Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bayesian state estimation and behavior selection for autonomous robotic exploration in dynamic environments

In order to be truly autonomous, robots that operate in natural, populated environments must have the ability to create a model of these unpredictable dynamic environments and make use of this self-acquired uncertain knowledge to decide about their actions. A formal Bayesian framework is introduced, which enables recursive estimation of a dynamic environment model and action selection based on this estimate. Existing methods are combined to produce a working implementation of the proposed framework. A Rao-Blackwellized particle filter (RBPF) is deployed to address the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) problem and combined with recursive conditional particle filters in order to track people in the vicinity of the robot. In this way, a complete model is provided, which is utilized for selecting the actions of the robot so that its uncertainty is kept under control and the likelihood of achieving its goals is increased. All developed algorithms have been applied to the domain of the autonomous city explorer robot and results from the implementation on the robotic platform are presented.
Voltage‐dependent inactivation of l‐type ca2+ Currents in Guinea‐Pig Ventricular Myocytes

The objective of this study was to describe the kinetics of voltage‐dependent inactivation of native cardiac L‐type Ca2+ currents. Whole‐cell currents were recorded from guinea‐pig isolated ventricular myocytes. Voltage‐dependent inactivation was separated from Ca2+‐dependent inactivation by replacing extracellular Ca2+ with Mg2+ and recording outward currents through Ca2+ channels. Voltage‐dependent inactivation accelerated from slow monophasic decay at −30 mV to maximal rapid biphasic decay at +20 mV. Maximal voltage‐dependent inactivation occurred with τf≈30 ms and τs≈300 ms, the fast component of decay accounted for 70 % of the current amplitude. In basal conditions Ca2+ current availability was sigmoid. Isoproterenol (isoprenaline) evoked a large increase in a time‐independent component of the Ca2+ current which also increased with depolarisation. This was responsible for the apparent recovery of Ca2+ channel current availability at positive membrane potentials and thus a U‐shaped availability‐voltage (A‐V) relationship. It is concluded that β‐adrenergic stimulation altered the reaction of native cardiac L‐type Ca2+ channels to membrane voltage. In basal conditions, voltage accelerated inactivation. In isoproterenol, voltage could also reduce inactivation.
The Eyes Have It: Long-Distance Dispersal by an Intraorbital Leech Parasite of Birds

Abstract: A leech was found parasitizing the ocular orbit of a common redstart captured during a faunistic survey of Antikythira in the Aegean Sea during the spring migration of 2012. Morphological and molecular characterizations placed the leech in the mucous-membrane specific leech family Praobdellidae and definitively as the species Parapraobdella lineata. This is the first record of any leech parasitizing a passerine bird, Phoenicurus phoenicurus, and the first of a praobdellid leech on any avian host.
Identity and communication: Who collaborates in collaborative research?

Research collaborations involving stakeholder communities outside the research area are believed to produce more innovative and useable outcomes, and increase the support of external stakeholders and community groups for research. Yet social researchers also report that members of diverse research teams have a genuine inability to collaborate due to poor communication. Using concepts gathered from social identity theory (SIT), this paper examines the identity processes that enhance or inhibit communication between researchers and external stakeholder communities in areas of collaborative research. Participants highlighted communication activities associated five goals and all were associated with the management of social identity. The practical applications of these findings will be discussed.
Optimization of the design and preparation of nanoscale phospholipid bilayers for its application to solution NMR

Despite arduous efforts and recent technological developments structural investigation of integral membrane proteins remains a challenge. The primary deterrents include difficulties with their expression, low inherent solubility, and problems associated with existing membrane mimicking systems. A relatively new class of membrane mimetics, nanodiscs, is emerging as a promising alternative. Although nanodiscs have been proven successful for several biophysical applications, they yet remain to become the system of preferred choice for structure determination. We have hereby made nanodiscs more suitable for solution NMR applications by reducing the diameter of the self‐assembly complex to its potential limit. We achieved a noticeable improvement in the quality of NMR spectra obtained for the transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains of integrin αIIb incorporated into these smaller discs rendering them susceptible for a thorough structural investigation. In addition, we also present an on‐column method for a rapid, efficient, single‐step preparation of protein incorporated nanodiscs at high concentrations. These discs have been fully characterized by transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, and differential scanning calorimetry. Proteins 2013; 81:1222–1231. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Biomarkers of Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy in Newborns

As neonatal intensive care has evolved, the focus has shifted from improving mortality alone to an effort to improve both mortality and morbidity. The most frequent source of neonatal brain injury occurs as a result of hypoxic-ischemic injury. Hypoxic-ischemic injury occurs in about 2 of 1,000 full-term infants and severe injured infants will have lifetime disabilities and neurodevelopmental delays. Most recently, remarkable efforts toward neuroprotection have been started with the advent of therapeutic hypothermia and a key step in the evolution of neonatal neuroprotection is the discovery of biomarkers that enable the clinician-scientist to screen infants for brain injury, monitor progression of disease, identify injured brain regions, and assess efficacy of neuroprotective clinical trials. Lastly, biomarkers offer great hope identifying when an injury occurred shedding light on the potential pathophysiology and the most effective therapy. In this article, we will review biomarkers of HIE including S100B, neuron specific enolase, umbilical cord IL-6, CK-BB, GFAP, myelin basic protein, UCHL-1, and pNF-H. We hope to contribute to the awareness, validation, and clinical use of established as well as novel neonatal brain injury biomarkers.
Prototyping experiences on 48V starter-alternators

This paper reports the design experience faced during the prototyping and testing stages of two multiphase induction starter-generators for 48 V mild-hybrid powertrains. The focus of the investigation is on the pole numbers and their influence on the electrical machine parameters and performance. According to the application and the usage profile in a real urban drive cycle, a 8 pole prototype has been initially designed. Since the designed magnetic circuit was also suitable for a 6 pole configuration, a second prototype with this pole count has been produced. In fact, the pole number reduction could lead incremental advantages with respect to efficiency and power factor as a result of the lower fundamental supply frequencies. The performance comparison in terms of torque, efficiency and power factor of the two prototypes have been investigated and validated both by means of simulations and experimental activities.
2 The Time-Delay RBF Model

This paperreportsinitial researchon supportingVisually MediatedInteraction(VMI) by developingperson-specificandgenericgesturemodels for the control of active cameras.We describea time-delayvariantof the RadialBasisFunction(TDRBF) network and evaluateits performanceon recognisingsimplepointingandwaving handgesturesin imagesequences. Experimentalresultsarepresentedthatshow thathigh levelsof performance canbe obtainedfor this typeof gesturerecognitionusingthesetechniques, both for particularindividualsandacrossa setof individuals. Characteristic visualevidencecanbeautomaticallyselectedandusedevento recognise individualsfrom theirgestures, dependingon thetaskdemands.
Modulation of Synaptic Plasticity by Antimanic Agents: The Role of AMPA Glutamate Receptor Subunit 1 Synaptic Expression

Increasing data suggest that impairments of cellular plasticity underlie the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder. In this context, it is noteworthy that AMPA glutamate receptor trafficking regulates synaptic plasticity, effects mediated by signaling cascades, which are targets for antimanic agents. The present studies were undertaken to determine whether two clinically effective, but structurally highly dissimilar, antimanic agents lithium and valproate regulate synaptic expression of AMPA receptor subunit glutamate receptor 1 (GluR1). Chronic (but not acute) treatment of rats with therapeutically relevant concentrations of lithium or valproate reduced hippocampal synaptosomal GluR1 levels. The reduction in synaptic GluR1 by lithium and valproate was attributable to a reduction of surface GluR1 distribution onto the neuronal membrane as demonstrated by three independent assays in cultured hippocampal neurons. Furthermore, these agents induced a decrease in GluR1 phosphorylation at a specific PKA site (GluR1p845), which is known to be critical for AMPA receptor insertion. Sp-cAMP treatment reversed the attenuation of phosphorylation by lithium and valproate and also brought GluR1 back to the surface, suggesting that phosphorylation of GluR1p845 is involved in the mechanism of GluR1 surface attenuation. In addition, GluR1p845 phosphorylation also was attenuated in hippocampus from lithium- or valproate-treated animals in vivo. In contrast, imipramine, an antidepressant that can trigger manic episodes, increased synaptic expression of GluR1 in hippocampus in vivo. These studies suggest that regulation of glutamatergically mediated synaptic plasticity may play a role in the treatment of bipolar disorder and raise the possibility that agents more directly affecting synaptic GluR1 may represent novel therapies for this devastating illness.
Easy and Rapid Differentiation of Embryonic Stem Cells into Functional Motoneurons Using Sonic Hedgehog‐Producing Cells

Directing embryonic stem (ES) cells to differentiate into functional motoneurons has proven to be a strong technique for studying neuronal development as well as being a potential source of tissue for cell replacement therapies involving spinal cord disorders. Unfortunately, one of the mitogenic factors (i.e., sonic hedgehog agonist) used for directed differentiation is not readily available, and thus this technique has not been widely accessible. Here, we present a novel and simple method to derive motoneurons from ES cells using readily attainable reagents. ES cells were derived from a mouse in which enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) was linked to a motoneuron specific promoter. The cells were plated onto a monolayer of 293 EcR‐Shh cells that carry an integrated construct for the expression of sonic hedgehog (Shh) under ecdysone‐inducible control. To initiate motoneuron differentiation, 293 EcR‐Shh:ES cell cocultures were treated with ponasterone A (PA) and retinoic acid for 5 days. PA induces ecdysone, and thus drives Shh expression. To assess differentiation, putative ES cell‐derived motoneurons were studied immunocytochemically and cultured on chick myotubes for functional analysis. We found that ES cells differentiated into eGFP+ cells that expressed transcription factors typical of motoneurons. Furthermore, ES cell‐derived motoneurons were capable of forming functional connections with muscle fibers in vitro. Finally, when transplanted into the developing chick spinal cord, ES cell‐derived motoneurons migrated to the ventral horn and projected axons to appropriate muscle targets. In summary, this simple treatment paradigm produces functional motoneurons that can be used for both developmental and preclinical studies.
Scheduling and Planning algorithms for Electronic Calendar Management

As part of my doctorate thesis I am looking into scheduling and planning problems and systems with a focus on electronic calendar applications. Cooperating with my supervisor Associate Professor Ioannis Refanidis, I have co-developed such a system, entitled SELFPLANNER (Refanidis and Alexiadis 2007) (Refanidis and Alexiadis 2008), which can be accessed at http://selfplanner.uom. gr. The system SELFPLANNER started as my master thesis. It is a scheduling system that supports simple, interruptible and periodic activities, where the user can define their minimum and maximum durations, their temporal domain, alternative locations, ordering constraints and temporal preferences. Specifically, in regards to to the temporal domain, an original method of defining an activity’s domain was developed (Alexiadis and Refanidis 2009). This method combines the definition and application of templates with manual editing of the calendar, by the user, to specify the temporal domain. An extended version of the scheduling problem definition was published (Refanidis and Yorke-Smith 2010) and the system was extended to incorporate that model. In the extended model, the system solves a scheduling problem, where it attempts to maximize a global utility function for the particular problem instance being solved, while meeting all the constraints of the problem. An activity can be omitted from the resulting schedule without a violation of the problem’s constraints. However, doing so will result in that activity’s utility contribution not being added to the resulting solution’s utility value. Moreover, any binary preferences involving said activity will be ignored and thus provide no utility to the solution. The extended system also supports activities overlapping in time, based on the activities’ utilization value. The work resulting to the system’s extension was published in the journal Computation Intelligence (Refanidis and Alexiadis 2011). Alternative algorithms were designed and developed to solve SELFPLANNER’s scheduling problem. The first of them was based on a genetic algorithm approach. Each chromosome of the population corresponds to the set of activi-
GATA-1 as a Regulator of Mast Cell Differentiation Revealed by the Phenotype of the GATA-1low Mouse Mutant

Here it is shown that the phenotype of adult mice lacking the first enhancer (DNA hypersensitive site I) and the distal promoter of the GATA-1 gene (neoΔHS or GATA-1low mutants) reveals defects in mast cell development. These include the presence of morphologically abnormal alcian blue+ mast cells and apoptotic metachromatic− mast cell precursors in connective tissues and peritoneal lavage and numerous (60–70% of all the progenitors) “unique” trilineage cells committed to erythroid, megakaryocytic, and mast pathways in the bone marrow and spleen. These abnormalities, which were mirrored by impaired mast differentiation in vitro, were reversed by retroviral-mediated expression of GATA-1 cDNA. These data indicate an essential role for GATA-1 in mast cell differentiation.
A new approach for biomedical image segmentation: Combined complex-valued artificial neural network case study: Lung segmentation on chest CT images

The principal goal of the segmentation process is to partition an image into classes or subsets that are homogeneous with respect to one or more characteristics or features. In medical imaging, segmentation is important for feature extraction, image measurements, and image display. This study presents a new version of complex-valued artificial neural networks (CVANN) for the biomedical image segmentation. Proposed new method is called as combined complex-valued artificial neural network (CCVANN) which is a combination of two complex-valued artificial neural networks. To check the validation of proposed method, lung segmentation is realized. For this purpose, we used 32 chest CT images of 6 female and 26 male patients. These images were recorded from Baskent University Radiology Department in Turkey. The accuracy of the CCVANN model is more satisfactory as compared to the single CVANN model.
Inventory Pooling with Strategic Consumers : Operational and Behavioral Benefits

The practice of inventory pooling–serving two or more separate markets using a common inventory stock–is extensively studied in operations management. The operational benefits of this strategy are well known: when demand is stochastic, combining multiple markets reduces aggregate uncertainty and improves the firm’s ability to efficiently match supply and demand, increasing profit as a result. In this paper, we explore a different aspect of pooling: its consequences for consumer purchasing behavior. We analyze a model in which consumers are forward-looking and anticipate end-of-season clearance sales, and may choose to strategically forgo purchasing items at a high price in order to obtain them at a discount. The firm sells in two markets, and chooses between a separated selling strategy (dedicated inventory to serve separate markets) or a pooled selling strategy (a single stock of inventory to serve both markets). We demonstrate that in addition to the operational benefits of pooling, in this setting a behavioral dimension to pooling exists: by adopting a pooling strategy, the firm influences the amount of inventory available during the clearance sale and hence induces a change in consumer purchase timing. This behavioral dimension of pooling may benefit the firm (when margins are high and demands are negatively correlated) or may hurt the firm (when margins are low and demand is positively correlated). We also consider whether pooling benefits consumers, and find that in contrast to the claims of some retailers, inventory pooling may decrease consumer welfare, particularly if consumers are strategic. This happens because, despite the fact that inventory pooling increases product availability during high price sales, it may increase competition for scarce inventory and decrease product availability during clearance
Comparison of extended field-of-view reconstructions in C-arm flat-detector CT using patient size, shape or attenuation information

In C-arm-based flat-detector computed tomography (FDCT) it frequently happens that the patient exceeds the scan field of view (SFOV) in the transaxial direction because of the limited detector size. This results in data truncation and CT image artefacts. In this work three truncation correction approaches for extended field-of-view (EFOV) reconstructions have been implemented and evaluated. An FDCT-based method estimates the patient size and shape from the truncated projections by fitting an elliptical model to the raw data in order to apply an extrapolation. In a camera-based approach the patient is sampled with an optical tracking system and this information is used to apply an extrapolation. In a CT-based method the projections are completed by artificial projection data obtained from the CT data acquired in an earlier exam. For all methods the extended projections are filtered and backprojected with a standard Feldkamp-type algorithm. Quantitative evaluations have been performed by simulations of voxelized phantoms on the basis of the root mean square deviation and a quality factor Q (Q = 1 represents the ideal correction). Measurements with a C-arm FDCT system have been used to validate the simulations and to investigate the practical applicability using anthropomorphic phantoms which caused truncation in all projections. The proposed approaches enlarged the FOV to cover wider patient cross-sections. Thus, image quality inside and outside the SFOV has been improved. Best results have been obtained using the CT-based method, followed by the camera-based and the FDCT-based truncation correction. For simulations, quality factors up to 0.98 have been achieved. Truncation-induced cupping artefacts have been reduced, e.g., from 218% to less than 1% for the measurements. The proposed truncation correction approaches for EFOV reconstructions are an effective way to ensure accurate CT values inside the SFOV and to recover peripheral information outside the SFOV.
Modeling and V/F Control of a Hysteresis Interior Permanent-Magnet Motor

A hysteresis interior permanent-magnet (IPM) motor is a solid-rotor self-starting synchronous motor. Its rotor has a hysteresis ring made of composite material with high degree of hysteresis energy per unit volume. The Neodymium Boron Iron (Nd-B-Fe) magnets are buried inside the hysteresis ring. This paper presents the analytical modeling of a hysteresis IPM motor to investigate its starting and synchronization capability for different loading conditions. A V/F controller has been designed to operate the motor at variable speeds. Simulations have been carried out to obtain the run-up responses of a three-phase four-pole 208 V, 2.5 kW hysteresis IPM motor. Simulation results are presented and analyzed in this paper. Experimental investigations have been carried out for the same 2.5-kW motor. Both the simulation and experimental results are presented in this paper.
Pyrosequencing-Derived Bacterial, Archaeal, and Fungal Diversity of Spacecraft Hardware Destined for Mars

ABSTRACT Spacecraft hardware and assembly cleanroom surfaces (233 m2 in total) were sampled, total genomic DNA was extracted, hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA gene (bacteria and archaea) and ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region (fungi) were subjected to 454 tag-encoded pyrosequencing PCR amplification, and 203,852 resulting high-quality sequences were analyzed. Bioinformatic analyses revealed correlations between operational taxonomic unit (OTU) abundance and certain sample characteristics, such as source (cleanroom floor, ground support equipment [GSE], or spacecraft hardware), cleaning regimen applied, and location about the facility or spacecraft. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) cleanroom floor and GSE surfaces gave rise to a larger number of diverse bacterial communities (619 OTU; 20 m2) than colocated spacecraft hardware (187 OTU; 162 m2). In contrast to the results of bacterial pyrosequencing, where at least some sequences were generated from each of the 31 sample sets examined, only 13 and 18 of these sample sets gave rise to archaeal and fungal sequences, respectively. As was the case for bacteria, the abundance of fungal OTU in the GSE surface samples dramatically diminished (9× less) once cleaning protocols had been applied. The presence of OTU representative of actinobacteria, deinococci, acidobacteria, firmicutes, and proteobacteria on spacecraft surfaces suggests that certain bacterial lineages persist even following rigorous quality control and cleaning practices. The majority of bacterial OTU observed as being recurrent belonged to actinobacteria and alphaproteobacteria, supporting the hypothesis that the measures of cleanliness exerted in spacecraft assembly cleanrooms (SAC) inadvertently select for the organisms which are the most fit to survive long journeys in space.
Social Media and Revolution: The Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement as Seen through Three Information Studies Paradigms

Using three Information Studies paradigms--the physical metaphor, cognitive metaphor, and social informatics--this paper discusses how researchers might approach the study of social media and revolution. Drawing from the Arab Spring and Occupy movements, with specific examples from Occupy Oakland, it provides potential research questions and methods that would be appropriate within each framework. It concludes by reminding readers that each paradigm is a tool that can be used to view a subject from a certain perspective, and that they should be chosen and combined based on the research topic and research questions. This approach allows us to envision the paradigms as lying along a spectrum rather than existing as discrete points that cannot be synthesized.