Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributed Finite-Time Convergence Control of an Islanded Low-Voltage AC Microgrid

The control of an islanded AC microgrid with high penetration level of renewable generations is complicated and challenging due to its low inertia and fast changing operating conditions. To address the drawbacks of traditional droop control with low-voltage AC microgrid, an adaptive virtual impedance control is proposed to improve the active/reactive power sharing accuracy. To deal with the frequency and voltage deviation caused by the primary control while satisfying the fast response requirements and various users’ preferences, a flexible distributed control strategy is proposed as the secondary control. The proposed control strategy can restore the frequency and voltage magnitude to the desired values in a finite-time manner, using only local and neighboring information. The finite-time convergence of the proposed distributed control algorithm is guaranteed through rigorous analysis. Simulation studies validate the effectiveness and scalability of the proposed distributed control strategy.
eview ystic fibrosis : Toward personalized therapies

Cystic fibrosis (CF), the most common, life-threatening monogenetic disease in Caucasians, is caused by mutations in the CFTR gene, encoding a cAMPand cGMP-regulated epithelial chloride channel. Symptomatic therapies treating end-organ manifestations have increased the life expectancy of CF patients toward a mean of 40 years. The recent development of CFTR-targeted drugs that emerged from highthroughput screening and are capable of correcting the basic defect promises to transform the therapeutic landscape from a trial-and-error prescription to personalized medicine. This stratified approach is tailored to a specific functional class of mutations in CFTR, but can be refined further to an individual level by exploiting recent advances in ex vivo drug testing methods. These tests range from CFTR functional measurements in rectal biopsies donated by a CF patient to the use of patient-derived intestinal or pulmonary organoids. Such organoids may serve as an inexhaustible source of epithelial cells that can be stored in biobanks and allow mediumto high-throughput screening of CFTR activators, correctors and potentiators on the basis of a simple microscopic assay monitoring organoid swelling. Thus the recent breakthrough in stem cell biology allowing the culturing of mini-organs from individual patients is not only relevant for future stem cell therapy, but may also allow the preclinical testing of new drugs or combinations that are optimally suited for an individual patient. This article is part of a Directed Issue entitled: Cystic Fibrosis: From o-mics to cell biology, physiology, and therapeutic advances. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Chance-Constrained AC Optimal Power Flow: Reformulations and Efficient Algorithms

Higher levels of renewable electricity generation increase uncertainty in power system operation. To ensure secure system operation, new tools that account for this uncertainty are required. In this paper, we adopt a chance-constrained AC optimal power flow formulation, which guarantees that generation, power flows, and voltages remain within their bounds with a predefined probability. We then discuss different chance-constraint reformulations and solution approaches for the problem. We first describe an analytical reformulation based on partial linearization, which enables us to obtain a tractable representation of the optimization problem. We then provide an efficient algorithm based on an iterative solution scheme which alternates between solving a deterministic AC optimal power flow problem and assessing the impact of uncertainty. The flexibility of the iterative scheme enables not only scalable implementations, but also alternative chance-constraint reformulations. In particular, we suggest two sample-based reformulations that do not require any approximation or relaxation of the AC power flow equations. In a case study based on four different IEEE systems, we assess the performance of the method, and demonstrate scalability of the iterative scheme. We further show that the analytical reformulation accurately and efficiently enforces chance constraints in both in- and out-of-sample tests, and that the analytical reformulations outperforms the two alternative, sample-based chance constraint reformulations.
Preferential targeting of cancer stem cells in the radiosensitizing effect of ABT-737 on HNSCC

Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) are common human malignancies with poor clinical outcomes. The 5-year survival rates for patients with advanced stage HNSCC have not changed appreciably in the past few decades, underscoring a dire need for improved therapeutic options. HNSCC is frequently characterized by overexpression of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family members. Increased levels of these anti-apoptotic proteins have been associated with radio- and chemoresistance and poor clinical outcome. The aim of this study was to evaluate combined effects of radiation and ABT-737, a BH3-mimetic molecule, in HNSCC. Although ABT-737, as a single agent, was largely ineffective at promoting HNSCC cell death, we found that combining ABT-737 and radiation induced strong synergistic apoptosis in HNSCC cell lines and delayed tumoral growth in vivo. Moreover, we demonstrated for the first time that ABT-737, alone or in combination with radiation, can efficiently eliminate cancer stem cells (CSCs). Altogether, our results indicate that therapy targeting anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family members could be a highly effective potential adjuvant to radiotherapy capable of targeting CSCs in HNSCC and therefore overcoming cancer recurrence and metastasis.
Discrimination abilities for nutrients: which difference matters for choosy birds and why?

Abstract Fine-tuned discrimination abilities are a prerequisite for optimal diet theory (ODT) and the concept of nutrient regulation as alternative models of food choice. These abilities have rarely been determined, and neither has been applied to frugivorous consumers. We investigated nutrient choices of four tanagers ( Tachyphonus cristatus , Dacnis cayana , Chlorophanes spiza and Cyanerpes nitidus ) for different lipid or carbohydrate concentrations, and determined discrimination abilities by reducing in steps the difference between two foods ranging from 2.5 to 12%. Three species detected differences in sugar concentrations of only 1% and differences in lipid content of 2%. Hence, frugivorous tanagers were able to select the more rewarding food based on fine-scale differences in nutritional content. Tanagers also consumed more carbohydrates than proteins or lipids in isocaloric trials, but were indifferent to equicaloric solutions of 20% of either glucose or sucrose. In contrast to foods with low sugar contents, intake of foods high in lipids or carbohydrates was limited to a protein intake of 0.75 g/7 h. Lipid and carbohydrates were treated as though they were interchangeable nutrients for birds at low, but not at high, sugar concentrations. Furthermore, the tanagers discriminated foods containing the same amount of protein but differing in the type of protein. Preference for boviserine serum albumin (BSA) over casein was not related to moult. We supplemented the food consisting of casein with the essential amino acid cysteine to match cysteine concentrations of BSA. The birds then consumed more of the casein food than of the cysteine-supplemented casein food. Overall, the birds' consistent choices in the experiments with foods of different energy density are interpretable by both ODT and the nutrient regulation theory. However, only the latter accounts for the birds' choices of isocaloric foods differing in macro- or micronutritional content. Models of food selection should therefore focus on nutrient geometry and consumer-specific requirements. Copyright 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Aperture Synthesis on 2-D Ultrasonic Transducer Arrays for Projection Imaging of Biological Media

This paper offers several schemes of activating a small number of elements in a pair of 2-D transmitting and receiving plane arrays for imaging of the structure of biological media by means of the ultrasonic projection (transmission method). Such aperture synthesis with adequately switched small subarrays (with accordance to the scanning method) allows achieving a significant directivity and the increased ultrasonic wave intensity with an acceptable input electrical impedance decrease. The novel approach in this work is reflected in wave beam profile modelling based on a simple simulation of the spatial distribution of the results of multiplying the transmitted and received ultrasonic wave field as a product of an effective transmitting-receiving aperture, rather than the coarray, the aperture or the point spread function (PSF) used in the echo method. In the end a simulation algorithm was developed and presented and the calculations and measurements of ultrasonic wave field distributions for some essential aperture configurations
Modified bi-directional Z-source breaker with reclosing and rebreaking capabilities

A modified topology of a bi-directional z-source circuit breaker with coupled inductor (Bi-CZSB) with reclosing and re-breaking capabilities is introduced in this paper. The proposed breaker can operate with a single coupled inductor for bi-directional power flow. Therefore, the size of the inductor is optimized to 50%, thus the total cost of the breaker is minimized. A brief overview of reclosing and re-breaking requirement is discussed in this paper. The breaker is intended to perform operating duty of reclosing and re-breaking based on the field conditions. Most of the times, faults in the overhead system are due to the temporary transient conditions. Such faults get cleared after the breaker opens and disconnects the circuit. Very few faults lead to permanent damage to the system where they are required to be isolated. Operation of previously proposed Bi-CZSB is discussed under reclosing and re-breaking conditions. Necessary modifications are introduced to perform the reclosing and re-breaking operation in modified Bi-CZSB. Simulation results are presented verifying the desired performance.
Structure and Interactions in Covalently and Ionically Crosslinked Chitosan Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications

This review presents a critical analysis of covalently and ionically crosslinked chitosan hydrogels and related networks for medical or pharmaceutical applications. The structural basis of these hydrogels is discussed with reference to the specific chemical interactions, which dictate gel formation. The synthesis and chemistry of these hydrogels is discussed using specific pharmaceutical examples. Covalent crosslinking leads to formation of hydrogels with a permanent network structure, since irreversible chemical links are formed. This type of linkage allows absorption of water and/or bioactive compounds without dissolution and permits drug release by diffusion. pH-controlled drug delivery is made possible by the addition of another polymer. Ionically crosslinked hydrogels are generally considered as biocompatible and well-tolerated. Their non-permanent network is formed by reversible links. Ionically crosslinked chitosan hydrogels exhibit a higher swelling sensitivity to pH changes compared to covalently crosslinked chitosan hydrogels. This extends their potential application, since dissolution can occur in extreme acidic or basic pH conditions. q 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Simple, biologically-constrained CA1 pyramidal cell models using an intact, whole hippocampus context

The hippocampus is a heavily studied brain structure due to its involvement in learning and memory. Detailed models of excitatory, pyramidal cells in hippocampus have been developed using a range of experimental data. These models have been used to help us understand, for example, the effects of synaptic integration and voltage gated channel densities and distributions on cellular responses. However, these cellular outputs need to be considered from the perspective of the networks in which they are embedded. Using modeling approaches, if cellular representations are too detailed, it quickly becomes computationally unwieldy to explore large network simulations. Thus, simple models are preferable, but at the same time they need to have a clear, experimental basis so as to allow physiologically based understandings to emerge. In this article, we describe the development of simple models of CA1 pyramidal cells, as derived in a well-defined experimental context of an intact, whole hippocampus preparation expressing population oscillations. These models are based on the intrinsic properties and frequency-current profiles of CA1 pyramidal cells, and can be used to build, fully examine, and analyze large networks.
Enhancing domain-specific ontologies at ease

We present a methodology to enhance domain-specific ontologies by (i) manual annotation of texts with the concepts in the domain ontology, (ii) matching annotated concepts with the closest YAGO-Wikipedia concept and (iii) using concepts from other ontologies that cover complementary domains. This method reduces the difficulty of aligning ontologies, because the alignment is carried out within the scope of an example. The resulting alignment is a partial connection between diverse ontologies, and also a strong connection to Linked Open Data. By aligning these ontologies, we are increasing the ontological coverage for texts in that domain. Moreover, by aligning domain ontologies to the Wikipedia (via YAGO) we can obtain manually annotated examples of some of the concepts, effectively populating the ontology with examples. We present two applications of this process in the legal domain. First, we annotate sentences of the European Court of Human Rights with the LKIF ontology, at the same time matching them with the YAGO ontology. Second, we annotate a corpus of customer questions and answers from an insurance web page with the OMG ontology for the insurance domain, matching it with the YAGO ontology and complementing it with a financial ontology.
Prehospital emergency care nurses’ strategies while caring for patients with limited Swedish–English proficiency

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To explore the strategies of nurses working in the ambulance service while caring for patients with limited Swedish-English proficiency. BACKGROUND Communication difficulties due to lack of mutual language is a challenge in healthcare systems around the world. Little is known about nurses' strategies while caring for patients with whom they do not share a mutual language in an unstructured, unplanned prehospital emergency environment, the ambulance service. DESIGN AND METHOD A qualitative study design based on interviews was used, and a purposeful sample and snowball technique were used to identify nurses with prehospital emergency experience of caring for patients with limited Swedish-English proficiency. RESULTS Eleven nurses were interviewed, and the main strategy they used was adapting to the patients' need and the caring situation. The nurses used their own body, and tone of voice for creating a sense of trust and security. The nurses also used structured assessment in accordance with medical guidelines. Translation devices and relatives/bystanders were used as interpreters when possible. Another strategy was to transport the patient directly to the emergency department as they had not found a secure way of assessing and caring for the patients in the ambulance. CONCLUSION The nurses used a palette of strategies while assessing and caring for patients when there was no mutual language between the caregiver and care seeker. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE The nurses need to be prepared for how to assess and care for patients when there is a lack of mutual language; otherwise, there is a risk of increased unequal care in the ambulance service. To further explore and learn about this field of research, studies exploring the patients' perspective are needed.
A synergistic modulation method for hybrid cascaded photovoltaic inverter with supercapacitor

A hybrid cascaded photovoltaic (PV) inverter with supercapacitor is proposed, and a synergistic modulation method adapted to the operation principle of the inverter is presented. This inverter contains a supercapacitor cell and several PV cells. The supercapacitor cell uses specific harmonic elimination (SHE) technique to eliminate a part of the low-frequency harmonics in its output voltage, while the PV cells adopt carrier phase-shift PWM (PS-PWM). And a compensation component calculated from the rest low-frequency harmonics generated by supercapacitor cell is added to the modulation index of PV cells, to further reduce the harmonics in the total output voltage. Experimental results show that compared with regular PS-PWM method, the proposed modulation method has less low-frequency harmonics and lower THD when the output voltages and dc voltages of the two types of cells are quite different.
Manipulation planning with contacts for an extensible elastic rod by sampling on the submanifold of static equilibrium configurations

We consider the manipulation planning problem of an extensible elastic rod in collision-free or contact space. We assume the rod can be handled by grippers either at both or at only one of its extremities and during the manipulation, the grasped end may change. We show that the use of both quasi-static and dynamic models can be coupled efficiently with sampling-based methods. By sampling directly on the submanifold of static equilibrium and contact-free configurations, we can take advantage of the dynamic model to improve the exploration in the state space. We show the necessity of considering contacts for this type of problems with several simulation experiments on various scenarios.
Arguments for and against self and non-self root recognition in plants

Root–root interaction research gained more and more attention over the past few years. Roots are pivotal for plant survival because they ensure uptake of water and nutrients. Therefore, detection of adjacent roots might lead to competitive advantages. Several lines of experimental evidence suggest that roots have ways to discriminate non-related roots, kin, and—importantly—that they can sense self/non-self roots to avoid intra-plant competition. In this mini-review, the existence of self/non-self recognition in plant roots will be discussed and the current knowledge on the mechanisms that could be involved will be summarized. Although the process of identity recognition is still not completely understood, interesting data are available and emerging new technologies will certainly aid to better understand this research field that can have an important biological, ecological, and agricultural impact.
Generation of isolated attosecond pulses with enhancement cavities—a theoretical study

The generation of extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) isolated attosecond pulses (IAPs) has enabled experimental access to the fastest phenomena in nature observed so far, namely the dynamics of electrons in atoms, molecules and solids. However, nowadays the highest repetition rates at which IAPs can be generated lies in the kHz range. This represents a rather severe restriction for numerous experiments involving the detection of charged particles, where the desired number of generated particles per shot is limited by space charge effects to ideally one. Here, we present a theoretical study on the possibility of efficiently producing IAPs at multi-MHz repetition rates via cavity-enhanced high-harmonic generation (HHG). To this end, we assume parameters of state-of-the-art Yb-based femtosecond laser technology to evaluate several time-gating methods which could generate IAPs in enhancement cavities. Weidentify polarization gating and a new method, employing non-collinear optical gating in a tailored transverse cavity mode, as suitable candidates and analyze these via extensive numerical modeling. The latter, which we dub transverse mode gating (TMG) promises the highest efficiency and robustness. Assuming 0.7 mu J, 5-cycle pulses from the seeding laser and a state-of-the-art enhancement cavity, we show thatTMGbares the potential to generate IAPs with photon energies around 100 eV and a photon flux of at least 10(8) photons s(-1) at repetition rates of 10 MHz and higher. This result reveals a roadmap towards a dramatic decrease in measurement time (and, equivalently, an increase in the signal-to-noise ratio) in photoelectron spectroscopy and microscopy. In particular, it paves the way to combining attosecond streaking with photoelectron emission microscopy, affording, for the first time, the spatially and temporally resolved observation of plasmonic fields in nanostructures. Furthermore, it promises the generation of frequency combs with an unprecedented bandwidth forXUVprecision spectroscopy.
Texture Control of Pure Titanium Sheet by the Surface Effect during Phase Transformation

The texture evolution of cold rolled pure titanium through different annealing parameters was investigated and different processes for various textures controls were proposed for further industrial application. Columnar grains with strong {11–20}//RD (rolling direction) texture was produced through cold rolling and a cooling-controlled annealing at 1100 °C with the Ar atmosphere. The preferred nucleation on the surface and the lowest strain energy of variant pairs during grain growth caused the formation of columnar grains and variant selection. Texture inheritance was discovered both in the cold-rolled and warm rolled-pure titanium sheets following 1000 °C annealing. The stored energy during cold rolling was the main reason causing the texture inheritance. Basal texture could be produced through warm rolling and subsequent annealing. The 30°-rotated around RD from basal texture could be preserved through both recrystallized annealing and transformed annealing.
Faces of Product Pleasure: 25 Positive Emotions in Human-Product Interactions

The study of user emotions is hindered by the absence of a clear overview of what positive emotions can be experienced in humanproduct interactions. Existing typologies are either too concise or too comprehensive, including less than five or hundreds of positive emotions, respectively. To overcome this hindrance, this paper introduces a basic set of 25 positive emotion types that represent the general repertoire of positive human emotions. The set was developed with a componential analysis of 150 positive emotion words. A questionnaire study that explored how and when each of the 25 emotions are experienced in human-product interactions resulted in a collection of 729 example cases. On the basis of these cases, six main sources of positive emotions in human-product interactions are proposed. By providing a fine-grained yet concise vocabulary of positive emotions that people can experience in response to product design, the typology aims to facilitate both research and design activities. The implications and limitations of the set are discussed, and some future research steps are proposed.
Disease prediction by cell-free DNA methylation

Disease diagnosis using cell-free DNA (cfDNA) has been an active research field recently. Most existing approaches perform diagnosis based on the detection of sequence variants on cfDNA; thus, their applications are limited to diseases associated with high mutation rate such as cancer. Recent developments start to exploit the epigenetic information on cfDNA, which could have substantially wider applications. In this work, we provide thorough reviews and discussions on the statistical method developments and data analysis strategies for using cfDNA epigenetic profiles, in particular DNA methylation, to construct disease diagnostic models. We focus on two important aspects: marker selection and prediction model construction, under different scenarios. We perform simulations and real data analysis to compare different approaches, and provide recommendations for data analysis.