Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tuning of a Damping Controller for Multiterminal VSC-HVDC Grids Using the Probabilistic Collocation Method

This paper presents a robust probabilistic controller tuning method to improve the damping of critical system modes through the modulation of active power injected by a voltage-source converter-based multiterminal high-voltage direct current (VSC-MTDC) grid. This methodology first establishes the probabilistic locations of the critical modes based on the known variation in power system operating conditions. Following this, the modal linear quadratic Gaussian (MLQG) controller structure is tuned for a set of probabilistic values of critical eigenvalues. The controller's performance following small disturbances in the network for wide-ranging operating conditions is compared with the conventionally tuned MLQG controller designed for the nominal system operating point. The probabilistic collocation method is shown to facilitate robust probabilistic tuning without the need for large numbers of full system linearizations. The test system used incorporates a large wind farm with variable power output connected to the meshed ac network through the VSC-MTDC grid.
Is there a robust future for research in reproduction?

Spurred on by recent high-profile discoveries that, in pre-clinical research, themajorityof findings cannotbe replicated, there is an increasing awareness and vociferous debate about the validity of data in medical/ scientific studies (Plant et al., 2014; Freedman et al., 2015). What information canwe rely on? Someof the revelations and statistics are frightening. For example, scientists at Amgen tried to replicate the findings of 53 ‘landmark’ research papers in pre-clinical cancer. Remarkably, the findings could only be confirmed in six cases (Begley and Ellis, 2012). Comparable examples occur in other fields of biomedical sciences (Masca et al., 2015) and beyond. For example, a large-scale study conducted on the reproducibility of psychological science covering 100 studies demonstrated that a large proportion of the replications produced much weaker evidence for the original findings and a number were no longer significant (Open Science Collaboration, 2015). Whilst irreproducible findings waste time, effort and delay potential treatment for patients, calculations illustrate an astronomical economic impact. Freedman et al. (2015) calculate that US$28 000 000 000 ($28Billion) per year is spent on research in the USA that is not reproducible. What’s happening in our own discipline? Is reproductive medicine immune? Absolutely not. In my own field of male infertility, the situation is tragic. Semen analysis is the cornerstone of diagnoses; however, for over 70 years, there has been debate as to its diagnostic and prognostic significance. A primary concern has been the considerable lack of standardization. To the uninitiated this may, at first, appear strange as the WHO have been producing manuals on semen assessment since 1980. However, what is clear is that even though robust methods exist, and have been proved to produce reliable data, the overwhelming majority of laboratories do not follow them.A salient example is the performance in theGerman semenanalysis external quality control program (Mallidis et al., 2012). Overall, fewer than 8% of the participating laboratories followed theWHO—apercentage that had changed little over the 10-year period.Depressingly, this is similar to theUKexperience (Riddell et al., 2005). It is, of course, not just semen analysis that is subject to methodological error as issueswithAMHexemplify (Nelson et al., 2014) Sowhat can bedone? Aplethoraof calls from individuals, societies and groups of interested parties including funding bodies are exploring a variety of ways to address the issues. The fundamental importance of robust methodology for sound scientific development is gaining significant traction (Masca et al., 2015) and innovative approaches are being tested. For example, with regard to chemical probes, an expert community has developed acommunity-drivenwiki resource termed theChemical Probes Portal (http://www.chemicalprobes.org/). The aim is to convey the current practice by providing specific advice and resources that includes a checklist for experiments using chemical probes (Arrowsmith et al., 2015).
Changes in plantar loading based on shoe type and sex during a jump-landing task.

CONTEXT Metatarsal stress fractures are common in cleated-sport athletes. Previous authors have shown that plantar loading varies with footwear, sex, and the athletic task. OBJECTIVE To examine the effects of shoe type and sex on plantar loading in the medial midfoot (MMF), lateral midfoot (LMF), medial forefoot (MFF), middle forefoot (MidFF), and lateral forefoot (LFF) during a jump-landing task. DESIGN Crossover study. SETTING Laboratory. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS Twenty-seven recreational athletes (14 men, 13 women) with no history of lower extremity injury in the last 6 months and no history of foot or ankle surgery. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) The athletes completed 7 jumping trials while wearing bladed-cleat, turf-cleat, and running shoes. Maximum force, contact area, contact time, and the force-time integral were analyzed in each foot region. We calculated 2 × 3 analyses of variance (α = .05) to identify shoe-condition and sex differences. RESULTS We found no shoe × sex interactions, but the MMF, LMF, MFF, and LFF force-time integrals were greater in men (P < .03). The MMF maximum force was less with the bladed-cleat shoes (P = .02). Total foot and MidFF maximum force was less with the running shoes (P < .01). The MFF and LFF maximum forces were different among all shoe conditions (P < .01). Total foot contact area was less in the bladed-cleat shoes (P = .01). The MMF contact area was greatest in the running shoes (P < .01). The LFF contact area was less in the running shoes (P = .03). The MFF and LFF force-time integrals were greater with the bladed-cleat shoes (P < .01). The MidFF force-time integral was less in the running shoes (P < .01). CONCLUSIONS Independent of shoe, men and women loaded the foot differently during a jump landing. The bladed cleat increased forefoot loading, which may increase the risk for forefoot injury. The type of shoe should be considered when choosing footwear for athletes returning to activity after metatarsal stress fractures.
Neutrophil-derived S100 calcium-binding proteins A8/A9 promote reticulated thrombocytosis and atherogenesis in diabetes

Platelets play a critical role in atherogenesis and thrombosis-mediated myocardial ischemia, processes that are accelerated in diabetes. Whether hyperglycemia promotes platelet production and whether enhanced platelet production contributes to enhanced atherothrombosis remains unknown. Here we found that in response to hyperglycemia, neutrophil-derived S100 calcium-binding proteins A8/A9 (S100A8/A9) interact with the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) on hepatic Kupffer cells, resulting in increased production of IL-6, a pleiotropic cytokine that is implicated in inflammatory thrombocytosis. IL-6 acts on hepatocytes to enhance the production of thrombopoietin, which in turn interacts with its cognate receptor c-MPL on megakaryocytes and bone marrow progenitor cells to promote their expansion and proliferation, resulting in reticulated thrombocytosis. Lowering blood glucose using a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor (dapagliflozin), depleting neutrophils or Kupffer cells, or inhibiting S100A8/A9 binding to RAGE (using paquinimod), all reduced diabetes-induced thrombocytosis. Inhibiting S100A8/A9 also decreased atherogenesis in diabetic mice. Finally, we found that patients with type 2 diabetes have reticulated thrombocytosis that correlates with glycated hemoglobin as well as increased plasma S100A8/A9 levels. These studies provide insights into the mechanisms that regulate platelet production and may aid in the development of strategies to improve on current antiplatelet therapies and to reduce cardiovascular disease risk in diabetes.
Diabetes in African Americans

African Americans have a high risk for type 2 diabetes. Genetic traits, the prevalence of obesity, and insulin resistance all contribute to the risk of diabetes in the African American community. African Americans have a high rate of diabetic complications, because of poor glycaemic control and racial disparities in health care in the USA. African Americans with diabetes may have an atypical presentation that simulates type 1 diabetes, but then their subsequent clinical course is typical of type 2 diabetes. Culturally sensitive strategies, structured disease management protocols, and the assistance of nurses, diabetic educators, and other health care professionals are effective in improving the outcome of diabetes in the African American community.
Comparative bond strengths of autopolymerising denture resin and light cured composite resin to denture teeth.

AIM To investigate the shear bond strengths between light cured composite and autopolymerised acrylic resin bonded to acrylic resin denture teeth. METHODS Surface treatments were used for the denture teeth included wetting with methylmethacrylate (MMA) monomer, composite bonding agent and acid etching. The samples were divided into seven groups. Two groups of specimens were immersed in distilled water for 30 days to hydrate the teeth. Five other groups of embedded denture teeth were stored in air at room temperature for 30 days. RESULTS Analysis of variance indicated statistically significant differences between groups (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION The greatest bond strengths to denture teeth were in acrylic resins polymerised with pressure and wetted with monomer. The bond strengths of hydrated and unhydrated samples gave similar results both with acrylic resins and composites.
Query processing of massive trajectory data based on mapreduce

With the development of positioning technologies and the boosting deployment of inexpensive location-aware sensors, large volumes of trajectory data have emerged. However, efficient and scalable query processing over trajectory data remains a big challenge. We explore a new approach to this target in this paper, presenting a new framework for query processing over trajectory data based on MapReduce. Traditional trajectory data partitioning, indexing, and query processing technologies are extended so that they may fully utilize the highly parallel processing power of large-scale clusters. We also show that the append-only scheme of MapReduce storage model can be a nice base for handling updates of moving objects. Preliminary experiments show that this framework scales well in terms of the size of trajectory data set. It is also discussed the limitation of traditional trajectory data processing techniques and our future research directions.
Cognitive Control of Episodic Memory in Schizophrenia: Differential Role of Dorsolateral and Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex

Background: Dorsal (DLPFC) and ventral (VLPFC) subregions in lateral prefrontal cortex play distinct roles in episodic memory, and both are implicated in schizophrenia. We test the hypothesis that schizophrenia differentially impairs DLPFC versus VLPFC control of episodic encoding. Methods: Cognitive control was manipulated by requiring participants to encode targets and avoid encoding non-targets based upon stimulus properties of test stimuli. The more automatic encoding response (target versus non-target) was predicted to engage VLPFC in both groups. Conversely, having to overcome the prepotent encoding response (non-targets versus targets) was predicted to produce greater DLPFC activation in controls than in patients. Encoding occurred during event-related fMRI in a sample of 21 individuals with schizophrenia and 30 healthy participants. Scanning was followed by recognition testing outside the scanner. Results: Patients were less successful differentially remembering target versus non-target stimuli, and retrieval difficulties correlated with more severe disorganized symptoms. As predicted, the target versus non-target contrast activated the VLPFC and correlated with retrieval success in both groups. Conversely, the non-target versus target contrast produced greater DLPFC activation in controls than in patients, and DLPFC activation correlated with performance only in controls. Conclusion: Individuals with schizophrenia can successfully engage the VLPFC to provide control over semantic encoding of individual items, but are specifically impaired at engaging the DLPFC to main context for task-appropriate encoding and thereby generate improved memory for target versus non-target items. This extends previous cognitive control models based on response selection tasks to the memory domain.
Three patterns of cytokine expression potentially involved in epithelial‐fibroblast interactions of human ocular surface

Signals transmitted from mesenchyme to epithelia or vice versa constitute the basis of reciprocal epithelial‐mesenchymal interactions. As a first step toward understanding epithelial‐mesenchymal interactions on the ocular surface where the transit amplifying cell‐containing corneal epithelium is anatomically separated from the stem cell‐containing limbal epithelium, we sought to characterize the expression patterns of cytokines and their receptors by primary epithelial and early‐passaged fibroblast cultures of human cornea and limbus. Northern hybridization with oligonucleotide and cDNA probes to a total of 25 cytokines and 12 of their receptors revealed that the positively expressed cytokines could be divided into the following four patterns. Type I: TGF‐α, IL‐β, and PDGF‐B were expressed exclusively by epithelial cells but their respective receptors EGFR and IL‐1R were predominantly and PDGFR‐β was exclusively expressed by fibroblasts. Type II: IGF‐I, TGF‐β1, β2, LIF, and bFGR, and their receptors were expressed by both epithelial cells and fibroblasts. FGFR‐1 (flg) and FGFR‐2 (bek) were expressed more by fibroblasts and bFGF was expressed more by corneal than limbal epithelial cells. Type III: keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) were expressed exclusively by fibroblasts and their respective receptors, KGFR and c‐met, were predominantly expressed by epithelial cells. Combined with RT‐PCR, the quantity of KGF and KGFR transcripts was highest in limbal fibroblasts and epithelial cells, respectively. In contrast, the quantity of HGF and HGFR (c‐met) transcripts was highest in corneal fibroblasts and epithelial cells, respectively. Type IV: M‐CSF and IL‐8 were expressed by fibroblasts and/or epithelial cells but their receptors were not expressed by epithelial cells nor fibroblasts, but by immune or inflammatory cells. In addition to these potential paracrine actions, autocrine actions mediated by TGF‐α/EGFR, IL‐β/IL1‐R, and bFGF/FGFR‐1 were more expressed by corneal than limbal epithelial cells. Immunofluorescence staining on human corneoscleral cryosections confirmed that EGFR and bFGF were not expressed by the limbal basal epithelium, but expressed strongly by the corneal epithelium, a pattern consistent with Northern hybridization. These results indicate that ocular surface epithelial cells and fibroblasts can express a myriad of cytokines, among which the first three patterns constitute the network of potential epithelial‐mesenchymal cytokine dialogues. The difference of certain cytokine expression between corneal and limbal regions suggests that this network participates in normal epithelial growth and differentiation, and plays an important role in wound healing. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Large-signal FET model with multiple time scale dynamics from nonlinear vector network analyzer data

A non-quasi static large-signal FET model is presented incorporating self-heating and other multiple timescale dynamics necessary to describe the large-signal behavior of III–V FET technologies including GaAs and GaN. The model is unique in that it incorporates electro-thermal and trapping dynamics (gate lag and drain lag) into both the model current source and the model nonlinear output charge source, for the first time. The model is developed from large-signal waveform data obtained from a modern nonlinear vector network analyzer (NVNA), working in concert with an output tuner and bias supplies. The dependences of Id and Qd on temperature, two trap states, and instantaneous terminal voltages are identified directly from NVNA data. Artificial neural networks are used to represent these constitutive relations for a compiled implementation into a commercial nonlinear circuit simulator (Agilent ADS). Detailed comparisons to large-signal measured data are presented.
Discrimination and Mental Health Among Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Youths in Portugal: The Moderating Role of Family Relationships and Optimism

ABSTRACT This study investigates associations between mental health, perception of discrimination (unfair treatment and personal rejection), and family environment dimensions—satisfaction, intimacy, admiration, and conflict in the relationships with the mother and the father, and familial optimism—in a sample of 84 gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) Portuguese adolescents. Results show that participants with higher levels of mental health experience less discrimination, feel more respected by their fathers, have fewer conflicts with both parents, and belong to families with higher levels of optimism. No significant differences were found with regard to satisfaction and intimacy in the relationships with both parents and in the perception of admiration by the mothers. Conflict with parents moderated the relation between discrimination and mental health. Having frequent experiences of conflict with parents was found to exacerbate the negative impact of occasional acts of discrimination on mental health. Results highlight the relevance of a positive family environment as a protection mechanism in the face of discrimination, and the need to lower the levels of homophobia and heterosexism in social contexts in order to promote the well-being of GLB adolescents.
Autism and Music Therapy — Is Change Possible, and Why Music?

This article looks at the way we make sense of the world around us, and how autism can affect this. It goes on to consider the relationship of music to ourselves, and then, in the light of these issues, why music used therapeutically may have particular relevance for people with autism. This is illustrated in the final section by brief case studies of individual music therapy work with children with autism.
University Students' Attitude to the Environment: An Australian/USA Comparison and the Effects of An Educational Program

Abstract Significant differences were found between a pretest measurement of environmental attitudes of a sample of tertiary students from the USA and that of a similar sample of Australian students; the latter scored higher on the total scale used to measure attitudes, and on all but one of the subscales. After an educational program USA students showed significant increases in scores for the total scale and for all the subscales so that they scored significantly higher on two subscales than Australian students. Discussion of these changes in measured attitudes refers to the institutional processes of education, to changes in environmentalism and to notions of dependence on science and technology for the resolution of environmental issues.
Negative symptoms and functioning in institutionalized versus outpatient schizophrenic patients

BackgroundSchizophrenia is among the top 10 disabling conditions worldwide among young adults. Negative symptoms contribute more toward poor functional outcome and quality of life for individuals with schizophrenia than positive symptoms. Many studies have suggested that institutionalization affects social functioning and quality of life significantly; yet, there is still ongoing debate on the optimal duration of hospital stay as a rapid and early discharge can lead to higher rates of relapse and rehospitalization. ObjectivesThis study aimed to examine the phenomenology of institutionalized schizophrenic patients and assess the impact of institutionalization on negative symptoms and overall functioning. Patients and methodsTwo groups of schizophrenic patients between 30 and 60 years of age and who had schizophrenia for at least 2 years were studied. Group I included 20 institutionalized schizophrenic patients in Al Abbassia Mental Hospital and group II included 20 outpatient schizophrenic patients. The diagnosis was confirmed by ICD10 in all patients, followed by assessment with a positive and negative symptom scale, the global assessment of functioning (GAF) scale, and the Wechsler adult intelligence scale. ResultsPositive and negative symptoms scale showed a statistically significant difference in delusions and hallucinatory behavior (P=0.05), passive social withdrawal, and total negative symptoms score (P=0.05) in institutionalized patients, and also in disorientation and lack of judgment and insight (P=0.05); on GAF, in group II, the scores were statistically significantly worse (P=0.00). ConclusionNegative symptoms on positive and negative symptoms scale are worse in outpatients and GAF is better in outpatient schizophrenics, confirming that institutionalization can have a negative impact on schizophrenic patients and their ability to return to community life.
High-Performance Design of Hadoop RPC with RDMA over InfiniBand

Hadoop RPC is the basic communication mechanism in the Hadoop ecosystem. It is used with other Hadoop components like MapReduce, HDFS, and HBase in real world data-centers, e.g. Facebook and Yahoo! However, the current Hadoop RPC design is built on Java sockets interface, which limits its potential performance. The High Performance Computing community has exploited high throughput and low latency networks such as InfiniBand for many years. In this paper, we first analyze the performance of current Hadoop RPC design by unearthing buffer management and communication bottlenecks, that are not apparent on the slower speed networks. Then we propose a novel design (RPCoIB) of Hadoop RPC with RDMA over InfiniBand networks. RPCoIB provides a JVM-bypassed buffer management scheme and utilizes message size locality to avoid multiple memory allocations and copies in data serialization and deserialization. Our performance evaluations reveal that the basic ping-pong latencies for varied data sizes are reduced by 42%-49% and 46%-50% compared with 10GigE and IPoIB QDR (32Gbps), respectively, while the RPCoIB design also improves the peak throughput by 82% and 64% compared with 10GigE and IPoIB. As compared to default Hadoop over IPoIB QDR, our RPCoIB design improves the performance of the Sort benchmark on 64 compute nodes by 15%, while it improves the performance of CloudBurst application by 10%. We also present thorough, integrated evaluations of our RPCoIB design with other research directions, which optimize HDFS and HBase using RDMA over InfiniBand. Compared with their best performance, we observe 10% improvement for HDFS-IB, and 24% improvement for HBase-IB. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such design of the Hadoop RPC system over high performance networks such as InfiniBand.
Evidence of negative implicit attitudes toward individuals with a tattoo near the face

Three studies examined if people express negative implicit attitudes toward individuals with a tattoo near the face. In Study 1, participants who completed an Implicit Association Test (IAT) expressed moderately negative implicit attitudes toward individuals with a tribal tattoo on one side of the neck. Study 2 replicated Study 1 when the tattoo was symmetrical, suggesting that negative affect, and not processing fluency, underlies the implicit negative evaluation of individuals with a tribal tattoo near the face. Study 3 showed dissociation between explicit and implicit attitudes toward individuals with a tribal tattoo near the face, and that the negative implicit evaluation was attenuated if the tattoo image was an objectively positive symbol. The implications for displaying a tattoo near the face are discussed.