Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A robust optimal nonlinear control for uncertain systems: Application to a robot manipulator

The aim of the paper is twofold. Firstly, in this paper we are interested in control design for a class of uncertain MIMO linear systems. Specifically, we deal with trajectory tracking problems. Using the explicit nonlinear control law developed by Leitmann and co-authors during 1980s, the contribution of this paper is to elaborate upon useful closed-loop properties: (i) robustness, namely how to dominate the negative effect of the uncertainty; (ii) optimality with respect to an infinite time-horizon cost function; (iii) state estimation, ensuring uniform boundedness of the error between real and estimated states. Towards practical implementation, the control designer can choose to tune the nonlinear control law parameters based on robustness or optimality requirements. This flexibility distinguishes this article from others in the literature. The second aim of this paper is to apply, in particular, the aforementioned theoretical results on a two degree-of-freedom, rigid link, robot manipulator. Our intention is to contribute to the need for advanced model-based robot control.
Spatio-temporal clustering methods classification

Nowadays, a vast amount of spatio-temporal data are being generated by devices like cell phones, GPS and remote sensing devices and therefore discovering interesting patterns in such data became an interesting topics for researchers. One of these topics has been spatio-temporal clustering which is a novel sub field of data mining and Recent researches in this area has focused on new methods and ways which are adapting previous methods and solutions to the new problem. In this paper we first define what the spatio-temporal data is and what different it has with other types of data. Then try to classify the clustering methods and done works in this area based on the proposed solutions. classification has been made based on this fact that how these works import and adapt temporal concept in their solutions.
An improved error bound for reduced basis approximation of linear parabolic problems

We consider a space-time variational formulation for linear para- bolic partial dierential equations. We introduce an associated Petrov-Galerkin truth nite element discretization with favorable discrete inf-sup constant , the inverse of which enters into error estimates: is unity for the heat equa- tion; decreases only linearly in time for non-coercive (but asymptotically stable) convection operators. The latter in turn permits eective long-time a posteriori error bounds for reduced basis approximations, in sharp contrast to classical (pessimistic) exponentially growing energy estimates. The paper contains a full analysis and various extensions for the formulation introduced briey in (13) as well as numerical results for a model reaction-convection- diusion equation.
Experimental nondestructive electrical stimulation of the brain and spinal cord.

HE shortcomings of destructive lesions used as treatment for neurological disorders ~,6 have triggered a search for new techniques. Electrical stimulation of the nervous system has been an attractive possibility because undesirable side effects of the stimulus may be eliminated when the electrical current is stoppedY We have studied the basic requirements for standardization of a safe stimulating current. Electricity has long been used for destruction of tissue, either as direct or radiofrequency current; both will lead to destruction of brain or spinal cord, but each is partially uncontrollable and the results are irreversible. Even alternating current will damage the nervous system if its parameters are not rigidly controlled. Since electrical stimulation of the nervous system offers attractive possibilities for treatment of some neurological disorders, 2,11,12 standardization of safety factors is essential. Several factors that theoretically influence the safe stimulation critical value (r) are: Voltage across the electrodes, V Current delivered to the load, I Pulse repetition rate, f Pulse duration, d Contact area of the electrode, A Type of metal, M.
The Determinants of Political Discussion: How important are audit courts and local autonomy?

The intention of this paper is to analyse how audit courts and local autonomy affect political discussion, controlling in a multivariate analysis for a broad variety of potential factors focusing on Switzerland, due to its variety of audit court competences and its strong decentralised structure. With data from the World Values Survey 1995-1997 (Swiss data 1996) evidence has been found that a higher audit court competence and a lower level of centralization is correlated with a higher level of political discussion. Thus, the results in Switzerland suggest that such institutions help improve citizens’ willingness to acquire information costs and discuss political matters.
Yield Stability of Pearl Millet Genotypes Under Irrigation with Different Salinity Levels

Sixteen pearl millet genotypes were evaluated under irrigation with three levels of marginal quality (saline) water. Stability parameters were computed for fresh and dry matter yield, plant height and leafiness. Pooled analysis of variance revealed significant mean differences among genotypes and environments. Environment (Linear) was highly significant for all the traits. It showed that the environments were considerably different and played a significant role in the expression of these traits. The G x E (Linear) and pooled deviation were non-significant for all the traits. The magnitude of stability parameters bi and Sdi were non-significant but variable among genotypes. Therefore, stability of the genotypes was predicted on mean yield and comparative value of stability parameters. The genotypes IP6106(B2), IP13150, HHVBC Tall(B2), ICMV 7704(B1), MC94C2(B2), ERaj pop, and ICMV155Brist(B10) had the above average yield of green and dry matter and leafiness but bi values greater than 1 showing their performance was better under low and medium salinity levels. IP6106(B2) was the most stable genotype with highest fresh and dry matter yield with bi values close to unity and small Sdi. IP19586 and Dauro gene pool(B2) had below average dry matter yields and bi value significantly less than unity, showing that yield was reduced due to high salinity. The present model was not fit for IP6109, Nutrifeed and ICMV155Brist (B10) to explain variation for leafiness as the R values for these genotypes were very low for this trait.
A Modified Technique for Rectus Muscle Plication in Minimally Invasive Strabismus Surgery

Purpose: To present a novel, minimally invasive strabismus surgery (MISS) technique for faster and less invasive rectus muscle plication. Methods: The new plication method is performed without spatula and, therefore, instead of a total dissection (TODI) only a marginal dissection (MADI) of the plicated part of the muscle is performed. Forty patients operated with combined, horizontal MISS rectus muscle recession/MADI plication are retrospectively compared to a similar group of 49 patients, who had MISS recession/TODI plication. The following outcome parameters were analyzed: alignment, binocular single vision, variations in vision, refraction, conjunctival abnormalities, dose-response relationship, and number and types of complications during the first 6 postoperative months. Results: Postoperatively, the conjunctiva over the plicated muscle was less swollen and red with MADI compared to TODI plication (p < 0.01). In esodeviations, there was no significant difference in the dose-response relationship between MADI and TODI plication (1.38 ± 0.44 vs. 1.44 ± 0.50°/mm, p > 0.1). In exodeviations, the difference between MADI and TODI plications was not significant either (1.41 ± 0.38 vs. 1.42 ± 0.50°/mm, p > 0.1). Also final alignment, binocular single vision, visual acuities, refractive changes, or complications did not differ between the two techniques. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that MADI plication is feasible and equally effective in comparison with the TODI plication technique when performing MISS. MADI plication, which is performed without spatula, allows to considerably further reduce postoperative conjunctival swelling and redness.
Synthetic microRNA-mediated downregulation of Nogo-A in transgenic rats reveals its role as regulator of synaptic plasticity and cognitive function

We have generated a transgenic rat model using RNAi and used it to study the role of the membrane protein Nogo-A in synaptic plasticity and cognition. The membrane protein Nogo-A is expressed in CNS oligodendrocytes and subpopulations of neurons, and it is known to suppress neurite growth and regeneration. The constitutively expressed polymerase II-driven transgene was composed of a microRNA-targeting Nogo-A placed into an intron preceding the coding sequence for EGFP, thus quantitatively labeling cells according to intracellular microRNA expression. The transgenic microRNA in vivo efficiently reduced the concentration of Nogo-A mRNA and protein preferentially in neurons. The resulting significant increase in long-term potentiation in both hippocampus and motor cortex indicates a repressor function of Nogo-A in synaptic plasticity. The transgenic rats exhibited prominent schizophrenia-like behavioral phenotypes, such as perseveration, disrupted prepulse inhibition, and strong withdrawal from social interactions. This fast and efficient microRNA-mediated knockdown provides a way to silence gene expression in vivo in transgenic rats and shows a role of Nogo-A in regulating higher cognitive brain functions.
Predictive Factors Affecting the Short Term and Long Term Exodrift in Patients with Intermittent Exotropia after Bilateral Rectus Muscle Recession and Its Effect on Surgical Outcome

Purpose. To determine the predictive factors that affect short term and long term postoperative drift in intermittent exotropia after bilateral lateral rectus recession and to evaluate its effect on surgical outcome. Methods. Retrospective review of 203 patients with diagnosis of intermittent exotropia, who had surgical corrections with more than 3 years of followup. Different preoperative parameters were obtained and evaluated using Pearson's correlation analysis. Results. The proportion of exodrift increased from 62% at 6 weeks to 84% at 3 years postoperatively. The postoperative drift was 4.3 ± 8.1 PD at 6 weeks, 5.8 ± 8.4 PD at 6 months, 7.2 ± 8.3 PD at 1 year, 7.4 ± 8.4 PD at 2 years, and 7.7 ± 8.5 PD at 3 years. Preoperative deviation and initial overcorrection were significant factors affecting the postoperative drift at 3 years (r = 0.177, P = 0.011, r = −0.349, and P < 0.001, resp.). Conclusions. Postoperative exodrift along three years occurs in a majority of patients after bilateral lateral rectus recession for intermittent exotropia. The long term surgical success is significantly affected by this postoperative exodrift. A larger preoperative deviation and a larger initial overcorrection are associated with a larger early and late postoperative exodrift.
Vacuolar Ca2+/H+ Transport Activity Is Required for Systemic Phosphate Homeostasis Involving Shoot-to-Root Signaling in Arabidopsis1[W][OA]

Calcium ions (Ca2+) and Ca2+-related proteins mediate a wide array of downstream processes involved in plant responses to abiotic stresses. In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), disruption of the vacuolar Ca2+/H+ transporters CAX1 and CAX3 causes notable alterations in the shoot ionome, including phosphate (Pi) content. In this study, we showed that the cax1/cax3 double mutant displays an elevated Pi level in shoots as a result of increased Pi uptake in a miR399/PHO2-independent signaling pathway. Microarray analysis of the cax1/cax3 mutant suggests the regulatory function of CAX1 and CAX3 in suppressing the expression of a subset of shoot Pi starvation-responsive genes, including genes encoding the PHT1;4 Pi transporter and two SPX domain-containing proteins, SPX1 and SPX3. Moreover, although the expression of several PHT1 genes and PHT1;1/2/3 proteins is not up-regulated in the root of cax1/cax3, results from reciprocal grafting experiments indicate that the cax1/cax3 scion is responsible for high Pi accumulation in grafted plants and that the pht1;1 rootstock is sufficient to moderately repress such Pi accumulation. Based on these findings, we propose that CAX1 and CAX3 mediate a shoot-derived signal that modulates the activity of the root Pi transporter system, likely in part via posttranslational regulation of PHT1;1 Pi transporters.
An Assessment of Musical Instrument Preferences of Third-Grade Children.

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of three conditions of musical instrument demonstration -a clarinet biased condition; an unbiased, full demonstration condition; and a photos-only conditionon preferences for those instruments by third grade children. Of primary concern was whether children could be induced, through purposeful bias in instrument demonstration, to respond more favorably toward a less preferred instrument. In a pretest/posttest design, subjects placed six beginning band instruments in rank order according to preference. Results indicated that there was agreement among groups on the pretest, but no significant agreement among groups following treatment, suggesting that different modes of instrument demonstration may yield different results with respect to students' preferences. Comparison of preand posttest preference rankings for the clarinet biased group yielded low correlation and significant change, meaning that subjects' instrument preferences were ordered dramatically differently on the posttest, specifically for the drum, flute, trumpet, and trombone. Additionally, instrument gender association was examined. Results indicated that, with the exception of the drum, there were significant differences in the instrument preferences of male and female subjects.
The developmentally regulated shift from membrane to secreted mu mRNA production is accompanied by an increase in cleavage-polyadenylation efficiency but no measurable change in splicing efficiency

To determine whether there are any developmental changes in the efficiencies of cleavage-polyadenylation or splicing reactions that could affect the usage of weak (suboptimal) processing signals and thus provide a basis for the regulated production of mu m versus mu s mRNA during B-lymphocyte maturation, we studied the expression of transfected mu genes in which the natural competition between cleavage-polyadenylation and splicing was replaced by alternative usage of tandem weak and strong poly(A) sites or by competition between suboptimal and optimal 5' splice junctions. Our results indicate that there is a 50 to 100% increase in cleavage-polyadenylation efficiency but no measurable change in splicing efficiency as maturation proceeds from the B-cell to plasma cell stage.
Rate Distortion Theory for Causal Video Coding: Characterization, Computation Algorithm, Comparison, and Code Design

Due to the sheer volume of data involved, video coding is an important application of lossy source coding, and has received wide industrial interest and support as evidenced by the development and success of a series of video coding standards. All MPEG-series and H-series video coding standards proposed so far are based upon a video coding paradigm called predictive video coding, where video source frames X1, X2, · · · , XN are encoded in a frame by frame manner, the encoder and decoder for each frame Xk, k = 1, 2, · · · , N , enlist help only from all previous encoded frames Sj , j = 1, 2, · · · , k− 1. In this thesis, we will look further beyond all existing and proposed video coding standards, and introduce a new coding paradigm called causal video coding, in which the encoder for each frame Xk can use all previous original frames Xj, j = 1, 2, · · · , k − 1, and all previous encoded frames Sj , while the corresponding decoder can use only all previous encoded frames. We consider all studies, comparisons, and designs on causal video coding from an information theoretic point of view by modeling each frame Xk itself as a source Xk = {Xk(i)}i=1. Let R∗ c(D1, · · · , DN) (R∗ p(D1, · · · , DN), respectively) denote the minimum total rate required to achieve a given distortion level D1, · · · , DN > 0 in causal video coding (predictive video coding, respectively). A novel computation approach is proposed to analytically characterize, numerically compute, and compare the minimum total rate of causal video coding R∗ c(D1, · · · , DN) required to achieve a given distortion (quality) level D1, · · · , DN > 0. Specifically, we first show that for jointly stationary and ergodic sources X1, X2, · · · , XN , R∗ c(D1, · · · , DN) is equal to the infimum of the nth order total rate distortion function Rc,n(D1, · · · , DN) over all n, where Rc,n(D1, · · · , DN) itself is given by the minimum of an information quantity over a set of auxiliary random variables. We then present an iterative algorithm for computing Rc,n(D1, · · · , DN) and demonstrate the convergence of the algorithm to the global
Intraoperative blood loss during living donor liver transplantation: an analysis of 635 recipients at a single center

BACKGROUND: Living‐donor liver transplantation (LDLT) has been an important option in the treatment of patients with end‐stage liver disease. Massive intraoperative blood loss can occur during LDLT, necessitating blood transfusion. The purpose of this study was to present blood loss data from the recipients of LDLT, to assess the effect of massive intraoperative blood loss on prognosis, and to assess the reliability of preoperative information in predicting intraoperative blood transfusion requirements in LDLT.
Activity of Euphorbia splendens var. hislopii N.E.B. (Euphorbiaceae) latex against Lymnaea columella (Say, 1817) (Pulmonata: Lymnaeidae), intermediate host of Fasciola hepatica, Linnaeus, 1758 (Trematoda: Fasciolidae). 2: limited field-testing.

The molluscicidal evaluation of Euphorbia splendens var. hislopii (Crown of thorns) against Lymnaea columella snails, intermediate host of Fasciola hepatica, in irrigation ditches of the Pisciculture Station at Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, was studied under limited field conditions. An aqueous solution of the latex at 5 mg/l was tested in two irrigation ditches (experimental and control ditches), after initial sampling of the snail population present. Twenty-four hours after application of the product, it was verified that 97.4% of free L. columella snails and 100% of snails of the same species captive in cages and used as sentinels at three points equidistant from the application site in the experimental ditch, died. For Biomphalaria tenagophila and Melanoides tuberculata snails, present in the experimental ditch, the mortality was 100%, for the species Pomacea spp. the mortality was 40%. No mortality was verified in the free mollusks, or in the sentinels in the ditch used as control. E. splendens var. hislopii latex is thus an efficient natural molluscicide, which may be used as an alternative control agent against L. columella.
Bending Effects in Finite-Cladding Single-Mode Slab Waveguides

A new approach to the physical description and quantification of bend loss in arbitrarily bent single-mode fibers is based on the coupling of the fundamental mode to cladding modes solely due to curvature change along the fiber. Using a slab model, it is shown that there is an optimum bend design criterion based on the rate of change of curvature that can reduce bend loss to almost arbitrarily low levels regardless of curvature, provided only that the fiber coating index value is sufficiently smaller than that of the cladding index. With a finite coating, the propagation of the field around the bend is influenced by both the refractive index of the coating and its bulk absorption.
Biobanks for Genomics and Genomics for Biobanks

Biobanks include biological samples and attached databases. Human biobanks occur in research, technological development and medical activities. Population genomics is highly dependent on the availability of large biobanks. Ethical issues must be considered: protecting the rights of those people whose samples or data are in biobanks (information, autonomy, confidentiality, protection of private life), assuring the non-commercial use of human body elements and the optimal use of samples and data. They balance other issues, such as protecting the rights of researchers and companies, allowing long-term use of biobanks while detailed information on future uses is not available. At the level of populations, the traditional form of informed consent is challenged. Other dimensions relate to the rights of a group as such, in addition to individual rights. Conditions of return of results and/or benefit to a population need to be defined. With ‘large-scale biobanking’ a marked trend in genomics, new societal dimensions appear, regarding communication, debate, regulation, societal control and valorization of such large biobanks. Exploring how genomics can help health sector biobanks to become more rationally constituted and exploited is an interesting perspective. For example, evaluating how genomic approaches can help in optimizing haematopoietic stem cell donor registries using new markers and high-throughput techniques to increase immunogenetic variability in such registries is a challenge currently being addressed. Ethical issues in such contexts are important, as not only individual decisions or projects are concerned, but also national policies in the international arena and organization of democratic debate about science, medicine and society.
XMM-Newton Observations of the Nuclei of the Radio Galaxies 3C 305, DA 240, and 4C 73.08

We present new XMM-Newton EPIC observations of the nuclei of the nearby radio galaxies 3C 305, DA 240, and 4C 73.08, and investigate the origin of their nuclear X-ray emission. The nuclei of the three sources appear to have different relative contributions of accretion- and jet-related X-ray emission, as expected based on earlier work. The X-ray spectrum of the FR II narrow-line radio galaxy (NLRG) 4C 73.08 is modeled with the sum of a heavily absorbed power law that we interpret to be associated with a luminous accretion disk and circumnuclear obscuring structure, and an unabsorbed power law that originates in an unresolved jet. This behavior is consistent with other narrow-line radio galaxies. The X-ray emission of the low-excitation FR II radio galaxy DA 240 is best modeled as an unabsorbed power law that we associate with a parsec-scale jet, similar to other low-excitation sources that we have studied previously. However, the X-ray nucleus of the narrow-line radio galaxy 3C 305 shows no evidence for the heavily absorbed X-ray emission that has been found in other NLRGs. It is possible that the nuclear optical spectrum in 3C 305 is intrinsically weak-lined, with the strong emission arising from extended regions that indicate the presence of jet-environment interactions. Our observations of 3C 305 suggest that this source is more closely related to other weak-lined radio galaxies. This ambiguity could extend to other sources currently classified as NLRGs. We also present XMM-Newton and VLA observations of the hot spot of DA 240, arguing that this is another detection of X-ray synchrotron emission from a low-luminosity hot spot.