Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Control of a compass gait walker based on energy regulation using ankle push-off and foot placement

SUMMARY In this paper, we present a theoretical study on the control of a compass gait walker using energy regulation between steps. We use a return map to relate the mid-stance robot kinetic energy between steps with two control inputs, namely, foot placement and ankle push-off. We show that by regulating robot kinetic energy between steps using the two control inputs, we are able to (1) generate a wide range of walking speeds and stride lengths, including average human walking; (2) cancel the effect of external disturbance fully in a single step (dead-beat control); and (3) switch from one periodic gait to another in a single step. We hope that insights from this control methodology can help develop robust controllers for practical bipedal robots.
Apoptosis in the thymus after intraperitoneal injection of rats with Trp‐P‐1

3‐Amino‐1,4‐dimethyl‐5H‐pyrido[4,3‐b]indole (Trp‐P‐1), a contaminant in our daily diet, induces apoptosis in cultured immunocytes. In this study, Trp‐P‐1 (1 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally into male Wistar rats to investigate whether Trp‐P‐1 induces apoptosis in immune tissues in vivo. In the thymus, Trp‐P‐1 induced DNA fragmentation and morphological changes. Trp‐P‐1 also activated the initiator and executioner caspases, caspase‐8 and ‐3, respectively, and activated caspase‐3 in turn cleaved its intracellular substrate poly(ADP‐ribose) polymerase 1 hr after injection. On the other hand, Trp‐P‐1 upregulated anti‐apoptotic factors Bcl‐2 and Bcl‐XL and downregulated pro‐apoptotic factor Bax in mitochondria 1 hr after injection, indicating that Trp‐P‐1 also stimulated anti‐apoptotic signals. Trp‐P‐1 activated the serine‐threonine protein kinase Akt, which is known to be an anti‐apoptotic protein, and increased the DNA binding activities of apoptosis‐associated transcription factors NF‐κB and AP‐1. In addition to the thymus, increases in the activities of these transcription factors were also observed in the spleen and in mononuclear cells from the blood. Therefore, Trp‐P‐1 activates both pro‐ and anti‐apoptotic signals in vivo in the immune system, particularly in the thymus, and the former signal overcomes the latter. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 40:175–183, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Epidermal response of rainbow trout to Ichthyobodo necator: immunohistochemical and gene expression studies indicate a Th1-/Th2-like switch.

Infections with the parasitic flagellate Ichthyobodo necator (Henneguy, 1883) cause severe skin and gill disease in rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum, 1792) juveniles. The epidermal disturbances including hyperplasia and mucous cell exhaustion caused by parasitization are known, but no details on specific cellular and humoral reactions have been presented. By applying gene expression methods and immunohistochemical techniques, further details of immune processes in the affected skin can be presented. A population of I. necator was established in the laboratory and used to induce an experimental infection of juvenile rainbow trout. The course of infection was followed by sampling for parasite enumeration, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and quantitative PCR (qPCR) on days 0, 5, 9 and 14 post-infection. IHC showed a significant increase in the occurrence of IgM-positive cells in the skin of the infected fish, whereas IgT-positive cells were eliminated and the number of CD8-positive cells declined. qPCR studies supported the IHC findings showing a significant increase in IgM and a decrease in the CD8 gene expression. In addition, genes encoding innate immune genes such as lysozyme, SAA and cathelicidin 2 were up-regulated. Expression of cytokines (IL-1β, IL-4/13A, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10), the cell marker CD4 and the transcription factor GATA3 showed a significant increase after infection. Cytokine profiling including up-regulation of IL-4/13A and IL-10 genes and transcription factor GATA3 connected to the proliferation of IgM producing lymphocytes suggests a partial shift towards a Th2 response associated with the I. necator infection.
Preschoolers are sensitive to free riding in a public goods game

Despite the benefits of cooperation, selfish individuals often produce outcomes where everyone is worse off. This “tragedy of the commons” has been demonstrated experimentally in adults with the public goods game. Contributions to a public good decline over time due to free-riders who keep their endowments. Little is known about how children behave when confronted with this social dilemma. Forty-eight preschoolers were tested using a novel non-verbal procedure and simplified choices more appropriate to their age than standard economic approaches. The rate of cooperation was initially very low and rose in the second round for the girls only. Children were affected by their previous outcome, as they free rode more after experiencing a lower outcome compared to the other group members.
Response to methotrexate treatment is associated with reduced mortality in patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE This study investigated whether efficacious methotrexate (MTX) treatment has an impact on mortality of patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS In this prospective, observational, one-center study, patients with severe RA refractory to other disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs started MTX treatment between 1980 and 1987. Patients were divided into 4 different groups according to their response to MTX treatment after 1 year (>50% improvement [n = 99], 20-50% improvement [n = 70], no improvement [n = 52], and discontinued treatment [n = 35]). After a followup of 7.5-15.3 years (mean 10 years), the numbers of deaths were assessed in the different groups. Standardized mortality ratios (SMR) were calculated by comparing the number of observed deaths in the study with the number of expected deaths in an age- and sex-matched sample of the general population. RESULTS Two hundred seventy-one patients entered the study between 1980 and 1987. In 1995/1996, outcomes for 256 patients (94.5%) could be documented; 88 patients (34.4%) had died. In patients with >50% improvement after 1 year, the SMR was 1.47, while in patients with 20-50% improvement, the SMR was 1.85. In both groups combined, the SMR was 1.64 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.11-2.17), compared with 4.11 (95% CI 2.56-5.66) in patients without improvement. Patients who had discontinued MTX treatment during the first year had an SMR of 5.56 (95% CI 3.29-7.83). CONCLUSION Patients with severe RA who do not respond to MTX treatment have a poor prognosis, with >4-fold increased mortality compared with the general population, while RA patients who respond to MTX treatment have only a moderately increased mortality rate.
Brain Plasticity in Blind Subjects Centralizes Beyond the Modal Cortices

It is well established that the human brain reorganizes following sensory deprivations. In blind individuals, visual processing regions including the lateral occipital cortex (LOC) are activated by auditory and tactile stimuli as demonstrated by neurophysiological and neuroimaging investigations. The mechanisms for such plasticity remain unclear, but shifts in connectivity across existing neural networks appear to play a critical role. The majority of research efforts to date have focused on neuroplastic changes within visual unimodal regions, however we hypothesized that neuroplastic alterations may also occur in brain networks beyond the visual cortices including involvement of multimodal integration regions and heteromodal cortices. In this study, two recently developed graph-theory based functional connectivity analyses, interconnector analyses and local and distant connectivity, were applied to investigate functional reorganization in regional and distributed neural-systems in late-onset blind (LB) and congenitally blind (CB) cohorts each compared to their own group of sighted controls. While functional network alterations as measured by the degree of differential links (DDL) occurred in sensory cortices, neuroplastic changes were most prominent within multimodal and association cortices. Subjects with LB showed enhanced multimodal integration connections in the parieto-opercular, temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and ventral premotor (vPM) regions, while CB individuals exhibited increased superior parietal cortex (SPC) connections. This study reveals the critical role of recipient multi-sensory integration areas in network reorganization and cross-modal plasticity in blind individuals. These findings suggest that aspects of cross-modal neuroplasticity and adaptive sensory-motor and auditory functions may potentially occur through reorganization in multimodal integration regions.
Energy Absorption of Composite Materials

This paper presents results of a study on the energy absorption characteristics of selected composite material systems and compares the results with aluminum. Com posite compression tube specimens were fabricated with both tape and woven fabric prepreg using graphite/epoxy (Gr/E), Kevlar® epoxy (K/E) and glass/epoxy (Gl/E). Chamfering and notching one end of the composite tube specimen reduced the peak load at initial failure without altering the sustained crushing load, and prevented catastrophic failure. Static compression and vertical impact tests were performed on 128 tubes. The results varied significantly as a function of material type and ply orien tation. In general, the Gr/E tubes absorbed more energy than the Gl/E or K/E tubes for the same ply orientation. The [0/±15] Gr/E tubes absorbed more energy than the aluminum tubes. Gr/E and Gl/E tubes failed in a brittle mode and had negligible post crushing integrity, whereas the K/E tubes failed in an accordian buckling mode similar to the aluminum tubes. The energy absorption and post crushing integrity of hybrid composite tubes were not significantly better than that of the single material tubes.
Puget sound off: fostering youth civic engagement through citizen journalism

Social media technologies provide unique channels to empower youth to become more civically engaged. Puget Sound Off is an online blogging and networking site focused on helping youth connect, collaborate, and take action around local community issues. We performed an evaluation study seeking lessons learned from a real world deployment. We found that a core group of youth became highly engaged with Puget Sound Off, and that both usage and identification with the community was positively correlated with civic engagement. Youth reported an appreciation for the opportunity for meaningful discussion around issues that mattered to them. We found however that growth of Puget Sound Off was slow, in part due to the constraints of deploying to youth in a real world context with concerns about inappropriate use. We end with recommendations for fostering growth and civic engagement in related social media technologies.
NADPH-Cytochrome P450 Reductase: Molecular Cloning and Functional Characterization of Two Paralogs from Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal

Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal, a highly reputed medicinal plant, synthesizes a large array of steroidal lactone triterpenoids called withanolides. Although its chemical profile and pharmacological activities have been studied extensively during the last two decades, limited attempts have been made to decipher the biosynthetic route and identification of key regulatory genes involved in withanolide biosynthesis. Cytochrome P450 reductase is the most imperative redox partner of multiple P450s involved in primary and secondary metabolite biosynthesis. We describe here the cloning and characterization of two paralogs of cytochrome P450 reductase from W. somnifera. The full length paralogs of WsCPR1 and WsCPR2 have open reading frames of 2058 and 2142 bp encoding 685 and 713 amino acid residues, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that grouping of dual CPRs was in accordance with class I and class II of eudicotyledon CPRs. The corresponding coding sequences were expressed in Escherichia coli as glutathione-S-transferase fusion proteins, purified and characterized. Recombinant proteins of both the paralogs were purified with their intact membrane anchor regions and it is hitherto unreported for other CPRs which have been purified from microsomal fraction. Southern blot analysis suggested that two divergent isoforms of CPR exist independently in Withania genome. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis indicated that both genes were widely expressed in leaves, stalks, roots, flowers and berries with higher expression level of WsCPR2 in comparison to WsCPR1. Similar to CPRs of other plant species, WsCPR1 was un-inducible while WsCPR2 transcript level increased in a time-dependent manner after elicitor treatments. High performance liquid chromatography of withanolides extracted from elicitor-treated samples showed a significant increase in two of the key withanolides, withanolide A and withaferin A, possibly indicating the role of WsCPR2 in withanolide biosynthesis. Present investigation so far is the only report of characterization of CPR paralogs from W. somnifera.
Micropropagation and antimicrobial activity of Curcuma aromatica Salisb., a threatened aromatic medicinal plant

A rapid and improved micropropagation protocol was developed for Curcuma aromatica, a threatened aromatic medicinal plant, using rhizome sprout as the explant. Stepwise optimization of different plant growth regulators, carbon sources, and basal media was adopted to establish an efficient micropropagation protocol. When cytokinins, such as benzyl amino purine (BAP) or 6-(a,a-dimethylallylamino)-purine (2iP), were used either singly or in combination with naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) for shoot induction and multiplication, a single use of BAP was the most effective. As a carbon source, 3% (w/v) sucrose exhibits the greatest promotive effect on shoot initiation and proliferation compared with other carbon sources used. Among the basal media, full strength Murashige and Skoog (MS) media produced the best results, compared to other media studied. By using the most effective treatment from each category, an average of 13.2 shoots/per explant were produced after 6 weeks of culture. Moreover, 85% survival was achieved when rooted explants acclimatized ex vitro using a mixture of sterile sand, soil, and farmyard manure (1:1:1). In addition, antimicrobial activities of rhizome extracts were evaluated. Petroleum ether and chloroform extracts of field-grown rhizome showed potential antimicrobial properties against several human pathogenic bacteria including Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Shigella sonnei, and Shigella dysenteriae, with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranging from 0.03 to 0.5 mg/mL. Thus, the optimized micropropagation protocol may offer large-scale production of plantlets to meet industrial demand for the rhizome. Moreover, our results suggest the rhizome extract of C. aromatica is a promising antimicrobial agent.
A comprehensive survey of genomic alterations in gastric cancer reveals systematic patterns of molecular exclusivity and co-occurrence among distinct therapeutic targets

Objective Gastric cancer is a major gastrointestinal malignancy for which targeted therapies are emerging as treatment options. This study sought to identify the most prevalent molecular targets in gastric cancer and to elucidate systematic patterns of exclusivity and co-occurrence among these targets, through comprehensive genomic analysis of a large panel of gastric cancers. Design Using high-resolution single nucleotide polymorphism arrays, copy number alterations were profiled in a panel of 233 gastric cancers (193 primary tumours, 40 cell lines) and 98 primary matched gastric non-malignant samples. For selected alterations, their impact on gene expression and clinical outcome were evaluated. Results 22 recurrent focal alterations (13 amplifications and nine deletions) were identified. These included both known targets (FGFR2, ERBB2) and also novel genes in gastric cancer (KLF5, GATA6). Receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK)/RAS alterations were found to be frequent in gastric cancer. This study also demonstrates, for the first time, that these alterations occur in a mutually exclusive fashion, with KRAS gene amplifications highlighting a clinically relevant but previously underappreciated gastric cancer subgroup. FGFR2-amplified gastric cancers were also shown to be sensitive to dovitinib, an orally bioavailable FGFR/VEGFR targeting agent, potentially representing a subtype-specific therapy for FGFR2-amplified gastric cancers. Conclusion The study demonstrates the existence of five distinct gastric cancer patient subgroups, defined by the signature genomic alterations FGFR2 (9% of tumours), KRAS (9%), EGFR (8%), ERBB2 (7%) and MET (4%). Collectively, these subgroups suggest that at least 37% of gastric cancer patients may be potentially treatable by RTK/RAS directed therapies.
Alpha's Standard Error (ASE): An Accurate and Precise Confidence Interval Estimate

This research presents the inferential statistics for Cronbach's coefficient alpha on the basis of the standard statistical assumption of multivariate normality. The estimation of alpha's standard error (ASE) and confidence intervals are described, and the authors analytically and empirically investigate the effects of the components of these equations. The authors then demonstrate the superiority of this estimate compared with previous derivations of ASE in a separate Monte Carlo simulation. The authors also present a sampling error and test statistic for a test of independent sample alphas. They conclude with a recommendation that all alpha coefficients be reported in conjunction with standard error or confidence interval estimates and offer SAS and SPSS programming codes for easy implementation.
Dissection of the components for PIP2 activation and thermosensation in TRP channels

Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) plays a central role in the activation of several transient receptor potential (TRP) channels. The role of PIP2 on temperature gating of thermoTRP channels has not been explored in detail, and the process of temperature activation is largely unexplained. In this work, we have exchanged different segments of the C-terminal region between cold-sensitive (TRPM8) and heat-sensitive (TRPV1) channels, trying to understand the role of the segment in PIP2 and temperature activation. A chimera in which the proximal part of the C-terminal of TRPV1 replaces an equivalent section of TRPM8 C-terminal is activated by PIP2 and confers the phenotype of heat activation. PIP2, but not temperature sensitivity, disappears when positively charged residues contained in the exchanged region are neutralized. Shortening the exchanged segment to a length of 11 aa produces voltage-dependent and temperature-insensitive channels. Our findings suggest the existence of different activation domains for temperature, PIP2, and voltage. We provide an interpretation for channel–PIP2 interaction using a full-atom molecular model of TRPV1 and PIP2 docking analysis.
Phenotypic Diversity of Farmers’ Traditional Rice Varieties in the Philippines

Traditional rice varieties maintained and cultivated by farmers are likely sources of germplasm for breeding new rice varieties. They possess traits potentially adaptable to a wide range of abiotic and biotic stresses. Characterization of these germplasms is essential in rice breeding and provides valued information on developing new rice cultivars. In this study, 307 traditional rice varieties newly conserved at the PhilRice genebank were characterized to assess their phenotypic diversity using 57 morphological traits. Using the standardized Shannon-Weaver diversity index, phenotypic diversity indices averaged at 0.73 and 0.45 for quantitative and qualitative traits, respectively. Correlation analyses among agro-morphological traits showed a high positive correlation in some traits such as culm number and panicle number, flag leaf width and leaf blade width, grain width and caryopsis width. Cluster analysis separated the different varieties into various groups. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that seven independent principal components accounted for 74.95% of the total variation. Component loadings for each principal component showed morphological characters, such as culm number, panicle number and caryopsis ratio that were among the phenotypic traits contributing positive projections in three principal components that explained 48% of variation. Analyses of results showed high diversity in major traits assessed in farmers’ rice varieties. Based on plant height and maturity, 11 accessions could be potential donor parents in a rice breeding program. Future collection trips and characterization studies would further enrich diversity, in particular traits low in diversity, such as anthocyanin coloration, awn presence, awn color, culm habit, panicle type and panicle branching.
The core structure of ½(111) screw dislocations in b.c.c. crystals

Abstract A relaxation-type calculation of the structure of the dislocation core has been made for the ½ 〈111〉 screw dislocation in b.c.c. crystals, using a variety of central-force potentials. Two stable configurations were found, corresponding to the centre of the dislocation being along either the left-hand or the right-hand type of three-fold screw axis in the crystal. These two configurations differed only in the very centre. For both configurations and for all potentials, the core structure possessed three-fold symmetry, the largest displacements being in the directions in which displacements on (211) type planes were in the twinning sense. The structure can be described by a combination of large displacements on {110} type planes, plus ‘stacking faults’, 1–2b wide on {211} type planes in the twinning sense only. An investigation of the effect of boundary conditions showed that any errors caused by incomplete relaxation were negligible, and that changing the initial dislocation position or the positi.
Does Affirmative Action Lead to Mismatch? A New Test and Evidence

We argue that once we take into account the students' rational enrollment decisions, mismatch in the sense that the intended beneficiary of affirmative action admission policies are made worse off could occur only if selective universities possess private information about students' post-enrollment treatment effects. This necessary condition for mismatch provides the basis for a new test. We propose an empirical methodology to test for private information in such a setting. The test is implemented using data from Campus Life and Learning Project (CLL) at Duke. Evidence shows that Duke does possess private information that is a statistically significant predictor of the students' post-enrollment academic performance. We also propose strategies to evaluate more conclusively whether the evidence of Duke private information has generated mismatch.