Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimal grasping based on non-dimensionalized performance indices

For a multi-fingered hand to grasp an object, there are numerous ways to grasp it stably, and thus an optimal grasp planning is necessary to find the optimal grasp point for achieving the objective of the given task. First, we define several grasp indices to evaluate the quality of each feasible grasp. Since the physical meanings of the defined grasp induces are different from each other, it is not easy to combine those indices to identify the optimal grasping. In this paper, we propose a new generalized grasping performance index to represent all of the grasp indices as one measure based on a non-dimensional technique. Through simulations, we show that the proposed optimal grasp planning is resemblant to the physical sense of human grasping.
African Americans and Renal Transplantation: Disproportionate Need, Limited Access, and Impaired Outcomes

Background: Renal transplantation is the therapy of choice for patients with end‐stage renal disease (ESRD). However, African Americans’ (AA) access to this modality is not commensurate with that of other races. This imbalance, coupled with AA disproportionately representing those with ESRD, has kept AA disadvantaged compared with other races, especially whites. Methods: We reviewed published reports that examined the connection between race and the incidence of chronic renal failure, access to optimal therapy, and outcomes of renal transplantation. Results: The incidence of ESRD in AA is 4 times greater than in whites, but AA remain less likely than whites to be referred for or undergo renal transplantation. Also, AA are at greater risk than whites to experience premature graft failure. Conclusions: ESRD management has improved dramatically with the advent of successful renal transplantation. However, AA remain significantly disadvantaged in both access and outcomes compared with whites. Further evaluation of underlying causes and development of specific remedies is warranted.
Visual analysis of massive web session data

Tracking and recording users' browsing behaviors on the web down to individual mouse clicks can create massive web session logs. While such web session data contains valuable information about user behaviors, the ever-increasing data size has placed a big challenge to analyzing and visualizing the data. An efficient data analysis framework requires both powerful computational analysis and interactive visualization. Following the visual analytics mantra “Analyze first, show the important, zoom, filter and analyze further, details on demand”, we introduce a two-tier visual analysis system, TrailExplorer2, to discover knowledge from massive log data. The system supports a visual analysis process iterating between two steps: querying web sessions and visually analyzing the retrieved data. The query happens at the lower tier where terabytes of web session data are processed in a cluster. At the upper tier, the extracted web sessions with much smaller scale are visualized on a personal computer for interactive exploration. Our system visualizes a sorted list of web sessions' temporal patterns and enables data exploration at different levels of details. The query-visualization-exploration process iterates until a satisfactory conclusion is achieved. We present two case studies of TrailExplorer2 using real world session data from eBay to demonstrate the system's effectiveness.
Experimental and theoretical studies on the adjustable thermal properties of epoxy composites with silver‐plated short fiberglass

This article investigates the evolution of the thermal conductivity and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of epoxy composites filled with different silver-plated short glass fibers (Ag@GFs) treated by electroless plating. After electroless plating, the results of X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy showed that glass fibers were coated with pure silver shells whose thickness was controlled via the repetition of electroless plating cycle, and calculated by weighting method. The optical photographs showed that Ag@GFs are randomly oriented and uniformly dispersed in the composites. HotDisk thermal constant analyzer and dilatometer were used to further characterize the thermal conductivity and the CTE of the composites, respectively. The results revealed that the thermal conductivity of Ag@GF/epoxy composites increased with the increase of Ag@GF content, and was adjusted by changing the thickness of silver shell. But the CTE of the composites drops sharply as the Ag@GF content increases compared with neat epoxy. Based on Agari model with fitted factors of Cp and Cf, the calculated thermal conductivity values of Ag@GF/epoxy composites agreed well with the experimental results, and Cp kept almost unchanged, but Cf varied with the change of the thickness of silver shell, despite increasing filler content. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 45555.
Numerical investigation of plasmonic photonic hybrid whispering gallery modes

The hybrid plasmonic photonic WGM modes of a metal coated microsphere resonator are numerically investigated. The proposed geometry consists of a three-layer structure with a silica microsphere core, a 30 nm silver intermediate layer and an outer polymer layer. It has been shown that the proposed geometry supports hybrid resonances with moderately high Q-factor and low mode volume. The properties of the hybrid modes can be tuned by varying the thickness of the polymer layer.
Human Papillomavirus DNA Presence in Pelvic Lymph Nodes in Cervical Cancer

Introduction: This work intends to present a systematic overview of data that have been published so far with regard to methods used for tissue sampling and DNA testing and with regard to the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in pelvic lymph nodes (LNs) and its prognostic significance. Methods: The HPV DNA status of LN in women with cervical cancer is being explored as a potential marker of "occult" metastases. Although the presence of HPV DNA in LN usually correlates with its metastatic involvement, there is always a subgroup of HPV-positive but histologically negative LNs. Results: The significance of HPV in negative LNs remains uncertain, although several studies have concluded that HPV is a risk factor of recurrence. Conclusions: A small group size and a short follow-up are the main limitations for drawing any conclusion concerning prognostic significance of the presence of HPV DNA in LNs.
Biomarkers in Lung Diseases : from Pathogenesis to Prediction to New Therapies BNP , troponin I , and YKL-40 as screening markers in extremely preterm infants at risk for pulmonary hypertension associated with bronchopulmonary dysplasia

X Kai König, Katelyn J. Guy, Claudia A. Nold-Petry, Charles P. Barfield, Geraldine Walsh, Sandra M. Drew, Alex Veldman, Marcel F. Nold, and Dan M. Casalaz Mercy Hospital for Women, Department of Paediatrics, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Ritchie Centre, Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Clayton, Victoria, Australia; and Department of Paediatrics, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
A helping hand: How vinculin contributes to cell-matrix and cell-cell force transfer

Vinculin helps cells regulate and respond to mechanical forces. It is a scaffolding protein that tightly regulates its interactions with potential binding partners within adhesive structures—including focal adhesions that link the cell to the extracellular matrix and adherens junctions that link cells to each other—that physically connect the force-generating actin cytoskeleton (CSK) with the extracellular environment. This tight control of binding partner interaction—mediated by vinculin's autoinhibitory head–tail interaction—allows vinculin to rapidly interact and detach in response to changes in the dynamic forces applied through the cell. In doing so, vinculin modulates the structural composition of focal adhesions and the cell's ability to generate traction forces and adhesion strength. Recent evidence suggests that vinculin plays a similar role in regulating the fate and function of cell–cell junctions, further underscoring the importance of this protein. Using our lab's recent work as a starting point, this commentary explores several outstanding questions regarding the nature of vinculin activation and its function within focal adhesions and adherens junctions.
Lessons Learned From HPV Vaccine Delivery in Low-Resource Settings and Opportunities for HIV Prevention, Treatment, and Care Among Adolescents

Background:Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines to prevent cervical cancer have become available in recent years and presented a new challenge to health systems, since they prevent a sexually transmitted virus and are most effective if they are delivered to young adolescent girls, a group not widely served by other health programs. Demonstration and pilot HPV vaccination programs undertaken in the past 7–8 years in low-resource settings have produced lessons that may be more broadly applied to other adolescent health interventions, particularly to those that attempt to reduce human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Methods:A systematic literature review was undertaken to identify formal and informal evaluations of HPV vaccine use in low- and middle-income countries. Special attention was devoted to the detailed evaluations carried out on large demonstration projects in India, Peru, Uganda, and Vietnam. Results:These lessons fall into 2 main categories: service delivery operations and community outreach and mobilization. Operational issues included venue and timing of vaccinations, definition of target population, micro-planning and coordination, integration with other services, and training. Community issues included consent, messages and channels, endorsement and support, and timing of mobilization efforts. Discussion:Careful planning, good coordination across sectors and levels, and sensitive attention to the expressed needs for information and preferences for communication channels among youth, parents, and communities more broadly were among the key lessons that are relevant for HIV interventions, but many of the smaller details were also important. Conclusions:Applying or adapting these lessons to adolescent HIV services could accelerate effective program design and enhance success.
Expectation Setting and Personality Attribution in HRI

People tend to treat robots as social actors and assign personality attributes to them. This study investigates the influence of expectation setting on the users’ attribution of personality traits to the robot and their impressions of that robot. Results show that personality attribution is depending on people’s prior expectations of the interaction. Moreover, people evaluate a robot better when they assigned it with a complementary personality and when they had high prior expectations of that robot.
Polo-like kinase-1 in DNA damage response

Polo-like kinase-1 (Plk1) belongs to a family of serine-threonine kinases and plays a critical role in mitotic progression. Plk1 involves in the initiation of mitosis, centrosome maturation, bipolar spindle formation, and cytokinesis, well-reported as traditional functions of Plk1. In this review, we discuss the role of Plk1 during DNA damage response beyond the functions in mitotsis. When DNA is damaged in cells under various stress conditions, the checkpoint mechanism is activated to allow cells to have enough time for repair. When damage is repaired, cells progress continuously their division, which is called checkpoint recovery. If damage is too severe to repair, cells undergo apoptotic pathway. If damage is not completely repaired, cells undergo a process called checkpoint adaptation, and resume cell division cycle with damaged DNA. Plk1 targets and regulates many key factors in the process of damage response, and we deal with these subjects in this review. [BMB Reports 2014; 47(5): 249-255]
TOPOLOGY-BASED MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF ORTHOGONAL CUTTIN G PROCESS

OF THESIS TOPOLOGY-BASED MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF ORTHOGONAL CUTTING PROCESS This thesis presents the application of topology to machining at the micro and macro levels through an experimental study, modeling and analysis. Uncoated carbide tools of four different cutting edge radii and four different feed rates are used to perform orthogonal machining on AISI 1045 steel disks. The study analyzes the cutting forces, changing grain boundary parameters, micro-hardness, temperature and correlates them to the residual stresses that hold a key to the product life. This analysis helps to understand and evaluate the aspects of grain boundary engineering that influence the fatigue life of a component. The two components of residual stresses (axial and circumferential) are measured, and are correlated with the different cutting edge radii and feed conditions. A topology-based modeling approach is applied to study and understand various outputs in the machining process. The various micro and macro topological parameters that influence the machining process are studied to develop a model to establish the effects of topological parameters in machining using Maple program.
Use of Hundreds of Electrocardiographic Biomarkers for Prediction of Mortality in Postmenopausal Women: The Women's Health Initiative

Background— Simultaneous contribution of hundreds of electrocardiographic (ECG) biomarkers to prediction of long-term mortality in postmenopausal women with clinically normal resting ECGs is unknown. Methods and Results— We analyzed ECGs and all-cause mortality in 33 144 women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative trials who were without baseline cardiovascular disease or cancer and had normal ECGs by Minnesota and Novacode criteria. Four hundred and seventy-seven ECG biomarkers, encompassing global and individual ECG findings, were measured with computer algorithms. During a median follow-up of 8.1 years (range for survivors, 0.5 to 11.2 years), 1229 women died. For analyses, the cohort was randomly split into derivation (n=22 096; deaths, 819) and validation (n=11 048; deaths, 410) subsets. ECG biomarkers and demographic and clinical characteristics were simultaneously analyzed using both traditional Cox regression and random survival forest, a novel algorithmic machine-learning approach. Regression modeling failed to converge. Random survival forest variable selection yielded 20 variables that were independently predictive of long-term mortality, 14 of which were ECG biomarkers related to autonomic tone, atrial conduction, and ventricular depolarization and repolarization. Conclusions— We identified 14 ECG biomarkers from among hundreds that were associated with long-term prognosis using a novel random forest variable selection methodology. These biomarkers were related to autonomic tone, atrial conduction, ventricular depolarization, and ventricular repolarization. Quantitative ECG biomarkers have prognostic importance and may be markers of subclinical disease in apparently healthy postmenopausal women.
Open-source Tools for Data Mining

The history of software packages for data mining is short but eventful. Although the term data mining was coined in the mid-1990s [1], statistics, machine learning, data visualization, and knowledge engineeringdresearch fields that contribute their methods to data miningdwere at that time already well developed and used for data exploration and model inference. Obviously, software packages were in use that supported various data mining tasks. But compared with the data mining suites of today, they were awkward, most often providing only command-line interfaces and at best offering some integration with other packages through shell scripting, pipe-lining, and file interchange. For an expert physician, the user interfaces of early data mining programs were as cryptic as the end of the last sentence. It took several decades and substantial progress in software engineering and user interface paradigms to create modern data mining suites, which offer simplicity in deployment, integration of excellent visualization tools for exploratory data mining, anddfor those with some programming back-grounddthe flexibility of crafting new ways to analyze the data and adapting algorithms fit to the particular needs of the problem at hand. Within data mining, there is a group of tools that have been developed by a research community and data analysis enthusiasts; they are offered free of charge using one of the existing open-source licenses. An open-source development model usually means that the tool is a result of a community effort, not necessary supported by a single institution but instead the result of contributions from an international and informal development team. This development style offers a means of incorporating the diverse experiences
The Importance of Being Opportunistic: Practical Network Coding for Wireless Environments

This paper applies network coding to wireless mesh networks and presents the first implementation results. It introduces COPE, an opportunistic approach to network coding, where each node snoops on the medium, learns the status of its neighbors, detects coding opportunities, and codes as long as the recipients can decode. This flexible design allows COPE to efficiently support multiple unicast flows, even when traffic demands are unknown and bursty, and the senders and receivers are dynamic. We evaluate COPE using both emulation and testbed implementation. Our results show that COPE substantially improves the network throughput, and as the number of flows and the contention level increases, COPE’s throughput becomes many times higher than current 802.11 mesh networks.
Data Structures for Indexing Triple Table

Semantic-based approaches are relatively new technologies. Some of these technologies are supported by specifications of W3 Con- sortium, i.e. RDF, SPARQL and so on. There are many areas where semantic data can be utilized, e.g. social networks, annotation of protein sequences etc. From the physical database design point of view, several index data structures are utilized to handle this data. In many cases, the well-known B-tree is used as a basic index supporting some operations. Since the semantic data are multidimensional, a common way is to use a number of B-trees to index the data. In this article, we review other in- dex data structures; we show that we can create only one index when we utilize a multidimensional data structure like the R-tree. We compare a performance of the B-tree indices with the R-tree and some its variants. Our experiments are performed over a huge semantic database, we show advantages and disadvantages of these data structures.
Epidermal growth factor receptor gene mutations in early pulmonary adenocarcinomas.

BACKGROUND Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutations are frequently found in pulmonary adenocarcinomas. MATERIALS AND METHODS Various lung cancers (n=30) including 8 small adenocarcinomas were examined for EGFR gene mutations in three exons. RESULTS Mutations were detected in 32% of adenocarcinomas. Exon 19 mutations were detected in 5 tumors, often advanced stages: 1 in Noguchi's pathologic type C, 2 in type D, and 2 in type F. Exon 21 mutations were detected in 3 tumors, all small adenocarcinomas in type C, at pathologic stage IA. CONCLUSION We suspect that exon 21 mutations are early events in small bronchioloalveolar carcinomas, while exon 19 mutations are later events occurring in adenocarcinomas of various types.
Replica Management in Data Grids

Providing fast, reliable and transparent access to data to all users within a community is one of the the most crucial functions of data management in a Grid environment. User communities are typically large and highly geographically distributed. The volume of data that they wish to access is of the order of petabytes and may also be distributed. It is infeasible for all users to access a single instance of all data. One solution is that of data replication. Identical replicas of data are generated and stored at various globally distributed sites. Replication can reduce data access latency and increase the performance and robustness of distributed applications. The existence of multiple instances of data however introduces additional issues. Replicas must be kept consistent, they must be locatable, and their lifetime must be managed. These and other issues necessitate a high level system for replica management in Data Grids. This paper describes the architecture and design of a Replica Management System, called Reptor, within the context of the EU Data Grid project. A prototype implementation is currently under development.
Estimation of anisotropic properties of nano-structured arrays by modal vibration control at microscale

ABSTRACT Nano-structured arrays are engineered to meet the requirements of a variety of applications such as microfilters, sensors, and structural interface due to their unique mechanical characteristics, which cannot be achieved by conventional solid materials. However, it is hard to evaluate the elastic properties of nano-structured arrays owing to the discrete structure, sample size, and availability of suitable techniques. To facilitate this, we develop an advanced three-dimensional microscale vibration testing process. In the test, a specially designed three-dimensional microspecimen with tuned mass is excited by a piezoelectric actuator, and the resonance frequencies are detected by a laser device successfully. The anisotropic elastic moduli of nano-structured array composed of helical nano-springs are identified from a single spectrum. This array shows so strong characteristic anisotropy that the solid one hardly can attain. The microscale testing technique can be extended to other materials and microstructures.
Complementary control of sensory adaptation by two types of cortical interneurons

Reliably detecting unexpected sounds is important for environmental awareness and survival. By selectively reducing responses to frequently, but not rarely, occurring sounds, auditory cortical neurons are thought to enhance the brain's ability to detect unexpected events through stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA). The majority of neurons in the primary auditory cortex exhibit SSA, yet little is known about the underlying cortical circuits. We found that two types of cortical interneurons differentially amplify SSA in putative excitatory neurons. Parvalbumin-positive interneurons (PVs) amplify SSA by providing non-specific inhibition: optogenetic suppression of PVs led to an equal increase in responses to frequent and rare tones. In contrast, somatostatin-positive interneurons (SOMs) selectively reduce excitatory responses to frequent tones: suppression of SOMs led to an increase in responses to frequent, but not to rare tones. A mutually coupled excitatory-inhibitory network model accounts for distinct mechanisms by which cortical inhibitory neurons enhance the brain's sensitivity to unexpected sounds. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.09868. 001
What kind of trading drives return autocorrelation

This paper proposes new tests for the prediction of Llorente, Michaely, Saar, and Wang (2002) that information trading drives positive autocorrelation. Daily data from the Taiwan Stock Exchange is used to exploit the differences in the trading motivations of three groups of institutional investors. Consistent with the predictions, we find that heavy trading by foreigners and mutual funds will increase the autocorrelation particularly for large firms, and that heavy trading by dealers will not. We also find that the sell volume of mutual funds - short sales are disallowed by regulation - has significantly smaller effect on the autocorrelation of returns than buy volume. A portfolio strategy that exploits the observed autocorrelation pattern can generate a significantly positive daily return. Key words: Institutional trading, information trading, return autocorrelation, short-sale constraints