Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Review on the Battery Balancing and Reconfiguration Methods

With the development of electric vehicles, battery cells are connected in serial/parallel to cope the energy and power demand. In such serial connected battery strings, the battery imbalance is inevitable. Battery balancing and reconfiguration methods are considered as the most important methods to keep the battery string in better performance. As a results, more and more literatures have been published recently. This paper tries to give a survey of the state-of-the-art methods of the balancing and reconfiguration. Their principal features are illustrated, and the main pros and cons are provided.
The tylenchid (Nematoda) egg shell: structure, composition and permeability

Summary The fine structure of egg shells of four different genera belonging to the order Tylenchida has been examined. The species examined were Meloidogyne javanica, Rotylenchulus reniformis, Tylenchulus semipenetrans and Pratylenchus minyus. They are all similar in their basic structure, being composed of vitelline membrane, chitin and lipid layers, but there is considerable variability in the thickness of these layers. We have retained the conventional nomenclature because of its convenience, but it is clear that these layers have a variety of chemical components. However, they do appear to contain the compounds from which they take their name. Thus chitin occurs in the chitin layer, and lipid in the lipid layer. The latter is removed by the technique used in isolating the shell from the egg. Chemical analysis of the hydrolysis products of these shells has revealed a high (35 %) proline content which appears to be a characteristic of those nematode egg shells which have been examined so far. These analyses and treatment with enzymes indicate that the chitin layer is a chitin–protein complex. Experiments on the permeability of eggs of M. javanica at different temperatures indicate that changes in permeability are not due to the melting of a single lipid with a distinct melting point as had been thought in the past. We have found that Arrhenius activation energies calculated from the two slopes of an Arrhenius plot were 17·8 kcal/mol and 43·0 kcal/mol respectively, the transition from one to the other taking place at 62°C. We think that these changes are due to changes in the properties of lipoprotein membranes in the lipid layer. These membranes appear to be of paramount importance in controlling the permeability of the nematode egg shell.
Users’ Acceptance Study of OAuth Manager Module for Social Login in Mobile Environment

Social login is a way that allows social network users to use their credential to log in to other applications. Currently, many developers make use of Open Authorization (OAuth) protocol to implement social login (SL). The design of OAuth protocol works well on workstations and desktops as they uniformly use web browsers to access web applications. However, it is exposed to security issues when it is moved to the mobile environment. Although native mobile applications are installed on the mobile devices, this protocol will call system browsers to complete the task; hence, exposing users to token redirection attacks. In overcoming the issue, this study attempts to evaluate a method called OAuth Manager Module (OMM) that aims to improve the security of this protocol in a mobile environment. It provides client isolation to prevent malicious actions during the social login process. A controlled experiment was conducted to evaluate user acceptance towards OMM. A within-subject design was conducted on thirty participants who participated in this study on a voluntary basis. The results show that users perceived OMM useful and easy-to-use compared to social login with system browser. However, in overall, users are still worried about the security of using social logins on mobile devices. This study can further serve as a foundation for various research on the security aspect of social login.
Adult Resting and Larval Developmental Sites of Stable Flies and House Flies (Diptera: Muscidae) on Dairies in Alberta

Adult resting sites and larval developmental sites were determined for the stable fly, Stomoxys calcitrans (L.), and house fly, Musca domestica (L.), at three dairies in southern Alberta during the summers of 1990 and 1991. Adult stable flies were present throughout each dairy but showed a tendency to rest outdoors on east- and south-facing surfaces of barns and fences, as well as along feed aprons. House fly adults tended to rest indoors. Stable fly larvae were most abundant in manure mounds, general lots, and indoors and were also abundant in silage mounds and spilled silage. Fences, feed aprons, and lagoons had fewer stable fly larvae. House fly larvae were most abundant in silage mounds, followed by indoors and general lots. Peaks of stable fly capture on resting sites occurred in late August and mid-September and were preceded by increases in the number of stable fly larvae per sample in mid-August and early September. Peak house fly captures occurred in August and early September, and larval populations peaked in early to mid-August. Residual pesticides for controlling adult stable flies should be applied early to mid-August and priority given to east- and south-facing surfaces and barns. Applications for house fly control should begin in early July and can be made primarily indoors. Sanitation should be applied before July, and attention should be paid to the manure mounds, general lots, and indoors.
Integrated control mechanism of electrical discharge machining system for higher material removal rate

A servo control system in Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) system is a control system with an appropriate control algorithm to position electrode on a particular distance from workpiece during machining process. The gap between the electrode and the workpiece is in the range of 10 – 50 μm. This ideal gap is achieved by applying an appropriate control algorithm to the servo control system of the EDM, and maintaining this gap will improve the Material Removal Rate (MRR) during the machining process. A considerable number of unique methods were proposed in the control algorithm in order to bring the electrode to the optimum position. This research proposes a new method called Integrated Control Mechanism (ICM) to improve the MRR of the EDM system. A rotary encoder is used as an additional mechanical sensor for the feedback control system in order to limit the electrode movement. Modelling of EDM is further investigated to predict the MRR parameter and optimization of electrode control position. A Neural Network system is used to predict MRR where Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Differential Evolution (DE) are studied and simulated to optimize the Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) control parameters for the EDM system. Research conducted shows that the proposed Feed Forward Artificial Neural Network improves the accuracy of prediction in determining MRR by 2.92% and PID parameter optimization is successfully applied either using PSO or DE. The ICM is successfully implemented and the result shows that MRR is higher when compared to the normal machining process.
Engineering-Economic Methods for Power Transmission Planning Under Uncertainty and Renewable Resource Policies

Power transmission networks are some of the world’s largest machines. Investments in these assets have historically been driven by projections of load growth, interconnection of baseload conventional power plants, reliability standards, and the economic exchange of electricity. However, today the transmission system is also seen as a key enabler to meet the new public policy goals that seek to incorporate large amounts of generation from renewable resources into the grid. In this dissertation I analyze three different engineering-economic challenges of power transmission planning that arise from the large scale integration of renewable energy technologies. In the first essay I study the effects of transmission approximations on the design and performance of Renewable Portfolio Standards. In particular, I analyze how disregarding the indivisibility of transmission investments (i.e., lumpiness) or Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law yield distorted estimates of the type and location of infrastructure, as well as inaccurate estimates of the cost of complying with renewable goals. I also utilize multi-stage investment models to study the potential benefits of coordinating the timing of transmission investments and the design of multi-year renewable energy
A Description of a Necrotic Virus Disease affecting Tobacco and Other Plants

An account is given of an apparently undescribed virus disease. The virus appears spontaneously in the glasshouse affecting tobacco seedlings in the seed boxes. The symptoms on a number of hosts are described. The chief characteristic of the virus is its failure to become systemic in any host plant so far tested. It is, however, occasionally found in the roots of young tobacco plants, usually in the case of those naturally infected. Certain physical properties of the virus have been investigated. Its dilution end-point appears to be about 1:10,000; its longevity in extracted sap is about 20 days, the thermal death-point is 72° C. The virus shows a strong resistance to alcohol, remaining viable in 99 per cent, alcohol for 71 hours so far as tested. It is not known how the virus is transmitted in nature, and no insect vector has as yet been identified. The virus has been transmitted to healthy cowpeas by spraying them with a suspension of the virus by means of an atomiser. By the Elford method of ultra-filtration the particle size is found to be 20–30μμ. The virus is compared with that of the American tobacco ringspot, and methods of differentiating the two are indicated.
A prospective randomized comparative study of Misoprostol and balloon tamponade using condom catheter to prevent postpartum hemorrhage at M. Y. H., Indore, India in vaginal delivered patients

Background: PPH is responsible for quarter of maternal deaths occurring worldwide and its incidence is increasing in developed world. According to Confidential Enquiries into Maternal and Child Health (CEMACH) report obstetric hemorrhage occurs in around3.7 per 1000 births. The objective of the study is that it was a prospective randomized comparative study of misoprostol and balloon tamponade via condom catheter to prevent postpartum hemorrhage in normal delivered patients at MYH.Methods: A sample size of 200 normal delivered patients between age group 18 and 45 years is chosen with excessive bleeding after third stage of labour and after administration of oxytocics. These 200 patients are divided into two groups: First group receiving Misoprostol and applying condom catheter in other group. Both groups are evaluated for PPH.Results: It was found that CG balloon condom catheter was a much better and more effective alternative in controlling PPH than Misoprostol as the failure rate with CG balloon condom catheter were much less than that with misoprostol. Due to its cost effectiveness and being easily available at primary health center and due to absence of any drug reactions and easy technique of formation makes it a better modality in controlling PPH even at PHC.Conclusions: Patients with condom catheter in situ must show better result than patients receiving misoprostol.
Spasmolytic activity of p-menthane esters

The present study aimed to investigate the relationships between the chemical structure and spasmolytic activity of 10 p-menthane monoterpene esters found in aromatic plants. All of the monoterpenes studied had spasmolytic actions in isolated guinea pig ileum. The neo-isopulegyl acetate and the 4-terpinyl acetate were the most potent, while the perillyl acetate was the least potent pmenthane ester. This difference in potency may be due to the position of the acetate group linked to C-7 in perillyl acetate, a structural feature different from that of the other esters. Our results revealed that stereochemistry and electronic density highly influenced spasmolytic activity in smooth muscle. Moreover, the presence of an aromatic ring or changes in the position of the ethyl acetate group in the p-menthane skeleton had little effect on the spasmolytic activity of monoterpene esters. Therefore, our data suggest that appropriate modifications of monoterpene structure can be associated with improved potency and may lead to the development of new antispasmodic drugs.
Functional analysis of Bombyx mori Decapentaplegic gene for bone differentiation in a mammalian cell

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) belong to the transforming growth factor (TGF-b) superfamily and are involved in osteoblastic differentiation. The largest TGF-b superfamily subgroup shares genetic homology with human BMPs (hBMPs) and silkworm decapentaplegic (dpp). In addition, hBMPs are functionally interchangeable with Drosophila dpp. Bombyx mori dpp may induce bone formation in mammalian cells. To test this hypothesis, we synthesized the 1,285-base pairs cDNA of full-length B. mori dpp using total RNAs obtained from the fat body of 3-day-old of the 5 th instar larvae and cloned the cDNA into the pCEP4 mammalian expression vector. Next, B. mori dpp was expressed in C3H10T1/2 cells. The target cells transfected with the pCEP4-Bm dpp plasmid showed biological functions similar to those of osteogenic differentiation induction growth factors such as hBMPs. We determined the relative mRNA expression rates of Runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2), osterix, osteocalcin, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) to validate the osteoblast-specific differentiation effects of B. mori dpp by performing quantitative real-time RT-PCR. Interestingly, mRNA expression levels of the 3 marker genes except RUNX2, in cells expressing B. mori dpp were much higher than those in control cells and C3H10T1/2 cells transfected with pCEP4. These results suggested that B. mori dpp signaling regulates osterix expression during osteogenic differentiation via RUNX2-independent mechanisms.
Dynamics of online social networks

Threshold effects in networks trigger global cascades which may generate the failure of such systems. This phenomenon was observed in the case of iWiW, a very popular Hungarian online social network which collapsed due to the cascading abandon of the service by its users, driven by exogenous and endogenous factors. In this research, we analyze the dataset of iWiW and try to characterize some of the dynamical features of the networks, basing our study on the timestamped interactions between users. We first look at the degree distribution of the network and then focus on identifying some of the ego-centered networks. We will then detect the communities in each ego-centered network with the Louvain algorithm and analyze the rank correlation between the registration dates and the last login dates of users inside the communities, comparing the obtained coefficients with the expected rank correlations for a null model. We find out that communities have some effect in governing the dynamics of the system. Then, we look at some metadata (city, age, gender, education level) to see if and how the characteristics of the users inside a community overlap with the respective ego and we find that the overlaps are not related to the rank correlations previously found. After that, we still look at the rank correlations for the nodes in some specific paths in the network and show that there is a strong tendency towards anticorrelation. We then develop a criterion according to which a node is considered as part of a departure cascade or not; applying the criterion to all the nodes, we are able to reconstruct the entire cascades history and look at some of their main statistical properties. Lastly, we illustrate the results of the simulations of a simple model that can explain some general dynamical features of such cascading effects on online social networks.
The Factors Influencing on success of Quitting Smoking in new enrollees and re-enrollees in Smoking Cessation Clinics

This study has comparatively analyzed the primary success factors in smoking cessation among new enrollees and re-enrollees of a smoking cessation clinic in order to find out how to efficiently operate smoking cessation clinics at public health centers. The study was conducted with 262,837 smokers aged 19 or over who were provided with smoking cessation services for more than 6 months after being registered with the smoking cessation clinic at public health centers(250 clinics nationwide) from July 16, 2006 to July 15, 2007. After dividing smokers into re-enrollees and new enrollees of the smoking cessation clinic, the success rate of and success factors for smoking cessation over 6 months have been investigated. The success factors in smoking cessation have been compared between new enrollees and re-enrollees of smoking cessation clinics. The results can be summarized as follows: First, the success rate of smoking cessation for 6 months at smoking cessation clinics of public health centers was higher in new enrollees (46.3%) than in re-enrollees (41.1%). Second, the common factors that had an influence on the success of smoking cessation of both new enrollees and re-enrollees of the smoking cessation clinic included age, social security, service, frequency of counseling, number of cigarettes per day, and alcoholic problems. Third, compared to new enrollees, re-enrollees had a higher success rate of smoking cessation as they got older. In terms of the success rate of health insurance, on the contrary, new enrollees were better than re-enrollees. Fourth, the study showed a higher success rate in smoking cessation in both new and re-enrollees if they had no alcoholic problems. In particular, a higher success rate was observed in re-enrollees when there were no alcoholic problems. To efficiently operate smoking cessation clinics at public health centers, this study confirmed that counseling should be tailored depending on the types of enrollees in the program.
Web Based Selection of Football Striker Using Weight Product Method

Striker is a front line position player that directly face to face with defender and responsible for scoring goals. A striker not only must be have a good shooting accuracy but also can create a shooting space, and purpose a goal. In choosing a striker, a football coach can not only depends on his observation, but also have to check the data records to support the decision, therefore decision support system is needed to solve this problem. This system is web based application system using WP (Weight Product) method to provide recommendation for coach in choosing position for each players, and which one is the best for striker's position. From the result, WP shows an accuracy rate of 55% based on comparison between calculation system results and coach data recommendation.
Very low‐energy and low‐energy formula diets: Effects on weight loss, obesity co‐morbidities and type 2 diabetes remission – an update on the evidence for their use in clinical practice

The role of formula very low-energy diets (VLEDs, <800 kcal/day) and lowenergy diets (LEDs, 800–1200 kcal/day) within clinical practice has regained attention over the last few years. Formula diets can achieve clinically significant weight reduction in the short-term (3–5 months) and new evidence demonstrates that long-term weight loss maintenance (up to 4 years) is achievable. Weight reductions of between 10% and 15% bodyweight have been reported, which is associated with clinically meaningful health outcomes in a number of obesityrelated co-morbidities including type 2 diabetes (T2D), obstructive sleep apnoea and osteoarthritis. Recent evidence indicates that using a formula LED with a weight loss maintenance programme can help people with overweight or obesity and T2D achieve remission. Despite this, few healthcare professionals in the UK routinely use LEDs. Concerns about adherence, risk of precipitating eating disorders, safety, cost and long-term efficacy may, in part, contribute to their under use. To help inform healthcare professionals on the use of formula diets within clinical practice, this review examines the current evidence for the use of VLEDs and LEDs for weight loss and weight loss maintenance, and in the treatment of obesity-related co-morbidities, including T2D, osteoarthritis, psoriasis, obstructive sleep apnoea and secondary coronary prevention, with a particular focus on T2D remission.
Cerebral venous thrombosis as presenting manifestation of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)

Venous thrombosis is an important complication in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and has multifactorial origin mainly related to haemostatic changes in the presence of active inflammation. In addition, number of coagulation abnormalities may co‐exist in active IBD many of which return to normal once inflammatory process is controlled. Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is a very rare but potentially serious extra‐intestinal feature in IBD
Analysis of aggregated parasite distributions: A comparison of methods

1. Empirically, parasite distributions are often best described by the negative binomial distribution; some hosts have many parasites while most have just a few. Thus identifying heterogeneities in parasite burdens using conventional parametric methods is problematical. In an attempt to conform to the assumptions of parametric analyses, parasitologists and ecologists frequently log-transform their overdispersed data prior to analysis. In this paper, we compare this method of analysis with an alternative, generalized linear modelling (GLM), approach. 2. We compare the classical linear model using log-transformed data (Model 1) with two GLMs: one with Poisson errors and an empirical scale parameter (Model 2), and one in which negative binomial errors are explicitly defined (Model 3). We use simulated datasets and empirical data from a long-term study of parasitism in Soay Sheep on St Kilda to test the efficacies of these three statistical models. 3. We conclude that Model 1 is much more likely to produce type I errors than either of the two GLMs, and that it also tends to produce more type II errors. Model 3 is only marginally more successful than Model 2, indicating that the use of an empirical scale parameter is only slightly more likely to generate errors than using an explicitly defined negative binomial distribution. Thus, while we strongly recommend the use of GLMs over conventional parametric analyses, either GLM method will serve equally well.