Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
IMPROVEMENT OF POWER CONVERSION EFFICIENCY ISOLATED BIDIRECTIONAL ACDC CONVERTER FOR A DC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM USING FUZZY LOGIC CONTROLLER

A high-efficiency isolated bidirectional ac–dc converter is proposed for a 380-V dc power distribution system tocontrol bidirectional power flows and to improve its power conversion efficiency using fuzzy logic controller. To reduce the switches’ losses of the proposednonisolated full-bridge ac–dc rectifier using an unipolar switchingmethod, switching devices employ insulated-gate bipolar transistors, MOSFETs, and silicon carbide diodes. Using the analysisof the rectifier’s operating modes, each switching device can beselected by considering switch stresses. A simple and intuitive frequency detection method for a single-phase synchronous referenceframe-phase-locked loop (SRFPLL) is also proposed using a filtercompensator, a fast period detector, and a finite impulse responsefilter to improve the robustness and accuracy of PLL performanceunder fundamental frequency variations. In addition, design andcontrol methodology of the bidirectional full-bridge CLLC resonantconverter is suggested for the galvanic isolation of the dc distribution system. A dead-band control algorithm for the bidirectionaldc–dc converter is developed to smoothly change power conversiondirections only using output voltage information. Simulation results will verify the performance of the proposed methods using fuzzy logic controller.
Phonological acquisition in preschoolers learning a second language via immersion: a longitudinal study

Phonological development in first and second languages (L1 and L2 respectively) has not been extensively studied in young children who are acquiring a second language via immersion. This lack of information is unfortunate, as the number of children who are acquiring a second language in this context is growing and such children make up a part of the clinical caseload of many speech‐language pathologists. To address the need for information regarding phonological development of children acquiring a second language in immersion, the present investigation sought to provide longitudinal data on the development of both L1 and L2 phonologies. Five preschoolers who were acquiring English as a L2 and who spoke different L1s participated in the study. A picture identification task was used to assess productive phonological skills in L1 and English. Analyses included a description of the children's phonetic inventories, accuracy rates, and non‐target response patterns. Both within child (across languages) and between child comparisons were made to discern possible patterns of use and to identify factors that may impact phonological skill in the L1 and L2. Results of the investigation suggest that children who are learning a L2 utilize their knowledge of the L1 to aid them in acquiring the phonological system of the L2. At the same time, they appear to maintain, at least as measured via perceptual analysis of their speech, distinct phonological systems.
A Framework for Satellite Image Enhancement Using Quantum Genetic and Weighted IHS+Wavelet Fusion Method

this paper examined the applicability of quantum genetic algorithms to solve optimization problems posed by satellite image enhancement techniques, particularly super-resolution, and fusion. We introduce a framework starting from reconstructing the higher-resolution panchromatic image by using the subpixel-shifts between a set of lower-resolution images (registration), then interpolation, restoration, till using the higher-resolution image in pan-sharpening a multispectral image by weighted IHS+Wavelet fusion technique. For successful super-resolution, accurate image registration should be achieved by optimal estimation of subpixel-shifts. Optimal-parameters blind restoration and interpolation should be performed for the optimal quality higher-resolution image. There is a trade-off between spatial and spectral enhancement in image fusion; it is difficult for the existing methods to do the best in both aspects. The objective here is to achieve all combined requirements with optimal fusion weights, and use the parameters constraints to direct the optimization process. QGA is used to estimate the optimal parameters needed for each mathematic model in this framework “Super-resolution and fusion. ” The simulation results show that the QGA-based method can be used successfully to estimate automatically the approaching parameters which need the maximal accuracy, and achieve higher quality and efficient convergence rate more than the corresponding conventional GA-based and the classic computational methods.
Cooking and Lighting Fuels Clusters in Katsina: Progression of Vulnerability Dread on Households

Since PAR model for disaster management transpired in academic circle, scholars have been striving to seek its usability more in to natural occurrences for instance climate change (Füssel 2007; Awal 2015), because the model considers disaster as the product of processes generating vulnerability and the natural hazard events (Blaikie et al. 1994). The dispute here is that, does disaster never happen as a result of human demographic composition leading to households being at risk? It is hence fascinating to foster answer to such question, though efforts were made in incorporating demography by pondering sustainable livelihood in post disaster recovery plan (Alexander, Chan-Halbrendt, and Salim 2006).
Examining the Relationship between Teachers' Attitudes and Motivation toward Web-Based Professional Development: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach.

This study was conducted to investigate elementary school teachers’ attitudes and motivation toward web-based professional development. The relationship between teachers’ attitudes and motivation was explored using the AWPD (Attitudes toward Web-based Professional Development) and MWPD (Motivation toward Web-based Professional Development) surveys, respectively. The AWPD consisted of five scales, including “Perceived usefulness”, “Perceived ease of use”, “Affection”, “Anxiety”, and “Behavior”. The MWPD also consisted of five scales, including “personal interest”, “social stimulation”, “external expectation”, “practical enhancement”, and “social contact”. Data gathered from 322 elementary school teachers were examined through structural equation modeling. The results indicate that, in general, the teachers’ attitudes and their motivation toward webbased professional development were significantly positively correlated with each other. It was also found that teachers with higher motivation have more positive attitudes toward web-based professional development.
A new motion compensation on a wavelet transform domain

Successive frames in a video sequence are highly correlated and they can be effectively represented by describing the inter-frame motions. Most conventional motion compensations require many calculations in the pixel domain, and this makes a difficulty in real time encoding. In this paper, we propose a simple and fast motion compensation that leads to a fast encoding. In our proposed method, all motions are described in the wavelet transform domain. The subtree coefficients that belong to a DC coefficient are assumed to translate in the same direction and thus they can be represented by one motion vector (mx, my). Since one wavelet tree unit-translation in n-scale decomposition corresponds to a 2/sup n/ pixel displacement in the pixel domain, we can describe the inter-frame motions with low cost and complexity. The error frame from the prediction is encoded by a flexible zerotree coding scheme(FZW) that permits exact bit-rate or quality controls.
Group‐Specific Isoantigens of the Rhesus Monkey

3 Rhesus monkeys responded to immunization with pooled species specific serum and Freund's adjuvant with the production of antisera, which gave precipitations with selected, individual sera of Rhesus monkeys. One of these antisera has been found to contain an antiljody against low density lipoproteins (LDL). The other two contained an identical antibody directed against a hitherto not characterized α2,‐globulin. The anti‐LDL serum cross‐reacts with all tested human sera. The significance of these findings. which led to the discovery of two serum protein polymorphisms in the Rhesus monkey, is discussed.
Non-LDL-related dyslipidaemia and coronary risk: a case-control study

To assess the non-LDL-C-related dyslipidaemia risk of MI, 823 men aged 23 to 65 with a first MI were compared with 823 MI-free PROCAM controls matched for sex, age, smoking, DM, BP and LDL-C. Overall, the odds of MI in men with HDL-C < 1.15 mmol/L were 2.6 times those of men with HDL-C ≥ 1.15 mmol/L, and the odds of MI in men with triglycerides ≥ 1.71 mmol/L were 1.4 times those of men with lower triglycerides. If LDL-C was < 2.58 mmol/L, relative MI odds attributed to HDL-C < 1.15 mmol/L increased to 3.4, while relative odds attributed to triglycerides ≥ 1.71 mmol/L increased to 2.6; men in this LDL category with HDL-C < 1.15 mmol/L and/or triglycerides ≥ 1.71 mmol/L displayed an MI odds ratio of 5.0. MI risk associated with low HDL-C and/or high triglycerides is substantial, particularly if LDL-C is low.
Evaluating Learning Algorithms for Stochastic Finite Automata - Comparative Empirical Analyses on Learning Models for Technical Systems

Finite automata are used to model a large variety of technical systems and form the basis of important tasks such as model-based development, early simulations and model-based diagnosis. However, such models are today still mostly derived manually, in an expensive and time-consuming manner. Therefore in the past twenty years, several successful algorithms have been developed for learning various types of finite automata. These algorithms use measurements of the technical systems to automatically derive the underlying automata models. However, today users face a serious problem when looking for such model learning algorithm: Which algorithm to choose for which problem and which technical system? This papers closes this gap by comparative empirical analyses of the most popular algorithms (i) using two real-world production facilities and (ii) using artificial datasets to analyze the algorithms’ convergence and scalability. Finally, based on these results, several observations for choosing an appropriate automaton learning algorithm for a specific problem are given.
The impact of rural house’s orientation on heating energy consumption in severe cold regions of China

The severe cold regions of China with characteristics of winter long, cold and snowy, summer short-lived, the heating period lasts for half a year. The heating energy consumption accounts for more than eighty percent of total energy consumption of rural residence. Because the rural houses are single-storey detached house, the heat of solar radiation has greater impact on energy consumption than urban buildings. Firstly, the temperature sensors were used to test the indoor thermal environment of different orientation rooms to clarify the effect of building orientation. Secondly, taking building orientation as main variable (set up twenty-four values, every 15°), building envelope’s thermal performance as auxiliary variables (set four groups), the simulation software DesignBuilder was adopted to analyse the influence rule of building orientation on heating energy consumption under different conditions. It concluded that with the enhance of building envelope’s thermal performance, the impact of building orientation on heating energy consumption and indoor temperature gradually increase, thus focus on the building orientation become more meaningful.
Effects of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging on Cardiac Pacemakers

Patients with cardiac pacemakers are currently restricted from nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), The aim of the study was to analyze the influence of MBI on new generation pacemakers. Tests were performed using a phantom model with seven dual chamber and two single chamber systems in a 0.5 Tesla MRI scanner. Monitoring by telemetry and oscillography were used during the standard clinical scan sequences as well as a pacemaker inquiry after each sequence. Spin echo, gradient echo, and fast field echo sequences were performed with the following stimulation modes: VVI, VVIR, VOO, DDD, DDDR, and DOO. On entering the static magnetic field, the reed switch was activated followed by asynchronous stimulation. The subsequent scan showed no influence on the stimulation function nor on the pacemaker program. Event counter function remained intact. Pacemakers with automatic mode switching to demand pacing or programmed inactivotion of the reed switch were triggered in the dual chamber mode and were inhibited in the one chamber mode during the scan. Alterations of pacemaker program or rapid pacing were not observed. MRI scan could induce voltage as high as intracardiac signals, but the stimulation threshold of the heart was not reached. Thus, pacemakers should be programmed in the asynchronous mode during scan to avoid inhibition and trigger mechanism.
Onboard Hover Control of a Quadrotor using Template Matching and Optic Flow

Autonomous hover control of a low-cost Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) is considered in this paper. To avoid the long-term drift during hover, the ‘snapshot’ idea is practiced, where an image of the ground under the MAV is stored as the reference image, and the following images are directly compared with this reference image for estimating horizontal position. For hover control, the measured position is used in conjunction with the speed estimated from frame-to-frame image motion. All computations are performed onboard the vehicle and controller parameters are roughly tuned in the experiments. Flight tests carried out both indoors and outdoors prove the effectiveness of the proposed method for the hover control of a MAV.
A scene boundary detection method

A visual rhythm is a special 2D image reduced from a 3D video data in a way that the pixels along a vertical line of the visual rhythm are the pixels uniformly sampled along the diagonal line of a video frame. Using the distinct visual patterns to appear on the visual rhythm, we propose a video segmentation method to effectively detect both abrupt and gradual shot transitions. Specifically, the algorithms to detect cut, wipe and dissolve transitions are outlined. It is noted that the proposed method operates on a small fraction of the original video data, and thus offers remarkable computational savings.
Conserved dynamics of a two-dimensional random-field model.

We present results from a numerical study of the growth of domains in two dimensions, following a low-temperature quench, in a time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model in the presence of a quenched random field. The order parameter is [ital conserved] during the temporal evolution of the system. We find that, at late times, the domains grow logarithmically in time, consistent with studies done for a nonconserved order parameter. We present clear evidence for a breakdown of dynamical scaling of the structure factor. We also demonstrate a crossover behavior exhibited by the tail of the structure factor---the standard Porod-like behavior changes over to a polymerlike'' behavior as the strength of the randomness is increased.
Thr 446 phosphorylation of PKR by HCV core protein deregulates G2/M phase in HCC cells

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the major causative viral agent of cirrhosis and hepatocarcinoma (HCC). HCV core protein affects cell homeostasis, playing an important role in viral pathogenesis of HCC. We investigate the effects of HCV core protein expression on cell growth in HCC cell lines. Cell cycle distribution analysis of HepG2 polyclonal core positive cells reveals a peculiar accumulation of cells in G2/M phase. Different pathways mediate G2/M arrest: such as p53 and double strand RNA protein kinase (PKR). Flow cytometry in p53‐null cells demonstrates that p53 plays only a marginal role in inducing HCV core‐dependent G2/M phase accumulation that seems to be significantly affected by the functional inactivation of PKR. HCC core positive cells are characterized by a significant PKR phosphorylation in Thr 446 residue, which leads deregulation of mitosis. Moreover, we observe that the overexpression of the viral protein induces an upregulation of PKR activity, which does not correlate with an increased eIF‐2 phosphorylation. This uncommon behavior of PKR suggests that its activation by HCV core protein could involve alternative PKR‐dependent pathways, implicated in core‐dependent G2/M accumulation. The described biological effects of HCV core protein on cell cycle could be an additional viral mechanism for both HCV resistance to interferon (IFN) and HCC HCV‐related pathogenesis. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Comparative studies of microbial populations in the rumen, duodenum, ileum and faeces of lactating dairy cows

Aims: Understanding factors that influence the composition of microbial populations of the digestive system of dairy cattle will be key in regulating these populations to improve animal performance. Although rumen microbes are well studied, little is known of the dynamics and role of microbial populations in the small intestine of cows. Comparisons of fingerprints of microbial populations were used to investigate the effects of gastrointestinal (GI) segment and animal on community structure.
Interpolation of nonuniformly decimated signals via sampled-data H∞ optimization

In this paper, we consider signal interpolation of discrete-time signals which are decimated nonuniformly. A conventional interpolation method is based on the sampling theorem, and the resulting system consists of an ideal filter with complex coefficients. On the other hand we adopt sampled-data Hinfin optimization, which can take account of intersample behavior, and the optimal filter with real coefficients is obtained. An example shows the effectiveness of our method. By examples, we also show that there is the optimal decimation pattern.
Bio-inspired flow sensor from printed PEDOT:PSS micro-hairs

This paper reports on the creation of a low-cost, disposable sensor for low flow velocities, constructed from extruded micro-sized ‘hair’ of conducting polymer PEDOT. These microstructures are inspired by hair strands found in many arthropods and chordates, which play a prime role in sensing air flows. The paper describes the fabrication techniques and the initial prototype testing results toward employing this sensing mechanism in applications requiring sensing of low flow rates such as a flow sensor in neonatal resuscitators. The fabricated 1000 μm long, 6 μm diameter micro-hairs mimic the bending movement of tactile hair strands to sense the velocity of air flow. The prototype sensor developed is a four-level direct digital-output sensor and is capable of detecting flow velocities of up to 0.97 m s−1.
First reported use of drug‐coated balloon for bioresorbable in‐scaffold restenosis

This is the first documented case of a drug‐coated balloon strategy for the treatment of bioresorbable in‐scaffold restenosis caused by diffuse neointimal proliferation. This case can provide an alternative treatment option in this setting, avoiding potential problems related to further bulky metallic stents in a patient where a different strategy was initially planned. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Short flash and constant load PV-module tester

A measurement scheme is presented for obtaining the physical parameters of a photovoltaic module with a short light flash. The module is under constant load and voltage and current are recorded during the decaying illumination intensity of the flash. The physical parameters are extracted by means of the one diode model including voltage dependent capacitance. From these parameters the stationary current-voltage curve is reconstructed for a wide range of illumination levels.
A novel glitch reduction circuitry for binary-weighted DAC

This paper presents a high-speed, low-glitch, and low-power design for a 10-bit binary-weighted current-steering digital-to-analog converter (DAC). Instead of using large input buffers, the proposed design uses variable-delay buffers to compensate for the delay difference among different bits, and to reduce high glitch energy from 132pVs to 1.36pVs during major code transition. The spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) has been improved over 10dB compared to the conventional DAC without variable-delay buffers. This chip was implemented in a standard 0.18um CMOS technology, occupies 1.1mm2 core area, and dissipates 19mW from a single 1.8V power supply.
Relationship of clinical and pathologic response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and outcome of locally advanced breast cancer *

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy in locally advanced breast cancers produces histologically evaluable changes and frequently reduces the size of the primary tumor. Local clinical response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy may correlate with response of distant metastases. Therefore, clinical or pathological factors, which predict or assess response to treatment, may predict outcome after consideration for initial extent of disease.
No Glycemic Benefit From Guar Administration in NIDDM

A randomized crossover study of 5-g guar minitablets against placebo, given three times per day with main meals for 8 wk, was done in 29 non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) patients who had near-normal fasting plasma glucose concentrations on treatment with diet alone, additional sulfonylurea, or ultralente insulin. Guar did not reduce the excessive postprandial glycemic excursion, glycosylated hemoglobin values, basal plasma glucose concentrations, basal or incremental plasma C-peptide values, or body weight. There were few side effects with either guar or placebo therapy. Mean low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were significantly reduced (P < .001) by guar administration (116 ± 23 vs. 104 ± 19 mg/dl). Guar additives did not improve the excessive postprandial glycemia found in NIDDM patients in whom near-normal fasting plasma glucose levels had been obtained.
Further Insight into the Perception of Quantitative Information: Judgments of Gist in Treatment Decisions

Purpose. To compare relative accuracy and relative response times (RTs) as well as impact of foreground and background colors in a treatment decision context of judging larger/smaller when the following elements are added to the graphics studied previously: 1) a number (the displayed percentage), 2) a referent scale, and 3) a number and a referent scale. Method. An experiment compared pie charts, vertical bars, horizontal bars, digits, systematic ovals, and random ovals. On each trial, participants saw 2 percentages (in 1 format) and were asked to choose the larger chance of survival or the smaller chance of side effects. Outcomes were errors and RT. Formats were either black and white or blue and yellow; background color was either white or blue. Participants were 216 volunteers from the community older than 50 years. Results. Formats with a number produced the same relative errors and relative RT as the formats with a number and scale. Formats with only a scale, however, shifted relative performance: Errors increased with more difficult formats (pie charts and random ovals by 3%-4% v. ∼1% with other formats), but RT decreased with easier formats (vertical bars, horizontal bars, and systematic ovals decreased 100-200 ms v. an increase of 0-300 ms with other formats). Vertical bars with scales were the fastest and most accurately processed. Neither foreground nor background color had any impact on either outcome. Conclusions. For supporting older people’s judgments of relative extent, risk information is best presented using vertical bars with a scale; the format systematic ovals with a scale are among the next most easily processed.