Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Objective Assessment of Human Workload in Physical Human-robot Cooperation Using Brain Monitoring

The notions of safe and compliant interaction are not sufficient to ensure effective physical human-robot cooperation. To obtain an optimal compliant behavior (e.g., variable impedance/admittance control), assessment techniques are required to measure the effectiveness of the interaction in terms of perceived workload by users. This study investigates electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring as an objective measure to classify workload in cooperative manipulation with compliance. An experimental study is conducted including two types of manipulation (gross and fine) with two admittance levels (low- and high-damping). Performance and self-reported measures indicate that a proper admittance level that enhances perceived workload is task-dependent. This information is used to form a binary classification problem (low- and high-workload) with spectral power density and coherence as the features extracted from EEG data. Using a subject-independent feature selection approach, a subject-dependent Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) is used for classification. An average classification rate of 81% is achieved that indicates the reliability of the proposed approach for assessing human workload in interaction with varying compliance across the gross and fine manipulation. Furthermore, to validate our proposed objective measure of workload, we have conducted a second experiment composed of both fine and gross motor tasks. Compared to interaction with a constant admittance, a lower EEG-based workload is observed with an open-loop variable admittance controller. This observation is in agreement with the subjective workload score (NASA-TLX).
Differences in language use: Insights from job and talent search

Search platforms can have more than one type of user, e.g., those who provide and those who consume content. As an example, in a job/talent search platform, content providers are: (1) job seekers who provide CVs, and (2) hirers who provide job advertisements; content consumers, on the other hand, are: (3) job seekers searching for specific jobs, and (4) hirers/recruiters searching for candidates to fill particular positions. As a result, there are four types of users, each with potentially different patterns of language use. In this paper, we compare the language used by different groups of users in job/talent search, by way of word embeddings pre-trained over documents associated with distinct types of users. In doing so, we investigate whether there are systematic shifts/ mismatches in vocabulary or the use of the same term, and consider the implications for an integrated search solution. Our experiments unearth significant differences in language use, but also that there is a strong agreement between the results of our intrinsic and extrinsic comparisons of word embeddings.
Relationships among CO2 Emissions, Economic Growth and Foreign Direct Investment and the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis in Turkey

This study examines the causal relationships between economic growth, carbon dioxide emission and foreign direct investment and evaluates the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for Turkey in 1974-2011. Firstly, the causality relationships investigated by using the Johansen Cointegration Test, The Granger Causality Test, Impulse-Response and Variance Decomposition Analysis of Vector Autoregression Model (VAR) model. The causality relationships display that foreign direct investment (LFDI) and economic growth (LGDP) have a significant effect on carbon dioxide emissions (LCO2). Moreover, impulse-response functions and variance-decompositions of VAR model support these relationships among LGDP, LCO2 and LFDI. Secondly, the study investigates the validity of the EKC hypothesis in Turkey for the period 1974-2011 by using Regression Model approach for the various EKC model forms such as linear, quadratic, and cubic. Consequently, economic growth leads to degradation of environment and depletion of natural resources. It must be the major aim to obtain a sustainable economic growth by less CO2 emissions and consuming less energy. Moreover, the policy makers may take account exogenous impacts such as foreign investments to plan energy policies, and to maintain economic growth against global climate warming. Keyword: EKC Hypothesis; CO2 Emission, Economic Growth; Granger Causality; Johansen Cointeration; Impulse-Response. JEL Classifications: C58; C51; Q43; Q56
Virtual Waveform Design for Millimeter-Wave Vehicular Joint Communication-Radar

Automotive joint communication and radar (JCR) waveforms with fully digital baseband generation and processing can now be realized at the millimeter-wave (mmWave) band. Prior work has developed a mmWave wireless local area network (WLAN)-based automotive JCR that exploits the WLAN preamble for radars. The performance of target velocity estimation, however, was limited. In this paper, we propose an adaptive virtual JCR waveform design for automotive applications at the mmWave band. The proposed system transmits a few non-uniformly placed preambles to construct several receive virtual preambles for enhancing velocity estimation accuracy, at the cost of only a small reduction in the communication data rate. We evaluate JCR performance trade-offs using the Cramér-Rao Bound (CRB) metric for radar estimation and a novel distortion minimum mean square error (MMSE) metric for data communication. Additionally, we develop three different MMSE-based optimization problems for the adaptive JCR waveform design. Simulations show that an optimal virtual (non-uniform) waveform achieves a significant performance improvement as compared to a uniform waveform. For a radar CRB constrained optimization, the optimal radar range of operation and the optimal communication distortion MMSE (DMMSE) are improved. For a communication DMMSE constrained optimization with a high DMMSE constraint, the optimal radar CRB is enhanced. For a weighted MMSE average optimization, the advantage of the virtual waveform over the uniform waveform is increased with decreased communication weighting. Comparison of MMSE-based optimization with traditional virtual preamble count-based optimization indicated that the conventional solution converges to the MMSEbased one only for a small number of targets and a high signal-to-noise ratio. Preeti Kumari and Robert W. Heath Jr. are with the Wireless Networking and Communications Group, the University of Texas at Austin, TX 78712-1687, USA (e-mail: {preeti kumari, rheath}@utexas.edu). Sergiy A. Vorobyov is with the Aalto University, Konemiehentie 2, 02150 Espoo, Finland (email: sergiy.vorobyov@aalto.fi). This research was partially supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation through the Data-Supported Transportation Operations and Planning (D-STOP) Tier 1 University Transportation Center, by the Texas Department of Transportation under Project 0-6877 entitled Communications and Radar-Supported Transportation Operations and Planning (CAR-STOP), and by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. ECCS-1711702 and CNS-1731658. This paper was presented in part at the IEEE ICASSP Conference, March 2017 [1] and at the IEEE ICASSP conference, April 2018 [2].
Towards Automatic Recognition of Attitudes: Prosodic Analysis of Video Blogs

Understanding of speakers’ attitude is essential for establishing successful human interaction. In this paper we analyse attitude manifestations in video blogs. We describe the main features of this novel communication medium and focus our attention on its possible exploitation as a rich source of information for human-human and human-machine communication. We describe the manual annotation of attitudes and the prosodic analyses. Finally we present a preliminary automatic attitude annotation system that attains 65% accuracy.
Stability in perceiving non-native segmental length contrasts

Previous studies have demonstrated that listeners show high sensitivity in discriminating non-native segmental length contrasts thanks to auditory memory [1, 2]. We tested the limits of discriminating Japanese consonantal length contrasts with three groups of listeners (German learners of Japanese, German non-learners and Japanese natives) under increasing task demands. We increased memory load through a longer inter-stimulus in-terval (= ISI) (2500ms vs. 300ms) and added psycho-phonetic complexity (trials with task-irrelevant pitch falls that occurred simultaneously with the consonant vs. with monotonous pitch). Results showed very good discrimination in all groups when the task demands were the lowest. With increasing task demands, only the non-natives’ discrimination abilities decreased: non-learners were strongly affected by both ISI and pitch, while learners only by pitch. The psycho-phonetic complexity of the stimuli had a stronger impact on performance than the increased memory load. Our ﬁndings suggest that L2 learners can establish novel phonological representations, but the ability to use them can be applied only under favourable listening conditions with no distracting acoustic information. The non-native listeners’ reduced sensitivity under increasing task demands appears to be the reason why even advanced learners still face difﬁculties in natural learning situations.
Isolation of Actinomycetes from Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) Rhizosphere and the Ability to Produce Antibiotic.

Actinomycetes are well-known microorganism as secondary metabolites producers which serve as antibiotics. In this study, sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) rhizosphere soil samples were collected from Piyungan, Bantul, Yogyakarta. The aims of this study were to obtain Actinomycetes isolates from sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) rhizosphere which potentially produce antibiotics and to analyse the Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) profile of ethyl acetate extract of active Actinomycetes isolates. The method used in primary screening to evaluate Actinomycetes antibacterial activity from the sugar cane rhizosphere are agar block method and cup-plate method, and the extract activity assay used Kirby-Bauer method. Determination of antibiotic activity was observed by measuring the diameter of inhibition zone. Extract component was analyzed by Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC). The results of this research was found 39 isolates of Actinomycetes classified into 7 groups based on color grouping. The result of agar block test was revealed that among 39 isolates, four isolates (10.25%) were able to inhibit Staphylococcus aureus. They were Te.234, Te.235, Te.236, and Te.325 isolates. Inhibition zone of crude extracts from these isolates against Staphylococcus aureus were Te.234=7.67 mm, Te.235=3.75 mm, Te.236=12.42 mm, and Te.325=19.16 mm. However, none of these isolates were able to inhibit Escherichia coli. Results of TLC profile showed that the suspected compounds contained in ethyl acetate extract of culture broth are alkaloid, polypeptide, steroid, alcohol, phenol and ketone/aldehyde compounds. Based on the results, it can be concluded that Actinomycetes can be isolated from sugar cane rhizosphere which has potential as an antibiotic producer by narrow spectrum to inhibit Gram-positive bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus. Keywords—actinomycetes, isolation, rhizosphere, antibiotic, sugar cane, TLC profile
Effect of sow vaccination against on sow and piglet colonization and seroconversion, and pig lung lesions at slaughter

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Effect of sow vaccination against on sow and piglet colonization and seroconversion, and pig lung lesions at slaughter M. Sibila, R. Bernal, D. Torrents, Pascal Riera, D. Llopart, M. Calsamiglia, J. Segalés
The Effects of Board Independence and Auditors’ Audit and Non-Audit Fees on IPO Value

This paper examines the effect of board independence and fees paid to audit firms on the value of 375 UK IPOs. It controls for the simultaneous determination of audit and nonaudit fees and shows that both fees positively affect IPO value. The effect of both fees is significantly higher in firms with more independent boards. Hence, internal governance mechanisms may complement services provided by auditors in terms of generating higher valuations. We also find evidence of the positive moderating effects of venture capitalists. Overall, our results suggest that audit and non-audit fees are likely to be driven by filing requirements rather than client-specific rents suggesting the auditors’ independence when determining cost of their audit and non-audit services to IPO firms.
CONVENTIONAL AND NEW ULTRASOUND TECHNIQUES IN INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE -UPDATE 2014-

Christoph F. Dietrich, Liliana Chiorean, Xin-Wu Cui, Dagmar Schreiber-Dietrich, Barbara Braden Medical and Imaging Department, Caritas Krankenhaus, Uhlandstr. 7, D-97980 Bad Mergentheim, Germany Department of Radiology and Computed Tomography, “Octavian Fodor” Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Barbara Braden, Translational Gastroenterology Unit, Oxford University Hospitals, Headley Way, OX3 9DU Oxford, UK
VUNA – Scaling Up Nutrient Recovery from Urine

By recovering nutrients from urine, the VUNA project (www.vuna.ch) aims to contribute to a sanitation system, which is affordable, produces a valuable fertiliser, and reduces pollution of water resources. In the eThekwini Municipality in South Africa, a system was set up to collect urine from urine diversion dry toilets (UDDT). The collected urine was processed into fertiliser. In a first set of trials, urine was collected from 700 households, in order to evaluate potential collection systems: An institutionalised system operated by the municipality workers was compared with an incentivised system, where the drop-off of urine at semi-centralised collection points was compensated with monetary incentives. Furthermore, potential collection schemes were analysed with computer simulations and business models. To recover the nutrients contained in urine, different process technologies were developed and tested: 1) Via struvite precipitation, phosphate can be recovered from urine. The process is simple to install and operate, though recovers only part of the nutrients, which can potentially be recovered from urine, i.e. nitrogen and potassium remain in an effluent, which has to be treated. 2) Biological nitrification combined with distillation produces a concentrated solution containing all nutrients in urine. The biological process is more complex to operate and needs constant supervision, but ensures a hygienic and complete end product. 3) Electrolysis of urine is a novel process to treat urine. In future applications, it is expected to treat urine in compact reactors. However, research is still at an early stage and needs further efforts towards a roll-out. Social acceptance studies ascertained that UDDTs are not necessarily readily accepted by the final users. However, target-specific education and sensitisation of toilet users can lay a foundation for a broader acceptance, which can be further strengthened, if excreta is given a value by processing it into reusable end products. The VUNA project has evolved from a strong collaboration between all partners, which has been characterised by an interest in functioning technologies both in South Africa and in Switzerland.
EFFECTS OF FIVE IMPROVED COWPEA SEED GENOTYPES ON OVIPOSITION AND PROGENY DEVELOPMENT OF CALLOSOBRUCHUS MACULATUS (F.) (COLEOPTERA:

This study was aimed at determining the effects of genotype differences on egg laying, larval, pupal development and adult emergence of the cowpea seed bruchid, Callosobruchus maculatus (F.). Five cowpea genotypes (SAMPEA 6, SAMPEA 7, SAMPEA 9, SAMPEA 10 and SAMPEA 11) developed by the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) in Samaru, Zaria, Nigeria were used. Oviposition, larval development and pupal development bioassays were carried out under ambient laboratory conditions by sampling 20 seeds at the 7, 14 and 19 day after infestation (DAI) respectively. The number of eggs, larvae and pupae in sampled seeds were counted and recorded. Adult emergence bioassay was done by counting daily the number of emerged adults until 35 DAI when adult emergence stopped. Results from the study showed that the highest mean number of eggs (41.3), larvae (28.3), and pupae (25.7) per 20 seeds at 7DAI, 14 DAI and 19 DAI respectively occurred in SAMPEA 6. Also, more adults (80.6) were observed to have emerged from SAMPEA 6 than from any other genotype. With respect to all bioassays in this study, SAMPEA 6 was significantly different (P<0.05) from all other genotypes. On the other hand, SAMPEA 10 had the least mean number of eggs (14.0) and larvae(8.0) per 20 seeds at 7DAI and 14DAI respectively and was significantly different (P<0.05) from the other genotypes. However, at 19DAI, SAMPEA 9 was observed to have the lowest mean number of pupae (4.7) per 20 seeds and was significantly different (P<0.05) from the other genotypes. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the number of adults that emerged from SAMPEA 7, SAMPEA 9, SAMPEA 10 and SAMPEA 11 at P = 0.05.
Real-time Performance Evaluation of Relative Calibration on the OAI 5G testbed

In this paper we describe the OpenAirInterface (OAI) C-RAN testbed deployed at Eurecom and present the real-time implementation and performance evaluation of a channel calibration scheme. The distributed MIMO operation in dense Time Division Duplex (TDD) radio networks requires accurate time and frequency synchronization and calibration for precoding. We achieve this by using a common reference and over-the-air (OTA) synchronization between remote radio units (RRUs), which is a much cheaper alternative to distributed synchronization using PTPv2-like protocols and special clock regeneration circuitry. Furthermore we perform channel measurements between the RRUs without interrupting the real-time operation in order to perform distributed channel reciprocity calibration which is required to exploit uplink (UL) channel estimates to infer the precoder performed on the downlink (DL) channel.
Molecular Mechanisms of Protein Binding by Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs)

Comparative investigation of the intermolecular chemical interaction (binding) between bovine serum albumin (BSA) and four polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFOA, PFNA, PFHxS, PFOS) by F NMR spectroscopy with synchronous observation of the F signals from both ends (head and tail) of the polyfluoroalkyl molecules was performed at three temperatures of 298K, 304K and 310K. Chemical shifts of F NMR peaks in solutions of PFAS with BSA were used for evaluation of the dissociation constants, Kd, for both known mechanisms of PFAS binding with BSA: by hydrophobic interaction of the PFAS molecule carbon chain tail in the hydrophobic pockets of BSA (Ω mechanism) and by hydrogen bond and electrostatic interaction of the PFAS molecule head group with charged regions on the BSA surface (α mechanism). It was established that highest affinity of all four PFAS:BSA complexes is by the Ω mechanism of binding with Kd at 310K reaching values as low as 3.9×10, 6.5×10, 7.7×10 and 1.9×10 M for PFOS, PFOA, PFNA, and PFHxS, in comparison with 5.7×10, 5.6×10, 6.6×10 and 5.4×10 M values for α mechanism of binding. Evaluation of the thermodynamic parameters (enthalpy ΔH, entropy ΔS, and Gibb’s free energy ΔG) showed that binding of PFOA, PFNA, PFHxS, and PFOS with BSA by both α and Ω mechanisms is accompanied by negative ΔH and ΔS and positive ΔG which are characteristic for binding of two large hydrophobic molecules with each other by weak hydrogen bond and van der Waals’ forces. Kd for binding of the branched isopropyl isomers of PFHxS and PFOS with BSA were measured at 310K as 8.8×10 and 7.6×10 M, correspondingly, which indicated less affinity of isomers with the surface of BSA in comparison with the linear structure of PFHxS and PFOS molecules possibly due to “bulky” structure of the branched isomer head.
Networks, Phillips Curves, and Monetary Policy

This paper revisits the New Keynesian framework, theoretically and quantitatively, in an economy with multiple sectors and input‐output linkages. Analytical expressions for the Phillips curve and welfare, derived as a function of primitives, show that the slope of all sectoral and aggregate Phillips curves is decreasing in intermediate input shares, while productivity fluctuations endogenously generate an inflation‐output tradeoff—except when inflation is measured according to the novel divine coincidence index. Consistent with the theory, the divine coincidence index provides a better fit in Phillips curve regressions than consumer prices. Monetary policy can no longer achieve the first‐best, resulting in a welfare loss of 2.9% of per‐period GDP under the constrained‐optimal policy, which increases to 3.8% when targeting consumer inflation. The constrained‐optimal policy must tolerate relative price distortions across firms and sectors in order to stabilize the output gap, and it can be implemented via a Taylor rule that targets the divine coincidence index.
Chapter 6: Formulation and Structure of Mixed Biocompatible Microemulsion System

Microemulsions are isotropic, fluid, transparent, thermodynamically stable dispersion of oil and water, stabilized by surfactant(s)[1, 2]. The structure of ME can be idealized as a set of interfaces dividing polar and nonpolar domains. Depending on the composition of the system, the microstructure of an ME may exist as water-in-oil (w/o) droplets, oil-in-water (o/w) droplets, or a bicontinuous structure. Over the last few decades MEs have attracted more interest as potential drug delivery systems[3-5]. Part of this interest appears as a consequence of their transparency, ease of preparation, nanometric size and long-term stability. These properties as well as their ability for incorporating drugs of different lipophilicity are some of the reasons for which MEs have seriously been considered for pharmaceutical purposes. However, the limitations on the use of MEs in pharmaceutical and cosmetic fields arise greatly from the need for all the constituting components to be biologically and pharmaceutically acceptable, particularly the surfactants and cosurfactants. The selection of components for MEs suitable for cosmetic and pharmaceutical use is one of the most important factors to fulfil the requirements of a good delivery system. One of the most preferred biocompatible ME is based on lecithin (L), which is a nontoxic surfactant as recognized by safe (GRAS) status[6]. Being highly lipophilic lecithin tends to form nematic liquid crystalline phases in presence of oil and water[5]. Biocompatible lecithin based organogels have been found to be clear and viscoelsatic, and are used for pharmaceutical applications[7]. Phase behaviour, structure and pharmaceutical applications of lecithin/short chain alcohol based ME systems have also been investigated in details[8-16]. Low toxic formulation have been reported using linker molecules[17-19]. Many of these formulations however, possess high viscosity, which refrains these formulations from specific pharmaceutics applications. Moreover, the short-chain alcohols used in the ME systems are prone to affect cell membrane[20]. It thus stands important to formulate low toxic low viscous ME systems containing lecithin and cosurfactant. A potential replacement of toxic short-chain alkanols is buytl lactate (BL) which is a well-known pharmaceutical flavouring agent[21] and has been used to formulate MEs[22-24].