Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contactless Finger Recognition Using Invariants from Higher Order Spectra of Ridge Orientation Profiles

A new method of biometric identity verification using images of fingers (contact-less sensing) is presented. The method utilizes ridge orientation along lines between easily and reliably extracted key points and bispectral invariant features from the ridge orientation profiles. Rotation is corrected in the pre-processing stage after extraction of key points. Robustness to translation and scale are incorporated in the feature extraction. The method does not rely on minutiae extraction and has potential for feature fusion from multiple fingers for improved performance. A radial basis function Support Vector Machine is trained to perform each identity verification. Results were obtained using 1341 index finger images from 41 individuals with 10-fold cross validation. The system shows about 12% misses at a setting of 1% false alarms and the classification accuracy of the fused system is 92.99%. The performance can be improved with the use of multiple fingers. The proposed methodology can facilitate high traffic, soft identity verification in busy premises such as shopping centres with presentation of the hand as a person walks through.
No evidence for a major effect of three common polymorphisms of the GPx1, MnSOD, and CAT genes on PCOS susceptibility

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the prevalent endocrine‐metabolic disorders. It is proposed that oxidative stress contributes to PCOS susceptibility and its metabolic associations. The current study aimed to investigate the influence of GPx1 (rs1050450), MnSOD (rs4880), and Catalase (rs1001179) variants with PCOS susceptibility, for the first time.
Development of a Pediatric Goal-Centered Upper Limb Spasticity Home Exercise Therapy Program for Use in a Phase-III Trial of Abobotulinumtoxina (Dysport®)

Abstract Aims: To create a standardized home exercise therapy program that could be implemented by international sites to provide a consistent level of therapeutic intervention for pediatric patients participating in an ongoing Phase-III, randomized, controlled trial of repeat abobotulinumtoxinA injections for pediatric upper limb spasticity (NCT02106351). Methods: Physical therapists, occupational therapists, and medical doctors worked collaboratively to design an exercise therapy program to be implemented in the home setting. In this article, we describe the development process and the finalized program that is currently being used in the Phase-III trial. Results: The final program is presented as a “toolbox” for therapists, and includes a standardized step-wise process for choosing the most appropriate exercises and functional activities to achieve the agreed treatment goals of each abobotulinumtoxinA injection. The core toolbox includes: a clear protocol for clinicians, information sheets, signature of commitment forms, exercise score charts, and the library of exercises and functional activities that therapists choose from to aid the patient in achieving their treatment goals. Conclusions: Implementation of this home therapy program provides a standardized background of good practice against which to test the efficacy of abobotulinumtoxinA. Preliminary data show that the program is readily accepted by patients and their families.
High Performance of Covalently Grafting onto Collagen in The Presence of Graphene Oxide

A collagen-based copolymer, ASC-g-Poly(methyl methacrylate-co-Ethyl Acrylate), was synthesized in the presence of Graphene Oxide (GO) via an in-situ polymerization. The presence of GO that increased the accessible surface area for initiated collagen chains allowed for an accelerated polymerization with highly improved grafting performance and efficiency. This was conducted from two polymerization systems with varied comonomer feed ratios, in which two distinguished GO loadings were used. The processability of the achieved nanocomposite was then evaluated through casting and electrospinning processing methods. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV-Vis spectroscopy, Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and tensile analysis were conducted to characterize the GO-ASC-g-P(MMA-co-EA). The nanocomposite films showed a unique morphology, multilayer nanostructure of the grafted GO monolayers that deposited simultaneously one on top of another. The morphology of the electrospun fibers was affected by the addition of GO loadings in which the increase in fiber diameter was observed while the surface of the nanofibers was decorated by the GO nanolayers. To modify the collagen, this research highlights the importance of introducing functional groups of GO and the substitution of GO loadings as an active nanostructure filler to highly monomer feed ratios improving the physiochemical properties of collagen. This easy-to-apply approach is suggested for applications intending the mechanical properties and deterred degradation of Collagen-based materials.
Compactification of Affine Transformation Filter Using Tensor Decomposition

Keypoint matching is used in a variety of tasks such as specific object recognition and panoramic image generation. Affine-SIFT (ASIFT) enables affine invariant matching by generating many affine transformation images of an input image. It describes the scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) features of the generated image. However, ASIFT must perform multiple costly online computations for affine transformation. We represent an oriented FAST and rotated BRIEF (ORB) descriptor in a linear filter subjected to many affine transformations. We calculate the affine features by convolving the generated filter with the patch image. However, convolving the 19,200 filters generated by the affine transformation is inefficient. In order to reduce the convolution processing, the affine transformation filter is made compact by a factorization method. We built a 4-order tensor using the affine transformation filter. The 4-order tensor decomposes into the Tucker model. We reduce dimensions appropriately for each mode. In this way, we propose a compact and accurate feature description. Our evaluation experiments confirmed that the proposed method reduces the processing time to 19% while maintaining the same precision as singular value decomposition, which is the conventional method.
Spatially Attentive Correlation Filters for Visual Tracking

Although correlation filter based trackers have recently demonstrated excellent performance, they still suffer from the boundary effects. The cosine window is introduced to alleviate the boundary affects, which however may result in poor performance in case of occlusion or fast motion. To address this problem, we propose a simple yet effective framework, which builds a spatially attentive model with multiple features to guide the detection of the correlation filter based trackers. The proposed method not only can breakthrough the spatial extent of cosine window, but also can provides prior information about the target object. Moreover, to model a robust object prior, we propose a generic strategy for adaptive fusion and update of multiple features. Extensive experiments over multiple tracking benchmarks demonstrate the superior accuracy and real-time performance of our methods compared to the state-of-the-art trackers.
HUE-Preserving Color Contrast Enhancement Method Without Gamut Problem by Using Histogram Specification

Generally, in color image contrast enhancement, the intensity or saturation component of an image is processed without the change of hue component of the image. In some color space used for contrast enhancement, processed pixel values are located outside of the gamut of the RGB color space. In that case, a clipping process is required to make the pixel values located inside of the gamut. However, the clipping process changes the combination of R, G, and B components and causes unexpected hue changes. In the present paper, we propose a hue-preserving contrast enhancement method for color images without gamut problem. In the proposed method, the contrast enhancement of a color image is realized by spreading out the distribution of pixel values on a constant hue plane in the RGB color space. The constant hue plane is represented as the triangle whose vertices correspond to white, black, and the maximally saturated colors. By spreading out the distribution of the pixel values on the constant hue plane, a remedy for the gamut problem and hue-preserving contrast enhancement are realized. Through experiments, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified.
Alterations in the Urinary Microbiota Are Associated With Cesarean Delivery

Similar to the gut, the bladder contains urinary microbiota, and its bacterial composition and structure are determined by the individual’s health status. Cesarean section is a traumatic event for women and it is correlated with postpartum complications. To better understand the urinary microbiota alterations caused by cesarean section, 16S rDNA sequencing was used to assess urine specimens collected by transurethral catheterization from 30 healthy women undergoing cesarean section pre-delivery (PreD) and post-delivery (PostD). A significant increase in bacterial diversity and more detectable bacteria at the phylum, family, and genus levels was observed in the PostD group compared to the PreD group, indicating that cesarean delivery (a process that includes surgery and delivery) altered the bacterial community. Specifically, the phylum Firmicutes and its affiliated family Lactobacillaceae and genus Lactobacillus dramatically decreased in the PostD group, suggesting that beneficial bacteria decreased after cesarean section, and clinicians should be aware that this might increase the risk of complications. Concurrently, the phylum Proteobacteria and its affiliated bacteria Pseudomonadaceae and Pseudomonas increased in the PostD group compared to the PreD group. This indicates that pathogen growth increases after cesarean section, making it important for clinicians to combat these changes to protect women from infectious diseases. Interestingly, several metabolic pathways, such as metabolism of energy, cofactors and vitamins were strengthened in the PostD group, whereas membrane transport was lessened in this group. This suggests that women’s metabolic disorders might be cured by balancing urinary microbiota. In conclusion, the altered urinary microbiota between the PreD and PostD periods appears to provide insight into how to prevent postpartum metabolic disorders.
Decision-level Feature Switching as a Paradigm for Replay Attack Detection

A pre-recorded audio sample of an authentic speaker presented to a voice-based biometric system is termed as a replay attack. Such attacks can be detected by identifying the characteristics of the recording device and environment. An analysis of different recording devices indicates that each recording device affects the spectrum differently. It is also observed that each feature captures speciﬁc characteristics of recording devices. In particular, Mel Filterbank Slope (MFS) captures low-frequency information corresponding to that of the low-quality recording devices, while Linear Filterbank Slope (LFS) captures high-frequency information which corresponds to that of a high-quality recording device. The proposed approach uses MFS and LFS along with Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefﬁcients (MFCC) and Constant-Q Cepstral Coefﬁcients (CQCC) in a Decision-level Feature Switching (DLFS) paradigm to determine whether a given utterance is spoofed. The obtained results surpass the state-of-the-art Light Convolutional Neural Network (LCNN) based replay detection system with a relative improvement of 7.43% on the ASV-spoof-2017 evaluation dataset.
Negative Cellular Effects of Urban Particulate Matter on Human Keratinocytes Are Mediated by P38 MAPK and NF-κB-dependent Expression of TRPV 1

Urban particulate matter (UPM) exerts negative effects on various human organs. Transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) is a polymodal sensory transducer that can be activated by multiple noxious stimuli. This study aimed to explore the effects of the UPM 1648a on the expression of TRPV1, and its regulatory mechanisms in HaCaT cells. UPM enhanced TRPV 1 promoter-luciferase reporter activity. UPM also increased expression of the TRPV 1 gene as evidenced by increased mRNA and protein levels of TRPV 1. In addition, elucidation of the underlying mechanism behind the UPM-mediated effects on TRPV 1 expression revealed that UPM can upregulate expression of the TRPV1 gene by activating activator protein-1 (AP-1) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB). The UPM treatment also altered Ca2+ influx and cell proliferation, as well as production of interleukin-8 (IL-8), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and interleukin-1β (IL-1β). In addition, these UPM-induced effects were attenuated by SB203580 and ammonium pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate (PDTC). However, SP600125 and PD98059 did not alter the UPM-induced effects. Taken together, these findings indicate that UPM upregulates expression of the TRPV 1 gene, which is mediated by the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and NF-κB signaling pathways and suggest that UPM is a potential irritant that can induce skin processes such as aging and inflammatory responses.
Encoding Individual Acoustic Features Using Dyad-Augmented Deep Variational Representations for Dialog-level Emotion Recognition

Face-to-face dyadic spoken dialog is a fundamental unit of human interaction. Despite numerous empirical evidences in demonstrating interlocutor’s behavior dependency in dyadic interactions, few technical works exist in leveraging the unique pattern of dynamics in task of advancing emotion recognition during face-to-face settings. In this work, we propose a framework of encoding an individual’s acoustic features with dyad-augmented deep networks. The dyad-augmented deep networks includes a general variational deep Gaussian Mixture embedding network and a dyad-speciﬁc ﬁne-tuned network. Our framework utilizes the augmented dyad-speciﬁc feature space to incorporate the unique behavior pattern emerged when two people interact. We perform dialog-level emotion regression tasks in both the CreativeIT and the NNIME databases. We obtain affect regression accuracy of 0.544 and 0.387 for activation and valence in the CreativeIT database (a relative improvement of 4.41% and 4.03% compared to using features without augmenting the dyad-speciﬁc representation), and we obtain 0.700 and 0.604 (4.48% and 4.14% relative improvement) for regressing activation and valence in the NNIME database.
Investigation on phenol degradation capability of Scenedesmus regularis: influence of process parameters

ABSTRACT Phenol removal from environmental solutions has attracted much attention due to phenol’s high toxicity, even at low concentrations. This study aims to reveal the phenol biodegradation capacity of Scenedesmus regularis. Batch system parameters (pH, amount of algal cell, phenol concentration) on biodegradation were examined. After 24 h of treatment, 92.16, 94.50, 96.20, 80.53, 65.32, 52 and 40% of phenol were removed by Scenedesmus regularis in aqueous solutions containing 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 and 50 mg/L of phenol, respectively. To describe the correlation between degradation rate and phenol concentration, the Michaelis–Menten kinetic equation was used where Vmax and Km are 0.82 mg phenol g algea−1 h−1 and 24.97 ppm, respectively. Phenol remediation ability of S.regularis can enable the usage of the spent biomass as biofuel feedstock and animal feed makes it a ‘green’ environmental sustainable process. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Communication Skills Attitude Scale among medical students in Liaoning province, China: a cross-sectional study

Objectives The aims of this study were to develop the Chinese version of the Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS-Ch) in order to test the psychometric properties of the modified instrument. Design A cross-sectional study was conducted in September 2016 to evaluate the attitudes of Chinese medical students towards communication skills learning using CSAS at China Medical University. Participants The study recruited 510 fifth-year medical students by cluster sampling. Methods Cronbach’s α coefficients were calculated for the entire questionnaire and for the subscales to evaluate the internal consistency of the CSAS-Ch. In order to determine the structure underlying the CSAS, the scale was factor analysed using maximum likelihood extraction and the oblique rotation method. Results Of the 510 medical students, 492 (96.5%) completed the questionnaire. Cronbach’s α coefficient for the CSAS scale was 0.897. Exploratory factor analysis showed that the four-factor structure accounted for 59.8% of the variance and produced an acceptable fit to the data. Conclusions The modified CSAS-Ch can be used to evaluate attitudes towards communication skills. Further Future research for improving the teaching methods for communication skills should explore the relationship between medical students’ attitudes and the demographic characteristics.
Processing of DNA Ends in the Maintenance of Genome Stability

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are particularly hazardous lesions as their inappropriate repair can result in chromosome rearrangements, an important driving force of tumorigenesis. DSBs can be repaired by end joining mechanisms or by homologous recombination (HR). HR requires the action of several nucleases that preferentially remove the 5′-terminated strands at both DSB ends in a process called DNA end resection. The same nucleases are also involved in the processing of replication fork structures. Much of our understanding of these pathways has come from studies in the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Here, we review the current knowledge of the mechanism of resection at DNA DSBs and replication forks.
Isoform-specific activities of the regulatory subunits of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases – potentially novel therapeutic targets

ABSTRACT Introduction: The main regulatory subunits of Class IA phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), p85α and p85β, initiate diverse cellular activities independent of binding to the catalytic subunit p110. Several of these signaling processes directly or indirectly contribute to a regulation of PI3K and could become targets for therapeutic efforts. Areas covered: This review will highlight two general areas of p85 activity: (1) direct interaction with regulatory proteins and with determinants of the cytoskeleton, and (2) a genetic analysis by deletion and domain switches identifying new functions for p85 domains. Expert Opinion: Isoform-specific activities of regulatory subunits have long been at the periphery of the PI3K field. Our understanding of these unique functions of the regulatory subunits is fragmentary and raises many important questions. At this time, there is insufficient information to translate this knowledge into the clinic, but some tempting targets have emerged that could move the field forward with the help of novel technologies in drug design and identification.
Comparison of Efficacy of Doxycycline and Isotretinoin on Cutaneous Human Beta-Defensin-1 and -2 Levels in Acne Vulgaris

Background: Recent studies have shown that human beta-defensin-1 (hBD-1) and (human beta-defensin-2 hBD-2), which are antimicrobial peptides produced by the skin, play a role in the pathogenesis of acne vulgaris (AV). Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the role of antimicrobial peptides in the pathogenesis of AV and enlighten the effects of doxycycline and isotretinoin in the expression of these defensins in AV. Materials and Methods: A total of 44 patients (22 patients in each group) with Grade 6 and 8 AV who were indicated doxycycline or isotretinoin for their treatment, and 20 healthy volunteers were included in this study. Pretreatment cutaneous samples were obtained from pustular lesions and uninvolved skin of AV patients and were repeated after the treatment. Only one biopsy was obtained from controls. Results: Cutaneous levels of hBD-1 and hBD-2 were significantly increased in AV patients when compared with healthy controls (P<0.05). Doxycycline therapy achieved a decrease in hBD-1 levels (P<0.05), whereas isotretinoin therapy achieved a reduction in hBD-2 levels when compared with pretreatment levels (P<0.05). Posttreatment hBD-1 and hBD-2 levels were not different between doxycycline and isotretinoin groups (P>0.05). Conclusion: In the light of these results, it was reasonable to assume the role of hBD-1 and hBD-2 in the pathogenesis of AV. Our results showing a significant reduction in hBD-1 staining with doxycycline treatment and in hBD-2 with isotretinoin suggested that some part of their anti-acne effect worked through these mechanisms.
Visual Attention Model for Cross-sectional Stock Return Prediction and End-to-End Multimodal Market Representation Learning

Technical and fundamental analysis are traditional tools used to analyze individual stocks; however, the finance literature has shown that the price movement of each individual stock correlates heavily with other stocks, especially those within the same sector. In this paper we propose a general purpose market representation that incorporates fundamental and technical indicators and relationships between individual stocks. We treat the daily stock market as a "market image" where rows (grouped by market sector) represent individual stocks and columns represent indicators. We apply a convolutional neural network over this market image to build market features in a hierarchical way. We use a recurrent neural network, with an attention mechanism over the market feature maps, to model temporal dynamics in the market. We show that our proposed model outperforms strong baselines in both short-term and long-term stock return prediction tasks. We also show another use for our market image: to construct concise and dense market embeddings suitable for downstream prediction tasks.
Quantitative Systems Pharmacology Model for Alzheimer Disease Indicates Targeting Sphingolipid Dysregulation as Potential Treatment Option

Alzheimer disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder with high unmet medical need. Drug development is hampered by limited understanding of the disease and its driving factors. Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (QSP) modeling provides a comprehensive quantitative framework to evaluate the relevance of biological mechanisms in the context of disease and to predict the efficacy of novel treatments. Here, we report a QSP model for AD with a particular focus on investigating the relevance of dysregulation of cholesterol and sphingolipids. We show that our model captures the modulation of several biomarkers in subjects with AD, as well as the response to pharmacological interventions. We evaluate the impact of targeting the sphingosine‐1‐phosphate 5 receptor (S1PR5) as a potential novel treatment option for AD, and model predictions increase our confidence in this novel disease pathway. Future applications for the QSP model are in validation of further targets and identification of potential treatment response biomarkers.