Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimation of actuation system parameters for lower limb prostheses

This paper provides guidelines to estimate the kinematics, energy and torque requirements for lower limb prosthetic actuation systems during daily living activities. These parameters are estimated based on human biomechanical data from different sources to consider the variability due to the assumptions and errors in the analysis and data collection. The results showed that the powered actuation source is important at the ankle joint in the stance phase during level ground walking while it is more important at knee joint during stair ascending. These estimated parameters can be used as guidelines to design and select proper actuation systems.
Ranking and Feedback-based Stopping for Recall-Centric Document Retrieval

Systematic reviews require researchers to identify the entire body of relevant literature. Algorithms that filter the list for manual scanning with nearly perfect recall can significantly decrease the workload. This paper presents a novel stopping criterion that estimates the score-distribution of relevant articles from relevance feedback of random articles (S-D Minimal Sampling). Using 20 training and 30 test topics, we achieve a mean recall of 93.3%, filtering out 59.1% of the articles. This approach achieves higher F2-Scores at significantly reduced manual reviewing work loads. The method is especially suited for scenarios with sufficiently many relevant articles (>5) that can be sampled and employed for relevance feedback.
A scheduling algorithm for multi-tenants instance-intensive workflows

As a key service model in cloud computing, SaaS applications are becoming increasingly popular. Multi-tenancy is a key characteristics of SaaS applications. Business processes play a key role in SaaS applications because of the composability and reusability of software services. This paper focuses on multi-tenants instance-intensive workflows system, in which workflows have a large number of instances belonging to multiple tenants in a SaaS environment, and further proposes a scheduling algorithm for multi- tenants workflow instances. This algorithm improves the quality of service (QoS) for tenants and saves the execution cost of workflows. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm guarantees the workflow execution conforming to the deadline set by tenants, and reduces the mean execution time for tenants in high priority whilst saves the execution cost for service providers.
Cross-Layer Design for TCP Throughput Optimization in Cooperative Relaying Networks

In this paper, we investigate the transmission control protocol (TCP) throughput in cooperative relaying networks and take an cross-layer design approach when selecting a relay to optimize the TCP throughput. A first-order finite-sate Markov channel (FSMC) is used to model the wireless time varying channels, and the TCP throughput is estimated as a function of physical layer signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and link-layer frame size and retransmission times. Since relay selection is crucial in improving the TCP performance, we proposed a stochastic decision making approach to select the optimal relay for every TCP packet according to the states of each relay. We formulated the cross-layer TCP throughput optimization problem as a restless bandit system and obtained the statistically optimal relay selection policy, which has an indexability property and can be easily implemented in real system. We compare the proposed scheme through simulations under different parameters of physical layer and link-layer, simulation results show that the TCP throughput can be improved significantly by the optimal relay selection scheme.
Diagnosability of Petri nets

Diagnosability of discrete event systems (DES) was formally defined in finite state machine (FSM) models by Sampath, et al. They gave a method for testing diagnosability by first constructing a diagnoser for the system. The complexity of this method is exponential in the number of states and doubly exponential in the number of failure types. Later, Yoo, et al. developed an algorithm to solve the diagnosability problem with polynomial complexity in the number of states. We explore diagnosability of discrete event systems modeled by Petri nets. This gives us an advantage to solve large real-world problems. First, diagnosability of Petri nets is defined in terms of net structures, then, we proposed an algorithm that could be used for checking diagnosability property of discrete event systems. Examples are given to illustrate the approach.
VerTGen: An automatic verilog testbench generator for generic circuits

With the ever growing complexity of hardware designs, their functional verification has become quite a challenge. Despite other techniques like emulation and formal verification methods, simulation continues to be the most common and primary technique to functionally verify the hardware design written in Verilog. Due to the limited computational resources, exhaustive testing of the present-age complex hardware designs is not possible. This makes the selection of vectors very important. However, manual selection of test vectors has often resulted in biased testing and their is always a risk of missing some important corner case. Random testing may solve this problem but manual development of random test generation is a time consuming task. The main contribution of this paper is to facilitate the testbench development task as it presents an automatic random test bench generator tool, VerTGen, for Verilog models. VerTGen has a user friendly GUI and supports all the major probability distributions and can be used to create test benches for both combinational and sequential circuits. For illustration, the paper presents the test bench creation process of a shift register using VerTGen.
Gamma‐retroviral vectors enveloped with an antibody and an engineered fusogenic protein achieved antigen‐specific targeting

Development of methods to engineer gamma‐retroviral vectors capable of transducing target cells in a cell‐specific manner could impact the future of the clinical application of gene therapy as well as the understanding of the biology of transfer gene vectors. Two molecular events are critical for controlling the entry of gamma‐retroviral vectors to target cells: binding to cell‐surface receptors and the subsequent fusion of viral vector membrane and cellular membrane. In this report, we evaluated a method to incorporate a membrane‐bound antibody and a fusogenic molecule to provide binding and fusion functions respectively, into gamma‐retroviral vectors for targeted gene delivery. An anti‐CD20 antibody and a fusogenic protein derived from Sindbis virus glycoprotein could be efficiently co‐displayed on the surface of viral vectors. Vectors bearing anti‐CD20 antibody conferred their binding specificity to cells expressing CD20. Enhanced in vitro transduction towards CD20‐expressing cells was observed for gamma‐retroviral vectors displaying both an antibody and a fusogen. We found that the biological activity of the fusogen played an important role on the efficiency of such a targeting strategy and were able to engineer several mutant forms of the fusogen exhibiting elevated fusion function to improve the overall efficiency of targeted transduction. We devised an animal model to show that subcutaneous injection of such engineered vectors to the areas xenografted with target cells could achieve targeted gene delivery in vivo. Taken together, we demonstrated as proof‐of‐principle a flexible and modular two‐molecule strategy for engineering targeting gamma‐retroviral vectors. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2008;101: 357–368. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Towards Patient-specific Electrical Impedance Tomography using 3D Thorax Models

Mechanical ventilation of patients with severe lung injury is an important clinical treatment to ensure proper lung oxygenation and to mitigate the extent of collapsed lung regions. Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) is a novel method to determine functional processes inside the thorax such as lung ventilation and cardiac activity. Current EIT systems and algorithms use simplified or generalized thorax models to solve the reconstruction problem, which reduce image quality and anatomical significance. In this book, the development of a clinically relevant workflow to compute sophisticated three-dimensional thorax models from patient-specific CT data is described. The significantly improved image quality and anatomical precision of EIT images reconstructed with these 3D models is reported, and the impact on clinical applicability is discussed. The results presented in this book contribute significantly to clinical research efforts to pave the way towards improved patient-specific treatments of lung injury using EIT.
3-{[4-(4-Pyridyl)pyrimidin-2-yl]sulfanylmethyl}benzoic acid

The title compound, C17H13N3O2S, was prepared by reaction of 4-(4-pyridyl)pyrimidine-2-thiol with 3-(bromomethyl)benzoic acid under basic conditions. Each pair of molecules is mutually linked via O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds, forming a dimer. The packing of the dimers is stablized by C—H⋯π interactions involving the methylene unit of the –CH2S– linkage and benzene rings.
Multi-robot systems with agent-based reinforcement learning: evolution, opportunities and challenges

Multi-agent reinforcement learning for multi-robot systems is a challenging issue in both robotics and artificial intelligence. With the ever increasing interests in theoretical researches and practical applications, currently there have been a lot of efforts towards providing good solutions to this challenge. However, there are still many difficulties in scaling up multi-agent reinforcement learning to multi-robot systems. This paper presents a survey on the evolution, opportunities and challenges of applying agent-based reinforcement learning to multi-robot systems. After reviewing some important advances in this field, some challenging problems and promising research directions are focused on. A concluding remark is made from the perspectives of the authors.
Physical Modeling of Hot-Electron Superconducting Single-Photon Detectors

In this paper, we treat the incident photons as an electromagnetic plane wave and simulate the wave power coupling to the the hot-electron superconducting single-photon detector to investigate its connection with the experimental system quantum efficiency over different wavelengths. Then we propose a lumped equivalent circuit model based on the kinetic inductance variation induced by the incident photon stream when the serpentine superconducting thin-film nano-wire is dc-biased close to its critical current. The computed output voltage matches experimental results for both amplitude and frequency.
Germinação in vitro de Laguncularia racemosa (L.) Gaertn.

The culture medium Y3 and MS were tested in the germination of Laguncularia racemosa (L.) Gaertn, and it was added: vitamins of Morel & Wetmore (1951), sucrose to 3 %, activated charcoal (1,5g) and gibberelic acid (GA3), pH was adjusted in 5.8, 26oC, 16 hours photoperiod, 45 µmol. m-2.s-1, and white cold light. The experimental results were undergone to the analysis of variance and the averages compared by the test of Tukey to 5 % of significance. Seedlings in vitro of L. racemosa have a bigger tendency to the growth (cm) of the shoot in medium Y3 without the presence of GA3. Regarding the length of the roots, it was not possible to detect bigger or lesser efficiency between the culture medium MS and Y3. However, the Y3 has shown a more uniform growth of the root. There was homogeneity between the treatments Y3 with GA3 and in the MS medium without GA3, as well as in the shoot growth as in the roots
Patterns of strain and activation in the thigh muscles of goats across gaits during level locomotion

SUMMARY Unlike homologous muscles in many vertebrates, which appear to function similarly during a particular mode of locomotion (e.g. red muscle in swimming fish, pectoralis muscle in flying birds, limb extensors in jumping and swimming frogs), a major knee extensor in mammalian quadrupeds, the vastus lateralis, appears to operate differently in different species studied to date. In rats, the vastus undergoes more stretching early in stance than shortening in later stance. In dogs, the reverse is true; more substantial shortening follows small amounts of initial stretching. And in horses, while the vastus strain trajectory is complex, it is characterized mainly by shortening during stance. In this study, we use sonomicrometry and electromyography to study the vastus lateralis and biceps femoris of goats, with three goals in mind: (1) to see how these muscles work in comparison to homologous muscles studied previously in other taxa; (2) to address how speed and gait impact muscle actions and (3) to test whether fascicles in different parts of the same muscle undergo similar length changes. Results indicate that the biceps femoris undergoes substantial shortening through much of stance, with higher strains in walking and trotting [32–33% resting length (L0)] than galloping (22% L0). These length changes occur with increasing biceps EMG intensities as animals increase speed from walking to galloping. The vastus undergoes a stretch–shorten cycle during stance. Stretching strains are higher during galloping (15% L0) than walking and trotting (9% L0). Shortening strains follow a reverse pattern and are greatest in walking (24% L0), intermediate in trotting (20% L0) and lowest during galloping (17% L0). As a result, the ratio of stretching to shortening increases from below 0.5 in walking and trotting to near 1.0 during galloping. This increasing ratio suggests that the vastus does relatively more positive work than energy absorption at the slower speeds compared with galloping, although an understanding of the timing and magnitude of force production is required to confirm this. Length-change regimes in proximal, middle and distal sites of the vastus are generally comparable, suggesting strain homogeneity through the muscle. When strain rates are compared across taxa, vastus shortening velocities exhibit the scaling pattern predicted by theoretical and empirical work: fascicles shorten relatively faster in smaller animals than larger animals (strain rates near 2 L s–1 have been reported for trotting dogs and were found here for goats, versus 0.6–0.8 L s–1 reported in horses). Interestingly, biceps shortening strain rates are very similar in both goats and rats during walking (1–1.5 L s–1) and trotting (1.5–2.5 L s–1, depending on speed of trot), suggesting that the ratio of in vivo shortening velocities (V) to maximum shortening velocities (Vmax) is smaller in small animals (because of their higher Vmax).
Differential Biphasic Transcriptional Host Response Associated with Coevolution of Hemagglutinin Quasispecies of Influenza A Virus

Severe influenza associated with strong symptoms and lung inflammation can be caused by intra-host evolution of quasispecies with aspartic acid or glycine in hemagglutinin position 222 (HA-222D/G; H1 numbering). To gain insights into the dynamics of host response to this coevolution and to identify key mechanisms contributing to copathogenesis, the lung transcriptional response of BALB/c mice infected with an A(H1N1)pdm09 isolate consisting HA-222D/G quasispecies was analyzed from days 1 to 12 post infection (p.i). At day 2 p.i. 968 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected. The DEG number declined to 359 at day 4 and reached 1001 at day 7 p.i. prior to recovery. Interestingly, a biphasic expression profile was shown for the majority of these genes. Cytokine assays confirmed these results on protein level exemplarily for two key inflammatory cytokines, interferon gamma and interleukin 6. Using a reverse engineering strategy, a regulatory network was inferred to hypothetically explain the biphasic pattern for selected DEGs. Known regulatory interactions were extracted by Pathway Studio 9.0 and integrated during network inference. The hypothetic gene regulatory network revealed a positive feedback loop of Ifng, Stat1, and Tlr3 gene signaling that was triggered by the HA-G222 variant and correlated with a clinical symptom score indicating disease severity.
Intelligent tutoring systems have forgotten the tutor: adding a cognitive model of human tutors

I propose that a more effective intelligent tutoring system (ITS) for the domain of algebra symbolization can be made by building a cognitive model of human tutors and incorporating that model into an ITS. Specifically, I will collect protocols of humans engaged in tutoring and use these to build a model of Socratic dialogue for this domain. I will then test whether the ITS is more effective with such dialogue capabilities.
Effect of aminophylline and verapamil upon diaphragmatic force generation in dogs.

The effects on the diaphragm of verapamil (VPM) and aminophylline (AMP) were studied in dogs during stimulation of phrenic nerves at the 5th cervical roots (5th-PS) or transvenously at the trunk (T-PS). Transdiaphragmatic pressure (Pdi)/frequency curves were constructed. Our findings were: 1) AMP increased Pdi at all stimulation frequencies (p less than 0.01) during 5th-PS but only at 10-30 Hz during T-PS; 2) in other dogs infusion of VPM (0.14 mg.kg-1.min-1) decreased Pdi at all frequencies (p less than 0.025) without change in diaphragmatic blood flow; 3) the effects of VPM were completely reverted by AMP; 4) after a large amount of AMP, infusion of VPM (0.21 mg.kg-1.min-1) decreased Pdi at all frequencies. Since these drugs have several mechanisms of action and do not show mutual blocking effect, different action sites are suggested.
Reducing chattering phenomenon in sliding mode control of Buck-Boost power converters

This paper focuses on the problem of controlling DC-to-DC switched power converter of Buck-Boost type. The converter is controlled according to pulse-width-modulation (PWM) and is modeled by an average nonlinear state-space representation. A nonlinear regulator is designed using the sliding mode technique. The control purpose is to enforce the output voltage to track any desired reference signal and to prevent chattering phenomenon which is, usually, caused by the excitation of fast unmodelled dynamics. The obtained regulator is shown to meet its objective.
Valor do toque retal na detecção do carcinoma da prostata

Com o intuito de avaliar o valor do toque retal no diagnostico das neoplasias malignas prostaticas, submetemos 125 pacientes com caracteristicas palpatorias suspeitas de câncer da prostata, com idade variando de 47 a 90 anos, a 137 biopsias transretais da glândula prostatica (BTR). Analisamos ainda os indices de positividade para câncer a BTR de acordo com as faixas etarias, com as queixas principais e com os estadiamentos clinicos ao toque retal. Concluimos que: 1) o valor preditivo positivo do toque retal suspeito de câncer foi de 39,2%; 2) indice de positividade nos pacientes com prostata muito suspeita (estadio c, 53,5%) foi significantemente maior que nos pacientes com prostata pouco suspeita (estadio B, 27,5%); 3) a incidencia de câncer prostatico foi maior nos individuos com idade acima de 80 anos e nos que nao apresentavam prostatismo como queixa principal
Crystal structure of 2-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)quinoline-3-carbaldehyde

In the title compound, C15H17N3O, the aldehyde group is twisted relative to the quinoline group by17.6 (2)° due to the presence of a bulky piperazinyl group in the ortho position. The piperazine N atom attached to the aromatic ring is sp 3-hybridized and the dihedral angle between the mean planes through the the six piperazine ring atoms and through the quinoline ring system is 40.59 (7)°. Both piperazine substituents are in equatorial positions.
Factors Influencing Progress toward Ecological Speciation

1CNRS, UMR 7205, Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 45 Rue Buffon, CP50, 75005 Paris, France 2CIBIO/UP—Centro de Investigacao em Biodiversidade e Recursos Geneticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus Agrario de Vairao, R. Monte-Crasto, 4485-661 Vairao, Portugal 3 IBE—Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (UPF-CSIC), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, PRBB, Avenue Doctor Aiguader N88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain 4Department of Botany, 3165, University of Wyoming, 1000 East University Avenue Laramie, WY 82071, USA 5Redpath Museum and Department of Biology, McGill University, 859 Sherbrooke Street West Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 2K6
Analysis of response characteristic of a novel MEMS inertial sensor by Matlab

In this paper the closed-loop model of a novel MEMS inertial sensor with the actuators drived by Lorentz force for increasing the initial sensing capacitance is established and the simulations are finished by using Matlab/Simulink. By comparing the different results between the open-loop and closed-loop, the performance of the sensor is analyzed. The results show that in closed-loop state, when the resonant frequency is 1173 Hz, the linearity range of the sensor is within −10g ∼ 10g, which is almost twice over the situation in open-loop state. The bandwidth frequency is also up to 2865 Hz and the stability has been improved dramatically.
Stepped care for depression in primary care: what should be offered and how?

Stepped‐care approaches may offer a solution to delivering accessible, effective and efficient services for individuals with depression. In stepped care, all patients commence with a low‐intensity, low‐cost treatment. Treatment results are monitored systematically, and patients move to a higher‐intensity treatment only if necessary. We deliver a stepped‐care model targeting patients with depression. ➢The first step consists of “watchful waiting”, as half of all patients with a depressive episode recover spontaneously within 3 months. ➢The second step, guided self‐help, is the key element of the stepped‐care model. Guided self‐help, especially when offered through the internet, is effective and cost‐efficient. ➢The third step consists of brief face‐to‐face psychotherapy. ➢Finally, in the fourth step, longer‐term face‐to‐face psychotherapy and antidepressant medication might be considered. Patients are monitored by one person, a care manager, who is responsible for the decision to step up to the next treatment and for continuity of care. The different treatments within the stepped‐care model are evidence‐based. Data on cost‐effectiveness of the full model are still scarce, but we recently demonstrated that the incidence of new cases of depression and anxiety could be halved by introducing stepped care. Effects of web‐based guided self‐help could be enhanced by incorporating them in a stepped‐care model.
A 3-to-10GHz 14-Band CMOS Frequency Synthesizer with Spurs Reduction for MB-OFDM UWB System

In contrast to the prior arts, this paper proposes a 14-band CMOS I/Q frequency synthesizer based on a single-PLL architecture. With proper frequency planning, only divide-by-2 dividers are needed in the feedback path of the PLL. Thus, more precise in- phase and quadrature phase sub-harmonics can be derived from the divider chain for SSB frequency mixing. On the other hand, the number of mixer stages in cascade is reduced to 2 for full- band carrier generation. Using a sub-harmonic I/Q calibration, the image spurs are suppressed below -45dBc and more than 33dB SFDR is achieved for the full band generation.
Implications of Physiological Studies Based on Genomic Sequences: Streptococcus pneumoniae TIGR4 Synthesizes a Functional LytC Lysozyme

ABSTRACT The Streptococcus pneumoniae LytC lysozyme is responsible for autolysis at 30°C (a temperature close to that of the upper respiratory tract), promotes DNA release in competent cultures, and participates in nasopharyngeal colonization. We show that the virulent pneumococcal TIGR4 strain encodes an active LytC enzyme, in contrast with genome-based predictions.