Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi-robot motion-formation distributed control with sensor self-calibration: experimental validation

In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a robust motion formation distributed control algorithm for a team of mobile robots. The primary task for the team is to form a geometric shape, which can be freely translated and rotated at the same time. This approach makes the robots to behave as a cohesive whole, which can be useful in tasks such as collaborative transportation. The robustness of the algorithm relies on the fact that each robot employs only local measurements from a laser sensor which does not need to be off-line calibrated. Furthermore, robots do not need to exchange any information with each other. Being free of sensor calibration and not requiring a communication channel helps the scaling of the overall system to a large number of robots. In addition, since the robots do not need any off-board localization system, but require only relative positions with respect to their neighbors, it can be aimed to have a full autonomous team that operates in environments where such localization systems are not available. The computational cost of the algorithm is inexpensive and the resources from a standard microcontroller will suffice. This fact makes the usage of our approach appealing as a support for other more demanding algorithms, e.g., processing images from onboard cameras. We validate the performance of the algorithm with a team of four mobile robots equipped with low-cost commercially available laser scanners.
Allele-specific methylation of imprinted genes in fetal cord blood is influenced by cis-acting genetic variants and parental factors

Aim: To examine the effects of genetic variation, parental age and BMI on parental allele-specific methylation of imprinted genes in fetal cord blood samples. Methodology: We have developed SNP genotyping and deep bisulphite sequencing assays for six imprinted genes to determine parental allele-specific methylation patterns in diploid somatic tissues. Results: Multivariate linear regression analyses revealed a negative correlation of paternal age with paternal MEG3 allele methylation in fetal cord blood. Methylation of the maternal PEG3 allele showed a positive correlation with maternal age. Paternal BMI was positively correlated with paternal MEST allele methylation. In addition to parental origin, allele-specific methylation of most imprinted genes was largely dependent on the underlying SNP haplotype. Conclusion: Our study supports the idea that parental factors can have an impact, although of small effect size, on the epigenome of the next generation, providing an additional layer of complexity to phenotypic diversity.
Isolation and Transcriptome Analysis of Phenol-Degrading Bacterium From Carbon–Sand Filters in a Full-Scale Drinking Water Treatment Plant

Phenol is a typical organic contaminant in the environment. To date, the biodegradation of phenol by microorganisms remains the preferred method for its removal and remediation, but data on phenol removal by drinking water biofilters are lacking. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing to investigate the microbial community structure in a carbon–sand biofilter. The results indicated that the predominant bacterial group was Bacilli, followed by Gammaproteobacteria, Clostridia, and Alphaproteobacteria. In addition, a strain was capable of degrading phenol at low concentrations of 500 μg/L within 100 min was isolated and identified as Rhodococcus sp. CS-1. Transcriptome analysis results showed that Rhodococcus sp. CS-1 was able to degrade phenol via both the catechol and protocatechuate branch of the β-ketoadipate pathway. Furthermore, some novel candidate biomarkers (copper oxidase, copper chaperone, and MarR/DeoR/TetR family transcriptional regulators) were successfully identified to be potentially involved in phenol biodegradation. This study indicates that carbon–sand filters have the potential for remediation of phenol. The application of native microorganisms to drinking water treatment system is an adaptive strategy in oligotrophic water environments.
Role of water flow regime in the swimming behaviour and escape performance of a schooling fish

ABSTRACT Animals are exposed to variable and rapidly changing environmental flow conditions, such as wind in terrestrial habitats and currents in aquatic systems. For fishes, previous work suggests that individuals exhibit flow-induced changes in aerobic swimming performance. Yet, no one has examined whether similar plasticity is found in fast-start escape responses, which are modulated by anaerobic swimming performance, sensory stimuli and neural control. In this study, we used fish from wild schools of the tropical damselfish Chromis viridis from shallow reefs surrounding Lizard Island in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. The flow regime at each site was measured to ascertain differences in mean water flow speed and its temporal variability. Swimming and escape behaviour in fish schools were video-recorded in a laminar-flow swim tunnel. Though each school's swimming behaviour (i.e. alignment and cohesion) was not associated with local flow conditions, traits linked with fast-start performance (particularly turning rate and the distance travelled with the response) were significantly greater in individuals from high-flow habitats. This stronger performance may occur due to a number of mechanisms, such as an in situ training effect or greater selection pressure for faster performance phenotypes in areas with high flow speed. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper. Summary: Fish exhibit flow-induced changes in their fast-start escape performance, likely due to an in situ training effect and/or selection for faster performance phenotypes in areas with high flow speed.
Spline Interface for Intuitive Skinning Weight Editing

Despite the recent advances in automatic methods for computing skinning weights, manual intervention is still indispensable to produce high-quality character deformation. However, current modeling software does not provide efficient tools for the manual definition of skinning weights. Widely used paint-based interfaces give users high degrees of freedom, but at the expense of significant efforts and time. This article presents a novel interface for editing skinning weights based on splines, which represent the isolines of skinning weights on a mesh. When a user drags a small number of spline anchor points, our method updates the shape of the isolines and smoothly interpolates or propagates the weights while respecting the given iso-value on the spline. We introduce several techniques to enable the interface to run in real-time and propose a particular combination of functions that generates appropriate skinning weight over the surface. Users can create skinning weights from scratch by using our method. In addition, we present the spline and the gradient fitting methods that closely approximate initial given weights, so that a user can modify the weights with our spline interface. We show the effectiveness of our spline-based interface through a number of test cases.
A centralized Path Computation System for GMPLS transport networks : design and performance studies

The incoming GMPLS standardization is paving the way for new configurable Traffic Engineering (TE) policies and new survivability schemes for transport networks. In this context, a centralized Path Computation System (PCS) has been implemented, suited for transport networks with a GMPLS control plane. After a brief description of the requirements for a PCS in a GMPLS network, some design issues for the proposed implementation are drawn, with particular emphasis on the centralized approach and on the strategies for achieving the connection survivability. Some results of an intensive testing campaign are shown for the validation of the design choices.
Trendrapport bewegen en gezondheid 2000/2001

Het wordt steeds duidelijker dat voldoende bewegen belangrijk is voor een goede gezondheid. Op initiatief van TNO en met steun van het Ministerie van VWS is besloten de resultaten van activiteiten als 'Nederland in Beweging! ' en 'Jeugd in Beweging! ' periodiek te rapporteren in 'Trendrapporten bewegen en gezondheid'. Beleidsmakers en onderzoekers kunnen zich zo snel op de hoogte stellen van de nieuwste ontwikkelingen en onderzoeksresultaten. Dit is het derde rapport. Het rapport is tevens een platform waarin organisaties hun meest recente onderzoek kunnen presenteren. Achtereenvolgens worden behandeld: eerste resultaten van de monitorstudie Bewegen en Gezondheid (2000); resultaten van de Nationale Gezondheidstest 1999-2000; sporten, wandelen en fietsen in Nederland; gezond bewegen vanuit tijdsbestedingsperspectief; verandering in lichaamsbeweging, risicoprofiel voor hart- en vaatziekten en kwaliteit van leven; de 97/98 survey van sportblessures, sportblessures op de Spoedeisende Hulpafdeling 1997-1999; effectiviteit van blessurepreventieve maatregelen in de sport; effectiviteit van preventieve maatregelen voor lateraal enkelletsel; organisatie Sportgezondheidszorg; dopinggebruik.
Heterogeneous Nucleation onto Monoatomic Ions: Support for the Kelvin‐Thomson Theory

Abstract In this study, the process of heterogeneous nucleation is investigated by coupling a high‐resolution differential mobility analyser (DMA) to an expansion‐type condensation particle counter, the size‐analyzing nuclei counter (SANC). More specifically, we measured the activation probabilities of monoatomic ions of both polarities by using n‐butanol as condensing liquid. All seed ions were activated to grow into macroscopic sizes at saturation ratios well below the onset of homogeneous nucleation, showing for the first time that the SANC is capable of detecting sub‐nanometer sized, atomic seed ions. The measured onset saturation ratios for each ion were compared to the Kelvin‐Thomson (KT) theory. Despite the fact that certain dependencies of activation behaviour on seed ion properties cannot be predicted by the KT theory, it was found that with a simple adjustment of the n‐butanol molecular volume (9–15 % lower compared to bulk properties) good agreement with experimental results is achievable. The corresponding density increase may result from the dipole‐charge interaction. This study thus offers support for the application of the KT model for heterogeneous, ion‐induced nucleation studies at the sub‐nanometer level.
Docking of Meprin α to Heparan Sulphate Protects the Endothelium from Inflammatory Cell Extravasation

Abstract Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare disease characterized by increased pulmonary pressure and vascular remodelling as a consequence of smooth muscle cell proliferation, endothelial cell dysfunction and inflammatory infiltrates. Meprin α is a metalloproteinase whose substrates include adhesion and cell–cell contact molecules involved in the process of immune cell extravasation. In this study, we aimed to unravel the role of meprin α in PAH-induced vascular remodelling. Our results showed that meprin α was present in the apical membrane of endothelial cells in the lungs and pulmonary arteries of donors and idiopathic PAH (IPAH) patients. Elevated circulating meprin α levels were detected in the plasma of IPAH patients. In vitro binding assays and electron microscopy confirmed binding of meprin α to the glycocalyx of human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (hPAECs). Enzymatic and genetic approaches identified heparan sulphate (HS) as an important determinant of the meprin α binding capacity to hPAEC. Meprin α treatment protected from excessive neutrophil infiltration and the protective effect observed in the presence of neutrophils was partially reversed by removal of HS from hPAEC. Importantly, HS levels in pulmonary arteries were decreased in IPAH patients and binding of meprin α to HS was impaired in IPAH hPAEC. In summary, our results suggest a role of HS in docking meprin α to the endothelium and thus in the modulation of inflammatory cell extravasation. In IPAH, the decreased endothelial HS results in the reduction of meprin α binding which might contribute to enhanced inflammatory cell extravasation and potentially to pathological vascular remodelling.
Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for body fat distribution in 694 649 individuals of European ancestry

One in four adults worldwide are either overweight or obese. Epidemiological studies indicate that the location and distribution of excess fat, rather than general adiposity, is most informative for predicting risk of obesity sequellae, including cardiometabolic disease and cancer. We performed a genome-wide association study meta-analysis of body fat distribution, measured by waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI (WHRadjBMI), and identified 463 signals in 346 loci. Heritability and variant effects were generally stronger in women than men, and we found approximately one-third of all signals to be sexually dimorphic. The 5% of individuals carrying the most WHRadjBMI-increasing alleles were 1.62 times more likely than the bottom 5% to have a WHR above the thresholds used for metabolic syndrome. These data, made publicly available, will inform the biology of body fat distribution and its relationship with disease.
Distances for wifi based topological indoor mapping

For localization and mapping of indoor environments through WiFi signals, locations are often represented as likelihoods of the received signal strength indicator. Different measures are proposed in the literature for determining the similarity of these likelihoods. They are usually evaluated in studies with specific settings. In this work we compare, in a daily-life setting, various measures of distance between such likelihoods in combination with different methods for estimation and representation. In particular, we show that among the considered distance measures the Earth Mover's Distance is the most beneficial for the localization task.
Human papillomavirus and oral and oropharyngeal carcinoma: the essentials

There is a global increase in the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-driven oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) in Australia and New Zealand. Risk factors for HPV-positive OPSCC are male gender, white race, age older than 40 but younger than 59 years old, having multiple lifetime sex partners, having oro-genital and oro-anal sex. High-risk HPV subtypes play a major role in the pathogenesis of OPSCC, however, they play a much lesser role in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Among the laboratory tests used to detect oncogenic HPV infection, polymerase chain reaction is a sensitive method but does not reflect the role of HPV in oncogenesis. While widely used, p16 immunohistochemistry is both a sensitive and a specific surrogate marker for oncogenic HPV infection in OPSCC, but not in OSCC. However, it is a useful prognostic marker in OPSCC. The current gold standard to accurately detect oncogenic HPV infection is E6/E7 mRNAin situ hybridization. Because both HPV-positive and p16-positive OPSCC have better short-term prognoses there is current debate and trials on treatment de-escalation in HPV-positive OPSCC. Dental practitioners can play an important role in early diagnosis of HPV-positive OPSCC.
Avenues to Characterize the Interactions of Extended N‐Glycans with Proteins by NMR Spectroscopy: The Influenza Hemagglutinin Case

Abstract Long‐chain multiantenna N‐glycans are extremely complex molecules. Their inherent flexibility and the presence of repetitions of monosaccharide units in similar chemical environments hamper their full characterization by X‐ray diffraction or standard NMR methods. Herein, the successful conformational and interaction analysis of a sialylated tetradecasaccharide N‐glycan presenting two LacNAc repetitions at each arm is presented. This glycan has been identified as the receptor of the hemagglutinin protein of pathogenic influenza viruses. To accomplish this study, a N‐glycan conjugated with a lanthanide binding tag has been synthesized, enabling analysis of the system by paramagnetic NMR. Under paramagnetic conditions, the NMR signals of each sugar unit in the glycan have been determined. Furthermore, a detailed binding epitope of the tetradecasaccharide N‐glycan in the presence of HK/68 hemagglutinin is described.
Accessing ART in Malawi while living in South Africa – a thematic analysis of qualitative data from undocumented Malawian migrants

ABSTRACT The majority of international migrants from Malawi to South Africa are undocumented, and some of them are on ART. This study explored how these migrants manage to access ART. Qualitative data were collected using open-ended questions in semi-structured interviews. 23 returned undocumented Malawian migrants from South Africa participated in the study. Also, key informant discussions were held with three health workers. Data collection took place in April and May 2015 at a rural village of Namwera in Mangochi district in southern Malawi. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and translated into English for thematic analysis. The guardians collected ART from health facilities in Malawi on behalf of the migrants. The guardians sent ART through truck and bus drivers to the migrants in South Africa. The migrants shared their ART. Others bought ART from the ‘street pharmacies’. Others accessed ART from South African health facilities through the help of their South African friends. There are risks to dispensing ART to the migrants who do not themselves present at health facilities. There is value to more regular contacts between clients and health service system that is compromised by alternative strategies. It is better to deliver ART services in South Africa to the undocumented migrants.
Long-acting Opioid Use and the Risk of Serious Infections: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND Although evidence from animal and human studies indicates opioid analgesics increase susceptibility to infections, it is unclear whether the risk varies by specific opioid. We compared the risk of serious infection among patients initiating long-acting opioid analgesics with and without previously reported immunosuppressive properties. METHODS We conducted a retrospective cohort study of Tennessee Medicaid enrollees age ≥18 years initiating long-acting opioids (1995-2015). Hospitalizations for serious infection were identified using validated coding algorithms. We used multivariable Poisson regression models to calculate adjusted incidence rate ratios (aIRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) to compare the infection risk among patients using long-acting opioids with known immunosuppressive properties (morphine, fentanyl, methadone) to the infection risk among patients using long-acting opioids without known immunosuppressive properties (oxycodone, oxymorphone, tramadol) accounting for demographics, opioid dose, comorbidities and pain conditions, medication use, frailty indicators, and healthcare encounter history using exposure propensity scores. We further compared users of individual long-acting opioids to long-acting morphine users (considered the prototypical immunosuppressive opioid). RESULTS Among the 61 240 patients initiating opioids with immunosuppressive properties and 22 811 patients initiating opioids without immunosuppressive properties, we identified 1906 serious infections. Nonimmunosuppressive opioid users had a lower rate of infections than immunosuppressive opioid users (aIRR:0.78 [CI: 0.66-0.91]). Among individual opioids, oxycodone users had a lower rate of infection than morphine users (aIRR:0.73 [CI: 0.60-0.89]). There were no significant differences in the infection risk between other opioids and morphine. CONCLUSION The risk of serious infections among long-acting opioid users varies by opioid type. Providers should carefully consider the risk of serious infections when making pain management decisions.
Plasmodium falciparum Activates CD16+ Dendritic Cells to Produce Tumor Necrosis Factor and Interleukin-10 in Subpatent Malaria

This study identified CD16+ DCs as the only blood DC subset distinctively activated during primary blood-stage human Plasmodium infection. As TNF/IL-10 coproducers, CD16+ DCs contribute to early inflammatory processes, yet P falciparum restimulation skewed cytokine responses further towards IL-10 production.
Significance of circulating tumor cells in osteosarcoma patients treated by neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgery

Purpose By examining and identifying circulating tumor cell (CTC) counts and subtypes of peripheral blood in osteosarcoma patients, we evaluated the relationship between CTCs and characteristics of osteosarcoma patients, as well as CTC changes after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgery. Methods CanPatrol™ CTC technology was used to detect CTCs in peripheral blood before and after treatment in 32 osteosarcoma patients. Peripheral blood samples from 10 healthy volunteers were included as controls and examined for the presence of CTCs. Results Of the 32 osteosarcoma patients, CTCs were detected in 30 patients before treatment, and the average CTC count was 14.06±9.08. No CTCs were detected in the 10 healthy volunteers. The detected CTCs were divided into epithelial CTCs, mesenchymal CTCs (M-CTCs), and biophenotypic epithelial/mesenchymal CTCs. The average number of pretreatment CTCs was higher in stage III patients than in stage IIB patients (P=0.012). Twenty-eight patients were screened for changes in CTC count at 1 week after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and at 4 weeks after surgery. We divided these 28 patients into two groups according to the changes in the percentage of M-CTCs before and after treatment, and the results showed that the disease-free survival (DFS) was significantly shorter in the M-CTC percentage-increased group than in the M-CTC percentage-decreased or no-change group (P=0.032). Five patients with stage II osteosarcoma were examined for CTCs at the appearance of lung metastases, and the total number of CTCs was found to be higher at the appearance of lung metastases than before treatment in these patients. Conclusion The rate of presence of CTCs in the peripheral blood of osteosarcoma patients is high, and patients with an increased percentage of M-CTCs after treatment have a shorter DFS. The dynamic monitoring of changes in CTC counts after treatment has clinical significance for the timely detection of recurrence or metastasis.
Serial testing of healthcare workers for latent tuberculosis infection and long-term follow up for development of active tuberculosis

Background Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at high risk of tuberculosis (TB) infection due to occupational exposure. It is important to diagnose TB infections in HCWs to prevent nosocomial transmission, particularly among immunocompromised patients. Objective The aim of this study was to analyze the rate of tuberculin skin test (TST) conversion and to assess the incidence of active TB after the latent TB infection screenings in high-risk HCWs. Methods This retrospective cohort study involved 458 HCWs in TB-related departments between 2009 and 2013. All HCWs underwent a TST and a chest radiograph annually; an interferon-γ release assay (IGRA) was performed on the TST-converted subjects. TST-converted and IGRA-positive HCWs underwent treatment for latent TB infection. Results The TST conversion rate was 30.3% from 2009 to 2011 in two years, 7.4% from 2011 to 2012, and 17.4% from 2012 to 2013. Eleven subjects out of 42 TST converters (26%) were IGRA-positive; two of them developed into active pulmonary TB during the follow-up period. Conclusions There was significant discordance between TST conversion and IGRA results in high-risk HCWs, and active TB developed only in TST-converted and IGRA-positive HCWs. Therefore, the combined use of TST and IGRA for periodic monitoring of TB infections in high-risk HCWs may be useful.