Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stability analysis of virtual passive actuator with time delay and parameter uncertainties

The purpose of this paper is to present a virtual passive actuator which enables the manipulator joint to behave as a desired spring-damper system. When the manipulator interacts with an unknown environment or human operator, huge contact force will be generated with a high-stiffness trajectory tracking controller: to avoid violent collisions, the virtual passive actuator is proposed to diminish the interaction force, and adjust the system stiffness to adapt to the environment. With the mathematical model of the virtual passive actuator, the system’s stable region is determined based on the Routh–Hurwitz criterion. The influence of operation time delay, filter and model uncertainty is taken into consideration. Finally, the virtual passive actuator is incorporated into a manipulator, and validity is verified through a set of experiments. Experiment results show that, with the proposed controller, virtual passive actuator joint deformation is proportional to the external torque, and the proportional ratio is close to the stiffness setting: it can perform dynamic behavior just like a spring-damper system when subject to step external torque.
Genomic prediction of locoregional recurrence after mastectomy in breast cancer.

PURPOSE This study aims to explore gene expression profiles that are associated with locoregional (LR) recurrence in breast cancer after mastectomy. PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 94 breast cancer patients who underwent mastectomy between 1990 and 2001 and had DNA microarray study on the primary tumor tissues were chosen for this study. Eligible patient should have no evidence of LR recurrence without postmastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT) after a minimum of 3-year follow-up (n = 67) and any LR recurrence (n = 27). They were randomly split into training and validation sets. Statistical classification tree analysis and proportional hazards models were developed to identify and validate gene expression profiles that relate to LR recurrence. RESULTS Our study demonstrates two sets of gene expression profiles (one with 258 genes and the other 34 genes) to be of predictive value with respect to LR recurrence. The overall accuracy of the prediction tree model in validation sets is estimated 75% to 78%. Of patients in validation data set, the 3-year LR control rate with predictive index more than 0.8 derived from 34-gene prediction models is 91%, and predictive index 0.8 or less is 40% (P = .008). Multivariate analysis of all patients reveals that estrogen receptor and genomic predictive index are independent prognostic factors that affect LR control. CONCLUSION Using gene expression profiles to develop prediction tree models effectively identifies breast cancer patients who are at higher risk for LR recurrence. This gene expression-based predictive index can be used to select patients for PMRT.
Tachykinin‐independent activity of capsaicin on in‐vitro lamb detrusor

The capsicum alkaloid capsaicin is an afferent fibre exciter. In the vesical bladder, capsaicin acts by releasing peptides stored in afferent fibres. The aim of this work was to verify the activity of capsaicin on in‐vitro lamb urinary bladder and to ascertain whether this alkaloid evokes peptide release. Capsaicin relaxed about 80 % of the lamb detrusor muscle preparations tested and contracted about 20%. Whereas neurokinin A and substance P antagonists, administered alone or together, left the contractile responses to capsaicin unchanged, atropine and tetrodotoxin totally inhibited contraction. Ruthenium red and indometacin abolished contractions and relaxation. The substance P and neurokinin A antagonists and the NO‐synthesis inhibitor Nω‐nitro‐l‐arginine methyl ester (L‐NAME) left relaxation unchanged; conversely, the calcitonin gene‐related peptide antagonist αh‐CGRP (8–37) abolished this response. These results suggest that capsaicin relaxes lamb detrusor muscle not through tachykinins but by releasing CGRP from afferent fibres. Our observation that indometacin blocks the capsaicin response in in‐vitro lamb urinary bladder also suggests a role of prostanoids.
Detection of vaccine-derived polioviruses in Mexico using environmental surveillance.

BACKGROUND Early detection and control of vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) emergences are essential to secure the gains of polio eradication. METHODS Serial sewage samples were collected in 4 towns of Mexico before, throughout, and after the May 2010 oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) mass immunization campaign. Isolation and molecular analysis of polioviruses from sewage specimens monitored the duration of vaccine-related strains in the environment and emergence of vaccine-derived polioviruses in a population partially immunized with inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV). RESULTS Sabin strains were identified up to 5-8 weeks after the campaign in all towns; in Aguascalientes, 1 Sabin 3 was isolated 16 weeks after the campaign, following 7 weeks with no Sabin strains detected. In Tuxtla Gutiérrez, type 2 VDPV was isolated from 4 samples collected before and during the campaign, and type 1 VDPV from 1 sample collected 19 weeks afterward. During 2009-2010, coverage in 4 OPV campaigns conducted averaged only 57% and surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) was suboptimal (AFP rate<1 per 100,000 population<15 years of age) in Tuxtla Gutierrez. CONCLUSIONS VDPVs may emerge and spread in settings with inadequate coverage with IPV/OPV vaccination. Environmental surveillance can facilitate early detection in these settings.
MDS Code Constructions With Small Sub-Packetization and Near-Optimal Repair Bandwidth

This paper addresses the problem of constructing maximum distance separable (MDS) codes that enable exact reconstruction (repair) of each code block by downloading a small amount of information from the remaining code blocks. The total amount of information flow from the remaining code blocks during this reconstruction process is referred to as repair bandwidth of the underlying code. Existing constructions of exact-repairable MDS codes with optimal repair bandwidth require working with large subpacketization levels, which restrict their applicability in practice. This paper presents two general approaches to construct exact-repairable MDS codes that aim at significantly reducing the required subpacketization level at the cost of slightly suboptimal repair bandwidth. The first approach provides MDS codes that have repair bandwidth at most twice the optimal repair bandwidth. In addition, these codes also have the smallest possible subpacketization level <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(r)$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, where <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$r$ </tex-math></inline-formula> denotes the number of parity blocks. This approach is then generalized to design codes that have their repair bandwidth approaching the optimal repair bandwidth at the cost of graceful increment in the required subpacketization level. The second approach transforms an MDS code with optimal repair bandwidth and large subpacketization level into a longer MDS code with small subpacketization level and near-optimal repair bandwidth. For a given <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$r$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, the codes constructed using this approach have their subpacketization level scaling logarithmically with the code length. In addition, the obtained codes require field size only linear in the code length and ensure load balancing among the intact code blocks in terms of the information downloaded from these blocks during the exact reconstruction of a code block.
Global education and education for sustainability

This article focuses on the relationship between development education/global education and education for sustainability. A short introduction describes the current use of the term ‘global education’ and the different groups working and competing within this area in the development field. In the first part, the history of the concept of ‘global education’ is outlined. The authors describe the conceptual shifts from Third World pedagogy to development education to global education. In the second part, the current conceptual debate within the global‐education discourse itself is described. The relationship between the concepts of global education and education for sustainability is reflected on in the third part. Finally, the current challenges for the implementation in practice, for the conceptual debate, and for the research agenda in the field of global education are outlined.
Flow Cytometry as a Powerful Tool for Monitoring Microbial Population Dynamics in Sludge

Flow cytometry is a technology that simultaneously measures and analyses multiple physical characteristics of single particles, usually cells, as they flow in a fluid stream through a beam of light. The properties measured include a particle’s relative size (represented by forward angle light scatter), relative granularity or internal complexity (represented by right-angle scatter), and relative fluorescence intensity. These characteristics are determined using an optical-to-electronic coupling system which records how the cell or particle scatters incident laser light and emits fluorescence. A wide range of dyes, which may bind or intercalate with different cellular components, can be used as labels for applications in a number of fields, including molecular biology, immunology, plant biology, marine biology and environmental microbiology. Interest in rapid methods and automation for prokaryotic cell studies in environmental microbiology has been growing over the past few years.
An 8-bit 200 MSPS CMOS A/D converter for analog interface module of TFT-LCD driver

A 3 V 8-bit 200 MSPS CMOS folding/interpolation A/D converter for analog interface module of TFT-LCD Driver is proposed. It is composed of both a coarse ADC and a fine ADC whose FR (Folding Rate) is 8, NFB (Number of Folding Block) is 4, and IR (interpolation Rate) is 8, respectively. For the purpose of improving SNDR, distributed track-and-hold circuits are included at the input stage. In order to obtain a high speed operation and low power consumption, further, a novel analog latch and digital encoder based on a fast compression algorithm are proposed. The chip has been fabricated with a 0.35 /spl mu/m 2-poly 3-metal CMOS technology. The effective chip area is about 1.2 mm/spl times/0.8 mm and it dissipates about 210 mW at 3 V power supply. The INL and DNL are within 1 LSB, respectively. The SNDR is about 43 dB, when the input frequency reaches 10 MHz at 200 MHz clock frequency.
Optimization with constraints using a cultured differential evolution approach

In this paper we propose a cultural algorithm, where different knowledge sources modify the variation operator of a differential evolution algorithm. Differential evolution is used as a basis for the population, variation and selection processes. The experiments performed show that the cultured differential evolution is able to reduce the number of fitness function evaluations needed to obtain a good aproximation of the optimum value in constrained real-parameter optimization. Comparisons are provided with respect to three techniques that are representative of the state-of-the-art in the area.
Tainted eponyms in medicine: the “Clara” cell joins the list

Eponyms are a time-honoured tradition in medicine as well as the sciences. Some fields of medicine, such as rheumatology and neurology, are particularly fond of them and the term “eponymophilia” has been coined to describe their affinity 1. Those who like their eponyms argue that their use adds flavour to our daily practice and that they are universally understood. They also claim that, as they are everywhere anyway, change would be impractical 2. During the last decade or so, the use of eponyms has become the subject of intense controversy. In 2003, Panush et al. 3 reported on the biography of Hans Reiter, after whom a form of reactive arthritis was named despite the fact that others had described the condition well before him. Apart from being an outspoken lecturer in favour of “racial hygiene”, Reiter served on the advisory board to Hitler's physician, Karl Brandt, who headed the infamous “euthanasia” programme. This systematic killing of patients with mental and other illnesses developed the killing mechanism utilised in the genocide of the Jews, and the Roma and Sinti people. Brandt was executed for this and other crimes in 1948. Moreover, Reiter, as Chief of the Reich Health Service, approved not only the sterilisation programmes but also the deliberate infection of concentration camp inmates with rickettsia. The report by Panush et al. 3 led many physicians, particularly in the USA and Germany, to abandon the use of the eponym in favour of a more descriptive name 4. Panush's work also led to the formal retraction, in 2007, of the initial publication that coined this particular eponym 5. It is probably fair to say that there is no coherent approach to these issues within the rheumatology community. Some have disdained its use, whereas others continue the use of …
A Low-Cost, Radiation-Hardened Method for Pipeline Protection in Microprocessors

The aggressive scaling of semiconductor technology has significantly increased the radiation-induced soft-error rate in modern microprocessors. Meanwhile, due to the increasing complexity of modern processor pipelines and the limited error-tolerance capabilities that previous radiation hardening techniques can provide, the existing pipeline protection mechanisms cannot achieve complete protection. This paper proposes a complete and cost-effective pipeline protection mechanism using a self-checking architecture. The radiation-hardened pipeline is achieved by incorporating soft-error- and timing-error-tolerant flip-flop (SETTOFF)-based self-checking cells into the sequential cells of the pipeline. A replay recovery mechanism is also developed at the architectural level to recover the detected errors. The proposed pipeline protection technique is implemented in an OpenRISC microprocessor in a 65-nm technology. A gate-level transient fault-injection and analysis technique is used to evaluate the error-tolerance capability of the proposed hardened pipeline design. The results show that compared with the techniques such as triple modular redundancy, the SETTOFF-based self-checking technique requires over 30% less area and 80% less power overheads. Meanwhile, the error-tolerant and self-checking capabilities of the register allow the proposed pipeline protection technique to provide a noticeably higher level of reliability for different parts of the pipeline compared with the previous pipeline protection techniques.
Joint Integrated PDA Avoiding Track Coalescence under Non-Homogeneous Clutter Density

Joint PDA has proven to be effective in tracking multiple targets from measurements amidst clutter and missed detections. Joint IPDA has built upon this by including the probability of target existence as a track quality measure to enable automatic tracking and track maintenance. Both JPDA and JIPDA suffer from the problem of track coalescence of near target tracks. JPDA* is an extension of JPDA which avoids coalescence by pruning specific permutation hypotheses prior to hypothesis merging. Following JPDA*'s descriptor system derivation, this paper developes JIPDA*, an extension of JIPDA which avoids track coalescence. JIPDA* updates the probability of target existence as the track quality measure. An initial simulation study corroborates the effectiveness of this approach for tracking crossing targets in heavy clutter
Simulation of linear elastic media with fluid inclusions

We present a fast technique for simulating fluid-filled elastic objects with the Finite Element Method. By simulating the presence of fluid with hydrostatic fluid pressure, a quasi-static simulation of fluid can be achieved by applying a force boundary condition to the nodes on the fluidelastic interface. Using a proportional feedback control algorithm, a relationship between the volume and pressure of the fluid structure can be maintained. Optimal parameters for the control algorithm are found by determining the response of the elastic system to changes in pressure. This approach has been shown to agree with experimental deformation data taken from a fluid-filled gelatin phantom. Combining linear FEM methods with matrix condensation techniques and the tuned proportional feedback control allows for the simulation of a fluid-filled elastic object at real-time haptic update rates.
A Quasilinear Parabolic Equation with Quadratic Growth of the Gradient modeling Incomplete Financial Markets

We consider a quasilinear parabolic equation with quadratic gradient terms. It arises in the modelling of an optimal portfolio which maximizes the expected utility from terminal wealth in incomplete markets consisting of risky assets and non-tradable state variables. The existence of solutions is shown by extending the monotonicity method of Frehse. Furthermore, we prove the uniqueness of weak solutions under a smallness condition on the derivatives of the covariance matrices with respect to the solution. The influence of the non-tradable state variables on the optimal value function is illustrated by a numerical example.
NDT: Neual Decision Tree Towards Fully Functioned Neural Graph

Though traditional algorithms could be embedded into neural architectures with the proposed principle of \cite{xiao2017hungarian}, the variables that only occur in the condition of branch could not be updated as a special case. To tackle this issue, we multiply the conditioned branches with Dirac symbol (i.e. $\mathbf{1}_{x>0}$), then approximate Dirac symbol with the continuous functions (e.g. $1 - e^{-\alpha|x|}$). In this way, the gradients of condition-specific variables could be worked out in the back-propagation process, approximately, making a fully functioned neural graph. Within our novel principle, we propose the neural decision tree \textbf{(NDT)}, which takes simplified neural networks as decision function in each branch and employs complex neural networks to generate the output in each leaf. Extensive experiments verify our theoretical analysis and demonstrate the effectiveness of our model.
Kirchnerismo, la disputa por el sentido de la democracia (2003-2011) Kirchnerism, the dispute over the sense of democracy (2003-2011)

El trabajo se propone analizar la disputa por la resignificacion de la democracia producida en la Argentina desde el ano 2003. Para ello se adopta como posicionamiento teorico el pensamiento politico posfundacional. A lo largo del trabajo se abordan la politica de derechos humanos; la relacion entre gobierno y movimientos sociales; y la discusion por la “ley de medios”. Se sostiene que en la construccion de sentido que el kirchnerismo ha efectuado, la democracia es entendida como conflicto, como proceso de participacion y como proyecto politicamente posicionado, lejos de la supuesta neutralidad institucional en las visiones tradicionales la situan. Palabras clave: Kirchnerismo – Democracia – Conflicto – Derechos Humanos – Movimientos Sociales – Medios de comunicacion. This paper intends to analyze the dispute over the redefinition of democracy produced in Argentina since 2003. To this end, a posfundacional political thought as theoretical position is adopted. The human rights policy, the relationship between the government and social movements and the discussion about the “mass media law” are developed along this paper. It is argued that the construction of meaning that kirchnerism has achieved is to understand it as a conflict, as a participation process and as a project, which is politically positioned far away from that neutrality in which other visions situate democratic institutions. Key words: Kirchnerismo – Democracy – Conflict – Human Rights – Social Movements – Mass Media
FSH Modulates PKAI and GPR3 Activities in Mouse Oocyte of COC in a Gap Junctional Communication (GJC)-Dependent Manner to Initiate Meiotic Resumption

Many studies have shown that cyclic adenosine-5′-monophosphate (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) and G-protein-coupled receptor 3 (GPR3) are crucial for controlling meiotic arrest in oocytes. However, it is unclear how gonadotropins modulate these factors to regulate oocyte maturation, especially by gap junctional communication (GJC). Using an in vitro meiosis-arrested mouse cumulus-oocyte complex (COC) culture model, we showed that there is a close relationship between follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and the PKA type I (PKAI) and GPR3. The effect of FSH on oocyte maturation was biphasic, initially inhibitory and then stimulatory. During FSH-induced maturation, rapid cAMP surges were observed in both cumulus cells and oocyte. Most GJC between cumulus cells and oocyte ceased immediately after FSH stimulation and recommenced after the cAMP surge. FSH-induced maturation was blocked by PKAI activator 8-AHA-cAMP. Levels of PKAI regulatory subunits and GPR3 decreased and increased, respectively, after FSH stimulation. In the presence of the GJC inhibitor carbenoxolone (CBX), FSH failed to induce the meiotic resumption and the changes in PKAI, GPR3 and cAMP surge in oocyte were no longer detected. Furthermore, GPR3 was upregulated by high cAMP levels, but not by PKAI activation. When applied after FSH stimulation, the specific phosphodiesterase 3A (PDE3A) inhibitor cilostamide immediately blocked meiotic induction, regardless of when it was administered. PKAI activation inhibited mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphorylation in the oocytes of COCs, which participated in the initiation of FSH-induced meiotic maturation in vitro. Just before FSH-induced meiotic maturation, cAMP, PKAI, and GPR3 returned to basal levels, and PDE3A activity and MAPK phosphorylation increased markedly. These experiments show that FSH induces a transient increase in cAMP levels and regulates GJC to control PKAI and GPR3 activities, thereby creating an inhibitory phase. After PDE3A and MAPK activities increase, meiosis resumes.
$K$ -Dimensional Coding Schemes in Hilbert Spaces

This paper presents a general coding method where data in a Hilbert space are represented by finite dimensional coding vectors. The method is based on empirical risk minimization within a certain class of linear operators, which map the set of coding vectors to the Hilbert space. Two results bounding the expected reconstruction error of the method are derived, which highlight the role played by the codebook and the class of linear operators. The results are specialized to some cases of practical importance, including K-means clustering, nonnegative matrix factorization and other sparse coding methods.
A Maximum Entropy Approach to Collaborative Filtering in Dynamic, Sparse, High-Dimensional Domains

We develop a maximum entropy (maxent) approach to generating recommendations in the context of a user's current navigation stream, suitable for environments where data is sparse, high-dimensional, and dynamic— conditions typical of many recommendation applications. We address sparsity and dimensionality reduction by first clustering items based on user access patterns so as to attempt to minimize the apriori probability that recommendations will cross cluster boundaries and then recommending only within clusters. We address the inherent dynamic nature of the problem by explicitly modeling the data as a time series; we show how this representational expressivity fits naturally into a maxent framework. We conduct experiments on data from ResearchIndex, a popular online repository of over 470,000 computer science documents. We show that our maxent formulation outperforms several competing algorithms in offline tests simulating the recommendation of documents to ResearchIndex users.