Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simultaneous Estimation of State and Unknown Input with Hinfinity Guarantee on Error-Bounds for Fuzzy Descriptor Systems

—This paper proposes a new l ∞ observer design for fuzzy descriptor systems with unknown inputs. The descriptor form is treated using a singular redundancy system representation. To keep the consistency of the resulting fuzzy observer structure, we make use of a virtual variable playing the role of the one-step ahead state estimate. As a result, the observer gain can be constructed with free-structure decision variables to reduce the design conservatism. Using a membership-function-dependent Lyapunov function, the observer design is reformulated as a convex optimization problem with a single line search parameter. In particular, the error bounds of both the state and the unknown input estimations can be minimized through the guaranteed l ∞ performance level. The effectiveness of our result is demonstrated with a challenging real-world application on robot manipulators.
Journal of Graduate Librarianship Journal of Graduate Librarianship

This paper reports the results of a two-phase study examining the effectiveness of a set of five online learning modules in increasing student understanding of information literacy topics. The modules were deployed within the foundational class of an online Master of Library Science program. Using Qualtrics-based surveys, Phase 1 assessed 15 students for their possible knowledge gains as well as their perceptions of their experiences with the instructional content. Through a combination of statistical and qualitative analysis, the researchers found modest knowledge gains as well as positive student perceptions of their instruction. Based upon the moderate success of Phase 1, the online learning modules were retained in subsequent offerings of the course. Three years after the Phase 1 study, a Phase 2 study was conducted with 30 students over two semesters to examine student knowledge and perception changes possibly occurring after utilization of the modules. Through the analysis of student reflection writings, the researchers found that all students presented with a minimum desired level of competency postinstruction. Furthermore, the researchers found that knowledge gains were reported primarily within the area of information search strategies. Findings suggest that online learning modules on information literacy topics can be a welcome addition to the first course in a Master of Library Science program sequence and can help instill confidence in new students who are studying to become library science professionals.
Adaptive seeds tame genomic sequence comparison Material Supplemental

Open Access Open Access option. Genome Research Freely available online through the License Commons Creative . http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ described at as a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License), ). After six months, it is available under http://genome.cshlp. org/site/misc/terms.xhtml for the first six months after the full-issue publication date (see This article is distributed exclusively by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
Evolution of Developmental Control Mechanisms A conserved mechanism for vertebrate mesoderm speci ﬁ cation in urodele amphibians and mammals

Understanding how mesoderm is speci ﬁ ed during development is a fundamental issue in biology, and it has been studied intensively in embryos from Xenopus . The gene regulatory network (GRN) for Xenopus is surprisingly complex and is not conserved in vertebrates, including mammals, which have single copies of the key genes Nodal and Mix. Why the Xenopus GRN should express multiple copies of Nodal and Mix genes is not known. To understand how these expanded gene families evolved, we investigated mesoderm speci ﬁ cation in embryos from axolotls, representing urodele amphibians, since urodele embryology is basal to amphibians and was conserved during the evolution of amniotes, including mammals. We show that single copies of Nodal and Mix are required for mesoderm speci ﬁ cation in axolotl embryos, suggesting the ancestral vertebrate state. Furthermore, we uncovered a novel genetic interaction in which Mix induces Brachyury expression, standing in contrast to the relationship of these molecules in Xenopus . However, we demonstrate that this functional relationship is conserved in mammals by showing that it is involved in the production of mesoderm from mouse embryonic stem cells. From our results, we produced an ancestral mesoderm (m)GRN, which we suggest is conserved in vertebrates. The results are discussed within the context of a theory in which the evolution of mechanisms governing early somatic development is constrained by the ancestral germ line – soma relationship, in which germ cells are
Evaluation of Video Masked Autoencoders’ Performance and Uncertainty Estimations for Driver Action and Intention Recognition

Traffic fatalities remain among the leading death causes worldwide. To reduce this figure, car safety is listed as one of the most important factors. To actively support human drivers, it is essential for advanced driving assistance systems to be able to recognize the driver’s actions and intentions. Prior studies have demonstrated various approaches to recognize driving actions and intentions based on in-cabin and external video footage. Given the performance of self-supervised video pre-trained (SSVP) Video Masked Autoencoders (VMAEs) on multiple action recognition datasets, we evaluate the performance of SSVP VMAEs on the Honda Research Institute Driving Dataset for driver action recognition (DAR) and on the Brain4Cars dataset for driver intention recognition (DIR). Besides the performance, the application of an artificial intelligence system in a safety-critical environment must be capable to express when it is uncertain about the produced results. Therefore, we also analyze uncertainty estimations produced by a Bayes-by-Backprop last-layer (BBB-LL) and Monte-Carlo (MC) dropout variants of an VMAE. Our experiments show that an VMAE achieves a higher overall performance for both offline DAR and end-to-end DIR compared to the state-of-the-art. The analysis of the BBB-LL and MC dropout models show higher uncertainty estimates for incorrectly classified test instances compared to correctly predicted test instances.
Influence of Key Environmental Conditions on Microbially Induced Cementation for Soil Stabilization

AbstractMicrobially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) is a sustainable biological ground improvement technique that is capable of altering and improving soil mechanical and geotechnical engineering properties. In this paper, laboratory column studies were used to examine the effects of some key environmental parameters on ureolytic MICP mediated soils, including the impact of urease concentrations, temperature, rainwater flushing, oil contamination, and freeze–thaw cycling. The results indicate that an effective crystal precipitation pattern can be obtained at low urease activity and ambient temperature, resulting in high improvement in soil unconfined compressive strength (UCS). The microstructural images of such crystals showed agglomerated large clusters filling the gaps between the soil grains, leading to effective crystals formation. The rainwater flushing was detrimental to the biocementation process. The results also indicate that traditional MICP treatment by the two-phase injection method did .
Iodine intake and iodine deﬁciency in vegans as assessed by the duplicate-portion technique and urinary iodine excretion

I intake and I deﬁciency were investigated in thirty vegans (eleven males and nineteen females) consuming their habitual diet. I intake was estimated using the chemical analysis of 4d weighed duplicate diet collections. The probability of I-deﬁciency disorders (IDD) was judged from the measurement of urinary I excretion in 24 h urine specimens during the 4 d. There was wide variation in I intake. Mean I intake in males was lower than the reference nutrient intake (RNI; Department of Health, 1991) and mean intake in females was above the RNI, although 36 % males and 63 % females had I intakes below the lower RNI. Mean I intake in subjects who consumed seaweed ( n 3) was in excess of the RNI, and approached the provisional maximum tolerable daily intake (World Health Organization/Food and Agriculture Organization Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives, 1989). The probability of IDD in the group investigated was moderate to severe: three of ﬁve subgroups were classiﬁed as moderate and two subgroups were classiﬁed as severe IDD possibility. The ﬁndings highlight that vegans are an ‘at risk’ group for I deﬁciency. The I status of vegans and the subclinical effects of low I intakes and infrequent high I intakes on thyroid function in this group should be further studied. Our work has also raised the question of adequate I intakes in groups where cow’s milk is not consumed, and has exposed a need for more research in this area.
Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University

Background: Amyloidogenic proteins are most often associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer ’ s disease, Parkinson ’ s disease, and Huntington ’ s disease, but there are more than two dozen human proteins known to form amyloid fibrils associated with disease. Lysozyme is an antimicrobial protein that is used as a general model to study amyloid fibril formation. Studies aimed at elucidating the process of amyloid formation of lysozyme tend to focus on partial unfolding of the native state due to the relative instability of mutant amyloidogenic variants. While this is well supported, the data presented here suggest the native structure of the variants may also play a role in primary nucleation. Results: Three-dimensional structural analysis identified lysozyme residues 21, 62, 104, and 122 as displaced in both amyloidogenic variants compared to wild type lysozyme. Residue interaction network (RIN) analysis found greater clustering of residues 112 – 117 in amyloidogenic variants of lysozyme compared to wild type. An analysis of the most energetically favored predicted dimers and trimers provided further evidence for a role for residues 21, 62, 104, 122, and 112 – 117 in amyloid formation. Conclusions: This study used lysozyme as a model to demonstrate the utility of combining 3D structural analysis with RIN analysis for studying the general process of amyloidogenesis. Results indicated that binding of two or more amyloidogenic lysozyme mutants may be involved in amyloid nucleation by placing key residues (21, 62, 104, 122, and 112 – 117) in proximity before partial unfolding occurs. Identifying residues in the native state that may be involved in amyloid formation could provide novel drug targets to prevent a range of amyloidoses.
Carbonaceous aerosol over the Indian Ocean: OC/EC fractions and selected specifications from size‐segregated onboard samples

[1] Concentrations and mass fractions of organic carbon, elemental carbon, and numerous organic species have been determined for submicrometer and supermicrometer particles in the Indian Ocean on the cruise of the R/V Ron Brown during INDOEX in February/March 1999. The total carbon (TC) concentration was low for air masses originating from the southern hemisphere of the Indian Ocean, where only small amounts of organic carbon (OC) could be detected in supermicrometer (sea salt) particles. The OC concentration was typically more than one order of magnitude higher in the northern Indian Ocean, where continental air masses were encountered, both for submicrometer and supermicrometer particles. Elemental carbon (EC) was mostly found in submicrometer particles, increasing up to more than two orders of magnitude in the northern part compared to the southern part of the Indian Ocean. The mass fraction of carbonaceous material was in the range of 6–15% and 2–12% for submicrometer and supermicrometer particles, respectively, with the higher values for more polluted air masses. A high degree of mixing with light scattering material is the main reason for high-absorption coefficients. The absorption efficiency is higher for lower mass fractions of EC. Various short-chain dicarboxylic and hydroxylated dicarboxylic acids have been determined. Dicarboxylic acids were mostly found in supermicrometer particles, whereas hydroxylated dicarboxylic acids showed up mainly in submicrometer particles. Alkanes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have been found in small amounts, leading to the conclusion that an important part of the organic material is of secondary origin. This is confirmed by the good correlation of the sum of carboxylic acids with OC, nitrate with a less pronounced correlation with sulfate. However, low OC/EC ratios indicate the existence of primary OC.
Investigating the Emotional Impact of Social Robots A Comparative Study on the Influence of Appearance and Application Area on Human Emotions

The rapid development of social robots, designed to interact with humans, has led to increased research on user acceptance and emotions in human-robot interaction. Social acceptance is an important area to investigate if the development of social robots is to be useful. Investigating how people feel about social robots is one tool to assess acceptance toward them, and research has shown that positive emotions could invoke higher acceptance. Possible factors that have been shown to affect peoples’ attitudes regarding social robots is (1) the human-likeness and appearance of the robot and (2) the application area of the robot. Therefore, this thesis research questions address the effect of human-likeness and application areas of social robots on people's emotions. The findings indicate that in the context of companionship, people have varying emotional responses based on the appearance of the social robot. Highly human-like robots evoke more positive emotions, while low human-likeness robots elicit more negative emotions. This suggests that individuals prefer human-like social robots in intimate interactions like companionship. The results also reveal an effect of application areas, where people respond more positively to highly human-like robots used for tasks like lecturing students or companionship for older adults. Regarding less human-like social robots, people tend to respond with greater positive emotions when used within commerce. This suggests that a simpler-looking robot with low human-likeness is more suitable for commercial applications. Negative emotions expressed in the healthcare condition may reflect mistrust in robots' abilities and the sensitivity of the healthcare area. Developers and designers should consider the emotional responses that might be evoked by the task or appearance of the social robot, to ensure successful integration into society.
of pain-relief

Oral administration continues to be the most common route for drug delivery with the majority of approved medicines being tablets and capsule dosage forms. Standardised pharmacopeial media are typically used to test tablet dissolution in vitro , however patients use non-standard beverages to take with their medicines. Information about the dissolution of drugs in beverages consumed by patients has not been reported in the literature. Our aim was to investigate if the choice of beverage influences the dissolution of common pain relief tablets. The prevalence and type of alternative beverages used by patients to take their tablets was investigated in an online survey. The rate of dissolution of the common pain relief tablets, aspirin and acetaminophen, was measured in 15 different dissolution media including pharmacopeial dissolution media, simulated gastrointestinal fluids
Effect of Fenugreek Use on Fasting Blood Glucose, Glycosylated Hemoglobin, Body Mass Index, Waist Circumference, Blood Pressure and Quality of Life in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Randomized, Double-Blinded, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trials

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a major cause of death globally. It causes multiple problems in various organs and incurs heavy costs for patients and the community health system.The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of fenugreek intake on fasting blood sugar (FBS), HbA1C, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, blood pressure and quality of life of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. Materials and Methods: This randomized, double-blinded clinical trial study was conducted on patients with T2DMin Tehran, Iran in 2018. The treatment group received 5 g of fenugreek powder,and the placebo group received 5 g of wheat flour twice daily for two months before meals. Results: This study was performed on 62 patients (50% male and 50% female). Both groups had similar demographic characteristics. The results showed a significant difference between the mean FBS (P<0.001), HgA1C (P<0.001), BMI (P<0.001), waist circumference (P<0.001), diastolic blood pressure (P=0.005), and quality of life (P=0.015). There was no significant difference in mean systolic blood pressure (P=0.189) between groups. Conclusion: Given the positive effect of fenugreek on FBS, hemoglobin, HbA1C, BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure and quality of life, it can be recommended for controlling blood glucose in diabetic patients.
Estimulación magnética periférica repetitiva para mejorar la espasticidad y la función de la mano en un paciente con accidente cerebrovascular crónico. Un estudio de un caso

Objectives: The objective of this study is to observe whether repetitive peripheral magnetic stimulation can improve spasticity and function in the upper limb in patients with chronic stroke. Methods: 69-year-old white man who was diagnosed with an ischemic stroke of the middle cerebral artery in July 2020. The procedure consisted in two weeks of control treatment using robotic and task-oriented training, followed by four weeks of experimental treatment applying the rPMS intervention added to the control treatment. Finally control treatment alone was applied for two weeks. Assessments of spasticity using rPMS and a goniometer, motor function with nine hole peg test and speed of finger with Finger Taping Test were carried out. Two standard deviations descriptive band (DTSD) method was carried out to see the effect of treatment applied. Results: Statistically significant results were obtained in spasticity and motor function, but not on the speed of finger. Conclusion: The results showed that the application of rPMS, combined with robotic and task-oriented training, could led to improvements in spasticity and motor function. This reflects new approaches for treating chronic stroke patients based on the implication of the spasticity on their function.
UvA-DARE (

In conflict tasks such as the Stroop, the Eriksen flanker or the Simon task, it is generally observed that the detection of conflict in the current trial reduces the impact of conflicting information in the subsequent trial; a phenomenon termed conflict adaptation. This higher-order cognitive control function has been assumed to be restricted to cases where conflict is experienced consciously. In the present experiment we manipulated the awareness of conflict-inducing stimuli in a metacontrast masking paradigm to directly test this assumption. Conflicting response tendencies were elicited either consciously (through primes that were weakly masked) or unconsciously (strongly masked primes). We demonstrate trial-by-trial conflict adaptation effects after conscious as well as unconscious conflict, which could not be explained by direct stimulus/response repetitions. These findings show that unconscious information can have a longer-lasting influence on our behavior than previously thought and further stretch the functional boundaries of unconscious cognition.
Exploring factors in ﬂ uencing educators ’ adoption of ChatGPT: a mixed method approach

Purpose – A number of recent arti ﬁ cial intelligence (AI)-enabled technologies, including summarisers, paraphrasers and the cutting-edge chatbots not only have outstanding potentials in modern educational systems but also could lead to a dramatic paradigm shift in the whole education process. This study aims to explore the factors that shape the academic community ’ s desire and intention to use AI conversational chatbot technology, witha particularfocus ontheleading ChatGPT. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses a mixed method approach to explore the educators ’ adoption of chatbots through an empirically validated model. The model, known as the “ Educators ’ Adoption of ChatGPT ” , was developed by integrating the theoretical foundations of both the Uni ﬁ ed Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology and Status Quo Bias (SQB) frameworks, as well as insights gathered from interviews. The relationships within this model were then tested using a quantitative approach. The partial least squares-structural equation modelling method was used to analyse 243 valid survey responses. Findings – The outcomes of the analysis indicated that perceived educators ’ effort expectancy, educators ’ autonomous motivation, perceived learners ’ AI competency, perceived educators ’ competency, innovative behaviour towards technological agility and perceived students ’ engagement are signi ﬁ cant determinants of educators ’ intention to use chatbots. In contrast, perceived unfair evaluation of students, perceived students ’ overreliance and perceived bias/inaccuracies were shown to have signi ﬁ cant impacts on the resistance to use the technology, which typically implies a negatively signi ﬁ cant in ﬂ uence on the educators ’ use intention. Interestingly, perceivedfraudulent use of ChatGPT was proveninsigni ﬁ cantontheresistance to use chatbots. Originality/value – This study makes a signi ﬁ cant contribution to the ﬁ eld of educational technology by ﬁ llingthegapinresearchontheuseandacceptanceofAI-enabledassistantsineducation.Itproposesanoriginal, empiricallyvalidatedmodelofeducatoradoption,whichidenti ﬁ es the factors that in ﬂ uence educators ’ willingnesstousechatbotsinhighereducationandoffersvaluableinsightsforpracticalimplementation.