Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design and Control of a Bio-inspired Human-friendly Robot

The increasing demand for physical interaction between humans and robots has led to an interest in robots that guarantee safe behavior when human contact occurs. However, attaining established levels of performance while ensuring safety creates formidable challenges in mechanical design, actuation, sensing and control. To promote safety without compromising performance, a human-friendly robotic arm has been developed using the concept of hybrid actuation. The new design employs high-power, low-impedance pneumatic artificial muscles augmented with small electrical actuators, distributed compact pressure regulators with proportional valves, and hollow plastic links. The experimental results show that significant performance improvement can be achieved with hybrid actuation over a system with pneumatic muscles alone. In this paper we evaluate the safety of the new robot arm through experiments and simulation, demonstrating that its inertia/power characteristics surpass those of previous human-friendly robots we have developed.
Domain-General Affect: Neural Mechanisms and Clinical Implications

Domain-General Affect: Neural Mechanisms and Clinical Implications by Amy A. Winecoff Department of Psychology & Neuroscience Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Scott A. Huettel, Supervisor ___________________________ Nancy Zucker ___________________________ R. Alison Adcock ___________________________ Lasana Harris ___________________________ Walter Sinnott-Armstrong An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience in the Graduate School of Duke University 2014 Copyright by Amy A. Winecoff 2014
Prognosis was not deteriorated by multiple primary cancers in esophageal cancer patients treated by radiotherapy

Esophageal cancer patients are often associated with multiple primary cancers (MPC). The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of MPC on prognosis in esophageal cancer patients treated by radiotherapy. Between 2001 and 2008, esophageal cancer patients treated by definitive radiotherapy at Gunma Cancer Center were retrospectively reviewed. Exclusion criteria were preoperative or postoperative radiotherapy, palliative radiotherapy, follow-up of <6 months, radiation dose of <50 Gy and no information on MPC. We analyzed 167 esophageal cancer patients and 56 (33.5%) were associated with MPC. Gastric cancer was the most frequent tumor (38.2%), followed by head and neck cancer (26.5%). Median follow-up time was 31.5 months (range 6.1–87.3 months). Patients with MPC included more stage I/II esophageal cancer than those without MPC (66.1% vs. 36.9%, P < 0.01). The 5-year overall survival rate for esophageal cancer with MPC was relatively better than those without MPC (46.1% vs. 26.7%), although the difference did not reach statistical significance in univariate analysis (P = 0.09). Stage I/II esophageal cancer patients had a significantly better overall survival than stage III/IV patients (P < 0.01). Among esophageal cancer patients with MPC, there was no difference in overall survival between antecedent and synchronous cancer (P = 0.59). Our study indicated that the prognosis of esophageal cancer patients treated by radiotherapy was primarily determined by the clinical stage itself, but not the presence of MPC.
Thermal electron periodicities at 20RS in Saturn's magnetosphere

Cassini fields and particles observations show clear evidence of periodic phenomena in Saturn's magnetosphere. Periodicities have been observed in kilometric radio emissions, total electron density (in the inner magnetosphere), magnetic fields, and energetic particles (in the outer magnetosphere). In this letter the first analysis of periodicities in thermal electron densities in Saturn's outer magnetosphere are presented. Plasma sheet electron densities and temperatures at 20 ± 2 RS in Saturn's magnetosphere are studied and examined as a function of SLS3 longitude. Evidence for a density minimum at 170° is presented which is in excellent agreement with total electron density results in the 3–5 RS range. The density asymmetry is interpreted as the result of a periodic plasma sheet motion where the northward offset of the plasma sheet varies with longitude hence producing a density modulation in the equatorial plane. The effect of magnetospheric compressions on the dayside density asymmetry are discussed.
Both fasting glucose production and disappearance are abnormal in people with "mild" and "severe" type 2 diabetes.

To determine whether regulation of fasting endogenous glucose production (EGP) and glucose disappearance (R(d)) are both abnormal in people with type 2 diabetes, EGP and R(d) were measured in 7 "severe" (SD), 9 "mild" (MD), and 12 nondiabetic (ND) subjects (12.7 +/- 0.6 vs. 8.1 +/- 0.4 vs. 5.1 +/- 0.4 mmol/l) after an overnight fast and during a hyperglycemic pancreatic clamp. Fasting insulin was higher in both the SD and MD than ND subjects, whereas fasting glucagon only was increased (P < 0.05) in SD. Fasting EGP, glycogenolysis, gluconeogenesis, and R(d) all were increased (P < 0.05) in SD but did not differ in MD or ND. On the other hand, when glucose ( approximately 11 mmol/l), insulin ( approximately 72 pmol/l), and glucagon ( approximately 140 pg/ml) concentrations were raised to values similar to those observed in the severe diabetic subjects, EGP was higher (P < 0.001) and R(d) lower (P < 0.01) in both SD and MD than in ND. The higher EGP in the SD and MD than ND during the clamp was the result of increased (P < 0.05) rates of glycogenolysis (4.2 +/- 1.7 vs. 3.5 +/- 1.0 vs. 0.0 +/- 0.8 micromol.kg(-1). min(-1)), since gluconeogenesis did not differ among groups. We conclude that neither glucose production nor disappearance is appropriate for the prevailing glucose and insulin concentrations in people with mild or severe diabetes. Both increased rates of gluconeogenesis (likely because of higher glucagon concentrations) and lack of suppression of glycogenolysis contribute to excessive glucose production in type 2 diabetics.
The Influence of Trust and Affective Organizational Commitment on Intent to Leave

The Influence of Trust and Affective Organizational Commitment on Intent to Leave by Melvin Sinclair, Jr. MEd (Industrial Education), Clemson University, 1988 BS (Banking and Finance), University of South Carolina, 1970 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration Walden University March 2013
Numerical investigation of limit cycles to a non-Hamiltonian perturbed integrable system

According to the detection functions and qualitative analysis, we investigated the limit cycle bifurcations in a non-Hamiltonian perturbed integrable system. By numerical simulations, the distributed orderliness of the 4 limit cycles is observed, and their exact places are determined. The investigation also indicates that each of the 4 limit cycles passes the corresponding exact point.
Semantic Visualization with Neighborhood Graph Regularization

Visualization of high-dimensional data, such as text documents, is useful to map out the similarities among various data points. In the high-dimensional space, documents are commonly represented as bags of words, with dimensionality equal to the vocabulary size. Classical approaches to document visualization directly reduce this into visualizable two or three dimensions. Recent approaches consider an intermediate representation in topic space, between word space and visualization space, which preserves the semantics by topic modeling. While aiming for a good fit between the model parameters and the observed data, previous approaches have not considered the local consistency among data instances. We consider the problem of semantic visualization by jointly modeling topics and visualization on the intrinsic document manifold, modeled using a neighborhood graph. Each document has both a topic distribution and visualization coordinate. Specifically, we propose an unsupervised probabilistic model, called Semafore, which aims to preserve the manifold in the lower-dimensional spaces through a neighborhood regularization framework designed for the semantic visualization task. To validate the efficacy of SEMAFORE, our comprehensive experiments on a number of real-life text datasets of news articles and Web pages show that the proposed methods outperform the state-of-the-art baselines on objective evaluation metrics.
Evaluation of Orange Peel Citrus Sinensis (L) As a Source of Repellent, Toxicant and Protectant against Zabrotes Subfasciatus (Coleoptera: Bruchidae)

Continued application of synthetic insecticides arise development of resistance and pollution of the environment. Laboratory experiments were conducted to test the efficacy of products of orange ( Citrus sinensis ) peels in the control of the stored products beetle Zabrotes subfasciatus (L) in stored haricot beans (latin name). Different levels of the extracts and essential oil of Citrus sinensis was tested. Conventional synthetic insecticide, Pirimiphos-methyl, was used as a standard check. Toxicity potential of different extracts of C. sinensis was tested against Z. subfasciatus . Extracts prepared using different solvents against the beetles were not toxic. However, essential oils at highest rate of 750mg applied at 3ml per filter paper gave 100 % mortality after 24 h. Beans treated with 15g of sun dried powder of orange peel and 750mg of essential oil killed 65% and 67% of Z. subfaciatus after 96 hours respectively. Powders from ground peels caused significant reduction in progeny emergence of Z. subfasciatus (P Z. subfasciatus . The essential oil of orange peel had a high level of toxicity in the fumigation bioassay against Z. subfasiatus . Key words: Citrus sinensis , essential oil, Zabrotes subfasciatus , Pirimiphos-methyl, Percent weight loss, Damage assessment.
DTN routing strategies using optimal search patterns

Biologists have long shown that the mobility patterns of many foraging animals and insects are similar to Levy walks and Levy walks are an optimal search strategy when target objects (i.e., food sources) are sparse and their locations are not known in advance. In this paper, we apply Levy walk patterns to routing in delay tolerant networks (DTN). In DTNs, message forwarding nodes often do not have full information about the whereabout of message destinations. Using the optimality property of Levy walks, we devise two styles of routing strategies. One is an active strategy using message ferries (MF) where the movement of MFs can be controlled to have a Levy walk pattern in order for them to maximize the opportunity of meeting the destinations and the other is a passive strategy in which the movement of nodes cannot be controlled, but messages are forwarded in such a manner that their forwarding patterns mimic the Levy walk patterns. We show through simulation that (1) both strategies are very effective when knowledge about destinations (i.e., contact history, trajectory or locations of destinations) is highly limited and (2) they complement existing utility-based routing which excels when such knowledge is available.
Transactional and transformational leadership

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine three different structural models the Leadership Challenge model to determine if they best capture transactional or transformational leadership. The three models are derived from the literature. Design/methodology/approach – The data for this study come from self-report surveys of middle managers that are attending the Administrative Officers Course at the Southern Police Institute. The managers completed the 30-item 360° leadership challenge measure. Because the leadership challenge measure is a 360° evaluation of leadership, up to five observers provided data about their manager. The authors use the data from the observer in this study. Using structural equation modeling, the authors examine the aims. Findings – The findings show two important advances. First, the leadership challenge model may capture both transformational and transactional leadership. Second, the findings support the view that the really captures transformational leadership. Originalit.
DOTA-Functionalized Polylysine: A High Number of DOTA Chelates Positively Influences the Biodistribution of Enzymatic Conjugated Anti-Tumor Antibody chCE7agl

Site-specific enzymatic reactions with microbial transglutaminase (mTGase) lead to a homogenous species of immunoconjugates with a defined ligand/antibody ratio. In the present study, we have investigated the influence of different numbers of 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-N-N′-N′′-N′′′-tetraacetic acid (DOTA) chelats coupled to a decalysine backbone on the in vivo behavior of the chimeric monoclonal anti-L1CAM antibody chCE7agl. The enzymatic conjugation of (DOTA)1-decalysine, (DOTA)3-decalysine or (DOTA)5-decalysine to the antibody heavy chain (via Gln295/297) gave rise to immunoconjugates containing two, six or ten DOTA moieties respectively. Radiolabeling of the immunoconjugates with 177Lu yielded specific activities of approximately 70 MBq/mg, 400 MBq/mg and 700 MBq/mg with increasing numbers of DOTA chelates. Biodistribution experiments in SKOV3ip human ovarian cancer cell xenografts demonstrated a high and specific accumulation of radioactivity at the tumor site for all antibody derivatives with a maximal tumor accumulation of 43.6±4.3% ID/g at 24 h for chCE7agl-[(DOTA)-decalysine]2, 30.6±12.0% ID/g at 24 h for chCE7agl-[(DOTA)3-decalysine]2 and 49.9±3.1% ID/g at 48 h for chCE7agl-[(DOTA)5-decalysine)]2. The rapid elimination from the blood of chCE7agl-[(DOTA)-decalysine]2 (1.0±0.1% ID/g at 24 h) is associated with a high liver accumulation (23.2±4.6% ID/g at 24 h). This behavior changed depending on the numbers of DOTA moieties coupled to the decalysine peptide with a slower blood clearance (5.1±1.0 (DOTA)3 versus 11.7±1.4% ID/g (DOTA)5, p<0.005 at 24 h) and lower radioactivity levels in the liver (21.4±3.4 (DOTA)3 versus 5.8±0.7 (DOTA)5, p<0.005 at 24 h). We conclude that the site-specific and stoichiometric uniform conjugation of the highly DOTA-substituted decalysine ((DOTA)5-decalysine) to an anti-tumor antibody leads to the formation of immunoconjugates with high specific activity and excellent in vivo behavior and is a valuable option for radioimmunotherapy and potentially antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).
Stimulation of Platelet Nitric Oxide Production by Nebivolol Prevents Thrombosis

Objective—DL-Nebivolol, a selective &bgr;1-adrenergic receptor antagonist, besides its hypotensive activity exerts vasodilatory and platelet inhibitory effects in vitro by a mechanism involving nitric oxide (NO). Our aim was to evaluate whether nebivolol exerts in vivo antithrombotic effects, to unravel the mechanism of this action and to clarify the relative roles of its 2 enantiomers: D- and L-nebivolol. Methods and Results—In wild-type mice, DL-nebivolol, L-nebivolol, and D-nebivolol, but not bisoprolol, reduced mortality consequent to platelet pulmonary thromboembolism induced by the intravenous injection of collagen plus epinephrine (−44%, −45%, −29%, respectively; P<0.05), whereas in eNOS−/− mice only DL-nebivolol and D-nebivolol were effective. DL-Nebivolol, L- and D-nebivolol reduced photochemical damage-induced femoral artery thrombosis in wild-type mice, whereas in eNOS−/− mice only DL-nebivolol and D-nebivolol were active. Moreover, DL-nebivolol and L-nebivolol increased plasma, urinary-, and platelet-derived nitrites and nitrates (NOx), NO degradation products, in wild-type but not in eNOS−/− mice. In vivo platelet activation, assessed by platelet P-selectin expression, was reduced by DL-nebivolol and L- and D-nebivolol in wild-type mice but only by DL-nebivolol and D-nebivolol in eNOS−/− mice. In bone marrow–transplanted, chimeric mice with only blood cells, and not the endothelium, producing NO DL-nebivolol and L-nebivolol maintained their antithrombotic activity, whereas they lose it in chimeras with only endothelium, and not blood cells, producing NO. In vitro, with isolated platelets, DL-nebivolol and L-nebivolol, but not D-nebivolol and bisoprolol, increased platelet cGMP and NOx formation. Treatment with DL-nebivolol and L-nebivolol increased phophorylated eNOS in platelets. Conclusions—Our data show that DL-nebivolol exerts an antithrombotic activity by stimulating the formation of NO by platelets, and that this effect is generated by its L-enantiomer, whereas the D-enantiomer exerts a weak antiplatelet effect because of &bgr;−adrenergic receptor–independent stimulation of adenyly cyclase. These results confirm that platelet-derived NO plays a role in thrombosis prevention and it may represent a target of pharmacological intervention.
Localized and delocalized plasmons in metallic nanovoids

Nanostructured metal films comprised of periodically arranged spherical voids are grown by electrochemical deposition through a self-assembled template. Detailed measurements of the angle- and orientation-dependent reflectivity for different sample geometries reveal the spectral dispersion of several different types of surface plasmon modes. The dependence of the energies of both delocalized Bragg and localized Mie plasmons on the void goemetry is presented, along with theoretical models to explain some of these experimental findings. Strong interactions between the different plasmon modes as well as other mixing processes are identified. Understanding such plasmonic crystals allows for the engineering of devices tailored for a wide range of sensing application.
Circuit models for predicting core losses in the stator and rotor of a caged induction machine with sinusoidal supplies

This paper proposes parameterized models to calculate core losses in the stator and rotor of a caged induction machine. The parameters are identified from results of finite element simulations, using a differential evolution search algorithm. To account for flux distribution and frequency characteristics, it is found that variable hysteresis flux power coefficients are independently required for both the stator and rotor. In addition, a rotor core loss coefficient is necessary.
Gain- and Loss-Related Brain Activation Are Associated with Information Search Differences in Risky Gambles: An fMRI and Eye-Tracking Study

Abstract People differ in the way they approach and handle choices with unsure outcomes. In this study, we demonstrate that individual differences in the neural processing of gains and losses relates to attentional differences in the way individuals search for information in gambles. Fifty subjects participated in two independent experiments. Participants first completed an fMRI experiment involving financial gains and losses. Subsequently, they performed an eye-tracking experiment on binary choices between risky gambles, each displaying monetary outcomes and their respective probabilities. We find that individual differences in gain and loss processing relate to attention distribution. Individuals with a stronger reaction to gains in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex paid more attention to monetary amounts, while a stronger reaction in the ventral striatum to losses was correlated with an increased attention to probabilities. Reaction in the posterior cingulate cortex to losses was also found to correlate with an increased attention to probabilities. Our data show that individual differences in brain activity and differences in information search processes are closely linked.
Structural damage detection by integrating independent component analysis and support vector machine

Structural damage detection in an early stage is very important for reducing catastrophic failures and prolonging the service life of structures. In this article, a novel approach that integrates independent component analysis (ICA) and support vector machines (SVMs) is presented. The procedure involves extracting independent components from measured sensor data through ICA, and then using these components as input data for an SVM classifier. The experiment presented employs benchmark data from University of British Columbia in order to examine the effectiveness of the method. Results show that the accuracy of damage detection using the proposed method is significantly better than that of the approach by integrating ICA and artificial neural network. Furthermore, the prediction output can be used to identify different types and levels of structure damages.
Analysis of Genomic Integrity and p53-Dependent G1Checkpoint in Telomerase-Induced Extended-Life-Span Human Fibroblasts

ABSTRACT Life span determination in normal human cells may be regulated by nucleoprotein structures called telomeres, the physical ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. Telomeres have been shown to be essential for chromosome stability and function and to shorten with each cell division in normal human cells in culture and with age in vivo. Reversal of telomere shortening by the forced expression of telomerase in normal cells has been shown to elongate telomeres and extend the replicative life span (H. Vaziri and S. Benchimol, Curr. Biol. 8:279–282, 1998; A. G. Bodnar et al., Science 279:349–352, 1998). Extension of the life span as a consequence of the functional inactivation of p53 is frequently associated with loss of genomic stability. Analysis of telomerase-induced extended-life-span fibroblast (TIELF) cells by G banding and spectral karyotyping indicated that forced extension of the life span by telomerase led to the transient formation of aberrant structures, which were subsequently resolved in higher passages. However, the p53-dependent G1 checkpoint was intact as assessed by functional activation of p53 protein in response to ionizing radiation and subsequent p53-mediated induction of p21Waf1/Cip1/Sdi1. TIELF cells were not tumorigenic and had a normal DNA strand break rejoining activity and normal radiosensitivity in response to ionizing radiation.
Effect of human immunodeficiency virus Type 1 (HIV-1) subtype on disease progression in persons from Rakai, Uganda, with incident HIV-1 infection.

BACKGROUND Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) subtypes differ in biological characteristics that may affect pathogenicity. METHODS We determined the HIV-1 subtype-specific rates of disease progression among 350 HIV-1 seroconverters. Subtype, viral load, and CD4(+) cell count were determined. Cox proportional hazards regression modeling was used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of progression to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) (defined as a CD4(+) cell count of < or =250 cells/mm(3)) and to AIDS-associated death. RESULTS A total of 59.1% of study subjects had subtype D strains, 15.1% had subtype A, 21.1% had intersubtype recombinant subtypes, 4.3% had multiple subtypes, and 0.3% had subtype C. Of the 350 subjects, 129 (37%) progressed to AIDS, and 68 (19.5%) died of AIDS. The median time to AIDS onset was shorter for persons with subtype D (6.5 years), recombinant subtypes (5.6 years), or multiple subtypes (5.8 years), compared with persons with subtype A (8.0 years; P = .022). Relative to subtype A, adjusted HRs of progression to AIDS were 2.13 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 1.10-4.11] for subtype D, 2.16 [95% CI, 1.05-4.45] for recombinant subtypes, and 4.40 [95% CI, 1.71-11.3] for multiple subtypes. The risk of progression to death was significantly higher for subtype D (adjusted HR, 5.65; 95% CI, 1.37-23.4), recombinant subtypes (adjusted HR, 6.70; 95% CI, 1.56-28.8), and multiple subtypes (adjusted HR, 7.67; 95% CI, 1.27-46.3), compared with subtype A. CONCLUSIONS HIV disease progression is affected by HIV-1 subtype. This finding may impact decisions on when to initiate antiretroviral therapy and may have implications for future trials of HIV-1 vaccines aimed at slowing disease progression.