Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi-Volume High Resolution RGB-D Mapping with Dynamic Volume Placement

We present a novel RGB-D mapping system for generating 3D maps over spatially extended regions with higher resolution than current methods using multiple, dynamically placed mapping volumes. Our method takes in RGB-D frames and dynamically assigns multiple mapping volumes to the environment, exchanging mapping volumes between the CPU and GPU. Mapping volumes are added or removed as needed to allow for spatially extended, high resolution mapping. Our system is designed to maximize the resolution possible for such volumetric methods, while working on an unbounded space.
Computers and Mathematics with Applications an Approximate Method for Numerically Solving Fractional Order Optimal Control Problems of General Form Optimal Control Time-optimal Control Fractional Calculus Fractional Order Optimal Control Fractional Dynamic Systems Riots_95 Optimal Control Toolbox

In this article, we discuss fractional order optimal control problems (FOCPs) and their solutions by means of rational approximation. The methodology developed here allows us to solve a very large class of FOCPs (linear/nonlinear, time-invariant/time-variant, SISO/MIMO, state/input constrained, free terminal conditions etc.) by converting them into a general, rational form of optimal control problem (OCP). The fractional differentiation operator used in the FOCP is approximated using Oustaloup's approximation into a state-space realization form. The original problem is then reformulated to fit the definition used in general-purpose optimal control problem (OCP) solvers such as RIOTS_95, a solver created as a Matlab toolbox. Illustrative examples from the literature are reproduced to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology and a free final time OCP is also solved.
A Comparative Study of Trans vaginal Sonography and Modified Bishop's Score for Cervical Assessment before Induction of Labour

This study is to compare and assess the affectivity of Trans vaginal ultrasonography and the Modified Bishop's Scoring System in predicting success of labor induction. In this hospital based analytic type of observational study, nulliparous term pregnant women admitted for induction of labor, undergo pelvic examination and cervical assessment by Modified Bishop's Scoring System and Trans vaginal sonography. Successful induction is vaginal delivery within 24 hrs from induction of labor. In our study cervical length by TVS is useful and independent predictor of successful labor induction. When CL 3.5 cm only 11.42% (4/35) delivered vaginally. Concluding Trans vaginal sonographic measurement of cervical length as a better predictor of the likelihood of vaginal delivery within 24 hrs of induction when compared to Modified Bishop's Score.
Structurally unique interaction of RBD-like and PH domains is crucial for yeast pheromone signaling

The Ras-binding domain is conserved among fungal Ste11 MAPKKKs and is critical for mating in fungi. Its interaction with Ras1 is critical for Schizosaccharomyces pombe mating, whereas in Saccharomyces cerevisiae its interaction with the Ste5 PH domain plays the crucial role. The binding partner of RBD for fungal mating is shifted from Ras to a PH domain in fungi in which Ste5 exists.
Microstructural and fluid transport properties of potatoes during frying

Microstructural and transport properties are the key determinants to understand the product quality, oil uptake and moisture loss during frying of foods. Besides, permeability is also an important physical property for studying the transport mechanisms of porous foods when pressure driven ow is involved. Food processes like frying, drying, solvent extraction, microwave heating, baking, membrane separation and reverse osmosis have signi cant pressure development. Experiments were conducted to investigate the microsructural changes during frying of potato disc and determine the oil and water permeability of potato disc at di erent temperatures. The complex microstructural changes and mass transfer mechanisms in potato discs during frying were analyzed. The potato discs (thickness of ≈1.65mm) were fried at 190◦C for 0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 s and X-ray micro-computed tomography (μCT) was used for three-dimensional (3D) imaging of microstructure of porous potato discs for di erent frying durations. Total porosity, pore size distribution, oil content and air content of potato discs were calculated from resulting 3D data sets. Oil and air content measured by analysis of micro-CT images followed trends similar to Soxtec and Pycnometer methods, respectively. Image analysis showed a signi cant change in pore size distribution as a function of frying time. Frying time was also observed to have an e ect on tortuosity, which is an important microstructural transport property. Tortuosity was measured by path length ratio method from 3D data sets obtained from image analysis. A linear inverse relationship was observed between porosity and tortuosity where tortuosity decreased with the increase of porosity. During frying, oil content increased with the decrease of tortuosity. This phenomenon indicated that the lower tortuosity created a less complicated and sinuous path, thus resulting in less resistance to oil penetration. Micro-CT technique can serve as an e ective tool for elucidating microstructure of fried foods, and can provide complementary information to conventional lab techniques. The permeability values of water and oil through porous potato discs were determined by developing an engineering model using Darcy's law
Bio-Inspired Aquaporinz Containing Double-Skinned Forward Osmosis Membrane Synthesized through Layer-by-Layer Assembly

We demonstrated a novel AquaporinZ (AqpZ)-incorporated double-skinned forward osmosis (FO) membrane by layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly strategy. Positively charged poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) and negatively charged poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS) were alternately deposited on both the top and bottom surfaces of a hydrolyzed polyacrylonitrile (H-PAN) substrate. Subsequently, an AqpZ-embedded 1,2-dioleloyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC)/1,2-dioleoyl-3-trimethylammonium- propane (chloride salt) (DOTAP) supported lipid bilayer (SLB) was formed on PSS-terminated (T-PSS) membrane via vesicle rupture method. The morphology and structure of the biomimetic membranes were characterized by in situ atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer using the attenuated total reflection technique (ATR-FTIR), and contact angle. Moreover, the FO performance of the resultant membrane was measured by using 2 M MgCl2 solution as draw solution and deionized (DI) water as feed solution, respectively. The membrane with a protein-to-lipid weight ratio (P/L) of 1/50 exhibits 13.2 L/m2h water flux and 3.2 g/m2h reversed flux by using FO mode, as well as 15.6 L/m2h water flux and 3.4 L/m2h reversed flux for PRO mode (the draw solution is placed against the active layer). It was also shown that the SLB layer of the double-skinned FO membrane can increase the surface hydrophilicity and reduce the surface roughness, which leads to an improved anti-fouling performance against humic acid foulant. The current work introduced a new method of fabricating high performance biomimetic FO membrane by combining AqpZ and a double-skinned structure based on LbL assembly.
Serial surveillance cultures of skin and catheter hub specimens from critically ill patients with central venous catheters: molecular epidemiology of infection and implications for clinical management and research

A prospective study of 45 central venous catheters was conducted to assess, by strain delineation, the turnover of skin and catheter hub (superficial) colonization and the relative contributions of catheter hub and skin colonization to catheter tip colonization. Serial quantitative cultures of skin and catheter hub were performed. Catheter tip, blood, and specimens for culture from targeted superficial sites (TSSs) were also collected at the time of catheter removal. Strains from 17 tip-positive catheters were delineated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Only 12 (28.6%) of 42 skin strains and 14 (31.1%) of 45 catheter hub strains were found to be present at the time of catheter removal. In addition, only 9 (29.0%) of the 31 tip-colonizing strains were present on TSSs. Moreover, 15 (48.4%) of the 31 tip-colonizing strains had a superficial origin, and the other 16 (51.6%) were of unknown origin. In catheters suspected of infection, cultures of TSSs had a negative predictive value for catheter-related bacteremia of 94.4% but a positive predictive value of 44.4%. When the causative agent was identified (to the strain level) these values dropped to 80.9 and 18.7%, respectively. The study shows that skin and catheter hub colonization is a common, dynamic phenomenon. Strains recovered from TSSs showed a low level of correlation with strains from previous cultures of specimens from superficial sites and catheter tip isolates. Consequently, TSSs cannot be recommended for use in determining the therapy. However, catheter-related bacteremia is uncommon when cultures of TSSs are negative.
A First Insight on the Population Structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex as Studied by Spoligotyping and MIRU-VNTRs in Santiago, Chile

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a significant public health problem worldwide, but the ecology of the prevalent mycobacterial strains, and their transmission, can vary depending on country and region. Chile is a country with low incidence of TB, that has a geographically isolated location in relation to the rest of South American countries due to the Andes Mountains, but recent migration from neighboring countries has changed this situation. We aimed to assess the genotypic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) strains in Santiago, Chile, and compare with reports from other Latin-American countries. We analyzed MTBC isolates from pulmonary tuberculosis cases collected between years 2008 and 2013 in Central Santiago, using two genotyping methods: spoligotyping and 12-loci mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number of tandem repeats (MIRU-VNTRs). Data obtained were analyzed and compared to the SITVIT2 database. Mean age of the patients was 47.5 years and 61% were male; 11.6% were migrants. Of 103 strains (1 isolate/patient) included, there were 56 distinct spoligotype patterns. Of these, 16 strains (15.5%) corresponded to orphan strains in the SITVIT2 database, not previously reported. Latin American and Mediterranean (LAM) (34%) and T (33%) lineages were the most prevalent strains, followed by Haarlem lineage (16.5%). Beijing family was scarcely represented with only two cases (1.9%), one of them isolated from a Peruvian migrant. The most frequent clustered spoligotypes were SIT33/LAM3 (10.7%), SIT53/T1 (8.7%), SIT50/H3 (7.8%), and SIT37/T3 (6.8%). We conclude that LAM and T genotypes are the most prevalent genotypes of MTBC in Santiago, Chile, and together correspond to almost two thirds of analyzed strains, which is similar to strain distribution reported from other countries of Latin America. Nevertheless, the high proportion of SIT37/T3, which was rarely found in other Latin American countries, may underline a specific history or demographics of Chile related to probable human migrations and evolutions.
Identification of a Cardiolipin-specific Phospholipase Encoded by the Gene CLD1 (YGR110W) in Yeast*

The mitochondrial dimeric phospholipid cardiolipin is characterized by a high degree of unsaturation of its acyl chains, which is important for its functional interaction with mitochondrial enzymes. The unusual fatty acid composition of cardiolipin molecular species emerges from a de novo synthesized “premature” species by extensive acyl chain remodeling that involves as yet only partially identified acyltransferases and phospholipases. Recently, the yeast protein Taz1p was shown to function as a transacylase, which catalyzes the reacylation of monolysocardiolipin to mature cardiolipin. A defect in the orthologous human TAZ gene is associated with Barth syndrome, a severe genetic disorder, which may lead to cardiac failure and death in childhood. We now identified the protein encoded by reading frame YGR110W as a mitochondrial phospholipase, which deacylates de novo synthesized cardiolipin. Ygr110wp has a strong substrate preference for palmitic acid residues and functions upstream of Taz1p, to generate monolysocardiolipin for Taz1p-dependent reacylation with unsaturated fatty acids. We therefore rename the Ygr110wp as Cld1p (cardiolipin-specific deacylase 1).
Supporting home care for the dying: an evaluation of healthcare professionals' perspectives of an individually tailored hospice at home service.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To explore health care professionals' perspective of hospice at home service that has different components, individually tailored to meet the needs of patients. BACKGROUND Over 50% of adults diagnosed with a terminal illness and the majority of people who have cancer, prefer to be cared for and to die in their own home. Despite this, most deaths occur in hospital. Increasing the options available for patients, including their place of care and death is central to current UK policy initiatives. Hospice at home services aim to support patients to remain at home, yet there are wide variations in the design of services and delivery. A hospice at home service was developed to provide various components (accompanied transfer home, crisis intervention and hospice aides) that could be tailored to meet the individual needs of patients. DESIGN An evaluation study. METHODS Data were collected from 75 health care professionals. District nurses participated in one focus group (13) and 31 completed an electronic survey. Palliative care specialist nurses participated in a focus group (9). One hospital discharge co-ordinator and two general practitioners participated in semi-structured interviews and a further 19 general practitioners completed the electronic survey. RESULTS Health care professionals reported the impact and value of each of the components of the service, as helping to support patients to remain at home, by individually tailoring care. They also positively reported that support for family carers appeared to enable them to continue coping, rapid access to the service was suggested to contribute to faster hospital discharges and the crisis intervention service was identified as helping patients remain in their own home, where they wanted to be. CONCLUSIONS Health care professionals perceived that the additional individualised support provided by this service contributed to enabling patients to continue be cared for and to die at home in their place of choice. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE This service offers various components of a hospice at home service, enabling a tailor made package to meet individual and local area needs. Developing an individually tailored package of care appears to be able to meet specific needs.
Action Spotting and Recognition Based on a Spatiotemporal Orientation Analysis

This paper provides a unified framework for the interrelated topics of action spotting, the spatiotemporal detection and localization of human actions in video, and action recognition, the classification of a given video into one of several predefined categories. A novel compact local descriptor of video dynamics in the context of action spotting and recognition is introduced based on visual spacetime oriented energy measurements. This descriptor is efficiently computed directly from raw image intensity data and thereby forgoes the problems typically associated with flow-based features. Importantly, the descriptor allows for the comparison of the underlying dynamics of two spacetime video segments irrespective of spatial appearance, such as differences induced by clothing, and with robustness to clutter. An associated similarity measure is introduced that admits efficient exhaustive search for an action template, derived from a single exemplar video, across candidate video sequences. The general approach presented for action spotting and recognition is amenable to efficient implementation, which is deemed critical for many important applications. For action spotting, details of a real-time GPU-based instantiation of the proposed approach are provided. Empirical evaluation of both action spotting and action recognition on challenging datasets suggests the efficacy of the proposed approach, with state-of-the-art performance documented on standard datasets.
Synaptic Mechanisms of Blast-Induced Brain Injury

Blast wave-induced traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most common injuries to military personnel. Brain tissue compression/tension due to blast-induced cranial deformations and shear waves due to head rotation may generate diffuse micro-damage to neuro-axonal structures and trigger a cascade of neurobiological events culminating in cognitive and neurodegenerative disorders. Although diffuse axonal injury is regarded as a signature wound of mild TBI (mTBI), blast loads may also cause synaptic injury wherein neuronal synapses are stretched and sheared. This synaptic injury may result in temporary disconnect of the neural circuitry and transient loss in neuronal communication. We hypothesize that mTBI symptoms such as loss of consciousness or dizziness, which start immediately after the insult, could be attributed to synaptic injury. Although empirical evidence is beginning to emerge; the detailed mechanisms underlying synaptic injury are still elusive. Coordinated in vitro–in vivo experiments and mathematical modeling studies can shed light into the synaptic injury mechanisms and their role in the potentiation of mTBI symptoms.
Altered miRNA expression patterns in Tff2 knock-out mice correlate with cellular pathways of neoplastic development and caloric metabolism

The trefoil peptide family, consisting in mammals of three members namely TFF1, 2 and 3, plays a cytoprotective role in epithelial cells of various tissues, mainly in the digestive tract. Tff1, Tff2 or Tff3 knock-out mouse models developed various kinds of gastrointestinal impairment. microRNAs are known to be novel gene regulators. We aimed to investigate the physiological role of such miRNAs in Tff2 knock-out mice. Whole miRNome profiling and in silico analysis were performed for Tff2-KO and WT mice. Our latest data explored the role of miRNAs in the regulatory cascades and molecular processes of Tff2−/− mice. As much as 6% of the Tff2-KO mice miRNome was significantly dys-regulated. Further in silico analysis suggests that the respective dys-regulated part of the miRNome is involved in human pathological processes, including pancreatic, colorectal and basal cell cancer. Additionally, the dys-regulated miRNome targets pathways involved in carbohydrate metabolism and adipocytokine signaling. The latter links deficient caloric maintenance in Tff2 and previous observation in Tff3-KO mice with miRNAs. In summary, our proof-of-concept study indicates that miRNAs may play an important role in the regulatory processes of the trefoil peptide family, especially in the regulation of cancer-related cascades.
Striatal Spine Plasticity in Parkinson's Disease

Striatal dopamine (DA) denervation results in a significant loss of dendritic spines on medium spiny projection neurons in Parkinson's disease. In 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine-treated parkinsonian monkeys, spines contacted either by cortical or thalamic glutamatergic terminals are severely affected on both direct and indirect striatofugal neurons. In rodents, indirect pathway neurons appear to be more sensitive, at least in early stages of acute dopamine denervation. The remaining corticostriatal and thalamostriatal axo-spinous synapses undergo complex ultrastructural remodeling consistent with increased synaptic activity in the DA-denervated primate striatum, which may explain the pathophysiological overactivity of the corticostriatal system reported in various animal models of parkinsonism. The calcium-mediated regulation of the transcription factor myocyte enhancer factor 2 was recognized as a possible underlying mechanism for striatal spine plasticity. Future studies to determine how alterations in striatal spine plasticity contribute to the symptomatology of parkinsonism are warranted.
Preserving Incumbent Users' Privacy in Server-Driven Dynamic Spectrum Access Systems

Dynamic spectrum access (DSA) technique has emerged as a fundamental approach in improving spectrum utilization to mitigate the spectrum scarcity problem. As a key form of DSA, government is proposing to release more federal spectrum for sharing with commercial wireless users. However, the flourish of federal-commercial sharing hinges upon how federal privacy issues are managed. In current DSA proposals, the sensitive operation information of federal incumbent users (IUs) needs to be shared with a dynamic spectrum access system (SAS) to realize spectrum allocation. However, SAS is not necessarily trust-worthy for holding such sensitive IU data, especially considering that FCC allows some industry third parties (e.g., Google) to operate SAS for better efficiency and scalability. Therefore, the current proposals dissatisfy the IUs' privacy requirement. To address the privacy issues, this paper presents an IU-privacy-preserving SAS (IP-SAS) design, which realizes the spectrum allocation process through secure computation over ciphertext based on homomorphic encryption so that none of the IU operation information is exposed to SAS.
Tradeoff between spoofing and jamming a cognitive radio

Recent studies show that spectrum sensing in cognitive radio exposes vulnerabilities to adversaries. An intelligent adversary can launch sensing disruption in the sensing duration, by putting spoofing signals in allowable bands to prevent secondary users from accessing. In the meantime, the adversary can also attack secondary users by traditional jamming, once they access the spectral bands and start transmission. Both attacks can significantly degrade the performance of a cognitive radio system. In this paper, we address the design of an energy constrained intelligent adversary. More specifically, a global optimization problem is formulated, to optimally distribute its energy between spoofing and jamming, so that the average sum throughput of the secondary users is minimized. To simplify the computation complexities, we divide our optimization into a 2-step problem: first optimally spoof and then optimally jam. Numerical results show that, to induce the worst effect on the average sum throughput of the secondary users, there is a tradeoff between spoofing and jamming: 1) when spoofing and jamming capabilities are comparable, the optimal attack is a combination of partial-band spoofing and partial-band jamming; 2) when spoofing is more effective, a spoofing only strategy is required; 3) when jamming capability dominates, a jamming only attack should be adopted.
Nonconvex Low Rank Matrix Factorization via Inexact First Order Oracle

We study the low rank matrix factorization problem via nonconvex optimization. Compared with the convex relaxation approach, nonconvex optimization exhibits superior empirical performance for large scale low rank matrix estimation. However, the understanding of its theoretical guarantees is limited. To bridge this gap, we exploit the notion of inexact first order oracle, which naturally appears in low rank matrix factorization problems such as matrix sensing and completion. Particularly, our analysis shows that a broad class of nonconvex optimization algorithms, including alternating minimization and gradient-type methods, can be treated as solving two sequences of convex optimization algorithms using inexact first order oracle. Thus we can show that these algorithms converge geometrically to the global optima and recover the true low rank matrices under suitable conditions. Numerical results are provided to support our theory.