Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A high step-up ratio resonant converter for high-power applications

With the rapid development of large scale renewable energy sources and HVDC grid, it is a promising option to connect the renewable energy sources to the HVDC grid with pure DC system, in which high-power high-voltage step-up DC-DC converters are the key equipment to transmit the electrical energy. This paper proposes a resonant converter which is suitable for grid-connected renewable energy sources. The converter can achieve high voltage-gain using LC parallel resonant tank. It is characterized by zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) turn-on and nearly ZVS turn-off of main switches as well as zero-current-switching (ZCS) turn-off of rectifier diodes, moreover, the equivalent voltage stress of the semiconductor devices is lower than other resonant step-up converters. The operation principle of the converter and its resonant parameter selection is presented in the paper. The operation principle of the proposed converter has been successfully verified by experiment results.
Spatial distribution of crack structure in the focal area of a volcanic earthquake swarm at the Hakone volcano, Japan

We have performed shear wave splitting analyses for seismograms recorded at stations located just above, and outside, the focal area of the earthquake swarm at the Hakone volcano, Japan, in August 2009. Average values of the direction of faster split shear wave polarization (Φ) at two stations above the focal area correspond to each focal alignment of the earthquake swarm. In contrast, average values of Φ at three stations outside the focal area correspond to the direction of the maximum horizontal compressional stress. We found that the average values of the time lag between the two split shear waves inside the focal area are relatively high compared with those outside the focal area. These facts suggest that cracks with a high density aligned parallel to the faults of the earthquake swarm in the focal area. Crustal fluid was selectively injected into this pre-existing cracked media accompanied by effective normal stress reduction in the cracks, resulting in the earthquake swarm.
Encoding information on adjectives in a lexical-semantic net for computational applications

The goal of this paper is to describe how the Euro WordNet framework for representing lexical meaning is being modified within an Italian National Project in order to include information on adjectives. The focus is on the 'new' semantic relations being encoded and on the revisions we have made to the EuroWordNet Top Ontology structure. We also briefly discuss the utility of the information which is being encoded for computational applications.
A Simple Word Trigger Method for Social Tag Suggestion

It is popular for users in Web 2.0 era to freely annotate online resources with tags. To ease the annotation process, it has been great interest in automatic tag suggestion. We propose a method to suggest tags according to the text description of a resource. By considering both the description and tags of a given resource as summaries to the resource written in two languages, we adopt word alignment models in statistical machine translation to bridge their vocabulary gap. Based on the translation probabilities between the words in descriptions and the tags estimated on a large set of description-tags pairs, we build a word trigger method (WTM) to suggest tags according to the words in a resource description. Experiments on real world datasets show that WTM is effective and robust compared with other methods. Moreover, WTM is relatively simple and efficient, which is practical for Web applications.
Cloud condensation nuclei activity of six pollenkitts and the influence of their surface activity

Abstract. The role of surfactants in governing water interactions of atmospheric aerosols has been a recurring topic in cloud microphysics for more than two decades. Studies of detailed surface thermodynamics are limited by the availability of aerosol samples for experimental analysis and incomplete validation of various proposed Köhler model frameworks for complex mixtures representative of atmospheric aerosol. Pollenkitt is a viscous material that coats grains of pollen and plays important roles in pollen dispersion and plant reproduction. Previous work suggests that it may also be an important contributor to pollen water uptake and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity. The chemical composition of pollenkitt varies between species but has been found to comprise complex organic mixtures including oxygenated, lipid, and aliphatic functionalities. This mix of functionalities suggests that pollenkitt may display aqueous surface activity, which could significantly impact pollen interactions with atmospheric water. Here, we study the surface activity of pollenkitt from six different species and its influence on pollenkitt hygroscopicity. We measure cloud droplet activation and concentration-dependent surface tension of pollenkitt and its mixtures with ammonium sulfate salt. Experiments are compared to predictions from several thermodynamic models, taking aqueous surface tension reduction and surfactant surface partitioning into account in various ways. We find a clear reduction of surface tension by pollenkitt in aqueous solution and evidence for impact of both surface tension and surface partitioning mechanisms on cloud droplet activation potential and hygroscopicity of pollenkitt particles. In addition, we find indications of complex nonideal solution effects in a systematic and consistent dependency of pollenkitt hygroscopicity on particle size. The impact of pollenkitt surface activity on cloud microphysics is different from what is observed in previous work for simple atmospheric surfactants and more resembles recent observations for complex primary and secondary organic aerosol, adding new insight to our understanding of the multifaceted role of surfactants in governing aerosol–water interactions. We illustrate how the explicit characterization of pollenkitt contributions provides the basis for modeling water uptake and cloud formation of pollen and their fragments over a wide range of atmospheric conditions.
Design and Development of Part-of-Speech-Tagging Resources for Wolof (Niger-Congo, spoken in Senegal)

In this paper, we report on the design of a part-of-speech-tagset for Wolof and on the creation of a semi-automatically annotated gold standard. In order to achieve high-quality annotation relatively fast, we first generated an accurate lexicon that draws on existing word and name lists and takes into account inflectional and derivational morphology. The main motivation for the tagged corpus is to obtain data for training automatic taggers with machine learning approaches. Hence, we took machine learning considerations into account during tagset design and we present training experiments as part of this paper. The best automatic tagger achieves an accuracy of 95.2% in cross-validation experiments. We also wanted to create a basis for experimenting with annotation projection techniques, which exploit parallel corpora. For this reason, it was useful to use a part of the Bible as the gold standard corpus, for which sentence-aligned parallel versions in many languages are easy to obtain. We also report on preliminary experiments exploiting a statistical word alignment of the parallel text.
On the Suitability of 3C-Silicon Carbide as an Alternative to 4H-Silicon Carbide for Power Diodes

Major recent developments in growth expertise related to the cubic polytype of Silicon Carbide, the 3C-SiC, coupled with its remarkable physical properties and the low fabrication cost, suggest that within the next years, 3C-SiC devices can become a commercial reality. Inevitably, a comparison to the most well-developed polytype of SiC, the 4H-SiC, should exist. It is, therefore, important to develop finite element method techniques and models for accurate device design, analysis, and comparison. It is also needed to perform an exhaustive investigation with scope to identify which family of devices, which voltage class, and for which applications this polytype is best suited. In this paper, we validate the recently developed technology computer-aided design (TCAD) material models for 3C-SiC and those of 4H-SiC with measurements on power diodes. An excellent agreement between measurements and TCAD simulations was obtained. Thereafter, based on this validation, 3C- and 4H-SiC vertical power diodes are assessed to create trade-off maps. Depending on the operation requirements imposed by the application, the developed tradeoff maps set the boundary of the realm for those two polytypes and allows to predict which applications would benefit once electrically graded 3C-SiC becomes available.
Hardware-Oriented Point-Based Rendering of Complex Scenes

High quality point rendering methods have been developed in the last years. A common drawback of these approaches is the lack of hardware support. We propose a novel point rendering technique that yields good image quality while fully making use of hardware acceleration. Previous research revealed various advantages and drawbacks of point rendering over traditional rendering. Thus, a guideline in our algorithm design has been to allow both primitive types simultaneously and dynamically choose the best suited for rendering. An octree-based spatial representation, containing both triangles and sampled points, is used for level-of-detail and visibility calculations. Points in each block are stored in a generalized layered depth image. McMillan’s algorithm is extended and hierarchically applied in the octree to warp overlapping Gaussian fuzzy splats in occlusion-compatible order and hence z-buffer tests are avoided. We show how to use off-the-shelf hardware to draw elliptical Gaussian splats oriented according to normals and to perform texture filtering. The result is a hybrid polygon-point system with increased efficiency compared to previous approaches. CR Categories: I.3. 3 [Computer Graphics]: Picture/Image Generation—Viewing Algorithms I.3. 6 [Computer Graphics]: Methodology and Techniques—Graphics Data Structures and Data Types
Exploring the List of Smallest Right-Angled Hyperbolic Polyhedra

Abstract An algorithm for determining the list of smallest volume right-angled hyperbolic polyhedra in dimension 3 is described. This algorithm has been implemented using the program Orb to compute volumes. The smallest 825 polyhedra in the list, as computed by Orb have been determined. However, because the numerical reliability of Orb has not been definitively proved, this list should be considered conjectural.
Chunks: The remedy for notorious false alarms in pedestrian detection

Though significant progress has been made in last decade but still pedestrian detection is a challenging task. In real world, pedestrians are bound to produce artifacts, like pose & attire variations and occlusions, which are some of the main causes of false alarms. We propose a method which can tackle these variations efficiently. Instead of traditional deformable parts model, we propose random patches (called chunks) to capture the features properties of pedestrians. We have cascaded chunks with Aggregate Channel Features (ACF) detector in order to ratify the pedestrian hypothesis generated by ACF. Our method gives the miss rate of 16.51% at 10-1 false positives per image under reasonable condition, which is among one of the best results achieved on INRIA pedestrian dataset. Our method also improved on the same dataset under partial and heavy occlusion condition.
TRPV1 Recapitulates Native Capsaicin Receptor in Sensory Neurons in Association with Fas-Associated Factor 1

TRPV1, a cloned capsaicin receptor, is a molecular sensor for detecting adverse stimuli and a key element for inflammatory nociception and represents biophysical properties of native channel. However, there seems to be a marked difference between TRPV1 and native capsaicin receptors in the pharmacological response profiles to vanilloids or acid. One plausible explanation for this overt discrepancy is the presence of regulatory proteins associated with TRPV1. Here, we identify Fas-associated factor 1 (FAF1) as a regulatory factor, which is coexpressed with and binds to TRPV1 in sensory neurons. When expressed heterologously, FAF1 reduces the responses of TRPV1 to capsaicin, acid, and heat, to the pharmacological level of native capsaicin receptor in sensory neurons. Furthermore, silencing FAF1 by RNA interference augments capsaicin-sensitive current in native sensory neurons. We therefore conclude that FAF1 forms an integral component of the vanilloid receptor complex and that it constitutively modulates the sensitivity of TRPV1 to various noxious stimuli in sensory neurons.
Complete Mitochondrial Genome of Papilio protenor (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae) and Implications for Papilionidae Taxonomy

Abstract The complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Papilio protenor (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) was sequenced and annotated in this study. The mitogenome comprised a typical circular, double-stranded DNA molecule of 15,268 bp in length including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and an A+T-rich region. The gene order and mitogenome orientation were similar to those of all known Papilionidae species. The nucleotide composition of the P. protenor mitogenome exhibits considerable A+T bias (80.5%) and the AT (−0.019) and GC (−0.231) skewness is slightly negative. All of the PCGs except for cytochrome c oxidase (COI) start with a canonical ATN start codon, whereas the COI gene is tentatively designated by the CGA codon. Of the 13 PCGs, 11 contain the complete stop codon TAA or TAG, whereas COI and COII were terminated with a single T nucleotide. All tRNAs exhibit the typical cloverleaf structure, except for tRNASer(AGN), which does not contain the dihydrouridine arm. The 458 bp A+T-rich region is comprised of nonrepetitive sequences including the motif ATAGA followed by a poly-T stretch and a microsatellite-like (AT)6 element preceded by the ATTTA motif. Phylogenetic analysis of the 13 PCGs data using Bayesian inference, maximum likelihood methods, and maximum parsimony support the view that the subfamily Parnassiinae is regarded as an independent subfamily within Papilionidae and that Zerynthiini should be treated as one of the two clades of the subfamily Parnassiinae along with Parnasiini. In addition, the analysis strongly supports the monophyly of the subfamily Parnassiinae.
Genetic variability of nanche in Tabasco, Mexico, determined with RAPDs

Resumen. En el sureste de la república Mexicana, el nanche (Byrsonima crassifolia (L.) H.B. K. ) crece en forma silvestre o semicultivada. No obstante la importancia que tiene el fruto de este árbol, a la fecha solo se reporta un trabajo desarrollado a nivel molecular en México, y posiblemente en América. El propósito de esta investigación fue estudiar la variabilidad genética de árboles de nanche, que crecen en forma silvestre y semi-cultivada en el estado de Tabasco, México. La determinación molecular se realizó en el Laboratorio de Genómica de la División Académica de Ciencias Biológicas (DAC Biológicas), Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco (UJAT), usando la técnica de RAPDs (Polimorfismo Amplificado Aleatoriamente de ADN). De los seis oligonucleótidos evaluados, solo cuatro amplificaron 10,3 bandas cada uno en promedio, y de éstos, tres mostraron polimorfismo (2,8 bandas polimórficas). Esto sugiere la conveniencia de probar otros iniciadores o marcadores moleculares en futuros trabajos en nanche. El análisis de Dice detectó seis grupos, y el valor del coeficiente de correlación cofenética fue de r=0,82, lo que indica una buena agrupación del material evaluado. La diversidad genética promedio (Hi) presentó un valor moderado (0,12). De acuerdo con los resultados del análisis molecular de varianza (AMOVA), la diversidad genética fue mucho más grande dentro (85,20%) que entre poblaciones (14,80%), y el índice de fijación (Fst) fue de 0,148. Estos resultados hacen suponer que la técnica de RAPDs es útil para identificar la variación de Byrsonima crassifolia (L.) H.B. K. , lo cual es muy valioso para el mantenimiento de un banco de germoplasma in situ.
Comparison of Phytochemical, Iron Chelating, and Free Radical Scavenging Activity of Fresh Ribes Nigrum (Black Currant) and Nutraceutical C24/7

Background: Black currant (Ribes nigrum L. Grossulariceae) promotes good health. A lot of researches have been carried out on common fruits but little attention is given to indigenous fruits such as Ribes nigrum which promotes good health with its high content of phytochemicals that influences its antioxidant activity in neutralizing free radicals as well as its iron chelating property. Aim of this Study: To compare the phytochemical composition, iron-chelating and the free radical scavenging activity of fresh Ribes nigrum and Nutraceutical C24/7. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nasarawa State, Nigeria between June 2017 and January 2019. Methodology: Fleshy parts of fresh Ribes nigrum fruit was homogenized using an electrical blender and was macerated with70% ethanol (Sigma Aldrich, 99.8%) for 72 hours and then filtered. The filtrate was condensed using a rotary evaporator and the extract was stored at 4°C. Preliminary phytochemical screening was carried out on the extract and the nutraceutical C24/7 caplets using standard procedures and the identified phytochemicals: saponins, tannins, alkaloids and steroids were quantitatively estimated. Iron chelating and total antioxidant activity assay was conducted using the DPPH radical scavenging and spectrophotometric methods respectively on the extract and the nutraceutical C24/7. Values were analyzed using One way analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Values of P<0.05 were considered significant. Results and Conclusion: The findings of this study show that the hydro-ethanol extract of Ribes nigrum contains a large amount of flavonoids, saponins tannins, alkaloids and steroids compounds and exhibits iron chelating and high antioxidant (free radical scavenging) activity compared to nutraceutical-C24/7 caplets.
3D Reconstruction Using Single-photon Lidar Data Exploiting the Widths of the Returns

Single-photon light detection and ranging (Lidar) data can be used to capture depth and intensity profiles of a 3D scene. In a general setting, the scenes can have an unknown number of surfaces per pixel (semi-transparent surfaces or outdoor measurements), high background noise (strong ambient illumination), can be acquired by systems with a broad instrumental response (non-parallel laser beam with respect to the target surface) and with possibly high attenuating media (underwater conditions). The existing methods generally tackle only a subset of these problems and can fail in a more general scenario. In this paper, we propose a new 3D reconstruction algorithm that can handle all the aforementioned difficulties. The novel algorithm estimates the broadening of the impulse response, considers the attenuation induced by scattering media, while allowing for multiple surfaces per pixel. A series of experiments performed in real long-range and underwater Lidar datasets demonstrate the performance of the proposed method.
Transfer Learning for Urban Computing : A Case Study for Optimal Retail Store Placement

In recent years, big data analysis has been applied to the design and development of smart cities, which creates opportunities as well as challenges. It is necessary to retrieve a large amount of social media data and physical sensor data for this purpose. However, different cities have different infrastructures and populations, resulting in the sparsity of some types of data, such as social media data. In this paper, we propose a method for transfer learning between smart cities and apply it to optimal retail store placement owing to its importance in the success of a business. Traditional approaches to the problem have considered demographics, revenue, and aggregated human flow statistics from nearby or remote areas; however, the acquisition of relevant data is usually expensive. The rapid growth of location-based social networks in recent years has led to the availability of fine-grained data describing the mobility of users and popularity of places. However, circumstances vary from one city to another. Furthermore, the number of sensors may not be sufficient to cover all the relevant areas of a particular city. In such cases, it would be useful to transfer knowledge to small cities. We study the predictive power of various machine-learning features with regard to the popularity of retail stores in a city by using datasets collected from open data sources in several big cities. In addition, we use a multi-view discriminant transfer learning method to transfer knowledge to small cities. The results of experiments involving cities in China confirm the effectiveness of the proposed framework.
Melatonin in Epilepsy and Febrile Seizures

A study on melatonin rhythm in children with generalized idiopathic epilepsy and simple fever is presented in this article. A population of 40 children was divided into 4 groups, namely, epilepsy, febrile seizure, and 2 control groups. Salivary melatonin was measured by means of radioimmunoassay. Friedman 2-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Wilcoxon tests were employed to assess the existence of melatonin rhythm. Comparison across groups was performed by means of ANOVA and Mann-Whitney tests. Higher melatonin levels were found at night, with a peak at 04:00 h in all groups. Significant diurnal rhythm was also detected for these levels. No significant overall differences between case and control groups were found for melatonin levels, though patients showed lower peak melatonin values than controls at 04:00 h with a significant difference in the febrile seizure group (10.70 vs 19.5 pg/mL respectively; P<.04). Our data support the presence of diurnal rhythm in blood melatonin concentrations in children with epileptic and febrile seizures. Comparison between case and control groups showed lower peak concentrations in the febrile seizure group with respect to healthy controls.
The interuncal distance: a new MR measurement for the hippocampal atrophy of Alzheimer disease.

The most common cause of a pathologic decline in memory and learning (senile dementia) is Alzheimer disease [1]. Despite recent advances in our understanding of the pathophysiology of this disease, we cannot make a definite diagnosis noninvasively, except by exclusion [2]. Thus , we thought that a more specific diagnostic tool or measurement was needed, one that would more accurately reflect the hallmark of Alzheimer disease: cellular pathologic changes in the hippocampal formations [3]. To evaluate atrophy in these formations, we have developed a direct measurement that uses MR images. We have termed this measurement the interuncal distance . This report describes its clinical trial use.
Nutritional Composition, -Glucosidase Inhibitory and Antioxidant Activities of Ophiopogon japonicus Tubers

Ophiopogon japonicus tubers have been widely used as food and traditional Chinese medicine in China. However, their nutritional composition has not been fully reported yet. This study aimed to analyze the nutritional composition of O. japonicus tubers. The α-glucosidase inhibitory and antioxidant activities of the extracts obtained from O. japonicus tubers were also evaluated by in vitro assays. The results indicated that O. japonicus tubers are rich in carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, and amino acids. Among four extracts, the n-butanol fraction (nBF) and chloroform/methanol extract (CME) of O. japonicus tubers had high amounts of total phenolic and flavonoid contents and exhibited good α-glucosidase inhibitory and antioxidant activities. The α-glucosidase inhibition of nBF was higher than acarbose. Overall, O. japonicus tubers are full of nutritional compounds and have good α-glucosidase inhibitory and antioxidant activities.