Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gait Perception and Coordinated Control of a Novel Biped Robot with Heterogeneous Legs

This paper presents gait perception and coordinated control of a Biped robot with heterogeneous legs (BRHL), which is a new type of humanoid robot. This paper first introduces the concepts and research objectives of a BRHL. Then configuration of a BRHL is discussed in detail. The coordinated dynamics model and MR damper model are given. Rules based on gait perception are introduced. In the end, this paper discusses the control structure of a BRHL. Simulation and prototype of a BRHL are discussed. The research indicates that intelligent bionic leg controlled by MR damper can track artificial leg's gait well. A BRHL provides an ideal test-bed for advanced intelligent prosthesis
Compliant motion control for a humanoid robot in contact with the environment and humans

This paper introduces a new method that enables compliant joint control on a traditional joint position controlled system by using Torque to Position Transformer. In this method, torque control is accomplished by converting desired joint torques into instantaneous increments of joint position command. For each joint, the transformer was modeled based on the identification of the individual motor controller. This framework was experimentally implemented on the Honda ASIMO which is controlled by the traditional position controlled system. Decoupled task dynamics by the Operational Space Control was applied to realize compliant posture control and accurate task control. The paper presents the experimental results of the implementation which demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach. This proposed approach provides higher performance in compliant and safe motion which is required for motion in contact with the environment and human.
Targeting out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: the effect of heparin administered during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (T-ARREST)

Introduction. Heparin administration during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) may prevent activation of coagulation after successful resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). We hypothesize that such an approach is not associated with an increased rate of bleeding, but it has not been evaluated. We performed a pilot randomized clinical study assessing the safety of intra-arrest heparin administration in OHCA patients with suspected acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and its impact on their prognosis. Materials and Methods. OHCA patients were randomized during CPR to 10 000 units of intra-arrest intravenous heparin (Group H) or to treatment without heparin (Group C). The occurrence of major bleeding and the presence of a favourable neurological result 3 months after OHCA, were analyzed.Results. Out of 88 randomized patients, AMI was subsequently confirmed in 63 of them (71.6 %). There were 30 patients in group H and 33 in group C. No major bleeding event was observed in either group. Return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC, Group H: 40.0%, Group C: 45.4%, p=0.662) and a good neurological result 3 months after OHCA (Group H: 6.7 %, Group C: 9.1 %, p=0.921) did not differ between groups.Conclusions. Intravenous administration of 10 000 units of heparin during CPR for OHCA in patients with supposed AMI was safe. We did not find any improvement in prognosis for our sample of limited size. Though the procedure proved safe, we recommend postponing the administration of heparin until ROSC, assessment of clinical state and recording of a twelve-lead ECG.
Trends in Arrests for Child Pornography Production: The Third National Juvenile Online Victimization Study (NJOV‐3)

Arrests for the possession of child pornography (CP) increased between 2006 and 2009 by one‐third, continuing an increase that also occurred between 2000 and 2006. In 2009, a substantial proportion of arrested CP offenders used peer‐to‐peer (P2P) file sharing technology to access contraband images. These arrests may reflect the enhanced ability of law enforcement to monitor file sharing sites. CP possessors who used P2P technology tended to have more extreme images than other CP possessors, which may reflect police investigative methods. However, compared to 2006 arrests, those in 2009 turned up a somewhat smaller pro‐ portion of “dual offenders,” who had sexually abused children in addition to possessing child pornography. This bulletin reports on trends in arrests for possession of child pornography. It discusses changes in the characteristics of arrested offenders, the images they possessed and outcomes of cases. The data come from 3 waves of the National Juvenile Online Victimization (NJOV) Study that examined arrests in 2000, 2006 and 2009. See the end of this report for a descrip‐ tion of the methodology of the NJOV Study. Figure 1. Estimated number of arrests for child pornography possession, by year April 2012 Trends in Arrests for Child Pornography Possession: The Third National Juvenile Online Victimization Study (NJOV‐3) Janis Wolak, David Finkelhor & Kimberly J. Mitchell What is child pornography? Possession of child pornography (CP) is a felony under federal law and in every state. The federal statutes that criminalize CP possession define “child” as age 17 or younger, and CP as the “visual depiction . of sexually explicit conduct” (18 USCS 2256). The statute states that sexually explicit conduct in‐ cludes acts such as intercourse, bestiality, and masturbation, as well as “lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area. ” Most states mirror federal law, although there is some varia‐ tion in the definition of child and the content that is pro‐ scribed. 935 2,417 3,719 778 1,255 1,182
Feedback control of coronal plane hip angle in paraplegic subjects using functional neuromuscular stimulation

An investigation of feedback control of coronal plane posture in paraplegic subjects who stand using functional neuromuscular stimulation (FNS) is described. A feedback control system directed at regulating coronal plane hip angle in neutral position was designed, implemented, and evaluated in two paraplegic subjects. The feedback controller consisted of two-stages in cascade: a modified discrete-time proportional-integral-derivative (PID) stage and a nonlinear single-input, multiple-output stage to determine the stimulation to be sent to several muscles. The authors evaluate the performance of the feedback controller by comparing the response of the feedback-controlled system to that of an open-loop stimulation system. In an evaluation based on temporal response characteristics the controlled system exhibited at 41% reduction in root-mean-squared (RMS) error (where error is defined as the deviation from the desired angle), a 52% reduction in steady-state error, and a 22% reduction in hip compliance. The feedback-controlled system also exhibited significant reductions in the variability of these measures on several days. <<ETX>>
Social Networking as Ethical Discourse: Blogging a Practical and Normative Library Ethic

ABSTRACT Ethical codes have become static and the publication schedule in the scholarly literature cannot keep pace with the challenges facing the library profession. A dynamic, democratic ethical discourse is needed to define a pragmatic ethics that will meet ongoing dilemmas facing libraries. Social networking tools, and blogs in particular, have become a means for facilitating that conversation through the advent of a community of contributors sharing their values, debating ideals, and creating a forum to address conflicting opinions. This world of library bloggers has created a structure for an ongoing ethical discussion for libraries today.
Functional sub-division of the Drosophila genome via chromatin looping

Insulators help in organizing the eukaryotic genomes into physically and functionally autonomous regions through the formation of chromatin loops. Recent findings in Drosophila and vertebrates suggest that insulators anchor multiple loci through long-distance interactions which may be mechanistically linked to insulator function. Important to such processes in Drosophila is CP190, a common co-factor of insulator complexes. CP190 is also known to associate with the nuclear matrix, components of the RNAi machinery, active promoters and borders of the repressive chromatin domains. Although CP190 plays a pivotal role in insulator function in Drosophila, vertebrates lack a probable functional equivalent of CP190 and employ CTCF as the major factor to carry out insulator function/chromatin looping. In this review, we discuss the emerging role of CP190 in tethering genome, specifically in the perspective of insulator function in Drosophila. Future studies aiming genome-wide role of CP190 in chromatin looping is likely to give important insights into the mechanism of genome organization.
Effects of the menstrual cycle of white women on ethanol toxicokinetics.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the existing variations of the kinetics of ethanol in white women during the menstrual and luteal phases to further current understanding of the role of the menstrual cycle in gender differences in ethanol's adverse effects. METHOD In a within-subjects design, 10 female white volunteers were administered a moderate dose of ethanol (0.3 g/kg) in the morning after an overnight fast. On each test day, blood samples were collected before ethanol administration so that hormonal (estrogen, progesterone, luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone) and biochemical (hepatic and renal functions) analyses could be performed. Blood samples were also drawn from each volunteer to determine BAC and to examine toxicokinetic differences between the two phases using classical and Widmark's measures. RESULTS The analysis of time-to-peak BAC in the two menstrual phases shows that there was no significant statistical difference when each phase was evaluated and in the interaction of the phase with time. The estimated toxicokinetic parameters did not show significant differences when the two phases were compared. CONCLUSIONS Despite careful experimental design, which considered present debate and discussion in the literature, no significant differences between the two phases studied (menstrual and luteal) were observed.
Varieties of elliptic solitons

We set out a method for giving explicit algebraic coordinates on varieties of elliptic solitons, which consists of finding the spectral curve by elimination and solving the Jacobi inversion problem by the use of Kleinian functions and their identities. As an example we solve a five-particle elliptic Calogero-Moser system, whose spectral curve turns out to be completely reducible over three equianharmonic elliptic curves.
The identification, development, succession and retention of leadership talent in contextually different primary schools: a case study located within the English West Midlands

This article explores head teacher and middle leader perceptions of leadership talent identification, development, succession and retention in 12 contextually different urban primary schools. The schools are located within a single local education authority in the English West Midlands. The study is constructed to inform the research agenda in the face of a looming leadership recruitment and retention crisis in the UK and overseas. Outcomes of the study tentatively indicate both agreement and discordance between features of leadership talent thought important by head teachers and the features some middle leaders perceive that need to be demonstrated in order to progress. Succession planning in the sample schools appeared unstructured, although the contextual issue of size appeared to offer some interesting possibilities for smaller schools. The journey of transition towards a professional identity of ‘leader’ is considered. This journey appears to represent a potential barrier for some middle leaders as they consider senior leadership. It is suggested that overcoming shortfalls in aspirant leader learning trajectories appears to reside largely in the hands of their head teachers on a day-to-day basis.
The Vertebrate Body Axis : Evolution and Mechanical Function

SYNOPSIS. The body axis of vertebrates is an integrated cylinder of bones, connective tissue, and muscle. These structures vary among living and extinct vertebrates in their orientation, composition, and function in ways that render useless simplistic models of the selective pressures that may have driven the evolution of the axis. Instead, recent experimental work indicates that the vertebrate axis serves multiple mechanical functions simultaneously: bending the body, storing elastic energy, transmitting forces from limbs, and ventilating the lungs. On the biochemical level, research on human intervertebral discs has shown that collagens resist tension and torsion while proteoglycans bind water to resist compression. This molecular behavior predicts mechanical behavior of the entire joint, which, in turn helps determine the mechanical behavior of the vertebral column. The axial skeleton, in turn, is reconfigured by axial muscles that work by way of three-dimensional connective tissues that derive mechanical advantage for the muscle force by using the skin to increase leverage. Models may eventually help determine which evolutionary changes in the vertebrate body axis have had important functional and possibly adaptational consequences. Current reconstruction of the hypothetical stem lineage of early chordates and vertebrates suggests that the gradual mineralization of the vertebral elements, appearance of fin rays and new median fins, and transverse and then horizontal segmentation of the axial musculature are all features correlated with increases in swimming speed, maneuverability, and body size.
Angiosome‐targeted revascularisation in diabetic foot ulcers

Peripheral vascular disease is a common complication of type 2 diabetes and is often more severe and diffuse than in non‐diabetic individuals with a higher risk of major amputations in the lower limbs. Diabetic foot revascularisation using both traditional bypass surgery and endovascular therapy are often burdened by the failure and the inevitable subsequent massive amputation. In this study, we examined the clinical response of diabetic patients with critical limb ischaemia and extended ischaemic wounds, treated with a new angiosome‐based revascularisation technique. In a 3‐year period, nine diabetic patients with imminent amputation threatening and foot ulcers with no feasible arterial revascularisation options were treated by the angiosome‐based surgical technique by means of deep vein arterialisation. The postoperative tcPO2 evaluation showed a mean increase in the cutaneous oxygen tension in all patients treated. The overall survival rates were 88·88%, 88·88% and 77·77% at 12, 24 and 36 months, respectively. Limb salvage was 100% at 1 year and steady at 88·88% thereafter. Surgical deep venous arterialisation might be considered as an extreme alternative to attempt tissue preservation in limbs unfit for conventional arterial revascularisations. This technique would give advantages to the patients in terms of better compliance to the minor amputations and thus avoiding major limb amputations.
Learning from competing partners: outcomes and durations of scale and link alliances in Europe, North America and Asia

This paper investigates the outcomes and durations of strategic alliances among competing firms, using alliance outcomes as indicators of learning by partner firms. We show that alliance outcomes vary systematically across link and scale alliances. Link alliances are interfirm partnerships to which partners contribute different capabilities, while scale alliances are partnerships to which partners contribute similar capabilities. We find that partners are more likely to reorganize or take over link alliances than scale alliances. By contrast, scale alliances are more likely to continue without material changes. The two types of alliances are equally likely to shut down, at similar ages. These results support the view that link alliances lead to greater levels of learning and capability acquisition between the partners than do scale alliances. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Discovery and Prevalidation of Salivary Extracellular microRNA Biomarkers Panel for the Noninvasive Detection of Benign and Malignant Parotid Gland Tumors

Purpose: This study was conducted to explore the differences in salivary microRNA (miRNA) profiles between patients with malignant or benign parotid gland tumors as a potential preoperative diagnostic tool of tumors in the salivary glands. Experimental Design: Whole saliva samples from patients with malignant (n = 38) or benign (n = 29) parotid gland tumors were obtained from the Salivary Gland Tumor Biorepository (SGTB). After total RNA isolation, human miRNA cards were used for miRNA profiling. The differential miRNA expression was analyzed using two-sided Wilcoxon test. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to validate selected miRNAs in an independent sample set. Receiver-operating characteristics curve and probability of malignancy was exploited to evaluate the diagnostic power of the validated miRNAs. Results: With miRNA profiling, 57 of 750 investigated miRNAs were differently expressed, of which 54 showed higher miRNA expression in samples from patients with malignant tumors than those from patients with benign tumors. Validating the expression in an independent sample set of 9 miRNAs revealed indeed higher expression of miRNAs in malignant samples compared with benign samples. The expression of 6 validated miRNAs was statistically significantly different between the two groups (P < 0.05). A four miRNA combination was able to discriminate between saliva samples from patients with malignant tumors from those of patients with benign parotid gland tumors (sensitivity 69%, specificity 95%). Conclusions: Salivary miRNA profiles differ in saliva from patients with malignant from saliva from patients with a benign parotid gland tumor. These preliminary results are promising to develop a noninvasive diagnostic tool for diagnosing tumors in the salivary glands. Clin Cancer Res; 19(11); 3032–8. ©2013 AACR.
Comparison of VITEK 2 with ITS2-Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis for Identification of Yeast Species

ABSTRACT A total of 61 clinical yeast isolates of Candida, Cryptococcus, Blastoschizomyces, and Saccharomyces spp. were used to compare two identification techniques, VITEK 2 and ITS2-fragment length polymorphism analysis (ITS2-FLP), with ID32C as the reference method. ID32C identified 58 isolates correctly. ITS2-FLP with Instagene DNA extraction identified 59 isolates. ITS2-FLP combined with boiling-freezing DNA extraction identified 55 isolates. VITEK 2 identified 41 isolates correctly.
MSejrKu at SemEval-2016 Task 14: Taxonomy Enrichment by Evidence Ranking

Automatic enrichment of semantic taxonomies with novel data is a relatively unexplored task with potential benefits in a broad array of natural language processing problems. Task 14 of SemEval 2016 poses the challenge of designing systems for this task. In this paper, we describe and evaluate several machine learning systems constructed for our participation in the competition. We demonstrate an f1-score of 0.680 for our submitted systems — a small improvement over the 0.679 produced by the hard baseline.
Diabetes as a Determinant of Mortality in Cystic Fibrosis

OBJECTIVE Diabetes is increasingly common in cystic fibrosis, but little information describing its influence on mortality exists. Using national U.K. data, in this study we document diabetes-specific mortality rates, estimate the impact of diabetes on survival, and estimate population-attributable fractions. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This retrospective cohort study identified 8,029 individuals aged 0–65 years from the U.K. Cystic Fibrosis Registry (1996–2005). A total of 5,892 patients were included in analyses of mortality rates, and 4,234 were included in analyses of risk factors. We calculated age-adjusted mortality rates using Poisson regression, standardized mortality ratios using the population of England and Wales, and relative risks using proportional hazards modeling. RESULTS During 17,672 person-years of follow-up, 393 subjects died. The age-adjusted mortality rate was 1.8 per 100 person-years (95% CI 1.6–2.0). The age-adjusted mortality rates per 100 person-years were 2.0 (1.8–2.4) in female subjects and 1.6 (1.4–1.9) in male subjects, and 4.2 (3.4–5.1) in individuals with diabetes vs. 1.5 (1.3–1.7) in those without diabetes. Independent risk factors for death included diabetes (hazard ratio 1.31 [95% CI 1.03–1.67], female sex (1.71 [1.36–2.14]) plus poorer pulmonary function, lower BMI, Burkholderia cepacia infection, absence of Staphylococcus aureus infection, allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, liver disease, prior organ transplantation, and corticosteroid use. CONCLUSIONS Individuals with cystic fibrosis die earlier if they have diabetes, which, if delayed or better treated, might reasonably extend survival; this hypothesis merits testing.
Implementing NOT EXISTS Predicates over a Probabilistic Database

Systems for managing uncertain data need to support queries with negated subgoals, which are typically expressed in SQL through the NOT EXISTS predicate. For example, the user of an RFID tracking system may want to find all RFID tags (people or objects) that have traveled from a point A to a point C without going through a point D. Such queries are difficult to support in a probabilistic database management system, because offending tuples do not necessarily disqualify an answer, but only decrease its probability. In this paper, we present an approach for supporting queries with NOT EXISTS in a probabilistic database management system, by leveraging the existing query processing infrastructure. Our approach is to break up the query into multiple, monotone queries, which can be evaluated in the current system, then to combine their probabilities by addition and subtraction to compute that of the original query. We will also describe how this technique was integrated with MystiQ, and how we incorporated the top-k multi-simulation and safe-plans optimizations.