Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Positioning multiple mobile robots for geometric pattern formation: An empirical analysis

This paper presents an experimental setup for absolute positioning of multiple mobile robots in an indoor environment using a low cost camera. Localization or positioning of mobile robot in its environment is crucial for deciding its future course of action. In this paper we have proposed to use an overhead camera for positioning multiple mobile robots which are required to act as a team. Also we have tested the efficacy of two existing distributed algorithms for circle formation using a team of five e-puck robots. The first algorithm is mathematically proven with many assumptions about the sensing and motion capabilities of mobile robots which are not feasible in the real world. In the second algorithm the authors have considered explicit inter robot communication and have utilized the distributed solution of a well known algorithm often discussed in distributed computing - the Dinning Philosophers Problem for the robots to synchronize during their activation cycle. The contribution of this paper is twofold i.e., first, a practical low cost, multi-robot positioning system is proposed and second, experimental evaluation of two distributed algorithms for circle formation by a team of mobile robots have been carried out. It is seen that the second algorithm outperforms the first.
BASES BIOLÓGICAS DE LA ESQUIZOFRENIA: ASPECTOS NEUROQUÍMICOS Y NEUROANATÓMICOS

Research on schizophrenia has revealed a number of factors related to its etiology and its clinics: psychological, virological, metabolic, pathological, biochemical, genetic and environmental. Amongst the neurotransmitter systems disorders, dopamine and serotonin dysfunction are the most frequently mentioned in the literature; their interplay with other neurotransmitter substances, such as noradrenaline, GABA and glutamate, and also with some neuropeptides, should provide us a more integrated view of brain function. Neuroanatomical data have revealed ventricular enlargement and diminished frontal and temporal lobe volume in some patients. These findings are concentrated particularly in temporolimbic structures.
Is identifying with a historically victimized group good or bad for your health? Transgenerational post‐traumatic stress and collective victimization

An abundance of evidence suggests that the consequences of collective ingroup victimization can traverse generations, even among group members who are not direct descendants of victims. It nevertheless remains unclear why only some group members experience vicarious victimization. To examine the role of collective identification in the transmission of trauma across generations, we surveyed members of a Jewish community—including descendants of holocaust survivors and others who were not descendants of the holocaust survivors. Among non-descendants, Jewish identification was negatively associated with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In contrast, among descendants, Jewish identification was positively associated with PTSD symptoms. Further, familial willingness to discuss the holocaust mediated the relationship between identification and PTSD symptoms. Additional analyses confirmed that these effects were specific to holocaust-related PTSD symptoms and not general anxiety or depression. These findings suggest that collective identity may both buffer and enhance the effects of collective victimization on mental health. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Relationship of Fluid Overload as Assessed by Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension in Hemodialysis Patients

Background Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is common disease among hemodialysis (HD) patients and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. However, its pathogenesis has not been completely elucidated. We aimed to evaluate the frequency of PAH in HD patients, as well as the relationship between fluid status and PAH. Material/Methods We enrolled 77 HD patients in this study. Multifrequency bioimpedance analysis (BIA) was used to assess fluid status. BIA was performed before and 30 min after the midweek of HD. Overhydration (OH)/extracellular water (ECW)% ratio was used as an indicator of fluid status. Fluid overload was defined as OH/ECW ≥7%. Echocardiographic examinations were performed before and after the HD. Pulmonary arterial hypertension was defined as systolic pulmonary artery pressure at rest (sPAP) higher than 35 mmHg. Results PAH was found in 33.7% of the HD patients. OH/ECW and the frequency of fluid overload were significantly higher in HD patients with PAH than those without PAH, whereas serum albumin and hemoglobin levels were significantly lower. sPAP level was significantly higher in HD patients with fluid overload than in those without fluid overload after hemodialysis session. Furthermore, sPAP, OH/ECW levels, and the frequency of PAH were significantly reduced after HD. We also found a significant positive correlation between sPAP and OH/ECW. Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated fluid overload to be an independent predictor of PAH after HD. Conclusions PAH is prevalent among HD patients. This study demonstrated a strong relationship between fluid overload and PAH in HD patients.
Stable Extended Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 gp41 Coiled Coil as an Effective Target in an Assay for High-Affinity Fusion Inhibitors

ABSTRACT The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gp41 coiled-coil domain is an important target for fusion inhibitors, including the peptide T20, which has been approved as a drug against HIV-1. Research into nonpeptide fusion inhibitors has focused primarily on a hydrophobic pocket located within the coiled coil and has so far yielded compounds with relatively weak fusion inhibitory activity. Here, we describe metal ion-assisted stabilization of an extended 39-residue construct of gp41, which includes residues of the hydrophobic pocket and also of an extended groove N terminal to the hydrophobic pocket. We show that the presence of a metal ion and the high-affinity interaction between the receptor construct and cognate C-peptides result in a simple and highly selective assay for fusion inhibitors that may be used to scan large compound libraries. The long construct presents multiple potential binding sites along the extended coiled-coil groove. We demonstrate the modular use of assay probes to detect whether compounds bind in the hydrophobic pocket or elsewhere along the groove. Rapid detection and quantitation of hits can lead to the discovery of compounds binding to different sites along the groove and provide structure-activity relationship data for optimization. Compounds binding to adjacent sites could be linked to form more potent fusion inhibitors.
La chanson, phénomène social

Yvonne Bernard : Die Chanson als soziale Erscheinung. Auf Grund ihrer standigen Verbreitung, stellt die Chanson eine wichtige « kulturelle » Tatsache dar. Eine ruckschauende Analyse konnte die Frage beantworten, ob die neuen Produktions- und Vertriebsmittel den Inhalt der Chanson verarmt und die Art und Weise, in der sie erlebt wird, verandert haben : solche ubliche Behauptungen sind namlich nicht bewiesen. Jede Typologie wird durch die Manigfaltigkeit und durch die schnelle Ueberholung des Repertoires schwierig gemacht. Der Autor begnugt sich damit, zunachst einmal eine Art Chansons herauszustellen, die er chansons de style nennt und deren Vertrieb er analysiert Schliesslich wird gezeigt, dass auch die Funktionen der Chanson sich verandert haben, indem einige verschwunden sind, wahrend andere sie ersetzt haben.
A Theoretical Model of the Role of Brain Stem Nuclei in Alcohol-Mediated Arrhythmogenesis in Older Adults

Uncertainty about the mechanism of alcohol-mediated arrhythmogenesis and the effect of alcohol use on arrhythmic risk among older adults is an increasing concern in light of population aging and recent reports that moderate alcohol consumption may protect older adults against coronary artery disease. In this review, a theoretical model of the role of brain stem nuclei in alcohol-mediated arrhythmogenesis in older adults is developed. The model is based on the hypothesis that the effects of alcohol on central autonomic pathways of cardiac control may alter the threshold for alcohol-mediated arrhythmogenesis among older adults. Findings from multiple lines of research including cellular, electrophysiological, epidemiological, experimental, and clinical studies in human, animal, and in vitro models were synthesized in developing the model. Suggestions for future research on the topic of alcohol-mediated arrhythmogenesis in older adults are offered.
Personalized energy efficiency program targeting with association rule mining

Finding customers predisposed to energy efficiency (EE) offerings is one of the most challenging elements of EE marketing campaigns. As part of PG&E’s efforts to improve EE targeting, the Data Analytics and Governance (DAG) team is employing data mining methodologies to develop personalized EE product and program recommendations for nonresidential customers. In many industries, similar recommendation systems have proven to be a highly cost effective way of matching customers with product or service offerings and are now widely used by retailers such as Amazon and Walmart, entertainment providers such as Netflix or online advertising companies such as Google. To build such a recommendation system at PG&E, we used association rule mining to discover meaningful relationships between historical adoption of EE products and various customer characteristics such as machine-learnt cooling loads, industry codes, and participation in Peak Day Pricing (PDP). We have discovered about 10,000 statistically significant rules that form the basis for personalized EE recommendations for commercial customers and provide insights into EE adoption patterns.
Pulmonary dysfunction and skeletal muscle changes in horses with RAO.

BACKGROUND Chronic pulmonary diseases (recurrent airway obstruction [RAO]) have been reported to alter skeletal muscle cells in humans. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a potential relationship between pulmonary and muscle variables in horses with a clinical diagnosis of RAO. Muscle biopsies from healthy horses and from horses with RAO were investigated and the relationship between the severity of lung disease and the degree of muscular changes was determined. HYPOTHESIS We hypothesized that chronic pulmonary disease can lead to changes of the skeletal muscle in horses. ANIMALS Fifteen healthy horses (control) and 50 horses with RAO were examined. METHODS In a prospective clinical trial, a complete lung examination was performed in all horses. In all horses, muscle enzyme activity at rest and after exercise and muscle biopsies from the M. gluteus medius were examined. RESULTS None of the horses had clinical or histologic signs of primary or neurogenic myopathies. According to the clinical, endoscopic, and radiographic findings and with a scoring system, the horses with RAO were grouped according to the severity of pulmonary findings (15 horses mild, 24 horses moderate, 11 horses severe RAO). Pathologic changes of the skeletal muscle (fiber atrophy or fiber hypertrophy, myofibrillar degeneration, hyperplasia of mitochondria, and ragged-red-like fibers) were identified in most horses with RAO but in only a few individual control horses. In addition, a marked depletion of muscle glycogen storage was evident in the RAO horses but not in the control group. Other pathologic changes of skeletal muscle such as centralized nuclei and regenerating fibers were rare, but were more frequent in horses with lung diseases than in the control group. The degree of muscle cell changes was also graded with a scoring system and correlated with the severity of pulmonary disease (r= 0.55). CONCLUSION Chronic pulmonary disease in horses is associated with structural changes in skeletal muscle. CLINICAL IMPORTANCE Because chronic pulmonary disease may affect muscles, early and effective therapy may prevent these changes. This finding could be of clinical importance but requires further studies.
Emerson, Eliot, and the Elective System

THIS essay is concerned with the influence of Emerson's views on the extension of the elective system at Harvard during the administration (1869-190o9) of President Charles William Eliot, the commanding figure in American higher education during the nineteenth century. The relationship between Emerson and Eliot has not previously been studied in detail, nor have students of American literature been fully aware of Emerson's importance in the history of American education. Eliot was in some respects a good Emersonian. He called Emerson "the greatest of American thinkers"' and was said to have known Emerson's essays "almost as well as he knew the Bible. "2 It therefore seems important to inquire whether the basic faith which prompted the extension of the elective system at Harvard during the twoscore years of Eliot's presidency may have stemmed partly from his familiarity with Emerson's views on education.
Plant Actin-Depolymerizing Factors Possess Opposing Biochemical Properties Arising from Key Amino Acid Changes throughout Evolution[OPEN]

Plant actin-depolymerizing factors were derived from a common ancestor but have acquired opposing biochemical properties due to N-terminal extensions and conserved amino acid changes during evolution. Functional divergence in paralogs is an important genetic source of evolutionary innovation. Actin-depolymerizing factors (ADFs) are among the most important actin binding proteins and are involved in generating and remodeling actin cytoskeletal architecture via their conserved F-actin severing or depolymerizing activity. In plants, ADFs coevolved with actin, but their biochemical properties are diverse. Unfortunately, the biochemical function of most plant ADFs and the potential mechanisms of their functional divergence remain unclear. Here, in vitro biochemical analyses demonstrated that all 11 ADF genes in Arabidopsis thaliana exhibit opposing biochemical properties. Subclass III ADFs evolved F-actin bundling (B-type) function from conserved F-actin depolymerizing (D-type) function, and subclass I ADFs have enhanced D-type function. By tracking historical mutation sites on ancestral proteins, several fundamental amino acid residues affecting the biochemical functions of these proteins were identified in Arabidopsis and various plants, suggesting that the biochemical divergence of ADFs has been conserved during the evolution of angiosperm plants. Importantly, N-terminal extensions on subclass III ADFs that arose from intron-sliding events are indispensable for the alteration of D-type to B-type function. We conclude that the evolution of these N-terminal extensions and several conserved mutations produced the diverse biochemical functions of plant ADFs from a putative ancestor.
The Improved Correlation Matrix Memory (CMML)

Twenty years ago a paper detailing a novel neural network, called ADAM and that could be directly implemented in hardware RAM, was published in the first conference of this series. Subsequent research based directly/indirectly on this type of RAM-based neural network founded a research group that has produced over 200 research documents. This paper overviews that research and goes on to mathematically define a CMML, a generalised version of a CMM (the component at the heart of ADAM). The CMML can be trained to replicate the exact computational properties of a CMM and so is a plug-and-play replacement to a CMM; whilst a different training algorithm gives it different properties when used in recall.
Methods of Information Geometry (Amari, S. and Nagaoka, H.; 2000) [Book review]

This book presents the state of the art, the current best practices and the innovative techniques of the methods of information geometry. The first half of the book presents a comprehensive introduction to the mathematical foundation of information geometry, including preliminaries from differential geometry, the geometry of manifolds or probability distributions, and the general theory of dual affine connections. The second half describes many applications, such as statistics, linear systems, information theory, quantum mechanics, convex analysis, neural networks, and affine differential geometry. This is a well-written book, original and highly relevant from which to learn methods and results.
Diagnosis of Enzootic Pneumonia in Danish Cattle: Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction Assay for Detection of Bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Naturally and Experimentally Infected Cattle

A reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay was developed for detection of bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV) in lung tissue of naturally and experimentally infected cattle. Primers were selected from the gene coding the F fusion protein, which is relatively conserved among BRSV isolates. The RT-PCR assay was highly specific, it yielded positive reactions only when performed on BRSV-infected cell cultures or tissues. The detection limit of the RT-PCR assay was assessed as 5 TCID50. BRSV was detected in tissues of the respiratory tract and in the tracheobroncheal lymph node of calves euthanized 2–8 days after experimental infection with BRSV, whereas samples of other tissues and samples from mock-infected animals were negative at all time points. Examination of lung samples from 8 different regions of the lungs revealed that although the virus was most often found in the cranioventral lobules, it was frequently present in all lung lobules. Microbiologic examinations of all acute fatal cases of pneumonia (135 animals) in cattle submitted for diagnostic purposes during 1 year revealed that Actinomyces pyogenes (11%),Haemophilus somnus (10%), Pasteurella sp. (7%), and Pasteurella haemolytica (7%) were the most common bacterial agents found in the lungs. BRSV was identified using a conventional antigen enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 23 (17%) animals. The established BRSV-specific RT-PCR assay yielded positive results for the same 23 animals. In addition, 10 animals that were negative with the ELISA were positive with the RT-PCR assay. These results indicates that the RT-PCR assay can be a sensitive, reliable alternative to conventional diagnostic procedures.
Ranging Behaviour of Non-Breeding Eurasian Griffon Vultures Gyps fulvus: A GPS-Telemetry Study

Abstract. Little is known about the spatial ecology and ranging behaviour of vultures in Europe. In this paper we used GPS satellite telemetry to assess home-ranges of eight non-breeding Eurasian Griffon Vultures in Spain, trying to answer the main questions on when (i.e. the time of the day), how far (i.e. hourly and daily distances) and where vultures range (i.e. home-range size). Results indicated that vultures ranged extensively mainly in areas where traditional stock-raising practices and pasturing were still common, also including some vulture restaurants, which were visited occasionally. Eurasian Griffon Vultures concentrated their hourly and daily movements in the middle of the day, when the availability of thermal updrafts was higher, favouring foraging activities. The overall foraging range, calculated as Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP) (7419 km2), or as 95% and 50% kernel contours (4078 km2 and 489 km2, respectively), was higher than those reported in previous studies. The precise knowledge of the ranging behaviour and spatial parameters is particularly important for the conservation of scavenger species inhabiting human-dominated areas where human activities may jeopardize vulture populations in the long term.
Stance-based strike zone shaping and visualization in broadcast baseball video: Providing reference for pitch location positioning

In baseball, the strike zone plays an important role in each pitch. Pitches which pass through the strike zone count as strikes, three of which strike out the batter. Thus, pitchers should acquire mastery of the strike zone. Moreover, the strike zone also provides the reference for positioning the pitch locations, about which sports fans and professionals have an intense interest in compile statistics. This paper presents a stance-based approach for strike zone shaping and visualization in broadcast baseball video. We design efficient and effective algorithms to detect the home plate, contour the batter, locate the features points on the batter contour, and finally outline the strike zone. The experiments show that the proposed framework is able to shape the strike zone fairly well in various broadcast baseball video sequences, needless of manual operation and additional camera setting.
Efficient histogram generation using scattering on GPUs

We present an efficient algorithm to compute image histograms entirely on the GPU. Unlike previous implementations that use a gather approach, we take advantage of scattering data through the vertex shader and of high-precision blending available on modern GPUs. This results in fewer operations executed per pixel and speeds up the computation. Our approach allows us to create histograms with arbitrary numbers of buckets in a single rendering pass, and avoids the need for any communication from the GPU back to the CPU: The histogram stays in GPU memory and is immediately available for further processing. We discuss solutions to dealing with the challenges of implementing our algorithm on GPUs that have limited computational and storage precision. Finally, we provide examples of the kinds of graphics algorithms that benefit from the high performance of our histogram generation approach.
Characterisation of the Permafrost Carbon Pool

The current estimate of the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool in the northern permafrost region of 1672 Petagrams (Pg) C is much larger than previously reported and needs to be incorporated in global soil carbon (C) inventories. The Northern Circumpolar Soil Carbon Database (NCSCD), extended to include the range 0–300 cm, is now available online for wider use by the scientific community. An important future aim is to provide quantitative uncertainty ranges for C pool estimates. Recent studies have greatly improved understanding of the regional patterns, landscape distribution and vertical (soil horizon) partitioning of the permafrost C pool in the upper 3 m of soils. However, the deeper C pools in unconsolidated Quaternary deposits need to be better constrained. A general lability classification of the permafrost C pool should be developed to address potential C release upon thaw. The permafrost C pool and its dynamics are beginning to be incorporated into Earth System models, although key periglacial processes such as thermokarst still need to be properly represented to obtain a better quantification of the full permafrost C feedback on global climate change. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Fluorine (19F) MRS and MRI in biomedicine

Shortly after the introduction of 1H MRI, fluorinated molecules were tested as MR‐detectable tracers or contrast agents. Many fluorinated compounds, which are nontoxic and chemically inert, are now being used in a broad range of biomedical applications, including anesthetics, chemotherapeutic agents, and molecules with high oxygen solubility for respiration and blood substitution. These compounds can be monitored by fluorine (19F) MRI and/or MRS, providing a noninvasive means to interrogate associated functions in biological systems. As a result of the lack of endogenous fluorine in living organisms, 19F MRI of ‘hotspots’ of targeted fluorinated contrast agents has recently opened up new research avenues in molecular and cellular imaging. This includes the specific targeting and imaging of cellular surface epitopes, as well as MRI cell tracking of endogenous macrophages, injected immune cells and stem cell transplants. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.