Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The CopsRobber Matlab Package : Documentation

The package CopsRobber is a small collection of Matlab functions which perform various calculations related to the CR game. In this game one or more cops move along the edges of a graph G with the goal of capturing a robber. The robber may be adversarial (he moves so as to avoid capture) or drunk (he performs a random walk on G). CopsRobber performs computations such as: find an optimal strategy for cops facing an adversarial or drunk robber, simulate a CR game, estimate the cost of drunkenness etc.
Towards Embedded Waste Sorting - Using Constellations of Visual Words

In this paper, we present a method for fast and robust object r ecognition, especially developed for implementation on an embedd ed platform. As an example, the method is applied to the automatic sorting of co nsumer waste. Out of a stream of different thrown-away food packages, specific items — in this case beverage cartons — can be visually recognised and sorted out . To facilitate and optimise the implementation of this algorithm on an embedde d platform containing parallel hardware, we developed a voting scheme for cons tellations of visual words, i.e. clustered local features (SURF in this case). On top of easy implementation and robust and fast performance, even with large d atabases, an extra advantage is that this method can handle multiple identical v sual features in one model.
Epidemiology of racing injuries in Thoroughbred racehorses with special reference to bone fractures: Japanese experience from the 1980s to 2000s

ABSTRACT This report describes the descriptive epidemiology of racing fractures that occurred from the 1980s to 2000s on racetracks of the Japan Racing Association (JRA). The incidence of racehorse fractures during flat racing was approximately 1–2%. Fractures occurring during a race are more likely to occur in a forelimb. Fractures mostly occur at the third and fourth corners of oval tracks and on the home stretch. They also occur more frequently at the time of changing the leading limb. Comparison of the incidence of racing fracture between before and after reconstruction of the geometrical configuration of a racetrack revealed that there was an outstanding reduction in the number of serious fractures in the year before and after reconstruction. It was postulated that the improvement in racing time, possibly influenced by reconstructing the geometrical configuration of the racetrack, was connected to the reduction in the number of fractures. Of non-biological race- and course-related factors, type of course (dirt or turf), track surface condition, differences between racecourses, and racing distance significantly influence racing time. By using an instrumented shoe, vertical ground reaction forces (VGRFs) on the forelimb during galloping and the relationships between a rough dirt and woodchip track surface and a smooth dirt and woodchip surface were measured. Relating the incidence of racing fractures with track conditions in general showed that track surface has significant effects on the incidence of fracture, with the incidence of fractures increasing as track conditions on dirt worsen and a tendency for the incidence of fractures to decrease as track conditions on turf worsen. It seems probable that track condition in general may affect the incidence of fracture. The incidence of fracture in horses during both racing and training decreased as the years progressed.
Pure Reasoning in 12-Month-Old Infants as Probabilistic Inference

Twelve-month-old infants employ Bayesian statistics. Many organisms can predict future events from the statistics of past experience, but humans also excel at making predictions by pure reasoning: integrating multiple sources of information, guided by abstract knowledge, to form rational expectations about novel situations, never directly experienced. Here, we show that this reasoning is surprisingly rich, powerful, and coherent even in preverbal infants. When 12-month-old infants view complex displays of multiple moving objects, they form time-varying expectations about future events that are a systematic and rational function of several stimulus variables. Infants’ looking times are consistent with a Bayesian ideal observer embodying abstract principles of object motion. The model explains infants’ statistical expectations and classic qualitative findings about object cognition in younger babies, not originally viewed as probabilistic inferences.
End-to-end rate selection for opportunistic reception in multi-rate wireless networks

In this paper we propose an end-to-end algorithm, called NUM-RS, for jointly selecting link transmission rates and source rates in a multi-hop multi-rate wireless network. Prior works on rate selection, including those that explicitly account for opportunistic reception, perform rate selection on a hop-by-hop basis, attempting to maximize the throughput on each link. Our algorithm leverages the Network Utility Maximization (NUM) framework, thus providing end-to-end semantics for rate selection and proportional fairness with low overhead. By using end-to-end semantics NUM-RS considers both source rates and congestion in the vicinity of links used by a flow when selecting link rates. Our results show that NUM-RS increasingly outperforms contemporary hop-by-hop rate selection schemes as the number of hops in the flows increase. For example, 20% and 50% of 8-hop flows exhibit performance gains of at least 36% and 15%, respectively, in terms of end-to-end throughput. In some cases, gains of up to 80% can be achieved.
Simulation on a charge sensitive infrared phototransistor for 45μm wavelength

Charge sensitive infrared phototransistors (CSIP) are well known for their capability for response spectrum tuning and single photon detection. In this paper, we established a physical model for a charge sensitive infrared phototransistor operating at 45μm wavelength using the Crosslight Apsys software. Several key physical mechanisms involved such as inter-subband optical transition and resonant tunneling of carriers were applied and fine tuned to obtain a better simulation result.
Algorithm for 3D orientation estimation based on Kalman Filter and Gradient Descent

Individual wearable device orientation plays a crucial role in rehabilitation application, especially in the process of monitoring dynamic changes of movement for clinical prognosis. This paper proposed a combined approach to fuse Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensors via adaptive Kalman Filter considering practical recommendation of error covariance. Our approach associates orientation estimate using gyroscope via Kalman Filter with optimal instant attitude estimate of accelerometer and magnetometer using Gradient Descent. Experiments were carried out to compare our proposed approach with well-known approaches such as Kalman filter, Tilt Kalman filter, and Madgwick algorithm. The results show that the proposed method displayed accurate and precise measurements, especially for internal/external rotation (z axis orientation), in real time.
Skeleton-based human action recognition using basis vectors

Automatic human action recognition is a research topic that has attracted significant attention lately, mainly due to the advancements in sensing technologies and the improvements in computational systems' power. However, complexity in human movements, input devices' noise and person-specific pattern variability impose a series of challenges that still remain to be overcome. In the proposed work, a novel human action recognition method using Microsoft Kinect depth sensing technology is presented for handling the above mentioned issues. Each action is represented as a basis vector and spectral analysis is performed on an affinity matrix of new action feature vectors. Using simple kernel regressors for computing the affinity matrix, complexity is reduced and robust low-dimensional representations are achieved. The proposed scheme loosens action detection accuracy demands, while it can be extended for accommodating multiple modalities, in a dynamic fashion.
Chapter 8 Keratinocyte , monocyte and endothelial cell-derived CCL 27 promotes cell migration , proliferation and chemokine release in wound healing

Cutaneous wound healing is an interactive process involving skin residential cells, stem cells and infiltrating immune cells. The aim of this study was to determine the role of skin specific chemokine CTACK/CCL27 in wound healing and importantly to determine whether CCL27 could influence proliferation, migration or an inflammatory response from mesenchymal stem cells residing in the dermis (DSC) or subcutaneous adipose tissue (ASC). In addition to DSC and ASC, other skin residential cells (keratinocytes, human-microvascular-endothelial cells (hMVEC)) and infiltrating cells (granulocytes, monocytes) were studied. CCL27 was secreted into exudates after major burn injury in humans. Also, in a human excised skin burn wound model, CCL27 expression was increased in the outgrowing epidermis. CCL27 was not only secreted by keratinocytes, but also by hMVEC and monocytes after stimulation with factors related to skin trauma (VEGF and LPS respectively). All studied cells expressed the CCL27 receptor CCR10. Notably, CCL27 induced secretion of key mediators involved in angiogenesis, granulation tissue formation and inflammation (VEGF, CXCL1, CXCL8, IL-6, CCL2, CCL5, CCL20) from ASC and monocytes but not from DSC, granulocytes, keratinocytes or hMVEC. CCL27 stimulated migration and proliferation only of keratinocytes. The DSC and granulocytes neither secreted CCL27 nor responded significantly to CCL27 with regards to migration, proliferation or secretion of angiogenic/inflammatory mediators even though they expressed CCR10. Taken together these results indicate that ASC may contribute to skin wound healing by secreting angiogenic factors and that full-thickness wounds, which penetrate the adipose tissue, may respond more vigorously to CCL27 than superficial dermal wounds.
Bilateral Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Auditory Hallucinations in Patients with Schizophrenia: A Randomized Controlled, Cross-over Study

Objective A randomized double-blind cross-over trial was conducted in patients with persistent auditory hallucinations (AHs) to investigate whether bilateral repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) at the temporoparietal area or Broca's area is more effective at high- or low-frequencies compared to a sham condition. Methods Twenty three patients with persistent AHs who remained stable on the same medication for 2 months were enrolled. They were randomized to one of four conditions: low-frequency (1 Hz)-rTMS to the temporoparietal area (L-TP), high-frequency (20 Hz)-rTMS to the temporoparietal area (H-TP), high-frequency (20 Hz)-rTMS to Broca's area (H-B), or sham. Results All the four rTMS conditions resulted in significant decrease in the scores under the auditory hallucination rating scale and hallucination change scale over time. However, there were no significant treatment effects or interaction between time and treatment, suggesting no superior effects of the new paradigms over the sham condition. Conclusion Our findings suggest that bilateral rTMS at the temporoparietal area or Broca's area with high- or low-frequency does not produce superior effects in reducing AHs compared to sham stimulation.
A structured approach for the implementation of distributed manufacturing simulation

Manufacturing has been changing from a mainly in-house effort to a distributed style in order to meet new challenges owing to globalization of markets and worldwide competition. Distributed simulation provides an attractive solution to construct cross enterprise simulations to evaluate the viability of the proposed distributed manufacturing enterprises. However, due to its complexity and high cost distributed simulation failed to gain a wide acceptance from industrial users. The main objective of this paper is to address these issues and present a new structured approach to implement distributed simulation with cost effective and easy to implementable tools. A simplified approach for model partitioning for distributed simulation is also included in the proposed approach. The implementation of distributed manufacturing simulation is illustrated with Arena, Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).
Obstacle avoidance for quadrotor using improved method based on optical flow

In this paper, we proposed an improved method based on optical flow to help a low-cost quadrotor avoid obstacles. The method is consist of improved balanced strategy and fast Time-to-Collision (TTC). The improved balanced strategy is designed for the quadrotor to achieve 6 degree of freedom movement. We use a learning method based on optical flow data when the vehicle can avoid the obstacle successfully. The fast TTC method helps extract the relative depth information of the environment. We also introduced a monitoring strategies to supervise our method in real time. All these information is combined to avoid the obstacle. Our method has been demonstrated to work well in corridor environment.
The acute-phase response in (NZB X NZW)F1 and MRL/l MICE

The acute-phase plasma protein response to disease activity in murine models of autoimmune lupus-like disease was investigated by measurement of the concentration of serum amyloid P component (SAP) in NZB X W and MRL/l mice. The levels of SAP, which is a major acute-phase protein in mice, did not rise at all in response to progression of disease in NZB X W mice between the ages of 1 and 9 mo. This resembles the behavior of acute-phase proteins such as C-reactive protein and serum amyloid A protein in human systemic lupus erythematosus, and just as in human lupus, where the occurrence of intercurrent microbial infection can stimulate an acute-phase response, so injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide or casein into the NZB X W mice stimulated "normal" acute-phase SAP production. In marked contrast, MRL/l mice developed greatly increased levels of SAP, which correlated closely with progression of their pathology as they aged. The disease profile of the MRL/l strain includes rheumatoid factors and spontaneous polyarthritis and their SAP response resembles the behavior of acute phase proteins in human rheumatoid arthritis. Different patterns of acute-phase response in different autoimmune disorders may thus be a reflection of the genetic predisposition to particular diseases and/or contribute to their pathogenesis. The existence of animal counterparts for the various clinical patterns of human acute-phase protein production will assist in experimental investigation of the underlying mechanisms and of the biological role of the acute-phase response.
Magnesium transport in the gastrointestinal tract.

Magnesium is an essential (macro) mineral in vertebrates with many biochemical and physiological functions including activation of enzymes, involvement into metabolic pathways, regulation of membrane channels and muscle contraction. Despite these important functions, Mg++ homeostasis is not regulated by hormones, but depends on absorption from the gastrointestinal tract, requirement of the body, and excretion via the kidneys. The present review summarizes data on epithelial Mg++ transport in the gut via paracellular and cellular pathways. Paracellular movement of Mg++ is only important in leaky epithelia as in the small intestine. The transcellular transport of Mg++, luminal uptake and basolateral extrusion, require membrane proteins which increase the low permeability of the membranes and facilitate the movement of Mg++ through these lipid bilayers. Proposals have been made how these proteins could mediate Mg++ transport. There is now a growing body of evidence for a PD-dependent luminal Mg++ uptake via a carrier or channel. Furthermore, PD-independent uptake mechanisms have been demonstrated which may be represented by Mg++/2cation+ exchange or co-transport of Mg++ with anions. The mechanism of a basolateral extrusion is not clear. A Na+/Mg++ exchange, well characterized in non-polar cells, has been suggested which leads to the proposal that there is a secondary active transport system for Mg++. It can readily be learned from this fragmentary knowledge of transepithelial Mg++ transport that future research must be directed to a study of the relevant membrane proteins (carriers or channel for Mg++) in order to close the gap between the incompletely described epithelial Mg++ transport mechanisms and the well established transport systems, e.g. , sodium or glucose.
Domestic constraints on globalisation: a case study of Irish social security 1986-2006

This thesis looks at the extent to which Irish social security policy outcomes and the process of social security policy making has been influenced by global factors and Ireland’s relatively high level of internationalisation. It asks, has Ireland’s immersion in the global economy impacted on the content or the process of mediating policy1? Using hypotheses developed from competition state theorists, it first examines whether Irish social security policy has recommodified and refocused towards the market. Having examined indicators relating to regulation, retrenchment, residualisation and activation/conditionality and defamiliarisation it concludes policy has shifted towards an ‘Irish style’ recommodification but has shifted less in this direction than might have been expected in a ‘competition state’ as internationalised as Ireland. Understanding how this policy was mediated involves examining Irish governance and institutions, interests and policy discourse in the Irish social policy community and exploring whether governance processes were influenced or transformed by international economic and political processes. The thesis examines eight types of policy decisions and isolates explanatory variables that can help account for the trajectory of change. It identifies, over the two decades of the study, three distinct policy periods during which identifiable policy coalitions worked within the policy institutions to pursue different policy ideas. These periods are differentiated by degrees of ambition, openness, and capacity relating to policy change The key variable determining the different period was who held political power. The thesis concludes that within the broad scope o f policy permitted in a competition state that the consensus nature of the Irish policy system is confined to a relatively narrow set of policy options and that the complexion of the government is the factor determining the policy focus and the choices relating to type, scale and pace of policy development.
Impaired l-Arginine Transport and Endothelial Function in Hypertensive and Genetically Predisposed Normotensive Subjects

Background—Impaired endothelium-dependent NO-mediated vasodilation is a key feature of essential hypertension and may precede the increase in blood pressure. We investigated whether transport of the NO precursor l-arginine is related to decreased endothelial function. Methods and Results—Radiotracer kinetics ([3H]l-arginine) were used to measure forearm and peripheral blood mononuclear cell arginine uptake in hypertensive subjects (n=12) and in 2 groups of healthy volunteers with (n=15) and without (n=15) a family history of hypertension. In conjunction, forearm blood flow responses to acetylcholine and sodium nitroprusside were measured before and after a supplemental intra-arterial infusion of l-arginine. In vivo and in vitro measures of l-arginine transport were substantially reduced in the essential hypertension and positive family history groups compared with the negative family history group; however, no difference was detected in peripheral blood mononuclear cell mRNA or protein expression levels for the cationic amino acid transporter CAT-1. Plasma concentrations of l-arginine and NG,NG′-dimethylarginine (ADMA) did not differ between groups. l-Arginine supplementation improved the response to acetylcholine only in subjects with essential hypertension and positive family history. Conclusions—Similar to their hypertensive counterparts, normotensive individuals at high risk for the development of hypertension are characterized by impaired l-arginine transport, which may represent the link between a defective l-arginine/NO pathway and the onset of essential hypertension. The observed transport defect is not due to apparent alterations in CAT-1 expression or elevated endogenous ADMA.
Lysine 92 Amino Acid Residue of USP46, a Gene Associated with ‘Behavioral Despair’ in Mice, Influences the Deubiquitinating Enzyme Activity

Deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) regulate diverse cellular functions by their activity of cleaving ubiquitin from specific protein substrates. Ubiquitin-Specific Protease 46 (USP46) has recently been identified as a quantitative trait gene responsible for immobility in the tail suspension test and forced swimming test in mice. Mice with a lysine codon (Lys 92) deletion in USP46 exhibited loss of ‘behavioral despair’ under inescapable stresses in addition to abnormalities in circadian behavioral rhythms and the GABAergic system. However, whether this deletion affects enzyme activity is unknown. Here we show that USP46 has deubiquitinating enzyme activity detected by USP cleavage assay using GST-Ub52 as a model substrate. Interestingly, compared to wild type, the Lys 92 deletion mutant resulted in a decreased deubiquitinating enzyme activity of 27.04%. We also determined the relative expression levels of Usp46 in rat tissues using real-time RT-PCR. Usp46 mRNA was expressed in various tissues examined including brain, with the highest expression in spleen. In addition, like rat USP46, both human and mouse USP46 are active toward to the model substrate, indicating the USP cleavage assay is a simple method for testing the deubiquitinating enzyme activity of USP46. These results suggest that the Lys 92 deletion of USP46 could influence enzyme activity and thereby provide a molecular clue how the enzyme regulating the pathogenesis of mental illnesses.
The Effect of Acute Coronary Artery Occlusion on Subepicardial Transmembrane Potentials in the Intact Porcine Heart

Subepicardial transmembrane potentials were recorded from intact pig hearts to observe the changes induced by acute ischemia. Ischemia shortened action potential duration, and decreased its amplitude, upstroke velocity, and resting potential. The cells were unresponsive after 12 to 15 minutes of coronary artery occlusion, yet near normal action potentials could be restored by flushing the occluded artery with saline as late as 40 minutes after occlusion. The unipolar extracellular electrogram reflected unresponsiveness by a monophasic potential. Local refractory periods initially shortened by up to 100 msec. Later, postrepolarization refractoriness occurred and refractory periods lengthened often in excess of basic cycle length, thus resulting in 2:1 responses. The onset of early ventricular arrhythmias often coincided with a period of alternation and 2: 1 responses, especially when these got out of phase in different regions. Reperfusion frequently led to ventricular fibrillation, and was associated with marked inhomogeneity in cellular responses. Re-entry within ischemic myocardium was the most likely mechanism for arrhythmias.