Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Concept and development of general rescue robot CUL

When a natural disaster happens, it is very important to go to the scene to rescue people as soon as possible. However, it is very hard to transport materials for rescue activities because the disasters destroy roads all over the area. Therefore, we cannot use automobiles. Moreover, the landform of the area is so complex. We propose a kind of walking robot system named CUL: Carry and Power Assist Robot for Unspecified Landforms. To develop the system, we also propose a method for creating an environmental map. We call the method the Mold Tube method. We describe a prototype of CUL that has two cameras and two legs. We show a result of an experiment for a feasibility study.
Antagonistic Antiviral Activity between IFN-Lambda and IFN-Alpha against Lethal Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus In Vitro

Background and Aims Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) is the causative agent of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a severe disease with a mortality rate of around 30% in humans. Previous studies demonstrate that pre-treatment with type I IFNs have an antiviral effect against CCHFV, while established CCHFV infection is almost insensitive to subsequent IFN-α treatment. No data concerning type III IFNs antiviral activity against CCHFV are available so far. The aim of the present study was to explore the capability of IFN-λ1 to inhibit the replication of CCHFV and the possible synergism/antagonism between IFN-α and IFN-λ1 both in the inhibition of CCHFV replication and in the activation of intracellular pathways of IFN response. Methods Human A549 and HuH7 cells were treated with increasing amounts of IFN-λ1, or IFN-α or a combination of them, infected with CCHF; the extent of virus yield inhibition and the induction of MxA and 2’-5’OAS mRNA was measured. Results and Conclusions Our study pointed out that type III IFN possess an antiviral activity against CCHFV, even if lower than type I IFN. Moreover, a clear antagonism between IFN-λ and IFN–α was observed in both cell lines (A549 and HuH7 cells), in terms of antiviral effect and activation of pivotal ISGs, i.e. MxA and 2’-5’OAS. Elucidating the interplay between type I and III IFNs will help to better understand innate defence mechanisms against viral infections and may provide novel scientific evidence for a more rational planning of available and future treatments, particularly against human diseases caused by high concern viruses.
PARAMETRIC TEXTURE RETRIEVAL USING CONTOURLETS

The contourlet transform is a new extension of the wavelet transform in 2-D using non-separable and directional £lter banks. In this paper, a content-based texture retrieval sys tem based on this new transform is developed. This system applies the Hidden Markov Tree (HMT) model on the contourlet coef£cients and extract the model parameters as features. Kullback Liebler distance is then measured and compared between models and the database models that give the smallest distances are retrieved. It is found that this syst em has an advantage over the wavelet HMT texture retrieval system for textures that are dominated by directional components other than vertical, horizontal or 45-degree diago nal.
Early and intermediate term clinical outcome after multiple coronary stenting

Objective To examine the immediate and intermediate term clinical outcome of multiple coronary stenting. Design Consecutive patients were prospectively entered on a dedicated database. Follow up information was obtained from outpatient and telephone interviews with patients and family physicians. Setting A tertiary referral centre. Patients 140 consecutive patients underwent multiple coronary stenting between April 1994 and November 1996. Most patients had unstable coronary syndromes. Main outcome measures Death, cerebrovascular accidents, myocardial infarction (MI), coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), and repeat angioplasty (PTCA). Results The angiographic success rate was 100% and the clinical procedural success rate 93%. The mean (SD) follow up was 11.9 (7.2) months (range 2–32). The mean (SD) number of stents per patient was 2.4 (0.7). The mean (SD) number of lesions treated per patient was 1.4 (0.6). There were four in-hospital deaths (2.9%) and five patients (3.6%) had an MI before hospital discharge. All in-hospital deaths occurred in patients presenting with an acute MI and cardiogenic shock. Three patients (2.2%) had a late MI. One patient with stent thrombosis underwent emergency CABG. Three patients (2.2%) underwent late CABG. Eight patients (5.7%) had a repeat PTCA. Eighty three patients (61.5%) were asymptomatic at follow up and 121 (86.4%) were free from major clinical events. Conclusion In an era of increased operator experience, high pressure stent deployment, and reduced anticoagulation with antiplatelet treatment alone, multiple coronary stenting may be performed with a high procedural success rate and good intermediate term outcome.
Voltage‐clamp study of the conductance activated at fertilization in the starfish egg.

Ionic currents underlying the fertilization potential of the egg of the starfish Mediaster aequalis were studied using a two‐micro‐electrode voltage clamp. Mature eggs were fertilized in vitro under voltage‐clamp conditions. The fertilization current, here termed IF, was induced by adding sperm to sea water bathing the egg. At a holding potential of ‐70 mV, IF was inward. It reached a peak within 2‐4 min and then decayed over the next approximately 20 min with a rate which depended on the holding membrane potential. Instantaneous current‐voltage relations measured at different times during IF were approximately linear and reversed at a potential of +6.0 +/‐ 5.8 mV (mean +/‐ S.D., n = 11). Membrane chord conductance was highest at the peak of inward current and the declining phase of IF was due to a decrease in conductance towards the pre‐fertilization level. When the membrane potential was rapidly stepped to levels more positive than about ‐45 mV, the conductance underlying IF decreased in a manner which depended on both membrane potential and time. The fertilization‐specific conductance showed a sigmoidal activation curve between ‐50 and +10 mV with a half‐activation level of ‐25 mV. Analysis of the steady‐state voltage dependence indicated that at the peak of the fertilization potential (+10 to +15 mV) only 4‐5% of the total available channels would be open. Current relaxations followed first‐order kinetics and the relaxation time constant depended upon the membrane potential during the voltage pulse. The relation between the time constant and voltage was bell‐shaped, decreasing at potentials more negative than ‐40 and more positive than 0 mV. Both the steady‐state conductance‐voltage relation and the kinetics of the current relaxations were consistent with a simple two‐state gating model in which the probability of a channel being open is determined by a single gating particle with an effective valency of ‐1.7 moving through the entire membrane field. The shifts in reversal potential with changes in external Na (at 10 mM‐external K) were analysed using the constant field expression, which gave a relative permeability of Na to K of approximately 0.6. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Anti‐GM1 IgG antibodies and campylobacter bacteria in Guillain‐Barré syndrome: Evidence of molecular mimicry

In Guillain‐Barré syndrome antibodies to GM1 and the presence of an antecedent Campylobacter jeJunei infection are correlated with a more severe course of the disease. From a group of 137 consecutive GBS patients, 11 sera had elevated titers of anti‐GM1 IgG antibodies during the acute stage of disease. Each serum sample was preincubated with three different Penner serotypes of whole C. jeJunei (PEN O:4/59, PEN O:41) and Campylobacter coli (PEN O:22) bacteria. The PEN O:4/59 serotype, isolated from the stools of a Guillain‐Barré syndrome patient, inhibited 63 to 93% of the anti‐GM1 activity in 6 of 11 patients. The PEN O:41 inhibited 63 to 100% of the anti‐GM1 antibody activity in 9 of 11 patients. The PEN O:22 inhibited anti‐GM1 antibody activity in only 2 of 11 patients (80 and 86%). Two Guillain‐Barré syndrome patients did not show antibody absorption by any of the Campylobacter serotypes tested, although this does not exclude the involvement of other serotypes. An Escherichia coli control strain did not significantly absorb anti‐GM1 antibodies. The results of this study indicate that anti‐GM1 IgG antibodies in Guillain‐Barré syndrome sera recognize surface epitopes on whole Campylobacter bacteria and that this recognition is strain‐specific. This provides evidence for molecular mimicry in the pathogenesis of Guillain‐Barré syndrome.
Towards a Public Multilingual Knowledge Management Infrastructure for the European Digital Single Market

This paper describes the first phase of the Public Multilingual Knowledge Management Infrastructure (PMKI) ISA2 project. PMKI is meant to support enterprises, in particular the language technology industry, as well as public administrations, with multilingual tools able to improve cross border accessibility of digital services. In particular it aims to create a set of tools and facilities, based on Semantic Web technologies, for establishing semantic interoperability between multilingual lexicons. A comparative study among the main data models for representing lexicons and recom-mendations for the PMKI service are reported. Moreover, the expected synergies with other programs of the EU institutions, as far as systems interoperability and machine translation solutions, are discussed.
Laboratory Diagnosis of HbA1c: A Review

The percentage of glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (% HbA1c) in human whole blood indicates the average plasma glucose concentration over a prolonged period of time and is used to diagnose diabetes. Currently, common laboratory methods to recognize glycated proteins are high-performance liquid chromatography, immunoassay and electrophoresis. The accuracy and the precision of A1c assays at least match those of glucose assays. Consequently, American Diabetes Association, the European Association for the Study of Diabetes and the International Diabetes Federation decided that the A1c assay should be recognized as the primary method for diagnosing diabetes. The recent availability of rapid, reliable, and easy-to-perform tests for detecting HbA1c has introduced rapid Diabetes diagnosis. This review thus summarizes the current information on the present and future aspects of diagnostic methods for HbA1c.
Identification and some properties of a unique DNA polymerase from cells infected with human B-lymphotropic virus

A new DNA polymerase and DNase activity were identified from cells infected with human B-lymphotropic herpesvirus (HBLV). DNA polymerase associated with HBLV infection was similar in its sensitivity to inhibition by ppi analogs as other herpesvirus-specific DNA polymerases but was dissimilar in its inhibition by certain nucleoside triphosphates.
Persona development for information-rich domains

Designing information architecture for complex websites requires understanding user information needs and mental models in that domain. Personas, or user archetypes, created for such domains should also reflect types of information needs, and usage of information set. We have created a statistical technique to identify important underlying groupings of information needs. In a preliminary study, we show how designers can use this information in conjunction with data from interviews and observations to generate and refine personas.
Error-resilient video transmission using long-term memory motion-compensated prediction

Long-term memory prediction extends the spatial displacement vector utilized in hybrid video coding by a variable time delay, permitting the use of more than one reference frame for motion compensation. This extension leads to improved rate-distortion performance. However, motion compensation in combination with transmission errors leads to temporal error propagation that occurs when the reference frames at the coder and decoder differ. In this paper, we present a framework that incorporates an estimated error into rate-constrained motion estimation and mode decision. Experimental results with a Rayleigh fading channel show that long-term memory prediction significantly outperforms the single-frame prediction H.263-based anchor. When a feedback channel is available, the decoder can inform the encoder about successful or unsuccessful transmission events by sending positive (ACK) or negative (NACK) acknowledgments. This information is utilized for updating the error estimates at the encoder. Similar concepts, such as the ACK and NACK mode known from the H.263 standard, are unified into a general framework providing superior transmission performance.
A Novel Multipath Approach to Security in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs)

In this paper, we present a novel encryption-less algorithm to enhance security in transmission of data packets across mobile ad hoc networks. The paper hinges on the paradigm of multipath routing and exploits the properties of polynomials. The first step in the algorithm is to transform the data such that it is impossible to obtain any information without possessing the entire transformed data. The algorithm then uses an intuitively simple idea of a jigsaw puzzle to break the transformed data into multiple packets where these packets form the pieces of the puzzle. Then these packets are sent along disjoint paths to reach the receiver. A secure and efficient mechanism is provided to convey the information that is necessary for obtaining the original data at the receiver-end from its fragments in the packets, that is, for solving the jigsaw puzzle. The algorithm is designed to be secure so that no intermediate or unintended node can obtain the entire data. An authentication code is also used to ensure authenticity of every packet.
A Market-Inspired Approach for Intersection Management in Urban Road Traffic Networks

Traffic congestion in urban road networks is a costly problem that affects all major cities in developed countries. To tackle this problem, it is possible (i) to act on the supply side, increasing the number of roads or lanes in a network, (ii) to reduce the demand, restricting the access to urban areas at specific hours or to specific vehicles, or (iii) to improve the efficiency of the existing network, by means of a widespread use of so-called Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). In line with the recent advances in smart transportation management infrastructures, ITS has turned out to be a promising field of application for artificial intelligence techniques. In particular, multiagent systems seem to be the ideal candidates for the design and implementation of ITS. In fact, drivers can be naturally modelled as autonomous agents that interact with the transportation management infrastructure, thereby generating a large-scale, open, agent-based system. To regulate such a system and maintain a smooth and efficient flow of traffic, decentralised mechanisms for the management of the transportation infrastructure are needed. In this article we propose a distributed, market-inspired, mechanism for the management of a future urban road network, where intelligent autonomous vehicles, operated by software agents on behalf of their human owners, interact with the infrastructure in order to travel safely and efficiently through the road network. Building on the reservationbased intersection control model proposed by Dresner and Stone, we consider two different scenarios: one with a single intersection and one with a network of intersections. In the former, we analyse the performance of a novel policy based on combinatorial auctions for the allocation of reservations. In the latter, we analyse the impact that a traffic assignment strategy inspired by competitive markets has on the drivers' route choices. Finally we propose an adaptive management mechanism that integrates the auction-based traffic control policy with the competitive traffic assignment strategy.
Back propagation fails to separate where perceptrons succeed

It is widely believed that the back-propagation algorithm in neural networks, for tasks such as pattern classification, overcomes the limitations of the perceptron. The authors construct several counterexamples to this belief. They also construct linearly separable examples which have a unique minimum which fails to separate two families of vectors, and a simple example with four two-dimensional vectors in a single-layer network showing local minima with a large basin of attraction. Thus, back-propagation is guaranteed to fail in the first example, and likely to fail in the second example. It is shown that even multilayered (hidden-layer) networks can also fail in this way to classify linearly separable problems. Since the authors' examples are all linearly separable, the perceptron would correctly classify them. The results disprove the presumption, made in recent years, that, barring local minima, back-propagation will find the best set of weights for a given problem. >
THE INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PORTAL AND ARTERIAL BLOOD FLOW AFTER ADULT TO ADULT LIVING DONOR LIVER TRANSPLANTATION

Background. When adults are transplanted with segmental grafts, disparity between the size of the graft and the native organ is almost universal.These grafts presumably still receive all of the native portal inflow despite a reduced vascular bed and dramatically elevated blood flow may result. The hemodynamic changes after segmental transplantation in adults have not yet been studied and their clinical significance is unknown. Methods. Portal venous and hepatic arterial blood flow were measured intraoperatively in right lobe liver donors and recipients with electromagnetic flow probes. Postoperative evolution was monitored in recipients with ultrasonography. Results. Portal flow to the right lobe ranged from 601 to 1102 ml/min before resection and from 1257 to 2362 ml/min after transplantation. There was a statistically significant linear correlation between the change in portal flow and graft to recipient body weight ratio. Arterial blood flow ranged from 213 to 460 ml/min before resection and from 60 to 300 ml/min after transplantation. Preoperative portal peak systolic velocity was uniformly around 10 cm/sec. Values on postoperative day 1 were increased to 30 cm/sec in recipients of cadaveric organs, to 50 cm/sec in recipients of organs with graft to recipient body weight ratios of more than 1.2%, and to 115 cm/sec in recipients of organs with ratios less than 0.9%. A decreasing tendency was universally observed. Arterial systolic velocity was inversely related to portal systolic velocity. Neither graft dysfunction nor vascular complications occurred. Conclusions. The hemodynamic pattern after right lobe transplantation is predictable and intraoperative measurements and ultrasonography are useful for monitoring. The size of the graft influences the magnitude of the hemodynamic changes.
Open-source Tools for Creation, Maintenance, and Storage of Lexical Resources for Language Generation from Ontologies

This paper describes reusable, open-source tools for creation, maintenance, storage, and access of Language Resources (LR) needed for generating natural language texts from ontologies. One advantage of these tools is that they provide a user-friendly interface for NLG LR manipulation. They also provide unified models for accessing NLG lexicons and mappings between lexicons and ontologies.
Influence of microstrip probe pad design on planar measurements using on-wafer probes

This publication refers to work previously published by the authors at ISAP 2014. There, it has been shown how measurements with an on-wafer probe on planar transmission lines up to 67 GHz can be used for the determination of the transmission line's substrate permittivity. Especially the microstrip probe pad on the substrate, which represents the probe-microstrip interface, has shown to be of significant influence on the measurement data, which allowed measurements up to only 25 GHz. The work presented in this paper gives measurement data with a doubled frequency limit of 50 GHz. Additionally, different sources of interference such as coupling, higher modes and probe pad design are discussed. An example for a broadband transition from on-wafer probe to microstrip is shown, which can be used for on-wafer or PCB antenna measurements up to 200 GHz. Finally, design rules on how to avoid the deteriorating effect on measurement data are given.
Designing asynchronous parallel process networks for desirable autonomous robot behaviors

We propose a computational model, BeNet, for describing the brains of autonomous robots and an approach to integrating functions of autonomous robots. BeNet is a network of asynchronously communicating processes that change their state and output vectors and their own frequencies determined by the designer. One can describe a modular system for a desirable behavior as a BeNet that interacts with the real world in real time. We design modules of a BeNet that calculate a part of the internal representation of the brain that is necessary for the desired behavior. The portions of internal representation such as action command, attention command, perceptual/sensational information are realized as messages among the modules. Building such a modular system helps you to develop a brain for a desirable behavior, modifying and extending the described system, since the information flow and the modules' roles are clear. We have implemented environments for developing BeNet on parallel computers. In these environments, you can describe BeNets that consist of processes of wide range in complexity and frequency of calculation, and test their behavior in the real world immediately. They are effective for building desirable behaviors of autonomous robots. They are demonstated for a ballboy robot, with subsystems for vision, motion and decision.
Issues and strategies in composite fabrication via friction stir processing: A review

ABSTRACT Friction stir processing (FSP) is an expeditiously emerging novel technique involving exterior layer modification, which enables one to successfully fabricate surface composites (SCs) as well as bulk composites of the metal matrix. SCs constitute an exclusive class of composites which exhibit improved surface properties while retaining the bulk properties unaltered. During initiative years, FSP was employed in development of SCs of light metal alloys like aluminum. But, nowadays, it has gained a shining role in the field of SC fabrication of various nonferrous alloys like aluminum, magnesium, copper, and even ferrous metals like steel etc. This article reviews the current trends, various issues, and strategies used to enhance the efficiency of the fabrication process of SCs. Factors involved in the process of SC fabrication are discussed and classified with a new approach. Also, variation of microstructural and mechanical characteristics with these factors is reviewed. In addition to a brief presentation on the interaction between various inputs and their effects on properties, a summary of literature on SC fabrication for different metals is tabulated with prominent results. Subsequently, shortfalls and future perspectives of FSP on SC fabrication domain are discussed.