Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A miniature microsurgical instrument tip force sensor for enhanced force feedback during robot-assisted manipulation

This paper reports the development of a new miniature force sensor designed to measure contact forces at the tip of a microsurgical instrument in three dimensions, and its application to scaled force feedback using a cooperatively manipulated microsurgical assistant robot. The principal features of the sensor are its small size of 12.5 mm in diameter and 15 mm in height, a novel configuration of flexure beams and strain gauges in order to measure forces isotropically at the instrument tip 40 mm from the sensor body, and sub-mN three-axis force-sensing resolution.
Maternal Cypermethrin Exposure during the Perinatal Period Impairs Testicular Development in C57BL Male Offspring

Numerous studies have demonstrated that endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDC) are a possible cause of male reproductive organ malfunction and malformation. Cypermethrin (CYP) is a widely used synthetic pyrethroid and a potential EDC. This study aimed to examine the effects of perinatal exposure to low-dose CYP on the development and function of the offspring testes. Pregnant mice were intragastrically administered 0.12 to 12 mg/kg/day CYP from embryonic day 0.5 (E0.5) to weaning (PD21.5, postnatal day 21.5). Maternal exposure to 0.12, 1.2, and 12 mg/kg/day CYP affected the body and organ weight of the offspring. Exposure of CYP led to a dose-dependent decrease in the male-to-female sex ratio. A histopathological analysis revealed a thinner seminiferous epithelium layer at PD21.5, interstitial hyperplasia at PD45.5, and germ cell vacuolization at PD90.5 in the 12 mg/kg/day CYP group. The TUNEL assay results revealed increased germ cell apoptosis in the 12 mg/kg/day CYP group. The serum testosterone (T) level decreased, whereas the estradiol level increased with age in the 1.2 and 12 mg/kg/day CYP groups. The RT-PCR analysis demonstrated decreased expression of T production-related, mitosis-related, and meiosis-related genes in the 1.2 and 12 mg/kg/day CYP groups. The in vitro experimental results demonstrated reduced expression of steroidogenesis genes and decreased T levels. It is concluded that perinatal exposure to low-dose CYP affects testes development and function in adults.
Residual Wage Inequality: A Re-examination*

This paper shows that a large fraction of the increase in residual wage inequality between 1973 and 2003 is a spurious consequence of composition effects. As is well known, the workforce grew older and more educated over the last twenty years. Since within-group inequality is larger for older and more educated workers, these composition effects have led to a spurious increase in residual wage inequality. For both men and women, I show that all of the growth in residual wage inequality occurred during the 1980s once composition effects are accounted for. These findings are hard to reconcile with the skillbiased technical-change hypothesis. By contrast, changes in the real value of the minimum wage are closely related to changes in residual wage inequality. I also discuss why the findings of the paper differ from those of earlier studies. One difference is that I control explicitly for composition effects. Another difference is that I use the May and Outgoing Rotation Group (ORG) supplements of the CPS, while most other studies have used the March CPS. I show that the May/ORG provides more reliable measures of hourly wages because it measures directly the wage of workers paid by the hour. Because of this problem, both the level and the growth in residual wage inequality are overstated in the March CPS.
Bit-wise shortening of nonbinary LDPC codes using their binary images

Most of work on rate-compatible low-density parity-check (RC-LDPC) codes focus on binary codes. In this paper, we propose a construction of nonbinary RC-LDPC codes at short block length by using a bit-wise shortening method based on the algebraic properties of their binary images. All shortened information bits are carefully chosen according to the degree distributions of their binary images. Simulations show that a gain of around 1 dB is attained at the shortened code rate R=1/5 over conventional symbol-wise shortening.
Subspace-Based and DIRECT Algorithms for Distorted Circular Contour Estimation

Circular features are commonly sought in digital image processing. The subspace-based line detection (SLIDE) method proposed to estimate the center and the radius of a single circle. In this paper, we introduce a novel method for estimating several radii while extending the circle estimation to retrieve circular-like distorted contours. Particularly, we develop and validate a new model for virtual signal generation by simulating a circular antenna. The circle center is estimated by the SLIDE method. A variable speed propagation scheme toward the circular antenna yields a linear phase signal. Therefore, a high-resolution method provides the radius. Either the gradient method or the more robust combination of dividing rectangles and spline interpolation can extend this method for free form object segmentation. The retrieval of multiple non concentric circles and rotated ellipses is also considered. To evaluate the performance of the proposed methods, we compare them with a least-squares method, Hough transform, and gradient vector flow. We apply the proposed method to hand-made images while considering some real-world images.
Going beyond Human Terrain System: Exploring Ethical Dilemmas

ABSTRACT Modern technology-dominated methods of warfare have proven to be inadequate to counter threats presented by non-state actors. Today’s conflicts are increasingly waged among the people instead of around the people. It is therefore not a surprise that social scientists are recruited by governmental, military, and intelligence institutions. The use of the “Human Terrain System” (HTS) brought to the forefront ethical debates regarding the potential involvement of social sciences and social scientists in various military activities, with an ultimate aim to reduce the pain and suffering of war victims. However, this involvement brought also criticism of such involvement. This article discusses three main ethical concerns associated with HTS, namely, the possible usage of knowledge in enhanced interrogation techniques; the issue of clandestine research; and the sources of funding. Due to ethical controversies, I will propose three models of cooperation between social scientists and governmental, military, and intelligence institutions, which might help them find a common ground. Furthermore, the paper concludes that there is much social scientists can and should do in field work that goes beyond the Human Terrain System. United Nations peacekeeping operations can be a fertile ground for establishing mechanisms that might clarify the role of social scientists in the battlefield.
[Small frontal gray matter volume in first-episode depression patients].

OBJECTIVE Brain imaging studies have shown that depressed individuals suffer from inadequate frontal lobe functions vis à vis smaller frontal lobes. The effects of depression's recurrent nature and long-term antidepressant treatment are not definitely known. This study aimed to examine frontal lobe volume at the onset of clinical depression by including first-episode drug-naive depressed patients. METHOD The study included 23 first-episode drug-free major depression patients diagnosed according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) and 28 healthy age- and sex-matched controls. Cranial magnetic resonance (MR) images were obtained in both groups using a 1.5 Tesla device. Gray and white matter volumes in the frontal lobes were measured using the Medical Image Processing Analysis and Visualization (MIPAV) computer program. RESULTS Frontal gray matter volume in the patients was lower than that in the control group. White matter and total intracranial volume did not differ between the 2 groups. Small gray matter volume was not correlated with the duration or severity of illness. CONCLUSION The results of this study indicate that frontal lobe gray matter volume is low in first-episode depressed patients and is independent of both illness severity and duration. This result suggests that the observed changes in the frontal lobe could have occurred before the clinical symptoms of depression were observed.
Detergent-free Decellularized Nerve Grafts for Long-gap Peripheral Nerve Reconstruction

Background: Long-gap peripheral nerve defects arising from tumor, trauma, or birth-related injuries requiring nerve reconstruction are currently treated using nerve autografts and nerve allografts. Autografts are associated with limited supply and donor-site morbidity. Allografts require administration of transient immunosuppressants, which has substantial associated risks. To overcome these limitations, we investigated the use of detergent-free decellularized nerve grafts to reconstruct long-gap nerve defects in a rodent model and compared it with existing detergent processing techniques. Methods: Nerve grafts were harvested from the sciatic nerves of 9 donor rats. Twenty-four recipient rats were divided into 4 groups (6 animals per group): (1) nerve grafts (NG, positive control), (2) detergent-free decellularized (DFD) grafts, (3) detergent decellularized grafts, and (4) silicone tube conduits (negative control). Each recipient rat had a 3.5-cm graft or conduit sutured across a sciatic nerve transection injury. All animals were harvested at 12 weeks postimplantation for functional muscle analysis and nerve histomorphometry. Results: Histomorphometry results indicated maximum growth in NG when compared with other groups. DFD and detergent decellularized groups showed comparable regeneration at 12 weeks. Silicone tube group showed no regeneration as expected. Muscle force data indicated functional recovery in NG and DFD groups only. Conclusions: This study describes a detergent-free nerve decellularization technique for reconstruction of long-gap nerve injuries. We compared DFD grafts with an established detergent processing technique and found that DFD nerve grafts are successful in promoting regeneration across long-gap peripheral nerve defects as an alternative to existing strategies.
Tikhonov regularization and prior information in electrical impedance tomography

The solution of impedance distribution in electrical impedance tomography is a nonlinear inverse problem that requires the use of a regularization method. The generalized Tikhonov regularization methods have been popular in the solution of many inverse problems. The regularization matrices that are usually used with the Tikhonov method are more or less ad hoc and the implicit prior assumptions are, thus, in many cases inappropriate. In this paper, the authors propose an approach to the construction of the regularization matrix that conforms to the prior assumptions on the impedance distribution. The approach is based on the construction of an approximating subspace for the expected impedance distributions. It is shown by simulations that the reconstructions obtained with the proposed method are better than with two other schemes of the same type when the prior is compatible with the true object. On the other hand, when the prior is incompatible with the true object, the method will still give reasonable estimates.
This Phrase-Based SMT System is Out of Order: Generalised Word Reordering in Machine Translation

Many natural language processes have some degree of preprocessing of data: tokenisation, stemming and so on. In the domain of Statistical Machine Translation it has been shown that word reordering as a preprocessing step can help the translation process. Recently, hand-written rules for reordering in German–English translation have shown good results, but this is clearly a labour-intensive and language pair-specific approach. Two possible sources of the observed improvement are that (1) the reordering explicitly matches the syntax of the source language more closely to that of the target language, or that (2) it fits the data better to the mechanisms of phrasal SMT; but it is not clear which. In this paper, we apply a general principle based on dependency distance minimisation to produce reorderings. Our languageindependent approach achieves half of the improvement of a reimplementation of the handcrafted approach, and suggests that reason (2) is a possible explanation for why that reordering approach works. Help you I can, yes. Jedi Master Yoda
Time-Dependent Effects of Training on Cardiovascular Control in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats: Role for Brain Oxidative Stress and Inflammation and Baroreflex Sensitivity

Baroreflex dysfunction, oxidative stress and inflammation, important hallmarks of hypertension, are attenuated by exercise training. In this study, we investigated the relationships and time-course changes of cardiovascular parameters, pro-inflammatory cytokines and pro-oxidant profiles within the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus of the spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Basal values and variability of arterial pressure and heart rate and baroreflex sensitivity were measured in trained (T, low-intensity treadmill training) and sedentary (S) SHR at weeks 0, 1, 2, 4 and 8. Paraventricular nucleus was used to determine reactive oxygen species (dihydroethidium oxidation products, HPLC), NADPH oxidase subunits and pro-inflammatory cytokines expression (Real time PCR), p38 MAPK and ERK1/2 expression (Western blotting), NF-κB content (electrophoretic mobility shift assay) and cytokines immunofluorescence. SHR-S vs. WKY-S (Wistar Kyoto rats as time control) showed increased mean arterial pressure (172±3 mmHg), pressure variability and heart rate (358±7 b/min), decreased baroreflex sensitivity and heart rate variability, increased p47phox and reactive oxygen species production, elevated NF-κB activity and increased TNF-α and IL-6 expression within the paraventricular nucleus of hypothalamus. Two weeks of training reversed all hypothalamic changes, reduced ERK1/2 phosphorylation and normalized baroreflex sensitivity (4.04±0.31 vs. 2.31±0.19 b/min/mmHg in SHR-S). These responses were followed by increased vagal component of heart rate variability (1.9-fold) and resting bradycardia (−13%) at the 4th week, and, by reduced vasomotor component of pressure variability (−28%) and decreased mean arterial pressure (−7%) only at the 8th week of training. Our findings indicate that independent of the high pressure levels in SHR, training promptly restores baroreflex function by disrupting the positive feedback between high oxidative stress and increased pro-inflammatory cytokines secretion within the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus. These early adaptive responses precede the occurrence of training-induced resting bradycardia and blood pressure fall.
Three Amino Acid Substitutions Selectively Disrupt the Activation but Not the Repression Function of the Glucocorticoid Receptor N Terminus*

A 210-amino acid region, termed enh2, near the N terminus of the rat glucocorticoid receptor, is necessary for both transcriptional activation and repression. The mechanism(s) of transcriptional regulation conferred by this region, however, are poorly understood. We screened in Saccharomyces cerevisiae a library of random mutants in the enh2 region of a constitutive glucocorticoid receptor derivative and isolated a series of multiply substituted receptors that are specifically defective in transcriptional activation. Although many substitutions in this area were tolerated, three amino acid substitutions (E219K, F220L, and W234R) within a 16-amino acid region were sufficient to disrupt the enh2 transcriptional activation function both in yeast and in mammalian cells. Although this region is rich in acidic residues, the conserved tryptophan at position 234 appears to be a more critical feature for enh2 activity; hydrophobic but not charged residues were tolerated at this position. Notably, the mutants uncoupled the activation and repression functions of enh2, as the activation defective isolates remained competent for repression of AP-1 at the composite response element plfG.
Differential effects of corticosterone on the sAHP in the basolateral amygdala and CA1 region: Possible role of calcium channel subunits

LACDR, Leiden University, The Netherlands Correspondence and proofs to:Marian Joels SILS-CNS, University of Amsterdam Kruislaan 320 1098 SM Amsterdam, The Netherlands Phone: 31-20-5257626; Email: joels@science.uva. nlRunning head: Effects of corticosterone on sAHP in BLA neurons… Key words: pyramidal neurons, L-type calcium current, afterhyperpolarization, in situ hybridization, whole cell recording, computational model
Pseudo-Association Rules algorithm in data mining

In data mining we not only mine the potential association between items, but also estimate the existent association of items which is still reasonable whether or not. Association Rules is mainly used to find the useful knowledge of the items in the mass data. However with the time goes by or the environment changes, previous association rules between data items or initial rules might be not reasonable, so we should check these rules to find the unreasonable ones. An association rule can not find the unreasonable relation between the data items. In this paper, we regard the structure of rules found by association rules as a digraph, and propose the Pseudo-association Rules based on an association rule, which can find the unreasonable rules.
An improved fast mean shift algorithm for segmentation

The mean shift algorithm is a statistical iterative algorithm based on kernel density estimation which has been widely used in many fields. This paper improves the mean shift algorithm by adopting the following approaches. Firstly, we present a novel approach named Random Sampling with Contexts (RSC) to speed up the mean shift algorithm. Secondly, we introduce Dempster-Shafer (D-S) theory for the fusion of features to improve the segmenting quality. Moreover, experimental results show that the new algorithm is superior to the typical mean shift algorithm.
Word-of-mouth algorithms: what you don't know will hurt you

Word-of-mouth communication has been shown to play a key role in a variety of environments such as viral marketing and churn prediction. A family of algorithms, generally known as information spreading algorithms has been developed to model such pervasive behavior. Although these algorithms have produced good results, in general, they do not consider that the social network reconstructed to model the environment of an individual is limited by the information available. In this paper we study how the missing information (in the form of missing nodes and/or missing links) affects the spread of information in the well-known Dasgupta et al. (2008) algorithm. The results indicate that the error made grows logarithmically with the amount of information (links, nodes or both) unknown.
Moult speed affects structural feather ornaments in the blue tit

Growing evidence suggests that structural feather colours honestly reflect individual quality or body condition but, contrary to pigment‐based colours, it is not clear what mechanism links condition to reflectance in structural feather colours. We experimentally accelerated the moult speed of a group of blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) by exposing them to a rapidly decreasing photoperiod and compared the spectral characteristics of their structural feather colours with those of control birds. Blue tits were sexually dimorphic on the UV/blue crown and on the white cheek feathers. Moult speed, however, dramatically reduced brightness and the saturation only on the UV/blue crown feathers, whereas structural white on the cheek feathers was basically unaffected by moult speed. Given that the time available for moulting is usually confined to the period between the end of the breeding season and migration or wintering, UV/blue colours, but not structural white, may convey long‐term information about an individual’s performance during the previous breeding season. The trade‐off between fast moulting and structural colour expression may represent a previously unrecognized selective advantage for early‐breeding birds.
A Methodological Approach for Enterprise Modelling of Small and Medium Virtual Enterprises based on UML . Application to a Tile Virtual Enterprise

Enterprise Modelling has been used successfully for years with different purposes. Nowadays, there are a lot of languages, methodologies and tools related to Enterprise Modelling, even for modelling Virtual Enterprises. However, some of the Enterprise Modelling weaknesses have not been solved yet. One of the most important is the lack of interoperability among enterprises that use different Enterprise Modelling Languages (EML). Such EML are defined in proprietary formats, and they are only implemented by proprietary and expensive tools. So that, this problem is intensified in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), because they have limited resources. In this context, this paper shows my Ph.D. thesis proposal describing the problematic situation which is the origin of this research and the objectives suggested to solve it. The thesis goal is to investigate the possibilities of using UML 2.0 and Profiles mechanism in order to provide a methodological approach for solving interoperability problems to Small and Medium Virtual Enterprises in the context of Enterprise Modelling.
Effect of Start Position on Human Performance in Steering Tasks

The steering law has been a robust and powerful model for studying steering tasks in human-computer interaction. This paper investigated the effect of four kinds of start position (left, right, top and bottom) on human performance in straight and circular steering tasks respectively. Experimental results showed that the steering law still held for all of the four start positions for both straight and circular steering tasks. No statistically significant differences of the user performance, such as MT (Movement Time), SD (Standard Deviation), and OPM (Out of Path Movement) were observed among the four start positions in the circular steering task. However, there was significant difference of the value of SD among the four start positions in the straight steering task. Vertical steering resulted in more SD than horizontal steering. These results will be useful for further research and experiment design.