Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
3-D Fingertip Touch Force Prediction Using Fingernail Imaging With Automated Calibration

This paper presents an automated routine for calibrating a fingernail imaging system, with the intent of predicting fingerpad forces. The system uses a magnetic levitation haptic device to apply forces to the human fingerpad while recording images of the nail and surrounding skin. A novel force controller is implemented to interact stably with the human fingerpad. The data are used to calibrate a principal component regression model relating pixel intensity to 3-D force. Using data from this automated routine, this model simultaneously predicts 3-D force with an RMS error of 0.56 ± 0.03 N (7.7% of the full range of forces).
Liver enzyme alterations after laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

AIMS We aimed to investigate the alterations in serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma-glutamyl-transferase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in patients who had undergone laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) and compare these changes with those occurring after open cholecystectomy (OC). METHODS Of 267 patients who underwent LC between January 2003 and December 2005, 86 patients without complications were eligible for study. Twenty-six patients who underwent OC during the same interval were also enrolled in the study as a control group. Blood samples were taken preoperatively and 24 hours after operation for biochemical tests. RESULTS Statistical analyses revealed significant increases in AST, ALT, GGT and LDH levels in the LC group postoperatively. Compared with the OC group, the differences between elevations of enzyme levels were also significant for LC group. CONCLUSION We conclude that these enzyme elevations could mostly be attributed to the negative effects of the pneumoperitoneum on the hepatic blood flow. Although these changes do not seem to be clinically important, care should be taken before deciding to perform LC in patients with hepatic insufficiency.
Implementing Customer Reception Service in Robot Cafe using Stream Reasoning and ROS based on PRINTEPS

We have developed PRactical INTElligent aPplicationS (PRINTEPS) which is a platform for developing comprehensive intelligence applications. This paper introduces an application of PRINTEPS for customer reception service in robot cafe by using stream reasoning and Robot Operating System (ROS) based on PRINTEPS, and for integrating image sensing with knowledge processing. Based on this platform, we demonstrate that the behaviors of a robot in a robot cafe can be modified by changing the applicable rule sets.
The transcription factor Glass links eye field specification with photoreceptor differentiation in Drosophila

Eye development requires an evolutionarily conserved group of transcription factors, termed the retinal determination network (RDN). However, little is known about the molecular mechanism by which the RDN instructs cells to differentiate into photoreceptors. We show that photoreceptor cell identity in Drosophila is critically regulated by the transcription factor Glass, which is primarily expressed in photoreceptors and whose role in this process was previously unknown. Glass is both required and sufficient for the expression of phototransduction proteins. Our results demonstrate that the RDN member Sine oculis directly activates glass expression, and that Glass activates the expression of the transcription factors Hazy and Otd. We identified hazy as a direct target of Glass. Induced expression of Hazy in the retina partially rescues the glass mutant phenotype. Together, our results provide a transcriptional link between eye field specification and photoreceptor differentiation in Drosophila, placing Glass at a central position in this developmental process. Summary: The transcription factor Glass functions downstream of Sine oculis to activate the expression of phototransduction proteins via its direct target, Hazy.
Performance Monitoring in Medication-Naïve Children with Tourette Syndrome

Background: Tourette syndrome (TS) is a childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder and its impact on cognitive development needs further study. Evidence from neuropsychological, neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies suggests that the decline in tic severity and the ability to suppress tics relate to the development of self-regulatory functions in late childhood and adolescence. Hence, tasks measuring performance monitoring might provide insight into the regulation of tics in children with TS. Method: Twenty-five children with TS, including 14 with comorbid Attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), 39 children with ADHD and 35 typically developing children aged 8–12 years were tested with a modified Eriksen-Flanker task during a 34-channel electroencephalography (EEG) recording. Task performance, as well as stimulus-locked and response-locked event-related potentials (ERP) were analyzed and compared across groups. Results: Participants did not differ in their behavioral performance. Children with TS showed higher amplitudes of an early P3 component of the stimulus-locked ERPs in ensemble averages and in separate trial outcomes, suggesting heightened orienting and/or attention during stimulus evaluation. In response-locked averages, children with TS had a slightly higher positive complex before the motor response, likely also reflecting a late P3. Groups did not differ in post-response components, particularly in the error-related negativity (ERN) and error-related positivity (Pe). Conclusions: These findings suggest that children with TS may employ additional attentional resources as a compensatory mechanism to maintain equal behavioral performance.
Microspatially modulating hydrophilic/hydrophobic property on glass surface using femtosecond laser direct writing

on glass surface using femtosecond laser direct writing Jian Xu, Mingjie Liu, Katsumi Midorikawa and Koji Sugioka RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, China E-mail: ksugioka@riken.jp Spatial control of hydrophilic/hydrophobic surfaces is of importance in many research fields, such as microfluidics and lab-on-a-chips [1, 2]. Femtosecond (fs) laser micro/nanostructuring has attracted great interest in recent years for wettability modulation on various material surfaces due to its distinct advantages of maskless processing, simple procedure, high precision, and high efficiency [3, 4]. However, few works demonstrated hydrophilic/hydrophobic surface micropatterning of microfluidic substrates such as glass by the fs laser. In this work, we report on creation of hydrophilic micropatterns by fs laser direct writing of hydrophobic glass surfaces. Two types of glass, Foturan and fused silica, are used as host substrates, both of which are chemically modified to hydrophobic surfaces prior to laser irradiation (Fig. 1a). Then, the micropatterned grooves with hydrophilic surfaces are formed due to the fs-laser direct-write ablation [5] (e. g., a square-wave pattern shown in Fig. 1b). The influence of laser direct-write parameters on the linewidths of written patterns is investigated, while results for two different kinds of substrates are compared. By loading liquid mediums such as pure water, dye solutions (Fig. 1c), and nanoparticle solutions onto the one-side end of the created patterns, the solutions can pumplessly flow in laser structured grooves to the other-side end due to the capillary action, which functions a self-flow open microfluidic channel. The applications of this technique to open microfluidics and multifunctional selective metallization are discussed.
The Lancet Commissions

www.thelancet. com Vol 373 May 16, 2009 1693 Anthony Costello, Mustafa Abbas, Adriana Allen, Sarah Ball, Sarah Bell, Richard Bellamy, Sharon Friel, Nora Groce, Anne Johnson, Maria Kett, Maria Lee, Caren Levy, Mark Maslin, David McCoy, Bill McGuire, Hugh Montgomery, David Napier, Christina Pagel, Jinesh Patel, Jose Antonio Puppim de Oliveira, Nanneke Redclift, Hannah Rees, Daniel Rogger, Joanne Scott, Judith Stephenson, John Twigg, Jonathan Wolff, Craig Patterson*
Periventricular Heterotopia: Shuttling of Proteins through Vesicles and Actin in Cortical Development and Disease

During cortical development, proliferating neural progenitors exhibit polarized apical and basolateral membranes that are maintained by tightly controlled and membrane-specific vesicular trafficking pathways. Disruption of polarity through impaired delivery of proteins can alter cell fate decisions and consequent expansion of the progenitor pool, as well as impact the integrity of the neuroependymal lining. Loss of neuroependymal integrity disrupts radial glial scaffolding and alters initial neuronal migration from the ventricular zone. Vesicle trafficking is also required for maintenance of lipid and protein cycling within the leading and trailing edge of migratory neurons, as well as dendrites and synapses of mature neurons. Defects in this transport machinery disrupt neuronal identity, migration, and connectivity and give rise to a malformation of cortical development termed as periventricular heterotopia (PH). PH is characterized by a reduction in brain size, ectopic clusters of neurons localized along the lateral ventricle, and epilepsy and dyslexia. These anatomical anomalies correlate with developmental impairments in neural progenitor proliferation and specification, migration from loss of neuroependymal integrity and neuronal motility, and aberrant neuronal process extension. Genes causal for PH regulate vesicle-mediated endocytosis along an actin cytoskeletal network. This paper explores the role of these dynamic processes in cortical development and disease.
Analysis of Pointing Errors Reveals Properties of Data Representations and Coordinate Transformations Within the Central Nervous System

The execution of a simple pointing task invokes a chain of processing that includes visual acquisition of the target, coordination of multimodal proprioceptive signals, and ultimately the generation of a motor command that will drive the finger to the desired target location. These processes in the sensorimotor chain can be described in terms of internal representations of the target or limb positions and coordinate transformations between different internal reference frames. In this article we first describe how different types of error analysis can be used to identify properties of the internal representations and coordinate transformations within the central nervous system. We then describe a series of experiments in which subjects pointed to remembered 3D visual targets under two lighting conditions (dim light and total darkness) and after two different memory delays (0.5 and 5.0 s) and report results in terms of variable error, constant error, and local distortion. Finally, we present a set of simulations to help explain the patterns of errors produced in this pointing task. These analyses and experiments provide insight into the structure of the underlying sensorimotor processes employed by the central nervous system.
Experiments on distance measures for combining one-class classifiers

The paper investigates the influence of different types of distance measures on the performance of a multiple classifier system consisting of one-class classifiers. This specific type of machine learning approach uses examples only from a single class to derive a decision boundary - hence its is often referred to as learning in the absence of counterexamples. Combining several one-class classifiers is a promising research direction, as it often results in a more precise classification than when using just a single model. Most one-class classifiers base their decision on a distance from an object to the decision boundary, canonically expressed in the Euclidean measure. When combining such predictors it is necessary to map the distance into probability, therefore the measure used has a crucial impact on the classifier fusion. This paper proposes alternative distance measures for one-class classification, which are evaluated through experimental investigations.
Medication recommender system

This article presents the medication recommendation system using semantic web, in which the meaning-based data can be intelligently retrieved. Medication data is stored as MySql database with ontology (Protégé) for medication classification. Website is developed with Dreamweaver and HTML 5.0. PHP is used as database interface with SPARQL for ontological data retrieval. At the time of system evaluation, the users satisfaction was presented at the average of 4.46 (from 5.00 scale) and 0.51 in standard deviation, which means highly satisfied.
A Modified Leader Election Algorithm for MANET

— Distributed systems are the backbone of modern day computing services. A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a collection of mobile nodes that can communicate via message passing over wireless links. Communication takes place directly between nodes which are in transmission range of each other else communication is done through message relay. A MANET is different from existing distributed network because of their concurrent and frequently changing wireless link formation and removal, network partitioning and disconnections, limited bandwidth and energy and highly variable message delay. An election algorithm elects a leader to coordinate and organize a task in distributed systems that includes MANET also. In the case of a leader node departure or failure, nodes detecting the non-availability of the leader initiate a leader election process to select a new leader. This paper presents a comparative analysis of various leader election algorithms and a new leader election algorithm in analytical way which considers factors such as node’s position, time complexity, message complexity, battery life and security.
Self-duality operators on odd dimensional manifolds

In this paper we construct a new elliptic operator associated to any nowhere zero vector (cid:12)eld on an odd-dimensional manifold and study its index theory. It turns out this operator has several geometric applications to conformal vector (cid:12)elds, self-dual vector (cid:12)elds, locally free S 1 -actions and transversal hypersurfaces of these vector (cid:12)elds in an odd-dimensional man- ifold. In particular, we reveal a non-stable phenomena about the existence of conformal vector (cid:12)elds and self-dual vector (cid:12)elds in odd dimensions above 3. This is in sharp contrast to the stable phenomena about the existence of nowhere zero vector (cid:12)elds in odd dimensions. Besides these applications, the index formula of this new operator also gives the formulas for the dimensions of self-duality cohomology groups and for the virtual dimensions of the moduli spaces of anti-self-dual connections on 5-cobordisms, which are introduced in author’s previous papers.
Lectin Typing of Campylobacter concisus

ABSTRACT A total of 44 clinical isolates and the type strain of the putative pathogen Campylobacter concisus were grouped based on their reactions with plant lectins. The optimized lectin typing system used C. concisus strains proteolytically pretreated and subsequently typed by using a panel of four lectins. The system grouped all 45 strains into 13 lectin reaction patterns, leaving no strain untypeable due to autoagglutination. Lectin types were both stable and reproducible.
AIMD, fairness and fractal scaling of TCP traffic

We propose a natural and simple model for the joint throughput evolution of a set of TCP sessions sharing a common tail drop bottleneck router, via products of random matrices. This model allows one to predict the fluctuations of the throughput of each session, as a function of the synchronization rate in the bottleneck router; several other and more refined properties of the protocol are analyzed such as the instantaneous imbalance between sessions, the autocorrelation function or the performance degradation due to synchronization of losses. When aggregating traffic obtained from this model, one obtains, for certain ranges of the parameters, short time scale statistical properties that are consistent with a fractal scaling similar to what was identified on real traces using wavelets.
Cytomegalovirus Seropositivity and C-Reactive Protein Have Independent and Combined Predictive Value for Mortality in Patients With Angiographically Demonstrated Coronary Artery Disease

BackgroundThe role of inflammation in coronary artery disease (CAD) is being increasingly recognized. Markers of inflammation (eg, C-reactive protein [CRP]) and infection (eg, seropositivity to Chlamydia pneumoniae, cytomegalovirus [CMV], and Helicobacter pylori) have been proposed as risk factors for CAD, but these associations require further evaluation. Methods and ResultsWe prospectively tested whether CRP levels and IgG seropositivity to C pneumoniae, CMV, and H pylori are predictors of subsequent mortality in 985 consecutive patients with angiographically demonstrated CAD (stenosis ≥70%). Patients were followed for an average of 2.7 years (range 1.5 to 4.0 years). Patients averaged 65 years of age; 77% were men; and 110 (11.2%) died during follow-up. CRP levels were significantly elevated in nonsurvivors compared with survivors (mean CRP 3.1 mg/dL versus 1.5 mg/dL, P =0.003). After controlling for all known baseline variables, the 2nd and 3rd tertiles of CRP compared with the 1st produced a Cox hazard ratio (HR) for mortality of 2.4 (P =0.001). Of the 3 infectious markers tested, only seropositivity to CMV (HR=1.9, P <0.05) was predictive of mortality. The majority of mortality risk associated with elevated CRP or CMV seropositivity occurred when both risk factors were present (P for trend <0.0001). Other independent predictors of increased risk of mortality were age (HR=1.07 per year, P <0.0001), left ventricular ejection fraction (HR=0.97 per percent, P <0.0001), and diabetes mellitus (HR=1.7, P =0.02). ConclusionsCMV seropositivity and elevated CRP, especially when in combination, are strong, independent predictors of mortality in patients with CAD. This suggests an interesting hypothesis that a chronic, smoldering infection (CMV) might have the capacity to accelerate the atherothrombotic process.
Orientation data correction with georeferenced mobile videos

Similar to positioning data, camera orientation information has become a powerful contextual feature utilized by a number of GIS and social media applications. Such auxiliary information facilitates higher-level semantic analysis and management of video assets in such applications, e.g., video summarization and video indexing systems. However, it is problematic that raw sensor data collected from current mobile devices is often not accurate enough for subsequent geospatial analysis. To date, an effective orientation data correction system for mobile video content has been lacking. Here we present a content-based approach that improves the accuracy of noisy orientation sensor measurements generated by mobile devices in conjunction with video acquisition. Our preliminary experimental results demonstrate significant accuracy enhancements which benefit upstream sensor-aided GIS applications to access video content more precisely.
Internal Structure Features of Asphalt Mixture for Field Samples

Asphalt mixture is heterogeneous in nature; consequently, macroscopic parameters alone cannot describe the mechanical behavior of the mixture. In recent years, the arrangement of the aggregate particles in terms of spatial and directional distributions, and contact points are contemplated as the internal structure of asphalt. The main purpose of this article is to examine the microstructural characteristics of asphalt cores applying 2-D images. Comparison between the internal structure features in the laboratory samples and the Field samples is indicated in this paper. The results reveal that the survey of microstructural characteristics of asphalt cores by image processing provides new and functional information. This finding indicates that the number of contact points in cores is close to the lab samples that have been made at 45 to 65 blows on each end of the sample.
Verticillium longisporum Infection Affects the Leaf Apoplastic Proteome, Metabolome, and Cell Wall Properties in Arabidopsis thaliana

Verticillium longisporum (VL) is one of the most devastating diseases in important oil crops from the family of Brassicaceae. The fungus resides for much time of its life cycle in the extracellular fluid of the vascular system, where it cannot be controlled by conventional fungicides. To obtain insights into the biology of VL-plant interaction in the apoplast, the secretome consisting of the extracellular proteome and metabolome as well as cell wall properties were studied in the model Brassicaceae, Arabidopsis thaliana. VL infection resulted in increased production of cell wall material with an altered composition of carbohydrate polymers and increased lignification. The abundance of several hundred soluble metabolites changed in the apoplast of VL-infected plants including signalling and defence compounds such as glycosides of salicylic acid, lignans and dihydroxybenzoic acid as well as oxylipins. The extracellular proteome of healthy leaves was enriched in antifungal proteins. VL caused specific increases in six apoplast proteins (three peroxidases PRX52, PRX34, P37, serine carboxypeptidase SCPL20, α-galactosidase AGAL2 and a germin-like protein GLP3), which have functions in defence and cell wall modification. The abundance of a lectin-like, chitin-inducible protein (CILLP) was reduced. Since the transcript levels of most of the induced proteins were not elevated until late infection time points (>20 dpi), whereas those of CILLP and GLP3 were reduced at earlier time points, our results may suggest that VL enhances its virulence by rapid down-regulation and delay of induction of plant defence genes.
DATA MINING OVER GRAPHICAL RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS WITH DOMAIN SEMANTICS

The results of experiments in science and engineering are often represented graphically since graphs serve as good visual tools for analysis. Performing an experiment in a laboratory consumes time and resources. This motivates the need to support automated predictions of experimental results (graphs) from existing data. A technique ”AutoDomainMineTM” is proposed with the goal of estimating graphical results in an experiment given its input conditions. Existing experimental data is stored in a database forming the base cases. These can be used for estimation with an approach such as similarity searching. Naive similarity searching does not achieve sufficient estimation accuracy due to lack of domain knowledge. AutoDomainMineTM proposes a data mining approach of clustering graphs of existing experiments and using classification to learn the clustering criteria, i.e., input conditions characterizing each cluster. This represents domain knowledge useful for categorizing new cases and hence estimating their results. This approach achieves significantly high accuracy in estimation. Clustering over graphs such as curves is a challenge since clustering techniques are originally developed for points. Issues such as mapping curves to points, preserving domain semantics and dimensionality reduction with minimal information loss must be resolved. AutoDomainMineTM and its associated challenges are discussed in this paper.