Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Human-friendly robot navigation in dynamic environments

The vision-based mechanisms that pedestrians in social groups use to navigate in dynamic environments, avoiding obstacles and each others, have been subject to a large amount of research in social anthropology and biological sciences. We build on recent results in these fields to develop a novel fully-distributed algorithm for robot local navigation, which implements the same heuristics for mutual avoidance adopted by humans. The resulting trajectories are human-friendly, because they can intuitively be predicted and interpreted by humans, making the algorithm suitable for the use on robots sharing navigation spaces with humans. The algorithm is computationally light and simple to implement. We study its efficiency and safety in presence of sensing uncertainty, and demonstrate its implementation on real robots. Through extensive quantitative simulations we explore various parameters of the system and demonstrate its good properties in scenarios of different complexity. When the algorithm is implemented on robot swarms, we could observe emergent collective behaviors similar to those observed in human crowds.
Study on determination of errors in prescription writing: A semi-electronic perspective.

BACKGROUND Prescription writing is one of the most important and basic skills that a doctor needs. Prescribing errors may have various detrimental consequences. Hence, the components of a prescription should be clearly written, free of drug related omission (incomplete prescription), commission (incorrect information) and integration errors, without nonofficial abbreviations, and fulfil the legal requirements of a prescription. Since errors of prescribing are the commonest form of avoidable medication errors, it is the most important target for improvement. OBJECTIVES To estimate the types and prevalence of medication errors during transcription. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross sectional descriptive retrospective study was conducted at Nobel Medical Teaching Hospital, Biratnagar, Nepal during a time period from 15th November 2008 to 14th February 2009. A random sample of 268 prescriptions of patients written during a period of one year (18/06/2007 to 17/06/2008) for ten different medical out patient departments of the Hospital were reviewed and the analysis was carried out for determining the different types of errors in writing a prescription. RESULTS No error was found regarding the name, age, sex and address of the patients. The error in prescriptions regarding the prescriber's name, qualification, NMC registration number and signature were 85.4%, 99.6%, 99.6% and 15.7% respectively. Similarly, the symbol Rx was missing in 66.8%. Dosage form, quantity, dose, frequency and route of administration were not mentioned in 12%, 60%, 19%, 10% and 63% of the prescriptions respectively. Likewise, strength of the prescribed medicines was not stated in 40% of the cases. CONCLUSION There is a need to critically address the legibility of prescription, correct spelling of drugs, authorised abbreviations and all other informations of a prescription concerned with patient, prescriber and drugs to minimise the occurrence of medication errors.
G-CSF Induces Membrane Expression of a Myeloperoxidase Glycovariant that Operates as an E-selectin Ligand on Human Myeloid Cells

Significance Leukocyte migration to sites of inflammation involves “braking” and attachment of blood-borne leukocytes onto target endothelium (vessel surfaces), a process mediated principally by the endothelial molecule E-selectin binding to leukocyte E-selectin ligands. We report here that the cytokine granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) induces expression of a novel E-selectin ligand on human leukocytes, a glycovariant of the enzyme myeloperoxidase (MPO), which we call “MPO–E-selectin ligand” (MPO–EL). MPO is normally found in lysosomes, but G-CSF triggers both MPO-EL production and its presentation on the leukocyte surface. MPO–EL is catalytically active. The production of toxic oxidizing agents by MPO–EL in apposition to E-selectin–bearing endothelium kills the cell. This previously unrecognized function of G-CSF and MPO raises additional insights into the biology of vascular injury during inflammatory reactions. The host defense response critically depends on the production of leukocytes by the marrow and the controlled delivery of these cells to relevant sites of inflammation/infection. The cytokine granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) is commonly used therapeutically to augment neutrophil recovery following chemo/radiation therapy for malignancy, thereby decreasing infection risk. Although best known as a potent inducer of myelopoiesis, we previously reported that G-CSF also promotes the delivery of leukocytes to sites of inflammation by stimulating expression of potent E-selectin ligands, including an uncharacterized ∼65-kDa glycoprotein. To identify this ligand, we performed integrated biochemical analysis and mass spectrometry studies of G-CSF–treated primary human myeloid cells. Our studies show that this novel E-selectin ligand is a glycoform of the heavy chain component of the enzyme myeloperoxidase (MPO), a well-known lysosomal peroxidase. This specialized MPO glycovariant, referred to as “MPO–E-selectin ligand” (MPO–EL), is expressed on circulating G-CSF–mobilized leukocytes and is naturally expressed on blood myeloid cells in patients with febrile leukocytosis. In vitro biochemical studies show that G-CSF programs MPO–EL expression on human blood leukocytes and marrow myeloid cells via induction of N-linked sialofucosylations on MPO, with concomitant cell surface display of the molecule. MPO–EL is catalytically active and mediates angiotoxicity on human endothelial cells that express E-selectin. These findings thus define a G-CSF effect on MPO chemical biology that endows unsuspected functional versatility upon this enzyme, unveiling new perspectives on the biology of G-CSF and MPO, and on the role of E-selectin receptor/ligand interactions in leukocyte migration and vascular pathology.
The Long-run Relationship Between Pension Liabilities and Asset Prices : a Cointegration Approach

This paper explores the long-term relationship between salaries and asset prices and relates it to asset allocation decisions of defined benefit pension funds. In particular, it discusses whether a 100% bond allocation is indeed the minimum risk position for an ongoing scheme whose benefits accruing to active members rise in line with their wages. The main finding is that, while shorter-run correlation evidence is less consistent, there is indeed a long-run link between the evolution of salary-linked liabilities and a range of asset classes including equities. This longrun positive linkage is consistent with economic theory. The implications for effective practice in minimum risk asset allocation depend on portfolio rebalancing costs, how much short and medium-run asset allocations move around the long-term equilibrium as well as how significant active liabilities are as a proportion of total pension liabilities. JEL Classification: G23, C22, J30
Activin A regulates trophoblast cell adhesive properties: implications for implantation failure in women with endometriosis-associated infertility.

BACKGROUND During implantation, the embryo adheres to the endometrium via cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) present on blastocyst trophectoderm and endometrial epithelial cells. CAMs, including integrins and extracellular matrix (ECM) ligands, are most likely regulated by hormones, cytokines and growth factors. We hypothesized first that activin A affects the adhesive properties of trophoblast cells and second that alterations in dimeric activin A levels in the uterine cavity could disrupt adhesion, thereby causing implantation failure. METHODS This study examined effects of activin A on trophoblast cell adhesion and measured activin A levels in secretory phase uterine washings from women with and without endometriosis (EOS). Activin receptor expression on trophoblast (HTR8) cells was examined by RT-PCR, and adhesive molecules measured by integrin antibody and cell-matrix adhesion assays. Dimeric activin A was measured (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) in uterine washings (14 controls and 23 EOS), and betaA-subunit localization was verified in endometrial tissues. RESULTS Activin receptors are expressed by HTR8 cells. Activin A activated Smad2 in a concentration-dependent manner which was blocked by an activin receptor inhibitor (SB431542). Following activin A treatment (50 ng/ml for 24 h), trophoblast cell surface integrins alpha1 alpha2 alpha3 alpha5, beta1, beta2, beta4 and alphavbeta5 were decreased, as was cell binding to the ECM ligands, fibronectin, collagen IV and collagen I (P < 0.05). Activin A was detected in 56.5% of EOS and 21.4% of control washings, with measured levels from 42 to 8481 pg/ml (not significantly different). CONCLUSIONS Decreased trophoblast CAM production and adhesion could be caused by dysregulated local activin A levels and may contribute to implantation failure. This could explain, in part, the infertility observed in women with EOS.
Looking beyond the DNA sequence: the relevance of DNA methylation processes for the stress–diathesis model of depression

The functioning of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and serotonergic (5-HT) system are known to be intertwined with mood. Alterations in these systems are often associated with depression. However, neither are sufficient to cause depression in and of themselves. It is now becoming increasingly clear that the environment plays a crucial role, particularly, the perinatal environment. In this review, we posit that early environmental stress triggers a series of epigenetic mechanisms that adapt the genome and programme the HPA axis and 5-HT system for survival in a harsh environment. We focus on DNA methylation as it is the most stable epigenetic mark. Given that DNA methylation patterns are in large part set within the perinatal period, long-term gene expression programming by DNA methylation is especially vulnerable to environmental insults during this period. We discuss specific examples of genes in the 5-HT system (serotonin transporter) and HPA axis (glucocorticoid receptor and arginine vasopressin enhancer) whose DNA methylation state is associated with early life experience and may potentially lead to depression vulnerability. We conclude with a discussion on the relevance of studying epigenetic mechanisms in peripheral tissue as a proxy for those occurring in the human brain and suggest avenues for future research.
Adolescent Blount disease in obese children treated by eight-plate hemiepiphysiodesis.

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study is to evaluate the outcomes of eight-plate (Orthofix) use during hemiepiphyseodesis operation for growth modulation in obese children with adolescent Blount disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS Six limbs of five consecutive patients who underwent lateral proximal tibial eight-plate (Orthofix) hemiepiphysiodesis were evaluated. The body mass index (BMI) was >30 and the severity of the deformity was in Zone III according to the Mielke and Stevens definition. The mechanical medial proximal tibial angle (MPTA) and the mechanical axis deviation (MAD) were measured preoperatively, postoperatively, and at last follow-up. The outcome of the procedure was established by the degree of tibia vara correction degree at final plate removal or skeletal maturity. RESULTS Mean age of the patients and mean BMI at the time of surgery was 13 years (range 12 to 14) and 33.5 kg/m2 (range 31 to 36), respectively. Patients were followed for an average of 22 months (range 13 to 31). Preoperative and last follow-up mean values for MPTA were 81 and 80 degrees, respectively. Outcome of the procedure showed two extremities demonstrated progression of the tibia vara (mean of 6.5 degrees), two extremities had no correction of the deformity, and the remaining two extremities showed minimally improvement (mean 3 degrees). The procedure failed to correct the tibia vara in all extremities and all patients were scheduled for an osteotomy to treat the deformity. CONCLUSION We do not recommend the use of a tension band plate hemiepiphyseodesis (eight-plate, Orthofix) to treat severe adolescent Blount disease in obese children.
Organic solvents and multiple sclerosis: a case‐control study

A case‐control study of multiple sclerosis (MS) has been carried out in western Norway. The study included 93% of the patients who had clinical onset of MS in the county of Hordaland during the years 1976–86 (N = 155) and 200 controls, marginally matched for age, sex and residence. There was no statistically significant difference between MS patients and controls with regard to exposure to organic solvents, exposure to the combination organic solvents and welding or to organic solvents and other chemical compounds.
Task period selection and schedulability in real-time systems

In many real time applications, especially those involving computer controlled systems, the application tasks often have a maximal acceptable latency, and small latency is preferred to large. The interaction between choosing task periods to meet the individual latency requirements and scheduling the resulting task set was investigated by D. Seto et al. (1996) using dynamic priority scheduling methods. We present algorithms based on static priority scheduling methods to determine optimal periods for each task in the task set. The solution to the period selection problem optimizes a system wide performance measure, subject to meeting the maximal acceptable latency requirements of each task. The paper also contributes to a new aspect of rate monotonic scheduling, the optimal design of task periods in connection with application related timing specifications and task set schedulability.
Workshop on marine mammal research & monitoring in the National Marine Sanctuaries, Wailea, Maui, Hawaii, 28 November 1999

The Second National Workshop on Marine Mammal Research and Monitoring in the National Marine Sanctuaries was held on 28 November 1999 in Maui, Hawaii. The workshop preceded the Thirteenth Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, and provided an opportunity to review and promote marine mammal research and monitoring in the National Marine Sanctuaries (NMS). The purpose of the workshop was to bring together researchers and sanctuary staff and to improve marine mammal research and monitoring throughout the sanctuaries. Discussion topics included: potential multi-sanctuary projects, sources of funding for multi-sanctuary projects, services and equipment for researchers through the sanctuaries, consolidating small levels of funding, help in funding and support for writing up data, publishing documents in Technical Memoranda, and letters of support. Representatives from the NMS national office and nine sanctuaries provided participants with overviews of marine mammal research within the sanctuaries. Presentations were also given by representatives from the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Permits and Health and Stranding programs. During the breakout working groups, there were several comments and suggestions consistent among each of the groups to improve marine mammal research. Each group emphasized the need to improve communication among researchers and to better share data. These suggestions included web-based information networks, advisory panels, and workshops. Regionally based research projects were also emphasized. In order to best study marine mammal populations, collaborative studies must take place throughout multiple sanctuaries. In order to achieve these large scale studies, funding and staffing must be directed towards these studies and distributed among each of the sanctuaries so that they may all be able to have the staffing, equipment, and vessels necessary to achieve a collaborative, ecosystem-based, regional marine mammal monitoring program. It will take several years to achieve all of the suggestions from the workshop, but thanks to the workshop participants, the National Marine Sanctuary Program has begun to direct marine mammal research and monitoring in order to achieve the goals of the workshop. This document provides a summary of the workshop with a focus on key points/main issues. We have included contact information intended to encourage continued collaboration among the individuals and organizations represented at the 1999 Marine Mammal Research and Monitoring in the National Marine Sanctuaries Workshop. (PDF contains 71 pages.)
Surgical Correction of Primary Cutis Vertices Gyrata

Primary cutis vertices gyrata is a rare condition of the scalp characterized by the formation of furrows and folds resembling the convolutions of the brain. A review of the English literature did not reveal any surgically treated cases. The authors report three cases treated by simple excision of the deepest furrows with a satisfactory result.
Optimized hardware for suboptimal software: The case for SIMD-aware benchmarks

Evaluation of new architectural proposals against real applications is a necessary step in academic research. However, providing benchmarks that keep up with new architectural changes has become a real challenge. If benchmarks don't cover the most common architectural features, architects may end up under/over estimating the impact of their contributions. In this work, we extend the PARSEC benchmark suite with SIMD capabilities to provide an enhanced evaluation framework for new academic/industry proposals. We then perform a detailed energy and performance evaluation of this commonly used application set on different platforms (Intel® and ARM® processors). Our results show how SIMD code alters scalability, energy efficiency and hardware requirements. Performance and energy efficiency improvements depend greatly on the fraction of code that we can actually vectorize (up to 50×). Our enhancements are based in a custom built wrapper library compatible with SSE, AVX and NEON to facilitate general vectorization. We aim to distribute the source code to reinforce the evaluation process of new proposals for computing systems.
Hippocampal Spatial Position Evaluation on MRI for Research and Clinical Practice

In clinical practice as well as in many volumetric studies we use different reorientations of the brain position towards x and y axis on the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. In order to find out whether it has an overall effect on the resulting 2D data, manual hippocampal area measurements and rotation variability of the brain (in two reoriented axes) and the skull were performed in 23 Alzheimer's disease patients and 31 healthy controls. After the MRI scanning, native brain scans (nat) were reoriented into the two different artificial planes (anterior commissure – posterior commissure axis (AC-PC) and hippocampal horizontal long axis (hipp)). Hippocampal area and temporal horn of the lateral ventricle was measured manually using freeware Image J program. We found that 1) hippocampal area of nat images is larger compared to hipp images, area of the nat images is equal to the AC-PC images and area of the hipp images is smaller compared to AC-PC images, 2) hippocampal area together with the area of the temporal horn for nat images is larger compared to hipp images, area of the hipp images is smaller compared to the AC-PC images and area of the nat images is smaller compared to the AC-PC images. The conclusion is that the measured area of the hippocampus in the native MRI is almost the same as the area of MRI reoriented only into the AC-PC axis. Therefore, when performing 2D area studies of the hippocampus or in the clinical practice we recommend usage of not-reoriented MRI images or to reorient them into the AC-PC axis. Surprising finding was that rotation of both AC-PC and hipp line towards x-axis among patients varies up to 35° and the same is true for the skull rotation so that it is not only a matter of the brain position.
Why do outcomes of CABG care vary between urban and rural areas in Taiwan? A perspective from quality of care.

OBJECTIVE This study explores the association between coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) patients' residence and quality of care in terms of 30-day mortality. DESIGN A retrospective, multilevel study design was conducted using claims data from Taiwan's Universal Health Insurance Scheme. Hospital and surgeon's CABG operation volume, risk-adjusted surgical site infection rate and risk-adjusted 30-day mortality rate in the previous year were adopted as performance indicators, and the level of quality was evaluated via K-means clustering algorithm. Baron and Kenny's procedures for mediation effect were conducted. SETTING Hospitals in Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS Patients who underwent CABG surgeries from 1 January 2008 to 30 September 2011 were identified in this study. However, patients who were under the age of 18 years or above the age of 85(n = 164), with missing data for gender (n = 3) or received surgeries from surgeons who never performed any CABG surgeries (n = 27), were excluded. INTERVENTIONS None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Thirty-day mortality. RESULTS There were 9973 CABG surgeries included in this study. Patients who lived in urban areas received better quality of care (28.90 vs. 21.57%) and enjoyed better outcome (4.33 vs. 6.84%). After the procedure of mediation effect testing, the results showed that the relationship between patient residence's urbanization level and 30-day mortality was partially mediated by patterns of quality of care. CONCLUSIONS The rural-dwelling CABG patients are less likely to approach the better performing healthcare providers, and this tendency indirectly affects their treatment outcomes. Policymakers still need to develop strategies to ensure better equity in access to quality health care.
Striatal contributions to category learning: Quantitative modeling of simple linear and complex nonlinear rule learning in patients with Parkinson's disease

The contribution of the striatum to category learning was examined by having patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and matched controls solve categorization problems in which the optimal rule was linear or nonlinear using the perceptual categorization task. Traditional accuracy-based analyses, as well as quantitative model-based analyses were performed. Unlike accuracy-based analyses, the model-based analyses allow one to quantify and separate the effects of categorization rule learning from variability in the trial-by-trial application of the participant's rule. When the categorization rule was linear, PD patients showed no accuracy, categorization rule learning, or rule application variability deficits. Categorization accuracy for the PD patients was associated with their performance on a test believed to be sensitive to frontal lobe functioning. In contrast, when the categorization rule was nonlinear, the PD patients showed accuracy, categorization rule learning, and rule application variability deficits. Furthermore, categorization accuracy was not associated with performance on the test of frontal lobe functioning. Implications for neuropsychological theories of categorization learning are discussed. (JINS, 2001, 7, 710–727.)
Fanconi anaemia and leukaemia – clinical and molecular aspects

Fanconi anaemia (FA) is an autosomal recessive chromosomal instability disorder, which is characterized by congenital abnormalities, defective haemopoiesis and a high risk of developing acute myeloid leukaemia and certain solid tumours. It can be caused by mutations in at least eight different genes. Molecular studies have established that a common pathway exists, both between the FA proteins and other proteins involved in DNA damage repair such as NBS1, ATM, BRCA1 and BRCA2. This review summarizes the general clinical and specific haematological features and the current management of FA. Recent molecular advances will also be discussed in the context of the cellular and clinical FA phenotype, with particular emphasis on the haematological aspects of the condition.