Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seamless Power Management for Decentralized DC Microgrid Under Voltage Sensor Faults

In this paper, a seamless power management scheme is proposed for a decentralized DC microgrid (DCMG) to maintain voltage stabilization in the presence of voltage sensor faults. First, a voltage observer is constructed in each power agent to monitor the voltage sensor abnormality under various uncertain conditions. During the normal operations, the power balance as well as the voltage regulation of the DCMG is achieved by using the voltage droop control method which consists of the secondary controller and primary controller. While the secondary controller is utilized to maintain the DC-link voltage (DCV) at the nominal value, the power balance is achieved by the droop control method in the primary controller. In both controllers, the estimated DCV value is employed as the only feedback signal from the DC-link to the power agent. To maintain a seamless power management even under DCV sensor faults, a fault identification algorithm is first presented to detect voltage sensor failure. After the power agent recognizes its DCV sensor fault, its operation mode is switched from the voltage control to the current control mode, in which the operating point in the droop curves is perturbed by changing the current magnitude in the power agent with the faulty DCV sensor. The perturbation of operating point in the droop curves makes the other power agents with normal DCV sensor take a control of DCV instead of the power agent with the faulty DCV sensor to guarantee voltage stabilization and prevent the system collapse. Furthermore, the proposed scheme adjusts appropriately the droop curve of the utility grid agent in the primary controller under high electricity price condition to minimize electricity costs. Simulation and experimental results under various conditions verify the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed seamless power management strategy.
Can deciduous tree revetments reduce streambank erosion rates on a sand‐bed stream?

Accelerated streambank erosion can threaten infrastructure and land, as well as water quality and aquatic habitats. Streambank stabilization techniques have been developed with the intent to reduce or halt streambank erosion. One such technique is the use of woody revetments. This case study evaluates the effectiveness of deciduous tree revetments on stabilizing streambanks on the Smoky Hill River, a low‐gradient, sand‐bed stream located in central Kansas in the United States. It was hypothesized that deciduous tree revetments would mimic bank protection processes of permeable‐type spurs, capturing sediment and reducing velocities and shear stresses near the toe of the streambank. To test this hypothesis, cross‐sectional dimensions of four streambanks were obtained before and after installation of tree revetments and compared to four natural, control streambanks (i.e., not stabilized) over a 5‐year period. Rates of bank erosion were calculated and compared. This study found that, in its current design form, deciduous tree revetments were not effective at reducing bank erosion, as all sites had experienced revetment failures by the end of the study period. Furthermore, the installation of tree revetments accelerated bank erosion rates following revetment failure. Increased bank erosion was attributed to both the construction disturbance, as well as improper anchoring of the revetment. The results of this case study show the importance of collecting bank stratigraphic data and incorporating it, as well as expected flow scenarios, in numerical modelling tools to assess designs and adjust accordingly. While conducting these analyses upfront may result in higher design costs, long‐term maintenance or replacement costs would be decreased.
Role of IL-2/IL-2 receptor in pathogenesis of autoimmune disorders: Genetic and therapeutic aspects

Interleukin-2 (IL-2) is an important cytokine that plays a key role in the immune response. The IL-2 receptor (IL-2R) is composed of three subunits, alpha, beta, and gamma, with the alpha subunit having the highest affinity for IL-2. Several studies reported that immune dysregulation of IL-2 may cause tissue injury as well as damage leading to the pathogenesis of various autoimmune diseases such as acute necrotizing vasculitis in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), inflammatory synovitis in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), salivary and lacrimal gland dys-function in Sjogren syndrome (SS), obliterative vasculopathy fibrosis in systemic sclerosis (SSc), and inflammatory demyelination in multiple sclerosis (MS). The aim of this review paper was to examine the role of IL-2/IL-2R in various autoimmune disorders, taking into account recent advancements and discoveries, gaps in the current literature, ongoing debates, and potential avenues for future research. The focus of this review is on systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic sclerosis, sjogren syndrome, and multiple sclerosis, which are all linked to the malfunctioning of IL-2/IL-2R. In genetic studies, gene polymorphisms of IL-2 such as IL-2 330/T, IL-2 330/G, and rs2069763 are involved in increasing the risk of SLE. Furthermore, genetic associations of IL-2/IL-2R such as rs791588, rs2281089, rs2104286, rs11594656, and rs35285258 are significantly associated with RA susceptibility. The IL-2 polymorphism including rs2069762A, rs6822844T, rs6835457G, and rs907715T are significant connections with systemic sclerosis. In addition, rs2104286 (IL-2), rs11594656 (IL-2RA), rs35285258 (IL-2RB) gene polymorphism significant increases the risk of multiple sclerosis. In therapeutic approaches, low-dose IL-2 therapy could regulate Tfr and Tfh cells, resulting in a reduction in disease activity in the SLE patients. In addition, elevated sIL-2R levels in the peripheral blood of SLE patients could be linked to an immunoregulatory imbalance, which may contribute to the onset and progression of SLE. Consequently, sIL-2R could potentially be a target for future SLE therapy. Moreover, Low dose-IL2 was well-tolerated, and low levels of Treg and high levels of IL-21 were associated with positive responses to Ld-IL2 suggested to be a safe and effective treatment for RA. Additionally, low-dose IL-2 treatment improves the exocrine glands' ability to secrete saliva in SS-affected mice. Whereas, Basiliximab targets the alpha chain of the IL-2 receptor suggested as a potential treatment for SSc. Also, pre-and post-treatment with Tregs, MDSCs, and IL-2 may have the potential to prevent EAE induction in patients with MS. It is suggested that further studies should be conducted on IL-2 polymorphism in Sjogren syndrome.
Phospho-RNA-Seq Highlights Specific Small RNA Profiles in Plasma Extracellular Vesicles

Small RNAs (sRNAs) are bioactive molecules that can be detected in biofluids, reflecting physiological and pathological states. In plasma, sRNAs are found within extracellular vesicles (EVs) and in extravesicular compartments, offering potential sources of highly sensitive biomarkers. Deep sequencing strategies to profile sRNAs favor the detection of microRNAs (miRNAs), the best-known class of sRNAs. Phospho-RNA-seq, through the enzymatic treatment of sRNAs with T4 polynucleotide kinase (T4-PNK), has been recently developed to increase the detection of thousands of previously inaccessible RNAs. In this study, we investigated the value of phospho-RNA-seq on both the EVs and extravesicular plasma subfractions. Phospho-RNA-seq increased the proportion of sRNAs used for alignment and highlighted the diversity of the sRNA transcriptome. Unsupervised clustering analysis using sRNA counts matrices correctly classified the EVs and extravesicular samples only in the T4-PNK treated samples, indicating that phospho-RNA-seq stresses the features of sRNAs in each plasma subfraction. Furthermore, T4-PNK treatment emphasized specific miRNA variants differing in the 5′-end (5′-isomiRs) and certain types of tRNA fragments in each plasma fraction. Phospho-RNA-seq increased the number of tissue-specific messenger RNA (mRNA) fragments in the EVs compared with the extravesicular fraction, suggesting that phospho-RNA-seq favors the discovery of tissue-specific sRNAs in EVs. Overall, the present data emphasizes the value of phospho-RNA-seq in uncovering RNA-based biomarkers in EVs.
Strain control of vibrational properties of few layer phosphorene

Using density functional theory techniques, we study lattice vibrational Raman and infrared modes in strained few-layer phosphorene. We find very significant frequency shifts, up to ≈ 100 cm−1 in the applied strain range of ±6%, of the Raman activities in both high- and low-frequency region and infrared activities in the low-frequency region. The type of applied strain, that is, armchair and zigzag, selectively affects specific vibrational modes. Combined with high spatial-resolution Raman/infrared scattering experiments, our calculated results can aid understanding of the complicated inhomogeneous strain distributions in few-layer phosphorene or manufacturing of materials with desired electronic properties via strain or layer engineering.
Determination of thermally induced effects and design guidelines of optomechanical accelerometers

Thermal effects, including thermally induced deformation and warm up time, are ubiquitous problems for sensors, especially for inertial measurement units such as accelerometers. Optomechanical accelerometers, which contain light sources that can be regarded as heat sources, involve a different thermal phenomenon in terms of their specific optical readout, and the phenomenon has not been investigated systematically. This paper proposes a model to evaluate the temperature difference, rise time and thermally induced deformation of optomechanical accelerometers, and then constructs design guidelines which can diminish these thermal effects without compromising other mechanical performances, based on the analysis of the interplay of thermal and mechanical performances. In the model, the irradiation of the micromachined structure of a laser source is considered a dominant factor. The experimental data obtained using a prototype of an optomechanical accelerometer approximately confirm the validity of the model for the rise time and response tendency. Moreover, design guidelines that adopt suspensions with a flat cross-section and a short length are demonstrated with reference to the analysis. The guidelines can reduce the thermally induced deformation and rise time or achieve higher mechanical performances with similar thermal effects, which paves the way for the design of temperature-tolerant and robust, high-performance devices.
Access to pedestal pressure relevant to burning plasmas on the high magnetic field tokamak Alcator C-Mod

Experiments on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak have utilized reactor-relevant magnetic fields to sustain substantially higher pedestal pressure than in other devices and allow close approach to the ITER H-mode baseline target pedestal pressure of 90 kPa. The EPED model, which couples the physics of transport driven by kinetic ballooning modes and MHD instabilities arising from peeling-ballooning modes, predicts the pressure profile at the onset of edge-localized modes (ELMs), and yields to lowest order a critical-βN like behavior for the pedestal: ( for fixed edge q). C-Mod routinely accesses edge plasma pressure in excess of 30 kPa, often by using a high-density () approach to high confinement, taking advantage of a regime known as enhanced D-alpha (EDA) H-mode. In the EDA H-mode, plasma transport regulates both the pedestal profiles and the core impurity content, thus holding the pedestal stationary at just below the peeling-ballooning stability boundary. This stationary ELM-suppressed regime has approached the maximum pedestal predicted by EPED at these densities: 60 kPa. This in turn gives rise to volume-averaged core plasma pressure in excess of 0.2 MPa, a world record value for a magnetic fusion device. Another approach to achieving high pressure utilizes a pedestal limited by current-driven modes at low collisionality, in which pressure increases with density and which allows access to a higher EPED solution, termed ‘super-H’. C-Mod experiments at reduced density () and strong plasma shaping () accessed this regime, producing pedestals with pressures up to 80 kPa (approximately 90% of the ITER target) and temperatures of nearly 2 keV. In a number of these hot H-modes, we observe strong edge instabilities at low toroidal mode number (n = 1) when pedestal pressure approaches predicted values from EPED, showing that current-driven MHD modes can serve as a limit on the pedestal in a metal-walled tokamak at high pressure and low collisionality.
The thermoelastic contact problem for wavy surfaces with a heat-conducting medium in interface gaps

This paper presents a study on the thermoelastic contact between a wavy surface and a flat surface in the presence of a heat-conducting interstitial medium in interface gaps. The influence of applied mechanical and thermal loads on the deformation of the gaps is taken into account. The contact problem is reduced to a system of singular integro-differential equations for a temperature jump across the gaps and the height of the gaps. Solutions are obtained for the cases of thermoinsulated and heat-conducting gaps. It is shown that, in contrast to the thermoinsulated gap model, the use of the heat-conducting gap model makes it possible to construct a physically correct solution of the contact problem. It is revealed that the wavy interface with heat-conducting gaps exhibits thermal rectification. The effects of the medium’s thermal conductivity, the pressure and heat flow magnitudes and the waviness amplitude on the effective thermal contact resistance and the level of thermal rectification are analysed.
Risk of Postpartum Depression: The Considerable Role of Maternal Health Status and Lifestyle

Women’s health issues are complex and require collaborative efforts to unravel some of these complexities. This study aims to identify the incidence risk of Postpartum Depression (PPD) in a national sample of women in Saudi Arabia and the relationship with several health status, lifestyle, and sociodemographic factors. A cross-sectional study with an online questionnaire format assessed the risk of postpartum depression using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and included several questions on postpartum health status and lifestyle factors. Of the 550 women who responded to the survey 75% scored within range of risk for PPD (≥12). We found significant associations between family income, younger baby age, birth difficulty, having family support, level of physical activity, and the risk for PPD (p < 0.05). Urgent attention and resources should be directed towards screening and treatment for PPD in the healthcare system. The development of programs for awareness, education, and support of postpartum mothers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is also required.
Random effects mixture models for clustering time series

In this thesis, we study cluster analysis of time series and develop a new mixture model which is effective for such analysis. Our study is motivated by a real life problem of clustering time series of electricity load (demand) for BC Hydro customers. BC Hydro collects electricity load data for selected customers for the purpose of grouping customers into homogeneous classes in terms of the load. Such homogeneous classes or clusters are useful for rate setting and long term generation capacity planning. The BC Hydro data set that we use in this thesis contains 923 load series representing 923 BC Hydro customers. Each load series consists of repeated hourly load measurements over a one year period and thus is a long time series. There are a number of clustering methods in the literature for clustering general multivariate data but these are not effective for clustering such long time series. This is because time series such as the BC Hydro customer’s load series typically have high dimensions and special covariance structures. Existing clustering methods are not designed to accommodate these special characteristics. The contributions of this thesis are the following: We first develop a mixture model based clustering method for time series which cannot only handle their high dimensions but also makes effective use of their special covariance structures. Our method is based on the random effects mixture model, a mixture model which we develop specifically for time series. We devise a special EM algorithm based on the AECM algorithm of Meng and van Dyk (1997) to handle the computation of the random effects mixture model. Once the model
Transforming Initial Teacher Education Program with Mobile Technologies. A synthesis of qualitative evidences

Mobile technologies have increasingly been used in education for enhancing teaching and learning among students. The authors reviewed qualitative studies that focused on approaches towards transforming initial teacher education programs with mobile technologies. With the use of meta-ethnography approach, we compared, contrasted and interpreted the synthesis of qualitative evidences across numerous studies. This review analyzed 13 eligible studies from Web of Science conducted in different countries from 2012 to 2022. The findings were divided into three sections: (1) theme related to conceptions about the use of mobile technologies at micro-level (e.g., perceptions and affordances), (2) themes related to institutional approaches at the meso-level (e.g., professional training, technical supports, motivating and collaborative environment) and (3) theme related to policies and financial supports at the macro-level. Based to these findings, the model for transforming initial teacher education programs with mobile technologies was developed. By intensive discussions of the results, feasible conclusions were derived and future directions for further research on mobile technologies were provided.
Power calculation algorithm for single-phase droop-operated inverters considering nonlinear loads

The average active and reactive powers, Pav and Qav, are crucial parameters that have to be calculated when sharing common loads between parallelized droop-operated single-phase inverters. However, low-pass filters (LPF) with very low cut-off frequency should be used to minimize the distortion impact in the amplitude and frequency references provided by the droop equations. This forces the control to operate at a very low dynamic velocity, degrading the stability of the parallelized system. For this reason, different solutions had been proposed to increase the droop operation velocity in literature, but with the consideration of only sharing linear loads. The issues derived from the sharing of nonlinear loads had not been properly considered. This paper proposes a method to calculate Pav and Qav using second order generalized integrators (SOGI) that increase the velocity of the droop control algorithm considering nonlinear loads as the design worst case scenario. Then it is employed a double SOGI (DSOGI) approach to filter the current non-sinusoidal waveform and provide the fundamental component, which results in a faster transient response and improves the system's stability. The proposed calculation method shows to be faster than other approaches when considering nonlinear loads. Simulations are provided to validate the proposal.
Golden-angle radial sparse parallel magnetic resonance imaging of rectal perfusion: utility in the diagnosis of poorly differentiated rectal cancer

Background The objective of this retrospective investigation is to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of a dual-parameter strategy that integrates either time-resolved angiography with stochastic trajectories (TWIST) or golden-angle radial sparse parallel (GRASP)-derived dynamic contrast agent-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) with diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) for the identification of poorly differentiated rectal cancer (RC). The purpose of this investigation is to contrast the aforementioned methodology with conventional single-factor assessments that rely solely on DWI, and ascertain its comparative efficacy. Methods This study was not registered on a clinical trial platform. Consecutive individuals diagnosed with non-mucinous rectal adenocarcinoma through endoscopy-guided biopsy between December 2020 and October 2022 were involved in our study. These patients had also undergone DCE-MRI and DWI. The perfusion metrics of influx forward volume transfer constant (Ktrans) and rate constant (Kep), along with the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), were quantified by a pair of investigators. The study compared the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) for both sequences to identify poorly differentiated RC. The investigation incorporated patients who fulfilled the specified criteria. The inclusion criteria for the investigation were as follows: (I) a diagnosis of RC proved through pathological examination, either via endoscopically-guided biopsy or surgical resection; (II) availability of complete MRI images; (III) absence of any prior history of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy during the MRI scan. Results Our investigation comprised a total of 179 participants. Compared to diffusion parameter alone, an integrated assessment of diffusion parameter (ADC) and perfusion parameters (Ktrans or Kep) obtained with GRASP leads to a superior diagnostic accuracy (AUC, 0.97±0.02 vs. 0.89±0.03, 0.97±0.02 vs. 0.89±0.03, P=0.005 and 0.003, respectively); however, there was no additional benefit from ADC with perfusion parameters obtained from TWIST (Ktrans or Kep) (AUC, 0.93±0.04 vs. 0.89±0.03, 0.93±0.03 vs. 0.89±0.03; P= 0.955 and 0.981, respectively, for the integration of ADC with Ktrans and Kep). Conclusions By integrating diffusion and perfusion features into a dual-parameter model, the GRASP method enhances the diagnostic efficacy of MRI in discriminating RCs with poor differentiation. Conversely, the TWIST approach did not yield the aforementioned outcome.
Perfectionism, Academic Stress, Rumination and Worry: A Predictive Model for Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in University Students From Colombia

Perfectionism, academic stress, worry, and rumination are associated with increased levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms in university students. However, associations between these variables have been explored separately. Using PLS-SEM, the present study explored a multivariate model in which these variables interplay to predict affective symptoms. A sample of 403 students between ages 18 and 29 years from 55 Colombian institutions of higher education participated by completing Zung depression and anxiety scales, the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Inventory of Academic Stress, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire, and the Ruminative Responses Scale. Results indicate a positive relationship between perfectionism and academic stress, and a mediation effect of worry and rumination in the relationship between academic stress and anxiety and depressive symptoms. Findings provide evidence of a novel model that precedes the design of target prevention and intervention programs pointing to reduce the risk of affective disorders and its associated negative consequences.