Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning dexterous manipulation for a soft robotic hand from human demonstrations

Dexterous multi-fingered hands can accomplish fine manipulation behaviors that are infeasible with simple robotic grippers. However, sophisticated multi-fingered hands are often expensive and fragile. Low-cost soft hands offer an appealing alternative to more conventional devices, but present considerable challenges in sensing and actuation, making them difficult to apply to more complex manipulation tasks. In this paper, we describe an approach to learning from demonstration that can be used to train soft robotic hands to perform dexterous manipulation tasks. Our method uses object-centric demonstrations, where a human demonstrates the desired motion of manipulated objects with their own hands, and the robot autonomously learns to imitate these demonstrations using reinforcement learning. We propose a novel algorithm that allows us to blend and select a subset of the most feasible demonstrations, which we use with an extension of the guided policy search framework that learns generalizable neural network policies. We demonstrate our approach on the RBO Hand 2, with learned motor skills for turning a valve, manipulating an abacus, and grasping.
English as an academic lingua franca and intercultural awareness: student mobility in the transcultural university

ABSTRACT The increasingly international orientation of many higher education (HE) institutes and the growing role of English as an academic lingua franca have far-reaching implications for how we conceptualise universities and student mobility. In this paper, it is argued that the complexity and diversity of languages, communities and cultures present in many HE institutes mean we can no longer assume a connection between the language of instruction, a local host community and a national culture and language. This is particularly the case in English medium instruction programmes outside of Anglophones settings but also in international universities in Anglophone settings, both of which will be the focus of this paper. The term transcultural university is adopted to reflect this complexity and to move beyond nation-based conceptions of universities. In educating students for mobility in such environments, it is suggested that pedagogy needs to go beyond essentialist language, culture and nation correlations. Intercultural awareness is proposed as a crucial element in preparing students to negotiate the diversity and fluidity of communicative practices in transcultural universities in which mobile students need equally mobile communicative resources.
‘The system’: relating consumers' views to power and bureaucracy

If we were to invite Martians to read our research reports and disability law, to speak to our politicians, to elicit the views of therapy staff and to interview policy makers in health and social services, I can imagine the impression they would get. They would report that, in the UK at least, there is a seamless client-centred array of services supported by inter-agency collaboration and that social, environmental and organizational barriers are in the process of being dismantled. And while they may have caught the gist of a vision and understood something of the commitment to the rights and aspirations of rehabilitation clients that professional staff subscribe to, the reality experienced by clients may be galaxies apart.
Histopathology of humorally mediated anti-glomerular basement membrane (GBM) glomerulonephritis in mice.

BACKGROUND From a diagnostic point of view it would be important to learn more about the relationship between the immune responses underlying glomerulonephritis and the patterns of glomerular lesions. A murine model of anti-GBM glomerulonephritis in which inflammation is driven by delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) has been studied extensively. The aim of this study was to uncover histological features that might be specific for anti-GBM glomerulonephritis driven by a humoral immune response. METHODS BALB/c mice were immunized with rabbit IgG in incomplete Freund's adjuvant. Six days later, on day 0, they received rabbit anti-GBM serum intravenously. Proteinuria was assessed with dipsticks. Mice were killed on days 4, 8 or 14. Kidneys from days 4 and 8 were processed for immunofluorescence and histology. On day 14 mice were perfusion-fixed for electron microscopy. RESULTS Proteinuria started on day 3. Autologous IgG and of C3 were found along the GBM. There was only slight infiltration with macrophages and no measurable infiltration by CD4 T cells, indicating the virtual absence of DTH. Besides infiltration with neutrophils there were little histological alterations on day 4. On day 8 many loops were hyalinized. On day 14, cellular crescents were found in 23% of glomeruli. Subendothelial spaces contained hyaline material, cells and fibrin. Podocytes displayed effacement of foot processes and apical microprotrusions. Podocyte bridges were common. These alterations were identical to those reported in the standard model that produces a DTH-like inflammation. CONCLUSION The qualitative pattern of histological damage in a murine model of anti-GBM glomerulonephritis does not depend on the underlying immunological process.
Real-Time Telemetry System for Amperometric and Potentiometric Electrochemical Sensors

A real-time telemetry system, which consists of readout circuits, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a microcontroller unit (MCU), a graphical user interface (GUI), and a radio frequency (RF) transceiver, is proposed for amperometric and potentiometric electrochemical sensors. By integrating the proposed system with the electrochemical sensors, analyte detection can be conveniently performed. The data is displayed in real-time on a GUI and optionally uploaded to a database via the Internet, allowing it to be accessed remotely. An MCU was implemented using a field programmable gate array (FPGA) to filter noise, transmit data, and provide control over peripheral devices to reduce power consumption, which in sleep mode is 70 mW lower than in operating mode. The readout circuits, which were implemented in the TSMC 0.18-μm CMOS process, include a potentiostat and an instrumentation amplifier (IA). The measurement results show that the proposed potentiostat has a detectable current range of 1 nA to 100 μA, and linearity with an R2 value of 0.99998 in each measured current range. The proposed IA has a common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) greater than 90 dB. The proposed system was integrated with a potentiometric pH sensor and an amperometric nitrite sensor for in vitro experiments. The proposed system has high linearity (an R2 value greater than 0.99 was obtained in each experiment), a small size of 5.6 cm × 8.7 cm, high portability, and high integration.
Radiological Assessment of the Indian Children with Congenital Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Introduction. Congenital sensorineural hearing loss is one of the most common birth defects with incidence of approximately 1 : 1000 live births. Imaging of cases of congenital sensorineural hearing loss is frequently performed in an attempt to determine the underlying pathology. There is a paucity of literature from India and for this reason we decided to conduct this study in Indian context to evaluate the various cochleovestibular bony and nerve anomalies by HRCT scan of temporal bone and MRI with 3D scan of inner ear in a tertiary care centre. Material and Methods. A total of 280 children with congenital deafness (158 males and 122 females), between January 2002 to June 2013 were included in the study and they were assessed radiologically by HRCT scan of temporal bone and MRI with 3D scan of inner ear. Results. In the present study we found various congenital anomalies of bony labyrinth and vestibulocochlear nerve. Out of 560 inner ears we found 78 anomalous inner ears. Out of these 78 inner ears 57 (73%) had cochlear anomaly, 68 (87.1%) had anomalous vestibule, 44 (56.4%) had abnormal vestibular aqueduct, 24 (30.7%) had anomalous IAC, and 23 (29.4%) had abnormal cochleovestibular nerves. Conclusion. In present study, we found lower incidences of congenital anomalies comparative to existing literature.
Recombining Low Homology, Functionally Rich Regions of Bacterial Subtilisins by Combinatorial Fragment Exchange

Combinatorial fragment exchange was utilised to recombine key structural and functional low homology regions of bacilli subtilisins to generate new active hybrid proteases with altered substrate profiles. Up to six different regions comprising mostly of loop residues from the commercially important subtilisin Savinase were exchanged with the structurally equivalent regions of six other subtilisins. The six additional subtilisins derive from diverse origins and included thermophilic and intracellular subtilisins as well as other academically and commercially relevant subtilisins. Savinase was largely tolerant to fragment exchange; rational replacement of all six regions with 5 of 6 donating subtilisin sequences preserved activity, albeit reduced compared to Savinase. A combinatorial approach was used to generate hybrid Savinase variants in which the sequences derived from all seven subtilisins at each region were recombined to generate new region combinations. Variants with different substrate profiles and with greater apparent activity compared to Savinase and the rational fragment exchange variants were generated with the substrate profile exhibited by variants dependent on the sequence combination at each region.
Towards reducing human effort in network intrusion detection

Machine learning have been one of the most considered techniques for achieving automatic intrusion detection. Despite many of these machine learning approaches have achieved the goal of getting high accuracy levels in a more automatic way, the fact is that only a few of them have actually been deployed on real life scenarios. This could be explained if we take into consideration that some of the assumptions in which these techniques rely on, do not easily hold. Moreover, ensuring such assumptions demands a lot of work from security experts which is precisely what they wanted to avoid. It seems that most of current intrusion detection approaches have focused on obtaining high detection accuracy leaving aside the goal of reducing human interaction during intrusion detection process. In this work we propose a prototype for a Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) based on machine learning techniques. In opposition to other approaches, we focused on reducing the human effort in the generation of network traffic model and further adjustments, while keeping accuracy within acceptable levels. Prototype relays on a hybrid detection and evolutionary summarizing schemes The viability of the two schemes has been confirmed trough experiments considering different attack distributions and types.
Effects of Introducing Threatened Falcons into Vineyards on Abundance of Passeriformes and Bird Damage to Grapes

Abstract: Agricultural landscapes are becoming an important focus of animal conservation, although initiatives to conserve predators to date have rarely provided economic benefits to agricultural producers. We examined whether introduction to vineyards of the New Zealand Falcon (Falco novaeseelandiae), a species listed as threatened by the New Zealand Department of Conservation, affected the abundance of 4 species of Passeriformes that are considered vineyard pests or affected the amount of economic loss due to grape (Vitis vinifera) damage. Three of the species were introduced and remove whole grapes from bunches (Blackbird [Turdus merula], Song Thrush [Turdus philomelos], and Starling [Sturnus vulgaris]), whereas the one native species (Silvereye [Zosterops lateralis]) pecks holes in grapes. The introduction of falcons to vineyards was associated with a significant decrease in the abundance of introduced passerines and with a 95% reduction in the number of grapes removed relative to vineyards without falcons. Falcon presence was not associated with a change in the number of Silvereyes, but there was a 55% reduction in the number of grapes pecked in vineyards with falcons. Our results indicate that, relative to damage in vineyards without falcons, the presence of a falcon could potentially result in savings of US$234/ha for the Sauvignon Blanc variety of grapes and $326/ha for Pinot Noir variety of grapes.
DeepIrisNet: Deep iris representation with applications in iris recognition and cross-sensor iris recognition

Despite significant advances in iris recognition (IR), the efficient and robust IR at scale and in non-ideal conditions presents serious performance issues and is still ongoing research topic. Deep Convolution Neural Networks (DCNN) are powerful visual models that have reported state-of-the-art performance in several domains. In this paper, we propose deep learning based method termed as DeepIrisNet for iris representation. The proposed approach bases on very deep architecture and various tricks from recent successful CNNs. Experimental analysis reveal that proposed DeepIrisNet can model the micro-structures of iris very effectively and provides robust, discriminative, compact, and very easy-to-implement iris representation that obtains state-of-the-art accuracy. Furthermore, we evaluate our iris representation for cross-sensor IR. The experimental results demonstrate that DeepIrisNet models obtain a significant improvement in cross-sensor recognition accuracy too.
Visual Electrodiagnostic Testing in Birdshot Chorioretinopathy

Birdshot chorioretinopathy (BSCR) is a rare form of autoimmune posterior uveitis that can affect the visual function and, if left untreated, can lead to sight-threatening complications and loss of central vision. We performed a systematic search of the literature focused on visual electrophysiology studies, including electroretinography (ERG), electrooculography (EOG), and visual evoked potentials (VEP), used to monitor the progression of BSCR and estimate treatment efficacy. Many reports were identified, including using a variety of methodologies and patient populations, which makes a direct comparison of the results difficult, especially with some of the earlier studies using nonstandardized methodology. Several different electrophysiological parameters, like EOG Arden's ratio and the multifocal ERG response densities, are reported to be widely affected. However, informal consensus emerged in the past decade that the full-field ERG light-adapted 30 Hz flicker peak time is one of the most sensitive electrophysiological parameters. As such, it has been used widely in clinical trials to evaluate drug safety and efficacy and to guide therapeutic decisions in clinical practice. Despite its wide use, a well-designed longitudinal multicenter study to systematically evaluate and compare different electrophysiological methods or parameters in BSCR is still lacking but would benefit both diagnostic and therapeutic decisions.
EBFS-Fisher: An efficient algorithm for LDA-based face recognition

This paper presents a new algorithm for LDA-based face recognition with selection of optimal principal components using E-coli Bacterial Foraging Strategy (EBFS). A GA-PCA algorithm has been reported to find optimal eigenvalues and corresponding eigenvectors in LDA. In their paper, a fitness function has been proposed to find the optimal eigenvectors to be used in LDA using a Genetic Algorithm (GA). However, the crossover method used results in differences in offspring and mutation never allow us for a physical dispersal of child in a chosen area. This may not help us in finding optimal eigenvectors for improvising accuracy of face recognition algorithm. On the other hand, this paper proposes a new algorithm called EBFS-Fisher which uses a nutrient concentration function (cost function). Here the cost function is maximized through hill climbing via a type of biased random walk. The proposed EBFS-Fisher algorithm offers two additional advantages. First, the proposed algorithm can supplement the features of GA. Second, the random bias incorporated in EBFS help us to move in the direction of increasingly favorable environment. The Yale data base is used for evaluation. Experimental results depict the fact that about 3% (Rank 1) improvement can be achieved as compared to GA-Fisher.
Centering

Abstract The bipolar model of sexuality and gender expression limits us to two types of bodies: male and female; two types of sexuality: heterosexuality or homosexuality; and two types of gender expression: masculine and feminine. This view of what is central in our society marginalizes those who don't fit, inciting people to take positions of moral superiority that the author believes are damaging to the human spirit. This paper postulates that if the diversity of people living in the “in-between” zones of sex and gender were valued over monosexual exclusion, many of the “isms” that plague modern society could be alleviated.
Effects of Adenovirus Type 5 E1A Isoforms on Viral Replication in Arrested Human Cells

Human adenovirus has evolved to infect and replicate in terminally differentiated human epithelial cells, predominantly those within the airway, the gut, or the eye. To overcome the block to viral DNA replication present in these cells, the virus expresses the Early 1A proteins (E1A). These immediate early proteins drive cells into S-phase and induce expression of all other viral early genes. During infection, several E1A isoforms are expressed with proteins of 289, 243, 217, 171, and 55 residues being present for human adenovirus type 5. Here we examine the contribution that the two largest E1A isoforms make to the viral life cycle in growth-arrested normal human fibroblasts. Viruses that express E1A289R were found to replicate better than those that do not express this isoform. Importantly, induction of several viral genes was delayed in a virus expressing E1A243R, with several viral structural proteins undetectable by western blot. We also highlight the changes in E1A isoforms detected during the course of viral infection. Furthermore, we show that viral DNA replication occurs more efficiently, leading to higher number of viral genomes in cells infected with viruses that express E1A289R. Finally, induction of S-phase specific genes differs between viruses expressing different E1A isoforms, with those having E1A289R leading to, generally, earlier activation of these genes. Overall, we provide an overview of adenovirus replication using modern molecular biology approaches and further insights into the contribution that E1A isoforms make to the life cycle of human adenovirus in arrested human fibroblasts.
Uniform Labeled Transition Systems for Nondeterministic, Probabilistic, and Stochastic Process Calculi

Labeled transition systems are typically used to represent the behavior of nondeterministic processes, with labeled transitions defining a one-step state to-state reachability relation. This model has been recently made more general by modifying the transition relation in such a way that it associates with any source state and transition label a reachability distribution, i.e., a function mapping each possible target state to a value of some domain that expresses the degree of one-step reachability of that target state. In this extended abstract, we show how the resulting model, called ULTraS from Uniform Labeled Transition System, can be naturally used to give semantics to a fully nondeterministic, a fully probabilistic, and a fully stochastic variant of a CSP-like process language.
Inner dynein arms but not outer dynein arms require the activity of kinesin homologue protein KHP1(FLA10) to reach the distal part of flagella in Chlamydomonas

Inner dynein arms, but not outer dynein arms, require the activity of KHP1(FLA10) to reach the distal part of axonemes before binding to outer doublet microtubules. We have analyzed the rescue of inner or outer dynein arms in quadriflagellate dikaryons by immunofluorescence microscopy of p28(IDA4), an inner dynein arm light chain, or IC69(ODA6), an outer dynein arm intermediate chain. In dikaryons two strains with different genetic backgrounds share the cytoplasm. As a consequence, wild-type axonemal precursors are transported to and assembled in mutant axonemes to complement the defects. The rescue of inner dynein arms containing p28 in ida4-wild-type dikaryons progressively occurred from the distal part of the axonemes and with time was extended towards the proximal part. In contrast, the rescue of outer dynein arms in oda2-wild-type dikaryons progressively occurred along the entire length of the axoneme. Rescue of inner dynein arms containing p28 in ida4fla10-fla10 dikaryons was similar to the rescue observed in ida4-wild-type dikaryons at 21 degrees C, whereas it was inhibited at 32 degrees C, a nonpermissive temperature for KHP1(FLA10). In contrast, rescue of outer dynein arms in oda2fla10-fla10 dikaryons was similar to the rescue observed in oda2-wild-type dikaryons at both 21 degrees and 32 degrees C and was not inhibited at 32 degrees C. Positioning of substructures in the internal part of the axonemal shaft requires the activity of kinesin homologue protein 1.
Cultural identity : different ways of constructing identity for first-and-second generation immigrants in The namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri

In the globalized world in which we live nowadays, there are many people who move to other countries to study, to work, to escape from political or religious repression, or to look for a better lifestyle which they think they will not attain in their homeland, and, as a result, different cultures come into contact. In this “contact zone” of cultures, new identities are constantly constructed with shared characteristics from the own and host cultures. This is specially so in the case of immigrant parents who raise their children —sometimes born in another country—in a culture different from theirs, and who face the dilemma of whether to instill the mother culture, ignoring —and often debasing— the new culture, or to assimilate the new cultural elements and accept their children’s acculturation process. In this paper, I will attempt to explore the construction of identity in the novel The Namesake (2003), by Jhumpa Lahiri. Being a writer with a hyphenated nationality herself, Lahiri describes in the abovementioned novel the experiences of immigrants from India in the United States. Once settled in the American continent, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli give birth to their son Gogol, and they are put into the dilemma of raising him according to the Indian customs or accepting the American practices, which Gogol begins to assimilate. To analyze how the first and second generations construct their hybrid cultural identity in the novel, I will explore theories about identity, hybridity, interculturality, and acculturation, which will provide a framework for understanding the similarities and differences among the characters.
Performance evaluation of programmable graphics hardware for image filtering and stereo matching

It is obvious that faster processors are essential for virtual reality applications. Recently, we have a new generation of graphics hardware which can enhance the reality of interactive graphics. Although it is designed for rendering purpose, its programmability is expected to be effective for other general applications. This paper evaluates its performance as an image processing unit especially for image filtering and stereo matching. First, we focus on image filtering, and compare GPU (ATI RADEON 9700 Pro) implementations to optimized CPU (Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz) ones. Experimental results show that, for linear filtering, GPUs are from three to six times faster than CPUs. Then, we implement a block-based stereo matching algorithm using filters and depth-test-based optimization on the GPU. This implementation is shown to be twice faster than a CPU implementation. Finally, a system based on this algorithm is constructed to estimate depth from two video sequences in real time.