Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using artificial landmarks to reduce the ambiguity in the environment of a mobile robot

Robust and reliable localization is a fundamental prerequisite for many applications of mobile robots. Although there exist many solutions to the localization problem, structurally symmetrical or featureless environments can prevent different locations from being distinguishable given the data obtained with the robot's sensors. Such ambiguities typically make localization approaches more likely to fail. In this paper, we investigate how artificial landmarks can be utilized to reduce the ambiguity in the environment. We present a practical approach to compute a configuration of indistinguishable landmarks that decreases the overall ambiguity and thus increases the robustness of the localization process. We evaluate our approach in different environments based on real data and in simulation. Our results demonstrate that our approach improves the localization performance of the robot and outperforms other landmark selection approaches.
Habitat Associations of the Endangered Gold-Spotted Pond Frog (Rana chosenica)

We used field surveys and statistical models to investigate habitat associations of the endangered gold-spotted pond frog (Rana chosenica). The characteristics of its habitat are of great importance for effective conservation for this declining species in western South Korea. We evaluated a priori models that incorporated biotic and abiotic variables at the pond and landscape scales. The best-ranked model predicts that gold-spotted pond frogs will be more abundant at sites with fewer introduced American bullfrogs (Rana [= Lithobates] catesbeianus) and greater coverage of shallow, vegetated water. Our study leads us to conclude that limiting the spread and abundance of bullfrogs has the potential to aid conservation of the gold-spotted pond frog in our region.
Interactive classroom mLearning and the experiential transactions between students and lecturer

This paper seeks to address a major deficit in understandings of mobile learning, that is, its lack of a solid theoretical foundation. An overview of existing theoretical concepts of mobile learning is presented, followed by an analysis of interactive classroom systems and the learning that they provide. The implementation of a specific interactive system mInteract in the lectures of a large accounting subject is described. mInteract is a Webbased system using no-to-low cost data-packet technology and provides for interactions from students’ own Internet-enabled mobile devices. The paper examines, by means of reflections from the lecturer and students, the learning which took place during the implementation. The analysis demonstrates that interactive mobile learning can be interpreted using experiential learning theory, and that both students and lecturers engage in experiential learning. Furthermore, they enter into transactions of knowledge which are facilitated by the mobile learning system.
Non-ablative processing of biofibers by femtosecond IR laser

Controllable, non-ablative photo-processing of collagen, elastic, muscle and cotton fibers was achieved by femtosecond Ti:Sa laser. Fibers were cut, bended and welded by the infrared laser and simultaneously imaged using second harmonic generation and two-photon auotoflourescence microscopy.
Matching Triangles and Basing Hardness on an Extremely Popular Conjecture

Due to the lack of unconditional polynomial lower bounds, it is now in fashion to prove conditional lower bounds in order to advance our understanding of the class P. The vast majority of these lower bounds are based on one of three famous hypotheses: the 3-SUM conjecture, the APSP conjecture, and the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis. Only circumstantial evidence is known in support of these hypotheses, and no formal relationship between them is known. In hopes of obtaining "less conditional" and therefore more reliable lower bounds, we consider the conjecture that at least one of the above three hypotheses is true. We design novel reductions from 3-SUM, APSP, and CNF-SAT, and derive interesting consequences of this very plausible conjecture, including: Tight n3-o(1) lower bounds for purely-combinatorial problems about the triangles in unweighted graphs. New n1-o(1) lower bounds for the amortized update and query times of dynamic algorithms for single-source reachability, strongly connected components, and Max-Flow. New n1.5-o(1) lower bound for computing a set of n st-maximum-flow values in a directed graph with n nodes and ~O(n) edges. There is a hierarchy of natural graph problems on n nodes with complexity nc for c ∈ (2,3). Only slightly non-trivial consequences of this conjecture were known prior to our work. Along the way we also obtain new conditional lower bounds for the Single-Source-Max-Flow problem.
Bone Marrow-Derived Cell Accumulation in the Spinal Cord Is Independent of Peripheral Mobilization in a Mouse Model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Bone marrow-derived cells (BMDCs) are capable of migrating across the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and accumulating in the central nervous system (CNS) when transplanted into recipients conditioned with whole-body irradiation or chemotherapy. We used the chemotherapeutic agents busulfan and treosulfan to condition recipient mice for transplantation with bone marrow (BM) cells isolated from donor mice ubiquitously expressing green fluorescent protein. We attempted to increase the accumulation of BMDCs in the CNS by mobilization of BMDCs using either, or both, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF) or plerixafor (AMD3100). We also used several concentrations of busulfan. We hypothesized that higher concentrations of busulfan and BMDC mobilization would increase numbers of GFP+ cells in the CNS. The doses of busulfan employed (60–125 mg/kg) all resulted in high levels of sustained chimerism (>85% 1 year post-transplant) in both the blood and BM of wild-type (WT) mice and an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) mouse model. Moreover, cells accumulated within the CNS in a dose-, time-, and disease-dependent manner. Conditioning with the hydrophilic busulfan analog treosulfan, which is unable to cross the BBB efficiently, also resulted in a high degree of BM chimerism. However, few GFP+ BMDCs were found within the CNS of WT or ALS mice of treosulfan-conditioned mice. Mobilization of BMDCs into the circulation using GCSF and/or AMD3100 did not lead to increased accumulation of GFP+ BMDCs within the CNS of WT or ALS mice. Weekly analysis of BMDC accumulation revealed that BMDCs accumulated more rapidly and to a greater extent in the CNS of ALS mice conditioned with a high dose (125 mg/kg) of busulfan compared to a lower dose (80 mg/kg). The number of GFP+ BMDCs in the CNS labeling with the proliferation marker Ki67 increased in parallel with BMDC accumulation within the CNS. Our results indicate that establishment of high levels of blood and BM chimerism alone is not sufficient to induce BMDC accumulation within the CNS and that CNS conditioning is a crucial requirement for BMDC accumulation to occur. Moreover, it appears that proliferation of BMDCs that infiltrate the CNS is partly responsible for cell accumulation in busulfan-conditioned ALS mice.
Recognizing Textual Parallelisms with Edit Distance and Similarity Degree

Detection of discourse structure is crucial in many text-based applications. This paper presents an original framework for describing textual parallelism which allows us to generalize various discourse phenomena and to propose a unique method to recognize them. With this prospect, we discuss several methods in order to identify the most appropriate one for the problem, and evaluate them based on a manually annotated corpus.
Effects of addition of Aspergillus oryzae culture and 2-hydroxyl-4-(methylthio) butanoic acid on milk performance and rumen fermentation of dairy cows.

To investigate effects of Aspergillus oryzae culture (AOC) and 2-hydroxy-4-(methylthio) butanoic acid (HMB) on milk performance and rumen fermentation of dairy cows. Sixty-four multiparous Chinese Holstein cows were randomly allocated into four experimental diets: (i) Control diet; (ii) AOC diet: 5 g AOC/day per head; (iii) HMB diet: 25 g HMB/day; and (iv) AH diet: 5 g AOC plus 25 g HMB/day. Added HMB tended to increase the yield of milk protein (P = 0.06) and 3.5% fat-corrected milk (P = 0.08) and milk fat content (P = 0.09). Milk fat yield (P = 0.03) and the contents of milk protein (P = 0.05) were increased by adding HMB. The cows fed on AOC diet had a tendency for higher body weight (BW) gain (P = 0.08). Addition of AOC, HMB and AH increased content of microbial protein (MCP) and total volatile fatty acids (VFA) (P < 0.01) in rumen fluid. Populations of rumen fungi, Fibrobacter succinogenes and Ruminococcus flavefaciens relative to total bacterial 16S rDNA (P ≤ 0.03) and activity of carboxymethylcellulase (CMCase) (P < 0.01) were increased with added AOC or HMB. It is inferred that added AOC or HMB can increase the contents of MCP and total VFA potentially by stimulating rumen microbe populations and CMCase activity.
Cooperative multi-radio localization in heterogeneous wireless networks

Recent advances in mobile devices and ubiquity of wireless infrastructures create the opportunity to utilize heterogeneous wireless networks (HWNs) for localization. To efficiently exploit the spatial correlation embedded in the measurements from HWNs, we proposed two algorithms via a cooperative approach, called Direct Multi-Radio Fusion and Cooperative Eigen- Radio Positioning. The former discovers the spatial correlation after the information of measurements is reorganized to minimize the redundancy. The latter takes a further step to incorporate the spatial discrimination to estimate the location. We have implemented our algorithms for different wireless technologies involving the cellular GSM, DVB, FM and WLAN in realistic outdoor/indoor environments. The results show that the proposed algorithm reduces 44.19-48.88% of the mean error, as compared to the conventional approaches.
Activity-Centric Architecture of Scientific Knowledge Extraction , Integration and Exploitation for R & D Trends Analyzing

The importance of utilizing vivid scientific knowledge hidden in the technical documents such as papers and patents efficiently cannot be overemphasized for R&D trend analysis, which has led to many attempts to automatic knowledge extraction models and processes based on text mining. However, it is still nontrivial to extract and exploit the knowledge from the technical information mainly due to the absence of systematically established and detailed architectures and processes apart from the inherent performance of textual analytics. In this paper, we propose an activity-centric architecture that has modules and activities for the extraction and exploitation of the scientific knowledge. The multi-layered architecture embraces various functions ranging from hardware support, repository management and core modules for knowledge extraction to its various applications. Based on the generic structure proposed in this paper, we can establish and develop many instantiated system architectures optimized for particular domains or requirements.
Achieving near-optimal traffic engineering solutions for current OSPF/IS-IS networks

Traffic engineering is aimed at distributing traffic so as to "optimize" a given performance criterion. The ability to carry out such an optimal distribution depends on both the routing protocol and the forwarding mechanisms in use in the network. In IP networks running the OSPF or IS-IS protocols, routing is over shortest paths, and forwarding mechanisms are constrained to distributing traffic uniformly over equal cost shortest paths. These constraints often make achieving an optimal distribution of traffic impossible. In this paper, we propose and evaluate an approach, based on manipulating the set of next hops for routing prefixes, that is capable of realizing near optimal traffic distribution without any change to existing routing protocols and forwarding mechanisms. In addition, we explore the tradeoff that exists between performance and the overhead associated with the additional configuration steps that our solution requires. The paper's contributions are in formulating and evaluating an approach to traffic engineering for existing IP networks that achieves performance levels comparable to that offered when deploying other forwarding technologies such as MPLS.
Changes in prostate gene expression in men undergoing an intensive nutrition and lifestyle intervention

Epidemiological and prospective studies indicate that comprehensive lifestyle changes may modify the progression of prostate cancer. However, the molecular mechanisms by which improvements in diet and lifestyle might affect the prostate microenvironment are poorly understood. We conducted a pilot study to examine changes in prostate gene expression in a unique population of men with low-risk prostate cancer who declined immediate surgery, hormonal therapy, or radiation and participated in an intensive nutrition and lifestyle intervention while undergoing careful surveillance for tumor progression. Consistent with previous studies, significant improvements in weight, abdominal obesity, blood pressure, and lipid profile were observed (all P < 0.05), and surveillance of low-risk patients was safe. Gene expression profiles were obtained from 30 participants, pairing RNA samples from control prostate needle biopsy taken before intervention to RNA from the same patient's 3-month postintervention biopsy. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to validate array observations for selected transcripts. Two-class paired analysis of global gene expression using significance analysis of microarrays detected 48 up-regulated and 453 down-regulated transcripts after the intervention. Pathway analysis identified significant modulation of biological processes that have critical roles in tumorigenesis, including protein metabolism and modification, intracellular protein traffic, and protein phosphorylation (all P < 0.05). Intensive nutrition and lifestyle changes may modulate gene expression in the prostate. Understanding the prostate molecular response to comprehensive lifestyle changes may strengthen efforts to develop effective prevention and treatment. Larger clinical trials are warranted to confirm the results of this pilot study.
Constituent-based Accent Prediction

Near-perfect automatic accent assignment is attainable for citation-style speech, but better computational models are needed to predict accent in extended, spontaneous discourses. This paper presents an empirically motivated theory of the discourse focusing nature of accent in spontaneous speech. Hypotheses based on this theory lead to a new approach to accent prediction, in which patterns of deviation from citation form accentuation, defined at the constituent or noun phrase level, are automatically learned from an annotated corpus. Machine learning experiments on 1031 noun phrases from eighteen spontaneous direction-giving monologues show that accent assignment can be significantly improved by up to 4%-6% relative to a hypothetical baseline system that would produce only citation-form accentuation, giving error rate reductions of 11%-25%.
Cell proliferation and apoptosis in normal liver and preneoplastic foci.

The growth rate of tissues including tumors is determined by the difference between cell replication and cell death. Among different types of cell death, apoptosis, a form of programmed cell death, is of particular importance. Nongenotoxic carcinogens exert their carcinogenic effects not only via stimulation of cell replication but also by modulating the incidence of apoptosis. This can be seen at different stages of carcinogenesis: a) After initiation in the liver, many initiated cells may undergo apoptosis and never develop into preneoplastic foci, as suggested by both biological and mathematical studies. Thus, apoptosis appears to determine the efficiency of initiation. b) In the promotion stage, early preneoplastic hepatic foci originate either from treatment with a genotoxic carcinogen or spontaneously exhibit much higher rates of cell replication than normal cells, but nevertheless show little preferential growth. This is due to enhanced rates of apoptosis. Some tumor promoters were found to inhibit apoptosis and thereby accelerate foci growth and carcinogenesis. c) In neoplastic nodules and tumors, apoptosis has been shown to be an important growth determinant and to be regulated by growth regulatory hormones, which thereby may decrease or accelerate tumor growth. Studies on the regulation of apoptosis revealed that in the liver, transforming growth factor TGF-beta 1 is involved in the initiation of apoptosis. This was based on three lines of evidence: TGF-beta 1 induced apoptosis in isolated hepatocytes, b) in vivo hepatocytes undergoing apoptosis showed positive immunostaining with antibodies against a precursor of TGF-beta 1. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The Correlation between the Ability to Read and Manually Reproduce a 3D Image: Some Implications for 3D Information Visualisation

Most of us can recognize common 3D objects depicted in drawings, photographs and computer graphics. But, few of us are able to manually reproduce them in a convincing manner. This paper discusses a psychology experiment that investigates the variability in individual drawing ability and the ability to read 3D images. Currently, Shepard and Metzler’s Mental Rotation Test is the most popular test for spatial ability. This paper discusses the need to further investigate the correlation of 3D drawing ability and recognition and its potential effect on the legibility of the 3D information visualization application. This paper reports ongoing research in this field.
Modeling and Animating Three Dimensional Detailed Facial Expressions

Two categories of methods for generating detailed animated facial expressions are presented. The first category is to apply pattern functions to the surface of a facial model. The pattern functions allow a user to directly manipulate them and see immediate results, and allow expressive features to be applied to any existing animation or model. The location and style of an expressive feature can be specified, thus allowing the detailed facial expressions to be modeled as desired. The technique can also be applied to a variety of CG human body skins and animal faces. The second category is to create tears, which combined with facial models can generate detailed, animated, emotional expressions. The category contains two unique methods for generating realistic, animated tears. One method is for generating teardrops, which continually change shapes while dripping down the face. The other is for generating shedding tears, which seamlessly connect with the skin as they flow along the surface of the face. The method provides real-time, vivid simulation of tears rolling down the face. These methods both broaden CG and increase the realism of facial expressions. The methods can also be applied to CG human body skins and other surfaces to simulate flowing water.
ONENET: Joint domain, intent, slot prediction for spoken language understanding

In practice, most spoken language understanding systems process user input in a pipelined manner; first domain is predicted, then intent and semantic slots are inferred according to the semantic frames of the predicted domain. The pipeline approach, however, has some disadvantages: error propagation and lack of information sharing. To address these issues, we present a unified neural network that jointly performs domain, intent, and slot predictions. Our approach adopts a principled architecture for multitask learning to fold in the state-of-the-art models for each task. With a few more ingredients, e.g. orthography-sensitive input encoding and curriculum training, our model delivered significant improvements in all three tasks across all domains over strong baselines, including one using oracle prediction for domain detection, on real user data of a commercial personal assistant.
Niacin Promotes Cardiac Healing after Myocardial Infarction through Activation of the Myeloid Prostaglandin D2 Receptor Subtype 1

Niacin is a well established drug used to lower cholesterol and prevent cardiovascular disease events. However, niacin also causes cutaneous flushing side effects due to release of the proresolution mediator prostaglandin D2 (PGD2). Recent randomized clinical trials have demonstrated that addition of niacin with laropiprant [a PGD2 receptor subtype 1 (DP1) blocker] to statin-based therapies does not significantly decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease events, but increases the risk of serious adverse events. Here, we tested whether, and how, niacin beneficial effects on myocardial ischemia require the activation of the PGD2/DP1 axis. Myocardial infarction (MI) was reproduced by ligation of the left anterior descending branch of the coronary artery in mice. We found that niacin increased PGD2 release in macrophages and shifted macrophages to M2 polarization both in vitro and in vivo by activation of DP1 and accelerated inflammation resolution in zymosan-induced peritonitis in mice. Moreover, niacin treatment facilitated wound healing and improved cardiac function after MI through DP1-mediated M2 bias and timely resolution of inflammation in infarcted hearts. In addition, we found that niacin intake also stimulated M2 polarization of peripheral monocytes in humans. Collectively, niacin promoted cardiac functional recovery after ischemic myocardial infarction through DP1-mediated M2 polarization and timely resolution of inflammation in hearts. These results indicated that DP1 inhibition may attenuate the cardiovascular benefits of niacin.
The hydration of C3S and ordinary Portland cement with relatively large additions of microsilica

The microstructure of pastes of ] part of C3S blended with 1·3 parts of precipitated silica, and 1 part of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) blended with 1·4 parts of silica fume, hydrated for two months at 25°C and three months at 40°C respectively, have been studied by analytical transmission electron microscopy and solid state NMR. The hardened pastes were found to consist, solely in the case of C3S/silica and principally in the case of OPC/silica fume, of silica particles embedded in CSH gel with a Ca/Si ratio significantly less than unity. The gel contained silicate units in chains of approximately 8·5 units in average length. Similar pastes prepared with alkali addition differed little in microstructure, but the OPC/silica fume paste with alkali addition contained isolated regions of low calcium and high alkali content with a distinctive morphology.