Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adaptive output-feedback for wave PDE with anti-damping - application to surface-based control of oil drilling stick-slip instability

We develop an adaptive output-feedback controller for a wave PDE in one dimension with actuation and measurement on one boundary and with an unknown anti-damping dynamics on the opposite boundary. This model is representative of drill string torsional instabilities arising in deep oil drilling, for which the model of bottom interaction with the rock is poorly known. The key achievement of the proposed controller is that it requires only the measurements of top-boundary values and not of the entire distributed state of the system. Our approach is based on employing Riemann variables to convert the wave PDE into a cascade of two delay elements and to reconstruct a delayed version of the unmeasured boundary. This enables us to employ a prediction-based design for systems with output and input delays, suitably converted to the adaptive output-feedback setting. The result's relevance and ability to suppress undesirable torsional vibrations of the drill string in oil well drilling systems is illustrated with simulation example.
Protection and Expression of Human Motor Memories

When we adapt our movements to a perturbation, and then adapt to another perturbation, is the initial memory destroyed, or is it protected? Despite decades of experiments, this question remains unresolved. The confusion, in our view, is due to the fact that in every instance the approach has been to assay contents of motor memory by retesting with the same perturbations. When performance in retesting is the same as naive, this is usually interpreted as the memory being destroyed. However, it is also possible that the initial memory is simply masked by the competing memory. We trained humans in a reaching task in field B and then in field A (or washout) over an equal number of trials. To assay contents of motor memory, we used a new tool: after completion of training in A, we withheld reinforcement (i.e., reward) for a brief block of trials and then clamped movement errors to zero over a long block of trials. We found that this led to spontaneous recovery of B. That is, withholding reinforcement for the current motor output resulted in the expression of the competing memory. Therefore, adaptation followed by washout or reverse adaptation produced competing motor memories. The protection from unlearning was unrelated to sudden changes in performance errors that might signal a contextual change, as competing memories formed even when the perturbations were introduced gradually. Rather, reinforcement appears to be a critical signal that affords protection to motor memories, and lack of reinforcement encourages retrieval of a competing memory.
Red Marrow–Absorbed Dose for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Patients Treated with 177Lu-Lilotomab Satetraxetan, a Novel Anti-CD37 Antibody–Radionuclide Conjugate

Red marrow (RM) is often the primary organ at risk in radioimmunotherapy; irradiation of marrow may induce short- and long-term hematologic toxicity. 177Lu-lilotomab satetraxetan is a novel anti-CD37 antibody–radionuclide conjugate currently in phase 1/2a. Two predosing regimens have been investigated, one with 40 mg of unlabeled lilotomab antibody (arm 1) and one without (arm 2). The aim of this work was to compare RM-absorbed doses for the two arms and to correlate absorbed doses with hematologic toxicity. Methods: Eight patients with relapsed CD37+ indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma were included for RM dosimetry. Hybrid SPECT and CT images were used to estimate the activity concentration in the RM of L2–L4. Pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated after measurement of the 177Lu-lilotomab satetraxetan concentration in blood samples. Adverse events were graded according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version 4.0. Results: The mean absorbed doses to RM were 0.9 mGy/MBq for arm 1 (lilotomab+) and 1.5 mGy/MBq for arm 2 (lilotomab−). There was a statistically significant difference between arms 1 and 2 (Student t test, P = 0.02). Total RM-absorbed doses ranged from 67 to 127 cGy in arm 1 and from 158 to 207 cGy in arm 2. For blood, the area under the curve was higher with lilotomab predosing than without (P = 0.001), whereas the volume of distribution and the clearance of 177Lu-lilotomab satetraxetan was significantly lower (P = 0.01 and P = 0.03, respectively). Patients with grade 3/4 thrombocytopenia had received significantly higher radiation doses to RM than patients with grade 1/2 thrombocytopenia (P = 0.02). A surrogate, non–imaging-based, method underestimated the RM dose and did not show any correlation with toxicity. Conclusion: Predosing with lilotomab reduces the RM-absorbed dose for 177Lu-lilotomab satetraxetan patients. The decrease in RM dose could be explained by the lower volume of distribution. Hematologic toxicity was more severe for patients receiving higher absorbed radiation doses, indicating that adverse events possibly can be predicted by the calculation of absorbed dose to RM from SPECT/CT images.
A Fuzzy Set Theory Based Method to Discover Transmissions in Wireless Personal Area Networks

The complexity within a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) increases. Several technologies have to share the same radio spectrum. In this paper we take a look at the 2.4 GHz Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM)-band. This paper discusses a method of selecting the best wireless channel within Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) when several technologies could be used in the same WPAN range of the needed access point. The issue is to keep away from already occupied channels. The method is divided into four steps: the passive probing of the power level detecting IEEE 802.15. 4 (ZigBee) channels using a new and affordable hardware, the transformation of the probed data to a linguistic level using Fuzzy Set Theory (FST), the classification of the data, and finally the sorting and selection of channels based on whose power levels.
Bilattice based Logical Reasoning for Automated Visual Surveillance and other Applications

The primary objective of an automated visual surveillance system is to observe and understand human behavior and report unusual or potentially dangerous activities/events in a timely manner. Automatically understanding human behavior from visual input, however, is a challenging task. The research presented in this thesis focuses on designing a reasoning framework that can combine, in a principled manner, high level contextual information with low level image processing primitives to interpret visual information. The primary motivation for this work has been to design a reasoning framework that draws heavily upon human like reasoning and reasons explicitly about visual as well as non-visual information to solve classification problems. Humans are adept at performing inference under uncertainty by combining evidence from multiple, noisy and often contradictory sources. This thesis describes a logical reasoning approach in which logical rules encode high level knowledge about the world and logical facts serve as input to the system from real world observations. The reasoning framework supports encoding of multiple rules for the same proposition, representing multiple lines of reasoning and also supports encoding of rules that infer explicit negation and thereby potentially contradictory information. Uncertainties are associated with both the logical rules that guide reasoning as well as with the input facts. This framework has been applied to visual surveillance problems such as human activity recognition, identity maintenance, and human detection. Finally, we have also applied it to the problem of collaborative filtering to predict movie ratings by explicitly reasoning about users preferences.
Anterior segment optical coherence tomography study of the cornea and anterior segment in adult ethnic South Asian Indian eyes.

PURPOSE To report normative results of anterior segment and corneal biometric parameters and their associations in ethnic South Asian Indian adults. METHODS The Singapore Indian Eye Study is a cross-sectional, population-based study of ethnic South Asian Indians ranging in age from 40 to 80 years. Subjects underwent ophthalmic and systemic examination, including imaging with anterior segment optical coherence tomography. Parameters were derived using the Zhongshan Assessment Program: anterior chamber depth (ACD), central corneal thickness (CCT), and anterior and posterior corneal curvatures (ACC and PCC). Posterior corneal arc length (PCAL) is a novel parameter defined as the arc distance between scleral spurs on the posterior border of the cornea. The authors studied correlations between PCAL with various anterior segment parameters and systemic parameters using univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS The authors studied 438 subjects whose mean age was 58.5 ± 9.9 years and of whom 50.7% were male. Parameters (mean ± SD) included central ACD 2.72 ± 0.37 mm, PCC 6.45 ± 0.35 mm, CCT 561.4 ± 34.1 μm, ACC 7.17 ± 0.35 mm, and PCAL 13.85 ± 0.54 mm. The authors found significant correlations between PCAL and ACD (r = 0.46, P < 0.001), PCC (r = 0.31, P < 0.001), and ACC (r = 0.16, P < 0.001), whereas they found poor correlations between PCAL and age, height, weight, blood pressure, and glucose levels. Multivariate analysis showed a significant association between PCAL and both ACD (P < 0.001) and PCC (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS The authors have described useful baseline anterior segment parameters from this population-based study of ethnic South Indian adults. These data may be useful for corneal and anterior segment procedures such as endothelial keratoplasty and anterior chamber intraocular lens insertion.
Cost-effectiveness of pravastatin therapy for survivors of myocardial infarction with average cholesterol levels.

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of pravastatin therapy in survivors of myocardial infarction with average cholesterol levels. METHODS We performed a cost-effectiveness analysis based on actual clinical, cost, and health-related quality-of-life data from the Cholesterol and Recurrent Events (CARE) trial. Survival and recurrent coronary heart disease events were modeled from trial data in Markov models, with the use of different assumptions regarding the long-term benefit of therapy. RESULTS Pravastatin therapy increased quality-adjusted life expectancy at an incremental cost of $16,000 to $32,000 per quality-adjusted life-year gained. In subgroup analyses, the cost-effectiveness of pravastatin therapy was more favorable for patients >60 years of age and for patients with pretreatment low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels >125 mg/dL. Results were sensitive to the cost of pravastatin and to assumptions about long-term survival benefits from pravastatin therapy. CONCLUSIONS The cost-effectiveness of pravastatin therapy in survivors of myocardial infarction with average cholesterol levels compares favorably with other interventions.
MACULAR BUCKLING FOR MYOPIC MACULAR HOLE RETINAL DETACHMENT: A New Approach

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of a new technique of macular buckling in the treatment of myopic macular hole retinal detachment. Methods: Twenty-six consecutive cases of myopic macular hole retinal detachment were included in the study. For 20 cases, the macular buckling was the primary procedure. The other six cases were recurrent after vitrectomy and silicone oil tamponade. The technique is described in detail. Results: Retinal attachment occurred in all cases with improvement of vision. The postoperative vision ranged from counting fingers to 6/36 depending on the degree of atrophy of the retinal pigment epithelium in the background. Only one case developed submacular hemorrhage with deterioration of vision to counting fingers close to the eye. Other complications were recorded. Conclusion: The described technique is remarkably accurate and does not require any specially designed implants. It is highly recommended for cases of myopic macular hole retinal detachment with atrophic background and deep posterior staphyloma and for recurrent cases after vitrectomy with or without silicone oil.
Synthesis and characterization of interfaces between naturally derived and synthetic nanostructures for biomedical applications

The use of nanotechnology to develop methods for fabrication and characterization of organized hybrid nanostructures that include integrated polymeric, biological and inorganic compounds has increased exponentially during the last decade. Such bio-nanocomposite materials could be used in solving current biomedical problems spanning from nanomedicine to tissue engineering and biosensing. In this dissertation, a systematic study has been carried out on the synthesis, characterization, of two interfaces between naturally derived and synthetic nanostructures. Carbon nanotubes and porous silicon represent the synthetic nanostructures that were developed for the purpose of interfacing with the naturally derived bovine type I collagen and respiratory syncytial virus DNA respectively. Firstly, the synthesis of collagen-carbon nanotubes by two different techniques: fibrillogenesis through slow wet fiber drawing (gelation process) and electrospinning has been highlighted. Characterization of the novel nanocomposite was conducted using electron
Deletion of Prostaglandin E2 Synthesizing Enzymes in Brain Endothelial Cells Attenuates Inflammatory Fever

Fever is a hallmark of inflammatory and infectious diseases. The febrile response is triggered by prostaglandin E2 synthesis mediated by induced expression of the enzymes cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and microsomal prostaglandin E synthase 1 (mPGES-1). The cellular source for pyrogenic PGE2 remains a subject of debate; several hypotheses have been forwarded, including immune cells in the periphery and in the brain, as well as the brain endothelium. Here we generated mice with selective deletion of COX-2 and mPGES1 in brain endothelial cells. These mice displayed strongly attenuated febrile responses to peripheral immune challenge. In contrast, inflammation-induced hypoactivity was unaffected, demonstrating the physiological selectivity of the response to the targeted gene deletions. These findings demonstrate that PGE2 synthesis in brain endothelial cells is critical for inflammation-induced fever.
On the nature, scaling and spectral properties of pre-seismic ULF signals

Abstract. Earlier work by the authors (Vallianatos and Tzanis, 1999b), has proposed a model for the propagation and scaling of electric earthquake precursors, according to which the pre-seismic electric field emission is due to some time dependent polarisation appearing in an ensemble of electrified crustal volumes within the seismogenic source, which are distributed according to a fractal power law. Herein, we extend this formulation to the analysis of ULF magnetic precursors. We calculate the resulting transient magnetic field, which turns out to be mainly vertical and observable only if the seismogenic process generates a source with polarization rate perpendicular to the vertical plane through the source and the receiver. Furthermore, a scaling law between the vertical magnetic field and the magnitude of the associated earthquake is provided. We also investigate the spectral distribution law expected from such a set of emitters. To this effect, we assume that the evolution of the precursory polarisation process is quasi-incoherent over the exited ensemble, i.e. there is no unique relaxation time, but rather a spectrum of these with energy dependence expressed by an Arrhenius law with uniformly distributed energies. We show that the macroscopic ULF field resulting from the superposition of such an ensemble of sources has a power density spectrum distributed proportionally to 1/f . The above theoretical prediction appears to be consistent with independent observations by other investigators.
The rhizosphere revisited: root microbiomics

The rhizosphere was defined over 100 years ago as the zone around the root where microorganisms and processes important for plant growth and health are located. Recent studies show that the diversity of microorganisms associated with the root system is enormous. This rhizosphere microbiome extends the functional repertoire of the plant beyond imagination. The rhizosphere microbiome of Arabidopsis thaliana is currently being studied for the obvious reason that it allows the use of the extensive toolbox that comes with this model plant. Deciphering plant traits that drive selection and activities of the microbiome is now a major challenge in which Arabidopsis will undoubtedly be a major research object. Here we review recent microbiome studies and discuss future research directions and applicability of the generated knowledge.
Carbonate in Synthetic and Biological Apatites

The crystal chemistry of carbonate in Ca apatites, including Na-free and Na-bearing hydroxylapatite (CHAP) and Na-bearing fluorapatite (CFAP) and chlorapatite (CCLAP), has been investigated by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray structure, using crystals synthesised from carbonate-rich melts at 1 GPa, 1400 - 1000°C. The carbonate ion substitutes for both the X (OH, F, Cl) anion species in the apatite channel (type A carbonate) and the phosphate group (type B carbonate). The type A carbonate ion is oriented in the channel with two oxygen atoms close to the c-axis, and the type B carbonate ion is located close to the sloping faces of the substituted phosphate tetrahedron, with details varying with composition series. Sodium promotes the uptake of type B carbonate and also has a profound effect on FTIR spectra. Crystal compositions correspond approximately to the substitution formula Ca10-(y+z)Nay z[(PO4)6-(y+2z)(CO3)y+2z][X2-2x(CO3)x], with x ≈ y up to 1.0 and z ≈ 0.0 for CHAP, x ≈ y ≈ 4z ≈ 0.4 for CCLAP, and x ≈ y ≈ 2z ≈ 0.1 for CFAP, for equivalent conditions of synthesis. The sodium cation and A and B carbonate ion defects are locally coupled in all three composition series to facilitate charge compensation and minimise the effects of spatial accommodation. Synthetic Na-bearing type A-B CHAP with x ≈ y ≈ 0.5 has a similar chemical composition and FTIR spectrum to biological apatite.
Alleles of the Estrogen Receptor α‐Gene and an Estrogen Receptor Cotranscriptional Activator Gene, Amplified in Breast Cancer‐1 (AIB1), Are Associated with Quantitative Calcaneal Ultrasound

Quantitative bone ultrasound (QUS) has a significant heritable component. Because estrogen is required for attainment of peak bone mass, we studied alleles of two genes, estrogen receptor α (ER1) and amplified in breast cancer‐1 (AIB1), for their association with QUS. In a volunteer sample of 663 white women aged 18–35 years, bone ultrasound attenuation (BUA), speed of sound (SOS), and heel stiffness index (SI), the latter consisting of the component measures of BUA and SOS, were measured at the right calcaneus by QUS. Subjects were genotyped for the ER1 polymorphisms Xba I and Pvu II and for the AIB1 polyglutamine tract polymorphism. In a multiple regression analysis, ER1 genotype was an independent predictor of QUS‐SI (p = 0.03). Because AIB1 and ER1 enhance gene expression in a coordinate manner, we also searched for interactions. A gene‐by‐gene interaction effect was seen for QUS‐SI (p = 0.009), QUS‐BUA (p = 0.03), and QUS‐SOS (p = 0.004). These remained significant after the inclusion of clinically relevant variables into the final regression model. Overall, these clinical and genetic factors accounted for up to 16% of the variance in peak QUS; the genetic markers alone accounted for 4–7%. This is the first demonstration of specific genetic effects on calcaneal QUS encoded by alleles of genes directly involved in mediating estrogen effects on bone.
Family of higher order exponential variational integrators for split potential systems

In the present work, we derive a family of higher order exponential variational integrators for the numerical integration of systems containing slow and fast potential forces. To increase the order of variational integrators, first the discrete Lagrangian in a time interval is defined as a weighted sum of the evaluation of the continuous Lagrangian at intermediate time nodes while expressions for configurations and velocities are obtained using interpolating functions that can depend on free parameters. Secondly, in order to choose those parameters appropriately, exponential integration techniques are embedded. When the potential can be split into a fast and a slow component, we use different quadrature rules for the approximation of the different parts in the discrete action. Finally, we study the behavior of this family of integrators in numerical tests.
Corpus-based and Knowledge-based Measures of Text Semantic Similarity

This paper presents a method for measuring the semantic similarity of texts, using corpus-based and knowledge-based measures of similarity. Previous work on this problem has focused mainly on either large documents (e.g. text classification, information retrieval) or individual words (e.g. synonymy tests). Given that a large fraction of the information available today, on the Web and elsewhere, consists of short text snippets (e.g. abstracts of scientific documents, imagine captions, product descriptions), in this paper we focus on measuring the semantic similarity of short texts. Through experiments performed on a paraphrase data set, we show that the semantic similarity method out-performs methods based on simple lexical matching, resulting in up to 13% error rate reduction with respect to the traditional vector-based similarity metric.