Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Miniature ferromagnetic robot fish actuated by a clinical magnetic resonance scanner

A new actuation principle which permits omnidirectional steering for a swimming robot using a magnetic resonance imaging scanner is presented. The robot fish is made of a ferromagnetic head and a flexible tail. It is actuated by transverse oscillating magnetic gradients. The swimming performances of the robot fish are studied for varying tail length as well as varying actuation frequency and amplitude. Through a dimensional analysis, the important parameters influencing the swimming gait are identified and the mechanism of actuation is better understood. Considering the scaling of forces, this dimensional analysis leads us to believe that in the future the height and width of the fish robot could be miniaturised to sub-millimetre scale.
On the disturbance decoupling of linear singular multi-delay systems

Time delay system descriptions are usually met in mechanical systems and industrial processes. Here, the general class of linear singular neutral multi delay systems is introduced. The controller is of the general proportional multi delay state feedback type. For the case of regularizable linear singular neutral multi delay systems the design problem of disturbance decoupling (DD) is solved under the constraint that the closed loop system must be left invertible. The necessary and sufficient conditions for the problem to admit a realizable solution are established and the general solution of the realizable controllers is derived.
Variational bounds for mixed-data factor analysis

We propose a new variational EM algorithm for fitting factor analysis models with mixed continuous and categorical observations. The algorithm is based on a simple quadratic bound to the log-sum-exp function. In the special case of fully observed binary data, the bound we propose is significantly faster than previous variational methods. We show that EM is significantly more robust in the presence of missing data compared to treating the latent factors as parameters, which is the approach used by exponential family PCA and other related matrix-factorization methods. A further benefit of the variational approach is that it can easily be extended to the case of mixtures of factor analyzers, as we show. We present results on synthetic and real data sets demonstrating several desirable properties of our proposed method.
Design and evaluation of duty-cycling steering algorithms for robotically-driven steerable needles

Asymmetric-tip, robotically controlled steerable needles have the potential to improve clinical outcomes for many needle-based procedures by allowing the needle to curve and change direction within biological tissue. Algorithms have previously been developed to change the curvature of the needle trajectory via duty-cycled spinning. However, these algorithms require continuous rotation of the steerable needle, preventing the use of instrumentation such as force-torque sensors and electromagnetic trackers, due cable wind-up issues. In this paper, we present two novel control methods for duty-cycling a steerable needle without the need for continuous rotation: bidirectional duty-cycled spinning and duty-cycled flipping. These algorithms can be implemented on existing robotic needle steering systems without hardware changes. We evaluate our algorithms using a custom hollow steerable needle, with an embedded EM tracker and a force-torque sensor. We compare the path tracking error, needle insertion forces, and needle axial rotation torques of our algorithms and found no significant differences between the two algorithms in terms of tracking error. Duty-cycled flipping has significantly lower mean insertion forces and torques than bidirectional duty-cycled spinning, and differences in insertion force and rotation torque variability were also found. These results may have interesting implications for tissue health.
An Analysis of the Collapse Potential of Slope using the Rom Scale: A Case Study of Sultan Azlan Shah Campus, Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia

Slope failure is a geological process that is closely related to the agents of erosion, such as water, wind, temperature and vegetation cover in the vicinity of the slope. Therefore, this study was conducted to analyse the current status of the slope stability within the new Sultan Idris Education University campus using the ROM scale. A total of 20 slopes or soil sampling points were included in this study. The results obtained from the ROM scale shows that about 16 of the 20 slopes with critical status have experienced landslides. This is due to the land fragility, lack of binder (clay) between the rocks, sand and silt. In fact, the proportion of sand in the soil exceeded 90%. Thus, additional protective measures should be taken to increase the level of soil moisture and improve the bond between soil compositions and, ultimately, the slope stability in Sultan Azlan Shah Campus can be improved. This is due the soil moisture of the critical slopes is only at 25% to 30%. And with the implementation of slope protection measures by engineering and bioengineering techniques, landslide occurrence can be avoided and reduced in the future.
Exercise with weight loss improves adipose tissue and skeletal muscle markers of fatty acid metabolism in postmenopausal women

The effects of 6‐month weight loss (WL) versus aerobic exercise training (AEX)+WL on fat and skeletal muscle markers of fatty acid metabolism were determined in normal (NGT) and impaired (IGT) glucose tolerant African‐American and Caucasian postmenopausal women with overweight/obesity.
Negation as Failure through a Network

SUMMARY This paper deals with distributed procedures, caused by negation as failure through a network, where general logic programs are distributed so that they communicate with each other in terms of negation as failure inquiries and responses, but not in terms of derivations of SLD resolutions. The common variables as channels in share for distributed programs are not treated, but negation as failure validated in the whole network is the object for communications of distributed programs. We can define the semantics for the distributed programs in a network. At the same time, we have distributed proof procedures for distributed programs, by means of negation as failure to be implemented through the network, where the soundness of the procedure is guaranteed by the defined semantics.
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Lesions Produce Early Functional Alterations during Remote Memory Retrieval

We examined the role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) in memory retrieval monitoring. Event-related potentials were recorded while patients with VMPFC lesions and matched controls viewed faces of personal acquaintances, and of famous and nonfamous people, and indicated whether they had personally encountered these individuals. Patients were more likely than controls to make both false positive and false negative errors. Both groups showed a large posterior negative wave peaking at ∼170 ms after face onset (N170). In controls, the N170 was larger for both types of familiar faces, regardless of whether overt recognition occurred. Specifically, personal acquaintances that were erroneously judged as unfamiliar evoked the same electrophysiological response as those who were explicitly recognized. Patients' N170 was not modulated by familiarity suggesting VMPFC lesions disrupt early posterior memory-based preconscious cortical distinctions. Following the N170, there was a significant group difference over frontopolar scalp regions where patients were showing a smaller positive modulation at 230–260 ms for all stimulus types. In patients this modulation correlated highly with reaction times of correct responses, suggesting this early frontal modulation is related to the ability to make rapid correct decisions about memory content. Group differences over anterior sites were also noted at 350 ms after stimulus, reflecting a large sustained negativity of patients' waveforms, equal across conditions. The findings are consistent with a hypothesis of frontally mediated dual-monitoring system. An early automatic (preconscious) component is followed by a late elaborate process. We hypothesize that when both components are damaged, confabulation may occur.
Supporting the Literacy Skills of Adolescents with Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can affect developmental trajectories as well as language, attention, memory, executive functions, and other cognitive skills related to literacy. Literacy demands change through adolescence and into young adulthood, with academic literacy demands increasing and vocational literacy demands being introduced. Speech-language pathology services must evolve with the literacy needs of each client. This article discusses assessment and treatment approaches designed for adolescents with TBI and recommendations for adapting literacy interventions from the learning disabilities literature. Through proper assessment and intervention, speech-language pathologists can have a meaningful impact on the academic and vocational literacy needs of adolescents with TBI.
Power-Supply and Substrate-Noise-Induced Timing Jitter in Nonoverlapping Clock Generation Circuits

This paper describes a study of power-supply noise and substrate noise impact on the timing properties of two nonoverlapping clock generation circuits that are typically used in sigma-delta modulators. The constituent logic blocks of the clock generation circuits are also individually characterized where special attention has been put on the inverter whose behavior is fully described in mathematical terms. The analytical model is verified with SPICE using 0.35-mum CMOS process parameters, and a reference simulation in 0.18 mum is also presented showing the trend of technology downscaling. Furthermore, the nonoverlapping clock generation circuits are characterized in the 0.18-mum process and the phenomenon of jitter peaking is described. Finally, all variations of connection configurations in the clock generation circuits are explored to reveal possible optimal configurations.
The Norwegian solar photovoltaic industry : a Triple Helix perspective

During the last decade, a solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing industry centred in Norway has emerged and gained a share of 10 to 20 percent of various segments in the world market for solar PV feedstock, wafers and related components (Kirkegaard, Hanemann et al. 2010). According to experts, the future prospects for this new Norwegian industry is promising because of its focus on innovation and R&D (Bugge and Salvesen 2010). This development and its future prospects accord well with a Triple Helix perspective (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff 2000). In contrast, more evolutionary innovation approaches did not anticipate this. An analysis by Narula (2002) suggests that inertia prevails in Norwegian large scale manufacturing industry, in particular its highly efficient and specialized metallurgic industry. Because of this, the analysis suggested that the industry was at risk because its specialization entailed structural lock-in, path-dependency and other factors that supposedly contribute to inertia, and, ultimately, to obsolescence. These evolutionary predictions have been contradicted in a number of ways: The metallurgic manufacturing industry has maintained its high profitability while simultaneously successfully expanded into manufacturing of PV. Although the success of this new Norwegian PV manufacturing industry may seem surprising, a Triple Helix perspective, with some adjustments, may provide a satisfactory explanation, in particular because this approach also accommodates the factor of human agency, development of knowledge and role of entrepreneurship, and related innovation dynamics (e.g. “niche creation”, “innovation regimes”), as will also be elaborated in the discussion of this paper.
A targeted person searching scheme in digital videos based on face quality assessment and recognition

This research presents a targeted person searching scheme in digital videos. It is assumed that a user is provided with an exemplar video that contains a targeted person and long investigated videos from which the scenes related the targeted person will be extracted. First, the exemplar video is processed to generate multiple representative face images, which are shown on an interface for the user to manually select the images of a targeted person. After choosing the images characterizing the targeted person, the scheme will apply face tracking and face quality assessment for training a model, which can then help to search that person in other long investigated videos. The proposed scheme can facilitate such applications as evidence collection from surveillance videos and retrieval of actors from TV dramas or movies.
Defining the Value of Future Research to Identify the Preferred Treatment of Meniscal Tear in the Presence of Knee Osteoarthritis

Background Arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (APM) is extensively used to relieve pain in patients with symptomatic meniscal tear (MT) and knee osteoarthritis (OA). Recent studies have failed to show the superiority of APM compared to other treatments. We aim to examine whether existing evidence is sufficient to reject use of APM as a cost-effective treatment for MT+OA. Methods We built a patient-level microsimulation using Monte Carlo methods and evaluated three strategies: Physical therapy (‘PT’) alone; PT followed by APM if subjects continued to experience pain (‘Delayed APM’); and ‘Immediate APM’. Our subject population was US adults with symptomatic MT and knee OA over a 10 year time horizon. We assessed treatment outcomes using societal costs, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), and calculated incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs), incorporating productivity costs as a sensitivity analysis. We also conducted a value-of-information analysis using probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Results Calculated ICERs were estimated to be $12,900/QALY for Delayed APM as compared to PT and $103,200/QALY for Immediate APM as compared to Delayed APM. In sensitivity analyses, inclusion of time costs made Delayed APM cost-saving as compared to PT. Improving efficacy of Delayed APM led to higher incremental costs and lower incremental effectiveness of Immediate APM in comparison to Delayed APM. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses indicated that PT had 3.0% probability of being cost-effective at a willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold of $50,000/QALY. Delayed APM was cost effective 57.7% of the time at WTP = $50,000/QALY and 50.2% at WTP = $100,000/QALY. The probability of Immediate APM being cost-effective did not exceed 50% unless WTP exceeded $103,000/QALY. Conclusions We conclude that current cost-effectiveness evidence does not support unqualified rejection of either Immediate or Delayed APM for the treatment of MT+OA. The amount to which society would be willing to pay for additional information on treatment outcomes greatly exceeds the cost of conducting another randomized controlled trial on APM.
Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Therapeutic Doses of Basal Insulins NPH , Glargine , and Detemir After 1 Week of Daily Administration at Bedtime in Type 2 Diabetes

RESULTS—The glucose infusion rate area under the curve0–32 h was greater for glargine than for detemir and NPH (1,538 6 688, 1,081 6 785, and 1,170 6 703 mg/kg, respectively, P , 0.05). Glargine suppressed endogenous glucose production more than detemir (P , 0.05) and similarly to NPH (P = 0.16). Glucagon, C-peptide, free fatty acids, and b-hydroxy-butyrate were more suppressed with glargine than detemir. All 18 subjects completed the glargine study, but two subjects on NPH and three on detemir interrupted the study because of plasma glucose . 150 mg/dL.
POSTECH at NTCIR-6: Combining Evidences of Multiple Term Extractions for Mono-lingual and Cross-lingual Retrieval in Korean and Japanese

This paper describes our methodologies for NTCIR-6 CLIR involving Korean and Japanese, and reports the official result for Stage 1 and Stage 2. We participated in three tracks: K-K and J-J monolingual tracks and J-K cross-lingual tracks. As in the previous year, we focus on handling segmentation ambiguities in Asian languages. As a result, we prepared multiple term representations for documents and queries, of which ranked results are merged to generate final ranking. From official results, our methodology in Korean won the top in 6 subtasks of total 9 subtasks for Stage 2,and won the top in 2 subtasks of total 3 subtasks for Stage 1. Even though our system is the same as the previous one, final performances from NTCIR-3 to NTCIR-5 are further improved over our previous results by slightly modifying the feedback parameters.
Hierarchical Models, Marginal Polytopes, and Linear Codes

In this paper, we explore a connection between binary hierarchical models, their marginal polytopes and codeword polytopes, the convex hulls of linear codes. The class of linear codes that are realizable by hierarchical models is determined. We classify all full dimensional polytopes with the property that their vertices form a linear code and give an algorithm that determines them.
Power efficiency in communication systems from a circuit perspective

We consider the minimization of the overall power consumption when communicating over a noisy single-input single-output channel while satisfying a certain throughput and error rate constraint. The total power dissipation includes the radiated power as well as the circuit power consumption. In the context of battery operated short range communication, where low power, low cost and small size are key requirements (e.g. standard IEEE 802.15.4), this circuit aware system optimization is crucial given the growing importance of “Green Communication”. In fact, the power dissipation of certain analog and digital components along the signal path reaches values in the order of or is even higher than the transmit power in such applications. Using an appropriate information-theoretic framework we derive the optimal bit-resolution of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC), the optimal choice of the noise figure for the low noise amplifier (LNA), the optimal operating input back-off (IBO) of the power amplifier (PA), as well as the optimum decoding (DEC) strategy as a function of the path-loss (i.e. the communication distance), that guarantee a certain net data rate R under a certain error probability Pe. This work is an extension to the work [1], where only the power of the analog components was considered.
A new family of gauges in linearized general relativity

For vacuum Maxwell theory in four dimensions, a supplementary condition exists (due to Eastwood and Singer) which is invariant under conformal rescalings of the metric, in agreement with the conformal symmetry of the Maxwell equations. Thus, starting from the de Donder gauge, which is not conformally invariant but is the gravitational counterpart of the Lorenz gauge, one can consider, led by formal analogy, a new family of gauges in general relativity, which involve fifth-order covariant derivatives of metric perturbations. The admissibility of such gauges in the classical theory is first proven in the cases of linearized theory about flat Euclidean space or flat Minkowski spacetime. In the former, the general solution of the equation for the fulfillment of the gauge condition after infinitesimal diffeomorphisms involves a 3-harmonic 1-form and an inverse Fourier transform. In the latter, one needs instead the kernel of powers of the wave operator, and a contour integral. The analysis is also used to put restrictions on the dimensionless parameter occurring in the DeWitt supermetric, while the proof of admissibility is generalized to a suitable class of curved Riemannian backgrounds. Eventually, a non-local construction of the tensor field is obtained which makes it possible to achieve conformal invariance of the above gauges.
Cross-Domain Dutch Coreference Resolution

This article explores the portability of a coreference resolver across a variety of eight text genres. Besides newspaper text, we also include administrative texts, autocues, texts used for external communication, instructive texts, wikipedia texts, medical texts and unedited new media texts. Three sets of experiments were conducted. First, we investigated each text genre individually, and studied the effect of larger training set sizes and including genre-specific training material. Then, we explored the predictive power of each genre for the other genres conducting cross-domain experiments. In a final step, we investigated whether excluding genres with less predictive power increases overall performance. For all experiments we use an existing Dutch mention-pair resolver and report on our experimental results using four metrics: MUC, B-cubed, CEAF and BLANC. We show that resolving out-of-domain genres works best when enough training data is included. This effect is further intensified by including a small amount of genre-specific text. As far as the cross-domain performance is concerned we see that especially genres of a very specific nature tend to have less generalization power.
STEP: Sequentiality and Thrashing Detection Based Prefetching to Improve Performance of Networked Storage Servers

State-of-the-art networked storage servers are equipped with increasingly powerful computing capability and large DRAM memory as storage caches. However, their contribution to the performance improvement of networked storage system has become increasingly limited. This is because the client-side memory sizes are also increasing, which reduces capacity misses in the client buffer caches as well as access locality in the storage servers, thus weakening the caching effectiveness of server storage caches. Proactive caching in storage servers is highly desirable to reduce cold misses in clients. We propose an effective way to improve the utilization of storage server resources through prefetching in storage servers for clients. In particular, our design well utilizes two unique strengths of networked storage servers which are not leveraged in existing storage server prefetching schemes. First, powerful storage servers have idle CPU cycles, under-utilized disk bandwidth, and abundant memory space, providing many opportunities for aggressive disk data prefetching. Second, the servers have the knowledge about high-latency operations in storage devices, such as disk head positioning, which enables efficient disk data prefetching based on an accurate cost-benefit analysis of prefetch operations. We present STEP - a Sequentiality and Thrashing dEtec- tion based Prefetching scheme, and its implementation with Linux Kernel 2.6. 16. Our performance evaluation by replaying storage performance council (SPC) 's OLTP traces shows that server performance improvements are up to 94% with an average of 25%. Improvements with frequently used Unix applications are up to 53% with an average of 12%. Our experiments also show that STEP has little effect on workloads with random access patterns, such as SPC Web-search traces.