Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alternative proofs of four stability properties of rigid-link manipulators under PID position control

SUMMARY This paper presents new proofs of four stability properties (semiglobal strict passivity, semiglobal asymptotic stability, semiglobal input-to-state stability, and semiglobal uniform ultimate boundedness with an arbitrarily reducible ultimate bound) of a rigid-link manipulator under proportional-integral-derivative (PID) position control. The proofs employ a strict Lyapunov function and a novel parameterization to provide four inequality conditions for the stability properties. In those inequalities, arithmetic operations on physical quantities are physically consistent if the joints are all revolute or all prismatic. A gain selection procedure is presented by which the ultimate bounds of velocity error, position error, and its integral can be independently designed.
Activity taxonomy [ATx]: roadmap for the development of interactive systems

In this paper we present the use of an Activity Taxonomy as a Framework for the definition of a roadmap for the development of interactive systems. The roadmap is supported by a set of interrelated elements to capture the information to specify and model an interactive system. Those elements are: Method, Notation and Tool. A case study is presented to show the use of the roadmap proposed.
Peak Energy Clustering and Efficiency in Compact Objects

We study the properties of plasmas containing a low-energy thermal photon component at comoving temperatures of θ ≡ kT′/mec2 ~ 10-5 to 10-2 interacting with an energetic electron component characteristic of, e.g., the dissipation phase of relativistic outflows in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), X-ray flashes, and blazars. We show that for scattering optical depths larger than a few, the balance between Compton and inverse Compton scattering leads to the accumulation of electrons at values of γβ ~ 0.1-0.3. For optical depths larger than ~100, this leads to a peak in the comoving photon spectrum at 1-10 keV that is very weakly dependent on the values of the free parameters. In particular, these results are applicable to the internal shock model of GRBs, as well as to slow dissipation models, e.g., as might be expected from reconnection, if the dissipation occurs at a subphotospheric radii. For GRB bulk Lorentz factors of ~100, this results in observed spectral peaks clustering in the 0.1-1 MeV range, with conversion efficiencies of electrons into photon energy in the BATSE range of ~30%.
P determinants and boundary values

It is shown that a regularized determinant based on Hilbert’s approach (which we call the ‘‘p determinant’’) of a quotient of elliptic operators defined on a manifold with boundary is equal to the ‘‘p determinant’’ of a quotient of pseudodifferential operators. The last ones are entirely expressible in terms of boundary values of solutions of the original differential operators. It is argued that, in the context of quantum field theory, these boundary values also determine the subtractions (i.e., the counterterms) to which this regularization scheme gives rise.
Modification by isolevuglandins, highly reactive γ-ketoaldehydes, deleteriously alters high-density lipoprotein structure and function

Cardiovascular disease risk depends on high-density lipoprotein (HDL) function, not HDL-cholesterol. Isolevuglandins (IsoLGs) are lipid dicarbonyls that react with lysine residues of proteins and phosphatidylethanolamine. IsoLG adducts are elevated in atherosclerosis. The consequences of IsoLG modification of HDL have not been studied. We hypothesized that IsoLG modification of apoA-I deleteriously alters HDL function. We determined the effect of IsoLG on HDL structure–function and whether pentylpyridoxamine (PPM), a dicarbonyl scavenger, can preserve HDL function. IsoLG adducts in HDL derived from patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (n = 10, 233.4 ± 158.3 ng/mg) were found to be significantly higher than in healthy controls (n = 7, 90.1 ± 33.4 pg/mg protein). Further, HDL exposed to myeloperoxidase had elevated IsoLG-lysine adducts (5.7 ng/mg protein) compared with unexposed HDL (0.5 ng/mg protein). Preincubation with PPM reduced IsoLG-lysine adducts by 67%, whereas its inactive analogue pentylpyridoxine did not. The addition of IsoLG produced apoA-I and apoA-II cross-links beginning at 0.3 molar eq of IsoLG/mol of apoA-I (0.3 eq), whereas succinylaldehyde and 4-hydroxynonenal required 10 and 30 eq. IsoLG increased HDL size, generating a subpopulation of 16–23 nm. 1 eq of IsoLG decreased HDL-mediated [3H]cholesterol efflux from macrophages via ABCA1, which corresponded to a decrease in HDL–apoA-I exchange from 47.4% to only 24.8%. This suggests that IsoLG inhibits apoA-I from disassociating from HDL to interact with ABCA1. The addition of 0.3 eq of IsoLG ablated HDL's ability to inhibit LPS-stimulated cytokine expression by macrophages and increased IL-1β expression by 3.5-fold. The structural–functional effects were partially rescued with PPM scavenging.
Self-Checking Gaussian Normal Basis Multiplier over GF(2m) Using Multiplexer Approach

The elliptic curve cryptosystem is very attractive for the use in portable devices due to small key size. the finite field multiplication over GF(2m) is the most important arithmetic for performing the elliptic curve cryptosystem. Design of low cost finite field multiplier for elliptic curve cryptosystem is needed. the proposed self-checking alternating logic (SCAL) GNB multiplier using multiplexer approach is with both concurrent error detection and off-line testing capabilities. the concurrent error detection capability can give countermeasure to fault-based cryptanalysis. the proposed SCAL GNB multiplier using multiplexer approach can save about 18% space complexity as compared to existing similar study.
Relative Merits of Left Ventricular Dyssynchrony, Left Ventricular Lead Position, and Myocardial Scar to Predict Long-Term Survival of Ischemic Heart Failure Patients Undergoing Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy

Background— The relative merits of left ventricular (LV) dyssynchrony, LV lead position, and myocardial scar to predict long-term outcome after cardiac resynchronization therapy remain unknown and were evaluated in the present study. Methods and Results— In 397 ischemic heart failure patients, 2-dimensional speckle tracking imaging was performed, with comprehensive assessment of LV radial dyssynchrony, identification of the segment with latest mechanical activation, and detection of myocardial scar in the segment where the LV lead was positioned. For LV dyssynchrony, a cutoff value of 130 milliseconds was used. Segments with <16.5% radial strain in the region of the LV pacing lead were considered to have extensive myocardial scar (>50% transmurality, validated in a subgroup with contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging). The LV lead position was derived from chest x-ray. Long-term follow-up included all-cause mortality and hospitalizations for heart failure. Mean baseline LV radial dyssynchrony was 133±98 milliseconds. In 271 patients (68%), the LV lead was placed at the latest activated segment (concordant LV lead position), and the mean value of peak radial strain at the targeted segment was 18.9±12.6%. Larger LV radial dyssynchrony at baseline was an independent predictor of superior long-term survival (hazard ratio, 0.995; P=0.001), whereas a discordant LV lead position (hazard ratio, 2.086; P=0.001) and myocardial scar in the segment targeted by the LV lead (hazard ratio, 2.913; P<0.001) were independent predictors of worse outcome. Addition of these 3 parameters yielded incremental prognostic value over the combination of clinical parameters. Conclusions— Baseline LV radial dyssynchrony, discordant LV lead position, and myocardial scar in the region of the LV pacing lead were independent determinants of long-term prognosis in ischemic heart failure patients treated with cardiac resynchronization therapy. Larger baseline LV dyssynchrony predicted superior long-term survival, whereas discordant LV lead position and myocardial scar predicted worse outcome.
On the dispersion of dirty paper coding

This paper studies the second-order asymptotics of the coding rate for a given error probability in the setting of dirty paper coding (Costa, 1983) with an almost-sure power constraint. It is shown that the dispersion is the same as if the state sequence were absent, thus strengthening the analogous capacity result. The result holds under mild technical conditions on the state sequence, and is not limited to the ergodic case.
Casein kinase 2 inhibition impairs spontaneous and oxytocin‐induced contractions in late pregnant mouse uterus

What is the central question of this study? Does the inhibition of the protein kinase casein kinase 2 (CK2) alter the uterine contractility? What is the main finding and its importance? Inhibition of CK2 impaired the spontaneous and oxytocin‐induced contractility in late pregnant mouse uterus. This finding suggests that CK2 is a novel pathway mediating oxytocin‐induced contractility in the uterus and thus opens up the possibility for this class of drugs to be developed as a new class of tocolytics.
An Enriched Environment Ameliorates Oxidative Stress and Olfactory Dysfunction in Parkinson’s Disease with α-Synucleinopathy

Parkinson’s disease (PD) features nonmotor symptoms such as olfactory dysfunction referred to as hyposmia, an initial sign of disease progression. Metabolic dysfunction can contribute to neurodegenerative diseases, and various xenobiotics and endogenous compounds are also involved in the pathogenesis of PD. Although aerobic exercise was found to induce preservation or improvement in olfactory function in PD patients in a recent study, the exact underlying mechanism for this effect is not clear. We aimed to investigate the influence of an enriched environment (EE) on olfactory dysfunction especially via metabolic pathways related to detoxification enzymes. Eight-month-old transgenic (Tg) PD mice that overexpress human A53T α-synuclein (α-syn) were randomly allocated to an EE or standard conditions for 2 mo. The buried food test showed that EE group had significantly improved olfactory function compared to the control group. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and real-time quantitative PCR showed that expression of the detoxification enzymes––cytochrome P450 family 1 subfamily A member 2, paraoxonase 1, alcohol dehydrogenase 1, UDP glucuronosyltransferase family 2 member A1 complex locus, aldehyde oxidase homolog 2, and aldehyde glutathione peroxidase 6––was significantly increased in the olfactory bulb (OB) of the PD control group, but these enzymes were normalized in the EE group. Immunohistochemical staining of the OB showed that oxidative stress and nitrated α-syn were significantly increased in the control group but decreased in the EE group. In conclusion, we suggest that exposure to an EE decreases both oxidative stress and nitrated α-syn, resulting in normalized detoxification enzymes and amelioration of olfactory dysfunction.
Covert contrast in the acquisition of second language phonology

This paper reports results on the acquisition of the English /s/ – /z/ phonemic contrast by native speakers of Spanish. The central finding is that some of the research participants exhibited a covert contrast between these segments in their interlanguage productions. Acoustic analysis revealed that four of the participants produced a statistically reliable distinction between English [s] and [z], however, this difference was not perceived by the transcribers who were phonetically trained, native speakers of English. The existence of a stage of covert contrast in L2 phonology is eminently plausible, given the progressive nature of phonological acquisition, and brings the learning of second-language contrasts into conformity with findings in the areas of L1 acquisition and phonologically disordered speech.
Whisker row deprivation affects the flow of sensory information through rat barrel cortex

Sensory cortical plasticity is usually quantified by changes in evoked firing rate. In this study we quantified plasticity by changes in sensory detection performance using Chernoff information and receiver operating characteristic analysis. We found that whisker deprivation causes a change in information flow within the cortical layers and that layer 5 regular-spiking cells, despite showing only a small potentiation of short-latency input, show the greatest increase in information content for the spared input partly by decreasing their spontaneous activity.
THE HIGGS MASSES AND EXPLICIT CP VIOLATION IN THE GLUINO–AXION MODEL

In this work, we address the phenomenological consequences of explicit CP violation on direct Higgs–boson searches at high energy colliders. Having a restricted parameter space, we concentrate on the recently proposed gluino–axion model, and investigate the CP violation capability of the model subject to the recent experimental data. It is shown that the Higgs masses as well as their CP compositions are quite sensitive to the supersymmetric CP phases. The lightest Higgs is found to be nearly CP even to a good approximation whilst the remaining two heavy scalars do not have definite CP parities.
A synchronized pruning composition algorithm of weighted finite state transducers for large vocabulary speech recognition

The use of weighted finite state transducer (WFST) has been a very attractive approach for large vocabulary continuous speech recognition(LVCSR). Composition is an important operation for combining different levels of WFSTs. However, the general composition algorithm may generate non-coaccessible states, which may require a large amount of memory space, especially for LVCSR applications. The general composition algorithm doesn't remove these non-coaccessible states and related transitions until composition is finished. This paper proposes an improved depth-first composition algorithm, which analyzes the property of each new generated state during the composition and removes almost all of the non-coaccessible states and related transitions timely. As a result, the requirement of memory for WFSTs' composition can be significantly decreased. Experimental results on Chinese Broadcast News(41022 words) task show that a reduction of 20% - 26% in memory space can be achieved with an increase of about 5% in the time complexity.
Human-specific CpG “beacons” identify loci associated with human-specific traits and disease

Regulatory change has long been hypothesized to drive the delineation of the human phenotype from other closely related primates. Here we provide evidence that CpG dinucleotides play a special role in this process. CpGs enable epigenome variability via DNA methylation, and this epigenetic mark functions as a regulatory mechanism. Therefore, species-specific CpGs may influence species-specific regulation. We report non-polymorphic species-specific CpG dinucleotides (termed “CpG beacons”) as a distinct genomic feature associated with CpG island (CGI) evolution, human traits and disease. Using an inter-primate comparison, we identified 21 extreme CpG beacon clusters (≥ 20/kb peaks, empirical p < 1.0 × 10−3) in humans, which include associations with four monogenic developmental and neurological disease related genes (Benjamini-Hochberg corrected p = 6.03 × 10−3). We also demonstrate that beacon-mediated CpG density gain in CGIs correlates with reduced methylation in these species in orthologous CGIs over time, via human, chimpanzee and macaque MeDIP-seq. Therefore mapping into both the genomic and epigenomic space the identified CpG beacon clusters define points of intersection where a substantial two-way interaction between genetic sequence and epigenetic state has occurred. Taken together, our data support a model for CpG beacons to contribute to CGI evolution from genesis to tissue-specific to constitutively active CGIs.
A question-answeringsystemfor English and Māori

This paper describes Te Kaitito: a system for authoringandqueryingdatabaseinformationin English and Māori. The systemis designedto serve as a general platform for training and resear ch in natural language processing; the topics we are currently focussingon includetheuseof a bidirectionalgrammar in natural language generation; the use of discourse representationtheory (Kamp and Reyle, 1993) as the semanticfoundationfor a text generationsystem, andthe thedevelopment of a syntacticandsemanticmodelof the Māori language.
2 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine against inflammation , cancer , and diseases of the liver

1 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA 2 Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA 3 Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA 4 Bioimaging Science and Technology Group, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA 5 College of Applied Health Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA 6 Medical Imaging Research Laboratory, Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Jllinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA 7 International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan
Emergency response to an anthrax attack

We developed a mathematical model to compare various emergency responses in the event of an airborne anthrax attack. The system consists of an atmospheric dispersion model, an age-dependent dose–response model, a disease progression model, and a set of spatially distributed two-stage queueing systems consisting of antibiotic distribution and hospital care. Our results underscore the need for the extremely aggressive and timely use of oral antibiotics by all asymptomatics in the exposure region, distributed either preattack or by nonprofessionals postattack, and the creation of surge capacity for supportive hospital care via expanded training of nonemergency care workers at the local level and the use of federal and military resources and nationwide medical volunteers. The use of prioritization (based on disease stage and/or age) at both queues, and the development and deployment of modestly rapid and sensitive biosensors, while helpful, produce only second-order improvements.
Goal achievement analysis based on LTL checking and decision tree for improvements of PAIS

Process aware information system (PAIS) is important in the recent business environment. Developments of PAIS need to consider contexts about technical and business elements. They are needed to develop PAIS effectively (e.g. monitoring environment and constructing adequate business process). Process mining is an important method for analyzing a business environment and utilizing PAIS development and improvement. LTL checking is an important method for checking a specific property to be satisfied with business processes, but correctly writing formal language like LTL is difficult. In this paper, we use LTL checking and prediction based on decision-tree learning for checking goal achievement, false detection and oversight detection. It helps writing properly LTL formula for representing the correct goal property. We conducted a case study using a real life log of traffic fine management process in Italy.
Low Dose and Long Term Toxicity of Sodium Arsenite Caused Caspase Dependent Apoptosis Based on Morphology and Biochemical Character

Objective: Although arsenite is toxic it is currently recommended for the treatment of malignancies. In this study the effects of sub-micromolar concentrations of sodium arsenite on the viability, morphology and mechanism of cell death of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMCs) over 21 days was investigated. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, BMCs were extracted in Dulbecco’s Modified Eagles Medium (DMEM) containing 15% of fetal bovine serum (FBS) and expanded till the 3rd passage. The cells were treated with 1, 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100 nM of sodium arsenite for 21 days and the viability of the cells estimated using 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5 diphenyl tetrazolium (MTT) and trypan blue staining. Cells were then treated with the selected dose (25 nM) of sodium arsenite to determine their colony forming ability (CFA) and population doubling number (PDN). Morphology of the cells was studied using florescent dyes, and the integrity of the DNA was investigated using the comet assay and agarose gel electrophoresis. The terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) and the caspase 3 assay were then applied to understand the mechanism of cell death. Data was analyzed using one way ANOVA, Tukey test. Results: A significant reduction of viability, PDN and CFA was found following treatment of BMCs with 25 nM sodium arsenite (p<0.05). Cytoplasm shrinkage and a significant decrease in the diameter of the nuclei were also seen. Comet assay and agarose gel electrophoresis revealed DNA breakage, while positive TUNEL and activated caspase 3 confirmed the apoptosis. Conclusion: A low concentration of sodium arsenite (25 nM) caused reduction of viability due to induction of apoptosis. Therefore, long term exposure to low dose of this chemical may have unwanted effects on BMCs
On selection of spatial-varying regularization parameters in total variation image restoration

In this paper, we consider and study total variation (TV) image restoration. The main aim of this paper is to develop a fast TV image restoration method with an automatic selection of spatial-varying regularization parameter scheme to restore blurred and noisy images. The method exploits the generalized cross-validation (GCV) technique to determine inexpensively how much regularization used in each region of an image and in each restoration step. By updating the regularization parameter in each iteration, the restored image can be obtained. Our experimental results show that the visual quality of restored images by the proposed method is very good even without prior knowledge of the original image. We will demonstrate the proposed method is also very efficient.
Top-K aggregation queries over large networks

Searching and mining large graphs today is critical to a variety of application domains, ranging from personalized recommendation in social networks, to searches for functional associations in biological pathways. In these domains, there is a need to perform aggregation operations on large-scale networks. Unfortunately the existing implementation of aggregation operations on relational databases does not guarantee superior performance in network space, especially when it involves edge traversals and joins of gigantic tables. In this paper, we investigate the neighborhood aggregation queries: Find nodes that have top-k highest aggregate values over their h-hop neighbors. While these basic queries are common in a wide range of search and recommendation tasks, surprisingly they have not been studied systematically. We developed a Local Neighborhood Aggregation framework, called LONA, to answer them efficiently. LONA exploits two properties unique in network space: First, the aggregate value for the neighboring nodes should be similar in most cases; Second, given the distribution of attribute values, it is possible to estimate the upper-bound value of aggregates. These two properties inspire the development of novel pruning techniques, forward pruning using differential index and backward pruning using partial distribution. Empirical results show that LONA could outperform the baseline algorithm up to 10 times in real-life large networks.