Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In-hand object localization: Simple vs. complex tactile sensors

How good is a tactile sensor for tactile exploration and in-hand object localization? In this paper we propose two methods that address this question. The first approach evaluates the usefulness of tactile data from different sensors by means of a Particle Filter Localization algorithm. The second approach, using an Iterative Closed Point algorithm, evaluates the synergy of tactile sensors and the geometry of robotic hands.We prove, using both approaches as a novelty, that the sensor complexity does not affect the localization performance drastically. In particular, we demonstrate that it is possible to obtain similar performance with a simple fingertip sensor, designed by us, than with more complex tactile sensors. A comparison, based on simulated data for an ideal sensor and experimental data for another three sensors, corroborates our proposal, showing the potential of our fingertip force sensor for tactile exploration and in-hand localization.
The Commodity Flow of U.S. Children's Television

This article argues that commodity flow is a defining characteristic of children's television programming, and that this flow of commodity and corporate-brand images builds into the genre a relatively coherent selling ethos. Three-hour blocks of programming, recorded on two different Saturday mornings for several broadcast and cable networks, were analyzed to highlight commodity flow within and between networks. This flow of commodities on children's television indicates a blurring of the distinction between content and promotional forms and illustrates the high level of commercialism targeted at this audience.
Ion and Droplet Mass Measurements of an Electrospray Emitter using an ExB Filter

Ion and droplet mass-to-charge measurements of electrospray from a single emitter tip were taken using an ExB type filter. The propellant used was the ionic liquid 1- Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (EMI-BF4), which has three distinct anion species, BF4 - , (EMI + ) (BF4 - )2, (EMI + )2 (BF4 - )3 during electrospray operation. Theoretical calculations show that the ExB filter would be able to resolve three anion species and the coincidently extracted droplets during a voltage sweep of the electrodes. The results from the experiment show peaks corresponding with the theoretical values of 87, 287, and 485 amu/e for the three BF4 anion species, respectively, within experimental error. A broad peak was also observed at 6258 amu/e with a width of 6487 amu/e that corresponded to the range expected for droplets emitted at varying charge. Varying systematic errors were observed during the experiment, but remained consistent within a given test. Therefore, calibration factors based on the difference in the measured and theoretical potential on the ExB deflection electrodes for a given mass-to-charge ratio was determined for each test, which reduce the disagreement to within ±3% of the theoretical values. Proportional trend between the magnitude of the current peaks and the flow rate of the supplied EMI-BF4, and the magnitude of the current peaks and the extraction voltage were also observed. Based on the number of peaks observed during operation at various flow rates, it was also found that the electrospray was operating in both the pure ion and ion-droplet regimes.
Biofouling on the Walls of a Spent Nuclear Fuel Pool with Radioactive Ultrapure Water

Microbial activity in spent nuclear fuel pools which contain ultrapure and radioactive water has been previously observed. The aim of the present research was to isolate and identify the microorganisms attached to the nuclear pool wall of a Spanish nuclear power plant. Amplification of 16S rDNA fragments from the culturable microorganisms by PCR using universal primers for the domain ‘Bacteria’, followed by Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis analysis revealed the presence of six different bacteria. The complete gene for 16S rDNA of each one was sequenced and identified as belonging to three different phylogenetic groups, viz. β-Proteobacteria, Actinomycetales and the Bacillus/Staphylococcus group. A fungus was also found and identified as Aspergillus fumigatus by sequencing the D2 region of the large subunit rDNA gene. The isolation of these microorganisms in oligotrophic and radioactive conditions is of great interest due to the possibility of their use in bioremediation processes of radionuclide-contaminated environments.
A Unified Operating System for Clouds and Manycore: fos

Single chip processors with thousands of cores will be available in the next ten years and clouds of multicore processors afford the operating system designer thousands of cores today. Constructing operating systems for manycore and cloud systems face similar challenges. This work identifies these shared challenges and introduces our solution: a factored operating system (fos) designed to meet the scalability, faultiness, variability of demand, and programming challenges of OS’s for single-chip thousand-core manycore systems as well as current day cloud computers. Current monolithic operating systems are not well suited for manycores and clouds as they have taken an evolutionary approach to scaling such as adding fine grain locks and redesigning subsystems, however these approaches do not increase scalability quickly enough. fos addresses the OS scalability challenge by using a message passing design and is composed out of a collection of Internet inspired servers. Each operating system service is factored into a set of communicating servers which in aggregate implement a system service. These servers are designed much in the way that distributed Internet services are designed, but provide traditional kernel services instead of Internet services. Also, fos embraces the elasticity of cloud and manycore platforms by adapting resource utilization to match demand. fos facilitates writing applications across the cloud by providing a single system image across both future 1000+ core manycores and current day Infrastructure as a Service cloud computers. In contrast, current cloud environments do not provide a single system image and introduce complexity for the user by requiring different programming models for intravs inter-machine communication, and by requiring the use of non-OS standard management tools.
Surgical Treatment for Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Disease: A Systematic Review.

Importance Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) is a prevalent disease that is usually treated with diet, lifestyle modifications, and proton pump inhibitor therapy. However, nearly 10% to 30% of patients do not achieve adequate acid suppression even with high doses of proton pump inhibitors. For these patients with resistant disease, fundoplication may be recommended but the success rate of fundoplication surgery on laryngopharyngeal symptoms and findings remains uncertain. Objective To determine whether fundoplication is associated with control of signs and symptoms in patients with LPR. Evidence Review A literature search was conducted on PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Scopus according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) reporting guideline to identify studies published between 1990 and 2018 about the efficacy of fundoplication on clinical outcomes of LPR. Three investigators screened publications for eligibility and exclusion based on predetermined criteria. Study design, patient characteristics, diagnostic method, exclusion criteria, treatment characteristics, follow-up, and quality of the outcome assessment were evaluated. Findings Of the 266 studies identified, 34 met the inclusion criteria, accounting for 2190 patients with LPR (1270 women and 920 men; mean [SD] age at the time of surgery, 49.3 [6.3] years). A weighted mean of 83.0% of patients (95% CI, 79.7%-86.3%) experienced improvement and a weighted mean of 67.0% of patients (95% CI, 64.1%-69.9%) experienced a disappearance of symptoms, but there is a high level of methodological heterogeneity among studies according to diagnostic method, exclusion criteria, and outcomes used to assess the efficacy of fundoplication. A pH study without impedance study was used in most studies but with various inclusion criteria. According to results of an a priori assessment, the clinical outcomes used were overall poor, excluding many symptoms and findings associated with LPR. Conclusion and Relevance The reported studies of fundoplication in LPR disease have important heterogeneity in method of diagnosis, exclusion criteria, symptoms, and signs assessed as therapeutic outcomes; therefore, this systematic review was nonconclusive regarding whether surgery for LPR disease is associated with effective control of sight and symptoms. Otolaryngologists, gastroenterologists, and surgeons must establish a diagnostic criterion standard, clear indications for surgery, and future clinical outcomes to precisely assess the effectiveness of treatment.
Remote and open laboratory in science education — Technological, educational and psychological issues

This paper will describe how a scientifically exact and problem-solving-oriented remote and virtual science experimental environment might help to build a new strategy for science education. The main features of the new strategy are (1) the remote observations and control of real world phenomena, possibly materialized in data, their processing and evaluation, (2) verification of hypotheses combined with the development of critical thinking, supported by (3) sophisticated relevant information search, classification and storing tools and (4) collaborative environment, supporting argumentative writing and teamwork. Remote and Open Laboratory has been developed and used by Charles University in Prague since 1996, offered to science students and teachers since 2003.
Milk Thistle’s Active Components Silybin and Isosilybin: Novel Inhibitors of PXR-Mediated CYP3A4 Induction

Because cancer is often treated with combination therapy, unexpected pharmacological effects can occur because of drug–drug interactions. Several drugs are able to cause upregulation or downregulation of drug transporters or cytochrome P450 enzymes, particularly CYP3A4. Induction of CYP3A4 may result in decreased plasma levels and therapeutic efficacy of anticancer drugs. Since the pregnane X receptor (PXR) is one of the major transcriptional regulators of CYP3A4, PXR antagonists can possibly prevent CYP3A4 induction. Currently, a limited number of PXR antagonists are available. Some of these antagonists, such as sulphoraphane and coumestrol, belong to the so-called complementary and alternative medicines (CAM). Therefore, the aim was to determine the potential of selected CAM (β-carotene, Echinacea purpurea, garlic, Ginkgo biloba, ginseng, grape seed, green tea, milk thistle, saw palmetto, valerian, St. John's Wort, and vitamins B6, B12, and C) to inhibit PXR-mediated CYP3A4 induction at the transcriptional level, using a reporter gene assay and a real-time polymerase chain reaction assay in LS180 colon adenocarcinoma cells. Furthermore, computational molecular docking and a LanthaScreen time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer (TR-FRET) PXR competitive binding assay were performed to explore whether the inhibiting CAM components interact with PXR. The results demonstrated that milk thistle is a strong inhibitor of PXR-mediated CYP3A4 induction. The components of milk thistle responsible for this effect were identified as silybin and isosilybin. Furthermore, computational molecular docking revealed a strong interaction between both silybin and isosilybin and PXR, which was confirmed in the TR-FRET PXR assay. In conclusion, silybin and isosilybin might be suitable candidates to design potent PXR antagonists to prevent drug–drug interactions via CYP3A4 in cancer patients.
Inclusive Design and Human Factors: Designing Mobile Phones for Older Users

This paper reviews the human factors requirement s of mobile phones in order to facilitate inclusive design and provide older users with technological support that enhances their day to -day lives. Particular emphasis is placed on whether human factors requirements are fully considered and meet the needs of older users. The scope of this review is necessarily wide including: human factors, gerontology, inclusive design, technology and design research methodologies. Initial consideration is given to understanding what it means to be an older user and the ch anges that occur with the aging process. Older user requirements are examined in relation to achieving inclusive design solutions and the way in which human factors methodology can be used to support inclusive design goals. F rom this standpoint, attention is given to the design of mobile phones, considering how human factors issues are reflected in product design and context of use beyond the phone handset to the wider interaction environment. This paper does not propose specific direction from primary rese arch findings but argues for a ‘state of the union’ with regard to the current approaches designers and manufacturers adopt and the effects that design decisions have on potential end users. This paper argues that when effective and flexible human factors methodology and inclusive design ethos is integrated into the product development process global benefits to a wide user population can maximise inclusion as opposed to exclusion via technological advances.
Face recognition using assembled matrix distance metric based 2DLDA algorithm

Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is a well-known method for face recognition in feature extraction and dimension reduction. As a new scheme, two-dimensional linear discriminant analysis (2DLDA) has been used for face recognition recently. In this paper, an assembled matrix distance metric based 2DLDA is proposed for face representation and recognition. In this new method, an assembled matrix distance (AMD) metric is used to measure the distance between two 2DLDA feature matrices. To test this new method, ORL face database is used and the results show that the assembled matrix distance metric based 2DLDA method outperforms the 2DLDA method and achieves higher classification accuracy than the 2DLDA algorithm
From Abstractions to "Natural Languages" for Planning Agents

Despite our unique ability to use natural languages, we know little about their origins like how they are created and evolved. The answer lies deeply in the evolution of our cognitive and social abilities over a very long period of time which is beyond our scrutiny. Existing studies on the origin of languages are often focused on the emergence of specific language features (such as recursion) without supporting a comprehensive view. Investigation of restricted language representations, such as temporal logic, unfortunately does not reveal much about the impetus underlying language formation and evolution, since much of their construction is based on natural languages themselves. In this paper, we investigate the origin of "natural languages" in a restricted setting involving only planning agents. Similar to a common view that considers languages as a tool for grounding symbols to semantic meanings, we take the view that a language for planning agents is a tool for grounding symbols to physical configurations. From this perspective, a language is used by the agents to coordinate their behaviors during planning. With a few assumptions, we show that language is closely connected to a type of domain abstractions, based on which a language can be constructed. We study how such abstractions can be identified and discuss how to use them during planning. We apply our method to several domains, discuss the results, and relaxation of the assumptions made.
Unusual topographic specializations of retinal ganglion cell density and spatial resolution in a cliff‐dwelling artiodactyl, the Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana)

The Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana) occurs in information‐rich visual habitats including the edges of cliffs and escarpments. In addition to needing enhanced spatial resolution to find food and detect predators, enhanced visual sampling of the lower visual field would be advantageous for the control of locomotion in such precarious terrains. Using retinal wholemounts and stereology, we sought to measure how the ganglion cell density varies across the retina of the Nubian ibex to reveal which portions of its surroundings are sampled with high resolution. We estimated a total of ~1 million ganglion cells in the Nubian ibex retinal ganglion cell layer. Topographic variations of ganglion cell density reveal a temporal area, a horizontal streak, and a dorsotemporal extension, which are topographic retinal features also found in other artiodactyls. In contrast to savannah‐dwelling artiodactyls, the horizontal streak of the Nubian ibex appears loosely organized possibly reflecting a reduced predation risk in mountainous habitats. Estimates of spatial resolving power (~17 cycles/degree) for the temporal area would be reasonable to facilitate foraging in the frontal visual field. Embedded in the dorsotemporal extension, we also found an unusual dorsotemporal area not yet reported in any other mammal. Given its location and spatial resolving power (~6 cycles/degree), this specialization enhances visual sampling toward the lower visual field, which would be advantageous for visually guided locomotion. This study expands our understanding of the retinal organization in artiodactyls and offers insights on the importance of vision for the Nubian ibex ecology.
Risk for Tympanic Membrane Perforation after Quinolone Ear Drops for Acute Otitis Externa.

BACKGROUND This study examined whether the use of quinolone ear drops increased the risk of perforation with intact tympanic membranes and acute otitis externa (AOE). METHODS This was a retrospective cohort study using Medicaid clinical encounter and pharmacy billing records from 1999-2010. Children and adults had to have 24 months continuous enrollment in Medicaid prior to the first antibiotic ear drop dispensing (index date), and they had to maintain their enrollment for at least 18 months thereafter. Included ear drops were ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin plus hydrocortisone, ciprofloxacin plus dexamethasone, and neomycin plus hydrocortisone. Tympanic membrane perforation (TMP) was identified as two in- or out-patient encounters associated with TMP diagnosis at least 30 days apart. A Cox regression model, adjusting for patient demographics, calendar year, and the number of ear drop prescriptions was used to compare TMP risk between quinolone and neomycin-exposed patients. RESULTS A total of 94,333 patients entered the study cohort. Use of quinolone ear drops was associated with increased risk for TMP compared with neomycin plus hydrocortisone, with an adjusted hazard ratio of 2.26 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.34-3.83). Adjusted hazard ratios were 2.53 (1.27-5.05) for ofloxacin, 2.24 (1.03-4.85) for ciprofloxacin plus hydrocortisone, and 2.30 (1.09-4.87) for ciprofloxacin plus dexamethasone. Sensitivity analyses were consistent with the primary analysis. CONCLUSIONS Use of quinolone ear drops to treat AOE is associated with a previously unreported increased risk of developing TMPs. Selection of otic preparations to treat self-limited conditions with intact tympanic membranes should consider TMP risk.
Identification of gene ontology and pathways implicated in suicide behavior: Systematic review and enrichment analysis of GWAS studies

Multiple large‐scale studies such as genome‐wide association studies (GWAS) have been performed to identify genetic contributors to suicidal behaviors (SB). We aimed to summarize and analyze the information obtained in SB GWAS, to explore the biological process gene ontology (GO) of genes associated with SB from GWAS, and to determine the possible implications of the genes associated with SB in Kyoto encyclopedias of genes and genomes (KEGG) biological pathways. The articles included in the analysis were obtained from PubMed and Scopus databases. Enrichment analyses were performed in Enrichr to evaluate the KEGG pathways and GO of the genes associated with SB of GWAS. The findings of biological process GO analysis showed 924 GO involved in genes related with SB; of those, the regulation of glucose import in response to insulin stimulus, regulation of protein localization to plasma membrane, positive regulation of endopeptidase activity, heterotypic cell–cell adhesion, regulation of cardiac muscle cell contraction, positive regulation of protein localization to plasma membrane, and positive regulation of protein localization to cell periphery biological process GO showed significant statistical association. Furthermore, we obtained 130 KEGG pathways involved in genes related with SB, which Aldosterone synthesis and secretion, Rap1 signaling pathway and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy pathways showed a significant statistical association. These findings give a better perspective of the biological participation of genes associated with SB, which will be important to perform adequate strategies to prevent and treat SB.
Comparison of clinical and laboratory parameters in patients with end-stage renal failure in the outcome of chronic glomerulonephritis and patients with end-stage renal failure in the outcome of other diseases.

BACKGROUND frequent complications of hemodialysis treatments are coagulation disorders. This is due to activation of the coagulation of blood flow in the interaction with a dialysis membrane material vascular prostheses and extracorporeal circuit trunks. In addition, in hemodialysis patients receiving heparin for years, there is depletion of stocks in endothelial cells in tissue factor inhibitor, inhibits the activity of an external blood clotting mechanism. AIM the aim of our study was to evaluate the hemostatic system parameters in patients with end-stage renal failure, depending on the cause of renal failure. MATERIAL AND METHODS to evaluate the hemostatic system parameters in patients with end-stage renal failure, depending on the cause of renal failure and hemodialysis treatment duration conducted a study that included 100 patients observed in the department of chronic hemodialysis and nephrology hospital №1 Republican National Medical Center in the period of 2013-2016. RESULTS in patients with end-stage renal failure in the outcome of chronic glomerulonephritis, a great expression of activation of blood coagulation confirm increased the mean concentration of fibrinogen, whereas in the group, which included patients with end-stage renal failure in the outcome of other diseases, such is not different from the norm, and a higher rate of hyperfibrinogenemia, identified in 2/3 patients in this group. CONCLUSIONS it was revealed that the state of homeostasis in patients with end-stage renal failure in increasingly characterizes the level of fibrinogen and the activation of the hemostatic markers: soluble fibrin monomer complexes, D-dimers.