Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unified preview control for humanoid postural stability and upper-limb interaction adaptation

This paper proposes a robust whole-body control formulation for biped balance in disturbed conditions by manipulation tasks. In order to include the effects of the interaction of the robot with its environment, required by the manipulation task in the balance control, we introduce a distributed preview control which captures both balance and manipulation behaviors and enables the regulation of the interaction impedance. The initial ZMP preview control is extended to take into account the disturbance resulting from the manipulation task and the preview control of adaptive impedances used to drive the upper-limbs. The resulting behavior is illustrated in a simple scenario. Its aptitude to dynamically extract an optimal control strategy improving tracking performances of both manipulation and balance tasks is also assessed when complex perturbations have to be compensated.
Comparison of Microarray Platforms for Measuring Differential MicroRNA Expression in Paired Normal/Cancer Colon Tissues

Background Microarray technology applied to microRNA (miRNA) profiling is a promising tool in many research fields; nevertheless, independent studies characterizing the same pathology have often reported poorly overlapping results. miRNA analysis methods have only recently been systematically compared but only in few cases using clinical samples. Methodology/Principal Findings We investigated the inter-platform reproducibility of four miRNA microarray platforms (Agilent, Exiqon, Illumina, and Miltenyi), comparing nine paired tumor/normal colon tissues. The most concordant and selected discordant miRNAs were further studied by quantitative RT-PCR. Globally, a poor overlap among differentially expressed miRNAs identified by each platform was found. Nevertheless, for eight miRNAs high agreement in differential expression among the four platforms and comparability to qRT-PCR was observed. Furthermore, most of the miRNA sets identified by each platform are coherently enriched in data from the other platforms and the great majority of colon cancer associated miRNA sets derived from the literature were validated in our data, independently from the platform. Computational integration of miRNA and gene expression profiles suggested that anti-correlated predicted target genes of differentially expressed miRNAs are commonly enriched in cancer-related pathways and in genes involved in glycolysis and nutrient transport. Conclusions Technical and analytical challenges in measuring miRNAs still remain and further research is required in order to increase consistency between different microarray-based methodologies. However, a better inter-platform agreement was found by looking at miRNA sets instead of single miRNAs and through a miRNAs – gene expression integration approach.
Non-equilibrium Green function method: theory and application in simulation of nanometer electronic devices

We review fundamental aspects of the non-equilibrium Green function method in the simulation of nanometer electronic devices. The method is implemented into our recently developed computer package OPEDEVS to investigate transport properties of electrons in nano-scale devices and low-dimensional materials. Concretely, we present the definition of the four real-time Green functions, the retarded, advanced, lesser and greater functions. Basic relations among these functions and their equations of motion are also presented in detail as the basis for the performance of analytical and numerical calculations. In particular, we review in detail two recursive algorithms, which are implemented in OPEDEVS to solve the Green functions defined in finite-size opened systems and in the surface layer of semi-infinite homogeneous ones. Operation of the package is then illustrated through the simulation of the transport characteristics of a typical semiconductor device structure, the resonant tunneling diodes.
A20 protects mice from lethal liver ischemia/reperfusion injury by increasing peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor‐α expression

The nuclear factor‐κB inhibitory protein A20 demonstrates hepatoprotective abilities through combined antiapoptotic, anti‐inflammatory, and pro‐proliferative functions. Accordingly, overexpression of A20 in the liver protects mice from toxic hepatitis and lethal radical hepatectomy, whereas A20 knockout mice die prematurely from unfettered liver inflammation. The effect of A20 on oxidative liver damage, as seen in ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI), is unknown. In this work, we evaluated the effects of A20 upon IRI using a mouse model of total hepatic ischemia. Hepatic overexpression of A20 was achieved by recombinant adenovirus (rAd.)‐mediated gene transfer. Although only 10%‐25% of control mice injected with saline or the control rAd. β galactosidase survived IRI, the survival rate reached 67% in mice treated with rAd.A20. This significant survival advantage in rAd.A20‐treated mice was associated with improved liver function, pathology, and repair potential. A20‐treated mice had significantly lower bilirubin and aminotransferase levels, decreased hemorrhagic necrosis and steatosis, and increased hepatocyte proliferation. A20 protected against liver IRI by increasing hepatic expression of peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor alpha (PPARα), a regulator of lipid homeostasis and of oxidative damage. A20‐mediated protection of hepatocytes from hypoxia/reoxygenation and H2O2‐mediated necrosis was reverted by pretreatment with the PPARα inhibitor MK886. In conclusion, we demonstrate that PPARα is a novel target for A20 in hepatocytes, underscoring its novel protective effect against oxidative necrosis. By combining hepatocyte protection from necrosis and promotion of proliferation, A20‐based therapies are well‐poised to protect livers from IRI, especially in the context of small‐for‐size and steatotic liver grafts. Liver Transpl 15:1613–1621, 2009. © 2009 AASLD.
Assessing Homeless Population Size through the Use of Emergency and Transitional Shelter Services in 1998: Results from the Analysis of Administrative Data from Nine US Jurisdictions

Objectives. This study reports findings from the first-ever systematic enumeration of homeless population size using data previously collected from administrative records of homeless services providers in nine US jurisdictions over a one year period. As such, it provides the basis for establishing an ongoing measure of the parameters of the homeless population and for tracking related trends on the use of homeless services over time. Methods. Each participating jurisdiction collected data through its homeless services management information systems for persons and families who use emergency shelter and transitional housing. The jurisdictions organized the data by a standardized reporting format. These data form the basis for reporting homeless population size, both in raw numbers and as adjusted for each jurisdiction's overall population size, as well as the rate of turnover and average annual length of stay in emergency shelters and transitional housing. Results. Individual jurisdictions had annual rates of sheltered homelessness ranging from 0.1% to 2.1% of their overall population, and 1.3% to 10.2% of their poverty population. Annual population size was 2.5 to 10.2 times greater than the point-prevalent population size. Results are broken down for adults and families. Conclusions. The prevalence of homelessness varies greatly among the jurisdictions included in this study, and possible factors for this diversity are discussed. Future reports of this nature will furnish similar series of homeless enumerations across a growing number of jurisdictions, thereby providing a basis for exploring the effects of different contextual factors on local prevalence rates of homelessness.
Analysis of Large Scale Interacting Systems by Mean Field Method

Modeling and analysing very large stochastic systems composed of interacting entities is a very challenging and complex task. The usual approach, relying on the generation of the whole state space, is bounded by the state space explosion, even if symmetry properties, often included in the model, allow to apply lumping techniques and building the overall model by means of tensor algebra operations. In this paper we resort to the mean field theory. The main idea of the mean field theory is to focus on one particular tagged entity and to replace all interactions with the other entities with an average or effective interaction. The reduction of a multibody problem into an effective one-body problem makes the solution easier while at the same time taking into account the contribution of an averaged interdependence of the whole system on the specific entity. We apply the mean field approach to very large systems of interacting continuous time Markov chains, in which the averaged interaction depends on the distribution of the entity population in each state. We report several examples of interacting Markovian queues, showing the potentialities of the proposed technique.
Classification by weighting for spatio-frequency components of EEG signal during motor imagery

We propose a novel method for the classification of EEG signals during motor-imagery. For motor-imagery based brain computer interface (MI-BCI), a method called common spatial pattern (CSP), which finds spatial weights for electrodes, is effective, however CSP needs bandpass filtering as preprocessing. This paper addresses the problem to find parameters of the filter as well as the spatial weights. The filter is parameterize as weights for frequency spectra. Finding the optimal parameters is formulated as a constraint minimum variance problem. Then, the spatial and frequency weights are sought by alternately solving the generalized eigenvalue problem, and the cost function monotonically decreases by the alternative optimization. In our experiment of MI-BCI, the proposed method achieved maximum improvement by 6% in the classification accuracy over conventional methods.
Connective tissue graft and tunnel or trapezoidal flap for the treatment of single maxillary gingival recessions: a randomized clinical trial

BACKGROUND Although ample evidence supports connective tissue graft (CTG) use for root coverage, there is need for research on recipient site preparation approaches. The purpose of this study was to compare the outcomes of trapezoidal coronally advanced flap (CAF) and coronally advanced tunnel flap (TUN) when used in conjunction with CTG. METHODS Forty-two patients presenting 42 single maxillary, Miller Class I and II, gingival recession defects were randomly assigned to receive either CAF + CTG (N = 21) or TUN + CTG (N = 21). Clinical, patient-centred, and aesthetic outcomes were assessed. RESULTS Six months postoperatively, both groups resulted in significant reduction in recession depth and increases in keratinized tissue thickness and width. CAF + CTG and TUN + CTG mean root coverage was 87.2 ± 27.1% and 77.4 ± 20.4% respectively (p = 0.02). Complete root coverage was achieved in 71.4% and 28.6% of defects treated with CAF + CTG and TUN + CTG respectively (p = 0.01). At 7 days postoperatively, TUN + CTG patients reported significantly less pain experience (p = 0.04). Both approaches reduced dentine hypersensitivity by approximately 85% (p < 0.05). Patient-based aesthetic evaluation indicated significant improvement for both groups. Although patient- and professional-based aesthetic assessments revealed no differences between groups, tissue texture was significantly better for TUN + CTG (p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS For root coverage of single maxillary recession defects, CAF + CTG was more effective than TUN + CTG (ClinicalTrial.org-NCT02814279).
Liberals and Conservatives Rely on Different Sets of Moral Foundations

How and why do moral judgments vary across the political spectrum? To test moral foundations theory (J. Haidt & J. Graham, 2007; J. Haidt & C. Joseph, 2004), the authors developed several ways to measure people’s use of 5 sets of moral intuitions: Harm/care, Fairness/reciprocity, Ingroup/loyalty, Authority/ respect, and Purity/sanctity. Across 4 studies using multiple methods, liberals consistently showed greater endorsement and use of the Harm/care and Fairness/reciprocity foundations compared to the other 3 foundations, whereas conservatives endorsed and used the 5 foundations more equally. This difference was observed in abstract assessments of the moral relevance of foundation-related concerns such as violence or loyalty (Study 1), moral judgments of statements and scenarios (Study 2), “sacredness” reactions to taboo trade-offs (Study 3), and use of foundation-related words in the moral texts of religious sermons (Study 4). These findings help to illuminate the nature and intractability of moral disagreements in the American “culture war. ”
Measuring social functions of city regions from large-scale taxi behaviors

City-scale human mobility analysis is an important problem in pervasive computing. In this paper, with qualitative and quantitative analysis, we establish and confirm the relationship between the get-on/off characteristics of taxi passengers and the social function of city regions. We find that get-on/off amount in a region can depict the social activity dynamics in that area, i.e. the temporal variation of get-on/off amount can characterize the social function of a region. The experimental results on a large-scale real-world taxi dataset suggest that three typical regional categories can be recognized even using a very simple classification method.
A nonparametric criterion for the selection of the number of factors and nonnegative extension for gradient-based matrix factorization

The high dimensionality of the data, the expressions of thousands of features in a much smaller number of samples, presents challenges that affect applicability of the analytical results. In principle, it would be better to describe the data in terms of a small number of meta-features, derived as a result of matrix factorization, which could reduce noise while still capturing the essential features of the data. Two novel and mutually relevant methods are presented in this paper: 1) nonparametric criterion for the selection of the number of factors; and 2) nonnegative version of the gradient-based matrix factorization which doesn't require any extra computational costs in comparison to the existing methods. We demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed methods to the supervised classification of gene expression data.
An antimicrobial peptide, magainin 2, induced rapid flip-flop of phospholipids coupled with pore formation and peptide translocation.

The effect of an antimicrobial peptide, magainin 2, on the flip-flop rates of phospholipids was investigated by use of fluorescent lipids, i.e., anionic N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl)dipalmitoyl-L-alpha- phosphatidylethanolamine (NBD-PE), 1-oleoyl-2-[12-((7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl)amino)- dodecanoyl]-L-alpha-phosphatidic acid (C12-NBD-PA), 1-oleoyl-2-[12- ((7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl)- amino)dodecanoyl]-L-alpha-phosphatidyl-L-serine (C12-NBD-PS), and zwitterionic 1-palmitoyl-2-[6-((7- nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl)amino)caproyl]-L-alpha-phosphatidy lcholine (C6-NBD-PC). Their intrinsic flip-flop half-lives at 30 degrees C in the absence of the peptide were 1.1 h, ca. 7 h, ca. 8 days, and > 2 days, respectively. The peptide accelerated the flip-flop half-lives of the fluorescent lipids to an order of minutes. Furthermore, the flip-flop was coupled with the membrane permeabilization and the peptide translocation [Matsuzaki, K. , Murase, O. , Fujii, N. , & Miyajima, K. (1995) Biochemistry 34, 6521-6526], suggesting pore-mediated flip-flop. The flip-flop rate was independent of the initial labeling conditions (outer leaflet label or inner leaflet label). From these results, a model was proposed, in which the lipids translocate across the membrane by lateral diffusion along the wall of the pores composed of the peptides and the lipids. A simple theoretical calculation could explain the coupling of the flip-flop with the permeabilization.
ISTopic: Understanding Information Systems Research through Topic Models

What are the fundamental research questions in Information Systems? How do various research topics relate with one another to form the IS research landscape and how do they evolve over time? This study is an initial attempt to answer these questions using topic models to investigate the topics examined by the premier IS journals in 1977-2014. We present an IS Topic Graph that contains 33 research areas, 31 of which are closely connected with one another. Further analyses of this graph reveal how different IS research areas are intertwined to the extent that they are almost inseparable. Looking into IS research at a finer level, we identify 300 research topics, and a chronological analysis reveals a trend of topic diversification and externalization. To guide future research, an intelligent literature search tool called ISTopic is built and is available at http://www.istopic. org for public access.
Truth, lies, and intimacy: An attachment perspective

This paper outlines some of the ways in which secure attachment is associated with the capacity to participate in successful intimate relationships. The paper begins with the discussion of four key abilities required for intimacy: the ability to seek care, the ability to give care, the ability to feel comfortable with an autonomous self, and the ability to negotiate. Bowlby's attachment theory (1969/1982, 1973, 1980) and related research are presented as a framework for understanding the development of these abilities. Next, attachment, intimacy,and sexuality are discussed. In the final section, attachment, intimacy,and truth are considered.
Prevalence of Cardiovascular Risk Factors in the Middle-Aged and Elderly Population of a Nigerian Rural Community

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) causes of worldwide preventable morbidity and mortality. CVDs are a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in developing countries, and rates are expected to rise over the next few decades. The prevalence of CVD risk factors is dramatically increasing in low-and middle-income African countries, particularly in urban areas. We carried out a cross-sectional population-based survey in Imezi-Owa, a rural community in South East Nigeria to estimate the prevalence of major cardiovascular risk factors in both men and women aged 40–70 years. A total of 858 individuals made up of 247 (28.8%) males and 611 (71.2%) females were recruited. The mean age of the subjects was 59.8 ± 9.9 years. The prevalence of the different cardiovascular risk factors among the 858 subjects was as follows: hypertension 398 (46.4%) subjects, generalized obesity as determined by BMI 257 (30%) subjects, abdominal obesity 266 (31%) subjects, dysglycaemia 38 (4.4%) subjects and hypercholesterolaemia 32 (3.7%) subjects. Prevalence of hypertension and dysglycaemia was higher in men while the others were higher in women. Only hypertension (P = .117) and hypercholesterolaemia (P = .183) did not reveal any significant association with gender. Prevalence of CVD risk factors was highest in subjects aged 65 to 70 years.
Research on Tactics of Water Diversion of Lake Dong

Lake Dong located in Wuhan is the largest urban lake in China. It has lost ecosystem functions with the economic development in recent years. The Lake Dong Ecological Water Network Project will reestablish the hydraulic connection between the Yangtze River and Lake Dong by diverting water from the river. In order to make a scientific water diversion scheme, a hydrodynamic and water quality model was established. Orthogonal curvilinear coordinate in horizontal direction and sigma coordination transformation in vertical direction were used. The model was verified using the observed COD concentration and applied to simulate three scenes of water diversion. By comparing the average COD of some sub-lakes in different scenes, a tactics of water diversion was proposed so as to provide a scientific basis for the project.
Efficient ray sorting for the tracing of incoherent rays

High-quality rendering via ray tracing requires the tracing of many incoherent secondary rays. In order to accelerate the tracing of incoherent rays, we propose a simple sorting method to increase ray coherence. In this method, we use ray origin buckets and ray direction grids to reorder rays quickly. We implemented our approach on the Manta interactive ray tracer and achieved up to a 1.48× speedup.
On the symmetry of orthogonal complex filter banks and wavelets

Recent wavelet research has primarily focused on real-valued wavelet bases. However, complex wavelet bases offer a number of potential advantages. For example, it has been recently suggested in literature that the complex Daubechies wavelet can be made symmetric. However, these papers always imply that if the complex basis has a symmetry property then it must exhibit linear phase as well. In this paper we prove that a linear phase complex orthogonal wavelet does not exist. We study the implications of symmetry and linear phase for both complex and real-valued orthogonal wavelet bases. As a by-product, we propose a method to obtain a complex orthogonal wavelet basis having the symmetry property and approximately linear phase.
Acceleressence: Dark energy from a phase transition at the seesaw scale

UCB-PTH 04/16 LBNL-55248 arXiv:astro-ph/0405596 v2 5 Oct 2004 Acceleressence: Dark Energy from a Phase Transition at the Seesaw Scale Z. Chacko, Lawrence J. Hall, and Yasunori Nomura Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 Abstract Simple models are constructed for “acceleressence” dark energy: the latent heat of a phase transition occurring in a hidden sector governed by the seesaw mass scale v 2 /M Pl , where v is the electroweak scale and M Pl the gravitational mass scale. In our models, the seesaw scale is stabilized by supersymmetry, implying that the LHC must discover superpartners with a spectrum that reﬂects a low scale of fundamental supersymmetry breaking. Newtonian gravity may be modiﬁed by eﬀects arising from the exchange of ﬁelds in the acceleressence sector whose Compton wavelengths are typically of order the millimeter scale. There are two classes of models. In the ﬁrst class the universe is presently in a metastable vacuum and will continue to inﬂate until tunneling processes eventually induce a ﬁrst order transition. In the simplest such model, the range of the new force is bounded to be larger than 25 µm in the absence of ﬁne-tuning of parameters, and for couplings of order unity it is expected to be ≈ 100 µm. In the second class of models thermal eﬀects maintain the present vacuum energy of the universe, but on further cooling, the universe will “soon” smoothly relax to a matter dominated era. In this case, the range of the new force is also expected to be of order the millimeter scale or larger, although its strength is uncertain. A ﬁrm prediction of this class of models is the existence of additional energy density in radiation at the eV era, which can potentially be probed in precision measurements of the cosmic microwave background. An interesting possibility is that the transition towards a matter dominated era has occurred in the very recent past, with the consequence that the universe is currently decelerating.
Breast self‐examination

A review of publications on breast self‐examination (BSE) up to the middle of 1991 showed that evidence supporting BSE has strengthened since 1989. BSE is associated with a smaller size of tumor at diagnosis and has the potential to reduce breast cancer mortality. Mortality reduction is likely to be achieved only if BSE is competently performed and if appropriate diagnostic follow‐up is accessible. Because screening is justified when preclinical disease is prevalent, BSE practice is important for women 40 years of age and older.