Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Behavior acquisition in artificial agents

Computational skill acquisition in robots and simulated agents has been a topic of increasing popularity throughout the last years. Despite impressive progress, autonomous behavior at a level of animals and humans are not yet replicated by machines. Especially when a complex environment demands versatile, goal-oriented behavior, current artificial systems show shortcomings. Consider for instance modern 3D computer games. Despite their key role for more emersive game experience, surprisingly little effort was made towards new techniques for life-like behavior creation in artificial characters. Modern interactive computer games provide the ability to objectively record complex human behavior, offering a variety of interesting challenges to the pattern recognition community. Such recordings often represent a multiplexing of long-term strategy, mid-term tactics and short-term reactions, in addition to the more low-level details of the player's movements. In this work we approach the goal of behavior acquisition in artifical game agents using methods from machine learning and pattern recognition. Recordings of human players implicitly encode the behaviors we are looking for and consequently serve as a training sample base. We assume the behavior of game characters to be a function that maps the current game state onto a reaction. Since a global approach for imitating human behavior is not feasible, various methods are applied to extract and mimic behaviors operating on different timescales (long-term, mid-term, and short-term). For example Bayesian approaches map the world-state onto a discrete set of movement prototypes to imitate situative action sequences, or a Mixture of Experts architecture is used for learning (mid-term) behavioral functions. Although the focus is on the acquisition of single behaviors, first approaches on integrating behaviors are elaborated as well. For experimental validation we use the popular computer game Quake II. The experimental results show that human behavior in simulated environments can indeed be learned from scratch using supervised learning. In final experiments we compare learned behaviors to a human player, and to the behavior of a conventional artificial game agent. A Turing-Test like survey indicates that the learned behaviors are in most cases perceived as humanlike.
Treatment of murine macrophages with murine interferon‐gamma and tumour necrosis factor‐alpha enhances uptake and intracellular killing of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Murine interferon‐gamma (MuIFN‐γ) and murine tumour necrosis‐alpha (MuTNF‐α) are known to be potent immunomodulators of several aspects of the immune response, and they have been shown to exert profound effects on macrophages and monocytcs. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of MuIFN‐γ and MuTNF‐α on the phagocytosis (uptake and intracellular killing) of opsonized Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Unstimulated peritoneal macrophages obtained from CBA/c mice were exposed to different concentrations ol'recombinant forms of ihecytokines (rMuIFN‐γ and rMuTNF‐α) for different periods of time. Phagocytosis was assayed using different concentrations of opsonized Ps. aeruginosa. In all cases the pretreatment of the cells with the cytokines increased significantly the uptake and the intracellular killing of bacteria in a dose‐dependent manner. rMuTNF‐α was effective only at 1000 U/ml. Combined treatment with the cytokines showed a less than additive effect with rMuIFN‐γ and rMuTNF‐α at concentrations of 10 U/ml and 100 U/ml. In the in vivo experiments, peritoneal macrophages obtained from rMuIFN‐γ‐ or rMuTNF‐α‐treated mice showed enhancement of the intracellular killing of opsonized bacteria in a dose‐dependent manner.
Enteric immunity, the gut microbiome, and sepsis: Rethinking the germ theory of disease

Sepsis is a poorly understood syndrome of systemic inflammation responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. The integrity of the gut epithelium and competence of adaptive immune responses are notoriously compromised during sepsis, and the prevalent assumption in the scientific and medical community is that intestinal commensals have a detrimental role in the systemic inflammation and susceptibility to nosocomial infections seen in critically ill, septic patients. However, breakthroughs in the last decade provide strong credence to the idea that our mucosal microbiome plays an essential role in adaptive immunity, where a human host and its prokaryotic colonists seem to exist in a carefully negotiated armistice with compromises and benefits that go both ways. In this review, we re-examine the notion that intestinal contents are the driving force of critical illness. An overview of the interaction between the microbiome and the immune system is provided, with a special focus on the impact of commensals in priming and the careful balance between normal intestinal flora and pathogenic organisms residing in the gut microbiome. Based on the data in hand, we hypothesize that sepsis induces imbalances in microbial populations residing in the gut, along with compromises in epithelial integrity. As a result, normal antigen sampling becomes impaired, and proliferative cues are intermixed with inhibitory signals. This situates the microbiome, the gut, and its complex immune network of cells and bacteria, at the center of aberrant immune responses during and after sepsis.
Effect of Polyoxyl 35 Castor Oil and Polysorbate 80 on the Intestinal Absorption of Digoxin in vitro

Summary Surfactants are classically used to improve the solubilization of lipophilic drugs such as digoxin. Polysorbate 80 and Cremophor EL (polyoxyl 35 castor oil) are such surfactants but they may also modulate the action of P-glycoprotein, an energy-dependent “counter-transport” system implicated in the phenomenon of multidrug resistance in cancer cells. P-glycoprotein is also present in the intestine on the apical membrane of mature enterocytes and can potentially reduce the absorption of a wide range of drugs. In this study, using the improved everted gut sac method, the effects of Polysorbate 80, Cremophor EL and cyclosporin on the absorption of digoxin were studied. An increase in the uptake of digoxin in the presence of these three products could be shown with our in vitro model. Cremophor EL and Polysorbate 80 had no toxic effects at the concentrations used. These results suggest that surfactants such as Cremophor EL and Polysorbate 80 should not only support solubilization but can also modulate the P-glycoprotein system to improve the bioavailability of poorly absorbed drugs.
Going-Concern Opinions, Executive Tenure and Gender

Regulators in the USA and elsewhere have shown renewed interest in auditors’ judgments related to going-concern modified (GC) audit reports. Such judgments involve evaluating management’s plans, and prior research suggests that executive turnover is associated with significant organizational changes. Further, some recent studies posit that gender is associated with accounting and audit judgments. We examine audit opinions for two different samples: 2,089 financially stressed firms and 642 manufacturing firms that filed for bankruptcy. In both samples, we find that GC opinions are more likely for firms with a new CFO; however, we find no significant association between GC opinions and executives’ gender. The CFO tenure related result may arise from auditors’ professional skepticism related to a new executive. Our gender-related results differ from those of Gold et al. (2009) and suggest the need for additional research related to the role of client gender in auditing settings.
ADP-Glucose Pyrophosphorylase Large Subunit cDNA from Barley Endosperm.

AGP' carries out the first committed step of starch biosyn-thesis in bacteria and plants. The plant enzyme is a hetero-tetramer composed of two subunit types, encoded by differ-ent genes. AGP from maize endosperm and potato tuber, as well as from leaves of all plants examined (including barley), is allosterically activated by 3-phosphoglyceric acid and in-hibited by Pi (1, 4). The barley endosperm enzyme, on the other hand, is highly active without 3-phosphoglyceric acid and is only slightly affected by the activator and inhibitor (2). Because AGP is assumed to regulate the rate of starch formation, this characteristic of the barley enzyme may prove useful in attempts to increase starch synthesis, e.g. in potato tubers, by genetic engineering.
Investments in Information Security: A Real Options Perspective with Bayesian Postaudit

The application of real options techniques to information security is significantly different than in the case of general information technology investments due to characteristics unique to information security. Emerging research in the economics of information security has suggested real options analysis (ROA) as a potential technique for assessing the value of information security assets, but has focused primarily on the most effective level of investment and the configuration of intrusion prevention/detection systems. In this paper, we attempt to address significant gaps in the literature by developing an integrated real options model for information security investments using Bayesian statistics that incorporates learning and postauditing in the analysis. By using the proposed model with actual data on e-mail and spam, we demonstrate that ROA with Bayesian postauditing offers a systematic valuation and risk management framework for evaluating information security spending by firms. We also discuss the managerial implications.
Hope and Fear: How Opinions Influence Factuality

Both sentiment and event factuality are fundamental information levels for our understanding of events mentioned in news texts. Most research so far has focused on either modeling opinions or factuality. In this paper, we propose a model that combines the two for the extraction and interpretation of perspectives on events. By doing so, we can explain the way people perceive changes in (their belief of) the world as a function of their fears of changes to the bad or their hopes of changes to the good. This study seeks to examine the effectiveness of this approach by applying factuality annotations, based on FactBank, on top of the MPQA Corpus, a corpus containing news texts annotated for sentiments and other private states. Our findings suggest that this approach can be valuable for the understanding of perspectives, but that there is still some work to do on the refinement of the integration.
[Survival after cutaneous metastasis: a study of 200 cases].

BACKGROUND Cutaneous metastatic disease is uncommon and the outcome after cutaneous metastasis has rarely been thoroughly studied. The objective of this work was to study the survival after diagnosis of cutaneous metastasis in a large series of patients and to evaluate survival according to the type of cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS This retrospective study was conducted out in the Laboratoire d'Histo-pathologie Cutanée of Strasbourg. Between 1950 to 1996, 228 patients with cutaneous metastasis were diagnosed on the basis of typical histopathology, confirmed by two dermatopathologists. We excluded lymphoma or leukaemia with secondary skin involvement. Medical and demographic data were collected from hospital data, and the "Registre du Cancer du Bas-Rhin". The type of neoplasm, the time of diagnosis of primary cancer and the time of death (or survival at 12/31/1996) was established in 200 patients, 99 men and 101 women with a mean age 62.4 +/- 13 years. We found 64 cases of breast carcinoma, 36 cases of lung carcinoma, 31 cases of melanoma and 69 cases of other cancers. Long term actuarial survival after cutaneous metastasis was calculated using by the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS The median survival after cutaneous metastasis was 6.5 months (mean 22.8 +/- 43.8 months). The mortality rate was 13 p. 100 at 1 month, 48 p. 100 at 6 months and 64.5 p. 100 at 12 months. Median survival was calculated according to the primary neoplasm: breast carcinoma: 13.8 months, melanoma: 13.5 months, lung carcinoma: 2.9 months (36 cases). The outcome of patients with cutaneous metastasis of lung carcinoma was worse than those with melanoma (p < 10(-4)) and breast cancer (p < 10(-4)). Survival after cutaneous metastasis of other cancers could not be compared because of the small size of the subgroups: median survival after cutaneous metastasis of non cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck: 8.8 months (5 cases), cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma: 6.5 months (12 cases), carcinoma of oesophagus: 4.7 months (2 cases), colo-rectal cancer: 4.4 months (9 cases), pancreatic cancer: 3.3 months (2 cases), stomach cancer: 1.2 months (7 cases) and liver and gall bladder carcinoma: < 1 month (3 cases). Survival beyond 10 years was observed in 9 patients: 3 melanoma, 2 breast cancers, 2 prostatic carcinomas, 1 larynx carcinoma and 1 cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. CONCLUSION This is the first study in which the survival after the occurrence of skin metastasis was systematically analysed in a large series of patients. It shows that half of patients with cutaneous metastasis die within the first 6 months after the diagnosis. Those cases due to lung carcinoma have the poorest prognosis.
Influence of physical training on heart rate variability and baroreflex circulatory control.

Nineteen males (aged 45-68 yr) were studied before and after either a period of regular endurance exercise [walk/jog 3-4 days/wk for 30 +/- 1 (SE) wk, n = 11] or unchanged physical activity (38 +/- 2 wk, n = 8) (controls) to determine the influence of physical training on cardiac parasympathetic (vagal) tone and baroreflex control of heart rate (HR) and limb vascular resistance (VR) at rest in middle-aged and older men. Training resulted in a marked increase in maximal O2 uptake (31.6 +/- 1.2 vs. 41.0 +/- 1.8 ml.kg-1.min-1, 2.56 +/- 0.16 vs. 3.20 +/- 0.18 l/min, P less than 0.05) and small (P less than 0.05) reductions in body weight (81.2 +/- 3.5 vs. 78.7 +/- 4.0 kg) and body fat (23.8 +/- 1.3 vs. 20.9 +/- 1.3%). HR at rest was slightly, but consistently, lower after training (63 +/- 2 vs. 58 +/- 1 beats/min, P less than 0.05). In general, HR variability (index of cardiac vagal tone) was greater after training. Chronotropic responsiveness to either brief carotid baroreflex stimulation (neck suction) or inhibition (neck pressure), or to non-specific arterial baroreflex inhibition induced by a hypotensive level of lower body suction, was unchanged after training. In contrast, the magnitude of the reflex increase in forearm VR in response to three levels of lower body suction was markedly attenuated after training (38-59%; P less than 0.05 at -10 and -30 mmHg; P = 0.07 at -20 mmHg). None of these variables or responses was altered over time in the controls. These findings indicate that in healthy, previously sedentary, middle-aged and older men, strenuous and prolonged endurance training 1) elicits large increases in maximal exercise capacity and small reductions in HR at rest, 2) may increase cardiac vagal tone at rest, 3) does not alter arterial baroreflex control of HR, and 4) results in a diminished forearm vasoconstrictor response to reductions in baroreflex sympathoinhibition.
Impact of Compression and Hearing Aid Style on Directional Hearing Aid Benefit and Performance

Objective To evaluate the impact of low-threshold compression and hearing aid style (in-the-ear [ITE] versus behind-the-ear [BTE]) on the directional benefit and performance of commercially available directional hearing aids. Design Forty-seven adult listeners with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss were fit bilaterally with one BTE and four different ITE hearing aids. Speech recognition performance was measured through the Connected Speech Test (CST) and Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) for a simulated noisy restaurant environment. Results For both the HINT and CST, speech recognition performance was significantly greater for subjects fit with directional in comparison with omnidirectional microphone hearing aids. Performance was significantly poorer for the BTE instrument in comparison with the ITE hearing aids when using omnidirectional microphones. No differences were found for directional benefit between compression and linear fitting schemes. Conclusions No systematic relationship was found between the relative directional benefit and hearing aid style; however, the speech recognition performance of the subjects was somewhat predictable based on Directivity Index measures of the individual hearing aid models. The fact that compression did not interact significantly with microphone type agrees well with previously reported electroacoustic data.
Regulation of antioxidant enzymes: a significant role for melatonin

Abstract: Antioxidant enzymes form the first line of defense against free radicals in organisms. Their regulation depends mainly on the oxidant status of the cell, given that oxidants are their principal modulators. However, other factors have been reported to increase antioxidant enzyme activity and/or gene expression. During the last decade, the antioxidant melatonin has been shown to possess genomic actions, regulating the expression of several genes. Melatonin also influences both antioxidant enzyme activity and cellular mRNA levels for these enzymes. In the present report, we review the studies which document the influence of melatonin on the activity and expression of the antioxidative enzymes glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutases and catalase both under physiological and under conditions of elevated oxidative stress. We also analyze the possible mechanisms by which melatonin regulates these enzymes.
Primary Hodgkin's disease of the lung. Report of 4 cases and review of the literature

mates of the frequency of primary pulmonary malignant lymphoma and Hodgkin’s disease range from common to extremely rare.17 This variance in the reported incidence is caused mainly by the different criteria used for the classification of the disease as being primary in the lung. Because of the presence of a significant amount of lymphoid tissue in the peribronchial areas, a primary origin in the lung can be easily explained. However, because of the disseminated nature and probable multicentric origin of malignant lymphoma and, particularly, Hodgkin’s disease, a lesion that becomes manifest first in an organ such as the lung may soon appear in a disseminated form; and even if the new lesions develop in regional lymph nodes, it is doubtful whether they can be regarded as metastases from a “primary” tumor rather than as additional new foci of the neoplastic process. While i t is, therefore, difficult to establish an entity of truly primary Hodgkin’s disease of the lung, such a classification is desirable for practical purposes, because today a mass in the chest can be easily explored, and recent observations indicate that a lobectomy or pneumonectomy for malignant lymphomas mainly restricted to, or primary in, the lungs, marily in the lung.3, 4, 8, 12, 16, 17, 1% 2 4 , 2 6 Esti-
Effects of infusions of ammonia, amides, and amino acids on excretion of ammonia.

Ammonium lactate and a variety of amides and amino acids were infused into one renal artery of anesthetized dogs in acidosis. Urine was collected separately from the two kidneys and rates of excretion of ammonia on the two sides were compared. The infusion of ammonium lactate resulted in a prompt increase in ammonia excretion restricted to the side infused. As much as 50% of the infused ammonia appeared as excess ammonia in the urine. The infusion of glutamine, asparagine, alanine, glycine, leucine, and glutamic acid induced bilateral increases in rates of ammonia excretion, commonly greater on the side infused. However, ammonia excretion increased significantly on the side contralateral to that infused. A much smaller fraction of the infused nitrogen appeared as urinary ammonia than when ammonium lactate was infused. The infusion of valine induced no increase in ammonia excretion by either kidney; rather, ammonia excretion was reduced. The significance of these results in relation to the study of renal metabolism of N 15 compounds is discussed.
The prevalence of enteroviruses that cause respiratory infections in patients with influenzavirus A/H1N1 hospitalized in the Lublin province

ABSTRACT Viruses that cause respiratory tract infections are the most common agents of infectious diseases in humans throughout the world. A virus that infects the respiratory system, may induce various clinical symptoms. What is more, the same symptoms may be caused by different viruses. The aim of the study was to analyze the prevalence of enteroviruses that cause respiratory infections in patients with influenzavirus A/H1N1 hospitalized in the Lublin province. The experimental material was throat and nose swabs taken from patients hospitalized in Lublin and Tomaszow Lubelski. In the group of 44 patients (20 women and 24 men) infected with influenza A/H1N1, the genetic material of enteroviruses was detected in 13 patients (29.5%). Respiratory viruses co-infections are very common in hospitalized patients. Studies show that co-infection with influenza virus and enterovirus are more common in children than in adults. Moreover, viral respiratory tract infections are independent from the patients’ gender.
Antidiabetic activity of Kalanchoe pinnata in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats by glucose independent insulin secretagogue action

Abstract Context. Kalanchoe pinnata Lam. (Crassulaceae) is used as a traditional medicine worldwide to treat several ailments, including diabetes. However, the mechanism for the antihyperglycemic action is unknown. Objective: The present study evaluates the antihyperglycemic and insulin secretagogue potential of Kalanchoe pinnata and assessment of the probable mechanism of action. Materials and methods: Steam distillate of Kalanchoe pinnata leaves was subjected to solvent fractionation and antidiabetic activity was detected in dichloromethane (DCM) fraction. In the in vivo studies, rats were treated with 5 and 10 mg/kg body weight of DCM fraction for 45 days orally. Lipid profile and other biochemical parameters were estimated. The probable mechanism for insulin secretagogue action was evaluated through studies using diazoxide and nifedipine. The bioactive component from DCM fraction was studied using HPTLC, GCMS and IR. Results and discussion: Fasting blood glucose values were reduced to 116 mg/dl from 228 mg/dl on treatment with 10 mg/kg body weight of DCM fraction, while glycated hemoglobin improved to 8.4% compared with 12.9% in diabetic controls. The insulin level and lipid profile values were close to normal values. In vitro studies demonstrated a dose-dependent insulin secretagogue action. Insulin secretion was 3.29-fold higher at 10 µg/ml as compared to the positive control. The insulin secretagogue activity was glucose independent and K+-ATP channel dependent. The bioactive component of the DCM fraction was identified to be a phenyl alkyl ether derivative. Conclusion: The DCM fraction of Kalanchoe pinnata demonstrates excellent insulin secretagogue action and can be useful in treatment of diabetes mellitus.
Shape classification in rotation manipulation by universal robot hand

We propose a method for shape classification in rotation manipulation by a multi-fingered robotic hand. The robotic hand has five fingers equipped with tactile sensors. Each tactile sensor can measure the pressure distribution once every 10(ms). Our proposed classification method consists of the following processes: A kurtosis is calculated from the pressure distribution, and it quantifies shape of the current contact surface. By rotating an object and measuring a time-series pressure distribution, the hand obtains a kurtosis pattern. Finally, a degree of similarity is calculated between the kurtosis pattern and a reference pattern through a dynamic programming (DP) matching scheme. This classifies the contact surface shape using thresholds. Laboratory experiments confirm that this method can classify three objects with a high degree of accuracy.