Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oxytocin, Vasopressin, and the Neurogenetics of Sociality

There is growing evidence that the neuropeptides oxytocin and vasopressin modulate complex social behavior and social cognition. These ancient neuropeptides display a marked conservation in gene structure and expression, yet diversity in the genetic regulation of their receptors seems to underlie natural variation in social behavior, both between and within species. Human studies are beginning to explore the roles of these neuropeptides in social cognition and behavior and suggest that variation in the genes encoding their receptors may contribute to variation in human social behavior by altering brain function. Understanding the neurobiology and neurogenetics of social cognition and behavior has important implications, both clinically and for society.
Design and Acoustic-Structural Coupling Analysis of Bionic Microphone

Sensorineural hearing loss is caused by the damage of hair cells in the inner ear, the transmission of acoustical signal is disrupted without hair cells. In order to solve the problems exist in electrical cochlea,the idea of develop bionic microphone is proposed using the special property of piezoelectric material. Primary design of the size of bionic microphone is given with the reference of advanced manufacturing methods. According to the scope of human hearing threshold, Acoustical-structural coupling property of the bionic microphone is researched when the microphone is immersed in lymph. And the results shows that the displacement is going up at first and then down with the increasing of the frequency within 1000Hz, the displacement is 0.28mm when the frequency is 500Hz,and goes down to 0.205mm when frequency is 1000Hz. When frequency is varied from 1000Hz to 10000Hz, the displacement is changing apparently. The displacement has been changed from 0.208mm when the frequency is 1000Hz to 2.6um when the frequency is 10000Hz. Frequency selectivity is not clearly presented from the point of the location of maximum displacement,and this phenomenon may caused by the fasten mode of designed microphone and high Young modulus of silicon.
CALCIUM NITRITE AS A CORROSION INHIBITOR IN REINFORCED CONCRETE BRIDGE DECKS

The use of calcium nitrite as a corrosion-inhibiting admixture in reinforced concrete has been studied on two bridges - the Kentucky 152 Bridge in Washington County and the Gose Road Bridge in Boyle County. Calcium nitrite was added to concrete used in the slabs, diaphragms and barriers of the KY 152 bridge and only in the slab of the Gose Road bridge. Construction of both structures was monitored in the fall of 1986. Placement of concrete on both bridges was satisfactory; however, problems were experienced in finishing the concrete. The finishing problems were related to: 1) concrete "stickiness"; 2) use of spinning-drum screed; 3) use of tyning for deck grooving; and 4) contractor inexperience with the concrete. The finishing problems included: 1) pulled or exposed aggregate; 2) pull cracks; 3) unclosed surface voids; and 4) irregular grooves. Compressive strength of the calcium-nitrite admixed concrete for both bridges exceeded 6,000 psi at 28 days. Freeze-thaw tests of specimens from the Gose Road bridge concrete (that incorporated a super water reducer) indicated no deterioration at 360 freeze-thaw cycles. Half-cell, corrosion-potential tests were conducted on both bridge decks in March 1987. Those tests revealed no active corrosion in either bridge. In July 1987, corrosion-potential and polarization-resistance tests were performed using stainless-steel reference electrodes buried in concrete across the deck of the Gose Road bridge. Those tests revealed that reinforcing steel in the bridge was in a passive state and that no active corrosion was occurring. Recommendations are included on remedying concrete-finishing problems. It is recommended that other experimental bridges be constructed using calcium nitrite.
A Linear Trinocular Rectification Method for Accurate Stereoscopic Matching

In this paper we propose and study a simple trinocular rectification method in which stratification to projective and affine components gives the rectifying homographies in a closed form. The class of trinocular rectifications which has 6 DOF is parametrized by an independent set of parameters with a geometric meaning. This offers the possibility to minimize rectification distortion in a natural way. It is shown experimentally on real data that our algorithm performs the rectification task correctly. As shown on groundtruth data using Confidently Stable Matching, trinocular matching significantly improves disparity map density and mismatch error, both depending on texture strength. Matching results on real complex scenes are reported.
Fading MIMO relay channels with covariance feedback

In this paper, the source and relay transmit covariance matrices are jointly optimized for a fading multiple antenna relay channel when the transmitters only have partial channel state information (CSI) in the form of covariance feedback. For full-duplex transmission, we evaluate lower and upper bounds on the ergodic channel capacity. These bounds require a joint optimization over the source and relay transmit covariance matrices. The methods utilized in the previous literature fail to find fast and efficient algorithms for the system model considered in this paper. Therefore, we utilize matrix differential calculus in order to solve the joint optimization problem. In this method, there is no need to specify the eigenvectors of the transmit covariance matrices first. Through simulations, we observe that lower and upper bounds are close to each other.
Computational argumentation to support multi-party human-robot interaction: Challenges and advantages

Recent work has explored the use of computational argumentation-based dialogues as a mechanism to support two-party human-robot interaction and collaborative decision making. Many real-world application scenarios involve interaction between multiple humans and multiple robots—not just two parties, i.e., not just one human and one robot. In this paper, a range of social issues are considered that arise in multiparty human-robot situations. These include issues of trust, privacy and ethics with respect to sharing information and modeling the beliefs of others. Using computational argumentation and argumentation-based dialogues can provide a sound basis for addressing the mitigating circumstances presented by these issues, and for reasoning under the uncertainties that these issues present. Here, a running example is developed, along with an approach for addressing the issues that is based on the application of computational argumentation strategies. A set of challenges are identified, and some directions for future research are proposed.
Structured vs. Flat Semantic Role Representations for Machine Translation Evaluation

We argue that failing to capture the degree of contribution of each semantic frame in a sentence explains puzzling results in recent work on the MEANT family of semantic MT evaluation metrics, which have disturbingly indicated that dissociating semantic roles and fillers from their predicates actually improves correlation with human adequacy judgments even though, intuitively, properly segregating event frames should more accurately reflect the preservation of meaning. Our analysis finds that both properly structured and flattened representations fail to adequately account for the contribution of each semantic frame to the overall sentence. We then show that the correlation of HMEANT, the human variant of MEANT, can be greatly improved by introducing a simple length-based weighting scheme that approximates the degree of contribution of each semantic frame to the overall sentence. The new results also show that, without flattening the structure of semantic frames, weighting the degree of each frame's contribution gives HMEANT higher correlations than the previously best-performing flattened model, as well as HTER.
Evaluation of pH‐sensitive hydrogels to control the permeability anisotropy of oil reservoirs

In stratified or fractured oil reservoirs, the oil recovery efficiency tends to be low as the injected fluid flows mainly through the matrix's most permeable regions, leaving behind part of the displaceable oil in the matrix's unswept zones. Given this issue, this study aims to evaluate the potential of applying seven commercial samples, based on poly(acrylic acid), to control the anisotropic permeability profile of reservoirs. To perform this study, first, continuous and oscillatory shear tests were conducted to characterize the hydrogel's rheological and viscoelastic behavior in various subsurface conditions (salinity, temperature, and/or pH value). Second, polymer dispersion elution tests were performed in a porous medium to evaluate the matrix's permeability reduction after treatment with hydrogels. The seven commercial samples were classified as pseudoplastic fluids at pH values ranging from 1 to 10. Under typical reservoir conditions, PAAr 70 (which has intermediate molar mass and intermediate number of crosslinks) was the only sample to behave as a strong gel (G′/G″ > 10). Elution tests confirmed that the PAAr 70 hydrogel gelified inside the consolidated sandstone plugs and reduced the matrix's permeability four-fold. Therefore, samples based on poly(acrylic acid) with high crosslink density proved to be the most promising for controlling the anisotropic permeability profile of heterogeneous oil reservoirs. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40665.
Epidemiology and clinical impact of hepatitis D virus (delta) infection

We tested sera collected between 1976 and 1984 from 362 persons in a variety of epidemiologic categories with acute and chronic hepatitis B and from 76 hemophiliacs and drug addicts with hepatitis B antibodies for hepatitis D markers. Hepatitis D markers were common in hemophiliacs, drug addicts, Afghanistanis, prisoners and hemodialysis patients; rare in persons from other hepatitis‐B endemic areas, persons with sporadic hepatitis B and homosexual men; and absent in health‐care workers and institutionalized mentally retarded persons. No change was observed in the frequency of this infection during the 9 years of this study. We found hepatitis D markers in 5% of patients with acute hepatitis B, 1 of 3 with fulminant hepatitis and in 4 (1 in a homosexual male) of 12 episodes of acute hepatitis in hepatitis B carriers. Hepatitis D markers were more frequent in chronic liver disease (18%) than in asymptomatic hepatitis B carriage (2%), but there was no association between severity of chronic hepatitis and hepatitis D. These findings indicate that, to date, health‐care workers and institutionalized mentally retarded persons have been spared from infection with this agent but suggest that homosexual males may not continue to be spared. Even in an area nonendemic for hepatitis D, this agent contributed to 20 to 30% of chronic hepatitis B and acute hepatitis superimposed on chronic hepatitis B infection.
IDA*/spl I.bar/MCSP: a fast exact MCSP algorithm

QoS routing has been shown to be NP-hard. A recent study of its hardness suggests that the "worst-case" may not occur in practice, and thus there may exist a fast exact algorithm. We deploy the idea of iterative deepening search and look ahead to design an exact algorithm for finding the shortest path subject to multiple constraints (the MCSP problem). The accuracy of look-ahead information determines the efficiency of a search algorithm. The higher the accuracy of the look-ahead information, the more efficient the search process. An empirical study on a wide range of topologies shows the high accuracy of look-ahead information in the studied cases. Experimental results also show that our algorithm, IDA*/spl I.bar/MCSP, is fast and, in general, significantly outperforms A*Prune, an algorithm designed for the MCSP problem. The characteristics of iterative deepening search and the high accuracy of look-ahead information make IDA*/spl I.bar/MCSP a fast exact algorithm for the MCSP problem.
Importance of primary percutaneous coronary intervention for reducing mortality in ST-elevation myocardial infarction complicated by out of hospital cardiac arrest

Background: Current recommendations are for primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) complicated by out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). However, information about longer-term outcomes is sparse, particularly among high-risk patients who do not regain consciousness promptly after resuscitation. Methods and results: Of 1836 consecutive patients admitted with STEMI for pPCI between April 2008–October 2011, 132 (7.2%) who had suffered OHCA with recovery of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) form the study population. 101 patients survived to hospital discharge (76.5%) with only one further death in the first year. Prognosis was worse for the 62 patients who were unconscious on arrival and required admission to the intensive therapy unit (ITU), only 54% of whom survived. Every additional minute in the time to ROSC increased the hazard of death by 1.7% while alertness upon ROSC and successful reperfusion in response to pPCI reduced the hazard of death by 90% and 65% respectively. Full neurological recovery was recorded in 85.1% of those who survived to be discharged but in only 30.6% of the 34 survivors who were admitted unconscious and received ITU treatment. Every additional minute in the time to ROSC increased the odds of neurological deficit by 7.0%. Conclusions: In patients with STEMI who are conscious after OHCA, high rates of survival can be achieved with pPCI, depending in part on the time it takes for ROSC. Prognosis is less good in the subgroup brought to hospital unconscious but even in this high risk group neurologically intact survival can be achieved in about one-third of cases, suggesting the benefit of immediate pPCI in STEMI patients successfully resuscitated after OHCA.
Distribution of ventilation; clinical evaluation by rapid CO2 analysis.

The ΔCO2 test, measuring the Pco2 difference at the end-tidal and maximum expiration levels, gives significantly different results in normal subjects and patients with moderate pulmonary emphysema. It correlates well with the single-breath N2 test. When both tests are performed simultaneously, each test clearly separates the normals from the emphysematous subjects. Attempts have been made by several authors to incorporate a test of distribution in the study of respiration of individual patients or in field surveys. These efforts appear worthwhile and in order to determine what help the clinician or epidemiologist may receive from the evaluation of distribution, the ΔCO2 test seems to offer certain advantages over other tests. The physiologic and clinical significance of the ΔCO2 test has been discussed.
Reconstruction of Outdoor Sculptures from Silhouettes under Approximate Circular Motion of an Uncalibrated Hand-Held Camera ∗

This paper presents a novel technique for reconstructing an outdoor sculpture from an uncalibrated image sequence acquired around it using a hand-held camera. The technique introduced here uses only the silhouettes of the sculpture for both motion estimation and model reconstruction, and no corner detection nor matching is necessary. This is very important as most sculptures are composed of smooth textureless surfaces, and hence their silhouettes are very often the only information available from their images. Besides, as opposed to previous works, the proposed technique does not require the camera motion to be perfectly circular (e.g., turntable sequence). It employs an image rectification step before the motion estimation step to obtain a rough estimate of the camera motion which is only approximately circular. A refinement process is then applied to obtain the true general motion of the camera. This allows the technique to handle large outdoor sculptures which cannot be rotated on a turntable, making it much more practical and flexible. key words: silhouette, approximate circular motion, motion estimation, model reconstruction
Delayed renal dysfunction after total body irradiation in pediatric malignancies

The purpose of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the incidence of delayed renal dysfunction after total body irradiation (TBI) in long-term survivors of TBI/hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Between 1989 and 2006, 24 pediatric patients underwent TBI as part of the conditioning regimen for HSCT at Chiba University Hospital. Nine patients who survived for more than 5 years were enrolled in this study. No patient had any evidence of renal dysfunction prior to the transplant according to their baseline creatinine levels. The median age at the time of diagnosis was 6 years old (range: 1–17 years old). The follow-up period ranged from 79–170 months (median: 140 months). Renal dysfunction was assessed using the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). The TBI dose ranged from 8–12 Gy delivered in 3–6 fractions over 2–3 d. The patients were treated with linear accelerators in the supine position, and the radiation was delivered to isocentric right–left and left–right fields via the extended distance technique. The kidneys and the liver were not shielded except in one patient with a left adrenal neuroblastoma. No patient required hemodialysis. The eGFR of four patients (44.4%) progressively decreased. The remaining patients did not demonstrate any eGFR deterioration. Only one patient developed hypertension. By evaluating the changes in eGFR, renal dysfunction among long-term survivors of TBI/HSCT could be detected. Our results suggested that the TBI schedule of 12 Gy in 6 fractions over three consecutive days affects renal function.
Genetic design of decentralized controllers for 5dof robotic manipulator

Decentralized PID control is a widespread solution for trajectory tracking control of robotic manipulators in industrial contexts, because it provides a good trade-off between ease of implementation and performance. However, in many cases the final tuning of the independent controllers relies on exhaustive trial-and-error procedures, which are time-consuming, and may lead to globally sub-optimal configurations. In this paper, we describe an automatic and simultaneous tuning procedure for the linear controllers of a 5dof robotic manipulator based on Genetic Algorithms. The preliminary results described in this paper, obtained on a detailed model of an industrial manipulator developed within the SimMechanics Matlab environment, show the effectiveness of the evolutionary design procedure. The decentralized controllers can hold satisfactory performances over a wide range of operating conditions, including unknown load disturbances.
Untangling intracellular DNA topology

The biochemical steps by which bacterial topoisomerases alter the topology of DNA are well known. However, it has been a more vexing task to establish physiological roles and sites of action of the different topoisomerases within the context of the bacterial cell cycle. This difficulty can be attributed in part to the redundancy among the activities of the different enzymes. In this microreview, we will focus on recent progress in understanding the topological structure of the chromosome, analysis of topoisomerase mechanism in single‐molecule assays and recent data on the regulation and integration of topoisomerase activity within the cell cycle that have all brought a new perspective to the action of topoisomerases in the bacterial cell.
Digital Signal Processing Methods for Ultrasonic Echoes

Digital signal processing has become an important component of data analysis needed in industrial applications. In particular, for ultrasonic thickness measurements, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) plays a major role in the accurate calculation of the arrival time. For this application, a bandpass filter is not sufficient since the noise level cannot be significantly decreased such that a reliable thickness measurement can be performed. This paper demonstrates the abilities of two regularization methods-total variation (TV) and Tikhonov-to filter acoustic and ultrasonic signals. Both of these methods are compared with frequency-based filtering for digitally produced signals as well as signals produced by ultrasonic transducers. This paper demonstrates the ability of the TV and Tikhonov filters to accurately recover signals from noisy acoustic signals faster than a bandpass filter. Furthermore, the TV filter has been shown to reduce the noise of a signal significantly for the signals with clear ultrasonic echoes. SNRs have been increased over 400% by using simple parameter optimization. While frequency-based filtering is efficient for specific applications, this paper shows that the reduction of noise in ultrasonic systems can be much more efficient with regularization methods.
Human Cytomegalovirus Virions Differentially Incorporate Viral and Host Cell RNA during the Assembly Process

ABSTRACT While analyzing human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) gene expression in infected cells by RNA-specific nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA), positive results were observed for HCMV RNA encoded by several viral genes immediately after the addition of the virus. UV-inactivated virus also gave a positive NASBA result without establishing active infection, suggesting that RNA was associated with the inoculum. Highly purified virions devoid of cellular contamination proved to be positive for viral RNA encoding both immediate-early (UL123) and late (UL65) gene products. Virion-associated RNA might be incorporated specifically or without selection during the virion assembly. In the latter case, cellular RNA would also be present in the virion. A high-abundant cellular RNA encoded by GAPDH and even U1A RNA, which is expressed at low levels, were detected in the virion fraction, whereas cellular DNA was absent. Virion fractionation revealed that cellular RNA was absent in purified de-enveloped capsids. In conclusion, cellular and viral RNA was present between the capsid and envelope of the virion, whereas in the capsid only viral RNA could be detected. The results suggest that virion-associated viral and cellular RNA is incorporated nonspecifically during virion assembly.
Fully automatic segmentation for prosodic speech corpora

While automatic methods for phonetic segmentation of speech can help with rapid annotation of corpora, most methods rely either on manually segmented data to initially train the process or manual post-processing. This is very time-consuming and slows down porting of speech systems to new languages. In the context of prosody corpora for text-to-speech (TTS) systems, we investigated methods for fully automatic phoneme segmentation using only the corpora to be segmented and an automatically generated transcription. We present a new method that improves the performance of HMM-based segmentation by correcting the boundaries between the training stages of the phoneme models with high precision. We show that, while initially aimed at single speaker corpora, it performs equally well for multi-speaker corpora. Index Terms: speech synthesis, segmentation, boundary correction