Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Compensating device inertia for 6-DOF haptic rendering

In this paper, the importance of the user's primary holding pivot point on the end effector of a haptic interface is discussed. Both theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate that this holding pivot point is critical for the correct perception of the haptic properties assigned to the virtual objects. We also study the physical inertia effects of the end effector on the non-uniform stiffness perception of simulated virtual objects. To the best of our knowledge, no such combined consideration of holding pivot point and device structure related inertia has so far been made for works in 6-DOF haptic rendering. We have instrumented the end effector of a haptic interface with a membrane potentiometer to measure the user's primary holding pivot point in real-time. Accordingly, a preliminary adaptive feedback method is developed to render the appropriate forces/torques to compensate for the effects of the end effector's inertia on the haptic stiffness perception.
PDE-based regularization of orientation field for low-quality fingerprint images

Orientation field is one of the intrinsic characteristics of fingerprints, and it plays very important role in many processing phases of fingerprint recognition such as enhancement, minutiae extraction and matching. Therefore, accurate estimation of orientation filed is much necessary. In this paper, a novel PDE-based method is proposed for regularization of orientation field for low-quality fingerprint images. The method consists of four steps. Firstly, the coarse orientation field is computed using traditional gradient-based approach. Secondly, the reliability map of the orientation field is computed based on a procedure of multiscale coherence analysis. Then the orientation in the low-reliable region is reconstructed with the surrounding data by means of image inpainting technique. Finally, nonlinear diffusion filtering with adaptive diffusivity is performed on the whole orientation field. Experiments on the NIST SD4 fingerprint database indicated that the proposed algorithm is capable to estimate the orientation field accurately, especially for poor-quality fingerprints, and it can be integrated into fingerprint recognition systems to improve the performance.
Molecular and Functional Analysis of Resistance Expansion and Suppression for Alleles of the Powdery Mildew Resistance Gene Pm 3 in Wheat

| 5 Abstract Developing high yielding and high quality varieties with broad-spectrum and durable disease resistance is the ultimate goal of crop breeding. Resistance (R) genes encoding proteins with nucleotide-binding site (NBS) and leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domains provide high levels of resistance, but this type of R genes usually only confers resistance to a subset of pathogen races. In addition, major R-gene resistance is often rapidly overcome by newly adapted pathogen races when employed in agriculture. In this thesis the allelic series of the NBS-LRR-encoding powdery-mildew resistance gene Pm3 of wheat was analyzed in two projects.Developing high yielding and high quality varieties with broad-spectrum and durable disease resistance is the ultimate goal of crop breeding. Resistance (R) genes encoding proteins with nucleotide-binding site (NBS) and leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domains provide high levels of resistance, but this type of R genes usually only confers resistance to a subset of pathogen races. In addition, major R-gene resistance is often rapidly overcome by newly adapted pathogen races when employed in agriculture. In this thesis the allelic series of the NBS-LRR-encoding powdery-mildew resistance gene Pm3 of wheat was analyzed in two projects. In the first project, Pm3 alleles with a broad and a narrow resistance spectrum were investigated. It was found that Pm3 alleles with a broad resistance spectrum can induce a fast and intense hypersensitive response (HR) in a Nicotiana transient-expression system and this activity could be attributed to two particular amino acids in the ARC2 subdomain of the NBS. The combined substitution of these amino acids in narrow-spectrum PM3 proteins enhanced their capacity to induce an HR in Nicotiana benthamiana, and it was found that these substitutions also enlarge the resistance spectrum of the Pm3f allele in wheat. Using the rice gene Bph14, it was confirmed that the region carrying the two relevant amino acids also plays a role in the HR regulation of another coiled-coil NBS-LRR resistance protein. These results improve the mechanistic understanding of NBS-LRR-protein function and suggest an approach to extend the effectiveness of resistance genes via minimal targeted modifications in
A survey on comparison of face recognition algorithms

The identification of a face from a video or image source is a study of computer vision know as face detection or recognition. Face detection and recognition becomes popular in recent years by the development of computing power. In this study we will present performance aspect of algorithms Eigenfaces, Fisherfaces, and Local Binary Pattern Histograms in different development platforms: Arm and Intel processors.
Vitamin Content of Breast Milk From HIV-1-Infected Mothers Before and After Flash-Heat Treatment

Background:World Health Organization advocates heat treatment of expressed breastmilk (EBM) as one method to reduce postnatal transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in developing countries. Flash-heat is a simple heat treatment method shown to inactivate cell-free HIV. Objective:To determine the effect of flash-heat on vitamin content of milk. Methods:Fresh EBM was collected from 50 HIV+ mothers in Durban, South Africa. Mothers washed their hands and then manually expressed 75-150 mL EBM into sterile jars. Milk was aliquoted to unheated controls or flash-heat (50 mL EBM in a glass jar heated in a 450-mL water jacket in an aluminum pan until water boiled, then EBM removed) simulating field conditions with an open flame. Samples were stored at −70°C and then analyzed for the effect of flash-heat on vitamins [A, ascorbic acid, riboflavin (B2), pyridoxal-5-phosphate (B6), folate, and B12]. Results:Vitamin A was not significantly affected by flash-heat and vitamins B12 and C and folate increased significantly. Vitamins B2 and B6 were decreased to 59% (95% confidence interval 44 to 81) and 96% (95% confidence interval 92 to 99), respectively, of that found in unheated milk. Conclusions:The percentage remaining after flash-heat suggests that most vitamin concentrations are retained after heating. Flash-heat may be a practical and nutritious infant feeding method for mothers in developing countries.
Validation of a 3-factor scoring model for the Pittsburgh sleep quality index in older adults.

STUDY OBJECTIVES The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is widely used to assess subjective sleep disturbances in psychiatric, medical, and healthy adult and older adult populations. Yet, validation of the PSQI single-factor scoring has not been carried out. DESIGN The PSQI was administered as a self-report questionnaire. Using a cross-validation approach, scores from the PSQI were analyzed with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. SETTING San Diego, Denver, and Los Angeles community-based clinics. PARTICIPANTS Community-dwelling depressed and nondepressed adults older that 60 years of age (N = 417) MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Results yielded a 3-factor scoring model that obtained a measure of perfect fit and was significantly better fitted than either the original single-factor model or a 2-factor model. Components of the 3 factors were characterized by the descriptors sleep efficiency, perceived sleep quality, and daily disturbances. CONCLUSIONS These findings validate the factor structure of the PSQI and demonstrate that a 3-factor score should be used to assess disturbances in three separate factors of subjective sleep reports.
Dragon boat racing for breast cancer survivors: Leisure as a context for spiritual outcomes

Abstract The purpose of this study was to explore the interplay among leisure, spirituality, and health within the context of dragon boat racing for breast cancer survivors. Active interviews with 11 participants revealed a number of spiritual outcomes associated with dragon boat racing, which in turn contributed positively to their survivorship of breast cancer. The findings demonstrate that leisure can become a context for spiritual outcomes, similar to prayer, going to church, or meditation. In short, dragon boat racing transcends participation to bring clarity and purpose to the lives of breast cancer survivors. The findings help explain the roles of leisure in the development and maintenance of spiritual well‐being in the face of stressful life events, which Heintzman and Mannell (2003) argued warrant attention.
The Palermo Protocol: Trafficking Takes it All

The Palermo Protocol is the outcome of bargain and lobbying with global institutions, NGOs and government representatives embattling to enforce their interests. The outcome is the concept of trafficking that embraces the struggles against prostitution, slavery and child labour. This broad concept has allowed various local cultural practices and survival strategies of those who live under difficult conditions to become classified as trafficking. While such definition may facilitate fundraising there are adverse consequences to be considered. Firstly, hazardous conditions of children that obviously are not trafficking tend to become ignored. Second, the victims of “real” trafficking become invisible by the excessive number of children allegedly trafficked. Third, the broad definition of trafficking has contributed to criminalization of whole communities and consequent conflicts between NGOs engaged in anti-trafficking activities and the communities involved. Such a situation is not in the best interest of the children involved. Rather than spending huge amount of resources on the conventional anti-trafficking measures there is a need to address the root causes of whatsoever unacceptable condition a child is suffering from.
Efficient Computation of Co-occurrence Based Word Relatedness

Measuring document relatedness using unsupervised co-occurrence based word relatedness methods is a processing-time and memory consuming task. This paper introduces the application of compact data structures for efficient computation of word relatedness based on corpus statistics. The data structure is used to efficiently lookup: (1) the corpus statistics for the Common Word Relatedness Approach, (2) the pairwise word relatedness for the Algorithm Specific Word Relatedness Approach. These two approaches significantly accelerate the processing time of word relatedness methods and reduce the space cost of storing co-occurrence statistics in memory, making text mining tasks like classification and clustering based on word relatedness practical.
An Evaluation of Change Over Time in Everyday Cognitive Competence Among Alzheimer’s Patients

This short-term longitudinal study was designed to examine the pattern of change in everyday cognitive competence as assessed by an objective measure (i.e. the Test of Everyday Problem Solving for Cognitively Challenged Elderly; EPCCE; Willis, 1993) and by self- and caregiver reports (i.e. Instrumental Activities of Daily Living; IADL; Lawton & Brody, 1969). Patient and caregiver characteristics and clinical assessments were explored as predictors. Participants included 100 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients and their caregivers who were part of the Stanford Longitudinal Study. Four waves of data were examined via hierarchical linear modeling. Major findings revealed that the EPCCE and the patient IADL formed a linear pattern of decline while the caregiver IADL demonstrated a curvilinear form. Second, different sets of predictors explained the variance in the competence measures at initial status. Finally, the predictors did not account for a significant amount of variance in the instantaneous rate of change on any of the measures; however, a portion of the variance in the acceleration in the caregiver IADL was explained.
Facets of career decision-making difficulties

ABSTRACT The present research investigated the relations among the measured and the expressed career decision-making difficulties in a sample of 299 young adults who intended to apply to college or university. As hypothesised, the correlations between career decision-making difficulties, as measured by the Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ), and the expressed difficulties were generally high (median = 0.64), but varied among the 10 difficulty categories (range 0.35–0.82). Both measured and expressed difficulties correlated negatively with the students’ career decision-making self-efficacy (−0.63 and −0.65, respectively). The correlations between the CDDQ and both dimensions of the Vocational Decision Style Indicator were negative but low (−0.25 for the introvert vs. extrovert dimension and −0.35 for the thinking vs. feeling dimension). The correlations between the students’ scholastic aptitude test scores and both measured and expressed difficulties were negligible (−0.03 and −0.08, respectively). Participants with more crystallised career plans reported lower career decision-making difficulties, higher career decision-making self-efficacy, and a higher ‘thinking’ (as opposed to ‘feeling’) vocational decision-making style. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
The relationship between leader fit and transformational leadership

Purpose – The aim of the current study is to further understanding of transformational leadership antecedents by examining a gap in the literature that fails to address the relationship between leader fit and transformational leader behaviors.Design/methodology/approach – This study examined the relationship between leaders' person‐organization fit, needs‐supplies fit, and demands‐abilities fit and transformational leader behavior using a sample of 215 leaders in ten organizations, their supervisors, and 1,284 followers.Findings – Demands‐abilities fit was positively related to transformational leadership, whereas person‐organization fit was negatively related. Transformational leadership was also related to leader effectiveness (rated by the leaders' own supervisors) and mediated the relationship between demands‐abilities fit and supervisor ratings of leader effectiveness.Research limitations/implications – Although demands‐abilities fit was positively related to transformational leadership, these result.
Optimal Serial Dilutions Designs for Drug Discovery Experiments

Dose-response studies are an essential part of the drug discovery process. They are typically carried out on a large number of chemical compounds using serial dilution experimental designs. This paper proposes a method of selecting the key parameters of these designs (maximum dose, dilution factor, number of concentrations and number of replicated observations for each concentration) depending on the stage of the drug discovery process where the study takes place. This is achieved by employing and extending results from optimal design theory. Population D- and D S -optimality are defined and used to evaluate the precision of estimating the potency of the tested compounds. The proposed methodology is easy to use and creates opportunities to reduce the cost of the experiments without compromising the quality of the data obtained in them.
Getting to the heart of the matter: osteoarthritis takes its place as part of the metabolic syndrome

Purpose of reviewLabeling osteoarthritis as a degenerative arthritis is a misnomer. It is now clear that an active genetic and proteomic profile suggests inflammation. The cytokine milieu is similarly inflammatory and neatly parallels that found in the metabolic syndrome. Recent findingsImportant cellular changes in the osteoarthritis lesion include not only chondrocytes but also macrophages. Important catabolic mediators of osteoarthritis include metalloproteinases, a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motif, a disintegrin and a metalloprotease, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-17, IL-18 and tumor necrosis factor alpha. The striking finding that hand osteoarthritis in older women is linearly correlated to their degree of atherosclerosis suggests that a connection between osteoarthritis and atherosclerosis exists independently of putative overuse factors directly related to obesity. Therefore, it is not surprising that oxidative stress, endothelial dysfunction, and leptin dysregulation all characterize the osteoarthritis lesion. Better understanding of vitamin D metabolic effects and the Wnt, frizzled, secreted frizzled-related protein, Dickkopf, and low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein gene families are promising regarding osteoarthritis genesis and therapeutics. SummaryCurrent information suggests that osteoarthritis shares a similar biochemical and inflammatory profile to the metabolic syndrome. Mounting evidence exists to call attention to the fact that osteoarthritis deserves a seat at the Metabolic Syndrome ‘table’ of disorders.
Modulation of Proteasomal Activity Required for the Generation of a Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte–defined Peptide Derived from the Tumor Antigen MAGE-3

We have analyzed the presentation of human histocompatability leukocyte antigen-A*0201–associated tumor peptide antigen MAGE-3271–279 by melanoma cells. We show that specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL)-recognizing cells transfected with a minigene encoding the preprocessed fragment MAGE-3271–279 failed to recognize cells expressing the full length MAGE-3 protein. Digestion of synthetic peptides extended at the NH2 or COOH terminus of MAGE-3271–279 with purified human proteasome revealed that the generation of the COOH terminus of the antigenic peptide was impaired. Surprisingly, addition of lactacystin to purified proteasome, though partially inhibitory, resulted in the generation of the antigenic peptide. Furthermore, treatment of melanoma cells expressing the MAGE-3 protein with lactacystin resulted in efficient lysis by MAGE-3271–279–specific CTL. We therefore postulate that the generation of antigenic peptides by the proteasome in cells can be modulated by the selective inhibition of certain of its enzymatic activities.
Diving beetle (Dytiscidae) assemblages along environmental gradients in an agricultural landscape in southeastern Sweden

We investigated diving beetle (Dytiscidae) assemblages in twelve wetlands in an agricultural landscape in southeastern Sweden. Beetles were trapped in wetlands that varied in permanence (temporary or permanent), area (25 to 4,800 m2), age (11 to > 50 yr), and shading (open to wooded surroundings). Our objective was to determine if those environmental factors are important in structuring the local assemblages of diving beetles and how the combination of different types of wetlands influence the diversity of diving beetles in a landscape. Generally, species-area relationships were weak, and shaded wetlands, both permanent and temporary, of intermediate size (240-1,100 m2) had the highest richness after a rarefaction analysis. It was not possible to discern a certain type of wetland where diversity was highest (measured by index α and Shannon-Wiener’s index), although, again, intermediate sized wetlands did tend to be more diverse than others. Similarities in species compositions were highest among environmentally similar wetlands, and assemblage structure differed substantially between different types of wetlands. Results of ordination (CCA) and variance partitioning revealed that permanence and degree of shading were the most important factors in structuring assemblages. Our findings imply that high diversity of the diving beetles depends on the number of wetland types represented in a landscape. It is possible to achieve high diversity in a small area by combining permanent and temporary wetlands, as well as many age and successional stages, located in wooded and open environments.
Lightning Performance of Transmission Lines: Requirements of Tower-Footing Electrodes Consisting of Long Counterpoise Wires

This paper addresses the requirements of tower-footing electrodes for ensuring improved lightning performance of transmission lines. The response of typical arrangements of electrodes subjected to lightning currents is simulated using an electromagnetic model and their influent parameters are calculated. Simple expressions are provided for their estimation. Lightning overvoltages across insulators due to direct strikes to real lines are determined, and backflashover occurrence is assessed using the Disruptive Effect model. Concise representations of tower-footing electrodes are tested. Two original results ensued: 1) the ascertainment that the effective length of counterpoise wires is longer than that of horizontal and four-star electrodes and 2) the finding that using the impulse impedance for a concise representation of tower-footing electrodes in the assessment of the lightning performance of lines yields practically the same result obtained under their physical representation.
Sixty and Still Growing

Music education programs, priorities, and methods for older adults should be decidedly different from programs developed for school-aged students. The interests, abilities, and life experiences of older adults are distinct from the wants and needs of children. Additionally, formal music education programs presented in an environment meant for children may embarrass the older adult, who may consequently avoid participating in such programs. Fundamental to the development of any music program is the necessity, for identifying characteristics of the target population. Attributes of life-span development, humanistic aspects of aging with a positive self-concept, and psycho-social expectations for older adults are all relevant to developing a philosophical foundation for a music education program for older adults.
A new candidate mutation, G1629R, in a patient with type 2A von Willebrand's disease: basic mechanisms and clinical implications.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Type 2A von Willebrand's disease (VWD) refers to disease variants with decreased platelet-dependent function of von Willebrand factor (VWF) associated with the absence of high molecular weight (HMW) multimers. The candidate G1629R mutation, identified in an Italian patient with type 2A VWD, was expressed to confirm the relationship between phenotype and genotype. DESIGN AND METHODS Plasma samples from the patient were studied after DDAVP or FVIII/VWF concentrate injections. Furthermore, an expression vector carrying the G1629R mutation was constructed by site-directed mutagenesis and transiently expressed in Cos-7 cells. The characteristics of the corresponding recombinant protein were analyzed. RESULTS After 1-deamino-8-D-argine vasopressin (DDAVP) infusion, factor VIII and VWF activities increased and HMW VWF multimers were transiently observed in the patient's plasma. VWF activity increased only after administration of a dual FVIII/VWF concentrate. ADAMTS-13 activity did not change significantly before or after the therapies. Secretion, in culture medium, of the corresponding mutated protein (R1629-rVWF) was slightly decreased and this rVWF contained intermediate and HMW multimers. Furthermore, binding of R1629-rVWF to platelet GPIb was moderately reduced compared to that of the wild-type rVWF. INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS Based on the DDAVP and in vitro expression results, we classified the G1629R mutation in group 2 type 2A mutations. Our findings could explain why DDAVP may only be partially effective and suggest that FVIII/VWF concentrates should be used in cases of prolonged mucosal bleeding and major surgery when functional VWF is required.