Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fuzzy logic controller based SEPIC converter of maximum power point tracking

This paper presents a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) based single-ended primary-inductor (SEPIC) converter of maximum power point tracking (MPPT). The proposed scheme ensures optimal use of PV array and proves its efficacy in variable load conditions, unity and lagging power factor at the inverter output (load) side as it is used also there. The real-time implementation of the MPPT SEPIC converter is done by digital signal processor (DSP); TMS320F28335. The performance of the converter is tested in both simulation and experiment at different operating conditions. The results are compared to PI based ones due to its severe use in industries. The results show that the proposed FLC based SEPIC-MPPT scheme can accurately track the reference signal and transfer power around 4.8% more than conventional PI based system.
Hepatocyte Growth Factor Signaling in Intrapancreatic Ductal Cells Drives Pancreatic Morphogenesis

In a forward genetic screen for regulators of pancreas development in zebrafish, we identified donuts908, a mutant which exhibits failed outgrowth of the exocrine pancreas. The s908 mutation leads to a leucine to arginine substitution in the ectodomain of the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) tyrosine kinase receptor, Met. This missense mutation impedes the proteolytic maturation of the receptor, its trafficking to the plasma membrane, and diminishes the phospho-activation of its kinase domain. Interestingly, during pancreatogenesis, met and its hgf ligands are expressed in pancreatic epithelia and mesenchyme, respectively. Although Met signaling elicits mitogenic and migratory responses in varied contexts, normal proliferation rates in donut mutant pancreata together with dysmorphic, mislocalized ductal cells suggest that met primarily functions motogenically in pancreatic tail formation. Treatment with PI3K and STAT3 inhibitors, but not with MAPK inhibitors, phenocopies the donut pancreatic defect, further indicating that Met signals through migratory pathways during pancreas development. Chimera analyses showed that Met-deficient cells were excluded from the duct, but not acinar, compartment in the pancreatic tail. Conversely, wild-type intrapancreatic duct and “tip cells” at the leading edge of the growing pancreas rescued the donut phenotype. Altogether, these results reveal a novel and essential role for HGF signaling in the intrapancreatic ducts during exocrine morphogenesis.
Controlled Passive Walker Veronica Powered by Actuators with Independent Control of Equilibrium Position and Compliance

This paper presents the biped Veronica actuated with the MACCEPA actuator. The MACCEPA is an electrical actuator of which the compliance and equilibrium position are fully independent and both are set by a dedicated servo motor. 6 such actuators are used to power the planar biped Veronica. The control concept is based on "controlled passive walking". Instead of continuously controlling the biped, the control parameter sets for each joint are only changed a few times during walking. Between the discrete control actions the motion is passive due to the compliant actuators. So this robot behaves like an actuated passive walker. Because the compliance is adaptable, different natural frequencies can be selected. This means that the walking motion is not restricted to a fix walking speed
Toward a contingency view of infrastructure and knowledge: an exploratory study

IT infrastructures coupled with BPR initiatives have the potential of supporting and enabling new organisational forms and help firms face the challenges of globalisation. The management literature gives prescriptions of how to set up, implement and use infrastructures to reach a new IT capability, diminish transaction costs and obtain competitive advantage. However, the scant empirical basis of such literature goes hand in hand with the lack of a theory linking the deployment of infrastructure to the nature of the business and the industry. This study of the deployment and use of infrastructures in six large multinationals prepares the ground for a contingency approach to the whole issue. The different implementation processes and applications reported by the case studies suggest that there is much more variety than a ‘one best way’ recommended by the literature. The theory of the firm as a repository of knowledge processes is a good candidate to explain qualitatively the empirical evidence, and provides a contingency framework that can be further tested.
OneSpace: shared visual scenes for active freeplay

Children engage in free play for emotional, physical and social development; researchers have explored supporting free play between physically remote playmates using videoconferencing tools. We show that the configuration of the video conferencing setup affects play. Specifically, we show that a shared visual scene configuration promotes fundamentally active forms of engaged, co-operative play.
Therapeutic writing and chronic pain: experiences of therapeutic writing in a cognitive behavioural programme for people with chronic pain.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To examine the experiences of therapeutic writing from the perspectives of patients attending a chronic pain management programme. BACKGROUND Pain is a multifaceted experience. Increased awareness, understanding and gaining new insights are essential aspects of dealing with chronic pain. It is crucial to find powerful ways to cope with chronic pain. Several studies point to writing as a tool for managing such demanding life experiences. Therapeutic writing in a cognitive behavioural approach may be used to facilitate the rehabilitation process. DESIGN A qualitative study with a descriptive and explorative design including a phenomenological perspective was used. METHODS A consecutive sample of 34 outpatients with chronic pain was recruited to an eight-week group-based pain management programme. A therapeutic writing tool was developed and included as part of the homework tasks. Guidelines were used to initiate and guide the therapeutic writing activity. Written reports were collected after completion. RESULTS Three thematic findings emerged from the analysis: 'increased understanding of chronic pain as a multifaceted experience', 'new insights into managing the chronic pain situation' and 'different performances lead to different experiences with therapeutic writing'. CONCLUSIONS Increased awareness, understanding and new insights are essential to dealing with chronic pain. People with chronic pain need tools and skills for optimal adaptation. Our findings suggest therapeutic writing may strengthen cognitive behavioural therapy by facilitating cognitive restructuring processes. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Therapeutic writing may be used as a tool to express individual experiences and to improve adaptation to chronic pain.
On the binding of polarons in a mean-field quantum crystal

We consider a multi-polaron model obtained by coupling the many-body Schr\"odinger equation for N interacting electrons with the energy functional of a mean-field crystal with a localized defect, obtaining a highly non linear many-body problem. The physical picture is that the electrons constitute a charge defect in an otherwise perfect periodic crystal. A remarkable feature of such a system is the possibility to form a bound state of electrons via their interaction with the polarizable background. We prove first that a single polaron always binds, i.e. the energy functional has a minimizer for N=1. Then we discuss the case of multi-polarons containing two electrons or more. We show that their existence is guaranteed when certain quantized binding inequalities of HVZ type are satisfied.
Random Generation of Nondeterministic Finite-State Tree Automata

Algorithms for (nondeterministic) finite-state tree automata (FTAs) are often tested on random FTAs, in which all internal transitions are equiprobable. The run-time results obtained in this manner are usually overly optimistic as most such generated random FTAs are trivial in the sense that the number of states of an equivalent minimal deterministic FTA is extremely small. It is demonstrated that nontrivial random FTAs are obtained only for a narrow band of transition probabilities. Moreover, an analytic analysis yields a formula to approximate the transition probability that yields the most complex random FTAs, which should be used in experiments.
OPTICAL PROPERTY ANALYSIS OF THERMALLY AND PHOTOLYTICALLY AGED EUCALYPTUS CAMALDULENSIS CHEMITHERMOMECHANICAL PULP (CTMP)

To investigate the optical properties of chemithermomechanical pulp (CTMP) from Eucalyptus camaldulensis, one group of samples of CTMP was aged by heating, and another group was first subjected to bleaching with different bleaching agents, and then aging by exposure to sunlight. Chromophores were analyzed using diffuse reflectance UV-Vis spectra (DRUV), and the brightness and color parameters (L*, a*, b*) were analyzed using colorimetry. Results showed that the color reactions of the pulp, upon heating, were enhanced in the presence of moisture. There was a linear relationship between the pulp initial moisture content (MC) and the intensity of UV-Vis absorption. The contribution of different chromophores to pulp color was analyzed with the help of bleaching agents: hydrogen peroxide, sodium dithionite, and sodium borohydride. Sodium borohydride and hydrogen peroxide treatments resulted in a decrease in the absorption band at 280 nm along with the shoulder near 320 nm, which could be attributed to conjugated C=O and C=C systems. Similarly, sodium dithionite treatment also led to a decrease in absorption of the carbonyls and double bonds conjugated with aromatic double bonds. The chromaticity parameters of bleached pulp increased after exposure to sunlight. A correspondingly higher concentration of quinoid structures was found.
An Assessment of the Comprehensiveness of Various Hip Outcome Scores.

INTRODUCTION Evaluating outcomes following total hip arthroplasty (THA) has been essential for improving satisfaction and quality of care. However, finding systems that fully encompass these outcomes poses a challenge for physicians, and often still do not provide an adequate picture of a patient's recovery. Therefore, we evaluated different scoring systems to determine the most efficient method of assessing the outcomes of patients undergoing THA. MATERIALS AND METHODS We evaluated all hip scoring systems currently available in the literature and identified the parameters assessed in the questionnaires. The parameters were then subdivided into subjective, objective, rehabilitative, and quality of life outcome measures. We identified the most commonly referenced questionnaires and assessed multiple permutations of these with other scoring systems to determine the combinations that would most efficiently and comprehensively evaluate the outcomes of patients undergoing THA. RESULTS The 42 identified scoring systems covered the following parameters: 4 subjective, 5 objective, 17 rehabilitative, and 18 quality of life. The Harris Hip Score (HHS) was the most cited system (5,613), but the Hip Disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (HOOS) had the greatest coverage of all the parameters (49%). On combinatorial analysis, the 2-, 3-, and 4-item permutations that had the greatest coverage were HOOS and 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) (59%), HOOS, SF-36, and Larson (75%), and HOOS, SF-36, Larson, and Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS) (80%). CONCLUSION Physicians and researchers have attempted to fully assess the outcomes of patients undergoing THA. Utilizing existing scoring systems in particular combinations may allow us to form an ideal questionnaire that provides sufficient coverage of parameters, thus providing a more comprehensive way to cost-effectively evaluate outcomes. Further analysis is required to determine whether or not these permutations provide a sufficient evaluation in a clinical setting.
Traffic-Aware Resource Controller for IaaS Clouds

In cloud data centers, a resource controller is currently used to deploy virtual machines (VMs) and create virtual networks. To decide which servers VMs are deployed on and migrated to, conventional resource controllers take into account the amount of server resources and usage but not physical network loads. Network resources are more difficult to adjust than server resources since manipulations for a VM running on a server affect VMs running on other servers in shared networks. Physical-link traffic is also challenging to regulate at the granularity of a VM because a physical link is used by multiple VMs to transfer their data. To address this challenge, we propose traffic-aware resource scheduler, which leads to dynamically balancing utilization of physical links. To achieve this, the proposed scheduler determines where virtual objects, including VMs and virtual routers, should be deployed or migrated in accordance with subsequent network-traffic derived from periodically accumulated traffic data. To demonstrate the viability, we develop Protea, a traffic-aware resource controller by extending an existing cloud resource controller. We argue that the proposed system improves communications performance between VMs by eliminating traffic congestion in accordance with network flow variation and the configuration change of network architecture.
Maximum expected likelihood based model selection and adaptation for nonnative English speakers

In this paper, the problem of fast model adaptation for nonnative speakers is addressed from a perspective of model complexity selection. The key challenge lies in reliable complexity selection when only a small amount of adaptation data is available. A novel maximum expected likelihood (MEL) based technique is proposed to enable model complexity selection from using as little as one adaptation sentence. In MEL, the expectation of loglikelihood is computed based on the mismatch bias between model and data which is measured by a small amount of adaptation data, and model complexity is selected to maximize EL. Experiments were performed on WSJ data of speakers with a wide range of foreign accents. The proposed method led to consistent and significant improvement on recognition accuracy over MLLR for nonnative speakers, without performance degradation on native speakers. The proposed method was able to dynamically select optimal model complexity as the available adaptation data increased.
Role of Conserved Non-Coding Regulatory Elements in LMW Glutenin Gene Expression

Transcriptional regulation of LMW glutenin genes were investigated in-silico, using publicly available gene sequences and expression data. Genes were grouped into different LMW glutenin types and their promoter profiles were determined using cis-acting regulatory elements databases and published results. The various cis-acting elements belong to some conserved non-coding regulatory regions (CREs) and might act in two different ways. There are elements, such as GCN4 motifs found in the long endosperm box that could serve as key factors in tissue-specific expression. Some other elements, such as the AACA/TA motifs or the individual prolamin box variants, might modulate the level of expression. Based on the promoter sequences and expression characteristic LMW glutenin genes might be transcribed following two different mechanisms. Most of the s- and i-type genes show a continuously increasing expression pattern. The m-type genes, however, demonstrate normal distribution in their expression profiles. Differences observed in their expression could be related to the differences found in their promoter sequences. Polymorphisms in the number and combination of cis-acting elements in their promoter regions can be of crucial importance in the diverse levels of production of single LMW glutenin gene types.
Role played by Th2 type cytokines in IgE mediated allergy and asthma

Objective: Recent evidence suggest that allergen type 2 helper T cells (Th2) play a triggering role in the activation/recruitment of IgE antibody producing B cells, mast cells and eosinophils. Reduced microbial exposure in early life is responsible for a shift of Th1/Th2 balance in the immune system towards the pre-allergic Th2 response. The Th1 predominantly produce IFNγ and delayed type hypersensitivity while Th2 secrete IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-13 and regulate B cell and eosinophil mediated responses. To assess regulatory changes in the immune system, in patients with allergy and asthma, we studied the cytokine profile in serum in comparison with normal healthy controls. Patients and Methods: A total of 170 patients with various allergies and asthmatic conditions were studied, for cytokines in the serum by ELISA using kits from Immunotech, and analyzed to identify the triggering factors or main contributors towards allergy and asthma. Results: Our study showed increase in the levels of IL-4, IL-5 and IL-6 in all groups which were non- significant. But the levels of IL-10, IL-13 and TNF α were highly significant. Besides, we found correlation of GM-CSF with IL-10. Significant correlation with different cytokines was observed. Most of these patients showed increase in IgE levels. Conclusions: This study gives a better understanding of how cytokines are the mediators of balance of Th1 and Th2 immune responses and IgE synthesis is controlled by cytokines. Further studies will eventually lead to improved treatment strategies in the clinical management of IgE mediated allergy.
Glycine-functionalized Fe3O4@TiO2:Er3+,Yb3+ nanocarrier for microwave-triggered controllable drug release and study on mechanism of loading/release process using microcalorimetry

Objectives: The current study aimed at developing microwave-triggered controlled-release drug delivery systems using glycine-modified Fe3O4@TiO2:Er3+,Yb3+ multifunctional core-shell nanoparticles. We also studied the drug loading and release mechanisms by means of microcalorimetry. Methods: We used hydrothermal method to prepare glycine-functionalized Fe3O4@TiO2:Er3+,Yb3+ multifunctional nanoparticles. The controlled release of the Fe3O4@TiO2:Er3+,Yb3+–glycine–VP16 triggered by microwave was determined with ultraviolet-visible spectroscopic analysis. We studied the cytotoxicity of the nanocarrier by MTT assay. Results: The thermodynamic parameter values (ΔH = -17.46 kJ mol−1, ΔS = −365.20 kJ mol−1) showed that the main interaction between the carrier and drug molecules is hydrogen bonding. The molar enthalpy (ΔH) of the drug-release process was 72.01 kJ mol−1, which indicates an endothermic process. This suggests that drug release can be controlled by microwave heating. The release profile can be controlled by the duration and number of cycles of microwave application. The particles also exhibit good magnetization and upconversion luminescence properties, which will allow simultaneous targeting and monitoring of the loaded drug. Conclusion: The modification of glycine and the introduction of absorbing material not only increased the load properties of the composite materials but also realized the microwave-stimulated anticancer drug controlled release.
Multi-objective virtual machine migration in virtualized data center environments

Virtual machine (VM) live migration, the key problem of modern virtualized data centers, is a challenging task since 1) Frequent traffic across data center between coupling VMs limits the efficiency of current methods. 2) Most existing approaches suffered from poor scalability issues as multi-objective optimization is still an open question in these designs. To address these problems, in this paper, a novel multi-objective VM migration algorithm is proposed. Given the definition of dominant resource fairness, a max-min fair model subject to server-side constraints is introduced. Then, we further formulate the VM migration as an optimization problem which considers application dependencies to reduce network traffic caused by migration. By incorporating the two basic VM migration algorithms, we conduct a joint formulization for maximizing the utilization of physical machines while minimizing the traffic burden across dependent VMs. The simulation result demonstrates the accuracy of the theoretic model and it is shown that our proposed method decreases network traffic by up to 82.6%, significantly improving the efficiency of data centers.
Sounds and silence: An optical topography study of language recognition at birth

Does the neonate's brain have left hemisphere (LH) dominance for speech? Twelve full-term neonates participated in an optical topography study designed to assess whether the neonate brain responds specifically to linguistic stimuli. Participants were tested with normal infant-directed speech, with the same utterances played in reverse and without auditory stimulation. We used a 24-channel optical topography device to assess changes in the concentration of total hemoglobin in response to auditory stimulation in 12 areas of the right hemisphere and 12 areas of the LH. We found that LH temporal areas showed significantly more activation when infants were exposed to normal speech than to backward speech or silence. We conclude that neonates are born with an LH superiority to process specific properties of speech.
Diversifying Search Results through Pattern-Based Subtopic Modeling

Traditional information retrieval models do not necessarily provide users with optimal search experience because the top ranked documents may contain excessively redundant information. Therefore, satisfying search results should be not only relevant to the query but also diversified to cover different subtopics of the query. In this paper, the authors propose a novel pattern-based framework to diversify search results, where each pattern is a set of semantically related terms covering the same subtopic. They first apply a maximal frequent pattern mining algorithm to extract the patterns from retrieval results of the query. The authors then propose to model a subtopic with either a single pattern or a group of similar patterns. A profile-based clustering method is adapted to group similar patterns based on their context information. The search results are then diversified using the extracted subtopics. Experimental results show that the proposed pattern-based methods are effective to diversify the search results.
Neuropragmatics: Extralinguistic Communication after Closed Head Injury

This work is concerned with the decay of communicative abilities after head trauma. A protocol composed of 16 videotaped scenes was devised in order to investigate the comprehension of several types of communicative actions realized with extralinguistic means, like pointing or clapping. The protocol was administered to 30 closed-head-injured individuals. The results showed that performance decreased from simple standard acts to complex standard acts, deceits, and ironies. The subjects' performance was worse with the scenes reproducing failing, rather than successful, communicative actions. The results are compared with those we previously obtained with a linguistic protocol. A theory of the cognitive processes underlying intentional communication is outlined and used to explain the results.