Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reliable computation of minimum-time motions for manipulators moving in obstacle fields using a successive search for minimum-overload trajectories

In this paper we present a practical method for finding obstacle-free minimum-time motions for manipulators subject to the limits of velocity-dependent actuator forces. An optimal motion-planning problem is converted into a finite-dimensional nonlinear programming problem by means of parameter optimization with quintic B-splines. We introduce the concept of the minimum-overload trajectory in which the motion time is specified to be faster than the actuators can handle, and the actuator overloads are minimized with the motion time fixed. By successive searches for minimum-overload trajectories, minimum-time motions are determined for three example manipulators without simplifying any of the kinematic, dynamic or geometric properties of the manipulators or the obstacles. In the resultant minimum-time motions, almost all of the joint actuators are close to saturation during the motions. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Screening of key genes to identify the novel mechanism of osteosarcoma based on the analysis of gene expression profiles

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common primary malignancy of the bone. The aim of the present study was to identify the key genes to uncover the novel mechanism of OS at a molecular level. The differentially-expressed genes (DEGs) between the OS and control groups were identified by analyzing the GSE32395 microarray data using Student's t-test. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways and Gene Ontology enrichment analyses, including biological process, cellular component and molecular function categories, were performed using the online Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed using Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes and was visualized by Cytoscape. The 100 upregulated and 83 downregulated DEGs were significantly enriched in the glycosaminoglycan biosynthesis-chondroitin sulfate and cell adhesion molecules pathways, respectively. A PPI network with 51 nodes and 84 interactions was constructed. DEGs in the PPI network were significantly enriched in the glycosaminoglycan biosynthesis-chondroitin sulfate pathway, in the regulation of mitosis process and in microtubule motor activity function. Centromere-associated protein E (CENPE), protein regulator of cytokinesis 1 (PRC1), phosphotyrosine picked threonine-protein kinase (TTK) and polo-like kinase 4 (PLK4) exhibited a high degree of connectivity in the PPI network. The glycosaminoglycan biosynthesis-chondroitin sulfate pathway, the regulation of mitosis biology process and microtubule motor activity are crucial for the progression of OS. The interaction between CENPE and PRC1 may play a pivotal role in the progression of OS. The interaction of TTK with PLK4 may play a key role in the proliferation of OS cells. These genes may be potential biomarkers for OS diagnosis and therapy.
Circulating TNF Receptors Are Significant Prognostic Biomarkers for Idiopathic Membranous Nephropathy

Idiopathic membranous nephropathy (iMN) is a common cause of nephrotic syndrome in adults. A biomarker to accurately indicate the severity of iMN and predict long-term prognosis is insufficient. Here, we evaluated the clinical significance of circulating tumor necrosis factor receptors (cTNFRs) as prognostic biomarkers of iMN with nephrotic syndrome. A total of 113 patients with biopsy-proven iMN and 43 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study. Ninety patients with iMN had nephrotic range proteinuria. Levels of cTNFRs were measured by using serum samples collected at the time of initial diagnosis. Levels of cTNFRs were higher in the patients with nephrotic syndrome than in those with subnephrotic range proteinuria or in the healthy volunteers (P for trend <0.001). Estimated glomerular filtration rate and proteinuria tended to worsen as the cTNFRs levels increased. Having a cTNFR1 level within the highest tertile was a significant risk factor for renal progression after adjustment, in comparison with the other tertiles (hazard ratio [HR], 3.39; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.48–7.78; P = 0.004). The cTNFR2 level within the highest tertile also significantly increased the risk of renal progression (HR, 3.29; 95% CI, 1.43–7.54; P = 0.005). Renal tubular TNFRs expression was associated with cTNFRs level. However, the cTNFRs levels were not associated with autoantibody against phospholipase A2 receptor reactivity/levels or treatment response. This study demonstrated that cTNFRs levels at the time of initial diagnosis could predict renal progression in patients with iMN.
Measuring socioeconomic disparities in cancer incidence in Tehran, 2008.

BACKGROUND Health disparities exist among and within countries, while developing and low income countries suffer more. The aim of this study was to quantify cancer disparities with regard to socioeconomic position (SEP) in 22 districts of Tehran, Iran. METHOD According to the national cancer registry, 7599 new cancer cases were recorded within 22 districts of Tehran in 2008. Based on combined data from census and a population-based health equity study (Urban HEART), socioeconomic position (SEP) was calculated for each district. Index of disparity, absolute and relative concentration indices (ACI and RCI) were used for measuring disparities in cancer incidence. RESULTS The overall cancer age standardised rate (ASR) was 117.2 per 100,000 individuals (120.4 for men and 113.5 for women). Maximum ASR in both genders was seen in districts 6, 3, 1 and 2. Breast, colorectal, stomach, skin and prostate were the most common cancers. Districts with higher SEP had higher ASR (r=0.9, p<0.001). Positive ACI and RCI indicated that cancer cases accumulated in districts with high SEP. Female disparity was greater than for men in all measures. Breast, colorectal, prostate and bladder ASR ascended across SEP groups. Negative ACI and RCI in cervical and skin cancers in women indicate their aggregation in lower SEP groups. Breast cancer had the highest absolute disparities measure. CONCLUSION This report provides an appropriate guide and new evidence on disparities across geographical, demographic and particular SEP groups. Higher ASR in specific districts warrants further research to investigate the background predisposing factors.
Modeling Traverse Feature in Concurrent Software System with UML Statecharts

An approach on modeling traversing features in concurrent software system was presented, which is based on aspect-oriented techniques and statecharts of unified modeling language (UML). Modeled with UML statecharts diagrams, the primary system functions and corresponding traversal features are enveloped into various orthogonal regions of a composite state respectively. The mutual relationships between orthogonal regions are implied by the orders of broadcast events. With modular transition system, a basic computational model, the formalization description of aspect-oriented statechart models was proposed. The precise semantics of model elements and modeling procedures was also given. The case study indicates that the strategy of separation of traversing features is implemented in design phrase of concurrent software system with this method. And, the advantages of this software modeling approach are loose couple, adaptability and traceability.
Vertex-Pursuit in Random Directed Acyclic Graphs

We examine a dynamic model for the disruption of information flow in hierarchical social networks by considering the vertex-pursuit game Seepage played in directed acyclic graphs (DAGs). In Seepage, agents attempt to block the movement of an intruder who moves downward from the source node to a sink. The minimum number of such agents required to block the intruder is called the green number. We propose a generalized stochastic model for DAGs with given expected total degree sequence. Seepage and the green number are analyzed in stochastic DAGs in both the cases of a regular and power law degree sequence. For each such sequence, we give asymptotic bounds (and in certain instances, precise values) for the green number.
Activation of CREB in the Nucleus Accumbens Shell Produces Anhedonia and Resistance to Extinction of Fear in Rats

Stress triggers psychiatric conditions including depressive and anxiety disorders. The mechanisms by which stress produces persistent changes in behavior are not fully understood. Here we show in rats that stress (footshock) activates the transcription factor cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) within the nucleus accumbens shell (NAS), a brain area involved in encoding reward and aversion. To examine the behavioral significance of altered CREB function in the NAS, we used viral vectors to elevate or disrupt CREB in this region. Elevated CREB produced increases in intracranial self-stimulation thresholds, a depressive-like sign reflecting anhedonia (decreased sensitivity to reward), whereas disruption of CREB function by expression of a dominant-negative CREB had the opposite effect. To determine whether neuroadaptations that produce anhedonia subsequently affect vulnerability to stress-induced behavioral adaptations, we subjected rats with altered CREB function in the NAS to fear conditioning. Although neither elevation nor disruption of CREB function altered the development of conditioned fear, elevation of CREB impaired extinction of conditioned fear. To mimic downstream effects of CREB activation on expression of the opioid peptide dynorphin, we microinjected the κ-opioid receptor (KOR) agonist U50,488 directly into the NAS. KOR stimulation produced anhedonia but had no effect on expression or extinction of conditioned fear. These findings demonstrate that activation of CREB in the NAS produces multiple behavioral signs (anhedonia, impaired extinction) characteristic of experience-dependent psychiatric conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder. Although CREB activation is a common trigger, expression of these individual signs appears to involve divergent downstream mechanisms.
CS‐EWMA Chart for Monitoring Process Dispersion

Control charts are the most extensively used technique to detect the presence of special cause variations in processes. They can be classified into memory and memoryless control charts. Cumulative sum and exponentially weighted moving average control charts are memory‐type control charts as their control structures are developed in such a way that the past information is not ignored as it is done in the case of memoryless control charts, like the Shewhart‐type control charts. The present study is based on the proposal of a new memory‐type control chart for process dispersion. This chart is named as CS‐EWMA chart as its plotting statistic is based on a cumulative sum of the exponentially weighted moving averages. Comparisons with other memory charts used to monitor the process dispersion are done by means of the average run length. An illustration of the proposed technique is done by applying the CS‐EWMA chart on a simulated dataset. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A human face detection system based on Schneiderman-Kanade method

Face detection is a computer technology that determines the locations and sizes of human faces in arbitrary (digital) images. It detects facial features and ignores anything else, such as buildings, trees and other parts of the body. In this paper, we present a face detection system based on the Schneiderman-Kanade method. This system is trained using visual attributes extracted from training samples.
Approaches to Maintain Bi-connectivity for Resilience in Overlaid Multicasting

Application layer multicast (ALM) also called Overlay Multicast, is an attractive alternative solution to most of the problems associated with IP multicast. In ALM, multicast-related functionalities are moved to end-hosts. Application layer multicast builds a peerto-peer (P2P) overlay topology consisting of end-toend unicast connections between end-hosts. The key advantages, overlays offer, are flexibility, adaptability and ease of deployment [1]. The general approach to build an application layer multicast architecture involves tracking network characteristics and building appropriate topologies by allowing the end users to self organize into logical overlay networks for efficient data delivery. The major concern in designing ALM protocol is the mechanism to build and maintain a topology and to route data efficiently and reliably in this topology. We propose here a two-fold dynamic overlay tree construction and maintenance scheme in which a mesh-like topology is first built, where an arriving host connects to two already connected hosts. This ensures that two node and link disjoint paths are always maintained between every possible pair of nodes. Once the mesh is formed, on top of it, a single or multiple data delivery tree(s) are built using a suitable protocol. An algorithm is run in the nodes of the overlay topology to maintain the biconnectivity by inserting new links and deleting the redundant links as a continuous process.
Sound Localization using Compressive Sensing

In a sensor network with remote sensor devices, it is important to have a method that can accurately localize a sound event with a small amount of data transmitted from the sensors. In this paper, we propose a novel method for localization of a sound source using compressive sensing. Instead of sampling a large amount of data at the Nyquist sampling rate in time domain, the acoustic sensors take compressive measurements integrated in time. The compressive measurements can be used to accurately compute the location of a sound source.
Proving Programs Correct Using Plain Old Java Types

Tools for constructing proofs of correctness of programs have a long history of development in the research community, but have often faced difficulty in being widely deployed in software development tools. In this paper, we demonstrate that the off-the-shelf Java type system is already powerful enough to encode non-trivial proofs of correctness using propositional Hoare preconditions and postconditions. We illustrate the power of this method by adapting Fahndrich and Leino’s work on monotone typestates and Myers and Qi’s closely related work on object initialization. Our approach is expressive enough to address phased initialization protocols and the creation of cyclic data structures, thus allowing for the elimination of null and the special status of constructors. To our knowledge, our system is the first that is able to statically validate standard one-pass traversal algorithms for cyclic graphs, such as those that underlie object deserialization. Our proof of correctness is mechanized using the Java type system, without any extensions to the Java language.
The CCR2 Inhibitor Propagermanium Attenuates Diet-Induced Insulin Resistance, Adipose Tissue Inflammation and Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis

Background and aim Obese patients with chronic inflammation in white adipose tissue (WAT) have an increased risk of developing non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The C-C chemokine receptor-2 (CCR2) has a crucial role in the recruitment of immune cells to WAT and liver, thereby promoting the inflammatory component of the disease. Herein, we examined whether intervention with propagermanium, an inhibitor of CCR2, would attenuate tissue inflammation and NASH development. Methods Male C57BL/6J mice received a high-fat diet (HFD) for 0, 6, 12 and 24 weeks to characterize the development of early disease symptoms of NASH, i.e. insulin resistance and WAT inflammation (by hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp and histology, respectively) and to define the optimal time point for intervention. In a separate study, mice were pretreated with HFD followed by propagermanium treatment (0.05% w/w) after 6 weeks (early intervention) or 12 weeks (late intervention). NASH was analyzed after 24 weeks of diet feeding. Results Insulin resistance in WAT developed after 6 weeks of HFD, which was paralleled by modest WAT inflammation. Insulin resistance and inflammation in WAT intensified after 12 weeks of HFD, and preceded NASH development. The subsequent CCR2 intervention experiment showed that early, but not late, propagermanium treatment attenuated insulin resistance. Only the early treatment significantly decreased Mcp-1 and CD11c gene expression in WAT, indicating reduced WAT inflammation. Histopathological analysis of liver demonstrated that propagermanium treatment decreased macrovesicular steatosis and tended to reduce lobular inflammation, with more pronounced effects in the early intervention group. Propagermanium improved the ratio between pro-inflammatory (M1) and anti-inflammatory (M2) macrophages, quantified by CD11c and Arginase-1 gene expression in both intervention groups. Conclusions Overall, early propagermanium administration was more effective to improve insulin resistance, WAT inflammation and NASH compared to late intervention. These data suggest that therapeutic interventions for NASH directed at the MCP-1/CCR2 pathway should be initiated early.
Image Denoising with Wavelet Markov Fields of Experts

 Abstract—Image denoising methods based on Markov random field (MRF) are often shown over-smooth phenomenon for strong noise image. Wavelet analysis has good time-frequency local ability and preserves the image edge information well for image denoising problem. Based on wavelet analysis and MRF theory, we propose a wavelet markov field of experts (WMFoE) framework to deal with image denoising problems. The noise image is divided into low-frequency and high-frequency component, and MRF are used to deal with low-frequency component. For high-frequency component, a clustering based soft-threshold method is used to remove the noise signal. Then, the restored image can be gotten by reconstruction from different components. Experiment results show that our method not only gets good PSNR and SSIM values but also preserves image edge information especially for strong noise image, compared with BM3D etc. state-of-art methods. 
Predistortion- and development-platform for multi-input RF power amplifiers

We present a real-time digital predistortion (DPD) and RF power amplifier (PA) development platform with separate synchronous and coherent RF channels to evaluate multi-input RF PAs with realistic modulated test signals. The platform is based on a Xilinx FPGA and wideband analog frontends to support signal bandwidths up to 312.5 MHz. We describe both the implemented hardware as e.g. DPD core and digital splitter and the algorithms used to estimate the required DPD parameters. Furthermore we demonstrate the wideband linearization and efficiency optimization capabilities on two different 2 GHz Doherty PAs.
Child Nutritional Status: A Representative Survey in a Metropolitan School

Objective. To assess the prevalence of obesity, overweight, and thinness among children in an Italian school. Methods. Five hundred ninety-five children (289 males and 306 females) were enrolled, aged between 6 and 19 years old, in Italian school in Rome. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated according to International Obesity Task Force (IOFT) cut-off points. By age criterion all participants have been classified in age classes. Results. A normal BMI was recorded in 73.6% of all cases. Obesity, overweight, and thinness prevalence was 5.9%, 9.6%, and 10.9%, respectively, without statistical differences in both genders, except the prevalence of overweight that resulted statistically significant (13.1% males versus 6.2% females, P < 0.05). Differences in the age groups have been found. About 23.4% of children between 7 to 11 years were defined obese and about 42.3% between 6 to 8 years thin grade 2, respectively. Conclusion. The study reports the low prevalence of overweight and obesity, in contrast to the unexpected thinness prevalence. The identification of specific age groups with abnormal nutritional status could be the first step to address future epidemiological investigations in order to plan strategic approach in selected age periods.
Main-Memory Linear Hashing - Some Enhancements of Larson's Algorithm

Linear Hashing has been proposed as a simple and eecient technique for storing and retrieving key sets whose cardinality is not known in advance. Its main advantage is that it allows tables to grow and shrink gracefully without major reorganizations. In this paper, several modiications of the basic scheme are presented, together with performance measurements. It is also shown that the seemingly{popular hashpjw hashing function presented in \the dragon book" can perform fairly poorly if the so{called randomizing mod operation is omitted. A simple and fast hashing function is presented that has performed well in this experiment. When combined, the algorithm changes presented here are shown to yield a performance improvement of roughly a factor of 4:5. The nal version is shown to be about 16% slower than a standard hash table using table doubling on overrow. A sample implementation is provided in the appendix.
A distributed relay node placement strategy based on balanced network lifetime for wireless sensor networks

Placement of relay nodes is a critical issue in provisioning large-scale wireless sensor networks. Lifetime and connectivity are the two most important factors that need to be considered. However, some relay nodes can consume much more energy due to heavier traffic, affecting the balanced lifetime of the whole network. In this paper, we propose a novel two-tiered distributed relay node placement strategy to achieve connectivity under the constraint of the expected network lifetime, while the number of relay nodes is effectively decreased. In the proposed node placement strategy, by dynamically adapting the location and data amount of relay nodes, we guarantee that sensor nodes and relay nodes consume the same amount of energy in each round of data transmission, thus ensuring a more balanced network lifetime. We first calculate the maximized network lifetime, and then achieve the network connectivity by effectively placing relay nodes under this constraint using the proposed strategy. Furthermore, we also propose two algorithms to effectively decrease the number of relay nodes, i.e. data distribution and data aggregation. Extensive experiments provide an in-depth analysis on the different factors affecting the number of relay nodes and the verification of the effectiveness of the proposed node placement strategy under different network lifetimes.