopy

One of the challenges of stereovision is to process images with repetitive objects. In order to calculate the distance to an object, matching of the corresponding points between two images must be done. When repetitive objects exist, matching is not straightforward. Many known stereo methods rely on a uniqueness constraint. A uniqueness constraint assumes that only one correct match exists between stereo images. Some algorithms ignore repetitive objects and omit them in the depth map. We present a method that does not employ a uniqueness constraint, but rather determines whether an object is repetitive and then solves the matching problem by finding a unique object that is in close proximity to the object.
Kinetics of oxidation of tyrosine by a model alkoxyl radical

Abstract Oxidation of tyrosine moieties by radicals involved in lipid peroxidation is of current interest; while a rate constant has been reported for reaction of lipid peroxyl radicals with a tyrosine model, little is known about the reaction between tyrosine and alkoxyl radicals (also intermediates in the lipid peroxidation chain reaction). In this study, the reaction between a model alkoxyl radical, the tert-butoxyl radical and tyrosine was followed using steady-state and pulse radiolysis. Acetone, a product of the β-fragmentation of the tert-butoxyl radical, was measured; the yield was reduced by the presence of tyrosine in a concentration- and pH-dependent manner. From these data, a rate constant for the reaction between tert-butoxyl and tyrosine was estimated as 6 ± 1 × 107 M−1 s−1 at pH 10. Tyrosine phenoxyl radicals were also monitored directly by kinetic spectrophotometry following generation of tert-butoxyl radicals by pulse radiolysis of solutions containing tyrosine. From the yield of tyrosyl radicals (measured before they decayed) as a function of tyrosine concentration, a rate constant for the reaction between tert-butoxyl and tyrosine was estimated as 7 ± 3 × 107 M−1 s−1 at pH 10 (the reaction was not observable at pH 7). We conclude that reaction involves oxidation of tyrosine phenolate rather than undissociated phenol; since the pKa of phenolic hydroxyl dissociation in tyrosine is ∼ 10.3, this infers a much lower rate constant, about 3 × 105 M−1 s−1, for the reaction between this alkoxyl radical and tyrosine at pH 7.4.
Control of the Replicative Life Span of Human Fibroblasts by p16 and the Polycomb Protein Bmi-1

ABSTRACT The polycomb protein Bmi-1 represses the INK4a locus, which encodes the tumor suppressors p16 and p14ARF. Here we report that Bmi-1 is downregulated when WI-38 human fibroblasts undergo replicative senescence, but not quiescence, and extends replicative life span when overexpressed. Life span extension by Bmi-1 required the pRb, but not p53, tumor suppressor protein. Deletion analysis showed that the RING finger and helix-turn-helix domains of Bmi-1 were required for life span extension and suppression of p16. Furthermore, a RING finger deletion mutant exhibited dominant negative activity, inducing p16 and premature senescence. Interestingly, presenescent cultures of some, but not all, human fibroblasts contained growth-arrested cells expressing high levels of p16 and apparently arrested by a p53- and telomere-independent mechanism. Bmi-1 selectively extended the life span of these cultures. Low O2 concentrations had no effect on p16 levels or life span extension by Bmi-1 but reduced expression of the p53 target, p21. We propose that some human fibroblast strains are more sensitive to stress-induced senescence and have both p16-dependent and p53/telomere-dependent pathways of senescence. Our data suggest that Bmi-1 extends the replicative life span of human fibroblasts by suppressing the p16-dependent senescence pathway.
A Comparison of the Dietary Arsenic Exposures from Ingestion of Contaminated Soil and Hyperaccumulating Pteris Ferns Used in a Residential Phytoremediation Project

Arsenic (As) hyperaccumulating ferns are used to phytoremediate As-contaminated soils, including soils in residential areas. This use may pose a health risk if children were to ingest these plants. Spider brake (Pteris cretica L.) plants were grown in sand spiked with arsenate, to produce tissue As concentrations (2000–4500 mg kg DW−1) typical of those observed in plants deployed for As phytoremediation. The fronds were subjected to a physiologically-based extraction test to estimate As bioaccessibility, which ranged from 3.4–20.5%. A scenario for human dietary exposure to As in an urban setting was then estimated for a child consuming 0.25 g DW of tissue. The calculation of dietary exposure took into account the As concentration in the fern pinnae, the bioaccessibility of As in the tissue, and the typical absorption of inorganic As by the gastrointestinal tract. The pinnae As concentrations and the calculated dietary exposures were used to create a non-linear regression model relating tissue As concentration to dietary exposure. Data from a phytoremediation project in a residential area using Pteris cretica and Pteris vittata (L.) were input into this model to project dietary As exposure in a residential phytoremediation setting. These exposures were compared to estimates of dietary As exposure from the consumption of soil. The results showed that dietary exposures to As from consumption of soil or pinnae tissue were similar and that estimates of dietary exposure were below the LOAEL value of 14 μg As kg−1 d−1. The results suggest that the hyperaccumulation of As in Pteris ferns during growth in moderately contaminated residential soils (e.g., ≤ 100 mg As kg DW−1) does not represent an inherent risk or a risk substantially different from that posed by accidental ingestion of contaminated soil.
Scene slice analysis based lane detection and tracking

A new concept about the road recognition problem, slice coherence comparability, is defined in this paper. A novel road model, generatrix-slice model, is proposed on this conception. Based on the numerical analysis of slice coherence comparability, the robustness of the lane detection and tracking is improved in evidence. The experiments show that this method is robust on various road types.
Human Papillomavirus Infection and Its Association with HIV

Human papillomavirus (HPV) can infect oral mucosa, causing asymptomatic infection or warty lesions. Several case-control studies have confirmed HPV as an independent risk factor for squamous cell carcinoma. HPV-related cancers seem to have better prognoses and different risk factors than do HPV-negative ones. HIV-infected patients are known to be at increased risk for persistent genital and anal high-risk HPV infections and intraepithelial neoplasm. Since the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy, the prevalence and persistence of warty lesions in oral mucosa have increased. Oral squamous cell carcinoma was recently added in the case definitions for common HIV-related oral mucosa lesions. The increased risk of HPV infection in HIV patients has been associated with impaired immune response to HPV, highly active antiretroviral therapy, aging of the HIV-infected patients, and direct interaction between the 2 viruses. HPV32 seems to be much more prevalent in asymptomatic HPV infections and warts among those infected with HIV than among those in the general population. Regarding HIV genes, there is evidence of an interaction between HPV and tat, rev, and vpr. HIV might play a role in HPV-associated pathogenesis by exhorting oncogenic stimuli via tat and rev or visa versa.
Snapshot compressive spectral imaging based on adaptive coded apertures

Coded aperture snapshot spectral imager (CASSI) uses focal plane array (FPA) to capture three dimensional (3D) spectral scene by single or a few two-dimensional (2D) snapshots. Current CASSI systems use a set of fixed coded apertures to modulate the spatio-spectral data cube before the compressive measurement. This paper proposes an adaptive projection method to improve the compressive efficiency of the CASSI system by adaptively designing the coded aperture according to a-priori knowledge of the scene. The adaptive coded apertures are constructed from the nonlinear thresholding of the grey-scale map of the scene, which is captured by an aided RGB camera. Then, the 3D encoded spectral scene is projected onto the 2D FPAs. Based on the sparsity assumption, the spectral images can be reconstructed by the compressive sensing algorithm using the FPA measurements. This paper studies and verifies the proposed adaptive coded aperture method on a spatial super-resolution CASSI system, where the resolution of the coded aperture is higher than that of the FPAs. It is shown that the adaptive coded apertures provide superior reconstruction performance of the spectral images over the random coded apertures.
Low, slow, small target recognition based on spatial vision network

Traditional photoelectric monitoring is monitored using a large number of identical cameras. In order to ensure the full coverage of the monitoring area, this monitoring method uses more cameras, which leads to more monitoring and repetition areas, and higher costs, resulting in more waste. In order to reduce the monitoring cost and solve the difficult problem of finding, identifying and tracking a low altitude, slow speed and small target, this paper presents spatial vision network for low-slow-small targets recognition. Based on camera imaging principle and monitoring model, spatial vision network is modeled and optimized. Simulation experiment results demonstrate that the proposed method has good performance.
An Improved Pose Estimation Algorithm For Real-time Vision Applications

An accurate and efficient pose estimation algorithm is presented to estimate the location of a three-dimensional object from the relating two-dimensional images. The iterative pose estimation algorithm, called OI (orthogonal iteration) algorithm, is fast and globally convergent. But it seems that its simulation results have a large translation error in relatively close range, which was explained as the influences of biasing effects introduced by the projection matrix; however, we find that it was caused by the error of rotational matrix. Based on improving the accuracy of rotational matrix, the OI algorithm was refined. Experiments with both synthetic data and real images show that the results using the improved method are more accurate than that of the OI algorithm
Targeting complement C5 in atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome.

Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is defined as the combination of microangiopathic hemolytic anemia (MAHA), acute renal failure, and thrombocytopenia. It occurs most often during outbreaks of diarrheal food poisoning with enteropathogenic strains of Escherichia coli such as O157:H7 and others that
Manifold Visualization via Short Walks

Visualizing low-dimensional non-linear manifolds underlying high-dimensional data is a challenging data analysis problem. Different manifold visualization methods can be characterized by the associated definitions of proximity between high-dimensional data points and score functions that lead to different low-dimensional embeddings, preserving different features in the data. The geodesic distance is a popular and well-justified metric. However, it is very hard to approximate reliably from finite samples especially between far apart points. In this paper, we propose a new method called Minimap. The basic idea is to approximate local geodesic distances by shortest paths along a neighborhood graph with an additional penalizing factor based on the number of steps in the path. Embedding the resulting metric by Sammon mapping further enhances the local structures at the expense of long distances that tend to be less reliable. Experiments on real-world benchmarks suggest that Minimap can robustly visualize manifold structures.
Optimizing collaborative computations for scalable distributed inference in large graphs

In this paper, we study two methods to optimize distributed collaborative computations: (a) data partitioning, which exploits locality to reduce data dependencies between local computations, and (b) computation aggregation, which reduces communication load between local partitions. We analyze the benefits of such optimizations and their utility for message-passing processing model. This is a class of general-purpose graph analytics widely used in a range of domains and applications, including computer vision, activity recognition, social network analysis, knowledge mining, and semi-supervised inference. Described optimization methods will improve performance of implementing relational data analytics in distributed environments, including cloud computing, graphical processing units, collaborative multi-agent systems, or specialized chip-boards.
Optical fiber sensors for harsh environments

Optical fiber-based sensing instrumentation has been demonstrated to be especiallyattractive for the measurement of a wide variety of physical and chemical parameters because of such inherent advantages as I) an immunity to electromagnetic interference, 2) avoidance of ground loops, 3) capability of responding to a wide variety of measurands, 4) avoidance of electric sparks. 5) resistance to harsh environment, 6) remote operation, 7) capability of multiplexing. and 8) ease of integration into large-scale fiber networking and communication systems. Because of these inherent advantages, fiber sensors are therefore attractive to the oil industry.
High dynamic infrared image compressive enhancement based on fast local Laplacian filters

High dynamic range infrared image detail enhancement is an important processing procedure in the field of infrared (IR) imaging. Because of the dynamic range of natural scene image far beyond the human vision system, display equipment, and the high dynamic image transformed directly from high dynamic to low dynamic will cause detail information lost, it is essential to compress dynamic range of image and enhance detail. Aiming at the disadvantages of existing methods, high dynamic infrared image compressive enhancement based on fast local Laplacian filters were proposed. First, the fast local Laplacian filters are utilized to separate the image into a base layer and detail layer. Second, the dynamic range of base layer was compressed by using gamma correction in order to improve contrast. The detail layer is stretched by utilizing sigmoid function. Finally, the enhanced output image is obtained by recombining the detail layer and base layer. Compared with other methods such as histogram equalization, bilateral filtering, the experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method have a better performance in term of enhancing details and improving contrast by using evaluation index of image detail enhancement.
Synergistic combination of document security techniques

The value of security features tends to decrease gradually, partly because of the continuously increasing ability of counterfeiters to counterfeit or imitate these features and partly because of the increasing capability and availability of equipment. As a countermeasure, numerous non-iridescent and iridescent optically variable devices (OVDs) are continuously being developed. The former comprise novel laser engraving techniques, the latter DOVIDs (diffractive optically variable image devices) and ISISs (interference security image structures). Although these novel techniques appear highly effective, there are indications that they are beginning to fail, not in the least because organized crime appears to have acquired some of those newer techniques. The response is the synergistic combination of those techniques, which combination expectedly remains beyond the capability of criminal organizations. This ongoing development is currently providing new and exciting security potential. Examples are combinations of diffractive and interference phenomena and of laser perforation techniques with OVDs. The latter combinations provide strong protection against counterfeiting as well as forgery.
Diurnal Cycles of Sulfate Reduction under Oxic Conditions in Cyanobacterial Mats

Diurnal cycles of sulfate reduction were examined in a well-developed cyanobacterial mat which grew in an outdoor experimental hypersaline pond system at a constant salinity of 75 ± 5% for 3 years. Vertical profiles of sulfate reduction were determined for the upper 12 mm of the microbial mat. Sulfate reduction activities were compared with diurnal variations of oxygen and sulfide concentrations measured by microelectrodes. Significant activity of sulfate-reducing bacteria was detected under aerobic conditions during the daytime, with maximal activity at 2 p.m. When comparing sulfate reduction activities in sediment cores taken at 6 a.m. and 12 a.m. and incubated at a constant temperature in the light and in the dark, a distinct stimulation of the activity in the vertical profile of sulfate reduction by light was evident. It is therefore concluded that the maximal in situ activities, measured at 2 p.m. in the chemocline of the cyanobacterial mat, cannot be attributed to diurnal changes of temperature alone. The response of sulfate-reducing bacteria to the addition of specific carbon sources was significantly different in the cyanobacterial layer, the anoxygenic phototrophic bacterial layer, and the permanently reduced layer of the microbial mat. Sulfate reduction in the mat layer exposed to high oxygen concentrations as a result of cyanobacterial oxygenic photosynthesis was enhanced only by glycolate; in the microzone where the chemocline is found during the daytime, ethanol was the only carbon source to enhance sulfate reduction, while both ethanol and lactate enhanced this activity in the permanently reduced zone.
Whole-Lung Radiotherapy for Giant Cell Tumors of Bone with Pulmonary Metastases

Three patients initially diagnosed with benign giant cell tumors of bone who had lung metastases develop were treated with whole-lung radiotherapy as part of the therapeutic treatment of their distant disease. External beam therapy to 16 Gy in 10 fractions was delivered to the whole lung, with a boost of 35 to 45 Gy to sites of gross metastatic disease. One patient’s lung metastases progressed after treatment, and the patient soon died. The two other patients were long-term survivors (7.5 years and 13 years) with complete resolution of detectable disease. One of the two patients required two additional courses of local radiation to metastatic sites. The authors therefore recommend whole lung radiotherapy to 16 Gy with an additional boost to 35 to 45 Gy to gross disease as an option for patients with pulmonary metastases who are poor surgical candidates, who refuse thoracic surgery, whose disease is technically unresectable, or whose disease recurs or progresses after surgery or chemotherapy.
Toward shape from image motion

Much research effort has been expended on attempting to calculate a description of the structure of an arbitrary environment from the information present in the image motion obtained by an observer in this environment. Most techniques use the image velocity from across somewhat large regions of the image to compute the parameters of 3-dimensional motion and the shape parameters of the viewed objects. The calculations generally require many image velocity measurements as input, a requirement that is often impractical. Thus, it is interesting to examine what can be achieved even when only a few such measurements are used. In this paper, we first show that given image velocity measurements at two positions in the image, it is possible to cancel out the rotation component of motion. Then, we use this to show that measurements from three positions, when combined with advance knowledge of just the direction of the motion's translation component, yield information about the shape of the environment. This result holds for arbitrary instantaneous motion between an observer and surfaces in the environment, and also permits qualitative judgements that could be used as end results in themselves if richer descriptions of shape were unnecessary.
An update on the CHARA array

The CHARA Array is a six telescope optical/IR interferometer run by the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy of Georgia State University (GSU) and is located at Mount Wilson Observatory just to the north of Los Angeles, California. The CHARA Array has the largest operational baselines in the world and has been in regular use for scientific observations since 2004. In this paper we give an update of instrumentation improvements, primarily focused on the beam combiner activity. The CHARA Array supports seven beam combiners: CHARA CLASSIC, a two way high sensitivity K/H band system; CLIMB, an upgrade to CLASSIC that includes closure phase measurements; FLUOR, a two way K band high precision system; MIRC, a six way H/K band imaging system; CHAMP, a six way K band fringe tracker; VEGA, a 4 way visible light high spectral resolution system; and PAVO, a 3 way visible light high sensitivity system. The paper will conclude with a brief review of some science results obtained over the last few years.
An approach of point cloud denoising based on improved bilateral filtering

An omnidirectional mobile platform is designed for building point cloud based on an improved filtering algorithm which is employed to handle the depth image. First, the mobile platform can move flexibly and the control interface is convenient to control. Then, because the traditional bilateral filtering algorithm is time-consuming and inefficient, a novel method is proposed which called local bilateral filtering (LBF). LBF is applied to process depth image obtained by the Kinect sensor. The results show that the effect of removing noise is improved comparing with the bilateral filtering. In the condition of off-line, the color images and processed images are used to build point clouds. Finally, experimental results demonstrate that our method improves the speed of processing time of depth image and the effect of point cloud which has been built.
Improving Reliability in NoCs by Application-Specific Mapping Combined with Adaptive Fault-Tolerant Method in the Links

A strategy to handle multiple defects in the No Clinks with almost no impact on the communication delay is presented. The fault-tolerant method can guarantee the functionally of the NoC with multiple defects in any link, and with multiple faulty links. The proposed technique uses information from test phase to map the application and to configure fault-tolerant features along the NoC links. Results from an application remapped in the NoC show that the communication delay is almost unaffected, with minimal impact and overhead when compared to a fault-free system. We also show that our proposal has a variable impact in performance while traditional fault-tolerant solution like Hamming Code has a constant impact. Besides our proposal can save among 15% to100% the energy when compared Hamming Code.