Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design of a novel Assist-As-Needed controller for gait rehabilitation using a cable-driven robot

In this paper design of a novel assist-as-needed controller for a fully-constrained cable driven robot is addressed. The robot is going to be used as a part of a gait training system. Robotic training systems have numerous advantageous over traditional physical therapy, but using common controllers (such as CTM and SMC) cannot fulfil all of expectations of an effective training system. Precise gait pattern tracking may cause unnatural feeling for the patient, while a careless control action may lead an ineffective training. Therefore, the ability to assist a patient to follow a desired movement, and the ability to provide only the minimum necessary assistance seems to be crucial for this type of systems. In this paper a robust design of an adaptive Assist-As-Needed controller for a cable robot is studied. Robustifying terms are added to the controller to deal with structured and unstructured uncertainties in dynamics of the robot. At the end, the controller's performance is validated with simulation results.
Chapter 1 OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHMS FOR SPARSE REPRESENTATIONS AND APPLICATIONS

We consider the following sparse representation problem, which is called Sparse Component Analysis: identify the matrices S ∈ IRn×N and A ∈ IRm×n (m ≤ n < N) uniquely (up to permutation of scaling), knowing only their multiplication X = AS, under some conditions, expressed either in terms of A and sparsity of S (identifiability conditions), or in terms of X (Sparse Component Analysis conditions). A crucial assumption (sparsity condition) is that S is sparse of level k in sense that each column of S has at least k nonzero elements (k = 1, 2, ., m− 1). We present two type of optimization problems for such identification. The first one is used for identifying the mixing matrix A: this is a typical clustering type problem aimed to finding hyperplanes in IR which contain the columns of X. We present a general algorithm for this clustering problem and a modification of Bradley-Mangasarian’s k-
User recognition for guiding and following people with a mobile robot in a clinical environment

Rehabilitative follow-up care is important for stroke patients to regain their motor and cognitive skills. We aim to develop a robotic rehabilitation assistant for walking exercises in late stages of rehabilitation. The robotic rehab assistant is to accompany inpatients during their self-training, practicing both mobility and spatial orientation skills. To hold contact to the patient, even after temporally full occlusions, robust user re-identification is essential. Therefore, we implemented a person re-identification module that continuously re-identifies the patient, using only few amount of the robot's processing resources. It is robust to varying illumination and occlusions. State-of-the-art performance is confirmed on a standard benchmark dataset, as well as on a recorded scenario-specific dataset. Additionally, the benefit of using a visual re-identification component is verified by live-tests with the robot in a stroke rehab clinic.
Interplay between singing and cortical processing of music: a longitudinal study in children with cochlear implants

Informal music activities such as singing may lead to augmented auditory perception and attention. In order to study the accuracy and development of music-related sound change detection in children with cochlear implants (CIs) and normal hearing (NH) aged 4–13 years, we recorded their auditory event-related potentials twice (at T1 and T2, 14–17 months apart). We compared their MMN (preattentive discrimination) and P3a (attention toward salient sounds) to changes in piano tone pitch, timbre, duration, and gaps. Of particular interest was to determine whether singing can facilitate auditory perception and attention of CI children. It was found that, compared to the NH group, the CI group had smaller and later timbre P3a and later pitch P3a, implying degraded discrimination and attention shift. Duration MMN became larger from T1 to T2 only in the NH group. The development of response patterns for duration and gap changes were not similar in the CI and NH groups. Importantly, CI singers had enhanced or rapidly developing P3a or P3a-like responses over all change types. In contrast, CI non-singers had rapidly enlarging pitch MMN without enlargement of P3a, and their timbre P3a became smaller and later over time. These novel results show interplay between MMN, P3a, brain development, cochlear implantation, and singing. They imply an augmented development of neural networks for attention and more accurate neural discrimination associated with singing. In future studies, differential development of P3a between CI and NH children should be taken into account in comparisons of these groups. Moreover, further studies are needed to assess whether singing enhances auditory perception and attention of children with CIs.
The Assessment of Scientific Speculation

R. A. R. Tricker London: Mills and Boon. 1965. Pp. xi + 200. Price 30s. This book is designed to help meet the need of scientists who in the practical training for their own particular specialist work do not have a chance to consider the general aims of science. Since 'what aims should be selected is a matter of attitude and this depends upon philosophy' the book attempts to outline various, in fact four, philosophies of science easily identified in the literature currently published.
The effects of input signal-to-noise ratio on compressive sensing SAR imaging

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an active and coherent microwave high resolution imaging system, which has the capability to image in all weather and day-or-night conditions. The high resolution required by various modes of SAR results in a huge amount of sampling data, which brings a demand for bigger storage. Recently, a novel concept based on Compressive Sensing (CS) theory asserts that an unknown sparse signal can be recovered exactly with an overwhelming probability even with highly sub-Nyquist-rate samples. In this paper, a new scheme for the test bed of CS based SAR imaging is proposed. Experimental results on some real raw SAR data reveal that there are some practical limitations on the use of CS based SAR imaging, especially for complex imaging scenes and systems with low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR).
EXPERIÊNCIAS DE ENSINO E APRENDIZADO DE LÍNGUA INGLESA NO ENSINO SUPERIOR DENTRO DE UMA PROPOSTA DE MULTIMODALIDADE E LETRAMENTO CRÍTICO Learning and teaching English experiences in higher education within a multimodality and critical literacy approach

RESUMO : O objetivo deste artigo e discutir questoes de le tramento critico e de multiletramentos a partir de minha experiencia como professor de lingu a inglesa em uma universidade brasileira. Essa experiencia levou a uma reflexao sobre a importânci a da linguagem visual e sua relacao com a linguagem verbal, tanto no contexto da cultura ocid ental em que estou situado, quanto em uma cultura indigena brasileira. No fim, defendo a impo rtância do letramento critico para o ensino de linguas, de modo a conscientizar o aluno do carater multimodal e hibrido da linguagem, e de suas implicacoes eticas. PALAVRAS-CHAVE : ensino de linguas; multimodalidade; letramento cr itico; visualidade; hibridismo; reflexividade. ABSTRACT: This paper aims to discuss questions of critical l iteracy and multiliteracies based on my experience as an English teacher in a Brazilian university. This experience has led to a reflection about the importance of visuality and its relation to verbal language, not only in the context of the Western culture in which I am embedded, but also in the context of a Brazilian indigenous culture. In the end, I advocate the importance of critical lite racy for language education, in order to make students aware of the hybrid and multimodal charact er of language, as well as its ethical implications.
Online Learning with Bayesian Classification Trees

Randomized classification trees are among the most popular machine learning tools and found successful applications in many areas. Although this classifier was originally designed as offline learning algorithm, there has been an increased interest in the last years to provide an online variant. In this paper, we propose an online learning algorithm for classification trees that adheres to Bayesian principles. In contrast to state-of-the-art approaches that produce large forests with complex trees, we aim at constructing small ensembles consisting of shallow trees with high generalization capabilities. Experiments on benchmark machine learning and body part recognition datasets show superior performance over state-of-the-art approaches.
Development of fuzzy manifold and fuzzy nearest distance for pose estimation of degraded face images

This paper presents a novel approach to estimate the pose position of the degraded face images using fuzzy vector representation. We focus on the development of fuzzy-manifold as an interpolation line between all the available learning data and the fuzzy distance calculation as the classifier. Crisp-based vector of the face image is firstly transformed into fuzzy-based vector, to deal with the fuzziness of the data caused by statistical measurement error directly. Two types of fuzzy interpolation methods are used to construct the fuzzy-manifold. Estimating the pose position of an unknown crisp-image vector is accomplished by firstly transformed into a fuzzy-vector and calculates the nearest fuzzy-distances to all available fuzzy-points in the designated fuzzy-lines. This system is then applied to estimate a degraded face images influenced by quality degradation effects. Experiment results show that those degradation effects due to various noise additions did not decrease the recognition rate.
Joint Design for LDPC Coded OFDM with Transmit Adaptive Antenna

A novel design is proposed for the OFDM system using structured LDPC codes with the transmit adaptive antennas (TxAA), which can achieve improved performance by adaptively using the feedback subcarrier frequency information at the transmit side. With the aid of the closed multiple antenna technique, much gain can be achieved in the coded OFDM system. Furthermore, irregular LDPC codes have the advantage of unequal error protection (UEP) for coded bits with different degree distributions. Thus mapping the coded bits with high degrees to the subcarriers with weak subchannel attenuation is proposed to fully utilize the feedback information not only in the design of the closed-loop OFDM transmission but also in the combination design of the coding scheme and OFDM modulation. The proposed scheme is proven to be effective by simulation results in the frequency selective channel scenario
High-dose chloroquine is metabolically cardiotoxic by inducing lysosomes and mitochondria dysfunction in a rat model of pressure overload hypertrophy

Autophagy, macroautophagy and chaperone‐mediated autophagy (CMA), are upregulated in pressure overload (PO) hypertrophy. In this study, we targeted this process at its induction using 3 methyladenine and at the lysosomal level using chloroquine and evaluated the effects of these modulations on cardiac function and myocyte ultrastructure. Sprague–Dawley rats weighing 200 g were subjected to ascending aortic banding. After 1 week of PO, animals were randomized to receive 3 methyladenine versus chloroquine, intraperitoneally, for 2 weeks at a dose of 40 and 50 mg/kg/day, respectively. Saline injection was used as control. Chloroquine treatment, in PO, resulted in regression in cardiac hypertrophy but with significant impairments in cardiac relaxation and contractility. Ultrastructurally, chloroquine accentuated mitochondrial fragmentation and cristae destruction with a plethora of autophagosomes containing collapsed mitochondria and lysosomal lamellar bodies. In contrast, 3 methyladenine improved cardiac function and attenuated mitochondrial fragmentation and autophagososme formation. Markers of macroautophagy and CMA were significantly decreased in the chloroquine group; whereas 3 methyladenine treatment significantly attenuated macroautophagy with a compensatory increase in CMA. Furthermore, chloroquine accentuated PO induced oxidative stress through the further decrease in the expression of manganese superoxide dismutase; whereas, 3 MA had a completely opposite effect. Taken together, these data suggest that high‐dose chloroquine, in addition to its effect on the autophagy‐lysosome pathway, significantly impairs mitochondrial antioxidant buffering capacity and accentuates oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in PO hypertrophy; highlighting, the cautious administration of this drug in high oxidative stress conditions, such as pathological hypertrophy or heart failure.
Early molecular events in the assembly of matrix adhesions at the leading edge of migrating cells

Cellular locomotion is driven by repeated cycles of protrusion of the leading edge, formation of new matrix adhesions and retraction of the trailing edge. In this study we addressed the molecular composition and dynamics of focal complexes, formed under the leading lamellae of motile cells, and their maturation into focal adhesions. We combined phase-contrast and fluorescence microscopy approaches to monitor the incorporation of phosphotyrosine and nine different focal adhesion proteins into focal complexes in endothelial cells, migrating into an in vitro `wound'. We show that newly formed complexes are located posterior to an actin-, VASP- and α-actinin-rich region in the lammelipodium. They are highly tyrosine phosphorylated, contain β3-integrin, talin, paxillin and low levels of vinculin and FAK, but are apparently devoid of zyxin and tensin. The recruitment of these proteins into focal complexes occurs sequentially, so that their specific protein composition depends on their age. Interestingly, double color, time-lapse movies visualizing both paxillin and zyxin, indicated that the transition from paxillin-rich focal complexes to definitive, zyxin-containing focal adhesions, takes place only after the leading edge stops advancing or retracts. These observations illuminate, for the first time, early stages in focal complex assembly and the dynamic process associated with its transformation into focal adhesion.
Joint Analysis of Visible and Infrared Images: A "Magic Airbrush" for Qualitative and Quantitative Topography

Analysis of data combining daytime visible reflected, daytime IR emitted, and nighttime IR emitted images allows us to isolate the physical effects of topography, albedo, and thermal inertia. To a good approximation, these physical influences interact linearly so that maps showing topographic shading, albedo, and relative thermal inertia can be produced by simple algebraic manipulation of the co-registered images. The shading map resembles an airbrush, shaded relief portrayal of the surface, and can be used as the input for quantitative reconstruction of topography by photoclinometry (shape-fromshading). We demonstrate the method with imagery from the NASA 2001 Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), a dataset that could support mapping most of Mars in this way at 100 m resolution.
Underspecification and the Semantics / Pragmatics Interface

The notion of UNDERSPECIFICATION [17, 2, 21, 25] has been proposed as a possible solution to the problem of specifying a theory of the semantics / pragmatics interface—more specifically, of the process of identifying an interpretation in context—that is consistent with psychological, as well as linguistic evidence. The assumptions about the respective roles of semantics and pragmatics adopted in standard semantic theories such as [14] are illustrated in Fig. 1. Grammar (syntax and semantics) specifies all the distinct disambiguated interpretations of an ambiguous sentence like Kermit croaked,1 typically characterized by means of a DERIVATION TREE annotated with expressions in a DISAMBIGUATED LANGUAGE. The role of pragmatics is to filter those which are implausible and / or choose the preferred one. Theories of utterance processing that directly implement this view of the respective roles of semantics and pragmatics are confronted with the problem that the number of distinct disambiguated interpretations of any given sentence is in general very large—scopally ambiguous sentences such as (1), for example, might have n! readings, where n is the number of scope-taking operators. It's not clear how humans could be able to generate, let alone choose from, all these interpretations. 1I assume that the lexical item croak is semantically ambiguous between a property which is true of objects that utter frog-like sounds, and a property which is true of objects which died. (1) In most democratic countries most politicians can fool most of the people on almost every issue most of the time. [Lincoln; reported in [11]. ]
Expression of Tight Junction Proteins and Cadherin 17 in the Small Intestine of Young Goats Offered a Reduced N and/or Ca Diet

Diets fed to ruminants should contain nitrogen (N) as low as possible to reduce feed costs and environmental pollution. Though possessing effective N-recycling mechanisms to maintain the N supply for rumen microbial protein synthesis and hence protein supply for the host, an N reduction caused substantial changes in calcium (Ca) and phosphate homeostasis in young goats including decreased intestinal transepithelial Ca absorption as reported for monogastric species. In contrast to the transcellular component of transepithelial Ca transport, the paracellular route has not been investigated in young goats. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to characterise the effects of dietary N and/or Ca reduction on paracellular transport mechanisms in young goats. Electrophysiological properties of intestinal epithelia were investigated by Ussing chamber experiments. The expression of tight junction (TJ) and adherens junction (AJ) proteins in intestinal epithelia were examined on mRNA level by qPCR and on protein level by western blot analysis. Dietary N reduction led to a segment specific increase in tissue conductances in the proximal jejunum which might be linked to concomitantly decreased expression of cadherin 17 mRNA. Expression of occludin (OCLN) and zonula occludens protein 1 was increased in mid jejunal epithelia of N reduced fed goats on mRNA and partly on protein level. Reduced dietary Ca supply resulted in a segment specific increase in claudin 2 and claudin 12 expression and decreased the expression of OCLN which might have been mediated at least in part by calcitriol. These data show that dietary N as well as Ca reduction affected expression of TJ and AJ proteins in a segment specific manner in young goats and may thus be involved in modulation of paracellular Ca permeability.
Adaptive Controller-Observer Design for 6-DOF Parallel Manipulators

In this paper, a design scheme of an adaptive controller-observer is proposed for trajectory tracking control of robot manipulators with parameter uncertainties and with position measurements only. The controller and observer are designed in an integrated framework. A new observer and parameter adaptation law are applied to guarantee the tracking errors and observer errors converge simultaneously. In this scheme, the estimated inertia matrix is not necessarily assumed to be invertible and no velocity approximation is used, so the sampling period is not strictly restricted and the controller output signal is smooth. The locally asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system is proven based on Lyapunov approaches. Simulation results with a 6-DOF parallel manipulator demonstrate that although the system parameters are unknown, the proposed adaptive controller-observer can also achieve high performance without direct measurement of velocities
Maturation Leads to Gender Differences in Landing Force and Vertical Jump Performance

Background Female athletes have increased risk of anterior cruciate ligament rupture after the onset of puberty. Hypotheses Male athletes would demonstrate a longitudinal increase in vertical jump height compared with female athletes. There would be longitudinal gender differences in ground-reaction forces and loading rates. Study Design Cohort study; Level of evidence, 2. Methods Sixteen female and 17 male adolescent athletes were evaluated for 2 consecutive years. Subjects were included if they were classified as pubertal during the first year of testing and postpubertal during the second year. As subjects performed a drop vertical jump, ground-reaction force, and vertical jump height were measured. Data analysis consisted of a mixed design analysis of variance with post hoc analysis (paired t tests). Results The male athletes demonstrated increased vertical jump height with maturation (P < .001); female athletes did not. Boys significantly reduced their landing ground-reaction force (P = .005), whereas girls did not. Takeoff force decreased in girls (P = .003) but not in boys. Both boys and girls had decreased loading rates with maturation (P < .001); however, girls had higher loading rates than did boys at both stages of maturation (P = .037). Conclusion Male athletes demonstrated a neuromuscular spurt as evidenced by increased vertical jump height and increased ability to attenuate landing force. The absence of similar adaptations in female athletes may be related to the increased risk of anterior cruciate ligament injury.
Association between antidepressant prescribing and suicide in Australia, 1991-2000: trend analysis

Abstract Objective: To examine the association between trends in antidepressant prescribing and suicide rates in Australia for 1991-2000. Design: Analysis of databases of suicide and rates of antidepressant prescribing according to age and sex. Setting: Australian Bureau of Statistics data, sales data from the Australian pharmaceutical industry, prescribing data in general practice. Subjects: Men and women aged 15 years and over in 10 year age groups. Main outcome measures: Trends in suicide rates and trends in antidepressant prescribing. Association measured by Spearman's rank correlations. Results: While overall national rates of suicide did not fall significantly, incidence decreased in older men and women and increased in younger adults. In both men (rs=−0.91; P<0.01) and women (rs=−0.76; P<0.05) the higher the exposure to antidepressants the larger the decline in rate of suicide. Conclusions: Changes in suicide rates and exposure to antidepressants in Australia for 1991-2000 are significantly associated. This effect is most apparent in older age groups, in which rates of suicide decreased substantially in association with exposure to antidepressants. The increase in antidepressant prescribing may be a proxy marker for improved overall management of depression. If so, increased prescribing of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in general practice may have produced a quantifiable benefit in population mental health. What is already known on this topic There has been a substantial increase in antidepressant prescribing by general practitioners in Australia since the introduction of selective serotoin reuptake inhibitors in the early 1990s Previous studies have indicated an association between increased antidepressant prescribing and reduced suicide rate What this study adds In Australia the rate of suicide fell in older people, the age group most heavily exposed to antidepressants Most antidepressants are now prescribed by general practitioners The association may indicate the improved treatment of depression by general practitioners