Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning context shapes bimanual control strategy and generalization of novel dynamics

Bimanual movements are fundamental components of everyday actions, yet the underlying mechanisms coordinating adaptation of the two hands remains unclear. Although previous studies highlighted the contextual effect of kinematics of both arms on internal model formation, we do not know how the sensorimotor control system associates the learned memory with the experienced states in bimanual movements. More specifically, can, and if so, how, does the sensorimotor control system combine multiple states from different effectors to create and adapt a motor memory? Here, we tested motor memory formation in two groups with a novel paradigm requiring the encoding of the kinematics of the right hand to produce the appropriate predictive force on the left hand. While one group was provided with training movements in which this association was evident, the other group was trained on conditions in which this association was ambiguous. After adaptation, we tested the encoding of the learned motor memory by measuring the generalization to new movement combinations. While both groups adapted to the novel dynamics, the evident group showed a weighted encoding of the learned motor memory based on movements of the other (right) hand, whereas the ambiguous group exhibited mainly same (left) hand encoding in bimanual trials. Despite these differences, both groups demonstrated partial generalization to unimanual movements of the left hand. Our results show that motor memories can be encoded depending on the motion of other limbs, but that the training conditions strongly shape the encoding of the motor memory formation and determine the generalization to novel contexts. Author summary Using cutlery, buttoning up a shirt or cooking a meal requires precise coordination between two hands. These daily activities seem effortless, as they are based on well-adapted motor memories covering a wide space of experienced states. We demonstrate that the sensorimotor control system creates a motor memory of one limb using the experienced states of the other limb. Presentation of evident or ambiguous information about this relation between the two limbs shaped the bimanual control by changing the extent to which kinematic information of each arm which was used to control subsequent movements. Importantly, bimanual motor memories are only partially transferred to unimanual actions, likely engaging different neural processes. This has strong implications for rehabilitation techniques that employ bimanual training.
Some properties of minimal arbitrarily partitionable graphs

A graph G on n vertices is arbitrarily partitionable (AP for short) if for every partition ( λ 1 , . . . , λ p ) of n (that is, λ 1 + · · · + λ p = n ), the vertex set V ( G ) can be partitioned into p parts V 1 , . , V p such that G [ V i ] has order λ i and is connected for every i ∈ { 1 , . , p } . Several aspects of AP graphs have been investigated to date, including structural and algorithmic aspects, and variants. This work is dedicated to minimal AP graphs, which are those AP graphs that are not spanned by any proper AP subgraph. In particular, we pursue previous investigations by Ravaux and Baudon, Przybyło, and Woźniak, who established that minimal AP graphs are not all trees, but conjectured that they should all be somewhat sparse. In that line, we investigate several aspects of minimal AP graphs, including their minimum degree, their maximum degree, and their clique number. Some of the results we establish arise from an exhaustive list we give of all minimal AP graphs of order at most 10 . We also address new questions on the structure of minimal AP graphs.
The Optimization of Dispersion Properties of Photonic Crystal Fibers Using a Real-Coded Genetic Algorithm

A real-coded genetic algorithm (GA) combined with a fully vectorial effective index method (FVEIM) is employed to design structures of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) with user defined dispersion properties theoretically. The structures of PCFs whose solid cores are doped GeO2 with zero-dispersions at 0.7–3. 9μm are optimized and the flat dispersion ranges through the R+L+C band and the negative dispersion is −1576.26 pskm−1nm−1 at 1.55 μm. Analyses show that the zero-dispersion wavelength (ZDW) could be one of many ZDWs for the same fiber structure; PCFs could alter the dispersion to be Battened through the R+L+C band with a single air-hole diameter; and negative dispersion requires high air filling rate at 1.55 μm. The method is proved to be elegant for solving this inverse problem.
Relationships between CO2 Flux Estimated by Inverse Analysis and Land Surface Elements in South America and Africa

Inverse analysis estimates the regional flux of greenhouse gases between the earth’s surface and the atmosphere by using observed atmospheric concentration data that include satellite data. In particular, this method is effective in estimating the flux in regions where observational flux data are limited. However, inverse analysis is basically a mathematical optimization method. Therefore, confirmation of the causal validity of the spatial and temporal changes in the estimated flux is necessary. One confirmation method is validation of the relationship with physical and biological observation data (analysis data) of confirmed accuracy. In this study, the features and validity of changes in the CO2 flux estimated by inverse analysis were verified by interrelation analysis with changes in precipitation, short-wave radiation, surface temperature, and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in regions of South America and Africa where CO2 flux observation data are limited. Sufficient accuracy of the land surface elements is required for the analysis results to confirm the CO2 flux estimated by inverse analysis. An examination of the correlation of anomalies showed consistent relationships among the precipitation, short-wave radiation, surface temperature, and NDVI data used in this study, which were created independently. The relationships between change in the estimated CO2 flux and characteristic changes of the land surface elements in South America and Africa were consistent in each region. This study confirmed the physical and biological validity of the changes in the CO2 flux estimated by inverse analysis. During the period of this study, the NDVI anomaly was influential in South America, and the precipitation (soil wetness) anomaly was an essential factor in Africa for the CO2 flux anomaly. The short-wave radiation anomaly was also influential in both South America and Africa. These relationships are detected more clearly in the results of inverse analysis using both ground-based CO2 concentration data and GOSAT satellite data than in the results using only ground-based CO2 concentration data. This demonstrates the usefulness of GOSAT data in regions with limited atmospheric CO2 concentration data.
A comparison of fusion/antiproton propulsion systems for interplanetary travel

Rocket propulsion driven by either thermonuclear fusion or antiproton annihilation reactions is an attractive concept because of the large amount of energy released from a small amount of fuel. Charged particles produced in both reactions can be manipulated electromagnetically making high thrust/high specific impulse (7sp) operation possible. A comparison of the physics, engineering, and costs issues involved in using these advanced nuclear fuels is presented. Because of the unstable nature of the antiproton-proton (pp) reaction products, annihilation energy must be converted to propulsive energy quickly. Antimatter thermal rockets based on solid and liquid fission core engine designs offer the potential for high thrust (~10 Ibf)/ high 7sp (up to -2000 s) operation and 6 month round trip missions to Mars. The coupling of annihilation energy into a high-temperature gaseous or plasma working fluid appears more difficult, however, and requires the use of heavily shielded superconducting coils and space radiators for dissipating unused gamma ray power. By contrast, low-neutron-producing advanced fusion fuels (Cat-DD or DHe) produce mainly stable hydrogen and helium reaction products which thermalize quickly in the bulk plasma. The energetic plasma can be exhausted directly at high 7sp (. 10s) or mixed with additional hydrogen for thrust augmentation. Magnetic ftision rockets with specific powers (ocp) in the range of 2.5 to 10 kW/kg and 7sp in the range of 20,000-50,000 s could enable round trip missions to Jupiter in less than a year. Inertial fusion rockets with ocp > 100 kW/kg and 7sp > 10s could perform round trip missions to Pluto in less than 2 years. On the basis of preliminary fuel cost and mission analyses, fusion systems appear to outperform the antimatter engines for difficult interplanetary missions. *Senior Research Scientist, Advanced Nuclear Propulsion; currently, NASA Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio; Senior Member of AIAA. Copyright ©1987 by Aerojet TechSystcms Co. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics Astronautics, Inc. with permission. 89 Purchased from American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
A Fractional Cross-Entropy Based οn Caputo Fractional-Order Derivative

Cross-entropy (CE) is a measure of how different two probability distributions are. It is commonly used in machine learning and information theory to compare the predicted probability distribution with the actual probability distribution. On the other hand, fractional calculus is a branch of mathematical analysis which studies different possible approaches of defining fractional-order integrals and derivatives. In this paper, we have derived a novel generalized fractional CE (FCE). To do so, we have differentiated the CE's generating function (i.e., ℎ(𝑡):= ∫ ! (#) ! " (%) & ! 𝑓 ’() (𝑥)𝑑𝑥 ) using a 𝛼 -order Caputo fractional-order derivative 𝐶𝐷 * # + 𝑓 . When the order of differentiation 𝛼 → 1 , we recover the ordinary Shannon's CE, which corresponds to the results from a first-order ordinary differentiation. This allows to calculate the FCE for various values of 𝛼 ≠ 1 and compare them to the conventional CE ( 𝛼 = 1 ) to get further insights on its behavior. Some examples and illustrations of the proposed FCE are also presented.
Swarm Metaverse for Multi-Level Autonomy Using Digital Twins

Robot swarms are becoming popular in domains that require spatial coordination. Effective human control over swarm members is pivotal for ensuring swarm behaviours align with the dynamic needs of the system. Several techniques have been proposed for scalable human–swarm interaction. However, these techniques were mostly developed in simple simulation environments without guidance on how to scale them up to the real world. This paper addresses this research gap by proposing a metaverse for scalable control of robot swarms and an adaptive framework for different levels of autonomy. In the metaverse, the physical/real world of a swarm symbiotically blends with a virtual world formed from digital twins representing each swarm member and logical control agents. The proposed metaverse drastically decreases swarm control complexity due to human reliance on only a few virtual agents, with each agent dynamically actuating on a sub-swarm. The utility of the metaverse is demonstrated by a case study where humans controlled a swarm of uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs) using gestural communication, and via a single virtual uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV). The results show that humans could successfully control the swarm under two different levels of autonomy, while task performance increases as autonomy increases.
Evaluating the Counseling Standards and Ability of Pharmacy Staff to Detect Antibiotic-Drugs Interactions: A Simulated Client Study from Pakistan

Effective and safe medication use can be maximized by providing medication counseling, which aims to optimize therapeutic results. This approach improves the effectiveness of antibacterial treatment, reduces treatment expenses, and mitigates the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. No research from Pakistan has been previously documented. The purpose of this research was to evaluate both the quality of antibiotic counseling provided and the level of understanding exhibited by pharmacy employees with regard to interactions involving antibiotic medications. Using a simulated client method, two scenarios were used to assess 562 pharmacies that were systematically selected. Scenario 1 focused the counseling for use of prescribed medicines with non-prescribed antibiotics. Scenario2 indicated counseling provision for prescribed antibiotics that have possible antibiotic–drug interactions. The evaluation of counseling skills was also conducted. The analysis involved the use of descriptive statistics and chi-square tests. Only 34.1% of simulated clients received medication counseling directly; 45% received it on request. About 31.2% of clients were referred to a physician without counseling. The most frequently provided information was therapy dose (81.6%) and duration (57.4%). More than half (54.0%) of clients were asked about disease duration, but drug storage was ignored. Insufficient information was provided about side effects (1.1%) and antibiotic–drug interactions (1.4%). Most (54.3%) clients were instructed about dietary or lifestyle modifications. Only 1.9% of clients received information about drug administration route. No information was provided about other medication during therapy, effect of medicine withdrawal, and compliance to medication. The current level of antibiotic counseling within Pakistani community pharmacies is inadequate and requires the attention of medical authorities. Professional training of staff could improve counseling.
Modern aspects of the kinetic theory of glass transition

This paper reviews glass transition kinetics models that are developed to describe the formation of structural (for example, covalent and metallic) glasses, as well as to account for the transition of a polymer to a solid glassy state. As the two approaches most frequently used over the last decade to model the glass transition, the Tool–Narayanaswamy–Moynihan model and the Adam–Gibbs theory of glass transition are described together with examples of their applications. Also discussed are entropy-based approaches that rely on irreversible thermodynamics methods originated in the work of De Donder, Mandelstam, and Leontovich. The actual problems that arise in applying these methods and the prospects of their development are discussed. A brief overview of statistical glass transition models is given, including the mode-coupling and energy-landscape theories.
Structural Properties of Lotus Seed Starch Nanocrystals Prepared Using Ultrasonic-Assisted Acid Hydrolysis

This study provides a novel method of preparing lotus seed starch nanocrystals (LS-SNCs) using acid hydrolysis combined with ultrasonic-assisted acid hydrolysis (U-LS-SNCs) and evaluates the structural characteristics of starch nanocrystals using scanning electron microscopy; analysis of particle size, molecular weight, and X-ray diffraction patterns; and FT-IR spectroscopy. The results showed that the preparation time of U-LS-SNCs could be reduced to 2 days less than that for LS-SNCs. The smallest particle size and molecular weight were obtained after a 30 min treatment with 200 W of ultrasonic power and 5 days of acid hydrolysis. The particle size was 147 nm, the weight-average molecular weight was 3.42 × 104 Da, and the number-average molecular weight was 1.59 × 104 Da. When the applied ultrasonic power was 150 W for 30 min and acid hydrolysis was applied for 3 days, the highest relative crystallinity of the starch nanocrystals was 52.8%. The modified nanocrystals can be more widely used in various applications such as food-packaging materials, fillers, pharmaceuticals, etc.
Optimization of Composite Fracture Properties: Method, Validation, and Applications

A paradigm in nature is to architect composites with excellent material properties compared to its constituents, which themselves often have contrasting mechanical behavior. Most engineering materials sacriﬁce strength for toughness, whereas natural materials do not face this tradeoff. However, biology’s designs, adapted for organism survival, may have features not needed for some engineering applications. Here, we postulate that mim- icking nature’s elegant use of multimaterial phases can lead to better optimization of engineered materials. We employ an optimization algorithm to explore and design com- posites using soft and stiff building blocks to study the underlying mechanisms of nature’s tough materials. For different applications, optimization parameters may vary. Validation of the algorithm is carried out using a test suite of cases without cracks to optimize for stiffness and compliance individually. A test case with a crack is also performed to optimize for toughness. The validation shows excellent agreement between geometries obtained from the optimization algorithm and the brute force method. This study uses different objective functions to optimize toughness, stiffness and toughness, and compliance and toughness. The algorithm presented here can provide researchers a way to tune ma- terial properties for a vast number of engineering problems by adjusting
Inference of the Life Cycle of Environmental Phages from Genomic Signature Distances to Their Hosts

The environmental impact of uncultured phages is shaped by their preferred life cycle (lytic or lysogenic). However, our ability to predict it is very limited. We aimed to discriminate between lytic and lysogenic phages by comparing the similarity of their genomic signatures to those of their hosts, reflecting their co-evolution. We tested two approaches: (1) similarities of tetramer relative frequencies, (2) alignment-free comparisons based on exact k = 14 oligonucleotide matches. First, we explored 5126 reference bacterial host strains and 284 associated phages and found an approximate threshold for distinguishing lysogenic and lytic phages using both oligonucleotide-based methods. The analysis of 6482 plasmids revealed the potential for horizontal gene transfer between different host genera and, in some cases, distant bacterial taxa. Subsequently, we experimentally analyzed combinations of 138 Klebsiella pneumoniae strains and their 41 phages and found that the phages with the largest number of interactions with these strains in the laboratory had the shortest genomic distances to K. pneumoniae. We then applied our methods to 24 single-cells from a hot spring biofilm containing 41 uncultured phage–host pairs, and the results were compatible with the lysogenic life cycle of phages detected in this environment. In conclusion, oligonucleotide-based genome analysis methods can be used for predictions of (1) life cycles of environmental phages, (2) phages with the broadest host range in culture collections, and (3) potential horizontal gene transfer by plasmids.
Dissipation in Internal Tides and Solitary Waves

Abstract Solitons have been observed and studied on the Scotian Shelf using the vertical microstructure profiler EPSONDE. During one tidal cycle a packet of solitary waves has been sampled four times as it propagated onto the shelf to examine its evolution and decay. Enhanced turbulence and mixing were observed to occur in the strongest shear region of the wave packet as expected. About 20% of the energy lost as the solitary wave packet delayed can be attributed to turbulent dissipation. The effects of nonlinearity, dissipation, and dispersion are explored in terms of the Korteweg-de Vries-Burgers (KdVB) equation. The dispersive timescale is always much shorter than the dissipative timescale, and both decrease as the soliton moves onshelf. The mean dissipation timescale, of 12 h compared to the dispersion timescale of less than 1 h, suggests that the waves are consistent with the KdVB description. Calculated vertical diffusivities are in the range of 10−5–10−4 m2 s−1.
Diversity stabilizes but does not increase sapling survival in a tree diversity experiment

Tree plantings have the potential to increase species diversity and sequester carbon, yet planting failure and early mortality pose significant barriers to their success. Biodiversity‐ecosystem function theory suggests that diverse tree plantings could improve survival outcomes through either the portfolio or facilitation effect, yet there remain few tests of this hypothesis. Here, we use a large‐scale tree‐diversity experiment (BiodiversiTREE), with monitoring of nearly 8,000 individual trees to test whether (1) tree species diversity increases survival rates, (2) tree diversity stabilizes the risk of planting failure, and/or (3) diversity effects are important relative to other common drivers of seedling mortality (e.g. herbivory and soil moisture). We found that only species identity significantly impacted the likelihood of survival, not plant functional diversity nor plot species richness nor phylogenetic diversity. There were minor effects of elevation and soil moisture on survival, but both explained a very small amount of variation in the data (r2marg ≤ 0.011). Higher tree diversity did, however, strongly reduce variation in survival across plots, with nearly 2‐fold higher coefficients of variation in monocultures (30.4%, 28.4–32.6% 95% bootstrapped confidence interval) compared to 4‐ (16.3%, 13.8–18.7%) and 12‐species plots (12.8%, 10.8–14.7%). Ultimately, our results suggest that employing diverse species can lower the risk of planting failure (i.e. the portfolio effect), but that species selection still plays a large role in early establishment.
Amplified space-time coding for ultra-long-distance Raman distributed temperature sensing

We present a novel amplified space-time coding technique which combines cyclic-Simplex and Simplex binary codes to overcome the main limitations of conventional coding for OTDR based ultra-long distance distributed temperature sensing applications. The decoding process is performed in two successive steps, addressing the main issue related to the computational complexity of conventional codes, which increases quadratically with the code lenght, seriously affecting their performance when dealing with extremely long code-words. A link control technique is also proposed to suppress gain transients induced by the EDFA dynamics, avoiding performance degradation due to nonlinear effects and codewords distortion. The proposed scheme provides significant coding gain enhancement and stable operations below the stimulated Raman scattering threshold, pushing the performance of Raman based distributed temperature sensors close to their physical limit using commercial off-the-shelf components.
ALLEGORIES IN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF MATHEMATICS

This paper explores how the concept allegory from literature theory can be used in the teaching and learning of mathematics. A cognitive allegory theory is developed in analogy with the metaphor theory of Lakoff and Johnson (1980). The theory differs from the traditional view. For instance an allegory is also a cognitive mapping and not only a narrative. The paper draws upon data from a study of how teacher training students learn the concept of linear congruence equations. The students are given word problems which were translated to congruence equations and later used to solve other word problems.