Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cuprous oxide nanoparticles selectively induce apoptosis of tumor cells

In the rapid development of nanoscience and nanotechnology, many researchers have discovered that metal oxide nanoparticles have very useful pharmacological effects. Cuprous oxide nanoparticles (CONPs) can selectively induce apoptosis and suppress the proliferation of tumor cells, showing great potential as a clinical cancer therapy. Treatment with CONPs caused a G1/G0 cell cycle arrest in tumor cells. Furthermore, CONPs enclosed in vesicles entered, or were taken up by mitochondria, which damaged their membranes, thereby inducing apoptosis. CONPs can also produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) and initiate lipid peroxidation of the liposomal membrane, thereby regulating many signaling pathways and influencing the vital movements of cells. Our results demonstrate that CONPs have selective cytotoxicity towards tumor cells, and indicate that CONPs might be a potential nanomedicine for cancer therapy.
An edge detection algorithm for online image analysis

Online image analysis is used in a wide variety of applications. Edge detection is a fundamental tool used to obtain features of objects as a prerequisite step to object segmentation. This paper presents a simple and relatively fast online edge detection algorithm based on second derivative. The proposed edge detector is less sensitive to noise and may be applied on color, gray and binary images without preprocessing requirements. The merits of the algorithm are demonstrated by comparison with Canny's and Sobel's edge detectors.
An Experimental Study on A Training System for Diagnosing NPP Anomaly Using Eye-Sensing HMD

In order to realize effective and efficient training for diagnosis of NPP anomalies, a training support system has been developed. The feature of the system is realtime measurement of trainee’s attending plant parameters and his/her think aloud while he/she is diagnosing a primary cause of plant anomaly. An evaluation experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the system and to examine trainee’s error pattern and instructor’s educational strategy. From the experimental result, it was found that the eye gaze and think aloud of the trainee is useful to trace his/her thinking process while diagnosing primary cause of plant anomaly. An effective educational strategy has been proposed from the analysis of the results. , which consists of macro-strategy and microstrategy. The macro-strategy aims at improving overall diagnosing ability, while the micro-strategy aims at adaptation of trainee’s individual weak points.
TeKnowbase: Towards Construction of a Knowledge-base of Technical Concepts

In this paper, we describe the construction of TeKnowbase, a knowledge-base of technical concepts in computer science. Our main information sources are technical websites such as Webopedia and Techtarget as well as Wikipedia and online textbooks. We divide the knowledge-base construction problem into two parts -- the acquisition of entities and the extraction of relationships among these entities. Our knowledge-base consists of approximately 100,000 triples. We conducted an evaluation on a sample of triples and report an accuracy of a little over 90\%. We additionally conducted classification experiments on StackOverflow data with features from TeKnowbase and achieved improved classification accuracy.
Fucoidan Inhibits the Growth of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Independent of Angiogenesis

Some sulphated polysaccharides can bind bFGF but are unable to present bFGF to its high-affinity receptors. Fucoidan, a sulphated polysaccharide purified from brown algae, which has been used as an anticancer drug in traditional Chinese medicine for hundreds of years, exhibits a variety of anticancer effects, including the induction of the apoptosis and autophagy of cancer cells, the inhibition of the growth of cancer cells, the induction of angiogenesis, and the improvement of antitumour immunity. Our research shows that fucoidan dose not inhibit the expressions of VEGF, bFGF, IL-8, and heparanase in HCC cells and/or tumour tissues. Moreover, fucoidan exhibited low affinity for bFGF and could not block the binding of bFGF to heparan sulphated. Although fucoidan had no effect on angiogenesis and apoptosis in vivo, this drug significantly inhibited the tumour growth and the expression of PCNA. These results suggest that fucoidan exhibits an anticancer effect in vivo at least partly through inhibition of the proliferation of HCC cells, although it is unable to suppress the angiogenesis induced by HCC.
A Class of $K$-Sample Tests for Comparing the Cumulative Incidence of a Competing Risk

In this paper, for right censored competing risks data, a class of tests developed for comparing the cumulative incidence of a particular type of failure among different groups. The tests are based on comparing weighted averages of the hazards of the subdistribution for the failure type of interest. Asymptotic results are derived by expressing the statistics in terms of counting processes and using martingale central limit theory. It is proposed that weight functions very similar to those for the GP tests from ordinary survival analysis be used. Simulation results indicate that the asymptotic distributions provide adequate approximations in moderate sized samples.
Two-axis bend sensor design, kinematics and control for a continuum robotic endoscope

Angular displacement sensing and contact force sensing in robotic surgery is important for finding the conformation of the tool and for closed loop control. Current techniques for measuring large deflections, such as electromagnetic tracking, involve bulky external reference equipment. This paper discusses the design, dynamic modeling, and kinematic simulation of a compact two-axis bend sensor constructed from layers of carbon black filled polyurethane for determining the bending angle of a cable-driven continuum robotic endoscope. The sensor is flexible (<;0.8 mN/degree), high strain (>10% strain), compact, and does not require external reference equipment. The sensor is able to bend in 180 degrees in all directions, produces two-axis outputs that are linear up to 120 degrees of bending and has a response time less than 9 ms. This paper explores the use of the sensor for controlling the tip position of a robotic endoscope and detecting external forces. The design outlined in this paper has many possible applications in robotic endoscopes, surgical tools, snake-like robots and soft material robotics.
An outgroup advantage in discriminating between genuine and posed smiles

Abstract Ingroup memberships are an important component of the self-concept and people favor their ingroups on a variety of evaluative and behavioral dimensions. Recent research has extended these ingroup favoritism effects to face processing, including an ingroup advantage in emotion identification. The current research was designed to extend these past demonstrations of ingroup favoring biases in face processing to a novel domain: discriminating between genuine and posed smiles. However, across two experiments an unexpected finding emerged: perceivers were better at discriminating between real/fake smiles displayed by outgroup than ingroup members. Experiment 2 also finds that participants are not only more accurate, but also faster to make real/fake judgments for outgroup than ingroup targets. Explanations for these unexpected findings are discussed.
Change detection using a local similarity measure

In this paper, a new method of change detection and identification of forest area is proposed. It is based on local mutual information and image thresholding. In order to identify the forest change area, the image of local mutual information were thresholded using three different threshold value, i.e -0.5, 0 and 0.5. The result is a binary change image. Our result shows that the best threshold value of local mutual information is 0. It has been shown that by using this method, the problem on selecting the threshold value can be solved. This method is simple and suitable to be used to detect the changes area even for the images taken from different modality. For this research, IKONOS image with the resolution of 1.0 m dated 11 March 2002 and SPOT image with the resolution of 2.5 m dated 23 January 2008 in Shah Alam, Selangor have been used.
Short- and long-term efficacy of a community-based COPD management programme in less advanced COPD: a randomised controlled trial

Background: The effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation in advanced COPD is well established, but few data are available in less advanced disease. Methods: In a 2 year randomised controlled trial, 199 patients with an average moderate airflow obstruction but impaired exercise capacity (mean (SD) forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) 60 (16)%, peak work load (Wmax) <70%) were randomised to the INTERdisciplinary COMmunity-based COPD management programme (INTERCOM) or usual care. Intervention consisted of 4 months multidisciplinary rehabilitation followed by a 20-month maintenance phase. Outcomes (4, 12, 24 months): health-related quality of life (St George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ)), exacerbation frequency, MRC dyspnoea score, cycle endurance time (CET), 6-minute walking distance (6MWD), skeletal muscle strength and patients’ and caregivers’ perceived effectiveness. Results: Between-group comparison after 4 months revealed the following mean (SE) significant differences in favour of INTERCOM: SGRQ total score 4.06 (1.39), p = 0.004; activity and impact subscores, p<0.01; MRC score 0.33 (0.13), p = 0.01; Wmax 6.0 (2.3) Watt, p = 0.02; CET 221 (104) s, p = 0.04; 6MWD 13 (6) m, p = 0.02; hand grip force 4.3 (1.5) lb, p<0.01; and fat-free mass index 0.34 (0.13) kg/m2, p = 0.01. Between-group differences over 2 years were as follows: SGRQ 2.60 (1.3), p = 0.04; MRC score 0.21 (0.10), p = 0.048; CET 253 (104) s, p = 0.0156; 6MWD 18 (8) m, p = 0.0155. Exacerbation frequency was not different (RR 1.29 (95% CI 0.89 to 1.87)). Patients’ and caregivers’ perceived effectiveness significantly favoured the INTERCOM programme (p<0.01). Conclusions: This study shows that a multidisciplinary community-based disease management programme is also effective in patients with COPD with exercise impairment but less advanced airflow obstruction. Trial registration number: NCT00840892
Investigation on intermittent observation in mobile robot localization with fuzzy logic technique

This paper deals with an analysis of intermittent observations for mobile robot localization with Fuzzy Logic approach. Mobile robot can easily lost its sight during environment observations due to several factors such as sensor faulty, and dynamic conditions. This can lead to erroneous estimation and the mobile robot become uncertain about its position. As a solution to this issue, this paper proposed a study on Fuzzy Logic technique to overcome such problem considering the Extended Kalman Filter(EKF) measurement innovation characteristic. The rules and fuzzy sets are designed such that it preserved good estimation whenever the relative angle and its relative distance measurements suddenly becomes larger than the previous measurements. The simulation results discusses two different cases observing the performance of the proposed technique. The results show that EKF with Fuzzy Logic technique is able to deal with intermittent observations if the design takes proper analysis and consideration on the measurement innovations.
Future Computer-aided Decision-making Support Systems: Concerning more about the Mechanism of Human Behavior

With the development of computer and network technology, more and more areas (such as power system security control, medical diagnosis system, government emergency management, stock invesment strategy anallysis, etc.) have gradually established decision-making support systems, which are mainly responsible for information collection, management and analysis. Studies show that decision-making support systems have greatly enhanced user productivity. So the engineers ’ interest in designing computerized decision support systems has considerably increased in recent years. The current decision support systems mainly focus on data acquisition and analysis. They are responsible for providing large amounts of data continuously and delivering adaptable models, which can enable people to use these results effectively and then make decisions more quickly and accurately. Then, is there any real-time decision support system in the future that can change human’s judgment and decision-making? By behavior science research, t his paper will provide some answer s by present ing the results of a study that subliminal vision signal may have direct influence on human’s advanced cognitive process and finally change human’s decision under ambiguity. It will provide key technology and new research ideas for engineers to design more intelligent and more powerful decision-making support systems in the future.
Time changes with feeling of speed: an embodied perspective

The speed of moving stimuli can bias duration perception. Here, we investigated whether words describing different speeds influence subjective duration estimation in a temporal bisection task. Duration estimations of two different types of speed words (fast– vs. slow–speed words) were compared. We found that the time bisection point was significantly lower for fast-speed words than for slow-speed words, suggesting that the durations of fast-speed words were overestimated compared to the slow-speed words. In contrast, fast- and slow-speed words did not significantly differ in just noticeable differences and Weber fractions, indicating that the types of speed words did not influence the sensitivity of duration estimation. These results provide new evidence to support the theory of embodied cognition in the context of implicit meaning of a speed word.
Over-Rejections By Weighted Symmetric Unit Root Tests In The Presence Of Multiple Structural Breaks

For the case of the presence of onetime structural change in the sample, Leybourne and Newbold (2000) and Cook (2004) investigated the behavior of the WS tests. Leybourne and Newbold concluded that the weighted symmetric version of the DF t-type test will properly reject the unit root null hypothesis at some specified significance level when the true data-generating process is an I (1) process. On the other hand, Cook’s Monte Carlo study suggested that the WS tests might suffer from low power under the stationarity alternative hypothesis where a series is generated by an I (0) process.
The transition between work, sickness absence and pension in a cohort of Danish colorectal cancer survivors

Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of socioeconomic and clinical factors on the transitions between work, sickness absence and retirement in a cohort of Danish colorectal cancer survivors. Design Register-based cohort study with up to 10 years of follow-up. Setting Population-based study with use of administrative health-related and socioeconomic registers. Participants All persons (N=4343) diagnosed with colorectal cancer in Denmark during the years 2001–2009 while they were in their working age (18–63 years) and who were part of the labour force 1 year postdiagnosis. Primary and secondary outcome measures By the use of multistate models in Cox proportional hazards models, we analysed the HR for re-employment, sickness absence and retirement in models including clinical as well as health-related variables. Results 1 year after diagnosis, 62% were working and 58% continued until the end of follow-up. Socioeconomic factors were found to be associated with retirement but not with sickness absence and return to work. The risk for transition from work to sickness absence increased if the disease was diagnosed at a later stage (stage III) 1.52 (95% CI 1.21 to 1.91), not operated curatively 1.35 (95% CI 1.11 to 1.63) and with occurrence of postoperative complications 1.25 (95% CI 1.11 to 1.41). The opposite was found for the transition from sickness absence back to work. Conclusions This nationwide study of colorectal cancer patients who have survived 1 year shows that the stage of disease, general health condition of the individual, postoperative complications and the history of sickness absence and unemployment have an impact on the transition between work, sickness absence and disability pension. This leads to an increased focus on the rehabilitation process for the more vulnerable persons who have a combination of severe disease and a history of work-related problems with episodes outside the working market.
TDMA-based Real-time Delay Routing with Emergency Data in IWSN

Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSN) is an emerging technology in the field of industrial automation and control, which is used widely in environment monitoring, data collection and operation control, etc. This thesis proposes a TDMA-based real-time delay routing, with emergency data, for IWSN. Two-hop neighbor information is used from the two-hop velocity-based routing. TDMA is adopted to guarantee a deterministic timing restriction for a real-time requirement. The proposed protocol also considers the link quality to guarantee the reliability of transmission. The proposed protocol is simulated on the OPNET Modeler, and the evaluation results show a low end-to-end delay and a high reliable delivery. In addition, a significantly better performance is shown for emergency data as compared to that for regular data. Copyright © 2013 IFSA.
Automatic local Gaussian distribution fitting level set active contour for welding flaw extraction

In welding inspection and control, radiography imaging technique is one of the most popular methods used in this area. It has a vital role in the detection and the extraction of flaws which may affect the well functioning of many systems. Radiography image processing becomes a difficult task with conventional methods due to the low contrast between flaws and its background, non uniform illumination and the presence of diverse kinds of noises. In this paper we propose an automatic method for weld flaw detection in radiography images based on level set active contour. A saliency map computed based on spectral residual features is utilized to initialize the zero level set contour in the neighbors to desired objects. Then, the obtained contour is evolved toward flaw boundaries using a robust level set active contour based on a local Gaussian distribution fitting approach. Experimental results shows effectiveness and high performance in flaw segmentation of different radiography images.
The Japanese medaka, Oryzias latipes, as a new model organism for studying environmental germ-cell mutagenesis.

The effects of genotoxic substances on ecosystems should be assessed using various test systems with multiple genetic end points. The most widely used test system has been the specific-locus test developed by W.L. Russell, using the mouse. We are developing a new, nonmammalian test system using the Japanese medaka, Oryzias latipes. We have examined 625,926 embryos that correspond to 1,586,649 loci. In the medaka test system, four genetic end points are evaluated: dominant lethals, total mutations, viable mutations, and malformations. Because the medaka is an oviparous experimental animal, we were able to determine that approximately 90% of spontaneous as well as gamma-ray-induced total mutants died during development, irrespective of spermatogenesis stages at the time of exposure. Exposure of sperm and spermatids to ethylnitrosourea (ENU) also resulted in embryonic death of approximately 90% of total mutants. In sharp contrast, approximately 90% of total mutants recovered from ENU-exposed spermatogonia became viable mutants. These results indicate that the quantitative relationship between induction of specific-locus mutations and dominant lethals remains the same among spermatogenesis stages for gamma-rays, while it is biased excessively to the induction of specific-locus mutations in ENU-exposed spermatogonia. Thus, the assessment should integrate at least two factors, agent-specific and species-specific effects.
Kinematic analysis and synthesis of the human arm motion during a manipulation task

Research in the field of human kinematic analysis has gained interest in recent years and has fostered new ideas and expectations. Next generation manipulators are expected to resemble a human-like behaviour at kinematic level, in order to avoid any unease or discomfort (like fear or shock) to the nearby humans. In this work, a kinematic experimental approach to study and synthesize the motion of the human arm is presented. In particular, the proposed scenario will be used to study how humans exploit the kinematic redundancy of their arms, for a future use in a robotic controller. A simple, yet accurate, method for human-like redundancy resolution in robotic manipulators is developed and verified.
Time Variability in the X-Ray Nebula Powered by Pulsar B1509–58

We use new and archival Chandra and ROSAT data to study the time variability of the X-ray emission from the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) powered by PSR B1509-58 on timescales of 1 week to 12 yr. There is variability in the size, number, and brightness of compact knots appearing within 20'' of the pulsar, with at least one knot showing a possible outflow velocity of ~0.6c (assuming a distance to the source of 5.2 kpc). The transient nature of these knots may indicate that they are produced by turbulence in the flows surrounding the pulsar. A previously identified prominent jet extending 12 pc to the southeast of the pulsar increased in brightness by 30% over 9 yr; apparent outflow of material along this jet is observed with a velocity of ~0.5c. However, outflow alone cannot account for the changes in the jet on such short timescales. Magnetohydrodynamic sausage or kink instabilities are feasible explanations for the jet variability, with timescales of ~1.3-2 yr. An arc structure located 30''-45'' north of the pulsar shows transverse structural variations and appears to have moved inward with a velocity of ~0.03c over 3 yr. The overall structure and brightness of the diffuse PWN exterior to this arc and excluding the jet has remained the same over the 12 yr span. The photon indices of the diffuse PWN and possibly the jet steepen with increasing radius, likely indicating synchrotron cooling at X-ray energies.
MetaThink: A MOF-based metacognitive modeling tool

Metacognition has been used in artificial intelligence to increase the level of autonomy of intelligent systems. However the design of systems with metacognitive skills is a difficult task due to the number and complexity of processes involved. This paper describes a MOF-based visual metacognitive modeling tool named MetaThink. MetaThink has a core based on a metacognitive metamodel named MISM. MetaThink was validated using the Tracing technique and the metacognitive models obtained from the validation process were consistent with MISM.