Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of Target Width and Distance on Postural Adjustments in a Fencing Lunge

The aim of this study was to examine whether target width and target distance influence the planning phase of a fencing lunge (early and anticipatory postural adjustments) as well as the execution phase of a fencing lunge. Eight elite female fencers participated in the study. The displacement of the center of foot pressure, muscle activity of the tibialis anterior, and kinematics of center of mass were recorded using force plates. The results show that target width and distance have no effect on early and anticipatory postural adjustments as well as the acceleration and velocity of the center of mass at the moment of foot-off. However, a greater target distance was associated with a greater max center of mass acceleration and velocity, and larger target width resulted in a greater max center of mass acceleration during lunging (p < 0.05). We suppose that the effect of task parameters on preparing a fencing lunge may be mitigated due to the specific technique adopted by expert fencers and the ballistic nature of a fencing lunge.
Extensions and modifications to explanatory coherence

Thagard’s theory of explanatory coherence (TEC) and its implementation ECHO might be considered as the de facto calculus of explanatory coherence. It is an elaborate framework to compare competing scientific theories. Recently, it has become apparent that TEC is also useful as a tool for the analysis of different scenarios in so-called sense-making systems. To this end, it is expedient to discuss a number of extensions and modifications to TEC. This article proposes a number of extensions and modifications to TEC in the context of sense-making systems. The following topics are discussed: input format, representation of false formulas, representation languages, relaxation methods, schemes of coherence, meta-explanations, scenarios, leaking hypotheses, knowledge acquisition, and contextual explanation. The discussion is detailed enough to carry through changes in existing sense-making systems.
Short-Term Effects of Specific Sensorimotor Training on Postural Assessment in Healthy Individuals: A Pilot Study with a Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial

It is well-known that sensorimotor training aims to increase the performance of the sensorimotor system to maintain an upright position. Through the use of a randomized placebo-controlled trial, the specific aim of this study was to investigate the short-term effects of a specific session of sensorimotor training on postural balance, stability and coordination in healthy, recreationally active participants. Ninety subjects were randomly allocated into three groups: experimental (n = 30), placebo (n = 32) and control (n = 28). The experimental group performed a 5 min warm-up, with the sensorimotor training consisting of 60-min specific sensorimotor exercises; the control group was not allowed to perform any sensorimotor training; the placebo group observed a video clip of an individual belonging to the experimental group performing the sensorimotor training accurately. All participants were seen three times per week for 4 weeks. Before and after the entire training, all groups of participants undertook stabilometric parameter assessment. The intervention-mediated sensorimotor training confirmed significant enhancement in the proprioceptive system. Significant improvement in the motor and/or sensory function was observed in the experimental and placebo groups. In conclusion, our findings suggest that specific sensorimotor training performed 3 days per week for 4 weeks could improve postural balance, stability and coordination in healthy individuals.
THE INFLUENCE OF DISTANCE ON ULTRASONIC DENSITY MEASSUREMENTS

In this work we describe how ultrasonic sensors can be used to detect tree canopies and their density, which correspond to the leaf quantity. In order to test the approach and estimate the best distance to be used for measurement, a test field was constructed and used in three test cases. The results show that the sensors are able to detect tree canopies in all examples, where the distance of 45 cm proved to be the best choice to measure the density of the tree canopy.
Computer and Physical Modeling for the Estimation of the Possibility of Application of Convolutional Neural Networks in Close-Range Photogrammetry

Close-range photogrammetry is widely used to measure the surface shape of various objects and its deformations. The classic approach for this is to use a stereo pair of images, which are captured from different angles using two digital video cameras. The surface shape is measured by triangulating a set of corresponding two-dimensional points from these images using a predetermined location of cameras relative to each other. Various algorithms are used to find these points. Several photogrammetry methods use cross-correlation for this purpose. This paper discusses the possibility of replacing the correlation algorithm with neural networks to determine displacements of small areas in the images. They allow increasing the calculation speed and the spatial resolution of the measurement results. To verify the possibility of using convolutional networks for photogrammetry tasks, computer and physical modeling were carried out. For the first test, a set of synthetically generated images representing images of the Particle Image Velocimetry method was used. The displacements of particles in the images are known, it allows to estimate the accuracy of processing of such images. For the second test, a series of experimental images with surfaces with different deformation was obtained. Computational experiments were performed to process synthetic and experimental images using selected neural networks and a classical cross-correlation algorithm. The limitations on the use of the compared algorithms were determined and their error in reconstructing the three-dimensional shape of the surface was evaluated. Computer and physical modeling have shown the operability and efficiency of neural networks for processing photogrammetry images.
Administration of an LXR agonist promotes atherosclerotic lesion remodelling in murine inflammatory arthritis

The leading cause of mortality in patients with rheumatoid arthritis is atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD). We have shown that murine arthritis impairs atherosclerotic lesion regression, because of cellular cholesterol efflux defects in haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), causing monocytosis and impaired atherosclerotic regression. Therefore, we hypothesised that improving cholesterol efflux using a Liver X Receptor (LXR) agonist would improve cholesterol efflux and improve atherosclerotic lesion regression in arthritis.
The path to visible extreme adaptive optics with MagAO-2K and MagAO-X

The next generation of extremely large telescopes (ELTs) have the potential to image habitable rocky planets, if suitably optimized. This will require the development of fast high order "extreme" adaptive optics systems for the ELTs. Located near the excellent site of the future GMT, the Magellan AO system (MagAO) is an ideal on-sky testbed for high contrast imaging development. Here we discuss planned upgrades to MagAO. These include improvements in WFS sampling (enabling correction of more modes) and an increase in speed to 2000 Hz, as well as an H2RG detector upgrade for the Clio infrared camera. This NSF funded project, MagAO-2K, is planned to be on-sky in November 2016 and will significantly improve the performance of MagAO at short wavelengths. Finally, we describe MagAO-X, a visible-wavelength extreme-AO "afterburner" system under development. MagAO-X will deliver Strehl ratios of over 80% in the optical and is optimized for visible light coronagraphy.
Bending and Stretching of Laminated Aeolotropic Plates

Linear theory is established for general multilayer aeolotropic plate subject to in-plane forces and transverse loading; it is shown that coupling phenomenon occurs, between in-plane forces and transverse bending, in differential equations as well as in boundary conditions; special types of heterogeneity are indicated for which coupling of stretching and bending disappears; solutions for plate problems are given as examples.
Vegetable By-Products as Alternative and Sustainable Raw Materials for Ruminant Feeding: Nutritive Evaluation and Their Inclusion in a Novel Ration for Calf Fattening

Simple Summary Large amounts of vegetable by-products are generated by the agri-food industry every day. Giving them a second life can be positive for the producing companies, with a special emphasis on improving their sustainability indicators. In addition, vegetable by-products are promising raw materials for ruminant nutrition. In this study, first, we evaluated the nutritional composition, in vitro digestibility, and gas production kinetics of 15 vegetable by-products using corn silage as the positive control. From these results, the second part of the research was focused on the formulation of two different diets for fattening calves: a conventional ration based on concentrate and straw and an alternative one based on vegetable by-products. Most vegetable by-products revealed greater nutritive value than corn silage and results indicated that their inclusion in finishing cattle diets may reduce the use of other ingredients without impairing ruminal fermentation. Abstract This research aimed to evaluate the nutritional composition, in vitro digestibility, and gas production kinetics of 15 vegetable by-products generated by the agri-food industry compared with corn silage as a reference raw material. Nutritional characterization and in vitro ruminal fermentation tests were performed to determine in vitro organic matter digestibility and digestible energy values, short-chain fatty acids, and the gas production profile. Results indicate that vegetable by-products were more degradable, more extensively fermented, and fermented at a faster rate than corn silage. Going one step further in the valorization of these by-products in animal feed, the second part of the research aimed to compare the novel ration designed for calf fattening with a conventional one. An artificial rumen unit was used to obtain nutrient disappearance, rumen fermentation parameters, and gas production of rumen digesta. Very slight differences were observed between both experimental rations, with their composition being the main difference. Most of the unitary vegetable by-products and all mixes, as real examples of by-product generation in the agri-food industry, have higher digestibility and a greater nutritional value than corn silage. These by-products showed the potential to be used in ruminant-ensiled rations and could replace part of the ingredients in conventional diets.
Meteorological Value of Ground Target Measurements by Radar

Abstract Many characteristics of radar echoes from ground targets vary with time as the properties of the atmosphere in which the radar waves propagate evolve. For example, if the phase of a target varies with time and the target is known to be stationary, that phase variation is related to changes in the refractive index of air between the radar and that target. These changes are themselves caused by variations in the pressure, temperature, and especially the humidity of air. The changing phase and intensity of ground targets are hence records of evolving atmospheric conditions and could therefore in theory be used to retrieve parameters of meteorological value. In this paper, the various ways meteorological conditions can affect radar returns from ground targets are explored and quantified. In particular, the extent with which the changes in the phase of ground targets can be used to extract weather-related information is investigated. While wind, precipitation, and the vertical structure of temperature.
Diffusion basis spectrum imaging as an adjunct to conventional MRI leads to earlier diagnosis of high-grade glioma tumor progression versus treatment effect

Abstract Background Following chemoradiotherapy for high-grade glioma (HGG), it is often challenging to distinguish treatment changes from true tumor progression using conventional MRI. The diffusion basis spectrum imaging (DBSI) hindered fraction is associated with tissue edema or necrosis, which are common treatment-related changes. We hypothesized that DBSI hindered fraction may augment conventional imaging for earlier diagnosis of progression versus treatment effect. Methods Adult patients were prospectively recruited if they had a known histologic diagnosis of HGG and completed standard-of-care chemoradiotherapy. DBSI and conventional MRI data were acquired longitudinally beginning 4 weeks post-radiation. Conventional MRI and DBSI metrics were compared with respect to their ability to diagnose progression versus treatment effect. Results Twelve HGG patients were enrolled between August 2019 and February 2020, and 9 were ultimately analyzed (5 progression, 4 treatment effect). Within new or enlarging contrast-enhancing regions, DBSI hindered fraction was significantly higher in the treatment effect group compared to progression group (P = .0004). Compared to serial conventional MRI alone, inclusion of DBSI would have led to earlier diagnosis of either progression or treatment effect in 6 (66.7%) patients by a median of 7.7 (interquartile range = 0–20.1) weeks. Conclusions In the first longitudinal prospective study of DBSI in adult HGG patients, we found that in new or enlarging contrast-enhancing regions following therapy, DBSI hindered fraction is elevated in cases of treatment effect compared to those with progression. Hindered fraction map may be a valuable adjunct to conventional MRI to distinguish tumor progression from treatment effect.
Application of Preisach analysis to detection of fatigue damage

Measurements of hysteresis loops, initial magnetization curve and families of differential permeability curves were made on a series of 0.05 and 0.1 wt. % C Fe-C samples subjected to fatigue under load control. Preisach-like functions were calculated using the permeability data. Based on these functions a new parameter was identified which was found to decrease monotonically with increasing number of fatigue cycles whereas the classical magnetic hysteresis loop parameters remained constant. This result indicates that the method may be used as a nondestructive evaluation (NDE) technique for estimating expended fatigue life of ferromagnetic materials.
Solving Size Constraints Using Graph Representation

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to find an algorithm that solves ordinal inequalities derived from size constraints. Such inequalities consist of rigid variables (plus offset), infinity, constants and flexible variables that are functions depending on rigid variables (plus offset). First, this is done for a restricted problem: constraints that include maximums and different dependencies on rigid variables are excluded. Then these restrictions are removed and the algorithm is adapted accordingly. The idea is to map the constraints to a graph, find the reflexive-transitive closure and then search for the solutions starting from known values. Zusammenfassung Diese Bachelorarbeit soll einen Algorithmus zum Losen von ordinalen Ungleichungen aus size constraints finden. Solche Ungleichungen bestehen aus festen Variablen (plus Offset), Unendlich, Konstanten und flexiblen Variablen, die Funktionen von festen Variablen sind (plus Offset). Dafur wird das Problem zuerst eingeschrankt gelost: Ungleichungen, die Maxima und unterschiedliche Abhangigkeiten von festen Variablen enthalten, werden vorerst nicht betrachtet. Nachdem die Einschrankungen entfernt wurden, wird der Algorithmus entsprechend angepasst. Der Ansatz besteht darin, die Ungleichungen auf einen Graphen abzubilden, dann die reflexiv-transitive Hulle zu bilden und anschliesend von bekannten Werten aus die Losungen zu finden.
Generating and Resolving Vague Color Reference

We describe a method for distinguishing colors in context using English color terms. Our approach uses linguistic theories of vagueness to build a cognitive model via Bayesian rational analysis. In particular, we formalize the likelihood that a speaker would use a color term to describe one color but not another as a function of the background frequency of the color term, along with the likelihood of selecting standards in context that fit one color and not the other. Our approach exhibits the qualitative flexibility of human color judgments and reaches ceiling performance on a small evaluation corpus.
Diverging trends in US summer dewpoint since 1948

Increases in summer humidity are a basic threat to human survival, because the body cannot shed heat by sweating if absolute humidity is too high. However, climate change trends and patterns of extreme humidity have been much less studied than those of extreme temperature. Here, using station data, we provide an up‐to‐date and comprehensive assessment of the patterns and 1948–2020 trends of summertime dewpoint ( Td ) in the contiguous United States, for multiple percentiles of its distribution ranging from median to extreme. We find that summer‐median Td is maximized in the Southeast and along the coasts, while extreme summer Td is counterintuitively higher in the Midwest than in much of the Southeast, and is higher in Western agricultural valleys than on the Pacific coast. In contrast, 1948–2020 trends in summer Td are broadly consistent across percentiles, but quite divergent regionally. Namely, median and extreme Td have strongly increased in Florida, South Texas, parts of California and from the Northeast to the Northern Plains, but have declined in the Intermountain West and changed little elsewhere, often despite clear summertime warming. These regional Td non‐increases contradict basic theory, but agree with several recent studies. In addition, median Td is increasing more systematically than extreme Td in several parts of the eastern United States. Future work will seek to uncover the reasons for all of these divergences and to better understand the fate of summer humidity worldwide.
Is H19 RNA a Useful Marker of Acromegaly and Its Complications? A Preliminary Study

Acromegaly is a rare endocrine disorder caused by somatotroph pituitary adenoma. Besides its typical symptoms, it contributes to the development of cardiovascular, metabolic, and bone comorbidities. H19 RNA is a long non-coding RNA and it is suspected to be involved in tumorigenesis, cancer progression, and metastasis. H19 RNA is a novel biomarker for the diagnosis and monitoring of neoplasms. Moreover, there might be an association between H19 and cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. We enrolled 32 acromegaly patients and 25 controls. We investigated whether whole blood H19 RNA expression is associated with the diagnosis of acromegaly. Correlations between H19 and tumour dimension, invasiveness, and biochemical and hormonal parameters were evaluated. We analysed the coincidence of acromegaly comorbidities with H19 RNA expression. In the results, we did not observe a statistically significant difference in H19 RNA expression between acromegaly patients and the controls. There were no correlations between H19 and the adenoma size and infiltration and patients’ biochemical and hormonal statuses. In the acromegaly group, hypertension, goitre, and cholelithiasis were observed more frequently. The diagnosis of acromegaly was a factor contributing to the occurrence of dyslipidaemia, goitre, and cholelithiasis. We found an association between H19 and cholelithiasis in acromegaly patients. To conclude, H19 RNA expression is not a relevant marker for diagnosis and monitoring of acromegaly patients. There is a higher risk of hypertension, goitre, and cholelithiasis related to acromegaly. Cholelithiasis is associated with a higher H19 RNA expression.
The New Viscosity Approximation Methods for Nonexpansive Nonself-Mappings

In this paper, to find the fixed points of the nonexpansive nonself-mappings, we introduced two new viscosity approximation methods, and then we prove the iterative sequences defined by above viscosity approximation methods which converge strongly to the fixed points of nonexpansive nonself-mappings. The results presented in this paper extend and improve the results of Song-Chen [1] and Song-Li [2].
A subsystem design approach to continuous-time performance of decentralized multirate sampled-data systems

A decentralized controller design is presented for multirate sampled-data systems, where stability and input-output performance are considered in terms of continuous-time signals. The design procedure consists of analysis for the overall system and controller synthesis for individual subsystems. For the subsystem designs, a unique technique of removing lifting operation which is used in the analysis is proposed. Robust performance and robust stability in terms of continuous-time signals can be achieved by using the proposed design. A numerical example shows that the design method results in satisfactory controllers which guarantee closed-loop stability and performance in continuous time.
Two-Component System Response Regulator ompR Regulates Mussel Settlement through Exopolysaccharides

The outer membrane protein (OMP) is a kind of biofilm matrix component that widely exists in Gram-negative bacteria. However, the mechanism of OMP involved in the settlement of molluscs is still unclear. In this study, the mussel Mytilus coruscus was selected as a model to explore the function of ompR, a two-component system response regulator, on Pseudoalteromonas marina biofilm-forming capacity and the mussel settlement. The motility of the ΔompR strain was increased, the biofilm-forming capacity was decreased, and the inducing activity of the ΔompR biofilms in plantigrades decreased significantly (p < 0.05). The extracellular α-polysaccharide and β-polysaccharide of the ΔompR strain decreased by 57.27% and 62.63%, respectively. The inactivation of the ompR gene decreased the ompW gene expression and had no impact on envZ expression or c-di-GMP levels. Adding recombinant OmpW protein caused the recovery of biofilm-inducing activities, accompanied by the upregulation of exopolysaccharides. The findings deepen the understanding of the regulatory mechanism of bacterial two-component systems and the settlement of benthic animals.
DCAT: Combining Multisemantic Dual-Channel Attention Fusion for Text Classification

Text classification is a fundamental and central position in natural language processing. There are many solutions to the text classification problem, but few use the semantic combination of multiple perspectives to improve the classification performance. This article proposes a dual-channel attention network model called DCAT, which uses the complementarity between semantics to refine the understanding deficit. Specifically, DCAT first captures the logical semantics of the text through transductive learning and graph structure. Then, at the attention fusion layer (channel), we use logical semantics to perform joint semantic training on other semantics to correct the predictions of unlabeled test data incrementally. Experiments show that DCAT can achieve more accurate classification on a wide range of text classification datasets, which is vital for subsequent text mining tasks.
Convergence of taboo search in continuous global optimization

While taboo search (TS), a method of global optimization, has successfully solved many optimization problems, little is known about its convergence properties, especially for continuous optimization tasks. We consider the global convergence of the original TS for solving continuous optimization problems, and give a condition which guarantees the convergence of the objective value sequence of the method. We also prove that the minimum objective value sequence converges to the vicinity of the global optimal value with probability 1.