Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Incremental sampling-based algorithm for minimum-violation motion planning

This paper studies the problem of control strategy synthesis for dynamical systems with differential constraints to fulfill a given reachability goal while satisfying a set of safety rules. Particular attention is devoted to goals that become feasible only if a subset of the safety rules are violated. The proposed algorithm computes a control law, that minimizes the level of unsafety while the desired goal is guaranteed to be reached. This problem is motivated by an autonomous car navigating an urban environment while following rules of the road such as “always travel in right lane” and “do not change lanes frequently”. Ideas behind sampling based motion-planning algorithms, such as Probabilistic Road Maps (PRMs) and Rapidly-exploring Random Trees (RRTs), are employed to incrementally construct a finite concretization of the dynamics as a durational Kripke structure. In conjunction with this, a weighted finite automaton that captures the safety rules is used in order to find an optimal trajectory that minimizes the violation of safety rules. We prove that the proposed algorithm guarantees asymptotic optimality, i.e., almost-sure convergence to optimal solutions. We present results of simulation experiments and an implementation on an autonomous urban mobility-on-demand system.
Corporate values guiding the world's largest family-owned businesses: A comparison with non-family firms

This paper analyzes formally stated corporate values, a key topic of concern in the field of family businesses. More specifically, the study aims to contribute to the literature by enabling a deeper understanding of the differences and similarities of the corporate values at the foundation of the world's top 100 largest family-owned firms and non-family businesses. According to the study findings, the values of integrity, respect, and customers are the top three most-mentioned values in both family-owned businesses and non-family companies. Likewise, there are distinct values that are mentioned often by family-owned firms and seldom stated or not stated at all by non-family businesses. These values tend to be more people-oriented; emphasize collectivity more than individuality; and support a long-term perspective and a sense of stewardship and responsibility toward the future of the family and the community in which the business operates.
A neonatal piglet model of intraventricular hemorrhage and posthemorrhagic ventricular dilation.

OBJECT The combination of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and posthemorrhagic ventricular dilation (PHVD) remains an important cause of disability in children surviving prematurity. Currently, there is no clear agreement on the management of neonatal IVH, apart from the eventual insertion of a shunt to control PHVD. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunts are associated with a relatively high complication rate in this population. The development of new treatment options requires greater understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of IVH and PHVD, as well as an opportunity to monitor closely their effects on the immature brain. The authors have developed a neonatal large animal model of IVH with long-term survival, allowing the full development of PHVD. METHODS Fourteen piglets that were 3 to 24 hours old were randomized to receive slow injections of autologous blood, autologous blood with elevated hematocrit, or artificial CSF after induction of general anesthesia. A fourth group served as controls. All animals underwent surgery to form an artificial fontanelle at the bregma. Physiological parameters, including intracranial pressure and electroencephalography, were monitored during injection. RESULTS Serial cranial ultrasonography studies performed during the 23- to 44-day survival period demonstrated progressive ventricular dilation in the animals injected with blood. Ventricular volumes, measured with image analysis software, confirmed the highest dilation after injection of blood with an elevated hematocrit. Histological evaluation showed fibrosis in the basal subarachnoid space of hydrocephalic piglets. CONCLUSIONS This piglet model closely replicates human neonatal IVH and PHVD. It allows detailed physiological and ultrasonographic monitoring over a prolonged survival period. It is suitable for evaluation of noninvasive as well as surgical options in the management of IVH and PHVD.
ROLE OF MURINE INTESTINAL INTRAEPITHELIAL LYMPHOCYTES AND LAMINA PROPRIA LYMPHOCYTES AGAINST PRIMARY AND CHALLENGE INFECTIONS WITH CRYPTOSPORIDIUM PARVUM

To investigate the role of intestinal lamina propria lymphocytes (LPL) and intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) in controlling Cryptosporidium parvum infection, changes in their phenotypes and functional properties were studied after induction of primary and challenge infections in immunocompetent mice. As shown by oocyst-shedding patterns, the challenge-infected group recovered more rapidly from infection than did the primary-infected group. In LPL, proportions of activated CD4+, CD25+, IgG1+, IgA+, and CD4+/IFN-γ+ cells increased significantly in the primary-infected group compared with controls. In the challenge-infected group, proportions of these cells decreased. The antigen-specific IgA level was elevated significantly among LPL of both primary- and challenge-infected groups. Among IEL, proportions of activated CD8+, T cell receptor (TCR) γδ+, and CD8+/TCR γδ+ cells increased significantly in the challenge-infected group compared with controls and the primary-infected group; their cytotoxicity also was enhanced. However, the proportion of IEL expressing Th1 cytokines was lower than that among LPL in both infected groups. The results suggest that LPL play a more important role in protection against a primary infection with C. parvum, through the production of IFN-γ and IgA, whereas IEL are more involved in protection against a challenge infection, through enhanced cytotoxicity.
A 1D constitutive model for shape memory alloy using strain and temperature as control variables and including martensite reorientation and asymmetric behaviors

In this paper, a new 1D constitutive model for shape memory alloy using strain and temperature as control variables is presented. The new formulation is restricted to the 1D stress case and takes into account the martensite reorientation and the asymmetry of the SMA behavior in tension and compression. Numerical implementation of the new model in a finite element code was conducted. The numerical results for superelastic behavior in tension and compression tests are presented and were compared to experimental data taken from the literature. Other numerical tests are presented, showing the model’s ability to reproduce the main aspects of SMA behavior such as the shape memory effect and the martensite reorientation under cyclic loading. Finally, to demonstrate the utility of the new constitutive model, a dynamic test of a bi-clamped SMA bending beam under forced oscillation is described.
Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase Regulates Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Replication following Viral Entry in Primary CD4+ T Lymphocytes and Macrophages

ABSTRACT Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) gp120 induces multiple cellular signaling pathways, including the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-kinase) pathway. The role of the PI3-kinase pathway in HIV-1 replication is not understood. Here we examined whether HIV-1 gp120 upregulates the PI3-kinase pathway and whether PI3-kinase activity plays a role in virus replication in primary human CD4+ T cells and macrophages. Soluble and virion-associated HIV-1 gp120 induced calcium mobilization and phosphorylation of the PI3-kinase downstream effectors PKB/Akt and p70 S6 kinase. gp120-induced PI3-kinase activity and calcium mobilization were inhibited by pertussis toxin and blocking antibodies directed against CCR5 and CXCR4, suggesting that the signaling is mediated through the chemokine receptor. The PI3-kinase inhibitor LY294002 inhibited infection of CD4+ T cells and macrophages with X4 and R5 HIV-1-pseudotyped viruses at concentrations that did not induce cell toxicity or downregulate HIV-1 coreceptor expression. When gp120-induced signaling was bypassed with the vesicular stomatitis virus G envelope protein, infection was still sensitive to PI3-kinase inhibition, suggesting that basal PI3-kinase activity is required for infection. LY294002 inhibited HIV-1 infection when added after viral entry and did not affect formation of the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase products R/U5 and long terminal repeat/Gag in the presence of the inhibitor. However, when the inhibitor was added after viral integration had occurred, no inhibition of HIV infection was observed. Our studies show that inhibition of the PI3-kinase signaling pathway suppresses virus infection post-viral entry and post-reverse transcription but prior to HIV gene expression. This type of host-virus interaction has implications for anti-HIV therapeutics that target cellular signaling machinery.
How Do Extreme Global Shocks Affect Foreign Portfolio Investment? An Event Study for India

ABSTRACT Foreign portfolio flows in and out of India are relevant for policymakers, and are often portrayed in the media as having a destabilizing effect on the domestic market. We use an event study approach to examine whether extreme global shocks trigger abnormal responses in foreign equity flows in and out of India, or abnormal responses in the Indian stock market. We do not find strong evidence of abnormal responses, even for the case of the global crisis of 2008.
Primary tooth emergence in Australian children: timing, sequence and patterns of asymmetry.

BACKGROUND Information on the timing and sequence of human tooth emergence is valuable when analysing human growth and development, predicting the age of individuals, and for understanding the effects of genetic and environmental influences on growth processes. This paper provides updated data on the timing and sequence of primary tooth emergence in Australian children for both clinicians and researchers. METHODS Twins were recruited from around Australia with data collected through parental recording of twins' primary tooth emergence. One twin from each pair was then randomly selected to enable the calculation of descriptive statistics for timing, sequence and asymmetry in tooth emergence. RESULTS The first and last primary teeth emerged, on average, at 8.6 months and 27.9 months, respectively, with teeth emerging in the order: central incisor, lateral incisor, first molar, canine, second molar. Left-side antimeric teeth were more likely to emerge before their right-side counterparts but this was not statistically significant. At least 35% of all antimeric pairs had emerged within two weeks of each other, serving as a useful guideline for assessing symmetrical versus asymmetrical development. CONCLUSIONS Primary tooth emergence in Australian twins is occurring later than reported previously for Australian singletons but is consistent with findings for singletons in other ethnic groups. The most common sequence of primary tooth emergence appears to be consistent in twins and singletons and has not changed over time.
Fish fauna associated with floating objects sampled by experimental and commercial purse nets

SUMMARY: Based on the commercial surrounding nets traditionally used in the Coryphaena hippurus fishery, we designed an experimental purse seine (64 m long and 14 m high, with a purse line and a central codend of 2 mm mesh) for sampling fish fauna associated with flotsam. Taxa, number, biomass and sizes of fishes caught with both types of gear around fish aggregation devices were compared. From 63 hauls with the experimental net, we caught 11370 fishes belonging to 17 families and 26 species. In contrast, 816 fishes belonging to 7 species and 5 families were collected from 39 commercial hauls. Despite differences in number of hauls for each net, the curves of cumulative species richness showed that additional hauls could not increase the number of species collected with the commercial net. The most abundant species from experimental net catches were Trachurus picturatus, which represented over 80% of the specimens caught in spring and summer, Naucrates ductor, which represented about 50% of autumn catches, both in terms of abundance and biomass, and Seriola dumerili, which represented 46% and 21% of the samples taken in summer and autumn respectively. Seriola dumeril was also frequent in commercial net catches, in which T. picturatus did not appear, while Coryphaena hippurus and N. ductor represented more than 85% of both abundance and biomass. Large differences between the two types of net were also obtained in the mean fish weight and length frequency distributions of the catches by season. Fish caught with the experimental net ranged from 6 to 570 mm length, while fish collected from commercial hauls had a size range of 35 to 700 mm. The effectiveness of the experimental net in catching small fishes showed that it can be an optimal sampling method not only in the study of fish fauna associated with flotsam, but also in studies to catch early life stages.
Program Speedup in a Heterogeneous Computing Network

Program speedup is an important measure of the performance of an algorithm on a parallel machine. Of particular importance is the near linear or superlinear speedup exhibited by the most performance-efficient algorithms for a given system. We describe network and program models for heterogeneous networks, define notions of speedup and superlinear speedup, and observe that speedup consists of both heterogeneous and parallel components. We also consider the case of linear tasks, give a lower bound for the speedup, and show that there is no theoretical upper limit on heterogeneous speedup.
The Complex Genetic Architecture of the Metabolome

Discovering links between the genotype of an organism and its metabolite levels can increase our understanding of metabolism, its controls, and the indirect effects of metabolism on other quantitative traits. Recent technological advances in both DNA sequencing and metabolite profiling allow the use of broad-spectrum, untargeted metabolite profiling to generate phenotypic data for genome-wide association studies that investigate quantitative genetic control of metabolism within species. We conducted a genome-wide association study of natural variation in plant metabolism using the results of untargeted metabolite analyses performed on a collection of wild Arabidopsis thaliana accessions. Testing 327 metabolites against >200,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms identified numerous genotype–metabolite associations distributed non-randomly within the genome. These clusters of genotype–metabolite associations (hotspots) included regions of the A. thaliana genome previously identified as subject to recent strong positive selection (selective sweeps) and regions showing trans-linkage to these putative sweeps, suggesting that these selective forces have impacted genome-wide control of A. thaliana metabolism. Comparing the metabolic variation detected within this collection of wild accessions to a laboratory-derived population of recombinant inbred lines (derived from two of the accessions used in this study) showed that the higher level of genetic variation present within the wild accessions did not correspond to higher variance in metabolic phenotypes, suggesting that evolutionary constraints limit metabolic variation. While a major goal of genome-wide association studies is to develop catalogues of intraspecific variation, the results of multiple independent experiments performed for this study showed that the genotype–metabolite associations identified are sensitive to environmental fluctuations. Thus, studies of intraspecific variation conducted via genome-wide association will require analyses of genotype by environment interaction. Interestingly, the network structure of metabolite linkages was also sensitive to environmental differences, suggesting that key aspects of network architecture are malleable.
Temporal construal.

Construal level theory proposes that temporal distance changes people's responses to future events by changing the way people mentally represent those events. The greater the temporal distance, the more likely are events to be represented in terms of a few abstract features that convey the perceived essence of the events (high-level construals) rather than in terms of more concrete and incidental details of the events (low-level construals). The informational and evaluative implications of high-level construals, compared with those of low-level construals, should therefore have more impact on responses to distant-future events than near-future events. This article explores the implications of construal level theory for temporal changes in evaluation, prediction, and choice. The authors suggest that construal level underlies a broad range of evaluative and behavioral consequences of psychological distance from events.
Two-Character Motion Analysis and Synthesis

In this paper, we deal with the problem of synthesizing novel motions of standing-up martial arts such as kickboxing, karate, and taekwondo performed by a pair of humanlike characters while reflecting their interactions. Adopting an example-based paradigm, we address three nontrivial issues embedded in this problem: motion modeling, interaction modeling, and motion synthesis. For the first issue, we present a semiautomatic motion-labeling scheme based on force-based motion segmentation and learning-based action classification. We also construct a pair of motion transition graphs, each of which represents an individual motion stream. For the second issue, we propose a scheme for capturing the interactions between two players. A dynamic Bayesian network is adopted to build a motion transition model on top of the coupled motion transition graph that is constructed from an example motion stream. For the last issue, we provide a scheme for synthesizing a novel sequence of coupled motions, guided by the motion transition model. Although the focus of the present work is on martial arts, we believe that the framework of the proposed approach can be conveyed to other two-player motions as well.
Identification of Two Neutralizing Regions on the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Spike Glycoprotein Produced from the Mammalian Expression System

ABSTRACT The Spike (S) protein of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) plays important roles in viral pathogenesis and potentially in the development of an effective vaccine against this virulent infectious disease. In this study, the codon-optimized S gene of SARS-CoV was synthesized to construct DNA vaccine plasmids expressing either the full-length or segments of the S protein. High titer S-specific immunoglobulin G antibody responses were elicited in rabbits immunized with DNA against various segments of the S protein. Two neutralizing domains were identified on the S protein, one at the N terminus (Ser12-Thr535) and the other near the C terminus (Arg797-Ile1192).
Complex modulation of the cold receptor TRPM8 by volatile anaesthetics and its role in complications of general anaesthesia

Summary The mechanisms by which volatile general anaesthetics (VAs) produce a depression of central nervous system are beginning to be better understood, but little is known about a number of side effects. Here, we show that the cold receptor transient receptor potential melastatin 8 (TRPM8) undergoes a complex modulation by clinical concentrations of VAs in dorsal root ganglion neurons and HEK-293 cells heterologously expressing TRPM8. VAs produced a transient enhancement of TRPM8 through a depolarizing shift of its activation towards physiological membrane potentials, followed by a sustained TRPM8 inhibition. The stimulatory action of VAs engaged molecular determinants distinct from those used by the TRPM8 agonist. Transient TRPM8 activation by VAs could explain side effects such as inhibition of respiratory drive, shivering and the cooling sensation during the beginning of anaesthesia, whereas the second phase of VA action, that associated with sustained TRPM8 inhibition, might be responsible for hypothermia. Consistent with this, both hypothermia and the inhibition of respiratory drive induced by VAs are partially abolished in Trpm8-knockout animals. Thus, we propose TRPM8 as a new clinical target for diminishing common and serious complications of general anaesthesia.
Measurement and Analysis of Large-Scale Network File System Workloads

In this paper we present the analysis of two large-scale network file system workloads. We measured CIFS traffic for two enterprise-class file servers deployed in the NetApp data center for a three month period. One file server was used by marketing, sales, and finance departments and the other by the engineering department. Together these systems represent over 22TB of storage used by over 1500 employees, making this the first ever large-scale study of the CIFS protocol. We analyzed how our network file system workloads compared to those of previous file system trace studies and took an in-depth look at access, usage, and sharing patterns. We found that our workloads were quite different from those previously studied; for example, our analysis found increased read-write file access patterns, decreased read-write ratios, more randomfile access, and longer file lifetimes. In addition, we found a number of interesting properties regarding file sharing, file re-use, and the access patterns of file types and users, showing that modern file system workload has changed in the past 5-10 years. This change in workload characteristics has implications on the future design of network file systems, which we describe in the paper.
Histopathological Analysis of Salmonella Chronic Carriage in the Mouse Hepatopancreatobiliary System

Salmonella Typhi asymptomatic chronic carriage represents a challenge for the diagnosis and prevention of typhoid fever in endemic areas. Such carriers are thought to be reservoirs for further spread of the disease. Gallbladder carriage has been demonstrated to be mediated by biofilm formation on gallstones and by intracellular persistence in the gallbladder epithelium of mice. In addition, both gallstones and chronic carriage have been associated with chronic inflammation and the development of gallbladder carcinoma. However, the pathogenic relationship between typhoid carriage and the development of pre-malignant and/or malignant lesions in the hepatopancreatobiliary system as well as the host-pathogen interactions occurring during chronic carriage remains unclear. In this study, we monitored the histopathological features of chronic carriage up to 1 year post-infection. Chronic cholecystitis and hepatitis ranging from mild to severe were present in infected mice regardless of the presence of gallstones. Biliary epithelial hyperplasia was observed more commonly in the gallbladder of mice with gallstones (uninfected or infected). However, pre-malignant lesions, atypical hyperplasia and metaplasia of the gallbladder and exocrine pancreas, respectively, were only associated with chronic Salmonella carriage. This study has implications regarding the role of Salmonella chronic infection and inflammation in the development of pre-malignant lesions in the epithelium of the gallbladder and pancreas that could lead to oncogenesis.
Disconnection and cognitive dysmetria in schizophrenia.

This editorial takes a perspective on this issue’s articles afforded by theories of inference and learning in the brain. It starts with a brief précis of the disconnection hypothesis and ensuing cognitive dysmetria, given recent developments in theoretical and computational neurobiology. (Dysmetria is defined as “conditions where there is improper measuring of distances required for muscular acts” by the University of Connecticut Health Center Research Computing Support [http://penguin.uchc.edu/~cns/ CNScases/Definitions/dysmetria.htm].) We will then review some major findings of the four articles, in light of these theoretical considerations.