Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Study on visual navigation system for intelligent robot in the unstructured environment

Autonomous visual navigation system is of significance for intelligent robot in the unstructured environment as it is capable to complete a series of missions i.e. capturing, processing, analyzing, understanding and decision without any priori knowledge in advance. A framework of the visual navigation system is proposed for intelligent robot under the unstructured environment in this article, which is composed of systematic composition, workflow and key algorithms such as a matching algorithm with adaptive weighted filtering computed by a hierarchical clustering approach, a local optimization algorithm for object detection based on random ferns classifier and Hough voting, an online learning algorithm for object tracking based on random ferns classifier and clustering segmentation and an algorithm for obstacle avoidance based on the calculation of maximum inscribed circle with the center of regional centroid. Finally, the validation of all the presented algorithms has been demonstrated and verified by a practical experiment for delivering the specified object through the obstacle passage by robot independently. The proposed visual system is suitable for difficult cases for example changes in object appearance, scale and pose, partial occlusions and poor illumination under the unstructured environment.
A biophysical model of dynamic balancing of excitation and inhibition in fast oscillatory large-scale networks

Over long timescales, neuronal dynamics can be robust to quite large perturbations, such as changes in white matter connectivity and grey matter structure through processes including learning, aging, development and certain disease processes. One possible explanation is that robust dynamics are facilitated by homeostatic mechanisms that can dynamically rebalance brain networks. In this study, we simulate a cortical brain network using the Wilson-Cowan neural mass model with conduction delays and noise, and use inhibitory synaptic plasticity (ISP) to dynamically achieve a spatially local balance between excitation and inhibition. Using MEG data from 55 subjects we find that ISP enables us to simultaneously achieve high correlation with multiple measures of functional connectivity, including amplitude envelope correlation and phase locking. Further, we find that ISP successfully achieves local E/I balance, and can consistently predict the functional connectivity computed from real MEG data, for a much wider range of model parameters than is possible with a model without ISP.
Bleeding and Neurologic Complications in 58,000 Interventional Pain Procedures

Background and Objectives Interventional pain procedures are commonly performed on patients receiving antiplatelet therapy. However, there is limited evidence to support or refute the safety of this practice. The goal of this investigation was to assess the rate of bleeding complications in a large cohort of patients undergoing intermediate- and low-risk pain procedures, with a specific focus on antiplatelet and anticoagulant medication use and baseline coagulation abnormalities. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study of adult patients undergoing low- and intermediate-risk pain procedures from 2005 through 2014 by the division of pain medicine at a single academic tertiary care center. Baseline characteristics, antiplatelet and anticoagulant medication use, coagulation parameters, and procedural details were extracted from the electronic medical record. The primary outcome was a bleeding-related complication requiring emergency medicine, neurology, or neurosurgical evaluation within 31 days. The secondary outcome was the presence or absence of a periprocedural red blood cell transfusion occurring within 72 hours of needle placement. Results A total of 58,066 procedures were performed on 24,590 unique patients. Preprocedural aspirin or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug therapy was present for 17,825 procedures (30.7%). Sixteen procedures were associated with perioperative red blood cell transfusion (0.03%), with no difference based on preprocedural nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, including aspirin, or other anticoagulation use (P = 0.107). Five patients (0.009%) had a neurologic complication requiring further evaluation, of which 2 were likely related to procedural bleeding. Conclusions Bleeding complications are rare in patients undergoing low- or intermediate-risk pain procedures even in the presence of antiplatelet medications. This is consistent with recently released guidelines.
Multi-target localization in wireless sensor networks: a compressive sampling-based approach

This paper considers the problem of localizing a group of targets whose number is unknown by wireless sensor networks. At each time slot, to save energy and bandwidth resources, only part of sensor nodes are scheduled to activate to remain continuous monitoring of all the targets. The localization problem is formulated as a sparse vector recovery problem by utilizing the spatial sparsity of targets' location. Specifically, each activated sensor records the RSS values of the signals received from the targets and sends the measurements to the sink node where a compressive sampling-based localization algorithm is conducted to recover the number and locations of targets. We decompose the problem into two sub-problems, namely, which sensor nodes to activate, and how to utilize the measurements. For the first subproblem, to reduce the effect of measurement noise, we propose an iterative activation algorithm to re-assign the activation probability of each sensor by exploiting the previous estimate. For the second subproblem, to further improve the localization accuracy, a sequential recovery algorithm is proposed, which conducts compressive sampling on the least squares residual of the previous estimate such that all the previous estimate can be utilized. Under some mild assumptions, we provide the analytical performance bound of our algorithm, and the running time of proposed algorithm is given subsequently. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithms.Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Thermal properties photonic crystal fiber transducers with ferromagnetic nanoparticles

The main aim of the research is to design new types of fiber optic transducers based on filled photonic crystal fibers for sensor applications. In our research we propose to use as a filling material nanoparticles’ ferrofluids (Fe3O4 NPs). Optical properties of such transducers are studied by measurements of spectral characteristics’ changes when transducers are exposed to temperature and magnetic field changes. From synthesized ferrofluid several mixtures with different NPs’ concentrations were prepared. Partially filled commercially available photonic crystal fiber LMA 10 (NKT Photonics) was used to design PCF transducers. Their thermo-optic properties were tested in a temperature chamber. Taking into account magnetic properties of synthetized NPs the patch cords based on a partially filled PM 1550 PCF were measured.
Waterborne polyurethane-silanized CoFe2O4-acrylate magnetic pressure-sensitive adhesive

ABSTRACT A novel waterborne polyurethane-silanized CoFe2O-acrylate magnetic pressure-sensitive adhesive was prepared. With the increase of PU content, gel content, swelling capability, and SAFT increased, and fracture energy increased first, then decreased. The T-peeling strength increased from 8.93 to 19.07 N · m−1, tack force increased from No.3 to No.10, while shear resistance increased from 35 to 72 h, and then they decreased. Two empirical models: WA = 90.46 + 125.04[PU]-319.96[PU]2 and T = 9.09 + 96.07[PU]-235.11[PU]2, were obtained. With the increase of CoFe2O4 content, the saturation magnetization increased from 5.5 to 14.2 emu · g−1, and remanence increased from 1.7 to 3.7 emu · g−1, while coercivity decreased from 875 to 763 Oe. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Moisture susceptibility of Warm-Mix-Asphalt in a changing climate: incorporating top-down cracking and fracture mechanics approach

Over the next decade, climate changes may cause an increase in precipitation in some areas of Canada, including Ontario. In such areas, moisture damage can be one of the major causes of premature degradation of asphalt pavements. Failure of asphalt pavements due to moisture damage causes a considerable expenditure of funds for repair and rehabilitation every year. Traditionally moisture damage of the asphalt mixtures is evaluated by tensile strength ratio between dry and wet condition, which is not sufficient to conclude the moisture damage performance. Also, the results from the majority of conventional tests do not correlate well with the observed field performance. In order to overcome these difficulties, the varying effects of moisture damaged on wax modified asphalt mixture properties were investigated by using Superpave IDT creep, resilient modulus and strength tests. Moreover, fracture mechanics approach has also been utilized to characterize the moisture susceptibility of the asphalt mixture performance. In recent years, with the increasing concerns of global warming and increasing emissions, the asphalt industry has been using commercial waxes in asphalt mixtures to lower its emissions by reducing the mixing and compaction temperatures. Thus, in this study, PG 58-22 asphalt binder was modified by two types of commercial waxes (FT-paraffin and Asphaltan B) and mixed with two types of crushed granite aggregates, which were used to investigate the moisture damage potential of the wax modified asphalt mixtures. This paper provides a summary of the evaluation test set up and obtained results. It was found that the warm mix asphalt mixtures have a higher moisture damage ratio (MDR) of Energy Ratio compared to unmodified mixtures, clearly indicating the higher fracture resistance than the control mixtures. Moreover, the results obtained from moisture damage ratio in terms of the number of load repetition required to grow a fixed crack (MDRN); also confirms the wax modified mixtures have a better crack initiation and growth resistance even after conditioning. The analyses of the obtained results, thus, indicate that warm mix asphalt could be a greener solution to the climate change and towards a durable pavement infrastructure.
Three-dimensional nonlinear dynamic finite element model for giant magnetostrictive actuators

The permeability of giant magnetostrictive material varies with the changing applied stress when giant magnetostrictive actuator(GMA) works.The nonlinearity due to the losses of magnetic hysteresis and eddy current and the interaction of the magnetic field,electric field,thermal field and mechanical stress field should be considered in construction of a dynamic model for GMA.This work presented a three-dimensional nonlinear dynamic multi-field coupled model of GMA,taking the mass of Terfenol-D rod,pre-stress,biased field,losses of magnetic hysteresis and eddy current into consideration.The loss of magnetic hysteresis was calculated using Jile-Autherton magnetization model.The commercial finite element software FEMLAB was used to implement the presented model.The simulation results coincided with the experimental results,which validated the model.
Mimicking the cardiac cycle in intact cardiomyocytes using diastolic and systolic force clamps; measuring power output

Aims A single isolated cardiomyocyte is the smallest functional unit of the heart. Yet, all single isolated cardiomyocyte experiments have been limited by the lack of proper methods that could reproduce a physiological cardiac cycle. We aimed to investigate the contractile properties of a single cardiomyocyte that correctly mimic the cardiac cycle. Methods and results By adjusting the parameters of the feedback loop, using a suitably engineered feedback system and recording the developed force and the length of a single rat cardiomyocyte during contraction and relaxation, we were able to construct force–length (FL) relations analogous to the pressure–volume (PV) relations at the whole heart level. From the cardiac loop graphs, we obtained, for the first time, the power generated by one single cardiomyocyte. Conclusion Here, we introduce a new approach that by combining mechanics, electronics, and a new type optical force transducer can measure the FL relationship of a single isolated cardiomyocyte undergoing a mechanical loop that mimics the PV cycle of a beating heart.
Design of RYSEN: An Intrinsically Safe and Low-Power Three-Dimensional Overground Body Weight Support

Body weight support (BWS) systems are widely used in gait research and rehabilitation. This letter introduces a new three-dimensional overground BWS system, called the RYSEN. The RYSEN is designed to be intrinsically safe and low power consuming, while still performing at least as well as existing BWS systems regarding human–robot interaction. These features are mainly achieved by decoupling degrees of freedom between motors: slow/high-torque motors for vertical motion and fast/low-torque motors for horizontal motion. This letter explains the design and evaluates its performance on power consumption and safety. Power consumption is expressed in terms of the sum of the positive mechanical output power of all motor axes. Safety is defined as the difference between the mechanical power available for horizontal and vertical movements and the mechanical power that is needed to perform its task. The results of the RYSEN are compared to the performance of three similar systems: a gantry, the FLOAT, and a classic cable robot. The results show that the RYSEN and a gantry consume approximately the same amount of power. The amount is approximately half the power consumed by the next-best system. For the safety, the gantry is taken as the benchmark, because of its perfect decoupling of directions. The RYSEN has a surplus of 268 W and 126 W for horizontal and vertical movements, respectively. This is significantly lower than the next-best system, which has a surplus of 1088 W and 1967 W, respectively.
Liver transplantation versus liver resection for hepatocellular carcinoma in intention to treat: An attempt to perform an ideal meta‐analysis

This meta‐analysis compared the effects of liver transplantation (LT) and liver resection (LR) on overall survival (OS) and disease‐free survival (DFS) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) small transplantable HCC or within Milan criteria. Articles comparing LR with LT for HCC, based on Milan criteria or small size, published up to June 2015 were selected, and a meta‐analysis was performed. No randomized controlled trial has been published to date comparing survival outcomes in patients with HCC who underwent LR and LT. Nine studies were identified, including 570 patients who underwent LR and 861 who underwent LT. For HCC within the Milan criteria, the 1‐year OS rates following LR and LT were 84.5% (473/560) and 84.4% (710/841), respectively (odds ratio [OR], 0.98; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.71‐1.33; P = 0.8), and the 5‐year OS rates were 47.9% (273/570) and 59.3% (509/858), respectively (OR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.35‐1.02; P = 0.06). One‐year DFS rates were similar (OR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.39‐2.61; P = 1.00), whereas the 3‐year DFS rate was significantly lower in the LR group (54.4%, 210/386) than in the LT group (74.2%, 317/427; OR, 0.24; 95% CI, 0.07‐0.80; P = 0.02), and the 5‐year DFS rate was significantly lower for LR than LT (OR, 0.18; 95% CI, 0.06‐0.53; P < 0.01). For small HCCs, the 5‐year OS rate was significantly lower for patients who underwent LR than LT (OR, 0.30; 95% CI, 0.19‐0.48; P < 0.001). In conclusion, relative to LR, LT in patients with HCC meeting the Milan criteria had no benefits before 10 years for OS. For DFS, the benefit is obtained after 3 years. Liver Transplantation 23 836–844 2017 AASLD.
Effect of adhesive thickness and surface roughness on the shear strength of aluminium one-component polyurethane adhesive single-lap joints for automotive applications

Abstract Adhesively bonded technology is now widely accepted as a valuable tool in mechanical design, allowing the production of connections with a very good strength‐to‐weight ratio. The bonding may be made between metal–metal, metal–composite or composite–composite. In the automotive industry, elastomeric adhesives such as polyurethanes are used in structural applications such as windshield bonding because they present important advantages in terms of damping, impact, fatigue and safety, which are critical factors. For efficient designs of adhesively bonded structures, the knowledge of the relationship between substrates and the adhesive layer is essential. The aim of this work, via an experimental study, is to carry out and quantify the various variables affecting the strength of single-lap joints (SLJs), especially the effect of the surface preparation and adhesive thickness. Aluminium SLJs were fabricated and tested to assess the adhesive performance in a joint. The effect of the bondline thickness on the lap-shear strength of the adhesives was studied. A decrease in surface roughness was found to increase the shear strength of the SLJs. Experimental results showed that rougher surfaces have less wettability which is coherent with shear strength tests. However, increasing the adhesive thickness decreased the shear strength of SLJs. Indeed, a numerical model was developed to search the impact of increasing adhesive thickness on the interface of the adherend.
Value of 68Ga-PSMA HBED-CC PET for the Assessment of Lymph Node Metastases in Prostate Cancer Patients with Biochemical Recurrence: Comparison with Histopathology After Salvage Lymphadenectomy

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of Glu-NH-CO-NH-Lys-(Ahx)-[68Ga(HBED-CC)] PET compared with morphologic imaging for the assessment of lymph node metastases (LNM) in patients with recurrent prostate cancer. Methods: Forty-eight patients (median age, 71 y; interquartile range, 66–74 y) with biochemical recurrence (median prostate-specific antigen level, 1.31 ng/mL; interquartile range, 0.75–2.55 ng/mL) who underwent 68Ga–prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) HBED-CC PET/CT or PET/MR and salvage lymphadenectomy were retrospectively included. Institutional review board approval and written informed consent were obtained from all patients for the purpose of anonymized evaluation and publication of their data. Standardized predefined lymph node (LN) template fields (n = 10) were evaluated in 68Ga-PSMA HBED-CC PET and morphologic imaging for the presence of LNM using a 5-point-scale. Additionally, SUVmean/max and size of suspicious lesions were determined. Specificity of 68Ga-PSMA HBED-CC PET imaging for PET-positive LNs was defined by comparison to histopathology. The diagnostic accuracy of 68Ga-PSMA HBED-CC PET compared with morphologic imaging alone was assessed, and areas under the receiver-operating-characteristic curves are presented. Results: LNM were found histologically in 68 of 179 resected anatomic LN fields (38.0%). The specificity of 68Ga-PSMA HBED-CC PET and morphologic imaging was 97.3% and 99.1%, respectively. However, 68Ga-PSMA HBED-CC PET detected LNM in 53 of 68 histopathologically proven metastatic LN fields (77.9%) whereas morphologic imaging was positive in only 18 of 67 (26.9%). 68Ga-PSMA HBED-CC PET imaging performed significantly superior to morphologic imaging for detection of LNM (difference in the areas under the receiver-operating-characteristic curves, 0.139; 95% confidence interval, 0.063–0.214; P < 0.001). In 68Ga-PSMA HBED-CC PET, the mean size of PET-positive LN measured by CT or MRI was 8.3 ± 4.3 mm (range, 4–25 mm), and LNs, which were suspicious only in CT or MRI, presented with a mean size of 13.0 ± 4.9 mm (range, 8–25 mm). Conclusion: 68Ga-PSMA HBED-CC PET imaging is a promising method for early detection of LNM in patients with biochemical recurrent prostate cancer. It is more accurate than morphologic imaging and thus might represent a valuable tool for guiding salvage lymphadenectomy.
Feature selection under learning to rank model for multimedia retrieve

Most multimedia retrieval problem can be described by ranking model, i.e. the images in the database could be ranked according to the similarity compared with the query image. Existing ranking models generally use the features that are pre-defined by experts. This paper utilized machine learning techniques to automatically select useful features for ranking. We first generate a set of feature subsets by putting each feature into an individual feature subset. Then we sort these feature subsets according to the ranking performances. Third, two neighbor feature subsets in the ranked order are pairwised to generate a new feature subset. The new feature subsets are sorted based on the new ranking performance. Iterate until reach the pre-defined stop point. Experimental results on . gov dataset and Caltech101 development set show the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.
Hierarchical modelling of softwood hygro-elastic properties

The hygro-elastic behaviour of wood under load or when subjected to environmental changes is of considerable practical interest. This behaviour can be determined by exhaustive experimentation, but such an approach makes explaining its origin, which from some perspectives can be more important than its prediction, problematic. This thesis attempts to establish a model (actually a hierarchical set of models) that goes some way toward both predicting and explaining the mechanics of wood. Attention is focused on radiata pine because of the commercial importance of this species in New Zealand, but much of the modelling is applicable to other softwoods and, to a lesser extent, hardwoods. Wood can be looked on as a hierarchical material, that is as a material possessing structure at multiple scales. For many problems involving such materials the heterogeneous structure at a particular scale can be replaced by a homogeneous one possessing similar properties. Homogenization theory defines what is meant by similar and also provides the means for determining these effective properties. In this thesis wood structure is treated at three different scales: namely the supramolecular or nanostructural, the cell-wall or ultrastructural and the cellular or microstructural scales. Homogenization across these levels is performed either analytically or numerically, using the finite element method. At the smallest scale, the constituent phases are treated as homogeneous continua. Models for the hygro-elastic phase properties, as functions of temperature and moisture content are developed based on available experimental data. The models devised to describe wood at each of the above mentioned scales introduce a large number of structural parameters, such as constituent mass fractions and cell-wall layer volume fractions. In the abscence of specific data, estimates for these parameters are developed based on data from the literature. Together with these auxiliary models, the main sequence of structural models can then be used to obtain estimates for the material properties of small domains within macrostuctural models.