Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Single-Stage LLC Charger with PFC Functionality and Wide Input Voltage Range

We present a compact battery charger topology for weight and cost sensitive applications with an average output current of 9 A targeted for 36 V batteries commonly found in electric bicycles. Instead of using a conventional boost converter with large DC-link capacitors, we accomplish PFC-functionality by shaping the charging current into a sin2-shape. In addition, a novel control scheme without input-current sensing is introduced. A-priori knowledge is used to implement a feed-forward control in combination with a closed-loop output current control to maintain the target current. The use of a full-bridge/half-bridge LLC converter enables operation in a wide input-voltage range.A fully featured prototype has been built with a peak output power of 1050 W. An average output power of 400 W was measured, resulting in a power density of 1.8 kW/dm3. At 9 A charging current, a power factor of 0.96 was measured and the efficiency exceeds 93% on average with passive rectification.The impact of pulse charging has been evaluated on a 400 Wh battery which was charged with the proposed converter as well as CC-CV-charging for reference. Both charging schemes show similar battery surface temperatures.
Numerical Analysis of Contact Area Influence in a Capacitive Soft Force Sensor

This paper presents about influence of contact area to measurement value of the capacitive soft force sensor, and the method to decrease contact area influence is proposed. First, a capacitive soft force sensor is approximated to discrete model, then the relationship between physical properties of sensor material and influence of contact area to sensor value is numerically analyzed. Next, evaluation method of contact area influence is proposed, and some example of the evaluation values are calculated. Finally, the physical property of the sensor material that minimized the contact area influence is calculated by numerical analysis. In the proposed optimizing method, the relationship between applied force and displacement which represent the physical property of the sensor material is defined by combing plural linear functions. Functions are optimized in sequentially to minimize the contact area influence.
Adsorption and Diffusion of Cisplatin Molecules in Nanoporous Materials: A Molecular Dynamics Study

Using molecular dynamics simulations, the adsorption and diffusion of cisplatin drug molecules in nanopores is investigated for several inorganic materials. Three different materials are studied with widely-varying properties: metallic gold, covalent silicon, and silica. We found a strong influence of both the van der Waals and the electrostatic interaction on the adsorption behavior on the pore walls, which in turn influence the diffusion coefficients. While van der Waals forces generally lead to a reduction of the diffusion coefficient, the fluctuations in the electrostatic energy induced by orientation changes of the cisplatin molecule were found to help desorb the molecule from the wall.
Cycle Face Aging Generative Adversarial Networks

The facial features of human changes with age. It is important to model the human face for cross-age verification and recognition. In this paper, we introduce a Cycle Face Aging Generative Adversarial Network (CFA-GANs) framework which preserves original face identity in the aged version of his/her face. Due to the shortage of paired data of human faces, we used CycleConsistent Generative Adversarial Network (CycleGANs) which transform an image from source domain X to target domain Y in absence of paired example. Our aim is to translate an input age group image into target age group image for face aging problems. Train on the various images, we demonstrate that our CFA-GAN learns and transfer the features of the face from the input group to target group. Results have been taken on UTKFace database to obtain aged and regenerated face images.
Privacy Preserving Approach for Association Rule Mining in Horizontally Partitioned Data using MFI and Shamir’s Secret Sharing

Preserving privacy while collaboratively mining association rules has caught the attention of researchers due to privacy concern by collaborative participants. Existing public key based homomorphic encryption schemes achieve the privacy but increases the computation and the communication cost. This paper explores the non-public key based collision resistance technique called shamir’s secret sharing for preserving privacy for distributed association rule mining (PPDARM) in horizontal partitioned data. We use the concept of MFI (Maximal Frequent Itemset) to reduce the communication cost. The theoretical and experimental analysis of the proposed algorithm, which is conducted with a real dataset shows that it performs superlative with respect to communication and computation compared to existing PPDARM techniques. Additionally, the proposed algorithm is analyzed in terms of the security, privacy and correctness respectively.
A modified adaptive particle swarm optimization algorithm

It is effective to avoid falling into local optimums at the original stage of the computation that the knowledge of multi-optimum distribution state is introduced into general programming of the particle swarm movement in particle swarm optimization. But if the proportion factor of multi-optimum programming cannot be dynamic adjusted in the optimization process, the performance of the algorithm will be limited. In this paper, a modified adaptive particle swarm optimization algorithm based on fuzzy and adaptive programming of multi-optimum was put forward and simulated. In the modified algorithm derived in this paper, proportion factor of multi-optimum programming can be dynamic adjusted in the optimization process, and simulation results show that it has well general convergence character.
Genotype network intersections promote evolutionary innovation

Evolutionary innovations are qualitatively novel traits that emerge through evolution and increase biodiversity. The genetic mechanisms that lead to innovation remain poorly understood. A systems view of innovation requires the analysis of genotype networks – the vast networks of genetic variants that produce the same phenotype. Innovations can occur at the intersection of two different genotype networks. Here, we use high-throughput sequencing to study the fitness landscape at the intersection of the genotype networks of two catalytic RNA molecules (ribozymes). We determined the ability of numerous neighboring RNA sequences to catalyze two different chemical reactions. We find extensive functional overlap, and over half the genotypes can catalyze both functions to some extent. We demonstrate through evolutionary simulations that these numerous points of intersection facilitate the discovery of a new function. Our study reveals the properties of a fitness landscape where genotype networks intersect, and the consequences for evolutionary innovations.
Wideband Circularly Polarized Stacked Microstrip Antennas

A simple technique is developed to improve the axial ratio (AR)-bandwidth and quality of circularly polarized stacked microstrip antennas (CPSMAs) using a new C-type single feed. The proposed antenna has been optimized and fabricated, and the computed results agree very well with measurements. The antenna has a 3 dB AR bandwidth of 13.5%, gain is more than 7.5 dBi over the 3 dB AR bandwidth and the 10 dB return-loss bandwidth is 21%. The proposed feed optimization technique is useful for rapid design of circular polarized stacked microstrip antennas.
The role of personal and communal religiosity in the context of bereavement

Abstract Religion and spirituality often become relevant after the death of a loved one. In light of the multidimensionality of religion and spirituality, we investigate the role of communal religiosity in predicting associations between personal religiosity and bereavement outcomes. A mixed-methods analysis of interviews and questionnaires from 33 bereaved adults was conducted. Interview mentions of personal and communal religiosity, and their associations with self-reported religious coping and grief symptoms, were assessed. Personal (β = 0.55, p < .01) and communal religiosity (β = 0.50, p < .01) predicted positive religious coping, as well as negative religious coping and grief severity (β = 0.53, p < .01). In addition, personal religiosity predicted more negative religious coping for participants who expressed low communal religiosity, β = 1.58, SE = . 15, t(28) = 4.08, p < . 001. After loss, personal religiosity by itself is not necessarily protective. The presence of personal and communal religiosity contributes to positive religious coping, and reduced negative religious coping. However, the absence of communal religiosity indicates vulnerability.
Preparation, In Vivo and In Vitro Release of Polyethylene Glycol Monomethyl Ether-Polymandelic Acid Microspheres Loaded Panax Notoginseng Saponins

In order to enrich the types of Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS) sustained-release preparations and provide a new research idea for the research and development of traditional Chinese medicine sustained-release formulations, a series of Panax notoginseng saponins microspheres was prepared by a double emulsion method using a series of degradable amphiphilic macromolecule materials polyethylene glycol monomethyl ether-polymandelic acid (mPEG-PMA) as carrier. The structure and molecular weight of the series of mPEG-PMA were determined by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1 HNMR) and gel chromatography (GPC). The results of the appearance, particle size, drug loading and encapsulation efficiency of the drug-loaded microspheres show that the mPEG10000-PMA (1:9) material is more suitable as a carrier for loading the total saponins of Panax notoginseng. The particle size was 2.51 ± 0.21 μm, the drug loading and encapsulation efficiency were 8.54 ± 0.16% and 47.25 ± 1.64%, respectively. The drug-loaded microspheres were used for in vitro release and degradation experiments to investigate the degradation and sustained release behaviour of the drug-loaded microspheres. The biocompatibility of the microspheres was studied by haemolytic, anticoagulant and cytotoxicity experiments. The pharmacological activity of the microspheres was studied by anti-inflammatory and anti-tumour experiments. The results showed that the drug-loaded microspheres could be released stably for about 12 days and degraded within 60 days. At the same time, the microspheres had good biocompatibility, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumour activities.
Diagnostic efficacy of 18F-FDG PET/CT in patients with adrenal incidentaloma

Background The management of adrenal incidentaloma is still a challenge with respect to determining its functionality (hormone secretion) and malignancy. In this light, we performed 18F-FDG PET/CT scan to assess the SUVmax values in different adrenal masses including Cushing syndrome, pheochromocytoma, primary hyperaldosteronism and non-functional adrenal adenomas. Methods Total 109 (73 F, 36 M) patients with adrenal mass (incidentaloma), mean age of 53.3 ± 10.2 years (range, 24–70) were screened by 18F-FDG PET/CT. Data of 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging of the patients were assessed by the same specialist. Adrenal masses were identified according to the calculated standardized uptake values (SUVs). Clinical examination, 24-h urine cortisol, catecholamine metabolites, 1-mg dexamethasone suppression test, aldosterone/renin ratio and serum electrolytes were analyzed. Results Based on the clinical and hormonal evaluations, there were 100 patients with non-functional adrenal mass, four with cortisol-secreting, four with pheochromocytomas and one with aldosterone-secreting adenoma. Mean adrenal mass diameter of 109 patients was 2.1 ± 4.3 (range, 1–6.5 cm). The 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging of the patients revealed that lower SUVmax values were found in non-functional adrenal masses (SUVmax 3.2) when compared to the functional adrenal masses including four with cortisol-secreting adenoma (SUVmax 10.1); four with pheochromcytoma (SUVmax 8.7) and one with aldosterone-secreting adenomas (SUVmax 3.30). Cortisol-secreting (Cushing syndrome) adrenal masses showed the highest SUVmax value (10.1), and a cut-off SUVmax of 4.135 was found with an 84.6% sensitivity and 75.6% specificity cortisol-secreting adrenal adenoma. Conclusions Consistent with the similar studies, non-functional adrenal adenomas typically do not show increased FDG uptake and a certain form of functional adenoma could present various FDG uptake in FDG PET/CT. Especially functional adrenal adenomas (cortisol secreting was the highest) showed increased FDG uptake in comparison to the non-functional adrenal masses. Therefore, setting a specific SUVmax value in the differentiation of malignant adrenal lesion from the benign one is risky and further studies, including a high number of functional adrenal mass are needed.
Club cells form lung adenocarcinomas and maintain the alveoli of adult mice

Lung cancer and chronic lung diseases impose major disease burdens worldwide and are caused by inhaled noxious agents including tobacco smoke. The cellular origins of environmental-induced lung tumors and of the dysfunctional airway and alveolar epithelial turnover observed with chronic lung diseases are unknown. To address this, we combined mouse models of genetic labeling and ablation of airway (club) and alveolar cells with exposure to environmental noxious and carcinogenic agents. Club cells are shown to survive KRAS mutations and to form lung tumors after tobacco carcinogen exposure. Increasing numbers of club cells are found in the alveoli with aging and after lung injury, but go undetected since they express alveolar proteins. Ablation of club cells prevents chemical lung tumors and causes alveolar destruction in adult mice. Hence club cells are important in alveolar maintenance and carcinogenesis and may be a therapeutic target against premalignancy and chronic lung disease.
Elucidating the Influence of Tumor Presence on the Polymersome Circulation Time in Mice

The use of nanoparticles as tumor-targeting agents is steadily increasing, and the influence of nanoparticle characteristics such as size and stealthiness have been established for a large number of nanocarrier systems. However, not much is known about the impact of tumor presence on nanocarrier circulation times. This paper reports on the influence of tumor presence on the in vivo circulation time and biodistribution of polybutadiene-polyethylene oxide (PBd-PEO) polymersomes. For this purpose, polymersomes were loaded with the gamma-emitter 111In and administered intravenously, followed by timed ex vivo biodistribution. A large reduction in circulation time was observed for tumor-bearing mice, with a circulation half-life of merely 5 min (R2 = 0.98) vs 117 min (R2 = 0.95) in healthy mice. To determine whether the rapid polymersome clearance observed in tumor-bearing mice was mediated by macrophages, chlodronate liposomes were administered to both healthy and tumor-bearing mice prior to the intravenous injection of radiolabeled polymersomes to deplete their macrophages. Pretreatment with chlodronate liposomes depleted macrophages in the spleen and liver and restored the circulation time of the polymersomes with no significant difference in circulation time between healthy mice and tumor-bearing mice pretreated with clodronate liposomes (15.2 ± 1.2% ID/g and 13.6 ± 2.7% ID/g, respectively, at 4 h p.i. with p = 0.3). This indicates that activation of macrophages due to tumor presence indeed affected polymersome clearance rate. Thus, next to particle design, the presence of a tumor can also greatly impact circulation times and should be taken into account when designing studies to evaluate the distribution of polymersomes.
Cross-Over Between Scenario Analysis and Agent-Based Market Simulation for Technology Planning

Many firms resort to scenario analysis as a tool for supporting strategic technology planning. For this purpose, alternative future scenarios are set up and contrasted with potential courses of action that take into account, for instance, new product features, measures for market introduction, or novel business models. Typically, the fitting between these scenarios and potential (action) portfolios is based on estimations. Enriching this rather limited valuation with outcomes from (agent-based) market simulations may therefore serve as a valuable means for decision support, because simulation results provide much more in-depth information such as product diffusion curves based on the new technologies for each combination of scenario and (action) portfolio over the course of time. The simulation can account for the relevant stakeholders (e.g., consumers) by modeling them as agents with heterogeneous preferences and behaviors. The prospective market development then emerges from the agents' actions and interactions (e.g., their word-of-mouth communication or purchases). We will describe such an agent-based model and discuss its contribution to technology planning by means of application examples based on real-world data.
Association of Antidepressant Medication Type With the Incidence of Cardiovascular Disease in the ARIC Study

Background The association of antidepressant medication type with the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is unclear. We hypothesized that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are associated with lower risks of CVD events relative to tricyclics and other non‐SSRI antidepressants. Methods and Results We studied 2027 participants from the ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) study (mean age 63±10 years; 29% men; 78% white) treated with antidepressants at some time between 1987 and 2013. Antidepressant usage was confirmed by participants bringing pill bottles to study visits. CVD events in the study sample were identified, including atrial fibrillation, heart failure, myocardial infarction, and ischemic stroke. Hazard ratios were used to compare CVD events adjusted for sociodemographic and clinical risk factors in SSRIs users (47%) versus non‐SSRI users. Participants were followed from antidepressant initiation up to 2016 for a median of 13.5 years. We identified 332 atrial fibrillation, 365 heart failure, 174 myocardial infarction and 119 ischemic stroke events. CVD risk was similar for SSRIs and non‐SSRI antidepressant users (hazard ratio, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.86–1.41 for atrial fibrillation; hazard ratio, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.77–1.25 for heart failure; hazard ratio, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.64–1.29 for myocardial infarction; and hazard ratio, 1.07; 95% CI, 0.70–1.63 for ischemic stroke). Conclusions SSRI use was not associated with reduced risk of incident CVD compared with non‐SSRI antidepressant use. These results do not provide evidence supporting the use of SSRIs compared with tricyclics and other non‐SSRI antidepressants in relation to CVD risk.
Retina-Based Pipe-Like Object Tracking Implemented Through Spiking Neural Network on a Snake Robot

Vision based-target tracking ability is crucial to bio-inspired snake robots for exploring unknown environments. However, it is difficult for the traditional vision modules of snake robots to overcome the image blur resulting from periodic swings. A promising approach is to use a neuromorphic vision sensor (NVS), which mimics the biological retina to detect a target at a higher temporal frequency and in a wider dynamic range. In this study, an NVS and a spiking neural network (SNN) were performed on a snake robot for the first time to achieve pipe-like object tracking. An SNN based on Hough Transform was designed to detect a target with an asynchronous event stream fed by the NVS. Combining the state of snake motion analyzed by the joint position sensors, a tracking framework was proposed. The experimental results obtained from the simulator demonstrated the validity of our framework and the autonomous locomotion ability of our snake robot. Comparing the performances of the SNN model on CPUs and on GPUs, respectively, the SNN model showed the best performance on a GPU under a simplified and synchronous update rule while it possessed higher precision on a CPU in an asynchronous way.
A Step-up Series-parallel Resonant Switched-capacitor Converter with Extended Line Regulation Range

In this paper, a step-up series-parallel resonant switched-capacitor converter is proposed featuring two resonant inductors with two resonant path. A series-parallel switched-capacitor cell is applied to extend the conversion ratio for high voltage gain applications. The modified Cuk dual resonance core provides a unique merit of resonant operation for all flying capacitors. Due to ZCS turn-on of switches and ZCS turn-off of diodes, the high transient current spikes are eliminated and switching loss is reduced. Moreover, the small capacitance of flying resonant capacitors is implemented with reduced volume and high power density. By adopting the on-time fixed frequency modulation, a wide and continuous line regulation is achieved with high efficiency. A comprehensive analysis of operation principle, voltage-gain curve, voltage and current stress are given. A 50V~145.9V prototype with maximum 150W was built to verify the converter feasibility and voltage regulation capability.
Component Sizing and Voltage Balancing of MMC-based Solid-State Transformers Under Various AC-Link Excitation Voltage Waveforms

Modular multilevel converter (MMC) has been employed for solid state transformer (SST) applications. For the MMC-based SSTs, ac-link excitation voltage waveforms are multilevel and controllable for energizing medium-frequency transformers. Different multilevel ac-link voltage waveforms have different performance and specification requirements in design and control. In this paper, power transfer characteristics and capacitor voltage ripple are investigated for the MMC-SSTs under different ac-link excitation voltage waveforms, i.e., sinusoidal and generalized non-sinusoidal voltages. Based on the analysis, capacitance and inductance sizing method is developed and verified. To address voltage balancing issue of the MMC under medium-frequency operating conditions, various capacitor voltage balancing methods are evaluated and compared based on phase-shift modulation and nearest-level modulation methods. The study is conducted in the PSCAD/EMTDC software environment. The study results show that, for the same design specifications, different ac-link excitation voltage waveforms have different capacitance requirements, which can be used for optimization design of the MMC-SSTs.