Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic Model of a 6-dof Parallel Manipulator Using the Generalized Momentum Approach

The dynamic model of a mechanical system relates the time evolution of its configuration (position, velocity and acceleration) with the forces and torques acting upon it. The inverse dynamic model is important for system control while the direct model is used for system simulation. Serial structure manipulator dynamic modelling is a well established subject. So, recent developments have been oriented towards the improvement of numerical efficiency enabling their use in real-time control algorithms (Lilly, 1993; Naudet, 2003; Mata, 2002; Lee, 2005; Featherstone, 2000). Parallel structure manipulators present a more complex problem, and, usually, the model algorithms cannot be generalized. When used in a real-time control framework the resulting models must be simplified as they usually demand a very high computational effort. The dynamic model of a parallel manipulator when operated in free space can be mathematically represented, in the Cartesian space, by a system of nonlinear differential equations that may be written in matrix form as ( ) ( ) ( ) f x G x x x V x x I = + ⋅ + ⋅ $ $ $ $ , (1) ( ) x I being the inertia matrix, ( ) x x V $ , the Coriolis and centripetal terms matrix, ( ) x G a vector of gravitational generalized forces, x the generalized position of the mobile platform or endeffector and f the controlled generalized force applied on the end-effector: ( ) τ x J f ⋅ = T (2)
Interallelic complementation provides functional evidence for cohesin–cohesin interactions on DNA

A single cohesin is believed to be sufficient to tether sister chromatids. Three examples of interallelic complementation are identified and characterized in which two different mutant cohesin complexes interact to promote cohesin functions. The results support a mechanism by which multiple cohesin complexes interact on DNA to mediate cohesion and condensation.
Real-time Interpretation of Hand Motions using a Sparse Bayesian Classifier on Motion Gradient Orientation Images

An approach to recognise 10 elementary gestures is proposed and it can be applied to sign language recognition. In this work, a motion gradient orientation image is extracted directly from a raw video input and transformed to a motion feature vector. This feature vector is then classified into one of the 10 elementary gestures by a sparse Bayesian classifier. A training set of 628 samples and a testing set of over 1000 samples have been obtained to evaluate the proposed method. A real-time system was built and trained with the training set. From the experiment, the reported classification accuracy is 90% and the system can run in around 25 frames per second. Compared with other recently proposed methods that involve the use of hand tracking, the system can work reliably in real-time without relying on accurate tracking, and give a probabilistic output that is useful in complex motion analysis.
Towards the pharmacotherapy of hairy cell leukaemia

Hairy cell leukaemia (HCL) offers one of the few examples of rapid progress in the development of effective treatments for chronic lymphoproliferative disorders. After the first description of HCL as a separate disease in 1958, splenectomy was the treatment of choice, but rarely resulted in remission of disease and had scarce benefit on survival. In 1984, IFN-α became the first agent able to significantly modify the prognosis of HCL by inducing high response rates and long-term remissions. More recently, purine analogues have significantly further increased the percentages of remissions, with a reduced risk of relapse and are now generally used as first-line treatment. Monoclonal antibodies targeting CD20, CD22 and CD25 antigens, have also shown responses for resistant or relapsing disease. This article will review the current treatment strategies for HCL.
Impact of Persuasion Processes on Consumer Attitude Towards Online Shopping: The Moderating Role of Product Involvement and Consumer Self-Efficacy

Online vendors expand significant efforts in attracting consumers to their websites. However, once a consumer lands on a vendor’s website, a more challenging task is to convince her/him to actually transact with the website by purchasing products. This research-in-progress study draws on the elaboration-likelihood model (ELM) to develop a theoretical model for the impacts of different persuasion processes (peripheral and central routes) on consumer attitude towards purchasing products online. We also propose motivational and ability factors that are likely to moderate the effects of these different persuasion processes on attitude. A survey-based methodology is outlined to empirically validate the proposed research model using structural equation modelling techniques. Potential contributions from this research to both theory and practice are also outlined.
A Higher-Order Embedding of a Logic of Objects

We present an implementation of a program logic of objects, extending that (AL) of Abadi and Leino. In particular, the implementation uses higher-order abstract syntax (HOAS) and—unlike previous approaches using HOAS—at the same time uses the built-in higher-order logic of the theorem prover to formulate specifications. We give examples of verifications, extending those given in [1], that have been attempted with the implementation. Due to the mixing of HOAS and built-in logic the soundness of the encoding is nontrivial. In particular, unlike in other HOAS encodings of program logics, it is not possible to directly reduce normal proofs in the higher-order system to proofs in the first-order object logic. Instead, we prove soundness directly by first giving an interpretation the higher-order logic.
Britain, Empire and the Origins of the Cold War Youth Race

Abstract The Soviet politicization of international youth during the inter-war and wartime years was identified by British policy-makers as a most serious threat to British imperial power. Asserting the significance of and interplay between colonial youth and imperial ideology in the politics of the cultural Cold War, this article thus examines how the British conceptualized and sought to compete in the Cold War ‘youth race’ between 1945 and 1949. While funding was the most obvious disadvantage, this article argues that Britain’s fatal weakness was its inability to escape the consequences of colonialism, including the tendency to rely on repressive legislation.
Fate mapping of the mouse prosencephalic neural plate.

Little is known about the behavior of cells within the anterior neural plate or tube in developing mammalian embryos in utero due to technical limitations. Here we labeled neuroepithelial cells with vital dye and traced their siblings for 1 or 2 days using the whole-embryo culture system. The results demonstrated that rostral cell movement from the midbrain to the forebrain in the mouse neural plate was restricted at the boundary by the five-somite stage. Coincident with restriction of cell intermingling, expression of a transcription factor, Pax6, and a cell adhesion molecule, cadherin-6, commmenced to demarcate the forebrain compartment. Within this compartment, we also mapped several prospective regions of the telencephalon and diencephalon to the eyes. The fate map of the mouse prosencephalic neural plate was very similar to those of other vertebrates, providing evidence that mammalian-specific brain structures, represented in the cerebral neocortex, could evenly develop along the conserved framework of neuromeres.
Review of the Evidence on Diagnosis of Deep Venous Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism

PURPOSE This review summarizes the evidence regarding the efficacy of techniques for diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism. METHODS We searched for studies using MEDLINE, MICROMEDEX, the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews through June 2006. We reviewed randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews of trials, and observational studies if no trials were available. Paired reviewers assessed the quality of each included article and abstracted the data into summary tables. Heterogeneity in study designs precluded mathematical combination of the results of the primary literature. RESULTS Our review found 22 relevant systematic reviews and 36 primary studies. The evidence strongly supports the use of clinical prediction rules, particularly the Wells model, for establishing the pretest probability of DVT or pulmonary embolism in a patient before ordering more definitive testing. Fifteen studies support that when a D-dimer assay is negative and a clinical prediction rule suggests a low probability of DVT or pulmonary embolism, the negative predictive value is high enough to justify foregoing imaging studies in many patients. The evidence in 5 systematic reviews regarding the use of D-dimer, in isolation, is strong and demonstrates sensitivities of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and quantitative rapid ELISA, pooled across studies, of approximately 95%. Eight systematic reviews found that the sensitivity and specificity of ultrasonography for diagnosis of DVT vary by vein; ultrasonography performs best for diagnosis of symptomatic, proximal vein thrombosis, with pooled sensitivities of 89% to 96%. The sensitivity of single-detector helical computed tomography for diagnosis of pulmonary embolism varied widely across studies and was below 90% in 4 of 9 studies; more studies are needed to determine the sensitivity of multidetector scanners. CONCLUSIONS While the strength of the evidence varies across questions, it is generally strong.
Buckling instability in ordered bacterial colonies

Bacterial colonies often exhibit complex spatio-temporal organization. This collective behavior is affected by a multitude of factors ranging from the properties of individual cells (shape, motility, membrane structure) to chemotaxis and other means of cell–cell communication. One of the important but often overlooked mechanisms of spatio-temporal organization is direct mechanical contact among cells in dense colonies such as biofilms. While in natural habitats all these different mechanisms and factors act in concert, one can use laboratory cell cultures to study certain mechanisms in isolation. Recent work demonstrated that growth and ensuing expansion flow of rod-like bacteria Escherichia coli in confined environments leads to orientation of cells along the flow direction and thus to ordering of cells. However, the cell orientational ordering remained imperfect. In this paper we study one mechanism responsible for the persistence of disorder in growing cell populations. We demonstrate experimentally that a growing colony of nematically ordered cells is prone to the buckling instability. Our theoretical analysis and discrete-element simulations suggest that the nature of this instability is related to the anisotropy of the stress tensor in the ordered cell colony.
Interleukin-10 regulates progenitor differentiation and modulates neurogenesis in adult brain

Summary The adult subventricular zone (SVZ) is the main neurogenic niche in the adult brain of mice and rats. The adult SVZ contains neural stem cells (NSCs) that primarily differentiate into committed neuroblasts. The newly generated neuroblasts accumulate in dorsal SVZ where they further differentiate and initiate a long migration pathway to their final destination, the olfactory bulb (OB). Here, we report a new role for Interleukin 10 (IL-10) that is different to its well-known anti-inflammatory properties. We show that the IL-10 receptor is expressed in Nestin-positive progenitors restricted to the dorsal SVZ in adult brain. Using IL-10 gain models, we observed that IL-10 maintains neural progenitors in an undifferentiated state by keeping progenitors in an active cycle where pro-neural gene markers (Nestin, Sox1, Sox2, Musashi, Mash1) are upregulated and neuronal gene expression (Numb, DCX, TUBB3) is downregulated. In addition, IL-10 reduces neuronal differentiation and ultimately impairs endogenous neurogenesis. Consistently, in the absence of IL-10, in vivo neuronal differentiation of SVZ progenitors is enhanced and the incorporation of new neurons in the adult OB is increased. Thus, our results provide the first evidence that IL-10 acts as a growth factor on SVZ progenitors and regulates neurogenesis in normal adult brain.
Incorporating Non-sequential interactions into Click Models

Click-through information is considered as a valuable source of users’ implicit relevance feedback. As user behavior is usually influenced by a number of factors such as position, presentation style and site reputation, researchers have proposed a variety of assumptions (i.e. click models) to generate a reasonable estimation of result relevance. The construction of click models usually follow some hypotheses. For example, most existing click models follow the sequential examination hypothesis in which users examine results from top to bottom in a linear fashion. While these click models have been successful, many recent studies showed that there is a large proportion of non-sequential browsing (both examination and click) behaviors in Web search, which the previous models fail to cope with. In this paper, we investigate the problem of properly incorporating non-sequential behavior into click models. We firstly carry out a laboratory eye-tracking study to analyze user’s non-sequential examination behavior and then propose a novel click model named Partially Sequential Click Model (PSCM) that captures the practical behavior of users. We compare PSCM with a number of existing click models using two real-world search engine logs. Experimental results show that PSCM outperforms other click models in terms of both predicting click behavior (perplexity) and estimating result relevance (NDCG and user preference test).
Base-Delta-Immediate Compression: A Practical Data Compression Mechanism for On-Chip Caches

Cache compression is a promising technique to increase cache capacity and to decrease on-chip and off-chip bandwidth usage. Unfortunately, directly applying well-known compression algorithms (usually implemented in software) leads to high hardware complexity and unacceptable decompression/compression latencies, which in turn can negatively affect performance. Hence, there is a need for a simple yet efficient compression technique that can effectively compress common in-cache data patterns, and has minimal effect on cache access latency. In this paper, we propose a new compression algorithm called Base-Delta-Immediate (BDI) compression, a practical technique for compressing data in on-chip caches. The key idea of the algorithm is that, for many cache lines, the values within the cache line have a low dynamic range ‐ i.e., the differences between values stored within the cache line are small. As a result, a cache line can be represented using a base value and an array of differences whose combined size is much smaller than the original cache line (we call this the base+delta encoding). Moreover, many cache lines intersperse such base+delta values with small values ‐ our BDI technique efficiently incorporates such immediate values into its encoding. Compared to prior cache compression approaches, our studies show that BDI strikes a sweet-spot in the tradeoff between compression ratio, decompression/compression latencies, and hardware complexity. Our results show that BDI compression improves performance for both single-core (8.1% improvement) and multi-core workloads (9.5% / 11.2% improvement for two/four cores). For many applications, BDI provides the performance benefit of doubling the cache size of the baseline system, effectively increasing average cache capacity by 1.53X.
Inhibition of retrovirus-induced disease in mice by camptothecin

We have previously shown that noncytotoxic doses of camptothecin (CPT), a topoisomerase I-specific antagonist, inhibit retrovirus replication in acutely and chronically infected cells. To evaluate the efficacy of CPT as an antiretroviral drug in vivo, we injected newborn BALB/c mice with Moloney murine leukemia virus and adult NFS mice with Friend spleen focus-forming virus. The Moloney murine leukemia virus-injected mice developed lymphoma, and the Friend spleen focus-forming virus-injected mice developed erythroleukemia. CPT, administrated together with the virus or 1 or 2 days after virus injection, prevented the onset of the disease in both cases. We showed that repeated CPT treatments increased the effectiveness of the drug when administrated 3 days after virus injection. This ability of CPT to inhibit retrovirus-induced disease in vivo without causing any apparent toxic side effects suggests its application as a legitimate remedy for the treatment of retroviral diseases.
Phenotypic Profile of Rh and Kell Blood Group Systems among Blood Donors in Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa

Few countries in sub-Saharan Africa make systematic searches for antigens C, c, E, and e of the Rh and Kell system antigens in the donor and recipient, thereby exposing transfused patients. Purpose and Objectives. In this paper, we propose to determine the red cell Rh and Kell blood groups among blood donors from traditional techniques to improve medical care of transfused patients. This study will allow us to assess the frequency of blood group antigens in these systems. Study Design and Methods. We carried out a study on the red cell typing in the blood donor population of the National Blood Transfusion Center in Abidjan. This study was performed on 651 blood donors. Results. For the Rh system, the antigen frequencies of D, c, e, C, and E are, respectively, 92.93%, 99.85%, 99.85%, 21.97%, and 13.82%. K antigen is found in 0.77% of donors. Discussion and Conclusion. Although the frequencies of the most immunogenic antigens are lower than in the white race, lack of preventive measures makes the immunological risk high in Africa. Furthermore, Africa is full of specificities that are important to note for a better care of our patients.
An exploratory fNIRS study with immersive virtual reality: a new method for technical implementation

For over two decades Virtual Reality (VR) has been used as a useful tool in several fields, from medical and psychological treatments, to industrial and military applications. Only in recent years researchers have begun to study the neural correlates that subtend VR experiences. Even if the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is the most common and used technique, it suffers several limitations and problems. Here we present a methodology that involves the use of a new and growing brain imaging technique, functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), while participants experience immersive VR. In order to allow a proper fNIRS probe application, a custom-made VR helmet was created. To test the adapted helmet, a virtual version of the line bisection task was used. Participants could bisect the lines in a virtual peripersonal or extrapersonal space, through the manipulation of a Nintendo Wiimote ® controller in order for the participants to move a virtual laser pointer. Although no neural correlates of the dissociation between peripersonal and extrapersonal space were found, a significant hemodynamic activity with respect to the baseline was present in the right parietal and occipital areas. Both advantages and disadvantages of the presented methodology are discussed.
Beyond Attack Trees: Dynamic Security Modeling with Boolean Logic Driven Markov Processes (BDMP)

Boolean logic Driven Markov Processes (BDMP) are a powerful modeling tool used in the reliability and safety domains. We propose to take advantage of their capabilities to go beyond the traditional techniques used to model attack scenarios. In particular we show how this new approach can be seen as preferable to attack trees and Petri net-based methods. Attack trees are inherently static and limited to independent events, whereas BDMP are dynamic and can take into account simple dependences. This allows the modeling of attack sequences, but also of defensive aspects such as detections. Petri net-based approaches are highly flexible but often lack readability and scalability; BDMP representations are close to attack trees, inheriting their readability and easy appropriation. Moreover, BDMP have mathematical properties leading to drastic reductions of combinatorial problems, allowing efficient scenarios processing and time dependent quantifications. Finally, limits and improvement perspectives are discussed.
Biomaterial-Supported Cell Transplantation Treatments for Spinal Cord Injury: Challenges and Perspectives

Spinal cord injury (SCI), resulting in para- and tetraplegia caused by the partial or complete disruption of descending motor and ascending sensory neurons, represents a complex neurological condition that remains incurable. Following SCI, numerous obstacles comprising of the loss of neural tissue (neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes), formation of a cavity, inflammation, loss of neuronal circuitry and function must be overcome. Given the multifaceted primary and secondary injury events that occur with SCI treatment options are likely to require combinatorial therapies. While several methods have been explored, only the intersection of two, cell transplantation and biomaterial implantation, will be addressed in detail here. Owing to the constant advance of cell culture technologies, cell-based transplantation has come to the forefront of SCI treatment in order to replace/protect damaged tissue and provide physical as well as trophic support for axonal regrowth. Biomaterial scaffolds provide cells with a protected environment from the surrounding lesion, in addition to bridging extensive damage and providing physical and directional support for axonal regrowth. Moreover, in this combinatorial approach cell transplantation improves scaffold integration and therefore regenerative growth potential. Here, we review the advances in combinatorial therapies of Schwann cells (SCs), astrocytes, olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs), mesenchymal stem cells, as well as neural stem and progenitor cells (NSPCs) with various biomaterial scaffolds.
Exploring social identity in narrative: analyzing the testimonies of Japanese-speaking Christians

This study investigates the notion of social identity within Gee's (1989, 1996, 1999) framework of Discourse. A Christian testimony is a type of personal narrative in which believers' experiences are evaluated in terms ofvalues and beliefs from the Scripture, which is the communal guiding norm. Construing social identity as membership in a Discourse, this study will explore social identity which is presented, negotiated, and socialized in narration as situated social practice. When we narrate a story, we evaluate our experiences in terms ofcommunal values and expectations. These communal expectations of "how to be a good person" are an integral part of our identity. In our attempts to reconcile our personal experiences with communal expectations, we, as narrators, go through "problem-solving," or a process whereby we present ourself as a good and socially competent person. I argue that the presentation of testimony is constrained by the shared values and beliefs which consist of a Discourse in this particular community. The narrators made reference to the spiritual values, which rendered believers' personal narrative into testimony recounting how they worked through a problem with God's assistance. Moreover, presenting their responses to the narrative problems as reflecting the moral values from the Scripture, the narrators structured the narrated events as moral events in order to create their moral identity as a good Christian. I also argue that testimony can be a site of socialization, where novice members are socialized into the shared values and beliefs through interaction with expert members. Lastly, the testifiers in the present study are Japanese immigrants and non-immigrants who practice their faith in Hawai'i. The Japanese values are still an inseparable part of their identity. I