Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simple adaptive control of quadrotor attitude. Algorithms and experimental results

In the paper the simple adaptive control approach is employed to designing the adaptive controllers of quadrotor angular motion. The adaptive controllers are synthesized based on the Implicit Reference Model (IRM) design technique. The “shunting method” (parallel feedforward compensation) is used to cope with the unmodelled plant dynamics. Analytical justification of system stability is made by employing the Passification method. Quality of the closed-loop IRM adaptive control system is studied and compared with that of the proportionalderivative (PD) non-adaptive control system experimentally on two degrees of freedom (2DOF) quadrotor testbed and in-flight tests of the QuadRoy quadrotor for nominal and parametrically perturbed cases.
A trace display and editing program for data from fluorescence based sequencing machines.

'Ted' (Trace editor) is a graphical editor for sequence and trace data from automated fluorescence sequencing machines. It provides facilities for viewing sequence and trace data (in top or bottom strand orientation), for editing the base sequence, for automated or manual trimming of the head (vector) and tail (uncertain data) from the sequence, for vertical and horizontal trace scaling, for keeping a history of sequence editing, and for output of the edited sequence. Ted has been used extensively in the C.elegans genome sequencing project, both as a stand-alone program and integrated into the Staden sequence assembly package, and has greatly aided in the efficiency and accuracy of sequence editing. It runs in the X windows environment on Sun workstations and is available from the authors. Ted currently supports sequence and trace data from the ABI 373A and Pharmacia A.L. F. sequencers.
The disposition and metabolism of the synthetic prostaglandin fluprostenol (ICI 81,008) in the horse.

1. Following single intramuscular doses of [14C]fluprostenol (0.5--2.4 micrograms/kg) to three female horses and to three gelded male horses, radioactivity was present in the plasma within 5 min; peak concn. (0.32--1.30 ng/ml fluprostenol equiv.) occurred 5 to 90 min after injection. Radioactivity was still present in the plasma of the females after three days. About 88% of fluprostenol is bound to plasma proteins. 2. Radioactivity was present in the parotid saliva of the gelded male horses within 10 min. Peak concn. (45--91 pg/ml fluprostenol equiv.) occurred from 5 min to 1 h after injection. Saliva : plasma concn. ratios varied inversely with saliva flow rate and limiting ratios were 0.33 and 0.41 for the combined results of two experiments on each of two male horses; the calculated value is 0.46 Chromatography indicated that the majority of plasma and saliva radioactivity was [14C]fluprostenol. 3. Excretion of radioactivity in the urine was rapid and virtually complete 12 h after dosing. The total radioactivity excreted in urine by the female horses was 45% of the dose (96 h) and by the gelded male horses 53% (30 h). About 30% of the radioactivity present in the urines was unchanged fluprostenol. 4. Faecal excretion, which was substantially complete after 2 days, accounted for 32% of the radioactivity administered to the female horses. 5. Tissue conc. of radioactivity in the female horses at four days were below the limits of detection (90 pg/g), but 0.2--0.9% of the dose was detected at the site of injection.
The voluntary code of conduct for dolphin watching in Port Stephens, Australia: is self-regulation an effective management tool?

In the absence of guidelines or government regulation for a rapidly expanding industry, dolphin watching operators in Port Stephens, New South Wales, Australia, formulated and adopted a voluntary code of conduct in 1996. This code was designed to reduce perceived pressures on dolphins and was updated to conform to the Australian National Guidelines for Cetacean Observation when they were released in 2000. Compliance to this code of conduct was assessed in a shore-based survey over the austral summer of 2002/03. Operator compliance was generally high for: number of dolphin watching boats per dolphin school; time spent by individual operators with dolphins; method of approach to dolphins; and frequency of cruises conducted per day. However, operators did not discriminate between dolphin schools containing calves and those that did not (equating to a breach of the national guidelines) and three of nine regular operators committed most breaches of the code, particularly with regard to boat-handling around dolphins and frequency of cruises conducted per day. The code’s aim in reducing exposure of dolphins to boats was not achieved as dolphin schools were subject to consecutive approaches by numerous boats and interactions also involved boats to which the code did not apply. This voluntary code is thus of limited value without revision, education and enforcement. The inability of a voluntary code to manage the number of operators and other watercraft highlights the need for management alternatives that will increase compliance by all users of the waterways. Furthermore, widespread assessments of compliance are necessary, particularly where assessments of the effects of cetacean-based tourism are being conducted. To determine whether identified impacts are a result of inappropriate management strategies, or non-compliance with suitable management, requires that management strategies are tested while simultaneously testing or ensuring compliance.
Dynamics of T Cell Responses in HIV Infection1

Cytotoxic CD8+ T cells play a major role in the immune response against viruses. However, the dynamics of CD8+ T cell responses during the course of a human infection are not well understood. Using tetrameric complexes in combination with a range of intracellular and extracellular markers, we present a detailed analysis of the changes in activation and differentiation undergone by Ag-specific CD8+ T cells, in relation to Ag-specific CD4+ T cell responses, in the context of a human infection: HIV-1. During primary HIV-1 infection, the initial population of HIV-specific CD8+ T cells is highly activated and prone to apoptosis. The Ag-specific cells differentiate rapidly from naive to cells at a perforin low intermediate stage of differentiation, later forming a stable pool of resting cells as viral load decreases during chronic infection. These observations have significant implications for our understanding of T cell responses in human viral infections in general and indicate that the definition of effector and memory subsets in humans may need revision.
Operational meaning of quantum measures of recovery

Several information measures have recently been defined that capture the notion of recoverability. In particular, the fidelity of recovery quantifies how well one can recover a system $A$ of a tripartite quantum state, defined on systems $ABC$, by acting on system $C$ alone. The relative entropy of recovery is an associated measure in which the fidelity is replaced by relative entropy. In this paper we provide concrete operational interpretations of the aforementioned recovery measures in terms of a computational decision problem and a hypothesis testing scenario. Specifically, we show that the fidelity of recovery is equal to the maximum probability with which a computationally unbounded quantum prover can convince a computationally bounded quantum verifier that a given quantum state is recoverable. The quantum interactive proof system giving this operational meaning requires four messages exchanged between the prover and verifier, but by forcing the prover to perform actions in superposition, we construct a different proof system that requires only two messages. The result is that the associated decision problem is in QIP(2) and another argument establishes it as hard for QSZK (both classes contain problems believed to be difficult to solve for a quantum computer). We finally prove that the regularized relative entropy of recovery is equal to the optimal type II error exponent when trying to distinguish many copies of a tripartite state from a recovered version of this state, such that the type I error is constrained to be no larger than a constant.
Improved spatial and temporal resolution of gated myocardial perfusion PET using post reconstruction dual respiratory and cardiac motion compensation

The current work was based on a previously developed 4D image reconstruction method for myocardial perfusion (MP) PET where dual respiratory motion (RM) and cardiac motion (CM) compensation were performed post reconstruction. We implemented and extended the work on patient data from a commercial PET system and demonstrated further image quality improvement. We divided the PET events into 6 equal-count respiratory gates based on heart “center-of-mass” movement estimated from the list-mode PET data. For each respiratory gate, the list-mode data was sorted and rebinned into 8 and 16 cardiac gates in addition to the conventional 8 cardiac gates. The vendor provided list-mode based time-of-flight reconstruction was used in all image reconstruction with and without the TOF information to provide high quality 3D PET images before the RM&CM compensation. For each cardiac gate, the RM vector fields (RMVF) were derived from the respiratory gated reconstructed images, and were applied to the dual gated images to obtain RM free images. The CM vector fields (CMVF) were estimated from the cardiac gated RM free images; the CM compensated image at each cardiac gate was the sum of the original image and images transformed from the other cardiac gates based on the CMVF. Dual RM&CM compensation were shown to improve spatial resolution by reducing RM blur through RM compensation and suppressing image noise through CM compensation as compared to those without CM compensation. The 16-frame cardiac gated images provided much higher temporal resolution for revealing subtle regional motion than the 8-frame cardiac gated images and showed similar noise level per frame. In conclusion, dual RM&CM compensation improves spatial resolution and allows higher number of cardiac gated frames in 4D gated MP PET with improved temporal resolution without compromise in image noise.
Inhibitory control of TGF‐β1 on the activation of Rap1, CD11b, and transendothelial migration of leukocytes

β2‐Integrins are a family of dimeric adhesion molecules expressed on leukocytes. Their capacity to bind ligand is regulated by their state of activation. CD11b, an αMβ2 integrin, is implicated in a number of physiological and pathological events such as inflammation, thrombosis, or atherosclerosis. The GTPase Rap1 is essential for its activation and could therefore play a strategic role in the regulation of leukocyte functioning. Because low levels of circulating TGF‐β have been linked with severe atherosclerosis, we have assessed the role of this cytokine in the regulation of Rap1 and CD11b activation in differentiated U937 cells and in human peripheral blood monocytes. TGF‐β1 caused a significant reduction in the expression of CD11b but not in the expression of other integrins tested. More importantly, TGF‐β1 greatly reduced the capacity of PMA or chemokines to activate CD11b and Rap1, a phenomenon paralleled by a loss of the Epac transcript and a reduction in 8‐pCPT‐2′‐O‐Me‐cAMP‐mediated activation of Rap1. This inhibition diminished the capacity of monocytes to migrate across a monolayer of endothelial cells. The inhibitory effect of TGF‐β1 on Rap1 activity may exert a general protective influence against aberrant transendothelial migration, thereby holding inflammatory responses in check.
Genetic population structure of turbot (Scophthalmus maximus L.) supports the presence of multiple hybrid zones for marine fishes in the transition zone between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea

Genetic population structure of turbot (Scophthalmus maximus L.) in the Northeast Atlantic was investigated using eight highly variable microsatellite loci. In total 706 individuals from eight locations with temporal replicates were assayed, covering an area from the French Bay of Biscay to the Aaland archipelago in the Baltic Sea. In contrast to previous genetic studies of turbot, we found significant genetic differentiation among samples with a maximum pairwise FST of 0.032. Limited or no genetic differentiation was found among samples within the Atlantic/North Sea area and within the Baltic Sea, suggesting high gene flow among populations in these areas. In contrast, there was a sharp cline in genetic differentiation going from the low saline Baltic Sea to the high saline North Sea. The data were explained best by two divergent populations connected by a hybrid zone; however, a mechanical mixing model could not be ruled out. A significant part of the genetic variance could be ascribed to variation among years within locality. Nevertheless, the population structure was relatively stable over time, suggesting that the observed pattern of genetic differentiation is biologically significant. This study suggests that hybrid zones are a common phenomenon for marine fishes in the transition area between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea and highlights the importance of using interspecific comparisons for inferring population structure in high gene flow species such as most marine fishes.
Efficient and robust indoor people detection based on RGB-D camera

Despite great progress has been made in recent years, efficient and robust people detection continues to be a challenging problem in the filed of computer vision. In this paper, we propose a highly efficient indoor people detect method based on RGB-D sensor. First, two RGB and depth feature fusing strategies are proposed and compared. Secondly, an improved non-maximum suppression algorithm is proposed to further boost the performance of detection without increasing the time consumption. The detection speed of proposed approach can reach about 16 frame-per-second on Intel i7 CPU. Compared to the RGB based algorithm, our approach can decrease the average log undetected rate about 15.9%, and the accuracy can be improved by about 16%.
The “Strengthening Nursing Culture Project” – an exploratory evaluation study of nursing students’ placements within Aboriginal Medical Services

Background: Cultural awareness and cultural competence have been the focus of the transcultural nursing literature that has explored the roles and responsibilities of nurses in their care of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Cultural immersion programs, upholding cultural safety and cultural humility, offer valuable guidance to the education of nursing students regarding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and cultures. Objectives: This study seeks to explore nursing students’ experiences of a cultural immersion program within Aboriginal Medical Services (AMSs) in New South Wales, Australia. Design: Eight nursing students participated in a mixed methods design exploratory study of their clinical placement within AMSs. Methods: A survey gathered data regarding levels of preparation and confidence, learning barriers, placement stressors and personal reflections. Findings: Nursing students reported positive and transformative experiences of intercultural learning. Conclusions: Cultural immersion programs provide a valuable framework for the design and evaluation of clinical placement programs for nursing students within intercultural learning spaces.
Characteristics of heart rate variability can predict impending septic shock in emergency department patients with sepsis.

OBJECTIVES To determine whether heart rate variability (HRV) measures can be used to predict which septic patients in the emergency department (ED) will progress to septic shock. METHODS The authors prospectively enrolled consecutive patients who met the 2001 International Sepsis Definitions Conference criteria of sepsis and visited the ED of a university teaching hospital over a six-month period. In addition to the septic workup, a continuous 10-minute electrocardiogram recording was performed at the same time. The HRV measures were calculated off-line and correlated with the outcome of the patients. RESULTS Eighty-one patients aged 30-84 years who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled. The patients were classified as those with no septic shock (n = 60) and those with septic shock (n = 21), according to their outcome within six hours. The baseline root mean square successive difference, high-frequency power, and normalized high-frequency power of the septic shock group were significantly higher than those of the no septic shock group. The low-frequency power, normalized low-frequency power, and low-/high-frequency power ratio of the septic shock group were significantly lower than those of the no septic shock group. Multiple logistic regression analysis identified root mean square successive difference as the best predictor of impending septic shock for septic ED patients. CONCLUSIONS HRV measures may be used to identify septic ED patients with impending septic shock. Among those HRV measures, root mean square successive difference seems to be the best indicator to predict the occurrence of septic shock.
Interpersonal Conflict-Handling Behavior as Reflections of Jungian Personality Dimensions

This study has sought to investigate the Jungian psychological correlates of an individual's choice of different interpersonal conflict-handling modes: competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, and accommodating. These five modes were defined according to the two basic behavioral dimensions of assertiveness and cooperativeness and were also related to integrative and distributive dimensions. The results suggest that the Jungian functions related to judging (thinking vs feeling) and the type of enactment (introverted vs extraverted) are significantly related to an individual's conflict-handling behavior. The study concludes with a schematic illustration of these Jungian functions plotted upon the basic behavioral dimensions which define and characterize the five conflict-handling modes.
Long-Wavelength Ultraviolet Photoproduction of Amino Acids on the Primitive Earth

Amino acids are produced under possible primitive Earth conditions by irradiation of gas mixtures with long-wavelength ultraviolet light, representing the most abundant useful energy source for prebiological organic synthesis. Hydrogen sulfide is the initial photon acceptor in this work; superthermal atomic hydrogen photodissociation products appear to initiate reactions leading to amino acid synthesis with an overall quantum yield on the order of 5X10-5
The analysis of stable oxygen isotope ratios in the tissues of CAM plants provides an additional tool for studying environmental and developmental regulation of CAM ( Sternberg , Deniro

Leaf gas exchange and leaf water 18O enrichment (DOL) were measured in three Clusia species under field conditions during dry and wet seasons and in Miconia argentea during the dry season in the Republic of Panama. During the dry season, all three Clusia species used crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM); during the wet season Clusia pratensis operated in the C3 mode, while Clusia uvitana and Clusia rosea used CAM. Large departures from isotopic steady state were observed in daytime DOL of the Clusia species, especially during the dry season. In contrast, daytime DOL was near isotopic steady state in the C3 tree M. argentea. Across the full data set, non-steady-state predictions explained 49% of variation in observed DOL, whereas steady-state predictions explained only 14%. During the wet season, when DOL could be compared with Clusia individuals operating in both C3 and CAM modes, steady-state and non-steady-state models gave contrasting predictions with respect to interspecific variation in daytime DOL. The observed DOL pattern matched that predicted for the non-steady state. The results provided a clear example of how non-steady-state control of leaf water 18O dynamics can shift the slope of the relationship between transpiration rate and daytime DOL from negative to positive. Key-words: crassulacean acid metabolism; oxygen isotope ratio; tropical tree.
Magnetic Characteristics Investigation of an Axial-Axial Flux Compound-Structure PMSM Used for HEVs

An axial-axial flux compound-structure permanent-magnet synchronous machine (CS-PMSM) system used for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) enables the internal combustion engine (ICE) to operate at optimum efficiency region independent of road conditions, thus decreasing the fuel consumption and emissions remarkably. The axial-axial flux CS-PMSM is a high-degree integration of two axial-flux PMSMs. The magnetic coupling problem of the CS-PMSM is investigated based on magnetic circuit and finite-element method (FEM). The influences of the magnet rotor structures on the magnetic coupling are evaluated. Halbach structure is used for the magnet rotor, which makes the design of CS-PMSM more flexible. Further, a prototype machine of the axial-axial flux CS-PMSM was designed and manufactured. The experimental results show that the magnetic coupling problem can be solved perfectly due to special structural design, which verifies the theoretical analysis.
Single circulating tumor cell sequencing as an advanced tool in cancer management

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) shed by the primary tumor and metastases are considered a real-time ‘liquid biopsy’, reflecting the disease complexity that evolves during progression, showing in its late stages different genetic, epigenetic and expression features. Consequently, heterogeneity and development of characteristic features upon disease progression are the two main goals that emerging technologies should account for in view of a clinical application. Single-cell analysis, now possible due to technological advances, may help elucidate tumor heterogeneity at the CTC level. This review focuses on the necessary steps for the analysis of CTCs at the single-cell level. A concise overview is given on the alternative methods referring in particular to studies on the mutational status of single CTCs from cancer patients.
Polynucleotide phosphorylase, RNase II and RNase E play different roles in the in vivo modulation of polyadenylation in Escherichia coli

Poly(A) tails in Escherichia coli are hypothesized to provide unstructured single‐stranded substrates that facilitate the degradation of mRNAs by ribonucleases. Here, we have investigated the role that such nucleases play in modulating polyadenylation in vivo by measuring total poly(A) levels, polyadenylation of specific transcripts, growth rates and cell viabilities in strains containing various amounts of poly(A) polymerase I (PAP I), polynucleotide phosphorylase (PNPase), RNase II and RNase E. The results demonstrate that both PNPase and RNase II are directly involved in regulating total in vivo poly(A) levels. RNase II is primarily responsible for degrading poly(A) tails associated with 23S rRNA, whereas PNPase is more effective in modulating the polyadenylation of the lpp and 16S rRNA transcripts. In contrast, RNase E appears to affect poly(A) levels indirectly through the generation of new 3′ termini that serve as substrates for PAP I. In addition, whereas excess PNPase suppresses polyadenylation by more than 70%, the toxicity associated with increased poly(A) levels is not reduced. Conversely, toxicity is significantly reduced in the presence of excess RNase II. Overproduction of RNase E leads to increased polyadenylation and no reduction in toxicity.