Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Telerobotic mini-golf: system design for enhanced teleoperator performance

This paper discusses the safety assurance, capability features, and user-friendliness of Internet-based telerobotics, in the sense that how these features could be incorporated in order to enhance teleoperator performance. A comprehensive set of safety features are incorporated to the interface to screen and accept only the safe commands from the remote operator while discarding risky commands. A laser pointer is used to help remote operator in perceiving self-location and navigation, whereas orientation control has been completely automated and synchronized to the position commands of the teleoperator. The effectiveness of these features has been demonstrated by playing telerobotic mini-golf.
Deformation based morphmetry and atlas based label segmentation: Application to serial mouse brain images

The aim of this paper is to investigate techniques that can identify and quantify longitudinal changes in vivo from magnetic resonance (MR) images of murine models of brain disease. Two different approaches have been compared. The first approach is a segmentation-based approach: Each subject at each time point is automatically segmented into a number of anatomical structures using atlas-based segmentation. This allows longitudinal analyses of group differences on a structure-by-structure basis. The second approach is a deformation-based approach: Longitudinal changes are quantified via registration of each subject's follow-up images to that subject's baseline image. Both approaches have been tested on two groups of mice: A transgenic model of Alzheimer's disease and a wild-type background strain, using serial imaging performed over the age range from 6-14 months. We show that both approaches are able to identify longitudinal differences. However, atlas- based segmentation suffers from the inability to detect differences across populations and across time in regions which are much smaller than the anatomical regions. In contrast to this, the deformation-based approach can detect statistically significant differences in highly localized areas.
Camera calibration using reflections in planar mirrors and object reconstruction using volume carving method

Abstract A calibration and three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction method is presented based on images reflected from planar mirrors and acquired with one camera. The geometric model of the camera–mirror set and a method of calibrating it are described. The calibration technique computes the model parameters using linear equations, and it is proved that the calibration is possible with the knowledge of only six 3D points. The reconstruction method is based on a volumetric representation. The 3D reconstruction is based on a space carving algorithm and the calibration method described in the paper. The results of the calibration and reconstruction method show the efficiency of both techniques. This set-up enables a simple and inexpensive multi-ocular system to be built to recover the 3D structure of volumes.
An Active Learning Framework for Classifying Political Text

We develop a framework and tools for applying a computer‐assisted context analysis system and find that it achieves levels of accuracy comparable to humans for about 80% less effort when starting from scratch (no labeled examples). The system is presented using a case study of Congressional bill titles as a proxy for the full text of Congressional bills. We also demonstrate that the system can use information learned from previous experiments to reduce the labeling requirements still further to over 90% savings of the current human effort. This study assumes that social scientists have a need to locate individual documents in a subject area. To support this need, "Topic classification," where documents are coded according to some organizing framework, is used to facilitate search and summarization. Our proposed framework for effectively employing machine learning methods mitigates the high costs of the standard method of topic classification ‐ human labeling. We scientifically evaluate the efficacy and accuracy of the automated approach using a large corpus of 380,000 human‐labeled events and a classification system that includes 20 major policy topics, 226 subtopics, and a demonstrably strong level of human inter‐ coder agreement.
Effects of single-case reading interventions for students with and at-risk of emotional and behavioral disorders in grades K-12: A quantitative synthesis

Author(s): McKenna, JW; Shin, M; Solis, M; Mize, M; Pfannenstiel, K | Abstract: © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This study examined the effects of reading interventions from single-case design studies for students with and at-risk of emotional and behavioral disorders in grades K–12 using a quantitative synthesis. Seventeen studies met the selection criteria of having one more dependent variables meeting what works clearinghouse (WWC) design standards with or without reservations. Although students’ reading performance significantly improved from baseline to intervention phases (p l 0.001), the overall weighted average effect size was weak (Tau-U = 0.58, 95% confidence interval = [0.54, 0.63]; d = 0.29); smaller effects were found on reading comprehension. Interventions were less effective for students in secondary grades, students with a comorbid disability, and students in substantially separate settings. While no studies meeting the selection criteria were conducted in inclusive settings, the teacher provided interventions were more effective than those provided by researchers suggesting the importance of the student–teacher relationship for reading instruction. Study limitations, areas for future research, and implications for school practices are discussed.
Exploring population projections: sources of uncertainty and the user perspective

Government population projections are typically underpinned by a set of assumptions based on what has happened in the past, informed by expert opinion on what the future holds. The assumptions made are inevitably subject to uncertainty e.g. trends may change unexpectedly. This seminar considers sources of uncertainty in recent population projections for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, both national and sub-national. Past experience with population projections is examined to illustrate the effects of changing trends and economic circumstances. The seminar then looks at sources of uncertainty in the most recent 2006-based projections. The concluding remarks discuss the management of uncertainty.
Decreased Chitotriosidase Activity and Levels in Familial Mediterranean Fever

Different studies have demonstrated changes in chitotriosidase (ChT) activity and concentrations in multiple diseases. However, changes in ChT activity and concentrations have not been concurrently evaluated in patients with Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF). In this study, we analyzed the changes in serum ChT activity and concentrations in patients with FMF. The study included a total of 80 patients with FMF and 80 healthy controls. ChT enzyme activity and concentrations were measured and then compared between the groups. ChT activity was measured by using fluorometric ELISA and ChT concentrations were measured by using colorimetric ELISA methods. The median ChT activity was 10.00 (6.00–15.00) nmol/mL/hr in the patients and 14.00 (6.25–20.75) nmol/mL/hr in the controls. There was a statistically significant difference in the ChT activity between the controls and patients (P = 0.027). The median ChT concentrations were 65.40 (46.20–84.92) pg/mL and 125.00 (75.72–143.95) pg/mL in the patients and controls, respectively (P < 0.001), which were expressed as median percentiles (25th–75th). Additionally, we found no correlation between C-reactive protein and ChT activity (P = 0.978, r = 0.003) and concentrations (P = 0.446, r = −0.87). Serum ChT enzyme activity and concentrations may not be considered as a biomarker in FMF patients taking colchicine. New studies are needed to evaluate the changes of enzyme activity and concentration in colchicine-negative patients.
Vascular Aging across the Menopause Transition in Healthy Women

Vascular aging, featuring endothelial dysfunction and large artery stiffening, is a major risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). In women, vascular aging appears to be accelerated during the menopause transition, particularly around the late perimenopausal period, presumably related to declines in ovarian function and estrogen levels. The mechanisms underlying endothelial dysfunction and large artery stiffening with the menopause transition are not completely understood. Oxidative stress and the proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-α contribute to endothelial dysfunction and large artery stiffening in estrogen-deficient postmenopausal women. Habitual endurance exercise attenuates the age-related increase in large artery stiffness in estrogen-deficient postmenopausal women and can reverse arterial stiffening to premenopausal levels in estrogen-replete postmenopausal women. In contrast, estrogen status appears to play a key permissive role in the adaptive response of the endothelium to habitual endurance exercise in that endothelial improvements are absent in estrogen-deficient women but present in estrogen-replete women. We review here the current state of knowledge on the biological defects underlying vascular aging across the menopause transition, with particular focus on potential mechanisms, the role of habitual exercise in preserving vascular health, and key areas for future research.
Inverse Planning in the Cracks of Formal Land Use Regulation: The Bottom-Up Regularisation of Informal Settlements in Maputo, Mozambique

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on a case of ‘non-public planning’ in an informal neighbourhood of Maputo, Mozambique. Here, several residents undertook some planning duties (e.g. drawing up a detailed plan) in order to regularise their informal dwellings in lieu of the Municipality, due to its inertia. This was an attempt to deal with the shortcomings of urban planning in Maputo, not by flouting the system, but by remoulding it and creating a sort of alternative formality. The detailed analysis of this case is an opportunity for critical reflection on the risks, potentialities and inherent limits of such a form of non-public planning in Mozambique, which we label ‘inverse planning’.
Environmental science education in a small island state: integrating theory and local experience

Abstract The importance of education to address current sustainability challenges in small island states has been widely recognized. Environmental education may increase knowledge, while also increasing environmental awareness and motivating students to become agents of change. Student engagement in introductory environmental science courses may benefit from operationalizing abstract concepts by embedding course material and activities within this local context. Here, we describe an introductory course in environmental science that has been tailored to the local context of a small island state in the Caribbean. In addition to reaching academic course goals, pre- and post-course surveys showed that course participants’ environmental awareness increased on the dimensions ‘Personal Value System’ and ‘Willingness to Take Environmental Action’. The described course provides a template for the development of a low-cost introductory environmental science course that integrates general theory and application within the context of Caribbean island states.
Code-Switching Ubique Est - Language Identification and Part-of-Speech Tagging for Historical Mixed Text

In this paper, we describe the development of a language identification system and a part-of-speech tagger for Latin-Middle English mixed text. To this end, we annotate data with language IDs and Universal POS tags (Petrov et al., 2012). As a classifier, we train a conditional random field classifier for both sub-tasks, including features generated by the TreeTagger models of both languages. The focus lies on both a general and a task-specific evaluation. Moreover, we describe our effort concerning beyond proof-of-concept implementation of tools and towards a more task-oriented approach, showing how to apply our techniques in the context of Humanities research.
Prediction of mutual fund net asset value using low complexity feedback neural network

A neural network family is commonly used for improving financial forecasting accuracy. This paper proposes a feedback functional link artificial neural network (FFLANN) for the prediction of net asset value (NAV) of Indian Mutual funds which incorporates fewer computational load and fast forecasting capability. It is clear from the root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) that the proposed model shows superior performance than the MLANN and FLANN.
Incidence of Strict Quality Standards: Protection of Consumers or Windfall for Professionals?

This paper examines the effects of upgrading product quality standards on product and professional labor market equilibriums when both markets are regulated. The Japanese government revised the Building Standards Act in June 2007, requiring a stricter review process for approving the plans of large-scale buildings. This regulatory change increased the wages of certified architects in Tokyo by 30 percent but did not increase their total hours worked because of an inelastic labor supply. The stricter quality standards created a quasi rent for certified architects and owners of condominiums at a cost to consumers. Evidence suggests that the new standards increased the transaction price of existing condominiums by 15 percent in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
How to Make Your Planner Rude and Other Issues in Multi-Agent Planning

This article presents an extension to classical planning techniques that facilitates their use in dynamic multi-agent domains. The approach augments an integrated model of plan generation, execution and repair with two additional capabilities. The first is a general approach to multi-agent reasoning that allows an agent to reason about the plans of other agents and alter its planning behavior based on its relationship to those agents. Second, it incorporates an approach to plan management that implements higher-level planning constructs such as intentions to structure multi-
Evolutionary innovations overcome ancestral constraints: a re‐examination of character evolution in male sepsid flies

In a recent article, Eberhard discussed whether the origin of morphological innovations is rare because of developmental constraints or whether their appearance is primarily driven by natural selection, and he argued in favor of the latter (Eberhard 2001). Eberhard’s reasoning is based on a study that traces the evolutionary origination of a major morphological innovation in a group of flies (Diptera: Sepsidae) using Meier’s (1995) phylogenetic hypothesis. The innovation consists of movable abdominal lobes in the males of this group, a character that is extremely rare in other flies. Eberhard also presented evidence that the appendages are used to stimulate the female during copulation. According to his preliminary character state reconstruction, this character originated two or three times in the clade of 240 species of flies. Eberhard concluded that abdominal lobes must evolve easily because there are multiple originations of this character within the sepsids. Thus, the ancestral lineage is inferred to be not constrained to produce the derived character. At issue in this study is a suggestion that we proposed in a 1991 review of the novelty concept (Müller and Wagner 1991). From a survey of examples from vertebrate evolution, we concluded that the lineage ancestral to a major innovation is developmentally constrained to acquire the derived character and that the rareness of innovations is explained by the need to overcome this ancestral constraint. If this is true, the study of innovations would have a different research agenda than the study of adaptation. This would justify recognition of innovation as a concept distinct from adaptation. A major research objective in the study of innovations would be to identify the developmental apomorphies that allowed the derived lineage to overcome the ancestral constraint (Prum 1999). Eberhard, however, concluded that his data refuted our suggestion and by implication would render the concept of innovations superfluous. As an alternative, he proposed that sexual selection is sufficient to explain the origin of this character in sepsids and the almost uniform absence of this character in other dipterans. A close examination of the facts presented in the article led us to conclude that the data do not support his conclusion. In contrast, we think that the data actually strongly support our suggestion that natural selection alone is not sufficient to explain the origination of morphological novelties. Later here, we outline the argument supporting this conclusion.
Effect of Negotiator Active Listening Skills on Crisis (Hostage) Negotiations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of active listening skills on perpetrator response style in crisis negotiations. The extant literature boasts the utility of negotiations in crisis situations for law enforcement that came about in response to cataclysmic events such as the Attica Prison Riots (1971), Munich Massacre (1972), and the Williamsburg incident (1973). Various crisis negotiation models assert the importance of active listening skills in crisis negotiations; given the recent and voluminous media attention on police, this research aimed to provide further support for a cultural shift in police departments around the country to provide their officers with crisis negotiation training. These trainings allow officers to expand their arsenal of tools that decreases their need to rely on a tactical response when verbal de-escalation may be warranted to minimize risk to both officer and subject. The proposed study coded and analyzed audio recordings from the first 20 minutes of 12 simulated negotiations. The author proposed: (1) an increase in the proportion of active listening skills within the first phase of the negotiation would be associated with a decrease in the proportion of negative perpetrator response style in the second phase of the negotiation, (2) an increase in the proportion of active listening skills within the first half of the negotiation would be associated with an increase in the proportion of positive perpetrator response style in the second half of the negotiation, (3) an increase in the proportion of problem-solving
Ligand binding studies for DPP IV a target protein responsible for Diabetes Mellitus Type 2: Structural based approach for drug designing

Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 is one of the common diseases and found worldwide. The cause of this abnormality is due to lack of insulin production. Glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1), product of the glucagon gene is one of the prime components which stimulates the β cell proliferation and inhibits β cell death. DiPeptidyl Peptidase IV (DPP IV) acts as protease degrading incretins which stimulates the secretion of insulin for normalizing sugar level. Therefore, inhibiting DPP IV would decrease incertins degradation and in turn will stimulate the insulin secretion. The objective of this study was to search for an inhibitor with minimum or no harmful effects. The sequence coding for DPP IV was retrieved and remodeled insilico and DOCKING studies found that methyl amine is one of potential inhibitors of DPP IV. The insilico study for activity and drug likeness of the ligand molecule found it to be non mutagenic, non irritant, non tumerogenic and have no effect on fertility.
Teleocidin A2 inhibits human proteinase‐activated receptor 2 signaling in tumor cells

Enhanced expression of the proteinase‐activated receptor 2 (PAR2) is linked to cell proliferation and migration in many cancer cell types. The role of PAR2 in cancer progression strongly illustrates the need for PAR2‐inhibiting compounds. However, to date, potent and selective PAR2 antagonists have not been reported. The natural product teleocidin A2 was characterized against PAR2‐activating peptide SLIGKV‐NH2, and trypsin‐induced PAR2‐dependent intracellular Ca2+ mobilization in tumor and in primary endothelial or epithelial cells. Further biochemical and cell‐based studies were conducted to evaluate teleocidin specificity. The antagonizing effect of teleocidin A2 was confirmed in PAR2‐dependent cell migration and rearrangement of actin cytoskeleton of human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MDA‐MB 231) breast cancer cells. Teleocidin A2 antagonizes PAR2‐dependent intracellular Ca2+ mobilization induced by either SLIGKV‐NH2 or trypsin with IC50 values from 15 to 25 nmol/L in MDA‐MB 231, lung carcinoma cell line, and human umbilical vein endothelial cell. Half maximal inhibition of either PAR1 or P2Y receptor‐dependent Ca2+ release is only achieved with 10‐ to 20‐fold higher concentrations of teleocidin A2. In low nanomolar concentrations, teleocidin A2 reverses both SLIGKV‐NH2 and trypsin‐mediated PAR2‐dependent migration of MDA‐MB 231 cells, and has no effect itself on cell migration and no effect on cell viability. Teleocidin A2 further controls PAR2‐induced actin cytoskeleton rearrangement of MDA‐MB 231 cells. Thus, for the first time, the small molecule natural product teleocidin A2 exhibiting PAR2 antagonism in the low nanomolar range with potent antimigratory activity is described.
Real time person detection and tracking by mobile robots using RGB-D images

Detecting and tracking humans are key problems for human-robot interaction. In this paper we present an algorithm for mobile robots to detect and track people reliably, even when humans go through different illumination conditions, often change in a wide variety of poses, and are frequently occluded. We have improved the performance of face and upper body detection to quickly find people in each frame. This combination enhances the efficiency of human detection in dealing with partial occlusions and changes in human poses. To cope with the higher challenges of complex changes of human poses and occlusions, we at the same time combine a fast compressive tracker with a Kalman filter to track the detected humans. Experimental results on a challenging database show that our method achieves high performance and can run in real time on mobile robots.
State of the art of a multi-agent based recommender system for active software engineering ontology

Software engineering ontology was first developed to provide efficient collaboration and coordination among distributed teams working on related software development projects across the sites. It helped to clarify the software engineering concepts and project information as well as enable knowledge sharing. However, a major challenge of the software engineering ontology users is that they need the competence to access and translate what they are looking for into the concepts and relations described in the ontology; otherwise, they may not be able to obtain required information. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework of a multi-agent based recommender system to provide active support to access and utilize knowledge and project information in the software engineering ontology. Multi-agent system and semantic-based recommendation approach will be integrated to create collaborative working environment to access and manipulate data from the ontology and perform reasoning as well as generate expert recommendation facilities for dispersed software teams across the sites.