Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Novel Duty Cycle Control Strategy to Reduce Both Torque and Flux Ripples for DTC of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Drives With Switching Frequency Reduction

Conventional switching-table-based direct torque control (DTC) presents large torque and flux ripples as well as variable switching frequency. Many methods have been proposed to tackle the aforementioned problems, among which duty cycle control is a kind of very effective approach. It is known that by adjusting the duty ratio of the active vector selected from the switching table, the torque ripple can be reduced. However, most of the prior duty cycle control methods only focus on the torque performance improvement and fail to take the flux ripple reduction into account. Furthermore, the methods obtaining the duty ratio are usually complicated and relies heavily on the accuracy of machine parameters, which negates the merits of simplicity and robustness of conventional DTC. This paper proposes a unified switching table to select three vectors rather than two vectors in prior arts; hence, lower flux ripple and more sinusoidal stator current can be obtained while maintaining the torque performance. A very simple but effective method is proposed to obtain the durations of the three vectors. The influence of one-step delay caused by digital implementation is investigated. By arranging the switching sequence of the three vectors appropriately, the switching frequency can be significantly reduced. The superiority of the novel method is confirmed by a comparative study with its counterpart using two vectors only. Both simulation and experimental results obtained from a 1-kW permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) DTC drive are presented to validate the effectiveness of the novel duty cycle control strategy.
White-box methodologies, programming abstractions and libraries

This deliverable reports the results of white-box methodologies and early results of the first prototype of libraries and programming abstractions as available by project month 18 by Work Package 2 (WP2). It reports i) the latest results of Task 2.2 on white-box methodologies, programming abstractions and libraries for developing energy-efficient data structures and algorithms and ii) the improved results of Task 2.1 on investigating and modeling the trade-off between energy and performance of concurrent data structures and algorithms. The work has been conducted on two main EXCESS platforms: Intel platforms with recent Intel multicore CPUs and Movidius Myriad1 platform. Regarding white-box methodologies, we have devised new relaxed cache-oblivious models and proposed a new power model for Myriad1 platform and an energy model for lock-free queues on CPU platforms. For Myriad1 platform, the im- proved model now considers both computation and data movement cost as well as architecture and application properties. The model has been evaluated with a set of micro-benchmarks and application benchmarks. For Intel platforms, we have generalized the model for concurrent queues on CPU platforms to offer more flexibility according to the workers calling the data structure (parallel section sizes of enqueuers and dequeuers are decoupled). Regarding programming abstractions and libraries, we have continued investigat- ing the trade-offs between energy consumption and performance of data structures such as concurrent queues and concurrent search trees based on the early results of Task 2.1. The preliminary results show that our concurrent trees are faster and more energy efficient than the state-of-the-art on commodity HPC and embedded platforms.
The role of latitude, ultraviolet radiation exposure and vitamin D in childhood asthma and hayfever: an Australian multicenter study

To cite this article: Hughes AM, Lucas RM, Ponsonby A‐L, Chapman C, Coulthard A, Dear K, Dwyer T, Kilpatrick TJ, McMichael AJ, Pender MP, Taylor BV, Valery P, van der Mei IAF, Williams D. The role of latitude, ultraviolet radiation exposure and vitamin D in childhood asthma and hayfever: an Australian multicenter study. Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2011; 22: 327–333.
Trastuzumab beyond progression in patients with HER2-positive advanced gastric adenocarcinoma: a multicenter AGEO study

Introduction Trastuzumab in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy is the standard first-line regimen in HER2-positive advanced gastric cancer. However, there are very few data concerning efficacy of continuing trastuzumab beyond first-line progression. Methods This retrospective multicenter study included all consecutive patients with HER2-positive advanced gastric or gastro-esophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma who received a second-line of chemotherapy with or without trastuzumab after progression on platinum-based chemotherapy plus trastuzumab. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated from the start of second-line chemotherapy using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared using log-rank test. The prognostic variables with P values ≤ 0.05 in univariate analysis were eligible for the Cox multivariable regression model. Results From May 2010 to December 2015, 104 patients were included (median age, 60.8 years; male, 78.8%; ECOG performance status [PS] 0-1, 71.2%). The continuation (n=39) versus discontinuation (n=65) of trastuzumab beyond progression was significantly associated with an improvement of median PFS (4.4 versus 2.3 months; P=0.002) and OS (12.6 versus 6.1 months; P=0.001. In the multivariate analysis including the ECOG PS, number of metastatic sites and measurable disease, the continuation of trastuzumab beyond progression remained significantly associated with longer PFS (HR, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.35-0.89; P=0.01) and OS (HR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.28-0.79; P=0.004). Conclusion This study suggests that continuation of trastuzumab beyond progression has clinical benefit in patients with HER2-positive advanced gastric cancer. These results deserve a prospective randomized validation.
Determinant Factors of Satisfaction in the Relationship between First- and Second-Order Agricultural Cooperatives

The integration in second-order cooperatives allows the first-order agricultural cooperatives to complement their resources and capabilities, achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. The problems associated with the creation, development and long-term maintenance of these partnerships, along with the lack of research into this area, justify the realization of studies aimed at improving our understanding of the processes and outcomes that characterize them. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to discover the factors which lead to the success of these relationships, empirically measured through the satisfaction of first-order co-operatives with the relationship. In order to achieve this, a suitable theoretical framework is established and an empirical study undertaken, with information obtained from a survey of 190 Spanish first-order agricultural co-operatives. The results obtained reveal that the contribution of the partnership to the first-order cooperative's performance, its trust and perception of fairness are critical antecedents of the level of satisfaction of the first-order cooperative satisfaction with the relationship.
Quantification of within‐ and between‐farm dispersal of Culicoides biting midges using an immunomarking technique

Summary Culicoides biting midges (Diptera, Ceratopogonidae) are vectors of arboviruses that cause significant economic and welfare impact. Local‐scale spread of Culicoides‐borne arboviruses is largely determined by the between‐farm movement of infected Culicoides. Study of the dispersal behaviour of Culicoides by capture–mark–recapture (CMR) is problematic due to the likelihood of mortality and changes in behaviour upon capture caused by the small size and fragility of these insects, evidenced by low recapture rates. To counter the problem of using CMR with Culicoides, this study utilised an ovalbumin immunomarking technique to quantify the within‐ and between‐farm dispersal of Culicoides in southern England. Both within‐ and between‐farm dispersal of Culicoides was observed. Of the 9058 Culicoides collected over 22 nights of trapping, 600 ovalbumin‐positive Culicoides, of 12 species including those implicated as arbovirus vectors, were collected with a maximum dispersal distance of 3125 m. This study provides the first species‐level data on the between‐farm dispersal of potential bluetongue, Schmallenberg and African horse sickness virus vectors in northern Europe. High‐resolution meteorological data determined upwind and downwind flight by Culicoides had occurred. Cumulative collection and meteorological data suggest 15·6% of flights over 1 km were upwind of the treatment area and 84·4% downwind. Synthesis and applications. The use of immunomarking eliminates the potential adverse effects on survival and behaviour of insect collection prior to marking, substantially improving the resolution and accuracy of estimates of the dispersal potential of small and delicate vector species such as Culicoides. Using this technique, quantification of the range of Culicoides dispersal with regard to meteorological conditions including wind direction will enable improved, data‐driven modelling of the spread of Culicoides‐borne arboviruses and will inform policy response to incursions and outbreaks.
The use of protective gloves and the prevalence of hand eczema, skin complaints and allergy to natural rubber latex among dental personnel in the county of Uppsala, Sweden

During the past decade, there has been an increasing problem with acrylate allergy and natural rubber latex (NRL) allergy among dental personnel. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of these problems among dentists, dental nurses and dental hygienists in Uppsala county, Sweden. The study was based on a self‐administered questionnaire sent to 690 persons with 527 responders (76%). The most common skin problem was dry skin, fissures and/or itching on the hands. Of the 72 persons (13.6%) reporting to have suffered from hand eczema during the past 12 months, 41 were patch tested with the TRUE Test standard series and the Swedish dental screening series. In the patch tested group, 9.8% reacted to 1 or more of the acrylates. In addition, 389 persons were tested for NRL allergy with the Pharmacia Upjohn CAP‐RAST test, and of these, we found 7.2% to be positive. The prevalence of self‐reported hand eczema and the number of positive CAP‐RAST tests differed between the 3 occupations, with higher figures for the dentists. There was also a correlation between atopic eczema and hand eczema. Of those reporting skin symptoms, 67.7% connected them to the place of work and 28.8% related them to the use of gloves.
INITIAL T-CELL ACTIVATION REQUIRED FOR TRANSPLANT VASCULOPATHY IN RETRANSPLANTED RAT CARDIAC ALLOGRAFTS1

Background. A precise understanding of immunological mechanisms is needed to prevent transplant vasculopathy. Methods. The developing process of transplant vasculopathy was investigated by retransplanting rat cardiac allografts and measuring the expressions of 21 different genes inside the retransplanted allografts under nonimmunosuppressive conditions. Results. Significant transplant vasculopathy developed if WKY hearts were grafted to LEW and retransplanted to WKY 5 days after the initial grafting, but it did not in allografts retransplanted 3 days after the initial grafting. The disease did not progress in retransplanted isografts or if nude rats were used as the initial recipients. However, the development of transplant vasculopathy was not affected by changing the second recipients to the F1 progeny of donor × recipient or to nude animals. Among the expressions of 21 different genes observed in allografts at 1, 14, 30, or 60 days after retransplantation, those of T-cell activation-related genes, such as interferon-&ggr; and Fas ligand, showed the earliest and the most dramatic difference between 3- and 5-day-retransplanted allografts whereas macrophage/monocyte activation-related genes showed little difference. Furthermore, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analyses of allografts retransplanted to nude animal indicated that T cells of the initial recipient origin survive and remain activated even 60 days after retransplantation. Conclusions. The T-cell response occurring between 3 and 5 days after grafting was identified as the critical parameter to the disease progression. Once alloreactive T cells enter a graft, they may be able to survive a long period and promote chronic rejection.
Definitions Matter: Measuring Gender Gaps in Firms' Access to Credit

Standards measures of female ownership and management of firms included in the World Bank Enterprise Survey do not support the existence of a gender gap in access to finance in the Latin American and Caribbean region. Nonetheless, more precise measures show that women-led businesses are more likely to be financially constrained than other comparable firms. The evidence presented herein suggests that this gender gap may be driven by taste-based discrimination. This paper exploits a rich dataset that provides detailed information about female ownership and management in firms, allowing for further understanding of gender gaps in access to finance.
Oxygen minimum zone expansion in the eastern tropical North Pacific during deglaciation

During deglaciation at ∼17 ka the intensity and footprint of the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) increased in the Eastern Tropical North Pacific (ETNP) before a subsequent expansion on the California Margin. Evidence for the earlier increase is found in trace metal concentrations, lamination preservation and δ15N values from cores located between 540–750 m water depth in the Gulf of Tehuantepec, Southern Mexico. These results differ from similar proxies found even 5°N of the site, where there is evidence for OMZ changes related to rapid climate change in the Northern Hemisphere. Instead, OMZ expansion in the Gulf was contemporaneous with changes in sea ice extent and zonal wind shifts around Antarctica, pointing to Subantarctic Mode Water and Antarctic Intermediate Water as likely sources of oxygen‐depleted water. These observations reinforce the importance of the Southern Ocean as a primary modulator of northern hemisphere ocean climate, as far as 15°N in the ETNP.
A Segmentation-Free Recognition of Handwritten Touching Numeral Pairs Using Modular Neural Network

The conventional approach to the recognition of handwritten touching numeral pairs uses a process with two steps; splitting the touching numerals and recognizing individual numerals. It shows a limitation mainly due to a large variation in touching styles between two numerals. In this paper, we adopt the segmentation-free approach, which regards a touching numeral pair as an atomic pattern. Two important issues are raised, i.e. solving the large-set classification and constructing a large-size training set. For the 100-class classification, we use a modular neural network which consists of 100 separate subnetworks. We construct the training set with a balance among 100 classes and using a sufficient amount by extracting actual samples from a numeral database and synthesizing samples with a scheme of forcing two numerals to touch. The experimental results show a promising performance.
Modeling lifetime of high power IGBTs in wind power applications - An overview

The wind power industry is continuously developing bringing to the market larger and larger wind turbines. Nowadays reliability is more of a concern than in the past especially for the offshore wind turbines since the access to offshore wind turbines in case of failures is both costly and difficult. Lifetime modeling of future large wind turbines is needed in order to make reliability predictions about these new wind turbines early in the design phase. By doing reliability prediction in the design phase the manufacturer can ensure that the new wind turbines will live long enough. This paper represents an overview of the different aspects of lifetime modeling of high power IGBTs in wind power applications. In the beginning, wind turbine reliability survey results are briefly reviewed in order to gain an insight into wind turbine subassembly failure rates and associated downtimes. After that the most common high power IGBT failure mechanisms and lifetime prediction models are reviewed in more detail.
Improving Data Quality in Conversion Projects: The Impact of Source Systems and Team Experience

Poor data quality has been shown to have a serious impact on organization performance including increased operational cost and ineffective decision-making. In response to poor data, many organizations take on data cleansing projects as part of ERP and data warehouse implementations. These projects can be extremely difficult and produce less than desired results. This study will examine the data cleanup efforts taken on by an organization specializing in implementing and maintaining benefits modules for an ERP system. In particular this study will build on research in traditional software development and examine the impact of the conversion and cleansing team’s experience with the source systems, the target system and systems within a similar domain on the accuracy of data following the conversion and cleanup effort.
Investigations into the quality of public services in Malaysia

This thesis emerged as a result from the desire to know how the Public Service of Malaysia is coping up with the demands of quality services from the public. The Public Service, in meeting the aspirations of the Government, on providing quality services to the public, has introduced a number of quality programmes. In spite of this positive move to inculcate a quality work culture among the Public Service employees, the public is said to be still complaining about public services. In this situation, investigations are required to determine the true status of the level of quality of services delivered by the Public Service. These investigations involved measuring service quality and the SERVQUAL instrument of measuring service quality, which has been tested for its reliability, has been introduced. After obtaining the measurements, shown in the form of service quality gaps, further investigations was carried out to identify the cause of the service quality gaps. It was discovered that service quality can be affected by the internal service gaps and in this case, the service performance gap is the main cause of the service quality gap. Further investigations narrowed down the cause of the service quality gap to performance appraisal. Therefore insight was gained about the improper implementation of performance appraisal which can affect quality. The invaluable fmdings obtained from the thesis about the Public Service prompted suggestions to be made about ways of improving quality services delivered by the Public Service.
Learning Deep Energy Models: Contrastive Divergence vs. Amortized MLE

We propose a number of new algorithms for learning deep energy models and demonstrate their properties. We show that our SteinCD performs well in term of test likelihood, while SteinGAN performs well in terms of generating realistic looking images. Our results suggest promising directions for learning better models by combining GAN-style methods with traditional energy-based learning.
Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) vs placebo in patients with moderately advanced IgA nephropathy: a double-blind randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is the most common form of glomerulonephritis worldwide. Up to 40% progress to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) over 10-20 years. Currently, treatment is limited. We studied the use of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) vs placebo in a group of North American IgAN patients at high risk for progressive disease. METHODS Included were 32 patients aged 18-75 years from multiple centres who had their biopsies read at Columbia and who had at least 1 g of proteinuria per day plus at least two of the following risk factors: (i) male sex; (ii) hypertension >150/90 mmHg or requiring antihypertensive medications; (iii) creatinine clearance, measured by 24 h urine collection, <80 and >20 ml/min at time of enrolment; and (iv) presence of glomerulosclerosis or tubulointerstitial atrophy and fibrosis on renal biopsy. Patients were randomized to either 1 year of MMF, titrated up to a dose of 1000 mg bid, or placebo. Total follow-up was 2 years. All patients received angiotensin inhibition medication. The primary outcome was a 50% increase in baseline serum creatinine (SCr). Secondary outcomes were an increase of 0.5 mg/dl SCr, ESRD and a 50% reduction in proteinuria. RESULTS The mean baseline SCr was 2.4 mg/dl. No statistically significant differences were observed for any outcome. Five of 17 who received MMF vs two of 15 patients in the placebo group reached a 50% increase in SCr (P = 0.4). In both groups, all patients who reached the primary outcome also reached ESRD. Ten who received MMF vs seven who received placebo had a 0.5 mg/dl increase in SCr (P = 0.7) Only three MMF and two placebo patients had a 50% reduction in 24 h proteinuria. No serious adverse events occurred in either group. CONCLUSION No benefit was seen in patients who received MMF in this high risk group, probably reflecting the relatively advanced stage of disease of our population. We conclude that MMF is probably not effective in patients with IgAN who already have moderate renal insufficiency.
A chemiluminescence flow-based procedure for determination of carbaryl in natural waters exploiting multicommutation and enzymatic reaction

A chemiluminescence procedure for the determination of carbaryl in natural waters using acetylcholinesterase and choline oxidase is described. The flow system designed to implement multicommutation approach controlled by microcomputer comprised five solenoid valves, two columns with immobilized enzymes on controlled pore glass beads and chemiluminometric flow cell. In the best experimental conditions a linear response ranging from 25 to 700 µg L-1 carbaryl was obtained. Water samples were spiked with carbaryl in order to access the accuracy and recoveries between 95 and 101% were obtained for a concentration level ranging from 25 to 100 µg L-1 carbaryl. Detection limit and variation coefficient were estimated as 11 µg L-1 (99.7% confidence level) and 1.3% (n = 20), respectively. Other profitable features such as a sample throughput of 72 determinations per hour, a reagent consumption of 2.1 mg potassium hexacyano ferrate(III) and 0.069 mg luminol per determination were also achieved.
The relationship between rigidity-flexibility in children and their parents.

The inability of some individuals to alter their mode of response to stimuli with some similarities and some differences has been observed in numerous and varied areas of human activity. It has been suggested that such psychological rigidity2 is an important personality factor which circumscribes thinking, limits creativity and problem solving, and predisposes individuals toward theories of racism, prejudice and authoritarianism (I). Yet little is known concerning the genesis of rigidity. One theory proposes that rigidity is based upon learned behavior patterns and that this form of thinking and activity is transmitted from parent to child through general home atmosphere and parent-child relationships (4)This study, which was part of a larger one, deals with the assumption that there is a relationship between the degree of rigidity-flexibility displayed by children and their parents. The prediction is that in a comparatively homogeneous group of children relative rigidity-flexibility will be positively related to this same variable in the parents of the group.