Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Accelerating Training of Reinforcement Learning-Based Construction Robots in Simulation Using Demonstrations Collected in Virtual Reality

The application of construction robots is crucial to mitigate challenges faced by the construction industry, such as labor shortages and low productivity. Reinforcement learning (RL) enables robots to take actions based on observed states, improving flexibility over traditional robots pre-programmed to follow determined sequences of instructions. However, RL-based control is time-consuming to train, hindering the wide adoption of RL-based construction robots. This paper proposes an approach that utilizes expert demonstrations collected from virtual reality to accelerate the RL training of construction robots. For evaluation, we implement the approach for the task of window pickup and installation on a virtual construction site. In our experiment, out of 10 RL agents trained using virtual expert demonstrations, 7 agents converge to an optimal policy faster than the baseline RL agent trained without demonstrations by around 40 epochs, which proves adding expert demonstrations can effectively accelerate the training of robots learning construction tasks.
On the Boundedness and Stability of Solutions to the Affine Variational Inequality Problem

This paper investigates the boundedness and stability of solutions to the affine variational inequality problem. The concept of a solution ray to a variational inequality defined by an affine, mapping and on a closed convex set is introduced and characterized; the connection of such a ray with the boundedness of the solution set of the given problem is explained. In the case of the monotone affine variational inequality, a complete description of the solution set is obtained which leads to a simplified characterization of the boundedness of this set as well as to a new error bound result for approximate solutions to such a variational problem. The boundedness results are then combined with certain degree- theoretic arguments to establish the stability of the solution set of an affine variational inequality problem.
Dextran Formulations as Effective Delivery Systems of Therapeutic Agents

Dextran is by far one of the most interesting non-toxic, bio-compatible macromolecules, an exopolysaccharide biosynthesized by lactic acid bacteria. It has been extensively used as a major component in many types of drug-delivery systems (DDS), which can be submitted to the next in-vivo testing stages, and may be proposed for clinical trials or pharmaceutical use approval. An important aspect to consider in order to maintain high DDS’ biocompatibility is the use of dextran obtained by fermentation processes and with a minimum chemical modification degree. By performing chemical modifications, artefacts can appear in the dextran spatial structure that can lead to decreased biocompatibility or even cytotoxicity. The present review aims to systematize DDS depending on the dextran type used and the biologically active compounds transported, in order to obtain desired therapeutic effects. So far, pure dextran and modified dextran such as acetalated, oxidised, carboxymethyl, diethylaminoethyl-dextran and dextran sulphate sodium, were used to develop several DDSs: microspheres, microparticles, nanoparticles, nanodroplets, liposomes, micelles and nanomicelles, hydrogels, films, nanowires, bio-conjugates, medical adhesives and others. The DDS are critically presented by structures, biocompatibility, drugs loaded and therapeutic points of view in order to highlight future therapeutic perspectives.
Estimation of auditory source width(ASW): I. ASW for two adjacent 1/3 octave band noises with equal band level.

The authors have proposed a technical prediction model of auditory source width (ASW). In this model, ASW for any stimulus can be estimated by summing up the 1/3 octave band ASW multiplied by the weighting factor W. In the previous paper, the validity of the model was confirmed for the condition that the number of adjacent bands was two and each band had equal band levels. In this paper, the validity of the model is examined when the number of adjacent bands is two and each band has different band levels. The results of the psychological experiments show that the model is valid even when the level of each band is different. It is also shown that W depends on the combination of the band levels of the stimuli. Both W for the higher band and W for the lower band change monotonously with the level difference between the bands. The average change of W is about 0.3/10 dB.
An algorithm for soft-fault diagnosis of linear and nonlinear circuits

This brief deals with soft-fault diagnosis of analog circuits. Both ac and dc linear circuits, as well as dc nonlinear circuits with limited number of test points are considered and the presence of component tolerances is taken into account. An approach using the linear-programming concept and the simplex method is developed. Contrary to other methods which use optimization techniques for diagnosis, no optimization process for evaluating the parameter deviations is performed. In fact, only phase 1 of the simplex method is applied to check the existence of a feasible solution. It enables us to state whether the actual parameters are within tolerance ranges or some components are faulty. Identification of the faulty elements is achieved using a similar idea. Three numerical examples illustrate this approach.
Scattering matrix integral equation analysis for the design of a waveguide Rotman lens

An integral-equation-based procedure is developed for determining the scattering parameters of a multiport Rotman lens device. The device is intended for use at millimeter-wave frequencies and incorporates rectangular waveguide feeds. The integral equation model takes higher order modes in the feed apertures into account and incorporates mutual coupling between neighboring ports. A prototype lens was designed using the integral equation model and fabricated. The lens S-parameters were measured and modified with an ideal -40 dB (n=3) Taylor weighting function. The resulting beam sidelobe level is better than -30 dB.
Cognitive Frailty and Functional Disability Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Systematic Review

Abstract Background and Objectives This review aimed to summarize the association between cognitive frailty (presence of frailty and cognitive impairment) and the risk of disabilities in activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental ADL (IADL), mobility, or other functional disabilities among older adults. Research Design and Methods PubMed, Embase, CINAHL Plus, and PsycINFO were searched from January 2001 to May 14, 2022, for observational studies that reported cognitive frailty among community-dwelling individuals aged 60 years and above. Results were narratively synthesized. Results Eleven studies encompassing 44 798 participants were included, with a prevalence of cognitive frailty ranging from 1.4% to 39.3%. Individuals with cognitive frailty were more likely to develop disabilities in ADL and IADL compared to robust (absence of frailty and cognitive impairment) individuals. Significant disability burden and elevated risk of combined ADL/IADL disability or physical limitation among participants with cognitive frailty were reported. There was limited evidence on the association between cognitive frailty and mobility disability. Discussion and Implications Individuals with cognitive frailty were likely at higher risk of developing functional disability and incurring higher disability burden than robust individuals, but evidence remains limited for those with prefrailty with cognitive impairment. Further research on this gap and standardization of cognitive frailty assessments would facilitate comparisons across populations. PROSPERO Registration CRD42021232222
Turing’s anticipation of empirical bayes in connection with the cryptanalysis of the naval enigma

The Enigma was a cryptographic (enciphering) machine used by the German military during WWII. The German navy changed part of the Enigma keys every other day. One of the important cryptanalytic attacks against the naval usage was called Banburismus, a sequentiai Bayesian procedure (anticipating sequential analysis) which was used from the sorine of 1941 until the middle of 1943. It was invented mainlv bv A. M. Turina and was perhaps the first important sequential Bayesian IE is unnecessab to describe it here. Before Banburismus could be started on a given day it was necessary to identifv which of nine ‘biaram’ (or ‘diaraph’) tables was in use on that day. In Turing’s approach to this identification hk had io istimate the probabilities of certain ‘trigraphs’. rrhese trigraphs were used. as described below. for determinine the initial wheel settings of messages). For estimatidg the probabilities, Turing inventedin important special case o the nonparametric (nonhypermetric) Empirid Bayes method independently of Herbert Robbins. The techniaue is the sumxisine form of Emdrical Baves in which a physical prior is assumed to eist but no apbroxiGate functional fonn is assumed for it.
An Improved ResNet-1d with Channel Attention for Tool Wear Monitor in Smart Manufacturing

Tool wear is a key factor in the machining process, which affects the tool life and quality of the machined work piece. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor and diagnose the tool condition. An improved CaAt-ResNet-1d model for multi-sensor tool wear diagnosis was proposed. The ResNet18 structure based on a one-dimensional convolutional neural network is adopted to make the basic model architecture. The one-dimensional convolutional neural network is more suitable for feature extraction of time series data. Add the channel attention mechanism of CaAt1 to the residual network block and the channel attention mechanism of CaAt5 automatically learns the features of different channels. The proposed method is validated on the PHM2010 dataset. Validation results show that CaAt-ResNet-1d can reach 89.27% accuracy, improving by about 7% compared to Gated-Transformer and 3% compared to Resnet18. The experimental results demonstrate the capacity and effectiveness of the proposed method for tool wear monitor.
Optimized S-Curve Transformation and Wavelets-Based Fusion for Contrast Elevation of Breast Tomograms and Mammograms

For the purpose of accuracy in detection and diagnosis, Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) is preferred by radiologists for the analysis of Breast Cancer. However, the presence of noise, artifacts, and poor contrast in breast images during acquisition highlights the need for sophisticated enhancement techniques for the proper visualization of region-of-interest (ROI). In this work, contrast elevation of breast mammographic and tomographic images is performed with an improved S-Curve transform using the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. The enhanced images are assessed using dedicated quality metrics such as the Enhancement Measure (EME) and Absolute Mean Brightness Error (AMBE) measurement. Although the enhancement techniques help in attaining better images, certain features relevant for diagnosis purposes are removed during the enhancement process, creating contradictions for radiological interpretation. Hence, to ensure the retention of diagnostic features from original breast tomograms and mammograms, a Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT)-based fusion approach is incorporated, which fuses the original and contrast-enhanced images (with optimized s-curve transformation function) using the maximum fusion rule. The fusion performance is thereafter measured using the Image Quality Index (IQI), Standard Deviation (SD), and Entropy (E) as fusion metrics.
The New Insight into the Effects of Different Fixing Technology on Flavor and Bioactivities of Orange Dark Tea

Peach leaf orange dark tea (ODT) is a fruity tea made by removing the pulp from peach leaf orange and placing dry Qingzhuan tea into the husk, followed by fixing them together and drying. Since the quality of traditional outdoor sunlight fixing (SL) is affected by weather instability, this study explored the feasibility of two new fixing methods, including hot air fixing (HA) and steam fixing (ST). Results showed that fixing method had a great impact on ODT shape, aroma, and taste. Compared with SL and ST, HA endowed ODT with higher fruit aroma, mellow taste, better coordination, and higher sensory evaluation score. Physical–chemical composition analysis showed that SL-fixed orange peel was higher than HA- or ST-fixed peel in the content of polyphenols, flavonoids, soluble protein, hesperidin and limonin, while HA has a higher content of volatile substances and contains more alcohols, aldehydes and ketones, and acid and esters than ST and SL. Activity analysis showed that HA was superior to ST or SL in comprehensive antioxidant activity and inhibitory activity against α-glucosidase. Comprehensive results demonstrated that HA has better performance in improving ODT quality and can replace the traditional SL method in production.
Disclosure-Limited Data Dissemination

Abstract Statistical agencies use a variety of disclosure control policies with ad hoc justification in disseminating data. The issues involved are clarified here by showing that several of these policies are special cases of a general disclosure-limiting (DL) approach based on predictive distributions and uncertainty functions. A user's information posture regarding a target is represented by one predictive distribution before data release and another predictive distribution after data release. A user's lack of knowledge about the target at any time is measured by an uncertainty function applied either to the current predictive distribution or to the current predictive distribution and the previously held predictive distribution. Common disclosure control policies, such as requiring released cell relative frequencies to be bounded away from both zero and one, are shown to be equivalent to disclosure rules that allow data release only if specific uncertainty functions at particular predictive distribution.
Meromorphic solutions to the q-Painlevé equations around the origin

We study meromorphic solutions to the q-Painlevé equations with type VI, V, III around the origin. Since the origin of q-PVI, q-PV and q-PIII are singular points of the q-Briot- Bouquet type, they have holomorphic solutions for generic parameters. The q-PVI, q-PV and q-PIII have four, three and two meromorphic solutions around the origin respectively. We can solve linear connection problems for holomorphic solutions.
Early-Onset Insomnia among Patients with Hemifacial Spasm in South Korea: A Nationwide Cohort Study

This study aimed to investigate mental illnesses among patients with hemifacial spasms (HFS) based on nationwide claims data from the South Korea Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. In this retrospective study, we defined the HFS group as subjects aged between 20 and 79 years with newly diagnosed HFS between January 2011 and December 2019 and set the date of diagnosis of HFS as the index date. Mental illnesses were defined through the International Classification of Diseases, the tenth revision from 90 days before to after the index date. Of these patients, we enrolled the participants who had visited a psychiatric outpatient clinic more than twice or had been admitted to a psychiatric department more than once diagnosed with psychiatric diseases. To select the control group, which was four times larger than the HFS group, propensity scores were used among those not diagnosed with HFS. The patients with HFS were more likely to have a mental illness than the control group (8.5% and 6.5%, respectively, p < 0.001) within 90 days before and after diagnosis. Among mental illnesses, insomnia (46.2% vs. 13.0%, p < 0.001) was significantly more prevalent in the HFS group. Other mental illnesses were significantly more prevalent in the control group or were not statistically significant. The results of this study suggest that patients diagnosed with HFS were significantly more likely to develop insomnia within a relatively short period than the controls.
Interfaces Between SD and ABM Modules in a Hybrid Model

Modelers in various disciplines have applied system dynamics (SD) and agent-based models (ABM) to support decision-makers in managing complex adaptive systems. Combining these methods in a hybrid simulation offers an opportunity to overcome the challenges that modelers face using SD or ABM alone. It also provides a complementary view and rich insight into the problems that modelers investigate. Hence, this approach can offer solutions to a plethora of systems problems. One of the limitations of existing frameworks that guide the process of combining SD and ABM is the lack of detailed guidance describing how the two methods can interact and exchange information. This paper provides guidance for interfacing these simulation modeling methods in a hybrid simulation. In this guidance, we describe interface approaches to exchanging information for different types of information flow between SD and ABM.
1/f noise in mono- and polycrystalline aluminum

~Received 27 June 1997! The 1/f noise in three types of aluminum lines has been investigated in the temperature range 140‐510 K. The types are one long single crystal, a chain of short single crystals ~‘‘bamboo’’ ! , and a polycrystal. In the lines of the first two types the 1/f noise power is significantly lower than in the polycrystalline specimens. The temperature dependence of the noise power in the polycrystalline lines shows a plateau between 370 and 415 K, corresponding to activation energies 0.9‐1.0 eV. Both types of monocrystalline lines have equal noise power with a peak around 340 K, corresponding to an activation energy of about 0.8 eV. In the polycrystalline lines the dominant contribution to 1/ f noise appears to be the thermally activated motion of atoms in grain boundaries. The measurements on the monocrystalline lines reveal the existence of at least one further contribution to 1/f noise in metals, presumably associated with the thermally activated diffusion of atoms along dislocations. @S0163-1829~98! 06601-6# Resistance fluctuations in continuous metal films exhibit a power spectrum that is approximately inversely proportional to the frequency f . Mobile lattice defects are known to contribute considerably to these resistance fluctuations, 1 e.g., low-temperature irradiation with electrons, by which atomic defects are introduced, increases the 1/ f noise of metal films drastically. 2,3 Dutta, Dimon, and Horn ~DDH! demonstrated that a significant part of the 1/f noise in metal films can be attributed to thermally activated processes with activation energies and relaxation times characteristic for atomic diffusion. 4 In measurements of the 1/f noise versus temperature for pure Al and for Al with Si and Cu additives, Koch and co-workers found that the additives increased the activation energies. 5 A similar increase in the activation energy upon Si and Cu addition is generally observed for Al electromigration ~atomic diffusion! along grain boundaries. 6 These experimental findings strongly indicate that a significant part of the 1/ f noise in polycrystalline metal films is due to diffusion along grain boundaries. Further support for the prevailing role of grain boundaries stems from the work of Verbruggen and co-workers. 7 In their comparison of several gold samples, the lowest 1/f noise intensity was observed in the samples with fewer grain boundaries. The question arises whether mechanisms not involving grain boundaries or atomic defects contribute to 1/ f noise in metal films. To answer this question, it is necessary to investigate the relationship between 1/ f noise and the microstructure of the films. Even though the importance of the microstructure for 1/ f noise is commonly acknowledged, so far little work has been done to investigate this relationship in
Effort and risk-taking in tournaments with superstars – evidence for teams

ABSTRACT Competition is often observed between heterogenous teams. Heterogeneity in ability is critical for the effectiveness of different tournament designs. I investigate how the presence of a dominant competitor or superstar does affect the decisions of other competitors in team contests. In particular, I use novel data from top-level professional basketball to investigate the consequences of superstar presence on effort and risk-taking of teams in rank-order contests. To identify the effect, I exploit exogenous variation in superstar dominance, induced by an institutional reform. My results demonstrate that the effect of competing with a superstar on effort does depend on the level of superstar dominance and the number of dominant teams in the contest. For tournaments with a single and clearly dominant superstar team, I find a sizable and significant negative effect of superstar presence on effort of other competing teams. Reduced dominance by the superstar, however, is found to result in a positive peer effect. I also present results for a robust association between competing with a superstar and risk-taking, indicating that a dominant superstar decreases risk-taking. Presence of a weak superstar, however, is estimated to increase risk-taking among other competitors.
Arginine-Coated Nanoglobules for the Nasal Delivery of Insulin

Multiple daily injections via subcutaneous route are the primary modes of insulin delivery for patients with Diabetes Mellitus. While this process is invasive, painful and may cause patients to develop lipohypertrophy at injection site, the perception of fear surrounding this process causes patients to delay in initiation and remain persistent with insulin therapy over time. Moreover, poor glycemic control may often lead to acute complications, such as severe hypoglycemia and nocturnal hypoglycemia, especially in older patients with diabetes. To address the imperative need for a patient-convenient non-invasive insulin therapy, an insulin-loaded arginine-coated self-emulsifying nanoglobule system (INS-LANano) was developed for nasal delivery of insulin with a biodegradable cationic surfactant—Lauroyl Ethyl Arginate (LAE). Incorporation of LAE resulted in formation of positively charged nanoglobules with L-arginine oriented on the surface. LANano enabled binding of insulin molecules on the surface of nanoglobules via an electrostatic interaction between negatively charged α-helix and LAE molecules at physiological pH. INS-LANano showed a hydrodynamic diameter of 23.38 nm with a surface charge of +0.118 mV. The binding efficiency of insulin on LANano globules was confirmed by zeta potential, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and centrifugal ultrafiltration studies. The attachment of insulin with permeation-enhancing nanoglobules demonstrated significantly higher in vitro permeability of insulin of 15.2% compared to insulin solution across human airway epithelial cell (Calu-3) monolayer. Upon intranasal administration of INS-LANano to diabetic rats at 2 IU/kg insulin dose, a rapid absorption of insulin with significantly higher Cmax of 14.3 mU/L and relative bioavailability (BA) of 23.3% was observed. Therefore, the INS-LANano formulation significant translational potential for intranasal delivery of insulin