Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mix it and fix it: functions of composite olfactory signals in ring-tailed lemurs

Animals communicating via scent often deposit composite signals that incorporate odorants from multiple sources; however, the function of mixing chemical signals remains understudied. We tested both a ‘multiple-messages’ and a ‘fixative’ hypothesis of composite olfactory signalling, which, respectively, posit that mixing scents functions to increase information content or prolong signal longevity. Our subjects—adult, male ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta)—have a complex scent-marking repertoire, involving volatile antebrachial (A) secretions, deposited pure or after being mixed with a squalene-rich paste exuded from brachial (B) glands. Using behavioural bioassays, we examined recipient responses to odorants collected from conspecific strangers. We concurrently presented pure A, pure B and mixed A + B secretions, in fresh or decayed conditions. Lemurs preferentially responded to mixed over pure secretions, their interest increasing and shifting over time, from sniffing and countermarking fresh mixtures, to licking and countermarking decayed mixtures. Substituting synthetic squalene (S)—a well-known fixative—for B secretions did not replicate prior results: B secretions, which contain additional chemicals that probably encode salient information, were preferred over pure S. Whereas support for the ‘multiple-messages’ hypothesis underscores the unique contribution from each of an animal's various secretions, support for the ‘fixative’ hypothesis highlights the synergistic benefits of composite signals.
Residual stresses in machined and shrink-fitted assemblies

This paper presents measured and predicted residual stresses from two sets of shrinkfitted assemblies, each manufactured using an aluminium alloy and a cast iron. Residual stresses were measured using a combination of deep-hole drilling (DHD) and incremental centre hole drilling (ICHD) techniques. The ICHD method provided near surface residual stress measurements to depths up to about 1mm. The DHD method measured through thickness residual stresses along radial lines through the outer sleeve and into the shaft. Results are shown for the two assemblies and reveal residual stresses that are different from both simple analysis and finite element studies. For example, prior machining introduced near surface compressive residual stresses, that is then expected to be counteracted by the near surface tensile shrink-fit residual stresses. However, measurements reveal that this is not the case.
SGAtools: one-stop analysis and visualization of array-based genetic interaction screens

Screening genome-wide sets of mutants for fitness defects provides a simple but powerful approach for exploring gene function, mapping genetic networks and probing mechanisms of drug action. For yeast and other microorganisms with global mutant collections, genetic or chemical-genetic interactions can be effectively quantified by growing an ordered array of strains on agar plates as individual colonies, and then scoring the colony size changes in response to a genetic or environmental perturbation. To do so, requires efficient tools for the extraction and analysis of quantitative data. Here, we describe SGAtools (http://sgatools.ccbr.utoronto.ca), a web-based analysis system for designer genetic screens. SGAtools outlines a series of guided steps that allow the user to quantify colony sizes from images of agar plates, correct for systematic biases in the observations and calculate a fitness score relative to a control experiment. The data can also be visualized online to explore the colony sizes on individual plates, view the distribution of resulting scores, highlight genes with the strongest signal and perform Gene Ontology enrichment analysis.
Investigation of a model inversion technique to estimate canopy biophysical variables from spectral and directional reflectance data

L'objectif de cette etude etait d'evaluer l'interet des donnees de teledetection pour l'estimation des variables biophysiques des couverts vegetaux. Les donnees considerees etaient acquises au niveau du couvert dans plusieurs directions, pour differentes longueurs d'onde du domaine du visible et du proche infrarouge. Les variables estimees etaient l'indice foliaire, le contenu en chlorophylle des feuilles, la fraction de rayonnement photosynthetiquement actif absorbe par le couvert, et le pourcentage de couverture du sol. Une technique simple d'inversion de donnees basee sur des tables de correspondance a ete utilisee. Dans un premier temps, la taille de la table et le nombre d'elements selectionnes pour obtenir une distribution de la solution ont ete determines. Les performances d'estimation des variables en termes de distributions et de co-distributions des solutions ont ete evaluees dans le cas le plus simple en utilisant les reflectances rouge et proche infrarouge au nadir. L'echantillonnage spectral et directionnel optimal correspondant a la meilleure precision d'estimation de chaque variable consideree a egalement ete determine. Enfin, les effets de l'heterogeneite spatiale, des hypotheses du modele de transfert radiatif utilise pour generer la table de correspondance, ainsi que du bruit radiometrique, sur l'estimation des variables ont ete quantifies. Ces resultats sont discutes en vue de la definition des caracteristiques des capteurs a venir pour obtenir des estimations precises des caracteristiques des couverts vegetaux.
Economic Incentives to Increase Security in the Internet: The Case for Insurance

Entities in the Internet, ranging from individuals and enterprises to service providers, face a broad range of epidemic risks such as worms, viruses, and botnet-driven attacks. Those risks are interdependent risks, which means that the decision by an entity to invest in security and self-protect affects the risk faced by others (for example, the risk faced by an individual decreases when its providers increases its investments in security). As a result of this, entities tend to invest too little in self-protection, relative to the socially efficient level, by ignoring benefits conferred on by others. In this paper, we consider the problem of designing incentives to entities in the Internet so that they invest at a socially efficient level. In particular, we find that insurance is a powerful incentive mechanism which pushes agents to invest in self-protection. Thus, insurance increases the level of self-protection, and therefore the level of security, in the Internet. As a result, we believe that insurance should be considered as an important component of risk management in the Internet.
Actuator Control for the NASA‐JSC Valkyrie Humanoid Robot: A Decoupled Dynamics Approach for Torque Control of Series Elastic Robots

This paper discusses the actuator‐level control of Valkyrie, a new humanoid robot designed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in collaboration with several external partners. Several topics pertaining to Valkyrie's series elastic actuators are presented including control architecture, controller design, and implementation in hardware. A decentralized approach is taken in controlling Valkyrie's many series elastic degrees of freedom. By conceptually decoupling actuator dynamics from robot limb dynamics, the problem of controlling a highly complex system is simplified and the controller development process is streamlined compared to other approaches. This hierarchical control abstraction is realized by leveraging disturbance observers in the robot's joint‐level torque controllers. A novel analysis technique is applied to understand the ability of a disturbance observer to attenuate the effects of unmodeled dynamics. The performance of this control approach is demonstrated in two ways. First, torque tracking performance of a single Valkyrie actuator is characterized in terms of controllable torque resolution, tracking error, bandwidth, and power consumption. Second, tests are performed on Valkyrie's arm, a serial chain of actuators, to demonstrate the robot's ability to accurately track torques with the presented decentralized control approach.
Adhesion formation of primary human osteoblasts and the functional response of mesenchymal stem cells to 330 nm deep microgrooves

The surface microtexture of an orthopaedic device can regulate cellular adhesion, a process fundamental in the initiation of osteoinduction and osteogenesis. Advances in fabrication techniques have evolved to include the field of surface modification; in particular, nanotechnology has allowed for the development of experimental nanoscale substrates for investigation into cell nanofeature interactions. Here primary human osteoblasts (HOBs) were cultured on ordered nanoscale groove/ridge arrays fabricated by photolithography. Grooves were 330 nm deep and either 10, 25 or 100 μm in width. Adhesion subtypes in HOBs were quantified by immunofluorescent microscopy and cell–substrate interactions were investigated via immunocytochemistry with scanning electron microscopy. To further investigate the effects of these substrates on cellular function, 1.7 K gene microarray analysis was used to establish gene regulation profiles of mesenchymal stem cells cultured on these nanotopographies. Nanotopographies significantly affected the formation of focal complexes (FXs), focal adhesions (FAs) and supermature adhesions (SMAs). Planar control substrates induced widespread adhesion formation; 100 μm wide groove/ridge arrays did not significantly affect adhesion formation yet induced upregulation of genes involved in skeletal development and increased osteospecific function; 25 μm wide groove/ridge arrays were associated with a reduction in SMA and an increase in FX formation; and 10 μm wide groove/ridge arrays significantly reduced osteoblast adhesion and induced an interplay of up- and downregulation of gene expression. This study indicates that groove/ridge topographies are important modulators of both cellular adhesion and osteospecific function and, critically, that groove/ridge width is important in determining cellular response.
On the Reliability of Clustering Stability in the Large Sample Regime

where θ, θ′ ∈ Θ are the solutions returned by Ak(S1), Ak(S2), and S1, S2 are random samples, each of size m, drawn i.i. d from the underlying distribution D. The scaling by the square root of the sample size will allow us to analyze the non-trivial asymptotic behavior of these distance measures, which without scaling simply converge to zero in probability as m → ∞. For some ǫ > 0 and a set S ⊆ R, let Bǫ(S) be the ǫ-neighborhood of S, namely
Attitudes about Reality and College Students' Opinions about Nuclear War

89 college students' scores on an Attitudes about Reality scale delineating attitudes on a social constructionist-logical positivist spectrum were correlated with those on a questionnaire concerning opinions about nuclear war. Correlations indicated students more oriented toward the logical positivist attitude more strongly endorsed the ideas that medical help would be available after a nuclear attack (– .32), fallout shelters would increase survivability (– .35), nuclear weapons effectively deter war (– .19) and space weapons could defend against a nuclear attack (– .20). Students more oriented toward the social constructionist position were more likely to endorse a nuclear weapons freeze (– .20).
Restorative Justice versus Community Justice: Clarifying a Muddle or Generating Confusion?

While Paul McCold’s intent to clarify the compatibility of restorative justice and community justice conceptual frameworks is laudable, his effort provides as much confusion as clarity (McCold, 2004, this issue). This piece identifies some of the conflicts inherent in the roots of the development and growth of restorative justice. It also raises concerns regarding how restorative justice theoreticians and practitioners consider community, the role of strangers, empowerment, prevention, and punishment within restorative frameworks. The authors of this piece conclude that, while it remains important to safeguard the underlying principles of restorative justice, it is also necessary to remain open to new possibilities and to new ideas.
Scalable fluid simulation using anisotropic turbulence particles

It is usually difficult to resolve the fine details of turbulent flows, especially when targeting real-time applications. We present a novel, scalable turbulence method that uses a realistic energy model and an efficient particle representation that allows for the accurate and robust simulation of small-scale detail. We compute transport of turbulent energy using a complete two-equation k-ε model with accurate production terms that allows us to capture anisotropic turbulence effects, which integrate smoothly into the base flow. We only require a very low grid resolution to resolve the underlying base flow. As we offload complexity from the fluid solver to the particle system, we can control the detail of the simulation easily by adjusting the number of particles, without changing the large scale behavior. In addition, no computations are wasted on areas that are not visible. We demonstrate that due to the design of our algorithm it is highly suitable for massively parallel architectures, and is able to generate detailed turbulent simulations with millions of particles at high framerates.
Mitigating the Moral Hazard of Humanitarian Intervention: Lessons from Economics

The emerging norm of humanitarian intervention, or the Responsibility to Protect, resembles a social insurance policy to protect ethnic groups against genocide and ethnic cleansing. If a state perpetrates such genocidal violence, the norm calls for a payout—up to and including military intervention—to protect the group and ensure its security, often by enhancing its autonomy from the state. Unfortunately, this leads to a common pathology of insurance—moral hazard—whereby the expected payout for a loss unintentionally encourages excessively risky or fraudulent behavior. Thus, some militants may rebel despite the risk of provoking state retaliation, because they expect any resulting atrocities to attract intervention that facilitates their rebellion. This article summarizes recently published evidence for this dynamic, explores the feasibility of adapting insurance strategies that mitigate moral hazard, and then proposes a reform of humanitarian intervention based on the most feasible of these adapted strategies. KEYWORDS: humanitarian intervention, moral hazard, genocide, ethnic conflict, Responsibility to Protect, norms.
Implicit force control for an industrial robot with flexible joints and flexible links

The main purpose of this paper is to present an implicit force control scheme for 6 DoF industrial robots, whose compliance model takes into account both joint and link elasticities. The system composed by the robot and the environment is modeled by means of a simple equivalent elasticity at the end effector. A method to avoid limit cycles due to friction during force control applications is then proposed. The compliance model and the force control are experimentally validated on a industrial robot equipped with a force sensor.
A genome‐wide supported psychiatric risk variant in NCAN influences brain function and cognitive performance in healthy subjects

The A allele of the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1064395 in the NCAN gene has recently been identified as a susceptibility factor for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. NCAN encodes neurocan, a brain‐specific chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan that is thought to influence neuronal adhesion and migration. Several lines of research suggest an impact of NCAN on neurocognitive functioning. In the present study, we investigated the effects of rs1064395 genotype on neural processing and cognitive performance in healthy subjects. Brain activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during an overt semantic verbal fluency task in 110 healthy subjects who were genotyped for the NCAN SNP rs1064395. Participants additionally underwent comprehensive neuropsychological testing. Whole brain analyses revealed that NCAN risk status, defined as AA or AG genotype, was associated with a lack of task‐related deactivation in a large left lateral temporal cluster extending from the middle temporal gyrus to the temporal pole. Regarding neuropsychological measures, risk allele carriers demonstrated poorer immediate and delayed verbal memory performance when compared to subjects with GG genotype. Better verbal memory performance was significantly associated with greater deactivation of the left temporal cluster during the fMRI task in subjects with GG genotype. The current data demonstrate that common genetic variation in NCAN influences both neural processing and cognitive performance in healthy subjects. Our study provides new evidence for a specific genetic influence on human brain function. Hum Brain Mapp, 36:378–390, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Comparison of two regimens of concurrent strength and endurance training.

To compare the responses to doing strength (S) training on alternate days with endurance (E) training vs doing both types of training on the same days per week, seven young men (group A-2 d) did S and E training together in single sessions 2 d.wk-1 for 20 wk. A second group (B-4 d, N = 8) did the S training on 2 d.wk-1 and E training on 2 other d.wk-1. S training was six to eight sets of 15-20 RM on a leg press weight machine. E training was six to eight 3-min bouts of cycle ergometer exercise at 90-100% VO2max. B-4 d (25%) increased leg press 1 RM more (P less than 0.05) than A-2 d (13%), but the groups increased similarly (A-2 d, B-4 d) in knee extensor (31%, 34%) and flexor (12%, 14%) cross-sectional area and vastus lateralis mean fiber area (33%, 25%). Increases in VO2max (7%, 6%), repetitions with 80% 1 RM (39%, 64%), repetitions with the pre-training 1 RM (33, 55), and PFK (19%, 10%) and LDH (15%, 23%) activity did not differ (P greater than 0.05) between groups. CS activity increased significantly only in A-2 d (26%; B-4 d, 6%). It is concluded that same day (vs different day) concurrent strength and endurance training may impede strength development without impeding hypertrophy. On the other hand, same day training may enhance increases in CS activity but not VO2max or weight lifting endurance.
The role of confinement on stress-driven grain boundary motion in nanocrystalline aluminum thin films

3D molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate the role of microstructural confinement on room temperature stress-driven grain boundary (GB) motion for a general population of GBs in nanocrystalline Al thin films. Detailed analysis and comparison with experimental results reveal how coupled GB migration and GB sliding are manifested in realistic nanoscale networks of GBs. The proximity of free surfaces to GBs plays a significant role in their mobility and results in unique surface topography evolution. We highlight the effects of microstructural features, such as triple junctions, as constraints to otherwise uninhibited GB motion. We also study the pinning effects of impurities segregated to GBs that hinder their motion. Finally, the implications of GB motion as a deformation mechanism governing the mechanical behavior of nanocrystalline materials are discussed.
DNA sequencing with thermostable Tet DNA polymerase from Thermus thermophilus.

One of the modern exciting iLmprovements in Sanger dideoxynucleotide DNA sequen- cing method is in the replacement of the Klenow fragent of E.Coii DNA polymerase by a highly thermostable one frma Ttermus aquaticus (Taq poly-nerase) (1). Here we corunicate that another thermtable enzynw fm Txhermus ther:ropilus strain KM. (Tet polytnerase) can be succesfully used in DNA sequencing instead of expensive Taq polymerase. Tet polymerase share rn with Taq polymerase pr;perties:absence of 3-exonuclease activity, very high processivity dnd wide temperature range. Tet polywerase is superior to Klero fragnent in DtNA sequencing both for simplicity ( the reactions take only 3 minues at 70°C ) and clear resolution of sequence ladder artefacts comn for E.coli enzyme ( fiy.A.,arrow ). Such high performance reactions are achieved at a relatively increased amount of dideoKynucleotides in mixes as cmpared with other polymerases including Taq polymerase. Generaly, this not diminishes the nuaber of readable b and we reproducibly obtain more seguen- ce data from a single reaction than with Klenw fragment.
THE UNACCUSATIVE TRAP IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

The distinction of two types of intransitive verbs—unergatives (with underlying subjects) and unaccusatives (with underlying objects)—may not exist at early stages of L2 acquisition, both being syntactically represented as unergatives. This idea, referred to here as the Unaccusative Trap Hypothesis, provides an elegant developmental account for a variety of seemingly unrelated syntactic phenomena in L2 English, Japanese, and Chinese. Target language input, structural constraints on natural language linking rules, and linguistic properties of a learner's L1s shape stages in the reorganization of the lexical and syntactic components of interlanguage grammars. Although nonnative grammars may initially override the structural constraints postulated as the Unaccusative Hypothesis (Burzio, 1986; Perlmutter, 1978) and the Uniformity of Theta Assignment Hypothesis (Baker, 1988), at later developmental stages some may still achieve conformity with the norms of natural languages.
Legal issues in clouds: towards a risk inventory

Cloud computing technologies have reached a high level of development, yet a number of obstacles still exist that must be overcome before widespread commercial adoption can become a reality. In a cloud environment, end users requesting services and cloud providers negotiate service-level agreements (SLAs) that provide explicit statements of all expectations and obligations of the participants. If cloud computing is to experience widespread commercial adoption, then incorporating risk assessment techniques is essential during SLA negotiation and service operation. This article focuses on the legal issues surrounding risk assessment in cloud computing. Specifically, it analyses risk regarding data protection and security, and presents the requirements of an inherent risk inventory. The usefulness of such a risk inventory is described in the context of the OPTIMIS project.