Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Half-bridge Cascaded Multilevel Inverter Based Series Active Power Filter

A new single phase half-bridge cascaded multilevel inverter based series active power filter (SAPF) is proposed. The main parts of the inverter are presented in detail. With the proposed inverter topology, any compensation voltage reference can be easily obtained. Therefore, the inverter acts as a harmonic source when the reference is a non-sinusoidal signal. A 31-level inverter based SAPF with the proposed topology, is manufactured and the voltage harmonics of the load connected to the point of common coupling (PCC) are compensated. There is no need for a parallel passive filter (PPF) since the main purpose of the paper is to represent the compensation capability of the SAPF without a PPF. It is aimed to compensate the voltage harmonics of the load fed by a non-sinusoidal supply using the proposed inverter. The validity of the proposed inverter based SAPF is verified by simulation as well as experimental study. The system efficiency is also measured in this study. Both simulation and experimental results show that the proposed multilevel inverter is suitable for SAPF applications.
Climate-Smart Agriculture and Trade-Offs With Biodiversity and Crop Yield

Biophysical evaluations of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) often overlook the potential interactions with and implications for biodiversity and ecosystem services, which are important determinants of food system resilience and sustainability. Drawing on a case study in the East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania, we compare the impacts of CSA with other agricultural management practices on invertebrate pest and natural enemy diversity, and the associated effects on crop damage and crop yield. We found that the most common CSA practices in the region, terracing and trenching with live and compost mulches, provided the best outcomes for crop production, pest suppression and agricultural income. However, greater diversity of pests was observed when neighboring fields planted improved crop varieties, suggesting that the use of improved varieties by farmers creates increased vulnerability to pest damage among neighboring farmers that used local varieties. Also, greater natural enemy diversity was found when neighboring fields were either intercropped or left fallow highlighting spatial flows of ecosystem services between fields. Landcover heterogeneity was positively correlated with pest diversity, whilst landcover richness was positively associated with higher pest volume, highlighting the importance of landscape characteristics in pest and natural enemy dynamics. Finally, we found that crop damage was most severe when pest communities had low species richness, suggesting that a small number of key crop pests contribute to most yield losses. Our findings illustrate that those varied combinations of agricultural management practices lead to heterogeneous biodiversity outcomes and trade-offs, and highlight the importance of local management, neighborhood effects and landscape characteristics. CSA evaluations must therefore look beyond productivity as a measure for success, as trade-offs with invertebrate biodiversity, food production, and environmental sustainability often interact and feedback in complex and unexpected ways.
Design and Simulation of the Biomechanics of Multi-Layered Composite Poly(Vinyl Alcohol) Coronary Artery Grafts

Coronary artery disease is among the primary causes of death worldwide. While synthetic grafts allow replacement of diseased tissue, mismatched mechanical properties between graft and native tissue remains a major cause of graft failure. Multi-layered grafts could overcome these mechanical incompatibilities by mimicking the structural heterogeneity of the artery wall. However, the layer-specific biomechanics of synthetic grafts under physiological conditions and their impact on endothelial function is often overlooked and/or poorly understood. In this study, the transmural biomechanics of four synthetic graft designs were simulated under physiological pressure, relative to the coronary artery wall, using finite element analysis. Using poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/gelatin cryogel as the representative biomaterial, the following conclusions are drawn: (I) the maximum circumferential stress occurs at the luminal surface of both the grafts and the artery; (II) circumferential stress varies discontinuously across the media and adventitia, and is influenced by the stiffness of the adventitia; (III) unlike native tissue, PVA/gelatin does not exhibit strain stiffening below diastolic pressure; and (IV) for both PVA/gelatin and native tissue, the magnitude of stress and strain distribution is heavily dependent on the constitutive models used to model material hyperelasticity. While these results build on the current literature surrounding PVA-based arterial grafts, the proposed method has exciting potential toward the wider design of multi-layer scaffolds. Such finite element analyses could help guide the future validation of multi-layered grafts for the treatment of coronary artery disease.
Naphthalene Diimides Carrying Two β-Cyclodextrins Prefer Telomere RNA G-Quadruplex Recognition

Newly synthesized naphthalene diimide carrying two β-cyclodextrins (NDI-β-CyDs) showed improved specificity for the parallel G-quadruplex structure alongside the hybrid G-quadruplex structure. Specifically, the highest binding affinity of NDI-β-CyDs for the telomere RNA G-quadruplex was observed. The binding simulation indicated that β-cyclodextrins might be available for loop nucleobase inclusion under its complex.
Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Schima superba From Southern China

The tree Schima superba is important for afforestation and fire prevention in southern China. The wood of this tree can also be used for furniture and buildings. However, the lack of genetic background and genomic information for this species has lowered wood yield speed and quality improvement. Here, we aimed to discover genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 302 S. superba germplasms collected from southern China and to use these SNPs to investigate the population structure. Using genotyping by sequencing, a total of 785 high-quality SNP markers (minor allele frequency [MAF] ≥ 0.05) were identified from 302 accessions collected from seven geographical locations. Population structure analyses and principal coordinate analyses (PCoAs) indicated that these germplasm resources can be clearly separated into different populations. The S. superba accessions originating from Yunnan (YN) and Guangxi (GX) fell into the same population, separate from the accessions originating from Guangdong (GD), which indicated that these two regions should be regarded as major provenances of this species. In addition, two independent core germplasm sets with abundant genetic polymorphisms were constructed to support the breeding work. The identification of SNP markers, analyses of population genetics, and construction of core germplasm sets will greatly promote the molecular breeding work of S. superba.
Indication of herbal medicines and medicinal plants by the doctors of Basic Health Units

In Brazil, the use of medicinal plants in the treatment of illnesses is influenced by indigenous, African and European cultures. Approximately 80% of the world population uses plants or their preparations in health care, making it a complementary therapy. Thus, the objective was to identify the indication made by doctors working in the Family Health Strategy for medicinal plants and/or herbal medicines. Thirty-one doctors from the Basic Health Units located in Juazeiro do Norte-CE were interviewed, using semi-structured forms. For data analysis, the Microsoft Excel 2010 program was used. 23 plant species indicated for medicinal purposes and 19 phytotherapeutic purposes were identified, and Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf, Matricaria chamomilla L. , Aloe vera L. Burm.f. and Peumus boldus Molina were more representative among plants, and Valeriane® (Valeriana officinalis L.); Calman® (Passiflora incarnata L., Crataegus oxyacantha L. and Salix alba L.); Ginkgo biloba® Extract (Ginkgo biloba L.); Sintocalmy® (Passiflora incarnata L.) and Liberaflux® (Hedera helix L.) were the most representative among herbal medicines. It was found that doctors recommend plants and/or herbal medicines in the treatment of certain diseases, however further study is needed regarding their use and dosage.
Knockdown of PagSAP11 Confers Drought Resistance and Promotes Lateral Shoot Growth in Hybrid Poplar (Populus alba × Populus tremula var. glandulosa)

Plants have evolved defense mechanisms to overcome unfavorable climatic conditions. The growth and development of plants are regulated in response to environmental stress. In this study, we investigated the molecular and physiological characteristics of a novel gene PagSAP11 in hybrid poplar (Populus alba × Populus tremula var. glandulosa) under drought stress. PagSAP11, a stress-associated protein (SAP) family gene, encodes a putative protein containing an A20 and AN1 zinc-finger domain at its N- and C-termini, respectively. Knockdown of PagSAP11 transgenic poplars (SAP11-Ri) enhanced their tolerance to drought stress compared with wild type plants. Moreover, the RNAi lines showed increased branching of lateral shoots that led to a gain in fresh weight, even when grown in the living modified organism (LMO) field. In SAP11-Ri transgenic plants, the expression levels of genes involved in axillary bud outgrowth and cell proliferation such as DML10, CYP707A and RAX were increased while the DRM gene which involved in bud dormancy was down-regulated. Taken together, these results indicate that PagSAP11 represents a promising candidate gene for engineering trees with improved stress tolerance and growth during unfavorable conditions.
Investment Determinants in Self-Consumption Facilities: Characterization and Qualitative Analysis in Spain

Self-consumption energy facilities are presented as viable and sustainable solutions in the energy transition scenario in which many countries are immersed. However, they rely on dispersed and private investments in the territory. Given the uneven growth in the number of self-consumption facilities in Europe, the main objective of this study is to identify and measure the investment determinants in self-consumption facilities. To this end, the main influential incentives and barriers are identified through the aggregate analysis of the regulatory framework for self-consumption in several European countries, and the empirical characterization of Spanish facilities as a multiple case study, to define the common features of the investments made. The technical, economic, and financial characterization of real self-consumption facilities in climatic zones of southern Europe is a significant contribution of the present work. There are few samples of this type in the studies published to date, which have mainly been prepared from case studies or statistical data without identifying particular facilities. Cost-related variables have been identified as the most important variables in private investment decisions, and potential influential factors on these variables that could be regulated have been pointed out as relevant. It is also worth highlighting the elaboration of an analytical framework based on this conceptual approach, which has been proven to be useful to depict regulatory scenarios and to compare the positioning for the development of self-consumption systems in different countries. A model that transfers the influence of the determining factors to the deployment of self-consumption under specific regulatory scenarios has been developed and applied to the case of Spain. As a general reflection, to increase the adoption of this kind of technology and encourage consumers to make private investments, policies for renewable energy must consider self-consumption and microgeneration as the main axis, by increasing the availability of energy when necessary. For instance, the promotion of energy storage from these kinds of facilities could receive priority treatment, as well as rewarding the electricity surplus in the interests of security of supply in a period of energy transition towards a new, more sustainable model. Incentive schemes, aids to compensate for the additional costs resulting from the battery storage or easing restrictions in terms of contracted power would foreseeably increase the rates of adoption of the technology, favoring its faster development in terms of research and development and product innovation.
Development of Automatic Smart Waste Sorter Machine

Abstract Modern world meets lots of challenges that includes Smart waste management system. It is become matter of big concern if proper disposal system is not managed. Managing waste effectively and recycling efficiently, a nation can ahead one step forward. In this work, an automatic sorter machine is developed which can sort out the wastes in various categories to make waste management easier and efficient. It can be possible to sort out metal, paper, plastics and glass by developing an electromechanical system using microcontroller and operational amplifier. For sorting metal and glass conventional sensors are used and for sorting paper and plastics a sensor using LASER and LDR is developed. A weight sensor and counter is used to find out the amount of sorted materials. By using the proper recycling system, the curse of waste will turn into blessings for the civilization. The sorting procedure will make recycling more efficient. By means of this waste sorter, the conventional waste management system will be transformed into SMART system. This SMART system will help to make our environment more suitable for living, reducing global warming and making the world healthier.
Estimating Configuration Space Belief from Collision Checks for Motion Planning

For motion planning in high dimensional configuration spaces, a significant computational bottleneck is collision detection. Our aim is to reduce the expected number of collision checks by creating a belief model of the configuration space using results from collision tests. We assume the robot's configuration space to be a continuous ambient space whereby neighbouring points tend to share the same collision state. This enables us to formulate a probabilistic model that assigns to unevaluated configurations a belief estimate of being collision-free. We have presented a detailed comparative analysis of various kNN methods and distance metrics used to evaluate C-space belief. We have also proposed a weighting matrix in C-space to improve the performance of kNN methods. Moreover, we have proposed a topological method that exploits the higher order structure of the C-space to generate a belief model. Our results indicate that our proposed topological method outperforms kNN methods by achieving higher model accuracy while being computationally efficient.
CCL25 Inhibition Alleviates Sepsis-Induced Acute Lung Injury and Inflammation

Purpose Acute lung injury (ALI) is a common clinical syndrome with high mortality. The chemokine ligand 25 (CCL25) is involved in inflammation, leukocyte trafficking and immunoregulation. However, the role and mechanism of CCL25 in ALI are not fully understood yet. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between acute lung injury and CCL25. Patients and Methods In this study, we first examined chemokine expression in sepsis patients and found that serum CCL25 expression levels were relatively high in sepsis patients compared to healthy individuals. Based on this, we designed in vitro and in vivo experiments to verify the validity of the theory. In vitro, we used lipopolysaccharide-stimulated human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (HPMECs). In vivo, we established male C57BL/6 mice cecal ligation puncture (CLP) model of sepsis. Results In vitro, we used lipopolysaccharide-stimulated human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (HPMECs) and found significantly higher expression of CCL25 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Inhibition of CCL25 resulted in a significant decrease in the expression of inflammatory cytokines in HPMECs. In addition, we found that CCL25 promoted increased endothelial permeability by reducing the expression of tight junction proteins and was associated with activation of the P38 MAPK pathway by measuring the transepithelial electrical resistance and fluorescence intensity of fluorescein isothiocyanate. Results from luciferase assays and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays showed that inhibition of NF-κB activity in HPMECs decreased CCL25 expression, but addition of recombinant CCL25 increased cell permeability and inflammatory cytokine expression. In vivo, we established male C57BL/6 mice cecal ligation puncture (CLP) model of sepsis. We found that inhibition of CCL25 significantly reduced inflammatory cytokine expression in a CLP-induced sepsis model, thereby alleviating lung tissue damage in mice. Conclusion Our study suggests that CCL25 contributed to the development of ALI by modulating the functions of microvascular endothelial cells.
High Power Waveguide Photodiodes - Analysis, Design and Demonstration

Author(s): Chen, Dingbo | Advisor(s): Yu, Paul K. L. | Abstract: Large optical power at the photodiode is especially beneficial to the high speed fiber optic link that is demanded by the exponential internet traffic growth. The power handling capability of waveguide photodiode (WGPD) has been limited by one of its intrinsic feature, which is the lack of uniform absorption distribution in the absorber in the longitudinal direction. As the required bandwidth kept increasing, an increasing photocurrent is needed in a reduced absorber length, which challenges the traditional WGPD designs for high power fiber optic link. In order to study absorption uniformity in a high speed high power WGPD, supermode analysis is developed to replace the traditional WGPD analysis, which optimizes the absorption profile via adjusting the waveguide confinement factor. It is point out that the waveguide confinement factor has opposite effects on the bandwidth and power handling of a WGPD, and makes the traditional WGPD analysis ineffective for the high speed high power WGPD design. the supermode analysis focuses on finding out the features of supermodes that improve the absorption uniformity. The designs of the waveguide structure and the layer structure are guided by the supermode analysis to improve the absorption uniformity in a WGPD. The supermode analysis is applied to improve the absorption uniformity in a traditional WGPD. Traditional WGPD with the optimized structure experimentally demonstrates power handling capability higher than most of the reported WGPD with similar bandwidth. A layer structure with diluting layer is proposed to increases the power handling capability by 30% in the demonstrated WGPD. The supermode analysis also points out that the traditional WGPD has a trade-off of absorption uniformity and bandwidth-efficiency product. The supermode analysis is applied to re-design the directional coupler photodiode (DCPD), which is pre-studied in our group. With the optimization of absorption uniformity in a DCPD that has RC time limited bandwidth being close to 50 GHz, the re-designed DCPD shows better power handling capability than that of any other traditional WGPDs with similar bandwidth. Finally, we have proposed and demonstrated the incorporation of cascaded optical bandpass filters in a fiber optic link can significantly improve the link performance.
The Instability of High-Steep Road Cutting Slope: A 3D Continuum-Discrete Coupling Method

In this paper, the 3D continuum-discrete coupling analysis method combined with the strength reduction theory is used to study the macrodeformation, stress law, and microfracture mechanism of a high and steep cutting slope of Zhongkai Expressway in Guangdong Province. The 3D continuum-discrete coupling slope model is established based on the finite difference software FLAC and the discrete element program PFC. Then, based on the correlations between stress tensor and force chain, displacement and shear strain increment, plastic deformation, and microfracture, the mechanism of slope instability is analyzed from macro- and microscales. The research shows the following: (1) the continuum-discrete coupling model is reasonable and effective in the three-dimensional slope stability analysis. (2) The coupling domain was penetrated by the shear band, and the upper part displacement of the coupling domain was large, whose direction was basically consistent with the shear band direction; thus, the slope slip surface was formed. (3) The microfracture can represent the macroscopic failure phenomenon, and the slope landslide can be interpreted as the result of shear fracture in slip direction, accompanied by the extension and penetration of tension crack.
Fixed switching frequency predictive control of an asymmetric source dual inverter system with a floating bridge for multilevel operation

This study proposes a modified modulated model predictive control (MMPC) scheme to control an open-end winding induction motor drive using an asymmetric source dual inverter with one floating bridge. The control algorithm uses a modulation algorithm within the cost function optimisation scheme to avoid variable switching frequency. The voltage of the floating capacitor is regulated utilising predefined redundant switching sequences as well as the voltage vector location is identified to improve calculation time. The proposed MMPC scheme enhances the output performance with comparison to the model predictive control scheme. Experimental results are presented to verify theory and simulation results.
Offline Policy Evaluation for Learning-based Deep Brain Stimulation Controllers

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective procedure to treat motor symptoms caused by nervous system disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD). Although existing implantable DBS devices can suppress PD symptoms by delivering fixed periodic stimuli to the Basal Ganglia (BG) region of the brain, they are considered inefficient in terms of energy and could cause side-effects. Recently, reinforcement learning (RL)-based DBS controllers have been developed to achieve both stimulation efficacy and energy efficiency, by adapting stimulation parameters (e.g., pattern and frequency of stimulation pulses) to the changes in neuronal activity. However, RL methods usually provide limited safety and performance guarantees, and directly deploying them on patients may be hindered due to clinical regulations. Thus, in this work, we introduce a model-based offline policy evaluation (OPE) methodology to estimate the performance of RL policies using historical data. As a first step, the BG region of the brain is modeled as a Markov decision process (MDP). Then, a deep latent MDP (DL-MDP) model is learned using variational inference and previously collected control trajectories. The performance of RL controllers is then evaluated on the DL-MDP models instead of patients directly, ensuring safety of the evaluation process. Further, we show that our method can be integrated into offline RL frameworks, improving control performance when limited training data are available. We illustrate the use of our methodology on a computational Basal Ganglia model (BGM); we show that it accurately estimates the expected returns of controllers trained following state-of-the-art RL frameworks, outperforming existing OPE methods designed for general applications.
An expression of the magnetic co-energy adapted to magnetostatic volume integral formulations - application to the magnetic force computation

This paper provides a new expression of the magnetic co-energy for ferromagnetic materials. This expression is very well suited to integral methods but can as well be used as a post function for the Finite Elements Method (FEM). First the context of this work and the expression of the co-energy will be introduced. Second, two examples will be treated with the proposed method and the performances will be compared with the FEM.