Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Human Identity Recognition System Based on Kinect Skeletal Tracking and ANN Classifier

We proposed a novel method of people recognition based on the structure of bones, which is detected by Kinect sensor for skeletal tracking. By using 3D depth image achieved by Kinect, body’s skeleton information is extracted as 20 joints with joint coordinates, from which body's skeletal features are calculated into different length ratio between each bone. Later these features are processed by a BP artificial neural network (ANN) classifier to differentiate several samples. The results show a high accuracy up to 98% test samples, which indicate that the body’s skeletal features can provide the effective judgment in people recognition. Keywords-human identity recognition; kinect; ANN classifier; skeletal identification I. THE BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND THE SIGNIFICANCE With the development of contemporary society, the requirement of effective authentication and human identity recognition becomes higher and higher. Traditionally, passwords and ID cards were used to restrict access to secure systems but these methods can easily be breached and are unreliable. Biometric recognition[1][9] is developing in rise with the favorable security, validity and irreplaceability. In these systems, physiological traits, such as fingerprint[2], face recognition[4], iris recognition[7], retina scan, and behavioral traits, such as typing rhythm, key stroke, pattern and handwriting, have been intensively studied and developed to solve security problem inherent in traditional personal recognition methods. In this paper, by using Kinect skeletal tracking technology[6] developed by Microsoft, we proposed a novel method for human identity recognition based on the structure of bones which has some advantages: more acceptable by the users since it is more convenient without any specific requirements; better anti-falsification due to the unique of human’s bone organization, it is hard to be falsified or stolen; easier to carry on and with less risk of loss, because the bone organization is human’s intrinsic properties. It can be applied to many other industry and fields, such as Social Security, AI Robots and Health Care, Entertainment and Gaming. Our system firstly utilizes Kinect skeletal tracking technique[11] to capture the human body movement, after evaluating and recording the properties of skeletal data from different in-stances, such as length of the arm, length of the leg, etc., we compile the skeletal data and select the distinguished properties and train the data using artificial neural network (ANN) classifier[5]. Finally the trained ANN classifier is used to detect skeletal features of individual data to achieve the recognition of the individual.
Non-Alcohol Fatty Liver Disease Goes Beyond the Liver

Non-alcohol fatty liver disease is not only a liver disease but also an important driver in a metabolic disease entity that effects many extrahepatic organs. It is attributing to the development and aggravation of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. The change to a hypercaloric, sedentary, lifestyle is the basis of this fast-growing problem. It diagnostic and therapeutic approach is far beyond the liver disease and needs a multidisciplinary, multifactorial approach starting with awareness.
Mise en place échoguidée des cathéters veineux centraux Ultrasound-guided central venous cannulation

The placement of central venous catheters (CVC) is one of the most frequent procedures in the intensive care unit; however, it is not free of mechanical complications. Before the advent of bi-dimensional echography, physicians used to place CVC according to the landmark technique. This technique was based on anatomical observations describing the most frequent position of the vessels. However, the position may vary and thus failure and mechanical complications (sometimes severe) occur. With bi-dimensional echography, physicians can see what they used to palpate. Interestingly, ultrasounds have demonstrated their ability to improve the success rate, number of punctures, duration of the procedure, number of complications, comfort, and cost. Though physicians should still be able to use the landmarks, the echoguidance is now the technique referent.
Smoothing Method for Nonlinear Second-Order Cone Programs with Complementarity Constraints and Its Application to the Smart House Scheduling Problem

In this paper, we consider an optimization problem with complementarity constraints and secondorder cone constraints. The mathematical program with complementarity constraints (MPCC) has extensively been studied because MPCC has wide application such as engineering design, traffic equilibrium and game theory. Recently, second-order cone programming has also been studied intensively in relation to robust optimization under uncertainty. To the author’s knowledge, however, theoretical and algorithmic results about problems that contain both complementarity and secondorder cone constraints have yet to be reported. In this paper, we propose a method for solving nonlinear second-order cone programs with complementarity constraints, which uses a smoothing technique to deal with complementarity constraints, and show its convergence. Moreover, as an application, we formulate a mathematical model of smart house scheduling as a nonlinear secondorder cone program with complementarity constraints, and give numerical results with the proposed method.
Peer Review-The use of problem-solving as a method in the teaching of mathematics and its influence on students'creativity

This study aimed to describe the use of problem-solving in the teaching and learning of mathematics for the development of students affective creativity in Indonesia. The samples to the study were taken from selected Banjarmasin junior high schools. The research focused on the inability of mathematics learning in developing student’s creativeness. To establish how affective creativity is developed based on mathematics learning, the present paper thought to answer four research questions: how is the creativity of students in Indonesia, especially in Banjarmasin? ; how does the affective creativity model work using problem-solving as a method to teaching and learning mathematics? is there any significant difference between problem-solving method and conventional methods in terms of student’s creativity? ; lastly, what factors contribute to student’s creativeness development? To answer these questions, mixed research methods entailing both qualitative and quantative methods has been used. In the effort to discover how students’ values or personalities are developed through mathematics learning and factors which might be contributing to the development of students’ creativity a qualitative method was applied. Whereas, in the process of examining how problem-solving learning method during mathematics lessons impact on students’ creativity a quantative method was used. In this regard, data collection was conducted through observation, testing, and interview. The findings revealed that: most students have a higher level of creativity on the cognition aspect with little affective aspect; problem-solving method consists of six phases namely: deliver the objective of the lesson, direct students to the problem through problem-solving method, manage students to learn, guide the students to solve the problem individually or together, present the result and ensure student’s understanding. It has therefore been concluded that the implementation of problem-solving method can advance student’s creativity on cognitive and affective level with low grade students adapting to learning faster.
Relative importance of MHC and genetic background for parasite load in a field experiment

Question: How do major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes influence parasite load in a natural experiment? Methods: We crossed three-spined sticklebacks from a river habitat with genetically distinct lake sticklebacks and inter-crossed the resulting F1 hybrids. F2 offspring segregate into pure river or pure lake MHC genotypes and into two hybrid genotypes, while randomizing the background genome across all MHC genotypes. Experiment: In outdoor cages, we exposed fish reciprocally to the natural parasite communities of the river and lake habitats. Results: MHC genotype did not significantly influence parasite load. In contrast, genomic background explained a significant percentage of the variation in parasite load.
Studying the Influence (or Mutual Shaping) of Social Networks in a Learning Experience: Methods for a Pilot Study

This paper summarizes the methods and preliminary findings from the pilot study of a doctoral thesis with the research aim of determining how users can experience learning using social networking tools and how their literacies may influence this experience. The instruments used for the collection of data were: observation, an online forum, class discussions, a questionnaire and a semi structured interview. These methods were connected with a group of learning interventions that involved the use of social networking tools, within two master courses. The sample of this pilot study was a complete income of an international master course, divided in four teams. The participants interviewed were four team leaders, chosen by their own teams. The method for analyzing data was content analysis and a framework of categories was created to present the data in a certain order. The preliminary findings of this pilot study are related to: a) the identification of the most important issues of web 2.0 and social networks that are faced by users within a learning environment; b) a look at some of the challenges and opportunities of using social networks in higher education instruction related to the students' literacies; c) a look at the most useful activities for learning, within this study; and d) the topics the students learned about throughout the activities of this study. Finally, this paper indicates further refinements to be done on the methods prior continuing with the proper study.
Interactions between the toxic estuarine dinoflagellate Pfiesteria piscicida and two species of bivalve molluscs

Toxic strains of Pfiesteria spp. produce toxin(s) that can cause finfish death, but much less is known about impacts of Pfiesteria on shellfish. Here we conducted 4 experiments to examine interactions between shellfish and toxic (actively toxic or TOX-A from finfish-killing cultures and potentially toxic or TOX-B from cultures without finfish) and non-inducible (NON-IND, apparently incapable of killing fish via a toxic effect) strains of P. piscicida. First (Expt 1), we documented direct physical attack by P. piscicida TOX-A, TOX-B, and NON-IND zoospores on larvae of the bay scallop Argopecten irradians (Lamarck, 1819) and the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin, 1791). Within 5 min zoospores swarmed around larvae that had discarded their vela, and attached with their peduncles. Within 15 min they had penetrated into the shellfish visceral cavity and had begun to feed aggressively; after 30 min all shellfish tissues except the adductor muscle had been consumed. Sec- ond, we tested the response of scallop larvae to P. piscicida (TOX-A or TOX-B) or cryptomonads (as controls) that were held in dialysis tubing (0.22 µm porosity) to prevent direct contact. After 60 min larval survival was 0% in the TOX-A treatment, 100% in the cryptomonad control, and intermediate in TOX-B and TOX-B + cryptomonad treatments. The data indicate a toxic effect of P. piscicida zoospores on the larvae, separate from the physical effect shown in Expt 1. Third, we compared grazing by juvenile and adult oysters on TOX-A, TOX-B, and NON-IND P. piscicida zoospores from the medium. After 60 min, grazing by juvenile oysters significantly differed as NON-IND >> TOX-B >> TOX-A. In contrast, adult oysters grazed significantly fewer TOX-A zoospores and main- tained comparable grazing on TOX-B and NON-IND zoospores. Thus juvenile oysters, but not adults, were sensitive to residual toxicity of TOX-B zoospores, and both life-history stages were sensitive to TOX-A zoospores. The adverse effects of toxic strains on larval survival and juvenile grazing indicate that P. piscicida could potentially affect shellfish recruitment. Fourth, we assessed zoospore survival after passage through the digestive tract of adult oysters. The feces contained many temporary cysts from zoospores, and within 24 h >75% of the cysts produced motile cells. The data indicate that adult oysters would be poor biocontrol agents of P. piscicida, given the high survival of ingested zoospores following gut passage and fecal elimination; and that oysters could act as vectors of toxic P. piscicida strains if transported from affected estuaries to other waters.
Actuator Dynamics Augmented DOBC for A Small Fixed Wing UAV

—This paper presents an actuator dynamics aug- mentation of the classical Disturbance Observer Based Control (DOBC) approach for control of a small ﬁxed wing Unmanned Aerial Vehcile (UAV). The proposed method modiﬁes the observer to include actuator dynamics. This augmentation allows for signiﬁcantly higher observer gains in practice than traditional DOBC in the presence of actuator dynamics, resulting in bet- ter disturbance rejection performance. The actuator states are unmeasurable, so are also estimated by the proposed observer using an actuator model and the aircraft state. The actuator modelling process of the UAV is provided in detail. The closed- loop stability as well as observer tuning guidelines are discussed. The performance improvement is demonstrated ﬁrst in numerical simulation and validated with ﬂight test results using a small UAV.
A case of severe meningoencephalitis co-infection due to Cryptococcus neoformans and Treponema pallidum in an HIV-positive patient

Cryptococcal meningitis and neurosyphilis are rare diseases in Europe. Coinfection of the nervous system by two distinct non-viral organisms is uncommon and frequently undiagnosed. Differential diagnosis suggests that a single pathologic process should be sought. However, in the presence of severe immunodeficiency, this approach may not be accurate. In the literature, there have been described only one case of Cryptococcus neoformans and Treponema pallidum coinfection affecting nervous system. We report a case of 30-years-old man admitted to a local hospital due to symptoms of meningitis. On admission, the immunological and viral status of the patient was unknown. It led to delayed diagnosis, as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) results were unspecific. Eventually, Cryptococcus neoformans was detected in CSF. He was referred to Department of Infectious Diseases of Poznan University of Medical Sciences, where a full panel of tests was performed and confirmed HIV infection, cryptococcal meningitis, and neurosyphilis. The patient was put on antiretroviral therapy (ART), ceftriaxone, and amphotericin B. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed an encephalitis. After an aggressive therapy, patient has become stable, and on a frequent follow-up schedule in the outpatient setting. The reported case is extremely rare. Diagnosed coinfection shows the importance of considering many etiologic possibilities, when an immunocompromised patient presents to an emergency room. Clinicians need to consider Cryptococcus neoformans and syphilis in the differential diagnosis of neurological disorders, particularly aseptic meningitis, as early diagnosis and treatment lead to a better prognosis. HIV AIDS Rev 2018; 17, 1: 58-60 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5114/hivar.2018. 74053
Does avian gut passage favour seed germination of woody species of the Chaco Serrano Woodland in Argentina

Frugivorous birds are key dispersal agents of many plant species and also may facilitate seed germination after gut passage. However, the general effects of gut passage on seed germination are still not clear, with positive, negative, and neutral effects reported on seed germination. We evaluated seed germination of seven bird-dispersed plant species of the Chaco Serrano Woodland in Cordoba, Argentina: Celtis ehrenbergiana (Klotzsch) Liebm. , Condalia spp. Cav. , Lantana camara L. , Lithraea molleoides (Vell.) Engl. , Lycium cestroides Schltdl. , Schinus fasciculatus (Griseb.) I.M. Johnst. , and Zanthoxylum coco Gillies. We compared germination percentages and germination speed among seeds ingested by birds, manually extracted seeds, and seeds from intact fruits to understand which mechanisms are acting on bird gut-passed seeds. For six plant species, the action of frugivorous birds increased seed germination percentages and germination speed, through scarification, deinhibition, or combined mechanisms. Our res.
Vision-Based Semantic Unscented FastSLAM for Indoor Service Robot

This paper proposes a vision-based Semantic Unscented FastSLAM (UFastSLAM) algorithm for mobile service robot combining the semantic relationship and the Unscented FastSLAM. The landmark positions and the semantic relationships among landmarks are detected by a binocular vision. Then the semantic observation model can be created by transforming the semantic relationships into the semantic metric map. Semantic Unscented FastSLAM can be used to update the locations of the landmarks and robot pose even when the encoder inherits large cumulative errors that may not be corrected by the loop closure detection of the vision system. Experiments have been carried out to demonstrate that the Semantic Unscented FastSLAM algorithm can achieve much better performance in indoor autonomous surveillance than Unscented FastSLAM.
Nitrogen production from geochemical weathering of rocks in southwest Montana, USA

A 30 day time course laboratory weathering experiment was conducted using rock samples collected from the West Fork of the Gallatin River watershed (WFW) in southwestern Montana, USA. The goal of these experiments was to quantify the amount of labile nitrogen in rock samples collected from the watershed and determine if chemical weathering is a source of dissolved nitrogen in stream water. Several rock samples investigated produced nitrate in significantly higher concentrations than the silica bead control (p < 0.05), and the data were consistent with elevated NO3− concentrations measured in associated WFW streams. Isotopic analyses of 15N‐NO3 in 22 stream water samples from the WFW and four rock:water extracts from the laboratory experiments indicated that the isotopic composition of NO3 was comparable with rocks and stream water samples in the same watershed and differed strongly from waters downstream of development. We suggest that the NO3− measured in WFW streams includes nitrogen derived from mineral dissolution products from soils and rock. The results presented herein further indicate that rock weathering is a source of stream water N in the West Fork watershed and inform water quality assessment, total maximum daily load development, and the relative influences of natural and anthropocentrically derived N sources across this developing mountain watershed.
What makes start-ups out of unemployment different?

"'What makes start-ups out of unemployment different? ' To answer this question we formulate a theoretical sketch for start-up activity out of unemployment. Furthermore, we estimate spatial autoregressive models for the regional start-up rates out of unemployment as well as out of employment with German data from 1999 to 2004 at the NUTS3-level. Characteristics describing the populations of potential entrepreneurs as well as agglomeration externalities have a similar impact on both start-up rates. They are, however, affected in different ways by the regional wage level and the probability of entrepreneurial success. Moreover, the local impact of these determinants is amplified by spatial spillover and spatial feedback effects in particular for the start-up rate out of unemployment. " (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
Leaf serration in seedlings of heteroblastic woody species enhance plasticity and performance in gaps but not in the understory.

Leaf heteroblasty refers to dramatic ontogenetic changes in leaf size and shape, in contrast to homoblasty that exhibits little change, between seedling and adult stages. This study examined whether the plasticity in leaf morphology of heteroblastic species would be an advantage for their survival and growth over homoblastic congeners to changes in light. Two congeneric pairs of homoblastic (Hoheria lyallii, Aristotelia serrata) and heteroblastic species (H. sexstylosa, A. fruticosa) were grown for 18 months in canopy gap and forest understory sites in a temperate rainforest in New Zealand. Heteroblastic species that initially had serrated leaves reduced leaf serration in the understory, but increased in the gaps. Heteroblastic species also produced thicker leaves and had higher stomatal pore area ( length), maximum photosynthetic rate, survival, and greater biomass allocation to shoots than homoblastic relatives in the gaps. Findings indicate that increased leaf serration in heteroblastic species is an advantage over homoblastic congeners in high light.
The time looking for a parking space: strategies, associated nuisances and stakes of parking management in France

Among the components of urban traffic, the vehicles searching for a parking place represent a percentage of the traffic that cannot be eluded. SARECO has lead a research for the PREDIT (French program of research) in order to evaluate the stakes linked to the time spent by road users looking for a space in France. When a motorist looks for a parking space, he creates a certain relation with the space in which he moves. The strategy he will carry out depends not only on the urban context but also on his individual characteristics. The enquiries have clarified motorists' behaviours : As he looks for a space, the motorist progressively enlarges his circle of research. Beyond 15 minutes, the average distance to the destination is less than 200m. When the time gets over 15 minutes, the distance gets more and more important and can get over 500m. In the process of its looking for a parking space, the road user will have to decide whether to switch to a new scope. The direct nuisance is of course the time spent by the motorist as this activity is obviously unproductive. The average searching time is 3,3 minutes in Grenoble, 11,8 minutes in Lyon, and in Paris, 10 minutes in Commerce district and 7,7 minutes in Saint-Germain district. The visitors represent most of the searching time because they are the greatest number of cars, however the residents are those spending individually most of the time. The extrapolation to the whole France (taking also into account enquiries made by SARECO in smaller towns) has lead us to an estimation of 70 millions hours spent looking for a space each year in France, which represents around a 700 millions euros loose each year, including an estimation of the externalities costs (noise, pollution,…). However, the toll implementation leads to a segregative mobility and can have pervert long-term effects, especially if, subsequently, no alternative means of transportation are developed. The inner city could then become a rich " ghetto ". The stakes of searching time reduction exceeding 1 billion euros each year, the subject should be studied thoroughly. France with an average rate of respect of pay parking being under 30% can certainly reduce drastically the amount of time wasted in searching a parking space. For the covering abstract see ITRD E135582.