Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Local Effects of Atherosclerotic Plaque on Arterial Distensibility

Hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia are characterized by a reduction in arterial distensibility and by accelerated atherosclerosis. Whether arterial stiffening is an inherent feature of these conditions or just the consequence of the atherosclerotic clinical or subclinical lesions is not known, however. Our aim was to obtain information on this issue by directly measuring, in humans, arterial distensibility both at the site of an atherosclerotic lesion and at the proximal normal site. In 10 patients (8 men; mean±SEM age, 65.2±3.4 years) affected by monolateral hemodynamic significant internal carotid artery stenosis, we measured arterial distensibility (Wall Track System; PIE Medical) bilaterally, both at the internal carotid artery and at the common carotid artery level. In the common carotid artery, measurements were made 3 cm below the bifurcation. In the affected internal carotid artery, measurements were made at the plaque shoulder (wall thickness of 2 mm). Measurements were made in the contralateral internal carotid artery at a symmetrical level. Arterial wall thickness was measured in the same site of arterial distensibility. Arterial distensibility was less in the internal than in the common carotid artery, with a marked reduction at the plaque internal carotid artery level compared with the corresponding contralateral site (−45%, P <0.01). It was also less, however, in the common carotid artery branching into the atherosclerotic internal carotid artery than in the contralateral common carotid artery (−25%, P <0.05). Wall thickness was similar in the 2 common carotid arteries and obviously greater in the affected internal carotid artery than in the contralateral artery. Arterial distensibility was markedly less in the internal carotid artery where there was a plaque compared with the intact contralateral internal carotid artery; it was also less, however, in the common carotid artery of the affected side in comparison with the contralateral common carotid artery. This provides evidence that the effect of a plaque on arterial mechanical properties is not limited to the actual plaque site but rather extends to a considerable degree in a proximal direction.
Design of Multi Model Predictive Control for nonlinear process plant

This paper presents a new approach to deal with the nonlinearity of control system by using Multi Model Predictive Control (MPC) strategies. The idea of this research is using Fuzzy model to divide the nonlinear system into several sub linear systems which can be applied linear MPC controller. Firstly, the structure of Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) Fuzzy model is developed and optimized using Subtractive Clustering method. Then the obtained T-S Fuzzy model is trained using Adaptive-Network Based Fuzzy System (ANFIS) to derive optimal the parameters of models. Since the obtained T-S Fuzzy model is described in number of rules (local model) which present linear relationship between outputs and inputs so that a number of linear MPC controller is designed for each local model. The global control signal is combined from control signal of each local MPC controller by parallel distributed compensation technique. The proposed multi MPC scheme applying for CSTR nonlinear process shows that Multi Model Predictive Control based on T-S Fuzzy model can improve the performance of conventional MPC in nonlinear control system.
Diagnostic imaging methods applied in long-term surveillance after EVAR. Will computed tomography angiography be replaced by other methods?

Endovascular implantation of a stent graft in the abdominal aorta (endovascular aneurysm repair – EVAR) is a widely accepted alternative to open surgery in treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms. Although EVAR is connected with a significant reduction in the risk of peri- and post-operative complications, it does not eliminate them totally. Long-term surveillance of post-EVAR patients is aimed at early detection of and fast reaction to a group of complications called endovascular leaks. Currently, the gold standard in leak diagnostics is computed tomography angiography (CTA). The other methods are ultrasonography, magnetic resonance (MR) angiography, intra-aneurysm sac pressure measurement, X-ray, and digital subtraction angiography (DSA). Despite many analyses based on long-term research, emphasising the high value and competitiveness of less invasive tests such as US or X-ray compared to CTA, it is still difficult for them to win the trust and acceptance of clinicians. The persisting view is that computed tomography is the test that finally resolves any inaccuracies. Consequently, a patient with a number of concurrent diseases is subject to absurdly high radiation exposure and effects of a radiocontrast agent within a short time. It is therefore logical to acknowledge that the EVAR-related risk is catching up with the open surgery risk, while the endovascular procedure is much more costly. Nevertheless, the status of CTA as the gold standard ultimately seems to be unthreatened. This paper presents a description of the diagnostic imaging tests that make it possible to detect any vascular leaks and to develop strategies for therapeutic processes.
Dynamic whole-body mobile manipulation with a torque controlled humanoid robot via impedance control laws

Service robotics is expected to be established in human households and environments within the next decades. Therefore, dexterous and flexible behavior of these systems as well as guaranteeing safe interaction are crucial for that progress. We address these issues in terms of control strategies for the whole body of DLR's humanoid Justin. Via impedance control laws, we enable the robot to realize main tasks compliantly while, at the same time, taking care of aspects like physical limitations and collision avoidance with its own structure and the environment autonomously. The controller provides a natural redundancy resolution between the arms, the torso and the wheeled platform. A low-dimensional task space interface is proposed that can be used by planning tools. Thereby, planning time can be saved significantly. Experimental results on DLR's Justin are presented to validate our approach.
ON THE CONCAVITY OF THE CONSUMPTION FUNCTION

At least since Keynes (1935), many economists have had the intuition that the marginal propensity to consume out of wealth declines as wealth increases. Nonetheless, standard perfect-certainty and certainty equivalent versions of intertemporal optimizing models of consumption imply a marginal propensity to consume that is unrelated to the level of household wealth. We show that adding income uncertainty to the standard optimization problem induces a concave consumption function in which, as Keynes suggested, the marginal propensity to consume out of wealth or transitory income declines with the level of wealth.
Mimicking Humanlike Movement in Open World Games with Path-Relative Recursive Splines

In this paper we explore the use of recursive cubic Hermite splines to mimic human movement in open world games. Human-like movement in an open world environment has many characteristics that are not optimal or directed towards clear, discrete goals. Using data collected from a simple MMORPG-like game, we use our spline representation to model human player movements relative to corresponding optimal paths. Using this representation, we show that simple distributions can be used to estimate control parameters to generate human-like movement across a population of agents in a novel environment.
On Reminder Effects, Drop-Outs and Dominance: Evidence from an Online Experiment on Charitable Giving

We present the results of an experiment that (a) shows the usefulness of screening out drop-outs and (b) tests whether different methods of payment and reminder intervals affect charitable giving. Following a lab session, participants could make online donations to charity for a total duration of three months. Our procedure justifying the exclusion of drop-outs consists in requiring participants to collect payments in person flexibly and as known in advance and as highlighted to them later. Our interpretation is that participants who failed to collect their positive payments under these circumstances are likely not to satisfy dominance. If we restrict the sample to subjects who did not drop out, but not otherwise, reminders significantly increase the overall amount of charitable giving. We also find that weekly reminders are no more effective than monthly reminders in increasing charitable giving, and that, in our three months duration experiment, standing orders do not increase giving relative to one-off donations.
Improved BM3D for Correlated Noise Removal

Most of the literature on denoising focuses on the additive-white-gaussian-noise (AWGN) model. However, in many important applicative fields, images are typically affected by non-Gaussian and/or colored noise, in which cases AWGN-based techniques fall much short of their promises. In this paper, we propose a new denoising technique for correlated noise based on the non-local approach. We start from the well-known BM3D algorithm, which can be considered to be the state of the art in AWGN denoising, and modify it in various critical steps in order to take into account the non-whiteness of noise. Experimental results on several test images corrupted by correlated noise confirm the potential of the proposed technique.
Using Web Search Logs to Identify Query Classification Terms

Classification of search queries is a complex and computationally challenging task. Typically, search queries are short, reveal very few features per single query and are therefore a weak source for traditional machine learning. In this paper, we present a method that combines limited manual labeling, computational linguistics and information retrieval to classify a large collection of Web search queries. A short set of manually chosen terms that are known a priori to be of interest to a particular class is used to cull a small number of actual queries from a commercial search engine log. These queries are then submitted to a commercial search engine and the returned search results are used to find more class related terms. We examine classification proficiency of the proposed method on a large Web search engine query log and show that up to 48% of the unlabeled set could be classified using this method. We discuss results of this research and its implications on the advancement of short text classification
VLSI Implementation Of The Realtime Image Processing Parallel Architecture Gflops

This paper presents the implementation of the processor of the Image Processing parallel architecture GFLOPS. This processor is a RISC/VLIW. The network module associated in the chip is such that it is possible to build a large architecture by the juxtaposition of as many chips as required. An evaluation of this architecture is presented at the end of this paper through the use of simulation results.
Modeling broadband acoustic scattering of underwater elastic object using Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method

In order to solve the problem of broadband omnidirectional acoustic scattering computing for underwater elastic object, broadband acoustic scattering model of underwater elastic object is presented combining Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method and the relation between scattering wave spectrum and form function. We simualted broadband acoustic scattering characteristic of elastic aluminum sphere using this method, and compared the result with the corresponding analytic solution, and they were in good agreement. Furthermore, we computed non-backscattering broadband characteristics, which were very difficult to gain using other methods, including bistatic angle 45 degree and 90 degree, and compared and analyzed them. The results showed that their formant position, vibration amplitude and resonance period existed distinct difference, that was to say, with the changing of bistatic angle, frequency domain scattering characteristic of the object brought great difference.
A murine model for the development of melanocytic nevi and their progression to melanoma

Acquired melanocytic nevi are commonly found in sun exposed and unexposed human skin, but the potential for their transformation into invasive melanoma is not clear. Therefore, a mouse model of nevus initiation and progression was developed in C3H/HeN mice using a modified chemical carcinogenesis protocol. Nevi develop due to DNA damage initiated by dimethylbenz(a) anthracene (DMBA) followed by chronic promotion with 12‐O‐tetradecanoyl‐phorbol‐13‐acetate (TPA). Dysplastic pigmented skin lesions appeared in 7–9 wk with 100% penetrance. Nests of melanocytic cells appeared in a subset of skin draining lymph nodes (dLN) by 25 wk, but not in age matched controls. Immunohistochemistry, real‐time PCR, and flow cytometric analyses confirmed their melanocytic origin. Transformed cells were present in a subset of nevi and dLNs, which exhibited anchorage‐independent growth, tumor development, and metastasis in nude mice. Approximately 50% of the cell lines contained H‐Ras mutations and lost tumor suppressor p16Ink4a expression. While most studies of melanoma focus on tumor progression in transgenic mouse models where the mutations are present from birth, our model permits investigation of acquired mutations at the earliest stages of nevus initiation and promotion of nevus cell transformation. This robust nevus/melanoma model may prove useful for identifying genetic loci associated with nevus formation, novel oncogenic pathways, tumor targets for immune‐prevention, screening therapeutics, and elucidating mechanisms of immune surveillance and immune evasion. © 2015 The Authors. Molecular Carcinogenesis, published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Conceptualizing Social Influence in the Ubiquitous Computing Era: Technology Adoption and Use in Multiple Use Contexts

Ubiquitous and mobile computing has increased the level of social connectedness. In an era where technology has permeated into spaces of work, play and socializing, social influence has become an important consideration. The operationalization of the social influence construct in the technology adoption and use literature often assumes singular technology use contexts and purposes. We question whether social influence, as operationalized in IS, is reflective of the utilitarian, hedonic and social environment that many individuals operate in. We propose a framework to consider social influence more inclusively, drawing on differences in referent power and levels of expertise. We outline our research approach within the demographic segment of young working professionals. Research in this area is necessary to improve theoretical explanations of adoptive behavior of these technologies. We hope to contribute by suggesting a richer, more encompassing operationalization of the social influence construct for future IS research.
Bilingual lexicon extraction using locally weighted linear regression from comparable corpora

Recently a simple linear transformation with word embedding has been found to be highly effective to extract a bilingual lexicon from comparable corpora. However, it is easy to underfit for transforming all the words just using a single transformation matrix. This paper proposes a simple non-parameter based solution using locally weighted linear regression (LWR) which forces that the closer words in the training lexicon with the target word should be more important for estimating the objective function for the regression. The experimental results confirm that the proposed solution can achieve a 36.7% relative improvement at Top-1 over the baseline approach on the English-to-Chinese bilingual lexicon extraction task.
What Do Academic Users Want from an Adaptive Learning System ?

The academic user base of an Adaptive Learning System (ALS) can be partitioned in two: the learners and the teachers (encompassing both content authors and tutors). Learners come from a diverse set of backgrounds with varying abilities and motivation and hence, have very individual learning requirements [2, 6, 7]. The time and e ort they can devote to learning are nite. On the other hand, teachers can create and adapt learning material to individual learning requirements. However, the time and e ort they can devote to teaching are also nite. An ALS, through the virtues of adaptivity [4, 5, 3], can reconcile this mismatch by delivering individualized educational experiences to the learners while making the best use of the time and e ort invested by the teachers. The rst step in developing an ALS is requirements elicitation [9]. As part of this endeavor, it is instructive to interview the user base. Interviews help crystalize the expectations of learners and teachers with respect to an ALS. They may reveal requirements not previously envisaged as being key, requirements purported to be useful but are considered otherwise by the interviewees, and requirements from di erent partitions of the user base that are contradictory. Within the scope of the GRAPPLE Project, we have elicited requirements from learners and teachers across several European academic institutions through explorative, semi-structured interviews. In this report we describe the methodology we employed while preparing, conducting, and analyzing the interviews and we present our ndings along with some objective and subjective analysis. The GRAPPLE Project (Generic Responsive Adaptive Personalized Learning Environment) is an EU FP7 STREP project that aims to deliver a technology-enhanced learning (TEL) environment that guides learners through a learning experience, automatically adapting to personal preferences, prior knowledge, skills and competences, learning goals, and the personal or social context in which the learning takes place. This functionality will be provided as a set of adaptive learning services that will be integrated with existing Open Source and commercial Learning Management Systems (LMSs).
Resistance to Hemi-Biotrophic F. graminearum Infection Is Associated with Coordinated and Ordered Expression of Diverse Defense Signaling Pathways

Fusarium species cause serious diseases in cereal staple food crops such as wheat and maize. Currently, the mechanisms underlying resistance to Fusarium-caused diseases are still largely unknown. In the present study, we employed a combined proteomic and transcriptomic approach to investigate wheat genes responding to F. graminearum infection that causes Fusarium head blight (FHB). We found a total of 163 genes and 37 proteins that were induced by infection. These genes and proteins were associated with signaling pathways mediated by salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA), ethylene (ET), calcium ions, phosphatidic acid (PA), as well as with reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and scavenging, antimicrobial compound synthesis, detoxification, and cell wall fortification. We compared the time-course expression profiles between FHB-resistant Wangshuibai plants and susceptible Meh0106 mutant plants of a selected set of genes that are critical to the plants' resistance and defense reactions. A biphasic phenomenon was observed during the first 24 h after inoculation (hai) in the resistant plants. The SA and Ca2+ signaling pathways were activated within 6 hai followed by the JA mediated defense signaling activated around 12 hai. ET signaling was activated between these two phases. Genes for PA and ROS synthesis were induced during the SA and JA phases, respectively. The delayed activation of the SA defense pathway in the mutant was associated with its susceptibility. After F. graminearum infection, the endogenous contents of SA and JA in Wangshuibai and the mutant changed in a manner similar to the investigated genes corresponding to the individual pathways. A few genes for resistance-related cell modification and phytoalexin production were also identified. This study provided important clues for designing strategies to curb diseases caused by Fusarium.
Designing robust copy protection for software products

The paper begins with a short description of the situation on the software market and the various types of software piracy threatening the industry. Follows a review of the currently available methods for copy protection, with evaluation of their strong and weak points. Based on this data, a new type of hardware approach for achieving highly-efficient copy protection is suggested, followed by description of the most important issues concerning its practical implementation on a larger scale.
Resource Location for Opportunistic Networks

Opportunistic networks may be employed for communication in places where there is no previous infrastructure, or the existing infrastructure has been rendered unusable. Emergency networks for calamity mitigation are an example in which mobile devices are used to form an opportunistic network. An important feature of such networks is physical and logical resource location. Further, this functionality should be tolerant to disruptions and long delays due to frequent node connections/disconnections and unpredictable mobility. This paper proposes and evaluates the performance of resource location algorithms for opportunistic networks. Simulation results show that the proposed solutions increase the discovery rate by up to 80%, because our extensions are more adapted to the specific characteristics of resource discovery, as well as due to the use of proactive resource announcement.
Application of fuzzy PID with loss balancing control in three-level active NPC inverter

PID control is widely used in fields of power electronics and electric drives because of its simple algorithm, robustness and high reliability. Due to nonlinearity and time variant of industrial process, traditional PID controller cannot reach high performance. In three-level active neutral point clamped inverter, self-regulation of controller parameters by using fuzzy logic reasoning can decrease effects of variation in load on output characteristics, and using PWM method 1 and method 2 alternately under different conditions can balance losses of power devices to some extent. In this paper, the principle of fuzzy PID control is introduced, and a fuzzy PID controller for three-level active neutral point clamped inverter is designed. A loss balancing modulation method is adopted. The obtained results demonstrate that fuzzy PID control strategy improves dynamic performance of inverter system, compared to traditional PID control.