Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
RUC+CMU: System Report for Dense Captioning Events in Videos

This notebook paper presents our system in the ActivityNet Dense Captioning in Video task (task 3). Temporal proposal generation and caption generation are both important to the dense captioning task. Therefore, we propose a proposal ranking model to employ a set of effective feature representations for proposal generation, and ensemble a series of caption models enhanced with context information to generate captions robustly on predicted proposals. Our approach achieves the state-of-the-art performance on the dense video captioning task with 8.529 METEOR score on the challenge testing set.
Educational Online Video: Opportunities And Barriers to Integrate it in the Entertainment Consumption Routines

General population and particularly teenagers are increasingly using mobile devices for video consumption instead of the regular TV set. Considering that the top motivation for video consumption is to seek for entertainment, there is an opportunity to try to capture some of those moments for educational content enriched with some entertainment characteristics. This study aims to identify narrative and technical characteristics to incorporate in educational informal videos, designed for new media platforms by analysing the preferences of teenagers aged from 12 to 16 years old that attend the Portuguese public school system. Furthermore, the research team expects to understand if educational videos enriched with the referred characteristics are able to be included in entertainment consumption routines of these viewers. Some of the most valued characteristics are the comic approach, the integration of animations, the relaxed yet clear presenter style and the low level of scientific detail in video explanations.
Complex Control of Striatal Neurotransmission by Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors via Excitatory Inputs onto Medium Spiny Neurons

The prevalence of nicotine dependence is higher than that for any other substance abuse disorder; still, the underlying mechanisms are not fully established. To this end, we studied acute effects by nicotine on neurotransmission in the dorsolateral striatum, a key brain region with respect to the formation of habits. Electrophysiological recordings in acutely isolated brain slices from rodent showed that nicotine (10 nm to 10 μm) produced an LTD of evoked field potentials. Current-clamp recordings revealed no significant effect by nicotine on membrane voltage or action potential frequency, indicating that the effect by nicotine is primarily synaptic. Nicotine did not modulate sIPSCs, or the connectivity between fast-spiking interneurons and medium spiny neurons, as assessed by whole-cell recordings combined with optogenetics. However, the frequency of sEPSCs was significantly depressed by nicotine. The effect by nicotine was mimicked by agonists targeting α7- or α4-containing nAChRs and blocked in slices pretreated with a mixture of antagonists targeting these receptor subtypes. Nicotine-induced LTD was furthermore inhibited by dopamine D2 receptor antagonist and occluded by D2 receptor agonist. In addition, modulation of cholinergic neurotransmission suppressed the responding to nicotine, which might reflect upon the postulated role for nAChRs as a presynaptic filter to differentially govern dopamine release depending on neuronal activity. Nicotine-induced suppression of excitatory inputs onto medium spiny neurons may promote nicotine-induced locomotor stimulation and putatively initiate neuroadaptations that could contribute to the transition toward compulsive drug taking. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT To decrease smoking, prevalence factors that may contribute to the development of nicotine addiction need to be identified. The data presented here show that nicotine suppresses striatal neurotransmission by selectively reducing the frequency of excitatory inputs to medium spiny neurons (MSNs) while rendering excitability, inhibitory neurotransmission, and fast-spiking interneuron-MSN connectivity unaltered. In addition, we show that the effect displayed by nicotine outlasts the presence of the drug, which could be fundamental for the addictive properties of nicotine. Considering the inhibitory tone displayed by MSNs on dopaminergic cell bodies and local terminals, nicotine-induced long-lasting depression of striatal output could play a role in behavioral transformations associated with nicotine use, and putatively elicit neuroadaptations underlying compulsive drug-seeking habits.
A feature optimization algorithm of concept similarity based on Chinese wikipedia

Concept similarity measure based on feature vector has wide application in various fields, but the problems of polysemy and synonym existing in feature vector affect the similarity measure. We present a feature optimization algorithm based on Chinese Wikipedia which can reduces this effect. First we build a POS feature dictionary (POS-Dic) and a POS Tongyici Cilin(POS-Cilin), and then a new feature vector is used for concept similarity measure. Experiments show that the algorithm effectively reduces the influence of polysemy and synonym on the concept similarity measure.
Functional Characterization of AbaQ, a Novel Efflux Pump Mediating Quinolone Resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii

Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged as an important multidrug-resistant nosocomial pathogen. In previous work, we identified a putative MFS transporter, AU097_RS17040, involved in the pathogenicity of A. baumannii (M. ABSTRACT Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged as an important multidrug-resistant nosocomial pathogen. In previous work, we identified a putative MFS transporter, AU097_RS17040, involved in the pathogenicity of A. baumannii (M. Pérez-Varela, J. Corral, J. A. Vallejo, S. Rumbo-Feal, G. Bou, J. Aranda, and J. Barbé, Infect Immun 85:e00327-17, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1128/IAI.00327-17). In this study, we analyzed the susceptibility to diverse antimicrobial agents of A. baumannii cells defective in this transporter, referred to as AbaQ. Our results showed that AbaQ is mainly involved in the extrusion of quinolone-type drugs in A. baumannii.
A Recursive PLS (Partial Least Squares) based Approach for Enterprise Threat Management

Most of the existing solutions to enterprise threat management are preventive approaches prescribing means to prevent policy violations with varying degrees of success. In this paper we consider the complementary scenario where a number of security violations have already occurred, or security threats, or vulnerabilities have been reported and a security administrator needs to generate optimal response to these security events. We present a principled approach to study and model the human expertise in responding to the emergent threats owing to these security events. A recursive Partial Least Squares based adaptive learning model is defined using a factorial analysis of the security events together with a method for estimating the effect of global context dependent semantic information used by the security administrators. Presented model is theoretically optimal and operationally recursive in nature to deal with the set of security events being generated continuously. We discuss the underlying challenges and ways in which the model could be operationalized in centralized versus decentralized, and real-time versus batch processing modes.
Long-term actuation demonstration of RF-MEMS switches for space applications

This work presents an RF MEMS switch developed to meet the redundancy satellite applications. It is made of a specific material known to be resistant to mechanical creep that allow to reduce parasitic capacitances and create RF switching capability from DC to 67 GHz. Measurements show insertion loss smaller than 1 dB and an isolation better than 43 dB up to 50 GHz. Reliability tests related a stable actuation mechanism and a constant electrical contact during 6 months of constant biasing at 20°C.
RBPMetaDB: a comprehensive annotation of mouse RNA-Seq datasets with perturbations of RNA-binding proteins

RNA-binding proteins may play a critical role in gene regulation in various diseases or biological processes by controlling post-transcriptional events such as polyadenylation, splicing, and mRNA stabilization via binding activities to RNA molecules. Due to the importance of RNA-binding proteins in gene regulation, a great number of studies have been conducted, resulting in a large amount of RNA-Seq datasets. However, these datasets usually do not have structured organization of metadata, which limits their potentially wide use. To bridge this gap, the metadata of a comprehensive set of publicly available mouse RNA-Seq datasets with perturbed RNA-binding proteins were collected and integrated into a database called RBPMetaDB. This database contains 278 mouse RNA-Seq datasets for a comprehensive list of 163 RNA-binding proteins. These RNA-binding proteins account for only ∼10% of all known RNA-binding proteins annotated in Gene Ontology, indicating that most are still unexplored using high-throughput sequencing. This negative information provides a great pool of candidate RNA-binding proteins for biologists to conduct future experimental studies. In addition, we found that DNA-binding activities are significantly enriched among RNA-binding proteins in RBPMetaDB, suggesting that prior studies of these DNA- and RNA-binding factors focus more on DNA-binding activities instead of RNA-binding activities. This result reveals the opportunity to efficiently reuse these data for investigation of the roles of their RNA-binding activities. A web application has also been implemented to enable easy access and wide use of RBPMetaDB. It is expected that RBPMetaDB will be a great resource for improving understanding of the biological roles of RNA-binding proteins. Database URL: http://rbpmetadb.yubiolab. org
Design of balanced wideband filtering circularly polarized antenna using quasi-self-complementary structure

In this paper, a balanced wideband filtering circularly polarized (CP) antenna designed using rectangular quasi-self-complementary structure is proposed. The antenna is fed by a differential microstrip line, and consists of a strip-loaded rectangular slot radiator and its complementary slot-loaded patch counterpart. The fields radiated by the two complementary parts of the antenna are expected to be orthogonal if properly excited. To achieve a CP radiation pattern, a 90° delay line section is embedded in one of the two feedlines to provide 90° phase difference between signals fed to the two antenna input ports. In addition, to suppress the wideband common-mode signals, two half-wavelength microstrip line sections that share part of their structures are connected between the two feedlines for producing two transmission zeros in the DM passband under CM operation. For the designed balanced wideband filtering CP antenna, measurement shows that the |Sdd11|≤ −10 dB DM operating band covers a frequency range of 3.16–4.63 GHz. Very good CM suppression was observed with the measured CM reflection coefficient greater than −1 dB over most of the DM passband. The simulated 3-dB axial ratio band is 3.04–5.09 GHz.
A Review of Methods for Assessing the Environmental Health Impacts of an Agricultural System

(1) Background: Global agricultural production is projected to increase substantially in the coming decades. Agricultural production provides food and materials crucial to human survival and well-being and is a critical source of livelihood, providing employment opportunities and economic benefits. However, industrialized or intensified agricultural systems, in particular, can have adverse effects on public health, place pressure on natural resources, and reduce environmental sustainability. This review attempts to identify and characterize key environmental health assessment methods for examining a broad array of potential impacts; (2) Methods: Electronic databases Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, and GreenLINE were searched for published literature that presented methods for conducting an environmental health assessment of an agricultural system; (3) Results: Fifty-three sources were included in the review. Eight methods were selected to illustrate the wide range of approaches currently available: health risk assessment methods, health impact assessment, environmental impact assessment methods, environmental burden of disease, lifecycle methods, integrated assessment modeling, trade-off analysis, and economic assessment; (4) Conclusions: This review can provide guidance for selecting an existing method or for designing a new method for assessing the environmental health impacts of an agricultural system.
Identification and Removal of Physiological Artifacts From Electroencephalogram Signals: A Review

Electroencephalogram (EEG), boasting the advantages of portability, low cost, and high-temporal resolution, is a non-invasive brain-imaging modality that can be used to measure different brain states. However, EEG recordings are always contaminated with artifacts from different sources other than neurons, which renders EEG data analysis more difficult, and which potentially results in misleading findings. Therefore, it is essential for many medical and practical applications to remove these artifacts in the preprocessing stage before analyzing EEG data. In the last thirty years, various methods have been developed to remove different types of artifacts from contaminated EEG data; still though, there is no standard method that can be used optimally, and therefore, the research remains attractive as well as challenging. This paper presents an extensive overview of the existing methods for ocular, muscle, and cardiac artifact identification and removal with their comparative advantages and limitations. We also reviewed the schemes developed for validating the performances of algorithms with simulated and real EEG data. In future studies, researchers should focus not only on the combining of different methods with multiple processing stages for efficient removal of artifactual interferences but also on the development of standard criteria for validation of recorded EEG signals.
Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase Contains a BH3-Like Motif and Interacts with BCL-2 Family Members

Upregulation of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) expression is an important factor in the cellular survival and cancer. Although growing evidence suggests that hTERT inhibits cellular apoptosis by telomere-independent functions, the mechanisms involved are not fully understood. Here, we show that hTERT contains a BH3-like motif, a short peptide sequence found in BCL-2 family proteins, and interacts with anti-apoptotic BCL-2 family proteins MCL-1 and BCL-xL, suggesting a functional link between hTERT and the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis. Additionally, we propose that hTERT can be categorized into the atypical BH3-only proteins that promote cellular survival, possibly due to the non-canonical interaction between hTERT and antiapoptotic proteins. Although the detailed mechanisms underlying the hTERT BH3-like motif functions and interactions between hTERT and BCL-2 family proteins have not been elucidated, this work proposes a possible connection between hTERT and BCL-2 family members and reconsiders the role of the BH3-like motif as an interaction motif.
Prevalence of mastitis pathogens in South African pasture-based and total mixed ration-based dairies during 2008 and 2013

Recent years have seen a change in the relative prevalence of environmental and contagious intramammary pathogens, as well as a change in the relative number of total mixed ration (TMR)-based and pasture (PAS)-based dairies in South Africa. The objectives of the study were to determine and compare the prevalence of mastitis pathogens in TMR and PAS dairies in South Africa during 2008 and 2013; furthermore, the within-herd prevalence of Streptococcus uberis in Str. uberis-positive herds was determined and compared. The prevalence of each pathogen, as well as the within-herd prevalence of Str. uberis, were compared between the two years and the two management systems using bacterial culture results from routinely collected composite cow milk samples submitted to the Onderstepoort Milk Laboratory, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria. Coagulase-negative staphylococci had the highest prevalence in both TMR and PAS dairies for both 2008 (29.60% [95.00% CI: 28.80% – 30.40%] and 26.90% [95.00% CI: 25.50% – 28.30%], respectively) and 2013 (20.20% [95.00% CI: 19.30% – 21.10%] and 22.70% [95.00% CI: 22.20% – 23.10%], respectively), which decreased significantly from 2008 to 2013 in both TMR and PAS dairies (p < 0.001). Streptococcus uberis showed an increase in prevalence in both TMR (p = 0.002) and PAS dairies (p = 0.001) from 2008 (2.36% [95.00% CI: 2.10% – 2.65%] and 2.63% [95.00% CI: 2.16% – 3.16%], respectively) to 2013 (3.10% [95.00% CI: 2.72% – 3.51%] and 3.64% [95.00% CI: 3.45% – 3.83%], respectively). Staphylococcus aureus showed a significant decrease in both TMR (p = 0.011) and PAS (p < 0.001) dairies from 2008 (4.71% [95.00% CI: 4.34% – 5.10%] and 5.62% [95.00% CI: 4.94% – 6.36%], respectively) to 2013 (3.95% [95.00% CI: 3.52% – 4.40%] and 1.71% [95.00% CI: 1.58% – 1.84%], respectively). The median within-herd prevalence of Str. uberis for the combined dairy systems showed a significant increase from 2008 (1.72% [IQR: 0.88% – 5.00%]) to 2013 (3.10% [IQR: 1.72% – 4.70%]) (p < 0.001). Statistically significant differences were found in the prevalence of most of the major contagious and environmental mastitis pathogens between 2008 and 2013 and between TMR and PAS dairies. The within-herd prevalence of Str. uberis increased from 2008 to 2013, with the highest within-herd prevalence in PAS dairies in 2013.
Circular RNA circITGA7 inhibits colorectal cancer growth and metastasis by modulating the Ras pathway and upregulating transcription of its host gene ITGA7

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are significantly dysregulated in various cancer types. However, the roles and mechanisms of circRNAs in cancer remain largely unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that a novel circRNA (circITGA7) and its linear host gene ITGA7 are both significantly downregulated in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues and cell lines. These decreased expression levels correlated with CRC progression. Functional assays demonstrated that ectopic circITGA7 expression suppressed the growth and metastasis of CRC cells in vitro and in vivo. Knockdown of circITGA7 or ITGA7 promoted the proliferation and migration of CRC cells in vitro, and enhanced CRC growth in vivo. Mechanistically, by using RNA‐sequencing and KEGG enrichment analysis, we found that circITGA7 is a negative regulator of the Ras signalling pathway, and that ITGA7 is associated with cytokine‐related signalling pathways. In addition, circITGA7 binds to miR‐370‐3p to antagonise its suppression of neurofibromin 1, which is a well‐known negative regulator of the Ras pathway. Finally, circITGA7 upregulates the transcription of ITGA7 by suppressing RREB1 via the Ras pathway. In conclusion, our findings indicate a suppressor role of circITGA7 and ITGA7 in CRC, and reveal that circITGA7 inhibits the proliferation and metastasis of CRC cells by suppressing the Ras signalling pathway and promoting the transcription of ITGA7, suggesting that circITGA7 is a potential target for CRC treatment. Copyright © 2018 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Size Measurement of Laser-Induced Damage in Large-Aperture Final Optics

In this paper, a hierarchical kernel extreme learning machine (HK-ELM) is proposed to solve the problem that the size of laser-induced damage (LID) cannot be accurately measured under the condition of inhomogeneous total internal reflection illumination. The proposed method overcomes the limitations of the radiometric method, which depends on a single factor to measure the size of damage. After analyzing the light scattering characteristics of LID with the finite-difference time-domain method, we find that we should consider the influences of multiple factors when measuring the size of damage under the condition of uneven illumination. The experimental results show that HK-ELM can achieve ultra-resolution measurements, and the mean relative error of the measured size predicted by HK-ELM is within 5% on the testing samples. Compared with the traditional technology, the method proposed in this paper effectively improves the measurement accuracy.
Cybercrime Offences: Identification, Classification and Adaptive Response

Multiple studies and surveys focus on specific cybercrime characteristics or develop classification models that do not adequately address the complexity of this contemporary type of crime. This study proposes a comprehensive approach towards cybercrime interpretation and action recommendation through a proposed framework that provides three separate and complementary views to achieve a comprehensive perspective that leads to actionable recommendations. The framework's view I identifies the features of a cybercrime incident and their corresponding elements generating a textual schema-based description that can accommodate existing and new instances of cybercrime. The second view introduces an up-to-date cybercrime-related offence classification system through consolidation and elaboration of existing approaches and leads to a visual extension of schema-based incident description that depicts the interrelations of the various cybercrime elements towards a particular type of offence. View III identifies and interconnects the relevant stakeholders with preventive and response actions and measures. The proposed framework extends previous published work on the theoretical foundation of this multi-faceted domain, and demonstrates that the necessity of a comprehensive approach towards cybercrime can be actualized through different steps with each one designated towards a different perspective.
Application of Patient-Specific Computational Fluid Dynamics in Coronary and Intra-Cardiac Flow Simulations: Challenges and Opportunities

The emergence of new cardiac diagnostics and therapeutics of the heart has given rise to the challenging field of virtual design and testing of technologies in a patient-specific environment. Given the recent advances in medical imaging, computational power and mathematical algorithms, patient-specific cardiac models can be produced from cardiac images faster, and more efficiently than ever before. The emergence of patient-specific computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has paved the way for the new field of computer-aided diagnostics. This article provides a review of CFD methods, challenges and opportunities in coronary and intra-cardiac flow simulations. It includes a review of market products and clinical trials. Key components of patient-specific CFD are covered briefly which include image segmentation, geometry reconstruction, mesh generation, fluid-structure interaction, and solver techniques.
Detection of low wall motion and comparison study with scar tissue using 4D left ventricle cardiac images

The myocardial contraction creates an effective cardiovascular pumping system. While regional dysfunction of myocardium leads to functional abnormality of cardiac wall motion that is one of the risk factors for ventricular remodeling. It helps in the early phase detecting abnormalities of wall motion while wall motion of cardiac cycle make difficult to observe without any physical reference point. In this research, we find to characterize regional systolic function abnormalities. In house developed 4D image processing software that extracts the wall motion of left ventricle from a 4D cardiac images. We created 10 frames of 3D heart model that contains long axis as reference for predicting left ventricle wall motion. We tested our model with Scar tissue to 4D cardiac model of left ventricle, low motion area as non-invasive method of early detection. The detection in wall motion could effectively reflect the dysfunction of myocardium. Thus, this study provides a new approach to assess the degree and site dysfunction area of myocardium.