Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fiber Fabry–Pérot Interferometers Based on Air-Bubbles/Liquid in Hollow Core Fibers

This letter develops a miniature and highly sensitive fiber Fabry-Pérot interferometer (FFPI) that is based on an air-bubble and liquid in a hollow core fiber (HCF). The endface of the proposed FFPI is sealed off by an optical fiber plug to ensure the optical/chemical stability of the used liquids. The fiber plug is fabricated with a single-mode fiber taper to close the end of the liquid core fiber. The proposed technique ensures that the filled liquid neither effuses nor becomes contaminated. Experimental results show that the presence of both an air-bubble and liquid in the FFPI enables the highly sensitive measurement of temperature (T), the sensitivity of which can be controlled by changing the ratio of the volume of air to that of liquid in the HCF.
Crystal structure of flavin binding to FAD synthetase of Thermotoga maritima

Introduction. The product of genomic sequence gi:4981319 from Thermotoga maritima (TM379) is annotated as flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) synthetase, a bifunctional enzyme that catalyzes two reactions: riboflavin kinase (EC 2.7.1.26) and flavin mononucleotide (FMN) adenylyltransferase (EC 2.7.7.2). FAD synthetase is present among all kingdoms of living organisms. Mammals utilize separate enzymes for FMN and FAD formation, whereas lower level organisms depend on the bifunctional enzyme. The Berkeley Structural Genomics Center (BSGC) determined that the TM379 gene product possesses a novel fold and determined its crystal structure [Protein Data Bank (PDB) code: 1MRZ]. The TM379 structure exhibited a novel combination of two folds: a Rossmann fold at the N-terminus and a flavin binding fold at the C-terminus. While the sequence annotation is still awaiting experimental verification, our recently published structural data provided supportive evidence. Structural analysis suggests that the N-terminal domain of TM379 is involved in FMN adenylyltransferase, and the C-terminal domain contributes to binding of flavin and probably is involved in both steps of the reaction. Despite low sequence identity, the structural similarity between a recently published crystal structure of Schizosaccharomyces pombe (Sp) riboflavin kinase (RK) and the C-terminal domain of TM379 further indicated that the C-terminal domain is sufficient for catalyzing the RK reaction. The N-terminal domain also has structural similarity to nucleotidyltransferases, including glycerol-3-phosphate cytidylyltransferase (1COZ), nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase (1F9A), and phosphopantetheine adenylyltransferase (1B6T), although sequence identities among them are low. To experimentally characterize the molecular function of TM397, we introduced riboflavin into TM379 crystal and determine the three-dimensional (3D) structure. Here we describe the cocrystal structure of TM379 and flavin, and identify the key residues involved in flavin binding for this family of proteins.
Leisure-Time Physical Activity among University Students in Mauritius

Mauritius has Type 2 Diabetes mellitus as public health issue, whereby unhealthy modes of eating and sedentary lifestyles are factors to be addressed in the primary prevention of the disease among the youth. This study was thus designed to investigate the prevalence of Leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) among university students in Mauritius and to explore their motivations and constraints to engage in LTPA, using the ecological model of health promotion. Data were collected from a representative group of university students in Mauritius using a self-administered questionnaire. Qualitative and quantitative data pertaining to LTPA issues were collected. Three-fifths of the participants met the recommended levels of LTPA. The majority of inactive participants were female. Motivations provided by participants to engage in LTPA were predominantly intrapersonal. The three most mentioned motivations were improvement in physical health, improvement in physical appearance and to have fun. Constraints faced by participants to engage in LTPA were mainly of an intrapersonal nature. The three main constraints provided by students were lack of time, having to study and not being motivated. Therefore, interventions to promote LTPA among university students should simultaneously address development of time-management skills and provision of incentives to perform LTPA.
A control scheme of the VIENNA rectifier with unbalanced grid voltage

VIENNA rectifier with simple structure, which is widely used in charging systems for electric vehicle, realizes the operation of unit power factor and low harmonic. However, grid voltage unbalance will aggravate the dc-link voltage ripple and input current THD. A novel control scheme is presented to solve the impacts of three unbalanced grid voltage for VIENNA rectifier in this paper. The enhanced phase lock loop (EPLL) not only rapidly separates the positive and negative sequence components from the grid voltage, but also accurately tracks phase angle. Then the dynamic response of proportional resonant (PR) controller guarantees to quickly track the current references with zero-error. Meantime, a simplified carrier-based PWM (CB-PWM) based on the equivalence of SVM is implemented to balance the neutral-point voltage. The validity of the theoretical analysis and feasibility of the proposed control scheme are verified by simulation results.
The Return to College: Selection Bias and Dropout Risk

We study two long-standing questions: (i) What part of the measured return to education is due to selection? (ii) The ex post return to schooling is higher than the return to most financial assets. How large are the contributions of various frictions to the "high" return to schooling? We focus in particular on the roles of college dropout risk, borrowing constraints, and learning about ability. We develop and calibrate a model of school choice. Key model features are: (i) ability heterogeneity, (ii) students learn about their abilities while in college, (iii) borrowing constraints, (iv) dropping out of college is a choice. We find that the probability of graduating from college increases strongly with ability. Most college dropouts are students of intermediate abilities who try college in part to learn about their abilities and in part because of the option value of receiving a large earnings gain upon graduation. Ability selection accounts for about 40% of the measured college wage premium.
Intra- Versus Inter-Channel PMD in Linearly Compensated Coherent PDM-PSK Nonlinear Transmissions

We investigate the interaction between Kerr nonlinearity and polarization mode dispersion (PMD) in homogeneous multi-channel polarization division multiplexing coherent phase shift keying transmissions. Assuming linear distortions can be fully equalized by the coherent receiver, we concentrate the investigation on the residual nonlinear penalty. We introduce a novel simulation procedure to discriminate intra-channel PMD, i.e., PMD within the channel, from inter-channel PMD, i.e., PMD among different channels, showing their relative impact on system performance in the nonlinear regime. A simple yet effective description of intra-channel PMD is proposed, which helps identify the PMD realizations giving the best/worst performance in the nonlinear regime. We show that on average PMD improves the performance of dispersion-managed links by reducing both nonlinear interactions among signals and nonlinear phase noise, while it has no effect in non-dispersion managed links.
Comparison of conventional versus wavefront-guided laser in situ keratomileusis in the same patient.

PURPOSE To verify whether there is any difference in visual outcome, including higher order aberrations, after performing laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) with conventional ablation and wavefront-guided ablation in myopic eyes of the same patient. METHODS This was a prospective randomized study of 20 myopic eyes (10 patients) who had LASIK using the Nidek NAVEX excimer laser system. Wavefront-guided customized ablation was used in the first eye of the patient (study group) and the other eye of the same patient was operated with conventional ablation (control group). Mean refractive error was similar between left and right eyes of the same patient. Preoperative examination included higher order aberration by Nidek OPD-Scan. Uncorrected and best spectacle-corrected visual acuity and higher order aberrations were recorded postoperatively. RESULTS Preoperative and postoperative best spectacle-corrected visual acuity was better than 20/40 (100%) after LASIK in both the conventional ablation and wavefront-guided customized ablation groups. Postoperative refraction was within +/- 0.50 D of emmetropia: 90% in the conventional group and 100% in the wavefront-guided group. No statistically significant difference in postoperative higher order aberrations was found between groups. CONCLUSION Postoperative visual outcome with both conventional LASIK and wavefront-guided customized ablation was not significantly different. Higher order aberrations did not significantly increase postoperatively in either group.
Global Warming and Tea Production—The Bibliometric View on a Newly Emerging Research Topic

In this study, we analyzed the newly emerging research field of climate change in combination with tea production. We adapted a valid search query to cover the relevant literature as completely as possible and to exclude irrelevant literature. The search resulted in a publication set of 14 key papers dealing with the implications of climate change for tea production as well as 71 papers citing at least one of the 14 key papers. The VOSviewer software was used for revealing the thematic content of the publication set based on the analysis of the keywords. The analysis illustrates the importance of climate change for tea production and mirrors the emerging discussion on climate change impacts and adaptation strategies. Questions regarding the historical context of research fields or specific research topics can be answered by using a bibliometric method called “Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy” (RPYS). The standard RPYS, as well as RPYS-CO, which is based on co-citations of a marker paper, were applied and the most important publication in the historical context of climate change in combination with tea production was identified: both RPYS analyses revealed a paper by M.A. Wijeratne working at the Tea Research Institute (TRI) in Sri Lanka as the starting point of the newly emerging research topic. Currently, the research topic is stimulated by research projects and publications of Selena Ahmed at the Montana State University (USA).
Reactive power compensation for restoring power flow solvability in severe contingencies

In power system operation, maintaining power flow solvability is important. In the recent deregulated environment, uncertainty has become more prevalent in power systems because of diverse power transactions and benefit-based operational schemes. Thus, in the present and future power industry, there may be more unsolvable cases than there were in the past integrated power industry. This paper presents a methodology to determine the adequate reactive power compensation for restoring power flow solvability in the unsolvable severe contingencies. To analyze power flow solvability, a continuation power flow tool parameterizing branch parameters of contingencies is applied. In solvable cases, the adequate locations of the additional reactive power injection are determined by sensitivity analysis based on the normal vector at the nose point of the independent parameter vs. V curves, constructed by the continuation power flow tool. The effectiveness of the sensitivity information is verified by comparing the amount of reactive power compensation at each location. In a case study, the proposed algorithm is applied to the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) Systems.
Face detection with a Viola-Jones based hybrid network

Face detection is the determination of the positions and sizes of faces, primarily human, within digital images and videos, often as a component of a broader facial recognition system. It is seen as technologically mature, yet its operational performance typically remains sub-optimal, even within the less difficult frontal face detection tests. Empirical evidence shows that the Viola–Jones framework, a standard face detection solution with generally superior performance and other desirable properties, underdetects in some instances. Some true faces survive all but the final stages of the rejection cascade, resulting in missed faces. A hybrid framework consisting of a neural network following a truncated Viola–Jones cascade is constructed in an attempt to recover the undetected faces. Presumably, the neural network could fine tune and augment the face decision. Its inputs are a subset of the thresholding (detection) values of a rejection cascade's intermediate stages. Experiments reveal significantly improved performance, with increased detection rates if no false alarm increases are tolerated, with a greater detection rate increase if some false alarm increases are acceptable, and with a substantial false alarm reduction with no detection reduction. These improved face detection results could address shortcomings in widely-varying applications.
Improved equations of switching loss and conduction loss in SPWM multilevel inverters

Loss is a very important parameter in the analysis of the power electronic systems, and accurate calculation of this parameter directly effects on the economic and technical evaluation. Junction temperature, heat-sink sizing and cooling system, failure rate and MTTF1 are some examples of the basic parameters in designing a multilevel inverter, which all depends on the loss. Through previous methods, the loss and power equations were general and the results were limited to the simulations, where this paper proposed estimated equations for the switching loss and conduction loss. Previously, calculating the loss of an IGBT, estimating the conduction and the switching times in an on/off cycle, were a major obstacle. This paper utilizes a simpler method which provides more accurate results to calculate the conduction and switching times. Simulations are performed for a 5-level NPC2 inverter. All of the results confirm high accuracy of proposed equations. Also, these equations can be extended to the n-level SPWM3 inverters.
Real-time fMRI-based brain-computer interfacing for neurofeedback therapy and compensation of lost motor functions

Real-time functional MRI (rt-fMRI) allows for brain–computer interfaces based on hemodynamic brain signals and opens up various novel clinical applications. For example, rt-fMRI-based neurofeedback has been suggested as a novel tool for the treatment of neurological and psychopathological disorders. In contrast to conventional offline applications, neurofeedback requires the analysis of functional MRI signals online in order to provide participants with information about their brain activation during an ongoing MRI scan. Recent research supports the idea that an improvement of symptoms of diseases can be achieved if patients are trained with rt-fMRI-based neurofeedback to change their brain activation patterns. rt-fMRI also enables online ‘brain-reading‘ applications that can be exploited to develop alternative communication and control devices for patients with severe motor impairments (e.g., ‘locked-in’ patients). Although other methods, especially electroencephalography-based brain–computer interfacing, have been successfully used in this context, rt-fMRI-based methods may enable robust communication and control in cases where traditional approaches do not provide satisfactory results.
Resource Allocation and Practical Energy Harvesting Model for Wireless Power Communication Systems

With the vast development of energy harvesting technologies, wireless energy transmission techniques have been widely developed. One of the most potential solution to provide sustained network operation to ambient sensor nodes is the devoted radio frequency (RF) power source. The transmitter can be deployed more flexibly and the its working lifetime can be extended using this source. In this thesis, we would study the characterization of RF power source in charging procedure to determine the behavior of RF energy transfer(RFET) with a distinctive charging scheme comparing to the normal steady voltage charging since its providing steady power from the supply source to the storage element. Moreover, the relationship between charging time, input power and output power is proposed and simulated. By using this model the output RF power can be computed by given certain input RF power and certain charging time. In terms of resource allocation, we compare two energy allocation schemes(Zero-Forcing(ZF) and Maximum ratio transmission(MRT)) to analyze the difference regards to achievable sum rate(ASR) and required downlink transmit power(DTP) under the same condition and assumptions. The simulated results imply that ZF is performing better than MRT under the same condition, which is coinciding with the theoretical result.
An approach to a non-contact vital sign monitoring using dual-frequency microwave radars for elderly care

This study aimed to produce a prototype system for non-contact vital sign monitoring of the elderly using microwave radar with the intention of reducing the burdens on monitored individuals and nursing caregivers. In addition, we tested the ability of the proposed prototype system to measure the respiratory and heart rates of the elderly in a nursing home and discussed the systems effectiveness and problems by examining results of real-time monitoring. The prototype system consisted of two 24-GHz microwave radar antennas and an analysis system. The antennas were positioned below a mattress to monitor motion on the body surface for measuring cardiac and respiratory rates from the dorsal side of the subjects (23.3 ± 1.2 years) who would be lying on the mattress. The heart rates determined by the prototype system correlated significantly with those measured by electrocardiography (r = 0.92). Similarly, the respiratory rates determined by the prototype correlated with those obtained from respiration curves (r = 0.94). Next, we investigated the effectiveness of the prototype system with 7 elderly patients (93.3 ± 10.56 years) at a nursing home. The proposed system appears to be a promising tool for monitoring the vital signs of the elderly in a way that alleviates the need to attach electrodes overnight to confirm patient safety.
Salt stress and phyto-biochemical responses of plants - a review

The ability of plants to tolerate salts is determined by multiple biochemical pathways that facilitate retention and/or acquisition of water, protect chloroplast functions and maintain ion homeostasis. Essential pathways include those that lead to synthesis of osmotically active metabolites, specific proteins and certain free radical enzymes to control ion and water flux and support scavenging of oxygen radicals. No well-defined indicators are available to facilitate the improvement in salinity tolerance of agricultural crops through breeding. If the crop shows distinctive indicators of salt tolerance at the whole plant, tissue or cellular level, selection is the most convenient and practical method. There is therefore a need to determine the underlying biochemical mechanisms of salinity tolerance so as to provide plant breeders with appropriate indicators. In this review, the possibility of using these biochemical characteristics as selection criteria for salt tolerance is discussed.
A novel tunable neural oscillator for biological rhythmic behaviors

Autonomic oscillatory activities exist in almost every living thing and most of them are produced by rhythmic activities of the corresponding neural system. This paper proposes a neural oscillator based on the control of a Schmitt Trigger. The oscillator implements 3 neuron cells and 4 synapse circuits, and integrates them into a compact neural network with a source neuron driving two oscillating cells, which inhibit each other. The proposed neural oscillator, with tunable duty cycle and frequency, is simulated in Pspice 16 using 1.2um CMOS process.
User‐centred design and educational data mining support during the recommendations elicitation process in social online learning environments

Social online learning environments provide new recommendation opportunities to meet users' needs. However, current educational recommender systems do not usually take advantage of these opportunities. To progress on this issue, we have proposed a knowledge engineering approach based on human–computer interaction (i.e. user‐centred design as defined by the standard ISO 9241‐210:2010) and artificial intelligence techniques (i.e. data mining) that involve educators in the process of eliciting educational oriented recommendations. To date, this approach differs from most recommenders in education in focusing on identifying relevant actions to be recommended on e‐learning services from a user‐centric perspective, thus widening the range of recommendation types. This approach has been used to identify 32 recommendations that consider several types of actions, which focus on promoting active participation of learners and on strengthening the sharing of experiences among peers through the usage of the social services provided by the learning environment. The paper describes where data mining techniques have been applied to complement the user‐centred design methods to produce social oriented recommendations in online learning environments.
On model-based source coding for dynamical systems

Communication latency plays a key role in time critical control applications in dynamical cyber-physical systems. It is in particular influenced by source coding algorithms which are typically developed independently of the process dynamics driven at the nodes of networked control systems. This is a note on model-based source coding, providing a state-dependent coding strategy. Therfore we confine our discussion to the simple case-study of Markov chains. Our goal is to minimize the expected codeword length of transmitted information by accounting for the process dynamics.
The basic phage set for typing bovine staphylococci

SUMMARY Two hundred and sixty-nine Staphylococcus aureus cultures isolated from bovine milk were subjected to phagc typing using the International basic set of 16 phages at Routine Test Dilution. In the current study 73·6% of cultures were ‘typable’ compared with 84–89% in 1972 when the set was first recommended. The set remains capable of typing the majority of bovine staphylococci but shows a reduction in lysogenicity of most of its phages.
Levodopa/Carbidopa to Improve Motor Function Subsequent to Brain Tumor Excision

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to evaluate the role of levodopa/carbidopa as an augmenting agent to improve motor recovery after brain tumor excision. DesignThis case report is structured as an n-of-1 style trial. The study patient was an outpatient with residual hemiparesis secondary to removal of benign oligoastrocytoma seen in an outpatient physiatry practice at an academic center. The study intervention was levodopa/carbidopa vs. placebo, combined with a structured 6-wk physiotherapy regimen. Outcomes were measured using the motor subscale of the Fugl-Meyer Assessment to assess for motor recovery. ResultsThe mean motor Fugl-Meyer Assessment score for the levodopa/carbidopa weeks was 6.90 points greater than the mean score for placebo. The results were significant at P < 0.05. ConclusionsLevodopa/carbidopa may have a beneficial effect on improving motor recovery after sustaining a brain injury as a result of tumor excision.