Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Reference Governor approach for Lateral Control of Autonomous Vehicles

This paper presents a novel approach on the union of lane tracking/change via the use of a Reference Governor (RG). This is achieved by feeding a modification of the reference during lane-change, called “virtual” reference, to the predesigned lane-tracking controller. The suggested methodology ensures reference is smooth enough so that the tracking controller does not overshoot and sustains fast convergence to the adjacent lane. The virtual reference is obtained as the solution of a convex optimization problem so that future closed-loop states are enforced to belong in an admissible set. The efficiency of the proposed control-scheme is illustrated in high-fidelity simulation results, for the case of an automated Renault Zoe. Consequently, the lane-tracking controller, a $H_{\infty}$ yaw-rate tracker for which robustness certificates are presented, is able to perform a lane change maneuver when the RG is used.
A SPICE Compatible Spatial Equivalent Circuit Model of the Heatsink

The procedure for creation of the SPICE compatible spatial equivalent circuit model of the heatsink is presented in this paper. The model is based on the electro-thermal analogy and finite volume partitioning approach. It is validated by comparing the simulation results with the experimentally obtained data and the finite-element-modeling simulations. Simulations of complex, coupled thermo-electrical systems in electrical circuit simulators are enabled using the model.
Redox-active cerium oxide based nanozyme abrogate the organophosphate mediated poisoning in mammalian cells

Owing to the autocatalytic antioxidant activity, cerium oxide nanoparticle (CeNPs) has been extensively used in biomedical fields for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, biosensing, and therapeutic applications. The redoxdependent interconversion between +3 and +4 oxidation states of CeNPs is suggested to be the reason of scavenging of free radical generated in the biological system. Herein we have explored the protective effect of CeNPs against the oxidative stress induced by organophosphate-based pesticide, 2,2-dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate (DDVP), in a normal human liver cell culture model (WRL-68). DDVP is known to cause the toxic effect in cells by inducing lipid peroxidation, cellular glutathione level depletion and DNA fragmentation by the caspase-dependent pathway. We followed the protection of cells by CeNPs against DDVP exposure using MTT and NRU assays. Exposure of DDVP to cells induced significant nuclear fragmentation, which could be avoided in cells pre-treated with CeNPs. Mechanistically, we observed that CeNPs induces an increase in cellular GSH level, which could assist in removal of excess of reactive oxygen species, generated in DDVP exposed cells, along with the superoxide dismutase (SOD)-like activity of CeNPs. The interaction study showed that there was no chemical interaction between DDVP and CeNPs, therefore, the intrinsic SOD-like activity of CeNPs was intact even in the complex cell culture media. Growing evidence suggest that excess use of DDVP could lead to the several diseases in cells/tissues, therefore our finding emphasizes that CeNPs can be used as a potent antioxidant agent to avoid the ramifications of DDVP and other commercial pesticides. Copyright © 2018 VBRI Press.
Range-Max Enhanced Ultrawideband Micro-Doppler Signatures of Behind-the-Wall Indoor Human Motions

In this article, an ultrawideband (UWB) radar is first employed to probe through the opaque wall media to detect behind-the-wall human motions. By employing such a radar, a high-resolution time-range map with different body parts’ reflections highly discriminable in range direction can be obtained. Second, a high-pass filter is applied to remove the wall effects in the raw time-range map. Then, with the aim of exploiting the rich range information so as to enhance their corresponding micro-Doppler features, a novel range-max enhancement strategy is proposed to extract the most significant micro-Doppler feature of each time–frequency cell along range direction for a specific motion. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed motion feature enhancement strategy is investigated by means of onsite experiments. Comparative classifications using different convolutional neural network (CNN) structures show that the proposed approach outperforms other state-of-the-art micro-Doppler feature extraction methods. The comparison with the narrowband detection case also proves its superiority in feature enhancement in the narrowband detection scene.
The 63-year changes in annual streamflow volumes across Europe with a focus on the Mediterranean basin

Abstract. Determining the spatiotemporal variability in the annual streamflow volume plays a relevant role in hydrology with regard to improving and implementing sustainable and resilient policies and practices of water resource management. This study investigates annual streamflow volume trends in a newly assembled, consolidated, and validated data set of daily mean river flow records from more than 3000 stations which cover near-natural basins in more than 40 countries across Europe. Although the data set contains streamflow time series from 1900 to 2013 in some stations, the statistical analyses were carried out by including observations from 1950 to 2013 in order to have a consistent and reliable data set over the continent. Trends were detected by calculating the slope of the Theil–Sen line over the annual anomalies of streamflow volume. The results show that annual streamflow volume trends have emerged at European scale, with a marked negative tendency in Mediterranean regions, with about -1×103 m3/(km2 yr−2), and a generally positive trend in northern ones, with about 0.5×103 m3/(km−2 yr−2). The annual streamflow volume trend patterns appear to be in agreement with the continental-scale meteorological observations in response to climate change drivers. In the Mediterranean area, the decline of annual streamflow volumes started in 1965, and since the early 1980s, volumes have consistently been lower than the 1950–2013 average. The spatiotemporal annual streamflow volume patterns observed in this work can help to contextualize short-term trends and regional studies already available in the scientific literature, as well as to provide a valid benchmark for further accurate quantitative analysis of annual streamflow volumes.
Live-Cell Systems in Real-Time Biomonitoring of Water Pollution: Practical Considerations and Future Perspectives

Continuous monitoring and early warning of potential water contamination with toxic chemicals is of paramount importance for human health and sustainable food production. During the last few decades there have been noteworthy advances in technologies for the automated sensing of physicochemical parameters of water. These do not translate well into online monitoring of chemical pollutants since most of them are either incapable of real-time detection or unable to detect impacts on biological organisms. As a result, biological early warning systems have been proposed to supplement conventional water quality test strategies. Such systems can continuously evaluate physiological parameters of suitable aquatic species and alert the user to the presence of toxicants. In this regard, single cellular organisms, such as bacteria, cyanobacteria, micro-algae and vertebrate cell lines, offer promising avenues for development of water biosensors. Historically, only a handful of systems utilising single-cell organisms have been deployed as established online water biomonitoring tools. Recent advances in recombinant microorganisms, cell immobilisation techniques, live-cell microarrays and microfluidic Lab-on-a-Chip technologies open new avenues to develop miniaturised systems capable of detecting a broad range of water contaminants. In experimental settings, they have been shown as sensitive and rapid biosensors with capabilities to detect traces of contaminants. In this work, we critically review the recent advances and practical prospects of biological early warning systems based on live-cell biosensors. We demonstrate historical deployment successes, technological innovations, as well as current challenges for the broader deployment of live-cell biosensors in the monitoring of water quality.
Experimentally Viable Techniques for Accessing Coexisting Attractors Correlated with Lyapunov Exponents

Universal, predictive attractor patterns configured by Lyapunov exponents (LEs) as a function of the control parameter are shown to characterize periodic windows in chaos just as in attractors, using a coherent model of the laser with injected signal. One such predictive pattern, the symmetric-like bubble, foretells of an imminent bifurcation. With a slight decrease in the gain parameter, we find the symmetric-like bubble changes to a curved trajectory of two equal LEs in one attractor, while an increase in the gain reverses this process in another attractor. We generalize the power-shift method for accessing coexisting attractors or periodic windows by augmenting the technique with an interim parameter shift that optimizes attractor retrieval. We choose the gain as our parameter to interim shift. When interim gain-shift results are compared with LE patterns for a specific gain, we find critical points on the LE spectra where the attractor is unlikely to survive the gain shift. Noise and lag effects obscure the power shift minimally for large domain attractors. Small domain attractors are less accessible. The power-shift method in conjunction with the interim parameter shift is attractive because it can be experimentally applied without significant or long-lasting modifications to the experimental system.
Co-exposure effects of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles and Metals on antioxidant systems and DNA in the fish Hoplias intermedius

Metallic nanoparticles are one of the most produced and used engineered nanomaterial and their wide applications lead to environmental contamination. The aquatic environment is the major recipient of wastes containing nanoparticles and other co-occuring contaminants. We aimed to evaluate genotoxic and biochemical effects of acute exposure to nano-TiO2 in the fish Hoplias intermedius and the interaction to metals. Besides assessing the nanoparticles’ physical-chemical properties we performed an acute exposure with 0.1; 1; 10 μg g-1 nano-TiO2, alone and with lead (21 μgg -1) and aluminium (50 μgg-1). A set of biomarkers were evaluated in the liver such as genotoxicity by comet assay and biochemical biomarkers (SOD, CAT, GPx, GSH, EROD, GST). Most of the biomarkers were altered by the metals, and the nanoparticles caused decrease in SOD (0.1 and 1μg g-1), GSH (1μg g-1), and GST (0.1 μg g-1). In co-exposure, some metal effects were attenuated. There was an increase in EROD activity for most co-exposure groups. Nano-TiO2 was not genotoxic in the experimental conditions. We did not observe any increase in DNA breaks in co-exposure, although, nanoparticles changed the response of some biochemical biomarkers.
Assessment of Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control in Mixed Traffic on Arterial Roads

In this paper, we investigated the performance of cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) algorithms in mixed traffic environments featuring connected automated vehicles (CAVs) and unconnected vehicles. For CAVs, we tested the recently proposed linear feedback control approach (Linear-CACCu) and adaptive model predictive control approach (A-MPC-CACCu) which have been tailored to extend CACC to mixed traffic environments. In contrast to most literature where CACC design and evaluation are performed on freeways, we focused on urban arterial roads using the CACC Field Operation Test Dataset from the Netherlands. We compared the performances of Linear-CACCu and A-MPC-CACCu to regular adaptive cruise control (ACC), where automated vehicles do not rely on connectivity, as well as human drivers. Performance comparison was done in terms of ego vehicle's spacing error, acceleration, and energy consumption which relate to safety, driving comfort, and energy efficiency, respectively. Simulation results showed that CACCu algorithms significantly outperformed the ACC and human drivers in these metrics. Moreover, we found that the fluctuations of the lead vehicle's behavior due to changes in traffic signal phase have a significant impact on which CACCu is optimal (i.e., A-MPC-CACCu or Linear-CACCu). Thus, the CACC mode could be switched based on the expectation of traffic signal phase changes to assure better performance.
EVALUATION OF THE PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF JOJOBA NAT-URAL PRODUCTS ON HEPATOTOXICITY OF DIETHYL NI-TROSAMINE IN RATS

The current study was designed to achieve the following objectives: Studying the effect of diethyl nitrosamine (DEN) on rats’ liver; and the effect of jojoba oil on the liver enzymes and DNA content. Ad-ministration of DEN induced a significant increase in levels of serum ALT and AST. Administration of jojoba oil alone or with DEN caused significant decrease in serum levels of ALT and AST, compared with the control group through the experi-mental period. The level of lipid per oxi-dation (MDA) levels increased in DEN treated group. On the other hand animals treated with jojoba and DEN showed a decrease in lipid per oxidation. Compared with the DNA content showed that jojoba oil provoked a massive accumulation of cells in the three cell phases (G0/G1, S and G2/M), this led to the appearance of a diploid DNA content peak in the cell cycle experiments which is characterized to apoptotic cell population. The histological results revealed that jojoba oil improved the alterations caused by DEN.
Cullin3 deficiency shapes tumor microenvironment and promotes cholangiocarcinoma in liver-specific Smad4/Pten mutant mice

Cholangiocarcinoma (CC), the most lethal type of liver cancer, remains very difficult to treat due to an incomplete understanding of the cancer initiation and progression mechanisms and no effective therapeutic drugs. Thus, identification of genomic drivers and delineation of the underlying mechanisms are urgently needed. Here, we conducted a genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screening in liver-specific Smad4/Pten knockout mice (Smad4co/co;Ptenco/co;Alb-Cre, abbreviated as SPC), and identified 15 putative tumor suppressor genes, including Cullin3 (Cul3), whose deficiency increases protein levels of Nrf2 and Cyclin D1 that accelerate cholangiocytes expansion leading to the initiation of CC. Meanwhile, Cul3 deficiency also increases the secretion of Cxcl9 in stromal cells to attract T cells infiltration, and increases the production of Amphiregulin (Areg) mediated by Nrf2, which paracrinely induces inflammation in the liver, and promotes accumulation of exhausted PD1high CD8 T cells at the expenses of their cytotoxic activity, allowing CC progression. We demonstrate that the anti-PD1/PD-L1 blockade inhibits CC growth, and the effect is enhanced by combining with sorafenib selected from organoid mediated drug sensitive test. This model makes it possible to further identify more liver cancer suppressors, study molecular mechanisms, and develop effective therapeutic strategies.
Applying a Health-Risk Behavior Lens to Understand Individual Differences in COVID-19 Containment Behavior Among Young Adults

COVID-19 containment behaviors (CCBs) remain important methods for reducing contagion. Theoretical frameworks to understand engagement in health-risk behaviors among young people may help identify individuals with elevated risk for non-adherence to CCBs. We aimed to elucidate individual differences in CCBs by evaluating if CCBs fit into an established health-risk behavior framework. Using a cross-sectional sample of 1374 young adults, we examined CCBs’ associations with personality antecedents to health-risk behaviors and to actual engagement in other health-risk behaviors. Results identified risk seeking, negative urgency, lack of premeditation, and extraversion as risk factors for less CCB adherence, while agreeableness and neuroticism were protective factors. Less CCB adherence was positively associated with binge drinking, more sexual partners, and risky driving, while negatively associated with purging and self-injury. Results suggest CCBs may be understood as a type of health-risk behavior and can contribute to the development of strategies for increasing public health guideline adherence.
Recent advances and applications of digital holography in multiphase reactive/nonreactive flows: a review

In various multiphase flows, the characterization of particle dynamics is important in the understanding of the interaction between particles and the surrounding flows. Digital holography (DH) is a versatile 3D imaging technique, which has shown great advantages in quantitative analysis and nonintrusive diagnosis of various particle fields. This review focuses on the advances and applications of DH in multiphase reactive/nonreactive flows in the last two decades. First, the basic principles of DH are introduced, including its mathematical background and representative experimental configurations. Then, the image processing algorithms for hologram reconstruction and automatic focusing are summarized, along with the methods for separating overlapping particles and tracking moving particles. As a prevailing and powerful tool, the recent applications of deep learning in processing holographic images is also included in this review. Furthermore, the applications of DH in the characterization of particle dynamics in multiphase reactive/nonreactive flows are surveyed in detail. Lastly, the review concludes with a discussion on the technical limits of DH and provides insights into its promising future research directions.
Optimization Method for Labor Control in Net Shopping Logistics

In the retail industry, to increase sales and the number of users, it is common practice to regularly or irregularly carry out sales promotion measures such as discount sales and point return. The fluctuation in demand due to such sales promotion measures is amplified compared to when it is not implemented. This wave propagates along with the lead time (difference between the order receipt date and the designated delivery date), since the order is placed on the EC site and shipped on the designated delivery date, unlike in the real store sales. This wave of late-propagating fluctuations not only has a major impact on the scheduling of workers shipping at the warehouse, but also has a negative impact on the business. In other words, excessive staffing increases shipping costs, and staffing shortages cause delivery delays, resulting in lower customer satisfaction. Therefore, we propose a method to trade-off between customer satisfaction and shipping cost by formulating an appropriate shipping plan that anticipates fluctuations in demand due to sales promotion measures.
Iterative Learning-Based Robotic Controller With Prescribed Human–Robot Interaction Force

In this article, an iterative-learning-based robotic controller is developed, which aims at providing a prescribed assistance or resistance force to the human user. In the proposed controller, the characteristic parameter of the human upper limb movement is first learned by the robot using the measurable interaction force, a recursive least square (RLS)-based estimator, and the Adam optimization method. Then, the desired trajectory of the robot can be obtained, tracking which the robot can supply the human’s upper limb with a prescribed interaction force. Using this controller, the robot automatically adjusts its reference trajectory to embrace the differences between different human users with diverse degrees of upper limb movement characteristics. By designing a performance index in the form of interaction force integral, potential adverse effects caused by the time-related uncertainty during the learning process can be addressed. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in supplying the prescribed interaction force to the human user. Note to Practitioners—This article concentrates on developing a novel control technique to make the robot supply a prescribed interaction force to the human user in the presence of time-related uncertainties. The proposed control method is applicable to various scenarios of the human–robot interaction, e.g., it can be used for rehabilitation robots to provide assistive or resistive force to stroke patients or for exoskeleton robots to provide assistive force to human users for completing heavy-load tasks. Moreover, the desired interaction force can be tailored for different human users according to their needs and different task objectives. Consequently, the proposed controller can serve diverse users and has a promising perspective in automation.
Population Adherence to Infection Control Behaviors during Hong Kong’s First and Third COVID-19 Waves: A Serial Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Although COVID-19 has affected over 220 countries by October 2021, there is limited research examining the patterns and determinants of adherence to infection control measures over time. Aims: Our study examines the sociodemographic factors associated with changes in the frequency of adherence to personal hygiene and social distancing behaviors in Hong Kong. Methods: A serial cross-sectional telephone survey in the general population was conducted during the first (March 2020) (n = 765) and third wave (December 2020) (n = 651) of the local outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Respondents were asked about their level of compliance with various personal hygiene and social distancing recommendations. Results: By the third wave, mask use increased to 100%, and throughout the study periods, >90% practiced frequent hand hygiene. However, adherence to social distancing measures significantly waned over time: avoidance of social gatherings (80.5% to 72.0%), avoidance of public places/public transport (53.3% to 26.0%), avoidance of international travel (85.8% to 76.6%) (p < 0.05). The practice of ordering food takeout/home delivery, however, increased, particularly among high-income respondents. Higher education, female gender and employment status were the most consistently associated factors with adherence to COVID-19 preventive practices in the multivariable models. Conclusions: In urban areas of this region, interventions to improve personal hygiene in a prolonged pandemic should target males and those with low education. In addition to these groups, the working population needs to be targeted in order to improve adherence to social distancing guidelines.
History and Mental Status Examination in Primary Care in Saudi Arabia: A Review

The mental state assessment is an important tool for doctors when determining psychiatric diagnosis. Physicians can better identify and differentiate psychiatric diseases if they are familiar with the components of the examination. A thorough medical history entails a more in-depth investigation into the patient's medical problems, including all diseases and illnesses that are currently being treated, as well as those that have left any lasting consequences on the patient's health. A major source of worry is the patient's health literacy, as well as how questions to acquire histories are asked in such a way that the patient understands and can respond appropriately. Medical record practices have a long history of criticism, despite their usefulness. Records that are untimed or outdated, use imprecise language or are illegible, lack a logical structure, are poorly synthesized, are difficult to access and prone to loss, lack information relevant to clinical treatment goals, or are plain incorrect are all common concerns. In this review we will be looking at approaches for mental and history examination, as well as the importance of such reports.