Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
When and how to help: An iterative probabilistic model for learning assistance by demonstration

Crafting a proper assistance policy is a difficult endeavour but essential for the development of robotic assistants. Indeed, assistance is a complex issue that depends not only on the task-at-hand, but also on the state of the user, environment and competing objectives. As a way forward, this paper proposes learning the task of assistance through observation; an approach we term Learning Assistance by Demonstration (LAD). Our methodology is a subclass of Learning-by-Demonstration (LbD), yet directly addresses difficult issues associated with proper assistance such as when and how to appropriately assist. To learn assistive policies, we develop a probabilistic model that explicitly captures these elements and provide efficient, online, training methods. Experimental results on smart mobility assistance - using both simulation and a real-world smart wheelchair platform - demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach; the LAD model quickly learns when to assist (achieving an AUC score of 0.95 after only one demonstration) and improves with additional examples. Results show that this translates into better task-performance; our LAD-enabled smart wheelchair improved participant driving performance (measured in lap seconds) by 20.6s (a speedup of 137%), after a single teacher demonstration.
Optimizing Queries for Web Generated Sensor Data

The Web continues to offer new services and in doing so, generates large volumes of new data. The concept of the Sensor Web has led to web generated sensor data becoming available not only to the companies that own the sensors but also to end users and knowledge workers. Applications vary from climate, traffic and sports event monitoring. In one application that provides an availability service for bicycle rentals in major cities, large volumes of data are collected for data mining purposes. All transactions are recorded and stored in XML format leading to performance issues as volumes increase. In this paper, we apply a new optimization technique to boosting the performance of XML queries on Sensor Web data.
de Green Business Process Patterns

To ensure their competitive advantage an increasing number of organizations adopt business process management for design, automation, and analysis of their business processes. In order to reduce cost, improve quality, save time, and increase flexibility, techniques for business process improvement and re-engineering are applied. Improving the environmental impact of a business process is a new challenge organizations are faced with. However, current approaches and techniques for business process optimization do not cover the ecological dimension explicitly. In this paper, we propose patterns which describe good solutions for green business process design to address this gap from a business perspective. The patterns are described independently from concrete business process modeling languages and execution environments in order to provide a broad applicability of the patterns within different scenarios. In addition to the patterns, we discuss the general usability of the patterns based on different aspects relevant to an organization.
The causal relationship between aspects of customer capital to improve customer relationship management and increase customers ’ loyalty ( case study : food industry of Jey industrial town in Isfahan )

This study aimed to investigate the causal relationships between aspects of customer capital to improve customer relationship management and increase customer’s loyalty. In this regard, by providing a conceptual framework including different aspects of customer capital (i.e. customer targeting, ability to identify customer's need, construction and management of customer information system, customer service capability, customer’s loyalty, and customer relationship management) and using statistical tests like structural equation modeling and Friedman test through SPSS and Lisrel software, hypotheses were examined. This was an applicable research in terms of its purpose , and a descriptive-survey research in terms of its methodology. Data were collected through library resources and field resources using questionnaire. Questionnaire validity and reliability were confirmed through content validity using supervisor professor’s opinion and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.81), respectively. Statistical population consisted of customers of all marketing and sales managers of food industry of Jey industrial town in Isfahan, which was a limited population (80 people), therefore sampling was not required and questionnaires were distributed among all population through census method. Structural equation modeling results indicated the significant effect of customer targeting, the ability to identify customers’ need, construction and management of customer information system and customer service capability on customers’ loyalty. The results of Friedman test indicated that the most and the least mean ranks related to identify customer need, and construction and management of customer information systems well as customer relationship management, respectively.
Practical design of a liquid rate gyroscope using an electro-conjugate fluid

Abstract An electro-conjugate fluid (ECF) is a kind of dielectric fluid that works as a functional/smart fluid generating a powerful jet flow (ECF jet) when subjected to a high d.c. voltage. The authors previously proposed the first liquid rate gyroscope in the world using ECF. The ECF liquid rate gyroscope proposed uses the drift of the ECF jet due to the Coriolis force when an angular motion is applied. The contribution of the proposed concept to gyroscope technology is that it provides the possibility of a low-cost micro gyroscope with inherent robustness to external impact. To move beyond a mere laboratory curiosity, the present paper describes the practical design of an ECF liquid rate gyroscope and characterizes the prototype. The ECF liquid rate gyroscope developed in this study has a scale factor, range of detection, resolution, and linearity of 32 mV/(°/s), ±400°/s, 0.04°/s, and 2 per cent of full scale (with a range of ±60°/s), respectively. These results show that the ECF liquid rate gyroscope could possibly become the next generation standard of micro gyroscopes.
Sliding Mode Control Of SMPS Ms

Abstract: Digital control technique is a technique for high frequency switching mode power supply (SMPS). Being widely used in the new generation portable systems, the regulation requirement for high frequency integrated DC-DC switching mode power supply becomes more and more demanding in industry, at very high frequency beyond 10 Mega Hertz range. Analysis and experimental study of buck converter is presented to achieve desired output voltage. The SMPS are emerging in terms of higher dynamic response performances, less output ripple, smaller size and weight. The sliding mode controller is associated with a digital pulse width modulation (DPWM) block to operate at high switching frequency. Sliding mode control (SMC) can reduce the voltage ripple voltage ripple of SMPS. Sliding mode controller will be used by means of analog to digital conversion (ADC) and Digital pulse width modulation (DPWM). Keywords-Analog to Digital converter(ADC), Digital pulse width modulation(DPWM), Sliding mode control
A largest matching area approach to image denoising

Given the success of patch-based approaches to image denoising, this paper addresses the ill-posed problem of patch size selection. Large patch sizes improve noise robustness in the presence of good matches, but can also lead to artefacts in textured regions due to the rare patch effect; smaller patch sizes reconstruct details more accurately but risk over-fitting to the noise in uniform regions. We propose to jointly optimize each matching patch's identity and size for grayscale image denoising, and present several implementations. The new approach effectively selects the largest matching areas, subject to the constraints of the available data and noise level, to improve noise robustness. Experiments on standard test images demonstrate our approach's ability to improve on fixed-size reconstruction, particularly at high noise levels, on smoother image regions.
Differential levels of specific cytochrome c biogenesis proteins in response to oxygen: analysis of the ccl operon in Rhodobacter capsulatus

The photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus synthesizes c-type cytochromes under a variety of growth conditions. For example, under aerobic growth, c-type cytochromes are synthesized as part of an electron transport pathway, using oxygen as the terminal electron acceptor. Anaerobically in the light, R. capsulatus requires cytochrome bc1 and other c-type cytochromes for the photosynthetic electron transport pathway. It is shown here that the ccl1 and ccl2 genes of R. capsulatus are required for the synthesis of all c-type cytochromes, including the cytochrome c' protein of unknown function but of structural similarity to cytochrome b562. Polar and nonpolar mutations constructed in each gene demonstrated that the ccl12 genes form an operon. Expression of the ccl12 genes was examined by using lacZ and phoA fusions as translational reporters. Primer extension analysis was used to determine transcriptional control and the start site of the ccl12 promoter. Finally, antiserum to the Ccl2 protein was used to quantitate levels of Ccl2 under six different growth conditions. The Ccl2 protein is present at 20-fold-higher levels under conditions where oxygen is present. In contrast, other cytochromes c biogenesis proteins, HelA and HelX, previously shown to be part of an helABCDX operon, are at relatively similar levels under these six growth conditions. This discovery is discussed in terms of the physiology and evolution of cytochromes c biogenesis, with particular attention to oxidative environments.
Vitamin D and Risk of Multiple Sclerosis: A Mendelian Randomization Study

Background Observational studies have demonstrated an association between decreased vitamin D level and risk of multiple sclerosis (MS); however, it remains unclear whether this relationship is causal. We undertook a Mendelian randomization (MR) study to evaluate whether genetically lowered vitamin D level influences the risk of MS. Methods and Findings We identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) level from SUNLIGHT, the largest (n = 33,996) genome-wide association study to date for vitamin D. Four SNPs were genome-wide significant for 25OHD level (p-values ranging from 6 × 10−10 to 2 × 10−109), and all four SNPs lay in, or near, genes strongly implicated in separate mechanisms influencing 25OHD. We then ascertained their effect on 25OHD level in 2,347 participants from a population-based cohort, the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study, and tested the extent to which the 25OHD-decreasing alleles explained variation in 25OHD level. We found that the count of 25OHD-decreasing alleles across these four SNPs was strongly associated with lower 25OHD level (n = 2,347, F-test statistic = 49.7, p = 2.4 × 10−12). Next, we conducted an MR study to describe the effect of genetically lowered 25OHD on the odds of MS in the International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium study, the largest genetic association study to date for MS (including up to 14,498 cases and 24,091 healthy controls). Alleles were weighted by their relative effect on 25OHD level, and sensitivity analyses were performed to test MR assumptions. MR analyses found that each genetically determined one-standard-deviation decrease in log-transformed 25OHD level conferred a 2.0-fold increase in the odds of MS (95% CI: 1.7–2.5; p = 7.7 × 10−12; I 2 = 63%, 95% CI: 0%–88%). This result persisted in sensitivity analyses excluding SNPs possibly influenced by population stratification or pleiotropy (odds ratio [OR] = 1.7, 95% CI: 1.3–2.2; p = 2.3 × 10−5; I 2 = 47%, 95% CI: 0%–85%) and including only SNPs involved in 25OHD synthesis or metabolism (ORsynthesis = 2.1, 95% CI: 1.6–2.6, p = 1 × 10−9; ORmetabolism = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.3–2.7, p = 0.002). While these sensitivity analyses decreased the possibility that pleiotropy may have biased the results, residual pleiotropy is difficult to exclude entirely. Conclusions A genetically lowered 25OHD level is strongly associated with increased susceptibility to MS. Whether vitamin D sufficiency can delay, or prevent, MS onset merits further investigation in long-term randomized controlled trials.
A Promising Opportunity for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the Interface of Neuroscience , Psychology , and Social Policy : Remarks on Receiving the 2005

2006;118;2187-2191 Pediatrics Jack P. Shonkoff the 2005 C. Anderson Aldrich Award Interface of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Social Policy: Remarks on Receiving A Promising Opportunity for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the http://www.pediatrics. org/cgi/content/full/118/5/2187 located on the World Wide Web at: The online version of this article, along with updated information and services, is
Development of Interfaces for Impaired People Based on EMG and EEG

Two different electro-biological signal based Interfaces for impaired people were developed: EMG and EEG based. Such interfaces present like main characteristics relatively simple acquisition and processing systems, which need of few hardware and software resources, so that they are computational and financial low cost solutions. Both interfaces have been applied to robotic systems (emulating a robotic wheelchair) and their performance has been shown in such applications. The EMG based interface was tested in a mobile robot (emulating a wheelchair), while the EEG based interface was tested as much in a mobile robot as a robotic manipulator (emulating a manipulator
Single Electron Transistor Made Nano IC Adder for High Speed Computing

Single electron transistor (SET) is a key element of present device research which can offer high operating speed with low power consumption. Downscaling of minimum feature size of CMOS transistor has been the basis for advancement in ultra large integration for many years. But by no means it has turned to be a never ending process. The present work demonstrates a hypothetical approach to design a single electron device based commercially viable logic circuit to be embedded in next generation IC’s.
A Panoramic View of Body Images

collection it can be found. In her “Notes on Sources” she at one point mistakenly lists the Archives of the American Psychological Association in Akron, Ohio instead of the Archives of the History of American Psychology in Akron. This error is unfortunately reproduced on the back flyleaf of the book. (The Archives of the American Psychological Association are located in Washington, DC, and contain no information on Leta Stetter Hollingworth.) But these flaws are not fatal, and Klein has both written an engaging biography and contributed significantly to scholarship on the history of women in psychology. Especially interesting is the collection of photographs reproduced in the book, which include a number of wonderful photographs of Leta and her sisters as young children. Although not the definitive biography of Leta Stetter Hollingworth (which has yet to be written), Ann Klein’s A Forgotten Voice is certainly a valuable work that adds another voice to the life and work of this important woman, psychologist, and feminist.
Personel Seçiminde Benzerlik Etkisi : Aday ile Değerlendirici Arasındaki Kişilik Benzerliğinin ve Değerlendirici Tarafından Algılanan Benzerliğin Değerlendirme ve Seçim Üzerindeki Rolü

Similar to me effect” in personnel selection has been frequently investigated in relation to some demographic factors and attitudes so far. In this study, the effect of personality similarity and perceived similarity between raters and job applicants on the rating and selection decision was investigated. For this purpose, a film about three pseudo female applicants playing the roles of different applicants’ personalities (an highly extraverted, a low conscientious, an ambiguous applicant) was prepared. Voluntary 177 university students were classified by their extraversion and conscientiousness personality traits on their NEO-FFI scores. Sixty three participants were assigned to either “high extraversion low conscientiousness” category or “high conscientiousness low extraversion” category. After watching the film the participants were asked to rate each applicant’s qualifications, their appropriateness for the job and their similarity to themselves, and decide to hire one of them for the job. The results show that real personality similarity between the rater and the applicant is effective on neither evaluations nor hiring decision. However, the similarity perceived by raters toward the applicant affects both their ratings and hiring decision positively.
Understanding, modeling, and improving main-memory database performance

textabstractDuring the last two decades, computer hardware has experienced remarkable developments. Especially CPU (clock-)speed has been following Moore's Law, i.e., doubling every 18 months; and there is no indication that this trend will change in the foreseeable future. Recent research has revealed that database performance, even with main-memory based systems, can hardly benefit from the ever increasing CPU power. The reason for this is that the performance of other hardware components has not been increasing at the same rate as CPU speed. While memory bandwidth has been growing steadily, memory latency has hardly changed. Thus, random memory access has become a major bottleneck for database query processing. This thesis analyzes the impact of modern hardware on main-memory database performance and develops new techniques to better exploit the available hardware resources. Using simple benchmarks, we show that --- unless special care is taken --- database algorithms can spend up to 90% of their time waiting for memory. Exhaustive experiments reveal that memory access is a major bottleneck for database performance on almost any hardware platform, ranging from small of-the-shelf PCs to large high-performance servers. The insight gained allows us to design detailed cost models to predict the performance behavior of database algorithms by estimating the number of performance-relevant events, such as cache misses and TLB misses, and scoring them by their respective cost, i.e., their latency. Focusing on joins, we develop new cache-conscious algorithms. The main idea is to restrict random data access to data that fits into the (smallest) CPU cache. Our cost models allow us to automatically tune our algorithms to achieve optimal performance on various hardware platforms. Further analysis shows that even with minimized memory access costs, database algorithms cannot exploit the full potential of modern super-scaler CPUs. We discuss various implementation techniques to improve the efficiency.
Analysis of bone activity of jaws using scintigraphy on patients before, during and after treatment with IV bisphosphonates: A retrospective study

Recommended Citation Handoo, Nidhi Q. "Analysis of bone activity of jaws using scintigraphy on patients before, during and after treatment with IV bisphosphonates: a retrospective study. Yusuf Menda ii To my adorable precious children Raginya and Kalhan and my husband, Kashyap for their unconditional love and support To my loving parents for their continuous encouragement and guidance throughout my life To my mother-in-law and father-in-law for their confidence in me iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The words " thank-you " cannot even begin to express my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. John Hellstein, my mentor, my guide and my teacher, in the true sense of the word. This research project would not have been possible without his brainchild. His continuous advice, kindness and direction from inception to completion of this project are truly invaluable. I genuinely thank him for his guidance and. Dr Steven Vincent for giving me the opportunity and having the foresight and confidence in me. His immense help in seeing me through this thesis is sincerely thanked for. A beautiful saying by Mother Teresa " Kind words are short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless " states the sentiments that I think were said, keeping people like Dr. Michael Finkelstein in mind. I genuinely thank him for his continuous encouragement and kind words throughout the dissertation process. I extend my appreciation to Dr. Sherry Timmons for her advice, suggestions and encouragement. Her insightful reviews during each phase of this study have always made me want to do a better job. Thank you, Dr Timmons. My sincere appreciation to Dr. Yusuf Menda whose patience, advice, ideas and guidance have been my strength. I am also grateful to Dr. Michael Graham for giving me access to records in Nuclear Medicine Department. I truly appreciate the extraordinary help, time spent and efficiency in preparing the statistical analysis by Dr Bridget Zimmerman. I would also like to acknowledge Jeff Murguia and Brian in the Nuclear Medicine Department and Radiology Department respectively for assisting with retrieval of old bone scans and technical aspects of imaging. I appreciate the assistance from Lisa Sturtz from Joint Office for Compliance for helping with patient listings. I am truly grateful to my friend and colleague Dr Rumpa Ganguly for her unconditional help during the analysis of the bone scans and she has been a great moral support and a pillar of strength thorough out this process. …
Energy conservation in a smart home

In recent times, developments in home automation systems have given way to the construction of smarter infrastructure. Such systems offer an easy way for users to control devices in a building. Commercially, there are several technologies that are currently being implemented for home automation purposes namely Z-Wave [1], ZigBee [2] and X10 [3]. The proprietary Z-Wave technology has various advantages and hence is used in this experiment. Research in this field has extended the capabilities of the technology into areas such as remote monitoring and control, power management, tracking & security systems and disaster warning systems. Power management has been of particular interest as it allows for a greener future and is added advantage to users as a cost-cutting measure. This paper analyses the power consumption in a standard home taking into account commonly used appliances and other devices and shows the management capabilities of a home automation system as well as an estimation of the savings in terms of power consumed and cost. The aim of the study is to measure the energy conservation across 4 homes using a Z-Wave home automation system. It is found that there is an 18.70% decrease in energy consumption when the home automation system acts to manage the power consumption of the devices in the home.
T Cell-Intrinsic and -Extrinsic Contributions of the IFNAR/STAT1-Axis to Thymocyte Survival

STAT1 is an essential part of interferon signaling, and STAT1-deficiency results in heightened susceptibility to infections or autoimmunity in both mice and humans. Here we report that mice lacking the IFNα/β-receptor (IFNAR1) or STAT1 display impaired deletion of autoreactive CD4+CD8+-T-cells. Strikingly, co-existence of WT T cells restored thymic elimination of self-reactive STAT1-deficient CD4+CD8+-T cells. Analysis of STAT1-deficient thymocytes further revealed reduced Bim expression, which was restored in the presence of WT T cells. These results indicate that type I interferons and STAT1 play an important role in the survival of MHC class I-restricted T cells in a T cell intrinsic and non-cell intrinsic manner that involves regulation of Bim expression through feedback provided by mature STAT1-competent T cells.