Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Control Design for Vehicle's Lateral Dynamics

Issues of controllability and stabilization design for vehicle's lateral dynamics are presented. Based on the assumption of constant driving speed, a second-order nonlinear lateral dynamical model is obtained. It is observed that saddle node bifurcation will appear in vehicle dynamics with respect to the variation of the front wheel steering angle, which might result in spin and/or system instability. In order to possibly prevent the occurrence of such an instability, the controllability of vehicle dynamics at the saddle node bifurcation point is discussed. This leads to the design of a direct state feedback control law for system stabilization. Two-Parameter bifurcation analysis of system behavior is also obtained to classify the regime of the effective control gains for system stabilization. Numerical simulations for an example model demonstrate the effectiveness of analytical results.
Inactivation of the CovR/S Virulence Regulator Impairs Infection in an Improved Murine Model of Streptococcus pyogenes Naso-Pharyngeal Infection

Streptococcus pyogenes is a leading cause of pharyngeal infection, with an estimated 616 million cases per year. The human nasopharynx represents the major reservoir for all S. pyogenes infection, including severe invasive disease. To investigate bacterial and host factors that influence S. pyogenes infection, we have devised an improved murine model of nasopharyngeal colonization, with an optimized dosing volume to avoid fulminant infections and a sensitive host strain. In addition we have utilized a refined technique for longitudinal monitoring of bacterial burden that is non-invasive thereby reducing the numbers of animals required. The model was used to demonstrate that the two component regulatory system, CovR/S, is required for optimum infection and transmission from the nasopharynx. There is a fitness cost conferred by covR/S mutation that is specific to the nasopharynx. This may explain why S. pyogenes with altered covR/S have not become prevalent in community infections despite possessing a selective advantage in invasive infection.
Approaches to male hypogonadism in primary care

Abstract: Evidence suggests that providers are not adhering to current testosterone replacement therapy guidelines when treating male hypogonadism. Understanding the diagnosis and management of this condition is further complicated by conflicting recommendations among available guidelines. NPs must select and follow the best guideline recommendations available to optimally treat male hypogonadism.
Oncogrid: A proposal of grid infrastructure for the establishment of a national health information system on childhood cancer

In Brazil, a country of continental proportions, law requires that health institutions directly involved in the cancer treatment in the country have to register and consolidate cancer patients' data. This information is important for the management and evaluation of the cancer treatment, and for the definition of public policies. In this work we propose the use of a high-performance computational infrastructure, based on grid computing, to ease and accelerate the consolidation of the remotely distributed patients' records in these institutions. In particular, we present a case study of implementation of a tool for patients' survival estimation based on the Kaplan-Meier method. We also discuss the issues related to architecture, implementation and integration, as well as the benefits and prospects for the use of this infrastructure on the establishment of a national health information system.
Ontology Mapping for Dynamic Service Invocation On the Semantic Web

The need for translation during the dynamic invocation of services described on the semantic web is not addressed merely by introducing middle agents to translate messages. When an agent is attempting to utilize a service discovered and described on the Semantic Web using a service language like OWL-S, it must be able to translate descriptions of required inputs, given in terms from the ontology used in the service description, into corresponding terms from a local ontology in order to formulate a proper request. We are currently developing a model of the service invocation process that folds in translation. We are also addressing the issue raised here as we develop an abstract architecture for semantic web services, our charter on the Architecture Committee of the Semantic Web Services Initiative (SWSI).
Performance Evaluation of Packet Forwarding Mechanism in Virtual Networks

The network virtualization technique is essential to create environments for experimentation of Future Internet proposals. The pluralist architecture for the Future Internet relies on virtualization, in which several different networks run on the same physical substrate. In this paper we analyze network virtualization architectures based on personal computers, focusing on performance evaluation of the switching mechanisms on OpenFlow and Xen platforms, in comparison with the hybrid virtualization technique XenFlow.
Mental Health Implications in Mormon Women’s Experiences With Same-Sex Attraction

Given research suggesting that individuals in conservative religions experience conflict between religious beliefs and feelings of same-sex sexuality, this study explores the mental health impact of Mormon women who experience same-sex sexuality. Twenty-three Mormon women participated in semi-structured individual interviews about their experiences with same-sex sexuality. Interview questions asked about participants’ experiences with same-sex sexuality and the LDS Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), how this experience affected their mental health, and what types of mental health treatment they engaged in during their process of reconciliation. Data were analyzed following phenomenological methodology. Themes included the following: experiences with mood disorders, self-worth, suicidality, treatment attempts, reparative therapy, counselor’s agenda, impact of family and community, and mental health recovery. When treating women who experience conflict, counselors should assess self-worth, suicidality, and the level of community and familial support. Referral to group counseling can support self-acceptance of same-sex sexuality through normalization. Future research should examine specific practice interventions and explore impacts of other intersecting identities.
Functional recovery and instrumental activities of daily living: follow-up 1-year after treatment in a stroke unit

The objective of the study was to assess the utility of the Frenchay Activities Index (FAI) to measure instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) and functional recovery in stroke patients compared to other measures such as Barthel Index (BI) and Scandinavian Stroke Scale (SSS). A cross-sectional descriptive analysis design was done. Ninety stroke survivors (41 women, 49 men; mean age 68 years) discharged from the Stroke Unit at San Carlos Hospital, Madrid, were assessed by BI at discharge and by BI and FAI 1-year after stroke. At discharge, 40% had total or severe disability (BI h 60) and at 1-year 11.1%. FAI (mean value 36 - 11) correlated with Barthel index, capacity for walking, strength in upper limb and total SSS 1-year after stroke ( p < 0.0001). Fifty-two per cent of stroke patients became independent in their ADL during the first year. BI was the strongest predictor of independence in FAI Social activities-category.
Integration of feature distributions for colour texture segmentation

This paper proposes a new framework for colour texture segmentation and determines the contribution of colour and texture. The distributions of colour and texture features provides the discrimination between different colour textured regions in an image. The proposed method was tested using different mosaic and natural images. From the results, it is evident that the incorporation of colour information enhanced the colour texture segmentation and the developed framework is effective.
Exploring episodic affordance and response in children's narratives based on a picture book

This article presents part of a research project where the aim is to investigate six- to seven-year-old children's language use in storytelling. The children's oral texts are based on the picture book Frog, Where Are You? The book consists of a series of episodes that more or less directly point to the plot structure. However, it also contains several narrative detours and sub-plots. The aim of this article is: (1) to identify how the texts alternate between presence and absence of reference to the overall plot structure; and (2) to comment on cases of off-plotline narrative against the background of the interpretive potential represented by the book. Both textual and visual analysis are implemented. The main findings are that there are certain pictures in the book that hardly any of the children narrate in an on-plotline manner and that there are elements in the graphic material that may explain why the children go off-plotline at this point.
Ethyl 5-methyl-7-phenyl-1,2,4-triazolo[4,3-a]pyrimidine-6-carboxylate

In the title compound, C15H14N4O2, the triazolopyrimidine ring system is almost planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.02 Å) and the phenyl ring is inclined to its mean plane by 42.45 (9)°. The carboxyl group is inclined to the triazolopyrimidine ring mean plane by 57.8 (3)°. In the molecule, there is a short C—H⋯O contact involving the carbonyl O atom and an H atom of the adjacent methyl substituent. In the crystal, neighbouring molecules are linked by C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming chains propagating along [010]. There are also weak π–π interactions present involving the pyridine and phenyl rings of neighbouring chains [intercentroid distance = 3.8580 (16) Å].
Knowledge element relation extraction using conditional random fields

Knowledge element relation extraction is to find predefined relations between pairs of knowledge elements from text documents. As a novel form for organization and management of knowledge resources, knowledge element relation can be utilized to establish knowledge navigation system, knowledge retrieval system and collaborative knowledge construction system. In this paper, we employ conditional random fields (CRFs) to extract relations between knowledge elements from natural language documents by treating the relation extraction task as a sequence labeling problem. We first introduce three rules to generate candidate relation instances, and then incorporate various features including terms, semantic type, distance and context information to represent candidate relation instances. Experimental evaluation shows that our method achieves better performance than previous work. It also indicates that CRFs outperform other probabilistic models i.e. hidden Markov model and maximum entropy, and show effective in knowledge element relation extraction.
Disease Staging Applications for Utilization Review and Quality Assurance

* To whom request for reprints should be addressed at Center for Research in Medical Education and Health Care, Jefferson Medical College, 1025 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19107. With health care expenditures approaching 11% of the Gross National Product, it is no wonder that controlling the cost of health care has become, if not the central concern, one of the major issues. facing the health care system. Implementation of the Medicare prospective payment system (1), the growth of Health Maintenance Organizations and Preferred Provider Organizations, and efforts by a number of states (such as California’s Medi-Cal contracting system) to control Medicaid expenditures are all aimed at controlling health care costs.
Pattern recognition using genetic algorithm

With advent of Artificial Intelligent systems need of machine vision is gaining importance. Pattern recognition can be viewed as the elementary operation in the domain of machine perception. Pattern recognition is supposed to perform supervised and unsupervised classification of input data via extraction of salient features from it. Traditional methods of pattern classifier like statistical and syntactical methods are reliable yet insufficient for current requirements. Genetic Algorithms are one of the nature inspired algorithm of computational models stimulated by evolution. Genetic Algorithm is and can be effectively utilized in Pattern Recognition problems. It could serve different purpose at various stages of pattern recognition like feature extraction, feature reduction or selection and as a classifier and shows improvement in accuracy as compared to conventional Pattern Recognition techniques. Development of general purpose at the same time accurate pattern classifier development is need of the hour.
A stroboscopic study of the relationship of ball velocity and tennis performance.

Abstract The relationship between ball velocity and playing ability in tennis was investigated. Subjects were 40 freshman men randomly chosen from beginning tennis classes at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. The class met three periods a week for 10 weeks. The traditional method for beginning tennis was used to teach ground strokes, volleys, serve, and the combination of these strokes into competitive play. During the sixth week the Broer-Miller Tennis Achievement Test was administered and subjects were randomly paired into two groups in terms of their test performance. A round robin tournament was played within each group to provide group criterion measures. During the eighth week the subjects' maximum velocity of the forehand and backhand drives, and serve, and controlled velocity of the forehand and back drives were tested. Multiple-image photography was used to measure velocity. Maximum velocity of each subject's forehand and backhand drives and serve was correlated with the criterion measure of his gr.
Optical Parameter Extraction using Differential Evolution Rendering in the Loop

Image synthesis is highly dependent on rendering algorithm and optical properties of scenario objects. The goal of this work is to develop a methodology to obtain some illumination parameters of a real scenario represented by an acquired image, and use these parameters for a virtual scenario rendering with the same objects as the original. The proposed methodology consists, first, in acquiring an image of the working scenario, and by using a DE (Differential Evolution) algorithm to render images that gradually approximate to the real acquired image, by some virtual scenario parameter modification based on the DE optimization. We call it "ED Rendering in the loop". Finally we use the obtained parameters to render an image to compare it with similar methods.
Antibiotic Production by Erwinia herbicola Eh1087: Its Role in Inhibition of Erwinia amylovora and Partial Characterization of Antibiotic Biosynthesis Genes

ABSTRACT Mutants of Erwinia herbicola Eh1087 (Ant−), which did not produce antibiotic activity againstErwinia amylovora, the fire blight pathogen, were selected after TnphoA mutagenesis. In immature pear fruit Ant− mutants grew at the same rate as wild-type strain Eh1087 but did not suppress development of the disease caused byE. amylovora. These results indicated that antibiosis plays an important role in the suppression of disease by strain Eh1087. All of the Ant− mutations obtained were located in a 2.2-kb region on a 200-kb indigenous plasmid. Sequence analysis of the mutated DNA region resulted in identification of six open reading frames, designated ORF1 through ORF6, four of which were essential to antibiotic expression. One gene was identified as a gene which encodes a translocase protein which is probably involved in antibiotic secretion. A sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis of plasmid proteins produced in Escherichia coliminicells confirmed the presence of proteins whose sizes corresponded to the sizes of the predicted open reading frame products.
18F-FDG PET of gliomas at delayed intervals: improved distinction between tumor and normal gray matter.

UNLABELLED We hypothesized that delineation of gliomas from gray matter with 18F-FDG PET could be improved by extending the interval between 18F-FDG administration and PET data acquisition. The purposes of this study were, first, to analyze standard and delayed 18F-FDG PET images visually and quantitatively to determine whether definition of tumor improved at later imaging times and, second, to investigate the dynamics of model-derived kinetic rate constants, particularly k4. METHODS Nineteen adult patients with supratentorial gliomas were imaged from 0 to 90 min and once or twice later at 180-480 min after injection. In 15 patients, arterial sampling provided the early input function. Venous sampling provided the remaining curve to the end of the imaging sequence. Standardized uptake value (SUV) was calculated as tissue concentration of tracer per injected tracer dose per body weight. Ratios of tumor SUV relative to the SUV of gray matter, brain (including gray and white matter), or white matter were calculated at each imaging time point. Dynamic image data from tumor, gray matter, brain, or white matter were analyzed using a 2-compartment, 4-parameter model applied for the entire duration of imaging, in which delay, K1, distribution volume, k3, and k4 were optimized using a nonlinear optimization method. Parameter estimation for each region included both an early subset of data from a conventional dynamic imaging period (0-60 min) and the full, extended dataset for each region. RESULTS In 12 of the 19 patients, visual analysis showed that the delayed images better distinguished the high uptake in tumors relative to uptake in gray matter. SUV comparisons also showed greater uptake in the tumors than in gray matter, brain, or white matter at the delayed times. The estimated k4 values for tumors were not significantly different from those for gray matter in early imaging analysis but were lower (P < 0.01) using the extended-time data. CONCLUSION The kinetic parameter results confirm the visual and SUV interpretation that tumor enhancement is greater than enhancement of surrounding brain regions at later imaging times, consistent with a greater effect of FDG-6-phosphate degradation on normal brain relative to glioma.
Gendoo: Functional profiling of gene and disease features using MeSH vocabulary

Genome-wide data enables us to clarify the underlying molecular mechanisms of complex phenotypes. The Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) is a widely employed knowledge base of human genes and genetic disorders for biological researchers. However, OMIM has not been fully exploited for omics analysis because its bibliographic data structure is not suitable for computer automation. Here, we characterized diseases and genes by generating feature profiles of associated drugs, biological phenomena and anatomy with the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) vocabulary. We obtained 1 760 054 pairs of OMIM entries and MeSH terms by utilizing the full set of MEDLINE articles. We developed a web-based application called Gendoo (gene, disease features ontology-based overview system) to visualize these profiles. By comparing feature profiles of types 1 and 2 diabetes, we clearly illustrated their differences: type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease (P-value = 4.55 × 10−5) and type 2 diabetes is related to obesity (P-value = 1.18 × 10−15). Gendoo and the developed feature profiles should be useful for omics analysis from molecular and clinical viewpoints. Gendoo is available at http://gendoo.dbcls. jp/.
Mutations in Arabidopsis condensin genes disrupt embryogenesis, meristem organization and segregation of homologous chromosomes during meiosis

Proper chromatin condensation and sister chromatid resolution are essential for the maintenance of chromosomal integrity during cell division, and is in part mediated by a conserved multisubunit apparatus termed the condensin complex. The core subunits of the complex are members of the SMC2 (Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes) and SMC4 gene families. We have cloned an Arabidopsis gene, AtCAP-E1, which is a functional ortholog of the yeast SMC2 gene. A second, highly homologous SMC2 gene, AtCAPE-2, was identified by the Arabidopsis genome project. SMC2 gene expression in Arabidopsis was correlated with the mitotic activity of tissues, with high level expression observed in meristematic cells. The two genes are differentially expressed with AtCAP-E1 accounting for more than 85% of the total SMC2 transcript pool. The titan3 mutant is the result of a T-DNA insertion into AtCAP-E1, but other than subtle endosperm defects, titan3 is viable and fecund. We identified a T-DNA insertion mutant of AtCAP-E2, which showed no obvious mutant phenotype, indicating that the two genes are functionally redundant. Genetic crosses were employed to examine the consequences of reduced SMC2 levels. Both male and female gametogenesis were compromised in double mutant spores. Embryo lethality was observed for both double homozygous and AtCAP-E1-/-, AtCAP-E2+/- plants; arrest occurred at or before the globular stage and was associated with altered planes of cell division in both the suspensor and the embryo. Down regulation of both genes by antisense technology, as well as in AtCAP-E1+/-, AtCAP-E2-/- plants results in meristem disorganization and fasciation. Our data are consistent with the interpretation that threshold levels of SMC2 proteins are required for normal development and that AtCAP-E2 may have a higher affinity for its target than AtCAP-E1.
Prostaglandin E2 Acts on EP1 Receptor and Amplifies Both Dopamine D1 and D2 Receptor Signaling in the Striatum

Dopamine is involved in multiple neural functions including motor control, reward and motivational processing, learning and reinforcement, and cognitive attention. Dopamine binds to two distinct classes of receptors, namely D1 and D2, to exert these functions. Various endogenous substances regulate dopamine signaling, although their physiological functions are not fully understood. Here, we examined the role of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and one of its receptors, EP1, in dopaminergic function in the striatum. EP1 was expressed in both preprodynorphin-containing D1 and preproenkephalin-containing D2 neurons, and PGE2 was produced in striatal slices in response to both D1 and D2 dopamine receptor stimulation. EP1-deficient mice exhibited significant suppression of hyperlocomotion induced by cocaine or SKF81297 (6-chloro-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1-phenyl-1H-3-benzazepine hydrobromide), a D1 agonist, and significant attenuation of catalepsy induced by raclopride, a D2 antagonist. Despite these behavioral defects, the extracellular concentration of dopamine was not suppressed in the striatum of EP1-deficient mice, and the densities of D1 and D2 receptors in the striatum were not different between the two genotypes. Stimulation of the D1 receptor induced phosphorylation of dopamine and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein of 32 kDa (DARPP-32) at Thr34 in striatal slices, and the addition of indomethacin, a PG synthesis inhibitor, attenuated the D1 agonist-induced increase in DARPP-32–Thr34 phosphorylation. The further addition of an EP1 agonist restored the indomethacin-attenuated phosphorylation. Furthermore, both D1- and D2-mediated changes in the DARPP-32–Thr34 phosphorylation were attenuated in EP1−/− slices. These results suggest that PGE2 is formed in response to dopamine receptor stimulation in the striatum and amplifies both D1 and D2 receptor signaling via EP1.