Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A single phase hybrid multilevel inverter developed from half bridge cells

Due to the increase of popularity of multilevel inverters in industrial environments, it becomes the most favorable research topic in recent years. This paper presents a single phase hybrid multilevel inverter topology developed from half bridge cells. The series connections of half-bridge cells are connected in both sides of 6 switched H-bridge cell. The proposed topology requires less switch count for generating higher output voltage levels. It works both in symmetrical and asymmetrical source configurations which makes the topology robust from the source point of view. The proposed one can be cascaded for the higher power applications. The comparison has made based on switch count and level count. It provides better comparative results with respect to other published topologies. The Nearest Level Control (NLC) modulation technique is used for the validation of proposed topology. A hardware set up is made in the laboratory and the experiment is performed with DSP board. The hardware result of maximum 37-level of output voltage is presented to validate the proposed topology. The THD values along with various voltage levels are taken to satisfy the power quality issues.
Fire resistance of preservative-treated slash pine fence posts

The influences of moisture conditioning on the load-slip responses of selected tyes of single shear nailed oriented strandboard (OSB)-to-lumber joints are discussed. At the time of joint fabrication, lumber was in green or dry (15% moisture content (MC)) state and the OSB was in a dry (3% MC) state. Sets of 10 specimens were tested 24 hours after fabrication or following conditioning to one of four new «moisture conditions. » For each of the nine alternative moisture histories, specimens were subjected to one of five short-term load cycling regimes. A total of 600 specimens were tested. The load-slip data show that both the MC of lumber at the time of joint fabrication and the MCs of jointed materials at test have strong influences on specimen load-slip responses
Physiological effects of titrated oxygen via nasal high‐flow cannulae in COPD exacerbations: A randomized controlled cross‐over trial

Increased arterial carbon dioxide tension (PaCO2 ) is an important complication of acute exacerbations of COPD. The effects of nasal high‐flow cannulae (NHF) on PaCO2 in patients with COPD exacerbations, and whether this therapy should be used in this clinical situation, are less certain. We aimed to investigate the effect of NHF on PaCO2 in patients admitted to hospital with a COPD exacerbation.
Theoretical and experimental study of semiconducting iron disilicide and its applications to thin film solar cells

Transition metal silicides have been studied extensively for many years due to their potential technological importance and applications. Recently, the semiconducting phase of iron disilicide (β-FeSi2) has received considerable attention due to its potential applications in optoelectronic and microelectronic areas. This is attributed to its direct bandgap of 0.86 eV that corresponds to ~1.5 μm of the optical fiber communication. In addition, β-FeSi2 is expected as a promising photovoltaic material with a theoretical conversion efficiency as high as 23% due to its ultrahigh optical absorption coefficient in the order of 10 cm near the absorption edge. These properties, along with other features such as abundance of constituent elements, nearly lattice-matched to Si, and high thermal stability and oxidation resistance, have made β-FeSi2 one of the most attractive materials of choice for future generation thin film photovoltaic applications. In this work, both theoretical and experimental study of β-FeSi2 was explored. The theoretical study based on the first-principles calculations provides the fundamental understanding of various properties of β-FeSi2, including equilibrium crystal structure, bandgap properties, effects of native vacancy defects, and impurity doping in β-FeSi2. The experimental study involves the formation and structural, optical, and electrical characterization of sputtered and processed β-FeSi2 as well as eventual demonstration of semiconducting β-FeSi2-based heterojunction thin film solar cells on the Si platform. First-principles calculations revealed the existence of both direct and indirect transitions in β-FeSi2 and confirmed its semiconducting property. The presence of Fe or
Oxidative damage, platelet activation, and inflammation to predict mobility disability and mortality in older persons: results from the health aging and body composition study.

BACKGROUND Inflammation, oxidative damage, and platelet activation are hypothesized biological mechanisms driving the disablement process. The aim of the present study is to assess whether biomarkers representing these mechanisms predicted major adverse health-related events in older persons. METHODS Data are from 2,234 community-dwelling nondisabled older persons enrolled in the Health Aging and Body Composition study. Biomarkers of lipid peroxidation (ie, urinary levels of 8-iso-prostaglandin F(2α)), platelet activation (ie, urinary levels of 11-dehydro-thromboxane B(2)), and inflammation (serum concentrations of interleukin-6) were considered as independent variables of interest and tested in Cox proportional hazard models as predictors of (severe) mobility disability and overall mortality. RESULTS The sample's (women 48.0%, whites 64.3%) mean age was 74.6 (SD 2.9) years. During the follow-up (median 11.4 years), 792 (35.5%), 269 (12.0%), and 942 (42.2%) events of mobility disability, severe mobility disability, and mortality occurred, respectively. Only interleukin-6 showed significant independent associations with the onset of all the study outcomes. Higher levels of urinary 8-iso-prostaglandin F(2α) and 11-dehydro-thromboxane B(2) independently predicted increased risk of death (hazard ratio 1.10, 95% confidence interval 1.03-1.19 and hazard ratio 1.14, 95% confidence interval 1.06-1.23, respectively). No significant interactions of gender, race, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and antiplatelet drugs were detected on the studied relationships. CONCLUSIONS The inflammatory marker interleukin-6 is confirmed to be a robust predictor for the onset of negative health-related events. Participants with higher urinary levels of 8-iso-prostaglandin F(2α) and 11-dehydro-thromboxane B(2) presented a higher mortality risk.
The microglial reaction signature revealed by RNAseq from individual mice

Microglial cells have a double life as the immune cells of the brain in times of stress but have also specific physiological functions in homeostatic conditions. In pathological contexts, microglia undergo a phenotypic switch called “reaction” that promotes the initiation and the propagation of neuro‐inflammation. Reaction is complex, molecularly heterogeneous and still poorly characterized, leading to the concept that microglial reactivity might be too diverse to be molecularly defined. However, it remains unknown whether reactive microglia from different pathological contexts share a common molecular signature. Using improved flow cytometry and RNAseq approaches we studied, with higher statistical power, the remodeling of microglia transcriptome in a mouse model of sepsis. Through bioinformatic comparison of our results with published datasets, we defined the microglial reactome as a set of genes discriminating reactive from homeostatic microglia. Ultimately, we identified a subset of 86 genes deregulated in both acute and neurodegenerative conditions. Our data provide a new comprehensive resource that includes functional analysis and specific molecular markers of microglial reaction which represent new tools for its unambiguous characterization.
Line segmentation for grayscale text images of khmer palm leaf manuscripts

Text line segmentation is one of the most essential pre-processing steps in character recognition and document analysis. In ancient documents, a variety of deformations caused by aging produce noises which make the binarization process very challenging. Moreover, due to the irregular layout such as skewness and fluctuation of text lines, segmenting an ancient manuscript page into lines still remains an open problem to solve. In this paper, we propose a novel line segmentation scheme for grayscale images of Khmer ancient documents. First, a stroke width transform is applied to extract connected components from the document page. The number and medial positions of text lines are estimated using a modified piece-wise projection profile technique. Those positions are then modified adaptively according to the curvature of the actual text lines. Finally, a path finding approach is used to separate touching components and also to mark the boundary of the text lines. Experiments are conducted on a dataset of 110 pages of Khmer palm leaf manuscript images by comparing the robustness of the proposed approach with existing methods from the literature.
MediaEval 2015: Music Emotion Recognition based on Feed-Forward Neural Network

In this paper, we describe the music emotion recognition system named as JU_NLP to find the dynamic valence and arousal values of a song continuously considered from 15 second to its end in an interval of 0.5 seconds. We adopted the feed-forward networks with 10 hidden layers to build the regression model. We used the correlation-based method to find out suitable features among all the features provided by the organizer. Then we applied the feedforward neural networks on the above features to find out the dynamic arousal and valence values.
Smartphone apps usage patterns as a predictor of perceived stress levels at workplace

Explosion of number of smartphone apps and their diversity has created a fertile ground to study behaviour of smartphone users. Patterns of app usage, specifically types of apps and their duration are influenced by the state of the user and this information can be correlated with the self-reported state of the users. The work in this paper is along the line of understanding patterns of app usage and investigating relationship of these patterns with the perceived stress level within the workplace context. Our results show that using a subject-centric behaviour model we can predict stress levels based on smartphone app usage. The results we have achieved, of average accuracy of 75% and precision of 85.7%, can be used as an indicator of overall stress levels in work environments and in turn inform stress reduction organisational policies, especially when considering interrelation between stress and productivity of workers.
Genetic predisposition to early recurrence in clinically localized prostate cancer

Currently available nomograms to predict preoperative risk of early biochemical recurrence (EBCR) after radical prostatectomy are solely based on classic clinicopathological variables. Despite providing useful predictions, these models are not perfect. Indeed, most researchers agree that nomograms can be improved by incorporating novel biomarkers. In the last few years, several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been associated with prostate cancer, but little is known about their impact on disease recurrence. We have identified four SNPs associated with EBCR. The addition of SNPs to classic nomograms resulted in a significant improvement in terms of discrimination and calibration. The new nomogram, which combines clinicopathological and genetic variables, will help to improve prediction of prostate cancer recurrence.
Frontoparietal tDCS Benefits Visual Working Memory in Older Adults With Low Working Memory Capacity

Working memory (WM) permits maintenance of information over brief delays and is an essential executive function. Unfortunately, WM is subject to age-related decline. Some evidence supports the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to improve visual WM. A gap in knowledge is an understanding of the mechanism characterizing these tDCS linked effects. To address this gap, we compared the effects of two tDCS montages designed on visual working memory (VWM) performance. The bifrontal montage was designed to stimulate the heightened bilateral frontal activity observed in aging adults. The unilateral frontoparietal montage was designed to stimulate activation patterns observed in young adults. Participants completed three sessions (bilateral frontal, right frontoparietal, sham) of anodal tDCS (20 min, 2 mA). During stimulation, participants performed a visual long-term memory (LTM) control task and a visual WM task. There was no effect of tDCS on the LTM task. Participants receiving right unilateral tDCS showed a WM benefit. This pattern was most robust in older adults with low WM capacity. To address the concern that the key difference between the two tDCS montages could be tDCS over the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), we included new analyses from a previous study applying tDCS targeting the PPC paired with a recognition VWM task. No significant main effects were found. A subsequent experiment in young adults found no significant effect of either tDCS montage on either task. These data indicate that tDCS montage, age and WM capacity should be considered when designing tDCS protocols. We interpret these findings as suggestive that protocols designed to restore more youthful patterns of brain activity are superior to those that compensate for age-related changes.
SNP Design from 454 Sequencing of Podosphaera plantaginis Transcriptome Reveals a Genetically Diverse Pathogen Metapopulation with High Levels of Mixed-Genotype Infection

Background Molecular tools may greatly improve our understanding of pathogen evolution and epidemiology but technical constraints have hindered the development of genetic resources for parasites compared to free-living organisms. This study aims at developing molecular tools for Podosphaera plantaginis, an obligate fungal pathogen of Plantago lanceolata. This interaction has been intensively studied in the Åland archipelago of Finland with epidemiological data collected from over 4,000 host populations annually since year 2001. Principal Findings A cDNA library of a pooled sample of fungal conidia was sequenced on the 454 GS-FLX platform. Over 549,411 reads were obtained and annotated into 45,245 contigs. Annotation data was acquired for 65.2% of the assembled sequences. The transcriptome assembly was screened for SNP loci, as well as for functionally important genes (mating-type genes and potential effector proteins). A genotyping assay of 27 SNP loci was designed and tested on 380 infected leaf samples from 80 populations within the Åland archipelago. With this panel we identified 85 multilocus genotypes (MLG) with uneven frequencies across the pathogen metapopulation. Approximately half of the sampled populations contain polymorphism. Our genotyping protocol revealed mixed-genotype infection within a single host leaf to be common. Mixed infection has been proposed as one of the main drivers of pathogen evolution, and hence may be an important process in this pathosystem. Significance The developed SNP panel offers exciting research perspectives for future studies in this well-characterized pathosystem. Also, the transcriptome provides an invaluable novel genomic resource for powdery mildews, which cause significant yield losses on commercially important crops annually. Furthermore, the features that render genetic studies in this system a challenge are shared with the majority of obligate parasitic species, and hence our results provide methodological insights from SNP calling to field sampling protocols for a wide range of biological systems.
Efficient and Secure Certificateless Proxy Re-Encryption

In this paper, we present an IND-CCA2 secure certificateless proxy re-encryption scheme in the random oracle model. A certificateless public key cryptography simplifies the certificate management in a traditional public key infrastructure and the built-in key escrow feature in an identity-based public key cryptography. Our scheme shares the merits of certificateless public key encryption cryptosystems and proxy re-encryption cryptosystems. Our certificateless proxy re-encryption scheme has several practical and useful properties - namely, multi-use, unidirectionality, non-interactivity, non-transitivity and so on. The security of our scheme bases on the standard bilinear Diffie-Hellman and the decisional Bilinear Diffie-Hellman assumptions.
Evaluation of a direct colorimetric assay for rapid detection of rifampicin resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Abstract Background: Susceptibility test is a useful tool for selecting and modifying appropriate treatment for tuberculosis. Objective: To evaluate a direct colorimetric assay based on 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)- 2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) for a rapid detection of rifampicin resistance. Methods: Sputum was inoculated directly into 7H9 broth supplemented with PANTA (antibiotic mixture) and oleic acid albumin dextrose catalase (OADC) to which MTT was added after 1-3 weeks. Bacterial growth is indicated by the formation of a colored formazan product, which can be measured with a spectrophotometer. The assay was read on the first, second or third week of incubation depending on when a measurable formazan was observed in the drug free control tube. The results were compared against the standard indirect modified proportion method of susceptibility testing on 7H10 media. Single sputum samples from 78 re-treatment cases were tested. Results: The MTT assay was found to be 90.5% sensitive and 100% specific. In more than two-thirds of the samples, results were already available by the end of week two. Conclusion: The direct colorimetric assay is a simple rapid test for rifampicin susceptibility testing. It significantly shortens the time required to obtain a drug susceptibility test result and could be useful to screen for MDR-TB. [Ethiop.J.Health Dev. 2005;19(1):51-54]
Bordetella pertussis Infection Exacerbates Influenza Virus Infection through Pertussis Toxin-Mediated Suppression of Innate Immunity

Pertussis (whooping cough) is frequently complicated by concomitant infections with respiratory viruses. Here we report the effect of Bordetella pertussis infection on subsequent influenza virus (PR8) infection in mouse models and the role of pertussis toxin (PT) in this effect. BALB/c mice infected with a wild-type strain of B. pertussis (WT) and subsequently (up to 14 days later) infected with PR8 had significantly increased pulmonary viral titers, lung pathology and mortality compared to mice similarly infected with a PT-deficient mutant strain (ΔPT) and PR8. Substitution of WT infection by intranasal treatment with purified active PT was sufficient to replicate the exacerbating effects on PR8 infection in BALB/c and C57/BL6 mice, but the effects of PT were lost when toxin was administered 24 h after virus inoculation. PT had no effect on virus titers in primary cultures of murine tracheal epithelial cells (mTECs) in vitro, suggesting the toxin targets an early immune response to increase viral titers in the mouse model. However, type I interferon responses were not affected by PT. Whole genome microarray analysis of gene expression in lung tissue from PT-treated and control PR8-infected mice at 12 and 36 h post-virus inoculation revealed that PT treatment suppressed numerous genes associated with communication between innate and adaptive immune responses. In mice depleted of alveolar macrophages, increase of pulmonary viral titers by PT treatment was lost. PT also suppressed levels of IL-1β, IL-12, IFN-γ, IL-6, KC, MCP-1 and TNF-α in the airways after PR8 infection. Furthermore PT treatment inhibited early recruitment of neutrophils and NK cells to the airways. Together these findings demonstrate that infection with B. pertussis through PT activity predisposes the host to exacerbated influenza infection by countering protective innate immune responses that control virus titers.
81.6 GOPS Object Recognition Processor Based on a Memory-Centric NoC

For mobile intelligent robot applications, an 81.6 GOPS object recognition processor is implemented. Based on an analysis of the target application, the chip architecture and hardware features are decided. The proposed processor aims to support both task-level and data-level parallelism. Ten processing elements are integrated for the task-level parallelism and single instruction multiple data (SIMD) instruction is added to exploit the data-level parallelism. The memory-centric network-on-chip (NoC) is proposed to support efficient pipelined task execution using the ten processing elements. It also provides coherence and consistency schemes tailored for 1-to-N and M-to-1 data transactions in a task-level pipeline. For further performance gain, the visual image processing memory is also implemented. The chip is fabricated in a 0.18-mum CMOS technology and computes the key-point localization stage of the SIFT object recognition twice faster than the 2.3 GHz Core 2 Duo processor.
Changes in the Excitability of Neocortical Neurons in a Mouse Model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Are Not Specific to Corticospinal Neurons and Are Modulated by Advancing Disease

Cell type-specific changes in neuronal excitability have been proposed to contribute to the selective degeneration of corticospinal neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and to neocortical hyperexcitability, a prominent feature of both inherited and sporadic variants of the disease, but the mechanisms underlying selective loss of specific cell types in ALS are not known. We analyzed the physiological properties of distinct classes of cortical neurons in the motor cortex of hSOD1G93A mice of both sexes and found that they all exhibit increases in intrinsic excitability that depend on disease stage. Targeted recordings and in vivo calcium imaging further revealed that neurons adapt their functional properties to normalize cortical excitability as the disease progresses. Although different neuron classes all exhibited increases in intrinsic excitability, transcriptional profiling indicated that the molecular mechanisms underlying these changes are cell type specific. The increases in excitability in both excitatory and inhibitory cortical neurons show that selective dysfunction of neuronal cell types cannot account for the specific vulnerability of corticospinal motor neurons in ALS. Furthermore, the stage-dependent alterations in neuronal function highlight the ability of cortical circuits to adapt as disease progresses. These findings show that both disease stage and cell type must be considered when developing therapeutic strategies for treating ALS. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT It is not known why certain classes of neurons preferentially die in different neurodegenerative diseases. It has been proposed that the enhanced excitability of affected neurons is a major contributor to their selective loss. We show using a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease in which corticospinal neurons exhibit selective vulnerability, that changes in excitability are not restricted to this neuronal class and that excitability does not increase monotonically with disease progression. Moreover, although all neuronal cell types tested exhibited abnormal functional properties, analysis of their gene expression demonstrated cell type-specific responses to the ALS-causing mutation. These findings suggest that therapies for ALS may need to be tailored for different cell types and stages of disease.