Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamical Motor Control Learned with Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient

Conventional models of motor control exploit the spatial representation of the controlled system to generate control commands. Typically, the control command is gained with the feedback state of a specific instant in time, which behaves like an optimal regulator or spatial filter to the feedback state. Yet, recent neuroscience studies found that the motor network may constitute an autonomous dynamical system and the temporal patterns of the control command can be contained in the dynamics of the motor network, that is, the dynamical system hypothesis (DSH). Inspired by these findings, here we propose a computational model that incorporates this neural mechanism, in which the control command could be unfolded from a dynamical controller whose initial state is specified with the task parameters. The model is trained in a trial-and-error manner in the framework of deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG). The experimental results show that the dynamical controller successfully learns the control policy for arm reaching movements, while the analysis of the internal activities of the dynamical controller provides the computational evidence to the DSH of the neural coding in motor cortices.
Quantitative measurement of respiratory split in the second heart sound

The second heart sound (S2) consists of aortic and pulmonary components. Physiological findings disclose that the split between the two components is modulated by respiration. It is assumed that the waveforms of the aortic and pulmonary components remain constant in adjective cardiac cycles. Then, the S2s are aligned with respect to the aortic component in time domain. So, the average of the aligned S2s produces the aortic component, and the pulmonary component tends to disappear due to the average operation. The average is taken as the template of the aortic component. The pulmonary component of a cardiac cycle is separated by subtracting the template from the S2 of this cycle. The timing of a component is defined as the weighted energy peak locations. Therefore, the split between the two components is measured by the timing difference. Data collected from 12 healthy human subjects are used to evaluate the method. The experiment results show that the minimum split occurs at the end of expiration and its value is about 20 ms. Meanwhile, the maximum split is about 50 ms at the end of inspiration. Both the trend of split varying with respect to respiratory phase and the numerical range of split varying are comparable to the previous results. The timing difference measures successfully the split modulated by respiration. This method has potential applications in monitoring hemodynamic response to respiration.
A Full-Speed Sensorless Control Algorithm for Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Using Sliding-Mode Observer and HF Signal Injection

A full-speed Sensorless control algorithm for interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM) is introduced in this paper. Pulsating high frequency (HF) injection is used in the low speed region and sliding-mode observer (SMO) is used in the high speed region. In the transition region, a new transition scheme combining pulsating HF injection and SMO is proposed. The transition region is divided into speed transition region and angle transition region. The speed transition region is set as half of the angle transition region. The system instability caused by the transition point is avoided when transition from the high speed region to the transition region. Pulsating high frequency injection and sliding-mode observer have their own phase-locked loop (PLL) parameters which can be easily regulated. The advantages of both methods can be preserved. Simulations are carried out and the results prove the effectiveness of the method.
1 A Roadmap for UEML

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. A Roadmap for UEML Andreas L. Opdahl, Giuseppe Berio
Determination of Norfloxacin in Human Urine Samples using Spectrofluorimetry Coupled with PARAFAC

Norfloxacin (NOR) is widely used in human and animal therapy, and its main route of excretion is urine. Several methods were employed to determine NOR in tablets or biological samples. Generally, in biological matrices it is performed a dilution and/or spiking of the sample. In the literature, there are some references that focus specifically the modeling using Parallel Factor Analysis (PARAFAC). Based on this, it was developed a methodology to identify and quantify NOR in urine by spectrofluorimetry coupled with PARAFAC. All urine samples were obtained from eight healthy individuals and before spiking these samples with NOR, they were diluted in two different levels (500 and 1000 times). Excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectra were obtained in the range from 250 – 320 nm (step of 2 nm) for excitation and 330 – 500 nm (step of 1 nm) for emission. Limit of detection (LOD) was 11.4 μg. L-1 and limit of quantification (LOQ) was 34.7 μg. L-1 (urine was diluted 500 times) and LOD was 8.4 μg. L-1 and the LOQ was 25.6 μg. L-1 (urine was diluted 1000 times). The analytical curves provided thefollowing coefficients of correlation equal to r = 0.9926 and r = 0.9947 for urine diluted 500 times and urine diluted 1000 times, respectively.
Incorporating real experience into the development of a classroom –based simulation

This paper reports on the design of an on-line simulation that enhanced preservice teacher practicum experience in the important area of literacy teaching. Research with more than 200 users of the simulation showed that it developed pre-service teacher understanding of complex classroom situations associated with the teaching of literacy by giving them the opportunity to slow down or accelerate classroom events, revisit and reflect on critical decision points and replay events in the light of new understandings. This gave preservice teachers time to think critically about complex teaching situations which relied on the teacher’s ability to tune into children’s experiences, engage with them in dialogue and negotiation as well as utilise a range of indirect instructions such as questioning, modelling and prompting. Preservice teachers reported that their experience with the simulation enabled them to more fully appreciate the impact of subtle changes that experienced teachers made during lessons.
Influence of Muscle Mass and Outdoor Environmental Factors on Appetite and Satiety Feeling in Young Japanese Women

Research on the influence of relationships among satiety, muscle mass, and outdoor environmental factors is sparse. In this work the relationships among satiety feeling, body composition, and outdoor environmental factors on eating in healthy young Japanese women are investigated. Fifty three (53) women were examined over an approximately 2-year period. All participants ate the same lunch; feelings of satiety and body composition were measured before and immediately after lunch. Satiety was assessed using a visual analog scale. Outdoor environmental factors were recorded at the time of measurement. Results showed that satiety before lunch decreased with increased muscle mass and decreased humidity (p < 0.05). The Δ satiety increased on eating with increased outdoor temperature (p < 0.05). The Δ satiety with high outdoor temperature was significantly greater than with low outdoor temperature (p = 0.005). Decreased muscle mass more influenced Δ satiety with respect to outdoor temperature than increased muscle mass (p = 0.007). The results suggest that increased muscle mass and decreased humidity increase hunger (unlike satiety) before eating. The findings also show that outdoor temperature clearly influences the magnitude of satiety on eating. Increasing muscle mass may be useful for satiety control at various outdoor temperatures in young women.
Base Preferences in Non-Templated Nucleotide Incorporation by MMLV-Derived Reverse Transcriptases

Reverse transcriptases derived from Moloney Murine Leukemia Virus (MMLV) have an intrinsic terminal transferase activity, which causes the addition of a few non-templated nucleotides at the 3´ end of cDNA, with a preference for cytosine. This mechanism can be exploited to make the reverse transcriptase switch template from the RNA molecule to a secondary oligonucleotide during first-strand cDNA synthesis, and thereby to introduce arbitrary barcode or adaptor sequences in the cDNA. Because the mechanism is relatively efficient and occurs in a single reaction, it has recently found use in several protocols for single-cell RNA sequencing. However, the base preference of the terminal transferase activity is not known in detail, which may lead to inefficiencies in template switching when starting from tiny amounts of mRNA. Here, we used fully degenerate oligos to determine the exact base preference at the template switching site up to a distance of ten nucleotides. We found a strong preference for guanosine at the first non-templated nucleotide, with a greatly reduced bias at progressively more distant positions. Based on this result, and a number of careful optimizations, we report conditions for efficient template switching for cDNA amplification from single cells.
Trastuzumab-Conjugated Liposome-Coated Fluorescent Magnetic Nanoparticles to Target Breast Cancer

Objective To synthesize mesoporous silica-core-shell magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) encapsulated by liposomes (Lipo [MNP@m-SiO2]) in order to enhance their stability, allow them to be used in any buffer solution, and to produce trastuzumab-conjugated (Lipo[MNP@m-SiO2]-Her2Ab) nanoparticles to be utilized in vitro for the targeting of breast cancer. Materials and Methods The physiochemical characteristics of Lipo[MNP@m-SiO2] were assessed in terms of size, morphological features, and in vitro safety. The multimodal imaging properties of the organic dye incorporated into Lipo[MNP@m-SiO2] were assessed with both in vitro fluorescence and MR imaging. The specific targeting ability of trastuzumab (Her2/neu antibody, Herceptin®)-conjugated Lipo[MNP@m-SiO2] for Her2/neu-positive breast cancer cells was also evaluated with fluorescence and MR imaging. Results We obtained uniformly-sized and evenly distributed Lipo[MNP@m-SiO2] that demonstrated biological stability, while not disrupting cell viability. Her2/neu-positive breast cancer cell targeting by trastuzumab-conjugated Lipo[MNP@m-SiO2] was observed by in vitro fluorescence and MR imaging. Conclusion Trastuzumab-conjugated Lipo[MNP@m-SiO2] is a potential treatment tool for targeted drug delivery in Her2/neu-positive breast cancer.
Unexpected binding behaviors of bacterial Argonautes in human cells cast doubts on their use as targetable gene regulators

Prokaryotic Argonaute proteins (pAgos) have been proposed as an alternative to the CRISPR/Cas9 platform for gene editing. Although Argonaute from Natronobacterium gregoryi (NgAgo) was recently shown unable to cleave genomic DNA in mammalian cells, the utility of NgAgo or other pAgos as a targetable DNA-binding platform for epigenetic editing has not been explored. In this report, we evaluated the utility of two prokaryotic Argonautes (NgAgo and TtAgo) as DNA-guided DNA-binding proteins. NgAgo showed no meaningful binding to chromosomal targets, while TtAgo displayed seemingly non-specific binding to chromosomal DNA even in the absence of guide DNA. The observed lack of DNA-guided targeting and unexpected guide-independent genome sampling under the conditions in this study provide evidence that these pAgos might be suitable for neither gene nor epigenome editing in mammalian cells.
Emotion-recognition using smart watch accelerometer data: preliminary findings

This study investigates the use of accelerometer data from a smart watch to infer an individual's emotional state. We present our preliminary findings on a user study with 50 participants. Participants were primed either with audio-visual (movie clips) or audio (classical music) to elicit emotional responses. Participants then walked while wearing a smart watch on one wrist and a heart rate strap on their chest. Our hypothesis is that the accelerometer signal will exhibit different patterns for participants in response to different emotion priming. We divided the accelerometer data using sliding windows, extracted features from each window, and used the features to train supervised machine learning algorithms to infer an individual's emotion from their walking pattern. Our discussion includes a description of the methodology, data collected, and early results.
Molecular detection of trophic links in a complex insect host–parasitoid food web

Previously, host–parasitoid links have been unveiled almost exclusively by time‐intensive rearing, while molecular methods were used only in simple agricultural host–parasitoid systems in the form of species‐specific primers. Here, we present a general method for the molecular detection of these links applied to a complex caterpillar–parasitoid food web from tropical rainforest of Papua New Guinea. We DNA barcoded hosts, parasitoids and their tissue remnants and matched the sequences to our extensive library of local species. We were thus able to match 87% of host sequences and 36% of parasitoid sequences to species and infer subfamily or family in almost all cases. Our analysis affirmed 93 hitherto unknown trophic links between 37 host species from a wide range of Lepidoptera families and 46 parasitoid species from Hymenoptera and Diptera by identifying DNA sequences for both the host and the parasitoid involved in the interaction. Molecular detection proved especially useful in cases where distinguishing host species in caterpillar stage was difficult morphologically, or when the caterpillar died during rearing. We have even detected a case of extreme parasitoid specialization in a pair of Choreutis species that do not differ in caterpillar morphology and ecology. Using the molecular approach outlined here leads to better understanding of parasitoid host specificity, opens new possibilities for rapid surveys of food web structure and allows inference of species associations not already anticipated.
The youth worker as jazz improviser: foregrounding education ‘in the moment’ within the professional development of youth workers

This paper argues for the foregrounding of improvisation and education ‘in the moment’ within youth workers’ professional development. Devised in collaboration with third-year Youth and Community Work students and lecturers at a university in Birmingham, this participatory action research project drew on work of jazz ethnomusicologists and educationalists that details the extensive preparation involved in acquiring the ability to improvise within jazz in order to counter the misconception of youth work as educational practice ‘on the wing’. Through analysis of students’ reflective writing, lecturer feedback, interviews with lecturers and video footage of students leading improvised dialogues with their peers, the study sheds light on the challenges and possibilities involved in the teaching and assessment of improvisation in youth work and suggests that students can be encouraged to actively structure their awareness of improvisation and take responsibility for developing a disposition towards it. The author argues that this is important, not only because such improvised practice ‘works’ instrumentally in terms of engaging young people, many of whom are disengaged from formal education, but because it is also closely aligned ideologically with the value-driven purpose of youth work.
Effect of Polysorbate 20 on Nucleation Rate of Interferon Beta-1b Aggregation

The aggregation of protein is the most prevalent and the most disturbing kind of instability and this challenge exists in almost every stage of the development of protein drug. The presence of insoluble aggregations in protein drugs will make the supply of the product a tough job. This study identifies the inhibition of the folded Interferon beta 1-b’s aggregation with the assistance of some excipients. It uses some thermal stress and mechanical methods to accelerate the aggregation, and also the spectroscopic method to identify the protein aggregation and its growth. Experimental data of the tests show compliance with the autocatalytic model. This model has been used to obtain the Kinetic constants of aggregation in different states and to make comparison with one another in the presence of some excipients. The kinetic constants were obtained by fitting the Autocatalytic model on data. Among these excipients, Polysorbate 20 of 0.01% (w/v) showed the best result in decreasing the aggregation. Using this excipient of 0.01% (w/v) in thermal stress causes dramatic reduction of nucleation constant from 8.3× 10-3 (min-1) to 4.14× 10-6 (min-1), which indicates the reduction of protein aggregation in the solution.
Avalanche Beacon Parks: Skill Development and Team Coordination in a Technological Training Ground

High-risk outdoor recreation allows its enthusiasts to reach unprecedented levels of adrenaline; it also contains risks and requires specific training (in part technological). In particular, its participants must be ready to react efficiently during an emergency or in response to an accident. Technological training grounds can simulate particular contexts and emergency situations as a place for recreationists to train and practice. In this paper, we use the practice of avalanche companion rescue as a case study to explore how technological training grounds support recreationist training. Our results offer insights into how avalanche beacon training parks support skill development and team coordination training. We also present strategies to orient the design of technological training grounds beyond avalanche companion rescue.
HapFACS 1.0: software/API for generating FACS-based facial expressions

In this article, we present HapFACS 1.0, a new software/API for generating static and dynamic three-dimensional facial expressions based on the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). HapFACS provides total control over the FACS Action Units (AUs) activated at all levels of intensity. HapFACS allows generating faces with an individual AU or composition of AUs activated unilaterally or bilaterally with different intensities. The reliable and emotionally valid facial expressions can be generated on infinite number of faces in different ethnicities, genders, and ages using HapFACS to be used in numerous scientific areas including psychology, emotion, FACS learning, clinical, and neuroscience research.
Robust optimization with credibility factor for graph-based SLAM

Graph-based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) refers to formulate SLAM by a graph model whose nodes represent poses of the robot and whose edges represent constraints relating the poses, then solve an error minimization problem to find the configuration of the poses that best fits with the constraints. One problem of state-of-the-art SLAM algorithms is that they rely on all the poses and constraints with the same credibility and do not fully exploit the different confidence levels of different poses and constraints. This paper proposes a novel formulation that involves the credibility factor of the poses and constraints into the graph model. The proposed optimization model that updates the graphical model with switch variables and credibility factors, which removes wrong loop closures and increases the overall accuracy by keeping the poses with higher credibility factor more stable and the poses with lower credibility factor more elastic. The results of several experiments conducted on large scale synthetic and real datasets are provided to demonstrate the credibility and effectiveness of the method.
Frontier Search

How to search the space of programs for a code that solves a given problem? Standard asymptotically optimal Universal Search orders programs by Levin complexity, implement- ing an exponential trade-off between program length and runtime. Depending on the problem, however, sometimes we may have a good reason to greatly favor short programs over fast ones, or vice versa. Frontier Search is a novel framework applicable to a wide class of such trade-offs between program size and runtime, and in many ways more general than previ- ous work. We analyze it in depth and derive exact conditions for its applicability.
Characteristics of patients with coexisting IgA nephropathy and membranous nephropathy

Abstract Background: Coexistence of IgA nephropathy (IgAN) and membranous nephropathy (MN) in the same patient is rare. Few studies have reported the clinical and pathological features of patients with combined IgAN and MN (IgAN–MN). Methods: The clinico-pathological features, levels of galactose-deficient IgA1 (Gd-IgA1) and autoantibodies against M-type transmembrane phospholipase A2 receptor (anti-PLA2R) in sera were compared among IgAN–MN, IgAN, and MN patients. Results: Twenty-six patients with biopsy-proven IgAN–MN were enrolled. The mean age at biopsy was 43.6 ± 15.9 years, and 65.4% were male. Proteinuria and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) levels in patients with IgAN–MN were similar to that of MN patients. Compared with the IgAN patients, IgAN–MN patients showed a higher median proteinuria level (4.3 vs. 1.2 g/day, p < .001), and a higher mean eGFR level (101.8 ± 25.4 vs. 78.6 ± 26.9 mL/min/1.73 m2, p < .001). IgAN–MN patients presented with milder pathological lesions than IgAN patients according to the Oxford Classification. IgAN–MN patients had comparable serum levels of Gd-IgA1 with those of IgAN patients (353.4 ± 95.5 vs. 347.0 ± 109.6 U/mL, p = .801). Percentage of IgAN–MN patients with detectable serum levels of anti-PLA2R was lower than that of MN patients (38.5% vs. 68.6%, p = .011). Conclusions: IgAN–MN patients display similar clinical features to MN patients and milder pathological lesions than IgAN patients. IgAN–MN patients have similar levels of Gd-IgA1 to those of IgAN patients, and a lower proportion of anti-PLA2R than MN patients.