Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metaphors to Drive By: Exploring New Ways to Guide Human - Robot Interaction

Autonomous behaviors created by the research and development community are not being extensively utilized within energy, defense, security, or industrial contexts. This paper provides evidence that the interaction methods used alongside these behaviors may not provide a mental model that can be easily adopted or used by operators. Although autonomy has the potential to reduce overall workload, the use of robot behaviors often increased the complexity of the underlying interaction metaphor. This paper reports our development of new metaphors that support increased robot com- plexity without passing the complexity of the interaction onto the operator. Furthermore, we illustrate how recognition of problems in human-robot interactions can drive the creation of new metaphors for design and how human factors lessons in usability, human performance, and our social contract with technology have the potential for enormous payoff in terms of establishing effective, user-friendly robot systems when appropriate metaphors are used.
Search-Based Procedural Content Generation: A Taxonomy and Survey

The focus of this survey is on research in applying evolutionary and other metaheuristic search algorithms to automatically generating content for games, both digital and nondigital (such as board games). The term search-based procedural content generation is proposed as the name for this emerging field, which at present is growing quickly. A taxonomy for procedural content generation is devised, centering on what kind of content is generated, how the content is represented and how the quality/fitness of the content is evaluated; search-based procedural content generation in particular is situated within this taxonomy. This article also contains a survey of all published papers known to the authors in which game content is generated through search or optimisation, and ends with an overview of important open research problems.
Formal Verification of Authenticated AODV Protocol using AVISPA

Due to the advancement in the communication technologies, people can communicate with each other anywhere on the move. The concept of ad hoc networks comes into existence in such scenarios. These networks require secure routing protocols; as such networks are vulnerable to various attacks, because of their open and dynamic infrastructure. In this paper we analyze ad hoc on-demand distance vector routing protocol (AODV) using formal verification technique. The verification has been carried out with the help of an automated tool, AVISPA. The result reveals poor authentication between the nodes of the routing protocol. To overcome the weak authentication problem found, we incorporate a secure authentication technique in AODV specification and prove it to be secure by formally verifying the results.
Joint Compartmented Threshold Access Structures

In this paper, we introduce the notion of a joint compartmented threshold access structure (JCTAS). We study the necessary conditions for the existence of an ideal and perfect secret sharing scheme and give a characterization of almost all ideal JCTASes. Then we give an ideal and almost surely perfect construction that realizes such access structures. We prove the asymptotic perfectness of this construction by the Schwartz-Zippel Lemma.
Experimental and Computational Methods Pertaining to Surface Tension of Pharmaceuticals

The molecules of a fluid experiences attractive forces exerted on it by all its neighboring molecules. In the bulk of the liquid, molecules are attracted equally in all directions resulting in a net force of zero. Molecules at or near the surface experience attractive force which tends to pull them to the interior. Surface chemistry deals with thermodynamic and kinetic parameters that take place between two different coexisting phases at equilibrium. Surface tension, γ is free energy of the surface at any air/fluid interface defined as force per unit length or energy per unit area. The latter term, also called surface energy, is more useful in thermodynamics and it applies to solids as well as liquid surfaces. The surface free energy of a liquid is measured by its surface tension and the surface free energy of a solid can be revealed by contact angle measurements. The surface tension measurement depends very markedly upon the presence of impurities in the liquid, temperature and pressure changes (Buckton, 1988). Surface tension is a phenomenon that we see in our everyday life. Human biological fluids, e.g. serum, urine, gastric juice, amniotic liquid, cerebrospinal and alveolar lining liquid contain numerous low-and high-molecular weight surfactants, proteins and lipids that adsorb at liquid interface. The physicochemical processes that take place in these interfaces are extremely important for the vital function of body organs and have a great impact on pharmacodynamic parameters of drug molecules (Kazakov et al., 2000; Trukhin et al., 2001). Drug substances are usually administered as part of a formulation in combination with excipients that have varied and specialized pharmaceutical functions. The design of drug formulation is based on the principles of pharmacokinetic, biopharmaceutic and pharmaceutical technology. The pharmaceutical industry has directed its attention mainly to the quality and processability of active pharmaceutical products which is reflected in various physicochemical parameters. The drug and pharmaceutical materials require extensive characterization and testing of their stability, physico-chemical properties, effectiveness, palatability and ease of administration to ensure drug efficacy. Among the important characteristics are the drug dissolution and solubility in gastrointestinal tract, intestinal absorption, drug distribution and drug-
A Unifying Framework for Adaptive Radar Detection in Homogeneous Plus Structured Interference— Part II: Detectors Design

This paper deals with the problem of adaptive multidimensional/multichannel signal detection in homogeneous Gaussian disturbance with unknown covariance matrix and structured (unknown) deterministic interference. The aforementioned problem extends the well-known Generalized Multivariate Analysis of Variance (GMANOVA) tackled in the open literature. In Part I of this paper, we have obtained the Maximal Invariant Statistic (MIS) for the problem under consideration, as an enabling tool for the design of suitable detectors which possess the Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) property. Herein, we focus on the development of several theoretically founded detectors for the problem under consideration. First, all the considered detectors are shown to be function of the MIS, thus proving their CFARness property. Second, coincidence or statistical equivalence among some of them in such a general signal model is proved. Third, strong connections to well-known (simpler) scenarios analyzed in adaptive detection literature are established. Finally, simulation results are provided for a comparison of the proposed receivers.
Overcoming low yields of plant‐made antibodies by a protein engineering approach

The commercial development of plant‐based antibody production platforms is often limited by low and variable yields, but little is known about the factors that affect antibody accumulation during and after translation. Here, we present a strategy to identify yield‐limiting regions in the transcript and protein. We exchanged variable heavy chain (VH) domain sequences between two human antibodies at structurally conserved positions, thus creating ten chimeric VH domains containing sequences from M12 (∼1000 μg/g leaf fresh weight [FW]) and 4E10 (∼100 μg/g FW). After transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves, we measured mRNA and protein levels by quantitative real‐time PCR and surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy, respectively. Transcript levels were similar for all constructs, but antibody levels ranged from ∼250 μg/g to over 2000 μg/g FW. Analysis of the expression levels showed that: i) 4E10 yields were only marginally increased by suppression of post‐transcriptional gene silencing; ii) the CDR3 of 4E10 contains a protease site; and iii) a bipartite, yield‐limiting region exists in the CDR2/CDR3. Our findings highlight the strong impact of cotranslational and posttranslational events on antibody yields and show that protein engineering is a powerful tool that can be used to overcome the remaining limitations affecting antibody production in plants.
Effects of Mild Cold Shock (25°C) Followed by Warming Up at 37°C on the Cellular Stress Response

Temperature variations in cells, tissues and organs may occur in a number of circumstances. We report here that reducing temperature of cells in culture to 25°C for 5 days followed by a rewarming to 37°C affects cell biology and induces a cellular stress response. Cell proliferation was almost arrested during mild hypothermia and not restored upon returning to 37°C. The expression of cold shock genes, CIRBP and RBM3, was increased at 25°C and returned to basal level upon rewarming while that of heat shock protein HSP70 was inversely regulated. An activation of pro-apoptotic pathways was evidenced by FACS analysis and increased Bax/Bcl2 and BclXS/L ratios. Concomitant increased expression of the autophagosome-associated protein LC3II and AKT phosphorylation suggested a simultaneous activation of autophagy and pro-survival pathways. However, a large proportion of cells were dying 24 hours after rewarming. The occurrence of DNA damage was evidenced by the increased phosphorylation of p53 and H2AX, a hallmark of DNA breaks. The latter process, as well as apoptosis, was strongly reduced by the radical oxygen species (ROS) scavenger, N-acetylcysteine, indicating a causal relationship between ROS, DNA damage and cell death during mild cold shock and rewarming. These data bring new insights into the potential deleterious effects of mild hypothermia and rewarming used in various research and therapeutical fields.
Regulation of the chondrocyte phenotype by β-catenin

β-Catenin regulates important biological processes, including embryonic development and tumorigenesis. We have investigated the role of β -catenin in the regulation of the chondrocyte phenotype. Expression of β -catenin was high in prechondrogenic mesenchymal cells, but significantly decreased in differentiated chondrocytes both in vivo and in vitro. Accumulation of β-catenin by the inhibition of glycogen synthase kinase-3β with LiCl inhibited chondrogenesis by stabilizing cell-cell adhesion. Conversely, the low level of β-catenin in differentiated articular chondrocytes was increased by post-translational stabilization during phenotypic loss caused by a serial monolayer culture or exposure to retinoic acid or interleukin-1β. Ectopic expression of β-catenin or inhibition of β-catenin degradation with LiCl or proteasome inhibitor caused de-differentiation of chondrocytes. Transcriptional activation of β -catenin by its nuclear translocation was sufficient to cause phenotypic loss of differentiated chondrocytes. Expression pattern of Jun, a known target gene of β-catenin, is essentially the same as that of β-catenin both in vivo and in vitro suggesting that Jun and possibly activator protein 1 is involved in the β-catenin regulation of the chondrocyte phenotype.
Accumulation of Recombinant SARS-CoV Spike Protein in Plant Cytosol and Chloroplasts Indicate Potential for Development of Plant-Derived Oral Vaccines

Plants are promising candidates as bioreactors for the production of oral recombinant proteins in the biopharmaceutical industry. As an initial step toward provision of an oral vaccine against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), we have expressed a partial spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV in the cytosol of nuclear-transformed plants and in the chloroplasts of plastid-transformed plants. In the construction of both nuclear and plastid transformation vectors, a 2-kilobase nucleotide sequence encoding amino acids 1–658 of the SARS-CoV spike protein (S1) was modified with nucleotide changes, but not amino acid changes, to optimize codon usage for expression in plants. To investigate the subcellular localization of S1 during transient expression in tobacco leaves, a translational fusion consisting of S1 and the green fluorescent protein (GFP) was generated. Following agroinfiltration of tobacco leaves, analysis by laser confocal scanning microscopy revealed that the S1:GFP fusion protein was localized to the cytosol. In stable transgenic tobacco plants and lettuce plants generated by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, tobacco and lettuce leaves were observed to express the S1 at high levels from the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus 35S promoter with Northern blot analysis. When the S1 was expressed in transplastomic tobacco, S1 messenger RNA and its corresponding protein were detected on Northern and Western blot analyses, respectively. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of producing S1 in nuclear- and chloroplast-transformed plants, indicating its potential in subsequent development of a plant-derived and safe oral recombinant subunit vaccine against the SARS-CoV in edible plants.
Reader Be Cautious: A Review of "Bias in Mental Testing"

This is an extremely difficult book to review-and to read. Let us count some reasons why. First, there is the book's size: 745 pages of text (and these pages are not small, 9 x 6 inches), including 29 pages of references and six pages each of subject and name indexes. Second, there is the diversity of the book: an enormous variety of quite different topics is discussed. Part of the book is a textbook on psychometrics, with descriptions of tests, lessons on the theory and mathematics of normal curves, an introduction to test construction, a section on factor analysis, discussion of the "causes of correlation," and extended pedagogical treatments of the theory and mathematics of true and error scores. But the book also deals with ethics, ideas about social justice and fairness, opinions about educational practices, discussion of personnel selection and placement, and conjecture about societal values and beliefs. Then, of course, there are chapters concerned with definitions and criteria of test bias and with evidence pertaining to various possible concepts of bias. Going through section after section, chapter after chapter of this book, one forms the impression that Jensen has brought together just about every cherished thought he has ever had on anything whatsoever to do with bias and mental testing and has let it all hang out in this, his
Differential Head Related Transfer Function as a new approach to virtual sound source positioning

This paper focuses on a new approach to virtual sound source positioning. The classical method, when two Head Related Transfer Functions are used for processing the stereo signal, is substituted by the approach of affecting only one ear channel signal. The proposed method claims only the difference in spectral features in both channels is essential for ability of sound source perception. This fact allows to reduce the usual required positioning data and also computing operations to only a half. In this article, the process of proposed method is described and compared to the usual method on an example of harmonic signals.
Correlates of diarrhoea among children below the age of 5 years in Sudan.

BACKGROUND The Millennium Development Goals recognise child health and survival as an important socio-development issue. OBJECTIVES To determine the correlates of diarrhoea among children aged below 5 years in north Sudan. METHODS We conducted secondary data analysis of the Sudan Multiple Cluster Indicators Survey II. RESULTS Altogether, 23,295 children were included in the survey. Half (50.0%) of the children were males, and 22.5% of them were of age less than one year. Boys were 3% (p=0.044) more likely to have diarrhoea compared to girls. Compared with the oldest age group (48-59 months), children less than 6 months of age and those aged 36-47 months had 25% and 18% lower prevalence of diarrhoea, respectively, while children aged 6-24 months and those aged 24-35 months had 1.5 fold and 1.17 fold higher prevalence of diarrhoea. Children in urban areas were 6% more likely to have diarrhoea. Children from households with 1 or 2 people per room were 8% less likely to have diarrhoea compared to children from households with more than 3 people per room. CONCLUSIONS Diarrhoea was associated with child's age, gender, and social status. Our findings provide a useful baseline for interventions and comparisons with future studies.
The influence of social motivations on performance and trust in semi-virtual teams

This empirical study investigates the use of McClelland's social motives of power, achievement, and affiliation to form teams that work in a semi-virtual environment. The study seeks to determine if such teams exhibit trust and perform successfully while working in an online environment. Although many studies of social motives in face-to-face working situations exist, most are anecdotal. None has explored social motives in semi-virtual teams. The results of this exploratory study are of interest because to date there is no study that employs social motives to structure teams of students that work online. Sixty undergraduate students in two different courses, chemistry and English, used a web-based learning tool to collaborate on a team project in an online environment. Each team had three members. The Personal Values Questionnaire measures social motive strength and was used to guide the construction of the teams. Each team had one power strength individual and two other members both with strength in either the affiliation or the achievement motive. Measurements for trust, performance, and social motive satisfaction were taken at the completion of the project. The English and chemistry courses provided two separate sets of teams to study. Separate analysis of the two data sets determined whether social motive strength, social motive satisfaction and team construction by social motive strength showed significant correlation with trust and performance. The analysis showed that the formation of these semi-virtual teams by social motives influenced trust and team performance for the chemistry data set, but further research is needed to verify and expand these results. No significant results were found for the English data set.
Use of a lentiviral flap vector for induction of CTL immunity against melanoma. Perspectives for immunotherapy

A central triple‐stranded DNA structure created during HIV‐1 reverse transcription, the central flap, acts as a cis‐active nuclear import determinant of the HIV‐1 DNA genome. Insertion of the sequences responsible for formation of the central DNA flap into an HIV‐1‐derived vector strongly enhances its transduction efficiency.
Joint Multiuser Downlink Beamforming and Admission Control: A Semidefinite Relaxation Approach

Multiuser downlink beamforming under quality of service (QoS) constraints has attracted considerable interest in recent years, because it is particularly appealing from a network operator's perspective (e.g., UMTS, 802.16e). When there are many co-channel users and/or the service constraints are stringent, the problem becomes infeasible and some form of admission control is necessary. We advocate a cross-layer approach to joint multiuser transmit beamforming and admission control, aiming to maximize the number of users that can be served at their desired QoS. The core problem is NP-hard, yet amenable to convex approximation tools. We propose a computationally efficient semidefinite relaxation algorithm which works remarkably well in a range of experiments, using both simulated and measured channel data.
CETP does not affect triglyceride production or clearance in APOE*3-Leiden mice

The cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) facilitates the bidirectional transfer of cholesteryl esters and triglycerides (TG) between HDL and (V)LDL. By shifting cholesterol in plasma from HDL to (V)LDL in exchange for VLDL-TG, CETP aggravates atherosclerosis in hyperlipidemic APOE*3-Leiden (E3L) mice. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of CETP in TG metabolism and high-fat diet-induced obesity by using E3L mice with and without the expression of the human CETP gene. On chow, plasma lipid levels were comparable between both male and female E3L and E3L.CETP mice. Further mechanistic studies were performed using male mice. CETP expression increased the level of TG in HDL. CETP did not affect the postprandial plasma TG response or the hepatic VLDL-TG and VLDL-apolipoprotein B production rate. Moreover, CETP did not affect the plasma TG clearance rate or organ-specific TG uptake after infusion of VLDL-like emulsion particles. In line with the absence of an effect of CETP on tissue-specific TG uptake, CETP also did not affect weight gain in response to a high-fat diet. In conclusion, the CETP-induced increase of TG in the HDL fraction of E3L mice is not associated with changes in the production of TG or with tissue-specific clearance of TG from the plasma.
Assessment the Efficiency of the Constructed Minigenome of Rabies Virus using PV Strain as Helper Virus.

INTRODUCTION Rabies is an acute viral disease that causes encephalomyelitis in mammals and human. The only way to prevent this disease is through vaccination before or after exposure. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of the Pasteur virus (PV) minigenome, using PV strain. MATERIALS AND METHODS Enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein (EGFP) sequence was placed between the designed necessary elements (Hammerhead, HDV ribozyme, 3' Leader, and 5' Trailer sequences), which resemble the rabies virus PV strain (PV2061) genome and anti-genome. These constructs were placed between T7 polymerase promoter and T7 polymerase terminator sequences. The accuracy of the minigenome was confirmed by the expression of EGFP using the helper virus in T7-BHK cell line. RESULTS The viral necessary elements of positive and negative sense strands were evaluated for the ability of EGFP expression in the presence of the helper virus. While the positive strand showed background results, no EGFP background was observed in the negative strand application. CONCLUSION Establishment of minigenome system does not require advanced biosafety levels. Furthermore, using minigenome system eliminates many potential confounding factors that may be present in coding regions of the genome. Use of the minigenome system is easier and more feasible than the full genome rescue of the virus. This study successfully shows the efficiency of the constructed rabies virus minigenome in expression of inserted gene.
Curved Voronoi Diagrams Consisting of Influence Areas with Differentiable Boundaries

In this paper, we incorporate the concept of differentiability into Voronoi diagrams. We consider the influence area diagrams consisting of areas with differentiable boundaries. The diagram is called a curved Voronoi diagram. Any level of differentiability can be used in the definition of the curved Voronoi diagram depending on its applications. One of the applications is path planning for car-like robots in an area with obstacles. Carlike robots can easily drive along a path consisting of clothoid curve segments, circular arcs, and line segments. Therefore, we discuss a method for constructing a clothoid curve, circle, and line (CCL) diagram.