Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficient Recovery of Low-Rank Matrix via Double Nonconvex Nonsmooth Rank Minimization

Recently, there is a rapidly increasing attraction for the efficient recovery of low-rank matrix in computer vision and machine learning. The popular convex solution of rank minimization is nuclear norm-based minimization (NNM), which usually leads to a biased solution since NNM tends to overshrink the rank components and treats each rank component equally. To address this issue, some nonconvex nonsmooth rank (NNR) relaxations have been exploited widely. Different from these convex and nonconvex rank substitutes, this paper first introduces a general and flexible rank relaxation function named weighted NNR relaxation function, which is actually derived from the initial double NNR (DNNR) relaxations, i.e., DNNR relaxation function acts on the nonconvex singular values function (SVF). An iteratively reweighted SVF optimization algorithm with continuation technology through computing the supergradient values to define the weighting vector is devised to solve the DNNR minimization problem, and the closed-form solution of the subproblem can be efficiently obtained by a general proximal operator, in which each element of the desired weighting vector usually satisfies the nondecreasing order. We next prove that the objective function values decrease monotonically, and any limit point of the generated subsequence is a critical point. Combining the Kurdyka–Łojasiewicz property with some milder assumptions, we further give its global convergence guarantee. As an application in the matrix completion problem, experimental results on both synthetic data and real-world data can show that our methods are competitive with several state-of-the-art convex and nonconvex matrix completion methods.
Synthesis and Biophysical Characterization of RNAs Containing 2'-Fluorinated Northern Methanocarbacyclic Nucleotides.

2'-Fluorinated Northern methanocarbacyclic (2'-F-NMC) nucleosides and phosphoramidites, based on a bicyclo[3.1. 0]hexane scaffold bearing all four natural nucleobases (U, C, A, and G), were synthesized to enable exploration of this novel nucleotide modification related to the clinically validated 2'-deoxy-2'-fluororibonucleotides (2'-F-RNA). Biophysical properties of the 2'-F-NMC-containing oligonucleotides were evaluated. A duplex of 2'-F-NMC-modified oligonucleotide with RNA exhibited thermal stability similar to that of the parent RNA duplex, 2'-F-NMC-modified oligonucleotides had higher stability against 5'- and 3'-exonucleolytic degradation than the corresponding oligonucleotides modified with 2'-F-RNA, and 2'-F-NMC-modified oligonucleotides exhibited higher lipophilicity than the corresponding RNA oligonucleotides as well as those modified with 2'-F-RNA.
PSEN2 (presenilin 2) mutants linked to familial Alzheimer disease impair autophagy by altering Ca2+ homeostasis

ABSTRACT PSEN2 (presenilin 2) is one of the 3 proteins that, when mutated, causes early onset familial Alzheimer disease (FAD) cases. In addition to its well-known role within the γ-secretase complex (the enzyme ultimately responsible for Aβ peptides formation), PSEN2 is endowed with some γ-secretase-independent functions in distinct cell signaling pathways, such as the modulation of intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis. Here, by using different FAD-PSEN2 cell models, we demonstrate that mutated PSEN2 impairs autophagy by causing a block in the degradative flux at the level of the autophagosome-lysosome fusion step. The defect does not depend on an altered lysosomal functionality but rather on a decreased recruitment of the small GTPase RAB7 to autophagosomes, a key event for normal autophagy progression. Importantly, FAD-PSEN2 action on autophagy is unrelated to its γ-secretase activity but depends on its previously reported ability to partially deplete ER Ca2+ content, thus reducing cytosolic Ca2+ response upon IP3-linked cell stimulations. Our data sustain the pivotal role for Ca2+ signaling in autophagy and reveal a novel mechanism by which FAD-linked presenilins alter the degradative process, reinforcing the view of a causative role for a dysfunctional quality control pathway in AD neurodegeneration. Abbreviations: Aβ: amyloid β; AD: Alzheimer disease; ACTB: actin beta; AMPK: AMP-activated protein kinase; APP: amyloid-beta precursor protein; BafA: bafilomycin A1; BAPTA-AM: 1,2-bis(o-aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N,N′,N′-tetraacetic acid acetoxymethyl ester; CFP: cyan fluorescent protein; EGTA-AM: ethylene glycol-bis(β-aminoethyl ether)-N,N,N′,N′-tetraacetic acid acetoxymethyl ester; ER: endoplasmic reticulum; EGFP-HDQ74: enhanced GFP-huntingtin exon 1 containing 74 polyglutamine repeats; FAD: familial Alzheimer disease; FCS: fetal calf serum; FRET: fluorescence/Förster resonance energy transfer; GFP: green fluorescent protein; IP3: inositol trisphosphate; KD: knockdown; LAMP1: lysosomal associated membrane protein 1; MAP1LC3-II/LC3-II: lipidated microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3; MCU: mitochondrial calcium uniporter; MICU1: mitochondrial calcium uptake 1; MEFs: mouse embryonic fibroblasts; MFN2: mitofusin 2; MTOR: mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase; MTORC1: MTOR complex 1; SQSTM1/p62: sequestosome 1; PSEN1: presenilin 1; PSEN2: presenilin 2; RAB7: RAB7A: member RAS oncogene family; RFP: red fluorescent protein; ATP2A/SERCA: ATPase sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ transporting; siRNA: small interference RNA; V-ATPase: vacuolar-type H+-ATPase; WT: wild type
Prevalence of malocclusion, oral parafunctions and temporomandibular disorder-pain in Italian schoolchildren: An epidemiological study.

BACKGROUND The prevalence of malocclusion, temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and oral parafunctions is highly debated in children population. OBJECTIVES To investigate the prevalence of malocclusion, self-reported oral parafunctions and TMD-pain in Italian schoolchildren and to assess the association between the examined factors. METHODS A total of 700 children aged 9-11 years were selected among six public schools in Campania region (Italy). Molar relationship, overjet, overbite and cross-bite were assessed through a clinical examination. Furthermore, the subjects were demanded to fill in a validated questionnaire for TMD-pain screening and the short form of the Oral Behaviours Checklist. Descriptive statistics were used to report the frequencies. The associations between occlusal traits, oral parafunctions and TMD-pain were analysed with a Pearson chi-square test, as expressed by odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals. The significance level was set at P < 0.05. RESULTS Molar Class I was the most frequently encountered molar relationship, followed by molar Class II, subdivision and molar Class III. Increased overjet was more common than negative overjet. Posterior cross-bite was observed in 12% of children. TMD-pain was recorded in 14.7% of subjects. High frequency of oral parafunctions was reported in 21.3% of subjects. A significant association was found between TMD-pain and negative overbite. Cross-bite and high frequency of oral parafunctions were associated with TMD-pain. CONCLUSION The current results show that malocclusion, self-reported oral parafunctions and TMD-pain are frequent findings among Italian schoolchildren and that some occlusal factors and high frequency of oral parafunctions might be associated with TMD-pain.
Strong increase of true and false positive mycobacterial cultures sent to the National Reference Centre in Belgium, 2007 to 2016

Introduction In 2007, a new federal legislation in Belgium prohibited non-biosafety level 3 laboratories to process culture tubes suspected of containing mycobacteria. Aim To present mycobacterial surveillance/diagnosis data from the Belgian National Reference Centre for mycobacteria (NRC) from 2007 to 2016. Methods This retrospective observational study investigated the numbers of analyses at the NRC and false positive cultures (interpreted as containing mycobacteria at referring clinical laboratories, but with no mycobacterial DNA detected by PCR in the NRC). We reviewed mycobacterial species identified and assessed trends over time of proportions of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) vs Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBc), and false positive cultures vs NTM. Results From 2007 to 2016, analyses requests to the NRC doubled from 12.6 to 25.3 per 100,000 inhabitants. A small but significant increase occurred in NTM vs MTBc proportions, from 57.9% (587/1,014) to 60.3% (867/1,437) (p < 0.001). Although NTM infection notification is not mandatory in Belgium, we annually received up to 8.6 NTM per 100,000 inhabitants. M. avium predominated (ca 20% of NTM cultures), but M. intracellulare culture numbers rose significantly, from 13.0% (74/587) of NTM cultures in 2007 to 21.0% (178/867) in 2016 (RR: 1.05; 95% CI: 1.03–1.07). The number of false positive cultures also increased, reaching 43.3% (1,097/2,534) of all samples in 2016. Conclusion We recommend inclusion of NTM in sentinel programmes. The large increase of false positive cultures is hypothesised to result from processing issues prior to arrival at the NRC, highlighting the importance of sample decontamination/transport and equipment calibration in peripheral laboratories.
Capacitive Touch Panel With Low Sensitivity to Water Drop Employing Mutual-Coupling Electrical Field Shaping Technique

This paper proposes a novel method to reduce the water interference on the touch panel based on mutual-capacitance sensing in human finger detection. As the height of a finger (height >10 mm) is far larger than that of a water-drop (height <1 mm), if the density distribution of electrical field of the touch panel’s sensing cell is high in the high-height space (height >10 mm) and low in the low-height space (height <1 mm), the sensing cell can be designed to distinguish the finger from the water-drop. To achieve this density distribution of the electrical field, the mutual-coupling electrical field shaping (MEFS) technique is employed to build the sensing cell. The drawback of the MEFS sensing cell is large parasitic capacitance, which can be overcome by a readout IC with low sensitivity to parasitic capacitance. Experiments show that the output of the IC with the MEFS sensing cell is 1.11 V when the sensing cell is touched by the water-drop and 1.23 V when the sensing cell is touched by the finger, respectively. In contrast, the output of the IC with the traditional sensing cell is 1.32 and 1.33 V when the sensing cell is touched by the water-drop and the finger, respectively. This demonstrates that the MEFS sensing cell can better distinguish the finger from the water-drop than the traditional sensing cell does.
1-to- $N$  Ring Power Combiners With Common Delta Ports

In this paper, we present a new 1-to-N way ring combiner that is an adaptation of the ring-hybrid (rat-race) structure. We present the general design guidelines for N-way planar ring combiners based on theoretical analysis of the structures. The proposed 1-to-N way ring structure offers a compact, planar layout that includes a single common delta port. This is beneficial to applications where power monitoring, calibration, or energy recycling can be leveraged. It offers similar loss to other N-way structures. To demonstrate the combiners operation, we present completely passive structures and structures with embedded power amplifiers for 4- and 6-way variants. The designs are optimized for operation in the 5–6 GHz unlicensed bands. The passive 4- and 6-way combiners achieve IL of 1.3 and 1 dB, respectively, with associated port isolations of <−30 dB. The combiners with embedded amplifiers show similar performance and are validated using modulated signals and demonstrate good measured linearity when combining up to 6 amplifiers for output powers >1 W.
Short‐term outcomes of en bloc combined heart and liver transplantation in the failing Fontan

Patients with failing Fontan physiology and liver cirrhosis are being considered for combined heart and liver transplantation. We performed a retrospective review of our experience with en bloc combined heart and liver transplantation in Fontan patients > 10 years old from 2006 to 18 per Institutional Review Board approval. Six females and 3 males (median age 20.7, range 14.2‐41.3 years) underwent en bloc combined heart and liver transplantation. Indications for heart transplant included ventricular dysfunction, atrioventricular valve regurgitation, arrhythmia, and/or lymphatic abnormalities. Indication for liver transplant included portal hypertension and cirrhosis. Median Fontan/single ventricular end‐diastolic pressure was 18/12 mm Hg, respectively. Median Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease excluding International Normalized Ratio score was 10 (7‐26), eight patients had a varices, ascites, splenomegaly, thrombocytopenia score of ≥ 2, and all patients had cirrhosis. Median cardiopulmonary bypass and donor ischemic times were 262 (178‐307) and 287 (227‐396) minutes, respectively. Median intensive care and hospital stay were 19 (5‐96) and 29 (13‐197) days, respectively. Survival was 100%, and rejection was 0% at 30 days and 1 year post‐transplant. En bloc combined heart and liver transplantation is an acceptable treatment in the failing Fontan patient with liver cirrhosis.
Graph Fusion for Finger Multimodal Biometrics

In terms of biometrics, a human finger itself is with trimodal traits including fingerprint, finger-vein, and finger-knuckle-print, which provides convenience and practicality for finger trimodal fusion recognition. The scale inconsistency of finger trimodal images is an important reason affecting effective fusion. It is therefore very important to developing a theory of giving a unified expression of finger trimodal features. In this paper, a graph-based feature extraction method for finger biometric images is proposed. The feature expression based on graph structure can well solve the problem of feature space mismatch for the finger three modalities. We provide two fusion frameworks to integrate the finger trimodal graph features together, the serial fusion and coding fusion. The research results can not only promote the advancement of finger multimodal biometrics technology but also provide a scientific solution framework for other multimodal feature fusion problems. The experimental results show that the proposed graph fusion recognition approach obtains a better and more effective recognition performance in finger biometrics.
A Phase-Calibration Method for Vector-Sum Phase Shifters Using a Self-Generated LUT

This paper presents a new self-calibration method for vector-sum phase shifters (PS) to compensate for process variations and achieve reconfigurable operating frequency. The calibration system generates a look-up table for the control voltages of the variable-gain amplifiers of the PS to minimize the rms phase error at a frequency of interest. The calibration system consists of a coupled-line coupler, an amplifier, a power detector (PD), an analog-to-digital converter, and a data processing unit. In this calibration method, first, the amplitudes of IQ vectors are swept and their powers are measured. Then, phase errors are calculated from these power measurements using the cosine formula. Finally, the vector pairs providing the least phase error are chosen for each desired phase shift. The practicality of the proposed system is demonstrated by realizing a self-calibrated <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$X$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band 7-b PS fabricated in IHP 0.25-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> SiGe BiCMOS technology, including the on-chip coupler, amplifier, and PD. The calibration system improves the rms phase error by at least 1°, does not degrade the rms gain error, and increases the insertion loss by 1.6 dB. The self-calibrated PS achieves a 2° rms phase error across <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$X$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band frequencies. The overall chip size is 2.6 mm<sup>2</sup>. The power consumption of the PS and the overall system are 110 and 233 mW, respectively. This built-in calibration system mitigates process variation effects, and the performance of the PS can be optimized for any center frequency across <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$X$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band.
LookUP: Vision-Only Real-Time Precise Underground Localisation for Autonomous Mining Vehicles

A key capability for autonomous underground mining vehicles is real-time accurate localisation. While significant progress has been made, currently deployed systems have several limitations ranging from dependence on costly additional infrastructure to failure of both visual and range-sensor-based techniques in highly aliased or visually challenging environments. In our previous work, we presented a lightweight coarse vision-based localisation system that could map and then localise to within a few metres in an underground mining environment. However, this level of precision is insufficient for providing a cheaper, more reliable vision-based automation alternative to current range sensor-based systems. Here we present a new precision localisation system dubbed “LookUP”, which learns a neural-network-based pixel sampling strategy for estimating homographies based on ceiling-facing cameras without requiring any manual labelling. This new system runs in real time on limited computation resource and is demonstrated on two different underground mine sites, achieving real time performance at ∼5 frames per second and a much improved average localisation error of ∼1.2 metre.
Mobile Health Systems for Community-Based Primary Care: Identifying Controls and Mitigating Privacy Threats

Background Community-based primary care focuses on health promotion, awareness raising, and illnesses treatment and prevention in individuals, groups, and communities. Community Health Workers (CHWs) are the leading actors in such programs, helping to bridge the gap between the population and the health system. Many mobile health (mHealth) initiatives have been undertaken to empower CHWs and improve the data collection process in the primary care, replacing archaic paper-based approaches. A special category of mHealth apps, known as mHealth Data Collection Systems (MDCSs), is often used for such tasks. These systems process highly sensitive personal health data of entire communities so that a careful consideration about privacy is paramount for any successful deployment. However, the mHealth literature still lacks methodologically rigorous analyses for privacy and data protection. Objective In this paper, a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) for MDCSs is presented, providing a systematic identification and evaluation of potential privacy risks, particularly emphasizing controls and mitigation strategies to handle negative privacy impacts. Methods The privacy analysis follows a systematic methodology for PIAs. As a case study, we adopt the GeoHealth system, a large-scale MDCS used by CHWs in the Family Health Strategy, the Brazilian program for delivering community-based primary care. All the PIA steps were taken on the basis of discussions among the researchers (privacy and security experts). The identification of threats and controls was decided particularly on the basis of literature reviews and working group meetings among the group. Moreover, we also received feedback from specialists in primary care and software developers of other similar MDCSs in Brazil. Results The GeoHealth PIA is based on 8 Privacy Principles and 26 Privacy Targets derived from the European General Data Protection Regulation. Associated with that, 22 threat groups with a total of 97 subthreats and 41 recommended controls were identified. Among the main findings, we observed that privacy principles can be enhanced on existing MDCSs with controls for managing consent, transparency, intervenability, and data minimization. Conclusions Although there has been significant research that deals with data security issues, attention to privacy in its multiple dimensions is still lacking for MDCSs in general. New systems have the opportunity to incorporate privacy and data protection by design. Existing systems will have to address their privacy issues to comply with new and upcoming data protection regulations. However, further research is still needed to identify feasible and cost-effective solutions.
Event-Triggered Optimal Control With Performance Guarantees Using Adaptive Dynamic Programming

This paper studies the problem of event-triggered optimal control (ETOC) for continuous-time nonlinear systems and proposes a novel event-triggering condition that enables designing ETOC methods directly based on the solution of the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equation. We provide formal performance guarantees by proving a predetermined upper bound. Moreover, we also prove the existence of a lower bound for interexecution time. For implementation purposes, an adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) method is developed to realize the ETOC using a critic neural network (NN) to approximate the value function of the HJB equation. Subsequently, we prove that semiglobal uniform ultimate boundedness can be guaranteed for states and NN weight errors with the ADP-based ETOC. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed ADP-based ETOC method.
Self-Tuning Neural Predictive Control Scheme for Ultrabattery to Emulate a Virtual Synchronous Machine in Autonomous Power Systems

An adaptive neural predictive controller (ANPC) is proposed for an ultrabattery energy storage system (UBESS) to enable its operation as a virtual synchronous machine (VSM) in an autonomous wind–diesel power system. The proposed VSM emulates the inertial response and oscillation damping capability of a typical synchronous machine (employed in conventional power plants) by adaptively controlling the power electronic interface of the UBESS. The control objective is to support the network frequency while ensuring efficient/economic use of the UBESS energy. During the load-generation mismatch, ANPC continuously searches for optimal VSM parameters to minimize the actual frequency variations, their rate of change of frequency (ROCOF), and the power flow through the UBESS while maintaining the state of the charge (voltage) of the ultrabattery bank to tackle subsequent disturbances. Simulations confirm that the proposed self-tuning VSM achieves similar performance as that of other VSM control schemes while substantially reducing the power flow through the UBESS and, hence, uses significantly less energy per hertz improvement (in frequency). An index is used to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme. In addition, the self-tuning VSM has a better dynamic response (quantified as a reduction in ROCOF and settling times) while attenuating the frequency excursions for all simulated cases.