Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrated transcriptome and proteome analyses identifies novel genes and regulatory networks in intervertebral disc degeneration

Background: Intervertebral disc degeneration is a major cause of symptoms like low back pain and neck pain. Many groups have tried to reveal the regulatory network using either transcriptome or proteome profiling technologies, however, the relationship between these differentially expressed proteins and mRNAs are not elucidated. Since post-transcriptional regulation and other mechanisms may affect the translation of mRNA to protein, a combined transcriptome and proteome study may give more precise data on unveiling important regulatory network and key genes of Intervertebral disc degeneration. Results: In the present study, we used the label-free quantification proteomic approach and identify 656 proteins expressed in either degenerated or normal nucleus pulposus, of which 503 proteins are differentially expressed. Taking advantage of the existing nucleus pulposus transcriptome data, we combine and reanalyze the data and find 105 differentially expressed mRNA between degenerated and normal nucleus pulposus. By comparing these data, only 9 genes show significant changes in both protein and mRNA data, while 6 genes (TNFAIP6, CHI3L1, KRT19, DPT, COL6A2 and COL11A2) show concordant changes in both protein and mRNA level. Further functional analyses show different functions of the altered mRNAs and proteins in degeneration, indicating great difference between protein network and mRNA network. Using the gene co-expression network method, we uncover novel regulatory network and potential genes that may play vital roles in intervertebral disc degeneration by combining protein and mRNA data. Conclusions: This is the first study to identify novel regulatory network of intervertebral disc degeneration using combined analysis of both transcriptome and proteome, which may give new insight into the molecular mechanism of intervertebral disc degeneration.
Techniques for Mixed-Signal Linearization and Large Signal Handling in Radio-Frequency Receiver Circuits

In this dissertation, two effective linearization schemes for radio-frequency receivers are introduced. The first of these comprises a mixed-signal feedforward path which regenerates third-order intermodulation (IM3) products at radio frequencies, downconverts these products, digitizes them, and then uses them to cancel corruptive IM3 products in the digital baseband portion of a nominally linear receiver path. The combined implemented receiver represents a SAW-less direct-conversion receiver for UMTS FDD Region 1 that achieves an uncorrected out-of-band IIP3 of -7.1dBm under worst-case blocking specifications. Under IM3 equalization, the receiver achieves an effective IIP3 of +5.3dBm and meets the UMTS BER sensitivity requirements with 3.7dB of margin. To enable this mixed-signal feedforward path, a multistage cubic term generator is introduced which uses cascaded nonlinear operations to generate reference IM3 products. The multistage nature of this circuit is considered in the context of the aforementioned linearization scheme and is shown to provide sufficient dynamic range for nearly complete IM3 cancellation while dissipating far less power than the original receiver front end. In particular, the effect of the group delay between stages is analyzed and shown to permit large IM3 cancellation ratios for interstage group delays less than 1ns. Expanding upon the first effective linearization approach led to the development of a large signal handling receiver with an out-of-band 1-dB desensitization point of +12.5dBm. Enabling this large signal handling capability is a passive mixer downconverter preceded by a novel wide-swing LNTA. With a stacked push-pull class-AB common-gate architecture, the LNTA reduces the magnitude of input-referred distortion by up to 40dB beyond that predicted by an initial slope-of-3 characteristic while at the same time minimally impacting the effective small-signal gain of the receiver. To compensate for intermodulation distortion terms of order greater than 3, IM3 and IM2 products are processed down to digital baseband where they are successively multiplied to generate approximations to higher-order terms. In the case of a +12.4dBm QPSK-modulated signal and a -16.3dBm CW blocker, cancellation improves receiver input-referred error by over 24dB, resulting in an extrapolated IIP3 of +43.5dBm.
The Hatfield memorial lectures

Part 1 Process technology and research: Basic knowledge discovery and invention in the birth of new metallurgical processes Twenty five years on Electroslag remelting - A modern tool in metallurgy Eurosteelresearch From invention to industrial development Net shape solidification processing of steel Technology - Driving steel forward Metallurgical modelling of thermomechanical processing. Part 2 Economics and developments in the iron and steel industry: Development in the iron and steel industry in Great Britain during the last twenty five years The place of mini-steelworks in the world Materials and malthus European steel: What future? Iron the hidden element - The role of iron and steel in the twentieth century.
Learning Preference Models for Autonomous Mobile Robots in Complex Domains

Achieving robust and reliable autonomous operation even in complex unstructured environments is a central goal of field robotics. As the environments and scenarios to which robots are applied have continued to grow in complexity, so has the challenge of properly defining preferences and tradeoffs between various actions and the terrains they result in traversing. These definitions and parameters encode the desired behavior of the robot; therefore their correctness is of the utmost importance. Current manual approaches to creating and adjusting these preference models and cost functions have proven to be incredibly tedious and time-consuming, while typically not producing optimal results except in the simplest of circumstances. This thesis presents the development and application of machine learning techniques that automate the construction and tuning of preference models within complex mobile robotic systems. Utilizing the framework of inverse optimal control, expert examples of robot behavior can be used to construct models that generalize demonstrated preferences and reproduce similar behavior. Novel learning from demonstration approaches are developed that offer the possibility of significantly reducing the amount of human interaction necessary to tune a system, while also improving its final performance. Techniques to account for the inevitability of noisy and imperfect demonstration are presented, along with additional methods for improving the efficiency of expert demonstration and feedback. The effectiveness of these approaches is confirmed through application to several real world domains, such as the interpretation of static and dynamic perceptual data in unstructured environments and the learning of human driving styles and maneuver preferences. Extensive testing and experimentation both in simulation and in the field with multiple mobile robotic systems provides empirical confirmation of superior autonomous performance, with less expert interaction and no hand tuning. These experiments validate the potential applicability of the developed algorithms to a large variety of future mobile robotic systems. Keywords: Mobile Robots, Field Robotics, Learning from Demonstration, Imitation Learning, Inverse Optimal Control, Active Learning, Preference Models, Cost Functions, Parameter Tuning
IECON 2005 : the thirty-first Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society : Sheraton Capital Center, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA : 6-10 November 2005

Probabilistic algorithms have been fully tested as the best solution in multiples areas, and thus in tracking tasks. Different solutions with them have been proposed for multiple objects tracking. The proposal of the authors is based on a particle filter whose robustness and adaptability is increased by the use of a clustering algorithm. Two different proposals for the segmentation process are presented in this paper, and interesting conclusions are extracted from their functional comparison. Tracking results are also presented in the paper, showing the reliability of the proposals.
Mathematical modeling of heterogeneous biological wastewater processes

Dins les pagines d'aquesta tesina es troba una aproximacio a la modelitzacio, a traves de l'us d'elements finits i d'un RK-45, dels biologics processos que tenen lloc en aiguamolls de tractament d'aigues residuals.
Targeting Tmprss2, S-protein:Ace2, and 3CLpro for Synergetic Inhibitory Engagement

We are presenting our on going studies with inhibitory research on Tmprss2, S-protein:Ace2, and 3CLpro using compound screening coupled with X-ray crystallography, molecular modeling, live virus screening using host human cells (BSL3 facility at UC Center for Infectious Disease and Vector Research, and organ-on-a-chip at Harvard Medical School for safety profiling before proceeding to animal models with InVivo BioSystems for ADMET.We have derived a useful chemical toolkit of 350 compounds for the community to study with biochemical assays and other biophysical-chemical studies that will prove useful in searching for optimal inhibitors of these targets to find suitable pharmacophores for blocking each of these enzyme's activities -- that would be beneficial for human health. Our past successes with these methodologies have resulted in over 28 patents, 11 technologies and two startup companies.
Minimizing Actuator-Induced Residual Error in Active Space Telescope Primary Mirrors

Abstract : Heritage space telescope mirror technology-i.e. large, monolithic glass primary mirrors-has reached an upper limit on allowable aperture diameter given launch vehicle volume and mass constraints. The next generation of space telescopes will feature lightweight, actively controlled, segmented primary mirrors in order to achieve the advances in angular resolution and sensitivity that larger aperture diameters permit. Active control via embedded surface-parallel electrostrictive actuators provides the capability to change a mirror segment's optical prescription on orbit, to correct either quasi-static disturbances or manufacturing errors. Commanding low-order prescription changes (e.g. radius of curvature) using discretely-placed actuators, however induces high spatial frequency residual error in the mirror surface figure, resulting in wavefront error (WFE) that degrades optical performance. A key challenge is reducing this actuator-induced high frequency WFE to below acceptable levels while simultaneously commanding a particular change in global shape. This thesis considers a new set of geometric design variables that affect high-spatial frequency residual error in an effort to mitigate actuator-induced WFE. Specifically less conventional variations in rib height, actuator geometry, and rib-to-facesheet intersection geometry are exploited to achieve improved performance in silicon carbide (SiC) mirrors. A parametric finite element model is used to explore the trade space among these new parameters and to predict performance improvements. Simulation results show that these additional geometric considerations reduce actuator-induced WFE while keeping mirror mass and complexity constant.
Modeling of Ultrasonic and Terahertz Radiations in Defective Tiles for Condition Monitoring of Thermal Protection Systems

Abstract : Conclusions from this research activity are summarized as: (1) Cavity like mechanical defects and heat induced damages in porous foam tiles can be detected by electromagnetic THz radiation; (2) Required frequency of the THz beam for sensing mechanical defects depends on the orientation of the defects. THz beam propagating parallel to a cylindrical cavity can detect the cavity at much lower frequency compared to a THz beam propagating perpendicular to the cavity axis; (3) Electromagnetic properties of the foam material are altered significantly, well before its melting point. Therefore, heat induced damage can be easily detected by THz beam, well before the material is melted; (4) Distributed point Source Method (DPSM) has been extended to model both electromagnetic and elastic wave interaction with defects. DPSM is found to be more efficient than FEM, especially for three-dimensional modeling; (5) Some modifications on the DPSM technique have been suggested to improve the technique's accuracy and efficiency for solving both steady state and transient problems; and (6) Some experimental observations have been justified through model predictions.
Greater trochanteric bone flap grafting with vascular pedicles for the treatment of femoral head osteonecrosis in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: A retrospective study

Background: Osteonecrosis of the femoral head is a complication of systemic lupus erythematosus,that affect the patient's quality of life seriously.This article reviewed the radiographs of osteonecrosis of the femoral head in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and assessed the effect of using the greater trochanteric bone flap grafting with vascular pedicles.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 17 patients (26 hips) with systemic lupus erythematosus who underwent the greater trochanteric bone flap grafting with vascular pedicles for the treatment of osteonecrosis of the femoral head. According to Ficat and Arlet classification, 16 hips were in stage II; 10 hips were in stage III. All patients were followed up for a mean of 32 months (ranging 12~48 months) and were assessed clinically and radiologically according to Harris scoring.Results: No hips were treated with total hip arthroplasty in the follow-up. The mean HHS was improved from preoperative 69.1 points (ranging 52–83 points) to postoperative 89.4 points (ranging 56–100 points). At the latest follow-up, of 26 hips, radiographically 21 hips (80.77%) were improved, 3 hips (11.54%) were unchanged and just 2 hips (7.69%) were worse.Conclusion: The greater trochanteric bone flap grafting with vascular pedicles was successful in maintaining joint function and in delaying the need for joint replacement procedure.
Analytical and CFD methods investigating shroud blade tip leakage

This study deals with the leakage flow over a shrouded turbine stage, its interaction with the main passage flow, and the associated losses. The study addressed these topics by providing an analytical correlation loss model and detailed CFD simulations. An analytical model of leakage flow loss over a shrouded turbine stage has been developed. The analytical model uses directly measurable flow quantities to predict the effect of some of the over-shroud design parameters on stage performance. The model displays good predictive ability for the mass leakage fraction and the mixing losses. The model resolves the negative incidence angle induced by mixing the leakage flow with the main stream and predicts the increment in the total mixing loss coefficient at increasing leakage jet injection angles. The main contributions of this model to the leakage jet models documented in the open literature are the effect of the leakage jet injection angle on the mixing loss and the accounting of the effect of the number of fins on the leakage mass fraction in an explicit way. The present model exhibits a good qualitative and quantitative agreement with comparative benchmark data. An in-house three-dimensional turbomachinery CFD code was developed and validated against six test cases, showing its ability to capture the salient flow features in each test case. This work makes an innovative use of Detached Eddy Simulation as an advanced Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) model. A detailed leakage flow structure over the rotor shroud and its interaction with the main passage flow were modeled for seven test cases to investigate the effect of the number of fins, the clearance gap ratio, and the leakage jet injection angle on the flow. The results showed that reducing the injection 90 o to 30 o leads to a reduction in entropy mixing loss coefficient by up to 24.7% and gives a 0.2% increase in the rotor static to static efficiency and highlighted that reducing the leakage jet injection angle is a promising concept to control most of the adverse effects of the leakage flow.
Efficient cache-coherent migration for heterogeneous coprocessors in dark silicon limited technology

Current trends in processor manufacturing indicate that in order to meet power budgets, chips will have to power-gate an increasing fraction of transistors. This so called dark silicon will play an important role in motivating future architectures. Recent research proposes to allocate these large dark regions to power-efficient specialized coprocessors. GreenDroid is a tiled architecture where each tile includes a set of coprocessors, generated at design time, that target the anticipated workload. A central challenge to retaining the efficiency of this system is providing low overhead migration mechanisms so that tasks can move around the chip to exploit different coprocessors. This thesis presents a prototype migration system for GreenDroid and other tiled coprocessor-based architectures. The results show that for single-threaded irregular workloads, migration between c-cores spread across a four-tile configuration can provide power savings from 4.8x to 6.2x compared to an all software approach on a single tile. When compared against an ideal case where all c-cores fit on a single tile, the energy overhead of migrating amongst tiles ranges from 2.6% to 24.1%
Challenges of patient recruitment within emergency departments for qualitative research: lessons learnt from the GPs in EDs study

Background: At times of increasing pressure on emergency departments, and the need for research into different models of service delivery, little is known about how to recruit patients for qualitative research in emergency departments. We aimed to collect evidence on patients’ experiences of different models using general practitioners in emergency departments. Challenges were faced at all stages of patient recruitment, from identifying and inviting eligible patients, consenting them for participation, and finally to engaging them in interviews. Methods: By analysing processes, amendments and outcomes of recruitment methods, as well as conducting a thematic analysis of field-notes taken during research visits, this paper aimed to describe the factors which influenced patient recruitment in the GPs in EDs study, and make recommendations based on our learning. Results: We found the following factors influenced the success of patient recruitment in the emergency department setting: complicated or time-consuming electronic health record systems for identifying patients; narrow participant eligibility criteria; limited NHS research nurse support; and lack of face-to-face communication between researchers and eligible patients. Conclusions: This paper adds to the growing evidence for improving patient recruitment in different settings, with a particular focus on qualitative research in emergency departments. Our findings have implications for future studies attempting to recruit patients in similar settings.
Scavenger Receptor Class B Type I Is More Conducive to Hepatitis C Virus Invasion Compared with Low-Density Lipoprotein Receptor

Background: Hepatitis C virus is the major cause of chronic hepatitis which may deteriorate into liver cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma. A number of studies have demonstrated that HCV cell entry is a complex multi-step process involving several cellular proteins, such as scavenger receptor class B type I (SR-BI), tetraspanin CD81, tight junction protein claudin-1 (CLDN-1) and occludin (OCLN). The low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) is an important factor during the initial HCV particle-binding step, which interacts with the complex formed between the virus particle and the lipoprotein in the blood. However, the process of HCV early infection is not well-established, with many details remaining to be elucidated.This research aimed to study the early entry stage of HCV virus particles and the role of LDLR more effectively.Methods: Recombinant murine cell models of HCV infection in vitro was constructed, that expressed human HCV receptors, such as LDLR, CD81, SR BI, CLDN-1, and OCLN. These factors were also introduced to mice by hydrodynamic delivery to construct a humanized mouse model of HCV infection in vivo.Expression levels of the mRNA of HCV entry factors in recombinant cells were measured by qRT-PCR.Western blotting was used to determine whether the recombinant cells successfully expressed cellular proteins. HCV RNA was assayed by q-PCR following the incublation of HCVsd and HCVcc with the transgenice.Results: Transgenic murine cell lines and mice were developed successfully, and expressed four or five human HCV entry factors in tandem or individually, respectively. We found that all of these transgenic cells and mice were susceptible to HCV, and five entry factors (5EF) rendered higher infectivity. Additionally, we observed that four entry factors (4EF/hLDLR-) could facilitate abundant HCV entry, but four other factors (4EF/hSR-BI-) were less effective. ﻿Conclusions: Whether in vitro or in vivo, SR-BI is an essential factor in HCV invasion, and target cells and mice were more vulnerable to the virus in the presence of SR-BI than LDLR. These results suggested that SR-BI may be a potential drug target to inhibit HCV early infection, and the absence of LDLR could reduce the infectivity to the virus.
Design and Implementation of Spaceborne Fast Router Based on SDRAM

With the rapid development of satellite communication technology, the data exchange rate of payload devices is getting higher and the types of interfaces are becoming more complex. A high-speed routing scheme based on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM) is designed in this paper. Solutions are provided for several key technologies such as matrix switching, routing lookup, SDRAM arbitration access, reliability design, etc. Modular design is used in routing scheme to realize the functions of receiving, transmitting, routing and data forwarding. The scheme can be used to construct communication networks for various standard interfaces such as Controller Area Network (CAN), Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART), and Low Voltage Differential Signal (LVDS). The specific implementation and experimental verification of this scheme in a satellite project is given at the same time, which can provide a reference for intra-satellite and inter-satellite routing design.
Simulation of Polarization Transmission Characteristics of Laser in Sea Fog Environment

To simulate the scattering of photons in sea fog particles ， in this study ， we use a Stokes vector to describe the polarization state of the photons ， Mie scattering theory to calculate the Muller matrix and reflect the scattering characteristics of sea fog particles ， and the Monte Carlo method to solve the vector radiation transmission problem in the sea fog environment. This paper discusses the changes in transmittance and reflectance with the transmission distance for sea fog particles of different radii ， and the changes in the degree of polarization with sea fog visibility under different incident light polarization states and different incident light wavelengths. The results of the simulation experiment presented in this paper provide useful reference for research on the polarization transmission characteristics of light in sea fog particles.