Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DC-DC converter operating modes as a part of the energy storage system in frequency-controlled electric drives

The article presents the results of the transients investigation of a DC-DC converter as a part of the energy storage system in the frequency-controlled electric drive which works in hard start-up and braking modes with a large number of cycles per hour. The ultracapacitor is used as an energy storage element connected with the DC link of the frequency converter through the bidirectional DC-DC converter. The block diagram of alternating current electric drive is described. The circuit diagram and the equivalent circuit of the energy storage system as well as the simulation results of the processes occurring in the system “energy storage device — frequency converter DC link” in order to identify the specific properties of the system as a control object are shown. In conclusion, the specific properties of the DC-DC converter are formulated. The presented investigation results show the operation modes features of the DC-DC converter as the energy storage system part. This information can be used for choosing the structure and the method of controllers' synthesis for the automatic control system of the bidirectional DC-DC converter.
A High-Speed Memory Interface Architecture for MPEG2 Video Decoder

Motion compensation (MC) routines of MPEG-2 MP@HL video decoding intensively access the video data stored in external memory, thus efficient memory access is critical in the design of decoder chip. In this paper, an advanced architecture of MC is proposed to perform different types of picture prediction modes employed by the MPEG-2 standard and an address translation method is developed for memory interface. In order to relieve the burden of MC, four pixel generators are used to execute bi-prediction and half-pel precision in parallel. Image data fetched from the external frame memory are reused, so that a great amount of frame memory access can be reduced. The features of SDRAM and the fact that all types of MC algorithm have regular memory access patterns are exploited to minimize the number of overhead cycles needed for row activations in array address translation. Compared with the conventional linear translation, array address translation can reduce most of the row activations. The proposed architecture is very effective not only for increasing the speed of memory access but also for improving the performance of MC
Robust Vision-Based Relative-Localization Approach Using an RGB-Depth Camera and LiDAR Sensor Fusion

This paper describes a robust vision-based relative-localization approach for a moving target based on an RGB-depth (RGB-D) camera and sensor measurements from two-dimensional (2-D) light detection and ranging (LiDAR). With the proposed approach, a target's three-dimensional (3-D) and 2-D position information is measured with an RGB-D camera and LiDAR sensor, respectively, to find the location of a target by incorporating visual-tracking algorithms, depth information of the structured light sensor, and a low-level vision-LiDAR fusion algorithm, e.g., extrinsic calibration. To produce 2-D location measurements, both visual- and depth-tracking approaches are introduced, utilizing an adaptive color-based particle filter (ACPF) (for visual tracking) and an interacting multiple-model (IMM) estimator with intermittent observations from depth-image segmentation (for depth image tracking). The 2-D LiDAR data enhance location measurements by replacing results from both visual and depth tracking; through this procedure, multiple LiDAR location measurements for a target are generated. To deal with these multiple-location measurements, we propose a modified track-to-track fusion scheme. The proposed approach shows robust localization results, even when one of the trackers fails. The proposed approach was compared to position data from a Vicon motion-capture system as the ground truth. The results of this evaluation demonstrate the superiority and robustness of the proposed approach.
Quantification of root caries using optical coherence tomography and microradiography: a correlational study.

PURPOSE The use of transverse microradiography (TMR) to quantify the amount of mineral lost during demineralization of tooth tissue has long been established. In the present study, the use of an en-face Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) technology to detect and quantitatively monitor the mineral changes in root caries was investigated and correlated with TMR. MATERIALS AND METHODS We used an OCT system, developed initially for retina imaging, and which can collect A-scans, B-scans (longitudinal images) and C-scans (en-face images) to quantitatively assess the development of root caries. The power to the sample was 250 microW, wavelength lambda = 850 nm and the optical source linewidth was 16 microm. RESULTS Both the transversal and longitudinal images showed the caries lesion as volumes of reduced reflectivity. Quantitative analysis using the A-scan (reflectivity versus depth curve) showed that the tissue reflectivity decreased with increasing demineralization time. A linear correlation (r = 0.957) was observed between the mineral loss measured by TMR and the percentage reflectivity loss in demineralized tissue measured by OCT. CONCLUSION We concluded that OCT could be used to detect incipient root caries, and that the reflectivity loss in root tissue during demineralization, measured by OCT, could be related to the amount of mineral lost during the demineralization.
Selection of Functional 5′ cis-Acting Elements Promoting Efficient Sindbis Virus Genome Replication

ABSTRACT The 5′ portion of the Sindbis virus (SIN) genome RNA is multifunctional. Besides initiating translation of the nonstructural polyprotein, RNA elements in the 5′ 200 bases of the SIN genome RNA, or its complement at the 3′ end of the negative-strand intermediate, play key roles in the synthesis of both negative- and positive-strand RNAs. We used here a combination of genetic and biochemical approaches to further dissect the functions of this sequence. Replacement of the SIN 5′ end in defective-interfering (DI) and genome RNAs with sequences from a distantly related alphavirus, Semliki Forest virus (SFV), resulted in nonviable chimeras. The addition of five nucleotides from the 5′ terminus of SIN restored negative-strand RNA synthesis in DI genomes but not their replication in vivo. Pseudorevertants of various SFV-SIN chimeras were isolated, and suppressor mutations were mapped to AU-rich sequences added to the 5′ end of the original SFV 5′ sequence or its “deleted” versions. Early pseudorevertants had heterogeneous 5′ termini that were inefficient for replication relative to the parental SIN 5′ sequence. In contrast, passaging of these pseudorevertant viral populations in BHK cells under competitive conditions yielded evolved, more homogeneous 5′-terminal sequences that were highly efficient for negative-strand synthesis and replication. These 5′-terminal sequences always began with 5′-AU, followed by one or more AU repeats or short stretches of oligo(A). Further analysis demonstrated a positive correlation between the number of repeat units and replication efficiency. Interestingly, some 5′ modifications restored high-level viral replication in BHK-21 cells, but these viruses were impaired for replication in the cells of mosquito origin. These studies provide new information on sequence determinants required for SIN RNA replication and suggest new strategies for restricting cell tropism and optimizing the packaging of alphavirus vectors.
Learning from label proportions in brain-computer interfaces: Online unsupervised learning with guarantees

Objective Using traditional approaches, a brain-computer interface (BCI) requires the collection of calibration data for new subjects prior to online use. Calibration time can be reduced or eliminated e.g., by subject-to-subject transfer of a pre-trained classifier or unsupervised adaptive classification methods which learn from scratch and adapt over time. While such heuristics work well in practice, none of them can provide theoretical guarantees. Our objective is to modify an event-related potential (ERP) paradigm to work in unison with the machine learning decoder, and thus to achieve a reliable unsupervised calibrationless decoding with a guarantee to recover the true class means. Method We introduce learning from label proportions (LLP) to the BCI community as a new unsupervised, and easy-to-implement classification approach for ERP-based BCIs. The LLP estimates the mean target and non-target responses based on known proportions of these two classes in different groups of the data. We present a visual ERP speller to meet the requirements of LLP. For evaluation, we ran simulations on artificially created data sets and conducted an online BCI study with 13 subjects performing a copy-spelling task. Results Theoretical considerations show that LLP is guaranteed to minimize the loss function similar to a corresponding supervised classifier. LLP performed well in simulations and in the online application, where 84.5% of characters were spelled correctly on average without prior calibration. Significance The continuously adapting LLP classifier is the first unsupervised decoder for ERP BCIs guaranteed to find the optimal decoder. This makes it an ideal solution to avoid tedious calibration sessions. Additionally, LLP works on complementary principles compared to existing unsupervised methods, opening the door for their further enhancement when combined with LLP.
Nerve Regeneration through Nerve Autografts and Cold Preserved Allografts using Tacrolimus (FK506) in a Facial Paralysis Model: A Topographical and Neurophysiological Study in Monkeys

OBJECTIVE:Nerve regeneration through cold preserved nerve allografts is demonstrated, and treatment of nerve allografts with FK506 induces better regeneration than other immunosuppressants. We study nerve regeneration through cold preserved nerve allografts temporarily treated with FK506 and compare it with the regeneration obtained using classic nerve autografts in a facial paralysis model in monkeys. METHODS:A trunk of the facial nerve on both sides was transected in eight monkeys and immediately repaired with a 3 to 4 cm nerve autograft or allograft. FK506 was administered to the animals of the allograft group for 2 months, and nerve allografts were cold preserved for 3 weeks. At periods of 3, 5, and 8 months after surgery, quantitative electrophysiological assessment and video recordings were performed. At the end of the study, quantitative analysis of neurons in the facial nucleus was carried out, and axons were stereologically counted. RESULTS:After the regenerative period, neuronal density was higher in the autograft group. However, distal axonal counts were similar in both groups. Serial electrophysiological recordings and histology of nerve allografts showed that the grafts were partially rejected after cessation of the immunosuppressant. CONCLUSION:The regeneration through nerve allografts temporarily treated with FK506 does not achieve the electrophysiological results and neuronal counts achieved with nerve autografts, but axonal collateralization in the allografts induces a similar activation of mimic muscles.
Alcohol consumption of Australian women: results from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS Alcohol misuse is responsible for extensive personal harm and high societal costs. Research related specifically to women's alcohol consumption is important due to gender differences in clinical outcomes and disease progression. DESIGN AND METHODS This study examines longitudinal changes in the patterns of alcohol consumption associated with harm in the long term (chronic) and short term (acute) as defined by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. Results are presented for three age cohorts (18 - 23 years, 45 - 50 years and 70 - 75 years) using data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health 1996 - 2003. Initial response rates for the study were 41%, 54% and 36% for the Younger, Mid-aged and Older cohort, respectively. RESULTS The percentages of women that initiated usual weekly consumption in excess of 140 g of alcohol, designated as long-term risky or high risk consumption, between surveys 1 and 2 were 2.7%, 2.1% and 1.7% (Younger, Mid-aged and Older cohorts, respectively). Similarly, between surveys 1 and 2, 7.8% of younger women and 2.5% of mid-aged women initiated consumption of 50 g of alcohol on one occasion at least weekly, placing them at risk of alcohol-related harm in the short-term weekly. Examining data across the three time-points in the Younger cohort, 0.3% of women were at risk of alcohol-related harm in the long term across all three time-points, and 9.2% were at risk at one or two time-points. The percentage of younger women at risk of alcohol-related harm in the short term at least weekly was 3.4% at risk at all three time-points and 24% at risk at one or two time-points. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS This study indicates that there is a small percentage of women who maintain levels of alcohol consumption associated with increased risk of morbidity and mortality over time, but a much larger proportion of women that drink at hazardous levels sporadically during the life course. Prevention efforts may need to target transient high-risk alcohol consumers differently than consistently heavy alcohol consumers. Non-response bias and attrition may have caused the prevalence of both entrenched and episodic heavy consumption to be underestimated.
Melatonin prevents fibrosis but not hypertrophy development in the left ventricle of NG-nitro-L-arginine-methyl ester hypertensive rats

Objective Melatonin was shown to reduce blood pressure, enhance nitric oxide availability and scavenge free radicals. There is, however, a shortage of data with respect to the effect of melatonin on pathological left ventricular remodelling associated with haemodynamic overload. Design We investigated whether melatonin was able to prevent left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and fibrosis associated with NG-nitro-L-arginine-methyl ester (L-NAME)-induced hypertension. Methods Four groups of male Wistar rats were investigated: control, L-NAME (50 mg/kg per day), melatonin (10 mg/kg per day) and L-NAME plus melatonin. Blood pressure was measured non-invasively each week. After 5 weeks of treatment the animals were killed and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity, endothelial and inducible NOS expression, the level of collagenous proteins, hydroxyproline and conjugated dienes in the left ventricle were determined. Results The administration of L-NAME inhibited NOS activity, increased conjugated dienes concentration, elevated blood pressure and induced LVH and fibrosis (indicated by increased collagenous proteins and hydroxyproline levels). The addition of melatonin to L-NAME treatment failed to prevent the attenuation of NOS activity and the development of LVH and prevented hypertension only partly. The administration of melatonin, however, completely prevented the increase in conjugated dienes concentration and the development of left ventricular fibrosis. NOS expression was not different among experimental groups. Conclusion Melatonin prevented the development of left ventricular fibrosis and the increase in oxidative load in rats with L-NAME-induced hypertension. The antifibrotic effect of melatonin seems to be independent of its effects on NOS activity and might be linked to its antioxidant properties.
Relationship Between Vitamin D Deficiency and Nondipper Hypertension

Nondipper hypertension is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with cardiovascular diseases such as coronary artery disease, heart failure, and hypertension. Vitamin D deficiency activates the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system, which affects the cardiovascular system. For this reason, a relationship between vitamin D deficiency and nondipper hypertension could be suggested. In this study, we compared 25-OH vitamin D levels between dipper and nondipper hypertensive patients. The study included 80 hypertensive patients and they were divided into two groups: 50 dipper patients (29 male, mean age 51.5 ± 8 years) and 30 nondipper patients (17 male, mean age 50.6 ± 5.4 years). All the patients were subjected to transthoracic echocardiography and ambulatory 24-hour blood pressure monitoring. In addition to routine tests, 25-OH vitamin D and parathormone (PTH) levels were analyzed. All the patients received antihypertensive drug therapy for at least 3 months prior to the evaluations. 25-OH vitamin D and PTH levels were compared between the two groups. No statistically significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of basic characteristics. The average PTH level of hypertensive dipper patients was lower than that of nondipper patients (65.3 ± 14.2 vs. 96.9 ± 30.8 pg/mL, P < .001). The average 25-OH vitamin D level of hypertensive dipper patients was higher than that of nondipper patients (21.9 ± 7.4 vs. 12.8 ± 5.9 ng/mL, P = .001). The left ventricular mass and left ventricular mass index were lower in the dipper patients than in the nondipper patients (186.5 ± 62.1 vs. 246.3 ± 85.3 g, P = .022; and 111.6 ± 21.2 vs.147 ± 25.7 g/m2, P < .001, respectively). Other conventional echocardiographic parameters were similar between the two groups. Daytime systolic and diastolic blood pressure measurements were similar between dippers and nondippers, but there was a significant difference between the two groups with regard to nighttime measurements (nighttime systolic 118.5 ± 5.8 vs.130.2 ± 9.6 mm Hg, P < .001; and nighttime diastolic 69.3 ± 4.8 vs.78.1 ± 7.2 mm Hg, P < .001, respectively). Our results suggest that vitamin D deficiency has a positive correlation with blood pressure and vitamin D deficiency could be related to nondipper hypertension. The measurement of vitamin D may be used to indicate increased risk of hypertension-related adverse cardiovascular events.
Sparse representation classification based language recognition using elastic net

In our earlier work, we have explored the sparse representation classification (SRC) for language recognition (LR) task. In those works, the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) algorithm was used for sparse coding. In place of l0-norm minimization in the OMP algorithm, one could also use ll-norm minimization based sparse coding such as the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO). Though leading to better sparse representation, the LASSO algorithm is quite latent in contrast to the OMP. This work explores the elastic net (ENet) sparse coding algorithm in SRC based LR framework. Unlike conventional sparse coding methods, the ENet employs both l1 and l2 constraints in regularizing the sparse solutions, thus is expected to yield improved sparse coding. The experiments are performed on NIST 2007 LRE data set in closed set condition on 30 seconds duration segments. Scores are calibrated using regularized multi-class logistic regression. For language representation, the utterances are mapped to the well-known i-vector representation and applied with the within-class covariance normalization (WCCN) based session/channel compensation. The proposed ENet based LR approach is noted to significantly outperform the other LR methods developed using existing sparse and non-sparse representations.
Flexible modeling and execution of workflow activities

While today's workflow management systems are well suited for the controlled execution of completely specified processes, support for dynamically changing processes is rather weak. However, new applications in the business domain and in non-traditional domains like the natural sciences or laboratory environments require support for flexibility like user interventions in workflow executions and dynamic modifications. Based on an activity meta model and an activity instance model, the paper discusses dynamic modifications and user interventions and shows how their implications to activity models and to concurrent and future activity instances can be described. Finally, we show how the basic concepts presented in the paper are realized in a prototypical implementation.
Writing self‐efficacy in nursing students: The influence of a discipline‐specific writing environment

To explore if writing self‐efficacy improved among first‐year nursing students in the context of discipline‐specific writing. The relationship between writing self‐efficacy, anxiety and student grades are also explored with respect to various learner characteristics such as postsecondary experience, writing history, English as a second language status and online versus classroom instruction.
Gyroscopic stabilization system on micromechanical sensing elements

The paper presents a nonlinear mathematical model of a biaxial gyroscopic stabilization system on micromechanical sensitive elements, which makes it possible to investigate the features of the system functioning. Structural solutions for constructing the amplifying-transforming path of the correction loops have been developed, which provides an increase in the accuracy of the functioning of the gyroscopic stabilization system on micromechanical sensitive elements.
The Role of Trauma and PTSD-Related Symptoms for Dissociation and Psychopathological Distress in Inpatients with Schizophrenia

Background: To investigate the relationship between dissociative experiences, psychopathological distress, a history of trauma and posttraumatic symptoms in adult schizophrenia. Methods: Eighty-seven schizophrenic inpatients returned self-questionnaires [Dissociative Experience Scale (DES); Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R); PTSD Symptom Scale (PDS)]. Based upon this self-rating, 14 of the participants fulfilled the cut-off definition of PTSD according to DSM-IV criteria, 43 had a history of trauma without a self-rated diagnosis of PTSD. DES scores were also compared to a convenience sample of 297 non-clinical controls. Results: We found no significant impact of trauma alone but a significant influence of posttraumatic symptomatology on the level of current psychopathological distress (GSI) and the DES subscale absorption. However, in logistic regression, posttraumatic symptomatology was associated with GSI but not with DES. Schizophrenic patients even without trauma or posttraumatic symptoms had significantly higher scores in all three DES subscales than non-clinical controls. Conclusion: Pronounced posttraumatic symptoms in schizophrenia are associated with severe additional psychopathological distress whereas the increase in dissociation (absorption) in this group of patients may be secondary to the increase in symptom load. However, schizophrenia itself seems to be associated independently from trauma and pathological posttraumatic conditions with a broad range of dissociative symptoms.