Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Financial rights and tracing for energy storage

There has been recent discussion as to whether energy storage should be an active market participant that buys and sells power at wholesale prices or a passive entity like a transmission line. In the latter case, new market mechanisms must be developed to integrate storage into electricity markets. In this paper, we define financial rights for energy storage. As with financial transmission rights, risk-averse market participants can acquire the storage rights to hedge against nodal price volatility resulting from storage congestion. We demonstrate that the rights specify how a system operator can redistribute budget surpluses resulting from storage congestion, as flowgate rights do for transmission congestion. We also derive a tracing rule that enables power flows through transmission lines and storage to be decomposed into present and past nodal contributions.
The SIRT1 Deacetylase Suppresses Intestinal Tumorigenesis and Colon Cancer Growth

Numerous longevity genes have been discovered in model organisms and altering their function results in prolonged lifespan. In mammals, some have speculated that any health benefits derived from manipulating these same pathways might be offset by increased cancer risk on account of their propensity to boost cell survival. The Sir2/SIRT1 family of NAD+-dependent deacetylases is proposed to underlie the health benefits of calorie restriction (CR), a diet that broadly suppresses cancer in mammals. Here we show that CR induces a two-fold increase SIRT1 expression in the intestine of rodents and that ectopic induction of SIRT1 in a β-catenin-driven mouse model of colon cancer significantly reduces tumor formation, proliferation, and animal morbidity in the absence of CR. We show that SIRT1 deacetylates β-catenin and suppresses its ability to activate transcription and drive cell proliferation. Moreover, SIRT1 promotes cytoplasmic localization of the otherwise nuclear-localized oncogenic form of β-catenin. Consistent with this, a significant inverse correlation was found between the presence of nuclear SIRT1 and the oncogenic form of β−catenin in 81 human colon tumor specimens analyzed. Taken together, these observations show that SIRT1 suppresses intestinal tumor formation in vivo and raise the prospect that therapies targeting SIRT1 may be of clinical use in β−catenin-driven malignancies.
Fuzzy-logic based NSR DBA for upstream GPON

Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) is a promising solution to cater for the tremendous demand for higher bandwidth applications. Dynamic Bandwidth Algorithm (DBA) is one of the mechanisms that is able to enhance GPON performance by serving bandwidth demand dynamically and satisfying Quality of Service (QoS). In this paper, a review on DBA features of previous developed algorithms in GPON is conducted. A Fuzzy-logic based Non-Status Reporting DBA (FNSR DBA) is presented where the finding show promising performance on bandwidth utilization.
On a pulse response of a capacitive intrabody communication channel

Intrabody communication (IBC) uses the human body as a signal transmission medium. In this paper we examine the pulse response of the capacitive intrabody communication channel for two different electrode configurations (electrode pairs A and B). As an excitation signal we use 0 dBm square wave signals with 1 MHz, 10 MHz, and 40 MHz frequency. Transmitter-receiver distance was set to 4 cm, 16 cm, 28 cm, 36 cm, and 120 cm. The received signals for both electrode configurations were positive and negative pulses with the duration much shorter than the original square wave signal. We have compared the amplitudes and durations of the received signals. The amplitude was higher for the electrode pair B configuration. The duration of the impulses was the same for 1 MHz and 10 MHz regardless of the other parameters, and for the 40 MHz signal it equaled the half-period of the generated pulse.
A generalized G-SFED continuum solvation free energy calculation model

Significance This paper deals with a long-standing problem in biophysics, which is resolved here. The model has a strong physical background and will have a wide range of applications to physical and biological problems. The model proposed in this article, GSFED model, can be used for the solvation free energy calculation of most organic solutes in most organic solvents. Since the computing time depends linearly on the size of the molecule, the model can be applied easily to large molecules, for example proteins. The model can provide reliable salvation free energies of experimentally unavailable solute-solvent pairs. An empirical continuum solvation model, solvation free energy density (SFED), has been developed to calculate solvation free energies of a molecule in the most frequently used solvents. A generalized version of the SFED model, generalized-SFED (G-SFED), is proposed here to calculate molecular solvation free energies in virtually any solvent. G-SFED provides an accurate and fast generalized framework without a complicated description of a solution. In the model, the solvation free energy of a solute is represented as a linear combination of empirical functions of the solute properties representing the effects of solute on various solute–solvent interactions, and the complementary solvent effects on these interactions were reflected in the linear expansion coefficients with a few solvent properties. G-SFED works well for a wide range of sizes and polarities of solute molecules in various solvents as shown by a set of 5,753 solvation free energies of diverse combinations of 103 solvents and 890 solutes. Octanol-water partition coefficients of small organic compounds and peptides were calculated with G-SFED with accuracy within 0.4 log unit for each group. The G-SFED computation time depends linearly on the number of nonhydrogen atoms (n) in a molecule, O(n).
Medical Social Workers' Perceptions Related to Interprofessional Teamwork at Hospitals

ABSTRACT Interprofessional teams in the health care sectors can be comprised of a variety of disciplines including medicine, nursing, social work, and allied health professions such as physiotherapists, dieticians, and pharmacists. Good medical treatment is dependent on the team's continual awareness of the social situations of patients and of their feelings about these circumstances. This study evaluates perceptions of social workers in relation to interprofessional work issues that can influence their ability to maintain an effective contribution to the health care team. The findings highlight a strong link between respondent opinions relating to job responsibilities and perceptions concerning work with other professional groups in the hospital (e.g., doctors and nursing staff), which is referred to in this study as interprofessional teamwork. The results indicate that participants perceive limitations in carrying out their jobs due to a deficiency in supportive opportunities for interprofessional teamwork between the social work staff and the medical care teams. Future research could be undertaken in relation to challenges to successful interprofessional teamwork of social workers and medical care staff in Saudi Arabia.
Maximizing the feed-in of renewable energy into high-voltage grids by seasonal topology measures — a german case study

The German Renewable Energy Act obliges power grid operators to connect renewable generation units to their grids, even when the transfer capacity is temporarily insufficient. During times of excessive renewable energy generation, the grid operator often has to reduce the feed-in of renewable generation units to preserve a secure system state. This paper assesses the potential of seasonal topology measures to maximize the feed-in of renewable generation units in a real 110 kV grid. The mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem (MINLP) is solved by a binary Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. A novel bus coupler modeling strategy for multiple-busbar stations is proposed, which reduces the number of control variables in the optimization process. The results show the efficiency of the proposed method and the significance of seasonal transmission switching in power system operation.
Policy interventions in teacher education: sharing the English experience

Over the last 40 years, teacher education in England has been the focus of a stream of ‘reforms’ with the ultimate aim of placing provision into schools, the justification for such a radical policy being that higher education is alleged to be failing to provide good quality teachers thereby compromising the social and economic development of the country. The process whereby these reforms have been introduced is described and then used as a way of comparing and contrasting the way in which similar reforms can be identified in the international teacher education communities represented in this special issue of the Journal of Education for Teaching (JET). The paper closes by identifying lessons that can be learned from international comparators.
PCA relay strategies for sensor networks and cooperative communications systems

Sensor networks are a way to combat the fading in cooperative communications systems due to spatial diversity characteristic and they are so popular in the new generation of wireless networks. In this research the PCA relay strategies on a two-hop protocol sensor network is proposed and the better BER performance than the conventional relay matrix is achieved. It is considered one antenna for all nodes of the network including relays in the same distance from source and destination. The PCA method is applied for relay strategies, based on the eigenvectors corresponding to the largest eigenvalues of channels at both sides of relays, constraining total power usage. The BER and MSE criterion of the proposed scheme are derived.
Determinants of Insurance Market Attractiveness for Foreing Investments: The Case of Ex-Yugoslavia

Abstract The aim of this paper is to investigate factors that influence the attractiveness of insurance market for foreign insurers in case of ex-Yugoslavia region. We use country-specific fixed effects models for panel data that covers five countries during the period 2004-2008, allowing each cross-sectional unit to have a different intercept term serving as an unobserved random variable that is potentially correlated with the observed regressors. The research results indicate that the main forces affecting market attractiveness are insurance demand and human capital. These findings provide significant implications for local governments and for both, foreign and domestic insurers.
Novel design of oversampled GDFT filter banks for application to subband based blind source separation

Subband permutation alignment is critical to the successful operation of subband-based blind source separation. The inter-subband correlation information can be exploited to solve the permutation problem. In this paper, a novel design is proposed based on the over-sampled generalized DFT (GDFT) filter banks to further improve performance of the correlation-based method. It employs a model that includes inter-subband correlation as part of the optimization criterion, and relaxes the perfect-reconstruction condition due to an inherent characteristic of the convolutive BSS problem. As shown in simulations, improved performance is achieved in terms of both permutation alignment and overall separation result.
Development of Power Assist System for Caregiver by Muscle Suit

A "muscle suit" that will provide muscular support for the paralyzed or those otherwise unable to move unaided is being developed as a wearable robot. The muscle suit consists of a mechanical armor-type frame and McKibben artificial muscle. Using a new link mechanism for the shoulder joint which consists of two half-circle links with four universal joints in total mounted at both ends of each link, all motion for the upper limb has been realized. Applying the muscle suit to non-healthy people such as elderly people and/or disable one requires very high-level safety and usability, from the practical point of view. We then in the first place for the practical use, apply the muscle suit to the manual worker. In this paper, we introduce how we can apply the muscle suit for the manual worker.
Social Work Education and criticality: some thoughts from research

This article reports a current ESRC‐funded research project which is examining the development of criticality in undergraduate students, taking social work and modern languages as exemplars. This is a twin‐track study which aims to develop the conceptualisation of ‘criticality’ in the context of empirical research. Two complementary models for the theorisation of criticality are presented, and their implications for social work education are explored. Some preliminary data from the empirical study are presented, enabling further discussion of the relevance of this research to social work.
INTENSIDAD Y DIRECCIÓN DE LA ANSIEDAD COMPETITIVA Y EXPECTATIVAS DE RESULTADOS EN ATLETAS Y NADADORES

This study describes the intensity and direction of pre-competitive somatic and cognitive state anxiety and self-confidence and relates them to expectations of results. A sample of 59 swimmers and track and field athletes completed the modified version (Jones and Swain, 1992) of the CSAI-2 prior to competing and recorded their predictions of the outcome of an event. Three different outcome expectancies groups were formed after comparing predicted performance with real performance. The study's descriptive results provided lower mean values in the intensity of anxiety than did previous studies on other types of sport and the correlation coefficient between the intensity and direction subscales was higher. Subjects who performed better in competitions than expected displayed less cognitive anxiety, less somatic anxiety and greater self-confidence and this group considered anxiety and self-confidence to be more facilitative than the other two groups did.
Self-organisation: a derivation from first principles of a class of learning algorithms

A novel derivation of T. Kohonen's topographic mapping learning algorithm (Self-Organization and Associative Memory, Springer-Verlag, 1984) is presented. Thus the author prescribes a vector quantizer by minimizing an L/sub 2/ reconstruction distortion measure. He includes in this distribution a contribution from the effect of code noise which corrupts the output of the vector quantizer. Such code noise models the expected distorting effect of later stages of processing, and thus provides a convenient way of ensuring that the vector quantizer acquires a useful coding scheme. The neighborhood updating scheme of Kohonen's self-organizing neural network emerges as a special case of this code noise model. This reformulation of Kohonen's algorithm provides a simple interpretation of the role of the neighborhood update scheme which is used. <<ETX>>
Adaptive computed torque control for rigid link manipulators

In this paper we shall examine the adaptive control of rigid link manipulator systems. We give a parameterization of a genereal rigid body which yields dynamic equations that are linear in the unknown parameters. Standard linear estimation techniques together with an adaptive computed torque control law are shown to give a globally convergent adaptive system which does not require measurements of accelerations or additional torques.
Partnership for continuing professional development: The impact of the Post Qualifying Award for Social Workers (PQSW) on social work practice

This article is based on a small-scale inquiry to evaluate the impact of the Post Qualifying Award for Social Workers (PQSW) on social work practice. The author sought the views of key stakeholders in one of the regional UK Post Qualifying Consortia, although practical constraints prevented the direct inclusion of service users' views. A post-hoc questionnaire and semi-structured interviews explored the impact of the PQSW awards on individual social work candidates and their employing agencies. The findings contribute to current debates around how training can be used to ensure delivery of the modernised social services required by the Government. While this is a small, locally based inquiry, its findings are relevant to ongoing national developments across the continuum of social work training and education. The findings suggest that the awards in general have a positive impact on practice for both individuals and organisations. Factors which increase or impede that impact were multi-faceted and complex, involving individuals, organisational cultures and wider contextual influences. The key to success, it is suggested, is partnership - proactive and committed working together between employers, individual workers and those prescribing/providing the training and education.
Typing of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Using DNA Fingerprints by Pulsed-field Gel Electrophoresis

Background: Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is responsible for a wide spectrum of nosocomial and community associated infections worldwide. The aim of this study was to analyze MRSA strains from the general population in Canton Sarajevo, B&H. Methods: Our investigation including either phenotypic and genotypic markers such as antimicrobial resistance, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), SCC typing, and Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) detection. Results: Antimicrobial susceptibility: all MRSA isolates were resistant to the β-lactam antibiotics tested, and all isolates were susceptible trimethoprim sulphamethoxazole, rifampicin, fusidic acid, linezolid and vancomycin. Sixty-eight per cent of the MRSA isolates were resistant to erythromycin, 5% to clindamycin, 5% to gentamicin and 4% to ciprofloxacin. After the PFGE analysis, the isolates were grouped into five similarity groups: A-E. The largest number of isolates belonged to one of two groups: C: 60 (60%) and D: 27 (27%). In both groups C and D, SCCmec type IV was predominant (60% and 88, 8%, respectively). A total of 24% of the isolates had positive expression of PVL genes, while 76% showed a statistically significantly greater negative expression of PVL genes. Conclusion: SCCmec type IV, together with the susceptibility profile and PFGE grouping, is considered to be typical of CA-MRSA
Multicellular and aggregative behaviour of Salmonella typhimurium strains is controlled by mutations in the agfD promoter

A colony morphology type is described in which cells of Salmonella typhimurium form a rigid multicellular network with expression of thin aggregative fimbriae that mediate tight intercellular bonds. Surface translocation of cells on plates and adherence to glass and polystyrene surfaces in biofilm assays are further characteristics of the morphotype. This morphotype (rdar) is normally expressed only at low temperature. However, in two unrelated S. typhimurium strains, spontaneous mutants were found forming rdar colonies independent of temperature. Allelic replacement proved a single point mutation in the promoter region of PagfD in each of the two mutants to be responsible for the constitutive phenotype of a multicellular behaviour. Transcription levels of the two divergently transcribed agf operons required for biogenesis of thin aggregative fimbriae by Northern blot analysis with gene probes for agfA and agfD as well as expression levels of AgfA by Western blotting were compared in the wild type, the constitutive mutants and their respective ompR− and rpoS− derivatives. In the wild type the rdar morphotype and expression of thin aggregative fimbriae are restricted to low temperature on plates containing rich medium of low osmolarity, but biogenesis of thin aggregative fimbriae occurs upon iron starvation at 37°C. In the upregulated mutants biogenesis of thin aggregative fimbriae is only abolished at high osmolarity at 37°C and in the exponential phase in broth culture. Control of expression of thin aggregative fimbriae and rdar morphology takes place at the transcriptional level at the agfD promoter. A functional ompR allele is required, however an rpoS mutation abolishes transcription only in the wild type, but has no influence on expression of thin aggregative fimbriae in the constitutive mutants.
Fusion of sar-optical data for land cover monitoring

This work deals with the fusion of SAR and optical data for land cover monitoring. We first propose to use co-registered optical data as a guide for nonlocal SAR image despeckling. Then, we fuse filtered Sentinel-1 SAR data with optical Sentinel-2 data for land-use classification. Experiments show that using optical-driven despeckled SAR data largely improves classification accuracy w.r. t using the original data and even multitemporal filtered data.
Sentence Generation using Fan Theories Project Report

In this project, performance of different methods for the purpose of predicting the storyline of a television series using fan theories, was analyzed. These methods involved different combinations of input data and generative models and assessment was done using domain knowledge as well as overall coherence of the generated sentences, by way of manual rating. Tools from the Stanford CoreNLP package were used to perform actions such as tokenization, part-of-speech tagging, named entity recognition, co-reference resolution and relation extraction and their performance over the data set was also analyzed. It was found that relation extraction using Stanford OpenIE is a potential method of ridding the data set of all noisy information while retaining the important details. It was also found that N-gram models perform well with such noisy data as compared to other generative models such as Hidden Markov Models and character-level LSTMs.
A Cross-Sectional Study of Prosodic Sensitivity and Reading Difficulties.

In this cross-sectional study, we explore the relationship between prosodic sensitivity (suprasegmental phonology) and phonological awareness (segmental phonology) and investigate whether a group of poor readers display significant suprasegmental phonological deficits in comparison to chronological age-matched controls and younger, reading age-matched controls. Phonological awareness assessments were administered along with a battery of prosodic sensitivity assessments drawn from recent literature. The results showed that poor readers were outperformed by their chronological age-matched counterparts on all measures of prosodic sensitivity. A significant main effect of group was found on the revised stress mispronunciations task and the stress assignment task from the prosodic assessment battery, the former of which remained even after controlling for individual differences in receptive vocabulary and measures of phonological awareness. Significant relationships were also found between measures of prosodic sensitivity and phonological awareness (especially phoneme awareness). These findings emphasise the importance of both segmental and suprasegmental phonological skills in children's reading development.