Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ExoGeoLab Test Bench for Landers, Rovers and Astrobiology Instruments

We have started a small pilot facility with a Robotic Test Bench (ExoGeoLab) and a Mobile Lab Habitat (ExoHab). They can be used to validate concepts and external instruments from partner institutes. ExoGeoLab The ExoGeoLab research incubator project, has started in the frame of a collaboration between ILEWG (International Lunar Exploration working Group http://sci.esa.int/ilewg), ESTEC and partners, supported by a design and control desk in the European Space Incubator (ESI), as well as infrastructure. ExoGeoLab includes a sequence of technology and research pilot project activities: Data analysis and interpretation of remote sensing and in-situ data, and merging of multi-scale data sets Procurement and integration of geophysical, geochemical and astrobiological breadboard instruments on a surface station and rovers (ExoGeoLab) Research operations and exploitation of ExoGeoLab test bench for various conceptual configurations, and support for definition and design of science surface packages (Moon, Mars, NEOs, outer moons) Fig. 1: Preparation of ExoGeoLab instruments tests of cooperative robotics Goals and methods of ESTEC ExoGeoLab: We integrated instruments integrated in an ExoGeoLab, crossing various techniques. The methodic steps for this hands-on research are: 1) We have procured and adapted instruments to equip a mid-size ExoGeoRover (made available in collaboration with ESTEC robotics section), and a small surface station. 2) This terrestrial payload (instruments, sensors, data handling) has been deployed, operated and used as collaborative research pilot facility (ExoGeoLab), first tested and operated at ESTEC (see Fig.1 ) , and later transportable 3) We performed functional tests of these instruments, and operated them in terrestrial conditions to correlate measurements using various techniques. 4) We have implemented the possibility of remote control of instruments (Fig. 2) from an adjacent mobile laboratory, and a remote science desk. 5) The suite of measurements includes a comprehensive set with telescopic imaging reconnaissance and monitoring, geophysical studies, general geology and morphology context,geochemistry (minerals, volatiles, organics), subsurface probe, sample extraction and retrieval, sample analysis. 6) We have reproduced some simulation of diverse soil and rocks conditions (mixture of minerals, organics, ice, penetrations of water, oxydant, organics) and diagnostics 7) We used these instrument packages to characterise geological context, soil and rock properties (Fig.3) 8) Science investigations include geology, geochemistry, mineral, oxydant, organics, and volatiles diagnostics. 9) After first validations we started to exploit the facility for collaboration with partners that will provide some additional guest instruments, and perform specific investigations, 10) We have organised field campaigns in specific locations of scientific and exploration interest, making use of the mobile lab habitat for logistics support and local operations. 5477.pdf Astrobiology Science Conference 2010 (2010)
A Widely Infinite Past Prediction Procedure

Abstract: Using a widely linear (WL) processing, a prediction algorithm has been designed for WL transfer function models in terms of an infinite number of past observations. This algorithm leads to a suboptimum infinite past predictor which approximates the optimal predictor based on a finite past information when the size of the series goes to infinite. Hence, the applicability of our solution lies in those situations where the predictor based on a finite past is difficult to obtain.
Overview of the trace gas measurements on board the Citation aircraft during the intensive field phase of INDOEX

During the intensive field phase of the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX), measurements of the atmospheric chemical and aerosol composition over the Indian Ocean were performed from a Cessna Citation aircraft. Measurements were performed during February and March 1999 over the northern Indian Ocean from 70 degreesE to 80 degreesE, and from 8 degreesN tb 8 degreesS in the 0-13 km altitude range. An overview of the trace gas-measurements is presented. In the lowest 3 km the highest levels of pollution were found during February 1999, mostly originating from northeastern India and southeastern Asia. Lower levels of pollution were detected in March 1999, when the sampled air mostly originated from the Arabian Sea region. The mixing ratios of a number of trace compounds, indicative of biomass burning, were well correlated. The pollutant emission factors inferred from the measurements are consistent with literature values for fire plumes, confirming that the residential use of biofuels in Asia is a major source of gaseous pollutants to the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, in accord with emission databases. The removal of reactive trace gases was studied over an extended area without interfering local emissions, and is shown to be governed by photochemical processes rather than by mixing and deposition. At intermediate altitudes of 3-8 km the mixing ratios of all trace gases other than ozone were generally lower, and the measurements suggest that the Photochemical processing of these air masses is much more extensive than in the 0-3 kin range. In the 8-13 km altitude range some evidence is obtained for the importance of convective cloud systems in the transport of gaseous pollutants to the upper troposphere.
A system dynamics model of the nutritional stages of the Colombian population

Purpose – Overweight, obesity, and physical inactivity have in recent years become an important public health problem worldwide. Investigations that study obesity using a systemic approach in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are limited. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to study the nutritional stages dynamics within the Colombian urban population. Design/methodology/approach – The authors used a population-level systems dynamics (SD) model that captures the transitions of population by body mass index (BMI) categories. The authors proposed a heuristic to estimate the transference rates (TRs) between BMI categories using data from the Colombian Demographic and Health Survey 2005 and 2010. Findings – The Colombian urban population is moving to overweight and obese categories. The TRs from not overweight to overweight and from overweight to obese (0.0076 and 0.0054, respectively) are higher than the TRs from obese to overweight and from overweight to not-overweight (1.025×10e−7 and 3.47×10e−7.
The effects of maternal health and body condition on the endocrine responses of neonatal foals.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING THE STUDY Chronic and acute alterations in maternal nutrient intake during pregnancy alter pancreatic and hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function in the offspring, before and after birth. Little is known about these effects. OBJECTIVE To determine whether maternal nutrient restriction caused by natural infection with Streptococcus equi altered endocrine function in neonatal foals born from mares fed a maintenance or high plane of nutrition throughout pregnancy. METHODS Ten primiparous mares received either a diet to maintain moderate body condition score (Moderate, n = 5) or a near ad libitum feeding regime to maintain a high body condition score (High, n = 5) throughout pregnancy. All mares inadvertently became infected with Streptococcus equi in mid gestation and lost approximately 10% body mass. RESULTS Maternal insulin and glucose concentrations decreased (P < 0.05) during, and one month following, the weight loss period. High mares weighed more (P < 0.05) at parturition than Moderate mares; all foals were healthy. Gestational age, foal bodyweights, placental and clinical parameters after birth were no different between the 2 groups. Foal plasma cortisol and glucose responses to exogenous adrenocorticotrophic hormone and insulin, respectively, were similar for both groups. Insulin concentrations during glucose tolerance test were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in foals from Moderate than High mares and compared with foals studied previously from healthy, well-fed mares, suggesting that the beta cell sensitivity to glucose was enhanced in Moderate. CONCLUSION Acute nutrient restriction in mid gestation caused by maternal illness and inappetence, superimposed on a maintenance feed intake throughout pregnancy, enhanced insulin secretion to glucose in foals. Nutritional programming of pancreatic beta cells, but not the HPA axis, appeared to depend on the level of nutrition before and after the weight loss period. POTENTIAL RELEVANCE Disturbances in neonatal pancreatic beta cell function programmed during pregnancy may predispose foals to metabolic problems in later life.
Intraoperative Comparison of Two Instrumentation Techniques for the Correction of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: Rod Rotation and Translation

Study Design. A prospective and controlled comparative study of two instrumentation techniques used for the correction of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Objective. To measure the three‐dimensional intraoperative correction obtained with a rotation maneuver as compared with that obtained with a translation maneuver of the first instrumentation rod inserted to determine the difference, if any, in the two techniques for achieving three‐dimensional correction. Summary of Background Data. Adequate three‐dimensional correction of scoliotic deformities has been reported with the Cotrel‐Dubousset instrumentation using the rod‐rotation maneuver. More recently, however, authors of studies with newer instrumentation systems have claimed that better correction can be obtained using a translation technique. So far, no report has clearly demonstrated the three‐dimensional changes obtained with this more recent instrumentation technique. Methods. The changes in position of thoracic and lumbar vertebrae exposed during surgery were documented using a three‐dimensional magnetic digitizer in 70 adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis undergoing correction by a posterior approach. Vertebral positions were measured intraoperatively before and after the surgical maneuver in 39 patients with the Cotrel‐Dubousset instrumentation (rod rotation) and in 31 patients with the Colorado instrumentation (translation). Results. In both groups, adequate three‐dimensional correction of the scoliotic deformities was documented, with significant changes in the frontal and sagittal planes and in the orientation of the plane of maximum deformity for thoracic and lumbar curves. On the other hand, no significant differences were documented between the two procedures except in the frontal plane where a tendency for greater correction was observed for thoracic curves with the translation technique. Conclusions. The two instrumentation techniques are equally able to achieve a comparable and effective three‐dimensional correction of the scoliotic deformities. The use of either a rotation maneuver or a translation technique during surgery does not result in any significant measurable difference in three‐dimensional correction.
Quantitation of hepatitis C virus genome molecules in plasma samples

A competitive reverse transcription PCR (cRT-PCR)-based assay for the quantitative detection of hepatitis C virus (HCV) viremia was developed, optimized, and applied to the direct molecular analysis of clinical samples from nine patients with persistent HCV infection. As for other competitive PCR-based applications, this method consists of the reverse transcription and subsequent amplification of two RNA species in the same tube: the wild-type template (to be quantified) and a known amount of a modified synthetic template. These templates have identical primer recognition sites and very similar (but not identical) sizes, thus allowing direct detection of both template species after gel electrophoresis and ethidium bromide staining. The results obtained by this cRT-PCR application for testing clinical samples from HCV-infected patients mainly indicate that the competitive approach reaches the degree of sensitivity (fewer than 5 HCV RNA molecules per 100 microliters) necessary to evaluate viral load in all HCV-infected patients, independently of clinical conditions, and that this technique is flexible enough to quantify highly divergent levels of cell-free HCV genome copy numbers in biological samples. Interestingly, we observed a sample-to-sample variation in the loss of detectable HCV genome molecules in serum in comparison with that in plasma from the same patient, thus indicating that serum specimens, although widely used in the past few years for qualitative molecular investigation of HCV-infected patients, cannot be used to obtain reliable quantitative data on HCV viremia from these patients.
Electrostatic actuation of surface/bulk micromachined single-crystal silicon microresonators

In fabricating microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), bulk micromachining using [100] and [110] single crystal silicon and surface micromachining using polycrystalline silicon are used. However, both micromachining methods have drawbacks, and micromachining actuating or sensing MEMS using single crystal silicon has been an active research topic in resent years. This paper presents electrostatic actuation of a resonator fabricated by the SBM (surface/bulk micromachining) process. The SBM process allows fabricating released structures in single crystal silicon. To fabricate electrodes and to electrically isolate them, a junction isolation method using reverse-biased diodes is developed. The breakdown voltage of this isolation method is measured to be larger than 150 volts. A SBM processed microresonator is actuated at 36 kHz. A displacement of several /spl mu/m is achieved in atmosphere with a 20 volts peak-to-peak supply.
Continuum: A Task-Based Evaluation of Temporal Visualisations

Time is a powerful and common attribute for exploring information, and timelines can be an excellent way to help represent and explore temporal data. Most timelines hit problems when the dataset has a large number of values or attributes, or when the data to be conveyed is multidimensional. We previously introduced Continuum, a tool to support rich temporal visualisations by allowing nested hierarchies, cross-concept relationships and meaningful levels of detail at all levels of zoom. Here we present a qualitative and quantitative study of Continuum in comparison with the current state-of-the-art Simile Timeline. The quantitative study investigates performance via three exemplar kinds of temporally oriented tasks: event finding, counting, and comparison tasks. The qualitative components of the study investigate user satisfaction and affect with the tool. Overall, Continuum demonstrated a significant improvement for user experience and accuracy. We consider the attributes of the tool that account for this success towards a generalized approach for temporal visualizations. Author
Third and Fourth Workshops of the European paediatric network for haemophilia management 1

The meeting of 20 paediatric haemophilia treaters from 16 European countries, initiated in autumn 1997 by Dr R. Ljung, Malmo, Sweden, has become an annual meeting. The third Workshop was held in Fuschl, Austria (16–18 September 1999) and the fourth Workshop in Stresa, Italy (5–7 October 2000). The aim of each meeting is to promote informal discussion between experienced paediatric treaters on clinical practice and research to improve quality of care. The programme each year includes reviews and presentations by members of the network, in addition to invited speakers including an annual lecture on gene therapy. Reviews may be initiated in 1 year and concluded at a subsequent annual meeting. It is for this reason that we are producing a biennial meeting report and have select topics reﬂecting European experience.
Improved Full State Hybrid Projective Synchronization in a Autonomous Chaotic System

In the paper, we improve the full state hybrid projective synchronization (FSHPS), based on the Lyapunov’s direct method, the improved FSHPS scheme is given and the application of the improved method to a special three-dimensional chaotic flow is investigated and validated further. Numerical simulations are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
NMR Structure of the R-module

In the bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii, a family of seven secreted and calcium-dependent mannuronan C-5 epimerases (AlgE1-7) has been identified. These epimerases are responsible for the epimerization of β-d-mannuronic acid to α-l-guluronic acid in alginate polymers. The epimerases consist of two types of structural modules, designated A (one or two copies) and R (one to seven copies). The structure of the catalytically active A-module from the smallest epimerase AlgE4 (consisting of AR) has been solved recently. This paper describes the NMR structure of the R-module from AlgE4 and its titration with a substrate analogue and paramagnetic thulium ions. The R-module folds into a right-handed parallel β-roll. The overall shape of the R-module is an elongated molecule with a positively charged patch that interacts with the substrate. Titration of the R-module with thulium indicated possible calcium binding sites in the loops formed by the nonarepeat sequences in the N-terminal part of the molecule and the importance of calcium binding for the stability of the R-module. Structure calculations showed that calcium ions can be incorporated in these loops without structural violations and changes. Based on the structure and the electrostatic surface potential of both the A- and R-module from AlgE4, a model for the appearance of the whole protein is proposed.
The in vivo roles of STEF/Tiam1, Rac1 and JNK in cortical neuronal migration

The coordinated migration of neurons is a pivotal step for functional architectural formation of the mammalian brain. To elucidate its molecular mechanism, gene transfer by means of in utero electroporation was applied in the developing murine brain, revealing the crucial roles of Rac1, its activators, STEF/Tiam1, and its downstream molecule, c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK), in the cerebral cortex. Functional repression of these molecules resulted in inhibition of radial migration of neurons without affecting their proper differentiation. Interestingly, distinct morphological phenotypes were observed; suppression of Rac1 activity caused loss of the leading process, whereas repression of JNK activity did not, suggesting the complexity of the signaling cascade. In cultured neurons from the intermediate zone, activated JNK was detected along microtubules in the processes. Application of a JNK inhibitor caused irregular morphology and increased stable microtubules in processes, and decreased phosphorylation of microtubule associated protein 1B, raising a possibility of the involvement of JNK in controlling tubulin dynamics in migrating neurons. Our data thus provide important clues for understanding the intracellullar signaling machinery for cortical neuronal migration.
Peptidergic neurohemal system of an insect: Mass spectrometric morphology

Neuropeptides are by far the most diverse group of messenger molecules in insects. To understand cell signaling and function, it is essential to reveal the complete neuropeptide profile of a single neuron/nerve/neurohemal organ first. In this study, matrix‐assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight (MALDI‐TOF) mass spectrometry was used to analyze the peptidergic system of an insect, focussing on the neurohemal structures. Major neurohemal organs were investigated, including the retrocerebral complex, perisympathetic organs, and all nerves supplying these organs with neurosecretions. Additionally, peripheral neurohemal release sites such as the dilator muscle of the antennal circulatory organ and lateral heart nerves were studied, as well as parts of the stomatogastric nervous system. The following neuropeptide families were analyzed: kinins, allatostatins, leucomyosuppressin, corazonin, adipokinetic hormones, myoinhibitory peptide, sulfakinins, periviscerokinins, YLSamide, VEAacid, SKNacid, proctolin, the head peptide, and pyrokinins. Beyond a contribution to a map of the distribution of neuropeptides in a neurohemal system, the following conclusions can be drawn from these experiments. (1) Nearly all abundant peaks in the different mass spectra represent peptides that have already been identified. (2) Although only adult males were used in this study, variations in the peptide abundances were observed that are possibly correlated with different physiological/developmental conditions. (3) Peptides have a body‐region–specific distribution in the neurohemal system. (4) A clear compartmentalisation of the retrocerebral complex could be observed. J. Comp. Neurol. 436:363–375, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Ultrawideband Suspended Plate Antenna With Enhanced Impedance and Radiation Performance

We describe an ultrawideband (UWB) suspended plate antenna (SPA) with enhanced impedance and radiation performance. This antenna consists of two layers. The bottom plate is suspended above a ground plane and fed by a tapered down feeding strip. The top layer consists of four identical radiating plates, each connected to the bottom plate by a vertical strip. The design is optimized numerically and validated experimentally. The measured results show that the antenna achieves an enhanced impedance bandwidth of 72.7% (2.8-6.0 GHz) for VSWR les 2 with stable radiation performance in terms of gain from 8.0-9.9 dBi, direction of maximum radiation, and high copolarization-to-cross-polarization ratio of ges 12 dB across the lower UWB band of 3.1-4.8 GHz.
Wireless network simplification: The Gaussian N-relay diamond network

We consider the Gaussian $N$-relay diamond network, where a source wants to communicate to a destination through a layer of $N$-relay nodes. We investigate the following question: What fraction of the capacity can we maintain by using only $k$ out of the $N$ relays? We show that in every Gaussian $N$-relay diamond network, there exists a subset of $k$ relays which alone provide approximately a fraction $\frac{k}{k+1}$ of the total capacity. The result holds independent of the number of available relay nodes $N$, the channel configurations and the operating SNR. The approximation is within $3\log N+3k$ bits/s/Hz to the capacity.