Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tracking multiple objects in the presence of articulated and occluded motion

Presents a novel approach to the tracking of multiple articulate objects in the presence of occlusion in moderately complex scenes. Most conventional tracking algorithms work well when only one object is tracked at a time. However, when multiple objects must be tracked simultaneously, significant computation is often introduced in order to handle occlusion and to calculate the appropriate region correspondence between successive frames. We introduce a near-real-time solution to this problem by using a probabilistic mixing of low-level features and components. The algorithm mixes coarse motion estimates, change detection information and unobservable predictions to create accurate trajectories of moving objects. We implement this multifeature mixing strategy within the context of a video surveillance system using a modified Kalman filtering mechanism. Experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed tracking and surveillance system.
Parental HIV disclosure in Burkina Faso: Experiences and challenges in the era of HAART

Increasingly parents living with HIV will have to confront the dilemmas of concealing their lifelong treatment or disclosing to their children exposed to their daily treatment practices. However, limited data are available regarding parental HIV disclosure to children in Burkina Faso. Do parents on antiretroviral therapy disclose their HIV status to their children? What drives them? How do they proceed and how do children respond? We conducted in-depth interviews with 63 parents of children aged seven and above where the parents had been in treatment for more than 3 years in two major cities of Burkina Faso. Interviews addressed parental disclosure and the children's role in their parents' treatment. The rate of parental HIV status disclosure is as high as that of non-disclosure. Factors associated with parental disclosure include female sex, parent's older age, parent's marital history and number of children. After adjustment, it appears that the only factor remaining associated with parental disclosure was the female gender of the parent. In most of the cases, children suspected, and among non-disclosers many believed their children already knew without formal disclosure. Age of the children and history of divorce or widowhood were associated with parental disclosure. Most parents believed children do not have the necessary emotional skills to understand or that they cannot keep a secret. However, parents who disclosed to their children did not experience blame nor was their secret revealed. Rather, children became treatment supporters. Challenges to parental HIV disclosure to children are neither essential nor specific since disclosure to adults is already difficult because of perceived risk of public disclosure and subsequent stigma. However, whether aware or not of their parents' HIV-positive status, children contribute positively to the care of parents living with HIV. Perceptions about children's vulnerability and will to protect them against stigma lead parents to delay disclosure and not to overwhelm them with their experience of living with HIV. Finally, without institutional counselling support, disclosure to children remains a challenge for both parents and children, which suggests a need for rethinking of current counselling practices.
Analysis of Clock Gating and Power Gating Techniques on Sequential Circuits

In Integrated circuits a maximum portion of chip power is expended by clocking system which comprises of timing elements such as flip-flops, latches and clock distribution network. This paper enumerates power efficient design of shift registers using D flip-flops along with Clock and Power gating integration. Clock gating and power gating proves to be very effective solutions for reducing dynamic and active leakage power respectively. The two techniques are coupled in such a way that the clock gating information is used to drive the control signal of powergating circuitry. In this paper, an activity driven fine-grained clock and power gating is proposed. First, a technique named Optimized Bus-Specific-Clock-Gating (OBSC) is introduced which reduces the problem of gated flip-flop selection by appropriate selection of subset of flip-flops. Then another technique named Run Time Power Gating (RTPG) is proposed for power gating the combinational logics performing redundant operations. The proposed shift registers are designed up to the layout level with 5V Power supply in 0.18um technology and simulated using Tanner
[Is it justifiable to administrate vitamin A, E and D for 6 months in the premature infants?].

UNLABELLED Information on the vitamin A and E nutritional status in preterm infants is scarce. POPULATION AND METHODS In the present prospective and longitudinal study, we measured the plasma concentrations of vitamins A, E, D and of retinol binding protein (RBP) in preterm infants (32-34 weeks of gestation) at birth, and verified whether oral supplementation with these 3 vitamins for 1, 3 and 6 months affected their plasma concentrations. The 17 consecutively recruited premature infants received daily 3000 IU of vitamin A, 5 mg of vitamin E and 1000 IU of vitamin D. RESULTS At birth, premature infants exhibited a low plasma concentrations of vitamin A (0.66 [0.41-0.96]) micromol/l, vitamin E (8.1 [4.2-16.9] micromol/l), RBP (0.45 [0.22-0.71] micromol/l) and 25 hydroxyvitamine D (25 OHD) (20 [20-40] nmol/l). Plasma vitamin A, E , D and RBP concentrations increased with time, but vitamin A at 1, 3 and 6 months did not attain values considered normal in term infants or adolescents. At 6 months, the plasma 25 OHD was at 92 (71-116) nmol/l, a concentration considered normal and non-toxic. CONCLUSION We recommend to increase oral administration of vitamin A to 5000 IU/day, at least for the first month of life and, thereafter to administer 3000 IU for 5 months. As for vitamin E and vitamin D, the doses used in this study are sufficient but should be administered for 6 months.
Bayesian Bandits , Secretaries , and Vanishing Computational Regret

We consider the finite-horizon multi-armed bandit problem under the standard stochastic assumption of independent priors over the reward distributions of the arms. We define a new notion of computational regret against the Bayesian optimum solution instead of worst-case against the true underlying distributions. We show that when the priors of the arms satisfy a log-concavity condition, there is a simple index-type policy that achieves per-step computational regret O ( log log T log T ) regardless of how the number n of arms relates to the time horizon T . This shows that the regret vanishes as T → ∞. As a corollary, we present an additive PTAS for this problem. This complements existing literature on worst-case regret bounds that only hold for the case when n is much smaller than T . The log-concavity condition is widely used and is satisfied by Beta, Gaussian, and Uniform priors, which are the most common in these settings. Our policy is far simpler to implement than the well-known Gittins index policy, which is also not optimal for the finite horizon case. We also give evidence that the log-concavity condition is necessary for the type of regret bounds we show. Finally, we show that our results also extend to the related “budgeted learning” and the secretary problems. ∗Departments of Management Science and Engineering and (by courtesy) Computer Science, Stanford University. Email: ashishg@stanford.edu. Research supported by an NSF ITR grant, the Stanford-KAUST alliance for academic excellence, and gifts from Google, Microsoft, and Cisco. †Department of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA 19104-6389. Email: sudipto@cis.upenn. edu. Research supported in part by an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, an NSF CAREER Award, and NSF Award CCF-0644119. ‡Department of Computer Science, Duke University, Durham NC 27708-0129. Research supported by an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, and by NSF via a CAREER award and grant CNS-0540347. Email: kamesh@cs.duke. edu.
Modern Specificity of corporate relations on the example of vertical-integrated company

The article describes features of the modern model of Russian corporate relations on the example of a vertically integrated and diversified company. The CRs are still affected by the consequences of the privatization processes of state and municipal enterprises in the 1990s, which resulted in the emergence of a peculiar economic model of oligarchic capitalism and a specific model of CR. On a specific example, the pros and cons of this model are analyzed considering the processes of consolidation of entrepreneurial activities in the metallurgy and gold mining industry. The conclusion is made about the predominance of quasi-corporate relations, the ways to improve CR are suggested.
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition and pancreatic cancer progression

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) continues to be one of the most lethal human malignancies, with median survival of less than one year and overall 5-year survival of less than 5%. There is increasing evidence for contribution of epithelialmesenchymal transition (EMT) to pancreatic cancer metastasis and to treatment resistance. In this chapter we will review the role of EMT in pancreatic cancer progression, focusing particularly on the transcription factors and microRNAs involved in EMT. We will examine how EMT is involved in the generation and maintenance of stem cells, and detail the role of EMT in modulating resistance of PDAC cells to drug therapies. Finally, we will identify putative EMT-targeting agents that may help to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with pancreatic cancer. Correspondence/Reprint request: Dr. Surabhi Dangi-Garimella, Hidayatullah G. Munshi, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60611, USA E-mails: s-dangi-garimella@northwestern.edu or h-munshi@northwestern.edu Surabhi Dangi-Garimella et al. 96
Biomechanical evaluation of platform switching in different implant protocols: computed tomography-based three-dimensional finite element analysis.

PURPOSE To evaluate the influence of platform switching on the biomechanical environment of implants in different placement and loading protocols. MATERIALS AND METHODS A computed tomography-based finite element model of a maxillary central incisor extraction socket was constructed containing a conical 13-mm external-hex implant with a 4.3-mm-diameter shoulder. Abutment models that were 4.3 mm and 3.8 mm in diameter were then imported and aligned to the implant. The 4.3-mm abutment edge matched perfectly the edge of the implant shoulder, while the 3.8-mm abutment assumed a platform-switching configuration. Then, immediately placed, immediately loaded, and osseointegrated (ie, conventional delayed loaded) protocols were simulated. Analysis of variance was used to interpret the data for peak equivalent strain (EQV strain) in the bone, bone-to-implant relative displacement, peak von Mises stress (EQV stress) in the abutment screw, and implant-abutment gap. RESULTS In the same clinical situation, the differences in the values of the assessed results were minor for abutments of different diameters. In addition, no statistically significant influence of the abutment diameter was seen on any of the evaluated biomechanical parameters, except for the bone-to-implant displacement, although this was observed in a rather low percentage. Nevertheless, a slightly higher EQV stress in the abutment screw was seen in all cases for the 3.8-mm-diameter abutment, although this was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION Within the limitation of this finite element analysis, it can be concluded that a circumferential horizontal mismatch of 0.5 mm does not make an important contribution to the biomechanical environment of implants. Also, there seems to be no significant biomechanical drawback to the design rationale of reducing the abutment diameter to move the implant-abutment gap area away from the implant-bone interface.
Quality of osteoarthritis management and the need for reform in the US

Introduction Disability due to osteoarthritis (OA) and increasing disease prevalence are colliding to create a major public health problem. By 2020, the number of people with OA will have doubled, due in large part to the exploding prevalence of obesity and the graying of the “baby boomer” generation (1). Despite growing concern, there remain few safe and effective interventions. Although practice patterns may vary, current clinical management for OA is often limited to the use of analgesic and/or antiinflammatory medication and cautious waiting (2) for the eventual referral for total joint replacement. Recent doubts about the safety of several commonly prescribed OA medications have served to highlight deficiencies in the traditional medical approach to management (3). With few conservative options offered by their doctors, increasing numbers of patients are turning to untested folk remedies and aggressively marketed dietary supplements with little substantive evidence to support their efficacy (4). It is in this context that we appraise the current quality of clinical management of OA. It is critical to assess the consistency, or lack thereof, between evidence-based recommendations and actual clinical practice. A number of recent studies have highlighted that there is a great divergence from such recommendations despite numerous efforts to disseminate the many recommendations that exist. Concerns over the quality of health care delivery raise serious questions about the legitimacy of prior efforts not only to disseminate, but more importantly ensure implementation of, what is best practice. Some cautious steps to encourage implementation, including the development of quality indicators, have occurred, but have made little impact. Quality indicators are elements of health care for which evidence or consensus exists that they are indicative of the quality of health care (5,6). A number of quality indicators have been developed in OA that thus far have not been widely used or systematic in considering the breadth of OA management. In this era of health care reform, it is critical that appropriate efforts toward improved delivery of quality care in this burdensome disease are made. What follows is a narrative review of how standard clinical practice diverges from evidence-based recommendations, some key challenges facing clinicians with regard to optimizing the quality of care delivery in OA, and steps to improve OA health care quality. This is written as a potential roadmap for those developing and enforcing policy decisions, as well as for clinicians who could be provided further encouragement to enact practice change.
Observational Study Unveils the Extensive Presence of Hazardous Elements in Beached Plastics from Lake Geneva

Over 3000 samples of plastic litter have been retrieved from twelve pebble beaches around the shores of Lake Geneva. The plastic stock consisted of identifiable objects of various size and colour, including bottles, bottle tops, cotton buds, pens, toys and straws, an heterogeneous assortment of fragments whose origin was either discernible or unknown, and pieces or blocks of expanded polymer (polystyrene or polyurethane foam). Analysis of 670 samples by portable x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry revealed high concentrations of hazardous elements or compounds among many plastics. These included Cd, Hg and Pb (with maximum concentrations of 6760, 810 and 23,500 ppm, respectively) as stabilisers in PVC-based materials and/or brightly-coloured sulphide or chromate pigments in primary and secondary plastics, and Br (with a maximum concentration of 27,400 ppm) as a proxy for brominated flame retardants in both plastics and foams. The abundance of hazardous elements in beached plastics that have been restricted or banned reflect the age and residence time of the plastic stock in the lake, coupled with a relatively high length of shoreline to surface area of the system. The migratability of hazardous elements from the polymeric matrix is likely to determine their environmental impacts and is recommended as a future area of research.
The calculus of consent.

The president of Concern for Dying is one of four authors in this issue of the Hastings Center Report to write about Cruzan v. Harmon. This Missouri Supreme Court decision involving a family's request for permission to halt artificial feeding of a woman in a persistent vegetative state was the first right to die case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. Employing a constitutional vision of individual freedom versus the power of the state, Scofield discusses the state court's decision that favored Missouri's interest in preserving Cruzan's life over her and her family's interests in permitting her to die. He aruges that the Missouri court failed to appreciate the "central and dual role" of privacy and consent in protecting self determination and in preventing the state from exercising too much authority over individuals.
Packaging Effect on MEMS Pressure Sensor Performance

In this study, the effect of epoxy based molding compound packaging on a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) pressure sensor performance is investigated. A series of experiments were conducted to characterize the MEMS sensor over temperature and pressure changes by measuring output voltage signals. The sensor was modeled by a finite element method to investigate the stress developments. The molding compound was assumed as elastic and viscoelastic material to examine the material modeling effect on the calculation results. The model was verified by comparing the calculated results with experimental data. It was found that the stress induced by the molding compound had significant influence on the sensor performance, and the accuracy of the calculations was highly dependent on the modeling of the molding compound. Based on the results, the mechanism of the stress development and its effect on the sensor signal were discussed
Quantum-Confined Stark Effect Analysis of GeSn/SiGeSn Quantum Wells for Mid-Infrared Si-Based Electroabsorption Devices Based on Many-Body Theory

Quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE) of group IV Ge(Sn)/SiGe(Sn) quantum wells (QWs) on Si substrate is analyzed by microscopic many-body theory for mid-infrared (mid-IR) Si-based electroabsorption devices. To show the validity of the theory, QCSE of Ge/SiGe QW is investigated and very good agreement between theory and reported measured results is obtained. Next, the QCSE of GeSn/SiGeSn QWs is analyzed and the QW design for electroabsorption modulators to obtain large extinction ratio in mid-IR region is presented. It is shown that compressive and tensile strained well and barrier layers is preferable to obtain large extinction ratio due to its large conduction band offset.
Novel Nipah Virus Immune-Antagonism Strategy Revealed by Experimental and Computational Study

ABSTRACT Nipah virus is an emerging pathogen that causes severe disease in humans. It expresses several antagonist proteins that subvert the immune response and that may contribute to its pathogenicity. Studies of its biology are difficult due to its high pathogenicity and requirement for biosafety level 4 containment. We integrated experimental and computational methods to elucidate the effects of Nipah virus immune antagonists. Individual Nipah virus immune antagonists (phosphoprotein and V and W proteins) were expressed from recombinant Newcastle disease viruses, and the responses of infected human monocyte-derived dendritic cells were determined. We developed an ordinary differential equation model of the infectious process that that produced results with a high degree of correlation with these experimental results. In order to simulate the effects of wild-type virus, the model was extended to incorporate published experimental data on the time trajectories of immune-antagonist production. These data showed that the RNA-editing mechanism utilized by the wild-type Nipah virus to produce immune antagonists leads to a delay in the production of the most effective immune antagonists, V and W. Model simulations indicated that this delay caused a disconnection between attenuation of the antiviral response and suppression of inflammation. While the antiviral cytokines were efficiently suppressed at early time points, some early inflammatory cytokine production occurred, which would be expected to increase vascular permeability and promote virus spread and pathogenesis. These results suggest that Nipah virus has evolved a unique immune-antagonist strategy that benefits from controlled expression of multiple antagonist proteins with various potencies.
Self-Regulated Reconfigurable Voltage/Current-Mode Inductive Power Management

A reconfigurable power management structure for inductive power delivery has been proposed by adaptively employing either resonant voltage or current mode (VM or CM) to improve the inductive power transmission performance against coils’ coupling distance (d), orientation (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\phi $ </tex-math></inline-formula>), and load impedance (R<sub><italic>L</italic></sub>) variations. At the presence of these variations, unlike conventional VM and CM power managements with poor voltage- and power-conversion efficiencies (VCE and PCE), respectively, the proposed voltage/current-mode inductive power management (VCIPM) chip can achieve high VCE by automatically switching to CM when the receiver (Rx) coil voltage (V<sub><italic>R</italic></sub>) is smaller than the required load voltage (V<sub><italic>L</italic></sub>), and achieve high PCE by operating in VM when V<sub><italic>R</italic></sub> > V<sub><italic>L</italic></sub>. In addition, since VM and CM are only suitable for small and large R<sub><italic>L</italic></sub> within the range of hundreds of ohms and above, respectively, the VCIPM chip can extend the R<sub><italic>L</italic></sub> range. The VCIPM chip also eliminates the need for two off-chip capacitors by performing rectification, regulation, and over-voltage protection (OVP) in one step with one off-chip capacitor. In VM, intentional reverse current is employed for both voltage regulation and OVP, while the Rx coil switching frequency (f<sub><italic>sw</italic></sub>) is adjusted for voltage regulation in CM. The theory behind the proposed VCIPM structure has been presented and validated by simulations and measurements. A VCIPM prototype chip was fabricated in a 0.35-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> 2P4M standard CMOS process occupying 0.52-mm<sup>2</sup> active area. In measurements, the VCIPM chip, operating at 1 MHz, achieved a high VCE of 4.1 V/V for R<sub><italic>L</italic></sub> of 100 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{k}\Omega $ </tex-math></inline-formula> by operating in CM with f<sub>sw</sub> = 166.6 kHz, and extended d and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\phi $ </tex-math></inline-formula> from 6 to 13.5 cm (125%) and 30° to 75° (150%), respectively, compared to its VM counterpart by adaptively switching from VM to CM.