Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of High Fidelity Mobility Simulation of an Autonomous Vehicle in an Off-Road Scenario Using Integrated Sensor, Controller, and Multi-Body Dynamics

Abstract : The mechanical behavior of a military vehicle during off-highway operation is complex and highly nonlinear. Some current vehicle concepts include added intelligence through the implementation of sensors and controllers to enable autonomous or semi-autonomous operations. Control systems have typically been developed with controls software where the mechanical plant and sensors are represented as simplified and often linearized blocks, resulting in a poor vehicle assessment. This paper describes the development of an integrated environment for a control system, mechanical system dynamics, and sensor simulation for an improved assessment of the vehicle system performance. The vehicle chosen is an autonomous robot that attempts to follow a prescribed path along an off-highway terrain. The effect of including a stability controller for vehicle mobility is assessed. The architecture of the integrated simulation environment is described and its potential to improve schedule and reduce risk of the development of mechatronic military vehicle systems is explored.
Enhancing privacy of users in eID schemes

In todays world transactions are increasingly being performed over the internetbut require identication of users as in face-to-face transactions. In order to facilitate eGovernance as well as other eCommerce services Electronic Identiation(eID) schemes, which intend to provide unique and reliable identication andauthentication of the users, have been introduced. eID schemes commonly involve a Service Provider which provides a service, such as online shopping, to the user and an Identity Provider which veries the users identity and facilitates the user to identify itself to the Service Provider. Every transaction made over the Internet reveals bits of information about the user which can be accumulated and abused, thus necessitating security and privacy in order to prevent misuse of data and invasion of personal privacy. In this work, ve eID schemes which are in use or re proposed in EU countries is surveyed and the strengths and weaknesses of these schemes is investigated. All the schemes have given importance to security while only a few of them are designed with privacy in mind. Identity Providers in federated eID schemes are observed to be a privacy hotspot as they store user information and can uniquely identify the user. The use of homomorphic encryption and block chain in eID schemes is further explored in order to prevent the Identity Provider from becoming a privacy hotspot while fullling its role in the scheme.
Extent of Awareness of Birth Control Methods and Their Use by Women in a Peri-Urban Area of Accra, Ghana

The rapid population growth and economic expansion in Ghana over the last decade have made the management of its population increasingly important necessitating detailed confidential studies on use of birth control methods. This paper reports a highly confidential survey-based study undertaken to assess the extent of awareness of and factors influencing the use of birth control methods among 120 women aged between 15 and 49 years, in their reproductive lifespan, at Abokobi, a suburb of Accra, Ghana. The analysis showed that age was the main factor responsible for the general level of awareness of birth control methods. The use of birth control methods was positively related to the level of awareness of birth control methods, being in a current sexual relationship, and the number of children that the woman had. Students were less likely to use birth control methods than non-students suggesting the need for more recognition of abstinence as an alternative birth control method.
Safety issues relating to long‐term treatment with histamine H2‐receptor antagonists

H2‐receptor antagonist therapy is associated with a low incidence of adverse reactions. Adverse events reported in clinical trials of ranitidine in daily doses of up to 1200 mg include headache, tiredness and mild gastrointestinal disturbances, but the incidence is similar to or less than that for placebo. High doses of cimetidine (> 5 g/day) can cause reversible impotence or gynaecomastia. While ranitidine exhibits no clinically significant drug‐drug interactions, cimetidine interacts with many drugs metabolized by cytochrome P450. In contrast to ranitidine and cimetidine, where safety data are available for up to 10 years of continuous therapy, experience with famotidine and nizatidine is limited. The safety of long‐term H2‐receptor antagonist therapy needs to be considered in relation to the potential consequences of prolonged acid suppression, including the risk of proliferation of gastric flora and the risk of developing enterochromaffin‐like cell hyperplasia, which could in turn, theoretically, lead to gastric malignancy. Such problems have not been observed in patients during long‐term therapy at low or full doses of H2‐receptor antagonists. Standard doses of currently available H2‐receptor antagonists permit acid secretion in response to food and other stimuli, and this daily acid tide prevents persistent bacterial colonization.
Using Photographic Space to Improve the Evaluation of Consumer Cameras

When designing a camera system it is important to understand your customers, including where and under what conditions they are likely to capture pictures. This paper discusses the conditions under which consumers typically capture pictures (referred to as Photographic Space), including the camera to subject distance, primary type of light and location where pictures are taken. Knowledge of the conditions where a consumer captures pictures, which has been collected in Eastman Kodak Company over several decades allows one to optimize the design of a camera or imaging system for this consumer. This paper discusses a subjective evaluation of a small group of camera systems, illustrating how knowledge of consumer Photographic Space can produce a camera design that is optimized for typical consumer behavior.
Time-variant channel prediction for interference alignment with limited feedback

We propose a novel limited feedback algorithm for single-input single-output (SISO) interference alignment in time-variant channels. The feedback algorithm enables reduced-rank channel prediction to compensate for the channel estimation error due to time selectivity and feedback delay. An upper bound for the rate loss caused by feedback quantization and channel prediction is derived. We characterize the scaling of the required number of feedback bits in order to decouple the rate loss due to channel quantization from the transmit power. Based on our derived upper bound, we develop a dimension switching algorithm which is able to find the best tradeoff between quantization error and prediction error. Simulation results show that a rate gain over the traditional non-predictive feedback strategy can be secured and a 60% higher rate is achieved at 20dB signal-to-noise ratio.
Acute Transverse Myelitis Associated With Human Parvovirus B19 Infection

We describe severe acute transverse myelitis in a previously healthy 9-year-old boy in whom primary human parvovirus B19 infection was confirmed serologically and B19 DNA was detected in his serum and cerebrospinal fluid. Besides erythema infectiosum, parvovirus B19 infection has various clinical manifestations; however, central nervous system involvement is rare. Even more unusual is parvovirus B19–associated acute transverse myelitis.
An evaluation of tools for post-editing research: the current picture and future needs

This paper presents a comparative evaluation of four tools that can be used to collect user activity data (UAD) in machine translation post-editing (PE) research: Tobii Studio, Translog-II, TransCenter, and PET. These tools are analysed here based on empirical data as a way of providing a picture of what the current state of research has to offer in terms of technology and investigation methods. After an analysis of the features offered by the tools, a summary is drawn and potential room for improvement in the field is identified.
The Continuum of Psychosis and Its Genetic Origins

Attempts to draw a line of genetic demarcation between schizophrenic and affective illnesses have failed. It must be assumed that these diseases are genetically related. A post-mortem study has demonstrated that enlargement of the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle in schizophrenia but not in Alzheimer-type dementia is selective to the left side of the brain. This suggests that the gene for psychosis is the ‘cerebral dominance gene‘, the factor that determines the asymmetrical development of the human brain. That the psychosis gene is located in the pseudoautosomal region of the sex chromosomes is consistent with observations that sibling pairs with schizophrenia are more often than would be expected of the same sex and share alleles of a polymorphic marker at the short-arm telomeres of the X and Y chromosomes above chance expectation. That the cerebral dominance gene also is pseudoautosomal is suggested by the pattern of verbal and performance deficits associated with sex-chromosome aneuploidies. The psychoses may thus represent aberrations of a late evolutionary development underlying the recent and rapid increase in brain weight in the transition from Australopithecus through Homo habilis and Homo erectus to Homo sapiens.
Performance on Ratio and Interval Schedules with Matched Reinforcement Rates

In the first study, rats were trained to pull a chain on a schedule (RPI) that regulates the probability of reinforcement to maintain a constant average reinforcement rate without differentially reinforcing long inter-response times (IRTs). Although the response rate was sensitive to the overall rate of reinforcement, performance was unaffected by variations between 1 and 50 in the IRT memory size used in programming the schedule. In the second study, two groups of animals performed on either a random-interval (RI) schedule or a RPI schedule, with reinforcement rates determined by those generated by a third group performing on a random ratio (RR) 20 schedule. The RI group responded at a lower rate than the RPI group, which, in turn, responded at a lower rate than the RR group, even though the three groups experienced comparable rates of reinforcement. The fact that the RPI group responded at a lower rate than the RR group suggests that the standard response rate difference observed between ratio and interval schedules, which have been matched for reinforcement rate, cannot be attributed solely to the fact that conventional interval schedules differentially reinforce long IRTs.
TEACHERS ’ DIFFERING BEHAVIORS 3 Teachers ’ differing classroom behaviors : The role of emotional sensitivity and cultural tolerance

Ethnicity is a key element of school segregation in the Netherlands, hindering society’s goals of social integration and equality in educational achievement. In order to investigate determinants of integration in schools, we turned to the classroom, where fulfillment of socio-emotional needs of pupils may affect their sense of integration, belongingness, and consequently their school engagement (e.g., Ryan & Patrick, 2001). The current study explored how teachers’ emotional sensitivity and cultural tolerance relate to teachers’ differing behavior towards pupils’ misbehaviors. It was expected that cultural tolerance and emotional sensitivity would predict differing behaviors of teachers towards pupils with different ethnic backgrounds, especially for severe reactions. Based on our results, we have rejected our hypotheses. However, our analysis yielded a significant relationship between emotional sensitivity and cultural tolerance of teachers, and our exploratory findings signal that emotional factors might be even more important than cultural tolerance for ethno-cultural intergroup relations.
Negative emotion evoked by viewing snakes has a motivating effect on cognitive processing in human children with or without intellectual disability

It is well known that prioritization of the processing of threatening stimuli generally induces deleterious effects on task performance. However, a study recently reported that emotion (possibly fear) evoked by viewing images of snakes exerts a facilitating effect upon making judgments of the images’ color in neurotypical adults and schoolchildren. Here, the author has attempted to confirm the relevance of this notion in children with and without intellectual disability.
Calibrated Nanoscale Dopant Profiling and Capacitance of a High-Voltage Lateral MOS Transistor at 20 GHz Using Scanning Microwave Microscopy

We quantitatively image the doping concentration and the capacitance of a high-voltage lateral metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor device with a channel length of 0.5 μm at 20-GHz frequency using scanning microwave microscopy (SMM). The transistor is embedded in a deep n-well forming a flat pn-junction with the p-substrate, with the shape of the pn-junction resolved in the SMM images. Calibrated dC/dV imaging of the device revealed doping concentration values in the range of 1015–1019 atoms/cm 3, including the p-body, n-drift region, n-source-diffusion, as well as all the pn-junctions and the silicon/oxide interfaces at a minimum feature size of 350 nm and SMM electrical resolution of 60 nm. SMM doping concentrations have been compared with technology computer-aided design simulations, resulting in a quantitative agreement between model and experiment. dC/dV images have been acquired at different tip dc bias voltages, allowing to determine the p and n dopant polarity. From the reflection scattering S11 signal calibrated capacitance measurements have been obtained from the various transistor regions in the range of 300 aF to 1 fF. The results suggest that both dC/dV dopant profiling and capacitance measurements can be used for quantitative nanoscale semiconductor device imaging.
Moving Beyond Health to Flourishing: The Effects of Yoga Teacher Training

Research in the medical and psychological fields has primarily followed a “disease-focused” approach to health. Although there is growing research on the components and outcomes of well-being, very few studies have focused on traditional practices that can be used as interventions to encourage human flourishing. The current study was developed to address this research gap. We suggest one effective method of increasing psychological well-being, the practice of yoga, an age-old practice that has been said to produce physical and psychological health. In this observational study, we examined associations with participation in a 4-week yoga teacher training resident program. Measurement instruments were chosen to capture changes in psychosocial health and human flourishing. Measurements were taken before the start of the program, immediately after the program, and 3 months postprogram. As expected, in this healthy population, the human flourishing scales showed more change than the psychosocial health scales. For example, in this healthy sample, there were no significant changes in perceived social support, quality of life, or self-efficacy from baseline to the 3-month follow-up. However, optimism, a positive psychology research measure, improved from baseline to follow-up. The mindfulness subscales of observation, awareness, and nonreactivity all improved following the training, suggesting that one benefit of yoga practice is a more refined ability to attend to one's inner experience. This study adds to the growing literature focusing on interventions that move beyond relieving pathology to those that produce optimal functioning and human thriving.
A new method for analyzing scientific productivity

Previously, a new method for measuring scientific productivity was demonstrated for authors in mathematical logic and some subareas of 19th-century physics. The purpose of this article is to apply this new method to other fields to support its general applicability. We show that the method yields the same results for modern physicists, biologists, psychologists, inventors, and composers. That is, each individual's production is constant over time, and the time-period fluctuations follow the Poisson distribution. However, the productivity (e.g., papers per year) varies widely across individuals. We show that the distribution of productivity does not follow the normal (i.e., bell curve) distribution, but rather follows the exponential distribution. Thus, most authors produce at the lowest rate and very few authors produce at the higher rates. We also show that the career duration of individuals follows the exponential distribution. Thus, most authors have a very short career and very few have a long career. The principal advantage of the new method is that the detail structure of author productivity can be examined, such as trends, etc. Another advantage is that information science studies have guidance for the length of time interval being examined and estimating when an author's entire body of work has been recorded.
The S492R EGFR ectodomain mutation is never detected in KRAS wild-type colorectal carcinoma before exposure to EGFR monoclonal antibodies

The activity of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibodies cetuximab and panitumumab in metastatic colorectal carcinoma (mCRC) is significantly limited by molecular mechanisms leading to intrinsic or acquired resistance. The S492R mutation of the EGFR, which is caused by either the 1476C>A or the 1474A>C substitution, interferes with binding to cetuximab but not to panitumumab, and has been detected in mCRC with acquired resistance to cetuximab. Since mechanisms of acquired and intrinsic resistance to EGFR monoclonal antibodies in CRC significantly overlap, we evaluated the frequency of the S492R mutation in a series of KRAS-exon 2 wild-type CRC patients. Genomic DNA was extracted from formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissues that were obtained from 505 systemic therapy-naïve CRC patients. A PCR/sequencing method for the detection of the S492R mutation was developed, by using as positive control a plasmid in which the 1474A>C mutation was generated by site directed mutagenesis. The lowest level of detection of this assay was approximately 10% mutant DNA in a background of wild-type DNA. PCR sequencing analysis revealed no S492R mutations in any of the analyzed 505 CRC specimens. Our findings suggest that the S492R mutation is not involved in primary resistance to cetuximab in CRC. Therefore, patients with mCRC should not be routinely screened for this mutation prior therapy with cetuximab.
Co-operative scheduling for a resource-bounded multiagent planning system

This paper presents the multistage negotiation protocol that contributes to a more sophisticated distributed scheduling for progressive reasoning. This reasoning is introduced to solve problems where it is not computationally feasible or economically desirable to compute the optimal solution. Its flexibility, combined with parallel and faster processing of distributed artificial intelligence methods, allows the improvement of the centralized technique of scheduling. Indeed, scheduling is distributed among agents while negotiation is performed to solve impasses between local schedules. This negotiation is based on flexing local schedules by discarding the least important reasoning levels to borrow resources. The progressive structure of agents facilitates the solving of impasses by discarding the deepest levels such that rescheduling is avoided. A system is designed where each progressive reasoning agent is completely autonomous and then it is up to locally build its schedule and to co-ordinate it with the other. This approach is an important application of the contract-net technique to the scheduling of progressive reasoning agents. This approach is dedicated to the distributed station resource management application.
The effect of environment on the replication of poliovirus in monkey kidney cells.

SUMMARY: Poliovirus can complete its maturation in monkey kidney cells suspended in semi-solid agar. Infectious particles and the progeny from each infected cell diffuse through the semi-solid agar to form a single plaque in an underlying monkey kidney cell monolayer. Using this technique, the effect of environment on the multiplication of poliovirus in singly infected monkey kidney cells was studied. Under optimal conditions of pH and temperature (pH 7.0–7.4, 37°) one-step growth curves indicated that over 95% of the adsorbed virus particles went into eclipse; that the eclipse phase lasted 3–4 hr. ; that the increase in infective virus was exponential and that a yield of 700–1400 infectious particles/infected cell was obtained in 12–14 hr. After about 10 % of the total progeny had formed, the cells began to release virus. Under suboptimal conditions of pH or temperature, the eclipse stage was prolonged. At pH 6.0–6.5 it lasted for 6 hr. and at pH 5.0–5.5 for more than 9 hr. At 25° virus particles were adsorbed and went into eclipse, with the exception of some particles which remained infectious and could be neutralized by antiserum. Thereafter the eclipse stage was strikingly prolonged, and replication proceeded on raising the temperature to 37°.
The pINDUCER lentiviral toolkit for inducible RNA interference in vitro and in vivo

The discovery of RNAi has revolutionized loss-of-function genetic studies in mammalian systems. However, significant challenges still remain to fully exploit RNAi for mammalian genetics. For instance, genetic screens and in vivo studies could be broadly improved by methods that allow inducible and uniform gene expression control. To achieve this, we built the lentiviral pINDUCER series of expression vehicles for inducible RNAi in vivo. Using a multicistronic design, pINDUCER vehicles enable tracking of viral transduction and shRNA or cDNA induction in a broad spectrum of mammalian cell types in vivo. They achieve this uniform temporal, dose-dependent, and reversible control of gene expression across heterogenous cell populations via fluorescence-based quantification of reverse tet-transactivator expression. This feature allows isolation of cell populations that exhibit a potent, inducible target knockdown in vitro and in vivo that can be used in human xenotransplantation models to examine cancer drug targets.
Psychophysical estimation of the best illumination for appreciation of Renaissance paintings

A variety of light sources are used in museum environments where the main concern is to prevent damaging effects of the light on paintings. Yet, the visual impression of an artistic painting is strongly influenced by the intensity and spectral profile of the illumination. The aim of this work was to determine psychophysically the spectral profile of the illumination preferred by observers when seeing paintings dated from the Renaissance époque and to investigate how their preferences correlate with the color temperature of the illumination and with the chromatic diversity of the paintings. Hyperspectral images of five oil paintings on wood were collected at the museum and the appearance of the paintings under five representative illuminants computed. Chromatic diversity was estimated by computing the representation of the paintings in the CIELAB color space and by counting the number of nonempty unit cubes occupied by the corresponding color volume. A paired-comparison experiment using precise cathode ray tube (CRT) reproductions of the paintings rendered with several illuminant pairs with different color temperatures was carried out to determine observers' preference. The illuminant with higher color temperature was always preferred except for one pair where no clear preference was expressed. The preferred illuminant produced the larger chromatic diversity, and for the condition where no specific illuminant was preferred the number of colors produced by the illuminant pair was very similar, a result suggesting that preference could have been influenced by chromatic diversity.