Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kinematic control and posture optimization of a redundantly actuated quadruped robot

Although legged locomotion for robots has been studied for many years, the research of autonomous wheellegged robotics is much more recent. Robots of this type, also described as hybrid, can take advantage of the energy efficiency of wheeled locomotion while adapting to more difficult terrain with legged locomotion when necessary. The Micro Hydraulic Toolkit (MHT), developed by engineers at Defence R&D Canada - Suffield, is a good example of such a robot. Investigation into control and optimization techniques for MHT leads to a better understanding of hybrid vehicle control for terrestrial exploration and reconnaissance. Control of hybrid robots has been studied by several researchers during the last decade. The methodology applied in this work uses an inverse kinematics algorithm developed previously for a hybrid robot Hylos, and implements an optimization technique to minimize torques occurring at crucial actuators. As well, some added functionality is incorporated into the control method to implement stepping maneuvers. This paper will present the results obtained via co-simulation using Matlab's Simulink and a high-fidelity model of MHT in LMS Virtual Lab.
Modeling Infectious Disease in Mice: Co-Adaptation and the Role of Host-Specific IFNγ Responses

The advantages of the mouse as a model organism in biomedical research are many. The molecular and genetic toolbox developed for the mouse over the last 100 years enables researchers to manipulate and study gene function in vivo almost at will. Time and time again, scientific findings obtained through the use of mouse models have proven to be relevant to human health. The field of immunology in particular has profited tremendously from the powers of the mouse model and much of our knowledge of the workings of the immune system is derived from studies performed in mice. Yet all that glisters is not gold. Researchers have used the mouse extensively as a model organism to study the pathogenesis of human infections and found that it imperfectly recapitulates many aspects of infectious disease as seen in patients. In fact, mice generally appear to be highly resistant to infections with human-specific pathogens like HIV, Plasmodium falciparum, and Shigella flexneri, especially if the pathogen is administered through the natural route of infection. Of course, the inherent resistance of mice to highly adapted human pathogens should not be a surprise: because pathogens co-evolve with and adapt to their preferred host, their successful specialization often renders them highly dependent on their host species [1]. Such host tropism or host restriction limits the usefulness of the mouse as a model for infectious disease research. One approach to overcome the limitations of the mouse model could be to genetically engineer mice that closely resemble humans in all those aspects relevant for host–pathogen interactions. To assess how realistic this ambitious goal may be, we must first understand the underlying molecular causes for host restriction.
Wnt Pathway Activation in Long Term Remnant Rat Model

Progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is characterized by deposition of extracellular matrix. This is an irreversible process that leads to tubulointerstitial fibrosis and finally loss of kidney function. Wnt/β-catenin pathway was reported to be aberrantly activated in the progressive damage associated with chronic organ failure. Extensive renal ablation is an experimental model widely used to gain insight into the mechanisms responsible for the development of CKD, but it was not evaluated for Wnt/β-catenin pathway. This study aimed to elucidate if the rat 5/6 renal mass reduction model (RMR) is a good model for the Wnt/β-catenin activation and possible next modulation. RMR model was evaluated at 12 and 18 weeks after the surgery, when CKD is close to end-stage kidney disease demonstrated by molecular and histological studies. Wnt pathway components were analyzed at mRNA and protein level. Our results demonstrate that Wnt pathway is active by increase of β-catenin at mRNA level and nuclear translocation in tubular epithelium as well as some target genes. These results validate the RMR model for future modulation of Wnt pathway, starting at shorter time after the surgery.
ON THE IMPACT OF THE PRE-IRRADIATION TLDs READOUT ON THEIR POST-IRRADIATION GLOW CURVES

In this work the impact of reading out of the un-irradiated LiF TLDs based on the post irradiation readout was investigated. Four types of LiF detectors were used. The first three TLDs were MTS-N, MTS-6 and MTS-7 which differ only in the percentage abundance of Li 6 and Li 7 isotopes. The present results were discussed and compared with similar LiF (TLD-100, TLD-600 and TLD-700) fabricated by another company. MCP-N LiF dosimeters were also studied and compared with similar detectors of different only in the doping materials. The current results indicated that all of the LiF doped with Mg and Ti detectors were affected dramatically by the pre-irradiation readout process regardless of the fabrication companies. Otherwise, the impact of different doping materials was contradictious. These dramatic changes could be attributed to the occurrence of the nonradiative recombination through the irradiation process which yield high temperature peaks in the glow curve of the investigated LiF: Mg,Ti in contrary to LiF: Mg,Cu,P detectors.
Impact of Nature-based Tourism on Local Livelihoods : Evidence from Keenjhar Lake in Pakistan

Keenjhar lake is one of the most important freshwater lake of Pakistan. The lake has a vital wetland area of great ecological significance and has been recognized as a wetland of international importance under Ramsar Convention. The lake provides numerous goods and services including recreational services for tourists. The main objective of this study is to investigate the contribution of tourism at Keenjhar lake towards the livelihood of local people living in the adjoining areas of the lake. For this study, primary data were collected from 264 households selected by stratified random sampling method. This study applies endogenous dummy variable model to evaluate the impact of households‟ participation in tourism related work on their earnings. Results show that the households who participate in the tourism related work enjoy 7.6 percent higher level of earnings relative to the conditions they would have been in had there been no tourism activities. Furthermore, households‟ productive assets provide 20 percent annual rate of return and are an important source of their earnings and livelihood. Education level of earning members also increases the earnings of the household. This study finds that tourism at Keenjhar lake improves the standard of living of local people by raising their earnings, and that the nature-based tourism can be an effective poverty alleviation strategy. The promotion of tourism will not only provide the earning opportunities for poor local people but it will also raise the revenue from the entrance fee, which can be used for conservation and management of the lake.
Infectious entry pathway of influenza virus in a canine kidney cell line

The entry of fowl plague virus, and avian influenza A virus, into Madin- Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells was examined both biochemically and morphologically. At low multiplicity and 0 degrees C, viruses bound to the cell surface but were not internalized. Binding was not greatly dependent on the pH of the medium and reached an equilibrium level in 60-90 min. Over 90% of the bound viruses were removed by neuraminidase but not by proteases. When cells with prebound virus were warmed to 37 degrees C, part of the virus became resistant to removal b neuraminidase, with a half-time of 10-15 min. After a brief lag period, degraded viral material was released into the medium. The neuraminidase- resistant virus was capable of infecting the cells and probably did so by an intracellular route, since ammonium chloride, a lysosomotropic agent, blocked both the infection and the degradation of viral protein. When the entry process was observed by electron microscopy, viruses were seen bound primarily to microvilli on the cell surface at 0 degrees C and, after warming at 37 degrees C, were endocytosed in coated pits, coated vesicles, and large smooth-surfaced vacuoles. Viruses were also present in smooth-surfaced invaginations and small smooth-surfaced vesicles at both temperatures. At physiological pH, no fusion of the virus with the plasma membrane was observed. When prebound virus was incubated at a pH of 5.5 or below for 1 min at 37 degrees C, fusion was, however, detected by ferritin immunolabeling. t low multiplicity, 90% of the prebound virus became neuraminidase- resistant and was presumably fused after only 30 s at low pH. These experiments suggest that fowl plague virus enters MDCK cells by endocytosis in coated pits and coated vesicles and is transported to the lysosome where the low pH initiates a fusion reaction ultimately resulting in the transfer of the genome into the cytoplasm. The entry pathway of fowl plague virus thus resembles tht earlier described for Semliki Forest virus.
The Influence Of Ethical Leadership On Managerial Performance: Mediating Effects Of Mindfulness And Corporate Social Responsibility

In a continuing world of corporate misdeeds and unscrupulous decision making, much of the management and academic literatures points to the incomplete knowledge of the consequences of ethics leadership. One of the bastions of ethics gatekeeping in the firm is the CFO but remarkably scant information can be found on their perceptions concerning ethics leadership. This study addresses this void by examining mindfulness and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives as new mediating linkages in comprehending the influence of ethics leadership on managerial performance. Findings reveal that ethical leadership is positively associated with CSR initiatives which, in turn, operate to enhance managerial performance. Simultaneously, ethical leadership manifests a significant positive relationship with mindfulness but, surprisingly, there is no corresponding relationship with managerial performance. Instead, mindfulness indirectly influences managerial performance through the intervening effects on CSR initiatives. These findings suggest that firms can acquire better managerial performance by focusing efforts on CSR strategies, bringing cognitive processes of mindfulness to bear on these actions, and grooming ethics leadership. In addition, the results offer researchers new relationships to model in the leadership domain.
A COMBINED FACE RECOGNITION APPROACH BASED ON LPD AND LVP

Face recognition is mainly used to identify the person by comparing the facial features. To extract the facial feature several techniques are used. In this paper a novel local pattern descriptor is used to extract the features. This feature extractor is called local vector pattern (LVP). The LVP used in this paper extract the features in high-order derivative space for face recognition. The LVP is mainly used to reduce the high redundancy and feature length increasing problem. The feature length increasing problem is solved by a comparative space transform. It is used to encode various spatial surrounding relationships between the referenced pixel and its surrounding pixels. The linking of LVPs is compacted to produce more distinctive features and reduce the redundancy problem. The LVP extracts the micro patterns encoded through the pair wise directions of vector by using an effective coding scheme called Comparative Space Transform (CST) for successfully extracting distinctive information. The histogram intersection methods are used for evaluating the similarity between the spatial histograms of two distributions extracted from the LVP and recognize the face image.
Association Between Aneurysm Shoulder Stress and Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Expansion: A Longitudinal Follow-Up Study

Background— Aneurysm expansion rate is an important indicator of the potential risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) rupture. Stress within the AAA wall is also thought to be a trigger for its rupture. However, the association between aneurysm wall stresses and expansion of AAA is unclear. Methods and Results— Forty-four patients with AAAs were included in this longitudinal follow-up study. They were assessed by serial abdominal ultrasonography and computed tomography scans if a critical size was reached or a rapid expansion occurred. Patient-specific 3-dimensional AAA geometries were reconstructed from the follow-up computed tomography images. Structural analysis was performed to calculate the wall stresses of the AAA models at both baseline and final visit. A nonlinear large-strain finite element method was used to compute the wall-stress distribution. The relationship between wall stresses and expansion rate was investigated. Slowly and rapidly expanding aneurysms had comparable baseline maximum diameters (median, 4.35 cm [interquartile range, 4.12 to 5.0 cm] versus 4.6 cm [interquartile range, 4.2 to 5.0 cm]; P=0.32). Rapidly expanding AAAs had significantly higher shoulder stresses than slowly expanding AAAs (median, 300 kPa [interquartile range, 280 to 320 kPa] versus 225 kPa [interquartile range, 211 to 249 kPa]; P=0.0001). A good correlation between shoulder stress at baseline and expansion rate was found (r=0.71; P=0.0001). Conclusion— A higher shoulder stress was found to have an association with a rapidly expanding AAA. Therefore, it may be useful for estimating the expansion of AAAs and improve risk stratification of patients with AAAs.
Evolving Clustering via the Dynamic Data Assigning Assessment Algorithm

Following the idea to search for just one cluster at a time a prototype-based clustering algorithm named dynamic data assigning assessment (DDAA) was recently proposed. It is based on the noise clustering technique and finds single good clusters one by one and at the same time it separates the noise data. In this paper we present the basic idea and executive procedures of evolving variant of DDAA algorithm that are capable to deal with the currently entered system information. The evolving DDAA algorithm assigns every new data point to an already determined good cluster or, alternatively, to the noise cluster. It checks whether the new data collection provides a new good cluster(s) and thus, changes the data structure. The assignment could be done in hard or fuzzy sense
An Energy-Efficient Clustering Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks

Summary In wireless sensors networks (WSNs) the efficient use of the sensors’ energy is a key point to extend the network lifetime and has been the center of attention by many researchers. Clustering formation is an important technique used to reduce the sensor’s energy consumption. However, finding an optimal clustering in WSNs is a NP-Hard problem, thus efficient heuristics are needed to find good clustering in reasonable time. In this work we propose and analyze a Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP) coupled with Path Relinking intensification to obtain near-optimal clustering. We develop a clustering protocol to simulate the clusters formation and data transmission. The good performance of our protocol is compared with the wellknown clustering protocols for WSNs, LEACH and LEACH-C. The comparison results and the statistical analyses reveal that the GRASP algorithm determines better clusters extending the network lifetime.
Solving the Pricing Problem in a Branch-and-Price Algorithm for Graph Coloring Using Zero-Suppressed Binary Decision Diagrams

Branch-and-price algorithms combine a branch-and-bound search with an exponentially-sized LP formulation that must be solved via column generation. Unfortunately, the standard branching rules used in branch-and-bound for integer programming interfere with the structure of the column generation routine; therefore, most such algorithms employ alternate branching rules to circumvent this difficulty. This paper shows how a zero-suppressed binary decision diagram (ZDD) can be used to solve the pricing problem in a branch-and-price algorithm for the graph coloring problem, even in the presence of constraints imposed by branching decisions. This approach facilitates a much more direct solution method, and can improve convergence of the column generation subroutine.
Performance and Reliability Analysis of Cross-Layer Optimizations of NAND Flash Controllers

NAND flash memories are becoming the predominant technology in the implementation of mass storage systems for both embedded and high-performance applications. However, when considering data and code storage in Non-Volatile Memories (NVMs), such as NAND flash memories, reliability and performance become a serious concern for systems designers. Designing NAND flash-based systems based on worst-case scenarios leads to waste of resources in terms of performance, power consumption, and storage capacity. This is clearly in contrast with the request for runtime reconfigurability, adaptivity, and resource optimization in modern computing systems. There is a clear trend toward supporting differentiated access modes in flash memory controllers, each one setting a differentiated tradeoff point in the performance-reliability optimization space. This is supported by the possibility of tuning the NAND flash memory performance, reliability, and power consumption through several tuning knobs such as the flash programming algorithm and the flash error correcting code. However, to successfully exploit these degrees of freedom, it is mandatory to clearly understand the effect that the combined tuning of these parameters has on the full NVM subsystem. This article performs a comprehensive quantitative analysis of the benefits provided by the runtime reconfigurability of an MLC NAND flash controller through the combined effect of an adaptable memory programming circuitry coupled with runtime adaptation of the ECC correction capability. The full NVM subsystem is taken into account, starting from a characterization of the low-level circuitry to the effect of the adaptation on a wide set of realistic benchmarks in order to provide readers a clear view of the benefit this combined adaptation may provide at the system level.
Random excitation by optimized pulse inversion in contrast harmonic imaging

Over the past twenty years, in ultrasound contrast imaging, new physiological information are obtained by the detection of non-linearities generated by the microbubbles. One of the most used techniques is the pulse inversion imaging. The usual command of this system is a fixed-frequency sinus wave. An optimal choice of this command requires the knowledge of the transducer and of the medium to obtain the best contrast-to-tissue ratio. However, these information are experimentally inaccessible. Our goal is to seek the command which maximizes the contrast-to-tissue ratio. Among several noises, we identified the one which maximized the contrast-to-tissue ratio. A new suboptimal control was made from the parameters of a nonlinear autoregressive filter and from suboptimal noise. The contrast-to-tissue ratio was then iteratively optimized by the method of Nelder-Mead which adjusted the filter parameters. The gain compared to the case in which we used at the optimal frequency can reach about 1 dB and 5 dB in comparison to the center frequency of the transducer. By adding a closed loop, the system automatically proposes the optimal command without any a priori knowledge of the system or of the medium explored and without any hypothesis about the shape of the command.
Study on correlation between Diabetes mellitus and Central corneal thickness

Purpose: To find out the correlation between Diabetes mellitus and Central corneal thickness(CCT). Design: Hospital based, Case-Control study. Sampling And Sample Size: A total of 100 patients, 30-70yrs of age, participated in the study, of whom 50 were diabetic and 50 were non-diabetic. Methods: Consenting patients of age 30-70yrs, attending RIMS OPD, who did not have any corneal pathology were divided into two groups – diabetic and non-diabetic. After thorough local and systemic examination, the central corneal thickness was measured using Ultrasound pachymetry. Results: Mean CCT was thicker in diabetic group (574.359μm) when compared to non-diabetic group (557.76μm). The difference between the 2 groups was significant (p=0.000). Mean CCT in diabetic patients was 574.349±7. 8μm. Mean duration of diabetes was 8.478±1.9 yrs. The correlation between CCT and duration of diabetes was not significant (p=0.238). Conclusion: The CCT in diabetic patients was thicker compared to CCT in non–diabetics. Therefore, diabetes can increase the CCT but there is no correlation between duration of diabetes and CCT.
Isolation of Autologous Stromal Vascular Fraction ( SVF ) from Adipose Tissue ( Human Lipoaspirates ) : A Clinical Protocol

The autologous stromal vascular fraction (SVF) isolation from adipose tissue is an alternative to cultured adipose-derived stem cells in the regenerative medicine. However, the bioactivity of autologous SVF is not totally documented under disease conditions in patients. This clinical protocol aimed to describe an easy clinic protocol for SVF isolation from abdominal fat in healthy subjects subjected to liposuction / lipoaspiration; the protocol described all steps for aqueous and fat phases isolation by separation with collagenese (figures 1-3). Our original procedure for SVF isolation is useful for patients in the field of regenerative medicine; The autologous injection could prevent some pathogical conditions and also here illustrate the potential protective/reparative role of SVF in regenerative medicine field in patients.
State estimation and simulation of the magnetic levitation system of a high-speed Maglev train

The magnetic levitation system of a high-speed Maglev train is simplified as a single mass system on a rigid guideway. The motion equations of the electromechanical components are derived with LAGRANGE-Function in state space notation. Because of the instability of the magnetic levitation system the vehicle must be actively controlled. The controller is designed by linear quadratic optimal control strategy. A state observer (KALMAN-Filter) is used to estimate the states which can not be measured or are influenced by noise. For the simulation of the control system the MATLAB/Simulink is used. Simulation results for the time histories of the magnet gap and the vertical acceleration are given for a gap initial condition.
Analysis of tweets in Twitter

Twitter is a microblogging service that commands more than 288 million monthly active users (in 2015) and is growing fast. Twitter users post short messages called tweet about any topic and follow others to receive their tweets. The great amount of data coming from Twitter users is a meaning source of information regarding different aspects of people life. The goal of this paper is to mine such information through the study of the tweets posted in the time interval of one year. The analysis performed on these data allows us to draw meaningful conclusions about the behavior and preference of Twitter users.