Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) sounds from the North Atlantic.

Sounds of blue whales were recorded from U.S. Navy hydrophone arrays in the North Atlantic. The most common signals were long, patterned sequences of very-low-frequency sounds in the 15-20 Hz band. Sounds within a sequence were hierarchically organized into phrases consisting of one or two different sound types. Sequences were typically composed of two-part phrases repeated every 73 s: a constant-frequency tonal "A" part lasting approximately 8 s, followed 5 s later by a frequency-modulated "B" part lasting approximately 11 s. A common sequence variant consisted only of repetitions of part A. Sequences were separated by silent periods averaging just over four minutes. Two other sound types are described: a 2-5 s tone at 9 Hz, and a 5-7 s inflected tone that swept up in frequency to ca. 70 Hz and then rapidly down to 25 Hz. The general characteristics of repeated sequences of simple combinations of long-duration, very-low-frequency sound units repeated every 1-2 min are typical of blue whale sounds recorded in other parts of the world. However, the specific frequency, duration, and repetition interval features of these North Atlantic sounds are different than those reported from other regions, lending further support to the notion that geographically separate blue whale populations have distinctive acoustic displays.
Moving object detection algorithm for H.264/AVC compressed video stream

Moving object segmentation directly from compressed video stream is a challenging task in video signal processing community. A novel moving object detection algorithm for H.264/AVC stream is presented in this paper. Firstly, a series of operations, including spatial-temporal normalization, bidirectional accumulation, median filtering and thresholding magnitudes, are conducted on the raw motion vector (MV) field so as to gain a robust MV field, which can indicate the moving region reliably. Then global motion compensation in compressed domain is implemented if there exist global motion caused by camera. Finally, the macroblock coded mode with variable size is combined with the temporal information to locate the foreground object. Its effectiveness of the proposed algorithm has been demonstrated in our experimental results. The main advantage of the algorithm lies in its robustness and real-time performance.
Deflection routing in slotted self-routing networks with arbitrary topology

A deflection routing scheme for small to medium size future all-optical networks with arbitrary topologies is proposed. The proposed scheme assumes only single-bit all-optical processing and no buffers. The primary output selection and the alternate output choices by a packet at each node are encoded in the packet header in order to reduce the signal processing requirement. Additional features such as priority and time-to-live fields have also been defined. The performance of the deflection routing scheme is studied using the AT&T North America OC-48 optical fiber network topology.
Plastibell® Complications Revisited

We suspect that the retained Plastibell® or proximal migration of the Plastibell® is more frequent than is reported. A few reported cases in the literature have noted this complication with the Plastibell® device.6,8 In the largest series to date, only three patients of 2,000 (0.015%) had problems with migrated devices.8 The exact complication rate with circumcision is not known owing to the variability in reports and definition of complication.4 It has been estimated to be from 0.067% to as high as 55%. 8 Prompt recognition of the retained Plastibell® is essential, and
Long-Term Growth and Short-Term Volatility: The Labour Market Nexus

We study the relationship between growth and variability in a DSGE model with nominal rigidities and growth driven by learning-by-doing. We show that this relationship may be positive or negative depending on the impulse source of fluctuations A key role is also played by the Frisch elasticity of labour supply and by institutional features of the labour market. Our general findings are that monetary shocks volatility will generally have a negative effect on growth, while the opposite tends to be true for fiscal and productivity shocks. These findings are somehow consistent with the existing empirical evidence: data show, in fact, a somewhat ambiguous relationship between output growth and real variability, but a generally negative relationship between output growth and nominal variability.
Hydroxyapatite for keratoprosthesis biointegration.

PURPOSE Integration of keratoprosthesis with the surrounding cornea is very important in preventing bacterial invasion, which may cause ocular injury. Here the authors investigated whether hydroxyapatite (HAp) coating can improve keratoprosthesis (KPro) biointegration, using polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)--the principal component of the Boston KPro--as a model polymer. METHODS HAp coatings were induced on PMMA discs after treatment with concentrated NaOH and coating with poly-dopamine (PDA) or polydopamine and then with 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (11-MUA). Coatings were characterized chemically (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy [FTIR], energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy [EDX]) and morphologically (SEM) and were used as substrates for keratocyte growth in vitro. Cylinders of coated PMMA were implanted in porcine corneas ex vivo for 2 weeks, and the force required to pull them out was measured. The inflammatory reaction to coated discs was assessed in the rabbit cornea in vivo. RESULTS FTIR of the coatings showed absorption bands characteristic of phosphate groups, and EDX showed that the Ca/P ratios were close to those of HAp. By SEM, each method resulted in morphologically distinct HAp films; the 11-MUA group had the most uniform coating. The hydroxyapatite coatings caused comparable enhancement of keratocyte proliferation compared with unmodified PMMA surfaces. HAp coating significantly increased the force and work required to pull PMMA cylinders out of porcine corneas ex vivo. HAp coating of implants reduced the inflammatory response around the PMMA implants in vivo. CONCLUSIONS These results are encouraging for the potential of HAp-coated surfaces for use in keratoprostheses.
The Role of Vision in Academic School Performance

Purpose: To determine whether presenting distance visual acuity is related to subsequent academic school performance in Singaporean children between 9 to 10 years of age. Methods: Singapore children (n = 1143 children) were examined during their visits at ages 9 to 10 years (grades 3 to 4) as part of the Singapore Cohort Study of the Risk Factors for Myopia (SCORM) longitudinal study. Each child underwent an annual comprehensive eye examination, including the assessment of presenting logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (LogMAR) distance visual acuity (VA). The individual marks of a nation-wide standard examination in grade 4 were used as the outcome measure for academic school performance. Children with any known eye disease, (such as media opacities) were excluded from the analysis. Results: The mean presenting distance VA of the better eye was 0.10 and 0.08 when the children were in grades 3 and 4, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference for mean presenting VA with 9 and 10 year old boys scoring better (0.08 and 0.07) compared to girls (0.12 and 0.09) for the same ages, (p = 0.001 and p = 0.007), respectively. After adjusting for gender, ethnicity, school, reading, intelligence quotient and father’s education, no significant relationships were found between average examination marks at the end of grade 4 and presenting VA obtained (better eye and worst eye) in grade 3 (p = 0.38 and p = 0.98) and 4 (p = 0.27 and p = 0.16). Conclusion: In our sample of Singaporean children without ocular disease, distance VA did not play a significant role in predicting academic school performance.
A review of bloody violence in video classification

The bloody violence scene in the video will cause different levels of visual and spiritual impact, affecting the health education of the minor children, so the violent scene detection is important for video scientific management and the minor protection. Since European MediaEval proposed Violent Scene Detection (VSD) competition in 2011, the global research scholars actively involved, put forward a number of practical violent video detection methods. This paper reviews the existing methods of violent video detection, analyzes from three main aspects including feature extraction, coding fusion and classifier design. In addition, we also expounds the performance of multimodal features and the relationship, the adaptability of coding fusion method to different features, and also contrast of Softmax classifier and SVM classifier performance respectively. Finally, we give the personal ideas for the research status after summarizing the existing methods.
Algorithm comparison for in-situ beamforming

This paper compares the Simple Genetic Algorithm (SGA) to a Triallelic Diploid Genetic Algorithm (TDGA) in evolving an anti-jamming beamforming array in situ. The SGA and TDGA are both able to find reasonable beamformer settings to thwart two jammers while allowing reception of a signal of interest (SOI). The array operates in the 2.4 GHz 802.11g band, and the results presented are applicable to other applications because the SGA and TGDA do not require signal directions and modulation schemes a priori. An analysis of SGA and TDGA convergence times is also presented.
Long-term outcomes of 1,730 calcaneal fractures: systematic review of the literature.

The objective of the present study was to review the current data on the long-term outcomes of calcaneal fractures, with special emphasis on the role of the type of treatment, surgical approach, and reduction and internal fixation. The search was limited to skeletally mature patients. Major databases were searched from 1978 to 2011 to identify studies relating to functional outcome, subjective outcome, and radiographic evaluation at least 2 years after either surgical or conservative treatment of calcaneal fractures. Of 59 initially relevant studies, 25 met our inclusion criteria. A total of 1,730 fractures were identified in 1,557 patients. The mean sample size-weighted follow-up period was 4.6 years. The findings from the present review support current clinical practice that displaced calcaneal fractures are treated surgically from 1 level I evidence study, 1 level II, and multiple studies with less than level II evidence, with open reduction and internal fixation as the method of choice. If the fracture is less complex, percutaneous treatment can be a good alternative according to current level 3 and 4 retrospective data.
Tumor necrosis factor-alpha upregulates angiopoietin-2 in human umbilical vein endothelial cells.

The angiopoietin-Tie2 system is an important regulator of vasculogenesis and vascular integrity. Angiopoietin-2 (Ang2) disrupts blood vessel formation in the developing embryo by antagonizing the effects of angiopoietin-1 (Ang1) on the Tie2 receptor. In this study, we examined the effect of a well-known proinflammatory cytokine, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), on Ang2 expression in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and Northern blot analyses indicated that TNF-alpha induced Ang2 mRNA expression in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Western blot analyses revealed that TNF-alpha treatment increased cellular Ang2 protein. TNF-alpha induced less Ang2 mRNA expression in the presence of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) inhibitor. These results suggest that TNF-alpha-induced inflammatory angiogenesis might be facilitated by the induction of Ang2.
Nonlinear model predictive control approach for structural load mitigation of wind turbines in presence of wind measurement uncertainties

In this paper the design of nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) for multi-mega watt wind turbines is addressed. In an attempt to minimize energy production costs, we propose an NMPC scheme to maximize the wind energy harvest while mitigating structural loads. The proposed controller relies on noisy look-ahead wind field information obtained via LIDAR measurements. By means of simulations we demonstrate the advantages of the proposed NMPC approach.
Analysis of Urine Flow in Three Different Ureter Models

The ureter provides a way for urine to flow from the kidney to the bladder. Peristalsis in the ureter partially forces the urine flow, along with hydrostatic pressure. Ureteral diseases and a double J stent, which is commonly inserted in a ureteral stenosis or occlusion, disturb normal peristalsis. Ineffective or no peristalsis could make the contour of the ureter a tube, a funnel, or a combination of the two. In this study, we investigated urine flow in the abnormal situation. We made three different, curved tubular, funnel-shaped, and undulated ureter models that were based on human anatomy. A numerical analysis of the urine flow rate and pattern in the ureter was performed for a combination of the three different ureters, with and without a ureteral stenosis and with four different types of double J stents. The three ureters showed a difference in urine flow rate and pattern. Luminal flow rate was affected by ureter shape. The side holes of a double J stent played a different role in detour, which depended on ureter geometry.
Stop Place Coding: An Acoustic Study of CV, VC#, and C#V Sequences

Abstract This study investigated stop + vowel coarticulation as a coding mechanism for differentiation of stop place categories in an F2-defined stimulus space. Locus equations (LEs) were used to index the extent of coarticulation in three contexts: (1) onset stop + vowel utterances [. CV]; (2) within-syllable vowel + coda stop utterances [VC#], and (3) across-syllable/word coda stop + vowel utterances [C#V]. Five speakers of American English and 2 speakers of Persian produced [CV1.CV2] (English and Persian), [tV1C#V2t] (English) and [dV1C#V2t] (Persian) tokens with voiced labial, alveolar/dental, and velar stops surrounded by a variety of vowels. In the across-syllable/word boundary condition [C#V2] the extent of anticipatory coarticulation was much reduced relative to traditionally measured onset [CV2] syllables. LE slopes derived across the syllable/word boundary, however, still differed between stop places in the same order as onset CVs. LE slopes derived from within-syllable [V1C#] sequences, however, did not differ between stop places.
Récit et interaction : la piste structuraliste

Resume : Le rapport entre recit et interactivite est regulierement presente comme paradoxal : comment une œuvre peut-elle integrer la liberte d’un participant exterieur a une histoire predeterminee ? La recherche y repond en grande majorite par la theorisation d’une narration emergente, qui abandonne le sens fort du recit. Nous y repondons par une nouvelle approche, nourrie par les theses structurales – dont nous demontrons l’actualite et la pertinence dans le champ de recherche qui nous occupe. Ceci nous permettra de (re)definir l’objet et de comprendre sa relation au public. Certains webdocumentaires, jeux video, jeux de role, hypertextes ou films interactifs font partie d’un meme type de narration : le recit interactif.
KSample: Dynamic Sampling Over Unbounded Data Streams

Data sampling over data streams is common practice to allow the analysis of data in real-time. However, sampling over data streams becomes complex when the stream does not fit in memory, and worse yet, when the length of the stream is unknown. A well-known technique for sampling data streams is the Reservoir Sampling. It requires a fixed-size reservoir that corresponds to the resulting sample size. But, defining the reservoir size is challenging: huge samples may waste computing resources and may not fit in memory; whereas tiny samples may be inadequate and prevent from drawing meaningful conclusions. This article presents KSample, a novel data sampling algorithm over unbounded data streams. It does not require to know the length of the stream or the size of the sample. The key idea of KSample is based on an invariant that keeps the percentage of the stream regardless of its length. That is the reservoir invariably represents at least the target percentage of the stream. KSample eliminates the problem of memory space by defining the concept of distributed mini-reservoirs grounded on the same invariant. Experiments show that KSample is substantially faster than the Reservoir Sampling algorithm to generate samples. Finally, KSample was put in practice to speed up data analytics over MapReduce jobs, reducing their response times by up to a factor of 20.
An overview of IEEE 802.21: media-independent handover services

In recent years multitechnology-enabled terminals have become available. Such multimode terminals pose new challenges to mobility management. In order to address some of these challenges, the IEEE is currently working on a new specification on media-independent handover services (IEEE 802.21 MIH). The main aim of this specification is to improve user experience of mobile terminals by enabling handovers between heterogeneous technologies while optimizing session continuity. In this article we provide an overview of the current status of the IEEE 802.21 specification.
Mental disorders and mental health treatment among U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs outpatients: the Veterans Health Study.

OBJECTIVE The authors examined the self-reported presence and treatment of current depressive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and alcohol-related disorder in a group of outpatient veterans. METHOD Data were obtained from the Veterans Health Study, a longitudinal investigation of male veterans' health. A representative sample of 2,160 outpatients (mean age = 62 years) was drawn from Boston-area U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) outpatient facilities. The participants completed screening measures for depression, PTSD, and alcohol-related disorder. Mental health treatment was assessed by interviews. RESULTS The screening criteria for at least one current mental disorder were satisfied by 40% (N = 856) of the patients. Screening rates were 31% (N = 676) for depression, 20% (N = 426) for PTSD, and 12% (N = 264) for alcohol-related disorder. Patients who screened positively for current mental disorders were younger, less likely to be married or employed, and more likely to report traumatic exposure than were those without mental disorders. Of those who met the screening criteria for any of the targeted mental disorders, 68% (N = 579) reported receiving mental health treatment. Younger, Caucasian men and those who reported more traumatic exposure were more likely to report receiving mental health treatment than were others who screened positively for mental disorders. CONCLUSIONS Screening rates of depression and PTSD and rates of mental health treatment were considerably higher among these VA outpatients than among similar patients in primary care in the private sector. Although the VA is currently meeting the mental health care needs of its patients, future fiscal constraints could affect most adversely the treatment of non-Caucasian and older patients and those with a history of traumatic exposure.
Style based robotic motion

In this paper, we present an approach to motion sequencing and generation in which “style of motion” is taken into account in a systematic manner. In particular, we present a method for injecting so-called dynamic efforts into a discrete motion sequencing framework that utilizes existing theory of stylistic human movement to inform a principled approach to generating trajectories. Namely, choosing weights in a linear-quadratic cost function leads to trajectories corresponding to the eight basic effort qualities found in dance theory; each weight scales a different motion factor that describes an element of style perceived by an audience. Combined with a style-sensitive motion sequencing scheme, we can fully describe stylistic system behavior. Thus, this paper also reports on the application of this general framework to the problem of generating motion sequences for a humanoid robot that exhibit distinctly different stylistic behaviors though they are composed from the same underlying building blocks.
The Relationship Between Glycine and Gephyrin in Synapses of the Rat Spinal Cord

In order to examine the relationship between gephyrin (the peripheral membrane protein associated with glycine receptors) and glycinergic boutons, we have carried out a post‐embedding immunogold study of glycine‐like immunoreactivity on sections of rat lumbar spinal cord which had previously been reacted with monoclonal antibody to gephyrin. In all three areas examined (laminae I and II, lamina III and lamina IX) the majority of profiles which were presynaptic at gephyrin‐immunoreactive synapses were enriched with glycine‐like immunoreactivity. It was estimated that at least 83% of profiles presynaptic to gephyrin‐immunoreactive synapses in the superficial dorsal horn (laminae I and II) were glycine‐immunoreactive, while for lamina III and the ventral horn (lamina IX) the proportions were at least 91% and 98% respectively. This provides strong evidence that glycine is a transmitter at those synapses where gephyrin‐ and glycine‐like immunoreactivities are both present, but suggests that gephyrin may sometimes be expressed at non‐glycinergic synapses and indicates the need for caution in using gephyrin‐immunoreactivity as a marker for glycinergic synapses within the spinal cord. By reacting serial sections of dorsal horn with antisera to glycine and GABA, we have shown that many boutons in laminae I‐III of the dorsal horn show both types of immunoreactivity and are therefore likely to use both amino acids as inhibitory transmitters. Many of the boutons which were presynaptic at axoaxonic synapses in the ventral part of lamina II and in lamina III were glycine‐ and GABA‐immunoreactive and in many cases the postsynaptic element was the central axon of a type II synaptic glomerulus. Taken together with pharmacological evidence, this suggests that inhibitory intemeurons in the dorsal horn which use both GABA and glycine may be important in controlling the flow of information from hair follicle afferents to other spinal neurons.
Mapping the Gα13 Binding Interface of the rgRGS Domain of p115RhoGEF*

Structural requirements for function of the Rho GEF (guanine nucleotide exchange factor) regulator of G proteinsignaling (rgRGS) domains of p115RhoGEF and homologous exchange factors differ from those of the classical RGS domains. An extensive mutagenesis analysis of the p115RhoGEF rgRGS domain was undertaken to determine its functional interface with the Gα13 subunit. Results indicate that there is global resemblance between the interaction surface of the rgRGS domain with Gα13 and the interactions of RGS4 and RGS9 with their Gα substrates. However, there are distinct differences in the distribution of functionally critical residues between these structurally similar surfaces and an additional essential requirement for a cluster of negatively charged residues at the N terminus of rgRGS. Lack of sequence conservation within the N terminus may also explain the lack of GTPase-activating protein (GAP) activity in a subset of the rgRGS domains. For all mutations, loss of functional GAP activity is paralleled by decreases in binding to Gα13. The same mutations, when placed in the context of the p115RhoGEF molecule, produce deficiencies in GAP activity as observed with the rgRGS domain alone but show no attenuation of the regulation of Rho exchange activity by Gα13. This suggests that the rgRGS domain may serve a structural or allosteric role in the regulation of the nucleotide exchange activity of p115RhoGEF on Rho by Gα13.