Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Macroscopic modeling of stochastic deployment policies with time delays for robot ensembles

We consider the dynamic assignment and reassignment of a homogeneous robot ensemble to multiple spatially located tasks with deterministic or near-deterministic task execution times. Similar to Halasz et al. and Berman et al., we consider the development of agent-level, i.e. microscopic, stochastic control policies through the analysis of an appropriate macroscopic analytical model that describes the dynamics of the ensemble. Specifically, we present an approach to better approximate the effects of deterministic microscopic time delays at the macroscopic level based on Padé approximants. We present, analyze, and compare the frequency response of our approach to that presented by Berman et al. using different agent-based simulations.
Validation of the Modified Pulmonary Functional Status and Dyspnea Questionnaire and the Medical Research Council scale for use in Brazilian patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

OBJECTIVE To determine the validity and reproducibility of two subjective instruments to assess limitations in activities of daily living (ADLs) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Brazil: the Pulmonary Functional Status and Dyspnea Questionnaire - Modified version (PFSDQ-M) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) scale. METHODS Thirty patients with COPD (age, 67 +/- 10 years; males, 17; forced expiratory volume in one second, 42% +/- 13% of predicted) completed the Portuguese-language versions of the two instruments on two occasions, one week apart. The PFSDQ-M has three components: influence of dyspnea on ADLs, influence of fatigue on ADLs change in ADLs experienced by the patient. The MRC scale is simple, with only five items, in which patients report the degree to which dyspnea limits their performance of ADLs. The traditional Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), previously validated for use in Brazil, was used as a validation criterion. RESULTS The test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient) of the PFSDQ-M was 0.93, 0.92 and 0.90 for dyspnea, fatigue and change components, respectively, compared with 0.83 for the MRC scale. Bland-Altman plots showed good test-retest agreement for the PFSDQ-M. The components of the PFSDQ-M and the MRC scale correlated significantly with all of the domains and the total score of the SGRQ (0.49 < r < 0.80; p < 0.01 for all). CONCLUSIONS The Portuguese-language versions of the PFSDQ-M and the MRC scale proved reproducible and valid for use in patients with COPD in Brazil.
Influence of strain on diffusion at Ge(111) surfaces

The measurement of the density of two-dimensional islands by scanning tunneling microscopy after submonolayer growth is used to determine the strain dependence of surface diffusion. Templates of strained and relaxed Ge surfaces with the same surface reconstruction are prepared for comparison. The diffusion barrier for Ge and Si adatoms is found to increase with increasing compressive strain of the Ge(111) substrate. When the strain increases from relaxed Ge to Ge strained to the Si lattice constant, the diffusion barrier is estimated to increase by ∼60 meV.
Staphylococcus intermedius Produces a Functional agr Autoinducing Peptide Containing a Cyclic Lactone

ABSTRACT The agr system is a global regulator of accessory functions in staphylococci, including genes encoding exoproteins involved in virulence. The agr locus contains a two-component signal transduction module that is activated by an autoinducing peptide (AIP) encoded within the agr locus and is conserved throughout the genus. The AIP has an unusual partially cyclic structure that is essential for function and that, in all but one case, involves an internal thiolactone bond between a conserved cysteine and the C-terminal carboxyl group. The exceptional case is a strain of Staphylococcus intermedius that has a serine in place of the conserved cysteine. We demonstrate here that the S. intermedius AIP is processed by the S. intermedius AgrB protein to generate a cyclic lactone, that it is an autoinducer as well as a cross-inhibitor, and that all of five other S. intermedius strains examined also produce serine-containing AIPs.
Dental Identification of a Mummified Body using Dental Cast and Prosthesis

Forensic dentistry can significantly contribute to the identification of victims especially in cases of charred, decomposing, mutilated or skeletonized bodies. However, in order to make this procedure technically feasible it is necessary to find dental records produced before death. This study aims to report a case of a mummified body identified through dental traits found within a plaster cast, discussing the legal aspects contained in this procedure. A partially skeletonized body in advanced stage of decomposition, with mummified soft tissue was found. The dental autopsy revealed the presence of teeth with amalgam and composite fillings, and teeth missing ante-mortem (AM) and post-mortem (PM). Specifically, the teeth #16, #17, #26 and #27 showed the presence of cavities compatible with niches for removable dental prosthesis. The relatives of the alleged victim provided the AM data, consisting of registers of clinical exam and an upper dental prosthesis embedded in a plaster cast. The outcomes from the AM/PM dental comparison revealed 15 converging points, 8 similarities, and 7 explainable discrepancies. In addition, the dental prosthesis provided within the plaster cast fit perfectly in the upper dental arch of the corpse, showing that the plaster dentition was casted from the victim. Therefore, it was possible to positively correlate the unidentified body with the potential missing person. The use of dental casts represents a useful tool in forensic odontology considering that these evidences allow a three-dimensional evaluation of the dental arches, revealing unique information for human identifications.
Compact Low Loss Alumina Band-Pass Filter in Ku Band Using Layer-by-Layer Stereolithography Technology

Based on layer-by-layer stereolithography, a small sized 2-pole filter in Ku band is designed and manufactured. Experimental and electrical performances are in good agreement with the computations performed and validate the use of such technology in the fabrication of microwave filters. Employing a standard metallization method for such structures is also confirmed. A 2-pole bandpass filter, of 35 mm area and 2 mm height, is achieved. Nevertheless, the insertion losses are excellent and less than 1 dB while the return losses are better than 20 dB. The unloaded quality factor is 1650. On the other hand, a theoretical study of a 4-pole filter centered at 17.5 GHz is also presented. Index Terms — Stereolithography (SL), resonant cavity, bandpass filter (BPF), unloaded quality factor (Qu), threedimensional (3-D) ceramic technology.
Near-Space Vehicle-Borne SAR With Reflector Antenna for High-Resolution and Wide-Swath Remote Sensing

Near-space is recognized as the atmospheric region from 20 to 100 km above the Earth's surface. Near-space vehicles offer several advantages compared to low earth orbit satellites and airplanes because near-space vehicles are not constrained by orbital mechanics and fuel consumption. These advantages provide potential for future remote sensing applications, but little related work has been published. This paper explains what near-space is and how it should be exploited for remote sensing applications. A near-space vehicle-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) with reflector antenna and digital beamforming on receive is proposed for high-resolution and wide-swath (HRWS) remote sensing. The system configuration, signal model, imaging scheme, system performance, and nadir echo suppression are investigated. An example system is conceptually designed, along with its system performance analysis. It is shown that the near-space vehicle-borne SAR with reflector antenna can operate with high flexibility and reconfigurability, thus enabling a satisfactory HRWS remote sensing performance.
Exercise capacity and stroke volume are preserved late after tetralogy repair, despite severe right ventricular dilatation

Objectives To assess if exercise capacity and resting stroke volume are different in tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) repair survivors with indexed RV (right ventricle) end-diastolic volume (RVEDVi) more versus less than 150 ml/m2, a currently suggested threshold for pulmonary valve replacement (PVR). Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Single-centre adult congenital heart disease unit. Patients 55 consecutively eligible patients with repaired TOF (age at repair 2.3±1.9 years; age at evaluation 26.2±8.8 years; NYHA Class I or II). Interventions Cardiovascular MRI (1.5T) and cardiopulmonary exercise test. Main outcome measures Biventricular volumes and function; exercise capacity. Results 20 patients had RVEDVi below, and 35 had RVEDVi above 150 ml/m2, at time of referral. In the >150 ml/m2 group, fractional pulmonary regurgitation was higher (41±8 vs 31±8%, p<0.001). Although RV ejection fraction (EF) was lower (47±7 vs 54±6%, p=0.007), indexed RV stroke volume was higher (87±14 vs 64±10 ml/m2, p<0.001) in the >150 ml/m2 group. There were no significant differences in LVEF, indexed LV stroke volume or exercise capacity (% predicted peak work: 90±17 vs 89±11% and; % predicted VO2 peak: 84±17 vs 87±12%). Conclusions Exercise capacity and stroke volume are maintained with RVEDVi above compared with below a commonly used cut-off for PVR surgery. Optimal timing for PVR, thus, remains unclear.
Reported family burden of schizophrenia patients in rural China

We aim to assess the level of family burden of schizophrenia patients and identify its predicting factors in a rural community sample of China. A sample of 327 primary caregivers was recruited through a one-stage cluster sampling in Ningxiang County of Hunan province, China. Family burden was assessed using the Family Burden Interview Schedule (FBIS) of Pai and Kapur. Our results showed that the mean score of FBIS was 23.62±9.76 (range, 0–48), with over half (52%) caregivers reported their family burden being moderate and severe. Among the six domains of family burden, financial burden (76%) was the commonest burden, while disruption of family interactions (37%) was the least mentioned. A multivariate analysis of family burden revealed that patient being admitted for over 3 times, caregiver being female, having a middle school education, and with additional dependents, as well as higher care network function were positive predictors of family burden, while higher patient function and family function, and increasing patient age were negative predictors of family burden. Intervention to decrease family burden may be best served by improving family function and exploring alternative care model instead of hospitalization.
Simultaneous tracking and classification: a modularized scheme

The high computational complexity of existing joint tracking and classification (JTC) algorithms hampers their application. After presenting a new description of the JTC problem--simultaneous tracking and classification (STC) instead of JTC, we derive two STC algorithms in both exact and approximate forms by applying Hayes' rule to the target state probability density function (pdf) and target class probability mass function (pmf) simultaneously under the assumption that the kinematic and attribute measurement processes are conditional independent. The mutual information exchange between tracker and classifier of the proposed STC algorithms is introduced by defining the simultaneous pdf-pmf of target state and class, the dependence of kinematic measurement on target class, the dependence of attribute measurement on target state and target model, class-dependent kinematic model sets, and class-dependent flight envelopes, etc. The proposed STC algorithms have four distinctive features. First, they have a modularized structure, i.e., they explicitly integrate a multiple-model filter and a Bayesian classifier. Second, the approximate versions, which follow easily from the proposed STC algorithms thanks to their modularized structure, have a closed form with a lower computational complexity and are more suitable for real-time applications. Third, the proposed exact STC algorithms are derived without the hidden approximation made in some existing multiple-model based JTC algorithms. Fourth, one of the proposed STC algorithms has the potential to further reduce the computational load since it has no redundant motion models. Simulation results suggest that the proposed STC algorithms provide a hopeful solution to a class of STC problems.
A versatile denoising method for images contaminated with Gaussian noise

Proper choice of denoising filter is a very important requirement for efficient image restoration because most of the filters only reduce the effect of the noise rather than removing it. In this paper, a novel algorithm for filtering of gaussian noise based on the statistics of the robust estimation is proposed. The gaussian noise is replaced by either the computed mean of the adaptively increasing localized window frame or the last processed pixel. Improved Robust Statistics are then applied to obtain the final denoised output. The proposed algorithm is objectively evaluated using Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) as figure of merit. Simulation results indicate a marked improvement in the quality of the restored image.
Hestia and Eos: Mapping Female Mobility and Sexuality in Greek Mythic Thought

Abstract:This article focuses on the interaction of mobility and sexuality in the characterization of the goddesses Hestia and Eos. It discusses Hestia’s privilege of “centering” space and argues that it should not be connected to Athenian ideology of women’s “seclusion” in the oikos. The second part focuses on the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite and introduces the goddess Eos, the personification of Dawn, as a special instance of a mobile goddess who is also sexually active. The last section suggests a diachronic shift in the myth of Eos from the Archaic to the Classical period, which might be indicative of stricter social ideologies concerning female sexuality and mobility.
The use of myo-electric currents in the operation of prostheses.

Obviously these and other problems need much research, but the preliminary work already done is promising enough to indicate that a useful and dependable prosthesis could be developed to operate by the use of changes of muscle potential, and that such apparatus could be made light enough for practical use at the work-bench and in the home.
Do projections from bioclimatic envelope models and climate change metrics match

Aim Bioclimatic envelope models are widely used to describe changes in climatically suitable areas for species under future climate scenarios. Climate change metrics are applied independently of species data to characterize the spatio-temporal dynamics of climate, and have also been used as indicators of the exposure of species to climate change. Here, we investigate whether these two approaches provide qualitatively similar indications about where biodiversity is potentially most exposed to climate change. Location Sub-Saharan Africa. Methods We compared a range of climate change metrics for sub-Saharan Africa with ensembles of bioclimatic envelope models for 2723 species of amphibians, snakes, mammals and birds. For each taxonomic group, we performed three comparisons between the two approaches: (1) is projected change in local climatic suitability (models) greater in grid cells with larger temporal differences in local climate (metrics); (2) are projected losses or gains of climatically suitable areas (models) greater for species in grid cells with climates that are projected to be less or more available in the future, respectively (metrics); and (3) are projected shifts in the position of climatically suitable areas (models) greater for species in grid cells with climates projected to move farther in space (metrics)? Results The changes in climatic suitability projected by the bioclimatic envelope models covaried with the climatic changes measured with the metrics. Agreement between the two approaches was found for all taxonomic groups, although it was stronger for species with a narrower climatic envelope breadth. Main conclusions For sub-Saharan African vertebrates, projected patterns of exposure to climate change given by climate change metrics alone were qualitatively comparable to bioclimatic model projections of changes in areas of suitable climate for species. Assessments based on climate change metrics can thus be useful for making first-cut inferences about the potential effects of climate change on regions with poorly known biodiversity.
Seeing and hearing too: Audio representation for video captioning

Video captioning has been widely researched. Most related work takes into account only visual content in generating descriptions. However, auditory content such as human speech or environmental sounds contains rich information for describing scenes, but has yet to be widely explored for video captions. Here, we experiment with different ways to use this auditory content in videos, and demonstrate improved caption generation in terms of popular evaluation methods such as BLEU, CIDEr, and METEOR. We also measure the semantic similarities between generated captions and human-provided ground truth using sentence embeddings, and find that good use of multi-modal contents helps the machine to generate captions that are more semantically related to the ground truth. When analyzing the generated sentences, we find some ambiguous situations for which visual-only models yield incorrect results but that are resolved by approaches that take into account auditory cues.
THE TIME-SERIES PROPERTIES OF THE RISK PREMIUM IN THE YEN/DOLLAR EXCHANGE MARKET

SUMMARY In this paper a VAR model is employed to construct a measure of the conditional expectations of the future yen/dollar spot rate. This measure allows us to examine the dynamics of an ex-ante time-series for the risk premium in the market. The VAR model produces 'better' forecasts than the survey responses for turbulent periods such as 1981-1982 and 1984-1985. The VAR-generated expectations are then used to construct a risk premium time-series. This risk premium ieerie series seems to be more reliable than the ones obtained using either survey data on expectations of the future spot exchange rate or the ex-post realized spot exchange rate. Tests on the risk premium series suggest that a risk premium was present, but that it was virtually constant throughout the sample. The conditional variance of the risk premium changed over time, but its unconditional distribution seemed stable across subsamples. Despite these features, the volatility of the series was substantial and varied considerably throughout the sample.
Tropisetron for Treating Established Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study

Tropisetron can prevent postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) at doses smaller than those used to control chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. In this placebo-controlled study, the efficacy and tolerability of three different doses of tropisetron were compared for the treatment of established PONV after surgical procedures in general anesthesia. Of 1513 patients who satisfied inclusion criteria, 314 experiencing PONV during the first 2 h after recovery from anesthesia were treated with one of three different doses of tropisetron (0.5, 2, or 5 mg) or placebo, administered IV as a single dose. Patients were then observed during 24 h for efficacy and tolerability. All three doses of tropisetron were significantly better than placebo in controlling emetic episodes and in reducing the need for rescue treatment. There were no significant differences among the three doses. However, in the subgroup of patients who had previous PONV, and in those randomized for nausea alone, the 2-mg and 5-mg doses controlled emetic episodes better than the 0.5-mg dose. All studied doses of tropisetron were well tolerated and did not affect vital signs. We conclude that a single IV administration of tropiestron significantly reduces the recurrence of emetic episodes in patients with established PONV after elective surgery with general anesthesia. Its optimal dose seems to be 2 mg. Implications: Three hundred-fourteen patients suffering from postoperative nausea and vomiting received different IV doses of a new antiemetic drug, tropisetron, to determine the lowest effective dose. We found that a single IV administration of tropisetron significantly reduced postoperative nausea and vomiting after elective surgery with general anesthesia. (Anesth Analg 1998;86:617-23)
Thermodynamics of phosphopeptide tethering to BRCT: the structural minima for inhibitor design.

Protein−protein interactions mediated by the carboxy terminus domains of breast cancer gene 1 (BRCT) play a critical role in the regulation of cell cycle checkpoints in response to DNA damage. DNA damage-induced checkpoint regulation bestows radiation resistance to cancers, and inhibition of the proteins involved has been suggested as potential drug targets. Structural studies show that BRCT binding peptides, namely BACH1 and CtIP that are important for cell cycle regulation, occupy the exact same site on BRCT through a pSXXF consensus recognition sequence. In the present study we use two complementary techniques, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and fluorescence polarization (FP), to define structural minima of a BACH1 peptide. Remarkably the minimal tetrapeptide retains low-micromolar affinity for BRCT with a thermodynamic signature comparable to the decapeptide. The study also identifies a potential hydrophobic pocket adjacent to the pSXXF motif and intramolecular hydrogen bonds that can be explo.
Effect of Temperature and Aging Time on 2024 Aluminum Behavior

This study is a follow-up of previous work by the authors on the effects of processing variables on the deformation and fracture of 2024-T4 aluminum. In the previous work, four variables were incorporated into a Design of Experiments methodology: solution temperature, solution time, cooling rate and natural aging time. Solution time and cooling rate were found to be the most significant factors on the mechanical properties and microstructure of the alloy. In the current work, these variables are held constant to ascertain the relative effects of the solution temperature and aging time on material properties. Unlike the previous study, neither solution temperature nor aging time clearly dominate the measured effects. Comparisons of the current results with the previous study as well as work on 6061-T6 aluminum are made. Integration of the results of the present work into a general study of the ductile fracture behavior of aluminum alloys, involving both experimental and numerical techniques, is outlined.