Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Online detection and estimation of grid impedance variation for Distributed Power Generation

A better knowledge of the grid impedance is essential in order to improve power quality and control of the Distributed Power Generation Systems (DPGS) and also for a safe connection or reconnection to the utility grid. An LCL-filter associated to a Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) is usually used in DPGS based on renewable energy. The VSI controller is used to determine the grid impedance in both healthy operation and faulty modes. When grid faults occurence, the grid impedance variations have a considerable influence on the control and the stability of the system, even on the decision to disconnect the DPG systems of the network. This work presents a rapid and simple technique to detect the grid impedance variation and to determine the grid impedance before and after grid faults accurs. Implementation on FPGA control board, simulations and experimental results are presented to validate the described method.
Vision-Based Method for Forward Vehicle Brake Lights Recognition

This paper presents a recognition algorithm combining the vehicle detection and the color difference of RGB color space to recognize the brake-lights state of moving vehicles in order to achieve the intelligent-car’s rear-end collision warning about the vehicle in front of it. Firstly, we train and build AdaBoost cascade classifier by haar features samples and scaling sub-windows are used to detect the target vehicle from the region of interest of the resized image. Then we compare the adjacent frames to recognize brake light status, which including using color, shape, structural features to identify the third brake light; comparing the center of gravity coordinates and the color difference threshold to rear brake lights when vehicles are not red or yellow; according to subtraction of each RGB corresponding channel, binarization, and the color difference threshold of RGB color space to identify the red or yellow vehicles’ brake lights. Finally, experiments show that the algorithm can detect the front vehicle’s braking quickly and accurately.
Testing Speech Recognition in Spanish-English Bilingual Children with the Computer-Assisted Speech Perception Assessment (CASPA): Initial Report

This study evaluated the English version of Computer-Assisted Speech Perception Assessment (E-CASPA) with Spanish-English bilingual children. E-CASPA has been evaluated with monolingual English speakers ages 5 years and older, but it is unknown whether a separate norm is necessary for bilingual children. Eleven Spanish-English bilingual and 12 English monolingual children (6 to 12 years old) with normal hearing participated. Responses were scored by word, phoneme, consonant, and vowel. Regardless of scores, performance across three signal-to-noise ratio conditions was similar between groups, suggesting that the same norm can be used for both bilingual and monolingual children.
Dietary fat and early-onset prostate cancer risk

The UK incidence of prostate cancer has been increasing in men aged < 60 years. Migrant studies and global and secular variation in incidence suggest that modifiable factors, including a high-fat diet, may contribute to prostate cancer risk. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of dietary fat intake and its derivatives on early-onset prostate cancer risk. During 1999–2004, a population-based case–control study with 512 cases and 838 controls was conducted. Cases were diagnosed with prostate cancer when ≤ 60 years. Controls were sourced from UK GP practice registers. A self-administered FFQ collected data on typical past diet. A nutritional database was used to calculate daily fat intake. A positive, statistically significant risk estimate for the highest v. lowest quintile of intake of total fat, SFA, MUFA and PUFA was observed when adjusted for confounding variables: OR 2·53 (95 % CI 1·72, 3·74), OR 2·49 (95 % CI 1·69, 3·66), OR 2·69 (95 % CI 1·82, 3·96) and OR 2·34 (95 % CI 1·59, 3·46), respectively, with all P for trend < 0·001. In conclusion, there was a positive statistically significant association between prostate cancer risk and energy-adjusted intake of total fat and fat subtypes. These results potentially identify a modifiable risk factor for early-onset prostate cancer.
Human Mesenchymal Stem (Stromal) Cells Promote the Resolution of Acute Lung Injury in Part through Lipoxin A4

Previous studies demonstrated that bone marrow–derived mesenchymal stem (stromal) cells (MSCs) reduce the severity of acute lung injury in animal models and in an ex vivo perfused human lung model. However, the mechanisms by which MSCs reduce lung injury are not well understood. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that human MSCs promote the resolution of acute lung injury in part through the effects of a specialized proresolving mediator lipoxin A4 (LXA4). Human alveolar epithelial type II cells and MSCs expressed biosynthetic enzymes and receptors for LXA4. Coculture of human MSCs with alveolar epithelial type II cells in the presence of cytomix significantly increased the production of LXA4 by 117%. The adoptive transfer of MSCs after the onset of LPS-induced acute lung injury (ALI) in mice led to improved survival (48 h), and blocking the LXA4 receptor with WRW4, a LXA4 receptor antagonist, significantly reversed the protective effect of MSCs on both survival and the accumulation of pulmonary edema. LXA4 alone improved survival in mice, and it also significantly decreased the production of TNF-α and MIP-2 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. In summary, these experiments demonstrated two novel findings: human MSCs promote the resolution of lung injury in mice in part through the proresolving lipid mediator LXA4, and LXA4 itself should be considered as a therapeutic for acute respiratory distress syndrome.
Effects of religiosity on consumer attitudes toward Islamic banking in Egypt

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of Islamic religiosity on consumer attitudes toward Islamic banking in Egypt. Design/methodology/approach – The study utilizes a mixed-methods approach, employing both qualitative in-depth interviews and quantitative surveys. Findings – The main findings of the study show that religiosity has an impact on consumer attitudes toward Islamic banking in Egypt. Major religiosity clusters were identified from the sample and these were associated with attitudes toward Islamic banking. Practical implications – The findings of this research are of practical importance for marketers in Islamic banks, as they reflect on the likely role religiosity would play in shaping the attitudes of potential customers toward their products. Thus, marketers can use the religiosity scale in measuring intention to use their banking services. Originality/value – The study was implemented in Egypt, where the volume of research on this topic is very limited; thus the context.
Fluticasone propionate/salmeterol for the treatment of chronic-obstructive pulmonary disease

Chronic-obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a global public health problem and its impact is increasing. Although only smoking cessation has been shown to alter the natural history of the disease, current treatment guidelines recommend the use of inhaled bronchodilators to decrease symptoms, improve lung function and quality of life and to prevent exacerbations. For a subset of patients with more severe disease, inhaled corticosteroids may also have a role in achieving these goals. Fluticasone propionate/salmeterol (Advair® or Seretide®, GlaxoSmithKline) is a combination inhaled steroid and long-acting bronchodilator that is delivered by a dry-powder inhaler and was recently approved for use in COPD in the US. Fluticasone propionate/salmeterol is a potent bronchodilator and also appears to have important effects on the frequency of exacerbations and overall quality of life for some patients with COPD. Issues of patient selection as well as the pharmacology, efficacy and safety of the drug are discussed.
Walkability in upper east Texas cities and implications for physical activity and health

Introduction: Physical activity is an important intervention strategy against the increasing cases of overweight and obesity in the USA and many other parts of the world. Walking has been identified as a component of physical activity that can easily be incorporated into one’s lifestyle. Recent studies on physical activity have focused on promoting walking as a health enhancing endeavor. Purpose: This study examined the walkability of the environments in 57 cities drawn from 22 different counties in upper east Texas within the USA. Methods and materials: The data for all the 57 key cities in upper east Texas were collected from the Walkscore.com. Results: It was established that 13 (22.8%) of the cities had walkable scores below 24%; 26 (45.6%) had between 25 and 49; 13 (22.8%) between 51 and 69; 4 (7%) had between 70 and 89, and only one city had a score of 91. Discussion: The vast majority of cities (39, 68.42%) had walkable scores that show a high dependability on vehicle transport; with only 5 (8.8%) cities being rated as very walkable or a walker’s paradise. This reflects a high dependence on vehicles in the upper east Texas region and therefore minimal walking. Recommendations: There is need to actively pursue an agenda that promotes infrastructural investments that can bring about ease of walking and accessibility of community services at close range. Stakeholders need to collectively come together to generate interventions that can enhance the well-being of the residents in of upper east Texas.
Architecture for Privacy in Cloud of Things

A large number of devices are connected to the internet through the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm, resulting in a huge amount of produced data. Cloud computing is a computing paradigm currently adopted to process, store and provide access control to these data. This integration is called Cloud of Things CoT and is useful in personal networks, like residential automation and health care, since it facilitates the access to the information. Although this integration brings benefits to the users, it introduces many security challenges since the information leaves the user control and is stored at the cloud providers. Particularly interesting, in order for these technologies to be adopted, it is important to provide protocols and mechanisms to preserve the users privacy when storing their data in the cloud. In this context, this paper proposes an architecture for privacy in Cloud of Things, which allows the users to fully control the access to the data generated by the devices of their IoT networks and stored in the cloud. The proposed architecture enables a fine grained control over data, since the privacy protocols and controls are executed at the IoT devices instead of at the network border by a gateway, which also could represent a single point of failure or a component that could impair the security properties of the system once it is compromised by a successful attack.
The Role of the Thymus in Myasthenia Gravis: Immunohistological and Immunological Studies in 115 Cases a

The thymus and its cellular products, the T cells, are involved in many aspects of autoimmune diseases. T cells may act as effector cells, as is suspected in chronic active hepatitis and in type I diabetes. They may also operate as helper T cells for autoantibody formation. Last, suppressor T cells are known to regulate negatively humoral and cell-mediated autoimmune responses, and their deficiency has been incriminated in the pathogenesis of several experimental and clinical autoimmune diseases. These contrasting actions explain why thymectomy may show diverse effects on the course of experimental autoimmune diseases. Neonatal thymectomy prevents the onset of lupus in MRL/l mice, of diabetes in NOD mice, and of most experimentally induced autoimmune diseases. Conversely, it aggravates the lupus of NZB (NZB X NZW) F1 and B X SB mice and the thyroiditis of obese strain chickens. ’. ’ Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease associated with antibodies against acetylcholine receptor ( AChR). Several arguments suggest the existence of a close relationship between disease pathogenesis and thymus function. The disease is frequently associated with morphological abnormalities of the thymus gland (hyperplasia or thym~ma);~. ‘ thymectomy has been reported to improve the symptoms of the disease; 5*6 thymocytes from myasthenics produce anti-AChR antibodies;’. ’ and their epithelial cells synthesize increased amounts of thymic hormone^,^ one of which has been reported to depress neuromuscular conduction. lo Last, the presence of AChR in extracts of myasthenic thymuses can be demonstrated both by its function (abungarotoxin binding) and its antigenicity (cross-immunoreactivity with muscle AChR). ”. ’’ It is the purpose of this article to review the data in the literature and
Comparing export marketing channels: developed versus developing countries

The article presents a qualitative model, derived from the transaction cost and resource dependence theory, to compare the business relationships in the marketing channels between footwear buyers in The Netherlands and Uganda, and their suppliers. The observed business relationships are used to design an export‐marketing channel for Eritrean footwear manufacturers looking for new export market opportunities. The findings show that the design of the export marketing channels for Uganda and The Netherlands differs as a result of the transaction costs involved. Taking into account the weak resource base of the Eritrean manufacturers, we conclude that it may be easier for them to enter the Dutch market than the Ugandan market.
Active frequency selective surfaces for beam switching applications

In this paper, a beam switching antenna with a novel active frequency selective surface (AFSS) is proposed at 5.2 GHz. The antenna is composed of an omnidirectional patch antenna and AFSS. The AFSS is made up of 6 columns, each with 2 unit cells, which are placed vertically around a patch antenna to form a hexagonal wall. To steer beam of the antenna, high frequency pin diodes are precisely inserted into the AFSS to reconfigure electromagnetic (EM) response of surfaces. The reflection and transmission characteristics of the proposed AFSS unit cell are investigated. The simulation results show that the transmission and reflection bands of AFSS unit cell can be changed by setting diodes on and off. This new AFSS can be used to implement a sweeping radiation pattern at all azimuth angles. The antenna can sweep the entire azimuth plane in six steps and effectively operate over a bandwidth of more than 500 MHz.
[Decrease in smoking by Parisians students after the launch and implementation of a national cancer prevention plan].

UNLABELLED The French national cancer prevention plan launched in 2003 led many smokers to quit; however, no data is available on the rates of French adolescents who have begun smoking. METHOD Every year since 1991, the Paris without Tobacco (PST) organisation carries out a cross-sectional survey among Parisian teenagers. The data from 2003-2004 have been compared with data from years prior to the implementation of the cancer prevention plan. RESULTS Of a total of 54,781 youth questioned, quasi-stability in tobacco consumption (4%) was observed. Tobacco consumption has dramatically decreased since the launch of the national cancer plan: - 80% in 12-13 year olds, - 61% in 14-15 year olds, and - 55% in 16-17 year olds. This drop is linked to the decrease in numbers of adolescents who start to smoke before the age of 16. After 16 years of age, one-quarter of this decrease is explained and accounted for by the increase in the rate of ex-smokers. CONCLUSIONS There are numerous reasons available to elucidate this rapid "denormalisation" of tobacco and smoking in general. The data testify to the success of the establishment and implementation of tobacco prevention campaigns and interventions called for within the framework of the National Cancer Plan.
Influence of pineal gland on the growth and spread of melanoma in the hamster.

Summary Pigmented malignant melanoma (M Mel No. 1) was transplanted into the subcutaneous tissue of the dorsum of control, sham-operated, and pinealectomized Syrian hamsters of both sexes and weighing between 80 and 110 gm. Animals from each group were sacrificed at regular intervals and autopsied. The pinealectomized group of hamsters had significantly larger primary tumors and more extensive metastases than the control or sham-operated animals at every phase of the study. It is felt that these findings are possible indications of a relationship between the pineal gland and growth and spread of pigmented melanomata in hamsters.
What's up? The Margaret Thatcher Illusion Revisited

Thompson (1980) turned the eyes and mouth in a picture of Margaret Thatcher upside down. When viewed with the entire picture inverted, the expression of the changed picture did not look very different from the original. When the pictures were viewed upright the changed picture was revealed to have a grotesque expression. Parks (1983) demonstrated a similar effect with a printed name. An inverted letter in the name was inconspicuous when the whole name was inverted, but revealed by viewing the name upright. Parks argued that an inverted face or printed word is a less powerful frame of reference than an upright face or word. Therefore, the radical change in the picture of Thompson's illusion is only conspicuous when the powerful upright frame of reference is present. Parks pointed out that the 'frame' of an upright face includes the relative position of the eyes and mouth as well as the external features. This suggests that the frame given by both the internal and the external features contributes to the grotesque expression being seen only in the upright face. Figure 1 shows a picture of Margaret Thatcher in which the position but not the orientation of the eyes and mouth has been altered. If the figure is rotated through 180° (so that the frame given by the external features is upside down), the grotesque
Changes in charge trapping/detrapping in polymeric materials and its relation with aging

In the present paper, characteristics of charge trapping and detrapping in low density polyethylene under dc electric field have been investigated using the pulsed electroacoustic technique. Both normal and gamma-irradiated LDPE samples have been investigated to assess the effect of chemical changes on charge trapping/detrapping dynamics. A simple trapping and detrapping model based on two different trapping levels has been applied to experimental data. It has been found that there are increases in both trap concentration and trap depth, especially deep trap concentration after gamma irradiation, indicating that physical and chemical changes brought by irradiation have caused some changes in trapping characteristics of LDPE. The present findings suggest that the model could be used to describe any physical and chemical changes occurred in a material and number of traps and trap density especially for the concentration of deep traps could be used as ageing markers.
Exponential smoothing techniques on time series river water level data

The increasing of river water level usually happens during raining season.This event can lead to devastating flash flood, which would eventually cause damage to properties and possibly, loss of human life.Such event is also known as extreme event due to the nature of the data produced, which mostly consist of non linear pattern of data.The existence of nonlinear pattern and noise data greatly affect the quality of prediction result.Three exponential smoothing techniques have been investigated to study their ability in handling extreme river water level time series data, which are Single Exponential Smoothing Technique, Double Exponential Smoothing Technique and Holt’s Method.The techniques were performed on river water level data from three rivers in Perlis, Malaysia.From the experiments, it was found that all the three techniques have their own limitations in handling extreme data, with Double Exponential Smoothing Technique to perform better than its counterpart.
Transition to a Web‐supported Curriculum

Stimulating faculty to adopt an innovation of online learning in a registered nurse (RN) completion program was the focus of a faculty retreat seminar to launch a transition to a Web-supported curriculum. This article follows the planning and implementation that initiated curriculum transition to a Web-supported format using Roger's innovation-diffusion framework. Web-supported courses include an online component in combination with face-to-face instruction. The factors that influence innovation adoption, specifically relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability, framed the discussion of principles. Approaches used to garner faculty involvement in the curriculum transition are discussed, and highlighted are considerations for teaching the utilization of course management software, along with faculty preparation for initiating online learning for the first time.
Dynamic platelet adhesion in patients with an acute coronary syndrome: The effect of antiplatelet therapy

Abstract Platelet adhesion and aggregation are key functions leading to thrombus formation. The effect of aspirin, clopidogrel, and ticagrelor on platelet aggregation has been well established, however, there is limited data on the effect of these drugs on platelet adhesion. We therefore evaluated the effect of these drugs on platelet adhesion in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients. Citrated blood was collected from 50 ACS patients loaded with 325 mg of aspirin (baseline) and at 5 days after the administration of aspirin 100 mg/day and clopidogrel (600 mg loading dose, 75 mg/day) (n = 26) or ticagrelor (180 mg loading dose, 90 mg × 2/day) (n = 24). High on-treatment platelet reactivity (HTPR) to clopidogrel was estimated by vasodilator stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) phosphorylation assay. Platelet adhesion to collagen was studied for 6 min under high shear stress and was evaluated using the time to platelet recruitment (TPR), the perimeter and average area of each adherent object, number of adherent objects, and the total percent of surface coverage (SC%). Six ACS patients exhibited HTPR to clopidogrel and excluded from the platelet adhesion assays. TPR and SC% values were similar among patient groups at baseline and controls. However, all other adhesion parameters were different in ACS patients, indicating the formation of more aggregates in regard to controls. At 5 days post-treatment with either clopidogrel or ticagrelor, the TPR values were increased and the SC% values were reduced to a similar extent compared with baseline. However, significant differences were observed in the ticagrelor group in the perimeter, number of adherent objects, and the average area of each adherent object indicating a more potent inhibition of adherence-induced platelet aggregation than clopidogrel. In conclusion, aspirin does not affect platelet adherence to collagen, whereas clopidogrel and ticagrelor inhibit to a similar extent dynamic platelet adhesion at 5 days post-treatment in ACS patients. However, ticagrelor exhibits a greater inhibitory effect on reducing adhesion-induced platelet aggregation.