Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Decreased trunk angular displacement during sitting down: an early feature of aging.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Trunk motion plays an important role in achieving both sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit transfers. However, these 2 body transfers depend on different postural and mechanical constraints. Although the effects of aging on sit-to-stand transfers have been widely studied, there is a lack of information concerning stand-to-sit transfers. The aim of this study was to determine how angular displacements of the trunk and shank are affected by aging during sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit transfers. SUBJECTS Ten community-dwelling older adults (mean age=75.9 years, SD=3.2) and 9 young adults (mean age=26.8 years, SD=4.7) volunteered to participate. METHODS Maximal angular displacements of the trunk and shank with respect to the vertical (ie, orientation angles) were measured, during standing up and sitting down, using an optoelectronic movement analyzer. RESULTS For standing up, there was no difference between the young and older adults with regard to both maximal orientation angles. During sitting down, the maximal shank orientation angle was not affected by age, whereas the older adults had a smaller trunk motion compared with the young adults (approximately 10 degrees less). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The results showed that older adults tended to minimize the forward body displacement during sitting down. This strategy could be seen as an adaptive mechanism to decrease the risk of anterior disequilibrium. The authors suggest that this feature could be used as an early marker of aging on postural control.
Active Learning from Crowds with Unsure Option

Learning from crowds, where the labels of data instances are collected using a crowdsourcing way, has attracted much attention during the past few years. In contrast to a typical crowdsourcing setting where all data instances are assigned to annotators for labeling, active learning from crowds actively selects a subset of data instances and assigns them to the annotators, thereby reducing the cost of labeling. This paper goes a step further. Rather than assume all annotators must provide labels, we allow the annotators to express that they are unsure about the assigned data instances. By adding the "unsure" option, the workloads for the annotators are somewhat reduced, because saying "unsure" will be easier than trying to provide a crisp label for some difficult data instances. Moreover, it is safer to use "unsure" feedback than to use labels from reluctant annotators because the latter has more chance to be misleading. Furthermore, different annotators may experience difficulty in different data instances, and thus the unsure option provides a valuable ingredient for modeling crowds' expertise. We propose the ALCU-SVM algorithm for this new learning problem. Experimental studies on simulated and real crowdsourcing data show that, by exploiting the unsure option, ALCU-SVM achieves very promising performance.
The ε-Subunit of Mitochondrial ATP Synthase Is Required for Normal Spindle Orientation During the Drosophila Embryonic Divisions

We describe the maternal-effect and zygotic phenotypes of null mutations in the Drosophila gene for the ε-subunit of mitochondrial ATP synthase, stunted (sun). Loss of zygotic sun expression leads to a dramatic delay in the growth rate of first instar larvae and ultimately death. Embryos lacking maternally supplied sun (sun embryos) have a sixfold reduction in ATP synthase activity. Cellular analysis of sun embryos shows defects only after the nuclei have migrated to the cortex. During the cortical divisions the actin-based metaphase and cellularization furrows do not form properly, and the nuclei show abnormal spacing and division failures. The most striking abnormality is that nuclei and spindles form lines and clusters, instead of adopting a regular spacing. This is reflected in a failure to properly position neighboring nonsister centrosomes during the telophase-to-interphase transition of the cortical divisions. Our study is consistent with a role for Sun in mitochondrial ATP synthesis and suggests that reduced ATP levels selectively affect molecular motors. As Sun has been identified as the ligand for the Methuselah receptor that regulates aging, Sun may function both within and outside mitochondria.
Deming, Theil-Sen, and Passing-Bablock Regression

Least squares regression of y on x assumes that the x variate is measured without error, and minimizes the sum of squared vertical distance between the data points y and the fitted regression line. Regression of x on y minimizes the horizontal distances. Adcock [1] in 1878 suggested minimizing the sum of squared horizontal + vertical distances to the predicted values. However the idea of Adcock remained largely unnoticed for more than 50 years, until it was widely propogated in the book by Deming [2]. The latter has become so well known that the common label for the method is “Deming regression” in nearly all fields in which it is used. There are a number of alternate ways to compute this regression line. The Deming line will be the first principle component of the centered data, the first eignevector of the matrix Z whose 2 columns are the centered x and y vectors, or the first component of a singular value decomposition or factor analysis of Z. A partial least squares (PLS) or structural equation modeling (SEM) model fit to x and y will also recover the Deming estimate of slope. There would appear to be little need for yet another program to compute this quantity other than providing a recognizable name to search for in the R libraries. For laboratory work, however, it is the generalized Deming method that is of most interest. Returning to our original
Salt Stress Affects the Redox Status of Arabidopsis Root Meristems

We report the redox status (profiles) for specific populations of cells that comprise the Arabidopsis root tip. For recently germinated, 3–5-day-old seedlings we show that the region of the root tip with the most reduced redox status includes the root cap initials, the quiescent center and the most distal portion of the proximal meristem, and coincides with (overlays) the region of the auxin maximum. As one moves basally, further into the proximal meristem, and depending on the growth conditions, the redox status becomes more oxidized, with a 5–10 mV difference in redox potential between the two borders delimiting the proximal meristem. At the point on the root axis at which cells of the proximal meristem cease division and enter the transition zone, the redox potential levels off, and remains more or less unchanged throughout the transition zone. As cells leave the transition zone and enter the zone of elongation the redox potentials become more oxidized. Treating roots with salt (50, 100, and 150 mM NaCl) results in marked changes in root meristem structure and development, and is preceded by changes in the redox profile, which flattens, and initially becomes more oxidized, with pronounced changes in the redox potentials of the root cap, the root cap initials and the quiescent center. Roots exposed to relatively mild levels of salt (<100 mM) are able to re-establish a normal, pre-salt treatment redox profile 3–6 days after exposure to salt. Coincident with the salt-associated changes in redox profiles are changes in the distribution of auxin transporters (AUX1, PIN1/2), which become more diffuse in their localization. We conclude that salt stress affects root meristem maintenance, in part, through changes in redox and auxin transport.
Role of filler alloy composition on laser arc hybrid weldability of nickel-base IN738 superalloy

Abstract Laser arc hybrid weldability study was performed on nickel-base IN738 superalloy using nickel-base filler alloys of various compositions. Propensity for heat affected zone (HAZ) intergranular liquation cracking in the weldments was observed to vary depending on the Al+Ti+Nb+Ta concentration of the weld metals produced by the different filler alloys. Detailed study, including SEM and TEM analyses, thermodynamic calculations and microhardness evaluation revealed that variation in HAZ cracking susceptibility of IN738 superalloy when different filler alloys are used during laser arc hybrid welding can be attributed to variation in the extent of precipitation hardening produced in the weld metals. Additionally, shrinkage, and the consequent volumetric changes, due to γ′ precipitation in the weld metals could have contributed to excessive tensile loading of the crack susceptible HAZ and aided intergranular liquation cracking.
SwisTrack - a flexible open source tracking software for multi-agent systems

Vision-based tracking is used in nearly all robotic laboratories for monitoring and extracting of agent positions, orientations, and trajectories. However, there is currently no accepted standard software solution available, so many research groups resort to developing and using their own custom software. In this paper, we present version 4 of SwisTrack, an open source project for simultaneous tracking of multiple agents. While its broad range of pre-implemented algorithmic components allows it to be used in a variety of experimental applications, its novelty stands in its highly modular architecture. Advanced users can therefore also implement additional customized modules which extend the functionality of the existing components within the provided interface. This paper introduces SwisTrack and shows experiments with both marked and marker-less agents.
Genetic Algorithm and Graph Partitioning

Hybrid genetic algorithms (GAs) for the graph partitioning problem are described. The algorithms include a fast local improvement heuristic. One of the novel features of these algorithms is the schema preprocessing phase that improves GAs' space searching capability, which in turn improves the performance of GAs. Experimental tests on graph problems with published solutions showed that the new genetic algorithms performed comparable to or better than the multistart Kernighan-Lin algorithm and the simulated annealing algorithm. Analyses of some special classes of graphs are also provided showing the usefulness of schema preprocessing and supporting the experimental results.
The Amount of TMJ Displacement Correlates with Brain Activity

Abstract The aim of this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was to investigate the correlation between the severity of malocclusion and brain activation. The fMRI was used to measure blood-oxygenation- level-dependent (BOLD) signals of twelve healthy human subjects while they clenched in two different ways to simulate two types of malocclusion. In each malocclusion model, a custom-made splint forced the mandible to each of two retrusive positions (0.5 mm, 0.7 mm). A no-modification splint provided the control. We compared the BOLD signals measured at each clenching position with those measured during the corresponding resting conditions. The BOLD signals were significantly stronger in the amygdala and the prefrontal area (PFA) when subjects clenched in the two retrusive positions compared during clenching in the control position. In addition, the BOLD signal in the PFA increased as the simulated malocclusion became more severe. These results indicate that we may be able to objectively assess the severity of malocclusion via focus on the brain activity.
State of the art for scheduling and analyzing self-suspending sporadic real-time tasks

In computing systems, a job/process/task/thread may suspend itself when it has to wait for some other internal or external activities, such as computation offloading or memory accesses, to finish before it can continue its execution. In the literature, there are two commonly adopted self-suspending sporadic task models in real-time systems: 1) the dynamic self-suspension model and 2) the segmented self-suspension sporadic task model. A dynamic self-suspending sporadic task is specified with an upper bound on the maximum suspension time for a job (task instance), which allows a job to dynamically suspend itself arbitrary often as long as the suspension time upper bound is not violated. By contrast, a segmented self-suspending sporadic task has a predefined execution and suspension pattern in an interleaving manner. The dynamic self-suspension model is very flexible but inaccurate, whilst the segmented self-suspension model is very restrictive but very accurate. The gap between these two widely-adopted self-suspension task models can be potentially filled by the hybrid self-suspension task model. The investigation of the impact of self-suspension on timing predictability has been started in 1988. This survey paper provides a short summary of the state of the art in the design and analysis of scheduling algorithms and schedulability tests for self-suspending tasks in real-time systems.
Positioning of Nuclei in Arabidopsis Root Hairs

In growing Arabidopsis root hairs, the nucleus locates at a fixed distance from the apex, migrates to a random position during growth arrest, and moves from branch to branch in a mutant with branched hairs. Consistently, an artificial increase of the distance between the nucleus and the apex, achieved by entrapment of the nucleus in a laser beam, stops cell growth. Drug studies show that microtubules are not involved in the positioning of the nucleus but that subapical fine F-actin between the nucleus and the hair apex is required to maintain the nuclear position with respect to the growing apex. Injection of an antibody against plant villin, an actin filament-bundling protein, leads to actin filament unbundling and movement of the nucleus closer to the apex. Thus, the bundled actin at the tip side of the nucleus prevents the nucleus from approaching the apex. In addition, we show that the basipetal movement of the nucleus at root hair growth arrest requires protein synthesis and a functional actin cytoskeleton in the root hair tube.
CLAM, yet another library for audio and music processing?

CLAM (C++ Library for Audio and Music) is a framework that aims to offer extensible, generic and efficient design and implementation solutions for developing Audio and Music applications as well as for doing more complex research related with the field. Although similar libraries exist, some particularities make CLAM of high interest for anyone interested in the field.
Inactivation of pRB-related proteins p130 and p107 mediated by the J domain of simian virus 40 large T antigen

Inactivation of the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein (pRB) contributes to tumorigenesis in a wide variety of cancers. In contrast, the role of the two pRB-related proteins, p130 and p107, in oncogenic transformation is unclear. The LXCXE domain of simian virus 40 large T antigen (TAg) specifically binds to pRB, p107, and p130. We have previously shown that the N terminus and the LXCXE domain of TAg cooperate to alter the phosphorylation state of p130 and p107. Here, we demonstrate that TAg promotes the degradation of p130 and that the N terminus of TAg is required for this activity. The N terminus of TAg has homology to the J domain of the DnaJ family of molecular chaperone proteins. Mutants with mutations in the J-domain homology region of TAg are defective for altering p130 and p107 phosphorylation and for p130 degradation. A heterologous J-domain from a human DnaJ protein can functionally substitute for the N terminus of TAg in the effect on p107 and p130 phosphorylation and p130 stability. We further demonstrate that the J-domain homology region of TAg confers a growth advantage to wild-type mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) but is dispensable in the case of MEFs lacking both p130 and p107. This indicates that p107 and p130 have overlapping growth-suppressing activities whose inactivation is mediated by the J domain of TAg.
Magnesium phosphate cements for endodontic applications with improved long-term sealing ability.

AIM To characterize three radiopaque Magnesium Phosphate Cements (MPCs) developed for endodontic purposes. METHODOLOGY Three experimental MPCs containing Bi2 O3 were formulated. The experimental cements, which consisted of mixtures of magnesium oxide with different phosphate salts, were characterized for setting time, injectability, porosity, compressive strength and phase composition. The long-term sealing ability of the experimental MPCs applied in single-rooted teeth as root canal filling material or as sealer in combination with gutta-percha was also assessed using a highly sensitive fluid filtration system. A mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) cement was used as control. Statistical analysis was performed with two- or three-way analysis of variance (anova) and Tukey's test was used for comparisons. RESULTS The addition of 10 wt% Bi2 O3 within the composition of the MPCs provided an adequate radiopacity for endodontic applications according to ISO 6876 standard. The reaction products resulting from the MPCs were either struvite (MgNH4 PO4 ·6H2 O) or an amorphous sodium magnesium phosphate. The porosity of the three MPCs ranged between 4% and 11%. The initial setting time of the experimental cements was between 6 and 9 min, attaining high early compressive strength values (17-34 MPa within 2 h). All MPC formulations achieved greater sealing ability than MTA (P < 0.05) after 3 months, which was maintained after 6 months for two of the experimental cements (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS These MPCs had adequate handling and mechanical properties and low degradation rates. Furthermore, a stable sealing ability was demonstrated up to 6 months when using the cement both as root filling material and as sealer in conjunction with gutta-percha.
swDMR: A Sliding Window Approach to Identify Differentially Methylated Regions Based on Whole Genome Bisulfite Sequencing

DNA methylation is a widespread epigenetic modification that plays an essential role in gene expression through transcriptional regulation and chromatin remodeling. The emergence of whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) represents an important milestone in the detection of DNA methylation. Characterization of differential methylated regions (DMRs) is fundamental as well for further functional analysis. In this study, we present swDMR (http://sourceforge.net/projects/swdmr/) for the comprehensive analysis of DMRs from whole genome methylation profiles by a sliding window approach. It is an integrated tool designed for WGBS data, which not only implements accessible statistical methods to perform hypothesis test adapted to two or more samples without replicates, but false discovery rate was also controlled by multiple test correction. Downstream analysis tools were also provided, including cluster, annotation and visualization modules. In summary, based on WGBS data, swDMR can produce abundant information of differential methylated regions. As a convenient and flexible tool, we believe swDMR will bring us closer to unveil the potential functional regions involved in epigenetic regulation.
The Influence of Aspect Ratio of Voids on the Effective Elastic Moduli of Foamed Metals

An analytical methodology is developed to study the influence of void's aspect ratio on the overall elastic behavior of foamed materials. The method developed for the prediction of the effective elastic moduli is based upon Eshelby's equivalent inclusion method and Mori-Tanaka theory. Analysis results with foamed aluminum as demonstration of the effectiveness of the proposed methodology indicate that the effective longitudinal elastic modulus Ē11, the effective shear moduli Ḡl2 and Ḡ13 and effective Poisson's ratio v̄12 appear to increase with the increment of void's aspect ratio. Meanwhile, the effective transverse elastic moduli Ē22 and Ē33, the effective out-plane shear modulus Ḡ23, and the effective Poisson's ratios v̄21 as well as v̄23 decrease with increasing aspect ratio of the void. The numerical results correlate well with experimental data, demonstrating the accuracy of the proposed methodology with respect to predicting elastic moduli of foamed materials.
Cycles and trends in the recent eruptive behaviour of Mount Etna (Italy)

Mount Etna is among the few volcanoes on Earth that erupt nearly continuously, but its activity (in terms of output rate and flank eruption frequency) undergoes significant fluctuations in time. Such fluctuations do not occur randomly, but represent various stages of cycles on a scale of decades and centuries. Recurrent patterns are particularly evident since 1865, with four complete cycles and a fifth one initiated in 1993. Each cycle consists of three phases, beginning with low-level activity followed by nearly continuous summit activity and culminating with a series of flank eruptions, the last commonly being the most voluminous. A distinct increase in the output rate of Etna, along with more frequent and voluminous summit and flank eruptions since 1950, may be interpreted as part of a longer cycle that began after a large eruption in 1669 and has not yet reached its culminating phase. If that trend continues, the activity of Etna might become similar to that of the 17th century, when flank eruptions were more voluminous than they have been since; however, it is difficult to assess when this will take place. Resume : Le mont Etna est parmi les quelques volcans au monde qui font eruption presque continuellement, mais son activite (en termes taux d'emission et de frequence d'eruption des flancs) fluctue beaucoup dans le temps. De telles fluctuations ne se produisent pas de facon aleatoire mais representent divers stages de cycles sur une echelle de decennies et de siecles. Les patrons recurrents sont particulierement evidents depuis 1865 avec quatre cycles complets et un cinquieme cycle qui a debute en 1993. Chaque cycle comprend trois phases; il commence avec de l'activite de bas niveau, suivi d'une activite presque continuelle au sommet et culmine avec une serie d'eruptions de flanc dont la derniere est habituellement la plus volumineuse. Une augmentation sensible du taux d'emission de l'Etna et de plus frequentes et de plus volumineuses eruptions au sommet et sur les flancs depuis 1950 peuvent etre interpretees comme une partie d'un cycle plus long qui a debute apres une grande eruption en 1669 et qui n'a pas encore atteint sa phase culminante. Si cette tendance se maintient, l'activite de l'Etna pourrait devenir semblable a celle du 17 e siecle, alors que des eruptions de flanc ont ete plus volumineuses que jamais depuis ce temps-la; il est toutefois difficile d'evaluer quand cela aura lieu. (Traduit par la Redaction) Behncke and Neri 1411
Searching dynamic point sets in spaces with bounded doubling dimension

We present a new data structure that facilitates approximate nearest neighbor searches on a dynamic set of points in a metric space that has a bounded doubling dimension. Our data structure has linear size and supports insertions and deletions in O(log n) time, and finds a (1+ε)-approximate nearest neighbor in time O(log n) + (1/ε)O(1). The search and update times hide multiplicative factors that depend on the doubling dimension; the space does not. These performance times are independent of the aspect ratio (or spread) of the points.