Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An integrated Relative Navigation system using GPS/VISNAV for ultra-close spacecraft formation flying

To improve the accuracy and better fault-tolerant performance for ultra-close spacecraft formation flying, a Global Position System (GPS)/Vision based Navigation (VISNAV) integrated Relative Navigation and Attitude Determination (RNAD) approach was presented in this paper. Onboard GPS was used for RNAD for formation spacecraft by multi-antennas configuration. The same RNAD information was also achieved by VISNAV system separately by using multiple line-of-sight vectors observations from spacecraft to another. Optimal fusion of RNAD information from both GPS/VISNAV subsystems was achieved by a Federal Kalman Filter (FKF) architecture. Simulation results provided later indicate that the integrated system can provide a total improvement of relative navigation and attitude estimation performance in accuracy and fault-tolerant.
MAP CLASSIFICATION WITH A SIMILARITY MEASURE

In many methods of knowledge discovery, data mining and machine learning, similarities between objects are one of the most important factors. In this paper, we require a similarity measure to have (1) clear meaning of the quantity and (2) adaptability to target problems. We propose a similarity measure that yields maximum a posteriori classification. This similarity measure is based on a belief that the more possibility belonging to the same class, the more similar they are. Using this similarity measure, we show that posterior probability over the class for an example is derived by vote which is similar to k-nearest neighbor (abbrev. k-NN). We compare the proposal method and a direct method which induce posterior probability over classes for examples.
Circulating Markers of Endothelial Dysfunction Interact With Proteinuria in Predicting Mortality in Renal Transplant Recipients

Background. Proteinuria is associated with endothelial dysfunction (ED) and increased mortality. We investigated whether urinary protein excretion (UPE) is correlated with markers of ED and whether these markers affect the association of proteinuria with mortality in renal transplant recipients (RTR). Methods. Six hundred four RTR with a functioning graft for more than 1 year were included. RTR were divided according to UPE: less than 0.3, 0.3 to 1.0, and more than 1.0 g/24 hr. Soluble intercellular adhesion molecule type 1 (sICAM-1) and soluble vascular cellular adhesion molecule type 1 (sVCAM-1) were measured using ELISA. Results. UPE (0.2 [0.0–0.5] g/24 hr), sICAM-1 (603 (514–721) ng/mL), and sVCAM-1 (952 [769–1196] ng/mL) were measured at 6.0 (2.6–11.4) years posttransplant. During follow-up for 5.3 (4.7–5.7) years, 94 (16%) RTR died. UPE was correlated with sVCAM-1 (standardized &bgr;=0.13, P=0.001) but not with sICAM-1 (standardized &bgr;=0.04, P=0.3). RTR with UPE more than 1.0 g/24 hr and high sICAM-1 (hazard ratio=4.7, 95% confidence interval 2.3–9.7, P<0.0001) or sVCAM-1 (hazard ratio=4.2, 95% confidence interval 2.0–8.6, P=0.0001) concentrations were at increased risk for death, whereas RTR with UPE more than 1.0 g/24 hr and low concentrations of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 were not. Conclusions. In RTR, UPE is correlated with sVCAM-1 but not with sICAM-1. Furthermore, RTR with proteinuria and high concentrations of sICAM-1 or sVCAM-1 have an increased risk for death, compared with RTR without proteinuria, whereas this is not the case in RTR with proteinuria but low concentrations of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1. These results suggest that ED plays a role in the association of proteinuria with mortality after renal transplantation.
STEMWorkers , H-1 B Visas , and Productivity in U . S . Cities ∗

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workers are fundamental inputs for innovation, the main driver of productivity growth. We identify the long-run effect of STEM employment growth on outcomes for native workers across 219 U.S. cities from 1990 to 2010. We use the 1980 distribution of foreign-born STEM workers and variation in the H-1B visa program to identify supply-driven STEM increases across cities. Increases in STEM workers are associated with significant wage gains for college-educated natives. Gains for non-college-educated natives are smaller but still significant. Our results imply that foreign STEM increased total factor productivity growth in US cities. ∗Address: Giovanni Peri, Department of Economics, UC Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, gperi@ucdavis.edu; Kevin Shih, Department of Economics, UC Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, kyshih@ucdavis.edu; Chad Sparber, Department of Economics, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346, csparber@colgate.edu. We thank Nick Bloom, Hilary Hoynes, William Kerr, Enrico Moretti, Sarah Turner, and seminar participants at UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Universite’ Catholique del Louvain, IZA, and the NBER for helpful comments and suggestions. Peri gratefully acknowledges an IFHA Grant from UC Davis for Partially funding this project. Sparber gratefully acknowledges a Major Grant from Colgate University for funding his research.
Levels of p27 Sensitize to Dual PI3K/mTOR Inhibition

Constitutive activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT/mTOR signaling cascade occurs in a variety of human malignancies, where it sustains tumor cell proliferation and survival. Pharmacologic blockade of this pathway exerts antineoplastic activity by triggering apoptosis and/or cell-cycle arrest. Pituitary adenomas show activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, but only a fraction of them respond in vitro to the antiproliferative action of rapamycin and RAD001 (mTOR inhibitors), possibly because of the described negative feedback loop on AKT which reactivates the signaling cascade. Rats affected by the multiple endocrine neoplasia-like syndrome (MENX) develop pituitary adenomas showing increased activated AKT. In this study, we comparatively investigated the antitumor potential of the novel dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor NVP-BEZ235 and the single mTOR inhibitor RAD001 on rat pituitary adenoma cells in primary culture. NVP-BEZ235 inhibits the PI3K pathway both upstream and downstream of AKT, thereby preventing the negative feedback loop. NVP-BEZ235 was more effective than RAD001 in reducing cell viability of pituitary adenomas. Consistently, NVP-BEZ235 treatment decreased Akt and S6 phosphorylation and triggered apoptosis. Because MENX is caused by a germline loss-of-function mutation in the cell-cycle inhibitor p27Kip1, we investigated the relationship between this defect and response to NVP-BEZ235 treatment. The levels of p27Kip1 positively correlate with the response to NVP-BEZ235 treatment. Combined treatment with NVP-BEZ235 and the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib, which increases p27Kip1 amount, shows synergistic antiproliferative effects on pituitary adenoma cells. Our data suggest that NVP-BEZ235 may represent an effective therapeutic modality for pituitary adenomas and that p27Kip1 levels represent a potential predictor of response to dual PI3K/mTOR inhibition. Mol Cancer Ther; 10(8); 1450–9. ©2011 AACR.
An Analytical Approach for Dimensioning Wireless Multihop Networks

The tradeoff between maximizing the number of transmissions and reducing total interference is the main problem about dimensioning wireless multihop networks. In this paper, we derive an analytical solution for the calculation of outage probability in a wireless multihop network. The outage probability is the probability of a transmission between two nodes may not be established because there is no available channels along a specific route or the signal-to-interference ratio is below a specified threshold. The proposed solution is compared with simulations, and an excellent agreement is attained.
Modulating neuronal excitability in the motor cortex with tDCS shows moderate hemispheric asymmetry due to subjects' handedness: a pilot study.

PURPOSE Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has proven to be a useful tool for fundamental brain research as well as for attempts in therapy of neurological and psychiatric diseases by modulating neuronal plasticity. Little is understood about the effects of tDCS are influenced by hemispheric dominance, even less in terms of handedness. The aim of our pilot study was to investigate whether tDCS induced neuroplastic changes may be different in right- and left-handed individuals due to existing differences in hemispheric lateralisation. METHODS We measured changes in motor evoked potentials (MEPs) after application of tDCS in 8 right-handers, 8 left-handers and 8 mixed-handers according to the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI). In double-blind sessions, we applied either anodal or cathodal tDCS for 5 minutes for each hemisphere. RESULTS While motor thresholds (MT) seem to be not influenced by handedness significantly, in right-handed subjects we reproduced the well-known effects of tDCS: anodal stimulation increased while cathodal stimulation decreased MEP amplitudes. However, left-and mixed-handed subjects differed from right-handed subjects. After anodal stimulation of the left hemisphere the increase of the MEP amplitudes was stronger in right handed subjects than in left and mixed handed subjects. Interestingly, after cathodal stimulation of the left hemisphere this difference was less marked. The stimulation of the right hemisphere showed the same tendency, but results were not significant. CONCLUSIONS For the first time, we are able to demonstrate that the modulating effects of tDCS on corticospinal excitability differ moderately in the left-and mixed-handed population compared to right-handed subjects. The shown differences according to handedness should be taken into account in further studies.
A component for remote viewing and monitoring of mechanical ventilator data

Many medical device manufacturers provide methods for collecting and analyzing data from their devices. While some of these methods are sophisticated, others can be as simple as requiring standard serial interface connectivity. However, in addition to physical device connectivity, there oftentimes exists a proprietary syntax or language that, in this age of standards, minimizes the likelihood of deploying the communication methods from one manufacturer to devices of another manufacturer. Unlike the Health Level-7 standards, these basic machine interfaces are presently unique to each manufacturer, requiring that communication methods be tailored in relation to the type of devices deployed, and requiring further development, testing, training, and troubleshooting. This paper describes a remedy for this issue in relation to mechanical ventilators. A method is described which employs a user-defined command table that enables a user to deploy the same application infrastructure to other proprietary devices. This infrastructure is built for mechanical ventilators, but can be expanded to accommodate other medical devices. It is referred to as the remote mechanical ventilation manager, or RMVM.
Identification of dominant FOXE3 and PAX6 mutations in patients with congenital cataract and aniridia

Purpose Aniridia and congenital cataract represent rare but severe developmental ocular conditions. We examined 33 probands from France for mutations in several transcription factors associated with these phenotypes, the forkhead box E3 (FOXE3), paired box gene 6 (PAX6), paired-like homeodomain transcription factor 2 (PITX2), and paired-like homeodomain transcription factor 3 (PITX3) genes. Methods Out of 33 probands, 27 were affected with congenital cataract while the remaining six were affected with aniridia (with or without cataract). The coding regions of FOXE3, PAX6, PITX2, and PITX3 were examined by direct DNA sequencing of gene-specific PCR products. Results A novel dominant mutation at the stop codon of FOXE3, c.959G>C (p.X320SerextX72), was identified in a patient with congenital cataract. Another novel FOXE3 sequence change, c.571–579dup (p.Tyr191_Pro193dup), was identified in a patient with aniridia, mild lens opacities, and some additional ocular defects; this patient was also found to carry a nonsense mutation in PAX6. PAX6 mutations were identified in two additional probands with aniridia and cataracts. None of the observed sequence alterations were found in normal controls. No mutations were identified in PITX2 or PITX3. Conclusions The p.X320SerextX72 mutation is only the fourth FOXE3 allele associated with a dominant phenotype since the majority of FOXE3 mutations appear to be recessive with no phenotype observed in heterozygous carriers. The encoded protein is predicted to contain a complete normal sequence followed by seventy-two erroneous amino acids; the position and effect of this mutation are similar to two of the previously reported dominant changes, suggesting a common mechanism for dominant alleles. The p.Tyr191_Pro193dup is predicted to result in an in-frame duplication of three amino acids; however, the contribution of this mutation to the phenotype is unclear since the affected patient also carries a nonsense mutation in PAX6 which acts upstream of FOXE3 in the molecular pathway. The identified PAX6 mutations correspond to the two most commonly observed mutant alleles and demonstrate phenotypes that are consistent with the previously reported spectrum.
Primordial neurosecretory apparatus identified in the choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis

SNARE protein-driven secretion of neurotransmitters from synaptic vesicles is at the center of neuronal communication. In the absence of the cytosolic protein Munc18-1, synaptic secretion comes to a halt. Although it is believed that Munc18-1 orchestrates SNARE complexes, its mode of action is still a matter of debate. In particular, it has been challenging to clarify the role of a tight Munc18/syntaxin 1 complex, because this interaction interferes strongly with syntaxin's ability to form a SNARE complex. In this complex, two regions of syntaxin, the N-peptide and the remainder in closed conformation, bind to Munc18 simultaneously. Until now, this binary complex has been reported for neuronal tissues only, leading to the hypothesis that it might be a specialization of the neuronal secretion apparatus. Here we aimed, by comparing the core secretion machinery of the unicellular choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis with that of animals, to reconstruct the ancestral function of the Munc18/syntaxin1 complex. We found that the Munc18/syntaxin 1 complex from M. brevicollis is structurally and functionally highly similar to the vertebrate complex, suggesting that it constitutes a fundamental step in the reaction pathway toward SNARE assembly. We thus propose that the primordial secretion machinery of the common ancestor of choanoflagellates and animals has been co-opted for synaptic roles during the rise of animals.
Automated Sperm Immobilization for Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection

Sperm immobilization is a requisite step in intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Conventionally, sperm immobilization is performed manually, which entails long training hours and stringent skills. Manual sperm immobilization also has the limitation of low success rates and poor reproducibility due to human fatigue and skill variations across operators. This paper presents a system for fully automated sperm immobilization to eliminate limitations in manual operation. Integrating computer vision and motion control algorithms, the automated system is able to visually track a sperm and control a micropipette to immobilize the sperm. A robust sperm tail tracking algorithm is developed to locate the optimal position on the sperm tail for sperm immobilization. The system demonstrates: 1) an average sperm tail tracking error of 0.95 μm; 2) a sperm tail visual tracking success rate of 96%; 3) a sperm immobilization success rate of 88.2% (based on 1000 trials); and 4) a speed of 6-7 s per successful immobilization.
Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) applied to FM band passive radar

This paper shows that innovative tracking algorithms improve the state estimation performance of a Passive Covert Radar (PCR) exploiting a single non co-operative frequency modulated (FM) commercial radio station as its transmitter of opportunity. In particular in [1] and [2], it has been stated that particle filtering (PF) is the right choice for tracking the targets of interest in the Cartesian domain. This paper aims at showing that Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) gives practically same performance with respect to the PF with extremely reduced computational load and unproblematic algorithm setting up.
Sign language translation system using latent feature values of sign language images

This paper proposes a sign language translation system for communication among deaf and common people. It uses an algorithm about hand detection and analysis from previous studies and project assignments. The algorithm performs five steps within the limitations, which is the key that it measures a center of gravity with 4 vertexes from sign language images and sifts the latent features from calculated distance, angle for 5 determined points of hand region through specific experiments. Applying the features, success rate is improved from 23% to 100%. The system can make use of development for human-robot interface.
The POPCORN market—an online market for computational resources

The POPCORN project provides an infrastructure for globally distributed computation over the whole Internet. It provides any programmer connected to the Internet with a single huge virtual parallel computer composed of all processors on the Internet, which care to participate at any given moment. POPCORN provides a marketbased mechanism for trade in CPU time to motivate processors to provide their CPU cycles for other peoples’ computations. “Selling” CPU time is as easy as visiting a certain web site with a Java-enabled browser. “Buying” CPU time is done by writing a parallel program using the POPCORN paradigm. A third entity in the POPCORN system is a “market” for CPU time, which is where buyers and sellers meet and trade. The POPCORN system may be visited on our website: http://www.cs. huji.ac. il/~popcorn. This paper concentrates on the POPCORN market. The market is a trusted intermediary that is responsible for matching buyers and sellers according to economic criteria. Our design emphasizes minimal communication requirements and minimal strategic considerations on the part of both buyers and sellers. We implemented several market mechanisms of the single-sided and double-sided auction types. We analyze the economic efficiency of these mechanisms using analytical and simulation methods. Our findings support the use of these mechanisms in the Internet environment.
Domain adaptation by iterative improvement of soft-labeling and maximization of non-parametric mutual information

Domain adaptation (DA) algorithms address the problem of distribution shift between training and testing data. Recent approaches transform data into a shared subspace by minimizing the shift between their marginal distributions. We propose a method to learn a common subspace that will leverage the class conditional distributions of training samples along with reducing the marginal distribution shift. To learn the subspace, we employ a supervised technique based on non-parametric mutual information by inducing soft label assignment for the unlabeled test data. The approach presents an iterative linear transformation for subspace learning by repeatedly updating test data predictions via soft-labeling and consequently improving the subspace with maximization of mutual information. A set of comprehensive experiments on benchmark datasets is conducted to prove the efficacy of our novel framework over state-of-the-art approaches.
Perfusion MRI (dynamic susceptibility contrast imaging) with different measurement approaches for the evaluation of blood flow and blood volume in human gliomas

Background Perfusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly used in the evaluation of brain tumors. Relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) is usually obtained by dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MRI using normal appearing white matter as reference region. The emerging perfusion technique arterial spin labelling (ASL) presently provides measurement only of cerebral blood flow (CBF), which has not been widely used in human brain tumor studies. Purpose To assess if measurement of blood flow is comparable with measurement of blood volume in human biopsy-proven gliomas obtained by DSC-MRI using two different regions for normalization and two different measurement approaches. Material and Methods Retrospective study of 61 patients with different types of gliomas examined with DSC perfusion MRI. Regions of interest (ROIs) were placed in tumor portions with maximum perfusion on rCBF and rCBV maps, with contralateral normal appearing white matter and cerebellum as reference regions. Larger ROIs were drawn for histogram analyses. The type and grade of the gliomas were obtained by histopathology. Statistical comparison was made between diffuse astrocytomas, anaplastic astrocytomas, and glioblastomas. Results rCBF and rCBV measurements obtained with the maximum perfusion method were correlated when normalized to white matter (r = 0.60) and to the cerebellum (r = 0.49). Histogram analyses of rCBF and rCBV showed that mean and median values as well as skewness and peak position were correlated (0.61 < r < 0.93), whereas for kurtosis and peak height, the correlation coefficient was about 0.3 when comparing rCBF and rCBV values for the same reference region. Neither rCBF nor rCBV quantification provided a statistically significant difference between the three types of gliomas. However, both rCBF and rCBV tended to increase with tumor grade and to be lower in patients who had undergone resection/treatment. Conclusion rCBF measurements normalized to white matter or cerebellum are comparable with the established rCBV measurements used for the clinical evaluation of cerebral gliomas.
Are Forecasters Reluctant to Revise Their Predictions? Some German Evidence

People are reluctant to admit mistakes. This could also be true of economic forecasters. If revisions of past forecasts are costly, then it will become optimal for forecasters to only partially adjust a past forecast in the light of new information. The unwillingness to admit to the mistake in the old forecast generates a bias of the new forecast in the direction of the old forecast. We test this hypothesis for the joint predictions of the Association of German Economic Research Institutes over the last 35 years. We find some evidence for such a bias and compute the implied unwillingness to revise forecasts. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bandwidth reconfigurable microwave bandpass filter

A design approach for microwave bandpass filter (BPF) with bandwidth reconfigurability is presented. The proposed design employed varactor-tuned microwave resonators for realization of bandwidth reconfigurable BPF. Compared to the reported design methodology, the presented approach aims for the design of the reconfigurable BPF with relatively wide bandwidth tuning range, as well as low in-band insertion loss. Furthermore, the filter selectivity remains almost unchanged while the fractional bandwidth varies. The proposed design approach is experimentally verified through the demonstration of a coplanar-waveguide BPF design.