Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Model Predictive torque vectoring control for electric vehicles near the limits of handling

In this paper we propose a constrained optimal control architecture to stabilize a vehicle near the limit of lateral acceleration using the rear axle electric torque vectoring configuration of an electric vehicle. A nonlinear vehicle and tyre model is employed to find reference steady-state cornering conditions as well as to design a linear Model Predictive Control (MPC) strategy using the rear wheels' slip ratios as input. A Sliding Mode Slip Controller then calculates the necessary motor torques according to the requested wheel slip ratios. After analysing the relative trade-offs between performance and computational effort for the MPC strategy, we validate the controller and compare it against a simpler unconstrained optimal control strategy in a high fidelity simulation environment.
Identification of differentially expressed markers in human follicular cells associated with competent oocytes.

BACKGROUND The development of an accurate method for selection of high-quality embryos is essential to achieve high pregnancy rates with single embryo transfer in human IVF. The developmental competence of the oocyte is acquired during follicle maturation and strong communication also exists between the follicular cells (FCs) and the oocytes; thus oocyte developmental competence may be determined by markers expressed in the surrounding FCs. METHODS From consenting patients (n = 40), FCs were recovered on a per follicle basis by individual follicle puncture. Hybridization analyses using a custom-made complementary DNA microarray containing granulosa/cumulus expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from subtracted libraries and an Affymetrix GeneChip were performed to identify specific genes expressed in follicles leading to a pregnancy. The selected candidate genes were validated by quantitative-PCR (Q-PCR). RESULTS Subtractive libraries prepared from pooled samples representing pregnant versus non-pregnant patients produced 1694 ESTs. Hybridization data analysis discriminated 115 genes associated with competent follicles. Selected candidates were confirmed by Q-PCR: 3-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 1 (P = 0.0078), Ferredoxin 1 (P = 0.0203), Serine (or cysteine) proteinase inhibitor clade E member 2 (P = 0.0499), Cytochrome P450 aromatase (P = 0.0359) and Cell division cycle 42 (P = 0.0396). CONCLUSIONS Microarray technologies are useful to mine the transcriptome of FCs expressed in follicles associated with competent oocytes and could be used to improve embryo selection with the objective of successful single embryo transfer.
Clinical event management using push technology-implementation and evaluation at two health care centers

For two years, beginning in 1995, we developed and implemented a novel method for delivering patient information directly to clinicians. Using rules based logic to scan data bound for an electronic medical record, messages were automatically written that alert care providers to important patient information. These messages were transmitted electronically to either existing email accounts or to wide-screen pagers, or to both. This system now is operational at two medical centers. We describe the model and methods that led to its successful implementation and compare it to other ways of delivering patient information.
Experimental investigation of initiation of backward erosion piping in soils

Experiments were conducted on field and laboratory-mixed soils in a new true-triaxial test apparatus to assess factors that influence initiation of piping in non-cohesive and cohesive soils. Three modes of piping behaviour were recognised: concentrated leak erosion, backward erosion, and suffusion. The amount and type of the fines present in the soils significantly influenced the initiation and mode of piping. The presence of non-plastic fines significantly reduced the required seepage velocity to initiate piping (critical seepage velocity), whereas the presence of plastic fines greatly increased the hydraulic gradient required to initiate piping. Concentrated leak erosion occurred along the soil/apparatus interface in soils with plastic fines at very low seepage velocity, but required very high hydraulic gradients. Backward erosion was the primary mode of failure in non-cohesive soils, and this mode required a seepage velocity of 0·8–1·1 cm/s to initiate piping in uniform sand. The critical seepage veloc.
Lipidosterolic Extract of Serenoa Repens Modulates the Expression of Inflammation Related-Genes in Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Epithelial and Stromal Cells

Despite the high prevalence of histological Benign Prostatic Hypeplasia (BPH) in elderly men, little is known regarding the molecular mechanisms and networks underlying the development and progression of the disease. Here, we explored the effects of a phytotherapeutic agent, Lipidosterolic extract of the dwarf palm plant Serenoa repens (LSESr), on the mRNA gene expression profiles of two representative models of BPH, BPH1 cell line and primary stromal cells derived from BPH. Treatment of these cells with LSESr significantly altered gene expression patterns as assessed by comparative gene expression profiling on gene chip arrays. The expression changes were manifested three hours following in vitro administration of LSESr, suggesting a rapid action for this compound. Among the genes most consistently affected by LSESr treatment, we found numerous genes that were categorized as part of proliferative, apoptotic, and inflammatory pathways. Validation studies using quantitative real-time PCR confirmed the deregulation of genes known to exhibit key roles in these biological processes including IL1B, IL1A, CXCL6, IL1R1, PTGS2, ALOX5, GAS1, PHLDA1, IL6, IL8, NFkBIZ, NFKB1, TFRC, JUN, CDKN1B, and ERBB3. Subsequent analyses also indicated that LSESr treatment can impede the stimulatory effects of certain proinflammatory cytokines such as IL6, IL17, and IL15 in these cells. These results suggest that LSESr may be useful to treat BPH that manifest inflammation characteristics. This also supports a role for inflammation in BPH presumably by mediating the balance between apoptosis and proliferation.
Layout of the absorbers for the synchrotron light source ANKA

The 2.5 GeV synchrotron light source ANKA is now under construction at the Research Center in Karlsruhe. For a designed current of 400 mA, a power of 250 kW is radiated by the circulating e-beam in the 16 dipole magnets. 90% of the synchrotron radiation (SR) is absorbed by the 32 crotch absorbers in the dipole and the adjacent ante chamber, the remaining 10% by distributed absorbers in the straight chambers. The power per length is up to 50 W/mm for the crotch and 2 W/mm for the distributed absorbers. A special design was needed for the crotch absorbers due to the limited space. The final design is optimized for reduced thermal stress in order to increase the number of maximum possible cycles. The temperature distribution and the stresses were calculated with the finite element program ANSYS. The maximum temperature is 270/spl deg/C, the maximum strain 0.13%. The achieved strain will be small enough in order to sustain more than 10/sup 4/ cycles, the expected lifetime of the absorbers. The SR entering the beam lines (15 mrad) will be absorbed either by one moveable absorber before the first valve or by the movable radiation protection shutter close to the shielding wall. The power per length is 13 W/mm, respectively 7 W/mm.
Parallel Web prefetching on cluster server

Prefetching is an important technique for single Web server to reduce the average Web access latency and applying it on cluster server will produce better performance. Two models for parallel Web prefetching on cluster server described in the form of I/O automaton are proposed in this paper according to the different service approaches of Web cluster server: session persistence and session non-persistence. Meanwhile, an advanced scheduling algorithm based on Web prefetching (Prefetch_LARD) is put forward. By mining the transition probability between pages from Web access logs, the algorithm builds up a prefetching model based on Markov chain. Experiments show that under the same test environment, Prefetch_LARD algorithm increases cache hit ratio in up to 26.9% and the throughput in up to 18.8% compared with the classical locality-aware request distribution (LARD) algorithm
Image Capture Modelling for High Resolution Reconstruction

A research topic that has been receiving much interest recently is the reconstruction of a high resolution image from an ensemble of low resolution images of the same scene. Such image fusion implies that each low resolution image individually does not contain all of the available information, and therefore must be subject to aliasing. The reconstruction process involves resampling the ensemble at a higher sample rate, effectively unscrambling the aliased information. However, the reconstructed high resolution image appears blurred because of area sampling caused by the sensor, combined with the low pass response of the camera electronics. By modelling the image capture system, the point spread function may be estimated and then removed by using inverse filtering in the frequency domain. If the individual low resolution images are subject to a spatially variant point spread function (resulting from perspective or radial distortion or focus limitations), a more complex spatially variant inverse filter must be used.
Study on the Effect of Flame Instability on the Flame Structural Characteristics of Hydrogen/Air Mixtures Based on the Fast Fourier Transform

In this study, the effect of flame intrinsic instability on the flame structural characteristics of hydrogen/air mixtures premixed at various equivalence ratios were experimentally investigated from the macroscopic and microscopic perspectives, respectively. The correlation degree and the relative deformation degree were defined to quantitatively study the global flame structural characteristics. Peak detection was used to capture the characteristic length of the flame and fast Fourier transform was adopted to study the components of the fluctuation of the flame front. The results show that with the development of flames, the wrinkles in the flame front increase and the correlation degree of the flame decreases. The relative deformation degree of the flame first decreases and then increases. When the equivalence ratio is 0.6, the average characteristic length initially exhibits an increasing trend, followed by a decreasing trend. The average characteristic length scale gradually increases, and the growth rate gradually decreases when the equivalence ratio ranges from 0.70 to 0.99. With the increase in the wavenumber, the amplitude of the corresponding disturbance exhibited an increasing trend followed by a decreasing one. With the development of the flame, the maximum amplitude of the disturbance shows a reverse trend, i.e., first decreasing and then increasing. The disturbances with smaller wavelengths could be further developed.
Statistical Analysis of Personality and Identity in Chats Using a Keylogging Platform

Interacting via text chats can be considered as a hybrid type of communication, in which textual information delivery follows turn-taking dynamics, resembling spoken interactions. An interesting research question is whether personality can be observed in chats, similarly as happening in face-to-face exchanges. After an encouraging preliminary work on Skype, in this study we have set up our own chat service in which key-logging functionalities have been activated, so that the timings of each key pressing can be measured. Using this framework, we organized semi-structured chats between 50 subjects, whose personality traits have been analyzed through psychometric tests, and a single operator, for a total of 16 hours of conversation. On this data, we have observed that some personality traits are linked with the way we are chatting (measured by stylometric cues), by means of statistically significant correlations and regression studies. Finally, we have assessed that some of the stylometric cues are very discriminative for the recognition of a user in a identification scenario. These facts taken together could underlie that some personality traits drive us in chatting in a particular fashion, which turns out to be very recognizable.
Cross-band pixel selection in multiresolution image fusion

The work described in this paper focuses on cross band pixel selection as applied to pixel level multi-resolution image fusion. In addition, multi-resolution analysis and synthesis is realized via QMF sub-band decomposition techniques. Thus cross-band pixel selection is considered with the aim of reducing the contrast and structural distortion image artifacts produced by existing wavelet based, pixel level, image fusion schemes. Preliminary subjective image fusion results demonstrate clearly the advantage which the proposed cross-band selection technique offers, when compared to conventional area based pixel selection.
Practical refinement-type checking

Software development is a complex and error prone task. Programming languages with strong static type systems assist programmers by capturing and checking the fundamental structure of programs in a very intuitive way. Given this success, it is natural to ask: can we capture and check more of the structure of programs? In this dissertation I describe an approach called refinement-type checking that allows many common program properties to be captured and checked. This approach builds on the strength of the type system of a language by adding the ability to specify refinements of each type. Following previous work, I focus on refinements that include subtyping and a form of intersection types. Central to my approach is the use of a bidirectional checking algorithm. This does not attempt to infer refinements for some expressions, such as functions, but only checks them against refinements. This avoids some difficulties encountered in previous work, and requires that the programmer annotate their program with some of the intended refinements. The required annotations appear to be very reasonable. Further, they document properties in a way that is natural, precise, easy to read, and reliable. I demonstrate the practicality of my approach by showing that it can be used to design a refinement-type checker for a widely-used language with a strong type system: Standard ML. This requires two main technical developments. Firstly, I present a new valiant of intersection types that obtain soundness in the presence of call-by-value effects by incorporating a value restriction. Secondly, I present a practical approach to incorporating recursive refinements of ML datatypes, including a pragmatic method for checking the sequential pattern matching construct of ML. I conclude by reporting the results of experiments with my implementation of refinement-type checking for SML. These indicate that refinement-type checking is a practical method for capturing and checking properties of real code.
Adaptive binarization method for fingerprint images

An efficient method for binarization of the fingerprint images is presented in this paper. The algorithm is based on the fact that the fingerprint ridges are regions where the second directional derivative of the image is positive. The derivatives at each pixel are approximated using a facet model based on the intensity values of pixels in a certain neighborhood. It was noticed that the size of this neighborhood affects critically to the results. The size of the neighborhood is depended on the inter-ridge distance. The method based on the averaging in the direction of the ridges was used to determine inter-ridge distances. Using these inter-ridge distances, size of the neighborhood in the binarization algorithm was calculated for each pixel. Ridge directions were calculated using the gradient information of the image. The algorithm was tested using digitally acquired fingerprints. The results show that the algorithm is capable to produce very accurate binarization results.
On the invertibility of the XOR rotations of a binary word

We prove the following result regarding operations on a binary word whose length is a power of two: computing the exclusive-or of a number of rotated versions of the word is an invertible (one-to-one) operation if and only if the number of versions combined is odd. (This result is not new; there is at least one earlier proof, due to Thomsen in his PhD thesis [12]. Our proof may be new.)
Bayesian Nets for Syntactic Categorization of Novel Words

This paper presents an application of a Dynamic Bayesian Network (DBN) to the task of assigning Part-of-Speech (PoS) tags to novel text. This task is particularly challenging for non-standard corpora, such as Internet lingo, where a large proportion of words are unknown. Previous work reveals that PoS tags depend on a variety of morphological and contextual features. Representing these dependencies in a DBN results into an elegant and effective PoS tagger.
Borrelia burgdorferi swims with a planar waveform similar to that of eukaryotic flagella.

Borrelia burgdorferi is a motile spirochete with multiple internal periplasmic flagella (PFs) attached near each end of the cell cylinder; these PFs overlap in the cell center. We analyzed the shape and motion of wild type and PF-deficient mutants using both photomicrography and video microscopy. We found that swimming cells resembled the dynamic movements of eukaryotic flagella. In contrast to helically shaped spirochetes, which propagate spiral waves, translating B. burgdorferi swam with a planar waveform with occasional axial twists; waves had a peak-to-peak amplitude of 0.85 micron and a wavelength of 3.19 microns. Planar waves began full-sized at the anterior end and propagated toward the back end of the cell. Concomitantly, these waves gyrated counter-clockwise as viewed from the posterior end along the cell axis. In nontranslating cells, wave propagation ceased. Either the waveform of nontranslating cells resembled the translating form, or the cells became markedly contorted. Cells of the PF-deficient mutant isolated by Sadziene et al. [Sadziene, A. , Thomas, D. D. , Bundoc, V. G. , Holt, S. C. & Barbour, A. G. (1991) J. Clin. Invest. 88, 82-92] were found to be relatively straight. The results suggest that the shape of B. burgdorferi is dictated by interactions between the cell body and the PFs. In addition, the PFs from opposite ends of the cell are believed to interact with one another so that during the markedly distorted nontranslational form, the PFs from opposite ends rotate in opposing directions around one another, causing the cell to bend.
Characterization of Disease-related 5β-Reductase (AKR1D1) Mutations Reveals Their Potential to Cause Bile Acid Deficiency*

Bile acid deficiency is a serious syndrome in newborns that can result in death if untreated. 5β-Reductase deficiency is one form of bile acid deficiency and is characterized by dramatically decreased levels of physiologically active 5β-reduced bile acids. AKR1D1 (aldo-keto reductase 1D1) is the only known human enzyme that stereo-specifically reduces the Δ4 double bond in 3-keto steroids and sterols to yield the 5β-hydrogenated product. Analysis of the AKR1D1 gene in five patients with 5β-reductase deficiency revealed five different mutations resulting in an amino acid substitution in the protein. To investigate a causal role for these observed point mutations in AKR1D1 in 5β-reductase deficiency, we characterized their effect on enzymatic properties. Attempts to purify mutant enzymes by overexpression in Escherichia coli only yielded sufficient amounts of the P133R mutant for further characterization. This enzyme displayed a highly reduced Km and Vmax reminiscent of uncompetitive kinetics with 4-cholesten-7α-ol-3-one as substrate. In addition, this mutant displayed no change in cofactor affinity but was more thermolabile in the absence of NADPH as judged by CD spectroscopy. All mutants were compared following expression in HEK 293 cells. Although these enzymes were equally expressed based on mRNA levels, protein expression and functional activity were dramatically reduced. Cycloheximide treatment also revealed that several of the expressed mutants were less stable. Our findings show that the reported mutations in AKR1D1 in patients with 5β-reductase lead to significantly decreased levels of active enzyme and could be causal in the development of bile acid deficiency syndrome.
Ani-Bot: A Mixed-Reality Ready Modular Robotics System

We present Ani-Bot, a modular robotics system that allows users to construct Do-It-Yourself (DIY) robots and use mixed-reality approach to interact with them. Ani-Bot enables novel user experience by embedding Mixed-Reality Interaction (MRI) in the three phases of interacting with a modular construction kit, namely, Creation, Tweaking, and Usage. In this paper, we first present the system design that allows users to instantly perform MRI once they finish assembling the robot. Further, we discuss the augmentations offered by MRI in the three phases in specific.
A multimedia interface for facilitating comparisons of opinions

Written opinion on products and other entities can be important to consumers and researchers, but expensive and difficult to analyze. We present a multimedia interface designed to facilitate the analysis of opinions on multiple entities, which could be beneficial to many individuals and organizations. It integrates an information visualization and an intelligent system that selects notable comparisons in the data and summarizes them in text. This system applies a set of statistics for comparing opinions across entities. We conducted a study of our interface with 36 subjects. Subjects liked the visualization overall and our system's selections overlapped with those of subjects more than did the selections of baseline systems. Given the choice, subjects often changed their selections to be more consistent with those of our system. This suggests that system selections were valuable to them.
InP/InGaAs Photodetector on SOI Photonic Circuitry

We present an InP-based membrane p-i-n photodetector on a silicon-on-insulator sample containing a Si-wiring photonic circuit that is suitable for use in optical interconnections on Si integrated circuits (ICs). The detector mesa footprint is 50 μm2, which is the smallest reported to date for this kind of device, and the junction capacitance is below 10 fF, which allows for high integration density and low dynamic power consumption. The measured detector responsivity and 3-dB bandwidth are 0.45 A/W and 33 GHz, respectively. The device fabrication is compatible with wafer-scale processing steps, guaranteeing compatibility toward future-generation electronic IC processing.