Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Indoor-Outdoor Detection Using a Smart Phone Sensor

In the era of mobile internet, Location Based Services (LBS) have developed dramatically. Seamless Indoor and Outdoor Navigation and Localization (SNAL) has attracted a lot of attention. No single positioning technology was capable of meeting the various positioning requirements in different environments. Selecting different positioning techniques for different environments is an alternative method. Detecting the users’ current environment is crucial for this technique. In this paper, we proposed to detect the indoor/outdoor environment automatically without high energy consumption. The basic idea was simple: we applied a machine learning algorithm to classify the neighboring Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication cellular base station’s signal strength in different environments, and identified the users’ current context by signal pattern recognition. We tested the algorithm in four different environments. The results showed that the proposed algorithm was capable of identifying open outdoors, semi-outdoors, light indoors and deep indoors environments with 100% accuracy using the signal strength of four nearby GSM stations. The required hardware and signal are widely available in our daily lives, implying its high compatibility and availability.
Freezing in sealed capillaries for preparation of frozen hydrated sections

We have investigated the freezing of specimens in a confined volume for preparation of vitreous samples for cryosectioning. With 15% dextran as a cryoprotectant, a sample sealed in a copper tube begins to freeze into crystalline ice when plunged into liquid ethane. Crystallization rapidly causes an increase in the pressure to the point that much of the sample freezes in a vitreous state. We used synchrotron X‐ray diffraction of samples frozen with various amounts of dextran to characterize the ice phases and crystal orientation, providing insights on the freezing process. We have characterized cryosections obtained from these samples to explore the optimum amount of cryoprotectant. Images of cryosectioned bacteria frozen with various levels of cryoprotectant illustrate effects of cryoprotectant concentration.
Linking Behavioral and Neurophysiological Indicators of Perceptual Tuning to Language

Little is known about the neural mechanisms that underlie tuning to the native language(s) in early infancy. Here we review language tuning through the lens of type and amount of language experience and introduce a new manner in which to conceptualize the phenomenon of language tuning: the relative speed of tuning hypothesis. This hypothesis has as its goal a characterization of the unique time course of the tuning process, given the different components (e.g., phonology, prosody, syntax, semantics) of one or more languages as they become available to infants, and biologically based maturational constraints. In this review, we first examine the established behavioral findings and integrate more recent neurophysiological data on neonatal development, which together demonstrate evidence of early language tuning given differential language exposure even in utero. Next, we examine traditional accounts of sensitive and critical periods to determine how these constructs complement current data on the neural mechanisms underlying language tuning. We then synthesize the extant infant behavioral and neurophysiological data on monolingual, bilingual, and sensory deprived tuning, thereby scrutinizing the effect of these three different language profiles on the specific timing, progression, and outcome of language tuning. Finally, we discuss future directions researchers might pursue to further understand this aspect of language development, advocating our relative speed of tuning hypothesis as a useful framework for conceptualizing the complex process by which language experience works together with biological constraints to shape language development.
Dopaminergic Drugs Modulate Learning Rates and Perseveration in Parkinson's Patients in a Dynamic Foraging Task

Making appropriate choices often requires the ability to learn the value of available options from experience. Parkinson's disease is characterized by a loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra, neurons hypothesized to play a role in reinforcement learning. Although previous studies have shown that Parkinson's patients are impaired in tasks involving learning from feedback, they have not directly tested the widely held hypothesis that dopamine neuron activity specifically encodes the reward prediction error signal used in reinforcement learning models. To test a key prediction of this hypothesis, we fit choice behavior from a dynamic foraging task with reinforcement learning models and show that treatment with dopaminergic drugs alters choice behavior in a manner consistent with the theory. More specifically, we found that dopaminergic drugs selectively modulate learning from positive outcomes. We observed no effect of dopaminergic drugs on learning from negative outcomes. We also found a novel dopamine-dependent effect on decision making that is not accounted for by reinforcement learning models: perseveration in choice, independent of reward history, increases with Parkinson's disease and decreases with dopamine therapy.
Polar Flagellar Biosynthesis and a Regulator of Flagellar Number Influence Spatial Parameters of Cell Division in Campylobacter jejuni

Spatial and numerical regulation of flagellar biosynthesis results in different flagellation patterns specific for each bacterial species. Campylobacter jejuni produces amphitrichous (bipolar) flagella to result in a single flagellum at both poles. These flagella confer swimming motility and a distinctive darting motility necessary for infection of humans to cause diarrheal disease and animals to promote commensalism. In addition to flagellation, symmetrical cell division is spatially regulated so that the divisome forms near the cellular midpoint. We have identified an unprecedented system for spatially regulating cell division in C. jejuni composed by FlhG, a regulator of flagellar number in polar flagellates, and components of amphitrichous flagella. Similar to its role in other polarly-flagellated bacteria, we found that FlhG regulates flagellar biosynthesis to limit poles of C. jejuni to one flagellum. Furthermore, we discovered that FlhG negatively influences the ability of FtsZ to initiate cell division. Through analysis of specific flagellar mutants, we discovered that components of the motor and switch complex of amphitrichous flagella are required with FlhG to specifically inhibit division at poles. Without FlhG or specific motor and switch complex proteins, cell division occurs more often at polar regions to form minicells. Our findings suggest a new understanding for the biological requirement of the amphitrichous flagellation pattern in bacteria that extend beyond motility, virulence, and colonization. We propose that amphitrichous bacteria such as Campylobacter species advantageously exploit placement of flagella at both poles to spatially regulate an FlhG-dependent mechanism to inhibit polar cell division, thereby encouraging symmetrical cell division to generate the greatest number of viable offspring. Furthermore, we found that other polarly-flagellated bacteria produce FlhG proteins that influence cell division, suggesting that FlhG and polar flagella may function together in a broad range of bacteria to spatially regulate division.
Health status of otters (Lutra lutra) in south-west England based on postmortem findings

Seventy-seven wild otters found dead in south-west England between 1988 and 1996 were examined postmortem. Road traffic accidents were responsible for 64 of the deaths and there were marked seasonal peaks. Bite wounds were present in 12 animals and five were considered to have died from their injuries. The animals' general nutritional state was good, but the males were in overall poorer condition than the females. There was little evidence of infectious disease and the results suggested a young, generally healthy population. Adrenal hypertrophy was observed in males dying of bite wounds and in lactating or pregnant females. Convoluted, modular uteri were observed in three females.
Pharmacokinetics of Total and Unbound Prednisone and Prednisolone in Stable Kidney Transplant Recipients With Diabetes Mellitus

Background: The corticosteroid prednisone is an important component of posttransplantation immunosuppressive therapy. Pharmacokinetic parameters of prednisone or its pharmacologically active metabolite, prednisolone, are not well characterized in transplant recipients. The objective of this study was to compare the pharmacokinetics of total and unbound prednisone and prednisolone in diabetic and nondiabetic stable kidney transplant recipients and to evaluate the factors influencing plasma protein binding of prednisolone. Methods: Prednisone and prednisolone concentration–time profiles were obtained in 20 diabetic and 18 nondiabetic stable kidney transplant recipients receiving an oral dose of 5–10 mg prednisone per day. In addition to drug and metabolite exposures, factors influencing prednisolone protein binding were evaluated using a nonlinear mixed-effects modeling approach. This model takes into account the binding of prednisolone and cortisol to corticosteroid-binding globulin (CBG) in a saturable fashion and binding of prednisolone to albumin in a nonsaturable fashion. Finally, we have investigated the influence of several covariates including diabetes, glucose concentration, hemoglobin A1c, creatinine clearance, body mass index, gender, age, and time after transplantation on the affinity constant (K) between corticosteroids and their binding proteins. Results: In patients with diabetes, the values of dose-normalized area under the concentration–time curves were 27% and 23% higher for total and unbound prednisolone, respectively. Moreover, the ratio of total prednisolone to prednisone concentrations (active/inactive forms) was higher in diabetic subjects (P < 0.001). Modeling protein binding results revealed that the affinity constant of corticosteroid-binding globulin–prednisolone (KCBG,PL) was related to the patient's gender and diabetes status. Conclusions: Higher prednisolone exposure could potentially lead to the increased risk of corticosteroid-related complications in diabetic kidney transplant recipients.
Budesonide MMX for the Induction of Remission of Mild to Moderate Ulcerative Colitis: A Pooled Safety Analysis

Background and aims: Cumulative safety and tolerability of budesonide MMX, a once-daily oral corticosteroid for inducing mild to moderate ulcerative colitis remission, was examined. Methods: Data from three randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase II or III studies [budesonide MMX 9mg, 6mg, or 3mg for 8 weeks]; one phase II study [randomisation to budesonide MMX 9mg or placebo for 4 weeks, then open-label budesonide MMX 9mg for 4 weeks]; and one open-label study [budesonide MMX 9mg for 8 weeks] were pooled. Results: Patients randomised to budesonide MMX 9mg [n = 288], 6mg [n = 254], or placebo [n = 293] had similar rates of adverse events [AEs] [27.1%, 24.8%, and 23.9%, respectively] and serious AEs [2.4%, 2.0%, and 2.7%, respectively]; treatment-related AEs and serious AEs were reported by 11.8% and 13.5%, and 5.9% and 2.2%, respectively, of patients receiving budesonide MMX 3mg [n = 17] or open-label budesonide MMX 9mg [n = 89]. Mean morning plasma cortisol concentrations were normal from baseline to final visit across randomised groups; in patients receiving open-label budesonide, mean cortisol concentration was 129.9 nmol/l after 4 weeks, returning to normal concentrations at final visit. Budesonide MMX was not associated with an overall increased risk for glucocorticoid-related adverse effects. Conclusions: Budesonide MMX 9mg was associated with normal mean cortisol concentrations at final visit and an AE incidence comparable to placebo. Overall, budesonide MMX was safe and well tolerated for inducing remission of patients with mild to moderate ulcerative colitis.
Relationship between aerosol oxidation level and hygroscopic properties of laboratory generated secondary organic aerosol (SOA) particles

Laboratory experiments investigated the relationship between oxidation level and hygroscopic properties of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) particles generated via OH radical oxidation in an aerosol flow reactor. The hygroscopic growth factor at 90% RH (HGF90%), the CCN activity (κORG,CCN) and the level of oxidation (atomic O:C ratio) of the SOA particles were measured. Both HGF90% and κORG,CCN increased with O:C; the HGF90% varied linearly with O:C, while κORG,CCN mostly followed a nonlinear trend. An average HGF90% of 1.25 and κORG,CCN of 0.19 were measured for O:C of 0.65, in agreement with results reported for ambient data. The κORG values estimated from the HGF90% (κORG,HGF) were 20 to 50% lower than paired κORG,CCN values for all SOA particles except 1,3,5‐trimethylbenzene (TMB), the least hygroscopic of the SOA systems. Within the limitations of instrumental capabilities, we show that differences in hygroscopic behavior among the investigated SOA systems may correspond to differences in elemental composition.
Conditional Generative Moment-Matching Networks

Maximum mean discrepancy (MMD) has been successfully applied to learn deep generative models for characterizing a joint distribution of variables via kernel mean embedding. In this paper, we present conditional generative moment- matching networks (CGMMN), which learn a conditional distribution given some input variables based on a conditional maximum mean discrepancy (CMMD) criterion. The learning is performed by stochastic gradient descent with the gradient calculated by back-propagation. We evaluate CGMMN on a wide range of tasks, including predictive modeling, contextual generation, and Bayesian dark knowledge, which distills knowledge from a Bayesian model by learning a relatively small CGMMN student network. Our results demonstrate competitive performance in all the tasks.
Robotic Assistance by Impedance Compensation for Hand Movements While Manual Welding

In this paper, we present a robotic assistance scheme which allows for impedance compensation with stiffness, damping, and mass parameters for hand manipulation tasks and we apply it to manual welding. The impedance compensation does not assume a preprogrammed hand trajectory. Rather, the intention of the human for the hand movement is estimated in real time using a smooth Kalman filter. The movement is restricted by compensatory virtual impedance in the directions perpendicular to the estimated direction of movement. With airbrush painting experiments, we test three sets of values for the impedance parameters as inspired from impedance measurements with manual welding. We apply the best of the tested sets for assistance in manual welding and perform welding experiments with professional and novice welders. We contrast three conditions: 1) welding with the robot's assistance; 2) with the robot when the robot is passive; and 3) welding without the robot. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the assistance through quantitative measures of both task performance and perceived user's satisfaction. The performance of both the novice and professional welders improves significantly with robotic assistance compared to welding with a passive robot. The assessment of user satisfaction shows that all novice and most professional welders appreciate the robotic assistance as it suppresses the tremors in the directions perpendicular to the movement for welding.
Production and partitioning of organic matter during simulated phytoplankton blooms

Few studies have examined the partitioning of organic matter in upwelling systems, despite the fact that these systems play a key role in carbon and nitrogen budgets in the ocean. We examined the production and partitioning of phytoplankton‐derived organic matter in deck incubations off Oregon during the upwelling season. During exponential growth of the phytoplankton, ≥78% of total accumulated organic matter was in particulate (POM) form. This suggests that dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a small fraction of primary production during the exponential growth of coastal phytoplankton blooms. After nitrate depletion, carbon‐rich (C :N ≥ 16) DOM accumulated in incubations dominated by the diatom Chaetoceros sp. , accounting for 38% (±8.5%) of accumulated total organic carbon (TOC) and 24% (±8%) of accumulated total organic nitrogen (TON). However, in a bloom dominated by the diatom Leptocylindrus minimus, a relatively smaller amount of DOM accumulated, accounting for only 15% of accumulated TOC and 7% of accumulated TON. On the basis of measured concentrations of nitrate and accumulated TOC, ~70%–157% more carbon was fixed than would be predicted by Redfield stoichiometry (referred to as "excess carbon fixation"), with 20%–69% of the excess carbon fixation occurring after nitrate depletion. The accumulation of carbon‐rich DOM and excess carbon fixation suggests that nitrate assimilation (i.e., new production) might not equate to net production of POM in coastal upwelling systems.
MID-INFRARED PROPERTIES OF NEARBY LUMINOUS INFRARED GALAXIES. I. SPITZER INFRARED SPECTROGRAPH SPECTRA FOR THE GOALS SAMPLE

The Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey (GOALS) is a comprehensive, multiwavelength study of luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) in the local universe. Here we present low resolution Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph spectra covering 5–38 μm and provide a basic analysis of the mid-IR spectral properties observed for nearby LIRGs. In a companion paper, we discuss detailed fits to the spectra and compare the LIRGs to other classes of galaxies. The GOALS sample of 244 nuclei in 180 luminous (1011 ⩽ LIR/L☉ < 1012) and 22 ultraluminous (LIR/L☉ ⩾ 1012) IR galaxies represents a complete subset of the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample and covers a range of merger stages, morphologies, and spectral types. The majority (>60%) of the GOALS LIRGs have high 6.2 μm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) equivalent widths (EQW6.2 μm > 0.4 μm) and low levels of silicate absorption (s9.7 μm > −1.0). There is a general trend among the U/LIRGs for both silicate depth and mid-infrared (MIR) slope to increase with increasing LIR. U/LIRGs in the late to final stages of a merger also have, on average, steeper MIR slopes and higher levels of dust obscuration. Together, these trends suggest that as gas and dust is funneled toward the center of a coalescing merger, the nuclei become more compact and more obscured. As a result, the dust temperature increases also leading to a steeper MIR slope. The sources that depart from these correlations have very low PAH equivalent width (EQW6.2 μm < 0.1 μm) consistent with their emission being dominated by an active galactic nucleus (AGN) in the MIR. These extremely low PAH EQW sources separate into two distinct types: relatively unobscured sources with a very hot dust component (and thus very shallow MIR slopes) and heavily dust obscured nuclei with a steep temperature gradient. The most heavily dust obscured sources are also the most compact in their MIR emission, suggesting that the obscuring (cool) dust is associated with the outer regions of the starburst and not simply a measure of the dust along the line of sight through a large, dusty disk. A marked decline is seen for the fraction of high EQW (star formation dominated) sources as the merger progresses. The decline is accompanied by an increase in the fraction of composite sources while the fraction of sources where an AGN dominates the MIR emission remains low. When compared to the MIR spectra of submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) at z ∼ 2, both the average GOALS LIRG and ULIRG spectra are more absorbed at 9.7 μm and the average GOALS LIRG has more PAH emission. However, when the AGN contributions to both the local GOALS LIRGs and the high-z SMGs are removed, the average local starbursting LIRG closely resembles the starburst-dominated SMGs.
Circulating Inflammatory Markers and the Risk of Vascular Complications and Mortality in People With Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease or Risk Factors: The ADVANCE Study

C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen, and interleukin-6 (IL-6) are associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and death in general populations. However, studies of these factors in type 2 diabetes are limited. We studied their associations with the risk of major macrovascular events, microvascular complications, and mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes who participated in the Action in Diabetes and Vascular Disease: Preterax and Diamicron Modified Release Controlled Evaluation (ADVANCE) Study. Plasma CRP, fibrinogen, and IL-6 levels were determined in a case-cohort study (n = 3,865) nested within the 11,140 men and women with type 2 diabetes and baseline CVD or risk factors in the ADVANCE Study. All three biomarkers of inflammation were associated with an increased risk of macrovascular events and death in analyses adjusted for age, sex, and treatment groups. After further adjustment, only IL-6 was an independent predictor of macrovascular events (hazard ratio per SD increase 1.37 [95% CI 1.24–1.51]) and death (1.35 [1.23–1.49]). IL-6 significantly improved the prediction of macrovascular events and death. After adjustment, none of the markers predicted microvascular complications. We conclude that IL-6 levels, but not CRP or fibrinogen levels, add significantly to the prediction of macrovascular events and mortality in individuals with type 2 diabetes who have baseline CVD or risk factors.
A comparison of coral reef and coral community fish assemblages in Pacific Panama and environmental factors governing their structure

We compared the reef fish assemblages of two habitats, coral reefs and coral communities (rocky substratum with coral colonies), in the Las Perlas Archipelago in Pacific Panama and attempted to determine associations with habitat variables. We used a modified Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA) survey to record fish species and quadrat transects to determine benthic composition. Multivariate non-parametric multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) ordinations were performed in PRIMER and univariate correlations were used to determine relationships. The reef fish of coral communities were significantly more diverse and species rich than those of coral reefs. The two habitats had significantly different species and size composition, but trophic and family groups overlapped between habitats. Topography, exposure, and the percentage cover of branching and massive corals correlated significantly with differences in fish parameters. The reef fish assemblages of this region appear to be determined more by the larger scale structural features that characterize the two habitats than by features that vary over small scales within the habitats.