Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A multicarrier pulse width modulator for the auxiliary converter and the diode rectifier

The auxiliary converter (AXC) has been presented as a cost-effective solution to retrofit the conventional diode rectifier into a unity power factor and regeneration-enabled front end. The transistor-based AXC operates as an active filter when the load system consumes power. When the load system regenerates, the AXC can transfer the energy back to the ac grid. However, the pulse width modulation (PWM) switching of the AXC often causes circulating current between the AXC and the diode rectifier. The zero vectors of each PWM cycle induce zero sequence current, which results in increased operational losses and electrical noise. This study analyzes the circulating current and investigates the use of multicarrier PWM for its suppression. This multicarrier PWM can synthesize the desired output voltage without using zero vectors for the active filtering and regeneration operations of the AXC, and thus significantly suppress the circulating current and common mode voltage. Test results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed multicarrier PWM in the AXC circuit system.
Uterine Myometrium as a Cell Patch as an Alternative Graft for Transplantation to Infarcted Cardiac Myocardium: A Preliminary Study

Purpose Currently, only a small fraction of patients are able to receive reperfusion therapy for myocardial infarctions. We hypothesize that myometrial cell patch transplantation could be an alternative approach for the treatment of myocardial infarction. Design We performed a preliminary study to determine the feasibility of this novel therapeutic approach in a rabbit model. Procedures Six adult female New Zealand rabbits were used. Myocardial infarction was induced by left anterior descending artery ligation. A segment of uterus was removed via a laparotomy incision, and this uterine segment was transplanted as an autologous graft over the infarcted myocardium, which was then reinforced by greater omentum. Statistical methods and outcome measures Hemodynamic measurements and histological studies. Main findings: All uterine myometrial patches survived in the test animals. Fluoroscopic hemodynamic measurements were made for ejection fractions at 8 weeks after the application of the uterine patch. Histological study demonstrated well-healed myometrial-myocardium junctions with minimum scar tissue. Angiogenesis occurred in the transplanted myometrium. Connexin 43 expression was demonstrated in the transplanted patches. Conclusion Our noncontrolled preliminary rabbit experiments indicate that patches of uterine myometrium reinforced by greater omentum can be used as autologous transplant therapy for infracted myocardium. This is an innovative technique that could lead to future treatment for individuals who may suffer from an infarcted myocardium and may not be eligible for traditional reperfusion therapy.
A Study of Self-Organized Criticality of Power System Under Cascading Failures Based on AC-OPF With Voltage Stability Margin

From the perspective of self-organized criticality, this paper develops a novel model with AC-OPF and AC grid upgrade to study the cascading failures and blackouts in power systems, which overcomes some shortcomings of existing blackout models. The proposed model contains two types of dynamics, one is fast dynamics which simulates the serial blackouts in power systems, the other is slow dynamics which reflects the tendency of the power systems time evolution. This model also has voltage stability analysis function and can reveal critical characteristics from reactive power and voltage viewpoint. Simulation results of the IEEE 118-bus system with this model show that the fast dynamics can capture the cascading process and the criticality property in micro scale. Besides, the macro scale of self-organized criticality of power systems can be revealed from the mean value of fractional overloads and the ratio of total load demand to the total network transfer capability. Furthermore, the voltage stability criticality status could be detected from the eigenvalue with the smallest magnitude through reactive power and voltage relevant modal analysis.
The Coming of Age for Assisted Living Care

Abstract As the United States experiences substantial growth in its population that is 65 years and older, development of safe housing and compassionate care for seniors is becoming a priority domestic issue. Assisted living is one of the fastest growing types of senior housing in the nation, attracting residents with a perceived combination of security, personal care services, less restrictive homelike environments and emphasis on independence, privacy and personal dignity. As there is limited reference to assisted living in the social work literature, this article selectively reviews the broader literature on the aging U.S. population and their need, assisted living as a senior housing and care option, the characteristics of this approach and the potential for social work practice in this evolving arena.
Quantitative Fund Management

Introduction Part 1: Dynamic Financial Planning Trends in Quantitative Equity Management: Survey Results Portfolio Optimization under the Value-at-Risk (VaR) Constraint Dynamic Consumption and Asset Allocation with Derivative Securities Volatility-Induced Financial Growth Constant Rebalanced Portfolios and Side-Information Improving Performance for Long-Term Investors: Wide Diversification, Leverage, and Overlay Strategies Stochastic Programming for Funding Mortgage Pools Scenario-Generation Methods for an Optimal Public Debt Strategy Solving ALM Problems via Sequential Stochastic Programming Designing Minimum Guaranteed Return Funds Part 2: Portfolio Construction and Risk Management DC Pension Fund Benchmarking with Fixed-Mix Portfolio Optimization Coherent Measures of Risk in Everyday Market Practice Higher Moment Coherent Risk Measures On the Feasibility of Portfolio Optimization under Expected Shortfall Stability Analysis of Portfolio Management with Conditional VaR Stress Testing for VaR and CVaR Stable Distributions in the Black-Litterman Approach to Asset Allocation Ambiguity in Portfolio Selection Mean-Risk Models Using Two Risk Measures: A Multi-Objective Approach Implied Non-Recombining Trees and Calibration for the Volatility Smile
How Do Organizations Shape Entrepreneurship? Explaining Employee Entrepreneurs’ Entry and Performance

My three-essay dissertation consists of three independent chapters that examine how two major institutions, organizations and family, shape entrepreneurship in Sweden. In chapter one, I frame a contingent approach to social influence on entrepreneurship and empirically test the specifications about the contingencies. I first conceptualize entrepreneurship as a process of discovering and pursuing startup opportunities, I then theorize the conditions that amplify or reduce peer influence on entrepreneurship. In chapter two, I investigate the question of under what conditions spousal couples leave their wage jobs to become co-entrepreneurs. Whereas some spousal couples jointly create new business together, others may decide to have one person becoming an entrepreneur while the other person remaining employed in an established organization. I distinguish between competing theoretical accounts by investigating wives and husbands' transitions into entrepreneurship, taking into account their separate employment in the labor market and their joint household conditions. In chapter three, I investigate how founders and their recruited employees jointly create new businesses, contingent on the founding context of new businesses. I argue that an important dimension of developing routines and delineating boundaries is manifest in entrepreneurs' selections of employees from their local labor markets (Scott 2008). Once recruited, employees join the founders to create new organizations and exert influences on organizations' structures and performances. Even though entrepreneurs largely follow the blueprints they learned from prior employer organizations to recruit employees, the effects of transferring routines may be contingent on the founding conditions surrounding the new businesses. Tackling these research questions requires big data on founders’ employment history and their workplaces. I use a large-scale data set that are well-suited for my research questions, which are panel data from multiple cohorts on employer organizations and their employees in all industries in Sweden from 1989 to 2002.
Electrospray interface for liquid chromatographs and mass spectrometers.

L'effluent de chromatographie en phase liquide projete electrostatiquement dans un bain de gaz froid cree une dispersion de gouttelettes chargees qui s'evapore rapidement. Lorsque les gouttelettes deviennent plus petites, l'augmentation de la densite de charge superficielle et la baisse du rayon de courbure creent un champ suffisamment fort pour desorber les ions du solute. Une partie passe a travers un canal et forme un jet libre supersonique, puis passera dans l'analyseur de masse
Revisiting John Snow's map: network-based spatial demarcation of cholera area

Dr. John Snow's cholera map is known as one of the pioneering examples of an epidemiology map, illustrating the spatial distribution of the victims from the cholera outbreak. This article revisits his map and expands on his attempt at visualizing the distribution of the victims by focusing on spatial demarcation using the sphere of influence along the street network by applying two analytical methods that are designed for analysis of network space. First, the article generates a network-based Voronoi diagram of the water pumps in the map that encompasses Snow's original version of the equidistance line that was drawn around a single pump. The article then presents a new, revised equidistance line that better reflects the circumstances around the time of the outbreak. This is followed by the construction of another set of boundaries derived by the application of a network-based clumping method. Comparing the demarcation lines produced with the two methods shows a sphere of influence which was unclear when using the network Voronoi diagram alone. Results from the analysis using the clumping method also confirm some of Snow's observations on the spatial distribution of the victims.
A novel detection for biomolecule using RF LC resonator

This is new approach for biomolecule detection with label free method. The designed LC resonator by the combining inductors and capacitors was fabricated by MEMS process. The measured signal difference was 1.86 dB at 2.2 GHz between the return losses of biotin and avidin. The impedances for a bare device, biotin and avidin steps were Zo*(0.803-j0.002), Zo*(0.761-j0.003) and Zo*(0.718-j0.002) according to the Smith chart, respectively. From the mentioned data, we conclude that there is no frequency shift and the return loss variation at resonance point is distinctly large. This means that the biomolecule acts as a resistance, and the decreased resistance of the resonator leads to the impedance match change.
Army Contracting Command-Picatinny telework policy: applying lessons learned from the federal government

Abstract : The Army Contracting Command--Picatinny (ACC-PICA) has established a telework policy that complies with the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010, but having a successful telework program involves more than just establishing a policy. Telework is a different way of doing business and the program ACC-PICA creates must align with its overall business strategy while still providing a benefit to the organization. Other federal agencies have been implementing and experimenting with telework for many years and several lessons were identified from what was learned through their experiences. The lessons learned from the information gathered on these agencies were organized into six categories: training, management acceptance and support, telework agreement, telework support, performance management and measurement, and pilot programs. Within each it is explained where the lessons fit into ACC-PICA's policy and why implementing them will improve it. The Star Model explains the implementation of these lessons, what part of ACC-PICA will be affected by changes to its policy, and how organizational behavior will also change. By using these lessons learned as recommendations for further development of its policy rather trying to further develop the policy on its own, ACC-PICA will achieve the benefits of telework more efficiently and without disruption to its mission.
Stepwise sequential screening for trisomy 21 in assisted reproduction pregnancies

We offered a modified stepwise sequential integrated screening for Down syndrome to 72 singleton and 16 twin pregnancies obtained with assisted reproductive techniques, observing no cases of trisomy 21 and obtaining a false positive rate of 10% in singleton and 7% in twin pregnancies. In our population, this approach for regulating access to invasive karyotyping can avoid a substantial number of unnecessary procedures, comparing favourably with current practice even in spontaneous pregnancies.
Posterior outperformance, selectivity and market timing skills in hedge funds: do they persist altogether?

This paper sets up a Bayesian framework to estimate hedge fund managers’ selectivity, market timing and outperformance skills separately, and investigates their persistence from January 1995 to June 2010. We divide this sample period into four overlapping sub-sample periods that contain different economic cycles. We define a skilled manager as a manager who can outperform the market in two consecutive sub-sample periods. We employ Bayesian linear CAPM and Bayesian quadratic CAPM to generate skill coefficients during each sub-sample period. We found that fund managers who possess selectivity skills can outperform the market at 7.5% significant level if and only if the economic conditions that governed the financial market during the period between sub-sample period2 and sub-sample period3 remain the same.
Towards a trusted grid architecture

The malicious host problem is challenging in distributed systems such as grids and clouds. Rival organisations may share the same physical infrastructure. Administrators might deliberately or accidentally compromise users' data. The thesis concerns the development of a security architecture that allows users to place a high degree of trust in remote systems to process their data securely. The problem is tackled through a new security layer that ensures users' data can only be accessed within a trusted execution environment. Access to encrypted programs and data is authorised by a key management service using trusted computing attestation. Strong data integrity and confidentiality protection on remote hosts is provided by the job security manager virtual machine. The trusted grid architecture supports the enforcement of digital rights management controls. Subgrids allow users to define a strong trusted boundary for delegated grid jobs. Recipient keys enforce a trusted return path for job results to help users create secure grid workflows. Mandatory access controls allow stakeholders to mandate the software that is available to grid users. A key goal of the new architecture is backwards compatibility with existing grid infrastructure and data. This is achieved using a novel virtualisation architecture where the security layer is pushed down to the remote host, so it does not need to be pre-installed by the service provider. A new attestation scheme, called origin attestation, supports the execution of unmodified, legacy grid jobs. These features will ease the transition to a trusted grid and help make it practical for deployment on a global scale.
HyperSAX: Fast Approximate Search of Multidimensional Data

The increasing amount and size of data makes indexing and searching more difficult. It is especially challenging for multidimensional data such as images, videos, etc. In this paper we introduce a new indexable symbolic data representation that allows us to efficiently index and retrieve from a large amount of data that may appear in multiple dimensions. We use an approximate lower bounding distance measure to compute the distance between multidimensional arrays, which allows us to perform fast similarity searches. We present two search methods, exact and approximate, which can quickly retrieve data using our representation. Our approach is very general and works for many types of multidimensional data, including different types of image representations. Even for millions of multidimensional arrays, the approximate search will find a result in a few milliseconds, and will in many cases return a result similar to the best match.
Social indicators and the prediction of psychiatric admission in different diagnostic groups

Background Recent findings indicate that the established association between social indicators of deprivation and psychiatric admission rates may not hold across all diagnoses. Method Admission rates in individuals aged 16–64 years for 71 electoral wards in North Staffordshire were calculated for six diagnostic groups using data from the Korner Episode System for 1987–1993. These were correlated with selected individual census variables, Townsend and Jarman indices. The ability of regression models to predict admission rates was tested. Results The strongest correlations were found for total admissions (r 0.44–0.79). Strong correlations were found for neurotic disorders/depression (r 0.29–0.62), schizophrenia (r 0.24–0.59), all non-psychotic disorders combined (r 0.41–0.71) and all psychotic disorders combined (r 0.33–0.67). Predicted admission rates for total admissions, psychotic and non-psychotic admissions using regression models showed strong positive correlations with observed admission rates. Conclusions The strong correlations between social indicators of deprivation and total psychotic admission rates are consistent with the results of previous studies. The strong associations between social indicators and admissions for non-psychotic disorders is contrary to previous findings and may be partly explained by the relatively high admission rates for neurotic disorders.
Monocytic Cell Activation by Nonendotoxic Glycoprotein from Prevotella intermedia ATCC 25611 Is Mediated by Toll-Like Receptor 2

ABSTRACT Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) preparations from gram-negative black-pigmented bacteria such as Porphyromonas gingivalis and Prevotella intermedia activate cells from non-LPS-responsive C3H/HeJ mice, but it is still unclear whether this activity is due to the unique structure of LPS or to a minor component(s) responsible for the activity in the preparation. A nonendotoxic glycoprotein with bioactivity against cells from C3H/HeJ mice was purified from a hot phenol-water extract of P. intermedia ATCC 25611 and designated Prevotellaglycoprotein (PGP). Treatment of human monocytic THP-1 cells with 22-oxyacalcitriol (OCT) induced maturation and marked expression of CD14 on the cells, but the cells constitutively expressed Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) and TLR4 on the cells irrespective of the treatment. PGP induced a high level of interleukin-8 production at doses of 100 ng/ml and higher in OCT-treated THP-1 cells compared withSalmonella LPS, and the production was significantly inhibited by anti-CD14 and anti-TLR2 but not anti-TLR4 antibodies. Consistent with this, TLR2-deficient murine macrophages did not respond to PGP. It was also shown that PGP activity on the THP-1 cells was LPS-binding protein dependent and was inhibited by a synthetic lipid A precursor IVA. These results indicate that PGP activates monocytic cells in a CD14- and TLR2-dependent manner.
Novel Integrated Multi-Criteria Model for Supplier Selection: Case Study Construction Company

Supply chain presents a very complex field involving a large number of participants. The aim of the complete supply chain is finding an optimum from the aspect of all participants, which is a rather complex task. In order to ensure optimum satisfaction for all participants, it is necessary that the beginning phase consists of correct evaluations and supplier selection. In this study, the supplier selection was performed in the construction company, on the basis of a new approach in the field of multi-criteria model. Weight coefficients were obtained by DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) method, based on the rough numbers. Evaluation and the supplier selection were made on the basis of a new Rough EDAS (Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution) method, which presents one of the latest methods in this field. In order to determine the stability of the model and the applicability of the proposed Rough EDAS method, an extension of the COPRAS and MULTIMOORA method by rough numbers was also performed in this study, and the findings of the comparative analysis were presented. Besides the new approaches based on the extension by rough numbers, the results are also compared with the Rough MABAC (MultiAttributive Border Approximation area Comparison) and Rough MAIRCA (MultiAttributive Ideal-Real Comparative Analysis). In addition, in the sensitivity analysis, 18 different scenarios were formed, the ones in which criteria change their original values. At the end of the sensitivity analysis, SCC (Spearman Correlation Coefficient) of the obtained ranges was carried out, confirming the applicability of the proposed approaches.
Development and Operational Control of Two-String Maximum Power Point Trackers in DC Distribution Systems

This paper develops the operational control of two maximum power point trackers (MPPTs) for two-string photovoltaic (PV) panels in dc distribution systems. This dc distribution system is connected to ac grid via a bidirectional inverter. Two PV strings and two MPPTs are implemented in this system. The proposed MPPT topology consists of buck and boost converters to deal with wide output voltage range of PV panels. To accurately determine the input current of MPPTs, the PV-string configuration check is accomplished online. The perturbation and observation method are applied for maximum power point tracking. Moreover, the current balancing of two MPPT modules in parallel is achieved. In this paper, the system configuration and the operational principle of the proposed MPPT are first introduced. Afterward, the perturbation and observation method and the mode transition are demonstrated. Flowcharts of the online PV-string configuration check and current balancing are explained. The validity of configuration check and current balancing is verified via the experimental results. Maximum power tracking performance and power conversion efficiency are also obtained.
Intranasal Administration of Hyaluronan as a Further Resource in Olfactory Performance in Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome

Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is a relatively common clinical diagnosis in western populations and its symptoms (i.e. dysosmia) are mainly triggered by chemical compounds, such as common odorants. The aim of this study was to test the effect of intranasal administration of hyaluronic acid (HA) on odour threshold and related quality of life in MCS syndrome. Two randomized groups of MCS patients received 30 days' administration of either a nasal spray (Ialumar®) containing HA [HA group (HAG); n=29] or only physiological solution [PS group (PG); n=30]. Both groups were investigated using the “Sniffin' Sticks” test (SST) battery, Questionnaire of Olfactory Disorder (QOD) and Zung Anxiety Scale (SAS) before randomization and after treatment. Paired t-test analysis found a statistically significant reduction in odour threshold (OT) and an improvement in QOD and SAS between pre- and post-treatment results only in the HAG. Furthermore, positive correlations were found between the OT reduction, SAS and QOD improvement. Thus, intranasal administration of HA could be suggested as a further well-tolerated resource in alleviating MCS olfactory discomfort.