Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An intelligent bone cutting tool in robot-assisted knee replacement

A medical robot has the potential to bring a surgery with high positioning accuracy. However, a traditional robot is not suitable for medical application due to its poor human machine interface. Particularly it is lack of a function for a surgeon to intervene or even dominate all the operation procedure. The paper presents a modulized design with an intelligent human machine interface for a knee surgical robot. A surgeon can easily control the whole operation process. At the same time the robot provides assistance of accurate spatial positioning for cutting bone during resection procedure. Moreover a CT-free surgical planner has been integrated with the surgical robot. Thus the features of low cost and high operation-friendly will make the overall surgical robot system high potential in orthopaedics surgery applications.
How Online Customer Reviews Influence Creditability and Business Performance of Tourism Websites

Online customer reviews provide a rich shopping experience for potential customers and share information of products and services of tourism websites. Potential customers who have purchase intention can achieve useful information to decrease perceived risk with purchase uncertainty and help to make rational decisions. Prior research concentrates on how online customer reviews affect customer purchase intention, customer purchase behavior and website business performance, while all of the studies ignore the research perspective of website creditability. As credit is becoming a key factor to judge the operation quality of tourism websites, for filling the research gap, we firstly provide empirical evidence to explore how online customer reviews influence business performance with website creditability as an intermediary variable and additionally verify the significance of information quality as a moderator. The research findings show that the intermediary effects of creditability on online customer reviews and website business performance are significant, however, the moderate effect is not significant, which is distinguished from a large number of previous studies.
Model predictive resonant control of a three-phase voltage source converter with selective harmonic compensation

This paper develops and experimentally-validates a new model predictive control based design for grid-connected three phase voltage source converter. In particular, the operation of a three phase voltage source converter in the stationary frame is considered where signals that vary sinusoidally with a period determined by the grid frequency must be controlled. Hence the internal model principle is exploited to add terms that achieve zero steady-state tracking errors and the result termed model predictive resonance control (MPRC). A selective harmonic compensation controller, to operate in conjunction with the MPRC, is also designed to minimize the odd-order harmonics in the grid-side current caused by the grid-voltage harmonics. The results of an experimental validation of the final design are also given.
DEVELOPMENT AND SHELTER CHALLENGES OF SMALL ISLANDS: PLANNING WITH A PRO-POOR PERSPECTIVE

This paper explores why and how small island developing states (SIDS) in the Asia-Pacific region should adopt pro-poor policies to overcome development related affordable housing challenges. It first outlines SIDS’ common development challenges—small size, remoteness, greater exposure to economic and environmental shocks, and brisk urbanization. In a globalized world, SIDS’ developmental and geographic constraints make providing equitable shelter harder. Developing Asia’s rapid urban growth and simultaneously widening urban inequality offer hope and sound caution alike for SIDS, whose potential and propensity to attract global investment are unique. Tourism-based economic development is poised to accelerate the private sector’s influence on SIDS’ land and housing markets. This paper presents the cities of Honolulu (USA), Surabaya (Indonesia), and Dili (Timor Leste) as cases that exemplify, respectively, the advanced, intermediate, and early stages of a possible development continuum for SIDS. Utilizing secondary literature, primary qualitative field-research, news media sources, and observations, it demonstrates that despite common developmental challenges SIDS’ diverse governance models and institutional capacities preclude definitive solutions. Instead, it argues for tailored yet flexible policy responses informed by multiple pro-poor principles—inclusivity, affordability, alternative forms of tenure security, and innovative design and construction. Sensitive, context-appropriate adaptation of innovative policy tools that have proven effective in fraught contexts elsewhere (especially, transfer of development rights, inclusionary housing, land pooling/sharing, participatory slum upgrading, and community benefits agreements) can guide SIDS to expand pro-poor shelter provision.
The influence of assets structure on financial performance in Croatian banking system

Purpose – as the largest share of national money assets is concentrated in banks, their profitability is important not only for shareholder but also for the whole economy. The aim of this paper is to analyse the influence of the structure of total assets and its liquidity on overall success in the Croatian banking industry. Research methodology – in order to achieve the main purpose the cross-section regression models will be estimated which will include standard profitability indicators and various liquidity and assets indices. Findings – the results of the analysis show that the level and the structure of total assets, as well as the level of its liquidity, significantly influence its profitability. Research limitations – the analysis in this paper is limited to the influence of the asset side of the bank balance sheet in cross-section conditions. Therefore this research could be considered as a preliminary one and should be expanded by introducing the other indicators from liability in wider time horizons. Practical implications – the results outlined in this paper could be practical guidelines for successful asset management which is prerequisite for achieving an adequate financial performance in the banking business. Originality/Value – according to our knowledge, research of this phenomenon is very rare, so this is one of the first papers considering the impact of asset structure on bank performance for the Croatian banking system.
Dissociated roles of the middle frontal gyri in the processing of Chinese characters

The present study examined a hypothesis that the right middle frontal gyrus participates in processing orthography of Chinese characters, while the left middle frontal gyrus mediates access to phonology and semantics. Brain activation during three character tasks, which required processing orthography, phonology, or semantics of Chinese characters, respectively, was measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Comparable neural activity in the right middle frontal gyrus was observed in all three character tasks that always demand orthographical processing. In contrast, the left middle frontal gyrus showed greater activation in the phonological and semantic tasks than in the orthographic task. These results suggest that the right and left middle frontal gyrus have dissociable functions in achieving Chinese character recognition.
Comparative analysis of reverse e-logistics’ solution in Asia and Europe

Purpose – to make comparative analysis of the most successful reverse e-logistics’ solution in Asia and Europe to identify models and methods for solving efficiency and sustainability issues in these areas. Research methodology – the research methodology implemented is composed of literature review, synthesis, and comparative analysis. Findings – certain solutions implemented such as omni-channels, and Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) in Asia, and selecting the best third-party reverse logistics providers (3PRLPs), and green suppliers in Europe were able to increase the efficiency of reverse e-logistics’ performance. Research limitations – the lack of enough researches done in the field of RL in the Middle East created obstacles in double checking the work presented in this paper because more resources are needed to confirm significantly the results. As for future recommendations, further researches should be conducted in the Middle East. Practical implications – the results found can be implemented in those firms who are still suffering inefficiencies and high costs in their reverse e-logistics’ activities. Originality/Value – this research made a comparison study between solutions implemented in Europe and Asia in head-to-head comparison in such a way it gave an originalitity of these values since no previous researches and studies were conducted in that comparative way before.
A power optimized decimator for sigma-delta data converters

This paper presents an optimized design technique for a decimator (or decimation filter) which is part of a 2nd-order sigma-delta modulator with an oversampling ratio (OSR) of 128. The modulator is part of an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) designed for a digital hearing aid. The decimator takes the 1-bit modulator output at 128fs (sampling frequency) and reduces the sampling frequency to twice the highest frequency of interest (i.e., 24-bits at fs). This task is performed in three stages: a cascaded integrator-comb (CIC) filter, downsampling with a factor of 32, followed by a bandwidth extended and then a sharp-cutoff finite impulse response (FIR) filters, each of them downsampling with a factor of 2. Polyphase filtering and circular buffer stages are also used to reduce the power consumption. The decimator was synthesized in the 140nm NXP CMOS process and occupies an area of 0.608 mm2. It presents a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 85 dB while consuming 188 μW with 0.9 volts power supply (simulation results).
Repair activity of oxidatively damaged DNA and telomere length in human lung epithelial cells after exposure to multi-walled carbon nanotubes

One type of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) (MWCNT-7, from Mitsui) has been classified as probably carcinogenic to humans, however insufficient data does not warrant the same classification for other types of CNTs. Experimental data indicate that CNT exposure can result in oxidative stress and DNA damage in cultured cells, whereas these materials appear to induce low or no mutagenicity. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate whether in vitro exposure of cultured airway epithelial cells (A549) to multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) could increase the DNA repair activity of oxidatively damaged DNA and drive the cells toward replicative senescence, assessed by attrition of telomeres. To investigate this, H2O2 and KBrO3 were used to induce DNA damage in the cells and the effect of pre-exposure to MWCNT tested for a change in repair activity inside the cells or in the extract of treated cells. The effect of MWCNT exposure on telomere length was investigated for concentration and time response. We report a significantly increased repair activity in A549 cells exposed to MWCNTs compared to non-exposed cells, suggesting that DNA repair activity may be influenced by exposure to MWCNTs. The telomere length was decreased at times longer than 24h, but this decrease was not concentration dependent. The results suggest that the seemingly low mutagenicity of CNTs in cultured cells may be associated with an increased DNA repair activity and a replicative senescence, which may counteract the manifestation of DNA lesions to mutations.
Maintenance bacillus Calmette‐Guérin in high‐risk nonmuscle‐invasive bladder cancer

Intravesical bacillus Calmette‐Guérin (BCG) immunotherapy is effective in preventing recurrence and progression in nonmuscle‐invasive bladder cancer but the dosing schedule and duration of treatment remain empirical. The outcome of BCG therapy was prospectively evaluated on patients according to the number of maintenance cycles received.
A neural network based method for leakage current prediction of polymeric insulators

This letter describes a neural network approach to the prediction of the leakage current (LC) on silicone rubber insulators exposed to salt-fog. The validity of the approach was examined by testing several insulators in a salt-fog chamber. Feed-forward back propagation was found as the best method among several training methods evaluated for the prediction of the LC. The predicted LC with this method has less than 12% error for the tested cases.
On transferability of genome‐wide tagSNPs

The question of tagging single nucleotide polymorphism (tagSNP) transferability is an important one because many ongoing and upcoming Genome‐Wide Association studies rely critically upon the validity, and practical feasibility of using a universal core set of tagSNPs. A series of recent studies analyzed performance of tagSNPs selected based on the HapMap. While these studies showed largely satisfactory transferability of the tagSNPs, they also reported that the level of transferability varies, substantively sometimes, especially when tagSNPs selected in one population were used in another distant population. We present a review of the literature about where and why tagSNP transferability may become a problem and suggest research directions that may help the resolution. Genet. Epidemiol. 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Ecoulements tourbillonnaires de von karman

Plusieurs aspects de la turbulence au sein des ecoulements tourbillonnaires de von karman ont ete etudies. Le developpement de nouvelles techniques d'analyse, dont une version locale de l'hypothese de taylor et une moyenne conditionee que nous avons appellee moyenne coherente, ont permis d'etudier la turbulence dans des ecoulements avec vitesse moyenne nulle, ainsi que l'effet d'une structure coherente a l'echelle integrale sur la statistique des echelles appartenant aux regimes inertiel et dissipatif. D'autre part, des mesures de grandeurs globales telles que la puissance injectee, la pression et la vorticite moyenne, ont montre qu'outre des fluctuations importantes, ces grandeurs presentent des correlations entre elles. L'etude de la statistique de leurs fluctuations, jusqu'a present absente de la phenomenologie usuelle de la turbulence developpee, a ete ainsi initiee
METODOLOGIA DE IDENTIFICAÇÃO DE CÉDULAS MONETÁRIAS PARA DEFICIENTES VISUAIS

Worldwide, there is a wide variety of disabled people. It is estimated that a total of 285 million visually impaired people, 39 million blind and 246 million with low vision. The use of Information and Communication Technologies helps disabled people to have independence that is more significant, quality of life and inclusion in social life through the supplementation, maintenance or devolution of their functional capacities. In this context, this paper presents a methodology for banknotes automatic identification that can be widely used by the visually impaired people. For this, a set of four local descriptors, four individual classifiers and two classifier committees were evaluated, which could be used as a basis for the development of applications for the identification of banknotes. The tests performed with images of dollar, euro and real banknotes obtained precision rates of 97%, 91% and 91%, respectively.
Vesicles surfing on a lipid bilayer: Self-induced haptotactic motion

Haptotaxis is a mechanism proposed at the end of the 1960s to explain cell motility. It describes cell movement induced by an adhesion gradient. In this work, we present evidence for self-induced haptotaxis using negatively charged giant vesicles interacting with positively charged supported lipid bilayers, which has not been previously described. Depending on the charge of the vesicle, we observed different behaviors. At low charge, no adhesion occurs. At high charge, the vesicle adheres but does not move. In a restricted range of intermediate charge densities, we found that the vesicle moves spontaneously with velocities of the order of a few micrometers per second over distances of >100 μm. We show that a local lipid transfer between the giant vesicle and the supported lipid bilayer takes place during the adhesion, breaking the symmetry and inducing a lateral charge gradient. This charge gradient polarizes the giant vesicle and induces its motion. To explain our observations, we propose a scaling model that relates the adhesion energy to the velocity of vesicle motion and to the characteristic lipid transfer time. Our measurements indicate that the effective adhesion energy is strongly reduced by counterions, which are dynamically trapped between the vesicle and the supported bilayer.
Meiotic segregation in Drosophila melanogaster females: molecules, mechanisms, and myths.

EXCHANGE AND SEGREGATION . Genetic Approaches to Chromosome Pairing . Cytological Studies of Pachytene Morphology . The Number and Position of Exchanges . Chiasma Function . Chiasma Resolution as a Justification for Chiasma Position .
Deduced polypeptides encoded by the Bacillus subtilis sacU locus share homology with two-component sensor-regulator systems

The sacU locus has been cloned by using two independent strategies, and the presence of two open reading frames was deduced from the nucleotide sequence. Open reading frame 1 encodes a 45,000-dalton polypeptide that is similar to the products of the Salmonella typhimurium cheA and Escherichia coli cpxA genes, which act as sensory transducers. Open reading frame 2 encodes a 26,000-dalton polypeptide that is similar to a family of transcriptional activators, including the products of the Bacillus subtilis spoOA and spoOF and the E. coli ompR and dye genes. These similarities suggest that the products of the B. subtilis sacU locus form a sensor-transducer couple, which functions to relay information about specific environmental changes to the transcription apparatus.
Design optimization of switched reluctance machine using genetic algorithm

This paper studies a design optimization procedure for switched reluctance motors (SRMs) using a Genetic Algorithm (GA). A multi-objective optimization method has been employed in the optimization of current commutation angles for priority operating points and over the entire operating range of the machine. Criteria of optimal control, which are maximizing output average torque and minimizing the root mean square value of net torque ripple, have been used in the optimization problem. A decision-making algorithm has been investigated to choose a solution from the optimal Pareto-front with finite optimal points. Five SRM design candidates have been selected and studied. The optimized motor performance at the priority operating points has been used to compare between different designs. Finally, a motor design that satisfies all design requirements has been characterized over its entire operating envelope based on turn-on and turn-off angles.
Increased α-Defensins as a Blood Marker for Schizophrenia Susceptibility*

Schizophrenia is a severe psychotic illness affecting 1% of the general population. There are no consistent pathological features, and the disorder is defined by a complex symptomatology, which overlaps with other psychiatric illnesses. Diagnosis is based on a clinical interview, relying on the patient meeting criteria according to diagnosis manuals, including Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Ed. and International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision. Because of the ambiguous symptoms, the diagnostic process can take many months and often years. Rapid and effective treatment has been shown to impact positively on disease progression and outcome, and it is therefore important to identify disease-associated biomarkers allowing early diagnosis. Reliable biomarkers can be used for the development of diagnostic tests and may also help us understand the underlying pathology of this disorder. In the present study, proteins from anti-CD3 stimulated and unstimulated peripheral blood T cell lysates from 15 minimally medicated and unmedicated patients and 15 age-, sex-, race-, and smoking-matched controls were profiled on cation exchange (CM10) chips using SELDI-TOF. Partial least squares discriminate analysis was used to separate patient and control groups according to the expression of 108 detected peaks, and two peaks of 3,374 and 3,450 Da, corresponding to α-defensins based on masses and cationic properties, were found to contribute significantly to the separation of patient and control groups. Reduction of T cell lysates with DTT resulted in a 6-Da shift in the mass of these peaks consistent with the presence of three cysteine bonds in the structure, confirming them as α-defensins. Quantification of α-defensins in T cell lysates from six patients and 18 healthy controls was carried out by ELISA, which also showed that α-defensin levels were significantly increased in patient lysates when compared with matched controls (p = 0.0197). Plasma from 21 monozygotic twins discordant for schizophrenia and eight healthy unaffected twin pairs was also analyzed for the expression of α-defensins by ELISA. Notably both affected and unaffected twins were found to have significantly elevated α-defensin levels compared with healthy control twin pairs (p = 0.0014 and p = 0.0115, respectively). Increased expression of α-defensins in unaffected as well as affected discordant monozygotic twins is of particular interest as monozygotic twins share genes and usually environmental upbringing. The unaffected twin therefore represents the biological and environmental risk of developing schizophrenia in the absence of overt symptomatology and therapeutic medication. These findings suggest that α-defensins could be an important early indicator of the risk of schizophrenia.
The language of percentages: ranking bodies, shaping realities, and limiting opportunities

Abstract Purpose: This exploratory study is situated in a critical tradition. It aims to describe and analyse the reliance on percentage assessments of functional capacity among a group of young adults in rehabilitation after serious motor vehicle accidents. Methods: Qualitative interviews and participant observation. Thematic and theoretically informed analysis was carried out. Results: The concept of percentages played a significant role in the study participants’ meaning-making processes as they went through rehabilitation. Percentage scores below 100 made a strong impression on them and were associated with strong emotions. They also strove to prove their scores wrong, often by attempting to function in full time (100%) employment positions. Significantly, many talked as if they “were” their percentage scores. Conclusions: The utility of percentage logics is to describe parts of that which is full and whole, and we argue that this logic provides for specific and problematic ways of seeing and understanding impairment and disability. When scored on hierarchical scales, functional tests by necessity rank bodies and bodily functions as better or worse while precluding alternative understandings of affected function. Implications for rehabilitation Measurements expressed in numbers and percentages are used in rehabilitation by professionals to depict and convey functional capacities to patients, but this “language” also leaks into the wider context of patients’ lives and understandings of themselves. The act of measurement may work to rank bodies in specific and normative ways that are unable to express difference as a valuable instance of human diversity, and may make rehabilitees question whether they are complete human beings. Medical professionals should address and take into consideration the wider consequences of the act of measurement when they provide guidance and support for patients’ in their rehabilitation processes.