Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A General Unified AC/DC Power Flow Algorithm With MTDC

The aim of this paper is to derive a general AC/DC power flow model with Voltage Source Converter Multi-Terminal High-Voltage Direct Current Systems (VSC MTDCs). The equations of AC, DC grids, and VSCs are formulated in augmented rectangular coordinates. The proposed model is composed of two nodal equations and two power constraints for each AC bus, as well as one nodal equation and one power constraint for each DC bus. In this model, the VSC equations are included in the AC and DC grid model—its power balance equation and one of the control equations are regarded as the power constraints of the AC bus connected to it, whereas the other control equation is regarded as the power constraint of the DC bus connected to it. Therefore, the number of equations of the proposed model is determined only by that of AC and DC buses, and the model is systematically well organized; the variety of VSC control strategies and AC/DC linking configurations does not influence the overall structure. The proposed approach enables to solve the load flow of the most general AC/MTDC, consisting of multiple AC and DC grids connected by VSCs, and is suitable for control strategies including the droop control and any new ones in the future. The model also leads to higher computational efficiency. By demonstrations on AC/DC power systems with several VSCs, this method is proved to be effective, flexible, and efficient.
Periorbital wrinkles treatment Periorbital wrinkles treatment using collagen induction therapy

Introduction: Periorbital wrinkles are very common and permanent cutaneous folds that develop on the periocular area. The treatment for wrinkles varies with the degree of severity. A relatively new treatment, called collagen induction therapy (CIT), seems to be appropriate for the treatment of periorbital wrinkles. Objective: To confi rm the usefulness of CIT in periorbital wrinkles treatment. Patients and methods: In total, 20 patients (12 females, 8 males; between 50-65 years of age) with periorbital wrinkles were included. Each patient was treated with a specifi c tool in two sessions. Using digital cameras, photos of all patients were taken to evaluate wrinkles’ depth, and silicone rubber was used to make a microrelief impression of the wrinkles. The photographic data were analysed by using the sign test statistic (α < 0.05). Skin layer data were analysed by computerized image analysis. Results: Analysis of the patient photographs, supported by the sign test, and the degree of irregularity of the surface microrelief, supported by Fast Fourier Transform and by wrinkle’s image processing, showed that, after only two sessions, the wrinkles’ severity grade in most patients was greatly reduced. Conclusion: The present study suggests that CIT can be a suitable technique to improve periorbital wrinkles.
Minimax Robust Hypothesis Testing

Minimax robust hypothesis testing is studied for the cases where the collected data samples are corrupted by outliers and are mismodeled due to modeling errors. For the former case, Huber’s clipped likelihood ratio test is introduced and analyzed. For the latter case, first, a robust hypothesis testing scheme based on the Kullback–Leibler divergence is designed. This approach generalizes a previous work by Levy. Second, Dabak and Johnson’s asymptotically robust test is introduced, and other possible designs based on <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-divergences are investigated. All proposed and analyzed robust tests are extended to fixed sample size and sequential probability ratio tests. Simulations are provided to exemplify and evaluate the theoretical derivations.
Constraining the New Aether: gravitational Cherenkov radiation

We study the simplest concrete theory for spontaneous Lorentz violation, the ``New Aether theory'' of Jacobson and Mattingly, which is a vector-tensor gravitational theory with a fixed-modulus condition on the vector field. We show that the observation of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (which implies the absence of energy loss via various Cherenkov type processes) places constraints on the parameters of this theory, which are much stronger than those previously found in the literature and are also stronger than the constraints generically arising when gravity displays sub-luminal propagation.
Cold to warm transition impedances in the SPS machine

In many papers, the interaction between a relativistic particle beam and a vacuum chamber with holes is usually described in terms of coupling impedance and loss factor. The interference among the holes is the main source of wake fields and losses. This note focuses on the impedances evualuation of SPS cold to warm transitions. A comparison between analytical model and numerical results is presented.
Reionization of the Universe and the Early Production of Metals

We simulate a plausible cosmological model in considerable physical and numerical detail through the successive phases of reheating (at 10 ≲ z ≲ 20) and reionization at z ≈ 7. We assume an efficiency of high-mass star formation appropriate to leave the universe, after it becomes transparent, with an ionizing background J21 ≈ 0.4 (at z = 4), near (and perhaps slightly below) the observed value. Since the same stars produce the ionizing radiation and the first generation of heavy elements, a mean metallicity of ⟨Z/Z☉⟩ ~ 1/200 is produced in this early phase, but there is a large variation about this mean, with the high density regions having Z/Z☉ ≈ 1/30 and the low density regions (or the Lyα forest with NH I ≲ 1013.5 cm2) having essentially no metals. When it occurs, reionization is very rapid (phase change-like), which will leave a signature that may be detectable by very large area meter-wavelength radio instruments. Also, the background UV radiation field will show a sharp drop of ~10-3 from 1 to 4 ryd because of absorption edges. The simulated volume is too small to form L* galaxies, but the smaller objects that are found in the simulation obey the Faber-Jackson relation. In order to explore theoretically this domain of “the end of the dark ages” quantitatively, numerical simulations must have a mass resolution of the order of 104.5 M☉ in baryons, have high spatial resolution (≲1 kpc) to resolve strong clumping, and allow for detailed and accurate treatment of both the radiation field and atomic/molecular physics.
Self-organization, scaling and collapse in a coupled automaton model of foragers and vegetation resources with seed dispersal

We introduce a model of travelling agents (e.g., frugivorous animals) who feed on randomly located vegetation patches and disperse their seeds, thus modifying the spatial distribution of the resources in the long term. It is assumed that the survival probability of a seed increases with the distance to its parent patch and decreases with the size of the colonized patch. In turn, the foraging agents use a deterministic strategy with memory that makes them visit the largest possible patches accessible within minimal travelling distances. The combination of these interactions produce complex spatio-temporal patterns. If the patches have a small initial size, the vegetation total mass (biomass) increases with time and reaches a maximum corresponding to a self-organized critical state with power-law-distributed patch sizes and Lévy-like movement patterns for the foragers. However, this state collapses as the biomass sharply decreases to reach a noisy stationary regime characterized by corrections to scaling. In systems with low plant competition, the efficiency of the foraging rules leads to the formation of heterogeneous vegetation patterns with 1/fα frequency spectra, and contributes, rather counter-intuitively, to lower the biomass levels.
Isolation, purification, and partial characterization of a membrane-bound Cl−/HCO3−-activated ATPase complex from rat brain with sensitivity to GABAAergic ligands

ABSTRACT This study describes the isolation and purification of a protein complex with -ATPase activity and sensitivity to GABAAergic ligands from rat brain plasma membranes. The ATPase complex was enriched using size-exclusion, affinity, and ion-exchange chromatography. The fractions obtained at each purification step were subjected to SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), which revealed four subunits with molecular mass ∼48, 52, 56, and 59 kDa; these were retained at all stages of the purification process. Autoradiography revealed that the ∼52 and 56 kDa subunits could bind [3H]muscimol. The -ATPase activity of this enriched protein complex was regulated by GABAAergic ligands but was not sensitive to blockers of the NKCC or KCC cotransporters.
Serious psychiatric outcome of subjects prenatally exposed to diethylstilboestrol in the E3N cohort study

ABSTRACT Background Prenatal exposure to diethylstilboestrol (DES) may induce neurodevelopmental disturbances potentially mediating an increased risk of psychiatric disorders in exposed subjects. Most findings of an increased prevalence of psychiatric disorders in men and women prenatally exposed to DES are not easy to interpret because of selection biases. Method Information on hormonal treatment during pregnancy and on offspring's medical outcome was collected from women participating in the Etude Epidemiologique de femmes de la Mutuelle Générale de l'Education Nationale (E3N) prospective cohort who completed consecutive postal questionnaires on a range of medical events since 1990. Information on hormonal treatment during pregnancy was collected in 1992 and on offspring's medical outcome in 2004. The psychiatric outcome of subjects prenatally exposed to DES was compared to that of their unexposed siblings. Results A total of 1352 mothers with DES treatment for at least one pregnancy provided information on 1680 exposed children and 1447 unexposed siblings. After adjustment for duration of follow-up, educational level, history of obstetric complication, prenatal exposure to progestagen drugs or other hormones and parental history of psychiatric hospitalization, no association was found between prenatal exposure to DES and occurrence of strictly defined serious psychiatric outcome (suicide or psychiatric hospitalization) [adjusted odds ratio (OR) 0·8, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0·5–1·2], or of broadly defined serious psychiatric outcome (same events plus psychiatric or psychological consultation) (adjusted OR 1·0, 95% CI 0·8–1·2). Conclusions These findings suggest that the impact of prenatal DES exposure on foetal brain development, if any, is unlikely to increase the risk of serious psychiatric disorders.
Loss of recognition by cross‐reactive T cells and its relation to a C‐terminus‐induced conformational reorientation of an HLA‐B*2705‐bound peptide

The human major histocompatibility complex class I antigen HLA‐B*2705 binds several sequence‐related peptides (pVIPR, RRKWRRWHL; pLPM2, RRRWRRLTV; pGR, RRRWHRWRL). Cross‐reactivity of cytotoxic T cells (CTL) against these HLA‐B*2705:peptide complexes seemed to depend on a particular peptide conformation that is facilitated by the engagement of a crucial residue within the binding groove (Asp116), associated with a noncanonical bulging‐in of the middle portion of the bound peptide. We were interested whether a conformational reorientation of the ligand might contribute to the lack of cross‐reactivity of these CTL with a peptide derived from voltage‐dependent calcium channel α1 subunit (pCAC, SRRWRRWNR), in which the C‐terminal peptide residue pArg9 could engage Asp116. Analyses of the HLA‐B*2705:pCAC complex by X‐ray crystallography at 1.94 Å resolution demonstrated that the peptide had indeed undergone a drastic reorientation, leading it to adopt a canonical binding mode accompanied by the loss of molecular mimicry between pCAC and sequence‐related peptides such as pVIPR, pLMP2, and pGR. This was clearly a consequence of interactions of pArg9 with Asp116 and other F‐pocket residues. Furthermore, we observed an unprecedented reorientation of several additional residues of the HLA‐B*2705 heavy chain near the N‐terminal region of the peptide, including also the presence of double conformations of two glutamate residues, Glu63 and Glu163, on opposing sides of the peptide binding groove. Together with the Arg‐Ser exchange at peptide position 1, there are thus multiple structural reasons that may explain the observed failure of pVIPR‐directed, HLA‐B*2705‐restricted CTL to cross‐react with HLA‐B*2705:pCAC complexes.
Polymorphisms/Haplotypes in DNA Repair Genes and Smoking: A Bladder Cancer Case-Control Study

Bladder cancer is associated with tobacco smoking and occupational exposure. The repair of DNA damage has a key role in protecting the genome from the insults of cancer-causing agents. We analyzed 13 polymorphisms in seven DNA repair genes belonging to different repair pathways [X-ray repair cross-complementing group 1 (XRCC1): 26304C>T, 26651A>G, 28152A>G; xeroderma pigmentosum-D (XPD): 23591A>G, 35931A>C; excision repair complementing defective in Chinese hamster, group 1 (ERCC1): 19007C>T; XRCC3: 4541T>C, 17893A>G, 18067C>T; proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA): 6084G>C; ERCC4: 30028C>T, 30147A>G; and XRCC2-31479A>G] in 317 incident bladder cancer patients and 317 controls. After adjustment for age and smoking, the PCNA-6084C variant was significantly associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer [CC + CG versus GG, odds ratio (OR), 1.61; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.00-2.61], as well as the XRCC1-26651G variant (GG+AG versus AA: OR, 1.73; 95% CI, 1.17-2.56). After stratifying by smoking habits, an elevated risk for carriers of the XRCC3-18067T allele was detected both in current (TT versus CC: OR, 2.65; 95% CI, 1.21-5.80; CT versus CC: OR, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.09-3.52) and never smokers (TT versus CC: OR, 4.34; 95% CI, 1.14-16.46; CT versus CC: OR, 2.02; 95% CI, 0.72-5.66), whereas an opposite and slightly weaker effect was associated to the XRCC3-17893G allele in current smokers (GG versus AA: OR, 0.30; 95%CI, 0.11-0.82; AG versus AA: OR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.42-1.27). XRCC3,XRCC1, ERCC4, and XPD-ERCC1 haplotype frequencies were estimated by the maximum likelihood method. The XRCC3-TAT haplotype was associated with an enhanced risk in the current smokers group (OR, 1.62; 95% CI, 1.15-2.29), whereas a reduction of the risk in the overall sample was observed in the presence of the XRCC3-TAC (OR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.50-0.97). A significant protective effect of the XPD-ERCC1-ACC haplotype was observed among never smokers (OR, 0.16; 95% CI, 0.03-0.81). Our results suggest that polymorphisms and/or haplotypes in XRCC3, XRCC1, and PCNA genes and spanning XPD-ERCC1 region may modulate bladder cancer risk and that some of these effects may preferentially affect current smokers.
Medicinal Plants in the Treatment of Colitis: Evidence from Preclinical Studies

Abstract Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory condition whose treatment includes aminosalicylates, corticosteroids, and immunomodulators. Medicinal plants seem to be an important alternative treatment for this condition. They have been the subject of a great number of studies in recent years. This study was conducted to systematically review the medicinal plants tested in experimental models of ulcerative colitis. We conducted a systematic literature search through specialized databases (PUBMED, SCOPUS, EMBASE, MEDLINE, LILACS, SCIELO, and SCISEARCH) and selected articles published between January 2000 and June 21, 2016 by using “medicinal plants” and “ulcerative colitis” as key words. Sixty-eight studies were included, and the families Asteraceae and Lamiaceae presented the largest number of studies, but plants from several other families were cited; many of them have shown good results in experimental animals. However, only a few species (such as Andrographis paniculata and Punica granatum) have undergone clinical tests against ulcerative colitis, and the observation that many preclinical studies reviewed are purely descriptive has certainly contributed to this fact. Chemical constituents (mainly flavonoids and terpenes) seem to play a role in the effects of the plants. Thus, the data herein reviewed reinforce the potential of medicinal plants as a source of alternative approaches to the treatment of ulcerative colitis.
Join Processing for Graph Patterns: An Old Dog with New Tricks

Join optimization has been dominated by Selinger-style, pairwise optimizers for decades. But, Selinger-style algorithms are asymptotically suboptimal for applications in graphic analytics. This sub-optimality is one of the reasons that many have advocated supplementing relational engines with specialized graph processing engines. Recently, new join algorithms have been discovered that achieve optimal worst-case run times for any join or even so-called beyond worst-case (or instance optimal) run time guarantees for specialized classes of joins. These new algorithms match or improve on those used in specialized graph-processing systems. This paper asks can these new join algorithms allow relational engines to close the performance gap with graph engines? We examine this question for graph-pattern queries or join queries. We find that classical relational databases like Postgres and MonetDB or newer graph databases/stores like Virtuoso and Neo4j may be orders of magnitude slower than these new approaches compared to a fully featured RDBMS, LogicBlox, using these new ideas. Our results demonstrate that an RDBMS with such new algorithms can perform as well as specialized engines like GraphLab -- while retaining a high-level interface. We hope our work adds to the ongoing debate of the role of graph accelerators, new graph systems, and relational systems in modern workloads.
Neural Correlates of Executive Control in the Avian Brain

Executive control, the ability to plan one's behaviour to achieve a goal, is a hallmark of frontal lobe function in humans and other primates. In the current study we report neural correlates of executive control in the avian nidopallium caudolaterale, a region analogous to the mammalian prefrontal cortex. Homing pigeons (Columba livia) performed a working memory task in which cues instructed them whether stimuli should be remembered or forgotten. When instructed to remember, many neurons showed sustained activation throughout the memory period. When instructed to forget, the sustained activation was abolished. Consistent with the neural data, the behavioural data showed that memory performance was high after instructions to remember, and dropped to chance after instructions to forget. Our findings indicate that neurons in the avian nidopallium caudolaterale participate in one of the core forms of executive control, the control of what should be remembered and what should be forgotten. This form of executive control is fundamental not only to working memory, but also to all cognition.
Multilayer Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) Filters With Higher-Order Mode Suppression

This letter presents a multilayer approach for suppressing the higher order modes of substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) bandpass filters. Rectangular SIW resonators in multilayer substrates can be vertically coupled with magnetic and/or electric coupling by the proposed apertures etched on the middle metal layer. Harmonic passbands produced by the first higher-order mode TE102 can be suppressed thanks to the proposed weak coupling or mixed coupling schemes in connection with the TE102 mode. Compared with conventional horizontally coupled filter, the proposed filters also show a compact physical size. To demonstrate the proposed design method, two double-layered SIW bandpass filters Filter (I and II) are fabricated and measured. The experimental results show that the maximum rejection levels at the TE102 mode frequencies are below -30 dB and -20 dB for Filter I and II, respectively. Furthermore, simulated and measured results also show a good agreement.
Developing a measure of loneliness.

Research on loneliness has been hindered by the lack of a simple and reliable assessment technique. The development of the UCLA Loneliness Scale, a short, 20-item general measure of loneliness is reported. The measure has high internal consistency (coefficient alpha = .96) and a test-retest correlation over a two-month period of . 73. Concurrent and preliminary construct validity are indicated by correlations with self-reports of current loneliness and related emotional states, and by volunteering for a "loneliness clinic. "
Neural Correlates of Conscious Self-Regulation of Emotion

A fundamental question about the relationship between cognition and emotion concerns the neural substrate underlying emotional self-regulation. To address this issue, brain activation was measured in normal male subjects while they either responded in a normal manner to erotic film excerpts or voluntarily attempted to inhibit the sexual arousal induced by viewing erotic stimuli. Results demonstrated that the sexual arousal experienced, in response to the erotic film excerpts, was associated with activation in "limbic" and paralimbic structures, such as the right amygdala, right anterior temporal pole, and hypothalamus. In addition, the attempted inhibition of the sexual arousal generated by viewing the erotic stimuli was associated with activation of the right superior frontal gyrus and right anterior cingulate gyrus. No activation was found in limbic areas. These findings reinforce the view that emotional self-regulation is normally implemented by a neural circuit comprising various prefrontal regions and subcortical limbic structures. They also suggest that humans have the capacity to influence the electrochemical dynamics of their brains, by voluntarily changing the nature of the mind processes unfolding in the psychological space.
Dual Learning for Machine Translation

While neural machine translation (NMT) is making good progress in the past two years, tens of millions of bilingual sentence pairs are needed for its training. However, human labeling is very costly. To tackle this training data bottleneck, we develop a dual-learning mechanism, which can enable an NMT system to automatically learn from unlabeled data through a dual-learning game. This mechanism is inspired by the following observation: any machine translation task has a dual task, e.g., English-to-French translation (primal) versus French-to-English translation (dual); the primal and dual tasks can form a closed loop, and generate informative feedback signals to train the translation models, even if without the involvement of a human labeler. In the dual-learning mechanism, we use one agent to represent the model for the primal task and the other agent to represent the model for the dual task, then ask them to teach each other through a reinforcement learning process. Based on the feedback signals generated during this process (e.g., the language-model likelihood of the output of a model, and the reconstruction error of the original sentence after the primal and dual translations), we can iteratively update the two models until convergence (e.g., using the policy gradient methods). We call the corresponding approach to neural machine translation dual-NMT. Experiments show that dual-NMT works very well on English ↔ French translation; especially, by learning from monolingual data (with 10% bilingual data for warm start), it achieves a comparable accuracy to NMT trained from the full bilingual data for the French-to-English translation task.