Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scenario reduction and scenario tree construction for power management problems

Portfolio and risk management problems of power utilities may be modeled by multistage stochastic programs. These models use a set of scenarios and corresponding probabilities to model the multivariate random data process (electrical load, stream flows to hydro units, and fuel and electricity prices). For most practical problems the optimization problem that contains all possible scenarios is too large. Due to computational complexity and to time limitations this program is often approximated by a model involving a (much) smaller number of scenarios. The proposed reduction algorithms determine a subset of the initial scenario set and assign new probabilities to the preserved scenarios. The scenario tree construction algorithms successively reduce the number of nodes of a fan of individual scenarios by modifying the tree structure and by bundling similar scenarios. Numerical experience is reported for constructing scenario trees for the load and spot market prices entering a stochastic portfolio management model of a German utility.
Design and Analysis of the Droop-Controlled Parallel Four-leg Inverters to Share Unbalanced and Nonlinear Loads

In this paper, the performance of wireless operation of four-leg parallel inverters, at the presence of unbalanced nonlinear loads, is investigated. In order to control the parallel inverters, an inner current and external voltage control loops should be designed. In this paper, a proportional controller for the current internal loop as well as a proportional-resonant one for the voltage external loop are investigated and designed to ensure the proper performance of the system at the presence of unbalanced and nonlinear loads. In this paper, droop control and virtual output impedance loops have formed the power sharing control system for the parallel inverters. The proposed system is able to feed balanced, unbalanced, and nonlinear loads and provides an appropriate sinusoidal voltage waveform for loads by accurately sharing power between the parallel inverters. Simulation results verify the accurate and proper performance of the proposed system. Streszczenie. Zaprezentowano wlaściwości bezprzewodowej pracy przeksztaltnika w obecności niezrownowazonego, nieliniowego obciązenia. Sterowaniu podlegają wewnetrzna petla prądowa jak i zewnetrzna petla napieciowa. System sterowania kontroluje spadki napiecia oraz zewnetrzną impedancje. Projekt i analiza poczwornego przeksztaltnika ze sterowanymi spadkami stosowanego do pracy w warunkach niezrownowazonych i nieliniowych obciązen.
Maximum Likelihood Estimation of the Negative Binomial Dispersion Parameter for Highly Overdispersed Data, with Applications to Infectious Diseases

Background The negative binomial distribution is used commonly throughout biology as a model for overdispersed count data, with attention focused on the negative binomial dispersion parameter, k. A substantial literature exists on the estimation of k, but most attention has focused on datasets that are not highly overdispersed (i.e., those with k≥1), and the accuracy of confidence intervals estimated for k is typically not explored. Methodology This article presents a simulation study exploring the bias, precision, and confidence interval coverage of maximum-likelihood estimates of k from highly overdispersed distributions. In addition to exploring small-sample bias on negative binomial estimates, the study addresses estimation from datasets influenced by two types of event under-counting, and from disease transmission data subject to selection bias for successful outbreaks. Conclusions Results show that maximum likelihood estimates of k can be biased upward by small sample size or under-reporting of zero-class events, but are not biased downward by any of the factors considered. Confidence intervals estimated from the asymptotic sampling variance tend to exhibit coverage below the nominal level, with overestimates of k comprising the great majority of coverage errors. Estimation from outbreak datasets does not increase the bias of k estimates, but can add significant upward bias to estimates of the mean. Because k varies inversely with the degree of overdispersion, these findings show that overestimation of the degree of overdispersion is very rare for these datasets.
Grasp Planning via Decomposition Trees

Planning realizable and stable grasps on 3D objects is crucial for many robotics applications, but grasp planners often ignore the relative sizes of the robotic hand and the object being grasped or do not account for physical joint and positioning limitations. We present a grasp planner that can consider the full range of parameters of a real hand and an arbitrary object, including physical and material properties as well as environmental obstacles and forces, and produce an output grasp that can be immediately executed. We do this by decomposing a 3D model into a superquadric 'decomposition tree' which we use to prune the intractably large space of possible grasps into a subspace that is likely to contain many good grasps. This subspace can be sampled and evaluated in GraspIt! , our 3D grasping simulator, to find a set of highly stable grasps, all of which are physically realizable. We show grasp results on various models using a Barrett hand.
Abstract Algebraic Subspace Clustering

Subspace clustering is the problem of clustering data that lie close to a union of linear subspaces. In this paper, we consider an abstract version of this problem, where one is given a set of points lying in general position inside the algebraic variety of a union of subspaces, and the objective is to decompose the underlying variety into its constituent subspaces. Prior algebraic-geometric approaches to this problem require the subspaces to be of equal dimension, or the number of subspaces to be known. While an algorithm addressing the general case of an unknown number of subspaces of possibly different dimensions had been proposed, a proof for its correctness had not been given. In this paper, we propose a provably correct algorithm for addressing the general case. Our algorithm uses the gradient of a vanishing polynomial at a point in the variety to find a hyperplane containing the subspace passing through that point. By intersecting the variety with this hyperplane and recursively applying the procedure until no non-zero vanishing polynomial exists, our algorithm identifies the subspace containing that point. By repeating this procedure for other points, our algorithm eventually identifies all the subspaces by returning a basis for their orthogonal complement. 1. Introduction. Given a set of points drawn from a union of linear subspaces, subspace clustering refers to the problem of identifying the number of subspaces, their dimensions, a basis for each subspace, and the clustering of the data points according to their membership to the subspaces. This is an important problem with widespread applications in computer vision [32], systems theory [20] and genomics [15].
Effects of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma and its ligand on blood-retinal barrier in a streptozotocin-induced diabetic model.

PURPOSE To clarify whether endogenous peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) and its ligand, rosiglitazone, affect retinal leukostasis and the associated vascular leakage using an experimental diabetic model. METHODS Diabetes was induced in heterozygous PPARgamma+/- mice and Brown Norway rats with an intraperitoneal streptozotocin (STZ) injection. Retinal leukostasis and leakage, quantified by concanavalin A (Con A) lectin perfusion labeling combined with a fluorophotometric dextran leakage assay, were investigated at 120 days in diabetic PPARgamma+/- and wild-type mice and at 21 days in diabetic rats receiving rosiglitazone or the vehicle. The retinal protein expression levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, and the intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 were investigated by means of the ELISA assay. RESULTS In the diabetic PPARgamma+/- mice, retinal leukostasis and leakage were greater than in the diabetic wild-type mice. In addition retinal leukostasis and leakage were suppressed by treatment with rosiglitazone in experimental diabetic rats. ELISA analysis revealed that the upregulated ICAM-1 expression in the diabetic rat retina was reduced by rosiglitazone treatment. CONCLUSIONS An endogenous pathway involving PPARgamma provides protection against retinal leukostasis and retinal leakage in diabetes and treatment with PPARgamma specific ligands inhibits retinal leukostasis and retinal leakage in diabetic rats.
Recombinant adeno-associated virus expressing a p53-derived apoptotic peptide (37AA) inhibits HCC cells growth in vitro and in vivo

Recent studies have confirmed that a p53-derived apoptotic peptide (37AA) could act as a tumor suppressor inducing apoptosis in multiple tumor cells through derepressing p73. However, the tumor suppressive effects of recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) expressing 37AA on HCC cells are still unknown. In this study, we successfully constructed a recombinant rAAV expressing 37AA. In vitro and in vivo assays showed that transfection of NT4-37AA/rAAV in HCC cells strongly suppressed cell proliferation, induced apoptosis, and up-regulated the cellular expression of p73. NT4-37AA/rAAV transfection markedly slowed Huh-7 xenografted tumor growth in murine. Pretreatment of HCC cells with p73 siRNA abrogated these effects of NT4-37AA/rAAV. Furthermore, we found that expression of p73 was upregulated and the formation of P73/iASSP complex was prevented when 37AA was introduced into HCC cells. Taken together, these results indicate that introduction of 37AA into HCC cells with a rAAV vector may lead to the development of broadly applicable agents for the treatment of HCC, and the mechanism may, at least in part, be associated with the upregulation of p73 expression and reduced level of P73/iASSP complex.
Kernel Learning by Unconstrained Optimization

We study the problem of learning a kernel matrix from an apriori kernel and training data. An unconstrained convex optimization formulation is proposed, with an arbitrary convex smooth loss function on kernel entries and a LogDet divergence for regularization. Since the number of variables is of order O(n), standard Newton and quasi-Newton methods are too time-consuming. An operator form Hessian is used to develop an O(n) trust-region inexact Newton method, where the Newton direction is computed using several conjugate gradient steps on the Hessian operator equation. On the uspst dataset, our algorithm can handle 2 million optimization variables within one hour. Experiments are shown for both linear (Mahalanobis) metric learning and for kernel learning. The convergence rate, speed and performance of several loss functions and algorithms are discussed.
An ontology data matching method for web information integration

The emerging Semantic Web relies on the development of ontologies and the deployment of data annotated by ontologies. For a certain domain with a suitable ontology developed, its ontology annotated data (or simply ontology data) from different sources is often overlapping. Similar to a data warehousing process that transforms and merges data from different databases, an integration over the Semantic Web data sources needs to match relevant ontology data among them. This study develops a matching method to address the issue of ontology data matching. This method is different from other data matching or merging methods applied to database or data warehouse cleansing in that it employs more similarity measurements by exploring ontology features. Our experiments show that this proposed method increases matching accuracy.
Attachment Orientations and Adult Crying

The current research aimed at increasing existing knowledge about crying in adulthood. In 2 studies, we examined the contribution of individual differences in attachment orientation to the behavior and experience of adult crying. First, we examined links between attachment dimensions and different aspects of crying behavior. Second, we explored adult’s subjective experience of crying, which was assessed with the Crying Experience Scale (CES), constructed especially for this study, and examined associations between this experience and attachment dimensions. Findings revealed a relationship between attachment style and the way one uses crying and experiences it. Specifically, findings indicated that attachment anxiety was associated with an exaggerated and emotionally ambivalent crying experience, whereas attachment avoidance was associated with a more restricted and negative experience of crying. Results are discussed regarding the value of attachment theory for the study of crying, focusing on developmental and interpersonal dynamics of the crying experience.
The clastogenicity of 4NQO is cell-type dependent and linked to cytotoxicity, length of exposure and p53 proficiency

4-Nitroquinoline 1-oxide (4NQO) is used as a positive control in various genotoxicity assays because of its known mutagenic and carcinogenic properties. The chemical is converted into 4-hydroxyaminoquinoline 1-oxide and gives rise to three main DNA adducts, N-(deoxyguanosin-8-yl)-4AQO, 3-(desoxyguanosin-N 2-yl)-4AQO and 3-(deoxyadenosin-N 6-yl)-4AQO. This study was designed to assess the shape of the dose–response curve at low concentrations of 4NQO in three human lymphoblastoid cell lines, MCL-5, AHH-1 and TK6 as well as the mouse lymphoma L5178Y cell line in vitro. Chromosomal damage was investigated using the in vitro micronucleus assay, while further gene mutation and DNA damage studies were carried out using the hypoxanthine–guanine phosphoribosyltransferase forward mutation and comet assays. 4NQO showed little to no significant increases in micronucleus induction in the human lymphoblastoid cell lines, even up to 55±5% toxicity. A dose–response relationship could only be observed in the mouse lymphoma cell line L5178Y after 4NQO treatment, even at concentrations with no reduction in cell viability. Further significant increases in gene mutation and DNA damage induction were observed. Hence, 4NQO is a more effective point mutagen than clastogen, and its suitability as a positive control for genotoxicity testing has to be evaluated for every individual assay.
Survey on security challenges in VANET Survey on security challenges in VANET Survey on security challenges in VANET Survey on security challenges in VANET

Recent advances in development of Wireless Communication in Vehicular Adhoc Network (VANET) has provided emerging platform for industrialists and researchers. Vehicular adhoc networks are multihop networks with no fixed infrastructure. It comprises of moving vehicles communicating with each other. One of the main challenge in VANET is to route the data efficiently from source to destination. Designing an efficient routing protocol for VANET is tedious task. Also because of wireless medium it is vulnerable to several attacks. Since attacks mislead the network operations, security is mandatory for successful deployment of such technology. This survey paper gives brief overview of different routing protocols. Also attempt has been made to identify major security issues and challenges associated with different routing protocols.
Strategic use of Korean honorifics: Functions of 'partner-deference sangdae-nopim'

From the standpoint of Weigand’s concept of ‘competence-in-performance’, I will analyse the communicative function of sangdae-nopim in conversations at Korean workplaces. The aim of this investigation is to show that in the modern Korean society speakers draw on sangdae-nopim in a more and more strategical fashion. Rather than reducing its function to the traditional value of ‘showing respect to one’s dialogue partner’, I will demonstrate how sangdae-nopim is used to mediate between both respect and selfinterest.
Analysis of Shared Finite Storage in a Computer Network Node Environment Under General Traffic Conditions

Nodal storage limitations in a store and forward computer network lead to blocking; this results in degradation of network performance due to the loss or retransmission of blocked messages. In this paper, we consider several schemes for sharing a pool of buffers among a set of communication channels emanating from a given node in a network environment so as to make effective use of storage in a variety of applications. Five sharing schemes are examined, analyzed, and displayed in a fashion which permits one to establish the tradeoffs among blocking probability, utilization, throughput, and delay. The key to the analysis lies in the observation that the equilibrium joint probability distribution of the buffer occupancy obeys the well-known product form solution for networks of queues. The study indicates advantages and pitfalls of each of the sharing schemes. We observe, in general, that sharing with appropriate restrictions on the contention for space is very much desirable.
Contribution of nitric oxide, superoxide anion, and peroxynitrite to activation of mitochondrial apoptotic signaling in hippocampal CA3 subfield following experimental temporal lobe status epilepticus

Purpose: One cellular consequence of status epilepticus is apoptosis in the hippocampal CA3 subfield. We evaluated the hypothesis that the repertoire of cellular events that underlie such elicited cell death entails mitochondrial dysfunction induced by an excessive production of nitric oxide synthase II (NOS II)‐derived NO, increased superoxide anion (O2−) production, and peroxynitrite formation.
Plasma Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin Is Primarily Related to Inflammation during Sepsis: A Translational Approach

Acute kidney injury (AKI) during sepsis is common and underestimated. Plasma neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (plasma-NGAL) is discussed as new biomarker for AKI diagnosis, but during inflammation its function and diagnostic impact remain unclear. The association between plasma-NGAL and inflammatory markers in septic patients, but also in healthy controls and patients with chronic inflammation before and after either maximum exercise test or treatment with an anti-TNF therapy were investigated. In-vitro blood stimulations with IL-6, lipopolysaccharide, NGAL or its combinations were performed to investigate cause-effect-relationship. Plasma-NGAL levels were stronger associated with inflammation markers including IL-6 (Sepsis: r=0.785 P<0.001; chronic inflammation after anti-TNF: r=0.558 P<0.001), IL-8 (Sepsis: r=0.714 P<0.004; healthy controls after exercise r=0.786 P<0.028; chronic inflammation before anti-TNF: r=0.429 P<0.041) and IL-10 (healthy controls before exercise: r=0.791 P<0.028) than with kidney injury or function. Correlation to kidney injury or function was found only in septic patients (for creatinine: r= 0.906 P<0.001; for eGFR: r= -0.686 P=0.005) and in patients with rheumatic disease after anti-TNF therapy (for creatinine: r= 0.466 P<0.025). In stimulation assays with IL-6 and lipopolysaccharide plasma-NGAL was increased. Co-stimulation of lipopolysaccharide with plasma-NGAL decreased cellular injury (P<0.05) and in trend IL-10 levels (P=0.057). Septic mice demonstrated a significantly improved survival rate after NGAL treatment (P<0.01). Plasma-NGAL seams to be strongly involved in inflammation. For clinical relevance, it might not only be useful for AKI detection during severe inflammation - indeed it has to be interpreted carefully within this setting - but additionally might offer therapeutic potential.
Channel Shortening for Nonlinear Satellite Channels

We design of an efficient channel shortener for nonlinear satellite channels. When the memory of the channel is too large to be taken into account by a full complexity detector, excellent performance can be achieved by properly filtering the received signal followed by a reduced-state detector. This letter derives closed-form expressions for the front-end filter and the target response of the reduced-state detector.
A Geometric Characterization of Leader-Follower Formation Control

The paper focuses on leader-follower formations of nonholonomic mobile robots. A formation control alternative to those existing in the literature is introduced. We show that the geometry of the formation imposes a bound on the maximum admissible curvature of leader trajectory. A peculiar feature of the proposed strategy is that the followers position is not rigidly fixed with respect to the leader reference frame but varies in suitable cones centered in the leader reference frame. Our approach also applies to hierarchical multirobot formations described by rooted tree graphs. Simulation experiments confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes.
An Accurate Quality Factor Tuning Scheme for IF and High-Q Continuous-Time Filters

A quality factor (Q) tuning technique for IF and high-Q continuous-time filter biquads is proposed. The method is based on the existing magnitude locked loopQ-tuning technique, but it utilizes a modified version of the continuous-time adaptive least-mean-squares algorithm to improve the attainable precision. The technique is resistant to center frequency tuning errors, and can use an easily generated clock pulse as its reference signal. Discrete component tests were conducted, with the Q value being tuned to within 1.1% in the worst case. A test chip consisting of a fourth-order bandpass filter at 10.7 MHz with biquad Qvalues of 20 was fabricated in a 1.2m n-well CMOS process. Experimental results show that the proposedQ-tuning scheme improves on existing methods, with measured accuracies of less than 1% error.
A Neural Network Based Speed Control for DC Motor

- T his paper introduces the new concept of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) in estimating speed and controlling the separately excited DC motor. The neural control scheme consists of two parts. One is the neural estimator, which is used to estimate the motor speed. The other is the neural controller, which is used to generate a control signal for a converter. These two networks are trained by Levenberg-Marquardt
A concept of context-aware computing based on symbol grounding perspective

Conventional context-aware system refers to an intelligent mobile system that can sense the Real Space (RS). Its essential functions are to understand the situation in RS as well as to supply suitable information or services to users depending on the perceived situation. In order to realize that, pattern recognition technologies based on signal or image processing (non-symbolic processing) as well as natural language processing technologies based on knowledge processing (symbolic processing) should be implemented. Historically, symbolic processing and non-symbolic processing have independently evolved but about 20 years ago Steven Harnad had proposed ‘Symbol Grounding Problem’ and argued that it is necessary to integrate non-symbolic processing and symbolic processing. However, there are very few discussions dealing in both context-aware computing and symbol grounding mechanism. Therefore, this paper defines the desired functions for context-aware system in the view point of symbol grounding mechanism and proposes a novel context-aware system, symbiotic grounding system, as an advanced symbol grounding system.