Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Studies on the rotation problem in self-motion perception

The focus of expansion (FOE) of a radially expanding optic flow pattern is perceptually displaced in the direction of a transparently overlapping unidirectional flow. There is continuing debate on whether this effect is due to local or global motion interactions. Here, we show psychophysically that under conditions without local motion transparency the illusion becomes weaker but can still be observed. In our experiments, the radial and unidirectional flow fields were presented separately to the left and right halves of the visual field with a blank vertical strip of 15◦ horizontal width in between. The illusory shift observed in this condition cannot be explained by local motion interactions because (a) no transparent motion was present in the stimulus, and (b) the receptive fields of cortical cells involved in the analysis of local motion cross the vertical midline of the visual field to a limited extent. We conclude that global motion detectors that integrate motion from both halves of the visual field play a role in shifting the perceived position of the FOE and that local motion interactions may be sufficient, but are not necessary for the optic flow illusion to occur.
A small-scale actuator with passive-compliance for a fine-manipulation deep-sea manipulator

Underwater handling of objects as much as any manipulation tasks on land are dependent on sensory feedback to close the control loop between performed action and achieved result. In state-of-the-art underwater manipulation systems this feedback is mainly provided by vision that reaches its limits in hazy water conditions, often caused by the manipulation procedure itself. Tactile sensors that provide the additional modality of haptic feedback, are therefore an interesting topic for underwater robotic research. The main goal of the SeeGrip project at the DFKI Robotics Innovation Center in Bremen, Germany, is to develop a multi-limb manipulation system with tactile force-feedback that enables operators to work under these ambient conditions. In this paper, we describe the hydraulic actuation-system of this manipulator.
Public deliberation, discursive participation, and citizen engagement: A review of the empirical literature

▪ Abstract Many theorists have long extolled the virtues of public deliberation as a crucial component of a responsive and responsible democracy. Building on these theories, in recent years practitioners—from government officials to citizen groups, nonprofits, and foundations—have increasingly devoted time and resources to strengthening citizen engagement through deliberative forums. Although empirical research has lagged behind theory and practice, a body of literature has emerged that tests the presumed individual and collective benefits of public discourse on citizen engagement. We begin our review of this research by defining “public deliberation”; we place it in the context of other forms of what we call “discursive participation” while distinguishing it from other ways in which citizens can voice their individual and collective views on public issues. We then discuss the expectations, drawn from deliberative democratic theory, regarding the benefits (and, for some, pitfalls) assumed to derive from p.
GPU-based motion planning under uncertainties using POMDP

We present a novel GPU-based parallel algorithm to solve continuous-state POMDP problems. We choose the MCVI (Monte Carlo Value Iteration) method as our base algorithm [1], and parallelize this algorithm using multi-level parallel formulation of MCVI. For each parallel level, we propose efficient algorithms to effectively utilize the massive data parallelism of GPUs. To obtain the maximum parallel performance at highest level, we introduce two workload distribution techniques such as data/compute interleaving and workload balancing. To the best of our knowledge, our algorithm is the first parallel algorithm that executes POMDP efficiently on GPUs. Our GPU-based algorithm outperforms the existing CPU-based algorithm by a factor of 75~90 on different benchmarks.
Sparse coding for spectral signatures in hyperspectral images

The growing use of hyperspectral imagery lead us to seek automated algorithms for extracting useful information about the scene. Recent work in sparse approximation has shown that unsupervised learning techniques can use example data to determine an efficient dictionary with few a priori assumptions. We apply this model to sample hyperspectral data and show that these techniques learn a dictionary that: 1) contains a meaningful spectral decomposition for hyperspectral imagery, 2) admit representations that are useful in determining properties and classifying materials in the scene, and 3) forms local approximations to the nonlinear manifold structure present in the actual data.
POOR-PITCH SINGING IN THE ABSENCE OF "TONE DEAFNESS"

THE TERM "TONE DEAFNESS," COMMONLY APPLIED TO poor-pitch singing, suggests that the cause lies in faulty perception. However, it is also plausible that problems lie in production, memory, and/or sensorimotor integration. We report the results of two experiments on vocal pitch imitation that addressed these possibilities. Participants listened to and then vocally imitated unfamiliar 4-note pitch sequences.Within each experiment, 10-15% of the participants imitated pitch at least one semitone off and were categorized as "poor-pitch singers. " Such deviations were reliable across different pitch classes and therefore constitute transpositions. In addition, poor-pitch singers compressed the size of intervals during production. Poor-pitch singers did not differ from good singers in pitch discrimination accuracy, although they appeared to be hindered rather than helped by singing with correct accompaniment. Taken together, findings suggested that poor-pitch singing results from mismapping of pitch onto action, rather than problems specific to perceptual,motor, or memory systems.
Implications from the Disequilibrium of Majority Rule for the Study of Institutions

While contemporary political science (as, for example, in such subjects as political socialization, studies of public opinion, etc.) tends to emphasize the study of values and tastes (because of an assumption that political outcomes–like market outcomes–are determined by the amalgamation of individual preferences), the older tradition of political science emphasized the study of institutions. The line of research in political theory followed during the last generation has involved seeking an equilibrium of tastes; but it has revealed that such an equilibrium exists only rarely, if at all. The inference then is that prudence in research directs the science of politics toward the investigation of empirical regularities in institutions, which, though congealed tastes, are “unstable constants” amenable to scientific investigation.
In vitro -Osteoclastic Activity Studies on Surfaces of 3D Printed Calcium Phosphate Scaffolds

Various biomaterials have been developed for the use as bone substitutes for bone defects. To optimize their integration and functionality, they should be adapted to the individual defect. Rapid prototyping is a manufacturing method to tailor materials to the 3D geometry of the defect. Especially 3D printing allows the manufacture of implants, the shape of which can be designed to fit the bone defect using anatomical information obtained from the patient. 3D printing of calcium phosphates, which are well established as bone substitutes, involves a sintering step after gluing the granules together by a binder liquid. In this study, we analyzed if and how these 3D printed calcium phosphate surfaces can be resorbed by osteoclast-like cells. On 3D printed scaffold surfaces consisting of pure HA and β-TCP as well as a biphasic mixture of HA and TCP the osteoclastic cell differentiation was studied. In this regard, cell proliferation, differentiation, and activation were analyzed with the monocytic cell line RAW 264.7. The results show that osteoclast-like cells were able to resorb calcium phosphate surfaces consisting of granules. Furthermore, biphasic calcium phosphate ceramics exhibit, because of their osteoclastic activation ability, the most promising surface properties to serve as 3D printed bone substitute scaffolds.
Assessment of the role of sutures in a lizard skull: a computer modelling study

Sutures form an integral part of the functioning skull, but their role has long been debated among vertebrate morphologists and palaeontologists. Furthermore, the relationship between typical skull sutures, and those involved in cranial kinesis, is poorly understood. In a series of computational modelling studies, complex loading conditions obtained through multibody dynamics analysis were imposed on a finite element model of the skull of Uromastyx hardwickii, an akinetic herbivorous lizard. A finite element analysis (FEA) of a skull with no sutures revealed higher patterns of strain in regions where cranial sutures are located in the skull. From these findings, FEAs were performed on skulls with sutures (individual and groups of sutures) to investigate their role and function more thoroughly. Our results showed that individual sutures relieved strain locally, but only at the expense of elevated strain in other regions of the skull. These findings provide an insight into the behaviour of sutures and show how they are adapted to work together to distribute strain around the skull. Premature fusion of one suture could therefore lead to increased abnormal loading on other regions of the skull causing irregular bone growth and deformities. This detailed investigation also revealed that the frontal–parietal suture of the Uromastyx skull played a substantial role in relieving strain compared with the other sutures. This raises questions about the original role of mesokinesis in squamate evolution.
Shortening of the Action Potential and Reduction of Pacemaker Activity by Lidocaine, Quinidine, and Procainamide in Sheep Cardiac Purkinje Fibers

The ionic mechanism underlying the shortening of the action potential and the reduction in pacemaker activity by lidocaine, quinidine, and procainamide in sheep cardiac Purkinje fibers was investigated using the two-microelectrode voltage clamp technique. In the presence of lidocaine (1.85 to 3.7 × 10−5M), steady state currents were shifted outward over a broad range of potentials. In contrast, instantaneous currents (holding potential −40 mV) and steady state currents in 20 mM Cs-Tyrode were not affected at potentials negative to −60 mV, the outward shift being restricted to potentials positive to this level. This outward shift of the current at the plateau level by lidocaine was not observed in the presence of a maximal dose of tetrodotoxin (TTX); in Na-free medium, the effect of lidocaine was totally suppressed. On the pacemaker current, the major effect of lidocaine was to reduce the magnitude of the activation curve with no change in time constants or in the shape of the fully activated current-voltage relation. Quinidine and procainamide exerted similar effects on instantaneous currents. Quinidine affected the pacemaker in the same way as lidocaine, whereas procainamide had no effect on this current. The results indicate that local anesthetics do not increase the K inward rectifier current and have no effect on inward background current at potentials negative to −60 mV; the shift in steady state currents at these levels is due to a change in pacemaker current. Because the lidocaine-sensitive pacemaker current does not reverse at the presumed equilibrium potential for K ions, aiid the effect of lidocaine in the presence of 1 mM Ba is similar to that in normal Tyrode, it is concluded that the drug inhibits a pacemaker current which is activated on hyperpolarization and mainly carried by Na ions. The results with TTX and in Na-free medium demonstrate that lidocaine inhibits a Na current, sensitive to TTX. The shortening of the action potential in sheep cardiac Purkinje fibers by local anesthetics is not due to an increase in outward current but can be explained by a block of an inward current, through the TTX-sensitive channel.
Retrieving Scale From Quasi-Stationary Images 1 / 11 Retrieving Scale from Quasi-Stationary Images

204 words) We have developed a novel method to derive scale information from quasi-stationary images, which relies on a rotation-guided multi-scale analysis of features derived from Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrices (GLCM). Unlike other methods for multi-scale texture characterization, our method does not require rotation-invariant textural features, but instead uses orientation information derived from the image to constrain the algorithm. Our method computes GLCM textural features on a “stencil” that follows the local orientation field. It compares features obtained from a sliding window that scans the whole image with those present on a user-selected reference pattern. The method then calculates a similarity measure between textural features derived from the whole image and those derived from the reference pattern. By applying different affine transforms to the stencil used for sampling the reference pattern, we are able to measure the similarity between regions of the image and different dilated versions of the reference pattern, and hence perform a multi-resolution analysis of the image. For a given region of an image, our method is able to find the most likely scale. Therefore it can estimate the stationarity of the image in terms of scale, which has important applications to Multipoint Geostatistics. We tested the method on the Brodatz textures database.
Capsule Endoscopy: A Comprehensive Review

Until a few years ago, the small bowel was an organ which was very difficult to explore with the available endoscopic, radiological and nuclear medicine techniques due to anatomical (i.e. distance from external orifices, length) and physiological (i.e. active peristalsis) reasons. In routine practice, only the last few centimeters of the ileum was accessible to retrograde visualization by ileo-colonoscopy. Exploration from the proximal side by push, sonde or intra-operative enteroscopy were invasive procedures that did not always allow us to visualize the lesions in the small bowel (Galmi che et al.,2008). Sonde enteroscopy had been abandoned in the 90’s because it was a tedious technique (long duration of the procedure) and it had several technical limitations. Push enteroscopy is limited by the depth of insertion of the scope and is poorly tolerated. Intra-operative enteroscopy is the most effective of these techniques, but it is the most invasive with a significant percentage of adverse side effects (Rondonotti et al., 2007). The concept for small bowel capsule was developed independently by two groups. Dr. Paul Swain, a British gastroenterologist demonstrated the first live transmissions in 1996 with the broadcast of a pig's stomach. In 1997, he collaborated with Dr. Gavriel Iddan, a mechanical engineer working with the Israel Ministry of Defense(Appleyard et al.,2001;Meron,2000;Swain et al.,1996). Successful animal trials were conducted and first published in 2000. (Swain et al.,1996) Human studies followed and the use of capsule endoscopy (CE) in clinical trials was first published in 2001. (Kornbluth et al.,2004) Since the emergence of CE, more than 1000000 capsules have been swallowed worldwide and nearly 1000 peer reviewed publications have appeared in the literature. This article reviews the fundamental of wireless capsule endoscopy. Special attention is paid to the indications, benefits and drawbacks of the technique, as well as to the strengths and limitations of clinical data available to the date.
Design of First-Order Approximation Filters for Sliding-Mode Control of Uncertain Systems

The focus of this paper is on the synthesis of first-order filters which generate approximations for upper bounds of some signals needed in sliding mode control laws. The approximation is based on optimization methods which are applied to reduce the amplitude of the control signal. This paper also considers the application of these filters in output-feedback sliding mode controllers of linear systems in regular form with uncertain parameters and uncertain order. An experimental setup where the filters are applied to the model-reference control of an electromechanical system is presented to illustrate the design method.
Combining monocular and stereo vision in 6D-SLAM for the localization of a tracked wheel robot

Methods for the localization of tracked wheel robots in GPS-denied, unstructured environments, such as the ones encountered in Search and Rescue scenarios, meet several challenges. In most situations, one cannot rely on a planar ground, that would simplify localization and mapping. This paper addresses an online 6D-SLAM method for a tracked wheel robot, aiming at providing 6D pose estimates of the robot. While the robot pose is represented by a 3D position and a SO(3) orientation, the environment is mapped with natural landmarks in 3D space, autonomously collected using visual data from feature detectors. The observation model opportunistically employs features detected from either monocular and stereo vision. These features are represented using an inverse depth parametrization. The motion model uses odometry readings from motor encoders, together with orientation changes measured with an onboard IMU. A dimensional-bounded EKF (DBEKF) is introduced here, that keeps the dimension of the state bounded. A new landmark classifier using a Temporal Difference Learning methodology is used to identify undesired landmarks from the state. By forcing an upper bound to the number of landmarks in the EKF state, the computational complexity is reduced to up to a constant while not compromising its integrity. A real dataset from RAPOSA-NG, a tracked wheel robot developed for Search and Rescue missions, is used to experimentally validate the approach. This dataset encompasses a closed circuit, including stairs and non-planar ground segments.
Schedule flexibility and stress: Linking formal flexible arrangements and perceived flexibility to employee health

Despite widespread public appeals, the evidence base linking worker health to workplace flexibility remains weak. The goal of this study was to improve understanding of the potential health benefit of promoting schedule flexibility at work. Using data from several businesses across a variety of industries (N=19,704), this study tested hypothesized associations among employee participation in formal flexible work arrangements, perceived flexibility, and stress and burnout. Results indicated that stress and burnout was lower among workers engaged in all types of formal flexible arrangements, and that 30–50% of observed differences between workers engaged in flextime (either alone or combined with compressed workweeks) and those not engaged in a formal arrangement were explained by perceived flexibility. Evidence also indicated that the generally beneficial effect of schedule flexibility differs by gender and the employment arrangement of a worker's spouse or partner. This study provides clear support for advocates’ calls for employers to expand flexible arrangements, particularly flextime.
Environmental Concern, Regional Identity, and Support for Protected Areas in Italy

Two field studies examined the relations between environmental concern, regional identity, and support for the institution of natural protected areas. Multiple regression (Study 1, N = 316) and structural equation modeling (Study 2, N = 157) were performed to assess the role of general and specific proenvironmental attitudes and regional identity in predicting participants’ support for two new protected areas in Italy. As expected, results show the positive role of general and specific proenvironmental attitudes, as well as the positive role of regional identity, in predicting support for the protected areas considered. Implications of the results for the enhancement of public levels of consensus in the designation and management of natural protected areas are discussed.
Rate-distortion optimized optical flow estimation

We propose a general framework for rate-distortion optimized estimation of optical flow, taking heed of the optimality conditions when both the residue and the motion coefficients are quantized and coded. The framework is particularly well suited for wavelet estimation of motion, where the estimated coefficients can additionally be coded in a scalable fashion. We also give a summary of two majorization-minimization type of optimization algorithms that can be used to solve our non-linear and non-convex rate-distortion optimization problem. We show experimentally that the proposed scheme produces motion descriptions that are superior to those produced by other optical flow algorithms, in the rate and distortion sense.
Adaptive robust sliding mode controller design for full control of quadrotor with external disturbances

This paper proposes two different adaptive robust sliding mode controllers for attitude, altitude and position control of a quadrotor. First it proposes a backstepping non-singular terminal sliding mode control with adaptive algorithm which applied to the quadrotor for free chattering, finite time convergences and robust aims. In this control scheme instead of regular control input, the derivative of the control input is achieved from non-singular terminal second-layer sliding surface. And an adaptive tuning method is utilized to deal with the external disturbances whose upper bounds are not required to be known in advance in the inner loop. Second nonlinear disturbance observer based on integral sliding mode with adaptive gains is proposed for position control which is known as outer loop. Stability and robustness of the proposed controller are proved by using the classical Lyapunov criterion. The simulation results demonstrate the validation of the proposed control scheme.
Neue therapeutische Konzepte bei der Multiplen Sklerose

Zusammenfassung Die Multiple Sklerose (MS) ist die in unseren Breitengraden häufigste chronisch entzündliche Erkrankung des zentralen Nervensystems (ZNS), die bereits im jungen Erwachsenenalter zu deutlichen neurologischen Behinderungen führen kann. Obwohl eine ursächlich kurative Behandlung der MS nicht möglich ist, konnten in den letzten Jahren aus der grundlagenorientierten MS-Forschung neue therapeutische Konzepte entwickelt werden. Neuesten Erkenntnissen nach sind bereits in Anfangsstadien der MS ausgeprägte entzündlich-neurodegenerative Veränderungen vorhanden. Das Ausmaß der neuronalen Schädigung wird als ein wesentlicher Faktor für die tatsächlichen neurologischen Defizite der Patienten angesehen. Gleichzeitig legen klinische und experimentelle Befunde nahe, dass bestimmte Unterformen der MS immunologisch abgegrenzt werden können, so z. B. die Neuromyelitis optica (Devic-Syndrom). Der folgende Ausblick umreißt die wichtigsten Erkenntnisse zu diesen Bereichen und stellt neue Substanzen einschließlich oraler Therapieverfahren vor, die sich teilweise in fortgeschrittenen klinischen Studien bewährt haben und bald praktische Relevanz in der MS-Therapie gewinnen könnten.