Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Comparison of Discounting Parameters Obtained Through Two Different Adjusting Procedures: Bisection and Up-Down.

The study compared delay discounting in adult humans using two different methods of adjustments. Both methods used hypothetical choices of monetary outcomes. One involved adjustments using a fixed sequence of ascending or descending amounts, the other used a bisection algorithm in which the changes in amounts varied as a function of the subjects' choices. Two magnitudes of delayed outcomes were used: $1,000 and $10,000. A within subject design was used to compare indifference curves and discounting measures across the two adjusting procedures. Twenty four subjects were divided in two groups and exposed to the procedures in opposite order, to account for sequence effects. Results from within subject comparisons showed no systematic differences between procedures.
An in-depth analysis of single-image subjective quality assessment of light field contents

Quality assessment of light field images poses new questions and challenges, due to the enriched nature of the content and the possibilities it offers at the rendering step. Image-based rendering is conventionally used to showcase the increased capabilities of light field contents on traditional 2D screens. However, the range of possibilities for rendering parameters is virtually endless, which poses the problem of what rendered images should be used when performing visual quality assessments, as well as how to properly present them to subjects during quality evaluations. Single-image assessment has been used in the past to conduct subjective quality evaluations. Since this type of assessment generates a large number of stimuli to be evaluated, which increases the complexity, length, and cost of the test, it is fundamental to analyze whether the added strain on the evaluation procedure is compensated by statistically relevant results. In this paper, we analyze the results of a subjective evaluation campaign that used single-image assessment by means of statistical tools, to understand whether the advantages of evaluating light field contents through separately rendered images counterbalance the increase in complexity. In particular, we test whether different types of rendering lead to statistically different ratings, and if testing a variety of rendering parameters through single-image assessment is advisable. Results provide useful guidelines to designs more efficient subjective quality assessment for light field contents.
Analysis of the Alkane Hydroxylase Gene and Long-Chain Cyclic Alkane Degradation in Rhodococcus

To characterize the long-chain cyclic alkane (c-alkane) degradation of bacteria in Rhodococcus, we analyzed the relationship between the alkane hydroxylase gene (alkB) and long-chain c-alkane degradation in 19 species. Eleven strains which were isolated from nature using long-chain c-alkane as a substrate were identified as R. erythropolisc, and all were shown to carry the alkB [alkB R2 type]. This gene type was also carried by two other species, R. rhodochrous and R. baikonurensis. In total, 17 species of the genus Rhodococcus carried alkB, but the gene types differed from each other. The two species R. rhodnii and R. coprophilus did not carry alkB, and their long-chain c-alkane degradation levels were low.
The unresolved problem of synaptic connectivity in the context of the cerebro-cerebellar loop

Department of Physics, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy, Brain Connectivity Center, C. Mondino National Neurological Institute, Pavia, Italy, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Heidelberg, Australia, Florey Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, Department of Physics, University of Milan, Milan, Italy, Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy, Queen Square MS Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology, Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom, Brain MRI 3T Research Center, C. Mondino National Neurological Institute, Pavia, Italy
Expendable Graphite as an Efficient Flame-Retardant for Novel Partial Bio-Based Rigid Polyurethane Foams

The rigid polyurethane foam (PU) is a versatile material, used especially for construction and household applications. The current situation demands a facile, cost-efficient, and greener approach for developing the polyurethanes from bio-derived materials. In this study, we present a novel bio-polyol synthesized using carvone, an extract from caraway, spearmint, or dill seeds via facile thiol-ene reaction. Our one-step reaction uses a UV irradiation to allow the room temperature conversion of the carvone to a high purity bio-polyol, as confirmed from the standard analytical characterizations. The hydroxyl number of 365 mg KOH/g close to its theoretical limit confirms the high conversion yield of the polyol for rigid PU synthesis. To overcome the flammability issues in PU, expandable graphite (EG) powder was used as an additive flame-retardant during the synthesis step. The resulting foams with EG maintained the uniform closed cell structure (>95%) with a high compression strength of 175 kPa. The addition of EG in PU results in the formation of a protective char layer during the flammability test and reduces the weight loss from 40.70% to 3.55% and burning time from 87 to 11 s. Our results confirm that the carvone-based polyol can be a novel alternative to the petroleum polyols for an industrial-scale application.
Does democratic distance matter for cross-country growth interdependence?

This paper investigates if democratic distance among countries facilitates spatial economic growth interdependence. We focus on both geographic and relational attributes of democratic distribution and find evidence of significant dynamic spatial autocorrelation among countries’ growth processes. This points to the relevance of democracy as a cohesive factor in crosscountry growth interdependence. Growth-enhancing effect of democracy is also found to rise since 1970 where the democratic distribution is steadily shifting from low-level equilibrium to high-level equilibrium. Finally, it is demonstrated that the relevance of geographical proximity in facilitating economic growth is overshadowed by relational proximity represented by democratic distance.
Kinect crowd interaction

Most of the state-of-the-art commercial simulation software mainly focuses on providing realistic animations and convincing artificial intelligence to avatars in the scenario. However, works on how to trigger the events and avatar reactions in the scenario in a natural and intuitive way are less noticed and developed. Typical events are usually triggered by predefined timestamps. Once the events are set, there is no easy way to interactively generate new events while the scene is running and therefore difficult to dynamically affect the avatar reactions. Based on this situation, we propose a framework to use human gesture as input to trigger events within a DI-Guy simulation scenario in real-time, which could greatly help users to control events and avatar reactions in the scenario. By implementing such a framework, we will be able to identify user’s intentions interactively and ensure that the avatars make corresponding reactions.
Increasing Feed Conversion Efficiency in Automatic Milking Systems: The Impact of Grain-Based Concentrate Allocation and Kikuyu ( Pennisetum clandestinum ) Pasture State on Kikuyu Pasture Digestibility

Part of the Plant Sciences Commons, and the Soil Science Commons This document is available at https://uknowledge.uky. edu/igc/22/2-16/4 The 22nd International Grassland Congress (Revitalising Grasslands to Sustain Our Communities) took place in Sydney, Australia from September 15 through September 19, 2013. Proceedings Editors: David L. Michalk, Geoffrey D. Millar, Warwick B. Badgery, and Kim M. Broadfoot Publisher: New South Wales Department of Primary Industry, Kite St., Orange New South Wales, Australia
A design framework for additive manufacturing based on the integration of axiomatic design approach, inverse problem-solving and an additive manufacturing database

Additive manufacturing has emerged as an integral part of modern manufacturing because of its unique capabilities and has already found its applications in various domains such as aerospace, automotive, medicine, and architecture. In order to take the full advantage of this breakthrough manufacturing technology, it is imperative that practical design frameworks or methodologies are developed. Consequently, Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) has risen to provide a set of guidelines during the product design process. The existing DfAM methods have certain limitations in that the capabilities of an additive manufacturing process are not effectively considered in the early design stage, and most of them rely on the direct application of existing methods for conventional manufacturing. Furthermore, existing DfAM methods lack suitability for additive manufacturing novices. To tackle these issues, this study develops a design framework for additive manufacturing through the integration of axiomatic design approach and theory of inventive problem-solving (TRIZ) with the consideration of additive manufacturing environment. This integrated approach is effective because an axiomatic design approach can be used to systematically define and analyze a design problem, while the inverse problem-solving approach of TRIZ combined with an additive manufacturing database can be used as an idea generation tool that can generate innovative solutions for the design problem. Two case studies are presented to apply and validate the proposed design framework.
Challenges of Cooperation between the Pre-hospital and In-hospital Emergency services in the handover of victims of road traffic accidents: A Qualitative Study

Abstract Objective. To take a deep look at the challenges of cooperation between the pre-hospital and in-hospital emergency services in the handover of victims of road traffic accidents. Methods. This is a qualitative study and the method used is of content analysis type. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data. Through purposive sampling, fifteen employees from ambulance personnel and hospital emergency staff were selected and interviewed. They expressed their experiences of cooperation between these two teams in the handover of traffic accident casualties. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and content analysis method was used to explain and interpret the content of the interviews. Results. Three major categories were derived from the analysis of interviews: Shortage of infrastructure resources (Shortage of equipment, Shortage of physical space, and Shortage of manpower); Inefficient and unscientific management (Shaky accountability, Out-of-date information based activities, Poor motivation, and Manpower low productivity); and Non-common language (Difference in understanding and empathy, and Difference in training and experience). Conclusion. The obtained results of this study suggest that the careful planning of resources, the promotion of managerial practices as well as empowerment program of the staff, healthcare managers and policymakers can take a pace forward in order to enter into a hearty coordination between these two services for the attention of victims of road traffic accidents.
Stress-strain Relationship in Homogeneous and Two-layered Triaxial Test Specimens

The stress-strain relationship of a homogeneous specimen, obtained from triaxial compression test, allows to determine stiffness parameters for numerical-method based analyses in common geotechnical software. Stiffness parameters are defined as the ratio of stress to strain along an axis. However, when a heterogeneous specimen is tested, the equivalent elastic modulus that represents a simplification of the nonlinear behavior is complex. This paper presents a study intended to contribute to the debate about the degree to which conventional soil mechanics approaches can be applied to layered specimens. Triaxial compression tests were carried out on both homogeneous and two-layered specimens under a low effective confining pressure of 30 kPa. The triaxial apparatus was chosen since the applied stress and specimen boundary conditions are well defined, and the repeatability of the test method is good. The behavior of both specimens was studied in terms of the stress-strain relationship and stiffness. The main differences were crucial to understanding the composite soil-aggregate interaction, which is discussed and compared. The results indicate that the interface between composite soil and aggregate is important to keep the stability of the layer of aggregate over the soft composite soil, and practical methods of achieving that are suggested.
Design of a 3D integrated circuit for manipulating and sensing biological nanoparticles

We present the design of a mixed-technology microsystem for electronically manipulating and optically detecting nanometer scale particles in a fluid. This lab-on-a-chip is designed using 3D integrated circuit technology. By taking advantage of processing features inherent to 3D chip-stacking technology, we create very dense dielectrophoresis electrode arrays. During the 3D fabrication process, the top-most chip tier is assembled upside down and the substrate material is removed. This puts the polysilicon layer, which is used to create geometries with the process' minimum feature size, in close proximity to a fluid channel etched into the top of the stack. This technique allows us to create electrode arrays that have a gap spacing of 270 nm in a 0.18 im SOI technology. Using 3D CMOS technology also provides the additional benefit of being able to densely integrate analog and digital control circuitry for the electrodes by using the additional levels of the chip stack. For sensing particles that are manipulated by dielectrophoresis, we present a method by which randomly distributed nanometer scale particles can be arranged into periodic striped patterns, creating an effective diffraction grating. The efficiency of this grating can be used to perform a label-free optical analysis of the particles. The functionality of the 3D lab-on-a-chip is verified with simulations of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpes virus particles, which have a radius of approximately 125 nm, being manipulated by dielectrophoresis and detected optically.
The pregnane X receptor ( PXR ) and the nuclear receptor corepressor 2 ( NCoR 2 ) modulate cell growth in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most frequent cancer worldwide. The pregnane X receptor (PXR) is a nuclear receptor regulating several target genes associated with cancer malignancy. We here demonstrated a significant effect of PXR on HNSCC cell growth, as evidenced in PXR knock-down experiments. PXR transcriptional activity is more importantly regulated by the presence of coactivators and corepressors than by PXR protein expression. To date, there is scarce information on the regulation of PXR in HNSCC and on its role in the pathogenesis of this disease. Coactivator and corepressor expression was screened through qRT-PCR in 8 HNSCC cell lines and correlated to PXR activity, determined by using a reporter gene assay. All cell lines considerably expressed all the cofactors assessed. PXR activity negatively correlated with nuclear receptor corepressor 2 (NCoR2) expression, indicating a major role of this corepressor in PXR modulation and suggesting its potential as a surrogate for PXR activity in HNSCC. To test the association of NCoR2 with the malignant phenotype, a subset of three cell lines was transfected with an over-expression plasmid for this corepressor. Subsequently, cell growth and chemoresistance assays were performed. To elucidate the mechanisms underlying NCoR2 effects on cell growth, caspase 3/7 activity and protein levels of cleaved caspase 3 and PARP were evaluated. In HNO97 cells, NCoR2 over-expression decreased cell growth, chemoresistance and increased cleaved caspase 3 levels, caspase activity and cleaved PARP levels. On the contrary, in HNO124 and HNO210 cells, NCoR2 over-expression increased cell growth, drug resistance and decreased cleaved caspase 3 levels, caspase activity and cleaved PARP levels. In conclusion, we demonstrated a role of PXR and NCoR2 in the modulation of cell growth in HNSCC. This may contribute to a better understanding of the highly variable HNSCC therapeutic response. PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone. 0193242 February 22, 2018 1 / 17 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111
DRE-SLAM: Dynamic RGB-D Encoder SLAM for a Differential-Drive Robot

The state-of-the-art visual simultaneous localization and mapping (V-SLAM) systems have high accuracy localization capabilities and impressive mapping effects. However, most of these systems assume that the operating environment is static, thereby limiting their application in the real dynamic world. In this paper, by fusing the information of an RGB-D camera and two encoders that are mounted on a differential-drive robot, we aim to estimate the motion of the robot and construct a static background OctoMap in both dynamic and static environments. A tightly coupled feature-based method is proposed to fuse the two types of information based on the optimization. Dynamic pixels occupied by dynamic objects are detected and culled to cope with dynamic environments. The ability to identify the dynamic pixels on both predefined and undefined dynamic objects is available, which is attributed to the combination of the CPU-based object detection method and a multiview constraint-based approach. We first construct local sub-OctoMaps by using the keyframes and then fuse the sub-OctoMaps into a full OctoMap. This submap-based approach gives the OctoMap the ability to deform, and significantly reduces the map updating time and memory costs. We evaluated the proposed system in various dynamic and static scenes. The results show that our system possesses competitive pose accuracy and high robustness, as well as the ability to construct a clean static OctoMap in dynamic scenes.
Title Sufficient and Necessary LMI Conditions for Robust Stability ofRationally Time-Varying Uncertain Systems

This technical note addresses robust stability of uncertain systems with rational dependence on unknown time-varying parameters constrained in a polytope. First, the technical note proves that a sufficient linear matrix inequality (LMI) condition that we previously proposed, based on homogeneous polynomial Lyapunov functions (HPLFs) and on the introduction of an extended version of Polya’s theorem, is also necessary. Second, the technical note proposes a new sufficient and necessary LMI condition by exploiting properties of the simplex and sum-of-squares (SOS) parameter-dependent polynomials. Lastly, the technical note investigates relationships among these conditions and conditions based on the linear fractional representation (LFR). It is worth remarking that sufficient and necessary LMI conditions for this problem have not been proposed yet in the literature.
Willingness to Pay for Improved Air Quality and Influencing Factors among Manufacturing Workers in Nanchang, China

(1) Background: Air quality apt to deteriorate in decades in China, people are seeking improvement measures. To assess the willingness to pay (WTP) for improved air quality among manufacturing workers and associated factors influencing their WTP. (2) Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in combination with contingent valuation in Nanchang between September and October of 2015. A face-to-face interview was conducted to obtain basic demographic information from manufacturing workers and to understand their WTP for air quality improvement. (3) Results: A total of 600 effective questionnaires were collected in this study and showed that more than half of the respondents (53%) expressed their WTP for improved air quality. Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that the main factors associated with manufacturing workers’ WTP were their residence areas, education level, annual household income and travel experience. (4) Conclusions: These findings have provided (a) important information of the concern and desire for air pollution control through their WTP from manufacturing workers, (b) baseline information for the policy-maker and local government for their development of more effective policy in air pollution prevention and control and (c) the need for more study for WTP among different population groups in future.
Transparency in Markets for Experience Goods: Experimental Evidence

We propose an experimental design to investigate the role of information disclosure in the market for an experience good. The market is served by a duopoly of firms that choose both the quality and the price of their product. Consumers differ in their taste for quality and choose from which firm to buy. We compare four different treatments in which we vary the degree to which consumers are informed about quality. Contrary to theoretical predictions, firms do not differentiate quality under full information. Rather, both tend to offer products of similar, high quality, entailing more intense price competition than predicted by theory. Under no information, we observe a “lemons” outcome where quality is low. At the same time, firms manage to maintain prices substantially above marginal cost. In two intermediate treatments, quality is significantly higher than the no-information level, and there is evidence that prices become better predictors of quality. Taken together these findings suggest that information disclosure is a more effective tool to raise welfare and consumer surplus than theory would lead one to expect. (JEL L15, C91, D82)
An investigation of the irregularity of El Niño in a coupled GCM

The irregularity of El Nino is investigated with a 400-year simulation of a coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model. The model produces irregular El Ninos with peak sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies ranging from 1°C to 4°C in the equatorial central-eastern Pacific. In the equatorial Pacific, the temporal phase relationship of the upper ocean heat content (OHC) anomaly relative to SST, and wind stress anomalies can be explained by the “recharge oscillator” mechanism. A difference of the zonal mean OHC anomaly between the equator and the northern subtropics arises before the development of equatorial SST anomaly. It is found that a larger OHC anomaly is accumulated on the equator as a precursor of strong El Nino. The heat-budget analysis suggests that horizontal advection in the ocean interior is a major contributor to the build-up of the larger OHC anomaly during the recharge phase, which is associated with the zonal-mean wind-curl anomaly in the off-equatorial North Pacific. This also implies that the surface heating in the subtropics is a potential contributor through meridional heat transport. Besides the aspect of amplitude irregularity, the model El Nino shows irregularities in frequency and seasonal phase locking. Possible linkages between these irregularities are discussed.
Coulomb scattering rates of excited states in germanene

The excited conduction electrons, conduction holes and valence holes in monolayer germanene exhibit the feature-rich Coulomb decay rates. The dexcitation processes are studied using the Matsubara’s screened exchange energy. They might utilize the intraband single-particle excitations (SPEs), the interband SPEs, and three kinds of plasmon modes, depending on the quasiparticle states and the Fermi energies. The low-lying valence holes can decay by the undamped acoustic plasmon, so that they present very fast Coulomb deexcitations, the non-monotonous energy dependence and the anisotropic behavior. However, the low-energy conduction holes and electrons behave as 2D electron gas. The high-energy conduction states and the deep-energy valence ones are similar in the available deexcitation channels and the dependence of decay rate on wave vector k.