Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of human grasping under task anticipation using a tactile book

Motivated by the prominent role of haptics for the analysis of human grasping and manipulation and the replication of similar abilities for humanoid robots, we developed a device capable to augment conventional motion capture techniques with the real-time acquisition of high-resolution spatio-temporal pressure patterns between hand and manipulated object. The device is the shape and size of a book, covered with a grid of small-sized (5 mm diameter) sensors and processing electronics to provide a stream of “tactile images” at 180 Hz frame per second. Additionally integrated acceleration sensors allow to correlate the tactile image stream with accurate motion information. We discuss design considerations, implementation and data processing and illustrate the capabilities of the device with an experiment studying grasping strategies during a pick-and-place task and the impact of different end-states on the recorded grasping patterns.
Estratégias de comunicação: critérios, definições e taxonomias

Nas ultimas decadas, Estrategias de Comunicacao (EC) tem sido investigadas de diferentes perspectivas, objetivando alcancar um consenso em relacao a conceitualizacao do termo assim como buscar evidencias empiricas que pudessem proporcionar um esquema/estrutura de uso de EC para falantes de lingua estrangeira (LE). O presente artigo revisa tres destas perspectivas, pontuando suas diferencas e similaridades a fim de fornecer uma visao dos varios criterios, definicoes e taxonomias ligadas ao uso de EC.
Treatment of severe atopic dermatitis in childhood with cyclosporin

Cyclosporin has been shown to be effective in the treatment of adult atopic dermatitis, but there are no clinical trials evaluating its use in childhood. Atopic dermatitis is more common in children and the severe form can be associated with considerable morbidity. We report on 18 children with severe refractory atopic dermatitis who have been treated with cyclosporin on an open basis. The drug was given at an initial daily dose of 5 or 6 mg/kg and in some patients the dose was reduced according to response. Sixteen patients showed a good or excellent response to treatment, one a moderate response and one patient failed to improve. The treatment was well tolerated and there were no significant changes in serum creatinine or blood pressure. Long remission after withdrawal of treatment was seen in some patients, although most relapsed within a few weeks. We suggest that cyclosporin is an effective and safe short‐term treatment for severe atopic dermatitis in childhood.
Control of Kinesthetic Haptic Interfaces in VR Applications

Cartesian control algorithms are presented for six degree of freedom (6-DOF) force-reflecting hand-controllers (FRHCs) used for simultaneous operator position/orientation (or rate) commands to a virtual reality (VR) system and virtual force/moment kinesthetic reflection to the operator. The commands and kinesthetic feedback are transferred in Cartesian space. The task force/moment (wrench) dominates while features are provided to reduce operator loading: virtual payload and FRHC gravity compensation, input channels to easily separate 6-DOF inputs with one hand, constant-force return-to-center, and FRHC damping to improve relative stability. In experimental implementation, the "VR system" was a real remotely located teleoperated robotic system with real sensed task wrenches. Experimental results show that the algorithms are effective for reduced contact wrenches and increased telepresence quality in practical tasks. The methods in this paper are suitable for kinesthetic haptic display in virtual environments.
Some Comments on the Problem of Reductionism in Contemporary Physical Science

Is reductionism simply a methodology that has allowed science to progress to its current state (methodological reductionism) or does this methodology indicate something more, that the material universe is determined in full by its smallest components (ontological or causal reductionism)? Such questions lie at the heart of much of the contemporary religion-science dialogue. In this article it is suggested that the position articulated by the philosopher-theologian Bernard Lonergan is particularly suitable for dealing with these questions. For Lonergan, the criterion of the real is simply its verified intelligibility, and not its imaginability. Each of the various levels of reality, as studied in sciences such as physics, chemistry, biology, sensitive and rational psychology, consists of an intelligible integration of what on the lower level would be simply random occurrences. The things studied by the various sciences (atoms, molecules, cellular organisms, animals, human persons. etc.) are intelligible unities and no one level is somehow more real than any other. It is argued that such a scheme, while seeming somewhat counter intuitive, is best able to deal with the multi-layered reality of the contemporary physical and life sciences and provide an opening to the richness of the social sciences and the achievements of human culture.
Trajectory Control of Curve Constrained Hyper-Redundant Space Manipulator

This paper presents a methodology to control motion planning of a hyper-redundant planar pace robot tracing a specified end-effector path. For this, a space robot of 6 DOF has been considered for study. A hyperredundancy enhances the capability to realize various kinds of task, i.e., obstacle avoidance, joint limits, singularity avoidance, etc. For full utilization of its potential capability, shape control is suggested here; that is, the tip of the links of manipulator thus its entire body is controlled by fitting end of each link onto a provided time varying curve. For shape control, the control objectives are formulated defining a contour correspondence between a hyper-redundant robot and a curve that lay down a desired shape. The whole manipulator body is to be stayed on onto a spatial curve. Some of the joints are locked using Proportional-Derivative (PD) control and the rest are kept active. Proportional-Derivative-Integral control has been used to take care of end-effector trajectory tracking in the workspace. The bond graph technique has been used for the dynamic model of the system and generating system equations.
Survival of Shiga Toxin-producing Escherichia coli (O157:H7 and Non-O157:H7) and Effectiveness of Thermal Inactivation by Microwaves in Nham (Thai Fermented Sausage)

A study was conducted to determine if the fermentation conditions of Nham (Thai fermented sausage) were effective against Escherichia coli O157:H7 and three non-O157:H7 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, O8 (stx2+, eaeA-), O111 (stx1+, eaeA+) and untypable O serogroup (stx1+, eaeA-) strain, compared with non pathogenic E. coli, E780 as a negative control. Nham was produced using starter cultures of V3 (Pediococcus acidilactici and Staphylococcus xylosus). The pH of Nham during the fi rst 3 d of Nham fermentation was reduced from 6.39 to 4.55. Each of the fi ve strains of E. coli were separately inoculated to unfermented Nham giving initial populations of approximately 2 × 10 6 colony forming units (CFU). g -1 and fermented at 35 °C for 3 d and stored at 4 °C for up to 20 d after that. All strains except O157:H7 were increased by 1 log CFU.g -1 for the fi rst day of fermentation and decreased by 1 to 2 log CFU.g -1 after Nham fermentation for 3 d. After storing inoculated Nham at 4 °C, the three strains of non-O157:H7 slowly decreased by only 0.5–1 log CFU.g -1 until 20 d of storage at 4 °C. The effectiveness of thermal activation was determined using a capillary tube method. The decimal reduction time (D) values at 58 °C in acidifi ed tryptic soy broth (TSB, pH 4.6) of all strains of nonacid-adapted E. coli (TSB) were higher than for the acid-adapted E. coli (TSB pH 5.8). Nonacid-adapted and acidadapted E. coli O111 showed the highest D values (3.31 and 1.23 min, respectively) at 58 °C while nonacid-adapted and acid-adapted E. coli O157:H7 showed the lowest D values (1.96 and 0.37 min, respectively). The results showed that heating by 900 W microwaves at initial temperatures of 28 °C for 60 s could not destroy any Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (approximately 1 × 10 5 CFU.g -1 ) in Nham. E. coli O157:H7 could be destroyed after heating with microwaves for up to 90 s but not all E. coli O111
Development of supportive services for frontotemporal dementias through community engagement

Abstract The effect of early onset frontotemporal dementias (FTD) on spouses and children is profound, requiring different types of support services from pre-existing Alzheimer's disease interventions already in place. This article explores how the needs of families living with FTD resulted in three programme initiatives developed at Baycrest (an academic health sciences centre focused on ageing, in Toronto, Canada) to meet the needs of this population. These included an Internet-based videoconferencing support group for spouses, a website that provides support and counsel for children and their parents, and an adult day programme designed for FTD patients. The strength of these interventions is that services were developed with involvement of stakeholders in FTD care from the start, to deal with gaps in services in a sustainable way.
Generating simpler AST edit scripts by considering copy-and-paste

In software development, there are many situations in which developers need to understand given source code changes in detail. Until now, a variety of techniques have been proposed to support understanding source code changes. Tree-based differencing techniques are expected to have better understandability than text-based ones, which are widely used nowadays (e.g., diff in Unix). In this paper, we propose to consider copy-and-paste as a kind of editing action forming tree-based edit script, which is an editing sequence that transforms a tree to another one. Software developers often perform copy- and-paste when they are writing source code. Introducing copy- and-paste action into edit script contributes to not only making simpler (more easily understandable) edit scripts but also making edit scripts closer to developers' actual editing sequences. We conducted experiments on an open dataset. As a result, we confirmed that our technique made edit scripts shorter for 18% of the code changes with a little more computational time. For the other 82% code changes, our technique generated the same edit scripts as an existing technique. We also confirmed that our technique provided more helpful visualizations.
PET Imaging of Tumor Hypoxia Using 18F-Fluoroazomycin Arabinoside in Stage III–IV Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients

Tumor hypoxia hampers the efficacy of radiotherapy because of its increased resistance to ionizing radiation. The aim of the present study was to estimate the potential added clinical value of the specific hypoxia tracer 18F-fluoroazomycin arabinoside (18F-FAZA) over commonly used 18F-FDG in the treatment of advanced-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: Eleven patients with stage III or stage IV NSCLC underwent 18F-FDG and 18F-FAZA PET before chemoradiotherapy. The maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) was used to depict 18F-FDG uptake, and the tumor-to-background (T/B) ratio and tumor fractional hypoxic volume (FHV) were used to quantify hypoxia. The spatial correlation between 18F-FDG and 18F-FAZA uptake values was investigated using voxel-based analysis. Partial-volume correction was applied. Results: All 11 patients showed clear uptake of 18F-FAZA in the primary tumor. However, different patterns of 18F-FDG and 18F-FAZA uptake distributions were observed and varied widely among different tumors. No significant correlation was observed between 18F-FDG SUVmax and 18F-FAZA T/B ratio (P = 0.055). The median FHV of 1.4 was 48.4% (range, 5.0–91.5). A significant positive correlation was found between the 18F-FAZA T/B ratio and FHV of 1.4 (P < 0.001). There was no correlation between the lesion size and FHV or between the 18F-FDG SUVmax and FHV. The pattern of tumoral 18F-FDG uptake was rather homogeneous, whereas 18F-FAZA uptake was more heterogeneous, suggesting that 18F-FAZA identifies hypoxic areas within metabolically active areas of tumor. A significant correlation between 18F-FDG SUVmax and lesion size (P = 0.002) was observed. Conclusion: 18F-FAZA PET imaging is able to detect heterogeneous distributions of hypoxic subvolumes out of homogeneous 18F-FDG background in a clinical setting. Therefore, 18F-FAZA might be considered a tool for guiding dose escalation to the hypoxic fraction of the tumor.
Effect of DG modeling and controllers on the transient stability of micro-grids in EMT simulation

Modeling of distributed generation and associated controllers have a considerable influence on the results of transient stability analysis. Synchronous generators and induction generators are two common types of generators which are used for distributed generation, for example in micro-turbines and wind turbines. In this paper, the effect of detail of modeling of synchronous generators on the transient stability is studied by consideration of five different models of synchronous generators. Also, the effect of controller on the transient stability is examined for an induction generator.
Vascular invasion is an adverse prognostic factor in resected non–small‐cell lung cancer

Lung cancer is a leading cause of death, and there is a need for better prognostic factors in treatment decisions. Vascular invasion is a known negative prognosticator, but it is not clear how to evaluate this feature. Here, we studied the prevalence and prognostic impact of blood and lymphatic vascular invasion (BVI, LVI), tumour grade, necrosis, inflammation and pleural invasion on cancer‐specific survival (LCSS) and time to recurrence (TTR) in non–small‐cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A total of 438 patients surgically treated for NSCLC (1993–2010) were examined, including 213 adenocarcinomas (AC), 135 squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) and 90 other NSCLC. BVI and LVI were found in 25% and 21% of the cases, with reduced LCSS and TTR for both markers in AC and SCC (p < 0.005 for all). BVI and LVI remained independent prognostic factors for LCSS and TTR in separate multivariate models for AC and SCC. Combined BVI/LVI (7%) showed significantly reduced LCSS and TTR (p < 0.001), also by multivariate analysis. Our results support that BVI and LVI are valuable for prognostic staging. Vascular invasion identifies a group of patients at higher risk of recurrence and lung cancer–related death, and this could influence stratification of patients for treatment and follow‐up.
Formal Consequences of Dative Clitic Doubling in Bulgarian Ditransitives: An Applicative Analysis

This paper demonstrates that the Double Object Construction exists in Bulgarian, a fact that has so far escaped notice due to the disguise in which the construction appears. Bulgarian is a language that allows an indirect object to be optionally doubled by a dative clitic. I claim, however, that this optionality has formal consequences: ditransitives with dative clitic doubling are equivalent to Double Object Constructions (DOC), where the DP Goal is projected higher than the DP Theme. Variants without dative clitic doubling, on the other hand, are Prepositional Ditransitive Constructions (PDC), where the DP Theme is projected higher than the PP Goal. Although not evident from the surface word order and morphology in Bulgarian, the availability of these two distinct structures is confirmed through classic diagnostics such as binding, weak crossover, and scope. After attesting the DOC in Bulgarian, I offer an analysis in which the dative clitic is the morphological realization of an applicative head. I also draw parallels with Romance, suggesting that UG may be implicated in this type of doubling.
Should Amoxicillin Versus Amoxicillin-Clavulanate Be Used for Initial Empiric Antimicrobial Therapy of ABRS in Children ?

Anthony W. Chow,1 Michael S. Benninger,2 Itzhak Brook,3 Jan L. Brozek,4,5 Ellie J. C. Goldstein,6,7 Lauri A. Hicks,8 George A. Pankey,9 Mitchel Seleznick,10 Gregory Volturo,11 Ellen R. Wald,12 and Thomas M. File Jr13,14 1Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; 2Otolaryngology, The Head and Neck Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Ohio; 3Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C.; 4Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and 5Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; 6Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, 7R. M. Alden Research Laboratory, Santa Monica, California; 8National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; 9Department of Infectious Disease Research, Ochsner Clinic Foundation, New Orleans, Louisiana; 10Division of General Internal Medicine, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa; 11Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Massachusetts, Worcester; 12Department of Pediatrics, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison; 13Department of Infectious Diseases, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Rootstown; and 14Summa Health System, Akron, Ohio
Serum Insulin and Lipid Profile in Normal Pregnant and Pregnancy‐Induced Hypertensive Women from North India

High serum insulin and lipoproteins have been reported in pregnancy‐induced hypertension. Little is known about the insulin and lipoprotein profile in Indian women. To address this question we compared serum insulin and lipoproteins of women with pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH) and normotensive pregnant women. The serum insulin, triglycerides, total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol of 104 women with PIH were compared with 99 control women. Hypertensive women had significantly higher insulin (53.94 ± 29.58 versus 37.69 ± 17.39 pmol/L, p=0.0004) and triglyceride (3.27 ± 1.2 versus 2.66 ± 0.6, p=0.0001). There was no significant difference in total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol levels. Insulin levels had a positive correlation with systolic blood pressure (r=0.64) and diastolic blood pressure (r=0.55) in women with PIH. These differences persisted even after adjusting for possible confounding variables such as age, body mass index and the period of gestation. We conclude that elevated serum insulin values or insulin resistance may contribute to the pathogenesis of PIH in Indian women.
Lingua ex machina: Le Statut de la ’langue’ dans les modèles cognitivistes

Les hypotheses fondamentales du cognitivisme et de l'intelligence artificielle reposent sur une double metaphore d'un « mental » qui ressemble a une « machine », qui ressemble elle-meme a un langage. Pourquoi les langues elles-memes, en tant que systemes semiotiques de representation et d'interaction avec l'environnement, ne constitueraient-elles pas une bonne metaphore des structures et des processus de la connaissance et de la pensee ? L'A. critique le cognitivisme de R. Jackendoff en lui opposant l'anti-mentalisme de Wittgenstein, puis met en lumiere chez ce dernier des elements cognitivistes, notamment dans ses applications en Intelligence artificielle
Model Regularization of Deep Neural Networks for Robust Clinical Opinions Generation from General Blood Test Results

The deep neural network (DNN) that models characteristics of general blood test (GBT) results was used in clinical opinions generation. The DNN that generates clinical opinions has the complex structure, which causes overfitting problem. The relatively small size of medical dataset also contributes to the occurrence of overfitting. In order to deal with overfitting, we apply two techniques that solve overfitting of DNN, which are dropout, and batch normalization. Dropout is inserted into the network in various ways in order to find out the optimal structure of the network. Batch normalization is also added in various ways for the same purpose. The experiment conducted on GBT dataset shows that DNNs with dropout and batch normalization outperform the simple DNN in generating clinical opinions for our GBT dataset. Besides, dropout shows slightly better performance compared to batch normalization.
Comparación entre MgAl2O4 sintetizado por medio de sol-gel contra otros métodos

Este trabajo presenta los resultados de una comparacion entre una espinela (MgAl2O4) obtenida mediante sol-gel contra otros procesos reportados, tales como el horno electrico de arco, la reaccion en estado solido y las microondas. Se confirma que el producto obtenido depende del etodo utilizado para el procesamiento, la diferencia principal se observa en el parametro de red: la espinela sintetizada via sol-gel en este trabajo fue de 8.083 A, y el que se ha reportado por los otros metodos es de 8.08-8.081 A. esta diferencia aparentemente pequena es mucho mas significativa si se considera el tamano relativo de los picos, ya que dan una idea de la manera en que los cationes estan arreglados en la red
How many X-linked genes for non-specific mental retardation (MRX) are there?

X-linked mental retardation (XLMR) is that proportion of mental retardation (MR) showing the distinctive pattern of inheritance associated with the X chromosome. XLMR is subdivided into syndromal and non-specific (MRX) forms. MRX is clinically homogeneous but genetically heterogeneous. Affected males in families segregating MRX have no consistent phenotypic expression apart from their MR to distinguish them from unaffected males or affected males in other MRX families. Syndromal MRs have additional neurological or phenotypic characteristics that define a syndrome, and most of these syndromes are rare. Within some families an affected male may show {open_quotes}soft{close_quotes} syndromal signs, but where this is not evident in other affected males from the same family, the MR is diagnosed as non-specific. Delineation from fragile X syndrome or FRAXE MR can now be confidently made with the aid of direct molecular tests which detect the (CCG){sub n} expansion at either FRAXA or FRAXE. MRX can be expressed in carrier females but with milder manifestations. The gene in such cases could be partially dominant or result from a skewed X-inactivation pattern in neural tissue. 39 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab.
Intra- and inter-individual variability in measurements of biomarkers for oxidative damage in vivo: Nutrition and Breast Health Study

Abstract Oxidative stress has been implicated in the pathogenesis of various chronic diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and inflammatory conditions, as well as in ageing. Although a number of markers are now available, little is known about the reliability of single measurements of such markers in healthy individuals. The study examined the distribution of variance for three oxidative stress markers, 8-oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG), 5-hydroxymethyl-2′-deoxyuridine (5-OHmdU) and total 8-isoprostane-F2α, which were measured every 3–6 months over 1 year in blood and breast nipple aspirate fluid (NAF) for 103 premenopausal women. For both plasma and NAF, the between-subject variances of 8-isoprostane-F2α were consistently greater than the within-subject variances. Consequently, their reliability coefficients were close to the level of those for cholesterol. On the other hand, the within-subject variances were much greater than the between-subjects variances for blood 5-OHmdU, resulting in low reliability coefficients, i.e. <0.3. Overall, the reliability coefficients for blood 8-oxodG were between those of 8-isoprostane-F2α and 5-OHmdU, but closer to those of 8-isoprostane-F2α. The results suggest that the reliability of oxidative stress markers may vary considerably depending on the type of marker. Caution should be exercised in selecting markers as well as in determining the number of study subjects or the number of samples per subject in a study. There also may be ample room to optimize laboratory techniques to quantify markers of oxidative DNA damage.