Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamically reconfigurable robotic system

The concept of the DRRS (dynamically reconfigurable robotic system) based on a cell structure is proposed for the next generation of robotic systems. The system can reorganize its configuration and its software to a given task, so that its level of flexibility and adaptability is much higher than that of the conventional robots. It consists of a lot of intelligent cells that have a fundamental mechanical function. Each cell can detach itself and recombine autonomously, depending on a task, e.g. To provide manipulators or mobile robots. The system can also be self-repairing and fault-tolerant. A decision method for cell-structured-manipulator configurations is proposed. <<ETX>>
Constructive Adaptive Visual Analogy

Visual knowledge appears to be an important part of problem solving, but the role of visual knowledge in analogical problem solving is still somewhat mysterious. In this work I present the Constructive Adaptive Visual Analogy theory, which claims that visual knowledge is helpful for solving problems analogically and suggests a mechanism for how it might be accomplished. Through evaluations using an implemented computer program, cognitive models of some of the visual aspects of experimental participants, and a psychological experiment, I support four claims: First, visual knowledge alone is sufficient for transfer of some problem solving procedures. Second, visual knowledge facilitates transfer even when non-visual knowledge might be available. Third, the successful transfer of strongly-ordered procedures in which new objects are created requires the reasoner to generate intermediate knowledge states and mappings between the intermediate knowledge states of the source and target analogs. And finally, that visual knowledge alone is insufficient for evaluation of the results of transfer.
Age and sex differences in human motor cortex input–output characteristics

Stimulus‐response curves for motor evoked potentials (MEPs) induced in a hand muscle by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) were constructed for 42 subjects with the aim of identifying differences related to age and sex. There was no effect of age on the resting threshold to TMS, the maximal amplitude of the MEP that could be evoked (MEPmax) or the maximal slope of the stimulus‐response curve. However, higher stimulus intensities were required to achieve both MEPmax and the maximal slope in the older subjects. The trial‐to‐trial variability of MEPs was greater in the older subjects, particularly at intensities near threshold. There was a significant interaction between age, threshold and trial‐to‐trial variability of MEP amplitude. Overall, MEP variability fell markedly as stimulus intensity increased above threshold but less rapidly in older than in younger subjects. Females tended to have larger MEP variability than males, but age and threshold were much stronger modulators than sex. These differences in input‐output characteristics are likely to be due either to a decreased number of spinal motoneurones being activated synchronously in older subjects, or to the activation of the same number of motoneurones in a less synchronous manner, leading to phase cancellation in the surface electromyogram.
FBXL 5-mediated degradation of single-stranded DNA-binding protein hSSB 1 controls DNA damage response

Human single-strand (ss) DNA binding proteins 1 (hSSB1) has been shown to participate in DNA damage response and maintenance of genome stability by regulating the initiation of ATM-dependent signaling. ATM phosphorylates hSSB1 and prevents hSSB1 from ubiquitin-proteasome-mediated degradation. However, the E3 ligase that targets hSSB1 for destruction is still unknown. Here, we report that hSSB1 is the bona fide substrate for an Fbxl5containing SCF (Skp1-Cul1-F box) E3 ligase. Fbxl5 interacts with and targets hSSB1 for ubiquitination and degradation, which could be prevented by ATM-mediated hSSB1 T171 phosphorylation. Furthermore, cells overexpression of Fbxl5 abrogated the cellular response to DSBs, including activation of ATM and phosphorylation of ATM targets and exhibited increased radiosensitivity, chemosensitivity and defective checkpoint activation after genotoxic stress stimuli. Moreover, the protein levels of hSSB1 and Fbxl5 showed an inverse correlation in lung cancer cells lines and clinical lung cancer samples. Therefore, Fbxl5 may negatively modulate hSSB1 to regulate DNA damage response, implicating Fbxl5 as a novel, promising therapeutic target for lung can-
Impact of electroforming polarity on TiO2 based memristor

The impact of electroforming polarity on solid Pt/TiO2/Pt memristor is studied. We observe the negative electroforming leads to small and concentrated forming voltages; while positive electroforming leads to the relatively larger and dispersed forming voltages. These phenomena are interpreted by employing a modified bipolar percolation model. We argue the distribution of polarity-related forming voltage is attributed to the different filament growth patterns under the different electroforming polarities. This work facilitates understanding the electroforming procedure and then benefits fabrication for reliable devices with controllable electroforming behaviour.
Significance of serum myoglobin in neuromuscular diseases and in carrier detection of Duchenne muscular dystrophy

In a retrospective study, the serum myoglobin concentration (S‐myoglobin) was determined in patients with neuromuscular diseases and in carriers of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Myoglobin was quantified by a sensitive radioimmunoassay. Serum creatine kinase (CK, EC 2.7.3.2) activity (S‐CK) and serum creatine kinase B‐subunit activity (S‐CKB) were determined for comparison. Sera from 70 patients with various neuromuscular diseases and from 17 female relatives of patients with DMD were analysed. Increased levels of S‐myoglobin were found both in dystrophic and in spinal myopathies. Because of a marked overlap of the range of values between the different dystrophic myopathies and even between the dystrophic and the spinal myopathies, S‐myoglobin is of little value in the final diagnosis of neuromuscular diseases. In the detection of carriers of DMD, simultaneous determination of S‐myoglobin and S‐CK gave a higher detection rate compared to the detection rate with S‐CK. S‐CKB was normal in all carriers and only elevated in some of the patients with DMD and limb girdle muscular dystorphy.
Celiac disease risk in the USA: high prevalence of antiendomysium antibodies in healthy blood donors.

BACKGROUND Recent epidemiologic studies in Europe using antigliadin (AGA) and anti-endomysium antibodies (AEA) for initial screening have shown that the overall prevalence of celiac disease (CD) is about 1:300. There are no comparable scientific data for the USA, where CD is considered rare. The main aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of increased AEA in healthy blood donors in the USA. METHODS Sera from 2000 healthy blood donors were screened for IgG AGA and IgA AGA with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test. All those with increased AGA levels, those with intermediate levels, and random samples with low levels were tested for AEA, using both monkey esophagus (ME) and human umbilical cord (HUC) cryosections as substrates. RESULTS The mean age of the blood donors was 39 years, with 52% being men, 85.2% being Caucasian, 11.8% African-American, 1.5% Asian, and 1.5% Hispanic. Eight healthy blood donors had positive AEA tests on both monkey esophagus and human umbilical cord. Among the eight subjects with increased AEA levels seven were Caucasian and one was African-American. All the four examined AEA-positive donors carried the known susceptibility alleles for CD. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of increased AEA levels in healthy blood donors in the USA is 1:250 (8:2000). This is similar to that reported in countries in Europe, where subsequent small-intestinal biopsies have confirmed CD in all those with AEA positivity. On the basis of a high positive predictive value of the AEA antibody test, it is likely that the eight blood donors identified in this study have CD. These data suggest that CD is not rare in the USA and that there is need for a large-scale epidemiologic study to determine the precise prevalence of the disease in the USA.
Management of Wireless Sensor Networks Using the Theory of Auctions

As an emerging technology, many researches have been focused on enhancing sensor networks in the recent years. For improving the quality of service, researchers have concentrated on the notion of mobility as a means to change the network topology. Considering each node as an intelligent agent, and using the concepts of the theory of auctions, this paper introduces a novel game theoretical approach to the sensor management problem. By obviating unnecessary communication among the nodes, and offering task changing capability to them the new method addresses more network compatibility to uncertain tasks
Predictors of functional capacity and skill in youth soccer players

Predictors of functional capacities and skills in 143 soccer players aged 11–14 years from five clubs in Portugal were investigated. Data for players aged 11–12 (n=75) and 13–14 (n=68) years included chronological age, skeletal age, stage of pubic hair (PH), anthropometry, four functional capacities, four soccer skills and experience; composite functional and skill scores were derived. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to examine the independent effects of age, maturity, body size and proportions, adiposity and experience on individual functional capacities and skills and composite scores. Explained variances differed among functional capacities (22–48%) and skills (<25%), and were greater for composite functional (younger 37%, older 58%) than skill (younger 26%, older 18%) scores. Skeletal maturity was a predictor of the counter‐movement jump in both groups and of composite functional and skill scores in older players. Age and adiposity were primary predictors in players aged 11–12 years, while experience and a proportionally longer trunk (conversely, relatively shorter lower extremities) appeared among predictors in players aged 13–14 years. PH was not among predictors. Except for the counter‐movement jump, predictors of functional capacities and soccer skills differed between age groups.
Imagery rehearsal therapy: An emerging treatment for posttraumatic nightmares in veterans.

Nightmares are a common complaint among service members exposed to traumatic events, but prevailing paradigms are disposed to a view that nightmares are a secondary phenomenon untreatable with direct therapeutic intervention. Imagery rehearsal therapy is a cognitive-imagery approach with proven efficacy in the treatment of nightmares in civilian trauma victims. Imagery rehearsal therapy not only has potential to reduce nightmare intensity and frequency, but controlled studies show clinically meaningful decreases in all clusters of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms as well as insomnia. Limited data support its use with combat veterans. Directions for future research with combat veterans are recommended.
Ultracold quantum gases in triangular optical lattices

Over recent years, exciting developments in the field of ultracold atoms confined in optical lattices have led to numerous theoretical proposals devoted to the quantum simulation of problems e.g. known from condensed matter physics. Many of those ideas demand experimental environments with non-cubic lattice geometries. In this paper, we report on the implementation of a versatile three-beam lattice allowing for the generation of triangular as well as hexagonal optical lattices. As an important step, the superfluid–Mott insulator (SF–MI) quantum phase transition has been observed and investigated in detail in this lattice geometry for the first time. In addition to this, we study the physics of spinor Bose–Einstein condensates (BEC) in the presence of the triangular optical lattice potential, especially spin changing dynamics across the SF–MI transition. Our results suggest that, below the SF–MI phase transition, a well-established mean-field model describes the observed data when renormalizing the spin-dependent interaction. Interestingly, this opens up new perspectives for a lattice-driven tuning of a spin dynamics resonance occurring through the interplay of the quadratic Zeeman effect and spin-dependent interaction. Finally, we discuss further lattice configurations that can be realized with our setup.
Novel cancer therapy targeting microbiome

Abstract In the human intestinal tract, there are more than 100 trillion symbiotic bacteria, which form the gut microbiota. Approximately 70% of the human immune system is in the intestinal tract, which prevents infection by pathogenic bacteria. When the intestinal microbiota is disturbed, causing dysbiosis, it can lead to obesity, diabetes mellitus, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, autism spectrum disorder and cancer. Recent metabolomics analyses have also made the association between the microbiota and carcinogenesis clear. Here, we review the current evidence on the association between the microbiota and gastric, bladder, hepatobiliary, pancreatic, lung and colorectal cancer. Moreover, several animal studies have revealed that probiotics seem to be effective for the prevention of carcinogenesis to some extent. In this review, we focused on this relationship between the microbiota and cancer, and considered how to prevent cancer using strategies involving the gut microbiota.
Optimal feature subset selection using differential evolution with Sequential Extreme Learning Machine for river ice images

Feature selection problem often occurs in pattern recognition and more specifically in classification. Feature set extracted from feature extraction methods could contain a large number of feature set. In this work, the features are extracted from Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) in four different angles (0°, 45°, 90° and 135°) and feature subset selection is performed with Differential Evolution Feature Selection (DEFS) algorithm. In this paper, Sequential Extreme Learning Machine (SELM) will understand the input data one-by-one or portion-by-portion (block of data) with varying or fixed size is integrated with DEFS method. SELM-DEFS algorithm works for single hidden layer feed forward networks (SLFNs) with radial basis function (RBF) for hidden nodes. In SELM, the parameters of hidden nodes are arbitrarily selected and the output weights are analytically determined based on one after the other arriving data. Other than selecting the number of hidden nodes, no other parameters have to be manually selected. SELM-DEFS technique selects optimal feature subset from original feature set. The selected feature set will simplify the training data needed for the classifier. Features selected from the proposed method provide 97.78% accuracy for river ice images.
Shift Work and Health: Current Problems and Preventive Actions

The paper gives an overview of the problems to be tackled nowadays by occupational health with regards to shift work as well as the main guidelines at organizational and medical levels on how to protect workers' health and well-being. Working time organization is becoming a key factor on account of new technologies, market globalization, economic competition, and extension of social services to general populations, all of which involve more and more people in continuous assistance and control of work processes over the 24 hours in a day. The large increase of epidemiological and clinical studies on this issue document the severity of this risk factor on human health and well being, at both social and psychophysical levels, starting from a disruption of biological circadian rhythms and sleep/wake cycle and ending in several psychosomatic troubles and disorders, likely also including cancer, and extending to impairment of performance efficiency as well as family and social life. Appropriate interventions on the organization of shift schedules according to ergonomic criteria and careful health surveillance and social support for shift workers are important preventive and corrective measures that allow people to keep working without significant health impairment.
Cambio climático: el reto del siglo

Hoy en dia quedan pocas dudas de que el clima del planeta esta cambiando. La causa del calentamiento esta en los grandes incrementos en las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero producto de la actividad humana. De continuar los cambios en el clima a esta velocidad los impactos negativos en el mundo podrian ser mas frecuentes. Sin embargo, gran parte de lo que suceda en el futuro dependera de los acuerdos que se alcancen en materia de mitigacion y de las acciones de adaptacion. Mexico experimentara cambios en su clima con incrementos muy probables de temperatura. Es menos seguro cuales seran los cambios en el ciclo hidrlologico, aunque de cualquier forma la disponibilidad de agua se vera disminuida. Por ello, las acciones de adaptacion ante cambio climatico deben iniciar ya
A New Method for Evaluation of Compatibility of Contact Lenses and Lens Cases With Contact Lens Disinfecting Solutions

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to describe new methodology, antimicrobial efficacy endpoint methodology to determine compatibility of contact lens solutions, lens cases and hydrogel lenses for disinfection (AEEMC), to evaluate the effect of a contact lens and a lens case on disinfection efficacy, and to present the ring test used to justify the use of the method in multiple laboratories. Materials and Methods: A prototype solution containing chlorhexidine as the disinfecting agent and four representative lens types (group I and IV hydrogels and two silicone hydrogels) were used in these ring tests. Five laboratories participated in the chemical and microbiologic analyses. The residual chlorhexidine in lens cases containing the contact lenses was determined using high-performance liquid chromatography; uptake by the lenses was then determined by extrapolation. For the microbiologic part of the study, a contact lens was placed in the well of the lens case, inoculated at 105 to 106 cfu (colony forming units) per lens with microorganisms in 10% organic soil. The microorganisms, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, and Fusarium solani, were prepared as in International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14729. After a 3- to 10-min exposure time, the prototype solution was dispensed into each well. Aliquots of the inoculated solutions were removed at 4 and 24 hrs and 7 and 30 days and cultured in neutralizing media for determination of survivors; lenses were also cultured for survivors. Results: Chemical uptake data confirmed the differences observed in kill of the challenge organisms according to lens type. It was observed that the culturing of the solution provided adequate data to show the effect of a lens on disinfection efficacy of a lens care product. The findings of the ring test indicated that the separate culturing of the contact lenses is not necessary for routine assessment. Conclusions: The methodology in the November 12, 2008, draft standard (AEEMC), meets the stated objective of demonstrating the effect of a contact lens on the disinfection efficacy of a simulated lens care product. This method, used in combination with the methodology in ISO 14729, should provide for a more robust evaluation of applicable contact lens care disinfecting products.
Thermal Sensor Using Poly-Si Thin-Film Transistor With Widened Detectable Temperature Range

We propose a thermal sensor using a poly-Si thin-film transistor (TFT) with widened detectable temperature range. The cell circuit is composed of one transistor and one capacitor. The cell capacitor is charged during initializing periods and discharged during holding periods, and the dropped voltages are measured during detecting periods. The temperature is detected because the discharge current is subject to the temperature dependence of the transistor characteristic. The detectable temperature is expanded to -10°C-140°C by adding multiple holding periods. We think that it is promising to integrate this thermal sensor in some applications using TFTs.
International dialogue on end of life: challenges in the UK and USA.

AIM The aim of this paper was to increase international collaboration on end of life care (EoLC) in critical care. Objectives included highlighting key challenges for critical care nurses in EoLC through a transcribed interview between a clinician, an educationalist and a researcher who all hold an EoLC focus. BACKGROUND EoLC continues to hold high profile within international health care arenas, including critical care units. Whilst end of life care remains well debated, it still presents many challenges for everyday practitioners. Dialogue with international colleagues and disciplines may provide opportunity for further understanding of this complex and sensitive area. CONCLUSIONS A key issues to arise from this venture of shared learning was that futility of treatment is problematic for all. This is further complicated in the USA where the concept of (family) autonomy strongly shapes EoLC decision making. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE This paper demonstrates that there are opportunities for nurses within health care teams which could be addressed through education and professional development initiatives. Furthermore, knowledge from other disciplines can provide a useful lens through which to improve our understanding of EoLC.
Fuzzy control of continuous time-delay affine T-S fuzzy systems

In this paper, the stability and stabilization issue to time-delay affine Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy systems is considered. Based on Lyapunov criterion and Razumikhin theorem, an iterative linear matrix inequality (ILMI) algorithm is used to solve the bilinear matrix inequalities (BMI) problem. Besides, ILMI can be used to find the feasible solution for the synthesis of the continuous time-delay affine T-S fuzzy systems. Furthermore, the S-procedure is used in the stability analysis and stabilization procedure in order to provide available analysis results. Finally, a numerical simulation is given to show the applications of the present approach.
Pre-CFU-f: young-type stromal stem cells in murine bone marrow following administration of DNA inhibitors.

Occurrence of young-type stromal stem cells (defined here as "pre-CFU-f") in murine bone marrow is reported in this study. Two consecutive intraperitoneal (i.p.) cytosine arabinoside (ara-C) injections were administered to C57B1 mice (2 X 200 mg/kg at 6-h intervals). Two days later the bone marrow was collected and assayed for colony-forming units-fibroblastoid (defined here as "CFU-f"). In additional experiments, ara-C-treated marrow was exposed in vitro to hydroxyurea (HU; "hydroxyurea killing test"), prior to plating, to establish the cycling state of stromal stem cells. In separate cultures of ara-C-treated marrow, replating of adherent cells was carried out up to quaternary sub-cultures. The results indicate ara-C-treated marrow produces approximately 20% "huge" fibroblastoid colonies (approximately 5 mm diameter versus 0.5-2 mm normal size); most stromal stem cells producing huge colonies are cycling cells; and adherent cells from primary ara-C-treated marrow cultures replated to secondary cultures produce adherent layers with double the number of cells than in the control secondary cultures. We conclude that the ara-C-treated murine bone marrow contains certain young-type cycling stromal stem cells which we refer to as pre-CFU-f. These stem cells produce huge fibroblastoid colonies in culture, indicating that they probably go through more cell cycles than CFU-f during the culture period. Alternatively, pre-CFU-f may have a higher self-replicative capacity than CFU-f.