Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vision-based robot localization without explicit object models

We consider the problem of locating a robot in an initially-unfamiliar environment from visual input. The robot is not given a map of the environment, but it does have access to a collection of training examples, each of which specifies the video image observed when the robot is at a particular location and orientation. We address two variants of this problem: how to estimate translation of a moving robot assuming the orientation is known, and how to estimate translation and orientation for a mobile robot. Performing scene reconstruction to construct a metric map of the environment using only video images is difficult. We avoid this by using an approach in which the robot learns to convert a set of image measurements into a representation of its pose (position and orientation). This provides a metric estimate of the robot's location within a region covered by the statistical map we build. Localization can be performed online without a prior location estimate, The conversion from visual data to camera pose is implemented using a multilayer neural network that is trained using backpropagation. An aspect of the approach is the use of an inconsistency measure to eliminate incorrect data and estimate components of the pose vector. The experimental data reported in this paper suggests that the accuracy and flexibility of the technique is good, while the online computational cost is very low.
Elastometric sensing using higher flexural eigenmodes of microcantilevers

We present a method to detect with high sensitivity the viscoelastic property changes of sensor coatings on microcantilever arrays due to radiation, analyte binding, or adsorption. The method uses higher order flexural eigenmodes to identify the location and magnitude of the nonuniform elasticity changes in the microcantilever coating. We demonstrate the method by monitoring the time evolution of resonance frequencies and Q factors of different flexural eigenmodes of microcantilevers functionalized with a small drop of a photosensitive polymer as it is exposed to ultraviolet radiation. The method is particularly well suited for measuring quantitatively the time varying viscoelastic properties of thin films or biological materials attached to microcantilevers.
Contribution à la spécification et à l’élaboration d’une plateforme de maintenance orientée connaissances

Le maintien en condition operationnelle des equipements industriels est un des enjeux importants de l'entreprise, et a fait passer la maintenance d'un centre de cout a un centre de profit, ce qui a eu pour consequence une eclosion de logiciels d'aide a la maintenance allant de la GMAO aux plateformes de e-maintenance. Ces systemes d'aide fournissent aux differents acteurs de la maintenance, un support a la decision et un ensemble de services permettant une gestion informatisee d'activites de base appartenant au processus de maintenance (exemple l'intervention, la planification, le diagnostic, etc.). Toutefois, les besoins des utilisateurs evoluent dans le temps en fonction de nouvelles contraintes, de leur expertise, des nouvelles connaissances. Par contre les services fournis n'evoluent pas et necessitent une reactualisation. Afin de tenir compte de l'evolution de ces connaissances, pour que ces systemes d'aide puissent repondre aux besoins des utilisateurs et puissent proposer des services a la demande et des services evolutifs nous avons fait le point dans cette these sur les avantages et limites des systemes informatiques d'aide existants notamment les plateformes de e-maintenance (systemes les plus avances aujourd'hui en maintenance). Pour pallier le manque des systemes existants, nous avons propose le concept de s-maintenance qui est caracterise principalement par les echanges collaboratifs entre applications et utilisateurs, par des connaissances communes du domaine de maintenance. Pour mettre en œuvre ce concept, nous avons propose une plateforme orientee connaissances assurant des fonctionnalites auto-x (auto-tracabilite, auto-apprentissage, autogestion) qui permettent de repondre aux caracteristiques de la s-maintenance. L'architecture a base de composants de cette plateforme prend appui sur une base de connaissances partagee entre les differents composants qu'elle integre au profit de l'interoperabilite semantique ainsi que de la capitalisation des connaissances. Nous avons par ailleurs developpe une ontologie du domaine de maintenance sur laquelle s'appuie cette base de connaissances. Finalement, afin de developper les fonctionnalites auto-x assurees par la plateforme nous avons propose un systeme a base de traces exploitant la base de connaissances et l'ontologie associee
The relationship between degree of influence of agents of leisure socialization and generalized leisure self-efficacy among university students

Many factors are assumed to affect individuals' general sense of self-efficacy in leisure. This general sense of self-efficacy is defined by individuals' beliefs about their competence, control, and mastery with respect to their repertoire of leisure pursuits. Among the numerous factors that are assumed to have an impact on individual's generalized leisure self-efficacy are their personal histories of successes and failures in leisure activities (Ellis and Witt, 1986; Iso-Ahola, 1980, 1984; Savell, 1986; Weissinger, 1988); their personality dispositions (Mannell, 1984); their leisure attitudes, values, and motivations (Beard and Ragheb, 1980,1983; Crandall, 1980; Mundy and Odum, 1979); and influences of various development factors that have directed people's socialization into their culture during childhood and adolescence (Bandura, 1986; Damon, 1983; Kelly, 1977).
Just a grommet: cardiac arrest in a healthy adolescent.

A 15-yr-old male patient diagnosed with acute otitis media was scheduled for insertion of a ventilation tube (grommet). His medical history and physical examination was unremarkable and he was graded ASA I. Previous general anaesthesia had been uneventful. Anaesthesia was induced with sevoflurane in oxygen by a facemask. Monitoring included pulse oximetry and capnography. Several short episodes of apnoea were observed during induction and the inspiratory sevoflurane concentration was reduced. Suddenly the plethysmograph readings disappeared and end-tidal CO2 (ETCO2) rapidly decreased. Torsade de pointes was seen on the electrocardiogram (ECG). The surgical procedure was terminated, the administration of sevoflurane was stopped and 100% oxygen administered. The patient was defibrillated once, which immediately resulted in sinus rhythm. The patient was transported to the ICU and there he regained consciousness soon after. His ECG showed a prolonged QT interval. Six non-sustained ventricular tachycardia episodes were observed in the first postoperative hours. Laboratory studies revealed no electrolyte disturbances. The patient was sent to the cardiologist for further evaluation. There was no history of syncope or congenital deafness in this patient and no family history of unexplained sudden cardiac death or Long QT Syndrome (LQTS). Cardiac echography revealed no abnormalities. A continuous 24-h electrocardiogram showed sporadic ventricular extrasystolic beats; however, the heart-rate-corrected QT interval was normal. Therefore, our patient did not meet the diagnostic criteria for congenital LQTS [1]. The cardiologist concluded that the event was attributable to an acquired LQTS induced by sevoflurane. Eight days after the event, the patient was readmitted because of an extensive cholesteatoma involving the semicircular canal requiring middle ear surgery. Monitoring consisted of ECG, pulse oximetry, non-invasive blood pressure and capnography. Medications without known effect on the QT interval were chosen. Induction of anaesthesia was performed with propofol, suxamethonium and the trachea was intubated with a cuffed tube. Anaesthesia was maintained with propofol and remifentanyl and the patient was ventilated with 35% oxygen in air. Near the end of surgery, the patient received morphine and dexamethasone. The perioperative course was uneventful and we did not observe any ECG abnormality.
A high-performance low-power near-Vt RRAM-based FPGA

The routing architecture, heavily using programmable switches, dominates the area, delay and power of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Resistive Random Access Memories (RRAMs) enable high-performance routing architectures through the replacement of Static Random Access Memory (SRAM)-based programming switches. Exploiting the very low on-resistance state achievable by RRAMs, RRAM-based routing multiplexers can be used to significantly reduce the FPGA routing delays. In addition, RRAM-based routing architectures are less sensitive to supply voltage reductions and show promises in low-power FPGA designs. In this paper, we propose a near-Vt low-power RRAM-based FPGA where both delay and power reductions are achieved. Experimental results demonstrate that a near-Vi RRAM-based FPGA design leads to a 15% area shrink, a 10% delay reduction, and a 65% power improvement, compared to a conventional FPGA design for a given technology node. To achieve low on-resistance values, RRAMs typically require high programming currents. In other word, they need relatively large programming transistors, potentially resulting in area, delay and power inefficiencies. We also present a design methodology to properly size the programming transistors of RRAMs in order to further improve the area-efficiency. Experimental results show that a correct programming transistor sizing strategy contributes to further 18% area and 2% delay shrink, compared to the initial near-Vi RRAM-based FPGA.
Surface Damage on Dental Implants with Release of Loose Particles after Insertion into Bone.

BACKGROUND Modern dental implants present surface features of distinct dimensions that can be damaged during the insertion procedure into bone. PURPOSE The aims of this study were (1) to quantify by means of roughness parameters the surface damage caused by the insertion procedure of dental implants and (2) to investigate the presence of loose particles at the interface. MATERIALS AND METHODS Three groups of dental implants representing different surface topographies were inserted in fresh cow rib bone blocks. The surface roughness was characterized by interferometry on the same area before and after the insertion. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)-back-scattered electron detector (BSD) analysis was used to identify loose particles at the interface. RESULTS The amplitude and hybrid roughness parameters of all three groups were lower after insertion. The surface presenting predominance of peaks (Ssk [skewness] > 0) associated to higher structures (height parameters) presented higher damage associated to more pronounced reduction of material volume. SEM-BSD images revealed loose titanium and aluminum particles at the interface mainly at the crestal cortical bone level. CONCLUSIONS Shearing forces during the insertion procedure alters the surface of dental implants. Loose metal particles can be generated at bone-implant interface especially around surfaces composed mainly by peaks and with increased height parameters.
Review of Shrinkage Techniques for Image Denoising

Image denoising is a common procedure to suppress the quality degradation caused by noise. Several image denoising methods are proposed in literature. Amongst these Discrete Wavelet Transform-DWT Filters are very popular. Denoising using the DWT-Transform includes decomposition of the image into various sub bands and then modeling them as independent identically distributed random variables with Gaussian distribution. Shrinkage methods are often used for suppressing Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN), where thresholding is used to retain the larger wavelet coefficients alone. Minimum Mean Square Error estimation is a common practice for noise analysis and is thus included in this paper. Overall we discuss in this review briefly the various Shrinkage methods in DWTDomain Filters and we assess them by posing a comparison between the efficiency of these filters.
Explorer Exploiting native forces to capture chromosome conformation in mammalian cell nuclei

Mammalian interphase chromosomes fold into a multitude of loops to fit the confines of cell nuclei, and looping is tightly linked to regulated function. Chromosome conformation capture (3C) technology has significantly advanced our understanding of this structure-to-function relationship. However, all 3C-based methods rely on chemical cross-linking to stabilize spatial interactions. This step remains a “black box” as regards the biases it may introduce, and some discrepancies between microscopy and 3C studies have now been reported. To address these concerns, we developed “i3C”, a novel approach for capturing spatial interactions without a need for cross-linking. We apply i3C to intact nuclei of living cells and exploit native forces that stabilize chromatin folding. Using different cell types and loci, computational modeling, and a methylation-based orthogonal validation method, “TALE-iD”, we show that native interactions resemble cross-linked ones, but display improved signal-to-noise ratios and are more focal on regulatory elements and CTCF sites, while strictly abiding to topologically associating domain restrictions.
Protein-Based Classifier to Predict Conversion from Clinically Isolated Syndrome to Multiple Sclerosis*

Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory, demyelinating, and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system. In most patients, the disease initiates with an episode of neurological disturbance referred to as clinically isolated syndrome, but not all patients with this syndrome develop multiple sclerosis over time, and currently, there is no clinical test that can conclusively establish whether a patient with a clinically isolated syndrome will eventually develop clinically defined multiple sclerosis. Here, we took advantage of the capabilities of targeted mass spectrometry to establish a diagnostic molecular classifier with high sensitivity and specificity able to differentiate between clinically isolated syndrome patients with a high and a low risk of developing multiple sclerosis. Based on the combination of abundances of proteins chitinase 3-like 1 and ala-β-his-dipeptidase in cerebrospinal fluid, we built a statistical model able to assign to each patient a precise probability of conversion to clinically defined multiple sclerosis. Our results are of special relevance for patients affected by multiple sclerosis as early treatment can prevent brain damage and slow down the disease progression.
Survival time of random walk in random environment among soft obstacles

We consider a Random Walk in Random Environment (RWRE) moving in an i.i. d. random field of obstacles. When the particle hits an obstacle, it disappears with a positive probability. We obtain quenched and annealed bounds on the tails of the survival time in the general d -dimensional case. We then consider a simplified one-dimensional model (where transition probabilities and obstacles are independent and the RWRE only moves to neighbour sites), and obtain finer results for the tail of the survival time. In addition, we study also the "mixed" probability measures (quenched with respect to the obstacles and annealed with respect to the transition probabilities and vice-versa) and give results for tails of the survival time with respect to these probability measures. Further, we apply the same methods to obtain bounds for the tails of hitting times of Branching Random Walks in Random Environment (BRWRE).
Scalable Hybrid Computation with Spikes

We outline a hybrid analog-digital scheme for computing with three important features that enable it to scale to systems of large complexity: First, like digital computation, which uses several one-bit precise logical units to collectively compute a precise answer to a computation, the hybrid scheme uses several moderate-precision analog units to collectively compute a precise answer to a computation. Second, frequent discrete signal restoration of the analog information prevents analog noise and offset from degrading the computation. And, third, a state machine enables complex computations to be created using a sequence of elementary computations. A natural choice for implementing this hybrid scheme is one based on spikes because spike-count codes are digital, while spike-time codes are analog. We illustrate how spikes afford easy ways to implement all three components of scalable hybrid computation. First, as an important example of distributed analog computation, we show how spikes can create a distributed modular representation of an analog number by implementing digital carry interactions between spiking analog neurons. Second, we show how signal restoration may be performed by recursive spike-count quantization of spike-time codes. And, third, we use spikes from an analog dynamical system to trigger state transitions in a digital dynamical system, which reconfigures the analog dynamical system using a binary control vector; such feedback interactions between analog and digital dynamical systems create a hybrid state machine (HSM). The HSM extends and expands the concept of a digital finite-state-machine to the hybrid domain. We present experimental data from a two-neuron HSM on a chip that implements error-correcting analog-to-digital conversion with the concurrent use of spike-time and spike-count codes. We also present experimental data from silicon circuits that implement HSM-based pattern recognition using spike-time synchrony. We outline how HSMs may be used to perform learning, vector quantization, spike pattern recognition and generation, and how they may be reconfigured.
Chapter 8 Pesticides : Environmental Impacts and Management Strategies

Increase in food production is the prime-most objective of all countries, as world population is expected to grow to nearly 10 billion by 2050. Based on evidence, world population is increasing by an estimated 97 million per year (Saravi and Shokrzadeh, 2011). The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has in-fact issued a sobering forecast that world food production needs to increase by 70%, in order to keep pace with the demand of growing population. However, increase in food production is faced with the ever-growing challenges especially the new area that can be increased for cultivation purposes is very limited (Saravi and Shokrzadeh, 2011). The increasing world population has therefore put a tremen‐ dous amount of pressure on the existing agricultural system so that food needs can be met from the same current resources like land, water etc. In the process of increasing crop pro‐ duction, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, nematicides, fertilizers and soil amendments are now being used in higher quantities than in the past. These chemicals have mainly come into the picture since the introduction of synthetic insecticides in 1940, when organochlorine (OCl) insecticides were first used for pest management. Before this introduction, most weeds, pests, insects and diseases were controlled using sustainable practices such as cultural, mechanical, and physical control strategies.
HIV-Tat Protein Forms Phosphoinositide-dependent Membrane Pores Implicated in Unconventional Protein Secretion*

Background: Unconventional secretion of both HIV-Tat and FGF2 depends on the phosphoinositide PI(4,5)P2. Results: HIV-Tat forms membrane-inserted oligomers concomitant with PI(4,5)P2-dependent membrane pore formation. Conclusion: HIV-Tat and FGF2 show similar properties with a tight correlation between membrane pore formation and unconventional secretion from cells. Significance: Evidence is provided that suggests a common mechanism of unconventional secretion with potential relevance for a broad range of cargoes. HIV-Tat has been demonstrated to be secreted from cells in a phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2)-dependent manner. Here we show that HIV-Tat forms membrane-inserted oligomers, a process that is accompanied by changes in secondary structure with a strong increase in antiparallel β sheet content. Intriguingly, oligomerization of HIV-Tat on membrane surfaces leads to the formation of membrane pores, as demonstrated by physical membrane passage of small fluorescent tracer molecules. Although membrane binding of HIV-Tat did not strictly depend on PI(4,5)P2 but, rather, was mediated by a range of acidic membrane lipids, a functional interaction between PI(4,5)P2 and HIV-Tat was critically required for efficient membrane pore formation by HIV-Tat oligomers. These properties are strikingly similar to what has been reported previously for fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2), providing strong evidence of a common core mechanism of unconventional secretion shared by HIV-Tat and fibroblast growth factor 2.
Neurobehavioral Consequences of Prenatal Exposure to Maternal Immune Activation

Schizophrenia is a chronic and pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder that devastates the lives of nearly 1% of the population. The disorder is most commonly recognized by the manifestation of hallucinations, delusions, and bizarre or disorganized behavior. These psychotic symptoms are only one facet of this complex illness. Individuals with schizophrenia also experience disabling cognitive, affective, and social impairments. Dysfunction of brain dopamine systems, and the mesocorticolimbic system in particular, is suspected to underlie these impairments. Despite recognition of the illness throughout history, there are currently no effective interventions ameliorating the full spectrum of the illness, and the origins of schizophrenia remain unclear. Although genetic factors contribute substantially to the etiology of schizophrenia, it is clear that environmental factors have a significant pathophysiological role. Epidemiologic evidence suggests that the prenatal period represents a critical window of vulnerability to environmental insult. Multiple prenatal exposures are associated with elevated schizophrenia risk in later life, including maternal infection, psychosocial stress, malnutrition, and obstetric complications. It is theorized that a mechanism common to these diverse insults may disrupt fetal development, therefore leading to psychiatric illness. One such common factor of these prenatal events is activation of the maternal inflammatory response during pregnancy. The objective of the following work was to determine the consequences of maternal immune stimulation during pregnancy on behaviors mediated by the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system in exposed progeny. Mesocorticolimbic dopamine neurotransmission is thought to underlie psychosis symptoms, as well as their exacerbation by psychomimetic agents and psychosocial stress. Thus, these studies test the overarching hypothesis that prenatal immune
Fundamental frequency adjustment and formant transition based emotional speech synthesis

Synthesis of emotional speech synthesis can enhance the speech's expression and emotion feeling, it is the emerging issues in recent years. Prosodic feature has important influence in emotion speech expression. This paper firstly gets the important prosodic features after feature selection, then puts forward the emotional speech synthesis method based on the combination of pitch and formants, as that PSOLA algorithm can't control the formants features' influences to the speech synthesis, this paper has a new attempt in the methods of emotional speech synthesis.
Organ-conserving cardiac surgery

The goal of organ-conserving cardiac surgery is the preservation of heart function in the setting of heart failure. One way to improve heart function is left ventricular surgical reconstruction. This article briefly reviews the pathophysiology of left ventricular cardiomyopathy and the evolution of surgical left ventricular reconstruction techniques. These techniques are now part of a well-accepted concept with satisfactory perioperative mortality and morbidity. Further studies are warranted before definitive recommendations regarding surgical ventricular reconstruction can be given.