Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Comparative Study of Three Improved Algorithms Based on Particle Filter Algorithms in SOC Estimation of Lithium Ion Batteries

The state of charge (SOC) is an important parameter for batteries, especially those for electric vehicles. Since SOC cannot be obtained directly by measurement, SOC estimation methods are required. In this paper, three model-based methods, including the extended particle filter (EPF), cubature particle filter (CPF), and unscented particle filter (UPF), are compared in terms of complexity, accuracy, and robustness. The second-order resistor-capacitor (RC) equivalent circuit model is selected as the circuit model of the lithium-ion battery, and the parameters of the model are obtained by off-line identification. Then, the City test is applied to compare the performance of the methods. The experimental results show that the EPF method exhibits low complexity and fast running speed, but poor accuracy and robustness. Compared with the EPF method, the complexity of the CPF and UPF methods is relatively high, but these models offer improved accuracy and robustness.
Irreversible UV Inactivation of Cryptosporidium spp. Despite the Presence of UV Repair Genes1

Abstract Ultraviolet light is being considered as a disinfectant by the water industry because it appears to be very effective for inactivating pathogens, including Cryptosporidium parvum. However, many organisms have mechanisms for repairing ultraviolet light-induced DNA damage, which may limit the utility of this disinfection technology. Inactivation of C. parvum was assessed by measuring infectivity in cells of the human ileocecal adenocarcinoma HCT-8 cell line, with an assay targeting a heat shock protein gene and using a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction to detect infections. Oocysts of five different isolates displayed similar sensitivity to ultraviolet light. An average dosage of 7.6 mJ/cm2 resulted in 99.9% inactivation, providing the first evidence that multiple isolates of C. parvum are equally sensitive to ultraviolet disinfection. Irradiated oocysts were unable to regain pre-irradiation levels of infectivity, following exposure to a broad array of potential repair conditions, such as prolonged incubation, pre-infection excystation triggers, and post-ultraviolet holding periods. A combination of data-mining and sequencing was used to identify genes for all of the major components of a nucleotide excision repair complex in C. parvum and Cryptosporidium hominis. The average similarity between the two organisms for the various genes was 96.4% (range, 92–98%). Thus, while Cryptosporidum spp. may have the potential to repair ultraviolet light-induced damage, oocyst reactivation will not occur under the standard conditions used for storage and distribution of treated drinking water.
Delay-dependent robust H∞ control for uncertain stochastic systems with time-varying delays in state and control input

This article deals with the robust H∞ control problem for uncertain stochastic systems with time-varying delays in state and control input. The time delay is assumed to be a time-varying continuous function varying in an interval and uncertainties are assumed to be norm bounded. New delay-dependent criteria for the existence of memoryless state feedback H∞ controller are proposed to guarantee robust asymptotic stability in the mean square as well as the prescribed H∞ performance level of the closed-loop systems for all admissible uncertainties. The main contribution of this article is the instrumental idea of delay decomposing, which leads the resultant conditions to be much less conservative than the existing results in the literature with the decomposing getting thinner. By using free-weighting matrices and a new technique to estimate the upper bound of the stochastic differential of Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional candidate, new delay-dependent conditions are derived by considering the relationship among the time-varying delay and its lower and upper bounds without ignoring any useful terms. The advantage of the results proposed in this article lies in their reduced conservatism, as shown via illustrative examples, which also demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Robust 3-D Object Skeletonisation for the Similarity Measure

In this paper we introduce our approach for similarity measure of 3-D objects based on an existing curve skeletonization technique. This skeletonization algorithm for 3-D objects delivers skeletons thicker than 1 voxel. This makes an efficient distance or similarity measure impossible. To overcome this drawback, we use a significantly extended skeletonization algorithm (by Reniers) and a modified Dijkstra approach. In addition to that, we propose features that are directly extracted from the resulting skeletal structures. To evaluate our system, we created a ground truth of 3-D objects and their similarities estimated by humans. The automatic similarity results achieved by our system were evaluated against this ground truth in terms of precision and recall in an object retrieval setup.
Generic Ownership: a Practical Approach to Ownership and Confinement in Object-Oriented Programming Languages

Modern object-oriented programming languages support many techniques that simplify the work of a programmer. Among them is generic types: the ability to create generic descriptions of algorithms and object structures that will be automatically specialised by supplying the type information when they are used. At the same time, object-oriented technologies still suffer from aliasing: the case of many objects in a program's memory referring to the same object via different references. Ownership types enforce encapsulation in object-oriented programs by ensuring that objects cannot be referred to from the outside of the object(s) that own them. Existing ownership programming languages either do not support generic types or attempt to add them on top of ownership restrictions. The goal of this work is to bring object ownership into mainstream object-oriented programming languages. This thesis presents Generic Ownership which provides perobject ownership on top of a generic imperative language. Surprisingly, the resulting system not only provides ownership guarantees comparable to the established systems, but also requires few additional language mechanisms to achieve them due to full reuse of generic types. In this thesis I formalise the core of Generic Ownership, highlighting that the restriction of this calls, owner preservation over subtyping, and appropriate owner nesting are the only necessary requirements for ownership. I describe two formalisms: (1) a simple formalism, capturing confinement in a functional setting, and (2) a complete formalism, providing a way for Generic Ownership to support both deep and shallow variations of ownership types. I support the formal work by describing how the Ownership Generic Java (OGJ) language is implemented as a minimal extension to Java 5. OGJ is the first publicly available language implementation that supports ownership, confinement, and generic types at the same time. I demonstrate OGJ in practice: show how to use OGJ to write programs and provide insights into the implementations of Generic Ownership.
New instrumentation for human robot interaction assessment based on observational methods

Research studies in Human Robot Interaction (HRI) with social robots usually gather observational data in order to explore the dynamics of short and long-term interactions. The most common approach for the analysis of observational data is the proposal of a small number of behavioural units which frequency and/or duration is captured. As a consequence, comparing results between studies is difficult. The present manuscript proposes a procedure to assess the complete human-robot interactive activity. Experiences with two different robots were analysed using the novel instrumentation, leading to further considerations. Finally, general guidelines extracted from experimentation are proposed to assess the interaction quality between social robots and users. Further studies can be benefited from the proposed instruments, which are expected to be validated in different HRI contexts (e.g., school, hospitals, home) with different users (e.g., children, elderly, hospitalised people).
An Improved Machine Learning Approach to Enhance the Predictive Accuracy for Screening Potential Active USP1/UAF1 Inhibitors

DNA repair mechanism is an important mechanism employed by the cancerous cell to survive the DNA damages induced during uncontrolled proliferation of cell and anti-cancer drug treatments. In this context, the Ubiquitin-Specific Proteases (USP1) in complex with Ubiquitin Associated Factor 1(UAF1) plays a key role in the survival of cancerous cell by DNA repair mechanism. Thus, this put forth USP1/UAF1 complex as a striking anti-cancer target for screening of anti-cancer molecule. The current research is aimed to improve the classification accuracy of the existing bioactivity predictive chemoinformatics model for screening potential active USP1/UAF1 inhibitors from high-throughput screening data. The current study employed feature selection method to extract key molecular descriptors from the publicly available high-throughput screening dataset of small molecules that were used to screen active USP1/UAF1 complex inhibitors. This study proposes an improved predictive machine learning approach using the feature selection technique and two class Linear Discriminant Technique (LDA) algorithm to accurately predict the active novel USP1/UAF1 inhibitor compounds.
Accelerating Regulated Bioanalysis for Biotherapeutics: Case Examples Using a Microfluidic Ligand Binding Assay Platform

The Gyrolab™ xP is a microfluidic platform for conducting ligand binding assays (LBAs) and is recognized for its utility in discovery bioanalysis. However, few reports have focused on the technology for regulated bioanalysis. This technology has the advantage of low reagent consumption, low sample volume, and automated ligand binding methods. To improve bioanalysis testing timelines and increase the speed at which biotherapeutics are delivered to patients, we evaluated the technology for its potential to deliver high-quality data at reduced testing timelines for regulated bioanalysis. Six LBA methods were validated to support bioanalysis for GLP toxicokinetic or clinical pharmacokinetic studies. Validation, sample analysis, and method transfer are described. In total, approximately 4000 samples have been tested for regulated bioanalysis to support 6 GLP toxicology studies and approximately 1000 samples to support 2 clinical studies. Gyrolab™ xP had high run pass rates (≥83%) and high incurred sample reanalysis (ISR) pass rates (>94%). The maximum total error observed across all QC levels for a given assay was <30% for all six LBAs. High instrument response precision (CV ≤5%) was observed across compact discs (CDs), and methods were validated to use a single standard curve across multiple CDs within a Gyrolab™ xP run. Reduced bioanalysis timelines were achieved compared to standard manual plate-based methods, and methods were successfully transferred across testing labs, paving the way for this platform for use in late-stage clinical development.
Consuming People: From Political Economy to Theaters of Consumption

dangers of studying complex cultural systems that possess their own scholarship. Thus, the authors rediscover some of the findings of theoretical marketing literature about shopping venues, shopping, and customer–store and service relationships, for example (Bitner 1997; Sherry 1998). The point is the desirability of engaging marketing practices through both specialized disciplinary lenses and managerial and critical marketing scholarship. Few of the latter sources are referenced in these volumes. The second two points are stylistic. First, the authorial voice rather smothers that of the informants. Informants are heard from, but not nearly as much as I would like. The books adopt a purely realist ethnographic style rather ignoring the narrative revolution that has infused qualitative research including that in marketing. Second, unnecessary repetitiousness afflicts the solely authored text.
Functional Characteristics of the Gating Mechanism in the Canine A‐V Conducting System

The areas of maximum action potential duration, or gates, of the isolated canine distal A-V conducting system were studied by microelectrode techniques to determine the characteristics of their responses to premature impulses and to rapid rates of stimulation. The results indicate that premature responses will be conducted at the same velocity as driven responses until the coupling interval between the driven and premature impulses approaches the refractory period of the gate. When delayed conduction of the premature impulse develops, it occurs over a segment of the conducting system incorporating the gate. The magnitude of the delay which can develop at coupling intervals just in excess of the functional refractory period tends to be small in healthy tissue and larger in depressed tissue. Suitable delays allowed premature impulses having coupling intervals shorter than the refractory period at the gate to be conducted distally. The refractory period in response to rapid rates of stimulation was discordant in the several false tendons in six of nine preparations studied. Both delayed conduction and 2:1 conduction were shown to occur near the limit of response to rapid stimulation. The data presented suggest certain functional analogies between the A-V node and the gating mechanism.
A practical guide to subtotal nephrectomy in the rat with subsequent methodology for assessing renal and cardiac function

Chronic kidney disease (CKD), and its associated cardiovascular events, is one of the major causes of morbidity and recurrent hospitalization in Asian Pacific region. The subtotal nephrectomy (STNx) model has remained the state‐of‐the‐art prototype which closely mimics human CKD and cardiac‐renal syndrome.
A study of speech recognition system based on the Hidden Markov Model with Gaussian-Mixture

In this paper, we present a study of isolated word speech recognition system. The adopted system is based on the Hidden Markov Model with Gaussian Mixture (HMM-GM). We studied the recognition rate by varying the states number (3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 states) and the number of Gaussians per state (2, 4, 8, 12, 14 and 16 Gaussians) of Hidden Markov Model. We evaluated these recognition rates using two parameterization techniques Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) and Perceptual Linear Prediction (PLP). We have introduced the dynamic coefficients and the energy of the signal in order to achieve an improvement in the recognition rate.
Fibroblast growth factor‐2 increases functional excitatory synapses on hippocampal neurons

The effect of fibroblast growth factor‐2 (FGF‐2) on synapse formation was investigated using rat cultured hippocampal neurons. Treatment with FGF‐2 (0.4–10 ng/mL) for 6 days enhanced synaptogenesis on these neurons by ∼50%, as determined by counting puncta immunostained for presynaptic‐ or postsynaptic‐specific proteins. This enhancement was statistically significant, and was abolished by a specific inhibitor of mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK). The majority of neurons expressed FGF receptors (types 1–3) abundantly on the membrane of somata, dendrites, and growth cones, and in these regions phosphorylation of MAPK was enhanced after FGF‐2 application. Furthermore, our experiments showed that the majority of synapses formed in cultures containing FGF‐2 were positive both for presynaptic proteins and postsynaptic excitatory synapse‐specific proteins, and that these synapses had a similar capacity to recycle the fluorescent styryl dye FM4‐64 as those in the control culture. These results indicate that: (i) FGF‐2 increases excitatory synapses on hippocampal neurons by activating MAPK activity through FGF receptors; and (ii) synapses formed in FGF‐2‐treated culture are capable of cycling vesicles.
A Starter Culture Rotation Strategy Incorporating Paired Restriction/ Modification and Abortive Infection Bacteriophage Defenses in a Single Lactococcus lactis Strain

Three derivatives of Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis NCK203, each with a different pair of restriction/ modification (R/M) and abortive infection (Abi) phage defense systems, were constructed and then rotated in repeated cycles of a milk starter culture activity test (SAT). The rotation proceeded successfully through nine successive SATs in the presence of phage and whey containing phage from previous cycles. Lactococcus cultures were challenged with 2 small isometric-headed phages, (phi)31 and ul36, in one rotation series and with a composite of 10 industrial phages in another series. Two native lactococcal R(sup+)/M(sup+) plasmids, pTRK68 and pTRK11, and one recombinant plasmid, pTRK308, harboring a third distinct R/M system were incorporated into three NCK203 derivatives constructed separately for the rotation. The R(sup+)/M(sup+) NCK203 derivatives were transformed with high-copy-number plasmids encoding four Abi genes, abiA, abiC, per31, and per50. Various Abi and R/M combinations constructed in NCK203 were evaluated for their effects on cell growth, level of phage resistance, and retardation of phage development during repeated cycles of the SAT. The three NCK203 derivatives chosen for use in the SAT exhibited additive effects of the R/M and Abi phenotypes against sensitive phages. In such combinations, phage escaping restriction are prevented from completing their infective cycle by an abortive response that kills the host cell. The rotation series successfully controlled modified, recombinant, and mutant phages which were resistant to any one of the individual defense systems by presenting a different set of R/M and Abi defenses in the next test of the rotation.
The Effect of Corporate Governance on Market Reactions to Earnings: A Comparison of A Class and B Class shares in the People's Republic of China

The primary objective of this dissertation is to examine the role of corporate governance in the performance of publicly listed corporations. The normative research suggests that stronger corporate governance should lead to better market performance and a firm’s governance practice should have a positive effect on its market value. This research focuses on Chinese capital markets because of their unique characteristics with respect to elements of corporate governance. In the Chinese stock markets, a company issues A-shares which are subject to Chinese governance and is referred as an A-shares company. A company that issues A-shares and B-shares which are subject to Western governance is referred as an AB-shares company. The primary differences between A-shares governance and AB-shares governance are board independence, accounting standards, audit quality and ownership of stocks. These differences in governance characteristics provide for a direct comparison of the effects of governance structure on market reactions to earnings in a developing market. An event study is used to isolate the firm’s unique response to an earnings announcement as measured by the abnormal returns (CARCumulative Average Residuals). Using a matched pair design the effect of governance structure on market reactions to earnings is assessed. The results indicate the impact of governance structure on market reactions to earnings is not significant and there is no difference between market reactions to the earnings of B-shares based on IAS and market reactions compared with the earnings of A-shares based on Chinese GAAP. The results suggest that the market response to earnings prepared under Western standards and governance does not improve the market’s perception of earnings quality in the Chinese stock markets. Consequently, it is questionable that Western corporate governance practices are applicable in developing countries.
Dynamic and recursive oil-reservoir proxy using Elman neural networks

In this work, a reservoir simulation approximation model (proxy) based on recurrent artificial neural networks is proposed. This model is intended to obtain rates of oil, gas and water production at time t+1 from the respective production rates, average pressure and water cut at t time and the well operation points to be applied in t + 1. Also, this model is able to follow the dynamics of the reservoir system applying online learning from real production observed values. Also, this model allows perform fast and accurate production forecasting for several steps using a recursive mechanism. This model will be inserted into an oil-production control tool to find the optimal operation conditions within a forecast horizon. The obtained outcomes over the approximation tests indicate the methodology is adequate to perform production forecasts.
Meningiomas invading the superior sagittal sinus: surgical experience in 108 cases.

OBJECTIVE Radical resection of meningiomas invading the superior sagittal sinus (SSS) presents several hazards. Some surgeons consider SSS invasion a contraindication for complete resection, and others advocate total resection with venous reconstruction. There is a lack of published large series to provide definitive guidelines for the surgical treatment of these complex cases. We report our 15-year experience with surgery of parasagittal meningiomas invading the SSS. METHODS Between 1986 and 2001, 108 patients (73 women, 35 men; age range, 22-83 yr; mean age, 56.2 yr) underwent surgery at the Neurological Institute "C. Besta" of Milan for tumors invading the SSS. Parasagittal meningiomas not invading the SSS were excluded from this series. RESULTS Simpson Grade I to II removal was achieved in 100 patients. Thirty patients with meningiomas totally occluding the SSS had complete resection of the encased portion of the sinus. Histological examination revealed 86 benign (79.6%), 16 atypical (14.8%), and 4 malignant (3.7%) meningiomas along with 2 hemangiopericytomas. There were two perioperative deaths. Serious complications included brain swelling (nine patients; 8.3%) and postoperative hematoma (two patients; 1.85%). Follow-up ranged from 19 to 223 months (mean, 79.5 mo). One patient was lost to follow-up. Tumors recurred in 15 patients (13.9%). After multivariate analysis, histological type, tumor size, and Simpson grade were confirmed as significant independent prognostic factors for recurrence. CONCLUSION On the basis of our results, we conclude that if the sinus is partially invaded, it can be opened to obtain as complete a resection as possible and to attempt to preserve the patency of the sinus. If the sinus is obstructed, the portion of the sinus involved can be resected completely. In both situations, extreme care is vital to preservation of cortical veins, which may offer important collateral drainage. With our approach, good results are achieved and it is not necessary to reconstruct the sinus.