Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fault detection and isolation of dissipative parabolic PDEs: Finite-dimensional geometric approach

In this paper, a nonlinear geometric fault detection and isolation (FDI) method is developed for a system that is governed by a dissipative parabolic partial differential equation (PDE) and that can be approximated by a finite-dimensional ordinary differential equations (ODE). The Galerkin method is employed to derive an approximate ODE which is utilized to design a geometric FDI system. Using singular perturbation theory, it is shown that under certain conditions the designed FDI system can detect and isolate faults corresponding to the original PDE. In addition, the Approximate Inertial Manifold (AIM) concept is used to improve the performance of the designed FDI filter. It is shown that by using the AIM-based approach, one can accomplish fault detection to an arbitrary degree of accuracy, although this technique cannot improve the fault isolation problem.
Integrated Voltage and Power Flow Management Considering the Cost of Opera in Active Distribution Networks

The increasing penetration of distributed energy resources on the distribution networks have brought a number of technical impacts where voltage and thermal variations have been identified as the dominant effects. Active network management in distribution networks aims to integrate distributed energy resources with flexible network management so that distributed energy resources are organized to make better use of existing capacity and infrastructure. This paper propose active solutions which aims to solve the voltage and thermal issues in a distributed manner utilizing a collaborative approach. The proposed algorithms have been fully tested on a distribution network with distributed generation units.
Chronic hemodynamic unloading regulates the morphologic development of newborn mouse hearts transplanted into the ear of isogeneic adult mice.

The morphologic development of newborn mouse hearts transplanted into the pinna of the ears of isogeneic adult mice was assessed in comparison to in situ ventricular myocardium of recipients. The grafted hearts became vascularized from the auricular artery at the base of the ear, and although these preparations appeared not to be intrinsically innervated, most of them showed grossly visible pulsatile activity. Since they were not subjected to hemodynamic load due to working against a pressure gradient, this technique provided an interesting experimental model for studies on the growth of chronically unloaded tissue. The ultrastructure of the myocardium from neonatal mouse hearts, which were fixed immediately after dissection, revealed no differences in comparison to previously published observations. By 2 months, there was virtually no change in the myocardial cell size as compared with newborn mouse cardiac tissue. The heterotopic hearts showed a mature ultrastructural appearance, with parallel bands of myofibrils alternating with rows of mitochondria and differentiated intercalated discs comparable to in situ myocardium. The interstitial space was widened due to fibrous tissue, with activated fibroblasts and a few mononuclear cells. In contrast, by 6 months after transplantation, the heterotopic myocardium showed a dispersion of the measured cell diameter of myocytes, with atrophy of a certain population of cells and hypertrophy in others; nevertheless, the mean cell diameter was similar to that observed in 2-month grafts. The myocytes showed significant dissociation from each other in fibrous tissue and a cellular infiltrate composed predominantly of mononuclear cells, and greater variability of the parallel arrangement of cells. They often contained myofibrils coursing in different directions rather than in parallel. Normal-sized or predominantly atrophic degenerated myocytes, characterized by a wide variety of ultrastructural alterations, were present. By 12 months after transplantation, the myocytes of heterotopic hearts were smaller in size in comparison to those after 2 or 6 months. The graft cells were separated from each other by fibrous tissue and mononuclear cells and were not aligned in parallel within the tissue; often, they appeared to have lost their connections with adjacent cells. The myofibrils within cells were strikingly disorganized, coursing in different directions. Severely degenerated myocytes were commonly seen. These results, without precluding the possible role of neural and hormonal stimuli, clearly indicate that hemodynamic work load regulates the developmental growth of newborn mouse heart transplanted into the pinna of the ear of isogeneic adult recipient mice. In other words, the mass of cardiac tissue would be adjusted to meet the prevailing hemodynamic demands. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Receptor-targeted recombinant adenovirus conglomerates: a novel molecular conjugate vector with improved expression characteristics

To develop improved strategies for gene transfer to hematopoietic cells, we have explored targeted gene transfer using molecular conjugate vectors (MCVs). MCVs are constructed by condensing plasmid DNA containing the gene of interest with polylysine (PL), PL linked to a replication-incompetent adenovirus (endosomolytic agent), and PL linked to streptavidin for targeting with biotinylated ligands. In this report, we compare gene transfer to K562 cells by using the previously described transferrin-targeted MCV (Trans-MCV) to a novel transferrin-targeted MCV. In the novel MCV, the transferred gene (luciferase) is in the genome of recombinant replication-incompetent adenovirus (recMCV), which also acts as the endosomolytic agent. The level of luciferase gene expression was fivefold higher in K562 cells transfected with Trans-recMCV than in cells transfected with Trans-MCV. Furthermore, targeted transfection with recMCV resulted in prolonged luciferase expression that declined 14 to 20 days after transfection, in comparison with Trans-MCV, where luciferase expression declined by 4 to 8 days. Moreover, targeted transfection of K562 cells with the Trans-recMCV resulted in persistent luciferase gene expression for 6 months. Analysis of luciferase gene expression in K562 single-cell clones that were subcloned 5 weeks after transfection with Trans-recMCV showed that 35 to 50% of the single-cell clones had intermediate to high levels of luciferase gene expression that was stable for 6 months, with the remaining clones showing low or no luciferase gene expression. Stable gene expression was associated with integration of adenovirus sequences into genomic DNA.
An FPGA Implementation for a Flexible-Length-Arithmetic Processor Employing the FDFM Processor Core Approach

Algorithms requiring fast manipulation of multiple-length numbers are usually implemented in hardware. However, hardware implementation, using HDL (Hardware Description Language) for instance, is a laborious task and the quality of the solution relies heavily on the designer expertise. The main contribution of this work is to present a flexible-lengtharithmetic processor based on FDFM (Few DSP slices and Few Memory blocks) approach that supports arithmetic operations on multiple-length numbers using FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array). The proposed processor has been implement on the Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA. Arithmetic instructions of the proposed processor architecture include addition, subtraction, and multiplication of integer numbers exceeding 64-bits. To reduce the burden of implementing algorithm directly on the FPGA, applications requiring multiple-length arithmetic operations are written in a C-like language and translated into a machine program. The machine program is then transferred and executed on the proposed architecture. A 2048-bit RSA encryption/decryption implementation has been used to assess the goodness of the proposed approach. Experimental results shows that the computing time, using the proposed architecture, of a 2048-bit RSA encryption takes only 2.2 times longer than a direct FPGA implementation. Furthermore, by employing multiple FDFM cores for the same task, the computing time reduces considerably. key words: multiple-length-numbers, multiple-length-arithmetic, FPGA, RSA, montgomery modular multiplication
Student Satisfaction in the Context of a Postgraduate Programme of the Hellenic Open University.

The aim of this study is to empirically examine the correlation between student satisfaction from their studies and three important distance learning factors in a blended distance education environment, namely the student-tutor interaction, the performance of the tutor and the course evaluation by the students. The study involved 81 postgraduate students from a modular course of the School of Humanities of the Hellenic Open University (HOU). A questionnaire of 35 closed type questions was used. The majority of the students were satisfied from their studies, from the tutor’s performance and from the communication and interaction with their tutor, while they also provided a positive overall course evaluation. Regarding the course evaluation, they would like the course programme to be better formulated and more clearly communicated. The data analysis yielded a significant, positive correlation between the satisfaction of the students from their studies and all three examined factors. Finally, there was a statistically significant difference on student satisfaction levels among different age groups, a statistically significant difference regarding the number of course modules attended in relation to the evaluation of the tutor's performance and a statistically significant difference regarding the number of Counseling Group Sessions (CGS) attended in relation to student satisfaction.
Addition to the EngD First Year Report

Disclaimer: This report is substantially the result of my own work except where explicitly indicated. This report must not be copied or distributed due to the sensitive nature of the material contained herein. The biological datasets and related findings documented within this report are confidential and owned by a scientific consortium. Therefore, they should not form the subject of further work without the explicit permission of the consortium.
Filtering transformation in Generalized Quadrature Bandpass Sampling

According to recent research, Generalized Quadrature BandPass Sampling (GQBPS) with FIR filtering is promising to deal with the noise aliasing problem in subsampling systems. However, the interesting band of folded spectra by GQBPS with real FIR filtering is still located at the input carrier frequency. In this paper, inherent FIR filtering in GQBPS with real coefficients is transformed such that the interesting band is shifted to a lower frequency. The main advantage of such transformation is to achieve a frequency downconversion besides sampling and dealing with noise aliasing in GQBPS. As a special case of GQBPS, Uniform Quadrature BandPass Sampling (UQBPS) is also discussed including the filter transformation. Both theoretical analyses and simulations are included. It is verified that the expected noise aliasing improvement of GQBPS or UQBPS does not change with the filter transformation. The whole subsampling system with GQBPS or UQBPS might be simplified by using complex filtering.
Self-aligned fabrication process for active membrane made of photosensitive nanocomposite

In this paper, we propose a simple fabrication technique for making active membranes as micro-actuators on a chip. By controlling three important factors consisted of the thickness of the exposure, the thickness of spin coat at surface, and the total thickness of the nanocomposite coated on a substrate, we simply form and release an active membrane layer without an alignment process. The active membrane fabricated by the proposed method actuated with the maximum displacement of 300nm at the magnetic field of 65kA/m and had good controllability.
Opt-out testing for HIV: perspectives from a high prevalence community in south-east England, UK

Summary Peoples’ perspectives and attitudes towards being offered opt-out HIV testing were explored in a geographical area of high HIV prevalence. Users (n = 31) of sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing services took part in community focus groups in the south-east of England, UK. There was broad support for opt-out HIV testing based on public health and individual health benefits. For this sample, opt-out HIV testing when registering with a general practice surgery and on elective or emergency admission to a general hospital was acceptable, although there were concerns about the rigour of informed consent. Heterosexual participants’ criticism of people from higher prevalence groups for HIV declining tests, while maintaining their own right to opt-out, suggested that attitudes towards testing may be influenced by levels of perceived risk. Innovations in HIV testing policies to increase testing rates will benefit from an acknowledgement of the different meanings that testing has.
Model of system quality assessment pronouncing phonemes

In view of the urgency of the problem of cancer diseases of the vocal apparatus and their treatment by surgery relevance of speech rehabilitation of patients is increased. This article describes the phoneme pronunciation quality assessment system, its inputs, outputs and internal parameters. Presented a mathematical model of the system, a functional model of the system in the form of contextual diagrams and decomposition of the 1st level of IDEF0 diagram. Also presented an algorithm of phoneme assessment in comparison with a certain set of reference phoneme. Was proved the accuracy and adequacy of the proposed system in comparison with expert judgment.
Minimizing User Involvement for Learning Human Mobility Patterns from Location Traces

Utilizing trajectories for modeling human mobility often involves extracting descriptive features for each individual, a procedure heavily based on experts' knowledge. In this work, our objective is to minimize human involvement and exploit the power of community in learning `features' for individuals from their location traces. We propose a probabilistic graphical model that learns distribution of latent concepts, named motifs, from anonymized sequences of user locations. To handle variation in user activity level, our model learns motif distributions from sequence-level location co-occurrence of all users. To handle the big variation in location popularity, our model uses an asymmetric prior, conditioned on per-sequence features. We evaluate the new representation in a link prediction task and compare our results to those of baseline approaches.
Design of a bidirectional power converter for charging pile based on V2G

With the development of electric vehicle and smart grid, charging piles in the future are required to realize the function of Vehicle-to-Grid, which means it can charge and discharge the power battery of stationary electric vehicles. A bidirectional power converter is designed for the V2G charging piles in this paper. First a two stage topology is applied to the converter. Three-phase bridge converter is employed in the preceding stage of AC-DC, and dual active bridge converter is employed in the succeeding stage of DC-DC. Then corresponding control strategy based on such topology is proposed to meet the demand of bidirectional power flow. Double closed-loop and PQ control is adopted in the AC-DC converter. And single-phase-shift control is adopted in the DC-DC converter. Finally, simulations combining the mentioned converter with battery generic model verify the design that the converter for charging pile can meet the requirements of bidirectional power flowing and charging or discharging of the battery.
Using DFT to Obtain the Equivalent Circuit of Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors

This paper presents an economic and automatic experimental technique that allows the determination of the equivalent circuit of aluminum electrolytic capacitors. To implement the proposed technique it is necessary to arrange experimentally the capacitor under test in series with a resistor and connected to a sinusoidal voltage. The relationship between gain and phase of the sinusoidal voltage waveform applied to both capacitor and resistor, and the gain and phase of capacitor voltage give enough information to compute the capacitors equivalent circuit. To obtain both gain and phase of both waveforms with high accuracy, the discrete Fourier transform algorithm is used.
Variation in the expression of cell wall proteins of Staphylococcus aureus grown on solid and liquid media

To evaluate the variation in the expression of cell wall antigens between Staphylococcus aureus grown in liquid medium and solid support, bacteria were harvested from liquid chemically defined medium and chemically defined medium in a 1% agar base. Cell wall proteins were then extracted by lysostaphin in a protoplast-stabilizing medium (30% raffinose). After separation of the cell wall antigens by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western blots, they were probed with chicken antiserum to an S. aureus strain grown on a solid support. For each of the 15 clinical strains analyzed, high-molecular-size bands (molecular size range, 120 to 220 kilodaltons) were either enhanced or distinctly present when compared with those from the cell wall extract of the same strain grown in liquid medium. Results of enzymatic treatment of whole staphylococci grown on solid medium suggested the proteinaceous nature and the surface location of these antigens. Limited passage studies demonstrated the ability of the staphylococci to alter these surface proteins when passaged alternately on liquid and solid media. These observations suggested the importance of the microenvironment to the expression of cell wall proteins in S. aureus. Correlations with observations in vivo may help identify the determinants of microbial pathogenicity in S. aureus.
Spatial Variations of the Synchrotron Spectrum within Tycho’s Supernova Remnant (3C 10): A Spectral Tomography Analysis of Radio Observations at 20 and 90 Centimeter Wavelengths

We present subarcminute-resolution (≈10''), high-dynamic range radio observations of Tycho's supernova remnant (3C 10) at λ = 20 cm and λ = 90 cm with the Very Large Array (VLA). The thermal-noise-limited 90 cm image has been compensated properly for the noncoplanar characteristics of the VLA and is the most sensitive low-frequency image of this source presently available. We use these images to search for spatial variations in the continuum radio spectral index within the remnant. Such spatial variations should be related to the electron acceleration processes associated with the evolution of the blast wave. We have also utilized, for the first time in an analysis of a supernova remnant, spectral tomography to search for localized regions within which the spectral index is different from the surroundings. We have identified 13 filaments, ranging in size from ≈40'' to ≈260'', embedded in a smoother, background component. The average spectral index of the filaments ( = -0.52 ± 0.02) is consistent with that of the background component ( = -0.500 ± 0.007). However, the filaments in the outer rim show a trend such that brighter filaments have a flatter spectral index. This trend may be due to either supernova remnant (SNR) blast wave-ambient medium interactions or internal inhomogeneities of the magnetic field within the remnant. These hypotheses could be tested by an image at comparable resolution and fidelity at a third frequency.
"I was terrified of being different": exploring gay men's accounts of growing-up in a heterosexist society.

This study examined retrospective accounts of gay identity formation during adolescence. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted with working-class gay men from a small town in the north of England. Themes salient to understanding their adolescent experiences of identity formation were identified: "defined by difference", "self-reflection and inner conflict", "alienation and isolation", "living a lie", "telling others", and "wholeness and integrity". We illustrate how the socio-cultural context of compulsory heterosexuality is central in understanding accounts of both reported minority stress and identity construction. The implications of the research for future interventions designed to tackle homophobia and heterosexism are discussed.
Negative capacitance transients in metal-ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2-Insulator-Semiconductor (MFIS) capacitors

The subthreshold swing (SS) in MOSFETs is limited to 60 mV/dec change in drain current at room temperature by the Boltzmanr distribution of carriers, thus limiting its operating voltage (VD>SS×log Ion/IOFF). Ferroelectric FETs can achieve sub-60 mV/dec by harnessing the negative capacitance (NC) effect in a Ferroelectric (FE) material, thus enabling low voltage operation [1]. Previous works have reported the direct observation of NC transients in Metal-FE-Metal (MFM) capacitors using epitaxial and polycrystalline ferroelectrics that are directly grown on metal electrodes [2][3][4]. For transistor application, however, FE directly grown on silicon channel with an interfacial oxide layer, such as the Metal-FE-Insulator-Semiconductor (MFIS), represent a more practica] configuration. In this paper, we report on the observation of negative capacitance transient for the first time in the Hafnium Zirconium oxide MFIS capacitor connected in series with a load resistor. We perform systematic experiments to study the influence of series resistance, applied AC voltage amplitude and the role of partial dipole switching on the NC effect.
Optical sensing of solvents using selective tensile effects of a PDMS-coated Fiber Bragg Grating

We proposed an optically selective chemical detection method using a Polydimethylsiloxine (PDMS)-coated Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor. When the PDMS is exposed to a solvent, the swelling amount of PDMS is dependent on the swelling ratio of the solvent. Therefore, we can detect about solvent type according to the amount of Bragg wavelength shift induced by the selective tensile effects of the coated PDMS.
Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction for detection of adenovirus after T cell-replete hematopoietic cell transplantation: viral load as a marker for invasive disease.

BACKGROUND The value of adenovirus plasma DNA detection as an indicator for adenovirus disease is unknown in the context of T cell-replete hematopoietic cell transplantation, of which adenovirus disease is an uncommon but serious complication. METHODS Three groups of 62 T cell-replete hematopoietic cell transplant recipients were selected and tested for adenovirus in plasma by polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS Adenovirus was detected in 21 (87.5%) of 24 patients with proven adenovirus disease (group 1), in 4 (21%) of 19 patients who shed adenovirus (group 2), and in 1 (10.5%) of 19 uninfected control patients. The maximum viral load was significantly higher in group 1 (median maximum viral load, 6.3x10(6) copies/mL; range, 0 to 1.0x10(9) copies/mL) than in group 2 (median maximum viral load, 0 copies/mL; range, 0 to 1.7x10(8) copies/mL; P<. 001) and in group 3 (median maximum viral load, 0 copies/mL; range 0-40 copies/mL; P<.001). All patients in group 2 who developed adenoviremia had symptoms compatible with adenovirus disease (i.e., possible disease). A minimal plasma viral load of 10(3) copies/mL was detected in all patients with proven or possible disease. Adenoviremia was detectable at a median of 19.5 days (range, 8-48 days) and 24 days (range, 9-41 days) before death for patients with proven and possible adenovirus disease, respectively. CONCLUSION Sustained or high-level adenoviremia appears to be a specific and sensitive indicator of adenovirus disease after T cell-replete hematopoietic cell transplantation. In the context of low prevalence of adenovirus disease, the use of polymerase chain reaction of plasma specimens to detect virus might be a valuable tool to identify and treat patients at risk for viral invasive disease.