Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Energy-efficient relaying strategy with network coding in two-way parallel channels

We consider a two-way communication assisted by parallel regenerative decode-and-forward relays operating in orthogonal channels. In a system with limited channel state information at each source and relay node, an optimum distributed power allocation strategy is proposed to minimize the total transmit power, providing a target signal-to-noise ratio at each destination with a target outage probability. Moreover, combined with opportunistic relaying and network coding, a distributed decision mechanism is proposed for the relay node to decide whether to help the transmission or not. In this proposal, each source works out the transmit power and the decision threshold then broadcasts them. The selected relay compares the decision threshold with the channel gain of its weaker relay-to-destination link, then determines whether to forward the networkcoded data or not. Simulation results show the advantage of this strategy in terms of energy efficiency for a two-hop two-way communication scenario. The proposed strategy is very flexible as it can trade outage to power consumption and vice versa.
An auxiliary-function approach to online independent vector analysis for real-time blind source separation

This paper proposes online independent vector analysis (IVA) based on an auxiliary-function approach for real-time blind speech separation. A batch auxiliary-function approach is naturally extended with autoregressive approximation of an auxiliary variable. Experimental evaluations show that the proposed online algorithm works in real time and attains relatively high signal-to-interference ratios without environment-sensitive tuning parameters such as step size under both spatially stationary and dynamic conditions compared to usual real-time IVAs using natural gradient updates or block-wise updates. Our implementation of the proposed algorithm works in real-time for four-channel observations on PCs and worked stably over 7 hours in realistic noisy environments.
SAGA/ADA Complex Subunit Ada2 Is Required for Cap1- but Not Mrr1-Mediated Upregulation of the Candida albicans Multidrug Efflux Pump MDR1

ABSTRACT Overexpression of the multidrug efflux pump MDR1 is one mechanism by which the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans develops resistance to the antifungal drug fluconazole. The constitutive upregulation of MDR1 in fluconazole-resistant, clinical C. albicans isolates is caused by gain-of-function mutations in the zinc cluster transcription factor Mrr1. It has been suggested that Mrr1 activates MDR1 transcription by recruiting Ada2, a subunit of the SAGA/ADA coactivator complex. However, MDR1 expression is also regulated by the bZIP transcription factor Cap1, which mediates the oxidative stress response in C. albicans. Here, we show that a hyperactive Mrr1 containing a gain-of-function mutation promotes MDR1 overexpression independently of Ada2. In contrast, a C-terminally truncated, hyperactive Cap1 caused MDR1 overexpression in a wild-type strain but only weakly in mutants lacking ADA2. In the presence of benomyl or H2O2, compounds that induce MDR1 expression in an Mrr1- and Cap1-dependent fashion, MDR1 was upregulated with the same efficiency in wild-type and ada2Δ cells. These results indicate that Cap1, but not Mrr1, recruits Ada2 to the MDR1 promoter to induce the expression of this multidrug efflux pump and that Ada2 is not required for MDR1 overexpression in fluconazole-resistant C. albicans strains containing gain-of-function mutations in Mrr1.
Towards real-time source counting by estimation of coherent-to-diffuse ratios from ad-hoc microphone array recordings

Coherent-to-diffuse ratio (CDR) estimates over short time frames are utilized for source counting using ad-hoc microphone arrays to record speech from multiple participants in scenarios such as a meeting. It is shown that the CDR estimates obtained at ad-hoc dual (two channel) microphone nodes, located at unknown locations within an unknown reverberant room, can detect time frames with more than one active source and are informative for source counting applications. Results show that interfering sources can be detected with accuracies ranging from 69% to 89% for delays ranging from 20 ms to 300 ms, with source counting accuracies ranged from 61% to 81% for two sources and the same range of delays.
Characterizing Single Polymeric and Protein Nanoparticles with Surface Plasmon Resonance Imaging Measurements

Near-infrared surface plasmon resonance imaging (SPRI) microscopy is used to detect and characterize the adsorption of single polymeric and protein nanoparticles (PPNPs) onto chemically modified gold thin films in real time. The single-nanoparticle SPRI responses, Δ%RNP, from several hundred adsorbed nanoparticles are collected in a single SPRI adsorption measurement. Analysis of Δ%RNP frequency distribution histograms is used to provide information on the size, material content, and interparticle interactions of the PPNPs. Examples include the measurement of log-normal Δ%RNP distributions for mixtures of polystyrene nanoparticles, the quantitation of bioaffinity uptake into and aggregation of porous NIPAm-based (N-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogel nanoparticles specifically engineered to bind peptides and proteins, and the characterization of the negative single-nanoparticle SPRI response and log-normal Δ%RNP distributions obtained for three different types of genetically encoded gas-filled protein nanostructures derived from bacteria.
Hepatitis C Virus Genotype 5a Subgenomic Replicons for Evaluation of Direct-Acting Antiviral Agents

ABSTRACT Hepatitis C virus (HCV) exists as six major genotypes that differ in geographical distribution, pathogenesis, and response to antiviral therapy. In vitro replication systems for all HCV genotypes except genotype 5 have been reported. In this study, we recovered genotype 5a full-length genomes from four infected voluntary blood donors in South Africa and established a G418-selectable subgenomic replicon system using one of these strains. The replicon derived from the wild-type sequence failed to replicate in Huh-7.5 cells. However, the inclusion of the S2205I amino acid substitution, a cell culture-adaptive change originally described for a genotype 1b replicon, resulted in a small number of G418-resistant cell colonies. HCV RNA replication in these cells was confirmed by quantification of viral RNA and detection of the nonstructural protein NS5A. Sequence analysis of the viral RNAs isolated from multiple independent cell clones revealed the presence of several nonsynonymous mutations, which were localized mainly in the NS3 protein. These mutations, when introduced back into the parental backbone, significantly increased colony formation. To facilitate convenient monitoring of HCV RNA replication levels, the mutant with the highest replication level was further modified to express a fusion protein of firefly luciferase and neomycin phosphotransferase. Using such replicons from genotypes 1a, 1b, 2a, 3a, 4a, and 5a, we compared the effects of various HCV inhibitors on their replication. In conclusion, we have established an in vitro replication system for HCV genotype 5a, which will be useful for the development of pan-genotype anti-HCV compounds.
Wind Turbine Gearbox Failure Identification With Deep Neural Networks

The feasibility of monitoring the health of wind turbine (WT) gearboxes based on the lubricant pressure data in the supervisory control and data acquisition system is investigated in this paper. A deep neural network (DNN)-based framework is developed to monitor conditions of WT gearboxes and identify their impending failures. Six data-mining algorithms, the k-nearest neighbors, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, ridge regression (Ridge), support vector machines, shallow neural network, as well as DNN, are applied to model the lubricant pressure. A comparative analysis of developed data-driven models is conducted and the DNN model is the most accurate. To prevent the overfitting of the DNN model, a dropout algorithm is applied into the DNN training process. Computational results show that the prediction error will shift before the occurrences of gearbox failures. An exponentially weighted moving average control chart is deployed to derive criteria for detecting the shifts. The effectiveness of the proposed monitoring approach is demonstrated by examining real cases from wind farms in China and benchmarked against the gearbox monitoring based on the oil temperature data.
Impact on Resistance of the Use of Therapeutically Equivalent Generics: the Case of Ciprofloxacin

ABSTRACT Therapeutic nonequivalence of generic antibiotics may lead to treatment failure and enrichment of resistance. However, there has been no demonstration that an equivalent generic displays the same resistance selection profile as the innovator drug. We aimed to test this hypothesis with five generic versions of ciprofloxacin by assessing their pharmaceutical equivalence with microbiological assays and their efficacy against Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 in the neutropenic murine thigh infection model. One equivalent generic was selected for analysis by high-pressure liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), to confirm chemical identity, and resistance selection experiments in a hollow-fiber (HF) system simulating two clinical dosing regimens. Total and resistant populations were measured, and the MICs of the resistant cells with and without an efflux pump inhibitor were determined. LC-MS/MS found no differences between products, and the innovator and the generic selected resistance with the same magnitude and mechanism after 7 days of treatment in the HF system, supporting the fact that a generic with demonstrated equivalence in vivo is also equivalent regarding resistance selection.
Design concept of detail musculoskeletal humanoid “Kenshiro” - Toward a real human body musculoskeletal simulator

We have developed and studied musculoskeletal humanoids. Our goal is to realize a more human-like humanoid as a real human simulator, which has the same muscle and joint arrangements as human's and can do natural and dynamic motions as well as humans. Especially, it is very challenging to design musculoskeletal structure which can contain a large number of high powered muscles. Now, we design new fullbody musculoskeletal humanoid Kenshiro. This paper presents the concepts of this new robot and also shows the outline of our latest results Kenshiro, which is the succeeding version of our previous robot Kojiro.
The Effect of Cardiac Rehabilitation I Phase Program on Physical Capacity after Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of phase I cardiac rehabilitation program (CRP) on physical capacity in patients with coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). Eighty seven patients who underwent CABG in our hospital were enrolled on the study. Among them, excluding 17 during the study, the results of 70 patients were included in the final data. Subjects were classified into two groups according to the participation in the phase I CRP; participation group (n=35) and non-participation group (n=35). The CR was executed for the participation group until patients' discharge. The variables including resting heart rate (RHR), oxygen saturation, walking distance in 6 minutes, and forced expiration amount were measured at initial phase, discharge and follow-up at 1 month after discharge. From the data, descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) were calculated, and differences in each variable before, during, after the treatment and between groups were tested using repeated measure analysis of variance using SPSS ver. 18.0 statistics program for Window. For the effects and results with a statistical significance, post-hoc test was made using t-test. There was statistically significant difference (p<0.05) in the RHR and the walking distance in 6 minutes. While there was no significant difference in the oxygen saturation and the maximum expiration amount. As conclusion, the Phase I CRP after CABG showed a effect on the significant improvement of physical capacity by decreasing the RHR and increasing the walking distance in 6 minutes, exerting a positive influence on the recovery after the CABG operation.
Bloom and Fawcett: A Textbook of Histology

On Dec 4, 1928, Alexander A. Maximow, professor of anatomy at the University of Chicago, was found dead in bed at age 54 years. A physician, and a member of the Russian aristocracy in St Petersburg, he had emigrated to the United States six years earlier, and at his death he left on his desk manuscripts amounting to about half of a textbook of histology. A junior colleague in the department, William Bloom, undertook the task of finishing the textbook, using the chapters that Professor Maximow had finished, translating fragments in Russian that he found among the Professor's papers, following outlines of unfinished chapters, and enlisting the aid of others. Maximow and Bloom's Textbook of Histology was published by Saunders in 1930. Bloom went on to become professor and chairman of his department in 1941. In 1986, the 11th edition of this distinguished volume appears, still published by WB Saunders
Aesthetic design and development of humanoid legged robot

This paper presents a new full sized humanoid leg robot that combines aesthetics and design theory with practical research goals in robotics. The research goal of the robot is to create human-like and compliant motion in multiple contact situations through the use of torque controlled joints. Low gear ratio and direct connections are used at each joint for low-friction and back-drivability but without explicit joint torque sensors. On the other hand, in creating human-like motions, not only technical specifications but also aesthetic design is important as the same performance of the robot can be perceived very differently depending on the design. The aesthetic design is, in this paper, achieved by the robot design process using an integrated design and frame through multi-axis CNC machining. The unique integration of the frame and design also drastically reduces parts and complexity of assembly for easy maintenance. In this paper, the design process and features are presented with range of motion, weight, and key aesthetic decisions. Compliant motion capability is demonstrated by experimental results.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis Gyrase Inhibitors as a New Class of Antitubercular Drugs

ABSTRACT One way to speed up the TB drug discovery process is to search for antitubercular activity among compound series that already possess some of the key properties needed in anti-infective drug discovery, such as whole-cell activity and oral absorption. Here, we present MGIs, a new series of Mycobacterium tuberculosis gyrase inhibitors, which stem from the long-term efforts GSK has dedicated to the discovery and development of novel bacterial topoisomerase inhibitors (NBTIs). The compounds identified were found to be devoid of fluoroquinolone (FQ) cross-resistance and seem to operate through a mechanism similar to that of the previously described NBTI GSK antibacterial drug candidate. The remarkable in vitro and in vivo antitubercular profiles showed by the hits has prompted us to further advance the MGI project to full lead optimization.
Full-body multi-primitive segmentation using classifiers

During human-robot interaction, the robot observes a continuous stream of time-series data capturing the behaviour of the human and any changes in the environment. For applications such as imitation learning, intention and gesture recognition, the time-series data is typically segmented into action or motion primitives, requiring accurate and online temporal segmentation. This paper casts the time-series segmentation problem into a two-class classification problem, labelling each data point as either a segment edge or a within-segment point, and applies several common classifiers to a set of full body motion data. The support vector machine combined with principal component analysis dimensionality reduction were found to perform best, with a classification F1 score of 91% when applied to novel exemplars. The proposed approach can also generalize to motions unseen during training, achieving a classification F1 score of 83% when applied to novel motions.
Two Mechanisms of Killing of Pseudomonas aeruginosa by Tobramycin Assessed at Multiple Inocula via Mechanism-Based Modeling

ABSTRACT Bacterial resistance is among the most serious threats to human health globally, and many bacterial isolates have emerged that are resistant to all antibiotics in monotherapy. Aminoglycosides are often used in combination therapies against severe infections by multidrug-resistant bacteria. However, models quantifying different antibacterial effects of aminoglycosides are lacking. While the mode of aminoglycoside action on protein synthesis has often been studied, their disruptive action on the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria remains poorly characterized. Here, we developed a novel quantitative model for these two mechanisms of aminoglycoside action, phenotypic tolerance at high bacterial densities, and adaptive bacterial resistance in response to an aminoglycoside (tobramycin) against three Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains. At low-intermediate tobramycin concentrations (<4 mg/liter), bacterial killing due to the effect on protein synthesis was most important, whereas disruption of the outer membrane was the predominant killing mechanism at higher tobramycin concentrations (≥8 mg/liter). The extent of killing was comparable across all inocula; however, the rate of bacterial killing and growth was substantially lower at the 108.9 CFU/ml inoculum than that at the lower inocula. At 1 to 4 mg/liter tobramycin for strain PAO1-RH, there was a 0.5- to 6-h lag time of killing that was modeled via the time to synthesize hypothetical lethal protein(s). Disruption of the outer bacterial membrane by tobramycin may be critical to enhance the target site penetration of antibiotics used in synergistic combinations with aminoglycosides and thereby combat multidrug-resistant bacteria. The two mechanisms of aminoglycoside action and the new quantitative model hold great promise to rationally design novel, synergistic aminoglycoside combination dosage regimens.
Pharmacokinetics of LFF571 and Vancomycin in Patients with Moderate Clostridium difficile Infections

ABSTRACT Clostridium difficile infection causes diarrheal disease with potentially fatal complications. Although treatments are available, including vancomycin, metronidazole, and fidaxomicin, the recurrence of disease after therapy remains a problem. LFF571 is a novel thiopeptide antibacterial that shows in vitro potency against C. difficile that is comparable to or greater than that of other clinically used antibiotics. Here, we compare the pharmacokinetics (PK) of LFF571 and vancomycin in patients with C. difficile infection as part of an early efficacy study. This multicenter, randomized, evaluator-blind, and active-controlled study evaluated the safety, efficacy, and pharmacokinetics of LFF571 in adults with primary episodes or first relapses of moderate C. difficile infections. Patients were randomized to receive 200 mg of LFF571 or 125 mg of vancomycin four times daily for 10 days. The PK parameters were calculated from drug concentrations measured in serum and fecal samples. The systemic exposure following oral administration of 200 mg of LFF571 four times per day for 10 days in patients with C. difficile infection was limited. The highest LFF571 serum concentration observed was 41.7 ng/ml, whereas the levels in feces at the end of treatment were between 107 and 12,900 μg/g. In comparison, the peak vancomycin level observed in serum was considerably higher, at 2.73 μg/ml; the levels of vancomycin in feces were not measured. Similar to healthy volunteers, patients with C. difficile infections exhibited high fecal concentrations and low serum levels of LFF571. These results are consistent with the retention of LFF571 in the lumen of the gastrointestinal tract. (This study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under registration no. NCT01232595.)
Touch based POMDP manipulation via sequential submodular optimization

Exploiting the submodularity of entropy-related objectives has recently led to a series of successes in machine learning and sequential decision making. Its generalized framework, adaptive submodularity, has later been introduced to deal with uncertainty and partially observability, achieving near-optimal performance with simple greedy policies. As a consequence, adaptive submodularity is in principle a promising candidate for efficient touch-based localization in robotics. However, applying that method directly on the motion level shows poor scaling with the dimensionality of the system. Being motivated by hierarchical partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) planning, we integrate an action hierarchy into the existing adaptive submodularity framework. The proposed algorithm is expected to effectively generate uncertainty-reducing actions with the help from an action hierarchy. Experimental results on both, a simulated robot and a Willow Garage PR2 platform, demonstrate the efficiency of our algorithm.
Analysis of the inertia and dynamics of grasped objects, for choosing optimal grasps to enable torque-efficient post-grasp manipulations

This paper addresses the problem of choosing between several different possible grasps on an object, in order to enable efficient manipulation of that object after it has been grasped. In this work, we assume mass distribution of the object, object's inertia tensor, and robot's dynamic model are known a priori. We then show how each possible grasp can be expressed as an augmented dynamics model, which combines the inertias of both the robot and the grasped object in a single formulation. The augmented dynamics model can then be used to estimate the joint torques needed to move the object along a desired post-grasp trajectory. We propose a cost function based on these joint torques, and show how this cost can be conveniently used to choose the best grasp for achieving post-grasp trajectories with minimal effort. We present the results of experiments using a 7-DOF redundant manipulator, grasping objects of different shapes. Firstly, we present both simulations and empirical measurements on a real robot, which show that different grasp positions on the same object do indeed lead to significantly different amounts of effort to move that object along a post-grasp trajectory. Secondly, we evaluate how accurately the augmented dynamics formulation, combined with a physics simulator, is able to predict post-grasp joint torques, by comparing predicted torques against torques measured empirically during task execution on a real robot. We show that, even though predicted and measured torques are not identical, they are sufficiently well correlated to enable correct selection of the best grasp to enable the least-effort post-grasp motion. Finally, we demonstrate our grasp selection strategy on objects of two different shapes, and show that our method successfully chooses the best grasp in both cases.
John Wesley's Primitive Physick

John Wesley was an 18th- century Anglican priest whose evangelistic efforts led to the establishment of Methodist Societies in England, Ireland and America. He became greatly concerned for the spiritual and physical health of the poor. Wesley wrote a book entitled Primitive Physick: Or, an Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases. He was deeply impressed with the few physicians who called for the prevention of disease through healthy living and who recommended time-honored, inexpensive methods of cure. This article reviews Wesley's ideas and prescriptions for healthy living. The discussion reflects on his contribution to the development of a psychology of health and credits Wesley with being ahead of his time in his dietetic and hygienic recommendations. Using Matarazzo's (1982) definition the article shows that over 200 years ago Wesley dealt with each of the major concerns of health psychology and behavioral medicine.