Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Motion Primitive-Based Graph Planning for Mobile Manipulation With Closed-Chain Systems

Motion primitive-based (lattice-based) graphs have been used extensively in navigation, but application to high-dimensional state-spaces has remained limited by computational complexity. In this work, we show how these graphs can be applied to mobile manipulation. The formation of closed chains in tasks that involve contacts with the environment may reduce the number of available degrees of freedom but add complexity in terms of constraints in the high-dimensional state space. We propose a novel method to reduce dimensionality by abstracting away the constraints associated with closed-chain systems. Proofs are introduced for the application to graph-search and its theoretical guarantees of optimality. The dimensionality-reduction is done in a manner that enables finding optimal solutions to low-dimensional problems which map to correspondingly optimal full-dimensional solutions. We demonstrate the usefulness of our method with simulation results; we apply our approach to moving an object in 2D using a mobile manipulation platform with a planar arm. Disciplines Engineering Comments University of Pennsylvania Department of Computer and Information Science Technical Report No. MSCIS-12-06. This technical report is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn. edu/cis_reports/968
Two-phase Cretaceous–Paleocene rifting in the Taranaki Basin region, New Zealand; implications for Gondwana break-up

The break-up of Gondwana resulted in extension of New Zealand continental crust during the Cretaceous–Paleocene. Offshore the geometry and rift history are well imaged by new regional mapping of a large seismic reflection dataset, tied to wells, used here to document the Cretaceous–Paleocene (c. 105 – 55 Ma) evolution of the greater Taranaki Basin region. Two temporally distinct phases of rifting have been recognized in the region, and record Gondwana break-up. The first (Zealandia rift phase) produced half-grabens trending NW to WNW during the mid-Cretaceous (c. 105 – 83 Ma). These rift basins predate, and are parallel to, Tasman Sea spreading centres. They record distributed stretching of northern Zealandia prior to the onset of seafloor spreading in the Tasman Sea. A short period (c. 83 – 80 Ma) of uplift and erosion followed, possibly representing a break-up unconformity, with erosion in southern Taranaki Basin and deposition of the ‘Taranaki Delta’ sequence in Deepwater Taranaki. The second, West Coast–Taranaki rift phase produced north- to NE-trending extensional half-grabens in the shelfal Taranaki Basin during the latest Cretaceous–Paleocene (c. 80 – 55 Ma). This rift was narrow (<150 km wide), orthogonal to Zealandia phase rifting, affected mainly western Zealandia and did not progress to full break-up. Supplementary material: A full set of eight palaeogeographical maps as well as expanded versions of the seismic figures, with both uninterpreted and interpreted versions, are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare. c.3772175
Numerical Method for the Design of Healing Chamber in Additive-Manufactured Dental Implants

The inclusion of a healing chamber in dental implants has been shown to promote biological healing. In this paper, a novel numerical approach to the design of the healing chamber for additive-manufactured dental implants is proposed. This study developed an algorithm for the modeling of bone growth and employed finite element method in ANSYS to facilitate the design of healing chambers with a highly complex configuration. The model was then applied to the design of dental implants for insertion into the posterior maxillary bones. Two types of ITI® solid cylindrical screwed implant with extra rectangular-shaped healing chamber as an initial design are adopted, with which to evaluate the proposed system. This resulted in several configurations for the healing chamber, which were then evaluated based on the corresponding volume fraction of healthy surrounding bone. The best of these implants resulted in a healing chamber surrounded by around 9.2% more healthy bone than that obtained from the original design. The optimal design increased the contact area between the bone and implant by around 52.9%, which is expected to have a significant effect on osseointegration. The proposed approach is highly efficient which typically completes the optimization of each implant within 3–5 days on an ordinary personal computer. It is also sufficiently general to permit extension to various loading conditions.
Centrosome movement in the early divisions of Caenorhabditis elegans: a cortical site determining centrosome position

In Caenorhabditis elegans embryos, early blastomeres of the P cell lineage divide successively on the same axis. This axis is a consequence of the specific rotational movement of the pair of centrosomes and nucleus (Hyman, A. A., and J. G. White. 1987. J. Cell Biol. 105:2123-2135). A laser has been used to perturb the centrosome movements that determine the pattern of early embryonic divisions. The results support a previously proposed model in which a centrosome rotates towards its correct position by shortening of connections, possibly microtubules, between a centrosome and a defined site on the cortex of the embryo.
Kinaesthetic judgements and refinement of striking action

Little is known about the developmental course of striking action. This cross‐sectional study explored the refinement of striking in 28 children aged between 4 and 12 years and investigated how well they could use kinaesthesis to gauge the length of an unseen bat. The kinematic data (including smoothness of movement) showed quantitative differences between the age groups. In contrast, no differences were found in the children's ability to judge the length of the unseen bat: within three strikes all of the children had made a clean hit, indicating that they had successfully judged bat length. The children then appeared to memorize the bat with which they had accurately hit the target and made: (1) minimal errors when using this bat in later trials and (2) predictable errors when using two other bats of different sizes. The results show that the striking action becomes optimized over childhood, with smoothness of movement providing an index of this refinement. The findings also suggest that young children have a higher level of kinaesthetic sensitivity than has been assumed previously on the basis of static limb positioning tasks. The results suggest that the striking task used in this study might be a useful tool for investigating the development of movement skills in children with developmental disorders.
KCNJ5 Mutations in European Families With Nonglucocorticoid Remediable Familial Hyperaldosteronism

Primary aldosteronism is the most frequent cause of endocrine hypertension. Three forms of familial hyperaldosteronism (FH) have been described, named FH-I to -III. Recently, a mutation of KCNJ5 has been shown to be associated with FH-III, whereas the cause of FH-II is still unknown. In this study we searched for mutations in KCNJ5 in 46 patients from 21 families with FH, in which FH-I was excluded. We identified a new germline G151E mutation in 2 primary aldosteronism–affected subjects from an Italian family and 3 somatic mutations in aldosterone-producing adenomas, T158A described previously as a germline mutation associated with FH-III, and G151R and L168R both described as somatic mutations in aldosterone-producing adenoma. The phenotype of the family with the G151E mutation was remarkably milder compared with the previously described American family, in terms of both clinical and biochemical parameters. Furthermore, patients with somatic KCNJ5 mutations displayed a phenotype indistinguishable from that of sporadic primary aldosteronism. The functional characterization of the effects of the G151E mutation in vitro showed a profound alteration of the channel function, with loss of K+ selectivity, Na+ influx, and membrane depolarization. These alterations have been postulated to be responsible for voltage gate Ca2+ channel activation, increase in cytosolic calcium, and stimulation of aldosterone production and adrenal cell proliferation. In conclusion, we describe herein a new mutation in the KCNJ5 potassium channel associated with FH-III, responsible for marked alterations of channel function but associated with a mild clinical and hormonal phenotype.
A hypervisor approach with real-time support to the MIPS M5150 processor

Embedded software has become a major concern in current embedded systems. Recent embedded products include dynamic software features that are driven by the users' needs. Still, real-time applications are required to execute along non real-time applications as both of them can be part of a bigger and more complex software system. Virtualization has emerged as a feasible technique for embedded systems as it provides more secure platforms, improves software design quality and reduces costs. Nevertheless, real-time and memory constraints require the development of different techniques from those widely applied to enterprise computing. However, distinguished vendors have designed virtualization extensions for their processors and a few manufacturers have adopted them. This work presents a hypervisor implementation approach with real-time support to the MIPS M5150 processor which supports hardware-assisted virtualization. The results show that the implementation allows full-virtualization and communication among virtual machines with minimal overhead while providing strong spatial and temporal isolation between virtual machines.
Post-recurrence survival in completely resected stage I non-small cell lung cancer with local recurrence

Objective: Resection is the best treatment for patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patterns of disease recurrence after complete resection in stage I NSCLC have not been well demonstrated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic predictors of post-recurrence survival in patients with resected stage I NSCLC with local recurrence. Methods: The clinicopathological characteristics of 123 patients with local recurrence after complete resection of stage I NSCLC in Taipei Veterans General Hospital between 1980 and 2000 were retrospectively reviewed. Post-recurrence survival and their predictors were analysed. Results: The patterns of local recurrence included local only in 74 (60.2%) and both local and distant in 49 (39.8%) patients. The 1 and 2 year post-recurrence survival rates for the 74 patients with local only recurrence were 48.7% and 17.6%, respectively. Tumour size (p = 0.033) and treatment for initial recurrence (p<0.001) were significant predictors for post-recurrence survival in 74 patients with local only recurrence in univariate analyses. The hazard of death was greater in patients with larger tumour size. Treatment for initial recurrence (p = 0.001) was still a significant prognostic indicator in multivariate analyses. Patients who underwent reoperation after local recurrence survived longer than those who received chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy and those that received no treatment. Conclusions: Treatment for initial recurrence is a prognostic predictor for post-recurrence survival in resected stage I NSCLC with local recurrence. Complete surgical resection should be considered in selected candidates with resectable local recurrent disease.
An Empirical Study of the Domain Dependence of Supervised Word Disambiguation Systems

This paper describes a set of experiments carried out to explore the domain dependence of alternative supervised Word Sense Disambiguation algorithms. The aim of the work is threefold: studying the performance of these algorithms when tested on a different corpus from that they were trained on; exploring their ability to tune to new domains, and demonstrating empirically that the Lazy-Boosting algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art supervised WSD algorithms in both previous situations.
Microbial Safety Associations in Point of Use Drinking Water of Salyan, Nepal

Drinking water access is increasing but its safety remains a major health concern. Point of Use (PoU) safety of drinking water is important as diarrheal disease is still a major cause of morbidity and mortality especially among under five years children. Range of factors influences microbial safety of drinking water. Understanding probable factors associated to PoU microbial safety can aid in reducing health vulnerability. A cross-sectional study of 400 households at Salyan district, Nepal was conducted. Household survey, Spot observations, Physical parameters, and Microbial contamination (E. coli), of PoU drinking water were assessed. Physical parameters were within the limit value of National Drinking Water Quality Standards (NDWQS), 2005. Microbial contamination (E. coli) was laboratory confirmed in 191 (50.5%) PoU samples. Uncovered storage vessels possessed twice much as odds risk (OR=2.24; CI=1.208-4.166) of contamination than that of covered ones. Households with water in the dwelling had odds of 52% (OR=0.520; CI=0.332-0.814) greater risk of contamination. Technical and Behavioral factors were evidenced to be associated with microbial contamination in study sample. Access of drinking water alone didnt possessed microbial safety; rather unsafe access increased the risk of contamination. The study indicates that, if water is from safe distribution point and stored in a covered vessel which is easily cleanable, PoU drinking water shall be microbiologically safe
When the Crowd is Not Enough: Improving User Experience with Social Media through Automatic Quality Analysis

Social media gives voice to the people, but also opens the door to low-quality contributions, which degrade the experience for the majority of users. To address the latter issue, the prevailing solution is to rely on the 'wisdom of the crowds' to promote good content (e.g., via votes or 'like' buttons), or to downgrade bad content. Unfortunately, such crowd feedback may be sparse, subjective, and slow to accumulate. In this pa- per, we investigate the effects, on the users, of automatically filtering question-answering content, using a combination of syntactic, semantic, and social signals. Using this filtering, a large-scale experiment with real users was performed to mea- sure the resulting engagement and satisfaction. To our knowledge, this experiment represents the first reported large-scale user study of automatically curating social media content in real time. Our results show that automated quality filtering indeed improves user engagement, usually aligning with, and often outperforming, crowd-based quality judgments.
Extracting and visualizing insights from real-time conversations around public presentations

During public addresses and debates (like the State of the Union Address) people engage in social networks generating thousands of messages. After the event happened, however, it is difficult to gather past conversations from those platforms and link them to the speech to relive the moment. To address this we developed a visualization technique that leverages the real-time conversational aspect of the Twitter platform to enrich the text of a public presentation with the discussion on Twitter during that speech; creating an annotated visual narrative of an event that can be replayed as the user scans the text of the speech.
Cryopreservation of great scallop (Pecten maximus) sperm: effect of extender, cryoprotectant and cooling rate on sperm survival

To develop selection programs for the great scallop, artificial reproduction of the species needs to be im- proved by gamete cryobanking. Here, a set of four experiments was designed in order to define the basic elements of a cryopreservation protocol for scallop sperm, including extender composition (experiment 1), cryoprotectant selec- tion (2), cooling rate (3), and assessment of the effects of sperm cryopreservation on sperm motility and fertilization capacity (4). Sperm was collected after serotonin injection (100 µl of a 10-mM solution) and frozen in 500-µ ls traws. For the first three experiments, the percentage of motile fresh sperm (80 ± 4%, mean ± SEM) was significantly higher than that observed for thawed sperm (11 ± 2%). During the first experiment, no significant difference of the percentage of motile thawed sperm was observed among the three saline extenders tested: seawater, calcium-free Hanks' balanced salt solution (Ca-free HBSS) and DCSB4 solution. However, a complementary experiment (2) showed that a signifi- cantly higher percentage of motile thawed sperm was recorded using DCSB4 than with Ca-free HBSS as an extender. During the third experiment, sperm motility was higher when using polyethylene glycol (10% PEG) as a cryoprotec- tant, than when using dimethyl sulphoxide, DMSO (10 and 20%), methanol (10%) and ethylene glycol (10% EG). A higher D-larval rate was obtained during the fourth experiment, using fresh sperm than thawed sperm, and using a 500:1 sperm-to-egg ratio compared with a 50:1 ratio. There is some evidence of inter-individual variations in sperm tolerance to cryopreservation. In conclusion, the highest survival of great scallop sperm after thawing was recorded using the following conditions: DCSB4 extender (1:3 vol/vol sperm to extender dilution), PEG cryoprotectant (10%) and straws maintained at 5.5 cm above liquid nitrogen.
Use of the Challenge Point Framework to Guide Motor Learning of Stepping Reactions for Improved Balance Control in People With Stroke: A Case Series

Background and Purpose Stepping reactions are important for walking balance and community-level mobility. Stepping reactions of people with stroke are characterized by slow reaction times, poor coordination of motor responses, and low amplitude of movements, which may contribute to their decreased ability to recover their balance when challenged. An important aspect of rehabilitation of mobility after stroke is optimizing the motor learning associated with retraining effective stepping reactions. The Challenge Point Framework (CPF) is a model that can be used to promote motor learning through manipulation of conditions of practice to modify task difficulty, that is, the interaction of the skill of the learner and the difficulty of the task to be learned. This case series illustrates how the retraining of multidirectional stepping reactions may be informed by the CPF to improve balance function in people with stroke. Case Description Four people (53–68 years of age) with chronic stroke (>1 year) and mild to moderate motor recovery received 4 weeks of multidirectional stepping reaction retraining. Important tenets of motor learning were optimized for each person during retraining in accordance with the CPF. Outcomes Participants demonstrated improved community-level walking balance, as determined with the Community Balance and Mobility Scale. These improvements were evident 1 year later. Aspects of balance-related self-efficacy and movement kinematics also showed improvements during the course of the intervention. Discussion The application of CPF motor learning principles in the retraining of stepping reactions to improve community-level walking balance in people with chronic stroke appears to be promising. The CPF provides a plausible theoretical framework for the progression of functional task training in neurorehabilitation.
User Preference Based Automated Selection of Web Service Compositions

Semantically rich descriptions of web services enable automatic composition and matchmaking. End users as well as providers compose web services according to their needs. Since in general, there can be more than one possibilities (combinations of web services) to achieve a certain goal, a user has to decide which of the alternatives suits him the best. This leads to the requirement that the combinations of web services must be comparable. This can be achieved by aggregating web service attributes. Since the ranking of web service combinations depends on user’s needs, capabilities and willingness for investment of resources, considering user preferences is important while calculating the rank of a web service composition. We show, how user preferences as well as aggregation information can be modeled in a formal way and how web service combinations can be ranked automatically based on this information.
Ecosystem Decay of Amazonian Forest Fragments: a 22‐Year Investigation

Abstract: We synthesized key findings from the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, the world's largest and longest‐running experimental study of habitat fragmentation. Although initially designed to assess the influence of fragment area on Amazonian biotas, the project has yielded insights that go far beyond the original scope of the study. Results suggest that edge effects play a key role in fragment dynamics, that the matrix has a major influence on fragment connectivity and functioning, and that many Amazonian species avoid even small (<100‐m–wide) clearings. The effects of fragmentation are highly eclectic, altering species richness and abundances, species invasions, forest dynamics, the trophic structure of communities, and a variety of ecological and ecosystem processes. Moreover, forest fragmentation appears to interact synergistically with ecological changes such as hunting, fires, and logging, collectively posing an even greater threat to the rainforest biota.
Alveolar bone thickness around maxillary central incisors of different inclination assessed with cone-beam computed tomography

Objective To assess the labial and lingual alveolar bone thickness in adults with maxillary central incisors of different inclination by cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Methods Ninety maxillary central incisors from 45 patients were divided into three groups based on the maxillary central incisors to palatal plane angle; lingual-inclined, normal, and labial-inclined. Reformatted CBCT images were used to measure the labial and lingual alveolar bone thickness (ABT) at intervals corresponding to every 1/10 of the root length. The sum of labial ABT and lingual ABT at the level of the root apex was used to calculate the total ABT (TABT). The number of teeth exhibiting alveolar fenestration and dehiscence in each group was also tallied. One-way analysis of variance and Tukey's honestly significant difference test were applied for statistical analysis. Results The labial ABT and TABT values at the root apex in the lingual-inclined group were significantly lower than in the other groups (p < 0.05). Lingual and labial ABT values were very low at the cervical level in the lingual-inclined and normal groups. There was a higher prevalence of alveolar fenestration in the lingual-inclined group. Conclusions Lingual-inclined maxillary central incisors have less bone support at the level of the root apex and a greater frequency of alveolar bone defects than normal maxillary central incisors. The bone plate at the marginal level is also very thin.
Local-to-Global Principles for the Hitting Sequence of a Rotor Walk

In rotor walk on a finite directed graph, the exits from each vertex follow a prescribed periodic sequence. Here we consider the case of rotor walk where a particle starts from a designated source vertex and continues until it hits a designated target set, at which point the walk is restarted from the source. We show that the sequence of successively hit targets, which is easily seen to be eventually periodic, is in fact periodic. We show moreover that reversing the periodic patterns of all rotor sequences causes the periodic pattern of the hitting sequence to be reversed as well. The proofs involve a new notion of equivalence of rotor configurations, and an extension of rotor walk incorporating time-reversed particles.