Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental study on impedance control for the five-finger dexterous robot hand DLR-HIT II

This paper presents experimental results on the five-finger dexterous robot hand DLR-HIT II, with Cartesian impedance control based on joint torque and nonlinearity compensation for elastic dexterous robot joints. To improve the performence of the impedance controller, system parameter estimations with extended kalman filter and gravity compensation have been investigated on the robot hand. Experimental results show that, for the harmonic drive robot hand with joint toruqe feedback, accurate position tracking and stable torque/force response can be achieved with cartesian and joint impedance controller. In addition, a FPGA-based control architecture with flexible communication is proposed to perform the designed impedance controller.
Role of the Sonchus Yellow Net Virus N Protein in Formation of Nuclear Viroplasms

ABSTRACT Sonchus yellow net virus is a plant nucleorhabdovirus whose nucleocapsid (N), phosphoprotein (P), and polymerase (L) proteins form large viroplasms in the nuclei of infected plants (C. R. F. Martins, J. A. Johnson, D. M. Lawrence, T. J. Choi, A. Pisi, S. L. Tobin, D. Lapidus, J. D. O. Wagner, S. Ruzin, K. McDonald, and A. O. Jackson, J. Virol. 72:5669-5679, 1998). When expressed alone, the N protein localizes to the nuclei of plant and yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) cells and the P protein is distributed throughout the cells, but coexpression of N and P results in formation of subnuclear viroplasm-like foci (M. M. Goodin, J. Austin, R. Tobias, M. Fujita, C. Morales, and A. O. Jackson, J. Virol. 75:9393-9406, 2001; M. M. Goodin, R. G. Dietzgen, D. Schichnes, S. Ruzin, and A. O. Jackson, Plant J. 31:375-383, 2002). We now show that the N protein and various fluorescent derivatives form similar subnuclear foci in plant cells and that homologous interactions mediated by a helix-loop-helix region near the amino terminus are required for formation of the foci. Mutations within the helix-loop-helix region also interfere with N- and P-protein interactions that are required for N and P colocalization in the subnuclear foci. Affinity purification of N proteins harboring single mutations within the motif revealed that Tyr40 is critical for N-N and N-P interactions. Additional in vitro binding assays also indicated that the N protein binds to yeast and plant importin α homologues, whereas mutations in the carboxy-terminal nuclear localization signal abrogate importin α binding. The P protein did not bind to the importin α homologues, suggesting that the N and P proteins use different pathways for nuclear entry. Our results in toto support a model suggesting that during infection, the N and P proteins enter the nucleus independently, that viroplasm formation requires homologous N-protein interactions, and that P protein targeting to the viroplasm requires N-P protein interactions that occur after N and P protein import into the nucleus.
A COORDINATE‐FREE APPROACH TO THE ANALYSIS OF GROWTH PATTERNS: MODELS AND THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Developmental biology holds keys to our understanding of morphological pattern formation whether these patterns are expressed in the fossil record or among extant species. Though much is known about osseous growth at the cellular level (e.g. Hall, 1991), we have minimal understanding of the coordinated processes that combine to produce a complex, three-dimensional form. We have proposed a framework for the coordinate-free representation of form, a statistical method for comparing and modelling growth trajectories for complex morphologies, and a means for the eventual elucidation of the role of growth in the evolution of morphology. Our method uses the coordinate locations of biological landmarks to represent form as a matrix of all possible linear distances between landmarks, the form matrix. When two forms are expressed in this way, comparison of these forms is accomplished by computing the ratios of like linear distances, the form difference matrix. When the forms being compared are from a growth series, the matrix of ratios is called a growth matrix. Patterns of growth for two groups can be compared by computing the growth difference matrix. We applied growth difference matrix analysis to the study of sexual dimorphism of ontogeny in the M. fascicularis craniofacial skeleton. Growth matrices describing growth in male and female M. fascicularis were presented along with the growth difference matrix that describes sexual dimorphism of growth to underscore the detailed information available from this analytical technique. The method is quite general and can be applied to two- or three-dimensional data sets of landmark coordinates (cross-sectional or longitudinal) collected from almost any developing structure. The methods that we propose enable us to go beyond a mathematical summary of the comparison of forms and the comparison of growth patterns. We provide examples of how growth patterns might be used in the study of phylogenetic relationships. Our plans for use of this method in the study of evolutionary change assumes that morphological change in the craniofacial skeleton results from evolutionary change in developmental units (as defined by Atchley & Hall, 1991) that underlie morphological structure. We believe we have the basic tools to ultimately propose informed phylogenies based solely on developmental data. This task requires the identification of 'growth features' and the polarization of these features as primitive or derived. It is also advisable to determine a set of primitive growth features for the groups of interest. This will necessitate the inclusion of outgroups in our growth analysis. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
The Local Electronic Marketplace - a Framework for Understanding

This paper presents a tentative framework for understanding a particular environment of electronic commerce activities - the local electronic marketplace. This type of marketplace is Internet-based and dedicated to consumer-oriented commerce. The framework consists of two main components: marketplace functions and marketplace practice. Viewing an electronic marketplace in this way means adopting a “theory of practice” to assist in identifying and relating various actors and functions. Besides presenting this analytical tool there is a brief discussion of its application. The framework has evolved continuously throughout a qualitative study conducted in an exploratory phase and during two preceding case studies.
Collaborative Representation Classifier Based on K Nearest Neighbors for Classification

The sparse representation based classifier (SRC) is a classical representation method for classification. The solution of SRC is obtained by l1 norm minimization, which can not obtain the closed form solution. Thus, the computational complexity of SRC is a little high. The collaborative representation classifier (CRC) is another classical method for classification. The solution of CRC is obtained by l2 norm minimization, from the l2 norm minimization, it can obtain the closed form solution, which makes the computational complexity of CRC is much lower than SRC. Although CRC is effective for classification, there are also some problems about CRC. Under some conditions, some test samples may be misclassified by CRC. This paper proposes a local CRC method, which is called KNN-CRC. This method firstly chooses K nearest neighbors of a test sample from all the training samples, then given a test sample, the test sample is represented by these K training samples. The solution of KNN-CRC is obtained by l2 norm minimization, and the size of K is much smaller than the total number of all training samples. Thus, the computational complexity of KNN-CRC is much lower than SRC and CRC. Furthermore, the extensive experiments show that the proposed KNN-CRC can obtain very competitive classification results compared with other methods.
Human Action Recognition With Trajectory Based Covariance Descriptor In Unconstrained Videos

Human action recognition from realistic videos plays a key role in multimedia event detection and understanding. In this paper, a novel Trajectory Based Covariance (TBC) descriptor is proposed, which is formulated along the dense trajectories. To map the descriptor matrix to vector space and trim out the redundancy of data, the TBC descriptor matrix is projected to Euclidean space by the Logarithm Principal Components Analysis (LogPCA). Our method is tested on the challenging Hollywood2 and TV Human Interaction datasets. Experimental results show that the proposed TBC descriptor outperforms three baseline descriptors (i.e., histogram of oriented gradient, histogram of optical flow and motion boundary histogram), and our method achieves better recognition performances than a number of state-of-the-art approaches.
FOREBRAIN DOPAMINE RECEPTORS IN COGNITIVE, MEMORY AND LEARNING PROCESSES

Neurons that utilize dopamine (DA) as a neurotransmitter have attracted great interest because of their involvement in the behavioral, endocrine and descending control of major brain functions. DA is known to exert its physiological effects on target neurons through D1-like (D1 and D5) and D2-like (D2, D3 and D4) receptor subtypes. To better understand the DA modulation of brain functions, the distribution and cellular localization of D1 and D2 DA receptors in the rat forebrain is reviewed, and their possible role in cognitive aspects of behavior is discussed. In general, DA receptors are differentially expressed and mostly distributed in different target fields of DA neurons. Both D1 and D2 receptor gene products are found in the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia and hippocampal formation, albeit in different cell groups or neuronal subpopulations, whereas D3 receptors are mainly located in limbic regions. In the cortex, mRNA signals are seen in all the areas and cortical layers except layer I. In the striatum, the most intense signal is found in the caudate-putamen, nucleus accumbens and olfactory tubercle where a large number of cells are strongly labeled for D1 and D2. In the globus pallidus only scattered D2 mRNA-containing cells are present. In contrast, no D1 or D2 messages can be seen in the ventral pallidum. In the basal forebrain, mRNA encoding the D1 receptor is detected in the islands of Calleja. The medial and lateral septal nuclei show a low D2 signal. In the amygdaloid nuclear complex, the strongest D1 receptor message is observed in the basomedial and basolateral nuclei. Conversely, the highest density of D2 mRNA-expressing cells is revealed in the central nucleus. Moderately labeled for D1 and D2 cells are scattered throughout the anterior and posterior subdivisions of the bed nucleus of stria terminalis, and within all subfields of the hippocampal formation and dentate granule cell layer. Differential regional and cellular distribution of DA receptors in the forebrain provides anatomical evidence for an area-specific regulation of the DAergic neurotransmission. It can be inferred that DA facilitates learning, memory and cognition processes via activation of both the D1 and D2 receptors. Biomedical Reviews 2005; 16: 59-75.
The complete mitochondrial genome of the Alpine musk deer (Moschus chrysogaster)

Though extensive efforts have been made to investigate the phylogeny of the Cetartiodactyla, the relationships within the Cetartiodactyla, especially the position of the family Moschidae among Ruminantia families, still remain controversial. To further clarify these relationships, we sequenced the mitochondrial genome of the Alpine musk deer (Moschus chrysogaster), which is an endemic endangered species from China. Then, we conducted molecular phylogenetic analyses of the Alpine musk deer and 49 other species on the basis of Bayesian and maximum likelihood methods. The results show that the Moschidae is the sister group of the Bovidae, both of which form a clade that clusters with the Cervidae. The cetaceans are nested within the Artiodactyla as the sister group of the Hippopotamidae. Among the musk deer, M. chrysogaster and M. berezovskii are more closely related to each other than to M. moschiferus.
Activation of the VEGFR1 Chromatin Domain

Angiogenesis is induced by multiple growth factors including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2). In vascular endothelium VEGF signals through two receptor-tyrosine kinases, VEGFR1 and VEGFR2. The VEGFR1 gene encodes both a receptor-tyrosine kinase and a secreted splice variant, soluble VEGFR1. Whereas VEGFR1 is essential for vascular development, mechanisms that regulate VEGFR1 expression in endothelial cells are poorly understood. We demonstrate here that in endothelial cells, FGF2 and epidermal growth factor (EGF) signaling induce VEGFR1 mRNA expression in a combinatorial fashion. EGF/FGF2-mediated VEGFR1 induction is mediated via functional interaction of transcription factors ETS1 and HIF-2α. Mechanistic analyses revealed that in endothelial cells EGF/FGF2 signaling induces ETS1 expression, increases HIF-2α protein level in absence of hypoxia, and recruits both ETS1 and HIF-2α to the VEGFR1 chromatin domain. Knockdown of ETS1 and HIF-2α by RNA interference inhibits EGF/FGF2-induced VEGFR1 expression, and loss of expression is associated with impaired RNA-polymerase II recruitment and histone modifications at the VEGFR1 promoter region. In addition, using a mouse embryonic stem cell in vitro differentiation system, we found that induction of VEGFR1 in embryoid bodies is also associated with ETS1 and HIF-2α recruitment to the VEGFR1 locus. These results establish an angiogenic signal-ETS1/HIF-2α axis that regulates the VEGFR1 chromatin domain to induce VEGFR1 transcription in endothelial cells and in differentiating embryonic stem cells.
Pharmacological Therapy in the Heart as an Alternative to Cellular Therapy: A Place for the Brain Natriuretic Peptide?

The discovery that stem cells isolated from different organs have the ability to differentiate into mature beating cardiomyocytes has fostered considerable interest in developing cellular regenerative therapies to treat cardiac diseases associated with the loss of viable myocardium. Clinical studies evaluating the potential of stem cells (from heart, blood, bone marrow, skeletal muscle, and fat) to regenerate the myocardium and improve its functional status indicated that although the method appeared generally safe, its overall efficacy has remained modest. Several issues raised by these studies were notably related to the nature and number of injected cells, as well as the route and timing of their administration, to cite only a few. Besides the direct administration of cardiac precursor cells, a distinct approach to cardiac regeneration could be based upon the stimulation of the heart's natural ability to regenerate, using pharmacological approaches. Indeed, differentiation and/or proliferation of cardiac precursor cells is controlled by various endogenous mediators, such as growth factors and cytokines, which could thus be used as pharmacological agents to promote regeneration. To illustrate such approach, we present recent results showing that the exogenous administration of the natriuretic peptide BNP triggers “endogenous” cardiac regeneration, following experimental myocardial infarction.
Quadrupling efficiency in production of genetically modified pigs through improved oocyte maturation

Significance The efficiency of production of genetically altered piglets for agricultural and biomedical purposes is very low, in large part because of the poor quality of the in vitro-matured oocytes used to initiate the process. Here, we describe a chemically defined culture medium that enhances porcine oocyte maturation and subsequent embryo development to the blastocyst stage, and increases the number of offspring born after embryo transfer, thereby effectively quadrupling the efficiency of piglet production. This research also provides some insights into the physiological events that lead to oocyte competence and how the efficacy of oocyte in vitro maturation might be improved in other species. Assisted reproductive technologies in all mammals are critically dependent on the quality of the oocytes used to produce embryos. For reasons not fully clear, oocytes matured in vitro tend to be much less competent to become fertilized, advance to the blastocyst stage, and give rise to live young than their in vivo-produced counterparts, particularly if they are derived from immature females. Here we show that a chemically defined maturation medium supplemented with three cytokines (FGF2, LIF, and IGF1) in combination, so-called “FLI medium,” improves nuclear maturation of oocytes in cumulus–oocyte complexes derived from immature pig ovaries and provides a twofold increase in the efficiency of blastocyst production after in vitro fertilization. Transfer of such blastocysts to recipient females doubles mean litter size to about nine piglets per litter. Maturation of oocytes in FLI medium, therefore, effectively provides a fourfold increase in piglets born per oocyte collected. As they progress in culture, the FLI-matured cumulus–oocyte complexes display distinctly different kinetics of MAPK activation in the cumulus cells, much increased cumulus cell expansion, and an accelerated severance of cytoplasmic projections between the cumulus cells outside the zona pellucida and the oocyte within. These events likely underpin the improvement in oocyte quality achieved by using the FLI medium.
Acceptability of an Alimentary Supplement of Whey-Protein Concentrate and TGF-β in Patients with Crohn's Disease

The objective of this study was to evaluate the acceptability of an alimentary supplement of bovine whey-protein concentrate (WPC) and TGF-β, unavailable commercially, by patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and determine the chemical composition, solubility, and total amino acids content. The supplement was diluted in water, and an acceptance test was done to evaluate the aroma, flavour, and viscosity of the product using facial hedonic scale (nine-point scale), applied on 54 CD patients. The supplement composition indicated 73.3% protein, 10.5% fat, 2.2% ash, 6.3% water, and 7.7% carbohydrate. The supplement is presented as a good protein source and high content of essential amino acids. The average acceptance for all the attributes was between 5.0 and 6.0, and the flavour was mainly associated with soybean/grain, sour milk, and sweet/vanilla flavour. The results indicated that the supplement provided important nutritional properties for CD patients; however, for a large number of individuals to be encouraged to perform supplementation, it is essential to improve the sensory quality of the product. In order to do so, additional research is necessary to prevent the formation of volatiles which cause off-flavours or to mask undesirable aromas/flavours found in it.
Hans Moen Distributional Semantic Models for Clinical Text Applied to Health Record Summarization Do ct or al th es is

As information systems in the health sector are becoming increasingly computerized, large amounts of care-related information are being stored electronically. In hospitals clinicians continuously document treatment and care given to patients in electronic health record (EHR) systems. Much of the information being documented is in the form of clinical notes, or narratives, containing primarily unstructured free-text information. For each care episode, clinical notes are written on a regular basis, ending with a discharge summary that basically summarizes the care episode. Although EHR systems are helpful for storing and managing such information, there is an unrealized potential in utilizing this information for smarter care assistance, as well as for secondary purposes such as research and education. Advances in clinical language processing are enabling computers to assist clinicians in their interaction with the free-text information documented in EHR systems. This includes assisting in tasks like query-based search, terminology development, knowledge extraction, translation, and summarization. This thesis explores various computerized approaches and methods aimed at enabling automated semantic textual similarity assessment and information extraction based on the free-text information in EHR systems. The focus is placed on the task of (semi-)automated summarization of the clinical notes written during individual care episodes. The overall theme of the presented work is to utilize resource-light approaches and methods, circumventing the need to manually develop knowledge resources or training data. Thus, to enable computational semantic textual similarity assessment, word distribution statistics are derived from large training corpora of clinical free text and stored as vector-based representations referred to as distributional semantic models. Also resource-light methods are explored in the task of performing automatic summarization of clinical freetext information, relying on semantic textual similarity assessment. Novel and experimental methods are presented and evaluated that focus on: a) distributional semantic models trained in an unsupervised manner from statistical information derived from large unannotated clinical free-text corpora; b) representing and computing semantic similarities between linguistic items of different granularity, primarily words, sentences and clinical notes; and c) summarizing clinical free-text information from individual care episodes. Results are evaluated against gold standards that reflect human judgements. The results indicate that the use of distributional semantics is promising as a resourcelight approach to automated capturing of semantic textual similarity relations from unannotated clinical text corpora. Here it is important that the semantics correlate with the clinical terminology, and with various semantic similarity assessment
A Ketogenic Diet Increases Succinic Dehydrogenase Activity in Aging Cardiomyocytes

Impairment of energy metabolism and an increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production seem to play a major role in age‐related apoptotic loss of cardiomyocytes. Succinic dehydrogenase (SDH) is an important marker of the mitochondrial capability to provide an adequate amount of ATP. Moreover, because of its unique redox properties, SDH activity contributes to maintain the reduced state of the ubiquinone pool. Recent reports have shown that ketone body intake improves cardiac metabolic efficiency and exerts a cardioprotective antioxidant action, we therefore performed a cytochemical investigation of SDH activity in cardiomyocytes of late‐adult (19‐month‐old) rats fed for 8 weeks with a medium‐chain triglycerides ketogenic diet (MCT‐KD). Young, age‐matched and old animals fed with a standard chow were used as controls. The overall area of the precipitates (PA) from SDH activity and the area of the SDH‐positive mitochondria (MA) were measured. The percent ratios PA/MA and MA/total myocardial tissue area (MA/TA) were the parameters taken into account. We found that PA/MA was significantly higher in young control rats and in MCT‐KD‐fed rats versus late‐adult and old control rats and in young control versus MCT‐KD‐fed rats. MA/TA of MCT‐KD‐fed rats was significantly higher versus age‐matched and old control rats and tended to be higher versus young control rats; this parameter was significantly higher in young versus old control rats. Thus, MCT‐KD intake partially recovers age‐related decrease of SDH activity and increases the myocardial area occupied by metabolically active mitochondria. These effects might counteract metabolic alterations leading to apoptosis‐induced myocardial atrophy and failure during aging.