Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mitigating uncertainty at design time and run time to address assurance for dynamically adaptive systems

MITIGATING UNCERTAINTY AT DESIGN TIME AND RUN TIME TO ADDRESS ASSURANCE FOR DYNAMICALLY ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS By Erik M. Fredericks A dynamically adaptive system (DAS) is a software system that monitors itself and its environment at run time to identify conditions that require self-reconfiguration to ensure that the DAS continually satisfies its requirements. Self-reconfiguration enables a DAS to change its configuration while executing to mitigate unexpected changes. While it is infeasible for an engineer to enumerate all possible conditions that a DAS may experience, the DAS must still deliver acceptable behavior in all situations. This dissertation introduces a suite of techniques that addresses assurance for a DAS in the face of both system and environmental uncertainty at different levels of abstraction. We first present a technique for automatically incorporating flexibility into system requirements for different configurations of environmental conditions. Second, we describe a technique for exploring the code-level impact of uncertainty on a DAS. Third, we discuss a run-time testing feedback loop to continually assess DAS behavior. Lastly, we present two techniques for introducing adaptation into run-time testing activities. We demonstrate these techniques with applications from two different domains: an intelligent robotic vacuuming system that must clean a room safely and efficiently and a remote data mirroring network that must efficiently and effectively disseminate data throughout the network. We also provide an end-to-end example demonstrating the effectiveness of each assurance technique as applied to the remote data mirroring application. Copyright by ERIK M. FREDERICKS 2015 To Natalie and Zoe, thank you for everything. I couldn’t have done this without you.
Additively Manufactured Multi-Morphology Bone-like Porous Scaffolds: Experiments and Micro-Computed Tomography-Based Finite Element Modeling Approaches

Tissue engineering, whose aim is to repair or replace damaged tissues by combining the principle of biomaterials and cell transplantation, is one of the most important and interdisciplinary fields of regenerative medicine. Despite remarkable progress, there are still some limitations in the tissue engineering field, among which designing and manufacturing suitable scaffolds. With the advent of additive manufacturing (AM), a breakthrough happened in the production of complex geometries. In this vein, AM has enhanced the field of bioprinting in generating biomimicking organs or artificial tissues possessing the required porous graded structure. In this study, triply periodic minimal surface structures, suitable to manufacture scaffolds mimicking bone’s heterogeneous nature, have been studied experimentally and numerically; the influence of the printing direction and printing material has been investigated. Various multi-morphology scaffolds, including gyroid, diamond, and I-graph and wrapped package graph (I-WP), with different transitional zone, have been three-dimensional (3D) printed and tested under compression. Further, a micro-computed tomography (μCT) analysis has been employed to obtain the real geometry of printed scaffolds. Finite element analyses have been also performed and compared with experimental results. Finally, the scaffolds’ behavior under complex loading has been investigated based on the combination of μCT and finite element modeling.
Mechanisms underlying salicylic acid on root parameters and antioxidant enzyme activity of potato plant under Lelliottia amnigena stress

Salicylic acid (SA) plays many roles in plant physiology. In addition to pathogenesis-related resistance, SA is involved in the response to biotic stress. There are no adequate studies on mechanism underlying SA-mitigated Lelliottia amnigena infestations in potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.) plant. Therefore, this study evaluated the mechanisms of SA on antioxidant enzyme activity of potato plant roots under L. amnigena stress. The bacterial suspension (3.69 × 10 7 CFU mL -1 ) at 0.3 mL was inoculated into potato plants through stem injection. After 24 h, different SA concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mM) were sprayed to the potato plants, and water as control. The results showed that L. amnigena infestation decreased fresh weight, dry weight, and relative water content of roots by 44.8%, 11.8% and 34.8%, respectively, compared to the control. The potato plant treatment with SA increased fresh weight, dry weight, and relative water content by an average of 34.88%, 10.28% and 13.50%; increased superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) by 35.95%, 32.55%, 33.74%, 33.25%, and 38.90%; decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) content in potato plant roots by 42.7% and 31.1%, respectively, under L. amnigena stress compared to control. Treatment with SA induced transcriptional levels of the SOD, POD, CAT and glutathione S-transferase (GST) gene expression across the four levels of SA by an average of 3.12-fold, 3.46-fold, 2.93-fold and 3.83-fold, respectively, compared to control. Salicylic acid increased antioxidant enzymes activity in roots of potato plant under L. amnigena stress. oxidative an antioxidant In our the application of to plants under L. amnigena stress the activities of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, POD, CAT, PPO, and PAL) compared to the control plants. of oxidative damage by scavenging ROS antioxidant them key the removal of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 the action of superoxide dismutase In this study, the activities of antioxidant enzymes were altered in response to SA treatment. A similar change in these enzymes also observed by However, exogenous SA restored the activities of the tested enzymes, reducing ROS and oxidative damage in potato roots. The data confirm that the key role of SA is to serve as a signaling molecule, thereby strengthening the defense system. Similar results also observed Singh et Our results suggest that exogenous SA regulates antioxidant enzymes, thereby lowering ROS and protecting potato plants from pathogen stress. In general, based on the increased activities of SOD, POD, CAT, PPO and PAL, it can be said that the treatment of SA effectively increased the antioxidants of potato plant roots to defend against the pathogen.
Role of Strain in the Early Diagnosis of Diabetic Cardiomyopathy

Background: Advanced echocardiography using two- and three-dimensional myocardial strain proposes to identify subclinical systolic dysfunction in different clinical conditions. Strain assessment plays an important role in the early diagnosis of diabetic cardiomyopathy in diabetes mellitus (DM). However, the findings of published articles are heterogeneous. Here we conducted a systematic review to analyze the current role of strain assessment in patients with DM. Methods: This systematic review of five databases identified 19 studies that used twodimensional strain and 8 studies that used three-dimensional strain. Results: The studies of two-dimensional strain included 1,774 DM patients (mean age, 57.1 years; median age, 55 years; 47.5% women), while those of three-dimensional strain included 488 DM patients (mean age, 55.7 years; median age, 63 years; 51% women). Global longitudinal strain was the myocardial deformation marker that differed most frequently between the DM and control groups. Conclusion: Myocardial strain imaging by two- and three-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography allows the identification of subclinical systolic dysfunction in DM patients, and differences become more marked when associated with risk factors and ventricular remodeling.
Predictive Value of SOFA and qSOFA for In-Hospital Mortality in COVID-19 Patients: A Single-Center Study in Romania

Two years after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the disease continues to claim victims worldwide. Assessing the disease’s severity on admission may be useful in reducing mortality among patients with COVID-19. The present study was designed to assess the prognostic value of SOFA and qSOFA scoring systems for in-hospital mortality among patients with COVID-19. The study included 133 patients with COVID-19 proven by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) admitted to the Municipal Emergency Clinical Hospital of Timisoara, Romania between 1 October 2020 and 15 March 2021. Data on clinical features and laboratory findings on admission were collected from electronic medical records and used to compute SOFA and qSOFA. Mean SOFA and qSOFA values were higher in the non-survivor group compared to survivors (3.5 vs. 1 for SOFA and 2 vs. 1 for qSOFA, respectively). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and area under the curve (AUC) analyses were performed to determine the discrimination accuracy, both risk scores being excellent predictors of in-hospital mortality, with ROC–AUC values of 0.800 for SOFA and 0.794 for qSOFA. The regression analysis showed that for every one-point increase in SOFA score, mortality risk increased by 1.82 and for every one-point increase in qSOFA score, mortality risk increased by 5.23. In addition, patients with SOFA and qSOFA above the cut-off values have an increased risk of mortality with ORs of 7.46 and 11.3, respectively. In conclusion, SOFA and qSOFA are excellent predictors of in-hospital mortality among COVID-19 patients. These scores determined at admission could help physicians identify those patients at high risk of severe COVID-19.
AFedAvg: communication-efficient federated learning aggregation with adaptive communication frequency and gradient sparse

ABSTRACT Federated learning enables a large number of clients (such as edge computing devices) to learn a model jointly without data sharing. However, the high amount of communication of the federated learning aggregation algorithm hinders the realisation of artificial intelligence in the last mile. Although FederatedAveraging (FedAvg) is the leading algorithm, its communication cost is still high. The method of communication delay and gradient sparse can reduce the communication cost, but there is no previous work to analyse the relationship and common effects of these two dimensions. Aiming at the problems that federated learning communication is expensive and it has become a training bottleneck, we improve the FedAvg algorithm and propose an adaptive communication frequency FederatedAveraging algorithm (AFedAvg). The gradient sparse operation in the algorithm reduces the quantity of parameters for a single communication, while the communication delay operation allows training to converge faster and obtain smaller losses. The number of sparse parameters is used to select the communication frequency of next round dynamically. Experimental results prove that, the AFedAvg algorithm is superior to the FedAvg and its variants in terms of communication cost. It achieves 2.4X–23.1X communication compression in different data distributions with minimal communication rounds required by the algorithm to converge.
Energy Balance Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks Based on Fuzzy Control Strategy

The existing routing protocols for wireless sensor networks were not reasonable in design, which limited their application. Most of the existing studies did not take into account the energy consumption of the network and the balanced use of the energy of sensor nodes, which led to the unsatisfactory application effect of wireless sensor networks in some fields. Therefore, from the perspective of energy balance in wireless sensor networks, this paper proposed a construction method of an energy balance routing protocol in wireless sensor networks based on a fuzzy control strategy. Firstly, based on the analysis of the basic composition of wireless sensor networks and the structure of sensor nodes, this paper expounded the basic process of wireless data transmission and summarized the classification and characteristics of routing protocols in wireless sensor networks from different angles. Secondly, according to the node data transmission characteristics of wireless sensor networks, the energy balance use model of sensor nodes was established, and the design method of the energy balance routing protocol based on fuzzy control strategy was proposed, and the data transmission link was optimized. Finally, through experimental comparative analysis, the results showed that the energy balanced routing protocol proposed in this paper can effectively realize the energy balanced use of the network data transmission process. Compared with other common routing protocols, the wireless sensor network routing protocol proposed in this paper can not only improve the data transmission efficiency and reduce the data redundancy but also save energy consumption and prolong the network running time. The design method of routing protocol proposed in this paper will be conducive to the optimization and application of routing protocol in wireless sensor networks and provide a theoretical basis for the related research of wireless sensor networks.
Wideband circularly polarized rectangular DRA fed with dual pair of right‐angled microstrip line

In this article, design and development of wideband circularly polarized (CP) rectangular dielectric resonator antenna (RDRA) is presented. To generate wideband CP in proposed antenna, different feeding mechanism have been studied. Three antenna configurations based on different feeding have been discussed using single and dual pair of microstrip lines aligned perpendicular to each other to generate orthogonal modes resulting in circular polarization. It has been claimed here that excitation of RHCP/LHCP field and its direction of radiation could be controlled using height of microstrip feed lines. Finally antenna configuration‐3 is fabricated and measured which shows 36.8% of input impedance bandwidth (3.48–5.05 GHz) and axial ratio bandwidth of 14.46% (3.67–4.24 GHz) in broadside direction (at Φ = 0°, θ = 0°). The final proposed structure exhibits consistent far‐field characteristics with average LHCP gain of 6.4 dB and almost stable radiation efficiency in entire operational frequency range. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 26:713–723, 2016.
Optimum Solution in Fabricating 65nm NMOS Transistors Using Taguchi Method

In this project, Taguchi Method is being utilized to find the sequence of dominance for factors that determine the performance of a 65nm technology NMOS transistor. From there, optimum solution is obtained for the device fabrication recipe. Going to 65nm requires a lot of changes in silicon fabrication technique as we are approaching the physical and electrical limitations of silicon. In addition, linear scaling results in exponential problems at nanometer zone. ATHENA and ATLAS module of SILVACO software are the tools used in simulating the fabrication process and simulating the electrical performance of the transistors. Threshold voltage (VTH) value was the main parameter under investigation as it determines whether a transistor works or not. From the simulation results, it was shown that the dopant implantation dosage at the source/drain active area contributes the most in determining the VTH value and also for determining the ID-VG relationship. This is followed by the dosage for VTH adjustment implantation, the dielectric thickness and lastly the dosage of the halo implantation. By using Minitab Taguchi analysis, optimum solution is found in which VTH value of 0.222699 is achieved. The value is in-line with ITRS guideline for 65nm device. However, there is no clear pattern found in determining the ID-VD relationship.
Reflections on shared mood boards: Examining craft-education students’ conceptual design

This study examines what kind of different meanings craft-education students give to collaboratively created mood boards. As part of their compulsory studies, 11 craft-education students from a Finnish university were assigned to develop shared mood boards in team design sessions. After creating the mood board, each student was instructed to design an outfit utilising the te am’s mood board. The data (i.e., video- recorded interviews, photographs of the students’ written or drawn material, teams’ mood boards, and participants’ idea -books) was analysed qualitatively. The results indicated that the meaning came from the active role the mood board played in anchoring idea development and expanding and deepening studen ts’ idea space. Conversely, the mood boards were also found to have a limiting and superficial meaning in the individual processes. Our findings could be beneficial fo r developing teacher education and design teaching; thus, information on students’ views of different phenomena are always valuable.
Dream Recall Frequency, Lucid Dream Frequency, and Personality During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Dream recall frequency and lucid dream frequency showed large inter-individual differences that are partly related to personality dimensions. However, as dream research is a small field, independent studies are necessary to build a solid empirical foundation. The present online survey included 1,537 participants (1150 women, 387 men) with a mean age of 35.1 ± 15.8 years. Whereas the relationship between openness to experience and dream recall frequency was in line with previous research – supporting the life-style hypothesis of dream recall, the associations between the Big Five personality factors and lucid dream frequency are less homogenous; for example, the negative relationship between neuroticism and lucid dream frequency. Even though the effect sizes of these associations are small, the findings can help in identifying links between waking and dreaming. Moreover, it was found that lucid dream frequency was related to Covid-19-related worries, whereas dream recall frequency was not.
The Impact of Private Entrepreneur’s Religious Beliefs and Political Identity on the Corporate Philanthropy Donations

Corporate philanthropy donations act as one of the important ways for enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities. There are many factors that influence corporate charitable donations, and one of which is the entrepreneur's personal characteristics. This study discusses the influence of private entrepreneurs’ religious beliefs on corporate philanthropy, and further analyzes the regulating effect of entrepreneurs’ political identity on religious beliefs and corporate philanthropy. Through face-to-face in-depth interviews with 11 charitable entrepreneurs in 11 cities of 10 provinces in China, applying continuous analytic induction, combined with NVIVO software for three-level coding, it can be concluded that the religious beliefs of private entrepreneurs have no absolute effect on corporate philanthropy, but entrepreneurs with religious beliefs are all keen on philanthropy; and their political identities of having a positive impact on corporate philanthropy. For entrepreneurs without political identities, their religious beliefs have a positive impact on corporate philanthropy, while for entrepreneurs with political identities, there is a stronger positive correlation between their religious beliefs and corporate philanthropy. The research results help to further understand the motivation for charitable donations of private enterprises, and play a practical guiding role in promoting the development of private corporate philanthropy.
Early‐to‐Late Winter 20th Century North Atlantic Multidecadal Atmospheric Variability in Observations, CMIP5 and CMIP6

The strong multidecadal variability in North Atlantic (NA) winter atmospheric circulation is poorly understood and appears too weak in climate models. Recent research has shown peak atmospheric multidecadal variability over the NA in late winter, particularly March, linked to Atlantic multidecadal variability (AMV) of the ocean. Here a range of NA atmospheric circulation indices are assessed to provide a comprehensive picture of early‐to‐late winter low‐frequency variability and its representation in the latest generation of climate models (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 [CMIP6]). As found for CMIP5, CMIP6 models exhibit too‐weak multidecadal NA atmospheric variability compared to reanalysis data over the period 1862–2005. Consistent with previous research, the eastern part of the NA westerly jet (U700NA) exhibits peak low‐frequency variability in March. However, for NA‐wide jet speed and the NAO, low‐frequency variability and model‐reanalysis discrepancies are strongest in January and February, associated with too‐weak NA ocean‐atmosphere linkages.
A New Minimally Invasive Experimental Spinal Cord Injury Model in Rabbits

The aim of this experimental study was to evaluate the effectivity of epidural microballoon inflation into the unroofed spinal column for the creation of a new experimental spinal cord injury model in rabbits. 10 New Zealand white rabbits were used for this study. Before operation and after anasthesia with 50 mg/kg ketamine and 8 mg/kg xylazine, spinal evoked potentials (SEP) were recorded in all rabbits. A midline skin incision was done on the lomber skin at the level of L1-L4. Paravertebral muscles were dissected bilaterally. A microhemilaminotomy was done in the right L3 lamina close to the midline by using Midas-rex micro-diamond drill instruments. The ligamentum flavum was opened and removed with microscissors. A microballoon was inserted into the spinal column between the bone and dura mater to the level of T12. The microballoon was inflated by using a pressure- and volume-controlled microballoon inflation device. Pre-injury and post-injury SEPs were recorded. The microballoon was deflated 15 minutes later and removed completely from the epidural space. 24 hours later the SEP study was repeated. Following microballoon inflation the SEP waves dropped to the basal level. All rabbits were paraplegic after the operation. In conclusion, this experimental study demonstrated that the microballoon inflation technique is a very successful method for the evaluation of spinal cord injury in rabbits. Unroofing of the spinal column is extremely important because decompression may be an effective treatment in spinal cord injury. Also the traumatic effect of aneurysm clips represents a different type of injury to the spinal cord. This new model may be used in experimental studies of spinal cord injury in rabbits.
Delay-dependent H∞ dynamic observers for non-linear systems with multiple time-varying delays

The design of dynamic H ∞ observer (DO) for non-linear Lipschitz systems with multiple time-varying delays and disturbances is studied. Sufficient conditions for the existence of these observers are presented in the form of rank equality. Compared to previously published work, the system under consideration includes non-linearity, non-commensurable delay, and external disturbance. Through the use of the Wirtinger inequality and the extended reciprocally convex matrix inequality, new and less conservative delay-dependent conditions in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) are derived based on the Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional method. Solving these LMIs makes it possible to obtain DO that satisfies an H ∞ performance index. Through two numerical examples in which the comparison with the proportional observer (PO) and the proportional–integral observer (PIO) shows the efficiency of the proposed DO synthesis condition. Furthermore, the results indicate that the DO developed in this paper is more resilient to parameter perturbations.