Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The application of discrete-time adaptive impedance control to rehabilitation robot manipulators

Rehabilitation robot manipulators for persons with disabilities often encounter contact tasks in uncertain environments. In order for rehabilitation robots to readily adapt to their changing environment, an advanced and practically implementable control approach is needed. This paper present a robot manipulator control scheme which combines a discrete-time adaptive controller with a discrete-time impedance dynamics trajectory generator. The discrete-time adaptive controller assures the trajectory tracking of robot manipulators while the discrete-time impedance dynamics trajectory generator regulates the relation between forces and motions. By using the adaptive controller the knowledge of either the structure or the parameter values of the robot dynamics is not required. The proposed discrete-time adaptive impedance control scheme is simple and suitable for the digital computer based real-time robot manipulator control. Simulations are given for a planar two-link manipulator arm under discrete adaptive impedance control with forces contaminated by Gaussian distributed noise. Results are presented to demonstrate the proposed scheme. <<ETX>>
Overlay-Centric Load Balancing: Applications to UTS and B&amp;B

To deal with dynamic load balancing in large scale distributed systems, we propose to organize computing resources following a logical peer-to-peer overlay and to distribute the load according to the so-defined overlay. We use a tree as a logical structure connecting distributed nodes and we balance the load according to the size of induced sub trees. We conduct extensive experiments involving up to 1000 computing cores and provide a throughout analysis of different properties of our generic approach for two different applications, namely, the standard Unbalanced Tree Search and the more challenging parallel Branch-and-Bound algorithm. Substantial improvements are reported in comparison with the classical random work stealing and two finely tuned application specific strategies taken from the literature.
Big government, efficiency and equity: A reply to Peter Wilenski

Abstract Wilenski defends the post‐war expansion of state economic intervention and welfare services against criticism from the ‘small government’ school. He argues that this expansion (i) cannot be shown to have damaged economic efficiency; (ii) has promoted social equity/equality; and (iii) has promoted freedom (in a broad sense of the term). This essay argues that, on the contrary, big government (i) fends to harm efficiency; (ii) in many ways works against equity and equality; and (iii) brings only equivocal gains in freedom and erodes freedom of choice both by promoting dependence on state services and by claiming ever‐increasing shares of private incomes in the form of taxation. Finally, certain possible points of agreement between egalitarians and libertarians are indicated in the area of policy prescriptions; some welfare may be dispensed in such a way as to promote efficiency, equality, and freedom.
Becoming a Mature Student: Gendered narratives of the self

This article explores some of the processes of personal and social transformation involved in becoming a mature student, through the construction of four narratives derived from the biographical accounts of 21 students entering higher education. The authors identify different conceptions of self in the four narratives and demonstrate their gendered nature. In particular they highlight the specifically masculine nature of the 'reflexive self', in contrast to the gender-neutral treatment of this concept in the literature. They also draw attention to the connections between these gendered concepts of self and the meanings of education, which they suggest are more complex than the simple gender dichotomies expressed in the literature. In addition they show that an analytic approach derived from narrative analysis can offer more insights into the interpretation of biographical data than more traditional ethnographic methods.
Stopping Out and Persisting: Experiences of Latino Undergraduates

This study examines the experiences that 10 Latino recent undergraduate students reported having at a large midwestern university. Five persisted through graduation, and five stopped out. Both groups described similar home environments, a lack of social integration, and feelings of academic unpreparedness. Differences among groups were academic difficulties, home-to-school transition, high school segregation, anticipatory socialization, first contact with the university, and education and career goals. The study's implications suggest several approaches to increasing Latino persistence.
Frameless Stereotactic Functional Neuronavigation Combined with Intraoperative Magnetic Resonance Imaging as a Strategy in Highly Eloquent Located Tumors Causing Epilepsy

Background: Intractable epilepsy due to tumors located in highly eloquent brain regions is often considered surgically inaccessible because of a high risk of postoperative neurological deterioration. Intraoperative MRI and functional navigation contribute to overcome this problem. Objectives: To retrospectively investigate the long-term results and impact of functional neuronavigation and 1.5-tesla intraoperative MRI on patients who underwent surgery of tumors associated with epilepsy located close to or within eloquent brain areas. Methods: Nineteen patients (9 female, 10 male, mean age 41.4 ± 13.4 years, 11 low-grade and 8 high-grade glial tumors) were evaluated preoperatively using BOLD imaging, diffusion-tensor imaging tractography and magnetoencephalography. Functional data were implemented into neuronavigation in this multimodal approach. Results: In 14 of 19 patients (74%), complete resection was achieved, and in 5 patients significant tumor volume reduction was accomplished. Eight of 14 (57%) complete resections were achieved only by performing an intraoperative image update. Neurological deterioration was found permanently in 2 patients. After a mean follow-up of 43.8 ± 23.8 months, 15 patients (79%) became seizure free (Engel class Ia). Conclusions: Despite the highly eloquent location of tumors causing intractable epilepsy, our multimodal approach led to complete resection in more than two-thirds of patients with an acceptable neurological morbidity and excellent long-term seizure control.
Educational attainment and cigarette smoking: a causal association?

BACKGROUND Despite abundant evidence that lower education is associated with a higher risk of smoking, whether the association is causal has not been convincingly established. METHODS We investigated the association between education and lifetime smoking patterns in a birth cohort established in 1959 and followed through adulthood (n = 1311). We controlled for a wide range of potential confounders that were measured prior to school entry, and also estimated sibling fixed effects models to control for unmeasured familial vulnerability to smoking. RESULTS In the full sample of participants, regression analyses adjusting for multiple childhood factors (including socioeconomic status, IQ, behavioural problems, and medical conditions) indicated that the number of pack-years smoked was higher among individuals with less than high school education [rate ratio (RR) = 1.58, confidence interval (CI) = 1.31, 1.91]. However, in the sibling fixed effects analysis the RR was 1.23 (CI = 0.80, 1.93). Similarly, adjusted models estimated in the full sample showed that individuals with less than high school education had fewer short-term (RR = 0.40; CI = 0.23, 0.69) and long-term (RR = 0.59; CI = 0.42, 0.83) quit attempts, and were less likely to quit smoking (odds ratio = 0.34; CI = 0.19, 0.62). The effects of education on quitting smoking were attenuated in the sibling fixed effects models that controlled for familial vulnerability to smoking. CONCLUSIONS A substantial portion of the education differential in smoking that has been repeatedly observed is attributable to factors shared by siblings that contribute to shortened educational careers and to lifetime smoking trajectories. Reducing disparities in cigarette smoking, including educational disparities, may therefore require approaches that focus on factors early in life that influence smoking risk over the adult life span.
Mixture toxicity and its modeling by quantitative structure‐activity relationships

Environmental contaminants are frequently encountered as mixtures, and the behavior of chemicals in a mixture may not correspond to that predicted from data on the pure compounds. This paper reviews current quantitative structure‐activity relationship (QSAR) methodology for the analysis of mixture toxicity. Interactions of components in a mixture can cause complex and substantial changes in the apparent properties of its constituents, resulting in synergistic or antagonistic effects as opposed to the ideal reference case of additive behavior: concentration addition (CA) and independent action (IA) are two prominent reference models for the evaluation of joint activity, and both have mechanistic support from pharmacology. After discussing graphical tools for analyzing binary mixtures and joint effect indices suitable also for multicomponent mixtures, water solubility and hydrophobicity of mixtures are analyzed with respect to the property contributions of the individual components. With the former, small but significant deviations from ideal behavior are observed even for simple organics, whereas in the case of low concentrations, mixture hydrophobicity was found to agree approximately with the fractional contributions of the components. A variety of studies suggest that mixtures of compounds exerting only one (narcotic or specific) mode of action can be modeled satisfactorily by assuming CA, whereas the interaction of differently acting compounds tends to yield a less than CA joint activity. The QSARs have been used to predict concentrations of components in mixtures from joint effects and defined mixture ratios and have been developed to predict narcotic‐type mixture toxicity from molecular descriptors that are calculated as composite properties according to the fractional concentrations of the mixture components. In the case of ionogenic compounds, initial results suggest that CA may serve as a firstorder approximation for the joint effect of un‐ionized and ionized compound portions.
Pretence and Echo: Towards an Integrated Account of Verbal Irony

Two rival accounts of irony claim, respectively, that pretence and echo are independently sufficient to explain central cases. After highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of these accounts, I argue that an account in which both pretence and echo play an essential role better explains these cases and serves to explain peripheral cases as well. I distinguish between “weak” and “strong” hybrid theories, and advocate an “integrated strong hybrid” account in which elements of both pretence and echo are seen as complementary in a unified mechanism. I argue that the allegedly mutually exclusive elements of pretence and echo are in fact complementary aspects enriching a core-structure as follows: by pretending to have a perspective/thought F, an ironic speaker U echoes a perspective/thought G. F is merely pretended, perhaps caricaturised or exaggerated, while G is real/possible.
CARV 2007 Analysing the Dynamics caused by Autonomously Controlled Logistic Objects

This paper focuses on the analysis of the dynamics that is caused by autonomously controlled logistic objects. On the one hand the introduction of autonomous logistic objects aims at the improvement of the systems stability and adaptability in situations of disturbances and/or external dynamics. This should be achieved by emergent effects and the interaction of the logistic objects. On the other hand this could cause different forms of dynamics like oscillations, quasi oscillations or even chaotic behaviour of the logistic target figures like throughput time and work in process. In this paper different autonomous control methods are compared using frequency analysis. It was discovered that different autonomous control methods can lead to different forms of dynamics which is of interest for planning and control systems that apply autonomous control methods.
Channel Equalization Using Multilayer Perceptron Networks

ABSTRACT In most digital communication systems, bandwidth limited channel along with multipath propagationcauses ISI (Inter Symbol Interference) to occur. This phenomenon causes distortion of the given transmittedsymbol due to other transmitted symbols. With the help of equalization ISI can be reduced. This paperpresents a solution to the ISI problem by performing blind equalization using ANN (Artificial NeuralNetworks). The simulated network is a multilayer feedforward Perceptron ANN, which has been trainedby utilizing the error back-propagation algorithm. The weights of the network are updated in accordancewith training of the network. This paper presents a very effective method for blind channel equalization,being more efficient than the pre-existing algorithms. The obtained results show a visible reduction inthe noise content.Key Words: Blin d Channel Equalization, Neural Networks, Noisy Signal, Multi Layer Perceptron,Error-Back Propagation. * Assistant Professor, Department of Electronic Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro. ** Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Systems Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro. *** Meritorious Professor, Department of Computer Systems Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro
Effects of inspired carbon dioxide on ventilation-perfusion matching in normoxia, hypoxia, and hyperoxia.

We studied the effect of low concentrations (2 to 4%) of inspired CO2 on gas exchange and ventilation-perfusion (VA/Q) relationships in healthy normocapnic anesthetized dogs during constant mechanical ventilation by the multiple inert gas elimination technique (MIGET). One group was studied at normal tidal volumes (12 to 14 ml/kg) and rates (13 to 15/min) in normoxia, and the other in mild hyperoxia (FIO2 = 0.50) and hypoxia (FIO2 = 0.15). In normoxic dogs there were progressive increases in arterial PO2 and reductions in the alveolar-to-arterial PO2 and arterial-to-mixed expired PCO2 differences in response to increases in FICO2. This increased gas exchange efficiency was characterized by reductions in both dead space ventilation and VA/Q mismatch. Better VA/Q matching was characterized by reduction in the log standard deviation of ventilation (log SDV) without significant change in the log standard deviation of perfusion (log SDQ). Gas exchange parameters returned to baseline when dogs were returned to CO2-free inspired gas. In the second group, the effects of 3% inspired CO2 were of comparable magnitude in both mild hypoxia and hyperoxia. In this group (taking hyperoxic values as baseline), there were improved gas exchange and less VA/Q heterogeneity with inspired hypoxia, both with and without inspired CO2. In contrast to the effects of added inspired CO2, improved VA/Q matching with hypoxia was characterized by reductions in both log SDV and log SDQ. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
A survey of mobility support in Named Data Networking

The initial Named Data Networking (NDN) architecture design provided consumer mobility support automatically, taking advantage of NDN's stateful forwarding plane to return data to mobile consumers; at the same time, the support of data producer mobility was left unspecified. During the past few years, a number of NDN producer mobility support schemes have been proposed. This paper provides a clear definition of NDN mobility support, to enable fetching of data produced by mobile users, and then to classify the proposed solutions by their commonalities and to articulate design tradeoffs of different approaches. We identify remaining challenges and discuss future research directions for effective and efficient data producer mobility support in NDN.
A content analysis of school anti-bullying policies: a follow-up after six years

An analysis was undertaken of 217 English school anti-bullying policies, from 169 primary schools and 48 secondary schools, using a 34-item scoring scheme. Findings were compared with an analysis of 142 schools six years earlier. Overall schools in the current analysis had about 49% of the items in their policies, a modest increase over the previous study. Most included a definition of bullying and statements about improving school climate but many schools did not mention other important aspects, and there was low coverage of cyberbullying, homophobic bullying, bullying based on disabilities, or faith; teacher–pupil bullying; responsibilities beyond those of teaching staff; following up of incidents; and specific preventative measures such as playground work, peer support, inclusiveness issues, and bullying to and from school. Several improvements in policies, significant for 20 out of 34 criteria were noted. Findings are discussed in terms of national policy, and ways to support schools in maximising the potential of their policies for reducing bullying.
The Psychology of Quality

For the most part, the management world has utilized the principles of behavioral psychology in its work. This paper questions the philosophical assumptions of behavioral psychology as they apply to quality and outlines an alternative based on building and sustaining personal and corporate relationships. Philosophical and scientific evidence is presented which argues that the psychology of quality needs to focus on relationships rather than controlled outcomes.
Emergence of NK1.1+ cells as effectors of IFN-gamma dependent immunity to Toxoplasma gondii in MHC class I-deficient mice

CD8+ T lymphocytes have been reported to play a major role in the protective immune response against acute infection with Toxoplasma gondii. In order to further assess the role of CD8+ cells in resistance against this protozoan we examined the ability of beta 2m-deficient mice, which fail to express MHC class I molecules and peripheral CD8+ lymphocytes, to survive tachyzoite challenge following vaccination with an attenuated parasite mutant. Surprisingly, vaccination of beta 2m- deficient mice induced strong resistance to lethal challenge, with > 50% surviving beyond 3 months. Vaccinated beta 2m-deficient mice, but not control heterozygotes, showed a five- to six-fold expansion in spleen cell number and approximately 40% of the splenocytes were found to express the NK markers NK1.1 and asialo GM1. Spleen cells from the vaccinated beta 2m-deficient animals failed to kill either infected host cells or the NK target YAC-1. However, high levels of IFN-gamma were secreted when the cells were cultured in vitro with soluble T. gondii lysate, and this response was abolished by NK1.1+ but not CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocyte depletion, implicating the NK1.1+ population as the major source of IFN-gamma. More importantly, vaccine-induced immunity in beta 2m-deficient mice was completely abrogated by in vivo administration of antibody to NK1.1, asialo GM1, or IFN-gamma. Together, the data suggest that in class I-deficient mice vaccinated against T. gondii, the absence of CD8+ effector cells is compensated for by the emergence of a population of NK1.1+ and asialo GM1+ cells which lack cytolytic activity, and that the protective action of these cells against the parasite is attributable to IFN-gamma production. The induction of this novel NK population may provide an approach for controlling opportunistic infections in immunocompromised hosts.
Thinking about infants and young children

further links between disciplines. It is a question, however, whether a fuller presentation of some of the substantial research reported might not have enhanced the scientific impact of the work. Bick would certainly have been astonished by the fertility and spread of her brainchild, but her successors, who continue to do so much to sustain and extend the original paradigm, will warmly welcome this volume to add to their shelves and recommend to their students.
Dietary factors and the risk of glaucoma: a review

Glaucoma is an optic neuropathy characterized by a progressive typical pattern of optic neurodegeneration and visual field loss. A relatively high proportion of glauctomatous individuals admit to interest in dietary modification in an attempt to manage their disease. Heavy caffeine consumption appears to have a transient effect on increasing intraocular pressure (IOP). This effect may be clinically insignificant for nonglaucomatous individuals, but the association warrants clinical consideration in those with the disease. Studies investigating the relationship between self-reported antioxidant intake and risk of glaucomatous disease have reported conflicting results. Preliminary studies investigating the relationship between self-reported glaucoma diagnosis and consumption of the oxidants calcium and iron suggest a possible relationship indicating increased risk of the disease with increased consumption of these dietary factors. Initial reports in the literature suggest a potential role for dietary modification in the treatment of glaucomatous optic neuropathy. Further study, with randomized controlled trials, may be necessary to further characterize these relationships.
Landscape Dynamics in Northwestern Amazonia: An Assessment of Pastures, Fire and Illicit Crops as Drivers of Tropical Deforestation

Many studies have identified drivers of deforestation throughout the tropics and, in most cases, have recognised differences in the level of threat. However, only a few have also looked at the temporal and spatial dynamics by which those drivers act, which is critical for assessing the conservation of biodiversity as well as for landscape planning. In this study, we analyse land cover change between 2000 and 2009 in north-western Colombian Amazonia to identify the interactions between the use of fire, cultivation of illicit crops and establishment of pastures, and their impacts on the loss of forest in the region. Yearly analyses were undertaken at randomly selected sample areas to quantify the average areas of transition of land cover types under different landscape compositions: forest-dominated mosaics, pasture mosaics, fire mosaics, and illicit crop mosaics. Our results indicate that despite the fact that forest areas were well-preserved, deforestation occurred at a low annual rate (0.06%). Conversion to pasture was the main factor responsible for forest loss (the area of pastures tripled within forest mosaics over 8 years), and this process was independent of the landscape matrix in which the forests were located. In fire mosaics, burning is a common tool for forest clearing and conversion to pasture. Thus, forests in fire mosaics were highly disturbed and frequently transformed from primary to secondary forests. The use of fire for illicit cropping was not detected, partly due to the small size of common illicit crops. Forest regeneration from pastures and secondary vegetation was observed in areas with large amounts of natural forest. Overall, assuming the continuation of the observed pasture conversion trend and the use of forest fire, we suggest that our results should be incorporated into a spatially explicit and integrated decision support tool to target and focus land-planning activities and policies.
Particle filter based tracking of free-swinging objects for visual servoing

We present a visual servoing system for the synchronization of a robot with a dynamic rigid body using a particle filter-based state estimator. We experimentally demonstrate its application for robotic loading of parts onto oscillating hangers in an industrial paint line. The particle filter is implemented with a physical dynamical model of the hanger, using the Euler equations for a pendulum with three degrees of freedom. The visual servoing system is successfully demonstrated using two cameras to get a good 3D estimate of the hanger motion. The experimental results indicate a maximum tracking error of 0.1 degrees.