Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi-task CNN Model for Action Detection

Action detection is a challenging task since it requires locating actions of interest in both spatial and temporal. In this paper, a multi-task cnn model (MTCNN) which employs both spatial and temporal modules is proposed to solve this task. Specifically, the spatial module fuses appearance and motion information of frames which helps to regress the action bounding boxes in every frame more accurately, while the temporal module utilizes the 3D ConvNet which can effectively capture the temporal correlation between frames thus predict the time interval of action more precisely. Moreover, these two modules share information before their final outputs and are trained simultaneously. Experiments on UCF101-24 and J-HMDB-21 datasets demonstrate that our proposed pipeline outperforms most state-of-the-art methods.
A Printed Antenna with LTE/GSM/UMTS/WLAN and Wi-MAX Bands for Automotive Applications

In this paper, a compact wideband antenna is proposed for covering wireless standards which is range from (0.9-5.8)GHz. the triple monopole slot antenna is proposed which is printed under shark fin cover at roof top of the car. The proposed antenna reflection coefficient values are -12dB at 1.4GHz, -30dB at 2.1GHz, -22dB at 2.6GHz, -25dB at 3.6 GHz and -30dB at 5.1GHz. Antenna characteristics are investigated in terms of reflection coefficient, VSWR, radiation pattern. The antenna is suitable for vehicular application.
A New Wireless Power Transfer Topology based on Quasi-Z-Source and LLC Resonant Network with Low Input Current THD

Wireless power transfer (WPT) systems are power electronic converters which can be installed under the road and charge the butteries of the electric vehicles. High total harmonic distortion (THD) of the input current is an important challenge in WPT system design. In this paper a new topology is proposed for WPT systems to reduce their input current THD. In the proposed topology, a quasi-Z-source inverter (QZSI) is used in series with a LLC resonant network. In addition to the DC voltage boosting, QZSI shapes the input current. The simulation results verify the performance of the proposed structure in THD reduction and power factor correction in comparison with the conventional Z-source resonant converter.
Angiotensin II Receptor 1 Blockage Limits Brain Damage and Improves Functional Outcome After Brain Injury in Aged Animals Despite Age-Dependent Reduction in AT1 Expression

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a frequent pathology associated with poor neurological outcome in the aged population. We recently observed accelerated cerebral inflammation in aged mice in response to TBI. Candesartan is a potent specific inhibitor of angiotensin II receptor type 1 (AT1) which limits cerebral inflammation and brain damage in juvenile animals after experimental TBI. In the present study, we show significantly lower posttraumatic AT1 mRNA levels in aged (21 months) compared to young (2 months) mice. Despite low cerebral At1 expression, pharmacologic blockade by treatment with candesartan [daily, beginning 30 min after experimental TBI by controlled cortical impact (CCI)] was highly effective in both young and aged animals and reduced histological brain damage by −20% after 5 days. In young mice, neurological improvement was enhanced by AT1 inhibition 5 days after CCI. In older animals, candesartan treatment reduced functional impairment already on day 3 after TBI and post-traumatic body weight (BW) loss was attenuated. Candesartan reduced microglia activation (−40%) in young and aged animals, and neutrophil infiltration (−40% to 50%) in aged mice, whereas T-cell infiltration was not changed in either age group. In young animals, markers of anti-inflammatory microglia M2a polarization [arginase 1 (Arg1), chitinase3-like 3 (Ym1)] were increased by candesartan at days 1 and 5 after insult. In older mice 5 days after insult, expression of Arg1 was significantly higher independently of the treatment, whereas Ym1 gene expression was further enhanced by AT1 inhibition. Despite age-dependent posttraumatic differences in At1 expression levels, inhibition of AT1 was highly effective in a posttreatment paradigm. Targeting inflammation with candesartan is, therefore, a promising therapeutic strategy to limit secondary brain damage independent of the age.
From the Perspective of CNN to Adversarial Iris Images

IrisCode, the most influential iris recognition algorithm, has been extensively applied in national identity programmes and border controls. Currently over one billion people spanning approximately 170 nationalities have been enrolled in IrisCode. It is vital to thoroughly study this crucial algorithm, especially for issues related to its security. How to generate iris images from its templates is one of such security issues. The existing generation methods can produce images from iris templates and the synthetic images can be used to match other real iris images. However, their quality is very low with obvious artifacts. Considering the feature extraction process of IrisCode as a non-differentiable shallow convolutional neural network and using a differentiable function to approximate its step function, the generation process can be formulated as an unconstrained minimization problem. It can be mathematically proven that the solution of this formulation is the same as that of the convex polyhedral cone method proposed before. By exploiting the unconstrained formulation and the step function directly, a constrained convex minimization formulation with an inputted iris image selected by a search function as an information carrier is derived. The experimental results on the UBIRIS.v1 database and the WVU database demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can generate high quality iris images and significantly outperform the previous methods in terms of visual quality and six image quality metrics. They can also be matched with other real iris images in the two databases.
Markov Approximation Method for Optimal Service Orchestration in IoT Network

With the evolution toward 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to manage resource dynamically and provide customized services for different users in a cost-effective manner. Many technologies, such as edge computing and network function virtualization (NFV), have responded to these demands and been even more critical for system mobility, scalability, flexibility, and resource utilization. In this vein, the efficient provisioning method of the IoT services in distributed clouds based on the diverse quality of experience (QoE) requirements is highly needed. This paper focuses on service chain (SC) orchestration and studies the optimal placement of virtual network functions (VNFs) with multiple instances to minimize cost and delay, as well as guarantee network load balancing. We propose a multi-objective optimization problem model and then convert this combinatorial optimization problem to the one which can be solved by distributed methods based on the Markov approximation. At last, a VNF placement with multiple instances algorithm (VPMIA) based on Markov chain is designed to solve the above problem in a distributed manner. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can outperform the random placement algorithm and the single-path placement algorithm in cost saving by 22% and 31%, respectively, with a high SC acceptance rate. Besides, it can guarantee the QoE requirements and make the network load balanced with the different numbers of SCs.
On Distributed Cellular Backhaul Virtualization with Renewable-Powered Nodes

In this paper, we propose a green backhaul infrastructure virtualization market for a renewable-powered cellular multi-hop backhaul network in which a virtual operator (VO) can use the backhaul networks of some assemble operators (AOs) to forward traffic to itself. In particular, some backhaul nodes (i.e., on-grid nodes) of each assemble operator are considered to be powered by renewable energy suppliers (RPSs). In response to stochastic traffic demand, the virtual operator sets traffic service prices it will pay to the assemble operators, and the assemble operators set energy prices they will pay to the RPSs. In addition, each AO should determine the amount of renewable energy that will be reserved for the off-grid node, and each RPS should determine how much energy should be stored. The simulation results provides insights on how to manage cellular backhaul virtualization pricing for the design of green dense smell cell networks in future mobile networks.
Periodic Event-Triggered Suboptimal Control With Sampling Period and Performance Analysis

In this paper, the periodic event-triggered suboptimal control (PETSOC) method is developed for continuous-time linear systems. Different from event-triggered control, where the triggering condition is monitored continuously, the developed PETSOC method only verifies the triggering condition periodically at sampling instants, which further reduces computational resources. First, the control gain of the PETSOC is designed based on the algebraic Riccati equation. Subsequently, the periodic event-triggering condition is proposed for the suboptimal control method, which is only verified at sampling instants periodically. The sampling period is determined and analyzed based on the continuous form of the triggering condition. Moreover, the stability and the performance upper bound of the closed-loop system with the PETSOC are proved. Finally, the effectiveness of the developed PETSOC is validated through simulation on an unstable batch reactor.
Effect of αvβ3 Integrin Expression and Activity on Intraocular Pressure

Purpose To determine the effects of αvβ3 integrin expression and activation on intraocular pressure (IOP). Methods Cre+/−β3flox/flox mice were treated with topical tamoxifen eye drops for 5 days to activate Cre and excise the β3 integrin gene from the anterior segment. IOP was measured weekly for 11 weeks using rebound tonometry. Mice were then killed and changes in expression of the β3 integrin subunit in Cre+/− β3flox/flox mice were determined using Western blotting analysis and immunofluorescence microscopy. To determine the effect of αvβ3 integrin activation on outflow facility, porcine organ culture anterior segments (POCAS) were perfused with the αvβ3 integrin-activating antibody AP5 or an isotype IgG control for 21 hours. The effect of αvβ3 integrin activation on IOP was measured over 7 days in C57BL/6J mice intracamerally infused with AP5, AP3, IgG, or PBS. Results Deletion of the β3 integrin subunit using the tamoxifen-inducible Cre-loxP system resulted in a decrease in expression of the β3 integrin subunit in the trabecular meshwork and ciliary muscle. Morphologically no gross changes in the anterior segment were detected. Deletion of the β3 integrin subunit resulted in a significantly (P < 0.05) lower IOP in mice within 2 weeks following the tamoxifen treatment and persisted for 11 weeks. Activating the αvβ3 integrin with the AP5 antibody resulted in a significant (P < 0.05) increase in IOP in C57BL/6J mice and a decrease in outflow facility in 42% of the POCAS. Conclusions These studies demonstrate a role for αvβ3 integrin signaling in the regulation of IOP.
Hedgehog Signaling and Embryonic Craniofacial Disorders

Since its initial discovery in a Drosophila mutagenesis screen, the Hedgehog pathway has been revealed to be instrumental in the proper development of the vertebrate face. Vertebrates possess three hedgehog paralogs: Sonic hedgehog (Shh), Indian hedgehog (Ihh), and Desert hedgehog (Dhh). Of the three, Shh has the broadest range of functions both in the face and elsewhere in the embryo, while Ihh and Dhh play more limited roles. The Hedgehog pathway is instrumental from the period of prechordal plate formation early in the embryo, until the fusion of the lip and secondary palate, which complete the major patterning events of the face. Disruption of Hedgehog signaling results in an array of developmental disorders in the face, ranging from minor alterations in the distance between the eyes to more serious conditions such as severe clefting of the lip and palate. Despite its critical role, Hedgehog signaling seems to be disrupted through a number of mechanisms that may either be direct, as in mutation of a downstream target of the Hedgehog ligand, or indirect, such as mutation in a ciliary protein that is otherwise seemingly unrelated to the Hedgehog pathway. A number of teratogens such as alcohol, statins and steroidal alkaloids also disrupt key aspects of Hedgehog signal transduction, leading to developmental defects that are similar, if not identical, to those of Hedgehog pathway mutations. The aim of this review is to highlight the variety of roles that Hedgehog signaling plays in developmental disorders of the vertebrate face.
Research on the Soft-Switching Characteristics of Modular DC Solid State Transformer for DC Power Distribution Applications

Modular dc solid state transformer (MDCT), which plays an important role in the dc distribution system, can achieve electrical isolation, voltage conversion and power transmission between different dc voltage levels. The MDCT uses the high frequency transformer to transfer energy, which can reduce the size of the system, but this will generate more switching loss. The basic operation principle of the MDCT under quasi square wave modulation strategy was analyzed firstly. On this basis, this paper proposes a soft-switching operation scheme which can effectively reduce the switching loss for the system. The soft-switching condition and range of MDCT were analyzed and derived. Furthermore, a capacitor voltage-balancing strategy was presented in the MDCT, which can reduce the number of sensors and the cost of the system. Finally, the effectiveness of the theoretical analysis and the overall control strategy have been validated by the simulation results in MATLAB.
Clinical inertia in hypertension: a new holistic and practical concept within the cardiovascular continuum and clinical care process

Abstract Purpose: Recognition of clinical inertia is essential to improve the control of chronic diseases. Although it is very intuitive, a better interpretation of the concept of clinical inertia is lacking, likely due to its high complexity. Materials and Methods: After a review of the published articles, we propose a practical vision of inertia, contextualized within the clinical process of hypertension care. Results: This new vision enables the integration of previous terms and definitions of clinical inertia, as well as proposing specific strategies for its reduction. Conclusion: Although some concepts should be considered as ‘justified inertia’ or ‘investigator inertia’, the idea that inertia may be present throughout the continuum of care gives physicians a holistic view of the problem that is easily applicable to their clinical practice. Measures to overcome inertia are complicated because of the intrinsic complexity of the concept.
QJoin: A Q-Sample-Based Method for Large-Scale String Similarity Joins

Similarity joins has received significant attention in the last three decades because it is an essential operation in data integration and data cleaning. To design algorithms for large-scale similarity joins, MapReduce framework is often employed. But the large number of signatures incurs on both large shuffle cost and transmission cost. To decrease join time by reducing the shuffle cost and transmission cost, we propose a new q-sample-based algorithm, called QJoin, to support efficient string similarity joins. Experimental result on realworld datasets shows that our algorithm achieves high performance and it outperforms state-of-the-art approaches except on condition of edit distance 0.
Effective Segmentation of Sclera Region from Eye Image Using Contour

Sclera vascular patterns can also be considered as one of the biometric for human recognition. Sclera vascular patterns are unique to every individual and they are internally situated thus hard to spoof. In this paper, we proposed an effective segmentation for color images of eye. Firstly the color images are converted into grayscale then the grayscale image is binarized. After pre-processing, iris part is detected using Otsu's binarization and sclera part is effectively segmented using contour in the eye image. The standard database used for testing is UBIRIS.v1, where only wide open eye images are used for sclera region segmentation.
The ABCs of wheeze: Asthma and bacterial communities

Asthma is a common respiratory illness affecting approximately 8% of Americans and is characterized by symptoms of wheeze, cough, and shortness of breath. These symptoms are caused by an inappropriate sensitization to an environmental antigen, or allergen, that leads to airway inflammation upon reexposure. These responses are typically mediated by allergic T cells (Thelper 2 [Th2]), which trigger eosinophilic inflammation characteristic of allergic asthma. Multiple factors contribute to the clinical risk for asthma. A genetic predisposition to allergy and asthma, called atopy, is a well-established feature in its development. Additionally, environmental factors including exposure to allergens, birth delivery mode, diet, and childhood surroundings may also modify asthma risk. More recently, the role played by the body’s endogenous microbial communities (microbiota) has emerged as a new component to this puzzle. Healthy environmental microbial exposures not only help the neonatal immune system, including humoral and innate components, to mature into an adult-like state after birth but also likely influence immune function throughout life [1]. Maladaptive microbiota–host interactions have likewise been linked to the development of disease. A number of studies across a wide variety of illnesses have changed the way that we regard “pathologic” microbe–host interactions to include the concept of “dysbiosis,” or dysfunctional microbial communities that contribute to pathology. These dysbiotic communities fail to adequately perform the normal functions of a healthy microbiota in educating the immune system, processing dietary components, producing bioactive compounds, and more, which can profoundly impact host health and disease susceptibility. Dysbiotic gut and airway microbial communities have been implicated in asthma pathogenesis, indicating that a comprehensive understanding of the disease will require a detailed understanding of resident bacterial–host interactions.
Double-Bit Quantization and Index Hashing for Nearest Neighbor Search

As binary code is storage efficient and fast to compute, it has become a trend to compact real-valued data to binary codes for the nearest neighbors (NN) search in a large-scale database. However, the use of binary code for the NN search leads to low retrieval accuracy. To increase the discriminability of the binary codes of existing hash functions, in this paper, we propose a framework of double-bit quantization and index hashing for an effective NN search. The main contributions of our framework are: first, a novel double-bit quantization (DBQ) is designed to assign more bits to each dimension for higher retrieval accuracy; second, a double-bit index hashing (DBIH) is presented to efficiently index binary codes generated by DBQ; and third, a weighted distance measurement for DBQ binary codes is put forward to re-rank the search results from DBIH. The empirical results on three benchmark databases demonstrate the superiority of our framework over existing approaches in terms of both retrieval accuracy and query efficiency. Specifically, we observe an absolute improvement on precision of 10%–25% in most cases and the query speed increases over 30 times compared to traditional binary embedding methods and linear scan, respectively.
Differential Effects of Unihemispheric Concurrent Dual-Site and Conventional tDCS on Motor Learning: A Randomized, Sham-Controlled Study

Introduction: Based on the literature, unihemispheric concurrent dual-site anodal transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (a-tDCSUHCDS) of primary Motor cortex (M1) and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) would be more efficient than conventional a-tDCS of M1 to induce larger and longer-lasting M1 corticospinal excitability. The main objective of the present study was to compare the effects of a-tDCSUHCDS and conventional M1 a-tDCS on the extent and durability of the motor sequence acquisition in healthy individuals. Methods: In this randomized sham-controlled study, healthy volunteers were randomly divided into three groups: experimental (a-tDCSUHCDS), control (M1 a-tDCS), and sham stimulation groups. The participants practiced serial response time task over three consecutive days when they simultaneously received a-tDCS. Using the skill measure, we assessed motor learning up to 4 weeks after the completion of experimental conditions. Results: Data analysis revealed that all groups exhibited the improved trend over the training course (P<0.001). There were no significant differences in skill acquisition among groups at post-intervention (P>0.05), while a significant improvement was observed between experimental and sham group at the retention time (P<0.05). Moreover, there were no significant differences between the control and two other groups with regard to the retention time (P>0.05). Conclusion: These results revealed a significant increase in the skill acquisition by a-tDCSUHCDS technique with regard to retention issue, which could be a valuable finding in neuro-rehabilitation field.
Interaction of GAT1 with sodium ions: from efficient recruitment to stabilisation of substrate and conformation

The human GABA transporter (GAT1) is a membrane transporter that mediates the reuptake of the neurotransmitter GABA from the synaptic cleft into neurons and glial cells. Dysregulation of the transport cycle has been associated with epilepsy and neuropsychiatric disorders, highlighting the crucial role of the transporter in maintaining homeostasis of brain GABA levels. GAT1 is a secondary active transporter that couples the movement of substrate to the simultaneous transport of sodium and chloride ions along their electrochemical gradients. Using MD simulations, we identified a novel sodium recruiting site at the entrance to the outer vestibule, which attracts positively charged ions and increases the local sodium concentration, thereby indirectly increasing sodium affinity. Mutations of negatively charged residues at the recruiting site slowed the binding kinetics, while experimental data revealed a change in sodium dependency of GABA uptake and a reduction of sodium affinity. Simulation showed that sodium displays a higher affinity for the sodium binding site NA2, which plays a role in stabilisation of the outward-open conformation. We directly show that the presence of a sodium ion bound to NA2 increases the stability of the closed inner gate and restrains motions of TM5. We find that sodium is only weakly bound to NA1 in the absence of GABA, while the presence of the substrate strengthens the interaction due to the completed ion coordinating shell, explaining cooperativity between GABA and sodium.
Single View 3D Face Reconstruction with Landmark Updating

3D face reconstruction is a long-term and challenging problem, which has wide application scenarios, such as animation, recognition. Inspired by recent works in face landmark marching, we develop a method for 3D face reconstruction using a novel landmark updating optimization strategy. Our method is also based on minimization of the landmark projection error for calculation speed. To achieve more accuracy, contour landmarks and self-occluded landmarks need to be updated. For contour landmarks, the detected landmarks on 2D image are to updated by ? nding a nearest position on contour curve. For self-occluded landmarks, we render the model onto image plane, extract the edge of projected area, and generate new correspondence landmarks according to the edge pixels. We test our method quantitatively with ground truth data, and provide qualitative example reconstructions, show that our method performs better with experiments on MICC dataset.