Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kriging-Assisted Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization of permanent magnet synchronous machine for hybrid and electric cars

In this paper a novel combination of a multiobjective particle swarm optimization algorithm and a Kriging metamodel is presented, which is used for the design optimization of a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) for electric and hybrid cars. As the evaluation of mostly conflicting objective functions requires computational expensive numerical field simulations, a fast converging optimization algorithm which depends on only a few exact evaluations is needed. Instead of running exact calculations on every design the objective values are estimated by means of a Kriging model in advance and only the most promising design candidates are being computed in a more accurate way. Furthermore, good solutions are searched for directly on the metamodel and particles are spawned at the corresponding positions in the parameter space. The performance of the proposed algorithm is investigated with the help of an analytical test case and used for design optimization of a 10 poles PMSM with 11 parameters and 3 objectives.
12-Step Affiliation and Attendance following Treatment for Comorbid Substance Dependence and Depression: A Latent Growth Curve Mediation Model

Among substance-dependent individuals, comorbid major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with greater severity and poorer treatment outcomes, but little research has examined mediators of posttreatment substance use outcomes within this population. Using latent growth curve models, the authors tested relationships between individual rates of change in 12-step involvement and substance use, utilizing posttreatment follow-up data from a trial of group Twelve-Step Facilitation (TSF) and integrated cognitive-behavioral therapy (ICBT) for veterans with substance dependence and MDD. Although TSF patients were higher on 12-step affiliation and meeting attendance at end-of-treatment as compared with ICBT, they also experienced significantly greater reductions in these variables during the year following treatment, ending at similar levels as ICBT. Veterans in TSF also had significantly greater increases in drinking frequency during follow-up, and this group difference was mediated by their greater reductions in 12-step affiliation and meeting attendance. Patients with comorbid depression appear to have difficulty sustaining high levels of 12-step involvement after the conclusion of formal 12-step interventions, which predicts poorer drinking outcomes over time. Modifications to TSF and other formal 12-step protocols or continued therapeutic contact may be necessary to sustain 12-step involvement and reduced drinking for patients with substance dependence and MDD.
Genetic stability of rotaviruses recovered from asymptomatic neonatal infections

The sequence of the VP7 gene from 19 rotavirus strains recovered from asymptomatically infected newborn infants was determined by direct analysis of transcript RNAs synthesized from virus present in the stool. For five viruses the entire VP7 gene was sequenced, whereas in the remaining instances only a portion of the gene could be sequenced. In 19 specimens collected over a 4-year period, only five nucleotide substitutions were detected. None of them resulted in an amino acid substitution. Examination of a 306-nucleotide segment of gene 4 in 11 specimens yielded similar results. These results suggest that the mutation rate of rotaviruses in nature is lower than that of single-stranded RNA viruses such as poliovirus and influenza virus.
Tapping Speed Asymmetry in Drummers for Single-Hand Tapping with a Stick

The purpose of this study was to investigate tapping speed asymmetry in 13 right-handed drummers and 13 right-handed nondrummers. The participants executed single-hand tapping with a stick as fast as possible for 10 sec. with the left and right hand. There was no significant difference in the tapping speed of the right hand between the drummers and the nondrummers, whereas in the left hand, the drummers tapped significantly faster than the nondrummers. Drummers showed less tapping speed asymmetry than nondrummers. These results suggest that the tapping speed of the nonpreferred hand progressed nearly to the level of the preferred hand through daily drum training.
Output impedance modeling and stability criterion for parallel inverters with master-slave sharing scheme in AC distributed power system

The stability criterion of cascaded AC system is usually used to check the stability of AC distributed power system (DPS) by dividing it into a source and a load subsystem. However, the output impedance (admittance) of these subsystems should be obtained, and the stability of subsystems should be checked before applying stability criterion of cascaded AC system. Parallel operation of inverters in source subsystem complicates the output impedance of source subsystem, and can cause source subsystem operating alone instable. In this paper, the output impedance of the inverters operating in parallel with master-slave current sharing scheme is modeled by the I/O character of each inverter operating stand-alone, and a stability criterion was proposed to predict the stability of parallel inverters based on Generalized Nyquist Criterion (GNC). The output impedance model and stability criterion proposed for parallel inverters were verified by simulation results.
Identification of a Novel Mutation in the β-Globin Gene 3′ Untranslated Region [+1,506 (A>C)] in a Japanese Male with a Heterozygous β-Thalassemia Phenotype

β-Thalassemia (β-thal) is characterized by the absent or reduced production of β-globin chains. The precise molecular lesion that causes decreased β-globin synthesis in β+-thal is difficult to predict when mutations occur in the locus control region (LCR), the promoter, the introns or 3′ untranslated regions (3′UTRs). Among them, the role of the 3′UTR of β-globin gene in mRNA stability is poorly understood, mainly due to very few cases that have mutations in this region. So far, only three mutations have been reported in the 3′UTR of β-globin gene. Although, it is speculated that some of these reported mutations could be associated with mRNA stability, the precise molecular basis still remains unclear. We report here a novel mutation in the β-globin gene 3′UTR [+1,506 (A>C)] in a 31-year-old Japanese male with hematological parameters suggestive of heterozygous β-thal. Further functional studies on this novel mutation reported here, may help in understanding of the regulation and expression of the β-globin gene and its products.
Improved Cubemap model for 3D navigation in geo-virtual reality

Due to advances in rendering techniques and hardware capability, stereoscopic 3D (s3D) visualization is becoming increasingly common in daily life. However, this does not change the fact that stereo effects and visual comfort depend greatly on how the related parameters are controlled during the production of the s3D images. In geo-virtual reality systems, which are important browsers for Digital Earth, the maintenance of these parameters is deeply related to the navigation process. Therefore, the navigation method in such systems requires special care. This paper presents a new flying method based on a Cubemap structure. The method defines a Vehicle model and modifies the original Cubemap structure by adding a front view camera during the navigation; it allows the users to fly through a virtual geographic environment with automatic speed control, smooth collision resolution, and dynamic adjustment of the s3D-related parameters. A user test was conducted to compare this new method with the original method based on the Cubemap structure. The results show that the new method performs better than the former one for it provides a convenient interaction experience with improved stereoscopic effect, and diminishes visual discomfort.
Networks of Music Groups as Success Predictors

More than 4600 non-academic music groups had emerged in the USSR and post-Soviet independent nations during 1960–2015, performing in 275 genres. Some groups became legends and survived for decades, while others vanished and are known now only to the most dedicated music history scholars. To explain and predict success, we built a complex network of the groups and their almost 20,000 members based on performers’ sharing using the data from Wikipedia and Google. We calculated the primary network measures: centralities, degree assortativity, and clustering coefficient — and discovered that they could not accurately predict music group success, but they could distinguish between coarse measures of success, such as which groups were above or below the median. In particular, all centralities positively correlate with success, and the clustering coefficient non-linearly maximizes it. The proposed network-based success exploration and prediction methods are transferable to other arts and humanities areas with medium- or long-term team-based collaborations.
Fault Attacks Resistant Architecture for KECCAK Hash Function

The KECCAK cryptographic algorithms widely used in embedded circuits to ensure a high level of security to any systems which require hashing as the integrity checking and random number generation. One of the most efficient cryptanalysis techniques against KECCAK implementation is the fault injection attacks. Until now, only a few fault detection schemes for KECCAK have been presented. In this paper, in order to provide a high level of security against fault attacks, an efficient error detection scheme based on scrambling technique has been proposed. To evaluate the robust of the proposed detection scheme against faults attacks, we perform fault injection simulations and we show that the fault coverage is about 99,996%. We have described the proposed detection scheme and through the Field-Programmable Gate Array analysis, results show that the proposed scheme can be easily implemented with low complexity and can efficiently protect KECCAK against fault attacks. Moreover, the Field-Programmable Gate Array implementation results show that the proposed KECCAK fault detection scheme realises a compromise between implementation cost and KECCAK robustness against fault attacks.
Quality of Life in Patients with Neurodegenerative Diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by a progressive deterioration of brain function, with a significantly consequent decrease in the quality of life of patients and their families. Due to increasing life expectancy, the incidence of these diseases has increased over the years, and has been under research. Objective: The aim of this paper is to systematically review the scientific literature about the evaluation of life’ quality in patients with neurodegenerative diseases. Methods:Reflective systematic literature review on Pubmed, MedLine and Scopus database with the keywords "quality of life of Patients" and "neurodegenerative diseases" was analyzed. It was analyzed in the period between 2000 and 2015. PRISMA criteria reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses were applied. The inclusion criteria were: usage of instrument to measure life’ quality, presenting quantitative or qualitative results, and psychometric studies. It was excluded articles reviews outside the scope of the subject, theoretical articles and new therapies, diagnostic and palliative care. Results: After applying the methodology, five scientific articles were included in the study. The measuring instruments were used the dimensions (physical, mental, social and environmental) were analyzed. It was analyzed the results obtained in the studies. Conclusions: This literature review indicated that more research is needed to assess the impact of quality of life in patients with degenerative pathologies. The implications of these findings and potential directions for future research are discussed.
THE RESULTS OF EARLY OPERATION IN TALIPES EQUINO-VARUS

The results of operation performed within the first six months of life upon seventy-seven resistant club feet are presented. The indications for and the rationale ofearly operation are discussed. Particular attention has been paid to the relationship between the age at operation and the outcome more than four years later; the results were greatly superior when operation was undertaken early. Two surgical techniques are compared, the postero-medial release proving better than a simple posterior release. The relationship between clinical and radiological assessment is discussed, and also the influence of the results reported upon future practice.
Inferring conceptual relationships to improve medical records search

Medical records search is challenging because of the inherent implicit knowledge within medical records and queries. Such knowledge is known to the medical practitioners but may be hidden from a search system. For example, when searching for the medical records of patients with a heart disease, medical practitioners commonly know that the medical records of patients taking the amiodarone medicine are relevant, since this drug is used to combat a heart disease. In this paper, we argue that leveraging such implicit knowledge improves the retrieval effectiveness, since it provides new evidence to infer the relevance of medical records towards a query. Specifically, using a novel concept-based representation for both medical records and queries, we expand the queries by inferring additional conceptual relationships from domain-specific resources as well as by extracting informative concepts from the top-ranked medical records. We evaluate the retrieval effectiveness of our proposed approach in the context of the TREC 2011 and 2012 Medical Records track. Our results show the effectiveness of our approach to model the implicit knowledge in medical records search, whereby the infAP retrieval performance is significantly improved up to 14.43% over an effective concept-based representation baseline. Moreover, our proposed approach could achieve retrieval effectiveness comparable to the performance of the best TREC 2011 and 2012 systems.
Importin α1 is required for nuclear import of herpes simplex virus proteins and capsid assembly in fibroblasts and neurons

Herpesviruses are large DNA viruses which depend on many nuclear functions, and therefore on host transport factors to ensure specific nuclear import of viral and host components. While some import cargoes bind directly to certain transport factors, most recruit importin β1 via importin α. We identified importin α1 in a small targeted siRNA screen to be important for herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) gene expression. Production of infectious virions was delayed in the absence of importin α1, but not in cells lacking importin α3 or importin α4. While nuclear targeting of the incoming capsids, of the HSV-1 transcription activator VP16, and of the viral genomes were not affected, the nuclear import of the HSV-1 proteins ICP4 and ICP0, required for efficient viral transcription, and of ICP8 and pUL42, necessary for DNA replication, were reduced. Furthermore, quantitative electron microscopy showed that fibroblasts lacking importin α1 contained overall fewer nuclear capsids, but an increased proportion of mature nuclear capsids indicating that capsid formation and capsid egress into the cytoplasm were impaired. In neurons, importin α1 was also not required for nuclear targeting of incoming capsids, but for nuclear import of ICP4 and for the formation of nuclear capsid assembly compartments. Our data suggest that importin α1 is specifically required for the nuclear localization of several important HSV1 proteins, capsid assembly, and capsid egress into the cytoplasm, and may become rate limiting in situ upon infection at low multiplicity or in terminally differentiated cells such as neurons.
Adaptive Control for Improved Transparency in Haptic Simulations

Two adaptive nonlinear controllers are proposed for the coupling of haptic devices with impedance-type and admittance-type virtual environments, respectively. Rigid contacts in admittance-type environments are modeled either as a stiff spring or a constraint on the haptic device motion. Both controllers employ user position and force measurements to replace the natural dynamics of the haptic interface with that of an adjustable mass-damper tool. The transparency and stability of the resulting systems are investigated using a Lyapunov analysis and by taking into account uncertain nonlinear dynamics for the haptic device, and uncertain mass-spring-damper type dynamics for the user and virtual environment. It is shown analytically that low-pass filtering of selected terms in the control signal can significantly reduce a stability related lower bound on the achievable synthesized mass of the haptic interface in a discrete-time implementation of the controllers. An optimization problem is formulated and solved to balance impedance reduction against noise amplification in choosing the filter gain and bandwidth. The proposed controllers as well as a conventional penalty-based method are compared in a set of experiments. The results indicate that the controller with an admittance-type constraint-based rigid environment has far superior performance in terms of the range of impedances that it can stably display to the user.
What are the leading causes of death among South African

3, although we are in the midst of demographic transition. The health of these children needs to be a priority, a principle adopted through the ratification of the1990 United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child. The level of mortality is a fundamental indicator of child health and understanding the causes of death of children provides insight as to how it can be reduced. The lack of reliable vital statistics has created a void when it comes to these
A high-level specification for virtual providers

In this paper, we define a high-level model to mathematically capture the semantical meaning of abstract Virtual Providers (VPs), their instantiation and their composition into rich mediator structures. We will show how this model can be sucessfully applied to two application scenarios, web service protocol mediation and Semantic Web Service(SWS) discovery.
The effect of the cognitive style of acceptance on negative mood in a recovered depressed sample

Background: This study employed an experimental design to examine: (1) the predictors of the ability to engage in acceptance in individuals with a history of depression, and (2) the effect of acceptance on a negative mood state and altering attitudes toward feeling sad. Methods: Sixty‐five recovered depressed participants received instruction in the metacognitive style of acceptance before a negative mood induction. The degree to which the participants engaged in acceptance was then rated by independent raters. Results: Forty percent of the sample failed to adhere to an attitude of acceptance. Participants with higher levels of anxiety and greater negative attitudes toward sadness were less able to engage in acceptance. Participants who optimally engaged in acceptance demonstrated greater reduction in their negative mood and increased metacognitive beliefs about acceptance after the use of the technique compared to those who failed to adhere to acceptance. Conclusions: These results imply that acceptance can be difficult to learn, and there may be identifiable individual differences that predict the ability to engage in acceptance. The implications of these results for future research and clinical practice are discussed. Depression and Anxiety, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Overranging in multisection CT: quantification and relative contribution to dose--comparison of four 16-section CT scanners.

PURPOSE To quantify the number of overrange rotations and to assess their relative contribution to organ and effective doses at 16-section body computed tomography (CT). MATERIALS AND METHODS Overranging was quantified for four 16-section scanners by means of free-in-air dose measurements at different scan lengths. Overrange rotations and lengths at a certain section width were derived for all collimations and clinically used pitches by extrapolation. The effect of reconstructed section width on overranging was analyzed separately. Results were applied to clinical protocols for the chest and abdomen. Thyroid and testicular dose and effective dose were established, and relative dose contributions from overranging were calculated. Statistical analysis was performed by using Pearson correlation and paired t tests. P<. 05 indicated a significant difference. RESULTS The number of overrange rotations showed considerable differences between scanners, with a range of 1.99-4.04 at the lowest and 0.93-2.59 at the highest pitch. Number of rotations correlated negatively with pitch, while overrange length correlated positively with collimation and pitch. The effect of section width was variable. In the protocols, overrange length ranged from 3.2 to 5.8 cm for chest and from 3.2 to 5.2 cm for abdominal CT. When the contribution of overranging was not taken into account, significantly lower values for thyroid (P=.012) and testicular (P=.025) doses and effective doses for chest (P=.005) and abdominal (P=.011) CT resulted. CONCLUSION Overranging is reconstruction-algorithm specific, and its length generally increases with collimation and pitch, while the effect of section width is variable. Overranging may lead to substantial but unnoticed exposure to radiosensitive organs.
Walking Primitive Databases for Perception-Based Guidance Control of Biped Robots

This paper presents a systematic approach to the generation of walking primitive (WP) databases for perception-based guidance control of humanoid 3D bipeds. Individual WPs are computed off-line by optimal control techniques such that they can be concatenated into a physically feasible reference trajectory for walking with step length adaptation, direction changing and stepping over or upon obstacles. Zero moment point and friction conditions ensuring stability of the foot contacts, as tell as bounds on joint angles and control torques are considered as constraints. Numerical results are presented for 'optimal' WPs generated for the human-size 3D walker JOHN-NIE taking into account typical energy based performance indexes. Resulting reference trajectories applied to locomotion control are validated by dynamic simulations of the 3D biped walker. An approach to predictive step sequence planning based on the WP database concept is proposed.
A Reconfigurable LDPC Decoder Optimized for 802.11n/ac Applications

This paper presents a high data-rate low-density parity-check (LDPC) decoder, suitable for the 802.11n/ac (WiFi) standard. The innovative features of the proposed decoder relate to the decoding algorithms and the interconnection between the processing elements. The reduction of the hardware complexity of decoders based on the min-sum (MS) algorithms comes at the cost of performance degradation, especially at high-noise regions. We introduce more accurate approximations of the log-sum-product algorithm that also operate well for low signal-to-noise ratio values. Telecommunication standards, including WiFi, support more than one quasi-cyclic LDPC codes of different characteristics, such as codeword length and code rate. A proposed design technique derives networks, capable of supporting a variety of codes and efficiently realizing connectivity between a variable number of processing units, with a relatively small hardware overhead over the single-code case. As a demonstration of the proposed technique, we implemented a reconfigurable network based on barrel rotators, suitable for LDPC decoders compatible with WiFi standard. Our approach achieves low complexity and high clock frequency, compared with related prior works. A 90-nm application-specified integrated circuit implementation of the proposed high-parallel WiFi decoder occupies 4.88 mm2 and achieves an information throughput rate of 4.5 Gbit/s at a clock frequency of 555 MHz.