Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
900V SiC Based, Hybrid, Multilevel DC/DC Topology for 1500VDC PV Application

Very compact, highly efficient, hybrid DC/DC topology, consisted of a standard interleaved boost converter followed by a multilevel Resonant Switched Capacitor Converter (RSCC), that employs 900V Silicon-Carbide (SiC) devices, for use in emerging, two-stage, grid connected 1500V Photo-Voltaic (PV) systems is presented in this paper. Operation principle of this topology is described: controllability of its output voltage and power processing distribution among its stages in function of input voltage. Depending on operating region, certain amount of input power is not processed, but it is transfered directly to the output. This behaviour increases significantly efficiency of the analyzed topology, compared to the solutions presented in literature. The presented topology obtains full ZVS transitions in all operating conditions, even without load. ZVS transitions and employed SiC MOSFETs are the key elements for the high converter efficiency. Triangular Conduction Mode (TCM) in boost stage and resonant switching technique in RSCC part are used to obtain ZVS transitions in all the switches under wide range of loads and PV voltages. Results of multivariable optimization (pareto front) for the presented topology are provided. Previousely described theoretical analysis is fully experimentally confirmed by building and measuring a 10kW prototype of 8.26kW/kg of specific power and 404.6cm3 of volume occupied only by power stage components. Euro efficiency of 99.48% in nominal input/output voltage conditions is achieved.
Design and Implementation of Forced Air-cooled, 140kHz, 20kW SiC MOSFET based Vienna PFC

In this paper, a forced air-cooled, 140kHz, 20kW SiC MOSFET based Vienna power factor rectifier (PFC) is presented. Compared with Si device, the wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor device allows to increase the switching frequency and reduce the volume of passive components. The modulation scheme of T-type converter is implemented in Vienna PFC to reduce the switching loss and improve efficiency to 98.5%. Power semiconductor device losses are calculated for thermal design. The new phase-change thermal material and AlN thermal interface are used to decrease the thermal impedance. For EMI filter design, a feedback damping resistor is added to common-mode loop to improve the phase margin and stability. Experimental results verify the design concepts and high efficiency.
An 86% Efficiency, 20MHz, 3D-Integrated Buck Converter with Magnetic Core Inductor Embedded in Interposer Fabricated by Epoxy/Magnetic-Filler Composite Build-Up Sheet

This paper presents a three-dimensional (3D) -integrated buck converter implemented on an interposer with an embedded magnetic core inductor. The converter realizes small footprint, low fabrication cost, high efficiency, and fast load transient response by using the proposed build-up lamination process. In the proposed interposer build-up lamination process, epoxy/magnetic-filler composite sheet is used to form a fully closed magnetic circuit spiral inductor inside the build-up layer without using any expensive magnetic thin film deposition process. Furthermore, a control chip suitable for high switching frequency operation is proposed and designed by a 0. 35μm standard CMOS process. With these proposed technologies, the proposed 3D-integrated buck converter shows maximum efficiency of 87.0/86.0% at 16/20MHz switching frequency with a voltage conversion of 5V to 3.3V. The load transient response is less than 2. 6µs at the load step between 80mA and 460mA.
Fabrication of Soft Devices with Buried Fluid Channels by Using Sacrificial 3D Printed Molds

Casting silicone elastomers into 3D printed molds has seen a surge of applications in soft robots, soft manipulators, microfluidics, wearable technologies and stretchable sensors. In such devices, buried fluid channels are used to transport fluids, as fluidic actuators and as sensors with liquid metal. However, it is difficult to demold structures with buried channels or overhangs. As a solution, using sacrificial molds made of dissolvable materials has been proposed. In this paper, we evaluate different commercially available 3D printing materials as dissolvable mold materials. We tested dissolving prints made of high-impact polystyrene (HIPS), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polyvinyl butyral (PVB) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) in limonene, acetone, isopropanol/ethanol and water, respectively. We further studied the effect of magnetic stirring and ultrasonic bath on the dissolution times. Finally, we fabricated buried channels using different mold materials and silicone elastomers. The results show that at least ABS, PVB and PVA can be used as mold materials. In particular, PVA is a promising material as it is soluble in water. The studied method simplifies the fabrication of soft devices, allowing the fabrication of overhangs and buried channels in a single casting step.
A HER2-Displaying Virus-Like Particle Vaccine Protects from Challenge with Mammary Carcinoma Cells in a Mouse Model

Human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) is upregulated in 20% to 30% of breast cancers and is a marker of a poor outcome. Due to the development of resistance to passive immunotherapy with Trastuzumab, active anti-HER2 vaccination strategies that could potentially trigger durable tumor-specific immune responses have become an attractive research area. Recently, we have shown that budded virus-like particles (VLPs) produced in Sf9 insect cells are an ideal platform for the expression of complex membrane proteins. To assess the efficacy of antigen-displaying VLPs as active cancer vaccines, BALB/c mice were immunized with insect cell glycosylated and mammalian-like glycosylated HER2-displaying VLPs in combination with two different adjuvants and were challenged with HER2-positive tumors. Higher HER2-specific antibody titers and effector functions were induced in mice vaccinated with insect cell glycosylated HER2 VLPs compared to mammalian-like glycosylated counterparts. Moreover, insect cell glycosylated HER2 VLPs elicited a protective effect in mice grafted with HER2-positive mammary carcinoma cells. Interestingly, no protection was observed in mice that were adjuvanted with Poly (I:C). Here, we show that antigen-displaying VLPs produced in Sf9 insect cells were able to induce robust and durable immune responses in vivo and have the potential to be utilized as active cancer vaccines.
Psychosocial well-being of parents of children with oral clefts.

BACKGROUND Parents of children with oral clefts may be impacted psychosocially in several ways, but empirical evidence remains relatively sparse. The aim of this study was to identify predictors of psychosocial well-being of parents of affected children. METHODS The study included a total sample of 287 parents (171 mothers and 116 fathers) of children with oral clefts. Parents completed validated psychosocial instruments to measure social avoidance and distress, fear of negative evaluation scale, self-esteem and interpersonal support. Regression analysis was used to evaluate how selected child, parent and household characteristics relate to psychosocial outcomes focusing on child's cleft type, sex and age, differences between mothers and fathers, marital status and household income. RESULTS Fathers had higher self-esteem than mothers (P = 0.01) and lower concern of being negatively judged by others (P < 0.0001) but also had lower perception of having someone to talk to about their problems (P = 0.01). High household income was associated with greater self-esteem and perception of social support (<0.05). Parents of male affected children had greater perception of social support than parents of female affected children (P = 0.04). No significant differences in parental psychosocial status measures were found by cleft type. Similarly, there is little evidence of changes with child age, except for an increase in parental distress and decline in self-esteem during mid-adolescence (age 15-17 years). CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that mothers and fathers of children with oral clefts may differ in their psychosocial adjustment and that mothers may overall experience more psychosocial problems than fathers. Also, parents from less wealthy households may be at greater risk. Parental psychosocial status should be considered in holistic family-based treatment approaches to reduce burden on affected families and improve their well-being.
Localization of UWB transmitters inside buildings and disaster rubble: A numerical investigation

Time Reversal (TR) technique is applied to localize an UWB source inside a building or buried under rubble produced by disasters. The reversed field is calculated by the FDTD-TR method applying as boundary conditions the field measured, but reversed in time, at some observation points located on the boundary. A refinement of the estimated position of the UWB emitter is carried out by a novel method based on delay time. Illustrative numerical examples are finally given.
Current Applications of Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Tractography in Intracranial Tumor Resection

In the treatment of brain tumors, surgical intervention remains a common and effective therapeutic option. Recent advances in neuroimaging have provided neurosurgeons with new tools to overcome the challenge of differentiating healthy tissue from tumor-infiltrated tissue, with the aim of increasing the likelihood of maximizing the extent of resection volume while minimizing injury to functionally important regions. Novel applications of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and DTI-derived tractography (DDT) have demonstrated that preoperative, non-invasive mapping of eloquent cortical regions and functionally relevant white matter tracts (WMT) is critical during surgical planning to reduce postoperative deficits, which can decrease quality of life and overall survival. In this review, we summarize the latest developments of applying DTI and tractography in the context of resective surgery and highlight its utility within each stage of the neurosurgical workflow: preoperative planning and intraoperative management to improve postoperative outcomes.
Implicit Measures of Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge in Individuals With Level 3 Autism

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Implicit measures of cognition are essential for assessing knowledge in people with Level 3 autism because such individuals are often unable to make reliable overt behavioral responses. In this study, we investigated whether three implicit measures—eye movement (EM) monitoring, pupillary dilation (PD), and event-related potentials (ERPs)—can be used to reliably estimate vocabulary knowledge in individuals with Level 3 autism. Five adults with Level 3 autism were tested in a repeated-measures design with two tasks. High-frequency ‘known’ words (eg, bus, airplane) and low-frequency ‘unknown’ words (eg, ackee, cherimoya) were presented in a visual world task (during which EM and PD data were collected) and a picture-word congruity task (during which ERP data were collected). Using a case-study approach with single-subject analyses, we found that these implicit measures have the potential to provide estimates of receptive vocabulary knowledge in individuals with Level 3 autism. Participants differed with respect to which measures were the most sensitive and which variables best predicted vocabulary knowledge. These implicit measures may be useful to assess language abilities in individuals with Level 3 autism, but their use should be tailored to each individual.
Positive and Negative Activation in the Mood Disorder Questionnaire: Associations With Psychopathology and Emotion Dysregulation in a Clinical Sample

The Mood Disorder Questionnaire is a screening measure for bipolar disorder, previously found to comprise separate Positive and Negative Activation subscales. We sought to replicate these factors and examine their associations with a range of psychopathology. To further explicate the nature of Negative Activation, we examined associations with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, a measure of emotion dysregulation. The sample consisted of 1,787 participants from an outpatient treatment facility. Confirmatory factor analysis replicated the existence of Positive and Negative Activation subscales. Logistic regressions, as hypothesized, found that Positive Activation was positively associated only with bipolar disorder, while Negative Activation was associated with almost all disorders. The Impulse and Goals subscales of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale were uniquely associated with Negative Activation, suggesting it may specifically assess impulsive behavior in emotional situations. The findings suggest that it may be important to attend to both Mood Disorder Questionnaire subscales.
Yi-qi-yang-yin-tian-sui-fang enhances cisplatin-induced tumor eradication and inhibits interleukin-7 reduction in non-small cell lung cancer

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been recognized to be conducive to enhancing the efficiency and reducing the side effects in the whole course of cancer treatment. The mechanisms of TCM/chemotherapy combination involved with interleukin-7 (IL-7) potentially enhance immune responses against tumor. In the present study, we emphasized on a herbal formulation Yi-qi-yang-yin-tian-sui-fang or TCM for short, and investigated its roles in chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The mice bared with tumor were treated with cisplatin (DDP) and simultaneously administrated with/without low, medium and high doses of TCMs (effective content: 0.5, 2.0 and 8.0 g/per mice) via oral gavage. The results indicated that combination of TCM further elevated the therapy efficiency of DDP in a dose-dependent manner. The growth of tumor cells was estimated by Ki-67 stain and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assay. The addition of TCM to the DDP treatment could significantly decrease the expression of Ki-67 and promote the apoptosis of tumor cells. In addition, the serum IL-7 level was down-regulated by DDP but restored by the treatment of TCM. The expression of IL-7 and its receptor IL-7R in tumor tissues was also recovered by TCM. Furthermore, the side effect from bone marrow suppression (myelosuppression) induced by DDP were assessed. TCM could abrogate DDP-induced apoptosis of bone marrow and also remarkably induced the expressions of IL-7 and hematopoietic growth factors including G-CSF, GM-CSF, SCF, and SDF-1 in bone marrow. These data indicated that this TCM combined with DDP showed superior anti-tumor effects with reduced myelosuppression via up-regulating IL-7.
Flexible Organic Thermoelectric Materials and Devices for Wearable Green Energy Harvesting

In the past few decades, organic thermoelectric materials/devices, which can exhibit remarkable potential in green energy conversion, have drawn great attention and interest due to their easy processing, light weight, intrinsically low thermal conductivity, and mechanical flexibility. Compared to traditional batteries, thermoelectric materials have high prospects as alternative power generators for harvesting green energy. Although crystalline inorganic semiconductors have dominated the fields of thermoelectric materials up to now, their practical applications are limited by their intrinsic fragility and high toxicity. The integration of organic polymers with inorganic nanoparticles has been widely employed to tailor the thermoelectric performance of polymers, which not only can combine the advantages of both components but also display interesting transport phenomena between organic polymers and inorganic nanoparticles. In this review, parameters affecting the thermoelectric properties of materials were briefly introduced. Some recently developed n-type and p-type thermoelectric films and related devices were illustrated along with their thermoelectric performance, methods of preparation, and future applications. This review will help beginners to quickly understand and master basic knowledge of thermoelectric materials, thus inspiring them to design and develop more efficient thermoelectric devices.
Functional Interaction between Coactivators CBP/p300, PCAF, and Transcription Factor FKLF2*

The Sp1/KLF family of factors regulates diverse cellular processes, including growth and development. Fetal Krüppel-like factor (FKLF2) is a new member of this family. In this study, we characterized the coactivators involved in FKLF2 transcriptional activation. Our results show that both CBP/p300 and p300/CBP-associated factor (PCAF) enhance FKLF2 transcriptional activity. We demonstrate that the acetyltransferase activity of PCAF but not that of CBP/p300 is required for stimulating FKLF2 transcription activity. We further show that p300 and PCAF act cooperatively in stimulating FKLF2 transcriptional activation. FKLF2 interacts with both CBP and PCAF through specific domains, and CBP and PCAF acetylate FKLF2. Both CBP/p300 and PCAF stimulate FKLF2 DNA binding activity. The integrity of the acetyltransferase domain of PCAF but not that of CBP/p300 is required for stimulating FKLF2 DNA binding activity. These results demonstrate that CBP/p300 and PCAF stimulate FKLF2 transcriptional activity at least by enhancing its DNA binding. The acetyltransferase activities of CBP/p300 and PCAF play a distinct role in stimulating FKLF2 transcription and DNA binding.
Cognitive Styles: Errors in Directional Judgments

Previous studies on spatial memory have shown that, in judging direction, participants are more accurate and faster when a map is aligned with the perspective of the spatial layout they had learned (alignment effect). Rossano and Warren (1989 Perception 18 215–229) have shown that when participants have to do a contra-aligned judgment they can either answer correctly, or make alignment or mirror-image errors. We think that the kind of response depends on the different way in which people acquire environmental knowledge: landmark, route, and survey. We hypothesise that landmark and route participants show alignment effects and make, respectively, alignment errors and mirror-image errors, whereas survey participants do not show an alignment effect. An experiment is reported in which participants performed three tasks in order to distinguish their cognitive style. We selected thirty landmark, thirty route, and twenty-eight survey participants. They were then submitted to directional judgment tasks to verify whether the alignment effect was present and to observe the kind of responses. The results revealed that survey participants did not show an alignment effect, and that the kind of errors could depend on the directional judgment task participants had to do, and not only on the cognitive style.
Phase-Shifted Full-Bridge DC-DC Converter With High Efficiency and Reduced Output Filter Using Center-Tapped Clamp Circuit

In this paper, a phase-shifted full-bridge converter employing a new center-tapped clamp circuit is proposed to achieve high efficiency and reduced output filter in electric- vehicle battery charger applications. By using a simple center- tapped clamp circuit, which consists of two diodes and a capacitor, many limitations in conventional PSFB converters such as circulating current during the freewheeling interval, severe voltage overshoots across the full-bridge rectifier (FBR) on the secondary side, significant reverse-recovery current in the FBR, and the demand of a large output inductor are all solved. With these advantages, high efficiency can be achieved with saving the cost. In order to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed converter, a 3.3-kW prototype was tested.
Male Role Norms, Heavy Drinking, and Bystander Behavior for Sexual Aggression

Bystander training programs have proliferated on college campuses to prevent alcohol and non–alcohol-related sexual aggression. However, many programs fail to address the effects of a bystander’s alcohol use on intervention. This is not surprising due to the limited research examining this association. To this end, the present study examined how heavy drinking and a known correlate of intervention, men’s adherence to traditional masculinity, are jointly and independently associated with bystander behavior in drinking contexts. Participants were 148 community men between the ages of 21 and 30 who completed measures of heavy drinking, adherence to traditional male role norms, and prior bystander behavior in drinking contexts aimed at helping friends and strangers. Hierarchical linear regressions demonstrated that adherence to the belief that men should attain social status was associated with more frequent bystander behavior for friends, whereas adherence to the belief that men should avoid stereotypical feminine activities was associated with less frequent bystander behavior for friends. In addition, the relation between adherence to the belief that men should avoid stereotypical feminine activities and bystander behavior for friends was significant and negative among heavy drinkers but not among non-heavy drinkers. Findings suggest that men who avoid stereotypical feminine activities may be most inhibited from intervening to help friends in party contexts if they are heavy, compared with non-heavy, drinkers. These men are likely consuming alcohol in these party contexts and may benefit from targeted, gender-specific, interventions.
CD26 expression is attenuated by TGF‐β and SDF‐1 autocrine signaling on stromal myofibroblasts in human breast cancers

Human breast carcinoma‐associated fibroblasts (CAFs) increasingly acquire both transforming growth factor‐β (TGF‐β) and stromal cell‐derived factor‐1 (SDF‐1) signaling in an autocrine fashion during tumor progression. Such signaling mediates activated myofibroblastic and tumor‐promoting properties in these fibroblasts. CD26/dipeptidyl peptidase‐4 is a serine protease that cleaves various chemokines including SDF‐1. Stromal CD26 expression is reportedly undetectable in human skin squamous cell carcinomas. However, whether stromal CD26 expression is also downregulated in human breast cancers and which stromal cells potentially lack CD26 expression remain elusive. To answer these questions, sections prepared from 239 human breast carcinomas were stained with antibodies against CD26 and α‐smooth muscle actin (α‐SMA), a marker for activated myofibroblasts. We found that tumor‐associated stroma involving α‐SMA‐positive myofibroblasts stained negative or negligible for CD26 in 118 out of 193 (61.1%) tumors, whereas noncancerous stromal regions of the breast showed considerable staining for CD26. This decreased stromal CD26 staining in tumors also tends to be associated with poor outcomes for breast cancer patients. Moreover, we demonstrated that CD26 staining is attenuated on stromal myofibroblasts in human breast cancers. Consistently, CD26 expression is significantly downregulated in cultured CAF myofibroblasts extracted from human breast carcinomas as compared to control human mammary fibroblasts. Inhibition of TGF‐β or SDF‐1 signaling in CAFs by shRNA clearly upregulated the CD26 expression. Taken together, these findings indicate that CD26 expression is attenuated by TGF‐β‐ and SDF‐1‐autocrine signaling on stromal myofibroblasts in human mammary carcinomas, and that decreased stromal CD26 expression has potential as a prognostic marker.