Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the Mechanics of Functional Asymmetry in Bipedal Walking

This paper uses two symmetrical models, the passive compass-gait biped and a five-link 3-D biped, to computationally investigate the cause and function of gait asymmetry. We show that for a range of slope angles during passive 2-D walking and mass distributions during controlled 3-D walking, these models have asymmetric walking patterns between the left and right legs due to the phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry-breaking. In both cases a stable asymmetric family of gaits emerges from a symmetric family of gaits as the total energy increases (e.g., fast speeds). The ground reaction forces of each leg reflect different roles, roughly corresponding to support, propulsion, and motion control as proposed by the hypothesis of functional asymmetry in able-bodied human walking. These results suggest that body mechanics, independent of neurophysiological mechanisms such as leg dominance, may contribute to able-bodied gait asymmetry.
Combining Psycho-linguistic, Content-based and Chat-based Features to Detect Predation in Chatrooms

The Digital Age has brought great benefits for the human race but also some draw- backs. Nowadays, people from opposite corners of the World can communicate online via instant messaging services. Unfortunately, this has introduced new kinds of crime. Sexual predators have adapted their predatory strategies to these platforms and, usually, the target victims are kids. The authorities cannot manually track all threats because massive amounts of online conversations take place in a daily basis. Automatic methods for alerting about these crimes need to be de- signed. This is the main motivation of this paper, where we present a Machine Learning approach to identify suspicious subjects in chat-rooms. We propose novel types of features for represen- ting the chatters and we evaluate different classifiers against the largest benchmark available. This empirical validation shows that our approach is promising for the identification of predatory behaviour. Furthermore, we carefully analyse the characteristics of the learnt classifiers. This preliminary analysis is a first step towards profiling the behaviour of the sexual predators when chatting on the Internet.
Efficient fault tolerant SHA-2 hash functions for space applications

Satellites are extensively used by public and private sectors to support a variety of services. Considering the cost and the strategic importance of these spacecrafts, it is fundamental to utilize strong cryptographic primitives to assure their security. However, it is of utmost importance to consider fault tolerance in their designs due to the harsh environment found in space, while keeping low area and power consumption. Therefore, this paper proposes novel fault tolerant schemes for the SHA-2 family of hash functions and analyzes their resistance to SEUs. Results obtained through FPGA implementation show that our best fault tolerant scheme for SHA-512 uses up to 32% less area and consumes up to 43% less power than the commonly used TMR technique. Moreover, its memory and registers are 435 and 175 times more resistant to SEUs than TMR. These results are crucial for supporting low area and low power fault tolerant cryptographic primitives in satellites.
Decomposition of metabolic network into functional modules based on the global connectivity structure of reaction graph

MOTIVATION Metabolic networks are organized in a modular, hierarchical manner. Methods for a rational decomposition of the metabolic network into relatively independent functional subsets are essential to better understand the modularity and organization principle of a large-scale, genome-wide network. Network decomposition is also necessary for functional analysis of metabolism by pathway analysis methods that are often hampered by the problem of combinatorial explosion due to the complexity of metabolic network. Decomposition methods proposed in literature are mainly based on the connection degree of metabolites. To obtain a more reasonable decomposition, the global connectivity structure of metabolic networks should be taken into account. RESULTS In this work, we use a reaction graph representation of a metabolic network for the identification of its global connectivity structure and for decomposition. A bow-tie connectivity structure similar to that previously discovered for metabolite graph is found also to exist in the reaction graph. Based on this bow-tie structure, a new decomposition method is proposed, which uses a distance definition derived from the path length between two reactions. An hierarchical classification tree is first constructed from the distance matrix among the reactions in the giant strong component of the bow-tie structure. These reactions are then grouped into different subsets based on the hierarchical tree. Reactions in the IN and OUT subsets of the bow-tie structure are subsequently placed in the corresponding subsets according to a 'majority rule'. Compared with the decomposition methods proposed in literature, ours is based on combined properties of the global network structure and local reaction connectivity rather than, primarily, on the connection degree of metabolites. The method is applied to decompose the metabolic network of Escherichia coli. Eleven subsets are obtained. More detailed investigations of the subsets show that reactions in the same subset are really functionally related. The rational decomposition of metabolic networks, and subsequent studies of the subsets, make it more amenable to understand the inherent organization and functionality of metabolic networks at the modular level. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION http://genome.gbf. de/bioinformatics/
Image‐based musculoskeletal modeling: Applications, advances, and future opportunities

Computer models of the musculoskeletal system are broadly used to study the mechanisms of musculoskeletal disorders and to simulate surgical treatments. Musculoskeletal models have historically been created based on data derived in anatomical and biomechanical studies of cadaveric specimens. MRI offers an abundance of novel methods for acquisition of data from living subjects and is revolutionizing the field of musculoskeletal modeling. The need to create accurate, individualized models of the musculoskeletal system is driving advances in MRI techniques including static imaging, dynamic imaging, diffusion imaging, body imaging, pulse‐sequence design, and coil design. These techniques apply to imaging musculoskeletal anatomy, muscle architecture, joint motions, muscle moment arms, and muscle tissue deformations. Further advancements in image‐based musculoskeletal modeling will expand the accuracy and utility of models used to study musculoskeletal and neuromuscular impairments. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Overlap of Erosive and Non-erosive Reflux Diseases With Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders According to Rome III Criteria

Background/Aims Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is increasing in Asian countries. Functional dyspepsia (FD) or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are also prevalent and commonly overlapped with GERD. This study was conducted to compare the proportion and risk factors for overlapping reflux esophagitis (RE) and non-erosive reflux disease (NERD) with functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs). Methods A total of 2,388 [male, 55.9%; mean age (± SD), 43.2 years (± 8.4)] Korean subjects who underwent the upper endoscopy for health screening were prospectively included. The subjects were asked about demographic, medical and social history by using a structured questionnaire, and FD and IBS were assessed according to the Rome III criteria. Results The subjects with RE were 286 (12.0%, male 88.5%, 42.8 years) and 74 subjects had NERD (3.1%) while the prevalence of FD and IBS were 8.1% and 10.1%, respectively. The proportion of FD and IBS in NERD was higher than that of RE (74.3% vs. 10.5%, p = 0.000; 41.9% vs. 11.2%, p = 0.000, respectively). The epigastric pain syndrome (EPS) was more prevalent than postprandial distress syndrome in NERD. According to multiple regression analysis, high somatization score and the presence of FD increased the odd ratio for NERD. However, male gender and current smoker were significant risk factors for RE. Conclusions Compared to RE, NERD is more frequently overlapped with FD, especially EPS, and also are associated with significantly increased frequency of IBS. Our data draws attention to the possibility of subgrouping FGIDs and GERD to be important in understanding the pathophysiology of these conditions.
The Role of Alexithymia in Quality of Life and Health Care Use in Asthma

Background. Alexithymia is a personality trait characterized by difficulties in perceiving and expressing emotions. The relationship between alexithymia and health outcomes in asthma has been shown in a scarce number of studies, in which alexithymia has been considered as an homogeneous construct and the confounding potential effect of anxiety and depression has not been controlled for. Objectives. To determine the relationship between each of the three dimensions of alexithymia as assessed with the Twenty-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale—Difficulty Identifying Feelings, Difficulty Describing Feelings, and Externally Oriented Thinking—and health-related quality of life and utilization of health care services, controlling anxiety and depression. Methods. Patients with moderate to severe asthma between 18 and 65 years old filled in the Twenty-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Short-Form 36 Health Survey, the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire, the Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Cognitive Depression Index. Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected and the frequency of emergency room visits and hospitalizations due to asthma during the following 24 months was recorded. Data were analyzed using the ? 2 test, the Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman correlations and multiple linear regression analyses. Results. A total of 76 patients took part in the study (42.67 ± 15.33 years; 59.2% female; 81.6% severe asthma). Data on emergency room visits during the 24-month follow-up were collected for 42 patients; 13 of them (30.95%) with at least one emergency room visit during the follow-up. After controlling for sociodemographic variables, clinical variables, anxiety, and depression, the Difficulty Describing Feelings factor was related to dimensions of the Short-Form 36 Health Survey: Physical Functioning (p = .021), Role—Physical (p = 0.025), and the Physical Component Score (p = .012). The Difficulty Identifying Feelings factor was associated with a higher frequency of emergency room visits (p = .005). The Externally Oriented Thinking factor was not related to any of the dependent measures. Conclusions. Two dimensions of alexithymia, Difficulty Identifying Feelings and Difficulty Describing Feelings, are complicating factors in the management of asthma, but they operate via different mechanisms and over different outcomes and the effects of alexithymia remain even while controlling for the confounding effect of anxiety and depression.
Students' Perceptions of Online Assessment: A Case Study

For many reasons the use of computer-assisted assessment (CAA) is increasing. Although computer-based examinations increase in use, research is lacking about students’ perceptions of online assessment in general and of categorized fields of online assessment systems. The aim of the study was to investigate students’ perceptions of the use of CAA and to investigate the potential for using student feedback in the validation of assessment. To determine the students’ perceptions of online assessment, an examination Web site was developed and implemented as part of the assessment of Masaustu Yayincilik (Desktop Publishing), a course given by the Department of Computer Science at Kocaeli University, Turkey. The study was descriptive, using a paper-based survey and interviews for data collection. Participants were third-year students enrolled in the course. Descriptive analysis of the questionnaire and interview data showed that the most prominent features of the online assessment system were immediate feedback, randomized question order, item analysis of the questions, and obtaining the scores immediately after the exam. Participants reported the effectiveness of the online assessment system. Although there is much room for improvement in online assessment systems in the near future, such systems are accepted by computer-friendly youth. L’utilisation de l’evaluation assistee par ordinateur est en hausse pour plusieurs raisons. Bien que l’emploi d’examens par ordinateur soit en croissance, la re- cherche fait defaut sur la perception qu’ont les etudiants de ces derniers et des categories de systemes d’evaluation en ligne. Le but de l’etude etait d’examiner comment les etudiants percoivent l’evaluation assistee par ordinateur et d’evaluer comment les reactions des etudiants peuvent guider la recherche a ce chapitre. Afin de determiner les perceptions des etudiants a propos des evaluations en ligne, un site Web d’examens a ete concu dans le cadre de l’evaluation du cours Masaustu Yayincilik (Publication assistee par ordinateur), donne par le departement des sciences informatiques a Kocaeli University en Turquie. L’etude, de nature descriptive, utilisait un questionnaire papier ainsi que des entrevues pour recueillir les donnees. Les participants etaient des etudiants de 3e annee inscrits a ce cours. Une analyse descriptive des questionnaires et des donnees recoltees en entrevue a revele que les caracteristiques dominantes du systeme d’evaluation en ligne etaient la retroaction immediate, la repartition aleatoire des questions, l’analyse de chaque element des questions et l’obtention immediate du resultat de l’examen. Les participants ont note l’efficacite du systeme d’evaluation en ligne. Meme s’il y a amplement place a amelioration des systemes d’evaluation en ligne, on remarque que ces derniers sont tout de meme deja acceptes par les jeunes de la generation informatique.
Inversion of the volume scattering function and spectral absorption in coastal waters with biogeochemical implications

to calculate particle fractions for an experiment in Chesapeake Bay. A complete set of water inherent optical properties was measured using a suite of commercial instruments and a prototype Multispectral Volume Scattering Meter (MVSM); the chlorophyll concentration, [Chl] was determined using the HPLC method. The total scattering coefficient (measured by an ac-s) and the VSF (at a few backward angles, measured by a 10
Epilepsy Surgery: Historical Highlights 1909–2009

This review focuses on some historical highlights of the surgery of epilepsy, beginning with the reports of Horsley, Krause, and Cushing to which appeared in 1909, the year that The International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) was inaugurated. We then outline key contributions from Europe and North America, and examine particularly the evolution of our understanding of temporal lobe seizures, which have now become the most common form of epilepsy amenable to surgical cure.
An isometric muscle force estimation framework based on a high-density surface EMG array and an NMF algorithm

Objective. To realize accurate muscle force estimation, a novel framework is proposed in this paper which can extract the input of the prediction model from the appropriate activation area of the skeletal muscle. Approach. Surface electromyographic (sEMG) signals from the biceps brachii muscle during isometric elbow flexion were collected with a high-density (HD) electrode grid (128 channels) and the external force at three contraction levels was measured at the wrist synchronously. The sEMG envelope matrix was factorized into a matrix of basis vectors with each column representing an activation pattern and a matrix of time-varying coefficients by a nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) algorithm. The activation pattern with the highest activation intensity, which was defined as the sum of the absolute values of the time-varying coefficient curve, was considered as the major activation pattern, and its channels with high weighting factors were selected to extract the input activation signal of a force estimation model based on the polynomial fitting technique. Main results. Compared with conventional methods using the whole channels of the grid, the proposed method could significantly improve the quality of force estimation and reduce the electrode number. Significance. The proposed method provides a way to find proper electrode placement for force estimation, which can be further employed in muscle heterogeneity analysis, myoelectric prostheses and the control of exoskeleton devices.
Recruitment of Foveal Retinotopic Cortex During Haptic Exploration of Shapes and Actions in the Dark

The role of the early visual cortex and higher-order occipitotemporal cortex has been studied extensively for visual recognition and to a lesser degree for haptic recognition and visually guided actions. Using a slow event-related fMRI experiment, we investigated whether tactile and visual exploration of objects recruit the same “visual” areas (and in the case of visual cortex, the same retinotopic zones) and if these areas show reactivation during delayed actions in the dark toward haptically explored objects (and if so, whether this reactivation might be due to imagery). We examined activation during visual or haptic exploration of objects and action execution (grasping or reaching) separated by an 18 s delay. Twenty-nine human volunteers (13 females) participated in this study. Participants had their eyes open and fixated on a point in the dark. The objects were placed below the fixation point and accordingly visual exploration activated the cuneus, which processes retinotopic locations in the lower visual field. Strikingly, the occipital pole (OP), representing foveal locations, showed higher activation for tactile than visual exploration, although the stimulus was unseen and location in the visual field was peripheral. Moreover, the lateral occipital tactile–visual area (LOtv) showed comparable activation for tactile and visual exploration. Psychophysiological interaction analysis indicated that the OP showed stronger functional connectivity with anterior intraparietal sulcus and LOtv during the haptic than visual exploration of shapes in the dark. After the delay, the cuneus, OP, and LOtv showed reactivation that was independent of the sensory modality used to explore the object. These results show that haptic actions not only activate “visual” areas during object touch, but also that this information appears to be used in guiding grasping actions toward targets after a delay. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Visual presentation of an object activates shape-processing areas and retinotopic locations in early visual areas. Moreover, if the object is grasped in the dark after a delay, these areas show “reactivation. ” Here, we show that these areas are also activated and reactivated for haptic object exploration and haptically guided grasping. Touch-related activity occurs not only in the retinotopic location of the visual stimulus, but also at the occipital pole (OP), corresponding to the foveal representation, even though the stimulus was unseen and located peripherally. That is, the same “visual” regions are implicated in both visual and haptic exploration; however, touch also recruits high-acuity central representation within early visual areas during both haptic exploration of objects and subsequent actions toward them. Functional connectivity analysis shows that the OP is more strongly connected with ventral and dorsal stream areas when participants explore an object in the dark than when they view it.
The breathlessness, cough, and sputum scale: the development of empirically based guidelines for interpretation.

BACKGROUND A patient report of respiratory symptoms in COPD is essential to successfully monitoring disease, adjusting treatment, and evaluating outcomes. OBJECTIVE To develop empirically based guidelines for interpreting mean changes in symptom scores using the Breathlessness, Cough, and Sputum Scale (BCSS). METHODS Analyses were performed on data from three multinational trials (n = 2,971). Mean changes in BCSS score with treatment were examined by physician and patient ratings of treatment efficacy, juxtaposed with percentage change in symptoms, statistical effect size (ES), DeltaFEV(1), and change in St. George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) score. BCSS scores during an exacerbation were examined relative to changes in peak expiratory flow and rescue medication use. RESULTS Mean baseline BCSS total score was 5.2 +/- 2 (+/- SD); 90% of scores were between 2 and 9. Highly efficacious treatment (n = 257; physician rating) was associated with a DeltaBCSS total score of - 1.3 +/- 1.8, representing a 24% improvement (ES = 0.7), and corresponding to a 10% improvement in FEV(1) and DeltaSGRQ score total of - 10.3 +/- 13.8. Similar changes in BCSS score were observed during recovery from an exacerbation (n = 713; - 1.3 +/- 1.8). Mean change with moderately efficacious treatment (n = 965) was - 0.7 +/- 1.8, a 13% improvement (ES = 0.3) corresponding to DeltaSGRQ total score of - 6.8 +/- 12.6. Mildly efficacious treatment (n = 891) was associated with a change of - 0.35, a 7% improvement (ES = 0.18), with a DeltaFEV(1) <1% and DeltaSGRQ total score of - 2.6 +/- 11.7. CONCLUSIONS Patient-reported daily symptom data are sensitive to change and useful for both observational studies and controlled clinical trials of patients with COPD. A mean DeltaBCSS total score > 1.0 represents substantial symptomatic improvement, changes of approximately 0.6 can be interpreted as moderate, and changes of 0.3 can be considered small.
Studies on the transfer of lymph node cells. V. Transfer of cells incubated in vitro with suspensions of Shigella paradysenteriae.

Summary 1.Cells of the popliteal and axillary lymph nodes of uninjected rabbits were incubated in vitro with dysentery bacilli. The lymph node cells were then washed and transferred to fresh rabbits which had undergone x-ray irradiation 24 hours earlier. Such recipients developed agglutinins to dysentery bacilli on the fourth day after transfer. Recipients of heated aliquots of the same cell suspensions did not develop antibody, generally, until after the eighth day after transfer. These results were obtained with suspensions of dysentery bacilli in the range of 1 to . 001%. Similar results were obtained when lymph node cells from uninjected rabbits were injected intravenously into irradiated recipients, which were then injected with dysentery bacilli. 2.The numbers of dysentery bacilli present after manipulation in cell suspensions which had been incubated with various dilutions of suspensions of dysentery bacilli were estimated by setting up typical cell-transfer experiments with living cultures of Shigella paradysenteriae . Aliquots of the various preparations were plated in tryptose agar, and the colonies which appeared were counted. Irradiated rabbits were injected with similar numbers of alcohol-treated bacilli. It was found that the dose of irradiation was sufficient to suppress active formation of antibodies in the range in which the cell-transfer experiments were performed. 3.Typhoid bacilli were injected subcutaneously into all rabbits injected with lymph node cells. Nonirradiated recipients responded with the formation of typhoid agglutinins. Irradiated recipients of heated lymph node cells, or no cells at all, did not generally develop agglutinins during the first 12 days. Irradiated recipients of untreated cells, however, developed agglutinins during the first week after transfer in over 70% of the cases. 4.Irradiated recipients of untreated splenic cells incubated in vitro with dysentery bacilli also developed agglutinins on the fourth day after transfer. Transfer of cells of the thymus similarly incubated did not lead to the appearance of dysentery agglutinins.