Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A multi-agent mobile robot system with environment perception and HMI capabilities

A multi-agent robot system can speed up exploration or search and rescue operations in dangerous environments by working as a distributed sensor network. Each robot (e.g. Eddi Robot) equipped with a combined 2D/3D sensor (MS Kinect) and additional sensors needs to efficiently exchange its collected data with the other group members for task planning. For environment perception a 2D/3D panorama is generated from a sequence of images which were obtained while the robot was rotating. Furthermore the 2D/3D sensor data is used for a Human-Machine Interaction based on hand postures and gestures. The hand posture classification is realized by an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) which is processing a feature vector composed of Cosine-Descriptors (COD), Hu-moments and geometric features extracted of the hand shape. The System achieves an overall classification rate of more than 93%. It is used within the hand posture and gesture based human machine interface to control the robot team.
Traumatic cysts of the spleen--the role of cystectomy and splenic preservation: experience with seven consecutive patients.

Nonparasitic secondary cysts (pseudocysts) of the spleen are uncommon and usually result from blunt abdominal trauma. A 3-year experience with 7 consecutive cases of posttraumatic splenic pseudocysts suggests an increased prevalence of this clinical entity. This report describes 7 adult patients (5 men and 2 women) with a mean age of 32 years, all of whom sustained relatively minor trauma within 5 years of admission. Persistent epigastric or left upper quadrant pain led to a CT scan diagnosis of splenic cysts that varied in size from 7 cm to 15 cm. Each patient underwent resection of the cyst-bearing portion of the spleen with preservation of the remaining normal splenic parenchyma. There were no deaths or complications in the entire group. Because posttraumatic splenic cysts are rare, the accumulation of a significant data base leading to firm conclusions is lacking. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
A Technical Platform using Augmented Reality for Active Safety Testing

This paper describes the design of a video see-through augmented reality system for active safety testing. The development is explained in detail, with focus on the design considerations for the different subsystems. It is shown that it is possible to build a system using available commercial off-the-shelf components, while still maintaining the performance needed for the intended application. Accuracy and resolution requirements of the tracking systems are discussed along with measurement methods. We also examine how to use the hardware efficiently to minimize latency and a device to measure and quantify end-to-end latency has been developed.
COPD dashboard: about official Documents, Authors, Science, Health status and BOARDs

Readers of this issue of the European Respiratory Journal ( ERJ ) should review the important document that it features, which is a result of a continuing and successful tradition of joint Task Forces of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and the American Thoracic Society (ATS) 1. The document will guide investigators and others making decisions about the use and application of outcome measures in order to reduce the burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in individual patients and groups of patients alike. The purpose of this editorial is to describe some general aspects related to document development for joint Task Forces and to comment on the content of the document by Cazzola et al. 1. While the opinion, expertise and experiences described here have led me to apply for the position of documents editor for the ATS and perhaps influenced, at least in part, my selection for this position, they should not be equated with official ATS policy. This editorial reflects an individual's view on documents including those that guide clinical practice. Given the standing of the ATS and the ERS in the field of respiratory, critical care and sleep medicine, the document featured in this issue of the ERJ is an approved statement of the Societies and, thus, becomes official and authoritative by default. As a result of the responsibility that the Societies therefore carry, but also just by nature of their stature, the principle aim of these official documents must be to provide evidence-based information to support evidence-based decision-making in healthcare. In the current climate of increased scrutiny of clinical practice guidelines and other official statements, what are the best strategies to ensure that documents are indeed based on the best available evidence? Evidence can be of very low-to-high quality, which is determined by the risk …
Fundamentals and applications of micro Raman spectroscopy to strain measurements in fibre reinforced composites

AbstractMicro Raman spectroscopy (MRS) can be used to measure strain in crystalline and semicrystalline materials with urn scale spatial resolution. It has been employed as a tool for measuring micromechanical behaviour in composites, and has contributed significantly to understanding of composite behaviour. An overview of the fundamentals of Raman spectroscopy and strain measurements using Raman spectroscopy as well as the instrumentation required is given. Studies using MRS to gain insight into the structure, elastic moduli, and failure modes of several types of fibres are presented. The micromechanical behaviour of single filament model composites is examined in detail including: residual stresses caused by processing; the stress transfer behaviour from the matrix to the fibre during loading; and the interfacial behaviour as a function of tensile and compressive loading, interface surface treatment, and environmental exposure. Finally, recent studies using MRS to study the fibre-fibre interaction and h.
A computationally simple test of homogeneity of odds ratios for twin data

It is of interest to compare measures of association of binary traits among samples of bivariate data. One example is the comparison of association within a sample of monozygotic (MZ) twins to that within a sample of dizygotic (DZ) twins. A larger association in the MZ twins suggests that the trait of interest may have a genetic component. The Bivariate data in this example are binary traits for the twins in each pair. Another example is the comparison of a measure of Hardy‐Weinberg disequilibrium across several populations. The bivariate data in this example are the two alleles comprising the genotype of interest. We propose using derived logistic regression equations from the full exponential model for the bivariate outcomes to test for homogeneity. We adjust for correlation among outcomes via generalized estimating equations. This modeling approach allows for adjustment for individual‐level and pair‐level covariates and thereby allows for testing for gene × environment interactions. Further, we extend the model to allow for simultaneous analysis of two diseases, which allows for testing for a genetic component to the coaggregation of two diseases. In contrast to approaches proposed by previous authors, no special software is required; our approach can be easily implemented in standard software packages. We compare our results to those of other methods proposed in the literature for data from the Vietnam Era Twins Study. We apply our methods also to the Anqing Twin Study and to data on major depression and generalized anxiety disorder from the Virginia Twin Register. Genet. Epidemiol. 20:228–238, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Prognostic role of BRCA1 mutation in patients with triple-negative breast cancer

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is proposed to be an immunohistochemical surrogate of the basal-like breast cancer subtype. In spite of the relative chemosensitivity of this cancer subtype, it is characterized by aggressive clinical behavior; therefore, a further subclassification of TNBC is required to develop new targeted treatment. In previous studies, a strong correlation between BRCA1 mutation-associated tumors and TNBC has been identified. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prognostic significance of carrying two germline BRCA1 founder mutations (4153delA and 5382insC) in patients with TNBC in the Latvian population. A total of 78 consecutive BRCA1 mutation-negative and 38 BRCA1 mutation-positive invasive TNBC patients in stage I–IV with no history of ovarian or other primary advanced cancers, who had undergone definitive surgery and genetic testing between 2005 and 2011, were deemed eligible for study. Relapse rates and breast cancer-specific survival (BCS) outcomes were compared between mutation carriers and non-carriers. Univariate and multivariate analyses Cox proportional-hazards models were used to compute independent predictors of survival outcomes. No statistically significant differences were identified in relation to tumor size, T stage, stage, Ki-67 status and tumor differentiation grade between the two groups. The median follow-up period was 36 months for mutation carriers and 41 months for non-carriers. A higher proportion of BRCA1 mutation non-carriers experienced distant recurrence compared with that of mutation carriers (P<0.03). BRCA1 mutation carriers had a significantly higher BCS than non-carriers (94.9 vs. 76.9%; P<0.02). In the univariate analyses, BRCA1-positive status was associated with decreased risk of distant recurrence (HR, 0.228; 95% Cl, 0.052–0.997; P<0.049) and breast cancer-specific mortality (HR, 0.209; 95% Cl, 0.048–0.902; P<0.036). In the multivariate analysis Cox proportional-hazards model, BRCA1-positive status was an independent favorable prognostic factor for distant recurrence-free survival (HR, 3.301; 95% Cl, 1.102–9.893; P<0.033). In conclusion, results of the present study demonstrate that positive BRCA1 founder mutation status in TNBC, with no evidence of ovarian or other cancer type in advanced stage, significantly improves prognosis.
Provenance in Databases: Why, How, and Where

Different notions of provenance for database queries have been proposed and studied in the past few years. In this article, we detail three main notions of database provenance, some of their applications, and compare and contrast amongst them. Specifically, we review why, how, and where provenance, describe the relationships among these notions of provenance, and describe some of their applications in confidence computation, view maintenance and update, debugging, and annotation propagation.
Maximal Output Admissible set for limit cycle controller of humanoid robot

This paper addresses a novel computation method of the Maximal Output Admissible (MOA) set for a limit cycle controller and its application to motion transition. By approximately calculating the MOA set via sample point cloud, we can obtain an analytic form of the MOA set even on a nonlinear system. Formulation provided in this paper can be applicable to various types of controllers. Using the MOA set, we demonstrate a motion transition from a standing posture to steady walking. Switching two types of controllers based on the MOA set realizes motion transition with the COP constraint satisfied. The validity of proposed method is verified with a simulation.
The Plant Cell star-shaped clusters of F-actin , similar to focal adhesions in moving animal cells

Flowering plants possess specialized extracellular matrices in the female organs of the flower that support pollen tube growth and sperm cell transfer along the transmitting tract of the gynoecium. Transport of the pollen tube cell and the sperm cells involves a cell adhesion and migration event in species such as lily that possess a transmitting tract epidermis in the stigma, style, and ovary. A bioassay for adhesion was used to isolate from the lily stigma/stylar exudate the components that are responsible for in vivo pollen tube adhesion. At least two stylar components are necessary for adhesion: a large molecule and a small (9 kD) protein. In combination, the two molecules induced adhesion of pollen tubes to an artificial stylar matrix in vitro. The 9-kD protein was purified, and its corresponding cDNA was cloned. This molecule shares some similarity with plant lipid transfer proteins. Immunolocalization data support its role in facilitating adhesion of pollen tubes to the stylar transmitting tract epidermis.
Genotype and haplotype analysis of cell cycle genes in sporadic colorectal cancer in the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic has one of the highest incidences of colorectal cancer (CRC) in the world. To assess the role of genetic variants on the disease, we genotyped polymorphisms in the TP53 (rs17878362:A1>A2, rs1042522:G>C, rs12947788:C>T, and rs17884306:G>A), CDKN1A (rs1801270:C>A and rs1059234:C>T), and CDKN2A (rs3731249:G>A, rs11515:C>G, and rs3088440:C>T) genes in 614 hospital‐based CRC cases and 614 matched controls from the country. Despite the tendency toward differential distribution of variant allele frequencies for some polymorphisms, none was significantly associated with CRC risk. We observed differential distribution of major haplotypes arising from four polymorphisms in the TP53 gene between cases and controls (global P<0.0001). The two most common haplotypes, A1GCG and A2CCG, were present in 81% of the cases compared to 71% of the controls. In comparison to the most common haplotype (A1GCG), the haplotype A2CCG was associated with an increased risk (odds ratio [OR], 1.40; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07–1.82), while the four other haplotypes A1CCG (OR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.45–0.79), A2GCG (OR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.35–0.81), A1GTG (OR, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.15–0.64), and A1GCA (OR, 0.19; 95% CI, 0.07–0.51) were associated with a decreased risk. The effect of haplotypes in the TP53 gene was similar in colon (global P<0.0001) and rectal cancers (P=0.006). No association with the disease was observed with haplotypes of the CDKN1A and CDKN2A polymorphisms. The results from this study suggest that prevalent haplotypes within the TP53 gene may modulate CRC risks in the population. Hum Mutat 0, 1–9, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Framework for Obfuscated Interpretation

Software protection via obscurity is now considered fundamental for securing software systems. This paper proposes a framework for obfuscating the program interpretation instead of obfuscating the program itself. The obfuscated interpretation enables us to hide functionality of a given program P unless the interpretation being taken is revealed. The proposed framework employs a finite state machine (FSM) based interpreter to give the context-dependent semantics to each instruction in P; thus, attempts to statically analyze the relation between instructions and their semantics will not succeed. Considering that the instruction stream (execution sequence) of P varies according to the input to P, we give a systematic method to construct P whose instruction stream is always interpreted correctly regardless of its input. Our framework is easily applied to conventional computer systems by adding a FSM unit to virtual machines such as Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and Common Language Runtime (CLR).
A 2.2-pJ/bit 10-Gb/s forwarded-clock serial-link transceiver for IoE applications

This paper presents a 10-Gb/s power-efficient serial-link transceiver for the Internet-of-Everything applications. The proposed transceiver employs several techniques to reduce the power consumption. This includes the use of forward clocking with a simplified clock recovery scheme, multiplexing the transmitted signal at the output of voltage-mode drivers, and using modified slicers in the receiver side. The proposed transceiver is implemented using a 130-nm CMOS technology. It can transmit and receive 10-Gb/s serial data while employing a 5-GHz forwarded clock. The transceiver consumes 17.5 mA from a 1.2-V supply achieving a power efficiency of 2.2 pJ/bit.
Gingival inflammatory infiltrate analysis in patients with chronic periodontitis and diabetes mellitus.

UNLABELLED Diabetes mellitus and periodontal disease are two pathological entities that destructively emphasize each other. The aim of our study was the histological and immunohistochemical analyze of the inflammatory infiltrate in the gingival tissue at patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and periodontal disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was achieved on gingival tissue from 40 patients with DM and specific symptoms of periodontal disease. We used Hematoxylin-Eosin and trichromic Goldner-Szekely staining and CD20cy and CD45RO antibodies. RESULTS In patients with DM under 10 years, we found an intense periodontal lymphocyte inflammatory infiltrate and in patients with a DM evolution more than 10 years, the lymphocyte inflammatory infiltrate had a less intensity. The pattern was mostly diffuse in lamina propria. Many patients had a very abundant plasmocyte infiltrate. During immunohistochemical exam, 25 cases presented CD20 positive immunostaining. The intensity of the inflammatory infiltrate with B-lymphocytes was very low (score 1). All immunohistochemical analyzed cases presented CD45RO positive immunostaining, with a mixed pattern of the T-cell lymphocyte infiltrate. CONCLUSIONS The nflammatory infiltrate in diabetic periodontal disease was polymorph, mostly with a diffuse pattern in gingival chorion. The intensity of the lymphocyte infiltrate was higher in patients with chronic periodontitis and DM less than 10 years. Positive CD45RO T-lymphocytes were more numerous compared to positive CD20 B-lymphocytes and they were present intra and under epithelial in the gingival of all the patients, no matter of the DM time evolution.
Instrumental variables quantile regression for panel data with measurement errors

This paper develops an instrumental variables estimator for quantile regression in panel data with fixed effects. Asymptotic properties of the instrumental variables estimator are studied for large N and T when Na/T ! 0, for some a > 0. Wald and Kolmogorov-Smirnov type tests for general linear restrictions are developed. The estimator is applied to the problem of measurement errors in variables, which induces endogeneity and as a result bias in the model. We derive an approximation to the bias in the quantile regression fixed effects estimator in the presence of measurement error and show its connection to similar effects in standard least squares models. Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to evaluate the finite sample properties of the estimator in terms of bias and root mean squared error. Finally, the methods are applied to a model of firm investment. The results show interesting heterogeneity in the Tobin’s q and cash flow sensitivities of investment. In both cases, the sensitivities are monotonically increasing along the quantiles.
The "Parallel Vectors" operator-a vector field visualization primitive

We propose an elementary operation on a pair of vector fields as a building block for defining and computing global line-type features of vector or scalar fields. While usual feature definitions often are procedural and therefore implicit, our operator allows precise mathematical definitions. It can serve as a basis for comparing feature definitions and for reuse of algorithms and implementations. Applications focus on vortex core methods.
Fusiform Gyrus Dysfunction is Associated with Perceptual Processing Efficiency to Emotional Faces in Adolescent Depression: A Model-Based Approach

While the extant literature has focused on major depressive disorder (MDD) as being characterized by abnormalities in processing affective stimuli (e.g., facial expressions), little is known regarding which specific aspects of cognition influence the evaluation of affective stimuli, and what are the underlying neural correlates. To investigate these issues, we assessed 26 adolescents diagnosed with MDD and 37 well-matched healthy controls (HCL) who completed an emotion identification task of dynamically morphing faces during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We analyzed the behavioral data using a sequential sampling model of response time (RT) commonly used to elucidate aspects of cognition in binary perceptual decision making tasks: the Linear Ballistic Accumulator (LBA) model. Using a hierarchical Bayesian estimation method, we obtained group-level and individual-level estimates of LBA parameters on the facial emotion identification task. While the MDD and HCL groups did not differ in mean RT, accuracy, or group-level estimates of perceptual processing efficiency (i.e., drift rate parameter of the LBA), the MDD group showed significantly reduced responses in left fusiform gyrus compared to the HCL group during the facial emotion identification task. Furthermore, within the MDD group, fMRI signal in the left fusiform gyrus during affective face processing was significantly associated with greater individual-level estimates of perceptual processing efficiency. Our results therefore suggest that affective processing biases in adolescents with MDD are characterized by greater perceptual processing efficiency of affective visual information in sensory brain regions responsible for the early processing of visual information. The theoretical, methodological, and clinical implications of our results are discussed.
Childhood Air Pollutant Exposure and Carotid Artery Intima-Media Thickness in Young Adults

exposure to O3 showed similar but nonsignificant associations. No associations were observed for PM2.5, PM10, or NO2, although adjustment for these pollutants strengthened the childhood O3 associations. Conclusions—Childhood exposure to O3 may be a novel risk factor for CIMT in a healthy population of college students. Regulation of air pollutants and efforts that focus on limiting childhood exposures continue to be important public health
Diffuse axonal and tissue injury in patients with multiple sclerosis with low cerebral lesion load and no disability.

BACKGROUND Although in situ pathological studies and in vivo magnetic resonance (MR) investigations have shown that axonal injury can be significant in the early stages of multiple sclerosis (MS), diffuse axonal injury is generally considered a secondary event. Cerebral axonal damage can be specifically assessed in vivo by measuring levels of brain N-acetylaspartate (NAA, a specific index of axonal integrity detected by MR spectroscopy). Other new MR measurements such as magnetization transfer ratio (MTr) or computed estimation of brain volume can provide less specific indexes of tissue damage. OBJECTIVE To determine whether diffuse axonal and tissue injury is present in patients with definite MS who do not show clinically significant disability. METHODS We measured brain NAA levels (normalized to creatine [Cr]), MTr values, and cerebral volumes in patients with definite MS who had low T2-weighted MR imaging lesion volumes and no clinical disability, and also in age-matched healthy control subjects. RESULTS Values of central brain NAA/Cr and MTr in normal-appearing white matter were significantly lower in the MS patients than in controls (P<.001). In contrast, total brain volumes were not significantly different between these groups. Similar results were found for MS patients with early disease (duration, <3 years) and with a particularly low cerebral T2-weighted MR imaging lesion load (< or = 2 cm(3)). CONCLUSIONS Cerebral NAA/Cr and MTr values are diffusely decreased in MS patients with early disease, low demyelinating lesion load, and no significant disability. This suggests that axonal and/or tissue injury begins very early in the course of MS and might be at least partially independent of cerebral demyelination.