Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reaching Movements in Dynamic Environments: How Do We Move Flexible Objects?

The paper presents an analysis of human reaching movements in manipulation of flexible objects. To predict the trajectory of human hand, a minimum crackle criterion has been recently proposed in literature. A different approach is explored in this paper. To explain the trajectory formation, we resort to the minimum hand jerk criterion. First, we show that this criterion matches well experimental data available in literature. Next, we argue that, contrary to the minimum crackle criterion, the minimum hand jerk criterion produces bounded hand velocity profiles for multi-mass flexible objects. Finally, we present initial experimental results confirming the applicability of the minimum hand jerk criterion in manipulation of multi-mass objects.
Motor representations in memory and mental models: Embodiment in cognition

A variety of experimental results have suggested that motor systems can participate in what were thought to be purely perceptual tasks. Extending previous work in the stimulusresponse compatibility paradigm, we show that a representation of a visual stimulus accessed from memory can activate potential motor interactions. Other research has shown that mental images and mental models can have analogue or spatial characteristics. In our second experiment, we present evidence that such representations, generated purely from linguistic descriptions, can also activate motor affordances. Results are discussed within the context of the embodiment of conceptual, as well as perceptual, processes
Music expertise shapes audiovisual temporal integration windows for speech, sinewave speech, and music

This psychophysics study used musicians as a model to investigate whether musical expertise shapes the temporal integration window for audiovisual speech, sinewave speech, or music. Musicians and non-musicians judged the audiovisual synchrony of speech, sinewave analogs of speech, and music stimuli at 13 audiovisual stimulus onset asynchronies (±360, ±300 ±240, ±180, ±120, ±60, and 0 ms). Further, we manipulated the duration of the stimuli by presenting sentences/melodies or syllables/tones. Critically, musicians relative to non-musicians exhibited significantly narrower temporal integration windows for both music and sinewave speech. Further, the temporal integration window for music decreased with the amount of music practice, but not with age of acquisition. In other words, the more musicians practiced piano in the past 3 years, the more sensitive they became to the temporal misalignment of visual and auditory signals. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that music practicing fine-tunes the audiovisual temporal integration window to various extents depending on the stimulus class. While the effect of piano practicing was most pronounced for music, it also generalized to other stimulus classes such as sinewave speech and to a marginally significant degree to natural speech.
A New Member of Gamma-Conotoxin Family Isolated from Conus princeps Displays a Novel Molecular Target

A novel conotoxin, named as PiVIIA, was isolated from the venom of Conus princeps, a marine predatory cone snail collected in the Pacific Southern Coast of Mexico. Chymotryptic digest of the S-alkylated peptide in combination with liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry, were used to define the sequencing of this peptide. Eleven N-terminal amino acids were verified by automated Edman degradation. PiVIIA is a 25-mer peptide (CDAOTHYCTNYWγCCSGYCγHSHCW) with six cysteine residues forming three disulphide bonds, a hydroxyproline (O) and two gamma carboxyglutamic acid (γ) residues. Based on the arrangement of six Cys residues (C-C-CC-C-C), this conotoxin might belong to the O2-superfamily. Moreover, PiVIIA has a conserved motif (-γCCS-) that characterizes γ-conotoxins from molluscivorous Conus. Peptide PiVIIA has 45% sequence identity with γ-PnVIIA—the prototype of this family. Biological activity of PiVIIA was assessed by voltage-clamp recording in rat dorsal root ganglion neurons. Perfusion of PiVIIA in the µM range produces a significant increase in the Ca2+ currents, without significantly modifying the Na+, K+ or proton-gated acid sensing ionic currents. These results indicate that PiVIIA is a new conotoxin whose activity deserves further studies to define its potential use as a positive modulator of neuronal activity.
Dissociable Roles of Right Inferior Frontal Cortex and Anterior Insula in Inhibitory Control: Evidence from Intrinsic and Task-Related Functional Parcellation, Connectivity, and Response Profile Analyses across Multiple Datasets

The right inferior frontal cortex (rIFC) and the right anterior insula (rAI) have been implicated consistently in inhibitory control, but their differential roles are poorly understood. Here we use multiple quantitative techniques to dissociate the functional organization and roles of the rAI and rIFC. We first conducted a meta-analysis of 70 published inhibitory control studies to generate a commonly activated right fronto-opercular cortex volume of interest (VOI). We then segmented this VOI using two types of features: (1) intrinsic brain activity; and (2) stop-signal task-evoked hemodynamic response profiles. In both cases, segmentation algorithms identified two stable and distinct clusters encompassing the rAI and rIFC. The rAI and rIFC clusters exhibited several distinct functional characteristics. First, the rAI showed stronger intrinsic and task-evoked functional connectivity with the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas the rIFC had stronger intrinsic and task-evoked functional connectivity with dorsomedial prefrontal and lateral fronto-parietal cortices. Second, the rAI showed greater activation than the rIFC during Unsuccessful, but not Successful, Stop trials, and multivoxel response profiles in the rAI, but not the rIFC, accurately differentiated between Successful and Unsuccessful Stop trials. Third, activation in the rIFC, but not rAI, predicted individual differences in inhibitory control abilities. Crucially, these findings were replicated in two independent cohorts of human participants. Together, our findings provide novel quantitative evidence for the dissociable roles of the rAI and rIFC in inhibitory control. We suggest that the rAI is particularly important for detecting behaviorally salient events, whereas the rIFC is more involved in implementing inhibitory control.
Institutional Repository Morphic primitivity and alphabet reductions

An alphabet reduction is a 1-uniform morphism that maps a word to an image that contains a smaller number of different letters. In the present paper we investigate the effect of alphabet reductions on morphically primitive words, i. e. , words that are not a fixed point of a nontrivial morphism. Our first main result answers a question on the existence of unambiguous alphabet reductions for such words, and our second main result establishes whether alphabet reductions can be given that preserve morphic primitivity. In addition to this, we study Billaud’s Conjecture – which features a different type of alphabet reduction, but is otherwise closely related to the main subject of our paper – and prove its correctness for a special case.
Measuring e-CRM implementation and outcomes from the customers' perspectives

This research attempts to examine and measure outcomes of e-CRM system implementation in the Thai Banking industry. The research is divided into two main sections. The first section is based on a qualitative approach to define e-CRM implementation in Thai banks. The second section uses a quantitative approach to determine the relationships between e-CRM implementation and outcomes from the customers' point of view. The contribution of this research lies in the fact that most e-CRM implementations are done in the back-office part, which cannot be directly seen or recognized by the customers, so a new construct called “e-CRM Service attribute” was introduced in this research in order to enable the measurement of e-CRM outcomes from the customers' perspectives. From the 13 constructs that have been collected from the literature, the exploratory factor analysis was performed and the results showed that the outcomes of e-CRM implementation from the customers' perspective can be grouped into three factors. The first one is the information factor, the second one is convenience and the third one is communication channel factor. In addition, the T-test was also employed to test the differences in e-CRM outcomes from the customers' perspectives between the customers of the banks that implemented e-CRM and those that did not.
Deliberate self-harm in young people: characteristics and subsequent mortality in a 20-year cohort of patients presenting to hospital.

OBJECTIVES To investigate the characteristics of young deliberate self-harm (DSH) patients and determine outcome in terms of mortality and risk factors for suicide. METHOD Information was collected on consecutive DSH patients aged 15 through 24 years presenting to a general hospital during a 20-year period (1978-1997). Deaths to the end of 2000 were identified through national mortality registers. RESULTS Of 5459 patients in the cohort, 62.9% were female and 37.1% male. Overdoses (90.5% of DSH episodes) most frequently involved acetaminophen (44.0%). Acetaminophen and antidepressant overdoses increased during the study period, whereas overdoses of minor tranquilizers decreased. More than one third of patients (36.1%) drank alcohol immediately before DSH. The most frequent problems faced by patients involved family members, partners, employment/ studies, and friends. One quarter of patients (26.3%) had a history of prior DSH. Of 4843 patients followed up, 141 (2.9%) died (90 males [5.0%] and 51 females [1.7%]), the risk of death being 4 times greater than expected. More than half (81; 57.4%) of the deaths were from probable suicide, which was approximately 10 times more frequent than expected. Risk factors for suicide included male gender, previous DSH, prior psychiatric history (females), and high suicide intent. There were also more deaths than expected from respiratory disorders, circulatory disorders, and accidents that did not involve poisoning. CONCLUSIONS The range of characteristics of young DSH patients indicates the multifactional nature of aftercare required following DSH. The very high risk of suicide after DSH in young people highlights the need for preventive initiatives in this population.
Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators Have Reduced the Incidence of Resuscitation for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Caused by Lethal Arrhythmias

Background— Over the last decades, a gradual decrease in ventricular fibrillation (VF) as initial recorded rhythm during resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) has been noted. We sought to establish the contribution of implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy to this decline. Methods and Results— Using a prospective database of all OHCA resuscitation in the province North Holland in the Netherlands (Amsterdam Resuscitation Studies [ARREST]), we collected data on all patients in whom resuscitation for OHCA was attempted in 2005–2008. VF OHCA incidence (per 100 000 inhabitants per year) was compared with VF OHCA incidence data during 1995–1997, collected in a similar way. We also collected ICD interrogations of all ICD patients from North Holland and identified all appropriate ICD shocks in 2005–2008; we calculated the number of prevented VF OHCA episodes, considering that only part of the appropriate shocks would result in avoided resuscitation. VF OHCA incidence decreased from 21.1/100 000 in 1995–1997 to 17.4/100 000 in 2005–2008 (P<0.001). Non-VF OHCA increased from 12.2/100 000 to 19.4/100 000 (P<0.001). VF as presenting rhythm declined from 63% to 47%. In 2005–2008, 1972 ICD patients received 977 shocks. Of these shocks, 339 were caused by a life-threatening arrhythmia. We estimate that these 339 shocks have prevented 81 (minimum, 39; maximum, 152) cases of VF OHCA, corresponding with 33% (minimum, 16%; maximum, 63%) of the observed decline in VF OHCA incidence. Conclusions— The incidence of VF OHCA decreased over the last 10 years in North Holland. ICD therapy explained a decrease of 1.2/100 000 inhabitants per year, corresponding with 33% of the observed decline in VF OHCA.
Characterization of ssfR andssgA, Two Genes Involved in Sporulation ofStreptomyces griseus

ABSTRACT In the presence of cefoxitin, which inhibits septum formation during sporulation, Streptomyces griseus is unable to sporulate, retaining the sonication sensitivity of nonsporulating hyphae. Cefoxitin- and sonication-resistant mutant SKK2600 was isolated and showed many morphological differences from its parental strain. A 3.6-kb DNA fragment that complemented the mutations of SKK2600 contained two open reading frames (ORFs), either of which could complement SKK2600. One ORF, designated ssfR, encoded a protein containing a potential DNA-binding helix-turn-helix motif close to its N terminus. SsfR is similar to members of a large family of transcriptional regulators, particularly IclR of Escherichia coli. The second ORF was identified as ssgA, a previously described sporulation gene from S. griseus (S. Kawamoto and J. C. Ensign, Actinomycetology 9:136–151, 1995). A point mutation of C to T seven nucleotides upstream of the UGA stop codon of ssfR was responsible for the phenotype of isolated mutant strain SKK2600. Surprisingly, this mutation should not change the primary structure of SsfR. The ssfR andssgA disruption mutants were constructed and showed the “white” mutant phenotype, with some growth medium dependence. In addition, the ssfR null mutant sporulated ectopically in phosphate starvation medium.
Inhibition of mTOR Pathway Sensitizes Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells to Aurora Inhibitors by Suppression of Glycolytic Metabolism

Aurora kinases are overexpressed in large numbers of tumors and considered as potential therapeutic targets. In this study, we found that the Aurora kinases inhibitors MK-0457 (MK) and ZM447439 (ZM) induced polyploidization in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines. The level of glycolytic metabolism was significantly increased in the polyploidy cells, which were sensitive to glycolysis inhibitor 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG), suggesting that polyploidy cells might be eliminated by metabolism deprivation. Indeed, inhibition of mTOR pathway by mTOR inhibitors (rapamycin and PP242) or 2DG promoted not only apoptosis but also autophagy in the polyploidy cells induced by Aurora inhibitors. Mechanically, PP242 or2DGdecreased the level of glucose uptake and lactate production in polyploidy cells as well as the expression of p62/SQSTM1. Moreover, knockdown of p62/SQSTM1 sensitized cells to the Aurora inhibitor whereas overexpression of p62/SQSTM1 reduced drug efficacy. Thus, our results revealed that inhibition of mTOR pathway decreased the glycolytic metabolism of the polyploidy cells, and increased the efficacy of Aurora kinases inhibitors, providing a novel approach of combination treatment in AML. Mol Cancer Res; 11(11); 1326–36. ©2013 AACR.
SfM-Net: Learning of Structure and Motion from Video

We propose SfM-Net, a geometry-aware neural network for motion estimation in videos that decomposes frame-to-frame pixel motion in terms of scene and object depth, camera motion and 3D object rotations and translations. Given a sequence of frames, SfM-Net predicts depth, segmentation, camera and rigid object motions, converts those into a dense frame-to-frame motion field (optical flow), differentiably warps frames in time to match pixels and back-propagates. The model can be trained with various degrees of supervision: 1) self-supervised by the re-projection photometric error (completely unsupervised), 2) supervised by ego-motion (camera motion), or 3) supervised by depth (e.g., as provided by RGBD sensors). SfM-Net extracts meaningful depth estimates and successfully estimates frame-to-frame camera rotations and translations. It often successfully segments the moving objects in the scene, even though such supervision is never provided.
Total observed organic carbon (TOOC) in the atmosphere: a synthesis of North American observations

Measurements of organic carbon compounds in both the gas and particle phases made upwind, over and downwind of North America are synthesized to examine the total observed organic carbon (TOOC) in the atmo- sphere over this region. These include measurements made aboard the NOAA WP-3 and BAe-146 aircraft, the NOAA
Multilevel converters-a new breed of power converters

Multilevel voltage source converters are emerging as a new breed of power converter options for high-power applications. The multilevel voltage source converters typically synthesize the staircase voltage wave from several levels of DC capacitor voltages. One of the major limitations of the multilevel converters is the voltage unbalance between different levels. The techniques to balance the voltage between different levels normally involve voltage clamping or capacitor charge control. There are several ways of implementing voltage balance in multilevel converters. Without considering the traditional magnetic coupled converters, this paper presents three multilevel voltage source converters: (1) diode-clamp, (2) flying-capacitors, and (3) cascaded-inverters with separate DC sources. The operating principle, features, constraints, and potential applications of these converters are discussed.
Unconditional Regard Buffers Children’s Negative Self-Feelings

BACKGROUND: Unconditional regard refers to the feeling that one is accepted and valued by others without conditions. Psychological theory suggests that experiences of unconditional regard lead children to feel that they are valuable despite setbacks. We hypothesized that reflecting on experiences of unconditional regard would buffer children’s negative self-feelings (eg, shame, insecurity, powerlessness) in the face of setbacks. To test this hypothesis, we randomized children to reflect on experiences of unconditional regard or other experiences, and examined their response to an academic setback 3 weeks later. METHODS: Participants (11–15 years old) were randomly assigned to reflect for 15 minutes on experiences of unconditional regard (n = 91), conditional regard (n = 80), or other social experiences (n = 76). Research personnel, teachers, and classmates remained blind to condition assignment. Three weeks later, after receiving their course grades, children reported their self-feelings. Course grades were obtained from school records. Receiving low course grades represents a salient and painful real-world setback for children. RESULTS: Replicating previous research, children who received lower grades experienced more negative self-feelings (P < .001). As predicted, this well-established relationship was significantly attenuated among children who had reflected, 3 weeks previously, on experiences of unconditional regard (Ps < .03). Reflecting on unconditional regard specifically reduced negative self-feelings after low grades (P = .01), not after average or high grades (Ps > .17). CONCLUSIONS: Reflecting on unconditional regard buffered children’s selves against the adverse impact of an academic setback over an extended period of time. Unconditional regard may thus be an important psychological lever to reduce negative self-feelings in youth.
Forty‐seven days of decay does not change persistent organic pollutant levels in loggerhead sea turtle eggs

Reptile and bird eggs are priority samples for specimen banking programs that assess spatial and temporal trends of environmental contaminants. From endangered species, such as sea turtles, nonlethal sampling is required (e.g., unhatched eggs collected postemergence). Previous contaminant monitoring studies have used unhatched sea turtle eggs, but no study has tested whether their concentrations represent levels found in fresh eggs (e.g., eggs collected within 24 h of oviposition). The author analyzed three fresh eggs from different nest depths and up to three unhatched eggs from 10 loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) nests in South Carolina, USA, for a suite of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Lipid‐normalized POP concentrations were not significantly different (p > 0.05) between fresh and unhatched eggs or among different depths from the same nest. The POP concentrations in loggerhead eggs from South Carolina were higher than previously measured concentrations in eggs from Florida and slightly lower than concentrations in eggs from North Carolina. This pattern agrees with previously observed trends of increasing POP concentrations in loggerhead turtles inhabiting northern latitudes along the U.S. East Coast. Contaminant profiles are discussed, including a higher chlorinated pattern of polychlorinated biphenyls possibly associated with a Superfund site in nearby Brunswick, Georgia, USA, and unusual polybrominated diphenylether patterns seen in this and previous sea turtle studies. Concentrations correlated with one of eight measurements of reproductive success; levels were negatively correlated with egg mass (p < 0.05), which may have implications for hatchling fitness. The present study suggests that unhatched eggs can be used for POP‐monitoring projects. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2013;32:747–756. © 2013 SETAC
Analysis of the EHD enhancement of heat transfer in a flat duct

This work concerns the modeling of electrohydrodynamic phenomena in a flat duct where a corona discharge is generated by a single or multiple fine-wire electrodes. The objective is to disturb the air flow and to increase the convective heat transfer coefficient on the down wall. The coupled equations of Navier-Stokes, energy, electrodynamics and Ohm's law are modeled by the finite element method. An original numerical procedure based on a minimization algorithm is implemented to determine the charge density on the discharge electrodes surfaces. The developed numerical model makes it possible to undertake complete parametric studies taking into account the main couplings. We validate our approach in the case of a wire-plate configuration without cross-flow. Then, we study different steady state configurations for Reynolds numbers ranging from 3846 to 12820 using a standard k-epsiv model. This model enables to analyze velocity field in the channel and the heat transfer by convection between the air and the grounded electrode. The results indicate that a three-fold increase of heat transfer may be locally obtained when the air enters at the lower Reynolds number in the channel. A 'barrier' effect is also highlighted in the case of multiple wire electrodes.