Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Detachable Exoskeleton Interface that Duplicates the User's Hand Posture and Motions

We propose a technology that duplicates the posture and motions of a person's fingers and separates it from the original fingers, thereby enabling it to be used as a tool. In this study, we present a detachable exoskeleton interface that can record and replay the posture and motions of fingers using a micro servo motor and a telescopic mechanism. The micro servo motor is improved so that both the input and output of angles can be performed, and the telescopic mechanism has a variable length between joints. Wearing this system and recording the posture and motions of the fingers enabled us to test the mechanism for arranging and reproducing them in the real world independently of the user. In this paper, we describe the system implementation, an experiment to check its accuracy, two types of application, and a user study to check its usefulness.
Radiation Pattern-Agile Dual Planar Inverted-F Antenna

A radiation pattern-agile antenna capable of generating omnidirectional, unidirectional, and bidirectional patterns is presented. The proposed design demonstrates a new technique for achieving pattern configurability with downtilt by using dual planar inverted-F antennas (PIFAs) in a back-to-back configuration with a single folded ground plane and bandwidth enhancement via parasitic elements. The radiation pattern can be controlled by exciting the PIFA ports with one of several potential feeding methods. The antenna's measured impedance bandwidth is from 1650 to 2200 MHz (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$|{S}_{11}|$</tex-math></inline-formula> <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$<$</tex-math></inline-formula> <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math></inline-formula>10 dB), and it was designed for peak gain at a 15 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^\circ$</tex-math></inline-formula> downtilt angle. In the omnidirectional mode, the antenna achieves a gain of more than 5 dBi with a variation from ideal omnidirectionality of less than 3 dB across its operational band. The unidirectional mode achieves a measured realized gain of up to 8 dBi with a front-to-back ratio of at least 15 dB, and the bidirectional mode achieves gains of up to 5 dBi with a front/back-to-side ratio of at least 10 dB.
Optimizing the Laser-Pulse Configuration for Coherent Raman Spectroscopy

We introduce a hybrid technique that combines the robustness of frequency-resolved coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) with the advantages of time-resolved CARS spectroscopy. Instantaneous coherent broadband excitation of several characteristic molecular vibrations and the subsequent probing of these vibrations by an optimally shaped time-delayed narrowband laser pulse help to suppress the nonresonant background and to retrieve the species-specific signal. We used this technique for coherent Raman spectroscopy of sodium dipicolinate powder, which is similar to calcium dipicolinate (a marker molecule for bacterial endospores, such as Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus anthracis), and we demonstrated a rapid and highly specific detection scheme that works even in the presence of multiple scattering.
Investigating association rules for sentiment classification of Web reviews

Sentiment Classification of web reviews or comments is an important and challenging task in Web Mining and Data Mining due to the increasing social media and e-commerce industry. This paper presents a novel approach using association rules for sentiment classification of web reviews. An optimal classification rule set is generated to abandon the redundant general rule with comparatively lower confidence. In the class label prediction procedure, we proposed a new metric named Maximum Term Weight (MTW) for the evaluation of rules and a multiple metric voting scheme to solve the problem when the covered rules are not adequately confident or not applicable. The final score of a test review depends on the overall contributions of four metrics. Experiments on multiple domain datasets from web site demonstrate that the voting strategy obtains improvements on other rule based algorithms. Another comparison to popular machine learning algorithms also indicates that the proposed method outperforms these strong benchmarks.
Locally delivered lovastatin nanoparticles enhance fracture healing in rats

Statins stimulate bone formation in vitro and in vivo and, when given in large doses or by prolonged infusions, stimulate biomechanical strength of murine long bones with healing fractures. However, administration of statins by large oral doses or prolonged infusions to a fracture site is not a feasible therapeutic approach to hasten healing of human fractures. We administered lovastatin in biodegradable polymer nanobeads of poly(lactic‐co‐glycolide acid) to determine if lovastatin delivered in low doses in nanoparticles of a therapeutically acceptable scaffold could increase rates of healing in a standard preclinical model of femoral fracture. We found that these nanobeads: (1) stimulated bone formation in vitro at 5 ng/mL, (2) increased rates of healing in femoral fractures when administered as a single injection into the fracture site, and (3) decreased cortical fracture gap at 4 weeks as assessed by microcomputed tomography. These preclinical results suggest that lovastatin administered in a nanobead preparation may be therapeutically useful in hastening repair of human fractures. © 2007 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 25:1351–1357, 2007
Boosting feed-forward neural network for Internet traffic prediction

Internet traffic prediction plays a fundamental role in network design, management, control, and optimization. The self-similar and non-linear nature of network traffic makes high accurate prediction difficult in this paper, boosting is introduced into traffic prediction by considering it as a classical regression problem. A new scheme together with its adaptive version is proposed to update weight distribution. The new scheme controls the update rate by a parameter, while its adaptive version introduces no extra parameter and is adaptive to the training error of basic regressors and the current iteration number. Experimental results on real network traffic which exhibits both self-similarity and non-linearity demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.
Concentrations of oral lomefloxacin in serum and bronchial mucosa

The bronchial mucosal concentrations of lomefloxacin were determined for specimens obtained by fiber-optic bronchoscopy and compared with simultaneous concentrations in serum. The 23 patients studied were given an oral dose of 400 mg once daily for 4 days to achieve steady-state levels. The median concentration in serum was 2.5 micrograms/ml (range, 1.0 to 5 micrograms/ml), and the median bronchial mucosal concentration was 5.0 micrograms/g (range, 0.7 to 18.6 micrograms/g). The median percent penetration was 177% (range, 69 to 541%). The concentrations in serum and mucosa exceeded the MIC for 90% of strains of organisms causing bronchial infections but not sufficiently to recommend lomefloxacin for the routine treatment of pneumococcal infections.
Biomechanical analysis with cubic spline functions.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine if the cubic spline could provide accurate smoothed estimates of displacement-time functions and corresponding time derivatives for typical biomechanical data obtained from cinematographical records. Various experiments were conducted to ascertain a procedure for determining the error associated with data and for validating and comparing results obtained by the cubic spline with other commonly employed curve-fitting techniques. Results of these experiments indicated that reasonable estimates of the error inherent in the data can be assessed a priori, and, when used in conjunction with the cubic spline, an accurate description of displacement-time data and corresponding time derivatives can be obtained. Since the cubic spline has the natural tendency to approach zero at the endpoints of a function for the second derivatives, special consideration should be taken in applying the cubic spline when second derivatives at the endpoints are unknown or not equal.
Extracting human mobility and social behavior from location-aware traces

The concepts of location and community are rapidly becoming key points in the design of new communication paradigms and in deploying emerging mobile computing services. The need of reliable and quantitative knowledge and predictions of some relevant information, such as which locations are enjoyed by people in their daily lives and how people aggregate within communities, advocates a realistic mobility model able to describe both the human mobility throughout locations and the human attitude to socialize within communities. Unfortunately, so far, neither the concept of location nor the concept of community has been univocally defined. In this paper, we approach the problem from the most basic of starting points, namely by analyzing the real Global Positioning System datasets of human mobility traces. On this elementary basis, the paper provides a few relevant contributions. We firstly derive a deep understanding of the term “location” and at the same time of the notion of community strictly related to it. Secondly, we merge the two concepts into what we call geo-community. By proceeding from real spatial data rather than from a priori reasonings, we are able to quantitatively describe geo-communities and infer the probability distributions of all the features of human behavior. Finally, not to lose social implications, we present the method to derive people sociality from geo-communities. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Characterization of the First Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase-Producing Salmonella Isolate Identified in Canada

ABSTRACT A single Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium isolate with an UT2 phage type producing an extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) was identified in Canada in 2000. The isolate harbored two plasmids, one containing a blaTEM-1 gene and the other containing a blaSHV-2a gene. The ESBL gene was located on a 70-kb transferable plasmid which also carried tetracycline and trimethoprim resistance elements.
The relationship between ischaemic conduction failure and conduction velocity in cat myelinated axons

Unitary action potentials have been recorded from cat spinal root filaments following electrical stimulation of hindlimb peripheral nerves. Potentials were monitored both before the ischaemia which follows the onset of cardiac arrest. The relationship between time to conduction failure (survival time) and initial conduction velocity was determined for 164 nerve fibres. This revealed that during ischaemia, slow myelinated axons tend to fail before fast myelinated axons. The average survival time was 24.6 min (range 11–39 min). The results are discussed in terms of (i) the possible mechanisms underlying ischaemic conduction block, (ii) their clinical implications for the role of ischaemia in peripheral neuropathies, and (iii) using ischaemia as an experimental technique to produce a differential nerve block.
Recombinant Protein and DNA Vaccine Construct of Brucella abortus L7/L12 Gene Elicits Immune Response

Both cell mediated and humoral immune responses are required for recovery from Brucella abortus infection. In the development of vaccines capable of providing immunity against brucellosis, L7/L12 50S ribosomal protei n has been demonstrated to be one of the protective immunogens of Brucella abortus. The recombinant Brucella abortus L7/L12 ribosomal protein previously produced in the E. coli system was purified by affinity chromatography. The DNA vaccine (pVL7/L12) construct was purified in bulk by endotoxin free reagents. The present study wa s designed to evaluate cell mediated immune response and humoral immune response after the intramuscular vaccination of mice with DNA vaccine alone (Group 1), recombinant protein alone (Group 2) and DNA vaccine followed by recombinant protein boosting (Group 3). The protective efficacy of the said vaccines also evaluated. Animals vaccinated with pVL7/L12 (DNA vaccine) alone did not develop L7/L12 specific antibodies at lea st until 60 days of vaccination. But recombinant protein ind uced a strong antibody titer (1:32000) after 60 day s of post immunization which exhibited a dominance of immunoglobulin IgG2a over IgG1. L7/L12 DNA vaccine elicited a T-cell proliferation response and also induced the production of IFN-γ. The lymphocyte proliferation and IFN- γ production was significantly higher (P<0.001) in Gr oup 3 than the other groups. Group 3 also induced s trong IgG2a response. The DNA vaccine followed by protein boosting induced a strong significant level of protectio n in mice against challenge with B. abortus 544. The level of protection in Group 3 was signifi cantly higher than the DNA vaccine or recombinant protein alone. Altogether, t he data generated in the present study suggested th at L7/L12 DNA vaccine followed by recombinant protein boosting is a good candidate for use in future studies of vaccination against brucellosis.
Cutaneous Delivery of a Live, Attenuated Chimeric Flavivirus Vaccines against Japanese Encephalitis (ChimeriVaxTM-JE) in Non-Human Primates

Flaviviral diseases such as yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis (JE) and dengue hemorrhagic fever cause enormous morbidity and mortality worldwide. There is an urgent need for alternative technologies for mass vaccination against these and other diseases, particularly in the developing world. Here, we administered a live attenuated, chimeric JE vaccine (ChimeriVaxTM-JE) to non-human primates by skin microabrasion and intradermal delivery using microneedles. Both cutaneous delivery methods induced mild viremia similar in magnitude to that observed following subcutaneous (SC) injection. The duration of viremia induced by cutaneous delivery (5-7 days), however, was substantially longer than via SC (0-3 days). In addition, mean neutralizing antibody titers in cutaneous delivery groups were up to 7-fold greater than via SC injection. There were no safety issues identified and both cutaneous delivery methods appeared to be well tolerated. Thus, cutaneous delivery may represent a minimally-invasive alternative approach for flavivirus vaccines that more closely resembles the natural route of viral infection.
Hand guided 3-D scanning

The principle of structured light and triangulation is used in a wide range of today’s 3-D optical metrology applications. Among a multitude of measuring techniques based on this principle, phase shifting plays a dominant role due to high attainable accuracy and data density. Conventional phase shifting is most commonly used in non-dynamic scenarios, i.e. applications where the measured object is stationary with respect to the measuring device. In dynamic scenarios such as hand-guided 3-D scanning, motion during the acquisition process is typically unavoidable. However, conventional phase shifting techniques suffer from degradation of measurement quality in the presence of motion. With the goal of hand-guided 3D scanning in mind, this work explores cost-efficient approaches to improve the potential of phase shifting in dynamic scenarios. Within this framework, a novel structured light technique named“Coded Phase Shifting” is introduced and evaluated. The technique enhances the conventional four-step phase shift sequence with an embedded non-periodic stripe pattern. While conventional phase shifting techniques require auxiliary pattern projections such as Gray-codes or stereo vision to yield an absolute (“phase-unwrapped”) camera-projector correspondence, Coded Phase Shifting makes use of the embedded non-periodic stripe pattern. The reduced pattern sequence length shortens total measurement time, which is essential in dynamic scenarios. The minimum structured light setup configuration (a single camera and projector) is sufficient for this technique, resulting in advantages in cost efficiency, e.g. compared to stereo methods. Despite the reduced pattern sequence length, degradation of 3-D measurement quality due to motion effects is typically a challenge in phase shifting based techniques. Making use of the embedded stripe pattern, a robust and efficient method for compensating motion effects is proposed and evaluated. Since motion effects accumulate over the duration of the acquisition process, rapid projectionand image acquisition rates are generally desirable in a suitable structured light system. This aspect is addressed by a newly proposed analogue high-speed projection technique based on rotational pattern transport. The technique minimizes overall acquisition time while maintaining a cost efficient hardware setup.
Needs in Early Onset Dementia: A Qualitative Case From the NeedYD Study

Objectives: The aim was to explore the experiences of a caregiver of a patient with early onset dementia (EOD) and the needs of patient and caregiver. Methods: A single case study design was used to explore (1) unmet needs of patient and caregiver and (2) caregiver’s experiences of transitions in care and health care services. A qualitative analysis was used to examine the data. Results: This study shows that a patient with EOD and the caregiver were confronted with specific issues during the care process, namely (1) prolonged time to diagnosis, (2) a lack of fit between needs and services, (3) the strain of dedication to care versus the caregiver’s own future perspective, (4) the need for response of health care services to changing individual preferences. Conclusion: This study illustrates specific issues related to early onset dementia that require specialized EOD care such as the differential and changing needs of patients and caregivers.
Genetic Analyses in a Sample of Individuals With High or Low BMD Shows Association With Multiple Wnt Pathway Genes

Using a moderate‐sized cohort selected with extreme BMD (n = 344; absolute value BMD, 1.5–4.0), significant association of several members of the Wnt signaling pathway with bone densitometry measures was shown. This confirms that extreme truncate selection is a powerful design for quantitative trait association studies of bone phenotypes.
Isolation from the mushroom Agaricus bisporus and chemical synthesis of gamma-L-glutaminyl-4-hydroxybenzene.

Abstract A new compound has been isolated from the common mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) which, on oxidation by a partially purified preparation of the enzyme "inhibitor synthetase," has been converted to a quinone present in this species. Chemical and spectral studies indicate that the structure of the quinone precursor is γ-l-glutaminyl-4-hydroxybenzene. This structure has been verified by synthesis.
Winding Condition Assessment of Power Transformers Based on Vibration Correlation

In this paper, a winding condition assessment model using vibration signals is presented, which can be used to diagnose power transformers online. The basic principle of this model is based on the correlation analysis of winding vibrations. In the model, the fundamental frequency vibration analysis is used to separate the winding vibration from the mixed signal. Then, a health parameter is proposed via principal component analysis. Another parameter is also proposed to detect the fault locations for suspected faulty transformers. In laboratory tests, the model is validated on a specifically designed 110-kV transformer. During the tests, man-made winding deformations are simulated to compare the vibrations under different conditions. The model has also been tested on several in-service power transformers. The preliminary study shows that the proposed model is feasible to assess the power transformer winding condition.
Hypertension and progression of chronic renal insufficiency in children: a report of the North American Pediatric Renal Transplant Cooperative Study (NAPRTCS).

Hypertension frequently complicates the course of chronic renal insufficiency (CRI) in children. This study sought to define the role of hypertension in progression of CRI in children by using the North American Pediatric Renal Transplant Cooperative Study (NAPRTCS) CRI database. The study cohort consisted of 3834 patients aged 2 to 17 yr with an estimated GFR (eGFR) </=75 ml/min.1. 73 m2 enrolled onto NAPRTCS. The time to end point was defined as the time between registry enrollment and progression to renal substitution therapy or a 10 ml/min.1. 73 m2 drop in GFR from baseline, whichever was first. Forty-eight percent of the study patients had hypertension at baseline. There was a significant difference in reaching end points between hypertensive and normotensive children (58% versus 49%, respectively, P < 0.001). Significant difference in outcome between hypertensive and nonhypertensive patients was seen in children with eGFR 50 to 75 ml/min.1. 73 m2 (P < 0.001). Multivariate Cox regression modeling demonstrated that systolic hypertension was a significant independent predictor of progression of CRI (P = 0.003). Other significant predictors of CRI progression in this model included older age (P = 0.0001), African American ethnicity (P = 0.03), acquired cause of renal disease (P = 0.0001), and baseline eGFR <50 ml/min.1. 73 m2 (P = 0.0001). Hypertension is a highly significant and independent predictor for progression of CRI in children.
Cytosolic PLA2 genes possibly contribute to the etiology of schizophrenia

The present study detected three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), BanISNP at the PLA2G4A locus, rs1648833 at the PLA2G4B locus, and rs1549637 at the PLA2G4C locus, to investigate a genetic association between the cytosolic PLA2 (cPLA2) genes and schizophrenia. A total of 240 Chinese parent–offspring trios of Han descent were recruited for the genetic analysis. The transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) showed allelic association for rs1549637 (χ2 = 5.68, uncorrected P = 0.017), but not for BanISNP and rs1648833. The conditioning on genotype (COG) test revealed a disease association for the BanISNP–rs1648833 combination (χ2 = 12.54, df = 3, P = 0.0057) and for the BanISNP–rs1549637 combination (χ2 = 9.72, df = 2, P = 0.021), but the conditioning on allele (COA) test did not show such an association for the above two combinations. Neither the COA test nor the COG showed a disease association for the rs1648833–rs1549637 combination. In the combination of all three SNPs, the COG test, but not the COA test, showed a strong association (χ2 = 22.93, df = 6, P = 0.0008). These findings suggest that these three cPLA2 genes may all be involved in contributing to the etiology of schizophrenia although their effect size appears to be relatively small. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Low Power Sigma-Delta Modulator Using Class-C Inverter

In switched capacitor sigma-delta (SigmaDelta) analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), an operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) is the main building block and consumes most of power. This paper proposes that the OTAs can be replaced with class-C inverters for low-power consumption without sacrificing the performance. A second order SigmaDelta modulator using class-C inverter technique is fabricated with a 0.35-mum CMOS process, occupies 3024 mum2 , dissipates 5.6-muW under 1.2 V supply-voltage, and provides 63-dB/72-dB/76-dB SNDR/SNR/DR over 8-kHz signal bandwidth.