Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reach Out and Touch Someone: Anticipatory Sensorimotor Processes of Active Interpersonal Touch

Anticipating the sensorimotor consequences of an action for both self and other is fundamental for action coordination when individuals socially interact. Somatosensation constitutes an elementary component of social cognition and sensorimotor prediction, but its functions in active social behavior remain unclear. We hypothesized that the somatosensory system contributes to social haptic behavior as evidenced by specific anticipatory activation patterns when touching an animate target (human hand) compared with an inanimate target (fake hand). fMRI scanning was performed during a paradigm that allowed us to isolate the anticipatory representations of active interpersonal touch while controlling for nonsocial sensorimotor processes and possible confounds because of interpersonal relationships or socioemotional valence. Active interpersonal touch was studied both as skin-to-skin contact and as object-mediated touch. The results showed weaker deactivation in primary somatosensory cortex and medial pFC and stronger activation in cerebellum for the animate target, compared with the inanimate target, when intending to touch it with one's own hand. Differently, in anticipation of touching the human hand with an object, anterior inferior parietal lobule and lateral occipital-temporal cortex showed stronger activity. When actually touching a human hand with one's own hand, activation was stronger in medial pFC but weaker in primary somatosensory cortex. The findings provide new insight on the contribution of simulation and sensory prediction mechanisms to active social behavior. They also suggest that literally getting in touch with someone and touching someone by using an object might be approached by an agent as functionally distinct conditions.
The Adaptive Control of FES-assisted Indoor Rowing Exercise

This paper describes the development of an adaptive control mechanism for FES-assisted indoor rowing exercise (FES-rowing). The FES-rowing is intro- duced as a total body exercise for rehabilitation of function of lower body through the application of functional ele c- trical stimulation (FES). A model of the rowing ergometer with humanoid is developed using the visual Nastran sof t- ware environment (vN4D). A fuzzy logic control (FLC) scheme is designed in Matlab/Simulink and adapted online by pre-training artificial neural network (ANN) to regulate the muscle stimulation pulse width required to drive FES-rowing. The ANN is used as an adaptation to the system that is required to account for muscle fatigue. The results signify that the adaptive control scheme is able to achieve and maintain better tracking performance. This study indicates that the adaptive control developed may provide an effective mechanism for automatically regula t- ing the stimulation pulse width for FES-rowing to ove r- come muscle fatigue.
Predicting protein structural classes with pseudo amino acid composition: A new approach using geometric moments of distance matrix image

Protein secondary structure prediction is a fundamental and important component in the analytical study of protein structure and functions. Using the pseudo amino acid (PseAA) composition to represent the sample of a protein can incorporate a considerable amount of sequence pattern information so as to improve the prediction quality for its structural or functional classification. In this paper, the protein distance matrix image(DMI) is introduced. Based on the protein DMI, two geometric moments derived form each of the protein sequences concerned are adopted for its PseAA. It was demonstrated thru the jackknife cross-validation test that the overall success rate by the new approach was significantly higher than those by the others. The remarkable merit of this approach is that many image recognition tools can be straightforwardly utilized in predicting protein structural classes.
Evidential location estimation for events detected in Twitter

Event detection from microblogs and social networks, especially from Twitter, is an active and rich research topic. By grouping similar tweets in clusters, people can extract events and follow the happenings in a community. In this work, we focus on estimating the geographical locations of events that are detected in Twitter. An important novelty of our work is the application of evidential reasoning techniques, namely the Demspter-Shafer Theory (DST), for this problem. By utilizing several features of tweets, we aim to produce belief intervals for a set of possible discrete locations. DST helps us deal with uncertainties, assign belief values to subsets of solutions, and combine pieces of evidence obtained from different tweet features. The initial results on several real cases suggest the applicability and usefulness of DST for the problem.
Characterization of the Inhibitor-Resistant SHV β-Lactamase SHV-107 in a Clinical Klebsiella pneumoniae Strain Coproducing GES-7 Enzyme

ABSTRACT The clinical Klebsiella pneumoniae INSRA6884 strain exhibited nonsusceptibility to all penicillins tested (MICs of 64 to >2,048 μg/ml). The MICs of penicillins were weakly reduced by clavulanate (from 2,048 to 512 μg/ml), and tazobactam restored piperacillin susceptibility. Molecular characterization identified the genes blaGES-7 and a new β-lactamase gene, blaSHV-107, which encoded an enzyme that differed from SHV-1 by the amino acid substitutions Leu35Gln and Thr235Ala. The SHV-107-producing Escherichia coli strain exhibited only a β-lactam resistance phenotype with respect to amoxicillin, ticarcillin, and amoxicillin-clavulanate combination. The kinetic parameters of the purified SHV-107 enzyme revealed a high affinity for penicillins. However, catalytic efficiency for these antibiotics was lower for SHV-107 than for SHV-1. No hydrolysis was detected against oxyimino-β-lactams. The 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) for clavulanic acid was 9-fold higher for SHV-107 than for SHV-1, but the inhibitory effects of tazobactam were unchanged. Molecular dynamics simulation suggested that the Thr235Ala substitution affects the accommodation of clavulanate in the binding site and therefore its inhibitory activity.
Unraveling a large-scale innovation process: A focus on the dynamic interplay within the Triple Helix

Sub-theme: S2.3 The formation mechanisms and development dynamics of the Triple HelixCopyright of the paper resides with the author(s). Submission of a paper grants permission to the 8 th Triple Helix International Scientific and Organizing Committees to include it in the conference material and to place it on relevant websites. The Scientific Committee may invite papers accepted for the conference to be considered for publication in Special Issues of selected journals.
Thermal characterization of a microheater for micromachined gas sensors

In this paper, a new four-point probe, double spiral heating element configuration for micromachined gas sensors is proposed and a simple analytical model of the steady-state thermal behavior of the microheater is presented. A testing procedure is suggested, based on simple two-wire and four-wire resistance versus power measurements, together with an iterative extraction procedure for the parameters of the thermal model. This allowed us to accurately extract the sensor active area temperature as a function of the total power dissipated on the microheater. © 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Controlled Label Propagation: Preventing Over-Propagation through Gradual Expansion

Identifying communities has always been a fundamental task in analysis of complex networks. Many methods have been devised over the last decade for detection of communities. Amongst them, the label propagation algorithm brings great scalability together with high accuracy. However, it has one major flaw; when the community structure in the network is not clear enough, it will assign every node the same label, thus detecting the whole graph as one giant community. We have addressed this issue by setting a capacity for communities, starting from a small value and gradually increasing it over time. Preliminary results show that not only our extension improves the detection capability of classic label propagation algorithm when communities are not clearly detectable, but also improves the overall quality of the identified clusters in complex networks with a clear community structure.
A Multistage Low Supply Op-Amp in 0 . 25 μ m CMOS using Modified Active-Feedback Frequency-Compensation

This paper presents the design, analysis, and simulated results of a three stage low power op-amp in a 0. 25μm CMOS process technology. The op-amp overcomes the problems of cascading stages under low supply voltage by using modified active-feedback frequency compensation. This op-amp operates over a common-mode voltage (Vcm)from 0 to 0.6V, a supply voltage (Vdd) of 1.5V ±5%, a temperature range from 27 oC to 85 oC, and with a unity gain frequency of approximately 150 MHz. The op-amp is designed to drive a 2pF load. At nominal conditions (Vcm=0.3 V, Vdd = 1.5 V, temp = 27 oC), the DC gain is 91 dB. Index Terms – Active feedback, frequency compensation, multistage amplifiers, low voltage supply, Op-Amp,
Brain Modulyzer: Interactive Visual Analysis of Functional Brain Connectivity

We present Brain Modulyzer, an interactive visual exploration tool for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans, aimed at analyzing the correlation between different brain regions when resting or when performing mental tasks. Brain Modulyzer combines multiple coordinated views—such as heat maps, node link diagrams, and anatomical views—using brushing and linking to provide an anatomical context for brain connectivity data. Integrating methods from graph theory and analysis, e.g., community detection and derived graph measures, makes it possible to explore the modular and hierarchical organization of functional brain networks. Providing immediate feedback by displaying analysis results instantaneously while changing parameters gives neuroscientists a powerful means to comprehend complex brain structure more effectively and efficiently and supports forming hypotheses that can then be validated via statistical analysis. To demonstrate the utility of our tool, we present two case studies—exploring progressive supranuclear palsy, as well as memory encoding and retrieval.
Association analysis of retinoic acid receptor beta (RARβ) gene with high myopia in Chinese subjects

Purpose High myopia or pathological myopia is a common refractive error. Individuals with high myopia are subject to increased risk of serious eye complications. Accumulating evidence has demonstrated the role for heritability in ocular growth and in the development of high myopia. Retinoic acid and retinoic acid receptors play important roles in ocular development and in experimentally induced myopia. The purpose of this study was to determine if high myopia is associated with single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) variants in the retinoic acid receptor beta (RARβ) gene in Chinese subjects. Methods DNA samples were purified from venous lymphocytes of 175 unrelated Chinese patients with high myopia (less than −8.00 diopters) and 101 Chinese control subjects without high myopia (±1.00 diopters). Direct nucleotide sequence analysis in the RARβ gene was performed, and the detected variations were further confirmed by reverse sequencing. Allelic frequencies of all detected SNPs were assessed for Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. Results Five variations in RARβ were detected in Chinese subjects with high myopia, including 32574G>A, 32629G>A, 32645C>T, 32647T>G, and 151973C>T, of which only 32647T>G (NCBI notes as rs58244688 and rs2067964) had already been reported. The majority of SNP genotypes were heterozygous. While 32647T>G, 32629G>A, and 32645C>T were located in introns and 32574G>A and 151973C>T were located in coding regions, none of the SNPs affected the amino acid sequence. In the present study, no evidence of association was found between variations in the nucleotide sequence of RARβ and high myopia. Conclusions Five SNP variants in RARβ were detected in Chinese subjects with high myopia, none of them were associated significantly with high myopia. Further studies are needed to identify which genes are responsible for high myopia.
Fast convergence of the Glauber dynamics for sampling independent sets

We consider the problem of sampling independent sets of a graph with maximum degree δ. The weight of each independent set is expressed in terms of a fixed positive parameter λ≤2/(δ−2), where the weight of an independent set σ is λ|σ|. The Glauber dynamics is a simple Markov chain Monte Carlo method for sampling from this distribution. We show fast convergence (in O(n log n) time) of this dynamics. This paper gives the more interesting proof for triangle-free graphs. The proof for arbitrary graphs is given in a companion paper (E. Vigoda, Technical Report TR-99-003, International Computer Institute, Berkeley, CA, 1998). We also prove complementary hardness of approximation results, which show that it is hard to sample from this distribution when λ>c/δ for a constant c≤0. ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Random Struct. Alg. , 15, 229–241, 1999
Partially integrable dynamics of ensembles of nonidentical oscillators

AbstractWe consider ensembles of sine-coupled phase oscillators consisting of subpopulationsof identical units, with a general heterogeneous coupling between subpopulations.Using the Watanabe-Strogatz ansatz we reduce the dynamics of the ensemble to arelatively small numberof dynamical variables plusmicroscopic constants of motion.This reduction is independent of the sizes of subpopulations and remains valid inthe thermodynamic limits, where these sizes or/and the number of subpopulationsare inﬁnite. We demonstrate that the approach to the dynamics of such systems,recently proposed by Ott and Antonsen, corresponds to a particular choice of micro-scopic constants of motion. The theory is applied to the standard Kuramoto modeland to the description of two interacting subpopulations, exhibiting a chimera state.Furthermore, we analyze the dynamics of the extension of the Kuramoto model forthe case of nonlinear coupling and demonstrate the multistability of synchronousstates. Keywords: Coupled oscillators, oscillator ensembles, Kuramoto model, nonlinearcoupling
Novel Mechanism of Aortic Aneurysm Development in Mice Associated With Smoking and Leukocytes

Objective—The purpose of this study was to evaluate potential mechanisms promoting abdominal aortic aneurysm development with tobacco smoke (TS) exposure. Methods and Results—Experiments used the elastase perfusion model of abdominal aortic aneurysms with smoke-free controls. The effect of TS exposure was evaluated in C57/Bl6 mice, after broad-spectrum matrix metalloproteinase inhibition with doxycycline and in mice deficient in matrix metalloproteinase-9, matrix metalloproteinase-12, Cathepsin-S, and Neutrophil Elastase. Preparations of washed marrow, spleen, and peripheral blood leukocytes were transferred to smoke-free mice from 6-week TS-exposed mice or smoke-free mice. All mice were euthanized 14 days after elastase perfusion, and the percentage of change in aortic diameter (%&Dgr; aortic diameter) was calculated. Electron microscopy of aortic tissue from animals exposed to TS without elastase exposure did not demonstrate any ultrastructural changes. Neither doxycycline nor any specific elastase deficiency was effective at preventing an increase in %&Dgr; aortic diameter in TS-exposed animals. Smoke exposure for 6 weeks increased the %&Dgr; aortic diameter after a smoke-free interval of up to 6 weeks before elastase perfusion. Leukocyte preparations from TS-exposed mice localized to abdominal aortic aneurysms and increased the %&Dgr; aortic diameter in smoke-free mice. Conclusion—The effect of TS on the development of abdominal aortic aneurysms is not dependent on the activity of elastolytic enzymes and persists for long periods despite cessation of TS. Alterations in leukocyte response to aortic injury appear to mediate this effect.
Asymptotic expansions at any time for scalar fractional SDEs with Hurst index H> 1/2

t ) and E(�hf(Xt)|Xt), wherehf(Xt) = f(Xt+h) f(Xt), when f : R ! R is a smooth real function, t � 0 is a fixed time, X is the solution of a one-dimensional stochastic differential equation driven by a fractional Brownian motion with Hurst index H > 1/2 and F X is its natural filtration.
Efficient Protocols for Secure Broadcast in Controller Area Networks

Controller Area Network is a bus commonly used by controllers inside vehicles and in various industrial control applications. In the past controllers were assumed to operate in secure perimeters, but today these environments are well connected to the outside world and recent incidents showed them extremely vulnerable to cyber-attacks. To withstand such threats, one can implement security in the application layer of CAN. Here we design, refine and implement a broadcast authentication protocol based on the well known paradigm of using key-chains and time synchronization, a commonly used mechanism in wireless sensor networks, which allows us to take advantage from the use of symmetric primitives without the need of secret shared keys during broadcast. But, as process control is a time critical operation we make several refinements in order to improve on the authentication delay. For this we study several trade-offs to alleviate shortcomings on computational speed, memory and bandwidth up to the point of using reduced versions of hash functions that can assure ad hoc security. To prove the efficiency of the protocol we provide experimental results on two representative microcontrollers from the market: a Freescale S12X and an Infineon TriCore, both devices were specifically chosen as they are located somewhat on the extremes of computational power.
The Population Genetics of Cultivation: Domestication of a Traditional Chinese Medicine, Scrophularia ningpoensis Hemsl. (Scrophulariaceae)

Background Domestic cultivation of medicinal plants is an important strategy for protecting these species from over harvesting. Some species of medicinal plants have been brought into cultivation for more than hundreds years. Concerns about severe loss of genetic diversity and sustainable cultivation can potentially limit future use of these valuable plants. Genetic studies with comprehensive sampling of multiple medicinal species by molecular markers will allow for assessment and management of these species. Here we examine the population genetic consequences of cultivation and domestication in Scrophularia ningpoensis Hemsl. We used chloroplast DNA and genomic AFLP markers to clarify not only the effects of domestication on genetic diversity, but also determine the geographic origins of cultivars and their genetic divergence from native populations. These results will allow both better management of cultivated populations, but also provide insights for crop improvement. Results Twenty-one cpDNA haplotypes of S. ningpoensis were identified. Wild populations contain all haplotypes, whereas only three haplotypes were found in cultivated populations with wild populations having twice the haplotype diversity of cultivated populations. Genetic differentiation between cultivated populations and wild populations was significant. Genomic AFLP markers revealed similar genetic diversity patterns. Furthermore, Structure analysis grouped all wild populations into two gene pools; two of which shared the same gene pool with cultivated S. ningpoensis. The result of Neighbor-Joining analysis was consistent with the structure analysis. In principal coordinate analysis, three cultivated populations from Zhejiang Province grouped together and were separated from other cultivated populations. Conclusions These results suggest that cultivated S. ningpoensis has experienced dramatic loss of genetic diversity under anthropogenic influence. We postulate that strong artificial selection for medicinal quality has resulted in genetic differentiation between cultivated and wild populations. Furthermore, it appears that wild populations in Jiangxi-Hunan area were involved in the origin of cultivated S. ningpoensis.
A tool for compiler construction based on aspect-oriented specifications

Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) provides a way to modularize crosscutting concerns. Crosscuting concerns can be found in various representations of software artifacts and in different steps of software life cycle (e.g., source code, models, requirements, language grammars). This paper provides an introduction to the AspectLISA tool and its aspect-oriented specification language for programming language definition and compiler construction. AspectLISA is a mature, well-tested system for automatically generating compilers, interpreters, and other language related tools from formal incremental and reusable aspect-oriented attribute grammar-based specifications. In the paper we discuss about the issues involved in the design and implementation of domain-specific aspect language for compiler construction, as well as some benefits of aspect-oriented specifications.
The Globalization of Angel Investments: Evidence across Countries

This paper examines investments made by 13 angel groups across 21 countries. We compare applicants just above and below the funding cutoff and find that these angel investors have a positive impact on the growth, performance, and survival of firms as well as their follow-on fundraising. The positive impact of angel financing is independent of the level of venture activity and entrepreneur-friendliness in the country. However, we find that the development stage and maturity of startups that apply for angel funding (and those that are ultimately funded) is inversely correlated with the entrepreneurship-friendliness of the country, which may reflect self-censoring by very early-stage firms that do not expect to receive funding in these environments.
Hostile media perception and partisan processing of media messages: Self-categorization and involvement in political and religious debates over same-sex marriage and poverty

Hostile media perception (HMP) is a well-documented perceptual media effect. Yet, an understanding of its causal mechanisms has been difficult to ascertain. This study examined two promising, inter-disciplinary theoretical explanations – self-categorization and involvement. An experiment tested the effect of various facets of self-categorization and involvement on personal and perceived media positions regarding two issues that are salient to both political and religious identities – same-sex marriage and poverty. Political and religious self-categorization predicted personal positions on the issues, as well as perceptions of relevant media messages. Both HMP and message assimilation were related to self-categorization. Political self-categorization emerged as the strongest predictor of personal beliefs and media perceptions. Value involvement increased position extremity and message assimilation. Findings suggest particular usefulness of self-categorization in predicting HMP, while raising further questions about how readily HMP occurs, particularly among weaker partisans, and which audience or message factors predict message assimilation or contrast. Theoretical and methodological implications for future research are discussed.