Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implementación de sistema de teleoperación multi-operador multi-robot

In previous work, a collision avoidance method for a multi-operator multi-robot teleoperation system, where each human operator drives a mobile robot with a high probability of collision, was proposed. In this work, the implementation of the teleoperation system using four real mobile robots and four master devices is carried out. Two kinds of tests are presented, for which experiments in order to evaluate the performance of collision avoidance method are performed.
Predicting the influence of demographic characteristics on the willingness to pay for fresh fruits and vegetables: a logistic approach

ABSTRACT The demand for fresh fruit and vegetables continues to remain strong despite dramatic socio-economic shifts in the U.S. population. However, different demographic segments appear more sensitive to price for different food commodities. The objective of this study was to empirically evaluate which demographic characteristics cause consumers to be more likely to take price into account when purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables. The results indicate that females, those with lower annual incomes, and those living in urban areas are most sensitive to high produce prices. The results also indicate that households with children, those with at least a college degree, and retired individuals were less likely to take price into account when shopping for fresh produce.
Empirical Model of Factors Influencing Market Success of Innovations in Hungarian Context

Analysis of factors influencing market success of corporate innovations is a popular topic both in the international and the Hungarian literature. Identification of drivers of new product success and analysis of their relations are very critical for the companies to be successful in their core markets. It is agreed in the literature that firm strategy characteristics, firm process characteristics and product characteristics all influence market success. Our main objective was to develop an innovation model integrating the structural and process elements influencing market success of innovations. We empirically tested our model by SEM and found that market success of innovations was highly determined by product characteristics, but it was also significantly, but to a lesser extent, influenced by process characteristics and the firm strategy.
Stegen och trappan – olika syn på deltagande

delaktighetstrappan (se bild 1). Denna modell, och liknande varianter, används i många svenska kommuner som en idébild för att sortera olika former av deltagande och sätta in dem i ett sammanhang. Genom att jämföra delaktighetstrappan med Arnsteins ursprungliga stege kan vi se en del intressanta skillnader i synsätt. Den gamla stegen tycks stå för en betydligt radikalare agenda än den som diskuteras i Sverige idag utifrån delaktighetstrappan. Det är dock viktigt att se att de har två olika funktioner – stegen är en forskares analysredskap medan trappan syftar till att hjälpa tjänstemän och politiker att utforma sina metoder.
A rare presentation of plasmablastic lymphoma as cutaneous nodules in an immunocompromised patient

Plasmablastic lymphoma is a rare entity accounting for around 2.7% of all AIDS-related lymphomas. The oral cavity and gastrointestinal tract are the most common sites involved. We report a case of a 34-year-old HIV-positive woman with a rare presentation of cutaneous nodules all over the body. Due to overwhelming tumour burden, she developed tumour lysis syndrome during her hospital stay and succumbed to the illness.
A novel wavelet packet-based anti-spoofing technique to secure ECG data

Research related to ECG based biometric authentication is recently gaining popularity. However, there is substantial lack of research in anti-spoofing measurement to protect ECG recognition data from being captured in the wrong hands, where it might be subject to replay attack. Anonymisation of ECG data not only protects this valuable biometric data from being utilised for unauthorised access to restricted facility, but also hides major cardiovascular details of a particular person upholding HIPAA regulations. This paper proposes a novel ECG anonymisation technique based on wavelet packets. It was proven to provide 100% anonymisation, showing robustness against replay attack by the spoofer. Even with the most recent available technology, the anonymised ECG remained totally unidentified. A key, which is only 5.8% of the original ECG, is securely distributed to the authorised personnel for reconstruction of the original ECG.
The risk of intracerebral hemorrhage during oral anticoagulant treatment: A population study

In a retrospective study of 166 patients, all admitted to the University Hospital, Leiden, The Netherlands, between January 1, 1970 and December 31, 1979, we estimated the relative risk of intracerebral hemorrhage from oral anticoagulant therapy. The risk was more than ten times higher for patients over 50 years of age than for similarly aged untreated individuals in the general population. Within this age group the risk was influenced by neither age nor sex. Hypertension, present in 80% of the patients, was the most important predisposing condition; the risk of bleeding rose with increasing intensity of anticoagulation. There was no substantial difference in clinical condition at onset, rate of Progression, mortality, or degree of recovery between patients with anticoagulant‐associated hemorrhage and those with spontaneous intracranial hemorrhage.
Performance measurement for a new low dark count UV-SiPM

Solid state detectors operating in Geiger mode such as the silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) are poised to replace currently used photomultiplier tubes in many applications due to their robustness, dimension and magnetic insensibility. A next generation SiPM well suited for near UV photons with low dark count rate has been developed. 1 mm, 3 mm and 5 mm devices with 25, 50 and 100 µm micro-cells and geometrical efficiencies ranging from 29% to 74% have been produced. A probability of detection of 58% in photon counting mode at 440 nm has been reached. The photon detection efficiency (PDE) thus ranges from 42% to 17% depending on the geometrical efficiency of the chip. The dark count rate varied between the different designs (25 µm to 100 µm micro-cells, 1 mm to 5 mm chips) and was in the region of 300 kcps per mm2 at room temperature and at an operating voltage maximizing the PDE. Characteristics from this novel low dark count SiPM design will be presented and compared, further developments and improvements will also be discussed.
Counter Deanonymization Query: H-index Based k-Anonymization Privacy Protection for Social Networks

In this paper, we propose a novel k-anonymization scheme to counter deanonymization queries on social networks. With this scheme, all entities are protected by k-anonymization, which means the attackers cannot re-identify a target with confidence higher than 1/k. The proposed scheme minimizes the modification on original networks, and accordingly maximizes the utility preservation of published data while achieving k-anonymization privacy protection. Extensive experiments on real data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, where the efficacy of the k-anonymized networks is verified with the distributions of pagerank, betweenness, and their Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test.
Dynamic Interdependence and Volatility Transmission in Turkish and European Equity Markets

This paper investigates dynamic interdependence, price and volatility transmissions and financial integration between Turkey and major equity markets in EU and USA. We attempt to quantify the dynamic relationship among developed stock exchanges of Germany, France, Britain, US and Turkey, an important emerging market. Using daily data on stock prices we analyze price and volatility spillovers in a vector autoregression-dynamic conditional correlations-multivariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedacticity (VAR-DCC-MVGARCH) framework. This approach enables us to measure the extent to which these equity markets are interrelated by taking into account the time-varying variance-covariance structure. Since the major trade partners of Turkey are EU countries it is of interest to examine any changes in the structure of volatility spillovers. To this end, we analyze the effects of customs union agreement between Turkey and EU on the dynamic interdependence of stock markets by dividing the sample into two periods. The analysis reveals that, although they are small in magnitude as compared to their counterparts in developed markets, the conditional correlations can be assumed to be constant in the pre-customs union agreement while it fluctuates significantly in the post-customs union agreement.
An adaptable system for RGB-D based human body detection and pose estimation: Incorporating attached props

One of the biggest challenges of RGB-D posture tracking is separating appendages such as briefcases, trolleys, and backpacks from the human body. Markerless motion tracking relies on segmenting each depth frame to a finite set of body parts. This is achieved via supervised learning by assigning each pixel to a certain body part. The training image set for the supervised learning are usually synthesised using popular motion capture databases and an ensemble of 3D models covering a wide range of anthropometric characteristics. In this paper, we propose a novel method for generating training data of human postures with attached objects. The results have shown a significant increase in body-part classification accuracy for subjects with props from 60% to 94% using the generated image set.
Social entrepreneurship: an overview of a public university alumni survey

This report presents an overview of social entrepreneurship activities of public university graduates obtained from a survey. Almost 3 percent of respondents had created at least one nonprofit organization. The primary focus of the organizations founded by social entrepreneur respondents was education and youth related causes, with services geared heavily toward local needs. The nonprofit organizations founded to meet these needs were typically small, with one or two paid employees and 5 to 15 volunteers.
A new molecular defect in the lecithin: cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) gene associated with fish eye disease.

We report a new genetic defect in the lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) gene associated with classical clinical and biochemical features of fish eye disease. The 63-year-old Australian female proband also suffers from non-insulin-dependent (type II) diabetes mellitus. She presented with corneal opacities, markedly reduced HDL-cholesterol (0.1 mmol/L; < 10% of normal controls), and elevated plasma triglycerides. The presence of diabetes did not explain the lipoprotein profile, which differed markedly in comparison to two female hypertriglyceridemic diabetic subjects. Cholesterol esterification in HDL-like particles was minimal but plasma cholesterol esterification was maintained due to LCAT activity in non-HDL-containing lipoprotein fractions. DNA sequence analysis of the proband's LCAT gene showed two C to T transitions resulting in the substitution of Thr123 with Ile and Tyr144 with Cys. Allele-specific PCR amplification procedures were used to confirm the presence of the mutations in this proband and to screen for additional carriers in her family. Three first degree relatives (mother, brother, son) were heterozygous for the Thr123 --> Ile mutation and her daughter had the Tyr144 --> Cys mutation. Apart from a reduction in HDL-cholesterol levels to half the normal concentration and a 20% reduction in apoA-I levels, their plasma lipids were unremarkable. The proband's son and daughter were further investigated. Both had normal cholesterol esterification rates in plasma and VLDL/LDL-depleted plasma, but reduced LCAT activity (50% that of normal). Thus, the biochemical and phenotypic expression for fish eye disease in the heterozygote subjects was similar, irrespective of the underlying LCAT mutation.
Morphological Analysis of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma on Multidetector Row Computed Tomography: Implications for Treatment Response Evaluation

Objectives: Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) guidelines assume spherical shape of tumors. Morphology of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAC) on multidetector row computed tomography was investigated to evaluate the applicability of RECIST guidelines. Methods: Study population comprised 16 patients with histologically confirmed localized PAC enrolled in a phase II clinical trial of chemoradiation. Pancreatic adenocarcinomas were segmented on baseline and follow-up multidetector row computed tomography with commercially available software. Tumor volumes (mL), RECIST diameter (mm), volume equivalent sphere diameter (VESD, mm), maximum 3-dimensional diameter (M3DD, mm), and elongation value were obtained. RECIST diameter, VESD and M3DD of the tumors at baseline and follow-up were compared to determine differences. Elongation values were analyzed. The significance level was set at P less than 0.05. Results: Mean volume, RECIST diameter, VESD, M3DD, and elongation for baseline versus follow-up studies were 23.12 mL versus 19.43 mL (P > 0.05), 41.86 mm versus 39.35 mm (P > 0.05), 33.14 mm versus 32.1 mm (P > 0.05), 51.76 mm versus 51.73 mm (P > 0.05), and 0.67 versus 0.76 (P > 0.05), respectively. There was a significant difference at baseline and follow-up between RECIST diameter, VESD, and M3DD (P < 0.05, in all instances). Conclusions: Our results suggest that PACs are not spherical in shape. Evaluation of PAC treatment response based on RECIST guidelines may not be accurate.
The Impact of Media's Reputation on the Equity Financing: Manipulation and Collusion 1

Financial media are the most common information sources for retail investors and closely watched by buy-side analysts. Previous literature focuses on media bias, mostly in political context. Studies on the relation between nancial media and capital markets have been neglected by researchers. In this paper, I investigate the reputation e¤ect of nancial media on asset pricing. In the model, rms need to issue shares to fund an investment project whose value is partially learned by a journalist. Uninformed investors price the new shares based on the articles written by the journalist and the public beleif on his honesty. The journalists comments are credible to the extend that he truthfully reports his private signals, rather than be corrupted by the rms. In equilibrium, stock prices increase with the journalists reputation. Firms are willing to pay more bribes to the journalist with a higher reputation. The results also show that the reputation of the journalist may drop when he issues accurate favorable comments because the public anticipate the potential collusion with rms. Therefore, an opportunistic journalist prefers to release unfavorable articles if there is no collusion agreement between him and the rms. To retain his credibility in the long run, the opportunistic journalist randomizes his strategies over colluding, telling the truth, and writing excessively critical articles. The model helps to understand why the market still reacts to the media reports even though investors have doubts about the integrity of journalists. I am grateful to Bruno Biais, Paul Seabright, Catherine Casamatta, Etienne de Villemeur, and Doh-shin Jeon. I also thank participants of conferences and seminars in Konstanz, EEA and ASSET. yAddress: Finance department, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, the Netherlands. Telephone: 31 433884844. Fax: 31 433884875. Email: w.huang@ nance.unimaas. nl.
On forecasting stock options volatility: evidence from London international financial futures and options exchange

Options’ volatility forecasting represented, in the last decades, a very interesting and frequent domain of research in financial econometrics due to its importance in option pricing, portfolio selection, risk management and other financial activities. The aim of this study is to realize a comparative analysis of the performances obtained by several forecast models in forecasting stock options volatility. For this, we consider the volatility of the 4 most traded options at Euronext London International Financial Futures and Options Stock Exchange (Euronext.Liffe) in the period 2009-2010. When analyzing and forecasting these stock options we use the period January 2009-May 2011; using this base period, we determine the models that describe better the evolution of the volatility. Based on these models we realize forecasts that are finally compared with the real values recorded in the next 10 trading days. In relation with the differences that appear, we determine the forecast errors and by these we identify the best models and the ones that generate the biggest errors.
Increased potency of carbachol in isolated rat left atria after chronic reserpine pretreatment.

Chronic reserpine pretreatment has been shown to produce postjunctional beta-adrenergic supersensitivity in cardiac tissue. The present investigation was undertaken to determine whether chronic reserpine administration also alters the heart's sensitivity to muscarinic cholinoceptor agonists. The direct and indirect (antiadrenergic) negative inotropic effects of muscarinic agonists were examined in isolated rat left atria at various times after initiation of reserpine pretreatment (1.0 mg.kg-1 x day-1 for 7 days). Supersensitivity to the positive inotropic effects of isoproterenol was demonstrated at 1, 2, and 3 wk after initiation of treatment. Concentration-response curves were then obtained for the muscarinic agonist carbachol and the adenosine A1 receptor agonist (-)-N6-(2-phenylisopropyl)-adenosine (PIA) in reducing the inotropic response to isoproterenol (3.16 microM). The potency of carbachol was increased by approximately 2.0-fold at 1, 2, and 3 wk. Also, sensitivity to the direct negative inotropic effects of carbachol was increased 1.7-fold at 1 wk but not at 2 and 3 wk. At 1 wk, reserpine pretreatment did not alter either the direct or the indirect negative inotropic effects of PIA. These results show that postjunctional beta-adrenergic supersensitivity produced by chronic reserpine pretreatment is accompanied by a reciprocal increase in sensitivity of isolated rat left atria to the negative inotropic effects of muscarinic agonists.
Effects of Constant and Doublet Frequency Electrical Stimulation Patterns on Force Production of Knee Extensor Muscles

This study compared knee extensors’ neuromuscular fatigue in response to two 30-minute stimulation patterns: constant frequency train (CFT) and doublet frequency train (DFT). Fifteen men underwent two separate sessions corresponding to each pattern. Measurements included torque evoked by each contraction and maximal voluntary contractions (MVC) measured before and immediately after the stimulation sessions. In addition, activation level and torque evoked during doublets (Pd) and tetanic contractions at 80-Hz (P80) and 20-Hz (P20) were determined in six subjects. Results indicated greater mean torque during the DFT stimulation session as compared with CFT. But, no difference was obtained between the two stimulation patterns for MVC and evoked torque decreases. Measurements conducted in the subgroup depicted a significant reduction of Pd, P20 and P80. Statistical analyses also revealed bigger P20 immediate reductions after CFT than after DFT. We concluded that DFT could be a useful stimulation pattern to produce and maintain greater force with quite similar fatigue than CFT.
Chronically Inflamed Human Tissues Are Infiltrated by Highly Differentiated Th17 Lymphocytes

Chronic inflammatory diseases are characterized by local tissue injury caused by immunocompetent cells, in particular CD4+ T lymphocytes, that are involved in the pathogenesis of these disorders via the production of distinctive sets of cytokines. Here, we have characterized single CD4+ T cells that infiltrate inflamed tissue taken from patients with psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, or allergic asthma. Results from a cytokine production and gene profile analysis identified a population of in vivo differentiatedretinoid-related orphan receptor γ-expressing T cells, producing high levels of IL-17, that can represent up to 30% of infiltrating T lymphocytes. Activated Th17 cells produced IL-26, TNF-α, lymphotoxin-β, and IL-22. IL-17 and IL-22 concentrations secreted by tissue infiltrating Th17 cells could reach up to 100 nM and were inversely correlated with the production of Th1- and Th2-associated cytokines. In addition, tissue-infiltrating Th17 cells are also characterized by high cell surface expression of CCR6, a chemokine receptor that was not expressed by Th1 and Th2 cells, isolated from the same lesions, and by the production of CCL20/MIP3α, a CCR6 ligand, associated with tissue infiltration. Culture supernatants of activated Th17 cells, isolated from psoriatic lesions, induced the expression of gene products associated with inflammation and abnormal keratinocyte differentiation in an IL-17 and IL-22-dependent manner. These results show that tissue-infiltrating Th17 cells contribute to human chronic inflammatory disease via the production of several inflammatory cytokines and the creation of an environment contributing to their migration and sequestration at sites of inflammation.
Congestion management of self similar IP traffic - application of the RED scheme

Schemes described in the literature on network congestion management are in general based on queue management. Also it is widely accepted that Poisson model is not sufficient to characterize the traffic in current Internet. With this in view, in this paper, an attempt has been made by proposing a modified RED (random early detection) algorithm for traffic congestion management in IP networks with self-similar input. "We first present the basic scheme of RED as proposed by Floyd et.al., for the Poisson input model, and then explain the modification to the algorithm that we propose for a self similar IP traffic input. We take into consideration the probability values corresponding to the average queue lengths for computing the marking/dropping probability. Verification of the equation proposed vis-a-vis that of Floyd has been done by taking simulated values available for self-similar traffic. Results are tabulated and graphically shown. It has also been shown that under certain conditions, our modified equation for the marking probability, reduces to the one proposed by Floyd.
Phytochemicals as Population Sampling LureS

ABSTRACT Most mosquito species have 2 hosts: vertebrate animals and vascular plants. The kairomones of vertebrates have been employed extensively as attractants in traps that are used for surveillance, either to assess adult density of mosquito populations or to detect pathogen activity. They also have been employed in basic field studies of mosquito physiology, behavior, and ecology. The semiochemicals that mosquitoes use to find plant hosts for their sugar, by contrast, have not been utilized at all. Currently we are characterizing attractive blends of volatile compounds produced by plant species visited by Aedes vexans, Culex pipiens, and Anopheles gambiae. These blends may be effective in attracting a unique subset of a mosquito population when deployed in surveillance traps. The principal advantages of phytochemical attractants are that they lure a) both sexes, b) all ages, including those that are newly emerged, c) females in all gonotrophic states, and d) both nondiapausing and reproductively diapausing females. Potential challenges to their successful use are the abundance of competing volatiles, narrow plant-host specificity, and a weaker behavioral response to phytochemical cues.