Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sideslip Angle Estimation of an Electric Ground Vehicle via Finite-Frequency $\mathcal {H}_{\infty}$ Approach

The lateral stability is critically important especially when the vehicle is steered at a high longitudinal speed. Loss of lateral stability would lead to severe accidents. Therefore, the study of lateral stability has been a hot topic for decades. In order to monitor the lateral stability or improve the stability by using the feedback control, the sideslip angle is an important index. However, the sideslip angle is not measurable by using an affordable physical sensor. An alternative approach is to estimate the sideslip angle with the measurements of relatively cheap sensors. In this paper, we investigate the problem of sideslip angle observer design for an electric ground vehicle (EGV). The EGV is equipped with an advanced navigation system. The lateral velocity, the longitudinal velocity, and the yaw rate are available. Thus, the sideslip angle which is defined as the ratio of lateral velocity and longitudinal velocity is also available. Meanwhile, the hand-wheel steering angle is also measurable in this application. The main work is to estimate the sideslip angle with the measurements of yaw rate based on the vehicle lateral dynamics. The dynamic model is first established and the parameters are identified with experimental data. Since the dynamic model is nonlinear, in order to facilitate the system analysis and observer design, the nonlinear model is transformed to a linear-parameter-varying (LPV) system. An observer is proposed based on the LPV form. By defining the estimation error, a compact system which contains the estimation error and the original dynamics is obtained. Considering the frequency of the front-wheel steering angle, the finite-frequency $\mathcal {H}_{\infty}$ performance of the compact system is exploited. An optimal observer design method is then developed. For the EGV, the observer is designed according to the developed method. The performance of the designed observer is illustrated with experimental test data.
Left Ventricular Function and Physiological Performance in Female Ironman Athletes and Female Police Officers

Data about physiological performance of female ironman triathletes are rare. However, some studies have reported this endurance sport may cause damage to the right or left ventricles, even in females. The goal of this study was to assess prospectively the right/left ventricular function and physiological performance in female athletes (middle- and long ironman distance) and to compare the findings to female federal police officers. A total of 33 female triathletes and 37 female police officers were examined using spiro-ergometry and echocardiography. Female triathletes achieved VO2max 52.8 ± 5.7 ml/kg−1·min−1, and police officers 35.3 ± 6.5 ml/kg−1·min−1. In athletes, left ventricular end-diastolic diameter was 4.4 ± 0.3 cm and in police officers 4.5 ± 0.4 cm, and the left ventricular muscle mass index was 85.8 g/m2 ± 18.7 in athletes and in police officers 72.0 g/m2 ± 9.1. Right ventricular area change among athletes was 49.4 ± 8.5%, and in police officers 46.0 ± 6.9%. The performance date of female triathletes can be used as training prescription for leisure female triathletes, when middle or long distances in triathlon competitions are planned. No right or left ventricular dysfunction was found despite long training and finishing of long distance competitions: non-elite athletes, 5.4 ± 2.8 years of triathlon competitions; elite athletes, 7.6 ± 5.8 years.
Cell Wall Pectin and its Binding Capacity Contribute to Aluminium Resistance in Buckwheat

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) cultivars differred in aluminum (Al) resistance were selected to investigate the possible role of cell wall pectin content and its binding capacity to Al in Al resistance. Al contents in root apices of Al-resistant cultivars were lower than those in Al-sensitive cultivars, suggesting the Al exclusion mechanism was acting in Al-resistant buckwheat cultivars. We observed that pectin contents in Al-resistant cv. Jiangxi were significantly lower than those in other three cultivars, irrespective of with or without Al treatment. Further investigation was conducted with the most Al resistant cv. Jiangxi and Al sensitive cv. Yq3h. Pectin and Al contents were higher in Yq3h than those in Jiangxi from 0-5 and 5-10 mm root sections. After 6-h exposure to 50 muM Al, 48% and 60% of the Al were retained in the cell wall for Jiangxi and Yq3h, respectively. Consequently, more Al was removed by 30-min citrate desorption in Yq3h. The kinetics study with cell wall extracted from 0-5 mm root section showed that the total amount of Al adsorbed was higher and the desorption rate was lower in Yq3h than those in Jiangxi, suggesting that cell walls in Yq3h could bind more Al and the bound Al was retained more tightly compared with Jiangxi. From all these results, we concluded that the differences in cell wall pectin content and its binding capacity to Al contribute to the genotypic differences in Al resistance in buckwheat.
Cancer risks and prevention practices among Vietnamese refugees.

Although Vietnamese refugees are the fastest-growing Asian minority in the United States, little is known about their health knowledge and practices, especially regarding cancer prevention. To address this problem, we interviewed a randomly selected sample of 215 Vietnamese adults living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Results indicated that 13% had never heard of cancer, 27% did not know that cigarette smoking can cause cancer, and 28% believed that cancer is contagious. Although hepatitis B-related liver cancer is endemic among Vietnamese, 48% had never heard of hepatitis B. Among men (n = 116), 56% were smokers (versus 32% in the general US population). Male cigarette smoking was significantly associated with incomes below the poverty level (P less than .01), residence in the US for 9 years or less (P less than .05), not knowing that smoking causes cancer (P less than .05), and limited English proficiency (P less than .01). Binge drinking was reported by 35% of men. Young Vietnamese of both sexes reported consuming diets higher in fat and lower in fiber than when they lived in Vietnam. Among eligible women, 32% had never had a Papanicolaou test (versus 9% of US women), 28% had never had a breast examination (versus 16%), and 83% had never had a mammogram (versus 62%). Education about cancer and its risk factors, smoking cessation, and cancer screening are high priorities for this population.
Modular MPPT converter with series-connection for PV installations embedded in the urban environment

This Building Integrated Photo-Voltaics suffer for mismatching among the operating conditions of different regions of installations. Safety is another typical concern. In this work, we propose to face both issues by arranging the solar array in several sections provided with individual converters, capable to operate in the MPPT mode. Each converter is insulated, so that several converters are connected in series in order to reach the desired dc-link voltage, while maintaining the maximum voltage across the solar array within safety limits. The approach was tested by means of a demonstrator consisting of N=3 flyback converters. Each converter was equipped with separate MPPT. The proposed system was characterised under variable shading conditions. We verified that the dc-link voltage tends to distribute among outputs of single module converters proportionally to the respective input power. In the presence of high levels of shading it was advantageous with respect to other PV plant configurations.
Innovative AC photovoltaic module system using series connection and universal low-voltage micro inverters

Photovoltaic micro inverters and AC photovoltaic module concepts were first commercially introduced in the 1990s. AC photovoltaic modules, also known as AC modules, combine a photovoltaic module with a micro inverter in a single integrated assembly. AC modules promise simpler system design, faster installation, improved safety, improved system reliability, and better energy harvest compared with photovoltaic systems using centralized sting inverters. Performance, cost, and output voltage range of conventional micro inverter technologies lag behind centralized string inverter technologies. A novel series connected, universal low-voltage micro inverter architecture for universal AC photovoltaic modules is proposed. The universal low-voltage micro inverter architecture provides micro inverter benefits at a cost and performance of string inverters enabling mainstream use of universal AC modules for distributed generation photovoltaic rooftop applications.
Fusion Protein Comprising Factor H Domains 6 and 7 and Human IgG1 Fc as an Antibacterial Immunotherapeutic

ABSTRACT The emergence of antimicrobial resistance among several medically important pathogens represents a serious threat to human health globally and necessitates the development of novel therapeutics. Complement forms a key arm of innate immune defenses against invading pathogens. A mechanism of complement evasion employed by many pathogens is binding of complement inhibitors, including factor H (FH), a key downregulator of the alternative pathway. Most FH-binding bacteria engage FH through regions in FH spanned by domains 6 and 7 and/or 18 through 20. We created a chimeric protein that comprised human FH domains 6 and 7 fused to human IgG1 Fc (FH6,7/HuFc) and tested its activity as an immunotherapeutic against Neisseria meningitidis, which binds FH through domains 6 and 7. FH6,7/HuFc bound to meningococci and effectively blocked FH binding to bacteria. FH6,7/HuFc enhanced human C3 and C4 deposition and facilitated complement-mediated killing in a dose-responsive manner; complement activation and killing were classical pathway dependent. To investigate in vivo efficacy, infant Wistar rats were treated intraperitoneally (IP) with different doses of FH6,7/HuFc and challenged 2 h later with serogroup C strain 4243 given IP. At 8 to 9 h after the challenge, the FH6,7/HuFc-treated rats had >100-fold fewer CFU per ml of blood than control animals pretreated with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) or FH18–20/HuFc, which does not bind to meningococci (P < 0.0001). These data provide proof of concept of the utility of FH/Fc fusion proteins as anti-infective immunotherapeutics. Because many microbes share a common binding region(s) in FH, FH/Fc chimeric proteins may be a promising candidate for adjunctive therapy against drug-resistant pathogens.
Genomic Dissection of Travel-Associated Extended-Spectrum-Beta-Lactamase-Producing Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhi Isolates Originating from the Philippines: a One-Off Occurrence or a Threat to Effective Treatment of Typhoid Fever?

ABSTRACT One unreported case of extended-spectrum-beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi was identified, whole-genome sequence typed, among other analyses, and compared to other available genomes of S. Typhi. The reported strain was similar to a previously published strain harboring bla SHV-12 from the Philippines and likely part of an undetected outbreak, the first of ESBL-producing S. Typhi.
Chemical Constituents from Cassia occidentalis Linn.

Cassia occidentalis 1,2 Linn belongs to family Leguminosae which is commonly known as Kasunda or Bari kasunda in Hindi. It is distributed throughout India and in most tropical countries. Its roots are useful against ringworm infections. It is also used as a diuretic and in the treatment of snake-bite. The whole plant is useful as a purgative and used as a tonic. The seeds and leaves are used as cure for cutaneous diseases. Earlier workers 3-5 have reported various constituents from this plant. The present paper reports the isolation and structure elucidation of three new flavone glycosides from methanolic extract of the seeds of this plant.
A video monitoring system using ontology-driven identification of threats

In this paper, we present a video monitoring system that leverages image recognition and ontological reasoning about threats. In the solution, an image processing subsystem uses video recording of a monitored area and recognizes known concepts in scenes. Then, a reasoning subsystem uses an ontological description of security conditions and information from image recognition to check if a violation of a condition has occurred. If a threat is detected, the system sends an appropriate notification depending on configuration. A proto-typical implementation of the solution is presented together with exemplary monitoring results.
Understaffing in Retail Stores : Drivers and Consequences

In this paper we study the drivers and consequences of understaffing in retail stores by examining the longitudinal data on traffic flow, sales and store managers’ labor planning decisions of 41 stores in a large retail chain. Assuming store managers are profit-maximizing agents, we use a structural estimation technique to estimate the contribution of labor to sales and impute the cost of labor for each store in our sample. We find significant heterogeneities in the contribution of labor to sales as well as imputed cost of labor across these stores. Using the estimated parameters, we establish the presence of systematic understaffing during peak hours. In addition, we explore the effects of forecast errors and lack of scheduling flexibility on the inability of store managers to staff optimally. Finally, we run counterfactual experiments to quantify the impact of understaffing on this retailer’s profitability.
High Performance Streaming Smith-Waterman Implementation with Implicit Synchronization on Intel FPGA using OpenCL

The Smith-Waterman algorithm is widely used in bioinformatics and is often used as a benchmark of FPGA performance. Here we present our highly optimized Smith-Waterman implementation on Intel FPGAs using OpenCL. Our implementation is both faster and more efficient than other current Smith-Waterman implementations, obtaining a theoretical performance of 214 GCUPS. Moreover, due to the streaming, implicit synchronizing nature of our implementation, which streams alignments and places no restrictions on the number of alignments in flight, it achieves 99.8% of this performance in practice, almost three times as fast as previous implementations. The expressiveness of OpenCL results in a significant reduction in lines of code, and in a significant reduction of development time compared to programming in regular hardware description languages
Feasibility of Labile Zn Phytoextraction Using Enhanced Tobacco and Sunflower: Results of Five- and One-Year Field-Scale Experiments in Switzerland

Phytoextraction with somaclonal variants of tobacco and sunflower mutant lines (non-GMs) with enhanced metal uptake and tolerance can be a sustainable alternative to conventional destructive decontamination methods, especially for stripping bioavailable zinc excess in topsoil. The overall results of a 5-year time series experiment at field scale in north-eastern Switzerland confirm that the labile Zn pool in soil can be lowered by 45–70%, whereas subplots without phytoextraction treatment maintained labile Zn concentrations. In 2011, the phytoextraction experiment site was enlarged by a factor of 3, and the labile 0.1 M NaNO3 extractable Zn concentration in the soil was reduced up to 58% one period after harvest. A Mass Balance Analysis confirmed soil Zn decontamination in line with plant Zn uptake. The plants partially take Zn from the non-labile pool of the total. The sustainability of Zn phytoextraction in subplots that no longer exceed the Swiss trigger value is now assessed over time. In contrary to the phytoextraction of total soil Zn which needs a long cleaning up time, the bioavailable Zn stripping is feasible within a few years period.
Validation et vérification formelles de systèmes interactifs multi-modaux fondées sur la preuve

This paper focuses on the formal validation and verification of multi-modal human computer interfaces. It describes part of the obtained results of the French RNRT VERBATIM project. It focuses on the application of a formal proof based technique, namely the event B method. We outline the capability of this technique to support the design of multi-modal human computer interfaces, in particular, the capability to support the expression and the verification of properties issued from the CARE family. The proposed approach uses notations and semi-formal techniques issued from the HCI design area.
Parallel-coupled stub-loaded resonators compact size tunable filter

A novel topology of tunable compact band-pass filters based on stub-loaded parallel coupled resonators is demonstrated. These resonators behave like short-circuited quarter wavelength resonators, which explains the compactness of such a structure of filter. By loading the stubs by a tunable capacitance, a narrow-band tunable filter is obtained, with relative pass-band widths of 3.5 % with only two resonators. For a proof-of concept, three two-pole filters with different loading capacitors have been realized. The tunability reaches 6 %, i.e. twice the relative bandwidth. Insertion loss between 2.2 dB and 2.8 dB is achieved with a return loss better than −12 dB. The bandwidth is quite constant for all the working frequencies.
Association of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 ICP8 and ICP27 Proteins with Cellular RNA Polymerase II Holoenzyme

ABSTRACT Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) infection causes the shutoff of host gene transcription and the induction of a transcriptional program of viral gene expression. Cellular RNA polymerase II is responsible for transcription of all the viral genes, but several viral proteins stimulate viral gene transcription. ICP4 is required for all delayed-early and late gene transcription, ICP0 stimulates transcription of viral genes, and ICP27 stimulates expression of some early genes and transcription of at least some late viral genes. The early DNA-binding protein, ICP8, also stimulates late gene transcription. We therefore investigated which HSV proteins interact with RNA polymerase II. Using immunoprecipitation and Western blotting methods, we observed the coprecipitation of ICP27 and ICP8 with RNA polymerase II holoenzyme. The association of ICP27 with RNA polymerase II was detectable as early as 3 h postinfection, while ICP8 association became evident by 5 h postinfection, and the association of both was independent of viral DNA synthesis. Infections with ICP27 gene mutant viruses revealed that ICP27 is required for the association of ICP8 with RNA polymerase II, while studies with ICP8 gene deletion mutants showed no apparent role for ICP8 in the association of ICP27 with RNA polymerase II. The association of ICP27 and ICP8 with RNA polymerase II holoenzyme appeared to be independent of nucleic acids. We hypothesize that the interaction of ICP27 with RNA polymerase II holoenzyme reflects its role in stimulating early and late gene expression and/or its role in inhibiting host transcription and that the interaction of ICP8 with RNA polymerase II holoenzyme reflects its role in stimulating late gene transcription.
Video inpainting of objects using modified patch based image inpainting algorithm

An efficient moving object completion algorithm suitable for real-time content-based multimedia application system is proposed in this paper. In the proposed method, 3D volume of video is sampled into 2D spatio-temporal slices. Background subtraction technique is used for object detection and tracking. Then, exampler-based image inpainting is applied to complete partially damaged object trajectories in 2D slices. After combination of completed slices, sequences of virtual trajectories are formed to retrieve the most similar postures among the number of postures. Key posture selection and indexing are used to reduce the complexity of posture sequence retrieval.
Anesthetic cartridge system under evaluation.

The problem of glass breakage in the local anesthetic cartridge system was evaluated under laboratory conditions with a mechanical testing machine. The anticipated breakage of the glass did not occur with any frequency, as the rubber stopper produced more uniform failures of the system. The glass cartridge appeared to be quite reliable and resistant to breakage.Local anesthetics have been used for many years to provide patients temporary freedom from pain. Local anesthetic solutions are in wide use in both dentistry and medicine and are the most frequently used drugs in dentistry. Various estimates place the number of injections at approximately one half million daily or 125 million injections per year.These drugs and the armamentarium necessary to administer them have proven to be safe and reliable. Only rarely are there reports of sensitivity to the anesthetic solution or breakage of needles. Sterility of the solutions has not been a problem as they are carefully processed and evaluated at the factory. Although there are sporadic reports of loss of sterility, this has been attributed to the reuse of the anesthetic cartridges on more than one patient. Monheim states "The success of the cartridge system in dentistry has been due to the sincerity, honesty, and high standards of the manufacturers in giving the profession a near-perfect product. " However, on occassion a glass cartridge will break or shatter when inserting the harpoon into the rubber stopper or even during injection. Cooley et al reported on eye injuries occurring in the dental office, one of which was due to glass from a local anesthetic cartridge that exploded and propelled particles into the patient's eye. Forrest evaluated syringes, needles, and cartridges and reported that one brand (made in Britain) fractured more often than any other, but that the fracture rate was too low to be of any consequence.It is apparent that glass cartridges will fracture or burst from time to time. This study evaluates the cartridge system with carefully controlled laboratory procedures. The cartridges were tested under various pressures and conditions in an attempt to determine the causes of failure and when such failure may be anticipated.
Managing Topological Prioritization in Ray-Tracing Based Progressive Propagation-Prediction Modeling

In a progressive propagation prediction model, significant time is saved by interrupting the process when specific application related constraints have been met. Such limitations have to do with the statistics of intermediate results as well as their spatial arrangement in the area of interest. We propose a time-efficient method to control the topological distribution of intermediate predictions. The proposed criterion allows different priorities to be set in different regions of the study area. In addition, we put forward two progressive strategies capable of adjusting the ray-tracing engine to the desired prioritization. The advantages of the proposed strategies compared with existing approaches are well demonstrated