Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
BatSight: A Navigation Game to Map Environmental Information into Audio Cues

By using sound to visualize the real-world environment, audio games can offer a completely new game experience. In this paper, we study how audio cues can be visualized in audio games and their effects on the players' navigation skills, gaming experience, and immersion. Also, factors that impact the system performance in terms of navigation using audio components. To this end, we propose an audio game in which blindfolded players move through a physical maze with the help of audio cues. To realize this game, a sonar headset is designed and built based on ultrasonic sensors, which maps the external environment features into musical sounds. Actually, the design of the sonar headset is the result of design and research efforts. The gaming environment of this game is a physical maze, where the blindfolded players enter the maze while wearing the sonar headset. A user study was conducted to evaluate the effect of using different sound mapping techniques on navigation performance and playing experience in the game proposed in this paper. The results show that producing musical sound can lead to better navigation performance, game experience, and immersion in players.
World Journal of Immunology

Stem cell-like memory T (T SCM ) cells possess stem cell properties including multipotency and self-renewal and are being recognized as emerging players in various human diseases. Advanced technologies such as multiparametric flowcytometry and single cell sequencing have enabled their identification and molecular characterization. In case of chronic viral diseases such as human immunodeficiency virus-1, CD4+ T SCM cells, serve as major reservoirs of the latent virus. However, during immune activation and functional exhaustion of effector T cells, these cells also possess the potential to replenish the pool of functional effector cells to curtail the infection. More recently, these cells are speculated to play important role in protective immunity following acute viral infections such as coronavirus disease 2019 and might be amenable for therapeutics by ex vivo expansion. Similarly, studies are also investigating their pathological role in driving autoimmune responses. However, there are several gaps in the understanding of the role of T SCM cells in viral and autoimmune diseases to make them potential therapeutic targets. In this minireview, we have attempted an updated compilation of the dyadic role of these complex T SCM cells during such human diseases along with their biology and transcriptional programs.
Gene tracing analysis reveals the contribution of neural crest‐derived cells in pituitary development

The anterior pituitary originates from the adenohypophyseal placode. Both the preplacode region and neural crest (NC) derive from subdivision of the neural border region, and further individualization of the placode domain is established by a reciprocal interaction between placodal precursors and NC cells (NCCs). It has long been known that NCCs are present in the adenohypophysis as interstitial cells. A recent report demonstrated that NCCs also contribute to the formation of pericytes in the developing pituitary. Here, we attempt to further clarify the role of NCCs in pituitary development using P0‐Cre/EGFP reporter mice. Spatiotemporal analyses revealed that GFP‐positive NCCs invaded the adenohypophysis in a stepwise manner. The first wave was detected on mouse embryonic day 9.5 (E9.5), when the pituitary primordium begins to be formed by adenohypophyseal placode cells; the second wave occurred on E14.5, when vasculogenesis proceeds from Atwell's recess. Finally, fate tracing of NCCs demonstrated that NC‐derived cells in the adenohypophysis terminally differentiate into all hormone‐producing cell lineages as well as pericytes. Our data suggest that NCCs contribute to pituitary organogenesis and vasculogenesis in conjunction with placode‐derived pituitary stem/progenitor cells.
Daily activity of the European badger (meles meles, Mustelidae, Carnivora) on setts in Darwin reserve and Meschera national park (Russia) in summer and autumn

The European badger’s (Meles meles) daily activity was studied in two regions of European Russia with camera traps. The results of the study show that the daily activity of the European badger on settlements does not differ in the compared populations inhabiting Darwin Reserve and Meschera National Park. The badger appears on surface often during the daylight contrary to the classical idea of nocturnal activity of the species. More than half of all animal registrations occur at daylight during the summer. The moderate climate of the study areas and low level of human persecution are considered among the possible reasons of this type of activity. The daily activity of the European badger undergoes markedly seasonal changes in both populations. Badgers more often came out from their setts during daylight in summer and at night in autumn. The results have practical application in the organisation of the census of badgers by means of camera traps.
Harvest: A Scalable, Customizable Discovery and Access System

Abstract : Rapid growth in data volume user base and data diversity render Internet-accessible information increasingly difficult to use effectively. In this paper we introduce Harvest, a system that provides a set of customizable tools for gathering information from diverse repositories, building topic-specific content indexes, flexibly searching the indexes, widely replicating them, and caching objects as they are retrieved across the Internet. The system interoperates with Mosaic and with HTTP, FTP, and Gopher information resources. We discuss the design and implementation of each subsystem and provide measurements indicating that Harvest can reduce server load, network traffic and index space requirements significantly compared with previous indexing systems. We also discuss a half dozen indexes we have built using Harvest, underscoring both the customizability and scalability of the system.
Towards valve turning using a dual-arm aerial manipulator

We propose a framework for valve turning using an aerial vehicle endowed with dual multi-degree of freedom manipulators. A tightly integrated control scheme between the aircraft and manipulators is mandated for tasks requiring aircraft to environmental coupling. Feature detection is well-established for both ground and aerial vehicles and facilitates valve detection and arm tracking. Force feedback upon contact with the environment provides compliant motions in the presence of position error and coupling with the valve. We present recent results validating the valve turning framework using the proposed aircraft-arm system during flight tests.
Sequential Innovation and Patent Policy Job Market Paper

I use a model of sequential innovation with creative destruction to study how patent policy shapes R&D investment dynamics. I find that investments are nonstationary and increase as the patent’s expiration date approaches. R&D investments are driven by the incremental rent that firms obtain from innovating. For entrants, this rent is the value of a new patent. For incumbents, the rent is the value of a new patent minus a loss of profits from replacing the currently active patent. The main finding is that, in a sequential world, patent policy not only affects the value of a new patent, but it also affects the replacement value of a currently active patent. As a consequence, an increase in patent length decreases the incumbent’s investment rate and may decrease the economy’s innovation rate. Incorporating this new observation, I study optimal patent policy and how it depends on different market characteristics, such as the market’s natural innovation rate and the market’s matureness. ∗Before printing, please, check for the latest draft at www.agparra. com †Department of Economics, Northwestern University, e-mail: agparra@northwestern.edu. I am indebted to Michael Whinston and Wojciech Olszewski for their advice and support. I also thank Jose Espin-Sanchez, Jorge Lemus, Fernando Luco, Guillermo Marshall, Alessandro Pavan, Bruno Strulovici, and seminar participants at Northwestern University. I gratefully acknowledge financial support of Northwestern’s Center of Economic Theory. All remaining errors are mine.
Comparison of ChIP-Seq Data and a Reference Motif Set for Human KRAB C2H2 Zinc Finger Proteins

KRAB C2H2 zinc finger proteins (KZNFs) are the largest and most diverse family of human transcription factors, likely due to diversifying selection driven by novel endogenous retroelements (EREs), but the vast majority lack binding motifs or functional data. Two recent studies analyzed a majority of the human KZNFs using either ChIP-seq (60 proteins) or ChIP-exo (221 proteins) in the same cell type (HEK293). The ChIP-exo paper did not describe binding motifs, however. Thirty-nine proteins are represented in both studies, enabling the systematic comparison of the data sets presented here. Typically, only a minority of peaks overlap, but the two studies nonetheless display significant similarity in ERE binding for 32/39, and yield highly similar DNA binding motifs for 23 and related motifs for 34 (MoSBAT similarity score >0.5 and >0.2, respectively). Thus, there is overall (albeit imperfect) agreement between the two studies. For the 242 proteins represented in at least one study, we selected a highest-confidence motif for each protein, utilizing several motif-derivation approaches, and evaluating motifs within and across data sets. Peaks for the majority (158) are enriched (96% with AUC >0.6 predicting peak vs. nonpeak) for a motif that is supported by the C2H2 “recognition code,” consistent with intrinsic sequence specificity driving DNA binding in cells. An additional 63 yield motifs enriched in peaks, but not supported by the recognition code, which could reflect indirect binding. Altogether, these analyses validate both data sets, and provide a reference motif set with associated quality metrics.
What’s the Value? Measuring Value in Complex Social Learning What’s the Value? Measuring Value in Complex Social Learning Environments with Pre-service Mathematics Teachers Environments with Pre-service Mathematics Teachers

At the national level, undergraduate mathematics teacher preparation programs are shifting to develop teachers who not only understand current research-informed instructional practices but also have firsthand experiences learning, teaching, and collaborating in student-centered environments (CBMS, 2016). Understanding the degree to which these experiences impact pre-service teachers’ learning is challenging to measure. This paper describes the efforts of a Track 1 National Science Foundation (NSF) Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship grant to recruit and provide wider professional experiences to develop high-quality secondary mathematics teacher candidates and how the research team utilizes a value framework (Wenger, Traynor, & de Laat, 2014) to study programmatic impact. The guiding questions for this research are: To what extent do pre-service mathematics teachers value participation in extended programs to support their work as mathematicians and future teachers ? and How can researchers and practitioners measure value as a construct? This paper examines: (a) how we leverage the value framework in a variety of ways, (b) preliminary findings on what Noyce participants value and the experiences that led to their learning, and (c) implications for future work in pre-service mathematics teacher preparation programs.
Specular Object Reconstruction Behind Frosted Glass by Differentiable Rendering

This paper addresses the problem of reconstructing scenes behind optical diffusers, which is common in applications such as imaging through frosted glass. We propose a new approach that exploits specular reflection to capture sharp light distributions with a point light source, which can be used to detect reflections in low signal-to-noise scenarios. In this paper, we propose a rasterizer-based differentiable renderer to solve this problem by minimizing the difference between the captured and rendered images. Because our method can simultaneously optimize multiple observations for different light source positions, it is confirmed that ambiguities of the scene are efficiently eliminated by increasing the number of observations. Experiments show that the proposed method can reconstruct a scene with several mirror-like objects behind the diffuser in both simulated and real environments.
Tight Bounds of Minimum Distance Distributions of Irregular LDPC Code Ensembles

Upper bounds of minimum distance distributions of Gallger codes and irregular LDPC codes were derived by Callage and Di, respectively. Di's bounds are tight for irregular LDPC codes which have variable nodes of degree two, however, it is not tight for irregular LDPC codes which do not. In this paper, we derive tight lower and upper bounds of minimum distance distributions of irregular LDPC code ensembles without variable nodes of degree two.
Constitutive apical secretion of an 80-kD sulfated glycoprotein complex in the polarized epithelial Madin-Darby canine kidney cell line

The biosynthesis, processing, and apical secretion of a group of polypeptides (Kondor-Koch, C., R. Bravo, S. D. Fuller, D. Cutler, and H. Garoff. 1985. Cell. 43:297-306) are studied in MDCK cells using a specific polyclonal antiserum. These polypeptides are synthesized as a precursor protein which has an apparent Mr of 65,000 in its high mannose form. This precursor is converted into a protein with an apparent Mr of 80,000 containing complex carbohydrates and sulfate. After intracellular cleavage of the 80-kD protein, the 35-45-kD subunits are secreted as an 80-kD glycoprotein complex (gp 80) linked together by disulfide bonds. Secretion of the protein complex occurs by a constitutive pathway at the apical surface of the epithelial monolayer. Since the immediate post-translational precursor, the 65-kD protein, is hydrophilic in nature as shown by its partitioning behavior in a phase-separated Triton X-114 solution, gp 80 is segregated into the apical exocytotic pathway as a soluble molecule. The proteolytic maturation of gp 80 is blocked in the presence of chloroquine and its secretion is retarded. The 80-kD precursor is released at the apical cell surface, demonstrating that proteolytic processing is not necessary for the apical secretion of this protein. If N-glycosylation is inhibited by tunicamycin treatment the protein is secreted in equal amounts at both cell surfaces, indicating a role of the carbohydrate moieties in the vectorial transport of this protein.
Analysis of Channel Non-Reciprocity Due to Transceiver and Antenna Coupling Mismatches in TDD Precoded Multi-User MIMO-OFDM Downlink

This paper studies the impact of two implementation imperfections, namely, transceiver frequency-response non-reciprocity and antenna mutual coupling mismatches at the base-station and user equipment on the channel reciprocity assumption in TDD systems. Comprehensive signal models are first developed to analyze the joint effects of these two imperfections in the TDD multi-user MIMO-OFDM downlink transmission system context, covering both zero-forcing (ZF) and eigenbeamforming based transmitter processing. The corresponding performance degradation is then evaluated in terms of SINRs and maximum achievable sum-rate. The analysis shows that during downlink transmission, the transceiver non-reciprocity and antenna mutual coupling mismatches at the base-station introduce inter-user interference (IUI) and are the major causes for the resulting performance degradation. Implementation imperfections at user equipment side, in turn, only introduce inter-stream interference (ISI) that can be fairly easily suppressed in detector processing as part of effective precoded channels. In order to achieve throughputs close to the ideal case, transceiver frequency-response mismatches and antenna mutual coupling at the base-station side need to be extremely well calibrated, generally below 35-40dB in terms of relative mismatch levels.
Non-Invasive (Transcutaneous) Monitoring of PCO2 (TcPCO2) in Older Adults

Background: Transcutaneous measurements of arterial blood gases (ABG) may decrease the need for repeated arterial puncture in older patients treated for acute cardiac or pulmonary disorders. However, age-related changes in skin perfusion, metabolism, or thickness may alter the validity of the technique. Objective: To analyse the agreement between transcutaneous and arterial measurement of PaO<sub>2</sub> and PaCO<sub>2</sub> in older adults. Design: Prospective descriptive study performed in the intermediate-care unit of a geriatric university hospital and a pulmonary rehabilitation centre. Methods: 40 patients, aged 82.5 ± 8 years (66–97), hemodynamically stable, without vasopressor treatment, underwent simultaneous measurement of arterial blood gases (ABG) and transcutaneous CO<sub>2</sub> (TcPCO<sub>2</sub>) and O<sub>2</sub> (TcPO<sub>2</sub>) with a Radiometer TINA TCM3<sup>®</sup> capnograph, and a probe T° set at 43°C. Results: Correlation between PaCO<sub>2</sub> and TcPCO<sub>2</sub> was high (r<sup>2</sup> = 0.86) with a low bias (–0.1 mm Hg) and limits of agreement quite compatible with clinical use: (8.3; –8.5 mm Hg). The probe was well tolerated without any cutaneous lesion even after prolonged recordings (up to 8 h). Conversely, although TcPO<sub>2</sub> and PaO<sub>2</sub> were significantly correlated, the variability around the regression line precludes the use of transcutaneous measurements for monitoring PaO<sub>2 </sub>in a clinical setting. Conclusion: In older subjects, TcPCO<sub>2</sub> (but not TcPO<sub>2</sub>) measurements are reliable when repeated assessment of ABG is warranted.
Conflation Methods and Spelling Mistakes - A Sensitivity Analysis in Information Retrieval

In some information retrieval scenarios, for example internal help desk systems, texts are entered into the document collection without proofreading. This can result in a relatively high number of spelling mistakes, which can skew the order of the documents retrieved for a query or even prevent the retrieval of relevant documents. We focus on addressing this problem at the conflation stage of the retrieval process and evaluate whether conflation based on n-grams, which is said to be insensitive to misspellings, leads to better retrieval quality than commonly used stemming algorithms. We do this by performing tests on artificially corrupted test collections and examine which characteristics of the queries and the relevant documents influence the relative retrieval quality achieved using the different conflation methods.
180–265 GHz, 17–24 dBm output power broadband, high-gain power amplifiers in InP HBT

We report here two 250-nm InP HBT power amplifiers operating between 180–265 GHz. A 3-stage, 8-PA cell combined design demonstrates S21 gain exceeding 25-dB between 202–257 GHz and 20-dB between 194–265 GHz. Peak output power is 140-mW at 200-GHz with 14.7-dB gain and 5.1% PAE. The PA Psat RF power is at least 100-mW from 190–235 GHz, 82-mW from 183–245 GHz, and 50-mW from 183–263 GHz. This represents 80-GHz large-signal bandwidth from this design. A 3-stage, 16-PA cell combined design demonstrates S21 gain exceeding 24-dB between 200–255 GHz and 20-dB between 194–262 GHz. Peak output power is 248-mW at 200-GHz with 9.0-dB gain and 4.1% PAE. The PA Psat RF power is at least 200-mW from 195–215 GHz, 170-mW from 190–220 GHz, and 100-mW from 185–255 GHz. This represents 70-GHz large-signal bandwidth from this design. These InP HBT amplifier chips represent improvements to state-of-the-art in the following areas: 13% increase to the maximum PA power reported above 200-GHz, first reported 200-mW PA power with 20-GHz (195–215 GHz) operation, highest PA power reported above 240-GHz, first demonstrated 100-mW power to 255-GHz, and 70-GHz (16-cell PA) and 80-GHz (8-cell PA) bandwidth covering most of the WR04 waveguide frequency band.
Reorganization of alpha-actinin and vinculin induced by a phorbol ester in living cells

We have used fluorescent analogue cytochemistry, image intensification, and digital image processing to examine the redistribution of alpha- actinin and vinculin in living cultured African green monkey kidney (BSC-1) cells treated with the phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol- 13-acetate (TPA). Before treatment, microinjected alpha-actinin shows characteristic distribution along stress fibers and at adhesion plaques; vinculin is localized predominantly at adhesion plaques. Soon after the addition of TPA, highly dynamic membrane ruffles begin to form. These incorporate a large amount of alpha-actinin but little vinculin. Alpha-actinin is subsequently depleted, more or less uniformly, from stress fibers. Disrupted stress fibers often fragment into aggregates and move into the perinuclear region. Careful analyses of fluorescence intensity distribution indicate that alpha-actinin is depleted more rapidly from adhesion plaques than from stress fibers. Furthermore, the depletion of alpha-actinin from adhesion plaques is also faster than either the depletion of vinculin or the disappearance of focal contacts. These observations indicate that TPA may initiate disruption of stress fibers by interfering with a link between alpha- actinin and vinculin, causing alpha-actinin to be preferentially depleted from adhesion plaques.
Human-Centred AI in Military Cyber Operations

: Military Cyber Operations are an integral part of modern warfare and national security strategies as they crossed the science fiction realm, represent a real operational battlefield, and developed into an option in military toolboxes. Seeing ongoing technological advancements that allow the creation and use of complex mechanisms and technologies, the increasing digitalization of critical infrastructure, the growing abundance of data collected, generated, and exchanged between multiple parties, and the rise of stakeholders engaging in building and/or executing military Cyber Operations together with the increased number of such operations being conducted all over the globe reflects important lessons that need to be learned: the core element of such operations are humans: they build, acquire, execute, and assess them while also being impacted entities by them, e.g., through (psychological or physical) injury or death, or damage or destructions of human infrastructure. Moreover, the key process governing all the life cycle phases of military Cyber Operations is human decision-making or humanly assisted/augmented decision-making relying on advanced intelligent methods built with AI. Nevertheless, building and conducting military Cyber Operations should be done in a legal, responsible, and effective way implying a deep understanding of the context and adversary, proper target and cyber weapon selection, development, and use, and a clear overview of potential effects produced. These represent important aspects that should be properly defined and tackled in this domain. Hence, this research aims to introduce the Human-Centred AI concept and approach in the military cyber domain to illustrate ways to prioritize human involvement and interaction, human understanding, effective decision-making, and ethical considerations when building and conducting military Cyber Operations. To this end, an extensive literature review is conducted in the military, cyber, and AI domains together with instantiation on military Cyber Operations.