Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Most Cases of Cryptogenic Cirrhosis May Be Nonobese Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis - Risk Factors of Liver Steatosis After Liver Transplantation for Cryptogenic Cirrhosis: A Retrospective Study

Objective The course of cryptogenic cirrhosis (CC) after liver transplantation (LT) is unknown. We therefore clarified the natural course post-LT for CC and investigated the etiology of CC. Methods Eighteen patients who underwent LT for CC were included. To rule out the possibility of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in patients with CC, those with a history of obesity or liver steatosis found pretransplantation were excluded. A liver biopsy was performed one year after LT and annually thereafter. Results Liver steatosis and steatohepatitis were identified in 61% and 39% of patients after LT, respectively, with a median time to the onset of 12 and 27 months, respectively. There were no other pathological findings such as liver allograft rejection, autoimmune hepatitis, or primary biliary cholangitis. The body mass index after LT (28.5 vs. 22.4 kg/m2; p=0.002) and mean muscle attenuation at the time of LT were significantly higher (33.3 vs. 25.8 Hounsfield units, p=0.03) and the postoperative hospitalization period shorter (50 vs. 102 days; p=0.02) in the steatosis group than in the non-steatosis group. Recipients were significantly younger in the steatohepatitis subgroup than in the simple steatosis subgroup (55.0 vs. 63.5 years old; p=0.04). Conclusion Despite excluding CC patients with a history of obesity, we observed that patients with CC had a high prevalence of steatosis after LT than those without CC. Young patients with a favorable postoperative course were noted to have a high risk of NASH after LT for CC. Patients with CC may represent cases of non-obese NASH.
Dielectric elastomer film actuators: characterization, experiment and analysis

Silicone is a common dielectric elastomer material. Actuators made from it show excellent activation properties including large strains (up to 380%), high energy densities (up to 3.4 J g−1), high efficiency, high responsive speed, good reliability and durability, etc. When a voltage is applied on the compliant electrodes of the dielectric elastomers, the polymer shrinks along the electric field and expands in the transverse plane. In this paper, a silicone dielectric elastomer is synthesized and the area strains are tested under different electric fields. Pre-strain and a certain driving electric field are applied to the film and the induced large strain by the Maxwell stress is measured. Barium titanate (BaTiO3) was incorporated into the silicone to fabricate a new dielectric elastomer: the experimental results show that the elastic modulus and dielectric constant were significantly improved. The experimental results coincide well with those of finite element analysis at a large deformation. Also, a theoretical analysis is performed on the coupling effects of the mechanical and electric fields. A nonlinear field theory of deformable dielectrics and hyperelastic theory are adopted to analyze the electromechanical field behavior of these actuators. Also the mechanical behavior of the dielectric elastomer undergoing large free deformation is studied. Finally, the constitutive model of a dielectric elastomer composite under free deformation and restrained deformation is derived.
Robonaut 2 on the International Space Station: Status Update and Preparations for IVA Mobility

Robotics engineers, ground controllers and International Space Station (ISS) crew have been running successful experiments using Robonaut 2 (R2) on-board the ISS for more than a year. This humanoid upper body robot continues to expand its list of achievements and its capabilities to safely demonstrate maintenance and servicing tasks while working alongside human crewmembers. The next phase of the ISS R2 project will transition from a stationary Intra Vehicular Activity (IVA) upper body using a power/data umbilical, to an IVA mobile system with legs for repositioning, a battery backpack power supply, and wireless communications. These upgrades will enable the R2 team to evaluate hardware performance and to develop additional control algorithms and control verification techniques with R2 inside the ISS in preparation for the Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) phase of R2 operations. As R2 becomes more capable in assisting with maintenance tasks, with minimal supervision, including repositioning itself to different work sites, the ISS crew will be burdened with fewer maintenance chores, leaving them more time to conduct other activities. R2's developers at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) are preparing the R2 IVA mobility hardware and software upgrades for delivery to the ISS in late 2013. This paper summarizes R2 ISS achievements to date, briefly describes the R2 IVA mobility upgrades, and discusses the R2 IVA mobility objectives and plans.
Q and bandwidth of electrically small antennas

The relation of Q and half‐power bandwidth for antennas, Q = 1/BW, is well known. Here it is shown that 1/Q gives an accurate bandwidth for electrically small dipoles and loops. Bandwidths from 1/Q are compared with exact bandwidths, using a sinusoidal current computer model for dipoles, and a constant current model for loops. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 49: 1170–1171, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.22373
A Lightweight Posit Processing Unit for RISC-V Processors in Deep Neural Network Applications

Nowadays, two groundbreaking factors are emerging in neural networks. First, there is the RISC-V open instruction set architecture (ISA) that allows a seamless implementation of custom instruction sets. Second, there are several novel formats for real number arithmetic. In this work, we combined these two key aspects using the very promising posit format, developing a light Posit Processing Unit (PPU-light). We present an extension of the base RISC-V ISA that allows the conversion between 8 or 16-bit posits and 32-bit IEEE Floats or fixed point formats in order to offer a compressed representation of real numbers with little-to-none accuracy degradation. Then we elaborate on the hardware and software toolchain integration of our PPU-light inside the Ariane RISC-V core and its toolchain, showing how little it impacts in terms of circuit complexity and power consumption. Indeed, only 0.36% of the circuit is devoted to the PPU-light while the full RISC-V core occupies the 33% of the overall circuit complexity. Finally we present the impact of our PPU-light on a deep neural network task, reporting speedups up to 10 on sample inference processing time.
Ductile moment-resistant steel–timber connections

This paper investigates the mechanical characterisation of a joint, suitable for different configurations within a heavy timber frame, consisting of a wooden element connected to a steel stub by means of an end-plate and glued-in steel rods. This connection system has some interesting properties in terms of mechanical performance, versatility and prefabrication. An analytical model to predict the joint response in terms of its key parameters (e.g. failure mode, ultimate resistance, stiffness and rotation capacity) is proposed and validated through an extensive experimental programme. The component method, originally proposed for semi-rigid joints in steel frameworks, is adapted in order to set up a feasible general model for steel–timber joints, enabling application of the capacity design approach and offering the required ductility for applications in seismic zones. The tests carried out indicate satisfactory agreement between theoretical and experimental results: the reliable prediction of joint failure.
Segmentation of Squamous Columnar Junction on VIA Images using U-Net Architecture

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer that affects women, especially in developing countries including Indonesia. Cervical cancer is a type of cancer found in the cervix, precisely in the squamous columnar junction (SCJ). Early screening for cervical cancer can be reduce the risk of cervical cancer. One of the popular screening tool methods for the detection of cervical pre-cancer is the Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) method. This is due to the level of effectiveness, convenience and low cost. This paper proposes a method for the detection and segmentation of the SCJ region on VIA images using U-Net. This study is the first research conducted using the CNN method to perform segmentation tasks in the SCJ region. The best performance results are shown from the Pixel Accuracy, Mean IoU, Mean Accuracy, Dice coefficient, Precision and Sensitivity values, namely 90.86%, 56.5%, 75.69%, 34.09%, 41.24%, and 56.91%. Keywords: Cervical Pre-cancer, Screening VIA, SCJ, U-Net.
A coupled-mode analysis of modulation instability in optical fibers

A coupled-mode formulation in the frequency domain has been developed and applied to the analysis of the modulation instability (MI) due to the self- and cross-phase modulations (SPM and XPM) in optical fibers. The modulation instability of two copropagating beams with the same polarization at different carrier frequencies is examined in detail. It is demonstrated that, by identifying the phase-matching conditions among different sideband components, the modulation instability due to the SPM and the XPM may be described by a set of reduced coupled-mode equations. Simple analytical expressions for the gain are derived under this condition. The approximate formulas are compared with the full wave solutions and their scopes of validity are discussed. >
Neurons that know how to drive

ROBIN is a template-based visual autonomous road-following system based on a radial basis function architecture. ROBIN is trained by a human operator to drive on a specific road-type. These training instantiations can be saved in a repertoire of road types and activated at a later time. By using a diverse sensor set such as a color camera, FLIR and low light camera, ROBIN can function in both night and day without the requirement for artificial lighting. ROBIN has successfully driven on a diverse set of road types ranging from worn tracks in the grass to well maintained highways. Image understanding is the primary processing modality of ROBIN in the generation of a steering and speed response, but it can also exploit other modalities such as a priori road geometry or embedded roadway magnets to monitor inappropriate vision-based control responses. ROBIN has been thoroughly tested in the course of multiple automation programs.
Hyperspectral Image Classification Based on Capsule Network

The conventional convolutional neural network performs not well enough in the ground objects classification because of its insufficient ability in maintaining sensitive spectral information and characterizing the covariance of spatial structure, resulting from the narrow sensitive frequency band and complex spatial structure with diversity of hyperspectral remote sensing data which caused more serious phenomena of “same material, different spectra” and “different material, same spectra”. Therefore, an improved capsule network is proposed and introduced into hyperspectral image target recognition. A convolution structure combining shallow features and multi-scale depth features is put forward to reduce the phenomena of “different material, same spectra” firstly, and then the diversity of the spatial structure is expressed by the capsule vector and sub-capsule division in channel wise, so that the averaging effect of the convolution process is weakened in the spectral domain and the spatial domain to reduce the phenomena of “same material, different spectra”. By comparing the experimental results on the hyperspectral data sets such as Indian Pines, Salinas, Tea Tree and Xiongan, the capsule network shows strong spatial structure expression ability, flexible deep and shallow feature fusion ability in multi-scale, and its accuracy in target recognition is better than that of conventional convolutional neural networks, so it is suitable for the recognition of complex targets in hyperspectral images.
Preschool Children’s Engagement and School Readiness Skills: Exploring Differences between Spanish-speaking Dual Language Learners and Monolingual English-speaking Preschoolers

ABSTRACT Research Findings: The study examined the relationship between Spanish-speaking DLL children’s engagement within the preschool classroom with teachers, peers, and tasks and their school readiness skills compared to monolingual English-speaking peers. Results suggested that DLL children had lower language skills and phonological awareness by the end of the preschool year. However, children’s positive engagement with teachers mediated the relationship between DLL status and children’s language skills. Finally, the relationship between children’s engagement and school readiness outcomes differed by whether children are DLL or monolingual; for DLL children, positively engaging with teachers, peers, and tasks were positively associated with their receptive and expressive vocabulary, phonological awareness, and print knowledge skills. Practice or Policy: The findings highlight how children’s classroom engagement, particularly DLLs, is associated with their school readiness outcomes. That is, DLL and monolingual children are experiencing different levels of engagement expose potential inequities in the levels of quality experienced within classrooms. Classrooms must maximize the opportunities for DLLs to practice their language skills with peers, in particular, across languages as a way of supporting their development.
Aquatic vegetation dynamics in the Upper Mississippi River over 2 decades spanning vegetation recovery

Macrophytes have recovered in rivers across the world, but long-term data and studies are lacking regarding community assembly and diversity changes coincident with macrophyte recovery. We investigated patterns of aquatic vegetation species composition and diversity in thousands of sites in the Upper Mississippi River, USA, spanning 21 y of monitoring and a period of vegetation recovery. We analyzed site-level compositional dissimilarity and environmental associations using non-metric multidimensional scaling, compared stability of lake-level assemblages over time with convex hulls, and assessed shared trends in assemblage dissimilarity at the pool scale using dynamic factor analysis. Site-level differences in aquatic vegetation assemblage structure were associated with water depth and substrate, and a gradient of species abundance and diversity was apparent. A common trend in assemblage dissimilarity over time and across contiguous floodplain lakes indicate that assemblage composition changed and diversity increased with considerable synchrony within the past 21 y. Shared trends across the 400-km study reach are indicative of 1 or more widespread, common drivers; however, neither hydrologic extremes nor turbidity explained vegetation assemblage patterns. Following several years of strong changes in composition and increased diversity, the vegetation assemblage displayed signs of increasing stability in some pools but not others. Further research is needed to identify drivers and mechanisms of aquatic vegetation assemblage expansion, assembly, and resilience, all of which will be applicable to the recovery of aquatic vegetation in floodplain systems worldwide.
Discussion of "Time-varying harmonics: Part II-harmonic summation and propagation"

The authors discuss the original paper (see ibid., vol.17, p.279-85, 2002) and argue that the original authors are to be commended for their contribution in the area of probabilistic aspects of power system harmonics. They describe how they presented a concise but comprehensive and useful review in the paper of modeling for harmonic summation and propagation. As a discussion, they would like to add some recent news and raise comments about both the probabilistic evaluation of voltage harmonics and time-varying limits.
Empirical Analysis of Truck and Automobile Speeds on Rural Interstates: Impact of Posted Speed Limits

Posted speed limit settings on rural highways have always been a point of contention with different stakeholders having very different perspectives (motorist, enforcement, commercial trucking, etc.). In particular, the effect of the posted speed limit on safety has been widely studied, primarily using accident data bases. The results reported in the literature are often inconclusive or even contradictory. In addition, many speed-related safety and environmental objectives are in conflict with mobility goals. An important aspect of this research relates to the impact of posted speed limits on actual traffic behavior. This study investigated the speed distributions for both heavy trucks and light vehicles (cars) at 19 rural interstate highway sites across the United States. The speed limit configurations were selected to encompass the full range of posted limits (55 mph to 75 mph) and to include both uniform and differential speed limits (e.g., 55 for trucks and 70 for cars). The results of the study describe the actual distribution of speeds for trucks and cars across the various speed limit configurations. In addition, the mean speeds, 85th percentile speeds, compliance rates and observed speed differentials are reported for the individual sites and for each speed limit configuration. The final set of data demonstrates the effect of increased fuel costs on the distribution of truck and car speeds. The results of the study provide an important contribution to the discussion of appropriate maximum speed limits, as well as the natural differential speeds that exist between heavy trucks and light vehicles.
Fidelity of using scaled vehicles for chassis dynamic studies

There are many situations where physical testing of a vehicle or vehicle controller is necessary, yet use of a full-size vehicle is not practical. Some situations include implementation testing of novel actuation strategies, analysing the behaviour of chassis feedback control under system faults, or near-unstable situations such as limit handling under driver-assist feedback control. Historically, many have advocated the use of scale vehicles as surrogates for larger vehicles. This article presents analysis and experimental testing that examines the fidelity of using scaled vehicles for vehicle chassis dynamics and control studies. In support of this effort, this work introduces an experimental system called the Pennsylvania State University Rolling Roadway Simulator (the PURRS). In the PURRS, a custom-built scale-sized vehicle is freely driven on a moving roadway surface. While others have used scale-vehicle rolling roadway simulators in the past, this work is the first to attempt to directly match the planar dynamic performance of the scale-sized vehicle to a specific full-sized vehicle by careful design of the scale vehicle. This article explains details of this effort including vehicle dynamic modelling, detailed measurement of model parameters, conditions for dynamic similitude, validation of the resulting experimental vehicle in the time, frequency, and dimensionless domains. The results of the dynamic comparisons between scale- and full-sized vehicles clearly illustrate operational regimes where agreement is quite good, and other regimes where agreement is quite poor. Both are useful to understand the applicability of scale-vehicle results to full-size vehicle analysis.
Effects of Tank Shape on the Roll Dynamic Response of a Partly Filled Tank Vehicle

The directional response and roll stability characteristics of a partly filled tractor-semitrailer vehicle, equipped with various cross-section tanks, are investigated as functions of fill volume and steer inputs. The tank-vehicle combination is analytically modeled upon integrating a quasi-static roll plane model of a partly filled tank of generic cross-section with a three-dimensional directional dynamic model of a five-axle tractor-semitrailer vehicle, assuming constant forward speed. The vehicle model is analyzed for different cross-sections of partly filled tanks, including circular, modified-oval and two optimal cross-sections. The directional response characteristics of the vehicle are evaluated to study the influence of partial-fill condition, steering maneuver, and vehicle speed on the roll dynamic performance of the tank cross-section and the vehicle. A comparison of the response characteristics, in terms of variations in cargo c.g. shift and roll mass moment of inertia, roll angle, lateral acceleration and yaw rate of the trailer sprung mass, revealed that the optimal tank geometry yields considerably less variations in the cargo c.g. coordinates and can thus significantly enhance the directional response and roll stability characteristics of partly-filled tank vehicles.
Simplified transfer process for high-current thin-film crystalline Si solar modules

We introduce a one-side metallization scheme for monocrystalline Si thin-film modules from layer transfer. The mini-modules have an area of 5/spl times/5 cm/sup 2/ and consist of five series-connected cells with a thickness of 18 /spl mu/m. We achieve a short-circuit current of 145 mA (29 mA/cm/sup 2/ per cell) and an open-circuit voltage of 3098 mV (619.3 mV per cell) under AM1.5g-illumination at 1000 W/m/sup 2/. The efficiency is 9.1% due to a poor fill factor. A reference module with a two-side metallization reaches a total area efficiency of 12.3%.
A test system for teaching overall power system reliability assessment

This paper presents the concept of overall power system reliability evaluation using an educational test system. The paper extends an existing test system by developing the necessary distribution and subtransmission networks. The extended test system has all the main facilities, such as generation, switching stations, transmission, sub-transmission and radial distribution networks found in a practical system. The test system, is however, sufficiently small that students can analyze it using hand calculations or by developing small computer programs to fully understand the reliability models and evaluation techniques. Overall power system reliability evaluation is concerned with providing acceptable customer service. This is an important concern in today's electric utility environment. This should therefore be an essential element in teaching power system reliability evaluation at either the graduate or undergraduate level, The extended test system presented in this paper and the concepts presented assist in satisfying this requirement.
Impact of Multilane Median Openings Zone on Travel Speed

Thispaperaims to assess the impact of median openings zone of travel speed. Median openings or Midblock U-turn facilities are often constructed to provide motorists with detour option in circumstances where traffic conflict manoeuvres are eminent and prevalent. In previous studies, it has been shown that median openings will reduce the number of conflicts at relevant intersection.Hence median openings were built on multilane highways in Malaysia.Theirconstruction provoked debate on safety and traffic flow impediment issues. Based on the hypothesis that multilane median openings would cause travel speed reduction; an impact study was carried out at selected sites in Johor, Malaysia during daylight and dry weather conditions. Traffic volume, speed, and vehicle types were collected per road section for two directions continuously for eight weeks. The survey data were supplemented with highway design information culled from the Malaysian Public Works Departments manual. Travel speeds at median opening zone were estimated for both directional traffic flows. Results show significant decrease in travel speed of up to54.2% at the diverging section of the median openings zone. A slight drop of about 5% resulted from median openings zone at the merging section. The paper concluded that median openings zone facilities irrespective of their traffic conflicts minimisation merits will trigger significant travel speed reduction.