Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Incremental grounded language learning in robot-robot interactions — Examples from spatial language

This paper reports on models of the grounded co-acquisition of syntax and semantics of locative spatial language in developmental robots. We instantiate theories from Cognitive Linguistics and Developmental Psychology and show how a learner robot can learn to produce and interpret spatial utterances in guided-learning interactions with a tutor robot. Particular emphasis is put on the role of the tutor. Our experiments show that the learner rapidly becomes successful in communication given the right tutoring strategy and learning operators.
Unitary Definition of Matric Suction

Matric suction or negative matric potential (unit: kilopascal) is the free energy change in a unit volume of water when isothermally transferred from the soil water state to the free water state, and is defined at the soil-water-air representative elementary volume (REV) [Fig. 1(a)]. Matric suction has been widely considered as the most fundamental physical variable governing unsaturated soil behavior such as effective stress, shear strength, swelling pressure, freezing temperature depression, and thermal conductivity. Nevertheless, the prevailing definition of matric suction (ψm) as negative capillary pressure or the pressure difference between pore air (ua) and pore water (uw) still bears incomplete physics ψm 1⁄4 ua − uw ð1Þ
III–V multijunction solar cells for concentrating photovoltaics

Concerns about the changing environment and fossil fuel depletion have prompted much controversy and scrutiny. One way to address these issues is to use concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) as an alternate source for energy production. Multijunction solar cells built from III–V semiconductors are being evaluated globally in CPV systems designed to supplement electricity generation for utility companies. The high efficiency of III–V multijunction concentrator cells, with demonstrated efficiency over 40% since 2006, strongly reduces the cost of CPV systems, and makes III–V multijunction cells the technology of choice for most concentrator systems today. In designing multijunction cells, consideration must be given to the epitaxial growth of structures so that the lattice parameter between material systems is compatible for enhancing device performance. Low resistance metal contacts are crucial for attaining high performance. Optimization of the front metal grid pattern is required to maximize light absorption and minimize I2R losses in the gridlines and the semiconductor sheet. Understanding how a multijunction device works is important for the design of next-generation high efficiency solar cells, which need to operate in the 45%–50% range for a CPV system to make better economical sense. However, the survivability of solar cells in the field is of chief concern, and accelerated tests must be conducted to assess the reliability of devices during operation in CPV systems. These topics are the focus of this review.
Endothelial Cell–Derived Endothelin-1 Promotes Cardiac Fibrosis in Diabetic Hearts Through Stimulation of Endothelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition

Background— Persistently high plasma endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels in diabetic patients have been associated with the development of cardiac fibrosis, which results from the deposition of extracellular matrix and fibroblast recruitment from an as-yet unknown source. The underlying mechanism, however, remains elusive. Here, we hypothesize that ET-1 might contribute to the accumulation of cardiac fibroblasts through an endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition in diabetic hearts. Methods and Results— We induced diabetes mellitus in vascular endothelial cell–specific ET-1 knockout [ET-1f/f;Tie2-Cre (+)] mice and their wild-type littermates using the toxin streptozotocin. Gene expression and histological and functional parameters were examined at 8, 24, and 36 weeks after the induction of diabetes mellitus. Diabetes mellitus increased cardiac ET-1 expression in wild-type mice, leading to mitochondrial disruption and myofibril disarray through the generation of superoxide. Diabetic mice also showed impairment of cardiac microvascularization and a decrease in cardiac vascular endothelial growth factor expression. ET-1 further promotes cardiac fibrosis and heart failure through the accumulation of fibroblasts via endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition. All of these features were abolished in ET-1f/f;Tie2-Cre (+) hearts. Targeted ET-1 gene silencing by small interfering RNA in cultured human endothelial cells ameliorated high glucose–induced phenotypic transition and acquisition of a fibroblast marker through the inhibition of transforming growth factor-&bgr; signaling activation and preservation of the endothelial cell-to-cell contact regulator VE-cadherin. Conclusions— These results provide new insights suggesting that diabetes mellitus–induced cardiac fibrosis is associated with the emergence of fibroblasts from endothelial cells and that this endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition process is stimulated by ET-1. Targeting endothelial cell–derived ET-1 might be beneficial in the prevention of diabetic cardiomyopathy.
Characterization of tissue structure at varying length scales using temporal diffusion spectroscopy

The concepts, theoretical behavior and experimental applications of temporal diffusion spectroscopy are reviewed and illustrated. Temporal diffusion spectra are obtained using oscillating‐gradient waveforms in diffusion‐weighted measurements, and represent the manner in which various spectral components of molecular velocity correlations vary in different geometrical structures that restrict or hinder free movements. Measurements made at different gradient frequencies reveal information on the scale of restrictions or hindrances to free diffusion, and the shape of a spectrum reveals the relative contributions of spatial restrictions at different distance scales. Such spectra differ from other so‐called diffusion spectra which depict spatial frequencies and are defined at a fixed diffusion time. Experimentally, oscillating gradients at moderate frequency are more feasible for exploring restrictions at very short distances which, in tissues, correspond to structures smaller than cells. We describe the underlying concepts of temporal diffusion spectra and provide analytical expressions for the behavior of the diffusion coefficient as a function of gradient frequency in simple geometries with different dimensions. Diffusion in more complex model media that mimic tissues has been simulated using numerical methods. Experimental measurements of diffusion spectra have been obtained in suspensions of particles and cells, as well as in vivo in intact animals. An observation of particular interest is the increased contrast and heterogeneity observed in tumors using oscillating gradients at moderate frequency compared with conventional pulse gradient methods, and the potential for detecting changes in tumors early in their response to treatment. Computer simulations suggest that diffusion spectral measurements may be sensitive to intracellular structures, such as nuclear size, and that changes in tissue diffusion properties may be measured before there are changes in cell density. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A 0.6V 8b 100MS/s SAR ADC with minimized DAC capacitance and switching energy in 65nm CMOS

This paper presents a monotonic multi-switching technique that is implemented in a 8b SAR ADC. The proposed switching reduces 1/2 total DAC capacitance and achieves more than 80% switching energy saving when compared to the most advanced VCM-based or merged capacitor switching methods. Besides, conversion redundancies are added to compensate the errors resulting from insufficient DAC settling and reference noise. The proposed 8-bit SAR ADC operates at 100MS/s with 0.6V supply in 65nm CMOS. The simulation results show that the design achieves 48.8dB SNDR with only 0.524mW power. The Figure-of-Merit (FoM) is 23.35fJ/conversion-step.
The pharaonic town on Sai Island and its role in the urban landscape of New Kingdom Kush

Introduction The region of so-called Upper Nubia (Kush), in particular the area between the Second and the Third Cataracts, is rich in archaeological remains and monuments datable to the New Kingdom. These Upper Nubian monuments are mosdy stone temples like the impressive temple of Soleb; however, these temples originally were integrated into settlements and fortified towns which are at present not fully explored. Consequently, our understanding of the urban landscape of New Kingdom Kush is still limited. Various types of records including rock inscriptions and stelae testify that the Egyptian involvement in Nubia was intensive during this period.1 Sai Island, as one of the most important New Kingdom sites in Upper Nubia, is the focus of the European Research Council project AcrossBorders. The site can be understood as a prime example for settlement policy of New Kingdom Egypt in Upper Nubia. The project aims to provide new insights on the lifestyle and the living conditions in New Kingdom Nubia thanks to new fieldwork and multi-layered research on Sai Island. The main hypothesis that has to be tested is whether the settlement on Sai Island can be considered as an Egyptian microcosm despite its location outside Egypt and its specific topographical, environmental and cultural situation. In order to do so, a detailed comparison of two major settlement sites of the 18th Dynasty located in Egypt proper is being undertaken: AcrossBorders explores the material culture and architectural remains from Abydos and Elephantine to provide direct comparisons for Sai. Since 2013, AcrossBorders has conducted fieldwork in the New Kingdom fortified town of Sai. New excavation areas within the town were opened and added important knowledge concerning the general layout of the town, its evolution and changing character. Together with resumed work in the pyramid cemetery SAC5, new archaeological evidence for reconstructing the establishment of Pharaonic administration in Upper Nubia was discovered. Based on the fresh data from AcrossBorders’ excavations, this paper presents the current state of knowledge regarding the evolution of the Pharaonic town on Sai Island and its role in the urban landscape of New Kingdom Kush.
Technical note: Decomposing a time series into independent trend, seasonal and random components

Abstract. Many time series observations in hydrology and climate show large seasonal variations and it has long been common practice to separate the original data into trend, seasonal and random components. We were interested in using that decomposition approach as a basis for understanding variability in hydro-climatic time series. For that purpose, it is desirable that the trend, seasonal and random components are independent so that the variance of the original time series equals the sum of the variances of the three components. We show that the resulting decomposition with the trend component traditionally estimated either as a linear trend or a moving average does not produce components that are independent. Instead we introduce the rarely adopted two-way ANOVA model into studies of hydro-climatic variability and define the trend as equal to the annual anomaly. This traditional approach produces a decomposition with three independent components. We then use global land precipitation data to demonstrate a simple application showing how this decomposition method can be used as a basis for comparing hydro-climatic variability. We anticipate that the three-part decomposition based on the two-way ANOVA approach will prove useful for future applications that seek to understand the space-time dimensions of hydro-climatic variability.
Statistical Measure to Compute the Similarity between Answers in Online Question-Answering Portal

similarity plays an important role in the field of natural language processing where it can be used for information processing, text mining and online question answering portals. Among all these applications sentence similarity is one of the most critical issues which has attracted the attention of many researchers. In this paper, a system which automates the process of subjective answer checking with high accuracy is proposed. Answer assessment system is an arrangement where answers given by users are matched with the stored answers in question answer database to judge their correctness. The main focus here is to improve the similarity of user"s answer with the stored answer in question answer database. In addition to this, the intention is to remove the mistakes from answer checking process through automated system. For experimental purpose a set of questions and their answers have been taken and these questions have been answered by a random user. Results show that the method gives higher accuracy as compared to original method. Proposed method makes question answering process fast and efficient.
Fuzzy selection based differential evolution algorithm for analog cell sizing capturing imprecise human intentions

In this paper, a fuzzy selection-based differential evolution algorithm (FSBDE) for analog cell sizing is investigated. By combining the selection-based constraint handling method and fuzzy membership functions, a new selection methodology for handling fuzzy constraints is proposed and is integrated with the differential evolution (DE) algorithm to construct FSBDE. FSBDE specializes in solving analog sizing problems capturing imprecise human intentions, both avoiding the inflexibility of crisp constraint sizing methods and the excessive relaxation of available fuzzy sizing approaches. The high optimization ability of the DE algorithm is also inherited in this approach. Comparisons are carried out with the crisp selection-based differential evolution algorithm (SBDE) and DE in conjunction with available fuzzy optimization methods, showing that the proposed FSBDE algorithm presents important advantages in terms of fuzzy constraint handling ability and optimization quality.
Tool Wear Estimation using Support Vector Machines in Ball-nose End Milling

This paper introduces a method to determine the tool wear by measured cutting force in Ball-nose End Milling. The features will be extracted from the measured cutting force with different flank wear. As the adaptive window width in wavelet transform is an advantage for analyzing and monitoring the rapid transient of small amplitude of cutting force signals when cutting engagement changes along the sculptured surface tool path, wavelet transform (WT) is more effective than FFT monitoring index for ball-nose end milling. In this research, cutting force signals will be analyzed in time-frequency domain to explore sensitive monitoring features in ball-nose end milling slope surfaces. As a supervised method, support vector machines (SVM) was developed for the classification problem to take advantage of prior knowledge of tool wear and construct a hyper- plane as the decision surface. In this paper, SVM will be formulated into regression problem to estimate tool wear rather than decision maker.
Genetic and Biochemical Characterization of the Streptococcus pneumoniae PcrA Helicase and Its Role in Plasmid Rolling Circle Replication

ABSTRACT PcrA is a chromosomally encoded DNA helicase of gram-positive bacteria involved in replication of rolling circle replicating plasmids. Efficient interaction between PcrA and the plasmid-encoded replication initiator (Rep) protein is considered a requirement for the plasmid to replicate in a given host, and thus, the ability of a Rep protein to interact with heterologous PcrA helicases has been invoked as a determinant of plasmid promiscuity. We characterized transcription of the Streptococcus pneumoniae pcrA gene in its genetic context and studied the biochemical properties of its product, the PcrA Spn helicase. Transcription of the pneumococcal pcrA gene was directed by promoter Pa, consisting of an extended −10 box. Promoter Pa also accounted for expression of a second essential gene, radC, which was transcribed with much lower efficiency than pcrA, probably due to the presence of a terminator/attenuator sequence located between the two genes. PcrA Spn displayed single-stranded DNA-dependent ATPase activity. PcrA Spn showed 5′→3′ and 3′→5′ helicase activities and bound efficiently to partially duplex DNA containing a hairpin structure adjacent to a 6-nucleotide 5′ or 3′ single-stranded tail and one unpaired (flap) nucleotide in the complementary strand. PcrA Spn interacted specifically with RepC, the initiator of staphylococcal plasmid pT181. Although the pneumococcal helicase was able to initiate unwinding of the RepC-nicked pT181 DNA, it was much less processive in this activity than the cognate staphylococcal PcrA protein. Accordingly, PcrA Spn was inefficient in in vitro replication of pT181, and perhaps as a consequence, this plasmid could not be established in S. pneumoniae.
Activation of the unfolded protein response in vascular endothelial cells of nondiabetic obese adults.

CONTEXT Activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR) is emerging as an important molecular signature of cardiometabolic diseases associated with obesity. However, despite the well-established role of the vascular endothelium in obesity-related cardiometabolic dysfunction, it is unclear whether the UPR is activated in endothelial cells of obese adults. OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to determine whether markers of UPR activation are increased in endothelial cells (ECs) of nondiabetic obese adults with impaired endothelial function. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Endothelial cells were obtained from antecubital veins of the nondiabetic obese adults [body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m(2), n = 12] with impaired endothelial function and from their nonobese peers (BMI < 30 kg/m(2), n = 14). MAIN OUTCOME VARIABLES UPR activation via expression (quantitative immunofluorescence) of the proximal UPR sensors, inositol-requiring endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-to-nucleus signaling protein 1 (IRE1), RNA-dependent protein kinase-like ER eukaryotic initiation factor-2α kinase (PERK), and activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6), were the main outcome variables. RESULTS IRE1 expression was greater in obese vs nonobese individuals (0.84 ± 0.09 vs 0.47 ± 0.02 IRE1 intensity/human umbilical vein EC (HUVEC) intensity (n = 10/8, P < .01). Obese individuals also had greater EC activation of UPR stress sensors PERK and ATF6, indicated by increased expression of phosphorylated PERK [p-PERK; 0.49 ± 0.05 vs 0.36 ± 0.03, p-PERK (threonine 981) intensity/HUVEC intensity, n = 10 men, 13 women, P < . 05] and nuclear localization of ATF6 (0.38 ± 0.05 vs 0.23 ± 0.02, nuclear ATF6 intensity/HUVEC intensity, n = 5 men, 9 women, P < .01), respectively. Stepwise linear regression analysis revealed that indices of body fat (BMI and waist circumference) were the strongest independent predictors of all 3 UPR mediators, explaining between 18% and 59% of the variance in endothelial cell expression of IRE1, p-PERK, and nuclear ATF6 localization. CONCLUSION These results provide novel evidence for UPR activation in the endothelial cells of nondiabetic obese adults with vascular endothelial dysfunction.
Brainstem: Neglected Locus in Neurodegenerative Diseases

The most frequent neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and frontotemporal lobar degeneration associated with protein TDP-43 (FTLD–TDP). Neuropathologically, NDs are characterized by abnormal intracellular and extra-cellular protein deposits and by disease-specific neuronal death. Practically all terminal stages of NDs are clinically associated with dementia. Therefore, major attention was directed to protein deposits and neuron loss in supratentorial (telencephalic) brain regions in the course of NDs. This was also true for PD, although the pathological hallmark of PD is degeneration of pigmented neurons of the brainstem’s substantia nigra (SN). However, PD pathophysiology was explained by dopamine depletion in the telencephalic basal ganglia due to insufficiency and degeneration of the projection neurons located in SN. In a similar line of argumentation AD- and FTLD-related clinical deficits were exclusively explained by supratentorial allo- and neo-cortical laminar neuronal necrosis. Recent comprehensive studies in AD and PD early stages found considerable and unexpected involvement of brainstem nuclei, which could have the potential to profoundly change our present concepts on origin, spread, and early clinical diagnosis of these diseases. In contrast with PD and AD, few studies addressed brainstem involvement in the course of the different types of FTLD–TDP. Some of the results, including ours, disclosed a higher and more widespread pathology than anticipated. The present review will focus mainly on the impact of brainstem changes during the course of the most frequent NDs including PD, AD, and FTLD–TDP, with special emphasis on the need for more comprehensive research on FTLDs.
A study of interstellar medium of dwarf galaxies using H i power spectrum analysis

We estimate the power spectrum of H Iintensity fluctuations for a sample of eight galaxies (seven dwarf and one spiral). The power spectrum can be fitted to a power-law P HI (U) = AU α for six of these galaxies, indicating turbulence is operational. The estimated best-fitting value for the slope ranges from ~ -1.5 (AND IV, NGC 628, UGC 4459 and GR 8) to ~ -2.6 (DDO 210 and NGC 3741). We interpret this bi-modality as being due to having effectively 2D turbulence on length-scales much larger than the scale-height of the galaxy disc and 3D otherwise. This allows us to use the estimated slope to set bounds on the scale-heights of the face-on galaxies in our sample. We also find that the power-law slope remains constant as we increase the channel thickness for all these galaxies, suggesting that the fluctuations in H I intensity are due to density fluctuations and not velocity fluctuations, or that the slope of the velocity structure function is ~0. Finally, for the four galaxies with '2D turbulence' we find that the slope α correlates with the star formation rate (SFR) per unit area, with larger SFRs leading to steeper power laws. Given our small sample size, this result needs to be confirmed with a larger sample.
Love-Wave Sensors Combined with Microfluidics for Fast Detection of Biological Warfare Agents

The following paper examines a time-efficient method for detecting biological warfare agents (BWAs). The method is based on a system of a Love-wave immunosensor combined with a microfluidic chip which detects BWA samples in a dynamic mode. In this way a continuous flow-through of the sample is created, promoting the reaction between antigen and antibody and allowing a fast detection of the BWAs. In order to prove this method, static and dynamic modes have been simulated and different concentrations of BWA simulants have been tested with two immunoreactions: phage M13 has been detected using the mouse monoclonal antibody anti-M13 (AM13), and the rabbit immunoglobulin (Rabbit IgG) has been detected using the polyclonal antibody goat anti-rabbit (GAR). Finally, different concentrations of each BWA simulants have been detected with a fast response time and a desirable level of discrimination among them has been achieved.