gebhart/patrepeval huggingface dataset:
Strategy Discovery and Mixture in Lifelong Learning from Heterogeneous Demonstration (2022)

Learning from Demonstration (LfD) approaches empower end-users to teach robots novel tasks via demonstrations of the desired behaviors, democratizing access to robotics. A key challenge in LfD research is that users tend to provide heterogeneous demonstrations for the same task due to various strategies and preferences. Therefore, it is essential to develop LfD algorithms that ensure \textit{flexibility} (the robot adapts to personalized strategies), \textit{efficiency} (the robot achieves sample-efficient adaptation), and \textit{scalability} (robot reuses a concise set of strategies to represent a large amount of behaviors). In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm, Dynamic Multi-Strategy Reward Distillation (DMSRD), which distills common knowledge between heterogeneous demonstrations, leverages learned strategies to construct mixture policies, and continues to improve by learning from all available data. Our personalized, federated, and lifelong LfD architecture surpasses benchmarks in two continuous control problems with an average 77\% improvement in policy returns and 42\% improvement in log likelihood, alongside stronger task reward correlation and more precise strategy rewards.
A Genome-Wide RNA Interference Screen Identifies Caspase 4 as a Factor Required for Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Signaling (2012)

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) is a potent inflammatory cytokine secreted upon cellular stress as well as immunological stimuli and is implicated in the pathology of inflammatory diseases and cancer. The therapeutic potential of modifying TNF-α pathway activity has been realized in several diseases, and antagonists of TNF-α have reached clinical applications. While much progress in the understanding of signaling downstream of the TNF-α receptor complex has been made, the compendium of factors required for signal transduction is still not complete. In order to find novel regulators of proinflammatory signaling induced by TNF-α, we conducted a genome-wide small interfering RNA screen in human cells. We identified several new candidate modulators of TNF-α signaling, which were confirmed in independent experiments. Specifically, we show that caspase 4 is required for the induction of NF-κB activity, while it appears to be dispensable for the activation of the Jun N-terminal protein kinase signaling branch. Taken together, our experiments identify caspase 4 as a novel regulator of TNF-α-induced NF-κB signaling that is required for the activation of IκB kinase. We further provide the genome-wide RNA interference data set as a compendium in a format compliant with minimum information about an interfering RNA experiment (MAIRE).
Real-Time Diabetic Retinopathy Severity Score Level versus Ultra-Widefield Leakage Index-Guided Management of Diabetic Retinopathy: Two-Year Outcomes from the Randomized PRIME Trial (2021)

The prospective PRIME trial applied real-time, objective imaging biomarkers to determine individualized retreatment needs with intravitreal aflibercept injections (IAI) among eyes with diabetic retinopathy (DR). 40 eyes with nonproliferative or proliferative DR without diabetic macular edema received monthly IAI until a DR severity scale (DRSS) level improvement of ≥2 steps was achieved. Eyes were randomized 1:1 to DRSS- or PLI- guided management. At the final 2-year visit, DRSS level was stable or improved compared to baseline in all eyes, and mean PLI decreased by 11% (<i>p</i> = 0.73) and 23.6% (<i>p</i> = 0.25) in the DRSS- and PLI-guided arms. In both arms, the percent of <i>pro re nata</i> (PRN) visits requiring IAI was significantly higher in year 2 versus 1 (<i>p</i> < 0.0001). The percent of PRN visits receiving IAI during year 1 was significantly correlated with the percent of PRN visits with IAI during year 2 (<i>p</i> < 0.0001). Through week 104, 77.4% of instances of DRSS level worsening in the DRSS-guided arm were preceded by or occurred alongside an increase of PLI. Overall, consistent IAI re-treatment interval requirements were observed longitudinally among individual patients. Additionally, PLI increases appeared to precede DRSS level worsening, highlighting PLI as a valuable biomarker in the management of DR.
A comprehensive characterization of tumor hypoxia as a gene therapy target (2004)

Introduction: Hypoxia is a prevalent tumor condition that is correlated with metastatic spread and therapeutic resistance. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1alpha (HIF-1alpha) is a transcription factor upregulated by normal cells in hypoxia. HIF-1alpha binds the hypoxia-responsive element (HRE) in the promoter region of adaptive genes such as VEGF and erythropoietin, to stimulate gene transcription. We sought to determine if hypoxic cancers upregulate HIF-1alpha and whether hypoxia can be used as a gene therapy target.

Methods: Human cancer cell lines AsPC1 (pancreatic), PLC5 (hepatoma), HCT8 (colorectal), and RF1 (gastric) and the murine cancer cell line CT26 (colorectal) were incubated in hypoxia (1%O2) and normoxia (21%O2) for HIF-1alpha ELISA and western blots. A hypoxia-responsive promoter was constructed by multimerizing the HRE from VEGF (10xHRE), and cloned into a luciferase vector for functional assay. CT26 liver metastases in syngeneic Balb/C mice (n = 8) were stained immunohistochemically for HIF-1alpha.

Results: ELISA demonstrated greater HIF-1alpha levels in hypoxia versus normoxia in all cell lines (p < 0.01): CT26 (6.7-fold), AsPC1 (7.3-fold), PLC5 (5.4-fold), HCT8 (8.8-fold), and RF1 (5.9-fold). All tested cell lines demonstrated greater HIF-1alpha levels in hypoxia by western blot. Luciferase activity was higher in hypoxic cells transfected with the 10xHRE promoter (p < 0.01): CT26 (33-fold), AsPC1 (49-fold), PLC5 (29-fold), HCT8 (65-fold), and RF1 (30-fold). HIF-1alpha staining was confined to tumor-bearing regions of CT26 liver metastases.

Conclusions: Hypoxia significantly upregulates HIF-1alpha expression in cancer cells. Hypoxia, a negative tumor characteristic, can thus be employed to target gene expression for cancer gene therapy.
A Novel Application of Support Vector Machines to Detect Targets (2010)

In this paper we develop a novel pulse radar detection scheme using Support Vector Machines (SVMs). SVMs are a powerful tool for pattern classification. Exploiting this, we design a SVM for pulse radar detection of targets embedded in noise. An adaptive pre-processing stage is included when the echoes are very weak. It is observed that the signal-to-side lobe ratio obtained is much higher compared to neural network based pulse radar detection schemes. We further examine the noise tolerance, range resolution ability and Doppler tolerance of the new algorithm for pulse compression, and compare it with the ones available in literature.
A Design of OpenVG 2D Vector Graphics Accelerator for a Mobile Device (2008)

OpenVG is a royalty-free, cross-platform API that provides a low-level hardware acceleration interface for vector graphic libraries such as Flash and SVG. OpenVG is targeted primarily on handheld devices that require portable acceleration of high-quality vector graphics for compelling user interfaces and text on small screen devices - while enabling hardware acceleration to provide. In this paper, we propose the hardware architecture to accelerate 2D Vector graphics process for mobile device.
Phase behavior of olive and soybean oils in compressed propane and n-butane (2006)

The aim of this work is to report the experimental data and thermodynamic modeling of phase equilibrium of binary systems containing soybean and olive oils with propane and n-butane. Phase equilibrium experiments were carried out using the static synthetic method in a high-pressure variable-volume view cell in the temperature range from 30 to 70ºC and varying the solvent overall composition from 5 to 98 wt%. Vapor-liquid, liquid-liquid and vapor-liquid-liquid phase transitions were observed at relatively low pressures. The Peng-Robinson and the SAFT equations of state without any binary interaction parameters were employed in an attempt at representing the phase behavior of the systems. Results show the satisfactory performance of SAFT-EoS in predicting qualitatively all phase transitions reported in this work.
0793 PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF A SLEEP HEALTH INTERVENTION IN STUDENT ATHLETES: CHANGES IN SLEEP, ENERGY LEVEL, AND MENTAL WELL-BEING, AND BODY WEIGHT (2017)

Student athletes are at high risk of sleep problems, perhaps due to over-scheduling and difficulty balancing academics and athletics. Although many athletics programs use nutrition, physical activity, and stress reduction programs to improve quality of life for student athletes, few are employing sleep interventions. The present study evaluated a relatively simple sleep health intervention to see if it improved sleep, energy level, stress, and weight. This single-group pilot of a sleep health intervention was conducted across the Fall semester among student athletes. It included an intake survey, a 90min education session, 10 weeks of daily sleep diary, sleep/fitness tracker use, and text message reminders, 24/7 access to peer support and study staff for questions, and a follow-up survey at the end of the study. N=40 students were enrolled, though only N=35 have yet completed the follow-up survey. For those that completed baseline and follow-up surveys, paired t-tests (one-tailed due to lack of power in this pilot study) examined changes in Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI, total score, bedtime, waketime, sleep latency, sleep duration), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), GAD7 anxiety scale, drowsy driving in the past 30 days, (CIRENS energy scale; energy level in the morning, night, and total), and body weight. The intervention resulted in reduced sleep latency (12mins,p=0.0002), advanced waketime (32mins,p=0.033), lower PSQI score (1.3pts,p=0.04), lower ISI score (3.5pts,p=0.0007), lower GAD score (1.6pts,p=0.025), decreased drowsy driving (67%,p=0.009), increased morning energy (19%,p=0.05), increased evening energy (22%,p=0.027), increased total energy level (16%,p=0.019), and decreased weight (19.2lbs,p=0.038). No changes were seen for other variables. A relatively simple intervention based on education and monitoring in a small group of student athletes produced measurable improvements in sleep, energy level, mental health, and reductions in body weight. K23HL110216 and NCAA Innovation Grant
The Characteristics of Pressure Wave Supercharged Small Diesel Engine (1989)

&lt;div class="htmlview paragraph"&gt;The supercharged diesel engine with a pressure wave supercharger (PWS) has achieved a high torque over the entire speed range in a quick response while maintaining the low fuel consumption as a small diesel engine. This is the result of adopting a high efficient supercharger based on the unique construction of PWS. Lower inlet and exhaust flow resistance, earlier inlet-close timing, etc., are specially important for engine with PWS. Another advantage is less unturned fuel emissions.&lt;/div&gt;
4D Seismic at the Gullfaks Field - Mapping the Remaining Oil (1999)

Abstract The reservoir sands at the Gullfaks Field are Jurassic, shallow marine to fluvial sediments of the Brent Group and the Cook- and Statfjord formations.
Improvement of PCR for Detection of Opisthorchis viverrini DNA in Human Stool Samples (2007)

Opisthorchis viverrini is an important food-borne trematode in Southeast Asia. The infection causes significant morbidity in terms of hepatobiliary diseases and cholangiocarcinoma. The aim of this study was to improve the sensitivity of the PCR-based diagnosis of O. viverrini infection. A new fecal DNA extraction protocol for the detection of O. viverrini DNA using cetyltrimethyl-ammoniumbromide to remove PCR inhibitor was used and compared with the commercial stool kit method. The sensitivity of the new test was 79.3%, compared with the 44.8% of the previous method (P < 0.01). PCR-positive tests identified several cases judged parasite negative by the parasitological method (28.6%), indicating the new test's advantage in the diagnosis of individuals with light infections.
Long-term Biobehavioral Effects of Maternal Separation in the Rat: Consistent or Confusing? (2000)

Over the last decades of research there has been increasing interest in endocrine and behavioral effects of postnatal environmental manipulations. A manipulation procedure that has been widely used to date is that of maternal separation. Many studies have demonstrated that, in the rat, a single or repeated separation of the pups from the mother leads to acute as well as long-term effects on endocrinology and behavior. However, reviewing the literature shows that contrary findings for almost all parameters investigated can be found. A possible explanation for this inconsistency may be the fact that maternal separation has become a collective term for a variety of extremely different experimental manipulations. Therefore, this review aims at evaluating typical effects of maternal separation in the laboratory rat by categorizing different experimental procedures. We concentrate in particular on longterm behavioral effects, although a brief summary of neuroendocrine effects is also provided. In addition, important methodological issues of maternal separation studies are discussed as a possible source for inconsistent findings.
A magnetic-less DC-DC converter for dual-voltage automotive systems (2003)

The automotive industry is moving toward 42 V to meet more electrical needs. Several dual-voltage (42 and 14 V) architectures have been proposed for the transition and accommodation of 14-V loads. A DC-DC converter that connects the 42 and 14 V is one key device in any dual-voltage architecture. This paper presents a compact, efficient, magnetic-less bidirectional DC-DC converter for dual-voltage (42/14 V) automotive systems. The DC-DC converter is based on the generalized multilevel converter topology having the ability to balance battery voltages, emit zero or low electromagnetic interference, and have low cost by using low-voltage MOSFETs. The main circuit of the DC-DC converter is analyzed and its control scheme is presented in the paper. A self-powered gate drive circuit is developed for the DC-DC converter to reduce costs, signal connections, and circuit complexity. A prototype has been built and experimental results are presented.
The mossy north: an inverse latitudinal diversity gradient in European bryophytes (2016)

It remains hotly debated whether latitudinal diversity gradients are common across taxonomic groups and whether a single mechanism can explain such gradients. Investigating species richness (SR) patterns of European land plants, we determine whether SR increases with decreasing latitude, as predicted by theory, and whether the assembly mechanisms differ among taxonomic groups. SR increases towards the south in spermatophytes, but towards the north in ferns and bryophytes. SR patterns in spermatophytes are consistent with their patterns of beta diversity, with high levels of nestedness and turnover in the north and in the south, respectively, indicating species exclusion towards the north and increased opportunities for speciation in the south. Liverworts exhibit the highest levels of nestedness, suggesting that they represent the most sensitive group to the impact of past climate change. Nevertheless, although the extent of liverwort species turnover in the south is substantially and significantly lower than in spermatophytes, liverworts share with the latter a higher nestedness in the north and a higher turn-over in the south, in contrast to mosses and ferns. The extent to which the similarity in the patterns displayed by spermatophytes and liverworts reflects a similar assembly mechanism remains, however, to be demonstrated.
Exact robot navigation using cost functions: the case of distinct spherical boundaries in E/sup n/ (2003)

The utility of artificial potential functions is explored as a means of translating automatically a robot task description into a feedback control law to drive the robot actuators. A class of functions is sought which will guide a point robot amid any finite number of spherically bounded obstacles in Euclidean n-space toward an arbitrary destination point. By introducing a set of additional constraints, the subclass of navigation functions is defined. This class is dynamically sound in the sense that the actual mechanical system will inherit the essential aspects of the qualitative behavior of the gradient lines of the cost function. An existence proof is given by constructing a one parameter family of such functions; the parameter is used to guarantee the absence of local minima.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>
Expression and characterization of recombinant human α-3/4-fucosyltransferase III from Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) and Trichoplusia ni (Tn) cells using the baculovirus expression system (2001)

The human α-3/4-fucosyltransferase III (Fuc-TIII) participates in the synthesis of Lewis determinants. The enzyme from human sources is scarce and heterogeneous. In this paper we describe the expression of a secreted form of Fuc-TIII (SFT3) in two insect cell lines, Spodopterafrugiperda (Sf9) and Trichoplusiani (Tn), using the baculovirus expression system. The Sf9 cells secreted approx. 0.4unit/l (1mg/l) of the enzyme. The Tn cells secreted approx. 3-fold this amount. A large proportion of active protein was accumulated in the two cell lines (50 and 75% respectively for Sf9 and Tn cells, on the fourth day after infection) indicating a possible limitation not only of the folding machinery, but also a saturation of the secretory pathway. SFT3 was purified by cation-exchange chromatography followed by affinity chromatography. The enzyme from the Tn cell line had a lower global charge, possibly due to post-translational modifications, such as phosphorylation or sulphation. The two glycosylation sites from SFT3 were occupied. SFT3 secreted by Sf9 cells was completely deglycosylated by peptide-N-glycanase F, whereas 50% of SFT3 secreted by Tn cells was resistant to deglycosylation by this enzyme. The apparent kinetic parameters determined with the type I acceptor were kcat = 0.4s-1 and Km = 0.87mM for the SFT3 secreted by Tn cells, and kcat = 0.09s-1 and Km = 0.76mM for the SFT3 secreted by Sf9 cells, indicating that the enzymes had substrate affinities within the same order of magnitude as their mammalian counterpart. Furthermore, SFT3 secreted by either cell type showed a clear preference for type 1 carbohydrate acceptors, similarly to human Fuc-TIII.
Linear Multicast Beamforming Schemes for Coded Caching (2018)

A single cell downlink scenario is considered, where a multiple-antenna base station delivers contents to cache-enabled user terminals. Depending on the available degrees of freedom, several multicast messages are transmitted in parallel to distinct subsets of users. In the multicast beamformer design, we restrict ourselves to linear receiver implementation, which does not require successive interference cancellation unlike in the more optimal baseline scheme. With a small loss in performance, the complexity of both the receiver and transmitter implementation can be significantly reduced.
The effect of spherical aberration in myopic and non-myopic eyes: developing an optical model (2002)

Myopes have an altered accommodation response compared to non-myopes. We examined the possible optical causes of this effect by developing theoretical models of modulation transfer functions in the presence of spherical aberration and spherical defocus. In addition, we compared the contrast sensitivity functions of myopes and non-myopes under conditions of defocus, and analysed the contrast sensitivity decrease. We found that the introduction of defocus led to a significantly different contrast sensitivity response in myopes compared to non-myopes. This result was compared to possible difference in levels of spherical aberration in these two groups. The possible interactions of spherical aberration and defocus will be discussed, with emphasis on the results of recent measurements of the aberrations of myopic and emmetropic eyes.
On-Line Hollow-Fiber Flow Field-Flow Fractionation-Electrospray Ionization/Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry of Intact Proteins (2004)

Capabilities of mass spectrometry for the analysis of intact proteins can be increased through separation methods. Flow field-flow fractionation (FlFFF) is characterized by the particularly "soft" separation mechanism, which is ideally suited to maintain the native structure of intact proteins. This work describes the original on-line coupling between hollow-fiber FlFFF (HF FlFFF), the microcolumn variant of FlFFF, and electrospray ionization/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI/TOFMS) for the analysis and characterization of intact proteins. The results show that the native (or pseudonative) structure of horse heart myoglobin and horseradish peroxidase is maintained. Sample desalting is also observed for horse heart myoglobin. Correlation between the molar mass values independently measured by HF FlFFF retention and ESI/TOFMS allows us to confirm the protein aggregation features of bovine serum albumin and to indicate possible changes in the quaternary structure of human hemoglobin.
Video-Rate Panorama for Free-Viewpoint TV (2016)

Free Viewpoint Video and TV are technologies regarded as the future of digital entertainment allowing users to navigate through multiple video streams of an event to select novel viewpoints. In this paper, we propose an automatic real-time video stitching algorithm that is capable of producing spherical panoramas for FTV applications. The algorithm works by splitting automatic image stitching into one-time and recurring computations. We utilize GPUs for accelerating the recurring computations and achieving real-time performance. By effectively caching the repeated transform maps, we improve the stitching performance by two orders of magnitude compare to CPU implementations. The multiple stitching steps are pipelined to distribute the panorama stitching computations between multiple processing nodes to produce visually appealing panoramas at 30Hz without any noticeable blurring or stitching artifacts for five HD synchronized cameras.
Aqueous Olefin Metathesis (2008)

According to popular belief, oxygen and water are the natural enemies of organometallic reactions and therefore must be excluded rigorously from the reaction vessel. This belief is founded in the case of the highly reactive nucleophilic metal alkylidene complexes that were used in early catalytic olefin metathesis. However, owing to the high stability of the ruthenium carbene complexes introduced by Grubbs, metathesis in water has become reality.