Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Motion Constraints and Vanishing Point Aided Land Vehicle Navigation

In the typical Inertial Navigation System (INS)/ Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) setup for ground vehicle navigation, measures should be taken to maintain the performance when there are GNSS signal outages. Usually, aiding sensors are utilized to reduce the INS drift. A full motion constraint model is developed allowing the online calibration of INS frame with respect to (w.r.t) the motion frame. To obtain better heading and lateral positioning performance, we propose to use of vanishing point (VP) observations of parallel lane markings from a single forward-looking camera to aid the INS. In the VP module, the relative attitude of the camera w.r. t the road frame is derived from the VP coordinates. The state-space model is developed with augmented vertical attitude error state. Finally, the VP module is added to a modified motion constrains module in the Extended Kalman filter (EKF) framework. Simulations and real-world experiments have shown the validity of VP-based method and improved heading and cross-track position accuracy compared with the solution without VP. The proposed method can work jointly with conventional visual odometry to aid INS for better accuracy and robustness.
METODOLOGIA DE CONTROLE PREDITIVO BASEADO EM MODELO NEBULOSO T-S EVOLUTIVO

Neste artigo e proposta uma metodologia de controle preditivo baseado em modelo nebuloso T-S evolutivo para processos SISO com dinâmica nao linear e parâmetros incertos. Sao utilizados os mecanismos de adicao, fusao e exclusao de regras. O sinal de controle e obtido com base no algoritmo PNMPC na presenca de restricoes nas variaveis de entrada, incremento de controle e saida, respectivamente. Para avaliar a metodologia proposta e realizado um estudo de caso com o surge tank nos seguintes cenarios: seguimento de referencia, rejeicao de disturbio e robustez as incertezas parametricas.
Image Quality and Radiation Dose of High-Pitch Dual-Source Spiral Cardiothoracic Computed Tomography in Young Children with Congenital Heart Disease: Comparison of Non-Electrocardiography Synchronization and Prospective Electrocardiography Triggering

Objective To compare image quality and radiation dose of high-pitch dual-source spiral cardiothoracic computed tomography (CT) between non-electrocardiography (ECG)-synchronized and prospectively ECG-triggered data acquisitions in young children with congenital heart disease. Materials and Methods Eighty-six children (≤ 3 years) with congenital heart disease who underwent high-pitch dual-source spiral cardiothoracic CT were included in this retrospective study. They were divided into two groups (n = 43 for each; group 1 with non-ECG-synchronization and group 2 with prospective ECG triggering). Patient-related parameters, radiation dose, and image quality were compared between the two groups. Results There were no significant differences in patient-related parameters including age, cross-sectional area, body density, and water-equivalent area between the two groups (p > 0.05). Regarding radiation dose parameters, only volume CT dose index values were significantly different between group 1 (1.13 ± 0.09 mGy) and group 2 (1.07 ± 0.12 mGy, p < 0.02). Among image quality parameters, significantly higher image noise (3.8 ± 0.7 Hounsfield units [HU] vs. 3.3 ± 0.6 HU, p < 0.001), significantly lower signal-to-noise ratio (105.0 ± 28.9 vs. 134.1 ± 44.4, p = 0.001) and contrast-to-noise ratio (84.5 ± 27.2 vs. 110.1 ± 43.2, p = 0.002), and significantly less diaphragm motion artifacts (3.8 ± 0.5 vs. 3.7 ± 0.4, p < 0.04) were found in group 1 compared with group 2. Image quality grades of cardiac structures, coronary arteries, ascending aorta, pulmonary trunk, lung markings, and chest wall showed no significant difference between groups (p > 0.05). Conclusion In high-pitch dual-source spiral pediatric cardiothoracic CT, additional ECG triggering does not substantially reduce motion artifacts in young children with congenital heart disease.
An Empirical Assessment of the Impact of Access to Credit on Farm Output: A Case Study of Sefwi-Wiawso Municipality Ghana

The study examined the socio-demographic features of farmers and credit accessibility in the Sefwi-Wiawso Municipality Ghana. It also identifies the sources and factors influencing access to credit in the Sefwi-Wiawso Municipality. Primary data were obtained from 1,200 households and farmers within the Sefwi-Wiawso Municipal. The empirical analysis employed a logistic regression technique, the Tobit model and Endogenous Switching Regression Model (ESRM) to explore the accessibility of credit on productivity in the agriculture sector. The results revealed that age and gender are statistically significant in determining access to credit from both the logit and the endogenous regression models. The endogenous switching regression model further reveals that educational status, land ownership, access to knowledge on credit significantly influences the amount of credit received by a particular farmer within the Sefwi-Wiawso Municipality. These findings have practical implications for the modernizations of the Agriculture sector in Ghana. It is therefore important for various stakeholders to increase financial literacy among farming communities and the financial institutions to increase the credit accessibility by the Agriculture sector. It is therefore recommended that extension services provision, diversification of agriculture production and easy access to credit from financial institutions in the Municipality be established to ensure increased agriculture production.
Speech sound learning depends on individuals’ ability, not just experience

Aims: The goal of this study was to investigate if phonetic experience with two languages facilitated the learning of novel speech sounds or if general perceptual abilities independent of bilingualism played a role in this learning. Method: The underlying neural mechanisms involved in novel speech sound learning were observed in groups of English monolinguals (n = 20), early Spanish–English bilinguals (n = 24), and experimentally derived subgroups of individuals with advanced ability to learn novel speech sound contrasts (ALs, n = 28) and individuals with non-advanced ability to learn novel speech sound contrasts (non-ALs, n = 16). Subjects participated in four consecutive sessions of phonetic training in which they listened to novel speech sounds embedded in Hungarian pseudowords. Participants completed two fMRI sessions, one before training and another one after training. While in the scanner, participants passively listened to the speech stimuli presented during training. A repeated measures behavioral analysis and ANOVA for fMRI data were conducted to investigate learning after training. Results and conclusions: The results showed that bilinguals did not significantly differ from monolinguals in the learning of novel sounds behaviorally. Instead, the behavioral results revealed that regardless of language group (monolingual or bilingual), ALs were better at discriminating pseudowords throughout the training than non-ALs. Neurally, region of interest (ROI) analysis showed increased activity in the superior temporal gyrus (STG) bilaterally in ALs relative to non-ALs after training. Bilinguals also showed greater STG activity than monolinguals. Extracted values from ROIs entered into a 2×2 MANOVA showed a main effect of performance, demonstrating that individual ability exerts a significant effect on learning novel speech sounds. In fact, advanced ability to learn novel speech sound contrasts appears to play a more significant role in speech sound learning than experience with two phonological systems.
Shared care provides time-budgeting advantages for female eiders

Abstract Shared parental care resulting from brood amalgamation is often considered beneficial to parents. However, the benefit of grouping (a decline in individual vigilance despite an increase in collective vigilance, with a concomitant increase in individual feeding time) has not been evoked as a factor promoting shared care. Eider females, Somateria mollissima , are subject to substantial energetic costs during breeding, and sometimes share brood-rearing duties. We compared the activity budgets and feeding behaviour of lone tenders and multifemale tenders. We also measured the collective vigilance of multifemale tenders and examined whether the coordination of feeding activity among females changes with time. As expected, the proportion of time spent feeding increased, and the proportion of time spent vigilant decreased, as the number of females attending the brood increased. None the less, the collective vigilance of multifemale tenders was at least 20% higher than the vigilance of lone tenders. Furthermore, multifemale tending allowed females to feed more optimally, as dive duration increased with the number of females tending the brood. The level of parental investment by individual females after hatching of the eggs is therefore related to the number of tending females and, based on previous work, a female's body condition when the eggs hatch is also logically connected with the number of tending females. Whether females sharing brood care on a permanent basis coordinate their feeding activity, so as to increase the potential protection of ducklings against predation, remains equivocal. Copyright 2002 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .
Scatter-hoarding by a larder-hoarding rodent: intraspecific variation in the hoarding behaviour of the eastern chipmunk, Tamias striatus


Abstract Abstract. The adaptive significance of alternative patterns of dispersing hoarded food was examined by determining which factors influence the occurrence of scatter-hoarding in the eastern chipmunk a species that typically larder-hoards food to its burrow. A standardized food-provisioning test was used to determine the incidence of scatter-hoarding in relation to age, sex, reproductive condition, time of year, patch position and social context. Juveniles and females with young scatter-hoarded significantly more often than did other classes. Newly emerged juveniles scatter-hoarded both before and after they acquired a permanent burrow of their own, but decreased their frequency of scatter-hoarding as they grew older and more capable of defending their burrow. Females with young in the burrow did not appear to use scatter-hoarding to avoid revealing the location of the burrow, but may have been avoiding the risk that their young would consume all their hoarded food. The incidence of scatter-hoarding was not affected by the distance of the patch from the burrow nor by the number of competing sciurids at the patch. However, scatter-hoarding was more often performed by individuals that were harassed at the patch. This may have been a response to leaving the patch with an incomplete load; experimental exclusion of animals before they had completed loading demonstrated that possessing a small load increased the tendency to scatter-hoard. For juveniles and non-breeding adults, scatter-hoarding permitted more rapid removal of food from a patch than did larder-hoarding, but for females with young, scatter-hoarding trips took longer than larder-hoarding would have, largely because such females often made more than one hoard per trip. These results do not support the hypotheses that scatter-hoarding is a vestigial behaviour pattern of no adaptive significance or that is is simply a response to lack of larder space. They do, however, support the hypotheses that scatter-hoarding reduces pilferage of hoarded food by individuals unable to defend a larder and that it increases the rate at which subordinate individuals can sequester food from ephemeral patches.
Operant conditioning, song learning and imprinting to taped song in the zebra finch

Abstract Abstract. Young male zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata , given control over the presentation of tape-recorded songs, imitated to a greater extent than siblings exposed passively to the same stimulation in an adjacent cage. They also copied more precisely the syntax of the song model acquired before sexual maturity. Thus, operant conditioning with song as reward strongly influenced song learning during development but not song preferences in adulthood. In choice tests using the same techniques, both experimental birds and yoked controls preferred the training song over a new song as well as over their own song. These results provide the first instance of imprinting to an auditory stimulus heard during the sensitive phase for song learning (35-65 days post-hatch) in an oscine species.
Gas Transport: pipeline versus LNG.

We will address the main question in the Norwegian discussion on gas transport from the Barents Sea – whether to lay pipelines or liquefy gas for export as LNG. If sufficient volumes of gas can be attained, the pipeline solution offers economies of scale and a lower transport cost, at least for the parts of the Barents Sea that is closest to existing pipelines. Transport will also be available for all companies at a regulated tariff. But this option locks the natural gas into the European market, while shipment as LNG has the potential to reach other regional markets. This flexibility has an option value if price differences occur periodically. That option value must be traded off against the incremental cost of liquefaction, transport and regasification relative to the pipeline alternative
Sexual coercion in animal societies

Abstract In a wide range of animal species, males coerce females to mate with them, either by physically forcing them to mate, by harassing them until they mate or by punishing persistent refusal to mate. The first section of this paper argues that the possibility of forced copulation can generate arms races between males and females that may have substantial costs to both sexes. In the second section, it is suggested that sexual harassment commonly represents a ‘war of attrition’ between the sexes; existing game theory models that may apply to sexual conflict over mating decisions are reviewed. The third section develops a simple prospective model for the evolution of intimidation by punishment in situations where males can raise the probability that females will accept their advances in future by punishing them for refusal to mate. Where the benefits of sexual coercion to males are high, all three male strategies may develop to a point where they have substantial costs to females. In the final section, evidence that female behaviour is adapted to minimizing these costs is reviewed.
Predicted antiviral activity of tenofovir versus abacavir in combination with a cytosine analogue and the integrase inhibitor dolutegravir in HIV-1-infected South African patients initiating or failing first-line ART

Abstract Objectives The WHO recently recommended the use of a new first-line ART containing dolutegravir. We investigated the efficacy of NRTI backbones (tenofovir or abacavir with a cytosine analogue) in low- and middle-income countries where there is significant prior exposure to antiretrovirals and drug resistance to NRTIs. Methods Within the treatment-as-prevention study in South Africa, we selected participants with available next-generation sequencing (NGS) data for the HIV-1 pol gene at trial entry; they were either ART initiators (n = 1193) or already established on ART (n = 94). NGS of the HIV-1 pol gene was carried out using MiSeq technology; reverse transcriptase drug resistance mutations (DRMs) were detected at 5% (DRM5%) and 20% (DRM20%) for all 1287 participants. Genotypic susceptibility was assessed using the Stanford HIVDB resistance interpretation algorithm. Results NRTI DRM20% and DRM5% were detected among 5/1193 (0.4%) and 9/1193 (0.8%) of ART initiators, respectively. There was tenofovir exposure in 73/94 (77.7%) of those established on ART, with full susceptibility to abacavir in 57/94 (60.6%) and 56/94 (59.6%) for DRM20% and DRM5%, respectively, while 67/94 (71.3%) and 64/94 (68.1%) were fully susceptible to tenofovir, respectively. The differences between tenofovir and abacavir were not statistically significant at the 20% or 5% variant level (P = 0.16 and 0.29, respectively). NGS detection of variants at the 5% level increased detection of K65R in both naive and treated groups. One of 607 integrase sequences carried a DRM20% (Q148R). Conclusions Dolutegravir with a cytosine analogue plus tenofovir or abacavir appears to have similar efficacy in South Africans naive to ART. NGS should be considered in HIV drug resistance surveillance.
Virtual Reality as a Vehicle to Empower Motor-Cognitive Neurorehabilitation

In this paper, we advocate the combination of four key ingredients that we believe are necessary to design long-lasting effective treatments for neurorehabilitation: (i) motor-cognitive training, (ii) evidence-based neuroscience principles, in particular those related to body perception, (iii) motivational games, and (iv) empowerment techniques. Then, we propose virtual reality (VR) as the appropriate medium to encompass all the requirements mentioned above. VR is arguably one of the most suitable technologies for neurorehabilitation able to integrate evidence-based neurorehabilitation techniques and neuroscience principles into motivating training approaches that promote self-management by empowering patients to own their recovery process. We discuss the advantages and challenges of such an approach on several exemplary applications and outline directions for future developments. We strongly believe that the combination of positive psychology and positive technology mediated by VR-based interventions can heavily impact the rehabilitation outcomes of motor-cognitive functions along all the stages of the rehabilitation path.
Microtubule Imaging Reveals Cytoskeletal Deficit Predisposing the Retinal Ganglion Cell Axons to Atrophy in DBA/2J

Purpose Glaucoma is characterized by progressive loss of the retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and their axons. Here we test an outstanding notion that microtubules (MTs) within RGC axons degrade before the loss of morphology (“MT hypothesis”). Methods The integrity of axonal MTs was interrogated by intrinsic second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy. Using DBA/2J mice as a model of glaucoma and DBA/2J-Gpnmb+ as a nonglaucomatous control, the relationship between MT disruption and morphology was quantitatively examined as a function of age and sex in the fresh retinal wholemounts. Results The mean SHG density (i.e., the mean SHG intensity per thickness) was significantly lower in DBA/2J than in DBA/2J-Gpnmb+ and also depended on sex and age. The loss of SHG density, indicating MT disruption within intact RGC axons, occurred in a sectorial manner near the loss of the retinal nerve fiber bundles. The decay rate of SHG density was approximately 97% higher than that of thickness. Conclusions Collectively, the results indicate that the breakdown of MTs is pathology of glaucoma and likely a precursor of morphological atrophy. Based on a new finding that SHG density is highly variable and spatially discrete, a new model of RGC degeneration is proposed. This study validates SHG retinal imaging for elucidating the role and mechanism of MT deficiency in the course of glaucoma pathogenesis.
Die Schule der Zukunft und der Sprung ins digitale Zeitalter: Wie sieht eine zukunftsfähige Lernkultur aus, in der die Nutzung digitaler Technologien eine Selbstverständlichkeit ist?

Die Schulerinnen und Schuler arbeiten individuell an ihren Bildschirmen, die Lehrperson ebenso. Ist das die Schule der Zukunft? Eher nicht, denn die digitale Revolution erfordert viel grundsatzlichere Reformen an den Tiefenstrukturen des Unterrichts. Wenn digitale Technologien Menschen immer mehr Aufgaben abnehmen, dann muss Schule die Kompetenzen starken, in denen Menschen einzigartig sind.
Burden of HIV among young transgender women: factors associated with HIV infection and HIV treatment engagement

ABSTRACT Young transgender women (YTW) are disproportionately affected by HIV, however, little is known about the factors associated with HIV infection and treatment engagement. We examined correlates of HIV infection and the steps of the HIV treatment cascade, specifically, being aware of their HIV infection, linked to care, on ART, and adherent to ART. We analyzed the baseline data of Project LifeSkills, a randomized control trial of sexually active YTW recruited from Chicago, Illinois and Boston, Massachusetts. We conducted multivariable Poisson regressions to evaluate correlates of HIV infection and the steps of the HIV treatment cascade. Nearly a quarter (24.7%) of YTW were HIV-infected. Among HIV-infected YTW, 86.2% were aware of their HIV status, 72.3% were linked to care, 56.9% were on ART, and 46.2% were adherent to ART. Having avoided healthcare due to cost in the past 12 months and not having a primary care provider were associated with suboptimal engagement in HIV care. Our results suggest that improving linkage and retention in care by addressing financial barriers and improving access to primary care providers could significantly improve health outcomes of YTW as well as reduce forward transmission of HIV.
Cancer Associated Fibroblasts: Naughty Neighbors That Drive Ovarian Cancer Progression

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy, and patient prognosis has not improved significantly over the last several decades. In order to improve therapeutic approaches and patient outcomes, there is a critical need for focused research towards better understanding of the disease. Recent findings have revealed that the tumor microenvironment plays an essential role in promoting cancer progression and metastasis. The tumor microenvironment consists of cancer cells and several different types of normal cells recruited and reprogrammed by the cancer cells to produce factors beneficial to tumor growth and spread. These normal cells present within the tumor, along with the various extracellular matrix proteins and secreted factors, constitute the tumor stroma and can compose 10–60% of the tumor volume. Cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are a major constituent of the tumor microenvironment, and play a critical role in promoting many aspects of tumor function. This review will describe the various hypotheses about the origin of CAFs, their major functions in the tumor microenvironment in ovarian cancer, and will discuss the potential of targeting CAFs as a possible therapeutic approach.