Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developmental Rate Estimation and Life Table Analysis for Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae)

Abstract Egg and nymphal development were studied under constant temperatures for the newly introduced pest species, Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae). Development was assessed at seven constant temperatures (15–35°C). Development to adult was completed at temperatures between 17 and 33°C, with egg hatch also occurring at 15°C. The relationship between temperature and developmental rate was evaluated using three developmental models. Of the models evaluated, the Briere-1 model was the best fit for the empirical data of egg and total development and for providing accurate values for the temperature threshold. Application of the linear degree-day model estimated 537.63 DD are needed for total development (egg to imaginal ecdysis). An additional 147.65 DD are needed for the preoviposition period of the female. Reproductive parameters were evaluated at 25°C and indicate a median number of 28 eggs per egg mass. Oviposition occurred at 4.32-d intervals, and a female can continue to oviposit throughout its lifespan. H. halys is univoltine in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but if it spreads to warmer climates in the United States, it could have multiple generations per year.
Evolution of Industrial Robots and their Applications

The advancement of industrial robotics has caused robots to become more widespread across various industries ranging from manufacturing to health care. Robots offer speed and accuracy that can't be achieved with human labour. Robots can also reduce operating costs, reduce scrap and are flexible for future changes. Few other manufacturing solutions can reduce waste as well as robots when designed into the system properly. Robotics' capabilities have only increased with time, while costs have continued to fall. Major robot manufacturers are constantly upgrading their robots with increased payload capacity, greater accuracy, increased reach and range of motion, improved speed and acceleration, faster communication with external equipment, better safety features and lower operational costs. Many people believe the misconception that robots have taken away jobs from workers, but that is not necessarily true. Robots have created new jobs for those who were once on production lines with programming. They have pulled employees from repetitive, monotonous jobs and put them in better, more challenging ones. Today robots are user-friendly, intelligent, and affordable. This paper briefly describes robot technology and goes into more depth about where robots are used. A chronology of robotics technology and use of future robots is also given.
Factors influencing well-being in the elderly

One of the aims of research on well-being is to discover the factors that either increase or decrease well-being, in both young and old people. Many factors have been studied in relation to well-being, but only some have been found to be associated with it. These factors are demographic (age, sex, culture, marital status), social (socioeconomic status, having children, religion, social contacts) or are related to personality, life events, health, and activities. However, some of these factors have a stronger association than others. This article gives a brief review of this research with special focus on the elderly.
Weak‐acid preservatives: modelling microbial inhibition and response

Weak‐acid preservatives are widely used to prevent microbial spoilage of acidic foods and beverages. Characteristically, weak‐acid preservatives do not kill micro‐organisms but inhibit growth, causing very extended lag phases. Preservatives are more effective at low pH values where solutions contain increased concentrations of undissociated acids. Inhibition by weak‐acids involves rapid diffusion of undissociated molecules through the plasma membrane; dissociation of these molecules within cells liberates protons, thus acidifying the cytoplasm and preventing growth. By modelling preservative action in yeast, using a thermodynamic and kinetic approach, it was possible to demonstrate that: (i) inhibition depends more on the degree to which individual preservatives are concentrated within cells, rather than on undissociated acid concentration per se; (ii) it is entirely feasible for microbes to pump protons out of the cell during extended lag phase and raise internal pH (pHi), despite further influx of preservatives; (iii) the duration of the lag phase can be predicted from the model, using a Gaussian fit of proton‐pumping H+‐ATPase activity against pHi; (iv) theoretical ATP consumption for proton pumping can be directly correlated with the reduction in cell yield observed in glucose‐limited cultures.
Optimisation numérique pour la robotique et exécution de trajectoires référencées capteurs. (Numerical optimization for robotics and closed-loop trajectory execution)

Le travail presente dans cette these est divise en deux parties. Dans la premiere partie, un modele pour la representation unifiee de problemes d'optimisation numerique est propose. Ce modele permet de definir un probleme d'optimisation independamment de la strategie utilisee pour le resoudre. Cette representation unifiee est particulierement appreciable en robotique ou une solution analytique des problemes est rarement possible. La seconde partie traite de l'execution de mouvements complexes asservis sur un robot humanoide. Lors de la locomotion d'un tel systeme, les glissements des points de contact entrainent une derive qu'il est necessaire de corriger. Nous proposons ici un modele permettant d'asservir une tâche de locomotion sur un capteur externe afin de compenser les erreurs d'execution des mouvements. Un modele est egalement propose permettant de representer des sequences de tâches de locomotion et de manipulation asservies. Enfin, une methodologie pour le developpement d'applications robotiques complexes est etablie. Les strategies proposees dans le cadre de cette these ont ete validees sur la plate-forme experimentale HRP-2.
ACTION TYPES IN STIT SEMANTICS

Abstract Stit semantics grows out of a modal tradition in the logic of action that concentrates on an operator representing the agency of an individual in seeing to it that some state of affairs holds, rather than on the actions the individual performs in doing so. The purpose of this paper is to enrich stit semantics, and especially epistemic stit semantics, by supplementing the overall framework with an explicit treatment of action types. We show how the introduction of these new action types allows us to define a modal operator capturing an epistemic sense of agency, and how this operator can be used to express an epistemic sense of ability.
Gender Issues in Home-Based Businesses

This paper reports on the difference between men and women's motivations for going into business and why they choose to operate their business from home. Reports the views of the operators regarding community attitudes towards home‐based businesses. Data was collected from a self‐administered survey distributed by post, from home‐based business operators in two local government areas in Western Australia. Two focus groups verified the findings of the survey and investigated the home‐based business operator's perceptions of the communities attitude towards them. It was evident that some sections of the community felt that home‐based businesses are extended hobbies and not to be taken seriously. The paper argues that this view ignores the significant financial and social contributions that home‐based businesses make to the economy and society in general and is not a view that is held by home‐based business operators themselves.
Butein Sensitizes Human Hepatoma Cells to TRAIL-Induced Apoptosis via Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase/Sp1–Dependent DR5 Upregulation and NF-κB Inactivation

Tumor necrosis factor–related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) induces cell death in various types of cancer cells but has little or no effect on normal cells. Human hepatoma cells are resistant to TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Although butein is known to mediate anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant activities, little is known about the mechanism of butein in terms of TRAIL-induced apoptosis of human hepatoma cells. In this study, we determined that butein enhances TRAIL-induced apoptosis in hepatoma cells through upregulation of DR5. Luciferase analysis showed that a 5′-flanking region containing four Sp1-binding sites within the DR5 promoter was enhanced by butein (−305/−300). Electrophoretic mobility shift assays and chromatin immunoprecipitation studies were used to analyze the elevation of Sp1 binding to DR5 promoter sites by butein. Point mutations of the Sp1-binding site also attenuated promoter activity. Furthermore, pretreatment of the blocking chimeric antibody and small interfering RNA for DR5 significantly suppressed TRAIL-mediated apoptosis by butein in Hep3B cells. Butein also stimulated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) activation, and the ERK inhibitor PD98059 blocked butein-induced DR5 expression and suppressed binding of Sp1 to the DR5 promoter. Additionally, generation of reactive oxygen species had no effect on cell viability, although pretreatment with N-acetyl-l-cysteine or glutathione inhibited combined treatment-induced reactive oxygen species. Indeed, butein repressed the TRAIL-mediated activation of NF-κB and decreased its transcriptional activity. Our results suggest that butein could sensitize certain human hepatoma cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis through stimulating its death signaling and by repressing the survival function in these cells. Mol Cancer Ther; 9(6); 1583–95. ©2010 AACR.
Implications of glycoprotein VI for theranostics

Summary Glycoprotein VI (GPVI), a membrane glycoprotein solely expressed in platelets and megakaryocytes, plays a critical role in thrombus formation due to collagen/GPVI-mediated platelet activation and adhesion. Recent studies have shown that surface expression of GPVI on circulating platelets is enhanced in acute cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction and ischaemic stroke. Increased GPVI levels are associated with poor clinical outcome and are an early indicator for imminent myocardial infarction in patients with chest pain. The soluble form of the dimeric GPVI fusion protein (sGPVI-Fc) binds with high affinity to collagen and atherosclerotic plaque tissue. Non-invasive imaging studies with radiolabelled sGPVI-Fc show specific binding activity to vascular lesions in vivo. Further, sGPVI-Fc has been developed as a new therapeutic platelet-based strategy for lesion-directed antithrombotic therapy. This review summarises the potential of GPVI for diagnostic and therapeutic options based on novel non-invasive molecular imaging modalities to ameliorate care of patients with cardiovascular diseases.
Growth and obesity through the first 7 y of life in association with levels of maternal glycemia during pregnancy: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND Given the long-term adverse sequelae of childhood obesity, identification of early life factors related to fetal growth and childhood obesity is warranted. Investigation on growth and obesity in early life in association with intrauterine exposure to maternal hyperglycemia, a common metabolic pregnancy complication, is of public health significance and clinical implications. OBJECTIVE We investigated the association of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) concentrations during pregnancy with offspring growth and risk of overweight/obesity through age 7 y, after adjustment for confounders, including maternal prepregnancy obesity status. DESIGN FPG concentrations at 28 gestational weeks (IQR: 22-32 wk) were extracted from medical records for 661 pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes mellitus in the Danish National Birth Cohort (1996-2002). Offspring's ponderal index was derived from birth weight and length; age- and sex-specific body mass index (BMI) z scores at 5 mo, 12 mo, and 7 y were calculated based on WHO reference data. Relations between FPG and offspring growth and obesity were assessed by linear and Poisson regression with robust standard errors, adjusting for maternal prepregnancy BMI and sociodemographic and perinatal factors. RESULTS At birth, maternal FPG during pregnancy was significantly associated with offspring ponderal index (β = 0.46; 95% CI: 0.14, 0.78 per 1-mmol/L increase) and risk of macrosomia (birth weight >4000 g) (RR = 1.21; 95% CI: 1.07, 1.38 per 1-mmol/L increase). At 7 y, higher maternal FPG concentrations were significantly associated with increased BMI z scores (β = 0.20; 95% CI: 0.04, 0.36) and elevated risk of overweight/obesity (RR = 1.21; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.50). Additional adjustment for birth weight and childhood lifestyle factors did not appreciably alter results. No associations were observed at 5 or 12 mo. CONCLUSION Among women with gestational diabetes mellitus, maternal FPG concentrations during pregnancy were significantly and positively associated with offspring birth size and overweight/obesity risk at 7 y, adjusting for maternal prepregnancy BMI.
A novel DOA estimation method in constant beam-width beam space

The noise in constant beam-width beam space is spatially correlative and spectrally color, which affect the performance of broadband beam space high resolution DOA estimator. Based on the analysis of noise property in constant beam-width beam space, a weighted signal-subspace spatial-spectra (WSS) estimator in constant beam-width beam space is proposed in this paper. This method correctly expresses noise subspace using both eigenvalues and eigenvectors of broadband beam space covariance matrix. Thus it overcomes the effect of the beam space noise and improves the performance of broadband beam space MUSIC algorithm. Computer simulation results show that the correctness and efficiency of the new method.
Optimal control goal manifolds for planar nonprehensile throwing

This paper presents a throwing motion planner based on a goal manifold for two-point boundary value problem. The article outlines algorithmic and geometric issues for planar throwing of rigid objects with a nonprehensile end-effector. Special attention is paid to the challenge of controlling a desired 6-dimensional state of the object with a planar 3-DoF robot. Modeling of the contacts is discussed using a state vector of the coupled robot and object dynamics. Robustness against uncertainty due to varying model parameters such as object inertia and friction between the end-effector and the object is investigated. An approach for obtaining manifolds of terminal constraints from the goal configuration is described. Classification of these constraints is given. Finally, feasible trajectory generation conditions for successful execution of the generated optimal controls are discussed.
Student Mobility and Internationalization: Trends and Tribulations

There is no question that internationalization, and particularly international student mobility, has transformed the higher education landscape in the last decade. It has brought diverse benefits to students, institutions, communities and countries. But there are unanticipated outcomes and risks as well. The purpose of this article is look at the complexities and current trends of student mobility and to invite reflection on some of the new developments and unintended consequences. These include granting and recognition of academic credentials; diploma and accreditation mills; collaborative programs such as joint or double degree programs and twinning and franchise arrangements; the great brain race and its implications for brain gain, brain drain, and brain train; the competitiveness agenda; status building and world rankings; regional identity and global citizenship. These macro issues often become an implicit part of the culture or environment of international education without being questioned. Focusing on some worrisome trends and outcomes of new developments in student mobility and internationalization does not deny the multitude of positive results; it is only an attempt to encourage a 360–degree look at the current state of student mobility and to encourage more research and reflection on some important trends and unexpected results.
Helping people to choose for whom to vote. a web information system for the 2009 European elections

We demonstrate a web information system created for the European elections in June 2009. Based on their speeches in the EU parliament and their written questions, we created language models for each of the 736 members of the EU parliament. These language models were used to search for politicians responsible for a given topic, similar to expert search applications. Users prefer to see some kind of evidence for returning a hit after a search. We created a profile of each EU parlementarian by comparing her personal language model to the language model created from all EU parlementarians. The top 50 words best separating the individual from the avarage were shown as a wordcloud. These top 50 words and their scores were derived from a parsimonious language model.
Population-Based Surveillance for Acute Liver Failure

OBJECTIVES:Most U.S. studies of acute liver failure (ALF) patients have been conducted at tertiary care liver transplantation centers. The aim of this study was to conduct population-based surveillance for ALF.METHODS:We conducted population-based surveillance for ALF within the 8 counties comprising Metropolitan Atlanta between November 2000 and October 2004. ALF cases were defined as the presence of coagulopathy, any grade of hepatic encephalopathy within 26 wk of illness onset, and no history of underlying liver disease. A questionnaire was administered and medical records were reviewed to determine clinical features, etiologies, and outcomes.RESULTS:A total of 65 cases were enrolled, yielding an annualized incidence for all causes of ALF of 5.5 (95% CI 4.3–7.0) per million. Acetaminophen (APAP)-related ALF was the most common (41%) etiology in adults while ALF of undetermined etiology was most common (38%) in children, followed by APAP-related ALF (25%). Unintentional APAP overdose was the most common type (61%) of APAP-related cause. Blacks were more likely than other races to have ALF of undetermined etiology (32% vs 11%). Overall mortality was 40%, with 27 (42%) surviving with supportive care alone and 8 (12%) requiring orthotopic liver transplantation.CONCLUSIONS:Our population-based study suggests approximately 1,600 ALF cases occur in the United States each year. Consistent with findings from studies conducted exclusively at liver transplantation centers, APAP-related ALF was the most common etiology. Increased awareness of APAP-related ALF in the medical community may limit future cases. More research is warranted into ALF of undetermined etiology, especially in children.
Media Violence

This review of empirical research into the effects of media violence examines what has been learned from evidence and to what extent the evidence can be accepted at face value. This article reexamines debates about different data types, different methodologies, theoretical and explanatory models, directions of effect, and value of aggregated data sets. Limitations and weaknesses are identified in relation to the various methodological approaches and sources of evidence that have been featured in academic discussions and debates about media policy and content regulation. Although not dismissing the empirical research on this subject as valueless, this critique advises caution in accepting blanket conclusions about harmful effects of media violence, instead calling for a targeted approach that recognizes that some media consumers may be more susceptible than others to media effects and that media depictions of violence can vary in the risks they represent as potential triggers of unpleasant or harmful reactions among media consumers.
An FFT Twofold Subspace-Based Optimization Method for Solving Electromagnetic Inverse Scattering Problems

A fast Fourier transform (FFT) twofold subspace- based optimization method (TSOM) is proposed to solve electromagnetic inverse scattering problems. As mentioned in the original TSOM (Y. Zhong, et al, Inverse Probl., vol. 25, p. 085003, 2009), one is able to efficiently obtain a meaningful coarse result by constraining the induced current to a lower-dimensional subspace during the optimization, and use this result as the initial guess of the optimization with higher-dimensional current subspace. Instead of using the singular vectors to construct the current subspace as in the original TSOM, in this paper, we use discrete Fourier bases to construct a current subspace that is a good approximation to the original current subspace spanned by singular vectors. Such an approximation avoids the computationally burdensome singular value decomposition and uses the FFT to accomplish the construction of the induced current, which reduce the computational complexity and memory demand of the algorithm compared to the original TSOM. By using the new current subspace approximation, the proposed FFT-TSOM inherits the merits of the TSOM, better stability during the inversion and better robustness against noise compared to the SOM, and meanwhile has lower computational complexity than the TSOM. Numerical tests in the two-dimensional TM case and the three-dimensional one validate the algorithm.
Finding Stable Extremal Region Boundaries

This paper introduces a novel boundary detection framework finding the most stable region boundaries in grayscale images. In contrast to common detection algorithms as Canny, which only analyze local discontinuities in image brightness our method also integrates mid-level information by analyzing regions that support the local gradient magnitudes. We build a component tree where every node contains a single connected region obtained from thresholding the input image and edges define the spatial relations between the nodes. Then connected nodes at different levels in the tree are compared by a simplified chamfer matching method. Matching regions have boundaries that stay similar over several image intensities, and thus contribute as stable edges to the final result. Since the component tree can be calculated in linear time and chamfer matching between nodes in the component tree is reduced to an analysis of the distance transformation, results are obtained in a very efficient manner. Furthermore, the proposed detection algorithm automatically labels all identified boundaries during calculation avoiding the required post-processing of connecting and labeling edge responses for usage in a detection framework. We compare our method against standard Canny and the Berkeley edge detector on the ETHZ shape classes and the Weizmann horses dataset, which both demonstrate better performance in reducing clutter.
Stock market prices, 'causality' and efficiency: evidence from the Athens stock exchange

During the last few years there has been growing evidence against the Efficient Market Hypothesis. In this study we investigate the hypothesis using stock prices of common and preferred stocks from the Athens Stock Exchange. In Greece, preferred shares are regarded as part of the equity capital of the Greek companies and they are not considered as part of the borrowed funds. Under the Efficient Market Hypothesis their price behaviour, as far as the speed of adjustment to news is concerned, should be the same. However, our empirical evidence contradicts the above proposition. It seems that in the Greek market there are factors, other than news, which influence the price behaviour of the two categories of stocks.