Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adapting to contacts: Energy tanks and task energy for passivity-based dynamic movement primitives

In this paper, we develop a framework to encode demonstrated trajectories as periodic dynamic motion primitives (DMP) for an impedance-controlled robot and their modification to fulfil the task objective, i. e. to adapt based on the force feedback and encoded desired wrench profile via an admittance controller. This behavior by itself can violate stability. Therefore, a passivity analysis for the whole system is presented, and based on input power ports and the demonstrated reference power, a passivity observer (PO) is designed. Subsequently, a DMP phase altering law is introduced according to the passivity criterion in order to adjust the phase based on the passivity criterion. However, since this does not necessarily guarantee passivity, a suitable virtual energy tank is used. Experimental results on a Kuka LWR-4 robot polishing an unknown surface underline the real world applicability the suggested controller.
Secrecy-Enhancing Scheme for Spatial Modulation

In this letter, we propose a new secrecy enhancement scheme for spatial modulation systems by exploiting the knowledge of the legitimate channel state information to rotate the indices of the transmit antennas and the constellation symbols, which are mapped into spatial and constellation bits. A secrecy rate analysis shows that the eavesdropper cannot recover any information carried by spatial and constellation bits. The numerical results on the secrecy rate and the bit error rate verify the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed scheme.
Spontaneous PMN apoptosis in type 2 diabetes and the impact of periodontitis

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that peripheral blood neutrophils (PMN) exhibit delayed spontaneous apoptosis in individuals with diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) and that the delay is exacerbated further among people who coexpress chronic periodontitis (CP). Seventy‐three individuals were enrolled, including those with T2DM (n = 16), CP (n = 15), T2DM + CP (n = 21), and healthy volunteers (n = 21). PMN apoptosis was determined by flow cytometry using TUNEL and Annexin V assays. The activity of caspase‐3, ‐8, and ‐9 was measured by colorimetric assay. PMN surface death receptor quantification was performed by flow cytometry staining with fluorescence‐conjugated anti‐CD120a (TNFR1) and anti‐CD95 [Fas receptor (FasR)] antibody. Analysis of inflammatory markers in serum samples was performed using multiplexed sandwich immunoassays. In healthy volunteers and individuals with T2DM, CP, and T2DM + CP, spontaneous PMN apoptosis observed at 12 h reached 85.3 ± 3.1, 67.3 ± 3.9, 62.9 ± 3.5 and 62.5 ± 5.4%, respectively (P < 0.05). Caspase‐3 activity was significantly reduced in individuals with T2DM and T2DM + CP (P < 0.05) when compared with healthy volunteers. Caspase‐8 activity was also significantly decreased in CP and T2DM + CP (P < 0.05), associated with reduced cell‐surface FasR, TNFRs, and Fas ligand (FasL) serum levels. Glucose alone was not observed to impact PMN apoptosis; simultaneous incubation with the receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE) agonist S100B induced significant PMN apoptosis (P < 0.05). These data support the premise that the inhibition of PMN apoptosis in individuals with T2DM occurs through an advanced glycation endproducts/RAGE ligand/receptor‐mediated interaction.
A user energy management system (UEMS)-based microgrid economic dispatch model

The economic dispatch of a microgrid is usually modeled as an optimization problem. In much of the literature, controllable loads of users are gathered and regarded as virtual power plants and become a part of the economic dispatch in order to minimize costs and maximize consumption of renewable energy. However, the cost function of different users at different times is difficult to determine because of incomplete information regarding users. To this end, this paper proposes a microgrid economic dispatch approach based on a user energy management system (UEMS). Each UEMS of the users schedules controllable loads based on the received day-ahead price curve to minimize costs greedily. A microgrid control center (MGCC) gathers the load profiles from each UEMS and solves the dynamic optimization power flow (DOPF) problem. The day-ahead price is determined by the marginal cost and acts as a virtual hand to coordinate the MGCC and UEMS. In addition, as an example of a typical controllable load, a schedule model for inverter air conditioner is proposed. A numerical example shows that this approach can minimize overall costs and promote the consumption of renewable energy.
Predictors of Suicidal Behaviors in Canadian Adolescents with No Recent History of Depression

We examined risk factors for suicidal behaviors (i.e., suicidal ideation and suicide attempts) in the absence of depression during adolescence. Using 6,788 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY), we identified participants with “no recent history of depression. ” We then tested the effects of risk factors at age 14–15 on suicidal behaviors at age 16–17. Absence of recent depression history negatively predicted both suicidal ideation and suicide attempt. However, among those with no history of depression, substance use and the presence of a chronic illness both increased the risk of suicidal behaviors. Suicidal behavior in adolescents in the absence of depression history may be explained by factors such as substance use and chronic illness.
HINDI TRANSLATION AND PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION OF THE OSWESTRY DISABILITY INDEX (ODI) VERSION 2.1a

Study Design: Methodological Study, translation Objective: To translate the original English version of Oswestry Disability Index Version-2.1a into Hindi language and to assess its content validity, Internal Consistency and Test-Retest reliability. Summary of Background Data: ODI has been validated, and used as an outcome measure for various Low Back Pain conditions and its Hindi version is not available. Methods: The translation was carried out in accordance with the Linguistic validation of a Patient Reported Outcomes Measure, provided by the Mapi institute. Content validity was evaluated through Qualitative (Wallace & McKenzie) and Quantitative methods (Lawshe). Internal Consistency and Test-retest Reliability was examined on 50 patients. Results: Internal consistency for Hindi ODI version 2.1a was excellent with Cronbach s alpha=0.947. The intraclass correlation coefficient of test–retest reliability was 0.900. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that the Hindi version of the ODI 2.1a is a reliable and valid instrument for the measurement of disability in patients with low back pain.
Domain analysis of formal model checking tools

Finding faults in early stages of software development decreases the cost of testing and increases system reliability. For safety-critical software, it is vital to perform throughly verification procedures. Model-Checking can find many faults in an early stages, and therefore, it represent an important verification approach. In this paper, we use domain engineering to capture important features of model-checking tools. We used FODA method (Feature Oriented Domain Analysis) to describe the common features of important model-checking tools. We expect our results to help software engineers to identify tools that better fit their needs. Our results can also help in improving these tools.
Particulate phases are key in controlling dissolved iron concentrations in the (sub)tropical North Atlantic

The supply and bioavailability of iron (Fe) controls primary productivity and N2 fixation in large parts of the global ocean. An important, yet poorly quantified, source to the ocean is particulate Fe (pFe). Here we present the first combined dataset of particulate, labile‐particulate (L‐pFe), and dissolved Fe (dFe) from the (sub)tropical North Atlantic. We show a strong relationship between L‐pFe and dFe, indicating a dynamic equilibrium between these two phases whereby particles “buffer” dFe and maintain the elevated concentrations observed. Moreover, L‐pFe can increase the overall “available” (L‐pFe + dFe) Fe pool by up to 55%. The lateral shelf flux of this available Fe was similar in magnitude to observed soluble aerosol‐Fe deposition, a comparison that has not been previously considered. These findings demonstrate that L‐pFe is integral to Fe cycling and hence plays a role in regulating carbon cycling, warranting its inclusion in Fe budgets and biogeochemical models.
Modular multilevel converter based hybrid energy storage system

A new configuration for integration of hybrid Energy Storage System (ESS) into a STATCOM is presented in this paper. The configuration offers STATCOM features and has ability to support active power at different time scale. The configuration can be called as E-STATCOM, where ‘E’ stands for Energy Storage. Here, the E-STATCOM is configured around a Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC). The battery is connected at the DC link of MMC through series connected DC-DC converters. On the other hand, supercapacitors are connected in each submodule of MMC. The combination of battery and supercapacitor yields better transient performance, improved battery life-span and compact sizing of ESS. In this work, E-STATCOM is used to address some issues related to grid integration of Wind Energy Generating System (WEGS). Under MPPT operation, the WEGS generates fluctuating power which may affect voltage and frequency stability of the grid. Here, the E-STATCOM absorbs the fluctuation and provides smooth power to the grid, which ensures voltage and frequency stability. The proposed configuration is suitable for high power level, as well as, high voltage level compared to conventional two-level converter based solution. The complete system along with control algorithms are simulated in PSCAD and the results are presented. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed concept.
Providing Informal Care in Terminal Illness

Background: The trend for terminally ill patients to receive much of their end-of-life care at home necessitates the design of services to facilitate this. Care at home also requires that informal care be provided by family members and friends. This study investigated informal carers’ preferences for support services to aid the development of end-of-life health care services. Methods: This cross-sectional study used 2 discrete choice experiments to ascertain the preferences of carers supporting patients with different levels of care need, determined by the assistance needed with personal care and labeled High Care (HC) and Low Care (LC). The sample included 168 informal carers of people receiving palliative care at home from 2 palliative care services in Sydney, Australia. Data were collected in face-to-face interviews; carers chose between 2 hypothetical plans of support services and their current services. Data were analyzed with generalized multinomial logit models that were used to calculate the impact of each attribute on the probability of a carer choosing a service plan. Results: Preferred support included nursing services; the probability of choosing a plan increased significantly if it included nurse home visits and phone advice (P < 0.001). HC carers also wanted doctor home visits, home respite, and help with personal care (P < 0.05), and LC carers wanted help with household tasks, transport, and a case coordinator (P < 0.001). On average, both groups of carers preferred their current services, but this varied with characteristics of the carer and the caregiving situation. Conclusions:The most valued services are those that support carers in their caregiving role; however, supportive care preferences vary with the different circumstances of patients and carers.
Development of a rapid in vitro tissue deadhesion system using the thermoresponsive sol-gel transition of hydroxybutyl chitosan

Abstract In regenerative medicine, it has become increasingly important to collect cultured tissues using non-invasive methods. Enzymatic deadhesion is normally used to collect cells, but this method cannot be used when trying to collect whole tissues in order to avoid damaging cell–cell interactions. In order to resolve this issue, a thermoresponsive culture dish with poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAAm) has been employed. This system can change its hydrophobicity depending on temperature. Thus, tissues can attach above 37 °C and be detached below 20 °C. However, the PNIPAAm system has some issues related to cost and detachment time. In this study, we developed a novel thermoresponsive detachment system using a polysaccharide derivative. We chose hydroxy butyl chitosan (HBC) as the thermoresponsive polymer because of its high biocompatibility and rapid phase transition. We developed a novel method of HBC synthesis in conditions that were milder than previously reported. We used spin-coating to make a thin coating on two kinds of culture dishes with various concentrations of HBC solution. Seeded cells attached to the surface at less than 0.5 mg/ml HBC coating concentration, and they could be successfully detached by simply lowering the temperature of the suspension dishes without enzymatic treatment; the cells took only 5–20 min to detach. To evaluate this system, we measured three metrics related to cell culturing on culture dishes: initial attachment rate, detachment rate and tissue detachment time. The study revealed that tissues could be detached faster on the suspension dishes used in this study than on PNIPAAm grafted dishes when HBC was coated at 0.5 mg/ml. We successfully developed a novel tissue detachment system using HBC. These results suggest that smart polymers may be useful in regenerative medicine.
Immunoglobulin Attenuates Streptokinase-Mediated Virulence inStreptococcus dysgalactiae Subspeciesequisimilis Necrotizing Fasciitis

A clinicalStreptococcus dysgalactiae equisimilis strain secreting high levels of streptokinase promoted severe disease in a patient lacking anti-streptokinase antibodies. Exogenous immunoglobulins efficiently blocked streptokinase-mediated fibrinolysis in vitro and attenuated streptokinase-mediated virulence in a necrotizing fasciitis mouse model.
DalTeam@INLI-FIRE-2017: Native Language Identification using SVM with SGD Training

Native Language Identification (NLI), as a variant of Language Identification task, focuses on determining an author’s native language, based on a writing sample in their non-native language. In recent years, the challenging nature of NLI has drawn much attention from the research community. Its application and importance are relevant in many fields, such as personalization of a new language learning environment, personalized grammar correction, and authorship attribution in forensic linguistics. We participated in the INLI Shared Task 2017 held in conjunction with FIRE 2017 conference. To implement a machine learning method for Native Language Identification, we used Character and Word N-grams with SVM (Support Vector Machines) classifier trained with SGD (Stochastic Gradient Descent) method. We achieved F1 measure of 89.60% (using 10-fold cross validation), using provided social media dataset and 48.80% was reported in the final testing done by INLI workshop organisers.
Global Asymptotic Stability of a PID Control System With Coulomb Friction

For a point mass subject to Coulomb friction in feedback with a PID controller, we consider a model based on a differential inclusion comprising all the possible magnitudes of static friction during the stick phase and having unique solutions. We study the set of all equilibria and we establish its global asymptotic stability using a discontinuous Lyapunov-like function, and a suitable LaSalle's invariance principle. The well-posedness of the proposed model allows to establish useful robustness results, including an ISS property from a suitable input in a perturbed context. Simulation results are also given to illustrate our statements.
Assessment of gene expression levels of proopiomelanocortin (POMC) and melanocortin‐1 receptor (MC1R) in vitiligo

Proopiomelanocortin (POMC) and melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) are regulators of melanogenesis and pigmentation. Our objective was to estimate their levels, searching for a possible role of the melanocortin system in vitiligo. This study included 40 vitiligo patients and 40 controls. Skin biopsies were taken from lesional and non‐lesional skin of patients and from the non‐sun exposed skin of controls to detect the expression of POMC and MC1R using quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction. Both factors were significantly lower in lesional than non‐lesional skin and controls, while they were significantly higher in non‐lesional skin than in controls. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between lesional levels of POMC and MC1R, as well as between non‐lesional levels of POMC and MC1R in the patients. On the other hand, we found a statistically significant negative correlation between the lesional and non‐lesional levels of POMC, as well as between the lesional and non‐lesional levels of MC1R in the patients. As a conclusion, the melanocortin system could play a role in the pathogenesis of vitiligo or could be affected as the end result of the disease.
Quality Improvement in Nursing Homes: Alignment Among Leaders Across the Organizational Chart

Background and Objectives This article describes nursing home (NH) leaders' involvement in quality improvement (QI) decisions, with an emphasis on the concept of alignment in QI decisions across leaders. Research Design and Methods We used a qualitative approach and semistructured interviews to collect data from a convenience sample of 39 NH leaders, including corporate/executive-level leaders and facility-level leaders. Thematic analysis was used to inductively capture key patterns in data. Results Variations in alignment emerged as a major theme to describe the interface and interaction among facility- and corporate/executive-level leaders around QI decision making and implementation of QI decisions. For this study, alignment refers to the extent of shared understanding, beliefs, motivations, and implied or explicit agreement among leaders in regards to: (a) goals, values, priorities, and expectations for quality or QI (and/or applicable resources); and (b) expectations for leaders to carry out QI decisions made by other leaders. Discussion and Implications This study offers new insights into the complexities associated with leadership alignment toward improving NH quality. The findings provide a glimpse into leaders' involvement in QI based on their position on the facility's organizational chart and extend our understanding of the centrality of the concept of alignment in promoting QI. These findings may inform future research on facility- and corporate/executive-level leader interactions and how these interactions impact quality outcomes.
3-D Road Boundary Extraction From Mobile Laser Scanning Data via Supervoxels and Graph Cuts

Effective extraction of road boundaries plays a significant role in intelligent transportation applications, including autonomous driving, vehicle navigation, and mapping. This paper presents a new method to automatically extract 3-D road boundaries from mobile laser scanning (MLS) data. The proposed method includes two main stages: supervoxel generation and 3-D road boundary extraction. Supervoxels are generated by selecting smooth points as seeds and assigning points into facets centered on these seeds using several attributes (e.g., geometric, intensity, and spatial distance). 3-D road boundaries are then extracted using the $\alpha $ -shape algorithm and the graph cuts-based energy minimization algorithm. The proposed method was tested on two data sets acquired by a RIEGL VMX-450 MLS system. Experimental results show that road boundaries can be robustly extracted with an average completeness over 95%, an average correctness over 98%, and an average quality over 94% on two data sets. The effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method over the state-of-the-art methods is demonstrated.
Pediatric Minimum Speech Test Battery

Abstract Background: Assessment of patient outcomes and documentation of treatment efficacy serves as an essential component of (re)habilitative audiology; however, no standardized protocol exists for the assessment of speech perception abilities for children with hearing loss. This presents a significant challenge in tracking performance of children who utilize various hearing technologies for within-subjects assessment, between-subjects assessment, and even across different facilities. Purpose: The adoption and adherence to a standardized assessment protocol could help facilitate continuity of care, assist in clinical decision making, allow clinicians and researchers to define benchmarks for an aggregate clinical population, and in time, aid with patient counseling regarding expectations and predictions regarding longitudinal outcomes. Design: The Pediatric Minimum Speech Test Battery (PMSTB) working group—comprised of clinicians, scientists, and industry representatives—commenced in 2012 and has worked collaboratively to construct the first PMSTB, which is described here. Conclusions: Implementation of the PMSTB in clinical practice and dissemination of associated data are both critical for achieving the next level of success for children with hearing loss and for elevating pediatric hearing health care ensuring evidence-based practice for (re)habilitative audiology.
Are symptoms after a colorectal segmental resection in deep endometriosis really improved? The point of view of women before and after surgery

Abstract Introduction: Bowel endometriosis can cause debilitating symptoms. Surgical colorectal resection is often required for symptomatic relief. Aim of our study was to evaluate quality of life over a one-year follow-up period in patients submitted to a colorectal resection for the treatment of deep endometriosis. Change in intestinal and extra-intestinal symptoms, and reproductive outcome were also evaluated. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted on a cohort of 20 women affected by intestinal endometriosis and submitted to a laparoscopic colorectal resection. The subjects completed a questionnaire about quality of life (SF-36), and they scored in a 100-point rank questionnaire gynecological, urinary and gastrointestinal symptoms, pre-operatively and one- year postoperatively. Results: Significant improvements were observed in all domains of the SF-36 throughout the study period. Dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia and not menstrual pelvic pain showed a significant decrease 1 year after surgery. There was also a decrease in abdominal pain, rectal bleeding and constipation but not of nausea, abdominal pain, defecation pain, tenesmus, diarrhea, mucorrhea. Also some urinary symptoms did not improve. Conclusions: The radical surgical approach has a positive impact on quality of life, although it does not improve all the symptoms complained before surgery. Clear pre-surgical counseling and careful patient selection is suggested.