Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A dipping, thick segment of the Farallon Slab beneath central U.S.

It has been hypothesized that much of the crustal deformation attributed to the Laramide orogeny of the southwest North American Cordillera was caused by dynamic effects induced by the flat subduction of a large oceanic plateau that was embedded within the Farallon Plate. Previous studies have identified within the North American mantle a seismic velocity anomaly that plausibly represents the remnants of the subducted plateau. Coupled plate kinematic and dynamic modeling of the anomaly, as well as surface geological findings, identify this anomaly as the subducted conjugate to the Shatsky Rise. Here we find clear evidence for a northeastward dipping (35° dip), thick (up to 400 km thick) slab‐like seismic velocity anomaly within the top of the lower mantle below the central United States. Using a deep focus earthquake below Spain, we find that the observed seismic waveforms recorded with the dense USArray display multipathing indicative of sharp surfaces. Plate tectonic reconstructions in which the anomaly is migrated back in time suggest strong coupling of the plateau‐thickened slab segment to the overriding North America Plate as it was subducted. In combination with the reconstructions, we interpret the structure as arising from eastward dipping Farallon subduction at the western margin of North America during the Cretaceous, in contrast with some recent interpretations. It appears that the plateau area of the slab has been further thickened, which might undergo a combination of pure shear bulk shortening during flat‐slab subduction and/or by a folding instability during penetration into the lower mantle.
Mitigating the effect of series capacitance unbalance on the voltage reduction capability of an auxiliary CSI used as switching ripple active filter

The use of series connected capacitors for high voltage applications has been proven to be beneficial for voltage stress reduction across power semiconductors. In a 3-phase grid any asymmetry in the value of the series capacitance may lead to significant variations in the voltage seen across the low voltage converter. This paper investigates the effects of an unbalanced set of series connected capacitors used to reduce the voltage stress across a three phase current source inverter (CSI) used as an active power filter and proposes a method to minimize the impact of unbalance on CSI voltage ratings. It is shown that through a proposed solution which adjusts the level of inverse sequence current component in the series capacitors, the reduced CSI voltage stress can be maintained for large capacitor unbalance and validated by simulation and experimental results.
Internet‐based information systems use in organizations: an information studies perspective

Abstract. This case study investigates various ways in which different internet‐based information systems (IS) are used by organizational participants. Borrowing theoretical insights on information behaviour accumulated over 50 years of information studies research, a conceptual framework is presented to help understand and assess the social and organizational impacts of internet‐based IS. The framework describes the use of internet‐based IS as a dynamic cycle of information needs–seeking–use activity situated in the context of a firm's information environment. Research questions pertain to the process of how individuals in organizations seek and use information from internet‐based IS to satisfy information needs. In terms of information needs, this involves understanding the problem situations that lead participants to use internet‐based IS, as well as the characteristics of those problems beyond subject matter. With respect to information seeking, this involves analysing how information from internet‐based systems is displayed and formatted to signal their potential usefulness. In terms of information use, this involves how information obtained from internet‐based systems is used in practice to resolve or redefine problems. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are used. Data collection involves web tracking to identify significant episodes of internet‐based IS activity, as well as one‐on‐one interviews to explore the context behind these episodes. Results suggest that it is possible and valuable to identify scenarios of internet‐based IS use dominant in an organizational work setting. Doing so can help to identify ways to improve the situated use of internet‐based IS that ameliorate the information needs–seeking–use cycle in firms.
Foragers, fishers and farmers: origins of the Taiwanese Neolithic

The Neolithic of Taiwan represents the first stage in the expansion of Austronesian-speaking peoples through the Pacific. Settlement and burial evidence from the Tapenkeng (TKP) or Dabenkeng culture demonstrates the development of the early Taiwanese Neolithic over a period of almost 2000 years, from its origin in the pre-TPK of the Pearl River Delta and south-eastern coastal China. The first TPK communities of Taiwan pursued a mixed coastal foraging and horticultural lifestyle, but by the late TPK rice and millet farming were practised with extensive villages and large settlements. The broad-spectrum subsistence diversity of the Taiwanese Neolithic was an important factor in facilitating the subsequent expansion of Austronesian-speaking peoples to the Philippines and beyond.
Anatomical changes of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) under phosphorus deficiency stress

Phosphorus deficiency in lentil ( Lens culinaris Medik.) resulted in the development of abundant long root hairs which were rudimentary in plants fed with phosphorus. Root and stem diameter as well as thickness of leaf reduced under phosphorus deficiency. The cortical zone of the stem and root was found to decrease under phosphorus deficiency. Vascular area became smaller with less number of xylem vessels and smaller size of the cavity due to phosphorus deficiency. The pith area was increased in the stem under phosphorus deficient condition. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.3329/bjb.v44i1. 22726 Bangladesh J. Bot. 44 (1): 73-78, 2015 (March)
Content-Based Video Coding for Remote Monitoring of Neurosurgery

Transmitting high-quality neurophysiology video via the Internet is a challenging problem in telemedicine. We propose a novel content-selective video data processing and compression method based on the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). Our algorithm is adaptive to intraoperative monitoring video data and has a great scalability on real-time network bandwidth allocation. When compared with the general-purpose video compression methods, our method offers higher quality within the critical field of neurosurgery.
Implementation of Frequency Domain Approach Using Instantaneous Mixing Auto Recursive for Separation of Speech Signals

In the present work a novel algorithmic rule by taking the speech from two different microphones and separate these speeches by prediction of separating speech mixtures that is predicated on separation matrices is planned. In multitalker applications so as to boost individual speech sources from their mixtures is done by Blind source Separation (BSS) ways. From the previous published works of separation of speech signals, the main disadvantage is that the incidence of distortion present within the signal that affects separated signal with loud musical noise. The idea for speech separation in standard BSS ways is simply one sound source in a single room. The proposed methodology uses as a network that has the parameters of the IMAR model for the separation matrices over the complete frequency vary. An attempt has been made to estimate the best values of the IMAR model parameters, and by suggests that of the maximum-likelihood estimation W G methodology. Based on the values of these parameters, the source spectral part vectors are estimated. The entire set of TIMIT corpus is employed for speech materials in evolution results. The Signal to Interference magnitude Relation (SIR) improves by a median of 6dB sound unit over a frequency domain BSS approach.
Body representations in schizophrenia: an alteration of body structural description is common to people with schizophrenia while alterations of body image worsen with passivity symptoms

ABSTRACT Introduction: Individuals with schizophrenia, particularly those with passivity symptoms, often feel that their actions and thoughts are controlled by an external agent. Recent evidence has elucidated the role of body representations in the aetiology of passivity symptoms, yet one representation – body structural description – has not yet been examined. Additionally, body image has rarely been examined outside of bodily illusions (e.g., rubber hand experiments) and external validation is required. Methods: Body structural description was assessed with an in-between task and a matching body parts by location task, and body image with a questionnaire examining body distortion experiences (containing subscales assessing boundary loss, depersonalisation and body size distortions). Individuals with schizophrenia (20 with current, 12 with past and 21 with no history of passivity symptoms) and 48 healthy controls participated in the study. Results: People with schizophrenia (as a group) made more errors on the in-between task, but not on the matching body parts by location task. Individuals with current passivity symptoms reported greater distortions on all subscales relative to the other clinical samples, except for experiences of boundary loss which were common to both passivity symptom groups. Conclusions: The results indicate that body structural description may be altered in schizophrenia generally and body image alterations are worsened in passivity symptoms, and these alterations likely contribute to the emergence of passivity symptoms.
Channel Temperature Analysis of GaN HEMTs With Nonlinear Thermal Conductivity

This paper presents an enhanced, closed-form expression for the thermal resistance, and thus, the channel temperature of AlGaN/gallium nitride (GaN) HEMTs, including the effect of the temperature-dependent thermal conductivity of GaN and SiC or Si substrates. In addition, the expression accounts for temperature increase across the die-attach. The model's validity is verified by comparing it with experimental observations. The model results also compare favorably with those from finite-element numerical simulations across the various device geometric and material parameters. The model provides a more accurate channel temperature than that from a constant thermal conductivity assumption; this is particularly significant for GaN/Si HEMTs where the temperature rise is higher than in GaN/SiC. The model is especially useful for device and monolithic microwave integrated circuit designers in the thermal assessment of their device design iterations against required performance for their specific applications.
Finite control set model predictive control with reduced switching frequency applied to multi-cell rectifiers

The utilization of multi-cell converters, through the use of low voltage semiconductors, has permitted to implement medium and high voltage applications as PV farms and AC drives. In conventional AC drives, this converter requires an input multipulse transformer, which allows the low frequency harmonic cancellation that are generated by the three-phase diode rectifiers included in each cell. This multipulse transformer is bulky, heavy, expensive, and must be designed according to the number of power cells, making the transformer topology dependent. This work proposes and evaluates a harmonic minimization strategy based on a Finite Control Set - Model Predictive Control (FCS - MPC), which emulates the harmonic cancellation of a multi-pulse transformer. This feature allows the minimization of the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of the AC grid current of the multi-cell converter. The evaluation is focused in one disadvantage of the FCS - MPC which is its high switching frequency that causes high losses in the semiconductors. To overcome this disadvantage, an additional objective function is proposed. Simulation results prove the theory, with satisfactory results.
Pleasant events, activity restriction, and blood pressure in dementia caregivers.

OBJECTIVE A combination of high engagement in pleasurable activities and low perceived activity restriction is potentially protective for a number of health and quality of life outcomes. This study tests the newly proposed Pleasant Events and Activity Restriction (PEAR) model to explain level of blood pressure (BP) in a sample of elderly dementia caregivers. METHODS This cross-sectional study included 66 caregivers, ≥55 years of age, providing in-home care to a relative with dementia. Planned comparisons were made to assess group differences in BP between caregivers reporting high engagement in pleasant events plus low perceived activity restriction (HPLR; n = 22) to those with low pleasure plus high restriction (LPHR; n = 23) or those with either high pleasure plus high restriction or low pleasure plus low restriction (HPHR/LPLR; n = 21). RESULTS After adjustments for age, sex, body mass index, use of antihypertensive medication, physical activity, and number of health problems, HPLR participants (86.78 mm|Hg) had significantly lower mean arterial pressure compared with LPHR participants (94.70 mm|Hg) (p = .01, Cohen's d = 0.89) and HPHR/LPLR participants (94.84 mm|Hg) (p = .023, d = 0.91). Similar results were found in post hoc comparisons of both systolic and diastolic BP. CONCLUSIONS This study extends support for the PEAR model to physical health outcomes. Differences in BP between the HPLR group and other groups were of large magnitude and thus clinically meaningful. The findings may inform intervention studies aimed at investigating whether increasing pleasant events and lowering perceived activity restriction may lower BP.
Impedance matching strategy for physical human robot interaction control

Effective and stable execution of a human-robot interaction task requires the force and position trajectories of the robot are commanded properly according to the time-varying human arm behavior. In this paper, we aim to realize a direct and physical interaction task between the human hand and robotic arm end-effector. A computationally efficient Cartesian stiffness estimation model of human arm is first employed, which accounts for the geometric and volume modifications of the Cartesian stiffness profile through the arm posture and the activation levels of the two dominant upper arm muscles (i.e., Biceps and Triceps) respectively. Two Myo armbands are attached on the upper arm and the forearm with their built-in gyroscopes and wireless electromyography sensors (EMG) tracking the arm posture and the activation levels of the two muscles respectively. This stiffness estimation model is then extended to the full impedance sense by considering the mass and damping items supplementarily. Once the impedance estimation model is available after the calibration in various arm configurations and muscle activation levels. We employed Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) to computing the corresponding impedance model of the robot to match the estimated human arm behavior. An adaptive controller base on Function Approximation Technique (FAT) is employed to control the robot trajectory in joint space to realize the matching impedance behavior. The corresponding simulation results show that the proposed scheme is stable and effecitve.
Improving the Transmission Efficiency by Considering Non-Cooperation in Ad Hoc Networks

In ad hoc networks, each node is required to forward packets for others. However, based on energy consumption considerations, a node may reject other nodes’ forwarding requests to save the limited battery power for its own data transmission. Therefore, a lot of incentive schemes have been proposed to promote the cooperation of the nodes. Most of the existing research work assumes that all the nodes in the network should provide full cooperation in order to optimize the transmission efficiency. However, this assumption is too strict because the activities of the nodes in ad hoc networks have some inherent uncertainty. In this paper, we propose a power control mechanism in ad hoc networks under a dynamic repeated game-theoretic framework. A notion of nodes’ evaluation levels for the future experiences is defined to take account of the non-cooperation due to the inherent uncertainty in the ad hoc network nodes’ activities. Our scheme does not require all the nodes in the ad hoc network to absolutely cooperate with each other. The simulation results show that, compared with the existing schemes, our power control mechanism considering non-cooperative packet forwarding improves the average transmission efficiency by ∼25% and has good scalability.
Bipolar ${\rm Ni}/{\rm TiO}_{2}/{\rm HfO}_{2}/{\rm Ni}$ RRAM With Multilevel States and Self-Rectifying Characteristics

To be compatible with 3-D vertical crossbar arrays, a TiO2/HfO2 bilayer resistive-switching memory (RRAM) cell sandwiched between Ni electrodes is developed. The proposed device has numerous highly desired features for the implementation of 3-D vertical RRAM, including: stable bipolar resistive switching; forming free; self-compliance; self-rectification; multiple resistance states; and room-temperature process. The resistive switching and current rectification are attributed to oxygen vacancy migration in HfO2 and potential barrier modulation of the asymmetric TiO2/HfO2 tunnel barrier. The rectification ratio up to 103 is capable of realizing a single-crossbar array up to 16 Mb for future high-density storage class memory applications.
A concise history of South Africa

List of illustrations Preface Terminology and orthography Introduction 1. The settlement of the country 2. Colonial conquest 3. Unification 4. Consolidation 5. Apartheid 6. The costs of apartheid 7: 'Let freedom reign': the ending of apartheid and the transition to democracy, 1980-1994 8. Epilogue: the acid rain of freedom Suggestions for further reading Index.
STRUCTURE OF CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS, METHODS OF ANALYSIS AND PROCESS CONTROL

The wide use of proteinase based drugs in medicine is limited because of the instability of most of these enzymatic preparations [l]. The probability of inactivation can be reduced to a certain extent by immobilizing the enzymes on a polymeric matrix [2]. At the same time, the presence of enzymatic components in the known macromolecular therapeutic systems (MTS) can markedly modify their properties. With a view to this problem and in continuation of the systematic investigation into the synthesis and characterization of polyurethane (PU)-based MTS [ 3 7], we have studied the effect of trypsin (a proteolytic enzyme used in the therapy of various diseases [8]) on the kinetics of liberation of the drug dioxidine immobilized in a foamed PU (FPU) matrix. Previously we have established that dioxidine introduced, before the synthesis of an FPU based MTS, into a polyol prepolymer (A) evolves at a significant rate from FPU into the liquid phase at temperatures above 293 K. The introduction of trypsin into prepolymer A before the MTS synthesis generally hinders the passage ofdioxidine from polymer to the liquid phase [4]. This is illustrated by data presented in Fig 1, showing the kinetic curves for the dioxidine liberation into water at 310 K at various initial trypsin concentrations C ~ in the polymer. Figure 1 also shows the dioxidine liberation rate W (calculated from the slopes of initial parts of the kinetic curves constructed in the C versus time coordinates) as a function of the initial trypsin concentrations C ~ in the polymer, plotted in the semilogarithmic coordinates. As is seen from Fig. la, the kinetic curves of the dioxidine liberation from FPU into water in the presence of trypsin are described by a linear function, which is indicative that
Conformation of phosphatidylcholine in neat and cholesterol-containing liquid-crystalline bilayers. Application of a novel method.

The conformation of phosphatidylcholine in liquid-crystalline bilayers was studied with a novel, high-resolution method employing phosphatidylcholine species containing pyrenyl moieties in both acyl chains of variable length. Analysis of the intramolecular pyrene-pyrene collision data obtained for 30 such species in terms of a simple geometrical model showed that the sn-1 acyl chain penetrates, on the average, 0.84 +/- 0.11 methylene units (0.8 A) deeper into the bilayer than the sn-2 chain at 22 degrees C. A similar value was obtained at 37 degrees C. Since the penetration difference of the sn-1 and sn-2 acyl chains is inherently coupled to the conformation of the glycerol moiety, these data mean that the glycerol moiety of phosphatidylcholine is, on the average, only moderately tilted with respect to the bilayer plane in the liquid-crystalline state. This contrasts the perpendicular orientation observed previously for phosphatidylcholine crystals [Pearson, R. H. , & Pascher, I. (1979) Nature 281, 499-501]. Importantly, addition of 50 mol % cholesterol, which is known to reduce dramatically the interactions between phosphatidylcholine molecules in bilayers, had only a small effect on the penetration difference of the acyl chains, strongly suggesting that the conformation of phosphatidylcholine in the liquid-crystalline state is determined largely by intramolecular, rather than intermolecular, interactions.
Treatment of type II odontoid fracture with a novel technique

Abstract Surgical methods for type II odontoid fracture can be classified into 2 main groups: anterior or posterior approach. A more effective way to achieve bone fusion with the lowest possible surgical risk is needed. Therefore, the aim of our study was to describe and evaluate a novel technique, cable-dragged reduction/cantilever beam internal fixation for the treatment of type II odontoid fracture. This was a retrospective study enrolled 34 patients underwent posterior cable-dragged reduction/cantilever-beam internal fixation surgery. Medical records, rates of reduction, the location of the instrumentation and fracture healing during follow-up were analyzed. Once fracture healing was obtained, instrumentation was removed. Neck pain (scored using a visual analog scale [VAS]), neck stiffness, patient satisfaction, and neck disability index (NDI) were recorded before and after removing the instrumentation during follow-up. The mean duration of follow up was 22.8 ± 5.3 months. There was no iatrogenic damage to nerves or blood vessels. Radiographic evaluation showed complete reduction in the 20 patients with fracture displacement and satisfactory fracture healing in all 34 cases. Titanium cable breakage was observed in 4 patients after fracture healing. After removal of instrumentation, significant improvements were seen in neck-pain VAS score, neck stiffness, patient satisfaction, and NDI (all P < .01). Posterior cable-dragged reduction/cantilever-beam internal fixation was an optimal salvage maneuver to conventional surgical methods such as anterior screw fixation and C1–C2 screw-rod system. The operative difficulty and incidence of nerve and vascular injury were reduced. Its major disadvantage is the exposure and screw-setting at C3, which is left intact in traditional surgery, and it is suitable only for patients with intact C1 posterior arches.