Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new tentacles-based technique for avoiding obstacles during visual navigation

In this paper, we design and validate a new tentacle-based approach, for avoiding obstacles during appearance-based navigation with a wheeled mobile robot. In the past, we have developed a framework for safe visual navigation. The robot follows a path represented as a set of key images, and during obstacle circumnavigation, the on-board camera is actuated to maintain scene visibility. In those works, the model used for obstacle avoidance was obtained using a potential vector field. Here, a more sophisticated and efficient method, that exploits the robot kinematic model, and predicts collision at look-ahead distances, is designed and integrated in that framework. Outdoor experiments comparing the two models show that the new approach presents many advantages. Higher speeds and precision can be attained, very cluttered scenarios involving large obstacles can be successfully dealt with, and the control inputs are smoother.
Progress in Nanotechnology Based Approaches to Enhance the Potential of Chemopreventive Agents

Cancer chemoprevention is defined as the use of natural agents to suppress, reverse or prevent the carcinogenic process from turning into aggressive cancer. Over the last two decades, multiple natural dietary compounds with diverse chemical structures such flavonoids, tannins, curcumins and polyphenols have been proposed as chemopreventive agents. These agents have proven excellent anticancer potential in the laboratory setting, however, the observed effects in vitro do not translate in clinic where they fail to live up to their expectations. Among the various reasons for this discrepancy include inefficient systemic delivery and robust bioavailability. To overcome this barrier, researchers have focused towards coupling these agents with nano based encapsulation technology that in principle will enhance bioavailability and ultimately benefit clinical outcome. The last decade has witnessed rapid advancement in the development of nanochemopreventive technology with emergence of many nano encapsulated formulations of different dietary anticancer agents. This review summarizes the most up-to-date knowledge on the studies performed in nanochemoprevention, their proposed use in the clinic and future directions in which this field is heading. As the knowledge of the dynamics of nano encapsulation evolves, it is expected that researchers will bring forward newer and far more superior nanochemopreventive agents that may become standard drugs for different cancers.
Detection and representation of scenes in videos

This paper presents a method to perform a high-level segmentation of videos into scenes. A scene can be defined as a subdivision of a play in which either the setting is fixed, or when it presents continuous action in one place. We exploit this fact and propose a novel approach for clustering shots into scenes by transforming this task into a graph partitioning problem. This is achieved by constructing a weighted undirected graph called a shot similarity graph (SSG), where each node represents a shot and the edges between the shots are weighted by their similarity based on color and motion information. The SSG is then split into subgraphs by applying the normalized cuts for graph partitioning. The partitions so obtained represent individual scenes in the video. When clustering the shots, we consider the global similarities of shots rather than the individual shot pairs. We also propose a method to describe the content of each scene by selecting one representative image from the video as a scene key-frame. Recently, DVDs have become available with a chapter selection option where each chapter is represented by one image. Our algorithm automates this objective which is useful for applications such as video-on-demand, digital libraries, and the Internet. Experiments are presented with promising results on several Hollywood movies and one sitcom.
Fast Fuzzy Clustering of Web Page Collections

We study an extension of learning vector quantization that draws on ideas from fuzzy clustering, enabling us to find fuzzy clusters of ellipsoidal shape with a competitive learning scheme. This approach may be seen as a kind of online fuzzy clustering, which can have advantages w.r. t. the execution time of the clustering algorithm. We demonstrate the usefulness of our approach by applying it to web page collections, which are, in general, difficult to cluster due to the high number of dimensions and the special distribution characteristics of the data.
A study for task time performance dynamic prediction model in cloud resource scheduling

The unique of resource utilization method in cloud computing determines that there are strict requirements for the resource management and scheduling, as virtualization technology is widely applied in cloud computing, it extremely enhances the dynamic of the system and improves the efficiency of resource utilization. However, it also brings the resource scheduling with great challenges. Making an accurate prediction of task workload will improve the efficiency of cloud resource scheduling, and this paper regards this as the starting point, makes the task completion time as a metric of task workload, proposes a dynamic prediction model for task workload, studies the statistical property of task completion time in different load conditions, and the simulation experiment results show that the prediction model is correct and feasible.
Association between microRNA Polymorphisms and Cancer Risk Based on the Findings of 66 Case-Control Studies

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules, which participate in diverse biological processes and may regulate tumor suppressor genes or oncogenes. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in miRNA may contribute to diverse functional consequences, including cancer development, by altering miRNA expression. Numerous studies have shown the association between miRNA SNPs and cancer risk; however, the results are generally debatable and inconclusive, mainly due to limited statistical power. To assess the relationship between the five most common SNPs (miR-146a rs2910164, miR-196a2 rs11614913, miR-499 rs3746444, miR-149 rs2292832, and miR-27a rs895919) and the risk cancer development, we performed a meta-analysis of 66 published case-control studies. Crude odds ratios at 95% confidence intervals were used to investigate the strength of the association. No association was observed between rs2910164 and cancer risk in the overall group. However, in stratified analysis, we found that either the rs2910164 C allele or the CC genotype was protective against bladder cancer, prostate cancer, cervical cancer, and colorectal cancer, whereas it was a risk factor for papillary thyroid carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). Further, rs11614913 was found to be significantly associated with decreased cancer risk, in particular, for bladder cancer, gastric cancer, and SCCHN. For miR-499, a significant association was found between the rs3746444 polymorphism and cancer risk in pooled analysis. In subgroup analysis, similar results were mainly observed for breast cancer. Finally, no association was found between rs2292832 and rs895919 polymorphisms and cancer risk in the overall group and in stratified analysis. In summary, miR-196a2 rs11614913, miR-146a rs2910164, and miR-499 rs3746444 are risk factors for cancer development, whereas mir-149 rs2292832 and miR-27a rs895919 are not associated with cancer risk.
Assisting the autistic with improved facial expression recognition from mixed expressions

People suffering from autism have difficulty with recognizing other people's emotions and are therefore unable to react to it. Although there have been attempts aimed at developing a system for analyzing facial expressions for persons suffering from autism, very little has been explored for capturing one or more expressions from mixed expressions which are a mixture of two closely related expressions. This is essential for psychotherapeutic tool for analysis during counseling. This paper presents the idea of improving the recognition accuracy of one or more of the six prototypic expressions namely happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, sadness and anger from the mixture of two facial expressions. For this purpose a motion gradient based optical flow for muscle movement is computed between frames of a given video sequence. The computed optical flow is further used to generate feature vector as the signature of six basic prototypic expressions. Decision Tree generated rule base is used for clustering the feature vectors obtained in the video sequence and the result of clustering is used for recognition of expressions. The relative intensity of expressions for a given face present in a frame is measured. With the introduction of Component Based Analysis which is basically computing the feature vectors on the proposed regions of interest on a face, considerable improvement has been noticed regarding recognition of one or more expressions. The results have been validated against human judgement.
Free or Total 25OHD as Marker for Vitamin D Status?

In this issue of JBMR, Denburg and colleagues (1) compare several methods to measure serum vitamin D binding protein (DBP). Why should this interest the readers of JBMR? Clinicians and even laypeople are very familiar with the use of serum 25OHD concentrations as the most reliable marker of the vitamin D status. Moreover, they are familiar with the general belief that African Americans have low levels of 25OHD, reflecting a poor vitamin D status. In a remarkable study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Powe and colleagues, however, concluded that this is owing to low serum concentration of DBP in African Americans, and after correction, the “bioavailable 25OHD levels” are similar in black and white people. This article generated a broad debate as to whether the dogma of poor vitamin D status in African Americans might be because of technical errors in using total rather than free/ bioavailable 25OHD concentrations. DBP is the major serum transport protein for all vitamin D metabolites and has both a high capacity and high affinity for all hydroxylated vitamin D metabolites. Therefore, the free (ie, unbound to proteins) concentration of 25OHDor 1,25(OH)2D (3–5)
The ubiquitin-proteasome system during proteotoxic stress

The dual function of the ubiquitin-proteasome system in protein quality control and as a master regulator of vital cellular processes places the system in a delicate position. This might be particularly relevant under patho-physiological conditions such as endoplasmic reticulum stress, which provoke the accumulation of aberrant proteins. This scenario, also referred to as proteotoxic stress, is associated with numerous devastating disorders, including a large number of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and polyglutamine diseases. The question is whether the ubiquitinproteasome system is able to promptly and adequately respond to these challenging conditions without compromising its other functions. One of the difficulties approaching these questions is the lack of systems for monitoring the functionality of the ubiquitin-proteasome activity in vivo. We have generated fluorescent reporter substrates for monitoring the functionality of the ubiquitin-proteasome system in cell lines. In addition, we have developed a transgenic mouse model constitutively expressing one of these reporters. Finally, we have designed and characterized a novel fluorescent activity probe that permits specific labeling of proteasomes in vitro and in vivo. We have subsequently used these models to gain insight into the mechanisms contributing to the long term accumulation of deleterious proteins during proteotoxic stress. These studies revealed that proteotoxic stress conditions compromises the functionality of the ubiquitin-proteasome system. In these circumstances, ubiquitin-proteasomal degradation is still taking place but it is suboptimal. Detailed analysis of the dynamics of ubiquitylation in living cells suggests that ubiquitin is a rate limiting factor during stress conditions. Importantly, we found that whereas the ubiquitin-proteasome was able to remove the majority of the accumulated substrates once the cells have recovered from the stress condition, the cells were unable to clear accumulated aggregation-prone substrates. This observation might explain the preferential accumulation of such substrates in conformational diseases. LIST OF PUBLICATIONS This thesis is based on the following papers and manuscripts that will be referred to in the text by their Roman numerals: I Lindsten K*, Menendez-Benito V*, Masucci MG, Dantuma NP. (2003) A transgenic mouse model of the ubiquitin/proteasome system. Nature Biotechnol. 21 (8):897-902 II Menendez-Benito V, Verhoef LG, Masucci MG, Dantuma NP. (2005) Endoplasmic reticulum stress compromises the ubiquitin-proteasome system. Hum. Mol. Genet. 14 (19):2787-99 III Verdoes M*, Florea BI*, Menendez-Benito V, Witte MD, van der Linden WA, van den Nieuwendijk AM, Hofmann T, Berkers CR, van Leeuwen FWB, Groothuis TA, Leeuwenburgh MA, Ovaa H, Neefjes JJ, Filippov DV, van der Marel GA, Dantuma NP, Overkleeft HS. A fluorescent broad spectrum proteasome inhibitor for labeling proteasomes in vitro and in
High-Accuracy Range Detection Radar Sensor for Hydraulic Cylinders

Industrial automation requires highly precise distance measurement sensors. Accurate detection of the piston position is indispensable for the control and monitoring of hydraulic cylinder applications. Known external and integrated solutions are subject to many limitations as for example in accuracy, in measurement length, or in price. A promising approach consists in the use of precise and low-cost radar sensors. The developed K-band frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar system in this paper detects the piston position in a hydraulic cylinder based on the guided propagation of a radar signal. The dielectric characteristics of the hydraulic oil are obtained for this purpose by permittivity measurement methods. Influences of the hydraulic oil on wave propagation in cylindrical waveguides as well as mechanical requirements associated with this new approach are investigated. The design of an adapted oil- and pressure-resistant transition between the radar sensor and the hydraulic cylinder and a novel calibration method will be described and verified under real measurement conditions. At a measurement repetition rate of 2 kHz, an accuracy of well below 200 μm was achieved for a hydraulic cylinder of 1 m in length.
Quantification of Changes in Transforming Growth Factor-β1 Gene Expression in Experimental Crescentic Glomerulonephritis

Abstract Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGFβ1) has recently been identified as a promoter of glomerular scarring in glomerulonephritis. The present studies employed polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based methods to quantify changes in transcriptional activation of TGFβ1 in experimental crescentic glomerulonephritis. The disease was induced in the rat, and total RNA was isolated from glomeruli at stages in which proliferation, crescent formation, and scarring were prominent features. Total glomerular RNA was reverse transcribed (RT) to cDNA, and RT products were subsequently analyzed by comparative and competitive PCR. Enhanced TGFβ1 expression was apparent at the onset of proliferative glomerulonephritis and prominent during the phase of crescent formation. The observations indicate that PCR-based methods allow quantitation of changes in glomerular TGFβ1 expression in the course of glomerulonephritis.
Dynamically Personalized E-Training in Computer Programming and the Language C

This paper describes ELaC, a fully implemented and evaluated novel integrated environment for personalized e-training in programming and the language C. Software development relies on many different programming languages and tools, ranging from procedural to object-oriented and query languages; an individual learning a new language may already know a range of other languages, or may know no other languages at all. Given the variety of backgrounds of prospective learners of programming, developing learning environments for all of them is not easy. In the light of these problems, this work has focused on the development of an original integrated e-training environment for programming and the language C, incorporating a student model responsible for identifying and updating the student's knowledge level, which takes into account each individual user's pace of learning. The system can adapt dynamically to each individual learner's needs by scheduling the sequence of learning lessons on the fly. This personalization allows each learner to complete the e-training course on at their own pace and according to their ability.
A critique of the impact of policy and funding

Contemporary Perspectives in E-Learning Research provides a synthesis of research, giving readers a grounding in contemporary e-learning scholarship whilst identifying the debates that make it such a lively and fast-moving area. A landmark text in an evolving field, this book will prove invaluable for all researchers, practitioners, policy makers and students who engage with e-learning.
A Robust Method to Detect Human Actions byFusing Hierarchically Filtered Motion withStip Features

In recent years the human actions recognition in crowd video for security purpose in airport, highways or roads, metro line station, street etc. In this paper we are describing the different human actions in crowd video. In existing system, filtering parameters are sensitive in complex scenes and detected interest points are heavily affected by the cluttered background. So in order to handle cluttered background we propose a hierarchical filtered motion (HFM) with spatiotemporal interest point features to recognize more type of actions in crowd. The interest points are detected by 2-D Harris corner points detector and MHI Hierarchical motion filter is used to reduce the distracting motion and also find the characterize points. Finally the different human actions are classified by the GMM. The proposed method can detect three different human actions like boxing, hand waving, clapping. The proposed method is analyzed and validated by using KTH dataset and MSR action dataset II.
Social Influence on the Formation of Attitudes toward Political Personalities in Children

Authors aimed to study the influence of TV and parents on the formation of attitudes towards political personalities in children. Experiment was conducted in 2003 and 2006 (E series A and B respectively) in Georgia. Year of 2003 was distinguished by the widespread social-political protest against the government with mass media and general community openly supporting and propagating opposition leaders, while the year of 2006 was a period of relatively stable political situation. In both, A as well as B, third graders of elementary schools of both sexes, mean age 7.5, served as an experimental subjects. Photo of the flower (aster) was presented to each subject with a request to give a name to the flower that first comes to the mind. Experimental subjects were not familiar with the botanical name of the flower. Majority of subjects named the flower sample by the name of opposition leaders in the A. No names of political leaders have been registered in the B. Association of the flower with the name of a particular person reflects the mental connection of two emotionally positive stimuli – flower and person, which is nice to the subject. According to parents witness, adult household used to watch TV political broadcasts as well as to discuss political events in the presence of experimental subjects in 2003. Children in primary school age, not capable of understanding complicated social events, rely on the social environment bringing interpretation of political events and persons. Presumably results obtained demonstrate the strong TV and parental influence on the formation of positive attitudes of children towards political personalities.
Interleukin 12 synergizes with B7/CD28 interaction in inducing efficient proliferation and cytokine production of human T cells

Several receptors and counter-receptor pairs on T cells and on antigen- presenting cells (APCs) deliver costimulatory signals to T cells during antigen presentation. The CD28 receptor on T cells with its ligand B7 represents one of the best characterized and most important examples of this costimulation. We show here that interleukin 12 (IL-12), a cytokine also produced by APCs (monocyte/macrophages and B cells) and active on T and natural killer cells, has a strong synergistic effect with the B7/CD28 interaction in inducing proliferation and cytokine production in both mitogen-activated and freshly isolated peripheral blood T cells. Together with anti-CD28 antibodies, IL-12 induces proliferation of T cells to levels higher than those obtained with IL-2 stimulation and it is effective at IL-12 concentrations 100- to 1,000- fold lower than effective concentrations of IL-2. The proliferative effect of anti-CD28 and IL-12 is resistant to moderate doses of cyclosporin A and is largely independent of endogenous IL-2, IL-12, in synergy with anti-CD28 or B7-transfected cells, is most effective in inducing interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) production, but production of tumor necrosis factor alpha and granulocyte/macrophage colony- stimulating factor is also observed. IL-12-induced IFN-gamma production in peripheral blood mononuclear cells is inhibited by the chimeric molecule CTLA-4 immunoglobulin, which prevents binding of CD28 to B7, suggesting that endogenous B7 on the mononuclear cells and IL-12 cooperate in inducing IFN-gamma production. IL-10 inhibits both IL-12 production and B7 expression on monocytes. These two effects are largely responsible for the ability of IL-10, acting on accessory cells, to inhibit IFN-gamma production by lymphocytes, because anti- CD28 antibodies and IL-12 can reverse the inhibitory effect of IL-10 on IFN-gamma production. Our results in vitro suggest that the synergy between B7 and IL-12, a surface antigen and a soluble product of APCs, respectively, plays a role in regulating T cell activation and immune response in the microenvironment of inflamed tissues.
Comparative Characterization of Vibrio cholerae O1 from Five Sub-Saharan African Countries Using Various Phenotypic and Genotypic Techniques

We used standardized methodologies to characterize Vibrio cholerae O1 isolates from Guinea, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Togo, Côte d’Ivoire and Mozambique. We investigated 257 human isolates collected in 2010 to 2013. DRC isolates serotyped O1 Inaba, while isolates from other countries serotyped O1 Ogawa. All isolates were biotype El Tor and positive for cholera toxin. All isolates showed multidrug resistance but lacked ciprofloxacin resistance. Antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of isolates varied between countries. In particular, the susceptibility profile of isolates from Mozambique (East-Africa) included resistance to ceftriaxone and was distinctly different to the susceptibility profiles of isolates from countries located in West- and Central-Africa. Molecular subtyping of isolates using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) analysis showed a complex relationship among isolates. Some PFGE patterns were unique to particular countries and clustered by country; while other PFGE patterns were shared by isolates from multiple countries, indicating that the same genetic lineage is present in multiple countries. Our data add to a better understanding of cholera epidemiology in Africa.