Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An open source, fiducial based, visual-inertial motion capture system

Many robotic tasks rely on the accurate localization of moving objects within a given workspace. This information about the objects' poses and velocities are used for control, motion planning, navigation, interaction with the environment or verification. Often motion capture systems are used to obtain such a state estimate. However, these systems are often costly, limited in workspace size and not suitable for outdoor usage. Therefore, we propose a lightweight and easy to use, visual-inertial Simultaneous Localization and Mapping approach that leverages cost-efficient, paper printable artificial landmarks, so called fiducials. Results show that by fusing visual and inertial data, the system provides accurate estimates and is robust against fast motions and changing lighting conditions. Tight integration of the estimation of sensor and fiducial pose as well as extrinsics ensures accuracy, map consistency and avoids the requirement for precalibration. By providing an open source implementation and various datasets, partially with ground truth information, we enable community members to run, test, modify and extend the system either using these datasets or directly running the system on their own robotic setups.
Kernel-level scheduling for the nano-threads programming model

Multiprocessor systems are increasingly becoming the systems of choice for low and high-end servers, running such diverse tasks as number crunching, large-scale simulations, data base engines and world wide web server applications. With such diverse workloads, system utilization and throughput, as well as execution time become important performance metrics. In this paper we present efficient kernel scheduling policies and propose a new kernel-user interface aiming at supporting efficient parallel execution in diverse workload environments. Our approach relies on support for user level threads which are used to exploit parallelism within applications, and a two-level scheduling policy which coordinates the number of resources allocated by the kernel with the number of threads generated by each application. We compare our scheduling policies with the native gang scheduling policy of the IRIX 6.4 operating system on a Silicon Graphics Origin2000. Our experimental results show substantial performance gains in terms of overall workload execution times, individual application execution times, and cache performance.
A simple parallel cartesian tree algorithm and its application to parallel suffix tree construction

We present a simple linear work and space, and polylogarithmic time parallel algorithm for generating multiway Cartesian trees. We show that bottom-up traversals of the multiway Cartesian tree on the interleaved suffix array and longest common prefix array of a string can be used to answer certain string queries. By adding downward pointers in the tree (e.g. using a hash table), we can also generate suffix trees from suffix arrays on arbitrary alphabets in the same bounds. In conjunction with parallel suffix array algorithms, such as the skew algorithm, this gives a rather simple linear work parallel, O(n ε) time (0<ε<1), algorithm for generating suffix trees over an integer alphabet Σ{1, . , n}, where n is the length of the input string. It also gives a linear work parallel algorithm requiring O(log2 n) time with high probability for constant-sized alphabets. More generally, given a sorted sequence of strings and the longest common prefix lengths between adjacent elements, the algorithm will generate a patricia tree (compacted trie) over the strings. Of independent interest, we describe a work-efficient parallel algorithm for solving the all nearest smaller values problem using Cartesian trees, which is much simpler than the work-efficient parallel algorithm described in previous work. We also present experimental results comparing the performance of the algorithm to existing sequential implementations and a second parallel algorithm that we implement. We present comparisons for the Cartesian tree algorithm on its own and for constructing a suffix tree. The results show that on a variety of strings our algorithm is competitive with the sequential version on a single processor and achieves good speedup on multiple processors. We present experiments for three applications that require only the Cartesian tree, and also for searching using the suffix tree.
VANET Aided D2D Discovery: Delay Analysis and Performance

Existing solutions for integrating device-to-device (D2D) communication in cellular networks require added functionalities and consume valuable network resources, mainly in the discovery process. This paper effectively reduces the consumption of valuable resources in the LTE—A network through proposing a new D2D discovery scheme that works for vehicular users. The proposed scheme is able to offload a portion of the D2D discovery traffic and processing that involve vehicular drivers and passengers to Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks. The proposed scheme uses the inherent knowledge of the road side units about vehicular users in their coverage areas. In addition, this paper develops an analytical model to analyze the duration of peer discovery in highway scenarios. The results are validated through simulations done using real environments. The analytical and numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, and show that a low discovery latency can be attained.
Dynamically allocating processor resources between nearby and distant ILP

Modern superscalar processors use wide instruction issue widths and out-of-order execution in order to increase instruction-level parallelism (ILP). Because instructions must be committed in order so as to guarantee precise exceptions, increasing ILP implies increasing the sizes of structures such as the register file, issue queue, and reorder buffer. Simultaneously, cycle time constraints limit the sizes of these structures, resulting in conflicting design requirements. In this paper, we present a novel microarchitecture designed to overcome the limitations of a register file size dictated by cycle time constraints. Available registers are dynamically allocated between the primary program thread and a future thread. The future thread executes instructions when the primary thread is limited by resource availability. The future thread is not constrained by in-order commit requirements. It is therefore able to examine a much larger instruction window and jump far ahead to execute ready instructions. Results are communicated back to the primary thread by warming up the register file, instruction cache, data cache, and instruction reuse buffer, and by resolving branch mispredicts early. The proposed microarchitecture is able to get an overall speedup of 1.17 over the base processor for our benchmark set, with speedups of up to 1.64.
Contention resolution for optical burst switching networks using alternative routing

Optical burst switching (OBS) is an approach to building very high capacity routing switches based on optical data paths and electronic control. Therefore, OBS is considered as a viable solution in the high-speed optical Internet backbone. In this paper, we propose an intra-class contention resolution scheme in optical burst switching networks by the enhanced alternative routing algorithm. The blocking probability of the proposed scheme is significantly reduced as compared with the general OBS while the additional delay due to the alternative path is smaller than 10% of the basic offset time.
Complete Genomic Sequence of Border Disease Virus, a Pestivirus from Sheep

ABSTRACT The genus Pestivirus of the familyFlaviviridae comprises three established species, namely, bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), classical swine fever virus (CSFV), and border disease virus from sheep (BDV). In this study, we report the first complete nucleotide sequence of BDV, that of strain X818. The genome is 12,333 nucleotides long and contains one long open reading frame encoding 3,895 amino acids. The 5′ noncoding region (NCR) of BDV X818 consists of 372 nucleotides and is thus similar in length to the 5′ NCR reported for other pestiviruses. The 3′ NCR of X818 is 273 nucleotides long and thereby at least 32 nucleotides longer than the 3′ NCR of pestiviruses analyzed thus far. Within the 3′ NCR of BDV X818, the sequence motif TATTTATTTA was identified at four locations. The same repeat was found at two or three locations within the 3′ NCR of different CSFV isolates but was absent in the 3′ NCR of BVDV. Analysis of five additional BDV strains showed that the 3′ NCR sequences are highly conserved within this species. Comparison of the deduced amino acid sequence of X818 with the ones of other pestiviruses allowed the prediction of polyprotein cleavage sites which were conserved with regard to the structural proteins. It has been reported for two BVDV strains that cleavage at the nonstructural (NS) protein sites 3/4A, 4A/4B, 4B/5A, and 5A/5B is mediated by the NS3 serine protease and for each site a conserved leucine was found at the P1 position followed by either serine or alanine at P1′ (N. Tautz, K. Elbers, D. Stoll, G. Meyers, and H.-J. Thiel, J. Virol. 71:5415–5422, 1997; J. Xu, E. Mendez, P. R. Caron, C. Lin, M. A. Murcko, M. S. Collett, and C. M. Rice, J. Virol. 71:5312–5322). Interestingly, P1′ of the predicted NS5A/5B cleavage site of BDV is represented by an asparagine residue. Transient expression studies demonstrated that this unusual NS5A/5B processing site is efficiently cleaved by the NS3 serine protease of BDV.
Purification of Tropomyosin, Paramyosin, Actin, Tubulin, Troponin and Kinases for Chemiproteomics and Its Application to Different Scientific Fields

Background p-aminobenzamidine (p-ABA) is used as a ligand in the purification of many serine proteases and in their removal from heterogeneous samples. Moreover, p-ABA has a potent ability to bind Ca2+-binding proteins. The binding ability and use of p-ABA in purification processes is still not fully understood. Methodology/Principal Findings A p-Aminobenzamidine (p-ABA) ligand enabled the purification of the panallergenic proteins tropomyosin and paramyosin, as well as actin, tubulin, troponin and several kinases and annexins, with variable specificity depending on the tissue source and slight modifications to the purification process. The high affinity of p-ABA to tropomyosin, paramyosin, actin, troponin and myosin is calcium-dependent, since calcium regulates the function of these proteins. In addition, p-ABA probably simulates phosphorylated serine and therefore purified appropriate kinases. Because p-ABA binds to calcium-dependent proteins, and probably those with binding sites containing serine, it is not a suitable inhibitor of proteolysis during the purification of such proteins. p-ABA is widely used to inhibit proteases during protein purification processes, but it is used in columns here to purify non-protease proteins. Two strategies were applied; the first was the inactivation of proteases that were not of interest using protease inhibitors. The second strategy employed was the use of a Ca2+ wash solution to remove calcium-dependent proteins. The removal of calcium-dependent proteins from rabbit hind muscle pointed out even more selective purification. It is possible to obtain two purified samples: a) calcium dependent proteins and b) calcium independent proteins. Moreover, p-ABA may be useful as a model to study processes involving the phosphorylation of serine. Conclusion A p-Aminobenzamidine (p-ABA) ligand enabled the purification of non-protease proteins, with variable specificity depending on the tissue source and slight modifications to the purification process. The method is applicable to various scientific branches, but is especially practical for medicinal applications.
Major Limitations in Using Element Concentrations in Hair as Biomarkers of Exposure to Toxic and Essential Trace Elements in Children

Background: Hair is a commonly used exposure biomarker for metals and other trace elements, but concern has been raised regarding its appropriateness for assessing the internal dose. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to evaluate children’s hair as biomarker of internal dose for toxic (As, Mn, Cd, Pb) and essential elements (Mg, Ca, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn, Se, Mo). Methods: In 207 children (9–10 years of age), originating from a population-based cohort in rural Bangladesh, we measured concentrations of the selected elements in hair (2cm closest to the scalp) using ICP-MS. We compared these with previously measured concentrations in erythrocytes, urine, and water. For a subset of children (n=19), we analyzed four consecutive 2cm pieces of hair. Results: There were strong associations between hair As and the other biomarkers (erythrocytes: rS=0.73, p<0.001; urine: rS=0.66, p<0.001); and water (rS=0.60, p<0.001); and there were significant correlations between Se in hair and erythrocytes (overall rS=0.38, p<0.001), and urine (rS=0.29, p<0.001). Hair Co and Mo showed weak correlations with concentrations in erythrocytes. Hair Mn was not associated with Mn in erythrocytes, urine, or water, and the geometric mean concentration increased almost five times from the 2cm closest to the head to the 7th–8th cm (p<0.001). Also Mg, Ca, Co, Cd, and Pb increased from the scalp outward (>50% higher in 7th–8th cm compared with 1st–2nd cm, p<0.001). Conclusions: Hair was found to be a useful exposure biomarker of absorbed As and Se only. Of all measured elements, hair Mn seemed the least reflective of internal dose. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1239
MiR-138 downregulates miRNA processing in HeLa cells by targeting RMND5A and decreasing Exportin-5 stability

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding small RNAs that consist of ∼22 nt and are involved in several biological processes by regulating target gene expression. MiR-138 has many biological functions and is often downregulated in cancers. Our results showed that overexpression of miR-138 downregulated target RMND5A (required for meiotic nuclear division 5 homolog A) and reduced Exportin-5 stability, which results in decreased levels of pre-miRNA nuclear export in HeLa cells. We also found that miR-138 could significantly inhibit HeLa cell migration by targeting RMND5A. Our study therefore identifies miR-138–RMND5A–Exportin-5 as a previously unknown miRNA processing regulatory pathway in HeLa cells.
Mitochondrial dysfunction and therapeutic approaches in respiratory and limb muscles of cancer cachectic mice

• What is the central question of this study? We explored whether experimental cancer‐induced cachexia may alter mitochondrial respiratory chain (MRC) complexes and oxygen uptake in respiratory and peripheral muscles, and whether signalling pathways, proteasome and oxidative stress influence that process. • What is the main finding and what is its importance? In cancer cachectic mice, MRC complexes and oxygen consumption were decreased in the diaphragm and gastrocnemius. Blockade of nuclear factor‐κB and mitogen‐activated protein kinase actions partly restored the muscle mass and force and corrected the MRC dysfunction, while concomitantly reducing tumour burden. Antioxidants improved mitochondrial oxygen consumption without eliciting effects on the loss of muscle mass and force or the tumour size, whereas bortezomib reduced tumour burden without influencing muscle mass and strength or MRC function.
Additive increase adaptive decrease congestion control: a mathematical model and its experimental validation

Due to the fundamental end-to-end design principle of the TCP/IP for which the network cannot supply any explicit feedback, today the TCP congestion control algorithm implements an additive increase multiplicative decrease (AIMD) algorithm. It is widely recognized that the AIMD mechanism is at the core of the stability of end-to-end congestion control. In this paper we describe a new mechanism we call additive increase adaptive decrease (AIAD). The key concept of the adaptive decrease mechanism is to adapt congestion window reductions to the bandwidth available at the time the congestion is experienced. We propose Westwood++ TCP as an implementation of the AIAD paradigm, and we consider Reno TCP as an example of the AIMD mechanism for comparison. We derive a mathematical model of the throughput of the AIAD mechanism that shows that Westwood++ is stable, is friendly to Reno and increases the fairness in bandwidth utilization. To confirm the validity of the theoretical model Internet measurements are reported.
Replicated evidence for aminoacylase 3 and nephrin gene variations to predict antihypertensive drug responses.

AIM To replicate the genome-wide associations of the antihypertensive effects of bisoprolol and losartan in GENRES, using the Finnish patients of LIFE study. PATIENTS & METHODS We analyzed association of four SNPs with atenolol and three SNPs with losartan response in 927 Finnish LIFE patients (467 for atenolol and 460 for losartan). RESULTS rs2514036, a variation at a transcription start site of ACY3, was associated with blood pressure response to atenolol in men in LIFE. Response to bisoprolol was correlated to baseline plasma levels of N-acetylphenylalanine and phenylalanine (ACY3 substrate and end product, respectively) in GENRES study. NPHS1 variation rs3814995 was associated with losartan effect in LIFE. CONCLUSION We provide support for two pharmacogenomic markers for beta-blockers and angiotensin receptor antagonists.
Dynamic and tribological analysis of a toroidal continuously variable transmissions

The continuously variable transmission investigated in this paper works with contacts in the elastohydrodynamic regime of lubrication, thus the tangential forces between elements are transmitted through the shearing the lubricant film. The behaviour of the lubricant film when subjected to shear depends of the nature of the lubricant and the relative motion between the contacting surfaces. In this paper, a non-Newtonian behaviour is assumed for the lubricant while the relative motion is determined for every point on the contact area by kinematic methods. The net tractive force in the sliding direction and the spin torque are evaluated and from these the power losses in the contacts are calculated. The dynamic behaviour of the device is evaluated taking into account the behaviour of the lubricant as extracted from traction measurements. A simplified method for the evaluation of the dynamic response of the device to a rapid variation of the resistive torque is presented. The results show the importance of the rheological behaviour of the lubricant, measured by the slope of the linear region of lubricant traction curves.
The Role of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-Coronavirus Accessory Proteins in Virus Pathogenesis

A respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus, termed the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), was first reported in China in late 2002. The subsequent efficient human-to-human transmission of this virus eventually affected more than 30 countries worldwide, resulting in a mortality rate of ~10% of infected individuals. The spread of the virus was ultimately controlled by isolation of infected individuals and there has been no infections reported since April 2004. However, the natural reservoir of the virus was never identified and it is not known if this virus will re-emerge and, therefore, research on this virus continues. The SARS-CoV genome is about 30 kb in length and is predicted to contain 14 functional open reading frames (ORFs). The genome encodes for proteins that are homologous to known coronavirus proteins, such as the replicase proteins (ORFs 1a and 1b) and the four major structural proteins: nucleocapsid (N), spike (S), membrane (M) and envelope (E). SARS-CoV also encodes for eight unique proteins, called accessory proteins, with no known homologues. This review will summarize the current knowledge on SARS-CoV accessory proteins and will include: (i) expression and processing; (ii) the effects on cellular processes; and (iii) functional studies.
Pragmatics and Translation

• the use of context to interpret source language utterances and to produce target language correlates, • a context of the utterance which crucially includes nested beliefs environments which are constructed and modified through ascription during processing, • knowledge of the world which is accessed for constructing or modifying the context, • context-sensitive (non-monotonic) inferencing within the context to resolve ambiguities during interpretation or to select expressions during production.
Interdisciplinarity and Impact: Distinct Effects of Variety, Balance, and Disparity

Interdisciplinary research is increasingly recognized as the solution to today’s challenging scientific and societal problems, but the relationship between interdisciplinary research and scientific impact is still unclear. This paper studies the association between the degree of interdisciplinarity and the number of citations at the paper level. Different from previous studies compositing various aspects of interdisciplinarity into a single indicator, we use factor analysis to uncover distinct dimensions of interdisciplinarity corresponding to variety, balance, and disparity. We estimate Poisson models with journal fixed effects and robust standard errors to analyze the divergent relationships between these three factors and citations. We find that long-term (13-year) citations (1) increase at an increasing rate with variety, (2) decrease with balance, and (3) increase at a decreasing rate with disparity. Furthermore, interdisciplinarity also affects the process of citation accumulation: (1) although variety and disparity have positive effects on long-term citations, they have negative effects on short-term (3-year) citations, and (2) although balance has a negative effect on long-term citations, its negative effect is insignificant in the short run. These findings have important implications for interdisciplinary research and science policy.
Digitally assisted coaxial bridge for automatic quantum Hall effect measurements at audio frequencies

This paper describes the principle of a new fully automatic digitally assisted coaxial bridge having a large bandwidth ranging from 100 Hz to 20 kHz. The bridge is characterized by making a 1:1 comparison between calculable ac resistors. The agreement between the calculated and the measured frequency dependence of the resistors is better than 10-7 over its entire bandwidth. Such a bridge is a perfect tool to start investigating the ac transport properties of graphene in the quantum Hall regime.