Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Power-augmentation control approach for arm exoskeleton based on human muscular manipulability

The paper presents a novel control method for the arm exoskeletons that takes into account the muscular force manipulability of the human arm. In contrast to classical controllers that provide assistance without considering the biomechanical properties of the human arm, we propose a control method that takes into account the configuration of the arm and the direction of the motion to effectively compensate the anisotropic property of the muscular manipulability of the human arm. Consequently, the proposed control method effectively maintains a spherical endpoint manipulability in the entire workspace of the arm. As a result, the proposed method allows the human using the exoskeleton to efficiently perform tasks in arm configurations that are normally unsuitable due to the low manipulability. We evaluated the proposed approach by a preliminary experimental study where a subject wearing a 2 DOF arm-exoskeleton had to move a 4 kg weight between several locations. The results of our study demonstrate that the proposed approach effectively augments the ability of human motor control to perform tasks equally well in the whole arm workspace that include configurations with low intrinsic manipulability.
Long-Term Archive Service Requirements

There are many scenarios in which users must be able to prove the existence of data at a specific point in time and be able to demonstrate the integrity of data since that time, even when the duration from time of existence to time of demonstration spans a large period of time. Additionally, users must be able to verify signatures on digitally signed data many years after the generation of the signature. This document describes a class of long-term archive services to support such scenarios and the technical requirements for interacting with such services. This memo provides information for the Internet community.
Why Is an Event Affective? Classifying Affective Events Based on Human Needs

Affective events are events that impact people in positive or negative ways. When people discuss an event, people understand not only the affective polarity but also the reason for the event being positive or negative. In this paper, we aim to categorize affective events based on the reasons why events are affective. We propose that an event is affective to people often because the event describes or indicates the satisfaction or violation of certain kind of human needs. For example, the event “I broke my leg” affects people negatively because the need to be physically healthy is violated. “I play computer games” has a positive affect on people because the need to have fun is probably satisﬁed. To categorize affective events in narrative human language, we deﬁne seven common human need categories and introduce a new data set of randomly sampled affective events with manual human need annotations. In addition, we explored two types of methods: a LIWC lexicon based method and supervised classiﬁers to automatically categorize affective event expressions with respect to human needs. Experiments show that these methods achieved moderate performance on this task.
Efficient hardware architecture for integer implementation of multi-alphabet arithmetic coding for data mining

The aim of this paper is to create an efficient hardware architecture for the multi-alphabet arithmetic coding (MA-AC) in semicustom and full custom application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Generally, hardware realisation of MA-AC involves numerical processing and entropy coding, which employ the floating point (FP) arithmetic which is replaced by integer implementation in such a way that the symbol counts are used instead of probabilities. Novel hardware architecture is designed by modifying the update equations for upper and lower limits of multi-alphabet arithmetic encoder and decoder based on the update equation of the FP implementation. The proposed hardware architectures are synthesised in Xilinx and Altera Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices to evaluate resource utilisation and speed. Also, the physical design is encountered as ASIC device using Cadence Design environment tsmc 0.18 µm technology which shows area reduction of 12.75% and 23.61% and power consumption of 29.86% and 38.89% for encoder and decoder, respectively.
Full-dimension MIMO (FD-MIMO) for next generation cellular technology

This article considers a practical implementation of massive MIMO systems [1]. Although the best performance can be achieved when a large number of active antennas are placed only in the horizontal domain, BS form factor limitation often makes horizontal array placement infeasible. To cope with this limitation, this article introduces full-dimension MIMO (FD-MIMO) cellular wireless communication system, where active antennas are placed in a 2D grid at BSs. For analysis of the FD-MIMO systems, a 3D spatial channel model is introduced, on which system-level simulations are conducted. The simulation results show that the proposed FD-MIMO system with 32 antenna ports achieves 2-3.6 times cell average throughput gain and 1.5-5 times cell edge throughput gain compared to the 4G LTE system of two antenna ports at the BS.
Molecular dissection of Alzheimer's disease neuropathology by depletion of serum amyloid P component

New therapeutic approaches in Alzheimer's disease are urgently needed. The normal plasma protein, serum amyloid P component (SAP), is always present in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and in the pathognomonic lesions of Alzheimer's disease, cerebrovascular and intracerebral Aβ amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, as a result of its binding to amyloid fibrils and to paired helical filaments, respectively. SAP itself may also be directly neurocytotoxic. Here, in this unique study in Alzheimer's disease of the bis(d-proline) compound, (R)-1-[6-[(R)-2-carboxy-pyrrolidin-1-yl]-6-oxo-hexanoyl]pyrrolidine-2-carboxylic acid (CPHPC), we observed depletion of circulating SAP and also remarkable, almost complete, disappearance of SAP from the CSF. We demonstrate that SAP depletion in vivo is caused by CPHPC cross-linking pairs of SAP molecules in solution to form complexes that are immediately cleared from the plasma. We have also solved the structure of SAP complexed with phosphothreonine, its likely ligand on hyperphosphorylated τ protein. These results support further clinical study of SAP depletion in Alzheimer's disease and potentially other neurodegenerative diseases.
Quantitative profiling of protein tyrosine kinases in human cancer cell lines by multiplexed parallel reaction monitoring assays

This article has been withdrawn by the authors. We discovered an error after this manuscript was published as a Paper in Press. Specifically, we discovered that an m/z tolerance setting had inadvertently changed in the filtering software when some of the MS/MS spectra of phosphotyrosine peptides were generated for annotation. This error affected the number of phosphotyrosine sites confidently identified in our study. We wish to withdraw this article and submit a corrected version for review. Molecular & Cellular Proteomics 14: 10.1074/mcp.A115. 051813 Published, MCP Papers in Press, First Published on September 25, 2015, DOI 10.1074/mcp.O115. 051813 Additions and Corrections
Biomarkers predictive of lymph node metastases in oral squamous cell carcinoma.

PURPOSE The ability of oral squamous cell carcinoma to metastasize to lymph nodes does not always show a relationship with clinical staging. The aim of this study was to attempt to define a trend for predictive histopathologic and/or molecular biomarkers in the development of nodal metastasis by analyzing 2 clinically extreme groups. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with small primary tumors (T1, T2) with lymph node metastasis and patients with large primary tumors (T3, T4) without metastatic disease were identified among 315 consecutive cases of primary oral squamous cell carcinoma. Group comparisons were made with use of a Mann-Whitney test, and associations among the variables were assessed with nonparametric and parametric correlational analyses. RESULTS The degree of keratinization was significantly less in primary tumors with lymph node metastasis (P < or = .01). The degree of keratinization was significantly associated with nuclear pleomorphism (P =.02), number of mitoses (P =.02), stage of invasion (P =.002), and p53 expression (P =.04), independent of clinical stage of the tumor. Other microscopic features and immunohistochemical markers did not differ significantly between the groups (P >.05). CONCLUSION These data indicate that there still is no single predictive parameter superior to the degree of keratinization to identify patients at risk for the development of regional metastasis.
Spatialisation du son par les techniques binaurales : application aux services de télécommunications

Cette these porte sur une technique de spatialisation du son (la synthese binaurale), permettant de positionner des sources sonores dans l'espace. Elle est basee sur la connaissance des fonctions de transfert binaurales (HRTFs pour Head Related Transfer Functions) qui decrivent les phenomenes de propagation acoustique entre une source en champ libre et les conduits auditifs. Des tests de localisation sont effectues avec des HRTFs individuelles (8 sujets et 56 positions). Une nouvelle interface de report des jugements de localisation est proposee. Du fait de la necessite d'utiliser des HRTFs individuelles pour ameliorer les performances de localisation, une investigation sur l'individualisation des HRTFs a l'auditeur est menee, par modelisation physique pour des formes simples (spheres, ellipsoides) grâce a la simulation par elements finis de frontiere (Boundary Elements Method - BEM). Des applications de la synthese binaurale aux services de telecommunications sont aussi presentees.
Advancing open data: Aligning education with public sector data challenges

LIS education has invested heavily in workforce development for data services in research institutions, however little work has been done on open data competencies needed in public libraries and government agencies. The Open Data Literacy (ODL) project is working to prepare students to build infrastructure and to curate and sustain open data resources for the public by advancing data curation and data science curriculum and providing field experiences in collaboration with city and state agencies. To determine the expertise students need to meet workforce demands, we are examining the current data challenges faced by these public sector organizations. Based on the first year of student field experiences, we found that data organization and access, data quality, and data visualization were prominent areas of competency needed across the sites. While these areas are captured to some degree in current frameworks meant to catalog “data expertise” we find that additional competencies are required, in particular the need for developing and following metadata standards, evaluation and use of storage and cloud services, APIs, law and ethics, and public sector and not‐for‐profit organization knowledge. In future work these emerging areas of data expertise will be prioritized and deepened in our curriculum and better articulated for application in data education more generally.
Hourly Employees’ PercepƟons about Farm to School Program Barriers and Keys to Success: Differences by State and Number of Meals Served

Farm to school (FTS) programs are growing in popularity among school districts and provide opportuniƟes for school nutriƟon programs to source ingredients locally. Hourly employees working with FTS programs prepare, promote, and serve local produce to students daily. However, liƩle research has focused on their percepƟons of FTS programs. A quesƟonnaire was used to assess barriers and keys to success when implemenƟng and maintaining FTS programs from perspecƟves of hourly, non‐management school foodservice employees. An examinaƟon of survey responses suggests differences exist between barriers and keys to success by geographic locaƟon and school nutriƟon program parƟcipaƟon rates.
Essays on competition and consumer choice

This thesis makes a contribution to the areas of deregulation, competition and consumer choice. It consists of three self-contained papers. All the research questions are examined in the context of the Swedish motor vehicle inspection market.The first paper, Competition Makes Inspectors More Lenient: Evidence from the Motor Vehicle Inspection Market, investigates whether increased competition motivates monitoring firms to relax the standards of the inspection to their customers. We hypothesized that the fear of loosing customers to competitors may incentivize firms to provide a biased inspection services. We employed fixed effects and fixed effects 2SLS analyses to identify the relationship between competition and the probability of passing mandatory car inspection. The results show that firms become more lenient to their customers when they face increased competition from their rivals.The second paper, Opening Hours and Competition: Evidence from the Motor Vehicle Inspection Market, examines the effect of competition on an inspection firm's incentive to provide longer opening hours. This paper uses a unique station-level panel dataset and addresses the potential endogeneity of market entry decisions using 2SLS analyses. I find that increased competition between providers leads to expanded service opening hours.The third paper, Deregulation, Choice and Competition in the Motor Vehicle Inspection Market, estimates a model of demand for car inspection services to investigate car owners' station choice behavior and its implications for competition. The paper further evaluates the effect on consumer welfare of removing the state monopoly on inspection services. The results indicate that distance is an important determinant of station choice. I also find that consumers respond to price, opening hours and station size. The improvement in spatial accessibility following the deregulation increased the welfare to the average consumer by around SEK 100. (Less)
Towards autonomous robot swarms for multi-target localisation and monitoring with applications to counter IED operations

A swarm robotics approach is adopted in designing a fully autonomous multi-robot-based solution to the problem of locating generic targets within a given search space. A proof of concept system is developed and tested within a 3D simulation environment. A series of laboratory experiments are carried out to assess the performance of the system with respect to the given task of localising and monitoring generic targets, with reference to a counter IED scenario. Further experiments are carried out to evaluate the robustness to robot failure and scalability of the system.
Perceived social support change in patients with early stage breast cancer and controls.

OBJECTIVE Variables associated with levels of, and change in, social support were identified in a cohort of early stage breast cancer patients and age-matched controls. METHOD Telephone interviews measuring perceived social support and other demographic and psychosocial variables were conducted at 4 to 6 weeks and 6, 12, and 24 months after surgery (patients) or a normal/benign screening mammogram (controls). We modeled the intercept (starting point) and slope (changing) aspects of social support. RESULTS Participants included 542 controls and 541 patients (77% White, 23% African American; mean age 57.7 years [SD = 10.6]). Most participants reported high social support. Patients reported significantly higher levels of social support at baseline than controls. For patients, social support had a significant negative slope that significantly varied between individuals; the intercept of social support also varied significantly. Predictors of lower social support intercept in patients included not being married/partnered, being White, having lower perceived general health, and having higher negative affect (a latent variable defined by anxiety and depression symptom severity). Patients who were African American (vs. White) or had mastectomy (vs. lumpectomy) had steeper social support declines, and participants with both these characteristics had lower starting points as well as steeper declines. Social support among controls did not change significantly. CONCLUSIONS Clinicians might consider psychosocial interventions for patients reporting low social support around the time of diagnosis and surgical treatment, and for patients at risk for steeper declines in support, such as African Americans and women undergoing mastectomy.
Biochemical and morphological consequences of human α‐synuclein expression in a mouse α‐synuclein null background

A consensus about the functions of human wild‐type or mutated α‐synuclein (αSYN) is lacking. Both forms of αSYN are implicated in Parkinson’s disease, whereas the wild‐type form is implicated in substance abuse. Interactions with other cellular proteins and organelles may meditate its functions. We developed a series of congenic mouse lines containing various allele doses or combinations of the human wild‐type αSYN (hwαSYN) or a doubly mutated (A30P*A53T) αSYN (hm2αSYN) in a C57Bl/6J line spontaneously deleted in mouse αSYN (C57BL/6JOla). Both transgenes had a functional role in the nigrostriatal system, demonstrated by significant elevations in striatal catecholamines, metabolites and the enzyme tyrosine hydroxylase compared with null‐mice without a transgene. Consequences occurred when the transgenes were expressed at a fraction of the endogenous level. Hemizygous congenic mice did not exhibit any change in the number or size of dopaminergic neurons in the ventral midbrain at 9 months of age. Human αSYN was predominantly located in neuronal cell bodies, neurites, synapses, and in intraneuronal/intraneuritic aggregates. The hm2αSYN transgene resulted in more aggregates and dystrophic neurites than did the hw5 transgene. The hwαSYN transgene resulted in higher expression of two striatal proteins, synaptogamin 7 and UCHL1, compared with the levels of the hm2αSYN transgene. These observations suggest that mutations in αSYN may impair specific functional domains, leaving others intact. These lines may be useful for exploring interactions between hαSYN and environmental or genetic risk factors in dopamine‐related disorders using a mouse model.
Simulation Study of Germanium p-Type Nanowire Schottky Barrier MOSFETs

Ambipolar currents in germanium p-type nanowire Schottky barrier (SB) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors were calculated fully quantum mechanically by using the multiband k ·p method and the nonequilibrium Green's function approach. We investigated the performance of devices with [100], [110], and [111] channel orientations, respectively, by varying the nanowire width, SB height, and equivalent oxide thickness (EOT). The [111]-oriented devices showed the best performance. In comparison to Si as a channel material, Ge is more desirable because more current can be injected into the channel, resulting in steeper subthreshold swing and higher on-state current. Our calculations predict that the Ge channel devices should have an EOT gain of 0.2-0.5 nm over Si channel devices.
Performance of Transverse Tripoles vs. Longitudinal Tripoles With Anode Intensification (AI) in Spinal Cord Stimulation: Computational Modeling Study

In spinal cord stimulation, anodes tend to have a strong effect over the area of dorsal column (DC) activation, when configured as both longitudinal guarded cathodes (LGCs) and transverse tripoles (TTs). Inclusion of a small spacing step (LGC+) in the center‐center (C‐C) spacing of the LGC can be an efficient method to study the local effects around the electrode. The primary aim of this computer modeling study is to investigate if enhanced DC recruitment is achieved when anodal currents in TT and LGC combinations (both LGC and LGC+) are increased up to 30% with respect to the cathodal current. Secondly, the merits of anodal intensification (AI) are evaluated by comparing the DC recruitment areas (SRA) and energy consumption (EDT) of LGC+ with AI, against stimulation using an LGC without AI.
Uncertainty in Biomonitoring and Kinetic Modeling

Abstract: Uncertainty in exposure assessment and uncertainty in kinetic models of early effects after exposure to a toxin are addressed in this paper. Sources of uncertainty in the determination of exposure of workers in chemical industry exposed to dioxins are exhibited and a simple kinetic model for biomonitor measurements of the concentrations from occupational exposure is derived. Model uncertainty, and uncertainty in the model parameters of physiologically‐based pharmacokinetic models (PBPK models) are addressed when these models are used to estimate the effective dose in risk assessment. Uncertainty in the model parameters originating from the use of different statistical analysis methods is exhibited for Hill type nonlinear kinetics of enzyme induction mediated by a toxin.
USING CLOUD COMPUTING TO PROVIDE DATA MINING SERVICES

Data security and access control are the most challenging research work going on, at present, in cloud computing. This is because of the users sending their sensitive data to the cloud providers for acquiring their services. In cloud computing, the data is going to be stored in storage area provided by the service providers. The service providers must have a suitable way to protect their client's sensitive data, especially to protect the data from unauthorized access. A common method of information privacy protection is to store the client's data in encrypted form. If the cloud system is responsible for both storage and encryption/decryption of the data, the system administrators may simultaneously obtain encrypted data and the decryption keys. This will allow them to access the information of the client without any authorization. This leads to the risk of sensitive information leak and the method involved of storage and encryption/decryption is costly too. Hence, to overcome these problems, a model (cloud server) has been proposed in this paper which accepts only those data which are required in an encoded form, performs the service opted by the client and sends the result in the encoded format to be understood by the respective client.
Applying Variability Modeling Concepts to Support Decision Making for Service Composition

Service oriented architectures consist of loosely coupled services that can be quickly composed to support flexibility in business processes. The flexibility requires alternative service compositions to fulfill a customer's business process. However, customers are often not aware of their options and thus cannot make good decisions on how to compose their services. Therefore, we propose to support the decision making of the customer by modeling the different alternatives explicitly in a variability model and communicating the alternatives to the customer.
Social diversity for reducing the impact of information cascades on social learning

Collective behavior in online social media and networks is known to be capable of generating non-intuitive dynamics associated with crowd wisdom and herd behaviour. Even though these topics have been well-studied in social science, the explosive growth of Internet computing and e-commerce makes urgent to understand their effects within the digital society. In this work we explore how the stochasticity introduced by social diversity can help agents involved in a inference process to improve their collective performance. Our results show how social diversity can reduce the undesirable effects of information cascades, in which rational agents choose to ignore personal knowledge in order to follow a predominant social behaviour. Situations where social diversity is never desirable are also distinguished, and consequences of these findings for engineering and social scenarios are discussed.