Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developmental Humanoids: Humanoids that Develop Skills Automatically

It is desirable for humans to control humanoids through high-level commands, but it is too tedious for humans to issue commands for every detailed action for every fraction of a second. However, it is extremely challenging for humans to program a humanoid robot to such a sufficient degree that it acts properly in typical unknown human environments. This is especially true for humanoids due to the very large number of redundant degrees of freedom and a large number of sensors that are required for humanoids to work safely and effectively in the human environment. How can we address this fundamental problem? Motivated by human mental development from infancy to adulthood, we enable robots develop its mind automatically, through online, real time interactions with its environment. Humans mentally “raise” the robot through “robot sitting” and “robot schools” instead of task-specific robot programming. The SAIL developmental robot that has been built at MSU is an early prototype of such new generation of robots.
Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Long‐Term HIV Dynamic Models and Antiviral Response

Summary HIV dynamics studies, based on differential equations, have significantly improved the knowledge on HIV infection. While first studies used simplified short‐term dynamic models, recent works considered more complex long‐term models combined with a global analysis of whole patient data based on nonlinear mixed models, increasing the accuracy of the HIV dynamic analysis. However statistical issues remain, given the complexity of the problem. We proposed to use the SAEM (stochastic approximation expectation‐maximization) algorithm, a powerful maximum likelihood estimation algorithm, to analyze simultaneously the HIV viral load decrease and the CD4 increase in patients using a long‐term HIV dynamic system. We applied the proposed methodology to the prospective COPHAR2–ANRS 111 trial. Very satisfactory results were obtained with a model with latent CD4 cells defined with five differential equations. One parameter was fixed, the 10 remaining parameters (eight with between‐patient variability) of this model were well estimated. We showed that the efficacy of nelfinavir was reduced compared to indinavir and lopinavir.
Tumor necrosis factor‐&agr; represses the expression of NHE2 through NF‐&kgr;B activation in intestinal epithelial cell model, C2BBe1

Background: High levels of proinflammatory cytokines are linked to pathogenesis of diarrhea in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Na+ absorption is compromised in IBD. The studies were designed to determine the effect of tumor necrosis factor‐&agr; (TNF‐&agr;) on the expression and activity of NHE2, a Na+/H+ exchanger (NHE) that is involved in transepithelial Na+ absorption in intestinal epithelial cells. Methods: NHE2 regulation was examined in TNF‐&agr;‐treated C2BBe1 cells by reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR), reporter gene assays, and Western blot analysis. NHE isoform activities were measured as ethyl‐isopropyl‐amiloride‐ and HOE694‐sensitive 22Na‐uptake. In vitro and in vivo protein‐DNA interactions were assessed by gel mobility shift assays and chromatin immunoprecipitation studies. Results: TNF‐&agr; treatment of C2BBe1 cells led to repression of NHE2 promoter activity, mRNA, and protein levels; and inhibited both NHE2 and NHE3 mediated 22Na‐uptake. 5′‐deletion analysis of the NHE2 promoter‐reporter constructs identified basepair −621 to −471 as the TNF‐&agr;‐responsive region (TNF‐RE). TNF‐&agr; activated NF‐&kgr;B subunits, p50 and p65, and their DNA‐binding to a putative NF‐&kgr;B motif within TNF‐RE. Mutations in the NF‐&kgr;B motif abolished NF‐&kgr;B‐DNA interactions and abrogated TNF‐&agr;‐induced repression. Ectopic overexpression of NF‐&kgr;B resulted in repression of NHE2 expression. Two functionally distinct inhibitors of NF‐&kgr;B blocked the inhibitory effect of TNF‐&agr;. Conclusions: The human NHE2 isoform is a direct target of transcription factor NF‐&kgr;B. TNF‐&agr;‐mediated activation of NF‐&kgr;B decreases the expression and activity of NHE2 in the intestinal epithelial cell line, C2BBe1. These findings implicate NF‐&kgr;B in the modulation of Na+ absorption during intestinal inflammatory conditions such as IBD where a high level of TNF‐&agr; is detected. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2011;)
Decision-related perturbations of decision-irrelevant eye movements

Significance Studies using limb movements to probe cognitive states have suggested an interactive model of cognition and motor action. Despite ample evidence showing that the neural activity in oculomotor brain circuits is correlated with the formation of decisions about where to move the eyes, it is not known whether there are interactions between such decision-related activity and decision-irrelevant oculomotor processing. By probing the oculomotor system with a decision-irrelevant saccadic eye movement during decision formation, we found that saccade metrics are affected by the strength and direction of motion evidence. Our results suggest that decision signals continuously flow into the oculomotor system during decision making, and further extend the interactive model of cognition and action into the oculomotor system. It is well established that ongoing cognitive functions affect the trajectories of limb movements mediated by corticospinal circuits, suggesting an interaction between cognition and motor action. Although there are also many demonstrations that decision formation is reflected in the ongoing neural activity in oculomotor brain circuits, it is not known whether the decision-related activity in those oculomotor structures interacts with eye movements that are decision irrelevant. Here we tested for an interaction between decisions and instructed saccades unrelated to the perceptual decision. Observers performed a direction-discrimination decision-making task, but made decision-irrelevant saccades before registering their motion decision with a button press. Probing the oculomotor circuits with these decision-irrelevant saccades during decision making revealed that saccade reaction times and peak velocities were influenced in proportion to motion strength, and depended on the directional congruence between decisions about visual motion and decision-irrelevant saccades. These interactions disappeared when observers passively viewed the motion stimulus but still made the same instructed saccades, and when manual reaction times were measured instead of saccade reaction times, confirming that these interactions result from decision formation as opposed to visual stimulation, and are specific to the oculomotor system. Our results demonstrate that oculomotor function can be affected by decision formation, even when decisions are communicated without eye movements, and that this interaction has a directionally specific component. These results not only imply a continuous and interactive mixture of motor and decision signals in oculomotor structures, but also suggest nonmotor recruitment of oculomotor machinery in decision making.
An option on the average European futures prices for an efficient hog producer risk management

The volatility of hog prices is high compared to most agricultural commodities. However, European hog producers do not benefit from any agricultural policy support. Through the continuous production process and induced selling activity on spot markets, producers benefit from a natural moving average product pricing. In addition, asymmetric price risk management is able to increase the expected utility of risk adverse hog producers. But, if there is a futures contract at the European Exchange (EUREX), there is no option market and as a consequence no derivative contracts on the European hog market. The article is presenting how financial intermediaries could offer an innovative derivative contract to complement the “naturall ” steady price of the French hog producers.
Embodied Hands : Modeling and Capturing Hands and Bodies Together * * Supplementary Material * *

For the creation of the MANO hand model, we first collect a large number of scans of hands in isolation. These scans are obtained with a scanner configured specifically to capture hands with a fixed wrist position. This allows us to capture the nuances of hand deformation. After capturing this data for both right and left hands, we create a single augmented dataset by mirroring the left hand scans to appear as right ones. This approach increases the size of the training data and removes the bias introduced by the handedness of the subjects. In practical terms, it results in a performance improvement as shown in the experiments section. The augmented dataset enables us to train a single consistent hand model for both hands, i.e. we train the right hand model and generate the left one by mirroring. Model components which depend on the global coordinate frame, like the mesh template T̄, the shape blend shapes BS and the pose blend shapes BP , require mirroring. The rest of the components (e.g. the blend weightsW and joint regressor J ) remain untouched. We define the sagittal plane in SMPL, x , as our mirroring plane. This entails the following mirroring transformation
Multi-Instanton Corrections to Superpotentials in Type II Compactifications

We consider two simple examples of multi-instanton configurations in type II four-dimensional superstring compactifications. The first one involves O(1) and U(1) D2-instantons embedded in $T^6/ (\mathbb{Z}_2\times \mathbb{Z}_2')$ geometry with SU(4) gauge symmetry coming from D6-branes and the second is related to the quiver gauge theory of orientifolded orbifold of conifold containing fractional D(-1)-instantons and D3-branes. The additional zero modes of instantons which appear at the intersection points are lifted through interactions stemming from dimensionally reduced F- and D-terms. It is shown that multi-instanton configurations effectively generate corrections to the usual nonperturbative superpotential for chiral matter.
System Times and Channel Availability for Secondary Transmissions in CRNs: A Dependability-Theory-Based Analysis

Reliability is of fundamental importance for the performance of secondary networks in cognitive radio networks (CRNs). To date, most studies have focused on predicting reliability parameters based on prior statistics of traffic patterns from user behavior. In this paper, we define a few reliability metrics for channel access in multichannel CRNs that are analogous to the concepts of reliability and availability in classical dependability theory. Continuous-time Markov chains are employed to model channel available and unavailable time intervals based on channel occupancy status. The impact on user access opportunities based on channel availability is investigated by analyzing the steady-state channel availability and several system times such as mean channel available time and mean time to first channel unavailability. Moreover, the complementary cumulative distribution function for channel availability is derived by applying the uniformization method, and it is evaluated as a measure of guaranteed availability for channel access by secondary users. The precision and the correctness of the derived analytical models are validated through discrete-event-based simulations. We believe that the reliability metric definitions and the analytical models proposed in this paper have their significance for reliability and availability analysis in CRNs.
Multi-robot Simultaneous Localization and Mapping using Particle Filters

This paper describes an on-line algorithm for multi-robot simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). The starting point is the single-robot Rao-Blackwellized particle filter described by Hähnel et al., and three key generalizations are made. First, the particle filter is extended to handle multi-robot SLAM problems in which the initial pose of the robots is known (such as occurs when all robots start from the same location). Second, an approximation is introduced to solve the more general problem in which the initial pose of robots is not known a priori (such as occurs when the robots start from widely separated locations). In this latter case, it is assumed that pairs of robots will eventually encounter one another, thereby determining their relative pose. This relative attitude is used to initialize the filter, and subsequent observations from both robots are combined into a common map. Third and finally, a method is introduced to integrate observations collected prior to the first robot encounter, using the notion of a virtual robot travelling backwards in time. This novel approach allows one to integrate all data from all robots into a single common map.
Ultrasound/Magnetic Targeting with SPIO-DOX-Microbubble Complex for Image-Guided Drug Delivery in Brain Tumors

One of the greatest challenges in the deployment of chemotherapeutic drugs against brain tumors is ensuring that sufficient drug concentrations reach the tumor, while minimizing drug accumulation at undesired sites. Recently, injection of therapeutic agents following blood-brain barrier (BBB) opening by focused ultrasound (FUS) with microbubbles (MBs) has been shown to enhance drug delivery in targeted brain regions. Nevertheless, the distribution and quantitative deposition of agents delivered to the brain are still hard to estimate. Based on our previous work on superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO)-loaded MBs, we present a novel theranostic complex of SPIO-Doxorubicin (DOX)-conjugated MB (SD-MB) for drug delivery to the brain. Magnetic labeling of the drug enables direct visualization via magnetic resonance imaging, and also facilitates magnetic targeting (MT) to actively enhance targeted deposition of the drug. In a rat glioma model, we demonstrated that FUS sonication can be used with SD-MBs to simultaneously facilitate BBB opening and allow dual ultrasound/magnetic targeting of chemotherapeutic agent (DOX) delivery. The accumulation of SD complex within brain tumors can be significantly enhanced by MT (25.7 fold of DOX, 7.6 fold of SPIO). The change in relaxation rate R2 (1/T2) within tumors was highly correlated with SD deposition as quantified by high performance liquid chromatography (R2 = 0.93) and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (R2 = 0.94), demonstrating real-time monitoring of DOX distribution. Our results suggest that SD-MBs can serve as multifunction agents to achieve advanced molecular theranostics.
Implications of Incorporating Learning Probabilistic Context-sensitive Grammar in Genetic Programming on Evolvability of Adaptive Locomotion Gaits of Snakebot

In this work we propose an approach of incorporating learning contextsensitive grammar in strongly typed genetic programming (GP) employed for evolution and adaptation of locomotion gaits of simulated snake-like robot (Snakebot). In our approach the probabilistic context-sensitive grammar is derived from the originally defined context-free grammar (which usually expresses the syntax of genetic programs in strongly typed GP), using aggregated reward values obtained from the evolved best-of-run healthy, undamaged Snakebots. The probabilities of applying each of particular production rules with multiple right-hand side alternatives in derived probabilistic context-sensitive grammar depend on the context, and these probabilities are “learned” from the aggregated reward values. Empirically obtained results indicate that employing probabilistic context-sensitive grammar contributes to the improving the ability of Snakebot to adapt to partial damage by gradually improving its velocity characteristics. Snakebot recovers completely from single damage and recovers a major extent of its original velocity when more significant damage is inflicted. In all considered cases of inflicted partial damage of 1, 2, 4, and 8 out of 15 morphological segments, the incorporation of learning context sensitive grammar in GP improves the evolvability of adaptive locomotion gaits in that the recovery of partially damaged Snakebot is (i) faster and to (ii) higher values of velocity of locomotion.
Cool: On Coverage with Solar-Powered Sensors

In this paper, we study the dynamic node activation schedule for the utility based coverage problem in solar-powered wireless sensor networks. We assume that the utility achieved by a WSN for coverage service is a sub modular function over the set of sensors that will provide the service. We first present an integer programming formulation with sub modular objective functions. We then present an efficient simple greedy hill-climbing algorithm such that the achieved average utility of the computed schedule is at least 1/2 times that achieved by the optimal schedule. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first polynomial time algorithm that can ensure a good constant approximation of the achieved utility for multi-target coverage problem. We conduct extensive evaluations to study the performances of our proposed aggregation scheduling algorithm on real testbed. Our evaluation results corroborate our theoretical analysis.
Estimating and mapping ecological processes influencing microbial community assembly

Ecological community assembly is governed by a combination of (i) selection resulting from among-taxa differences in performance; (ii) dispersal resulting from organismal movement; and (iii) ecological drift resulting from stochastic changes in population sizes. The relative importance and nature of these processes can vary across environments. Selection can be homogeneous or variable, and while dispersal is a rate, we conceptualize extreme dispersal rates as two categories; dispersal limitation results from limited exchange of organisms among communities, and homogenizing dispersal results from high levels of organism exchange. To estimate the influence and spatial variation of each process we extend a recently developed statistical framework, use a simulation model to evaluate the accuracy of the extended framework, and use the framework to examine subsurface microbial communities over two geologic formations. For each subsurface community we estimate the degree to which it is influenced by homogeneous selection, variable selection, dispersal limitation, and homogenizing dispersal. Our analyses revealed that the relative influences of these ecological processes vary substantially across communities even within a geologic formation. We further identify environmental and spatial features associated with each ecological process, which allowed mapping of spatial variation in ecological-process-influences. The resulting maps provide a new lens through which ecological systems can be understood; in the subsurface system investigated here they revealed that the influence of variable selection was associated with the rate at which redox conditions change with subsurface depth.
Towards Benchmarked Sleep Detection with Wrist-Worn Sensing Units

The monitoring of sleep by quantifying sleeping time and quality is pivotal in many preventive health care scenarios. A substantial amount of wearable sensing products have been introduced to the market for just this reason, detecting whether the user is either sleeping or awake. Assessing these devices for their accuracy in estimating sleep is a daunting task, as their hardware design tends to be different and many are closed-source systems that have not been clinically tested. In this paper, we present a challenging benchmark dataset from an open source wrist-worn data logger that contains relatively high-frequent (100Hz) 3D inertial data from 42 sleep lab patients, along with their data from clinical polysomnography. We analyse this dataset with two traditional approaches for detecting sleep and wake states and propose a new algorithm specifically for 3D acceleration data, which operates on a principle of Estimation of Stationary Sleep-segments (ESS). Results show that all three methods generally over-estimate for sleep, with our method performing slightly better (almost 79% overall median accuracy) than the traditional activity count-based methods.
The Virulence Regulator PrfA Promotes Biofilm Formation by Listeria monocytogenes

ABSTRACT Listeria monocytogenes is a food-borne facultative intracellular pathogen. It is widespread in the environment and has several distinct life-styles. The key transcriptional activator PrfA positively regulates L. monocytogenes virulence genes to mediate the transition from extracellular, flagellum-propelled cell to intracellular pathogen. Here we report the first evidence that PrfA also has a significant positive impact on extracellular biofilm formation. Mutants lacking prfA were defective in surface-adhered biofilm formation. The ΔprfA mutant exhibited wild-type flagellar motility, and its biofilm defect occurred after initial surface adhesion. We also observed that mutations that led to the constitutive expression of PrfA-dependent virulence genes had a minimal impact on biofilm formation. Furthermore, biofilm development was enhanced in a mutant encoding a PrfA protein variant unable to fully transition from the extracellular form to the virulent, intracellular activity conformation. These results indicate that PrfA positively regulates biofilm formation and suggest that PrfA has a global role in modulating the life-style of L. monocytogenes. The requirement of PrfA for optimal biofilm formation may provide selective pressure to maintain this critical virulence regulator when L. monocytogenes is outside host cells in the environment.
Complete Genome Sequences of Two Interactive Moderate Thermophiles, Paenibacillus napthalenovorans 32O-Y and Paenibacillus sp. 32O-W

ABSTRACT Microorganisms with the capability to desulfurize petroleum are in high demand with escalating restrictions currently placed on fuel purity. Thermophilic desulfurizers are particularly valuable in high-temperature industrial applications. We report the whole-genome sequences of Paenibacillus napthalenovorans 32O-Y and Paenibacillus sp. 32O-W, which can and cannot, respectively, metabolize dibenzothiophene.
Post‐Golgi Supramolecular Assembly of Aquaporin‐4 in Orthogonal Arrays

The supramolecular assembly of aquaporin‐4 (AQP4) in orthogonal arrays of particles (OAPs) involves N‐terminus interactions of the M23‐AQP4 isoform. We found AQP4 OAPs in cell plasma membranes but not in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) or Golgi, as shown by: (i) native gel electrophoresis of brain and AQP4‐transfected cells, (ii) photobleaching recovery of green fluorescent protein‐AQP4 chimeras in live cells and (iii) freeze‐fracture electron microscopy (FFEM). We found that AQP4 OAP formation in plasma membranes, but not in the Golgi, was not related to AQP4 density, pH, membrane lipid composition, C‐terminal PDZ domain interactions or α‐syntrophin expression. Remarkably, however, fusion of AQP4‐containing Golgi vesicles with (AQP4‐free) plasma membrane vesicles produced OAPs, suggesting the involvement of plasma membrane factor(s) in AQP4 OAP formation. In investigating additional possible determinants of OAP assembly we discovered membrane curvature‐dependent OAP assembly, in which OAPs were disrupted by extrusion of plasma membrane vesicles to ∼110 nm diameter, but not to ∼220 nm diameter. We conclude that AQP4 supramolecular assembly in OAPs is a post‐Golgi phenomenon involving plasma membrane‐specific factor(s). Post‐Golgi and membrane curvature‐dependent OAP assembly may be important for vesicle transport of AQP4 in the secretory pathway and AQP4‐facilitated astrocyte migration, and suggests a novel therapeutic approach for neuromyelitis optica.
In-Vitro Culture and Characterization of Spermatogonial Stem Cells (SSCs) in Pre-Pubertal Mice

1 Department of Veterinary Anatomy, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai600 007, India 2 Centre for Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai600 007, India 3 Centralised Instrumentation laboratory, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai600 007, India *Corresponding author