Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exoskeletons for Manual Handling: A Scoping Review

The prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders is a common issue in many occupations involving manual handling activities. In order to aid manual workers in reducing the burden on the musculoskeletal system, various wearable robotic technologies have been developed over the years. An increase in research work on wearable technologies has been observed, particularly in the last decade. In that context, this article presents a comprehensive review and a bibliometric analysis of the recorded occupational exoskeletons for manual handling since 2010. The review is aimed at identifying the paradigm shifts of research in the recent past and associating the trends pertaining to the applications, mechanisms, and control systems in the development of wearable devices for manual handling. The scope of the review limits itself to active and passive exoskeletons designed to support the upper extremity, lower extremity, and spine for performing load lifting, load carrying, or static holding. The analysis of the results revealed the emerging trends with the aim of providing researchers with areas for improvement and suggestions for different clusters of devices.
The petrogenesis of the Loch Scridain xenolithic sill complex, Isle of Mull

Intruded into the Palaeocene lava field and underlying Moine (Neoproterozoic) crystalline basement rocks around Loch Scridain, Isle of Mull, Scotland, is a suite of high-level, inclined, xenolithic sheets, ranging in composition from basalt, through andesite and dacite, to rhyolite. These sheets, associated with the Mull central volcano, were emplaced at approximately 58Ma. Three distinct (magma) groups are recognised. Group I consists of fine-grained, aphyric basalts and basaltic andesites, the most primitive of which has MORB-like chemical affinities. Group II predominantly comprises aphyric two-pyroxene andesites, and glassy plagioclase- and pyroxene-phyric dacites (pitchstones). Group III consists solely of fine-grained rhyolites. Many of the sheets are composite. The phase relationships and major-element geochemistry suggest that many of the Group I specimens evolved via fractional crystallization of olivine + palgioclase + augite, followed by plagioclase + augite + low-Ca pyroxene, from the more primitive samples. Evidence for this fractionation scheme is supported by the occurrence of gabbroic cumulate xenoliths in many of the Group I and Group II sheets. Group II evolved via the mixing between basic magmas and crustally derived silicic melts, followed by the fractionation of plagioclase + pigeonite. However, Sr-Nd isotope analyses and trace-element characteristics, in particular the LREE enrichment and Nb depletion of all but the least evolved samples, suggest that both Groups I and II contain significant amounts of crustally derived material. Strontium initial ratios correlate positively with degree of fractionation throughout Groups I and II, with the least evolved members of Group I (Mg# ˜ 0.3) having (87Sr/86Sr)58 of around 0.7037. More evolved members of Group I and the dacites of Group II have (87Sr/86Sr)58 in excess of 0.7167. Phenocryst population evidence and phase relationships suggest that some Group I samples are the result of mixing between evolved and more basic magmas, implying that the magma-storage reservoir for the Loch Scridain Sill Complex (LSSC) was continually being replenished with fresh batches of basic magma.
Pilot study of attentional retraining for postpartum smoking relapse

Introduction Tobacco smoking is a leading cause of preventable death worldwide. The perinatal period provides a unique opportunity for intervention, as many smokers quit smoking during pregnancy but relapse postpartum. Novel relapse prevention interventions that reduce the burden of treatment attendance in this population are needed. Attentional retraining (AR) has been shown to reduce attentional biases toward smoking-related stimuli, a cognitive process implicated in smoking, AR has not been applied to perinatal smokers, and the effect of AR on craving and smoking is not clear. The goal of this study was to evaluate the delivery of AR for smoking cues in perinatal smokers utilizing a mobile intervention. Methods This pilot study utilized Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) methodology delivered on a mobile device to examine the relapse process and evaluate the utility of AR in former smokers attempting to remain abstinent postpartum. AR (or Control Training) was administered to abstinent smokers (N = 17) for up to 2 weeks both before and after delivery. Results All 17 participants completed the study. There was evidence that AR reduced attentional bias in the AR group (vs. Controls). There was no evidence that AR reduced craving. An exploratory analysis revealed that there was no evidence that AR reduced smoking during the study period. Discussion AR using EMA methodology via a mobile device is feasible in perinatal smokers. Further research using larger samples is required to evaluate the utility of mobile AR in reducing craving and smoking.
Exploiting the State Dependency of Conductance Variations in Memristive Devices for Accurate In-Memory Computing

Analog in- memory computing (AIMC) using memristive devices is considered a promising Non-von Neumann approach for deep learning (DL) inference tasks. However, inaccuracies in the programming of devices, that are attributed to conductance variations, pose a key challenge toward achieving sufficient compute precision for DL inference. Fortunately, conduction variations in memristive devices, such as phase-change memory (PCM) devices, exhibit a strong state dependence. This state dependence can be exploited in synaptic unit cells that comprise more than one memristive device, to encode positive or negative weights. In such multi-memristive unit cells, we propose a method that optimally maps the weights to the device conductance values, by maximizing the number of devices at the stable SET and RESET states. We demonstrate that this method reduces the matrix-vector multiplication (MVM) error and is more resilient to non-ideal device retention characteristics. With this approach, we increase the mean experimental inference accuracy of a network trained for MNIST classification by 0.71% on two PCM-based AIMC cores, and the hardware-realistic simulated top-1 accuracy of a network trained for ImageNet classification by 0.28%, while significantly reducing variability across multiple experiment instances.
Prevalence of Burnout in Dental Practitioners of Nepal

Introduction: People who do “People work” of some kind are prone to burnout. Dentists are subjected to intense interaction with patients on a regular basis. Burnout is considered a serious professional risk in dentistry. So, this study aimed to find out the prevalence of burnout in dental practitioners of Nepal and its association with different demographic and practice-related variables. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess outcomes among dental practitioners registered with the Nepal Dental Association from June to July 2021. All members were sent an online form to be filled out through emails. The questionnaire consisted of demographic and practice-related variables details along with a 16-item Oldenburg Burnout Inventory to assess burnout. Exhaustion and disengagement were the two components that were assessed with the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory. Statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS) v 11.5 was used for data analysis. Mean, standard deviation, percentage were calculated and chi-square test and Mann-Whitney U test were employed for inferential analysis. Results: A total of 155 dental practitioners were included in the study. The mean age of the participants was 32.44 years (SD: 5.20). The prevalence of burnout was found to be 69.7%. The number of practitioners with low exhaustion and low disengagement was 18 (11.6%) only. Burnout was more common among younger (p=0.043) and unmarried (p=0.017) participants. Conclusions: A big proportion of dental practitioners reported burnout. Further research is warranted to identify the stressors causing burnout. Concerned authorities should take note of this phenomenon and work towards reducing it
The effects of international linkages on productivity and the demand for skilled labour: a firm level analysis for Uruguay

espanolLos vinculos con el exterior pueden conducir a incrementos en la productividad y a la difusion de tecnologias basadas en las habilidades, afectando no solamente la productividad sino tambien incrementando la demanda por trabajo calificado y los salarios. Este documento analiza el impacto del uso de insumos intermedios importados, exportaciones e inversion extranjera directa (IED) sobre la productividad, la demanda y los salarios de los trabajadores calificados de las empresas manufactureras uruguayas en el periodo 1988-2005. Las respuestas de los diversos canales a los vinculos internacionales no son homogeneas, sino que varian de acuerdo a la distribucion condicional de cada variable dependiente. Nuestros resultados preliminares parecen indicar que mayores niveles de vinculacion con el exterior estan asociados con mayor productividad e incrementos en la demanda de trabajo calificado medido a traves de los salarios y el empleo en terminos absolutos, aunque no siempre sucede asi en terminos relativos. Entonces, promover los lazos con el exterior y el entrenamiento de los trabajadores podria conducir a incrementos en la productividad y a mejores oportunidades para los trabajadores calificados mientras otras politicas sociales podrian ayudar a mitigar los efectos de la desigualdad salarial. EnglishInternational linkages can lead to increases in productivity and to the diffusion of skill-biased technologies affecting not only productivity but increasing the demand for skilled labour and wages. This work analyses the impact of the use of imported intermediate inputs, exports and foreign direct investment (FDI) on productivity, the demand and wages of skilled workers of the Uruguayan manufacturing firms for the period 1988-2005. The response to the various channels of international linkages are not homogenous, but vary over the conditional distribution of each dpendent variable. Our preliminary results seem to indicate that increased levels of international linkages are associated with higher productivity and an increased demand for skill labour measured through wages and employment in absolute terms but this is not always so in relative terms. Then, it follows that promoting international linkages and training of workers would lead to increases in productivity and better opportunities for skilled workers while other social policies could help to mitigate wage inequality effects.
Nexus between Tourism Industry and Economic Growth of Nepal

The tourism sector is essential to economic growth and has the capacity to stimulate the economy. The aim of this paper to assess the relationship between tourism industry and its economic growth. The gross domestic product (GDP) indicates the economic growth and tourism industry development relates to tourist arrivals, length of stay, and gross foreign exchange earnings from tourism. This study is grounded on secondary data collected from the Economic Survey of Nepal and the Nepal Tourism Statistics from 2000 to 2021. The study finds short and long-term causality between tourism industry and economic growth. The tourism development indicators include arrivals of tourist, length of stay, and gross foreign exchange from tourism. The unidirectional causality of economic growth to the length of stay of tourists and tourism to gross foreign exchange earnings were observed in the study. Adequate government strategies for the tourism sector can accelerate economic growth. The policymakers should give adequate attention to diversifying the tourism services, improving infrastructure, encouraging local communities, promoting sustainable tourism, enhancing marketing efforts, and promoting collaborations between the public, commercial sectors and local communities to support tourism industry for the sustained in Nepal.
Multimode Fabry-Perot laser as a reservoir computing and extreme learning machine photonic accelerator

In this work, we introduce Fabry–Perot lasers as neuromoprhic nodes in the context of time-delayed reservoir computing and extreme learning machine (ELM) for the processing of temporal signals and the high-speed classification of images. By exploiting the multi-wavelength emission capabilities of the Fabry–Perot lasers, additional processing nodes can be introduced, thus raising the computational power without sacrificing processing speed. An experimental validation of this concept using a Fabry–Perot ELM is presented targeting a time depedent task such as channel equalization for a 50 km 28 Gbaud ‘PAM-4’ transmission, offering hard-decision forward error correction compatible performance. Additionally, the Fabry–Perot neuromorphic concept has been further strengthened by modifying the data entry technique by parallelelly assigning different samples of the input signal to different modes so as to significantly reduce speed penalty. Numerical simulations revealed that this alternative data insertion technique can offer a reduction of the processing delay and physical footprint by 75% compared to the conventional approach assigning the same symbols to all Fairy–Perot modes. Moreover, by using a similar data processing scheme in ‘MNIST’ image classification task we were able to numerically achieve a processing speed of 255.1 Mimages s−1 and a classification accuracy up to 95.95%.
Deteksi Molekuler Bakteri Patogen pada Makanan Fermentasi Tempe Dage berdasarkan marka gen 16S rRNA

Tempe Dage is fermented food product originating from Banyumas Regency, Central Java. The appearance of Dage tempeh is slightly different from tempeh in general with lots of black spots on its surface. Even though it is often consumed by the people of Banyumas, there is no information regarding the presence of pathogenic bacteria in Dage tempeh which have the potential to harm human health. Therefore, this study aims to detect the diversity of pathogenic bacteria in the Tempe Dage microbiome using the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) approach. The research steps were from bacterial culture with Reasoner’s 2A (R2A) medium, genomic DNA extraction, Ilumina platform-based sequencing based on the Variable region of the 16S rRNA gene, and bioinformatics analysis. The results of bioinformatics analysis on the EZBioCloud webserver (https://www.ezbiocloud.net/contents/16smtp) showed that the Dage tempe samples contained several pathogenic bacteria which were detected, such as Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Vibrio metschnikovii and Salmonella bongori. These results provide novel information regarding the presence of pathogenic bacteria in traditional Dage food which can be further analyzed using a conventional culture approach.
Identification of the Porcine Vascular Endothelial Cell-Specific Promoter ESAM1.0 Using Transcriptome Analysis

The vascular endothelium of xenografted pig organs represents the initial site of rejection after exposure to recipient immune cells. In this study, we aimed to develop a promoter specific to porcine vascular endothelial cells as a step toward overcoming xenograft rejection. Transcriptome analysis was performed on porcine aortic endothelial cells (PAECs), ear skin fibroblasts isolated from GGTA knockout (GTKO) pigs, and the porcine renal epithelial cell line pk-15. RNA sequencing confirmed 243 differentially expressed genes with expression changes of more than 10-fold among the three cell types. Employing the Human Protein Atlas database as a reference, we identified 34 genes exclusive to GTKO PAECs. The endothelial cell-specific adhesion molecule (ESAM) was selected via qPCR validation and showed high endothelial cell specificity and stable expression across tissues. We selected 1.0 kb upstream sequences of the translation start site of the gene as the promoter ESAM1.0. A luciferase assay revealed that ESAM1.0 promoter transcriptional activity was significant in PAECs, leading to a 2.8-fold higher level of expression than that of the porcine intercellular adhesion molecule 2 (ICAM2) promoter, which is frequently used to target endothelial cells in transgenic pigs. Consequently, ESAM1.0 will enable the generation of genetically modified pigs with endothelium-specific target genes to reduce xenograft rejection.
A Novel Control Scheme for the Electric Motor Emulator to Improve the Voltage Emulation Accuracy

An electric motor emulator (EME) is being prevalently used during the testing process of the motor drive unit for electric vehicle applications. Most of the existing research works focus on the improvement and analysis of the terminal current emulation accuracy of the EME, whereas research on the emulation accuracy of the EME terminal voltage is rare. The purpose of this article is to cope with the distortion of the EMEs terminal voltage at high modulation index due to the parasitic capacitance and deadtime of the emulator converter. A novel control scheme based on an active circulation regulation approach and a switched-mode modulation strategy is proposed in this article. The proposed control scheme is aimed at the commercial EME with the parallel-branch converter. Both simulations and experiments are carried out based on a prototype power topology, validating the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme in improving the voltage emulation accuracy of the EME.
Late Holocene dinoflagellate cysts as indicators for short‐term climate variability in the eastern Laptev Sea (Arctic Ocean)

A sediment sequence from the eastern Laptev Sea shelf (Siberian Arctic, Russia) has been studied for dinoflagellate cysts in order to reconstruct sea‐surface conditions during the late Holocene. Variability of assemblage composition and derived sea‐surface temperature estimates indicate that the neoglacial cooling was not a gradual climate change from 2510 to 900 cal. yr BP. Relatively stable conditions, with temperatures that were warmer than today, were punctuated by a few cooling events in summer on centennial time‐scales. During these events temperatures reached modern values. This suggests that modern conditions may have been established abruptly within a short period in the past 1000 yr, which is not documented in our record. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Method to Determine Station Density Requirements for Climate Observing Networks

Abstract A procedure is described that provides guidance in determining the number of stations required in a climate observing system deployed to capture temporal variability in the spatial mean of a climate parameter. The method entails reducing the density of an existing station network in a step-by-step fashion and quantifying subnetwork performance at each iteration. Under the assumption that the full network for the study area provides a reasonable estimate of the true spatial mean, this degradation process can be used to quantify the relationship between station density and network performance. The result is a systematic “cost–benefit” relationship that can be used in conjunction with practical constraints to determine the number of stations to deploy. The approach is demonstrated using temperature and precipitation anomaly data from 4012 stations in the conterminous United States over the period 1971–2000. Results indicate that a U.S. climate observing system should consist of at least 25 quasi-uni.
Agent-based Human Group Affective State Modelling

Affective states influence how humans make decisions, what actions they choose to perform, and how group structure and relationships among individuals develop over time. The studies on emotion modelling in computer systems have developed in number and quality over the past 30 years. However, there are no models that allow to fully simulate human affective interaction. The study in the Thesis integrates existing models and interaction mechanisms found in psychology research, using multi-agent systems to implement affective interaction mechanisms.
Preferred crystal orientations in the fast ice along the margins of the Arctic Ocean

Field observations of the growth fabrics of the fast and near-fast ice along the coasts of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas show that at depths of more than 60 cm below the upper ice surface the sea ice crystals show striking alignments within the horizontal plane. At one site this alignment was well developed at a depth of 15 cm, and in all cases the degree of preferred orientation increased with depth. In general, the c axes of the crystals were aligned roughly E-W parallel to the coast. In the vicinity of islands, alignment roughly paralleled the outlines of the islands, and in narrow passes between, islands the alignment paralleled the channel. Our observations, as well as similar observations made in the Kara Sea by Cherepanov, can be explained if it is assumed that the c axes of the crystals are aligned parallel to the ‘long-term’ current direction at the sea ice-seawater interface. The alignments are believed to be the result of geometric selection among the growing crystals, the most favored orientation being that in which the current flows normal to the (0001) plates of ice that make up the dendritic ice/water interface characteristic of sea ice. It is hypothesized that current flow in this direction reduces the thickness of the solute boundary layer as well as the salinity in the liquid at the interface. This lowered salinity allows crystals in the favored orientation to extend farther into the melt than neighboring crystals with less favored orientations. In addition, the current tends to induce a continuous flux of supercooled seawater against the sides of the crystals that extend ahead of the interface. This favors their lateral growth. The aligned crystal aggregate that forms has the overall characteristics of a single crystal. The development of such crystal alignments results in pronounced anisotropy in the mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of fast ice. It is suggested that such crystal orientations can be used as an aid in determining current patterns in perennially ice-covered areas such as the Canadian Archipelago.
Strontium isotope stratigraphy of the Oligocene‐Miocene Otekaike Limestone (Trig Z section) in southern New Zealand: Age of the Duntroonian/Waitakian Stage boundary

Abstract The Otekaike Limestone Trig Z sequence in southeastern South Island, New Zealand, is the type section for the local Waitakian Stage, and contains the Duntroonian/ Waitakian Stage boundary, previously thought equivalent to the Oligocene/Miocene Epoch boundary. Strontium isotope analysis of molluscan (pectinid) macrofossil fragments and mainly benthic foraminifera from the Otekaike Limestone has, together with foraminiferal and nannofossil bio‐stratigraphy, provided a chronology for the section and established a correlation with the global time‐scale. Strontium isotope ratios of macrofossil and foraminiferal extracts are identical and indicate an age for the section ranging from c. 25.5 Ma at the base to c. 23.7 Ma at the top, placing most of the section within the late Oligocene (Chattian). The Duntroonian/Waitakian boundary is set at c. 25.2 Ma (intra‐Chattian) and is not coeval with the Oligocene/Miocene boundary (23.8 Ma), which occurs near the top of the section.