Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The moment before touchdown: landing manoeuvres of the honeybee Apis mellifera

SUMMARY Although landing is a crucial part of insect flight, it has attracted relatively little study. Here, we investigate, for the first time, the final moments of a honeybee's (Apis mellifera) landing manoeuvre. Using high-speed video recordings, we analyse the behaviour of bees as they approach and land on surfaces of various orientations. The bees enter a stable hover phase, immediately prior to touchdown. We have quantified behaviour during this hover phase and examined whether it changes as the tilt of the landing surface is varied from horizontal (floor), through sloped (uphill) and vertical (wall), to inverted (ceiling). The bees hover at a remarkably constant distance from the surface, irrespective of its tilt. Body inclination increases progressively as the tilt of the surface is increased, and is accompanied by an elevation of the antennae. The tight correlation between the tilt of the surface, and the orientation of the body and the antennae, indicates that the bee's visual system is capable of inferring the tilt of the surface, and pointing the antennae toward it. Touchdown is initiated by extending the appendage closest to the surface, namely, the hind legs when landing on horizontal or sloping surfaces, and the front legs or antennae when landing on vertical surfaces. Touchdown on inverted surfaces is most likely triggered by a mechanosensory signal from the antennae. Evidently, bees use a landing strategy that is flexibly tailored to the varying topography of the terrain.
Electrocorticographic representations of segmental features in continuous speech

Acoustic speech output results from coordinated articulation of dozens of muscles, bones and cartilages of the vocal mechanism. While we commonly take the fluency and speed of our speech productions for granted, the neural mechanisms facilitating the requisite muscular control are not completely understood. Previous neuroimaging and electrophysiology studies of speech sensorimotor control has typically concentrated on speech sounds (i.e., phonemes, syllables and words) in isolation; sentence-length investigations have largely been used to inform coincident linguistic processing. In this study, we examined the neural representations of segmental features (place and manner of articulation, and voicing status) in the context of fluent, continuous speech production. We used recordings from the cortical surface [electrocorticography (ECoG)] to simultaneously evaluate the spatial topography and temporal dynamics of the neural correlates of speech articulation that may mediate the generation of hypothesized gestural or articulatory scores. We found that the representation of place of articulation involved broad networks of brain regions during all phases of speech production: preparation, execution and monitoring. In contrast, manner of articulation and voicing status were dominated by auditory cortical responses after speech had been initiated. These results provide a new insight into the articulatory and auditory processes underlying speech production in terms of their motor requirements and acoustic correlates.
Bioinspired Nanoparticles for Efficient Drug Delivery System

Bioinspired nanoparticles have been involved in biomedicine field such as biosensors and drug delivery due to their small size and interesting characteristics that made them highly biocompatible, less toxic and hence greater influence on the biological systems. An effective drug delivery system can be achieved when applying these bioinspired material and herein we present several research work that involved bioinspired nanotechnology in drug delivery for cancer, therapeutic genes, calcium apatite nanocomposites, protein drugs and others.
Three-dimensional process stability prediction of thin-walled workpiece in milling operation

ABSTRACT High-speed machining of thin-walled workpiece is widely used in aerospace industry. To optimize the machining parameters in milling operations, the related process stability is required to be predicted. Compared to the existing two-dimensional (2D) milling stability model, a more completed three-dimensional (3D) regenerative process stability prediction model of thin-walled workpiece is presented based on the newly developed dynamic model. The efficiency and accuracy of the regenerative milling stability can be improved in the presented 3D model. The analysis procedure of the stability of flexible dynamic milling is developed in details. The 3D stability lobes are calculated according to the full discretization method and direct integration scheme. To verify the accuracy of presented 3D stability model, the thin-walled workpiece milling sound pressure signal and surface quality are determined in experiments.
Fecal microbial dysbiosis in Chinese patients with inflammatory bowel disease

AIM To analyze the alterations of fecal microbiota in Chinese patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). METHODS Fecal samples from 15 patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) (11 active CD, 4 inactive CD), 14 patients with active ulcerative colitis (UC) and 13 healthy individuals were collected and subjected to 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) gene sequencing. The V4 hypervariable regions of 16S rDNA gene were amplified from all samples and sequenced by the Illumina MiSeq platform. Quality control and operational taxonomic units classification of reads were calculated with QIIME software. Alpha diversity and beta diversity were displayed with R software. RESULTS Community richness (chao) and microbial structure in both CD and UC were significantly different from those in normal controls. At the phyla level, analysis of the microbial compositions revealed a significantly greater abundance of Proteobacteria in IBD as compared to that in controls. At the genera level, 8 genera in CD and 23 genera in UC (in particular, the Escherichia genus) showed significantly greater abundance as compared to that in normal controls. The relative abundance of Bacteroidetes in the active CD group was markedly lower than that in the inactive CD group. The abundance of Proteobacteria in patients with active CD was nominally higher than that in patients with inactive CD; however, the difference was not statistically significant after correction. Furthermore, the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes showed a negative correlation with the CD activity index scores. CONCLUSION Our study profiles specific characteristics and microbial dysbiosis in the gut of Chinese patients with IBD. Bacteroidetes may have a negative impact on inflammatory development.
Treatment trends in patients with asthma–COPD overlap syndrome in a COPD cohort: findings from a real-world survey

Background Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) overlap syndrome (ACOS) is an increasingly recognized phenotype. Few randomized clinical trials have been conducted in patients with ACOS; therefore, scientific evidence concerning ACOS is scarce and a therapeutic approach remains unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate current treatment trends for patients with ACOS, identified as those with a dual definition of asthma and COPD, in a real-world COPD cohort. Methods Data were analyzed from patients with asthma and COPD in the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK who participated in the 2012 and 2013 Adelphi Respiratory Disease Specific Programmes (DSPs). Patients with ACOS were identified in the COPD population; these patients had a physician-confirmed, concomitant asthma diagnosis. Physicians completed a patient record form providing information on patient and disease characteristics including prescribed respiratory treatment. Pairwise comparisons were made between the ACOS, asthma, and COPD populations using χ2 tests. Results In total, 9,042 patients with asthma-only, 7,119 patients with COPD-only, and 523 patients with ACOS (a dual diagnosis of asthma and COPD) participated in the study. The most commonly prescribed regimens were inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting β2-agonist (ICS/LABA) + long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA); (ACOS 30%, asthma 1.4%, and COPD 32%), ICS/LABA (19%, 41.5%, and 17%, respectively), and LAMA (6%, 0.4%, and 19%, respectively); 18% of patients with ACOS were not prescribed an ICS. Patients with ACOS had a significantly higher incidence of gastroesophageal reflux disease, diabetes, and obesity and experienced more exacerbations in the past year than those with COPD or asthma. Conclusions The majority of patients with ACOS, as defined in this research, were prescribed similar treatment to those with COPD. There is a need, however, for better treatment for patients with ACOS, as indicated by symptoms and exacerbation levels. A clearer therapeutic approach for patients with ACOS is required.
Preparation and Characterization of Ca-alginate-chitosan Capsules for Controlled Release of Imidacloprid as Larvaecide Delivery System

Ca-alginate-chitosan based capsules were prepared and then loaded with imidacloprid larvaecide for its controlled release against Aedes aegypti larvae. The Ca-alginate-chitosan capsules containing imidacloprid were characterized using FTIR and SEM. Imidacloprid encapsulation was proven through HPLC analysis. Imidacloprid loading and encapsulation efficiency were 5.9 % and 34 %. The in vitro release test showed that the usage of Ca-alginate-chitosan capsules positively modified the release profiles of the imidocloprid in water. The imidacloprid release kinetics fit the Korsmeyer--Peppas model and follows the anomalous transport profile. The bioassay results showed that Ca-alginate-chitosan capsule loaded with imidacloprid is effective against Aedes aegypti larvae at lower doses than that required by the technical grade imidacloprid for the control of Aedes aegypti larvae.
Rapid Communication with a “P300” Matrix Speller Using Electrocorticographic Signals (ECoG)

A brain–computer interface (BCI) can provide a non-muscular communication channel to severely disabled people. One particular realization of a BCI is the P300 matrix speller that was originally described by Farwell and Donchin (1988). This speller uses event-related potentials (ERPs) that include the P300 ERP. All previous online studies of the P300 matrix speller used scalp-recorded electroencephalography (EEG) and were limited in their communication performance to only a few characters per minute. In our study, we investigated the feasibility of using electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals for online operation of the matrix speller, and determined associated spelling rates. We used the matrix speller that is implemented in the BCI2000 system. This speller used ECoG signals that were recorded from frontal, parietal, and occipital areas in one subject. This subject spelled a total of 444 characters in online experiments. The results showed that the subject sustained a rate of 17 characters/min (i.e., 69 bits/min), and achieved a peak rate of 22 characters/min (i.e., 113 bits/min). Detailed analysis of the results suggests that ERPs over visual areas (i.e., visual evoked potentials) contribute significantly to the performance of the matrix speller BCI system. Our results also point to potential reasons for the apparent advantages in spelling performance of ECoG compared to EEG. Thus, with additional verification in more subjects, these results may further extend the communication options for people with serious neuromuscular disabilities.
A Near-Optimal Depth-Hierarchy Theorem for Small-Depth Multilinear Circuits

We study the size blow-up that is necessary to convert an algebraic circuit of product-depth δ+1 to one of product-depth δ in the multilinear setting. We show that for every positive δ = δ(n) = o(log n/log log n), there is an explicit multilinear polynomial P^(δ) on n variables that can be computed by a multilinear formula of product-depth δ+1 and size O(n), but not by any multilinear circuit of product-depth δ and size less than exp(n^Ω(1/δ)). This result is tight up to the constant implicit in the double exponent for all δ = o(log n/log log n). This strengthens a result of Raz and Yehudayoff (Computational Complexity 2009) who prove a quasipolynomial separation for constant-depth multilinear circuits, and a result of Kayal, Nair and Saha (STACS 2016) who give an exponential separation in the case δ = 1. Our separating examples may be viewed as algebraic analogues of variants of the Graph Reachability problem studied by Chen, Oliveira, Servedio and Tan (STOC 2016), who used them to prove lower bounds for constant-depth Boolean circuits.
Brain Lateralization of Emotional Processing in Depression

There are three major hypotheses regarding the lateralization of emotion in the brain— the right-hemisphere hypothesis (RHH), the valence hypothesis, and the approachwithdrawal hypothesis. The approach-withdrawal hypothesis, which is the most widely accepted, states that emotions that elicit approach behaviors are lateralized to the left hemisphere, while emotions that elicit withdrawal behaviors are lateralized to the right hemisphere. In line with this hypothesis, it has been found that persons with depression show left frontal hypoactivity and right frontal hyperactivity. This hemispheric asymmetry appears not to influence mood but rather emotional reactions to affective stimuli. That is, a person with such an asymmetry does not show a predominant negative mood, but rather heightened negative reactions to occurrences in the environment. The asymmetry may also be a biological marker of depression, with research evidence that it is found in remitted depressives and in infants of depressed mothers. Currently, research in this area focuses on identifying the mechanism underlying the link between the asymmetry and depression.
Pricing Strategies to Encourage Availability, Purchase, and Consumption of Healthy Foods and Beverages: A Systematic Review

Introduction Food pricing policies to promote healthy diets, such as taxes, price manipulations, and food subsidies, have been tested in different settings. However, little consensus exists about the effect of these policies on the availability of healthy and unhealthy foods, on what foods consumers buy, or on the impact of food purchases on consumer health outcomes. We conducted a systematic review of studies of the effect of food-pricing interventions on retail sales and on consumer purchasing and consumption of healthy foods and beverages. Methods We used MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the Cochrane Library to conduct a systematic search for peer-reviewed articles related to studies of food pricing policies. We selected articles that were published in English from January 2000 through December 2016 on the following types of studies: 1) real-world experimental studies (randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental studies, and natural experiments); 2) population studies of people or retail stores in middle-income and high-income countries; 3) pricing interventions alone or in combination with other strategies (price promotions, coupons, taxes, or cash-back rebates), excluding studies of vending-machine or online sales; and 4) outcomes studies at the retail (stocking, sales) and consumer (purchasing, consumption) levels. We selected 65 articles representing 30 studies for review. Results Sixteen pricing intervention studies that sought to improve access to healthy food and beverage options reported increased stocking and sales of promoted food items. Most studies (n = 23) reported improvement in the purchasing and consumption of healthy foods or beverages or decreased purchasing and consumption of unhealthy foods or beverages. Most studies assessed promotions of fresh fruits and vegetables (n = 20); however, these foods may be hard to source, have high perishability, and raise concerns about safety and handling. Few of the pricing studies we reviewed discouraged purchasing and consumption of unhealthy foods (n = 6). Many studies we reviewed had limitations, including lack of formative research, process evaluation, or psychosocial and health assessments of the intervention’s impact; short intervention duration; or no assessment of food substitutions or the effects of pricing interventions on food purchasing and diets. Conclusion Pricing interventions generally increased stocking, sales, purchasing, and consumption of promoted foods and beverages. Additional studies are needed to differentiate the potential impact of selected pricing strategies and policies over others.
Active Mini-Batch Sampling using Repulsive Point Processes

The convergence speed of stochastic gradient descent (SGD) can be improved by actively selecting mini-batches. We explore sampling schemes where similar data points are less likely to be selected in the same mini-batch. In particular, we prove that such repulsive sampling schemes lower the variance of the gradient estimator. This generalizes recent work on using Determinantal Point Processes (DPPs) for mini-batch diversification (Zhang et al., 2017) to the broader class of repulsive point processes. We first show that the phenomenon of variance reduction by diversified sampling generalizes in particular to non-stationary point processes. We then show that other point processes may be computationally much more efficient than DPPs. In particular, we propose and investigate Poisson Disk sampling—frequently encountered in the computer graphics community—for this task. We show empirically that our approach improves over standard SGD both in terms of convergence speed as well as final model performance.
Consensus Recommendations for Treatment Strategies in Indians Using Botulinum Toxin and Hyaluronic Acid Fillers

Background: Indians constitute one of the largest population groups in the world. Facial anthropometry, morphology, and age-related changes in Indians differ from those of other ethnic groups, necessitating a good understanding of their facial structure and the required aesthetic treatment strategies. However, published recommendations specific to Indians are few, particularly regarding combination treatment. Methods: The Indian Facial Aesthetics Expert Group (19 dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and aesthetic physicians with a mean 15.5 years’ aesthetic treatment experience) met to develop consensus recommendations for the cosmetic facial use of botulinum toxin and hyaluronic acid fillers, alone and in combination, in Indians. Treatment strategies and dosage recommendations (agreed by ≥ 75% of the group) were based on results of a premeeting survey, peer-reviewed literature, and the experts’ clinical experience. Results: The need for combination treatment increases with age. Tear trough deficiency is the most common midface indication in Indian women aged 20–40 years. In older women, malar volume loss and jowls are the most common aesthetic concerns. Excess medial soft tissue on a relatively smaller midface precedes age-related sagging. Hence, in older Indians, fillers should be used peripherally to achieve lift and conservatively in the medial zones to avoid adding bulk medially. The shorter, wider lower face requires 3-dimensional correction, including chin augmentation, to achieve increased facial height and the oval shape desired by most Indian women. Conclusions: These recommendations give physicians treating Indians worldwide a better understanding of their unique facial characteristics and provide treatment strategies to achieve optimal aesthetic outcomes.
Liquid exfoliated graphene smart layer for structural health monitoring of composites

Graphene nanosheets were exfoliated from graphite using liquid exfoliation method. Smart sensing layer was prepared by dispersing graphene nanosheets in thermoplastic polyurethane. The smart sensing layers thus obtained were pasted on to the glass fiber laminated composite specimens. The sensing layer due to its piezoresistivity was employed for detecting strains in the composite specimens. The results show that the smart sensing layer can be employed for strain sensing in the composite structures. The results hold promise for various applications of these sensors for structural health monitoring in composite parts.
Long-Term Effects of Chronic Light Pollution on Seasonal Functions of European Blackbirds (Turdus merula)

Light pollution is known to affect important biological functions of wild animals, including daily and annual cycles. However, knowledge about long-term effects of chronic exposure to artificial light at night is still very limited. Here we present data on reproductive physiology, molt and locomotor activity during two-year cycles of European blackbirds (Turdus merula) exposed to either dark nights or 0.3 lux at night. As expected, control birds kept under dark nights exhibited two regular testicular and testosterone cycles during the two-year experiment. Control urban birds developed testes faster than their control rural conspecifics. Conversely, while in the first year blackbirds exposed to light at night showed a normal but earlier gonadal cycle compared to control birds, during the second year the reproductive system did not develop at all: both testicular size and testosterone concentration were at baseline levels in all birds. In addition, molt sequence in light-treated birds was more irregular than in control birds in both years. Analysis of locomotor activity showed that birds were still synchronized to the underlying light-dark cycle. We suggest that the lack of reproductive activity and irregular molt progression were possibly the results of i) birds being stuck in a photorefractory state and/or ii) chronic stress. Our data show that chronic low intensities of light at night can dramatically affect the reproductive system. Future studies are needed in order to investigate if and how urban animals avoid such negative impact and to elucidate the physiological mechanisms behind these profound long-term effects of artificial light at night. Finally we call for collaboration between scientists and policy makers to limit the impact of light pollution on animals and ecosystems.
Multi-Residential Activity Labelling in Smart Homes with Wearable Tags Using BLE Technology

Smart home platforms show promising outcomes to provide a better quality of life for residents in their homes. One of the main challenges that exists with these platforms in multi-residential houses is activity labeling. As most of the activity sensors do not provide any information regarding the identity of the person who triggers them, it is difficult to label the sensor events in multi-residential smart homes. To deal with this challenge, individual localization in different areas can be a promising solution. The localization information can be used to automatically label the activity sensor data to individuals. Bluetooth low energy (BLE) is a promising technology for this application due to how easy it is to implement and its low energy footprint. In this approach, individuals wear a tag that broadcasts its unique identity (ID) in certain time intervals, while fixed scanners listen to the broadcasting packet to localize the tag and the individual. However, the localization accuracy of this method depends greatly on different settings of broadcasting signal strength, and the time interval of BLE tags. To achieve the best localization accuracy, this paper studies the impacts of different advertising time intervals and power levels, and proposes an efficient and applicable algorithm to select optimal value settings of BLE sensors. Moreover, it proposes an automatic activity labeling method, through integrating BLE localization information and ambient sensor data. The applicability and effectiveness of the proposed structure is also demonstrated in a real multi-resident smart home scenario.