Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling and Validation of 4H-SiC Low Voltage MOSFETs for Integrated Circuit Design

Silicon Carbide is a promising wide bandgap material and gradually becoming the first choice of semiconductor for high density and high efficiency power electronics in medium voltage range (500-1500V). SiC has also excellent thermal conductivity and the devices fabricated with the material can operate at high temperature (~ 400 0 C). Thus, a power electronic system built with SiC devices requires less cooling requirement and saves board space and cost. The high temperature applications of SiC material can also be extended to space exploration, oil and gas rigging, aerospace and geothermal energy systems for data acquisition, sensing and instrumentation and power conditioning and conversion. But the high temperature capability of SiC can only be utilized when the integrated circuits can be designed in SiC technology and high fidelity compact models of the semiconductor devices are a priori for reliable and high yielding integrated circuit design. The objective of this work is to develop industry standard compact models for SiC NMOS and PMOS devices. A widely used compact model used in silicon industry called BSIM3V3 is adopted as a foundation to build the model for SiC MOSFET. The models optimized with the builtin HSPICE BSIM3V3.3 were used for circuit design in one tape-out but BSIM3V3 was found to be inadequate to model all of the characteristics of SiC MOSFET due to the presence of interface trapped charge. In the second tape-out, the models for SiC NMOS and PMOS were optimized based on the built-in HSPICE BSIM4V6.5 and a number of functioning circuits which have been published in reputed journal and conference were designed based on the models. Although BSIM4 is an enhanced version of BSIM3V3, it also could not model a few deviant SiC MOSFET characteristics such as body effect, soft saturation etc. The new model developed for SiC NMOS and PMOS based on BSIM4V7.0 is called BSIM4SIC and can model the entire range of device characteristics of the devices. The BSIM4SIC models are validated with a wide range of measured data and verified using the models in the simulation of numerous circuits such as op-amp, comparator, linear regulator, reference and ADC/DAC.
Compact Object Security for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things is coming. With it comes security challenges not present on common, more capable, devices such as desktop computers or servers. We argue that traditional channel security needs to be complemented with object security to cope with the constrained nature of small devices and Low Power Lossy Networks. The main reason for a partial transition to object security being heavy use of asynchronous communication. This thesis explores the feasibility of OSCoAP, a novel draft for an object security solution for CoAP, on constrained devices. It also evaluates the performance of OSCoAP compared to the well known channel security standard DTLS.
Working with non-government organisations: dropping the defences and building bridges

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the professional relationship between evaluators and their clients—in this case a number of non-government organisations (NGOs) that contribute to better NGO engagement in the evaluation process. Evaluations are often imposed on NGOs by program funders for accountability, impact assessment, practice improvement or policy development purposes. Regardless of the purpose the imposition of evaluation is sometimes re sented by program managers who may see evaluation as an unnecessary intrusion on their time, and something which the funder may require but will not benefit them or the people they are working with. For those without previous experience, the view of what evaluation is and does may be tainted by previous negative experiences of reports and assessments that are required for other purposes (such as financial acquittal or performance appraisal). For the uninitiated program manager, the evaluator’s first task may well be to allay those fears. The objections encounter ed range from: ‘you can’t measure what we do’; ‘we haven’t been funded to do evaluation’; ‘what would you know about this program anyway—we are the experts’; to ‘our business is looking after clients—where does evaluation fit into that? ’. These objections—and more—have been encountered by two of the authors of this paper, (the ‘evaluators’) who for a number of years have evaluated programs designed to improveoutcomes for communities, families and children. In their first meetings with program managers the evaluators encountered varying levels of support for evaluation. While all agreed that evaluation was important some were more engaged in the process than others. The evaluato rs have noted that there were potentially arange of factors that appeared to influence the level of program manager engagement in the evaluation process, including the methodology and the approach taken by the evaluators. However, the utility of evaluation outputs, such as reports that include a critique of findings and recommendations, is greater when program managers embrace the evaluation process. Given this observation, the evaluators asked themselves what the keys to successful engagement were. Rather than speculate further about this themselves the evaluators decided to put their beliefs to the test and ask five program managers what the turning point in their acceptance of evaluation was and why they became more supportive of evaluation. Their voices are included in this paper as co-authors with the evaluators. The five program managers represented here are all keen advocat es of participatory approaches to evaluation. The paper offers perspectives from evaluators and program managers in order to suggest ways that evaluators can work more effectively with program managers—building bridges—so that evaluations can have greater effect in terms of policy and practice.
Lithium-Ion battery SOC estimation

Lithium-ion batteries are frequently used in Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), which are taking the place of gas-engine vehicles. An important but not measurable quantity in HEVs is the amount of charge remaining in the battery in a drive cycle. The remaining charge is normally identified by a variable called state of charge (SOC). A potential way of estimating the SOC is relating this variable with the state of a dynamical system. Afterwards, the SOC can be estimated through an observer design. As a precise model, electrochemical equations are chosen in this research to estimate the SOC. The first part of this thesis considers comparison studies of commonly-used finitedimensional estimation methods for different distributed parameter systems (DPSs). In this part, the system is first approximated by a finite-dimensional representation; the observer dynamics is a copy of the finite-dimensional representation and a filtering gain obtained through observer design. The main outcome of these studies is comparing the performance of different observers in the state estimation of different types of DPSs after truncation. The studies are then expanded to investigate the effect of the truncated model by increasing the order of finite-dimensional approximation of the system numerically. The simulation results are also compared to the mathematical properties of the systems. A modified sliding mode observer is improved next to take care of the system’s nonlinearity and compensate for the estimation error due to disturbances coming from an external input. It is proved that the modified SMO provides an exponential convergence of the estimation error in the existence of an external input. In most cases, the simulations results of the comparison studies indicate the improved performance of the modified SMO observer. Approximation and well-posedness of two general classes of nonlinear DPSs are studied next. The main concern of these studies is to produce a low-order model which converges to the original equation as the order of approximation increases. The available results in the literature are limited to specified classes of systems. These classes do not cover the lithium-ion cell model; however, the general forms presented here include the electrochemical equations as a specific version. In order to facilitate the electrochemical model for observer design, simplification of the model is considered in the next step. The original electrochemical equations are composed of both dynamical and constraint equations. They are simplified such that a fully dynamical representation can be derived. The fully dynamical representation is beneficial for real-time application since it does not require solving the constraint equation at
MEANING

Knowledge Technologies need to extract knowledge from existing texts, which calls for advanced Human Language Technologies (HLT). Progress is being made in Natural Language Processing but there is still a long way towards Natural Language Understanding. An important step towards this goal is the development of technologies and resources that deal with concepts rather than words. The MEANING project argues that we need to solve two complementary and intermediate tasks to enable the next generation of intelligent open domain HLT application systems: Word Sense Disambiguation and large-scale enrichment of Lexical Knowledge Bases. Innovations in this area will lead to HLT with deeper understanding of texts, and immediate progress in real applications of Knowledge Technologies.
Extracellular matrix in cancer progression and therapy

Abstract The tumor ecosystem with heterogeneous cellular compositions and the tumor microenvironment has increasingly become the focus of cancer research in recent years. The extracellular matrix (ECM), the major component of the tumor microenvironment, and its interactions with the tumor cells and stromal cells have also enjoyed tremendously increased attention. Like the other components of the tumor microenvironment, the ECM in solid tumors differs significantly from that in normal organs and tissues. We review recent studies of the complex roles the tumor ECM plays in cancer progression, from tumor initiation, growth to angiogenesis and invasion. We highlight that the biomolecular, biophysical, and mechanochemical interactions between the ECM and cells not only regulate the steps of cancer progression, but also affect the efficacy of systemic cancer treatment. We further discuss the strategies to target and modify the tumor ECM to improve cancer therapy.
The Effect of Simulating Climbing Movements on Rock Memory and Exploratory Movement in Rock Climbing

Simulating climbing movements on a given route is important for fluent rock climbing. We investigated the effect of simulated action during rock climbing route finding on memory and exploratory movement. Participants were 12 climbers and 12 non-climbers who completed three experimental tasks: (a) a questionnaire, the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire-2 (VMIQ-2) for measuring vividness of motor imagery, (b) a memory task requiring recognition of rock climbing holds on the route, and (c) a traversing task requiring participants to climb a given route and count the number of exploratory movements made during climbing. During route finding in the memory/traversing task, we experimentally manipulated the simulative body action with motor imagery. Results showed that the simulative action affected exploratory movement during climbing, but it did not affect memorization of the holds. In the traversing task, climbers showed more exploratory movement when the simulative action was present during route finding, while the non-climbers showed an opposite trend. Moreover, for non-climbers, the effect of the simulative action was modulated by the vividness of kinesthetic imagery. We concluded that simulative body action during route finding facilitated motor imagery and spatial information processing for subsequent climbing involving exploratory movement.
Functional status at 30 and 90 days after mild ischaemic stroke

Background/objective This study compares the global disability status of patients who had a mild ischaemic stroke at 30 and 90 days poststroke, as measured by the modified Rankin Scale (mRS), and identifies predictors of change in disability status between 30 and 90 days. Methods The study population included 1339 patients who had a ischaemic stroke enrolled in the Mild and Rapidly Improving Stroke Study with National Institutes of Health (NIH) stroke score 0–5 and mRS measurements at 30 and 90 days. Outcomes were (1) Improvement defined as having mRS >1 at 30 days and mRS 0–1 at 90 days OR mRS >2 at 30 days and mRS 0–2 at 90 days and (2) Worsening defined as an increase of ≥2 points or a worsening from mRS of 1 at 30 days to 2 at 90 days. Demographic and clinical characteristics at hospital arrival were abstracted from medical records, and regression models were used to identify predictors of functional improvement and decline from 30 to 90 days post-stroke. Significant predictors were mutually adjusted in multivariable models that also included age and stroke severity. Results Fifty-seven per cent of study participants had no change in mRS value from 30 to 90 days. Overall, there was moderate agreement in mRS between the two time points (weighted kappa=0.59 (95% CI 0.56 to 0.62)). However, worsening on the mRS was observed in 7.54% of the study population from 30 to 90 days, and 17.33% improved. Participants of older age (per year OR 1.02, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.03), greater stroke severity (per NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS) point at admission OR 1.17, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.34), and those with no alteplase treatment (OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.11 to 2.69) were more likely to show functional decline after mutual adjustment. Discussion A quarter of all mild ischaemic stroke participants exhibited functional changes between 30 and 90 days, suggesting that the 30-day outcome may insufficiently represent long-term recovery in mild stroke and longer follow-up may be clinically necessary. Trial registration number NCT02072681.
EEULA: AN ENERGY-AWARE EVENT-DRIVEN UNICAST ALGORITHM FOR WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK BY LEARNING AUTOMATA

Energy consumption is one of the major challenges in wireless sensor networks, thus necessitating an approach for its minimization and for load balancing data. The network lifetime ends with the death of one of its nodes, which, in turn, causes energy depletion in and partition of the network. Furthermore, the total energy consumption of nodes depends on their location; that is, because of the loaded data, energy discharge in the nodes close to the base station occurs faster than other nodes, the model presented here, through using learning automata, selects the path appropriate for data transferring; the selected path is rewarded or penalized taking the reaction of surrounding paths into account. We have used learning automata for energy management in finding the path; the routing protocol was simulated by NS2 simulator; the lifetime, energy consumption and balance in an event-driven network in our proposed method were compared with other algorithms.
Early disturbance of dynamic synchronization and neurovascular coupling in cognitively normal Parkinson’s disease

Pathological process in Parkinson’s disease (PD) is accompanied with functional and metabolic alterations. The time-varying properties of functional coherence and their coupling to regional perfusion are still rarely elucidated. To investigate early disruption of dynamic regional homogeneity (dReho) and neurovascular coupling in cognitively normal PD patients, dynamic neuronal synchronization and regional perfusion were measured using dReho and cerebral blood flow (CBF), respectively. Neurovascular coupling was assessed by CBF-ReHo correlation coefficient and CBF/ReHo ratio. Multivariate pattern analysis was conducted for the differentiating ability of each feature. Relative to healthy controls (HC) subjects, PD patients demonstrated increased dReho in middle temporal gyrus (MTG), rectus gyrus, middle occipital gyrus, and precuneus, whereas reduced dReho in putamen and supplementary motor area (SMA); while higher CBF/dReho ratio was located in putamen, SMA, paracentral lobule, and postcentral gyrus, whereas lower CBF/dReho ratio in superior temporal gyrus, MTG, precuneus, and angular gyrus (AG). Global and regional CBF-Reho decoupling were both observed in PD groups. The CBF/Reho ratio features achieved more powerful classification performance than other features. From the view of dynamic neural synchronization and neurovascular coupling, this study reinforced the insights into neural basis underlying PD and the potential role in the disease diagnosis and differentiation.
Acute treatment with 5-hydroxytryptophan increases social approach behaviour but does not activate serotonergic neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus in juvenile male BALB/c mice: A model of human disorders with deficits of sociability

Background: The BALB/c mouse has been proposed as a model of human psychiatric disorders characterised by elevated anxiety and altered sociability. Juvenile BALB/c mice show decreased social exploratory behaviour, increased anxiety, and reduced brain serotonin synthesis compared to other strains including C57BL/6J mice. Aim: To determine whether supplementation of brain serotonin synthesis alters social behaviour and activation of serotonergic neurons across subregions of the dorsal raphe nucleus (DR) in BALB/c mice. Methods: Juvenile male BALB/c mice were assigned to one of four treatment conditions: vehicle/vehicle, carbidopa (25 mg/kg)/vehicle, vehicle/5-HTP (10 mg/kg), carbidopa (25 mg/kg)/5-HTP (10 mg/kg). Social behaviour was measured using the three-chamber social approach test, followed by immunohistochemical staining for TPH2 and c-Fos to measure activation of serotonergic neurons across subregions of the DR. Results: Mice treated with carbidopa/5-HTP spent more time in the social cage zone and covered more distance in the social approach test compared to other treatment groups. There was no difference between treatment groups in the activation of serotonergic neurons across subregions of the DR. However, the DRD was associated with increased social approach behaviour in carbidopa/5-HTP treated animals. Conclusions: Supplementation of serotonin synthesis can increase social approach behaviour in juvenile BALB/c mice. An increase in locomotor behaviour was also observed suggesting that increasing central serotonin synthesis may have led to a reduction in state anxiety, manifesting in increased exploratory behaviour. As no effect on serotonergic activation within the DR was found, alternative mechanisms are likely important for the effects of 5-HTP on social behaviour.
The common indoor air pollutant α-pinene is metabolised to a genotoxic metabolite α-pinene oxide

Abstract α-Pinene caused a concentration-responsive increase in bladder hyperplasia and decrease in sperm counts in rodents following inhalation exposure. Additionally, it formed a prospective reactive metabolite, α-pinene oxide. To provide human relevant context for data generated in animal models and explore potential mechanism, we undertook studies to investigate the metabolism of α-pinene to α-pinene oxide and mutagenicity of α-pinene and α-pinene oxide. α-Pinene oxide was formed in rat and human microsomes and hepatocytes with some species differences. Based on area under the concentration versus time curves, the formation of α-pinene oxide was up to 4-fold higher in rats than in humans. While rat microsomes cleared α-pinene oxide faster than human microsomes, the clearance of α-pinene oxide in hepatocytes was similar between species. α-Pinene was not mutagenic with or without induced rat liver S9 in Salmonella typhimurium or Escherichia coli when tested up to 10 000 µg/plate while α-pinene oxide was mutagenic at ≥25 µg/plate. α-Pinene was metabolised to α-pinene oxide under the conditions of the bacterial mutation assay although the concentration was approximately 3-fold lower than the lowest α-pinene oxide concentration that was positive in the assay, potentially explaining the lack of mutagenicity observed with α-pinene.
Experiences and Lessons Learned in Developing and Implementing a Population-Based Nutrition and Health Surveillance System in Guatemala 2011-2021.

Background Practice-based experiences documenting development and implementation of nutrition and health surveillance systems are needed. Objectives To describe processes, methods, and lessons learned from developing and implementing a population-based household nutrition and health surveillance system in Guatemala. Methods The phases and methods for the design and implementation of the surveillance system are described. Efforts to institutionalize the system in government institutions are described, and illustrative examples describing different data uses, and lessons learned are provided. Results After initial assessments of data needs and consultations with officials in government institutions and partners in the country, a population-based nutrition surveillance system prototype with complex sampling was designed and tested in 5 Guatemalan Highland departments in 2011. After dissemination of the prototype, government and partners expanded the content, and multitopic nutrition and health surveillance cycles were collected in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017/18, and 2018/19 providing nationally representative data for households, women of reproductive age (15-49 y), and children aged 0-59 mo. For each cycle, data were to be collected from 100 clusters, 30 households in each, and 1 woman and 1 child per household. Content covered ∼25 health and nutrition topics, including coverage of all large-scale nutrition-specific interventions; the micronutrient content of fortifiable sugar, salt, and bread samples; anthropometry; and biomarkers to assess annually, or at least once, ∼25 indicators of micronutrient status and chronic disease. Data were collected by 3-5 highly trained field teams. The design was flexible and revised each cycle allowing potential changes to questionnaires, population groups, biomarkers, survey design, or other changes. Data were used to change national guidelines for vitamin A and B-12 interventions, among others, and evaluate interventions. Barriers included frequent changes of high-level government officials and heavy dependence on US funding. Conclusions This system provides high-quality data, fills critical data gaps, and can serve as a useful model for others.
Patient perspectives of lithium and quetiapine augmentation treatment in treatment-resistant depression: A qualitative assessment

Background: Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) has a profound cost to patients and healthcare services worldwide. Pharmacological augmentation is one therapeutic option for TRD, with lithium and quetiapine currently recommended as first-line agents. Patient opinions about pharmacological augmentation may affect treatment outcomes, yet these have not been systematically explored. Aims: This study aimed to qualitatively assess patient experiences of lithium and quetiapine augmentation. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 patients from the ongoing lithium versus quetiapine open-label trial comparing these augmentation agents in patients with TRD. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and a thematic analysis was used to assess patient opinions of each agent. Results: Four main themes were generated from the thematic analysis: ‘Initial concerns’, ‘Experience of side effects’, ‘Perception of treatment efficacy’ and ‘Positive perception of treatment monitoring’. Patient accounts indicated a predominantly positive experience of lithium and quetiapine augmentation. Greater apprehension about side effects was reported for lithium prior to treatment initiation, but greater experience of negative side effects was reported for quetiapine. Clinical monitoring was perceived positively. Conclusion: Patient accounts suggested treatment augmentation with lithium or quetiapine was acceptable and helpful for most patients. However, anticipation and experiences of adverse side effects may prevent some patients from benefitting from these treatments.