Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic Sliding Mode Controller for Trajectory Tracking Of Nonholonomic Mobile Robots

Abstract In this paper, a Dynamic Sliding Mode Controller (DSMC) is proposed for trajectory tracking control of a nonholonomic Wheeled Mobile Robot (WMR) in which the centroid doesn't coincide to the connection center of driving wheels. This robust controller is designed based on the developed dynamical model of WMR in Cartesian coordinates, therefore, the application limits in polar coordinates is removed. The asymptotic stability and the convergence of WMR to the desired position, velocity and orientation trajectories are proved according to the Lyapanove's direct method. Simulation results show the superiority of the proposed DSMC to the recent methods.
Human DNA Repair Genes

Cellular DNA is subjected to continual attack, both by reactive species inside cells and by environmental agents. Toxic and mutagenic consequences are minimized by distinct pathways of repair, and 130 known human DNA repair genes are described here. Notable features presently include four enzymes that can remove uracil from DNA, seven recombination genes related to RAD51, and many recently discovered DNA polymerases that bypass damage, but only one system to remove the main DNA lesions induced by ultraviolet light. More human DNA repair genes will be found by comparison with model organisms and as common folds in three-dimensional protein structures are determined. Modulation of DNA repair should lead to clinical applications including improvement of radiotherapy and treatment with anticancer drugs and an advanced understanding of the cellular aging process.
T OWARDS D ESIGNING R ANKING S YSTEMS FOR H OTELS ON T RAVEL S EARCH E NGINES : C OMBINING T EXT M INING AND I MAGE C LASSIFICATION WITH

In this paper, we empirically estimate the economic value of different hotel characteristics, especially the location-based and service-based characteristics given the associated local infrastructure. We build a random coefficients-based structural model taking into consideration the multiple-levels of consumer heterogeneity introduced by different travel contexts and different hotel characteristics. We estimate this econometric model with a unique dataset of hotel reservations located in the US over 3 months and user-generated content data that was processed based on techniques from text mining, image classification, and on-demand annotations. This enables us to infer the economic significance of various hotel characteristics. We then propose to design a new hotel ranking system based on the empirical estimates that take into account the multi-dimensional preferences of customers and imputes consumer surplus from transactions for a given hotel. By doing so, we are able to provide customers with the “best value for money” hotels. Based on blind tests of users from Amazon Mechanical Turk, we test our ranking system with some benchmark hotel ranking systems. We find that our system performs significantly better than existing ones. This suggests that our inter-disciplinary approach has the potential to improve the quality of hotel search.
New nearby stars selected in a high proper motion survey by DENIS photometry

We present new nearby stars extracted from a proper motion catalogue and having a DENIS counterpart. Their distances and spectral type are estimated using the DENIS colours. 107 stars are within 50 pc. 31 stars among them have previously measured distances. In addition, 40 stars may enter within the 50 pc limit depending on which population they belong to. 6 stars among them have already measured distances. 5 objects, LHS5045, L225-57, LP831-45, LHS1767, and WT792, are probably closer than 15 pc, with L225-57 at 9.5 pc. Most of these stars are M-type while 4 stars are white dwarfs. 88 M-dwarfs are disc stars, 14 belong to the thick disc and 1 to the spheroid.
Informing risk assessment through estimating interaction rates between Australian sea lions and Western Australia’s temperate demersal gillnet fisheries.

The information produced by this study will be of value to industry and managers for at least the following reasons. Firstly, the completion of this research satisfies part of condition 5(a) of the fisheries Wildlife Trade Operation accreditation under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999) that allows for continued export from WA’s temperate demersal gillnet fisheries, i.e. “to undertake a study to estimate risk of interactions between (gillnet) fishers and Australian sea lions” in WA. The information generated by this study will be used by the Department of Fisheries, WA, to investigate the appropriateness and design of a future observer program for monitoring ASL/fishery interactions and potentially for developing strategies for mitigating any risks posed to individual ASL colonies by gillnetting. Secondly, the model and information developed during this project could assist WA’s commercial gillnet fisheries to pursue Marine Stewardship Council accreditation to demonstrate the ecological sustainability of this regionally important fishery. Lastly, the information produced by this study will be relevant to imminent discussions on marine park planning in WA.
The Einstein Observatory Detection of Faint X-Ray Flashes

We report on the result of an extensive search for X-ray counterparts to Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB) using data acquired with the Imaging Proportional Counter (IPC) on-board the Einstein Observatory. We examine background sky fields from all pointed observations for short timescale (~10 sec) transient X-ray phenomena not associated a-priori with detectable point sources. A total of 1.5 X 10^7 seconds of exposure time was searched on arc-minute spatial scales down to a limiting sensitivity of 10^-11 erg/cm^2/sec in the 0.2-3.5 keV IPC band. Forty-two highly significant X-ray flashes (Poisson probability < 10^-7 of being produced by statistical fluctuations) are discovered, of which eighteen have spectra consistent with an extragalactic origin and lightcurves similar to the Ginga-detected X-ray counterparts to GRB. Great care is taken to identify and exclude instrumental and observational artifacts; we develop a set of tests to cull events which may be associated with spacecraft or near-Earth space backgrounds. The flashes are found to be distributed isotropically on the sky and have an approximately Euclidean number-size relation. They are not associated with any known sources and, in particular, they do not correlate with the nearby galaxy distribution. Whether or not these flashes are astrophysical and/or associated with GRB, the limits imposed by the search described herein produces important constraints on GRB models. In this paper, we discuss possible origins for these flashes; in a companion paper, Hamilton, Gotthelf, and Helfand (1996) we use the results of our search to constrain strongly all halo models for GRB.
Optoelectronic Properties and Structural Characterization of GaN Thick Films on Different Substrates through Pulsed Laser Deposition

Approximately 4-μm-thick GaN epitaxial films were directly grown onto a GaN/sapphire template, sapphire, Si(111), and Si(100) substrates by high-temperature pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The influence of the substrate type on the crystalline quality, surface morphology, microstructure, and stress states was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL), atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Raman spectroscopy. Raman scattering spectral analysis showed a compressive film stress of −0.468 GPa for the GaN/sapphire template, whereas the GaN films on sapphire, Si(111), and Si(100) exhibited a tensile stress of 0.21, 0.177, and 0.081 GPa, respectively. Comparative analysis indicated the growth of very close to stress-free GaN on the Si(100) substrate due to the highly directional energetic precursor migration on the substrate’s surface and the release of stress in the nucleation of GaN films during growth by the high-temperature (1000 °C) operation of PLD. Moreover, TEM images revealed that no significant GaN meltback (Ga–Si) etching process was found in the GaN/Si sample surface. These results indicate that PLD has great potential for developing stress-free GaN templates on different substrates and using them for further application in optoelectronic devices.
Celiac disease in autoimmune cholestatic liver disorders

OBJECTIVES:In this study, serological screening for celiac disease (CD) was performed in patients with autoimmune cholestasis to define the prevalence of such an association and to evaluate the impact of gluten withdrawal on liver disease associated with gluten sensitive enteropathy.METHODS:Immunoglobulin A endomysial, human and guinea pig tissue transglutaminase antibodies, and immunoglobulin A and G gliadin antibodies were sought in 255 patients with primary biliary cirrhosis, autoimmune cholangitis, and primary sclerosing cholangitis.RESULTS:Immunoglobulin A endomysial and human tissue transglutaminase antibodies were positive in nine patients (seven primary biliary cirrhosis, one autoimmune cholangitis, and one primary sclerosing cholangitis), whose duodenal biopsy results showed villous atrophy consistent with CD. Two of these patients had a malabsorption syndrome, and one had iron-deficiency anemia. Clinical and biochemical signs of cholestasis did not improve after gluten withdrawal in the three patients with severe liver disease. A longer follow-up of the six celiac patients with mild liver damage is needed to clarify whether gluten restriction can contribute to slow down the progression of liver disease.CONCLUSIONS:The high prevalence of CD (3.5%) in autoimmune cholestasis suggests that serological screening for CD should be routinely performed in such patients by immunoglobulin A endomysial or human tissue transglutaminase antibodies.
A Comparison Between Plant Photosystem I and Photosystem II Architecture and Functioning

Oxygenic photosynthesis is indispensable both for the development and maintenance of life on earth by converting light energy into chemical energy and by producing molecular oxygen and consuming carbon dioxide. This latter process has been responsible for reducing the CO2 from its very high levels in the primitive atmosphere to the present low levels and thus reducing global temperatures to levels conducive to the development of life. Photosystem I and photosystem II are the two multi-protein complexes that contain the pigments necessary to harvest photons and use light energy to catalyse the primary photosynthetic endergonic reactions producing high energy compounds. Both photosystems are highly organised membrane supercomplexes composed of a core complex, containing the reaction centre where electron transport is initiated, and of a peripheral antenna system, which is important for light harvesting and photosynthetic activity regulation. If on the one hand both the chemical reactions catalysed by the two photosystems and their detailed structure are different, on the other hand they share many similarities. In this review we discuss and compare various aspects of the organisation, functioning and regulation of plant photosystems by comparing them for similarities and differences as obtained by structural, biochemical and spectroscopic investigations.
Glycoconjugates and polysaccharides of fungal cell wall and activation of immune system

Glycoproteins, glycosphingolipids and polysaccharides exposed at the most external layers of the wall are involved in several types of interactions of fungal cells with the exocellular environment. These molecules are fundamental building blocks of organisms, contributing to the structure, integrity, cell growth, differentiation and signaling. Several of them are immunologically active compounds with potential as regulators of pathogenesis and the immune response of the host. Some of these structures can be specifically recognized by antibodies from patients’ sera, suggesting that they can be also useful in the diagnosis of fungal infections.
CAB-Align: A Flexible Protein Structure Alignment Method Based on the Residue-Residue Contact Area

Proteins are flexible, and this flexibility has an essential functional role. Flexibility can be observed in loop regions, rearrangements between secondary structure elements, and conformational changes between entire domains. However, most protein structure alignment methods treat protein structures as rigid bodies. Thus, these methods fail to identify the equivalences of residue pairs in regions with flexibility. In this study, we considered that the evolutionary relationship between proteins corresponds directly to the residue–residue physical contacts rather than the three-dimensional (3D) coordinates of proteins. Thus, we developed a new protein structure alignment method, contact area-based alignment (CAB-align), which uses the residue–residue contact area to identify regions of similarity. The main purpose of CAB-align is to identify homologous relationships at the residue level between related protein structures. The CAB-align procedure comprises two main steps: First, a rigid-body alignment method based on local and global 3D structure superposition is employed to generate a sufficient number of initial alignments. Then, iterative dynamic programming is executed to find the optimal alignment. We evaluated the performance and advantages of CAB-align based on four main points: (1) agreement with the gold standard alignment, (2) alignment quality based on an evolutionary relationship without 3D coordinate superposition, (3) consistency of the multiple alignments, and (4) classification agreement with the gold standard classification. Comparisons of CAB-align with other state-of-the-art protein structure alignment methods (TM-align, FATCAT, and DaliLite) using our benchmark dataset showed that CAB-align performed robustly in obtaining high-quality alignments and generating consistent multiple alignments with high coverage and accuracy rates, and it performed extremely well when discriminating between homologous and nonhomologous pairs of proteins in both single and multi-domain comparisons. The CAB-align software is freely available to academic users as stand-alone software at http://www.pharm. kitasato-u.ac. jp/bmd/bmd/Publications.html.
Percolation on dense graph sequences.

In this paper we determine the percolation threshold for an arbitrary sequence of dense graphs (G n ). Let λn be the largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of G n , and let G n (p n ) be the random subgraph of G n obtained by keeping each edge independently with probability p n . We show that the appearance of a giant component in G n (p n ) has a sharp threshold at p n = 1/λ n . In fact, we prove much more: if (G n ) converges to an irreducible limit, then the density of the largest component of G n (c/n) tends to the survival probability of a multi-type branching process defined in terms of this limit. Here the notions of convergence and limit are those of Borgs, Chayes, Lovasz, S6s and Vesztergombi. In addition to using basic properties of convergence, we make heavy use of the methods of Bollobas, Janson and Riordan, who used multi-type branching processes to study the emergence of a giant component in a very broad family of sparse inhomogeneous random graphs.
A Modified Distance Regularized Level Set Model for Liver Segmentation from CT Images

Segmentation of organs from medical images is an active and interesting area of research. Liver segmentation incurs more challenges and difficulties compared with segmentation of other organs. In this paper we demonstrate a liver segmentation method for computer tomography images. We revisit the distance regularization level set (DRLS) model by deploying new balloon forces. These forces control the direction of the evolution and slow down the evolution process in regions that are associated with weak or without edges. The newly added balloon forces discourage the evolving contour from exceeding the liver boundary or leaking at a region that is associated with a weak edge, or does not have an edge. Our experimental results confirm that the method yields a satisfactory overall segmentation outcome. Comparing with the original DRLS model, our model is proven to be more effective in handling oversegmentation problems.
Reduced amygdala response in youths with disruptive behavior disorders and psychopathic traits: decreased emotional response versus increased top-down attention to nonemotional features.

OBJECTIVE Amygdala dysfunction has been reported to exist in youths and adults with psychopathic traits. However, there has been disagreement as to whether this dysfunction reflects a primary emotional deficit or is secondary to atypical attentional control. The authors examined the validity of the contrasting predictions. METHOD Participants were 15 children and adolescents (ages 10–17 years) with both disruptive behavior disorders and psychopathic traits and 17 healthy comparison youths. Functional MRI was used to assess the response of the amygdala and regions implicated in top-down attentional control (the dorsomedial and lateral frontal cortices) to emotional expression under conditions of high and low attentional load. RESULTS Relative to youths with disruptive behavior disorders and psychopathic traits, healthy comparison subjects showed a significantly greater increase in the typical amygdala response to fearful expressions under low relative to high attentional load conditions. There was also a selective inverse relationship between the response to fearful expressions under low attentional load and the callous-unemotional component (but not the narcissism or impulsivity component) of psychopathic traits. In contrast, the two groups did not differ in the significant recruitment of the dorsomedial and lateral frontal cortices as a function of attentional load. CONCLUSIONS Youths with disruptive behavior disorders and psychopathic traits showed reduced amygdala responses to fearful expressions under low attentional load but no indications of increased recruitment of regions implicated in top-down attentional control. These findings suggest that the emotional deficit observed in youths with disruptive behavior disorders and psychopathic traits is primary and not secondary to increased top-down attention to nonemotional stimulus features.
Self-organized robot behavior from theprinciple of homeokinesisRalf

The paper introduces homeokinesis as a general principle for the self-organization of robot behavior. Homeokinesis is a domain-invariant principle which induces speciic, seemingly goal{oriented behaviors of an agent in a complex external world. The principle is based on the assumption that the agent is able of (i) learning an internal representation (self-model) of its current behavior and (ii) to adapt its behavior in such a way that the complexity gap between model and true behavior is minimized. Driven by the basic impetus of always moving and acting the agent in a noisy complex world develops smooth controlled behaviors as the minimal compromise between the high dynamical complexity of the world and the low complexity of the model. In these terms behavior may be called a byproduct (epiphenomenon) of the internal \desire" of the agent to be able of interpreting the world in simple terms.
Vasculogenesis in complete and partial hydatidiform mole pregnancies studied with CD34 immunohistochemistry.

BACKGROUND Defective chorionic villous vascularization is present in pregnancies complicated by absent or abnormal embryonic development. The aim of this study was to investigate the embryonic and/or maternal genomic influence on vasculogenesis in diploid complete hydatidiform mole (CHM) and in triploid partial hydatidiform mole (PHM) in comparison with normal development. METHODS Mean villous stromal area and functional vascular area, vessels with a lumen and haemangiogenetic cords, peripherally or centrally located were measured and counted in chorionic villi of 12 CHM, 12 normal pregnancies (termination of pregnancy, TOP) and 15 PHM of which nine were without an embryo (PHM-E) and six were with an embryo (PHM + E), using quantitative CD34 immunohistochemistry. RESULTS TOP showed significantly more vessels per chorionic villus, centrally and peripherally located (median, range), than CHM, PHM-E and PHM + E (4.0, 0-9 versus 0.0, 0-11, 0.0, 0-18 and 1.0, 0-21). CHM showed significantly more centrally located cords than PHM-E, PHM + E and TOP (1.5, 0-22 versus 1.0, 0-15, 0.5, 0-8 and 1.0, 0-2). CONCLUSIONS Initiation of chorionic villous vasculogenesis is independent of the maternal genome (CHM). The development of an embryo, however, is obligatory for the modulation of normal vascularization resulting in a well developed vasculosyncytial membrane.
Secure and Controlled Sharing of Data in Distributed Computing

In today's world, there is a strong need for sharing big data for collaboration. However, privacy and security remains a barrier especially when dealing with massive amounts of data in the Cloud. In particular, there is a growing need for the data owner to gain better access control over their data. The data owner should be able to specify how their data should be viewed, copied and modified. A dishonest authorised user may illegally redistribute the data to other friends and/or colleagues who don't have the relevant access permissions. In this paper, we address these issues by introducing the idea of SafeShare which controls how data can be accessed and used. SafeShare encapsulate data in self-controlling objects (SCO's) and additionally monitors operations of the user. We demonstrate that our SafeShare system will prevent the user from carrying out any illegal operations including illegal redistribution of data. In addition, we add another level of security on the SCO's by adding a log file and hash for better auditing control.
Bootlegger: Turning Fans into Film Crew

Bootlegger is a system for creating multi-camera films of live music events using mobile devices. Using readily available technology and a synthesis of film-making conventions, the system coordinates music fans at live shows into an improvised film crew, suggesting shots, collating footage and generating rich metadata in real time. Bootlegger is part of a research project exploring adapting professional media workflows to amateur contexts in order to lower the bar to entry for media production. By enabling concert-goers to contribute to high-quality concert films, the system leverages mobile phone 'bootlegging' practices to support emerging musicians.
Text-implied Risk and the Cross-section of Expected Stock Returns Job Market Paper

This paper establishes an econometric framework to construct a systematic risk factor from textual data, by linking a beta pricing model with a language model based on machine learning techniques. In this framework, the distributions of stock returns and words in associated documents are determined by a common underlying systematic risk factor (text-implied risk). The exposure to the text-implied risk of a stock is measured by a text-based risk measure, document risk score (DRS). I construct a factor mimicking portfolio TXT for the text-implied risk by sorting stocks based on DRS and estimate its risk premium. I nd signi cant positive risk premium for TXT , and the adjusted R of the Fama-MacBeth cross-sectional regression increases signi cantly by adding TXT into a four factor model that includes the Fama-French three factors and a moment factor.