Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maneuver-based Control Interventions During Automated Driving: Comparing Touch, Voice, and Mid-Air Gestures as Input Modalities

Self-driving cars will relief the human from the driving task. Nevertheless, the human might want to intervene in the driving process and thus needs the possibility to control the car. Switching back to fully manual controls is uncomfortable once being passive and engaging in non-driving-related activities. A more comfortable way is controlling the car with elemental maneuvers (e.g., "turn left" or "stop"). Whereas touch interaction concepts exist, contactless interaction through voice and mid-air gestures has not yet been explored for maneuver-based car control. In this paper, we, therefore, compare the general eligibility of voice and mid-air gesture with touch interaction as the primary maneuver selection mechanism in a driving simulator study. Our results show high usability for all modalities. Contactless interaction leads to a more positive emotional perception of the interaction, yet mid-air gestures lead to higher task load. Overall, voice and touch control are preferred over mid-air gestures by most users.
Benefits of Ecological Interfaces Under Equivalent Sensor Sets

Critics of Ecological Interface Design (EID) laboratory studies have argued that the experiments are confounded by non-equivalent sensor sets reflected in the contrasting interfaces. Whereas some EID proponents have responded by emphasizing theoretical justifications for the interfaces employed, the critique is grounded in practical challenges that endure in human-machine interface research. We construct an experiment from data that includes an interface that removes the sensor set confound. The results are surprising. Adding additional sensor information to the data-impoverished non-EID interface results in poorer task performance and no improvements in control stability. Participants using the EID interface exhibited superior task performance and control stability to those in two non-EID conditions. This result speaks to the generalizability of EID research findings to industry applications.
Flow and viscoelastic properties of xanthan gum solutions

Dilute and semidilute aqueous solutions of unpasteurized xanthan gums in the native and renatured conformation are investigated. The rheological behaviour for concentrations up to 3g/L can be described by a classical polymer entanglement mechanism with no predominant hydrodynamic interactions at higher concentrations in contrast with the previous literature data
Metasurface Quantum Well Photodetectors with Broadened Photoresponse Using a Patchwork of Cavities within a Subwavelength Period

The integration of quantum well infrared photodetectors with plasmon cavities has allowed for demonstration of sensitive photodetectors in the mid-infrared. These detectors typically use only a single type of plasmon cavity, but previous studies of metasurface absorbers has shown that combining multiple cavities in a single subwavelength period can generate complex photoresponses such as multi-band and broadband absorption. In this report, we use a simple square cavity design as a building block for demonstrating detectors with a broadened photoresponse. Device performance of simple square detectors is comparable to previous highdetectivity designs, and by using a patchwork of square cavities within a single subwavelength period, we can subsequently broaden photoresponse by 1.5 times. Absorption in these patchwork cavity detectors shows good agreement with previous reports for metasurface absorbers, and suggests that this design and fabrication process could serve as a roadmap for integrating detectors and metasurface cavities with more complex photoresponses.
Brain-Computer Interface for children: state-of-the-art and challenges*

This work proposes an overview of the recent applications of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology for pediatric populations. Current BCIs have demonstrated the possibility to provide an alternative communication and interaction channel for people suffering from severe motor disabilities. However, to date research has been predominantly conducted in adults, only a few systems have been applied to pediatric population. A survey was carried out to show the ongoing trends of using BCI systems with children. We discuss three areas of applications where BCI might be helpful to children — "Communication & Control", "BCI Gaming for Neurofeedback Training" and "Rehabilitation" — highlighting the current limitations and the possible future challenges.
Influence of feed restriction method and season on the chemical composition of meat in Koekoek chickens

The main objective of the study was to determine the effect of restricted feeding and season on carcass chemical composition of Koekoek chickens. Two hundred and seventy hens and 27 cocks were used. The experiment was designed as a factorial of two seasons and four feeding regime treatments. The four treatments were consisted of chickens full-fed during both rearing and laying phases (AA), those shifted to restricted feeding during the laying phase (AR), birds fed restrictedly during the rearing phase and shifted to full feeding in the laying phase (RA) and those fed restrictedly during both rearing and laying phases (RR). Each treatment had seven replicates (10 birds per replicate) with an exception of RR treatment which was replicated six times (10 birds per replicate). Data was collected at 18 and 32 weeks of age. Data collected was subjected to SPSS (17.00) statistical package and analyzed by using multifactorial analysis of variance (ANOVA). At the age of 18 weeks, feed restriction had an impact on dry matter, fat and crude protein percentage. At 32 weeks of age, birds that were fed restrictedly had reduced fat content and increased crude protein. The lowest crude protein percentage was recorded in chickens that were allocated to full feeding for the entire study (AA). Chickens that were allotted to summer treatment had a higher dry matter and crude protein content than chickens that were in winter treatment at 18 weeks of age. Koekoek chickens that were in summer and winter treatments performed differently in terms dry matter, ash, crude fat and crude protein percentages at the age of 32 weeks. Based on the findings of this study it is concluded that chickens with higher slaughter weights resulted in a lower crude protein and higher amount of fat regardless of the slaughter age. Chicken meat that was produced in winter had a higher dry matter and crude protein content compared to that produced in summer at the slaughter age of 18 weeks. In the laying phase the meat of Koekoek chickens that were reared in winter had a higher dry matter, ash, fat and crude protein percentages than that of chickens produced in summer suggesting that the cold winter conditions have the potential to preserve the nutrient composition of chicken meat.
Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science

The series Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science was conceived in the broadest framework of interdisciplinary and international concerns. Natural scientists, mathematicians, social scientists and philosophers have contributed to the series, as have historians and sociologists of science, linguists, psychologists, physicians, and literary critics. The series has been able to include works by authors from many other countries around the world. The editors believe that the history and philosophy of science should itself be scientific, self-consciously critical, humane as well as rational, sceptical and undogmatic while also receptive to discussion of first principles. One of the aims of Boston Studies, therefore, is to develop collaboration among scientists, historians and philosophers. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science looks into and reflects on interactions between epistemological and historical dimensi ons in an effort to understand the scientific enterprise from every viewpoint
Morphology and Surface Characteristics of Particulates From Silicon Carbide Industries

Faced with the lack of a correlation between health effects and exposures to known air contaminants in silicon carbide plants, an attempt was made to better characterize particles from these working environments with the use of electron microscopy with energy dispersive x-ray analysis and selected area electron diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning Auger spectroscopy. The occurrence of SiC fibers was confirmed. SiC particulates were shown to be covered largely by silicon dioxide islets, heterogeneously distributed at the surfaces. These findings are discussed briefly in relation to the hypothesis on the toxicity of fibers and to the Altree-Williams and Sprogis risk function.
The effect of a proposed training program using medicine balls on some physical variables and the digital achievement of throwing events in athletics for students of physical education

This study aimed to identify the effect of a proposed training program using medicine balls on some physical variables and the digital achievement of throwing events in athletics for students of physical education at Palestine Technical University "Kadoorie". The study was conducted on an intentional sample of 28 students, who were randomly divided equally into Two groups (experimental and controlling) by 14 students. The results of the study showed that there were statistically significant differences in the effect of the proposed training program among the members of the experimental group and in favor of post-measurement, while the results of the study did not show any change among the control group members between the pre and post measurements. The researcher recommends the need to include medicine balls with educational exercises during teaching throwing activities in athletics, especially the actual shot put, disc-throwing, spear-throwing, discus throw and hammer throw.
A Tale of Two Realignments? The changing relationship between ideological dimensions and party positions towards European integration

What determines the positions of political parties towards the European integration and the European Union? Empirical research has depicted those positions to be strongly influences by the two main conflict dimensions of party competition in Europe: first, a socio-economic conflict between proponents of market liberalization versus the supporters of a more controlled economy and, second, a socio-cultural conflict between the advocates of libertarian and cosmopolitan values versus the inheritors of authoritarian and nationalist values. The idea of our paper is to investigate these relationships across time and space taking into account critical junctures of the European integration process. We argue, first, that the Maastricht treaty has altered party competition over Europe, as it transformed the nature of the unification process from an economic cooperation into a genuine political project. Accordingly, party positions on European integration in Western Europe have become much less connected to economic and more related to cultural issues. Second, we contend that the Euro Crisis has led to divergent pathways of party competition over European integration. While it yielded an unexpected comeback of economic determinants in the most hard-hit countries in Southern Europe, it accelerated the general ‘cultural backlash’ of Western societies thereby further strengthening the explanatory power of the cultural conflict dimension. We test these theoretical assumptions by analyzing elections manifestos of parties competing in European Parliament elections (Euromanifestos) from 1979 to 2014. The empirical results partly confirm our theoretical expectations, but bear important implications for our understanding of roughly 40 years of party competition over EU issues in Europe.
Retrospective Search: Exploration and Ambition on Uncharted Terrain

The search for good outcomes-be it government policies, technological breakthroughs, or a lasting purchase-takes time and effort. In this paper, we consider a continuous-time search setting. Discoveries beget discoveries and their observations are correlated over time, which we model using a Brownian motion. A searching agent makes two critical decisions: how ambitiously or broadly to search at any point, and when to cease search. Once search stops, the agent is rewarded for the best outcome observed throughout her search. We call this search process retrospective search. We fully characterize the optimal search policy. The stopping boundary takes a simple form: the agent terminates search as soon as search outcomes fall a certain fixed distance below the best-observed outcome; that fixed distance is termed the drawdown size. Search scope is chosen to minimize the expected discounted costs before either a new best-outcome is observed or search is terminated. The optimal search scope is a U- shaped function of the difference between the best outcome and the current outcome; the scope is the smallest when the difference is half of the optimal drawdown size. Both the expected best outcome and expected discounted costs are increasing in drawdown size, and the optimal drawdown size is chosen to strike a balance between the two, given the U-shaped optimal scopes. The optimal policy exhibits natural comparative statics that we explore. We also show the special features that emerge from contracting with a retrospective searcher.
Ochratoxin A biosorption onto genetically improved of Lactobacillus delbrueckii mutants

Eight lactic acid bacterial strains were evaluated for Ochratoxin A (OTA) biosorption. Results showed that Lactobacillus delbrueckii NRRL B-1024 is the most effective strain for OTA biosorption of 50 ng/ml within one hour. It was selected and mutagenized using ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) to induce genetic variations in relation to improve OTA biosorption. Seven of 19 mutants exhibited OTA biosorption higher than the wild-type strain. The maximum capacity was achieved using the mutant EMS-9, which recorded 82.62 ng/ml of OTA uptake within one hour. The mutant EMS-9 appears to be the most superior strain for OTA biosorption since 88% of the initial OTA concentration was removed using 40% (v/v) inoculum concentration within one hour after studying the effect of inoculum concentration on OTA uptake. Finally, the application of the Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on some selected mutants lead to correlate the genetic characteristics of the mutants with the results obtained from the biosorption process in comparison with the wild type strain. Differences in RAPD patterns confirmed the evidence of genetic variability induced in Lb. delbrueckii NRRL B-1024 genome after EMS-treatment.
In Vitro Comparative Assessment and Characterization of Glycopyrronium Nebulizing solutions with Mesh Nebulizer: New Generation Impactor Study

Background: Inhalation therapy involving nebulization remains important modality of therapy for severe or high-risk obstructive airway diseases including bronchial asthma. The likely incremental factors for the translational impact of this delivery strategy includes fine particle dose (FPD), fine particle fraction (FPF), mass median aerodynamic diameter (MMAD), and respirable fraction (RF) of the pharmaceutical aerosols playing a key role in site-specific delivery to the lungs. The new generation active vibrating mesh nebulizers (VMNs) offer a convenient, portable strategy in above clinical cases without compromising the delivery efficiency for improved therapeutic outcomes. Aim: This in vitro study was conducted to validate the improved efficiency and aerodynamic effect of glycopyrronium solution nebulization with novel patented active and passive VMN devices. Materials and Methods: A in vitro lung deposition study was conducted using drug samples of glycopyrronium bromide (25 mcg/2 ml and 1 ml) using new generation cascade impactor at a flow rate of 15 L/min at Glenmark R&D Center, Sinnar, India. Results: Three samples of glycopyrronium nebulizing solution were analyzed using next generation impactor at a flow rate of 15 L/min for aerodynamic aerosol parameters (FPF and RF) and total/active substance delivered (FPD and delivered dose) when loaded with active (NEBZMART*, 2 ml) and passive (E-flow*, 1 ml) VMN. The results demonstrated comparable aerodynamic aerosol, particle size, and total delivered dose as FPF (64.9% vs. 72.8%), FPD (16.4 vs. 14.2 mcg), MMAD (3.9 vs. 3.2), and GSD (1.8 vs. 1.62) for active and passive VMN, respectively. The nebulization time was observed as 3–5 min for both the devices demonstrating higher efficiency for active VMN. Conclusion: The results showed comparable aerodynamic aerosol, particle size, and total delivered dose or RF for glycopyrronium nebulizing solution delivered by the VMNs.
Shortest time interval for detecting the progression of knee osteoarthritis on consecutive X-rays

Objectives This study aims to find the shortest needed time interval between two consecutive anteroposterior (AP) knee X-rays of the same patient to determine the progression of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) by a trained eye. Patients and methods In this retrospective study, 2,145 AP knee X-rays of 848 primary KOA patients (331 males, 517 females; mean age 65±9 years; range, 50 to 92 years) followed-up between January 2014 and December 2017 were used. Randomly generated 1,280 pairs of knee X-rays were shown to 14 orthopedic surgeons working in the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, and then the physicians were asked to select the second X-ray of the same arthritis knee. The physicians completed the test twice. The patient's age, gender, time interval between two radiographs and the responses of the physicians were recorded. Results Our results showed that if the time interval between the two radiographs was six months or more, the correct estimation rates increased gradually. When the time interval was 36 months and more, the ratio reached 92%. The sensitivity and specificity rate of the method was 81%, while the positive predictive value was 86%. However, interestingly, age or gender did not have any effect on this result. Conclusion In our study, X-rays taken in less than six months apart could not give additional information about the radiographic progression of KOA. To discern between the progression of KOA, we recommend that there be a 12 to 18-month interval between consecutive X-rays. The data of our study can be used for a routine algorithm to be developed for the evaluation of KOA patients.
Hydrothermal Modifications of Granular Starch, with Retention of the Granular Structure: A Review

Annealing and heat−moisture treatment are two hydrothermal treatments that modify the physicochemical properties of starch, without destroying granular structure. They involve incubation of starch granules in excess water/intermediate water content (annealing) or at low moisture levels (heat−moisture treatment) during a certain period of time, at a temperature above the glass transition temperaturr but below the gelatinization temperature. The impact of hydrothermal treatments on starch physicochemical properties is extensively discussed. Such physicochemical properties include granule morphology and crystallinity, double-helix content, amount and appearance of amylose−lipid complexes, gelatinization and pasting, swelling power and solubility, gel properties, and susceptibilities to acid and enzymic hydrolysis. Finally, the major differences between the effects of annealing and heat−moisture treatment are pointed out and an overview is given of possible explanations for the observed effects of hydrotherma.
N ov 2 01 4 Taylor Domination , Difference Equations , and Bautin Ideals

We compare three approaches to studying the behavior of an analytic function f(z) = ∑ ∞ k=0 akz k from its Taylor coefficients. The first is “Taylor domination” property for f(z) in the complex disk DR, which is an inequality of the form |ak|R k ≤ C max i=0,. ,N |ai|R , k ≥ N + 1. The second approach is based on a possibility to generate ak via recurrence relations. Specifically, we consider linear non-stationary recurrences of the form
DIETARY PROTEIN LEVELS AFFECT THE NURSING PERFORMANCE AND SERUM BIOCHEMICAL PROFILE OF LACTATING MINK (Neovison vison)

This study was aimed to evaluate effects of dietary protein levels on the nursing performance of lactating mink (Neovison vison). A total of 120 pregnant mink were randomly assigned to 4 dietary treatment groups with protein levels of 32% (P32, control), 36% (P36), 40% (P40) and 44% (P44) (dry matter basis, corresponding to 29%, 32%, 36% and 39% of ME), and fed ad libitum for 8 weeks from late gestation to the end of lactation. Results showed that daily weight gain of kits increased linearly with the increasing dietary protein levels although the difference was not significant. Similar trend was noted for the survival rate of kits at weaning. Dams fed diets with higher protein levels showed less body weight loss during lactation. Improved metabolic status was demonstrated by the changed metabolic profiles as indicated blood urea nitrogen level (P<0.05), total protein (P<0.05), glutamate pyruvate transaminase activity and blood glucose content (P<0.05). In conclusion, we found that dietary protein intake significantly affects the nursing performance of female mink. We suggest that an estimated dietary protein level of 44% (39% of ME) could be used as a guidance to achieve the optimal performance of lactating dams.
R&D Cooperations and Innovation Success

Generally, establishments can choose among different cooperation partners for innovation. However, the choice of a particular partner is pivotal to the success of any cooperative arrangement for innovation and therefore not an easy one. The ensuing analysis uses a comprehensive firm-level dataset of Central, East and Southeast European (CESEE) and Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries to shed light on the role of different cooperative arrangements – cooperations with domestic suppliers, domestic client firms, foreign suppliers, foreign client firms and with external academic or research institutes – for a product innovators’ success, captured in terms of either annual average sales per new or significantly improved product or, alternatively, the probability of applying for a patent. It demonstrates that the choice of cooperation partner is essential: Innovators profit greatly from innovation partnerships with foreign suppliers only in terms of higher sales from novel or improved products but, in turn, are less likely to apply for patents if engaged in cooperative arrangements with foreign suppliers or client firms, indicating that patenting is probably predominantly undertaken by foreign cooperation partners. Furthermore, it highlights that establishment size, ownership structure, trading status or absorptive capacity greatly matter and that the institutional environment is essential for an innovator’s commercial success, which assigns a decisive role to policy-makers in building an environment that helps innovators extract returns to innovations to the fullest extent possible.