Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Regressor Free Adaptive Backstepping Design of Flexible Joint Robot Based on Function Approximation Technique

In this paper a function approximation technique is proposed for adaptive back stepping design of a flexible¡Vjoint robot manipulator. The dynamics of the robot manipulator are derived with the assumption that all matrices in this robot model are unknown. Since these matrices are time varying and their variation bounds are not given, traditional adaptive or robust control schemes cannot be applied. The function approximation technique is employed here to represent uncertainties in some finite linear combinations of the orthogonal basis. Using the Lyapunov stability theory, a set of update law is derived to give closed loop stability with proper tracking performance. A two-link flexible-joint robot is used in the computer simulation to verify validity and effectiveness of the proposed control law.
Analytical Design of Microstrip Short-Circuit Terminated Stepped-Impedance Resonator Dual-Band Filters

This paper proposes an analytical method to design a dual-band Alter using the short-circuit terminated half-wavelength stepped-impedance resonator (SIR). The SIR has an advantage to easily control the first and second resonances by adjusting its structural parameters. In the proposed method, the structural parameters of the SIR are obtained analytically according to the two passband center frequencies and bandwidths of the filter. As a result, the achievable specifications of the dual-band filter can be rapidly determined. The coupling between adjacent SIRs is realized by a short-circuited stub, which is characterized as a K-inverter network. The dual-frequency transformer incorporated with the tapped-line input/output structure is used for the external coupling. Applying the analytical equations in the design process, a dual-band filter can be easily and quickly realized. More importantly, compared to the published dual-band filters, the proposed method is easier to design, especially for a relatively high-order dual-band filter. Two fourth-order and one sixth-order dual-band filters are designed and fabricated to demonstrate the proposed method.
Thermal properties and physicochemical behavior in aqueous solution of pyrene-labeled poly(ethylene glycol)-polylactide conjugate

A fluorescence-labeled bioresorbable polymer was prepared by a coupling reaction of poly(ethylene glycol)-polylactide (PEG-PLA) with carboxyl pyrene, using N,N’-diisopropylcarbodiimide/1-hydroxy-7-azabenzotriazole (DIC/HOAt) as a coupling agent and 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP) as a catalyst. The obtained copolymer, termed PEG-PLA-pyrene, was characterized using various analytical techniques, such as gel permeation chromatography (GPC), matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR), infrared spectroscopy (IR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), to identify the molecular structure and to monitor the thermal property changes before and after the reaction. The presence of a pyrene moiety at the end of polylactide (PLA) did not alter the crystallization ability of the poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) blocks, indicating that the conjugate preserved the inherent thermal properties of PEG-PLA. However, the presence of PEG-PLA blocks strongly reduced the melting of pyrene, indicating that the thermal characteristics were sensitive to PEG-PLA incorporation. Regarding the physicochemical behavior in aqueous solution, a higher concentration of PEG-PLA-pyrene resulted in a higher ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorbance and fluorescence emission intensity. This is of great interest for the use of this conjugate as a fluorescence probe to study the in vivo distribution as well as the internalization and intracellular localization of polymeric micelles.
The security field: Forming and expanding a Bourdieusian criminology

Recent scholarly contributions have sought to integrate Bourdieusian sociology with criminology, centring for example, on the ‘street’ field as a symbolic and narrative space occupied by players within criminal justice. This article complements this broad objective by focusing on the changes in contemporary police and security governance that are pointing towards an emerging security field. Such a change can be read from the literature on plural policing and crime control, and involves the morphology of policing into nodes or assemblages of security producers. While there has been some attention to the formation of security networks, further empirical work is required to map the field dynamics using a Bourdieusian toolkit. This article explores the concept of the security field, presents some observations from current field research and identifies some remaining questions and challenges for further conceptualization and empirical research.
Touching is Believing : Sensing and Analyzing Touch Information with GelSight by

For robots to perform advanced manipulation in a world of unknowns, touch is a critical source of information, and a high-quality tactile sensor is essential. However, existing tactile sensors generally are low-resolution and/or non-compliant, making it difficult to capture detailed contact information for manipulation that humans are very good at. GelSight was first developed a few years ago to capture micro-scale surface topography and converts pressure patterns to images, making it promising for highquality tactile sensing. However, the original devices were big, relatively slow, and expensive for robotic applications. In this work, we developed a new tactile sensor based on GelSight, which we call fingertip GelSight sensor, that is much more compact, faster and less expensive. Despite that, the fingertip sensor has high resolution, on the order of tens of microns, high compliance and high sensitivity. We demonstrated its unparalleled capabilities as a new-generation robotic fingertip for manipulation, in terms of localization and manipulation of small parts, normal and shear force estimation, and slip detection, as well as for material recognition, in terms of 3D surface texture classification. With image processing and machine learning techniques applied on the tactile images obtained, the fingertip GelSight sensor opens many possibilities for robotic manipulation that would otherwise be difficult to perform. Thesis Supervisor: Edward Adelson Title: Professor
Expander code: A scalable erasure-resilient code to keep up with data growth in distributed storage

To ensure high reliability and storage efficiency, erasure codes are preferred in storage systems. With the prevalent of distributed storage systems such as clouds storage, how to design a scalable and efficient erasure-resilient code is challenging. We propose a scalable binary linear code to keep up with data growth which has the following properties. Given the group size k and the code block length n, the proposed code corrects any two bit erasures among the n bits. The redundancy overhead of the code is 2/(k + 2), and each data bit affects exactly 2 parity bits. As results of these properties, if a data bit is changed or added, only two parity bits need to be updated; and the recovery of an erasured bit requires accessing at most k other bits and the recovery of two erasured bits requires at most 2k other bits. We give the construction algorithm by the order expansion of regular graphs; moreover, we optimize the failure resilience during the construction procedure. Compared with existing codes, our proposed code has notable benefits in storage scalability, redundancy overhead and I/O bandwidth. The deployment of the proposed code in distributed storage systems can be simple and practical.
Characterization of synthetic hydroxyproline-rich proteoglycans with AGP- and extensin- motifs in Arabidopsis

Abbreviations. AGP, arabinogalactan protein; EGFP, enhanced green fluorescent protein; GPI, glycosylphosphatidylinositol; GAGP, gum arabic glycoprotein; GT, glycosyltransferase; HRGP, hydroxyproline rich-glycoprotein; LeAGP1, arabinogalactan protein 1 from tomato; Lys, lysine rich domain; P4H, prolyl-4-hydroxylase; (SP), serine-proline repeat; (VP), valine-proline repeats; (TP), threonine-proline repeats; (SPPP), serine-proline-proline-proline repeats; (SPPPP), serineproline-proline-proline-proline repeats; (YK), extensin of P3 type; SynGM, glycomodule expressed via synthetic genes; ss , LeAGP1 signal sequence; ss, extensin signal sequence from tobacco. Plant Physiology Preview. Published on August 25, 2006, as DOI:10.1104/pp.106. 084244
Patterns in wireless phone estimation data from a cross-sectional survey: what are the implications for epidemiology?

Objective Self-reported recall data are often used in wireless phone epidemiological studies, which in turn are used to indicate relative risk of health outcomes from extended radiofrequency exposure. We sought to explain features commonly observed in wireless phone recall data and to improve analytical procedures. Setting Wellington Region, New Zealand. Participants Each of the 16 schools selected a year 7 and/or 8 class to participate, providing a representative regional sample based on socioeconomic school ratings, school type and urban/rural balance. There was an 85% participation rate (N=373). Main outcome measures Planned: the distribution of participants’ estimated extent of SMS-texting and cordless phone calls, and the extent of rounding to a final zero or five within the full set of recall data and within each order of magnitude. Unplanned: the distribution of the leading digits of these raw data, compared with that of billed data in each order of magnitude. Results The nature and extent of number-rounding, and the distribution of data across each order in recall data indicated a logarithmic (ratio-based) mental process for assigning values. Responses became less specific as the leading-digit increased from 1 to 9, and 69% of responses for weekly texts sent were rounded by participants to a single non-zero digit (eg, 2, 20 and 200). Conclusions Adolescents’ estimation of their cellphone use indicated that it was performed on a mental logarithmic scale. This is the first time this phenomenon has been observed in the estimation of recalled, as opposed to observed, numerical quantities. Our findings provide empirical justification for log-transforming data for analysis. We recommend the use of the geometric rather than arithmetic mean when a recalled numerical range is provided. A point of calibration may improve recall.
Immigration and the Meaning of United States Citizenship: Whiteness and Assimilation

At the outset of the twenty-first century, United States immigration policy has become one of the most pressing issues of our time. In recent years, we have witnessed, among other things, calls for dramatically restricting immigration in light of an alleged threat to American national identity, increased border enforcement associated with thousands of deaths on the United States/Mexico border, vigilante activity, special immigration procedures enacted for the "War on Terror," and mass marches protesting draconian immigration reform in cities across the United States. Against this background, this essay seeks to explore what immigration and the various issues it raises have to tell us about the meaning of United States citizenship today.One of the most fundamental connections between immigration and citizenship is that immigration policy and debate tells us who is desirable or worthy to be a United States citizen. For much of our nation's history, immigration law required that one be a white person in order to become an American citizen. Current debates over whether to curtail immigration of Mexicans and other Latinos now raise the prospect that whiteness will again become a de facto prerequisite for United States citizenship. This essay argues that one should reject this racialized approach to immigration law and policy in favor of an immigration policy that reflects an ideal of multiculturalism.
Novel Strategies for Upstream and Downstream Processing of Tannin Acyl Hydrolase

Tannin acyl hydrolase also referred as tannase is an enzyme with important applications in several science and technology fields. Due to its hydrolytic and synthetic properties, tannase could be used to reduce the negative effects of tannins in beverages, food, feed, and tannery effluents, for the production of gallic acid from tannin-rich materials, the elucidation of tannin structure, and the synthesis of gallic acid esters in nonaqueous media. However, industrial applications of tannase are still very limited due to its high production cost. Thus, there is a growing interest in the production, recovery, and purification of this enzyme. Recently, there have been published a number of papers on the improvement of upstream and downstream processing of the enzyme. These papers dealt with the search for new tannase producing microorganisms, the application of novel fermentation systems, optimization of culture conditions, the production of the enzyme by recombinant microorganism, and the design of efficient protocols for tannase recovery and purification. The present work reviews the state of the art of basic and biotechnological aspects of tannin acyl hydrolase, focusing on the recent advances in the upstream and downstream processing of the enzyme.
Equilibrio de reputación y credibilidad: Una modelación simple

En este texto se expone con detalle y motivación didácticos el núcleo argumental del concepto de “equilibrio de reputación”, que constituye una de las soluciones al problema de la inconsistencia dinámica (López y Téllez, 2006). Se pretende atender motivaciones de divulgación de este importante campo de estudio. En la primera sección se expone lo tocante al núcleo de la familia de modelos Barro-Gordon, en el que el “equilibrio de reputación” es una de las soluciones al problema de inconsistencia. Se realiza especial énfasis en la pertinencia de los detalles técnicos de la modelación presentada, así como del papel que juega en ella la formación racional de expectativas inflacionarias. La sección segunda expone un ejemplo particular con herramientas matemáticas estándar. Esta sección pretende mostrar que los conceptos aquí trabajados no guardan ineludible dependencia con las herramientas analíticas en que son tratados en la literatura convencional, y que, por tanto, pueden ser transmitidos con ejemplos sencillos. Cierran el documento algunas notas finales.
Seedless electroplating on patterned silicon

Nickel thin films have been electrodeposited without the use of an additional seed layer, on highly doped silicon wafers. These substrates conduct sufficiently well to allow deposition using a peripherical electrical contact on the wafer. Films 2 µm thick have been deposited using a nickel sulfamate bath on both n+- and p+-type silicon wafers, where a series of trenches with different widths had been previously etched by plasma etching. A new, reliable and simple procedure based on the removal of the native oxide layer is presented which allows uniform plating of patterned substrates.
A Grid-based Framework for Pervasive Cross-Media Retrieval

Cross-media retrieval is an emerging and interesting research problem, which aims to breakthrough the restriction of modality during retrieval process. One basic challenge for cross-media retrieval is the efficient management and pervasive computing of multimedia content in heterogeneous, dynamic and distributed environment. In this paper, grid technology is introduced for its strongpoint in wide area information sharing and cooperation. Multimedia content is organized in a semantically coherent space. Efficient organization, indexing, and location of dispersed large multimedia content are discussed. Regarding the problem that multi-discipline digital libraries are isolated and dispersed without sufficient interconnection, a grid-based system framework and simulation platform are designed for case study
Evaluating Performance of OLSR Routing Protocol for Multimedia Traffic in MANET Using NS2

MANET is a set of wireless mobile stations which creates a short-term network without any backbone or centralized infrastructure. In today's world, large portion of traffic on the Internet carries TCP traffic due to real-time and non-real time multimedia traffic. Internet traffic has completely different properties than that of CBR (constant bit rate) traffic, which is the most generally evaluated traffic in MANET. In this work, we compared and evaluated performance of four MANET routing protocols under various CBR and TCP traffic patterns in NS2. We found that there is a significant performance differences between various routing protocols due to differences in its internal mechanisms. The performance is evaluated on the basis of metrics like Delivery Rate, End-to-end Delay and Throughput. Finally it is concluded that for CBR traffic, AODV (reactive) protocol performs better than rest of routing protocols while for TCP traffic, OLSR (proactive) protocol performs better that rest of routing protocols. So as far as multimedia/TCP traffic is concerned in MANET which is actually major part of total traffic on internet, OLSR is evaluated as a best routing protocol in all respect and found better suited for transporting TCP traffic.
A racetrack memory based in-memory booth multiplier for cryptography application

Security is an important concern in cloud computing nowadays. RSA is one of the most popular asymmetric encryption algorithms that are widely used in internet based applications for its public key strategy advantage over symmetric encryption algorithms. However, RSA encryption algorithm is very compute intensive, which would affect the speed and power efficiency of the encountered applications. Racetrack Memory (RM) is a newly introduced promising technology in future storage and memory system, which is perfect to be used in memory intensive scenarios because of its high data density. However, novel designs should be applied to exploit the advantages of RM while avoiding the adverse impact of its sequential access mechanism. In this paper, we present an in-memory Booth multiplier based on racetrack memory to alleviate this problem. As the building block of our multiplier, a racetrack memory based adder is proposed, which saves 56.3% power compared with the state-of-the-art magnetic adder. Integrated with the storage element, our proposed multiplier shows great efficiency in area, power and scalability.
Comparison of Mesocorticolimbic Neuronal Responses During Cocaine and Heroin Self-Administration in Freely Moving Rats

To compare neuronal activity within the mesocorticolimbic circuit during the self-administration of cocaine and heroin, multiple-channel single-unit recordings of spike activity within the rat medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and nucleus accumbens (NAc) were obtained during the consecutive self-administration of cocaine and heroin within the same session. The variety of neuronal responses observed before the lever press are termed anticipatory responses, and those observed after the lever press are called post-drug infusion responses. For the total of the 110 mPFC and 111 NAc neurons recorded, 30–50% of neurons, depending on the individual sessions, had no alteration in spike activity in relation to either cocaine or heroin self-administration. Among the neurons exhibiting significant neuronal responses during a self-administration session, only a small portion (16–25%) of neurons responded similarly under both reinforcement conditions; the majority of neurons (75–84%) responded differently to cocaine and heroin self-administration as revealed by variations in both anticipatory and/or post-drug infusion responses. A detailed video analysis of specific movements to obtain the self-administration of both drugs provided evidence against the possibility that locomotive differences contributed to the observed differences in anticipatory responses. The overall mean activity of neurons recorded in mPFC and NAc measured across the duration of the session segment for either cocaine or heroin self-administration also was different for some neurons under the two reinforcement conditions. This study provides direct evidence that, in mPFC and NAc, heterogeneous neuronal circuits mediate cocaine and heroin self-administration and that distinct, but overlapping, subpopulations of neurons in these areas become active during operant responding for different reinforcers.
The Legionnaires' disease bacterium (Legionella pneumophila) inhibits phagosome-lysosome fusion in human monocytes

The interactions between the L. pneumophila phagosome and monocyte lysosomes were investigated by prelabeling the lysosomes with thorium dioxide, an electron-opaque colloidal marker, and by acid phosphatase cytochemistry. Phagosomes containing live L. pneumophila did not fuse with secondary lysosomes at 1 h after entry into monocytes or at 4 or 8 h after entry by which time the ribosome-lined L. pneumophila replicative vacuole had formed. In contrast, the majority of phagosomes containing formalin-killed L. pneumophila, live Streptococcus pneumoniae, and live Escherichia coli had fused with secondary lysosomes by 1 h after entry into monocytes. Erythromycin, a potent inhibitor of bacterial protein synthesis, at a concentration that completely inhibits L. pneumophila intracellular multiplication, had no influence on fusion of L. pneumophila phagosomes with secondary lysosomes. However, coating live L. pneumophila with antibody or with antibody and complement partially overcame the inhibition of fusion. Also activating the monocytes promoted fusion of a small proportion of phagosomes containing live L. pneumophila with secondary lysosomes. Acid phosphatase cytochemistry revealed that phagosomes containing live L. pneumophila did not fuse with either primary or secondary lysosomes. In contrast to phagosomes containing live bacteria, the majority of phagosomes containing formalin-killed L. pneumophila were fused with lysosomes by acid phosphatase cytochemistry. The capacity of L. pneumophila to inhibit phagosome-lysosome fusion may be a critical mechanism by which the bacterium resists monocyte microbicidal effects.
Equalization for fast time varying frequency selective fading channel under class-a impulsive noise

The paper presents an adaptive equalizer for fast frequency selective fading channels under class-A impulsive noise environment. The equalizer is based on the principals of Maximum Likelihood sequence estimator (MLSE) and employs the minimum survivor processing approach to obtain a reliable data. The channel impulse response is expanded onto a set of basis sequences and a time invariant (TI) expansion parameters. The proposed equalizer continuously estimates the time invariant expansion parameters directly within the metric calculation of the Viterbi algorithm (VA). The pegormance of the proposed equalizer is evaluated in terms of the symbol error probability and compared to other equalizers.