Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Novel Approach to Accurately Determine the $t_{q}$ Parameter of Thyristors

The continued use of high-voltage thyristor devices in industry and their increased use in high-voltage dc transmission systems call for more attention to the properties of these devices. One of the important thyristor parameters is their turn-off time tq, which can be a limiting factor when applying thyristors at elevated switching frequencies. Hence, the accurate measurement of tq and its variation versus the operating conditions remains a crucial task for thyristor converters operating at elevated switching frequencies. In this paper, a proper test circuit for measuring this parameter with a high level of accuracy has been designed and built. Owing to the test circuit specificity, the variation effects of several electrical and physical constraints, such as the forward current IF , the reverse applied voltage VR, the operating temperature To, and the ramp rate of the forward reapplied voltage dVD/dt, on the tq parameter of thyristors are also studied and analyzed based on the physics of semiconductor devices and associated simulations.
Developing gene expression signatures of pathway deregulation in tumors

Recent advances in our understanding of cancer biology have led to the development of therapies targeting specific signaling pathways. Molecular targeting promises to improve our ability to predict who will respond by assessing the state of these targeted pathways in patients. However, a single pathway can be deregulated by multiple mechanisms, and for some pathways it may be difficult to assess activation state by analyzing a single oncogene or tumor suppressor. Therefore, developing gene expression signatures of pathway activation status using model systems or human tumor samples may enable a more reliable measurement of pathway activity. This review discusses recent advances in the identification of gene expression–based signatures of pathway deregulation and how this information may lead to improved therapeutic response prediction. [Mol Cancer Ther 2006;5(10):2444–9]
The role of superoxide anion generation in phagocytic bactericidal activity. Studies with normal and chronic granulomatous disease leukocytes.

The capacity of human phagocytes to generate superoxide anion (O2-), a free radical of oxygen, and a possible role for this radical or its derivatives in the killing of phagocytized bacteria were explored using leukocytes from normal individuals and patients with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD). Superoxide dismutase, which removes O2-, consistently inhibited phagocytosis-associated nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction indicating the involvement of O2- in this process. Similarly, superoxide dismutase inhibited the luminescence that occurs with phagocytosis, implicating O2- in this phenomenon, perhaps through its spontaneous dismutation into singlet oxygen. Subcellular fractions from homogenates of both normal and CGD leukocytes generated O2- effectively in the presence of NADH as substrate. However, O2- generation by intact cells during phagocytosis was markedly diminished in nine patients with CGD. Leukocytes from mothers determined to be carriers of X-linked recessive CGD by intermediate phagocytic reduction of NBT elaborated O2- to an intermediate extent, further demonstrating the interrelationship between NBT reduction and O2- generation in phagocytizing cells. Activity of superoxide dismutase, the enzyme responsible for protecting the cell from the damaging effects of O2-, was approximately equal in homogenates of normal and CGD granulocytes. Polyacrylamide electrophoresis separated this activity into a minor band that appeared to be the manganese-containing superoxide dismutase associated with mitochondria and a more concentrated, cyanide-sensitive, cytosol form of the enzyme with electrophoretic mobility that corresponded to that of erythrocyte cuprozinc superoxide dismutase. Superoxide dismutase inhibited the phagocytic killing of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus viridans. A similar inhibitory effect was noted with catalase which removes hydrogen peroxide. Neither enzyme inhibited the ingestion of bacteria. Peroxide and O2- are believed to interact to generate the potent oxidant, hydroxyl radical (.OH). A requirement for . OH in the phagocytic bactericidal event might explain the apparent requirement for both O2- and H2O2 for such activity. In agreement with this possibility, benzoate and mannitol, scavengers of . OH, inhibited phagocytic bactericidal activity. Generation of singlet oxygen from O2- and . OH also might explain these findings. It would seem clear from these and other studies that the granulo cyte elaborates O2- as a concomitant of the respiratory burst that occurs with phagocytosis. To what extent the energy inherent in O2- is translated into microbialdeath through O2- itself, hydrogen peroxide, . OH, singlet oxygen, or some other agent remains to be clearly defined.
Analysis and design of delta operator systems with nested actuator saturation

ABSTRACT In this paper, the problem of estimating the domain of attraction is considered for delta operator systems subject to nested actuator saturation. A set invariance condition is established for the delta operator system with nested actuator saturation in terms of auxiliary feedback matrices. Based on the set invariance condition, an optimisation approach is proposed to estimate the domain of attraction for the delta operator system. Thereby, the partial results of nested actuator saturation for both continuous-time systems and discrete-time systems are extended to delta operator system framework. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design techniques.
A New Look at Snowpack Trends in the Cascade Mountains

Abstract This study examines the changes in Cascade Mountain spring snowpack since 1930. Three new time series facilitate this analysis: a water-balance estimate of Cascade snowpack from 1930 to 2007 that extends the observational record 20 years earlier than standard snowpack measurements; a radiosonde-based time series of lower-tropospheric temperature during onshore flow, to which Cascade snowpack is well correlated; and a new index of the North Pacific sea level pressure pattern that encapsulates modes of variability to which Cascade spring snowpack is particularly sensitive. Cascade spring snowpack declined 23% during 1930–2007. This loss is nearly statistically significant at the 5% level. The snowpack increased 19% during the recent period of most rapid global warming (1976–2007), though this change is not statistically significant because of large annual variability. From 1950 to 1997, a large and statistically significant decline of 48% occurred. However, 80% of this decline is connected to chang.
Active Filters for Harmonic Current Compensation in Low-Voltage Grid

The Active Power Filter is generally designed to cancel harmonics present in the connection point of the Active Filter with the low-voltage grid. This paper presents a control strategy for current harmonics cancellation that allows cancel harmonics far from the Active Filter. Consequently data regarding harmonics present in the grid must be sent to the Active Filter, the amount of data required for the Active Filter cancels the harmonics is small which allows the wireless transmission of the data. A detailed description of these control strategy will be presented in this paper. The simulation results obtained confirm the efficiency of this control technique.
Boosting Localized Features for Speaker and Speech Recognition

Abstract In this thesis, we propose a novel approach for speaker and speech recognition involving local-ized, binary, data-driven features. The proposed approach is largely inspired by similar localizedapproaches in the computer vision domain. The success of these existing approaches coupled withtheir proven advantages of robustness and computational efﬁciency motivated us to apply theseideas to the speech domain. Our approach is distinct from the standard cepstral features-basedapproach for speaker and speech recognition.The proposedapproach starts with a large set of simple localized features, each of which looks atvery small parts of spectro-temporal representations of speech. Each feature is binary-valued. Themost discriminative of these features are selected by boosting and combined to form the ﬁnal clas-siﬁer. Two systems are developed based on this general framework, a speaker recognition systemand a speech recognition system.The speaker recognition system is evaluated under a wide range of experimental conditions,using clean speech, noisy speech and speech data collected from mobile phones. The system per-forms reliably in each condition, comparable with the standard systems using cepstral featuresand Gaussian Mixture Models. At the same time, it involves signiﬁcantly lower number of ﬂoatingpoint operations compared to these systems. In the case of the speech recognition system, we inte-grate our localized features with a Hidden Markov Model framework using multilayer perceptrons.Continuous speech recognition studies on standard databases show that these features performequally well as cepstral features. It is also found that the fusion of these features with cepstralfeatures leads to improved performance at both the feature level and the decision level.Apart from this, minor contributions include an audio-visual person recognition system devel-oped using the same general approach of localized features described above, extending its applica-bility. Finally, a new (but related) class of localized features was developedfor robust face detection.
Design of a wide-band Yagi-Uda antenna using differential evolution algorithm

This paper presents a wide-band Yagi-Uda antenna with X-shape driven dipoles and parasitic elements using differential evolution algorithm (DE). In the optimization process, a method of moments code, NEC code simulates the antenna designs generated by DE. In order to illustrate the capabilities of the method, a nine-element Yagi-Uda antenna is given. The measured and simulated impedance bandwidth of VSWR<1.8 reaches 19.0%, which is three times the bandwidth of the Yagi-Uda antenna using a dipole driven element. The maximum gain over the operating frequency band is 12.7dB. The results are compared with Nelar Mead method in an equally spaced array design.
HyperStar: Phase-Type Fitting Made Easy

We present HyperStar, an extensible tool with a graphical user-interface that enables simple and efficient fitting of phase-type distributions to data sets. The fitting process can be optimised using intuitive graphical selection of important features of the density. An extensible module interface enables application of the tool as a GUI for prototype implementations of new fitting algorithms.
¿Forjar patriotas o educar cosmopolitas?: el pasado y el presente de la historia escolar en un mundo global

En este trabajo presentaremos una reflexion sobre algunos de los interrogantes teoricos que han acompanado el surgimiento y desarrollo de la ensenanza de la historia como asignatura escolar. Particularmente nos centraremos en el estudio del origen de la contradiccion entre los objetivos cognitivos o instruccionales de dicha asignatura, de origen ilustrado, frente a los de naturaleza identitaria cuya fuente sin duda es de naturaleza romantica. Es decir, partimos de la hipotesis de que ensenar a pensar criticamente, en terminos historiograficos, suele entrar en contradiccion con forjar la conciencia nacional de los futuros ciudadanos de un determinado pais (para un desarrollo mas extenso ver Carretero, en prensa). Creemos que para comprender cabalmente dicha situacion conflictiva -que bien podria tomarse como una aporiaresulta de interes rastrear algunas de sus raices teoricas, asi como tener en cuenta de que manera se manifiesta en la actualidad en distintos paises y sociedades Frente a cambios politicos que afectan a las identidades y a las formaciones nacionales en el contexto de los procesos de globalizacion y transnacionalizacion -y que tienen un alto impacto sobre los estatutos del saber academico y sobre las instituciones de construccion y distribucion del mismo, como la Escuelaaparecen una serie de interrogantes. Decimos, en efecto, que aparecen y no que surgen, porque tenemos la sensacion de que siempre han estado ahi y que de ningun modo son nuevos. Pero tampoco viejos: anejos tal vez, atanen en principio al sentido mismo de la escolaridad, en tanto proyecto de emancipacion vinculado al ideal ilustrado y en tanto forjadora de esa “comunidad de destino” (Bauer, 1924) llamada Nacion, en la cual el presente se
Risk-informed decision-making in the presence of epistemic uncertainty

An important issue in risk analysis is the distinction between epistemic and aleatory uncertainties. In this paper, the use of distinct representation formats for aleatory and epistemic uncertainties is advocated, the latter being modelled by sets of possible values. Modern uncertainty theories based on convex sets of probabilities are known to be instrumental for hybrid representations where aleatory and epistemic components of uncertainty remain distinct. Simple uncertainty representation techniques based on fuzzy intervals and p-boxes are used in practice. This paper outlines a risk analysis methodology from elicitation of knowledge about parameters to decision. It proposes an elicitation methodology where the chosen representation format depends on the nature and the amount of available information. Uncertainty propagation methods then blend Monte Carlo simulation and interval analysis techniques. Nevertheless, results provided by these techniques, often in terms of probability intervals, may be too complex to interpret for a decision-maker and we, therefore, propose to compute a unique indicator of the likelihood of risk, called confidence index. It explicitly accounts for the decision-maker's attitude in the face of ambiguity. This step takes place at the end of the risk analysis process, when no further collection of evidence is possible that might reduce the ambiguity due to epistemic uncertainty. This last feature stands in contrast with the Bayesian methodology, where epistemic uncertainties on input parameters are modelled by single subjective probabilities at the beginning of the risk analysis process.
FLUCTUACIÓN POBLACIONAL Y DAÑOS CAUSADOS POR GUSANO COGOLLERO (Spodoptera frugiperda JE Smith) EN MAÍZ CULTIVADO EN EL SISTEMA DE PRODUCCIÓN CONTINUA AFECTADO POR EL HURACÁN ISIDORO

Con el objeto de determinar el patron poblacional y el dano causado en las hojas por Spodoptera frugiperda en el Sistema de Produccion Continua de Maiz (SPCM) se establecio un experimento del 2001 al 2003, utilizando trampas y la feromona sexual Trece R . El patron poblacional de adultos de S. frugiperda fue diferente en los anos es-tudiados, pero no significativamente diferentes, como tampoco el dano foliar promedio (DFP) o la precipitacion anual. Durante junio-septiembre de 2001 se capturo el 81% anual de adultos, en el 2002 de octubre a diciembre se capturo el 49% de adultos, en el 2003, 52% de los adultos se capturaron de enero-abril. La maxima captura se correlaciono con el dano foliar en los tres anos. Los datos se analizan considerando el impacto del huracan Isidoro en septiembre del 2002.
Evaluating conjunctive and graph queries over the EL profile of OWL 2

OWL 2 EL is a popular ontology language that is based on the EL family of description logics and supports regular role inclusions,axioms that can capture compositional properties of roles such as role transitivity and reflexivity. In this thesis, we present several novel complexity results and algorithms for answering expressive queries over OWL 2 EL knowledge bases (KBs) with regular role inclusions. We first focus on the complexity of conjunctive query (CQ) answering in OWL 2 EL and show that the problem is PSpace-complete in combined complexity, the complexity measured in the total size of the input. All the previously known approaches encode the regular role inclusions using finite automata that can be worst-case exponential in size, and thus are not optimal. In our PSpace procedure, we address this problem by using a novel, succinct encoding of regular role inclusions based on pushdown automata with a bounded stack. Moreover, we strengthen the known PSpace lower complexity bound and show that the problem is PSpace-hard even if we consider only the regular role inclusions as part of the input and the query is acyclic; thus, our algorithm is optimal in knowledge base complexity, the complexity measured in the size of the KB, as well as for acyclic queries. We then study graph queries for OWL 2 EL and show that answering positive, converse- free conjunctive graph queries is PSpace-complete. Thus, from a theoretical perspective, we can add navigational features to CQs over OWL 2 EL without an increase in complexity. Finally, we present a practicable algorithm for answering CQs over OWL 2 EL KBs with only transitive and reflexive composite roles. None of the previously known approaches target transitive and reflexive roles specifically, and so they all run in PSpace and do not provide a tight upper complexity bound. In contrast, our algorithm is optimal: it runs in NP in combined complexity and in PTime in KB complexity. We also show that answering CQs is NP-hard in combined complexity if the query is acyclic and the KB contains one transitive role, one reflexive role, or nominals—concepts containing precisely one individual.
Early Listening and Speaking Skills Predict Later Reading Proficiency in Pediatric Cochlear Implant Users

Objectives: Previous studies have reported that children who use cochlear implants (CIs) tend to achieve higher reading levels than their peers with profound hearing loss who use hearing aids. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influences of auditory information provided by the CI on the later reading skills of children born with profound deafness. The hypothesis was that there would be a positive and predictive relationship between earlier speech perception, production, and subsequent reading comprehension. Design: The speech perception and production skills at the vowel, consonant, phoneme, and word level of 72 children with prelingual, profound hearing loss were assessed after 48 mos of CI use. The children's reading skills were subsequently assessed using word and passage comprehension measures after an average of 89.5 mos of CI use. A regression analysis determined the amount of variance in reading that could be explained by the variables of perception, production, and socioeconomic status. Results: Regression analysis revealed that it was possible to explain 59% of the variance of later reading skills by assessing the early speech perception and production performance. The results indicated that early speech perception and production skills of children with profound hearing loss who receive CIs predict future reading achievement skills. Furthermore, the study implies that better early speech perception and production skills result in higher reading achievement. It is speculated that the early access to sound helps to build better phonological processing skills, which is one of the likely contributors to eventual reading success.
Accumulation of mercury and its effects on testicular functions in rats intoxicated orally by methylmercury

All forms of mercury are considered poisonous. Methylmercury, one organic form, is highly toxic to many organs. The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of this form on the reproductive system in the rat. For this, 20 male rats were divided into two groups. One, which is considered as reference, received tap water. The second group received tap water containing methylmercury at the rate of 20 mg l−1 for 8 weeks. At the end of the experiment, blood samples were collected for the determination of total mercury and plasma testosterone. The left testes were used for the determination of total mercury and histological examination. Appropriate centrifugation was applied on right testes to extract interstitial and seminiferous tubular fluids. The epididymides were homogenised for the sperm count. Our results showed a dramatic fall in the plasma testosterone in the contaminated animals. The fall in plasmatic testosterone seems to be in relation with the decrease in the secretion of testosterone. In association with this, the concentration of testosterone in seminiferous tubules fluid dropped about 55% in the poisoned animals in comparison with the controls. Despite this, no decrease in the epididymal sperm count in contaminated rats was observed.
Dräger VN500's oscillatory performance has a frequency‐dependent threshold

The aim of this study is to compare the high‐frequency pressure amplitude (oscillatory change in pressure (ΔP)) and tidal volume (high‐frequency tidal volume at the airway opening (VTHF)) delivered by the Dräger VN500 (Drägerwerk Ag & Co., Lübeck, Germany) and the Sensormedics 3100 (SM3100; CareFusion, San Diego, CA, USA) through a range of oscillatory frequencies.
A meta user interface for interaction with mixed reality environments

The aim of this paper is the design and development of a novel user interface to interact with a meta system. Our focus is rather on interacting with Ambient Intelligence as a whole, which would for example enable users to influence the overall behaviors and attributes of dynamic device compositions. We call such interfaces Meta User Interfaces. The design details of a proposed user interface as well as a cognitive walkthrough evaluation are presented in this paper.
Post traumatic stress disorder among Mau Mau concentration camp survivors in Kenya.

BACKGROUND A decade before Kenya's independence in 1963 thousands of 'Mau Mau' fighters were arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps where many underwent torture and inhuman treatment. No studies have been done to establish the presence of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychiatric morbidity among the survivors of those concentration camps. OBJECTIVES To establish the prevalence of PTSD and other psychiatric morbidity and associated factors among the Mau Mau Concentration Camp survivors. DESIGN A cross-sectional, descriptive study of all consecutive concentration camp survivors included in the study. SETTING Mau Mau War Veterans' Association (MMWVA) headquarters at Mwea House, Nairobi, Kenya Human Rights Commission headquarters in Nairobi, Tumaini House (Venue of MMWVA elections, 2005) and the MMWVA branch office in Kajiado District, Rift Valley Province, Kenya. SUBJECTS One hundred and eighty one Mau Mau Concentration Camp Survivors who gave consent to participate in the study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Lifetime and Current PTSD, IES-R score and other Psychiatric Morbidity as measured using the SCID and the IES-R. RESULTS A DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of current PTSD was made in 65.7% of the survivors. Current PTSD was associated with higher IES-R scores and older age, lower income, non-Catholic religion, larger household size, older age at incarceration, greater length of incarceration, incarceration in two or more camps, experiencing other traumatic events, family history of mental illness and having other psychiatric illness. CONCLUSIONS Similar to other former Prisoners of War (POWs) elsewhere, these survivors suffer high PTSD prevalence rates and a special veterans' service is recommended to address this problem and its associated factors among these and other veterans in Kenya.