Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning concurrent motor skills in versatile solution spaces

Future robots need to autonomously acquire motor skills in order to reduce their reliance on human programming. Many motor skill learning methods concentrate on learning a single solution for a given task. However, discarding information about additional solutions during learning unnecessarily limits autonomy. Such favoring of single solutions often requires re-learning of motor skills when the task, the environment or the robot's body changes in a way that renders the learned solution infeasible. Future robots need to be able to adapt to such changes and, ideally, have a large repertoire of movements to cope with such problems. In contrast to current methods, our approach simultaneously learns multiple distinct solutions for the same task, such that a partial degeneration of this solution space does not prevent the successful completion of the task. In this paper, we present a complete framework that is capable of learning different solution strategies for a real robot Tetherball task.
Assigning Ontological Meaning to Workflow Nets

A common way to represent organizational domains is the use of business process models. A Workflow-net WF-net is an application of Petri Nets with additional rules that model business process behavior. However, the use of WF-nets to model business processes has some shortcomings. In particular, no rules exist beyond the general constraints of WF-nets to guide the mapping of an actual process into a net. Syntactically correct WF-nets may provide meaningful models of how organizations conduct their business processes. Moreover, the processes represented by these nets may not be feasible to execute or reach their business goals when executed. In this paper, the authors propose a set of rules for mapping the domain in which a process operates into a WF-net, which they derived by attaching ontological semantics to WF-nets. The rules guide the construction of WF-nets, which are meaningful in that their nodes and transitions are directly related to the modeled business domains. Furthermore, the proposed semantics imposes on the process models constraints that guide the development of valid process models, namely, models that assure that the process can accomplish its goal when executed.
MR: a new framework for multilevel full-chip routing

In this paper, we propose a novel framework for multilevel full-chip routing considering both routability and performance called MR. The two-stage multilevel framework consists of coarsening, followed by uncoarsening. Unlike the previous multilevel routing, MR integrates global routing, detailed routing, and resource estimation, together at each level of the framework, leading to more accurate routing resource estimation during coarsening and thus facilitating the solution refinement during uncoarsening. Further, the exact routing information obtained at each level makes MR more flexible in dealing with various routing objectives (such as crosstalk, power, etc.). Experimental results show that MR obtains significantly better routing solutions than previous works. For example, for a set of 11 commonly used benchmark circuits, MR achieves 100% routing completion for all circuits, while the previous multilevel routing, the three-level routing, and the hierarchical routing can complete routing for only 2, 0, 2 circuits, respectively. In particular, the number of routing layers used by MR is even smaller. We also have performed experiments on timing-driven routing. The results are also very promising.
A Circular Polarization Selective Surface Implemented on a Flexible Substrate

A new technique to realize a circular polarization selective surface (CPSS) implemented with Pierrot cells is proposed. This technique uses a folded flexible substrate, which enables the implementation of the 3D Pierrot cells on a single metal layer defined with precision printed circuit board techniques, without the need for metallized via holes. A left-hand CPSS is designed to illustrate the benefits of the proposed approach. For the fabricated prototype, the measured characteristics at normal incidence are in good agreement with simulations results obtained with HFSS. It is shown that compared to other Pierrot cell designs presented in the literature, this new approach simplifies the fabrication process while giving similar performance.
Can preferences in information processing aid in understanding suicide risk among emerging adults?

ABSTRACT The present study evaluated emerging adult (n = 192 college students) preferences in information processing (PIP), defined by the need for affect (NFA) and need for cognition (NFC), as they may be associated with suicide risk. The following were direct indicators of elevated suicide risk: presence of lifetime exposure to suicide (i.e., lifetime yes/no), elevated depressive symptoms, and greater NFA avoidance. Two different interactions resulted in elevated suicide risk: high depressive symptoms and high NFA avoidance, and high NFC and high NFA. Present results concerning PIP hold the potential to inform suicide risk assessment and prevention efforts among young adults.
Identifying novel sequence variants of RNA 3D motifs

Predicting RNA 3D structure from sequence is a major challenge in biophysics. An important sub-goal is accurately identifying recurrent 3D motifs from RNA internal and hairpin loop sequences extracted from secondary structure (2D) diagrams. We have developed and validated new probabilistic models for 3D motif sequences based on hybrid Stochastic Context-Free Grammars and Markov Random Fields (SCFG/MRF). The SCFG/MRF models are constructed using atomic-resolution RNA 3D structures. To parameterize each model, we use all instances of each motif found in the RNA 3D Motif Atlas and annotations of pairwise nucleotide interactions generated by the FR3D software. Isostericity relations between non-Watson–Crick basepairs are used in scoring sequence variants. SCFG techniques model nested pairs and insertions, while MRF ideas handle crossing interactions and base triples. We use test sets of randomly-generated sequences to set acceptance and rejection thresholds for each motif group and thus control the false positive rate. Validation was carried out by comparing results for four motif groups to RMDetect. The software developed for sequence scoring (JAR3D) is structured to automatically incorporate new motifs as they accumulate in the RNA 3D Motif Atlas when new structures are solved and is available free for download.
Modelling thermal fluctuations in non-ideal fluids with the lattice Boltzmann method

Recently, we proposed a theoretical framework to include thermal fluctuations into the Lattice Boltzmann (LB) method for non-ideal fluids. Here, we apply a variant thereof to a certain class of force-based non-ideal fluid LB models. We find that ideal-gas-like noise is an exact result of the fluctuation–dissipation theorem in the hydrodynamic regime. It is shown that satisfactory equilibration of the density and fluid momentum can be obtained in a simulation over a wide range of length scales.
Traffic Offloading in Two-Tier Multi-Mode Small Cell Networks over Unlicensed Bands: A Hierarchical Learning Framework

This paper investigates the traffic offloading over unlicensed bands for two-tier multi-mode small cell networks. We formulate this problem as a Stackelberg game and apply a hierarchical learning framework to jointly maximize the utilities of both macro base station (MBS) and small base stations (SBSs). During the learning process, the MBS behaves as a leader and the SBSs are followers. A pricing mechanism is adopt by MBS and the price information is broadcasted to all SBSs by MBS firstly, then each SBS competes with other SBSs and takes its best response strategies to appropriately allocate the traffic load in licensed and unlicensed band in the sequel, taking the traffic flow payment charged by MBS into consideration. Then, we present a hierarchical Q-learning algorithm (HQL) to discover the Stackelberg equilibrium. Additionally, if some extra information can be obtained via feedback, we propose an improved hierarchical Q-learning algorithm (IHQL) to speed up the SBSs’ learning process. Last but not the least, the convergence performance of the proposed two algorithms is analyzed. Numerical experiments are presented to validate the proposed schemes and show the effectiveness.
The Gene-Gene Interaction of INSIG-SCAP-SREBP Pathway on the Risk of Obesity in Chinese Children

Background. Childhood obesity has become a global public health problem in recent years. This study aimed to explore the association of genetic variants in INSIG-SCAP-SREBP pathway with obesity in Chinese children. Methods. A case-control study was conducted, including 705 obese cases and 1,325 nonobese controls. We genotyped 15 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of five genes in INSIG-SCAP-SREBP pathway, including insulin induced gene 1 (INSIG1), insulin induced gene 2 (INSIG2), SREBP cleavage-activating protein gene (SCAP), sterol regulatory element binding protein gene 1 (SREBP1), and sterol regulatory element binding protein gene 2 (SREBP2). We used generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction (GMDR) and logistic regression to investigate gene-gene interactions. Results. Single polymorphism analyses showed that SCAP rs12487736 and rs12490383 were nominally associated with obesity. We identified a 3-locus interaction on obesity in GMDR analyses (P = 0.001), involving 3 genetic variants of INSIG2, SCAP, and SREBP2. The individuals in high-risk group of the 3-locus combinations had a 79.9% increased risk of obesity compared with those in low-risk group (OR = 1.799, 95% CI: 1.475–2.193, P = 6.61 × 10−9). Conclusion. We identified interaction of three genes in INSIG-SCAP-SREBP pathway on risk of obesity, revealing that these genes affect obesity more likely through a complex interaction pattern than single gene effect.
Significant association between rare IPO11‐HTR1A variants and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in Caucasians

We comprehensively examined the rare variants in the IPO11‐HTR1A region to explore their roles in neuropsychiatric disorders. Five hundred seventy‐three to 1,181 rare SNPs in subjects of European descent and 1,234–2,529 SNPs in subjects of African descent (0 < minor allele frequency (MAF) < 0.05) were analyzed in a total of 49,268 subjects in 21 independent cohorts with 11 different neuropsychiatric disorders. Associations between rare variant constellations and diseases and associations between individual rare variants and diseases were tested. RNA expression changes of this region were also explored. We identified a rare variant constellation across the entire IPO11‐HTR1A region that was associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Caucasians (T5: P = 7.9 × 10−31; Fp: P = 1.3 × 10−32), but not with any other disorder examined; association signals mainly came from IPO11 (T5: P = 3.6 × 10−10; Fp: P = 3.2 × 10−10) and the intergenic region between IPO11 and HTR1A (T5: P = 4.1 × 10−30; Fp: P = 5.4 × 10−32). One association between ADHD and an intergenic rare variant, i.e., rs10042956, exhibited region‐ and cohort‐wide significance (P = 5.2 × 10−6) and survived correction for false discovery rate (q = 0.006). Cis‐eQTL analysis showed that, 29 among the 41 SNPs within or around IPO11 had replicable significant regulatory effects on IPO11 exon expression (1.5 × 10−17≤P < 0.002) in human brain or peripheral blood mononuclear cell tissues. We concluded that IPO11‐HTR1A was a significant risk gene region for ADHD in Caucasians. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Bayesian framework and message passing for joint support and signal recovery of approximately sparse signals

In this paper, we develop a low-complexity message passing algorithm for joint support and signal recovery of approximately sparse signals. The problem of recovery of strictly sparse signals from noisy measurements can be viewed as a problem of recovery of approximately sparse signals from noiseless measurements, making the approach applicable to strictly sparse signal recovery from noisy measurements. The support recovery embedded in the approach makes it suitable for recovery of signals with same sparsity profiles, as in the problem of multiple measurement vectors (MMV). Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm, termed as JSSR-MP (joint support and signal recovery via message passing) algorithm, achieves performance comparable to that of sparse Bayesian learning (M-SBL) algorithm in the literature, at one order less complexity compared to the M-SBL algorithm.
Is distributed locking harder?

We examine the problem of determining whether a set of locked transactions, accessing a distributed database, is guaranteed to produce only serializable schedules. For a pair of transactions we prove that this concurrency control problem (which is polynomially solvable for centralized databases) is in general coNP-complete. We employ a new graph-theoretic technique and provide an efficient test for the special case of databases distributed between two sites only.
Effectiveness of Different Cleaning Agents against the Colonization of Candida spp and the in Vitro Detection of the Adherence of These Yeast Cells to Denture Acrylic Surfaces

Purpose The aim of this study is to examine the effect Klorhex and Fittydent, which are used as cleaning agents on the adhesion of Candida on the surfaces of acrylic denture and palatal mucosa. In addition, ability of yeasts to adhere to acrylic strips was evaluated after applying these agents in vitro. Materials and Methods Each group of 15 patients cleaned their dentures with either Klorhex or with Fittydent. The control group cleaned their dentures with water. Results It was found that 62.2% of the patients had colonies of Candida species on their palatal mucosa which was reduced to 51.1% after using these cleaning agents. The colonization rate with Candida spp on their dentures was reduces from 82.2% to 68.8% using these cleaning agents. The mean adhesion value of the Candida strains isolated from the acrylic strips were found to be 75 cell/strip prior to applying the Klorhex and Fittydent and 37.5 cell/strip and 15 cell/strip after applying these agents, respectively. Conclusion These results showed that Klorhex and Fittydent have a certain preventive effect on the colonization rate of Candida spp on the surface of these dentures, the palatal mucosa, as well as on the acrylic strips in vitro.
Inhibition of Nitric Oxide Synthase 1 Induces Salt-Sensitive Hypertension in Nitric Oxide Synthase 1&agr; Knockout and Wild-Type Mice

We recently showed that &agr;, &bgr;, and &ggr; splice variants of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (NOS1) expressed in the macula densa and NOS1&bgr; accounts for most of the NO generation. We have also demonstrated that the mice with deletion of NOS1 specifically from the macula densa developed salt-sensitive hypertension. However, the global NOS1 knockout (NOS1KO) strain is neither hypertensive nor salt sensitive. This global NOS1KO strain is actually an NOS1&agr;KO model. Consequently, we hypothesized that inhibition of NOS1&bgr; in NOS1&agr;KO mice induces salt-sensitive hypertension. NOS1&agr;KO and C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) mice were implanted with telemetry transmitters and divided into 7-nitroindazole (10 mg/kg/d)–treated and nontreated groups. All of the mice were fed a normal salt (0.4% NaCl) diet for 5 days, followed by a high-salt diet (4% NaCl). NO generation by the macula densa was inhibited by >90% in WT and NOS1&agr;KO mice treated with 7-nitroindazole. Glomerular filtration rate in conscious mice was increased by ≈40% after a high-salt diet in both NOS1&agr;KO and WT mice. In response to acute volume expansion, glomerular filtration rate, diuretic and natriuretic response were significantly blunted in the WT and knockout mice treated with 7-nitroindazole. Mean arterial pressure had no significant changes in mice fed a high-salt diet, but increased ≈15 mm Hg similarly in NOS1&agr;KO and WT mice treated with 7-nitroindazole. We conclude that NOS1&bgr;, but not NOS1&agr;, plays an important role in control of sodium excretion and hemodynamics in response to either an acute or a chronic salt loading.
Analysis of digital circuits through symbolic reduction

The authors describe a semi-algorithmic method to extract finite-state models from an analog circuit-level model by means of homomorphic (behavior preserving) transformations. Properties to be verified are defined by omega -automata. Efficient algorithms for testing language containment of automata can then be applied to verify properties of the finite-state models. Proof of the property in the finite-state model guarantees the property in the analog circuit-level model over a continuous range of input waveforms and circuit parameters. While in practice this method applies directly only to smaller circuit components, it can be used to analyze larger circuits as well by deriving a hierarchy of increasingly abstract models, through repeated applications of homomorphic transformations. Examples of extraction, homomorphism, and verification are described. >
Radiation-induced adaptive response is not seen in cell lines showing a bystander effect but is seen in lines showing HRS/IRR response

Purpose: A previous study comparing the bystander effect and low-dose hypersensitivity found that they were inversely correlated. In the current study seven cell lines with established bystander effect and hyper-radiosensitivity/increased radioresistance (HRS/IRR) were further screened for the presence of an adaptive response. Materials and methods: Cell survival after exposure to direct radiation with or without a 0.1 Gy priming dose, was determined using the colony forming assay for seven human cell lines (HaCAT, HPV-G, SW48, T98G, U373, HGL21 and HT29). Furthermore, the impact of the bystander effect on cell survival after exposure to irradiated cell culture medium was measured concurrently. Results: An adaptive response was induced in four cell lines (U373, T98G, HGL21 and HT29) causing increased cell survival. In agreement with previous publications, a bystander effect was induced in three cell lines (HPV-G, HaCAT and SW48); while no bystander effect was seen in U373, T98G, HGL21 and HT29. An adaptive response was detected in cell lines known to produce hypersensitive response, and was inversely correlated with the bystander effect. Conclusions: These results suggest that for the cell lines tested the ability to induce an adaptive response may be mutually exclusive to the bystander effect.
Ceiling Culture-Derived Proliferative Adipocytes are A Possible Delivery Vehicle for Enzyme Replacement Therapy in Lecithin: Cholesterol Acyltransferase Deficiency

Human proliferative adipocytes propagated via ceiling culture technique from subcutaneous fat tissue (desig- nated as ccdPA) were herein evaluated for their potential as a recipient for retroviral vector-mediated gene transduction of a therapeutic protein delivery. Exposure to the ZsGreen-expressing vector supernatant using a cell preparation generated by a 7-day ceiling culture induced a 40-50% transduction efficiency, with less than two integrated copies of viral genome per cell on average. The lcat gene-transduced human ccdPA secreted functional LCAT protein, correlating with the inte- grated copy number of vector genome. The gene-transduced cells could be expanded up to nearly 10 12 cells from 1 g of fat tissue within one month after fat tissue preparation. The cells also maintained the potential to differentiate into adipocytes in vitro. The presence of human LCAT protein in serum was immunologically identified upon transplantation of lcat- expressing ccdPA into the adipose tissue of immune-deficient mice. These results indicated that human ccdPA has a novel therapeutic potential for LCAT-deficient patients. The clinical application in combination with cell transplantation shed a light on a development of a life-long protein replacement therapy for LCAT-deficient patients.
Multimodal metadata fusion using causal strength

We propose a probabilistic framework that uses influence diagrams to fuse metadata of multiple modalities for photo annotation. We fuse contextual information (location, time, and camera parameters), visual content (holistic and local perceptual features), and semantic ontology in a synergistic way. We use causal strengths to encode causalities between variables, and between variables and semantic labels. Through analytical and empirical studies, we demonstrate that our fusion approach can achieve high-quality photo annotation and good interpretability, substantially better than traditional methods.
A comprehensive set of sequence analysis programs for the VAX

The University of Wisconsin Genetics Computer Group (UWGCG) has been organized to develop computational tools for the analysis and publication of biological sequence data. A group of programs that will interact with each other has been developed for the Digital Equipment Corporation VAX computer using the VMS operating system. The programs available and the conditions for transfer are described.
Effects of symbiotic and vitamin E supplementation on blood pressure, nitric oxide and inflammatory factors in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been suggested to be well correlated with altered blood pressure. This study was conducted to determine the effects of symbiotic and vitamin E supplementation on blood pressure and inflammatory indices of patients with NAFLD. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was performed among 60 NAFLD patients aged 25 to 64 years old. Participants were randomly divided into four groups to receive a 400 IU alpha-tocopherol and 2 × 108 CFU/g symbiotic supplement for 8 weeks. The anthropometric parameters, systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), serum malondialdehyde (MDA), nitric oxide (NO) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) were assessed at baseline and after 8 weeks of intervention. After 8 weeks of intervention, combined symbiotic and alpha-tocopherol, symbiotic and alpha-tocopherol alone administration, compared with the placebo, resulted in significant decreases in SBP (-17.07±2.1, -16.07±3.56, -1.73±2.25 and -1.55±3.01 mmHg, P=0.01), serum MDA (-1.19±0.5, -0.12±0.65, 0.14 ± 0.64 and 0.16±0.34 nmol/mL, P<0.001), serum TNFα (-15.62±13.93, -9.24±7.12, -11.44 ± 15.47 and 3.01±1.71 pg/ml, P<0.001) concentrations. A significant decrease in serum AST (-11.36±4.52, -7.43±8.58, -5.93±6.61 and 2.5±5.75 μmol/L, P <0.001), ALT (-12.79±3.65, -3.66±6.81, -6.54±7.66 and 4.16±3.43 μmol/L, P <0.001) and ALP (-26.8±11.1, -4.56±9.22, -14.48±12.22 and 5.19±2.64 μmol/L, P <0.001) was seen. Variations in DBP and serum NO concentration were not significant. Alpha-tocopherol and symbiotic supplementation among patients with NAFLD resulted in decreased SBP, serum MDA, TNFα levels and enzymes liver; however, they did not affect DBP and serum NO concentration.
Ear verification based on a novel local feature extraction

This paper proposes a novel local feature approach for human verification using 2D ear imaging based on Polar Sine Transform (PST). The proposed approach consists mainly of four steps. Firstly, normalizing the training and testing images, then, combining the normalized images together. Secondly, dividing the fused image into blocks, then, PST is used to extract the invariant features from each block. Thirdly, the Approximate Nearest Neighbors (ANN) searching criterion is adopted to collect the most similar blocks by means of Locality Sensitive Hashing (LSH). Finally, some morphological operations are used to reduce the number of false matching blocks, then, the system verifies the human ear. False Reject Rate (FRR) versus False Acceptance Rate (FAR) and ROC curve are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. The experiments are performed on IIT Delhi database to validate the proposed approach. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach has better performance compared with the existing methods.