Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning to place new objects in a scene

Placing is a necessary skill for a personal robot to have in order to perform tasks such as arranging objects in a disorganized room. The object placements should not only be stable but also be in their semantically preferred placing areas and orientations. This is challenging because an environment can have a large variety of objects and placing areas that may not have been seen by the robot before. In this paper, we propose a learning approach for placing multiple objects in different placing areas in a scene. Given point-clouds of the objects and the scene, we design appropriate features and use a graphical model to encode various properties, such as the stacking of objects, stability, object–area relationship and common placing constraints. The inference in our model is an integer linear program, which we solve efficiently via an linear programming relaxation. We extensively evaluate our approach on 98 objects from 16 categories being placed into 40 areas. Our robotic experiments show a success rate of 98% in placing known objects and 82% in placing new objects stably. We use our method on our robots for performing tasks such as loading several dish-racks, a bookshelf and a fridge with multiple items.
Piroxicam and NS‐398 rescue neurones from hypoxia/reoxygenation damage by a mechanism independent of cyclo‐oxygenase inhibition

We studied whether NS‐398, a selective cyclo‐oxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) enzyme inhibitor, and piroxicam, an inhibitor of COX‐2 and the constitutively expressed COX‐1, protect neurones against hypoxia/reoxygenation injury. Rat spinal cord cultures were exposed to hypoxia for 20 h followed by reoxygenation. Hypoxia/reoxygenation increased lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, which was inhibited by piroxicam (180–270 µm) and NS‐398 (30 µm). Cell counts confirmed the neuroprotection. Western blotting revealed no COX‐1 or COX‐2 proteins even after hypoxia/reoxygenation. Production of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), a marker of COX activity, was barely measurable and piroxicam and NS‐398 had no effect on the negligible PGE2 production. Hypoxia/reoxygenation increased nuclear factor‐kappa B (NF‐κB) binding activity, which was inhibited by piroxicam but not by NS‐398. AP‐1 binding activity after hypoxia/reoxygenation was inhibited by piroxicam but strongly enhanced by NS‐398. However, both COX inhibitors induced activation of extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK) in neurones and phosphorylation of heavy molecular weight neurofilaments, cytoskeletal substrates of ERK. It is concluded that piroxicam and NS‐398 protect neurones against hypoxia/reperfusion. The protection is independent of COX activity and not solely explained by modulation of NF‐κB and AP‐1 binding activity. Instead, piroxicam and NS‐398‐induced phosphorylation through ERK pathway may contribute to the increased neuronal survival.
Biomimetic application of desert ant visual navigation for mobile robot docking with weighted landmarks

Previous work has shown that honeybees use a snapshot model to determine a local vector to find their way home. A simpler, average landmark vector model has since been proposed for biologically-inspired mobile robot homing. Previously, the authors have extended the model to address the problem of docking a unicycle-like vehicle smoothly using bearing-only information and without reconstructing the pose of the vehicle (Wei et al., 2003, 2004). Here, we extend further to consider weighted landmarks, allowing greater control over the shape of the trajectory that the robot will follow. This approach permits docking from a wider range of initial poses, while respecting the kinematic constraints of the robot. The proposed control method has been implemented on the Nomadic Technologies XR4000 robot at ANU using visual landmarks. Experimental results are presented which demonstrate the desired docking behaviour from a broad range of initial conditions.
Analysts ’ Responsiveness and Market Underreaction to Earnings Announcements

This study shows that analysts vary significantly in their responsiveness to earnings announcements, where responsiveness is defined as promptness of analysts’ first forecast revisions for the next quarter since the prior quarterly earnings announcements. Further evidence indicates that analysts’ responsiveness improves the efficiency of their expectations of future earnings immediately after the earnings announcements, which in turn mitigates the magnitude of the post-earnings-announcement drift. The results provide direct support for the “delayed response” hypothesis that prior research proposes to explain market underreactions.
Basic Residues in Hypervariable Region 1 of Hepatitis C Virus Envelope Glycoprotein E2 Contribute to Virus Entry

ABSTRACT The N terminus of hepatitis C virus (HCV) envelope glycoprotein E2 contains a hypervariable region (HVR1) which has been proposed to play a role in viral entry. Despite strong amino acid variability, HVR1 is globally basic, with basic residues located at specific sequence positions. Here we show by analyzing a large number of HVR1 sequences that the frequency of basic residues at each position is genotype dependent. We also used retroviral pseudotyped particles (HCVpp) harboring genotype 1a envelope glycoproteins to study the role of HVR1 basic residues in entry. Interestingly, HCVpp infectivity globally increased with the number of basic residues in HVR1. However, a shift in position of some charged residues also modulated HCVpp infectivity. In the absence of basic residues, infectivity was reduced to the same level as that of a mutant deleted of HVR1. We also analyzed the effect of these mutations on interactions with some potential HCV receptors. Recognition of CD81 was not affected by changes in the number of charged residues, and we did not find a role for heparan sulfates in HCVpp entry. The involvement of the scavenger receptor class B type I (SR-BI) was indirectly analyzed by measuring the enhancement of infectivity of the mutants in the presence of the natural ligand of SR-BI, high-density lipoproteins (HDL). However, no correlation between the number of basic residues within HVR1 and HDL enhancement effect was observed. Despite the lack of evidence of the involvement of known potential receptors, our results demonstrate that the presence of basic residues in HVR1 facilitates virus entry.
A comparative study of the no scalpel and standard incision approaches to vasectomy in 5 countries. The Male Sterilization Investigator Team.

PURPOSE We compare the safety, ease of use and effectiveness of the no scalpel and standard incision approaches to vasectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS A multicenter, randomized, partially masked controlled trial was conducted at 8 sites in Brazil, Guatemala, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Semen samples were collected 10 weeks postoperatively and tested to ascertain sterility using verification of no living spermatozoa. RESULTS The study included 1,429 men seeking vasectomy. The efficacy of the 2 approaches was virtually identical. In the no scalpel group operating time was significantly shorter, and complications and pain were less frequent than in the standard incision group. The no scalpel group resumed intercourse sooner, probably as a result of less pain following the procedure. CONCLUSIONS The no scalpel approach is an important advance in the surgical approach to vasectomy, and offers fewer side effects and greater comfort compared to the standard incision technique, without compromising efficacy.
Effectiveness of Methadone Maintenance Treatment in Prevention of Hepatitis C Virus Transmission among Injecting Drug Users

Background Injecting drug users (IDUs) are a major and most important risk factor for rising hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence in Iran. Objectives The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) in prevention of HCV infection transmission among IDUs. Patients and Methods A mathematical modeling has been used to estimate number of HCV infections averted. The input parameters used in the model were collected by self-reported method from 259 IDUs before registering and one year after MMT. Nonparametric statistical tests have been used to compare risky injecting and sexual behaviors among IDUs before and after participating in MMT program. Deterministic sensitivity analyses were done to show the effects of parameters’ uncertainty on outcome. Results Of the 259 participants, 98.4% (255) were men, the mean age ± SD was 33.1 ± 7.58 years and HCV prevalence was 50%. The studied IDUs reported lower rate of risky injecting and sexual behavior after participation in MMT program. The cumulative incidence of HCV per 100 IDUs due to sharing injection and unsafe sexual contact with MMT program were 13.84 (95% CI: 6.17 -21.51), 0.0003 (0.0001 - 0.0005) and without it 36.48 (25.84 - 47.11) and 0.0004 (0.0002-0.0006) respectively. Conclusions The MMT program is an effective intervention to prevent HCV infection transmission, although it is essential to compare its effectiveness with other interventions before implementing it in nationwide.
Leptin in human acute myelogenous leukemia: studies of in vivo levels and in vitro effects on native functional leukemia blasts.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Leptin receptors can be expressed by acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) cells, but the functional effects of leptin on native AML blasts have not been characterized in detail. We investigated systemic leptin levels in AML patients and in vitro effects of leptin on cultured AML blasts. DESIGN AND METHODS Serum leptin levels were compared for patients with untreated AML and healthy controls. Native AML blasts were derived from a large group of consecutive patients, and effects of leptin on proliferation (suspension cultures and colony formation), constitutive cytokine secretion, differentiation and apoptosis regulation were assayed in vitro. RESULTS Systemic leptin levels were decreased in patients with untreated AML, and leptin levels in acute leukemia patients were not altered during severe chemotherapy-induced cytopenia and complicating febrile neutropenia. In vitro studies demonstrated that leptin increased AML blast release of interleukin (IL) 1beta, IL6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). This enhancing effect showed no correlation with CD34 expression and was not dependent on the presence of serum, induction of differentiation or alteration of caspase 3 activity with decreased in vitro apoptosis. Leptin also increased spontaneous AML blast proliferation, whereas divergent effects on blast proliferation were observed in the presence of exogenous cytokines. The in vitro effects were usually observed at concentrations exceeding the systemic levels. INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that systemic leptin levels alone do not have a major influence on native AML blasts, but the systemic levels in combination with local leptin release in the bone marrow may affect the functional characteristics of these cells.
A robust statistical method for determining material properties and indentation size effect using instrumented indentation testing

L'indentation instrumentee est un outil pratique et puissant pour sonder les proprietes mecaniques des materiaux a petite echelle. Cependant, plusieurs erreurs (rugosite de surface, effet de taille d’indentation, la determination de premier point de contact, etc.) affectent l'essai d’indentation instrumentee (e.g. non reproductibilite de la courbe d’indentation) et conduisent a des imprecisions dans la determination des proprietes mecaniques des materiaux analyses. Une approche originale est developpee dans cette these pour la caracterisation precise des proprietes mecaniques des materiaux. Cette approche fondee sur une analyse statistique des courbes d’indentation avec la prise en compte d’erreur dans la determination du premier point de contact et des effets de la rugosite de surface. L’approche est basee sur une minimisation de la distance (defini comme l'erreur de la profondeur de contact initiale) entre l’ensemble des courbes experimentales et celles simulees par le modele de Bernhard de maniere a generer une courbe maitresse « unique » representative du faisceau de courbes experimentales. La methode proposee permet de calculer a partir de cette courbe maitresse la macro-durete et le module d’Young du materiau en tenant compte des erreurs dues a la rugosite de surface et a l'effet de taille en indentation pour les faibles profondeurs de penetration. La robustesse de la methode est prouvee par son application a differents groupes d’echantillons, i.e. panels de materiaux a proprietes mecaniques diverses, differents traitements de surface (polissage, sablage) et differentes pointes d’indentation permettant de generer differents etats de contraintes locaux. Une liaison quantitative entre la rugosite de surface et l'ecart type de l'erreur de la profondeur de contact initiale est etablie grâce a une analyse multi- echelle de la rugosite de la surface. La methode proposee permet de caracteriser les proprietes mecaniques des materiaux sans avoir recours a la preparation de surface pouvant potentiellement alterer ses proprietes (e.g. generation de contraintes residuelles, contamination de surface…).
Processing wh-dependencies in a second language: a cross-modal priming study

This study investigates the real-time processing of wh-dependencies by advanced Greek-speaking learners of English using a cross-modal picture priming task. Participants were asked to respond to different types of picture target presented either at structurally defined gap positions, or at pre-gap control positions, while listening to sentences containing indirect-object relative clauses. Our results indicate that the learners processed the experimental sentences differently from both adult native speakers of English and monolingual English-speaking children. Contrary to what has been found for native speakers, the learners' response pattern was not influenced by individual working memory differences. Adult second language learners differed from native speakers with a relatively high reading or listening span in that they did not show any evidence of structurally based antecedent reactivation at the point of the indirect object gap. They also differed from low-span native speakers, however, in that they showed evidence of maintained antecedent activation during the processing of the experimental sentences. Whereas the localized priming effect observed in the high-span controls is indicative of trace-based antecedent reactivation in native sentence processing, the results from the Greek-speaking learners support the hypothesis that the mental representations built during non-native language processing lack abstract linguistic structure such as movement traces.
Anaphase-Promoting Complex/Cyclosome–Dependent Proteolysis of Human Cyclin a Starts at the Beginning of Mitosis and Is Not Subject to the Spindle Assembly Checkpoint

Cyclin A is a stable protein in S and G2 phases, but is destabilized when cells enter mitosis and is almost completely degraded before the metaphase to anaphase transition. Microinjection of antibodies against subunits of the anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) or against human Cdc20 (fizzy) arrested cells at metaphase and stabilized both cyclins A and B1. Cyclin A was efficiently polyubiquitylated by Cdc20 or Cdh1-activated APC/C in vitro, but in contrast to cyclin B1, the proteolysis of cyclin A was not delayed by the spindle assembly checkpoint. The degradation of cyclin B1 was accelerated by inhibition of the spindle assembly checkpoint. These data suggest that the APC/C is activated as cells enter mitosis and immediately targets cyclin A for degradation, whereas the spindle assembly checkpoint delays the degradation of cyclin B1 until the metaphase to anaphase transition. The “destruction box” (D-box) of cyclin A is 10–20 residues longer than that of cyclin B. Overexpression of wild-type cyclin A delayed the metaphase to anaphase transition, whereas expression of cyclin A mutants lacking a D-box arrested cells in anaphase.
Fast weak-KAM integrators for separable Hamiltonian systems

We consider a numerical scheme for Hamilton-Jacobi equations based on a direct discretization of the Lax-Oleinik semi-group. We prove that this method is convergent with respect to the time and space stepsizes provided the solution is Lipschitz, and give an error estimate. Moreover, we prove that the numerical scheme is a {\em geometric integrator} satisfying a discrete weak-KAM theorem which allows to control its long time behavior. Taking advantage of a fast algorithm for computing min-plus convolutions based on the decomposition of the function into concave and convex parts, we show that the numerical scheme can be implemented in a very efficient way.
We feel, therefore we learn: The relevance of affective and social neuroscience to education.

Recent advances in neuroscience are highlighting connections between emotion, social functioning, and decision making that have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the role of affect in education. In particular, the neurobiological evidence suggests that the aspects of cognition that we recruit most heavily in schools, namely learning, attention, memory, decision making, and social functioning, are both profoundly affected by and subsumed within the processes of emotion; we call these aspects emotional thought. Moreover, the evidence from brain-damaged patients suggests the hypothesis that emotion-related processes are required for skills and knowledge to be transferred from the structured school environment to real-world decision making because they provide an emotional rudder to guide judgment and action. Taken together, the evidence we present sketches an account of the neurobiological underpinnings of morality, creativity, and culture, all topics of critical importance to education. Our hope is that a better understanding of the neurobiological relationships between these constructs will provide a new basis for innovation in the design of learning environments. Note: The lead author appears twice in this issue of LEARNing Landscapes: first in the reprint cited below, and next, in an accompanying follow-up article that features poetry from her daughter Nora Ming-Min Yang. Immordino-Yang, M.H. , & Damasio, A.R. (2007). We feel, therefore we learn: The relevance of affective and social neuroscience to education. Mind, Brain and Education, 1(1), 3–10. * Reprinted in Jossey-Bass Reader on the Brain and Learning (pp. 183–198). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Genetic analysis of metabolites in apple fruits indicates an mQTL hotspot for phenolic compounds on linkage group 16

Apple (Malus×domestica Borkh) is among the main sources of phenolic compounds in the human diet. The genetic basis of the quantitative variations of these potentially beneficial phenolic compounds was investigated. A segregating F1 population was used to map metabolite quantitative trait loci (mQTLs). Untargeted metabolic profiling of peel and flesh tissues of ripe fruits was performed using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS), resulting in the detection of 418 metabolites in peel and 254 in flesh. In mQTL mapping using MetaNetwork, 669 significant mQTLs were detected: 488 in the peel and 181 in the flesh. Four linkage groups (LGs), LG1, LG8, LG13, and LG16, were found to contain mQTL hotspots, mainly regulating metabolites that belong to the phenylpropanoid pathway. The genetics of annotated metabolites was studied in more detail using MapQTL®. A number of quercetin conjugates had mQTLs on LG1 or LG13. The most important mQTL hotspot with the largest number of metabolites was detected on LG16: mQTLs for 33 peel-related and 17 flesh-related phenolic compounds. Structural genes involved in the phenylpropanoid biosynthetic pathway were located, using the apple genome sequence. The structural gene leucoanthocyanidin reductase (LAR1) was in the mQTL hotspot on LG16, as were seven transcription factor genes. The authors believe that this is the first time that a QTL analysis was performed on such a high number of metabolites in an outbreeding plant species.
WSMO-MX: A hybrid Semantic Web service matchmaker

The WSMO-MX service matchmaker applies different matching filters to retrieve Semantic Web services written in a dialect of the prominent service description language WSML-Rule. For this purpose, WSMO-MX recursively computes logic-based and syntactic similarity-based matching degrees and returns a ranked set of services that are semantically relevant to a given query. The matching filters perform ontology-based type matching, logical constraint matching, and syntactic matching. In this paper, we present the service description language WSML-MX, the hybrid matchmaker WSMO-MX for WSML services converted to WSML-MX, and the results of our experimental evaluation of its performance in terms of recall and precision over the test collection WSML-TC2.
Guidelines on the diagnosis and management of solitary plasmacytoma of bone and solitary extramedullary plasmacytoma

Most patients with plasma cell neoplasia have generalized disease at diagnosis, i.e. multiple myeloma (MM). However, a minority (<5%) of patients with plasma cell malignancies present with either a single bone lesion, or less commonly, a soft tissue mass, of monoclonal plasma cells: solitary bone plasmacytoma (SBP) or extramedullary plasmacytoma (SEP). SBP has a high risk of progression to MM and on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination at least 25% of patients with an apparent solitary lesion have evidence of disease elsewhere (Moulopoulos et al, 1993). In contrast, SEP is nearly always truly localized and has a high cure rate with local treatment. The diagnosis and management of patients with solitary plasmacytoma requires the same range of clinical and laboratory expertise as for patients with MM (UK Myeloma Forum, 2001). The primary treatment for most patients will be radiotherapy, but surgery may also be required, where close liaison among the haematologist, radiotherapist and surgeon is crucial for planning optimum care. Methods A literature search was performed by a professional librarian using MEDLINE and EMBASE from 1996 to March 2002. A search was made for randomized-controlled trials involving plasmacytoma, papers where plasmacytoma was the major focus of the paper and reviews where plasmacytoma was the major focus. The literature was then reviewed by the subgroup of the Guidelines Working Group of the UK Myeloma Forum. Levels of evidence and grades of recommendation are shown in Table I. SBP and SEP are rare diseases and most of the evidence relates to retrospective data from patient series collected over long periods of time. Very few formal clinical trials have been performed. The majority of the recommendations given are therefore based on consensus of expert
Predicting Fault-Prone Modules Using the Length of Identifiers

Identifiers such as variable names and function names in source code are essential information to understand code. The naming for identifiers affects on code understandability, thus, we expect that they affect on software quality. In this study, we examine the relationship between the length of identifiers and existence of software faults in a software module. The results of experiment using the random forest technique show that there is a positive relationship between the length of identifier and existence of software faults.