Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Combining Absolute Positioning and Vision for Wide Area Augmented Reality

One of the major limitations of vision based mapping and localisation is its inability to scale and operate over wide areas. This restricts its use in applications such as Augmented Reality. In this paper we demonstrate that the integration of a second absolute positioning sensor addresses this problem, allowing independent local maps to be combined within a global coordinate frame. This is achieved by aligning trajectories from the two sensors which enables estimation of the relative position, orientation and scale of each local map. The second sensor also provides the additional benefit of reducing the search space required for efficient relocalisation. Results illustrate the method working for an indoor environment using an ultrasound position sensor, building and combining a large number of local maps and successfully relocalising as users move arbitrarily within the map. To show the generality of the proposed method we also demonstrate the system building and aligning local maps in an outdoor environment using GPS as the position sensor.
Low-Overhead and High-Precision Prediction Model for Content-Based Sensor Search in the Internet of Things

A growing number of Internet-connected sensors have already promoted the advance of sensor search service. Accessing all available objects to find the sought sensor results in huge communication overhead, thus a low-overhead and high-precision prediction model (LHPM) is proposed to improve the sensor search efficiency. We design the approximation method to lower the reporting energy cost. Then a multistep prediction method is proposed to accurately estimate the sensor state. Furthermore, a sensor ranking method is presented to assess the matching probabilities of sensors, so as to effectively reduce the communication overhead of the search process. Simulation results demonstrate the validity of the proposed prediction model in the area of content-based sensor search.
Investigation on contact surface damage of automotive connector by fretting corrosion

The main cause of electrical contact resistance degradation by corrosion is the vibration of contact interfaces. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the change of contact resistance under vibration test for uncoated sphere/plane contact made of new high copper alloys. The influence of electrical and mechanical properties of materials and mainly the hardness on contact resistance was studied in this work. During the fretting test, contact point was submitted to 16000 vibration cycles under fretting amplitude of 50 µm and 1 Hz frequency. The sphere part was fixed, while the plane part was submitted to a relative motion. At the end of the test, the fretted surfaces and the wear debris were analysed by scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy to evaluate damage, oxidation and elemental composition present in the wear surfaces. In addition, the measurement of the wear track profile using a 3D surface scanning system was introduced. Increases contact resistance and contact temperature has been examined during the fretting test. The results showed that the contact resistance for the harder alloy was higher than those obtained for the other materials. In addition, topographic measurement showed that the small wear track corresponds to the harder material. Finally, depending on the hardness and the resistivity, these uncoated materials influence fretting apparition and its level.
Improved Self-Adaptive Edge Detection Method Based on Canny

The premise of obtaining the clear object contour in traditional Canny operator is to set appropriate parameters, does not have the adaptive ability. An adaptive Canny edge-detection method is proposed which Based on Canny theory. Adopt the 3*3 neighborhood instead of Canny algorithm in 2*2 neighborhood to calculate the calculation gradient. Then, the maximum between-class variance (Otsu) method is used to obtain the high and low thresholds. Experiments show that, this algorithm can get good edge detection.
${\rm M}^{3}$-Deterministic, Multiscale, Multirobot Platform for Microsystems Packaging: Design and Quasi-Static Precision Evaluation

The dawn of next generation robots and systems era which is quietly emerging, requires miniaturized and integrated sensors, actuators, and entire microrobots. One of the defining characteristics of these microsystems is their multiscale nature, e.g., the span of their size, features, and tolerances across multiple dimensional scales, from the meso to the micro and nanoscales. Another defining characteristic is the need to reliably integrate heterogeneous materials via assembly and packaging, in a cost-effective manner, even in low quantities. Thus, it is argued in this paper that cost-effective manufacturing of complex microsystems requires special precision robotic assembly cells with modular and reconfigurable characteristics. This paper presents recent research aimed at developing theoretical underpinnings for how to construct such a manufacturing platform. M3 is a multirobot system spanning across the macro-meso-microscales and specifically configured to package. The M3 robots are systematically characterized in terms of quasi-static precision measures and assembly plans are generated using kinematic identification, inverse kinematics and visual servoing. The advantage of our approach the fact that high assembly yields for our system are a consequence of a set of so-called precision resolution-repeatability-accuracy (RRA) rules introduced in this paper. Experimental results for packaging of a microelectromechanical systems switch are provided to support our findings.
Role of colonoscopy in the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric lower gastrointestinal disorders

The safety and effectiveness of colonoscopy in the investigation of lower gastrointestinal tract pathology in children has been established for more than 2 decades in Korea. Skill and experience have since advanced to the point that both diagnostic and therapeutic colonoscopy are now routinely performed by most pediatric gastroenterologists. Pediatric colonoscopy differs significantly from its adult parallels in nearly every aspect including patient and parent management and preparation, selection criteria for sedation and general anesthetic, bowel preparation, expected diagnoses, instrument selection, imperative for terminal ileal intubation, and requirement for biopsies from macroscopically normal mucosa. Investigation of inflammatory bowel disease, whether for diagnosis or follow-up evaluation, and suspected colonic polyps are the most common indication for pediatric colonoscopy. The child who presents with signs and symptoms of lower gastrointestinal disorder should undergo colonoscopy with biopsy to make the diagnosis, as well as to help determine the appropriate therapy. This review introduces practical information on pediatric colonoscopy, the author's experiences, and the role of colonoscopic examination in the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric lower gastrointestinal disorders.
Semi-automatic single particle segmentation on electron micrographs

The selection of single particles from an electron microscopic (EM) micrograph is an essential part of the reconstruction process of biological macromolecules. Despite its importance, this process requires a lot of user intervention by either purely manual or semi-automatic processing (with the aid of graphical interfaces). Since reconstructing a 3D model of these macromolecules at nano-scale resolution requires thousands of particles, the particle selection phase is bound to become a serious bottleneck in the reconstruction process. In this article we propose a semi-automatic procedure for selecting particles from a micrograph that aims to reduce the false positive rate. We achieve this by first using a fuzzy-sets-based segmentation method, that requires very little user intervention, to detect the background, and then calculating a cross-correlation measure only on points with low "affinity" to the micrograph's background
Removing the mismatch headache in XML keyword search

In this demo, we study one category of query refinement problems in the context of XML keyword search, where what users search for do not exist in the data while useless results are returned by the search engine. It is a hidden but important problem. We refer to it as the MisMatch problem. We propose a practical yet efficient way to detect the MisMatch problem and generate helpful suggestions to users, namely MisMatch detector and suggester. Our approach can be viewed as a post-processing job of query evaluation. An online XML keyword search engine embedding the MisMatch detector and suggester has been built and is available at [1].
Management of the Third Stage of Labor: How Delayed Umbilical Cord Clamping Can Affect Neonatal Outcome

Abstract This review presents the effects of delayed umbilical cord clamping on neonatal transitional physiology. The effects of delayed cord clamping on short- and long-term neonatal outcomes are then discussed. There is ample evidence over the last 50 years that delayed cord clamping in preterm infants is beneficial for both short-term and long-term outcomes. Providing ventilation in the initial steps of neonatal resuscitation prior to clamping of the umbilical cord has a physiologic basis and results in better outcomes for newborns. The challenge now is to design equipment and strategies that can allow initial resuscitation very close to the mother while the umbilical cord is still attached to the placenta.
Huygens principle based UWB microwave imaging method for skin cancer detection

In recent years, Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology has emerged as a promising alternative for use in a wide range of applications. One of the potential applications of UWB is in healthcare and imaging, motivated by its non-ionizing signals, low cost, low complexity, and its ability to penetrate through mediums. Moreover, the large bandwidth covered by UWB signals permits the very high resolution required in imaging experiments. In this paper, a recently introduced UWB microwave imaging technique based on the Huygens principle (HP), has been applied to multilayered skin model with an inclusion representing a tumor. The methodology of HP permits the capture of contrast such that different material properties within the region of interest can be discriminated in the final image, and its simplicity removes the need to solve inverse problems when forward propagating the waves. Therefore the procedure can identify and localize significant scatterers inside a multilayered volume. Validation of the technique through simulations on multilayered cylindrical model of the skin with inclusion representing the tumor has been performed.
Protein secretion in the absence of ATP: the autotransporter, two-partner secretion and chaperone/usher pathways of Gram-negative bacteria (Review)

Bacteria secrete a wide variety of proteins, many of which play important roles in virulence. In Gram-negative bacteria, these proteins must cross the cytoplasmic or inner membrane, periplasm, and outer membrane to reach the cell surface. Gram-negative bacteria have evolved multiple pathways to allow protein secretion across their complex envelope. ATP is not available in the periplasm and many of these secretion pathways encode components that harness energy available at the inner membrane to drive secretion across the outer membrane. In contrast, the autotransporter, two-partner secretion and chaperone/usher pathways are comparatively simple systems that allow secretion across the outer membrane without the need for input of energy from the inner membrane. This review will present overviews of these ‘self-sufficient’ pathways, focusing on recent advances and secretion mechanisms. Similarities among the pathways and with other protein translocation mechanisms will be highlighted.
Circulating microRNAs as Biomarkers, Therapeutic Targets, and Signaling Molecules

Small noncoding microRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of post-transcriptional gene regulation and have altered the prevailing view of a linear relationship between gene and protein expression. Aberrant miRNA expression is an emerging theme for a wide variety of diseases, highlighting the fundamental role played by miRNAs in both physiological and pathological states. The identification of stable miRNAs in bodily fluids paved the way for their use as novel biomarkers amenable to clinical diagnosis in translational medicine. Identification of miRNAs in exosomes that are functional upon delivery to the recipient cells has highlighted a novel method of intercellular communication. Delivery of miRNAs to recipient cells via blood, with functional gene regulatory consequences, opens up novel avenues for target intervention. Exosomes thus offer a novel strategy for delivering drugs or RNA therapeutic agents. Though much work lies ahead, circulating miRNAs are unequivocally ushering in a new era of novel biomarker discovery, intercellular communication mechanisms, and therapeutic intervention strategies.
Some New Developments on the Al-Alaoui and the Pei and Hsu s-to-z Transforms

This brief refocuses on three classes of s-to-z transforms. For each class, a closed-form expression is proposed, and a particular element, having an imaginary part of its frequency response very close to the ideal value, is presented. These s-to-z transforms are then related to all-pass infinite-impulse-response fractional delay filters, allowing another way to choose their degree of freedom.
Cryptococcus neoformans var.grubii: Separate Varietal Status for Cryptococcus neoformans Serotype A Isolates

ABSTRACT Cryptococcus neoformans var. neoformanspresently includes isolates which have been determined by the immunologic reactivity of their capsular polysaccharides to be serotype A and those which have been determined to be serotype D. However, recent analyses of the URA5 sequences and DNA fingerprinting patterns suggest significant genetic differences between the two serotypes. Therefore, we propose to recognize these genotypic distinctions, as well as previously reported phenotypic differences, by restricting C. neoformans var. neoformans to isolates which are serotype D and describing a new variety, C. neoformans var. grubii, for serotype A isolates.
Superior Analgesic Effect of an Active Distraction versus Pleasant Unfamiliar Sounds and Music: The Influence of Emotion and Cognitive Style

Listening to music has been found to reduce acute and chronic pain. The underlying mechanisms are poorly understood; however, emotion and cognitive mechanisms have been suggested to influence the analgesic effect of music. In this study we investigated the influence of familiarity, emotional and cognitive features, and cognitive style on music-induced analgesia. Forty-eight healthy participants were divided into three groups (empathizers, systemizers and balanced) and received acute pain induced by heat while listening to different sounds. Participants listened to unfamiliar Mozart music rated with high valence and low arousal, unfamiliar environmental sounds with similar valence and arousal as the music, an active distraction task (mental arithmetic) and a control, and rated the pain. Data showed that the active distraction led to significantly less pain than did the music or sounds. Both unfamiliar music and sounds reduced pain significantly when compared to the control condition; however, music was no more effective than sound to reduce pain. Furthermore, we found correlations between pain and emotion ratings. Finally, systemizers reported less pain during the mental arithmetic compared with the other two groups. These findings suggest that familiarity may be key in the influence of the cognitive and emotional mechanisms of music-induced analgesia, and that cognitive styles may influence pain perception.
Transitive Relations , Topologies and Partial Orders

Let  be a set with  elements. A subset  of  ×  is a binary relation (or relation) on . The number of relations on  is 22. Equivalently, there are 2 2 labeled bipartite graphs on 2 vertices, assuming the bipartition is fixed and equitable. A relation  on  is reflexive if for all  ∈ , we have ( ) ∈ . The number of reflexive relations on  is 2(−1). A relation  on  is antisymmetric if for all   ∈ , the conditions ( ) ∈  and ( ) ∈  imply that  = . The number of antisymmetric relations on  is 2 · 3(−1)2. A relation  on  is transitive if for all    ∈ , the conditions ( ) ∈  and ( ) ∈  imply that ( ) ∈ . There is no known general formula for the number  of transitive relations on . It is surprising that such a simply-stated counting problem remains unsolved [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. A topology on  is a collection Σ of subsets of  that satisfy the following axioms:
Steroid-Responsive Encephalopathy Associated with Autoimmune Thyroiditis Presenting as Confusion, Dysphasia, and Myoclonus

Steroid response encephalopathy associated with autoimmune thyroiditis (SREAT), or Hashimoto's encephalopathy, is a rare disorder believed to be immune-mediated. It is most often characterized by a subacute onset of confusion with altered level of consciousness, seizures, and myoclonus. We describe the case of a 48-year-old gentleman who presented with confusion and dysphasia. Specific clinical features and laboratory results led to a diagnosis of Hashimoto's encephalopathy. This case highlights the core features of this condition and the potential for complete response to steroid therapy.
Fetal cell microchimerism in the maternal heart: baby gives back.

See related article, pages 82–93 In this issue of Circulation Research , Kara et al1 present an elegant series of experiments demonstrating that after murine maternal myocardial infarction, fetal cells engraft and differentiate into endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, and cardiomyocytes at the site of injury. These cells, when isolated and cocultured with neonatal cells, appear to be capable of differentiating into beating cardiomyocytes. These results, if validated by other investigators, have profound significance with regard to gender biology.2 Although it has been known for more than a century that as a result of pregnancy women naturally transiently acquire a population of cells from their fetuses,3 more recent studies have shown that the fetal cells actually persist in maternal blood and organs for decades after delivery.4,5 Although initially the focus was on the association between fetal cells and the increased incidence of autoimmune diseases in women,6 later investigators used animal models to explore the potential for the pregnancy-associated progenitor cells7 to differentiate and repair injured or diseased maternal organs. For example, Nguyen Huu et al8 showed that fetal cells preferentially migrated to the injured skin in a murine model of contact dermatitis induced during pregnancy. Pregnancy-associated progenitor cells also were shown to cross the murine blood–brain barrier and integrate within the maternal brain in a model of Parkinson disease.9 The fetal cells in maternal brain had morphologies similar to neurons and expressed neuron-specific genes such as NeuN and β3-tubulin . Together, these findings support the hypothesis that fetal cells cross the placenta as progenitor cells and differentiate within the maternal tissues. In the Kara et al study,1 female B6CBA mice were mated with C57Bl6 males that carried one copy of e gfp , allowing detection of cells that expressed …
Monolithic CMOS Pixel Detectors for ILC Vertex Detection

A CMOS pixel vertex detector suited for use at the International Linear Collider (ILC) is proposed. The proposed detector consists of 50µm ◊ 50µm macropixels, each with integrated bunch clock memory, on top of 5µm ◊ 5µm micropixels that record amplitude information. The micropixels integrate over all bunch crossing in a train. Using the time recorded by the macropixels, the fine position measurements made in the micropixels can be associated to only a few of the 3000 bunch crossings in a bunch train.
Preconditioned Low-rank Riemannian Optimization for Linear Systems with Tensor Product Structure

The numerical solution of partial differential equations on high-dimensional domains gives rise to computationally challenging linear systems. When using standard discretization techniques, the size of the linear system grows exponentially with the number of dimensions, making the use of classic iterative solvers infeasible. During the last few years, low-rank tensor approaches have been developed that allow one to mitigate this curse of dimensionality by exploiting the underlying structure of the linear operator. In this work, we focus on tensors represented in the Tucker and tensor train formats. We propose two preconditioned gradient methods on the corresponding low-rank tensor manifolds: a Riemannian version of the preconditioned Richardson method as well as an approximate Newton scheme based on the Riemannian Hessian. For the latter, considerable attention is given to the efficient solution of the resulting Newton equation. In numerical experiments, we compare the efficiency of our Riemannian algorit.
Efficient Square-Root Algorithms for the Extended V-BLAST with Selective Per-Antenna Rate Control

We propose efficient algorithms for the extended Vertical Bell Labs Layered Space-Time architecture (V-BLAST) with selective per-antenna rate control (S-PARC). Instead of computing SNIRs from nulling vectors, we compute SNIRs from diagonal entries in the estimation error covariance matrix P, which are obtained from entries in F, i.e. the triangular squareroot of P. Then the square-root V-BLAST algorithm is applied, to compute F for an antenna subset from F for another subset. Moreover, when computing F, we can reuse intermediate results to further reduce the computational complexity dramatically. Assume M transmit/receive antennas. The proposed algorithm for the S-PARC scheme minimizing total transmit power has the speedup of 0.14M + 1.82, with respect to the corresponding SPARC algorithm computing SNIRs from nulling vectors, while the proposed algorithm for the S-PARC scheme maximizing total information rate has the speedup of (M + 58)/24.
Achieving minimum-routing-cost maximum-flows in infrastructure wireless mesh networks

A multicommodity Minimum-Cost Maximum-Flow algorithm for routing multiple unicast traffic flows in infrastructure wireless mesh networks, represented as commodities to be routed in an undirected or directed graph, is presented. The routing-cost per edge can be any metric, i.e, a delay, a SNR, etc. To minimize resource-usage and transmission power, the routing-cost is formulated as a Bandwidth-Distance product, where high-bandwidth backhaul flows are routed over shorter distance paths. The routing algorithm requires the formulation of two linear-programming (LP) problems. The first LP performs constrained multicommodity flow maximization, where the traffic flowing between any source/destination pair is constrained to a sub-graph of the original graph to enforce distance constraints. The second LP performs multicommodity cost minimization, under the constraint that the aggregate flow is maximized. Both LPs can be solved in polynomial time. No other multicommodity unicast routing algorithm can achieve a larger Maximum-flow, or the same Maximum-flow rate with a lower cost. The algorithm can also be faster than other known Maximum-Flow algorithms. Given the physical interference model and an appropriate antenna model, every vector of commodity flow-rates within the Capacity Region of an infrastructure network can be scheduled to achieve rigorous throughput and QoS guarantees, using a recently-proposed scheduling algorithm. The algorithm is tested in a hexagonal infrastructure wireless mesh network to maximize backhaul traffic flows.