Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High-Speed CMOS Color Stereo Camera with Low Complexity VLSI Implementation for Real-Time 3D Vision Applications

The paper presents alow complexity hardware architecture of CMOS color stereo camera for real-time 3D vision applications. To minimize the hardware complexity, two key ideas are applied. Firstly, a hardware architecture sharing line-by-line overlapped convolution kernels is proposed to reduce the number of arithmetic operations in demosaicing of bayer RGB images without image quality degradation. Secondly, an adaptive sync compensation module is proposed to synchronize master/slave image sensors, and display devices by compensating the sync signals period of slave image sensor and display devices in real-time, after monitoring varying periods of the master sync signals. In consequence, external memories such as SDRAM, that can be a considerable overhead in stereo camera implementation, is completely removed. The proposed hardware architecture is verified that the number of logic elements and registers of Intel Max10 FPGA (10M16DCU324I7G) is reduced by 69% and 76% respectively comparing to demo-saicing hardware without sharing and external memory based architecture. Also, the developed stereo camera can capture full-HD stereo images at 60 FPS and/or $\pmb{1920\times 1200\mathrm{p}}$ stereo images at 54 FPS. Moreover, it is more preferable in real-time 3D vision applications.
Towards Large-Scale RFID Positioning: A Low-cost, High-precision Solution Based on Compressive Sensing

RFID-based positioning is emerging as a promising solution for inventory management in places like warehouses and libraries. However, existing solutions either are too sensitive to the environmental noise, or require deploying a large number of reference tags which incur expensive deployment cost and increase the chance of data collisions. This paper presents CSRP, a novel RFID based positioning system, which is highly accurate and robust to environmental noise, but relies on much less reference tags compared with the state-of-the-art. CSRP achieves this by employing an noise-resilient RFID fingerprint scheme and a compressive sensing based algorithm that can recover the target tag's position using a small number of signal measurements. This work provides a set of new analysis, algorithms and heuristics to guide the deployment of reference tags and to optimize the computational overhead. We evaluate CSRP in a deployment site with 270 commercial RFID tags. Experimental results show that CSRP can correctly identify 84.7% of the test items, achieving an accuracy that is comparable to the state-of-the-art, using an order of magnitude less reference tags.
Stable Histone Methylation Changes at Proteoglycan Network Genes Following Ethanol Exposure

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a chronic mental illness in which patients often achieve protracted periods of abstinence prior to relapse. Epigenetic mechanisms may provide an explanation for the persisting gene expression changes that can be observed even after long periods of abstinence and may contribute to relapse. In this study, we examined two histone modifications, histone 3 lysine 4 tri-methylation (H3K4me3) and histone 3 lysine 27 tri-methylation (H3K27me3), in the prefrontal cortex of Withdrawal Seizure Resistant (WSR) mice 21 days after 72 h of ethanol vapor exposure. These histone modifications were selected because they are associated with active promoters (H3K4me3) and repressed gene expression in a euchromatic environment (H3K27me3). We performed a genome-wide analysis to identify differences in H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 levels in post-ethanol exposure vs. control mice by ChIP-seq. We detected a global reduction in H3K4me3 peaks and increase in H3K27me3 peaks in post-ethanol exposure mice compared to controls, these changes are consistent with persistent reductions in gene expression. Pathway analysis of genes displaying changes in H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 revealed enrichment for genes involved in proteoglycan and calcium signaling pathways, respectively. Microarray analysis of 7,683 genes and qPCR analysis identified eight genes displaying concordant regulation of gene expression and H3K4me3/H3K27me3. We also compared changes in H3K4me3 and/or H3K27me3 from our study with changes in gene expression in response to ethanol from published literature and we found that the expression of 52% of the genes with altered H3K4me3 binding and 40% of genes with H3K27me3 differences are altered by ethanol exposure. The chromatin changes associated with the 21-day post-exposure period suggest that this period is a unique state in the addiction cycle that differs from ethanol intoxication and acute withdrawal. These results provide insights into the enduring effects of ethanol on proteoglycan and calcium signaling genes in the brain.
Effects of inulin supplementation to piglets in the suckling period on growth performance, postileal microbial and immunological traits in the suckling period and three weeks after weaning

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of inulin (IN) supplementation to suckling piglets at and 3 weeks post-weaning. A total of 72 newborn piglets were used. Twenty-four piglets per group received different amounts of IN during the suckling period: (a) CON: no IN; (b) IN-0.5: 0.5 g IN/d on the 1st week, 1 g IN/d on the 2nd week, 1.5 g IN/d on the 3rd week and 2 g IN/d on the 4th week, or (c) IN-0.75: 0.75 g IN/d on the 1st week, 1.5 g IN/d on the 2nd week, 2.25 g IN/d on the 3rd week and 3 g IN/d on the 4th week. Starting at 28 d of age, piglets were weaned and received a post-weaning diet without inulin during the following 3 weeks. At both 28 d and 49 d of age, piglets were euthanised for sampling. Piglets of group IN-0.5 had the highest body weight starting from the 3rd week (p < 0.05), concomitant with the highest villus height and the ratio of villus height/crypt depth in the jejunum and ileum on both sampling days (p < 0.05). At 28 d of age, an increased concentration of propionate, iso-butyrate or total short chain fatty acids was observed between treatment IN-0.5 and the other groups in the caecum or colon (p < 0.05). Moreover, the relative abundance of Escherichia coli (p = 0.05) and Enterobacteriaceae (p = 0.01) in colonic digesta were reduced in IN-0.5-treated piglets, and in both IN-supplemented groups, colonic interleukin-8, tumor necrosis factor-α and toll-like receptor-4 mRNA abundance were decreased compared to the CON group (p < 0.05). However, at 49 d of age, most of these differences disappeared. In conclusion, treatment IN-0.5 improved during the suckling period of piglets development of intestine, but these beneficial effects were not lasting after weaning, when IN supplementation was terminated. Treatment IN-0.75, however, did not display a prebiotic effect.
Unobtrusive Psychological Profiling for Risk Analysis

The main objective of this exploratory study is to present how publicly observable variables reflecting individual choice can be used to construct psychological profiles suitable for predicting behavior in the context of risk analysis. For the purpose of demonstration, this study aimed at testing the hypothesis that there is a selection bias among chief executive officers (CEOs), which is manifested in their personal value structures. Values capture motivational forces that serve as guiding principles in people’s life when making decisions. From a risk management perspective, it is crucial to understand key decision maker’s motivation in order to be able to prepare against potentially undesirable behavior. Therefore the second objective of this study relates to a detailed characterization of the observed value structures among a group of CEOs. To accomplish these goals a non-obtrusive data collection method is utilized that requires no direct access to individuals the Watson Personality Insights service provided by IBM which infers value profiles based on written or spoken text by the subjects. Results show that CEO value profiles differ from the general population in several ways. Furthermore, slight differences were identified between the profiles of CEOs associated with moral hazard and CEOs not associated with it. These findings indicate that there is a meaningful selection bias and these results contribute to the real-world applicability of the CIRA method of risk analysis.
Parameters Estimation of Electromechanical Oscillation With Incomplete Measurement Information

Effective real-time estimation of electromechanical modes of a power system is essential, since it can provide the vital stability information of the system. However, most of existing methods for parameters estimation of electromechanical oscillation are suitable for the situations with complete measurement data, which cannot take the inevitably missing data phenomenon into account. Therefore, they fail to accurately estimate the parameters of electromechanical oscillation with incomplete measurement data. To solve the aforementioned problems, based on the traditional extended Kalman filter, in this paper, by incorporating the modified innovation-based adaptive estimation method, a novel fault tolerant adaptive extended Kalman filter (FTAEKF) is developed to realize parameters estimation of electromechanical oscillation with incomplete measurement data. Finally, several simulation studies are provided to demonstrate that the proposed FTAEKF can achieve much better performance than some existing results.
MEMS Microhotplates for Chemical Sensors

In this paper, we design and develop low-power MEMS based microhotplates for chemiresistive gas sensors using computer modelling and microelectronic technologies, respectively. Two geometrical designs of supporting beams of suspended membranes were designed and simulated to evaluate displacement in the structure. Two different patterns of heating elements were designed, and the power consumption was calculated. Fabricated structures are studied and compared with the theoretical data obtained from simulations.
Disturbance Rejection Analysis and FPGA-Based Implementation of a Second-Order Sliding Mode Controller Fed Induction Motor Drive

This paper presents a unified approach to deal with sliding mode controllers used for induction motor drives. The study digs deep to identify matched and unmatched disturbances and derive conditions to satisfactorily reject the same. The investigation reveals fundamental limitations of hysteresis (first-order sliding mode) controllers those can be overcome by higher order controllers. Second-order sliding mode controllers are investigated to achieve disturbance rejection and chattering free performance. It is shown that the drive with second-order sliding mode controllers maintains constant switching frequency and decoupling between torque and flux simultaneously on the face of sudden speed, load, or parameter variations. Also, it is shown that the dynamic performance can be improved further at higher sampling frequencies keeping the switching frequency constant. Extensive simulations are carried out in MATLAB/SIMULINK. Implementation of such a drive becomes feasible with low cost field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) due to their inherent parallel processing capability. A vector-controlled induction motor drive is developed and the controller is implemented using FPGA to corroborate the simulation results through experimentations.
MARL-FWC: Optimal Coordination of Freeway Traffic Control Measures

The objective of this article is to optimize the overall traffic flow on freeways using multiple ramp metering controls plus its complementary Dynamic Speed Limits (DSLs). An optimal freeway operation can be reached when minimizing the difference between the freeway density and the critical ratio for maximum traffic flow. In this article, a Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Freeways Control (MARL-FWC) system for ramps metering and DSLs is proposed. MARL-FWC introduces a new microscopic framework at the network level based on collaborative Markov Decision Process modeling (Markov game) and an associated cooperative Q-learning algorithm. The technique incorporates payoff propagation (Max-Plus algorithm) under the coordination graphs framework, particularly suited for optimal control purposes. MARL-FWC provides three control designs: fully independent, fully distributed, and centralized; suited for different network architectures. MARL-FWC was extensively tested in order to assess the proposed model of the joint payoff, as well as the global payoff. Experiments are conducted with heavy traffic flow under the renowned VISSIM traffic simulator to evaluate MARL-FWC. The experimental results show a significant decrease in the total travel time and an increase in the average speed (when compared with the base case) while maintaining an optimal traffic flow.
Quality of Life, Glycemic Control, Safety and Tolerability Associated with Liraglutide or Insulin Initiation in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes in Germany: Results from the Prospective, Non-interventional LIBERTY Study

Abstract Purpose To assess quality of life, glycemic control, and safety/tolerability associated with liraglutide versus insulin initiation in patients with type 2 diabetes in Germany. Methods Liraglutide/insulin-naïve adults with type 2 diabetes and inadequate glycemic control despite using oral antidiabetic medication were assigned to liraglutide (≤1.8 mg daily; n=878) or any insulin (n=382) according to the treating physician’s decision and followed for 52 weeks. The primary objective was to evaluate Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life (ADDQoL) scores. Results At baseline, the liraglutide group was younger and had shorter type 2 diabetes duration, lower glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), higher body mass index, and a lower prevalence of certain diabetes-related complications than the insulin group (all p<0.05). ADDQoL average weighted impact scores improved numerically in both groups from baseline to 52 weeks (mean difference [95% confidence interval], liraglutide vs. insulin: 0.159 [−0.023;0.340]; not significant). Changes in general wellbeing and five ADDQoL domains significantly favored liraglutide (remaining 14 domains, not significant). HbA1c reductions were greater with insulin than liraglutide (−2.0% vs. −1.2%; p<0.01); however, mean HbA1c after 52 weeks was 7.2% in both groups. Compared with insulin, liraglutide significantly decreased body mass index (−1.54 kg/m2 vs. +0.27 kg/m2; p<0.001), systolic blood pressure (−5.03 mmHg vs. −1.03 mmHg; p<0.01) and non-severe hypoglycemia (0.85% vs. 4.55% at 52 weeks; p<0.01). Adverse drug reactions were reported for<3% of patients in both groups. Conclusions Liraglutide improved certain ADDQoL components and reduced body mass index, systolic blood pressure, and non-severe hypoglycemia versus insulin. Both treatments improved glycemic control.
Numerical Study for Surface-breaking Crack Detection on a Cylinder Using Laser-generated Ultrasound

Laser ultrasonic has been widely investigated for its high spatial resolution, non-contact generation and distant testing. In this study, the laser induced waves on a cylinder is simulated based on an explicit finite element model, and the location of the surface-breaking crack is determined using signal enhancement of surface waves on the cylinder. A feature is extracted based on wavelet packet transform and singularity value decomposition (WPT-SVD) to gauge the depth of surface-breaking crack. The simulation results show that the feature is sensitive to the surface-breaking crack, with an accurate location determined by an enhancement of surface waves when the crack is close to the laser source. This study provides a potential application for testing surface-breaking cracks on the rotating cylindrical component.
Restless Legs Syndrome in Chinese Patients With Sporadic Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Objective: To evaluate the frequency and clinical features of restless legs syndrome (RLS) in a group of Chinese patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Methods: 109 Patients included in this study fulfilled the revised El Escorial diagnostic criteria for clinically definite, probable and lab-supported probable ALS, and a group of 109 control subjects was matched for age and sex to the ALS group. Disease severity was assessed by the revised ALS functional rating scale (ALSFRS-R). The diagnosis of RLS was made according to the criteria of the International RLS Study Group. Other characteristics including sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), depression and anxiety were also evaluated in ALS patients. Results: RLS was significantly more frequent in ALS patients than in control subjects (14.6 vs. 0.9%; P < 0.05). Compared to those without RLS, ALS patients with RLS reported a higher frequency of anxiety and EDS. ALS patients with RLS showed more severe legs dysfunction. EDS and legs function scores of the ALSFRS-R were independent factors significantly associated with RLS in ALS patients. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that Chinese ALS patients exhibit a high frequency of RLS symptoms and that these patients may benefit from recognition of the condition and optimized management of its symptoms. Moreover, ALS patients might cause circadian rhythms disturbance and our study further supports that ALS is a heterogeneous disorder involving multiple systems; further studies are needed to confirm these preliminary findings.
Genotyping and Quantifying Lyme Pathogen Strains by Deep Sequencing of the Outer Surface Protein C (ospC) Locus

A mixed infection of a single tick or host by Lyme disease spirochetes is common and a unique challenge for the diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance of Lyme disease. Here, we describe a novel protocol for differentiating Lyme strains on the basis of deep sequencing of the hypervariable outer surface protein C locus (ospC). ABSTRACT A mixed infection of a single tick or host by Lyme disease spirochetes is common and a unique challenge for the diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance of Lyme disease. Here, we describe a novel protocol for differentiating Lyme strains on the basis of deep sequencing of the hypervariable outer surface protein C locus (ospC). Improving upon the traditional DNA-DNA hybridization method, the next-generation sequencing-based protocol is high throughput, quantitative, and able to detect new pathogen strains. We applied the method to more than one hundred infected Ixodes scapularis ticks collected from New York State, USA, in 2015 and 2016. An analysis of strain distributions within individual ticks suggests an overabundance of multiple infections by five or more strains, inhibitory interactions among coinfecting strains, and the presence of a new strain closely related to Borreliella bissettiae. A supporting bioinformatics pipeline has been developed. The newly designed pair of universal ospC primers target intergenic sequences conserved among all known Lyme pathogens. The protocol could be used for culture-free identification and quantification of Lyme pathogens in wildlife and potentially in clinical specimens.
Temperature sensitivities of microbial plankton net growth rates are seasonally coherent and linked to nutrient availability

Recent work suggests that temperature effects on marine heterotrophic bacteria are strongly seasonal, but few attempts have been made to concurrently assess them across trophic levels. Here, we estimated the temperature sensitivities (using activation energies, E) of autotrophic and heterotrophic microbial plankton net growth rates over an annual cycle in NE Atlantic coastal waters. Phytoplankton grew in winter and late autumn (0.41 ± 0.16 SE d-1 ) and decayed in the remaining months (-0.42 ± 0.10 d-1 ). Heterotrophic microbes shared a similar seasonality, with positive net growth for bacteria (0.14-1.48 d-1 ), while nanoflagellates had higher values (> 0.4 d-1 ) in winter and spring relative to the rest of the year (-0.46 to 0.29 d-1 ). Net growth rates activation energies showed similar dynamics in the three groups (-1.07 to 1.51 eV), characterized by maxima in winter, minima in summer and resumed increases in autumn. Microbial plankton E values were significantly correlated with nitrate concentrations as a proxy for nutrient availability. Nutrient-sufficiency (i.e., > 1 μmol l-1 nitrate) resulted in significantly higher activation energies of phytoplankton and heterotrophic nanoflagellates relative to nutrient-limited conditions. We suggest that only within spatio-temporal windows of both moderate bottom-up and top-down controls will temperature have a major enhancing effect on microbial growth.
Synthesis and Pharmacological Evaluation of Novel Silodosin-Based Arylsulfonamide Derivatives as α1A/α1D-Adrenergic Receptor Antagonist with Potential Uroselective Profile

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is the most common male clinical problem impacting the quality of life of older men. Clinical studies have indicated that the inhibition of α1A-/α1D adrenoceptors might offer effective therapy in lower urinary tract symptoms. Herein, a limited series of arylsulfonamide derivatives of (aryloxy)ethyl alicyclic amines was designed, synthesized, and biologically evaluated as potent α1-adrenoceptor antagonists with uroselective profile. Among them, compound 9 (3-chloro-2-fluoro-N-([1-(2-(2-(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)phenoxy]ethyl)piperidin-4-yl)methyl)benzenesulfonamide) behaved as an α1A-/α1D-adrenoceptor antagonist (Ki(α1) = 50 nM, EC50(α1A) = 0.8 nM, EC50(α1D) = 1.1 nM), displayed selectivity over α2-adrenoceptors (Ki(α2) = 858 nM), and a 5-fold functional preference over the α1B subtype. Compound 9 showed adequate metabolic stability in rat-liver microsome assay similar to the reference drug tamsulosin (Clint = 67 and 41 µL/min/mg, respectively). Compound 9 did not decrease systolic and diastolic blood pressure in normotensive anesthetized rats in the dose of 2 mg/kg, i.v. These data support development of uroselective agents in the group of arylsulfonamides of alicyclic amines with potential efficacy in the treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms associated to benign prostatic hyperplasia.
Divergence of Fecal Microbiota and Their Associations With Host Phylogeny in Cervinae

Gastrointestinal microbiota may shape the adaptation of their hosts to different habitats and lifestyles, thereby driving their evolutionary diversification. It remains unknown if gastrointestinal microbiota diverge in congruence with the phylogenetic relationships of their hosts. To evaluate the phylosymbiotic relationships, here we analyzed the compositions of fecal microbiota of seven Cervinae species raised in the Chengdu Zoo. All sampled animals were kept in the same environmental condition and fed identical fodder for years. Results showed that Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were dominant in their fecal microbiota. Even though some bacteria (e.g., Ruminococcaceae) were found to be common in the feces of all investigated species, some genera (e.g., Sharpea and Succinivibrio) were only observed in animals with particular digestive systems. As for the intraspecies variations of microbial communities, only a few operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were shared among replicates of the same host species although they accounted for most of the total abundance. Correlation was observed between the fecal microbiota divergence and host phylogeny, but they were not congruent completely. This may shed new light on the coevolution of host species and their microbiota.