Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Three-Port dc-dc Conversion in Light-to-Light Systems

the study of a low-power (10 - 50 W) stand-alone PV-LED system with aim on high efficiency energy conversion is presented in Chapter 3. The implemented power stage is based on component reutilization and is optimized at low irradiation conditions, achieving a peak efficiency of 98.9%. A discussion on the magnetic component design, semiconductor evaluation based on switching energy measurement and study of the loss distribution is presented. Scalability and implementation of multiple LED outputs on the proposed topology are discussed and demonstrated on a second prototype. A TPC for grid-tied light-to-light applications (100 - 1000 W) is studied in Chapter 4. Analysis, modeling and power flow regulation with two control variables are discussed in this section. The dynamic modeling and measurements prove that completely decoupled power flow regulation can be achieved. Finally, the conclusion and future work are presented in Chapter 5. Other research topics—not directly related with the project objectives—are shown in Chapter 6.
The role of hemiparasitic plants: influencing tallgrass prairie quality, diversity, and structure

Wood betony, Orobanchaceae (Pedicularis canadensis) and bastard toadflax, Santalaceae (Comandra umbellata) are two root‐hemiparasitic plant species found in tallgrass prairie communities. Natural resource managers are interested in utilizing these species as “pseudograzers” in grasslands to reduce competitively dominant grasses and thereby increase ecological diversity and quality in prairie restorations and urban plantings. We performed an observational field study at 5 tallgrass prairie sites to investigate the association of hemiparasite abundance with metrics of phylogenetic and ecological diversity, as well as floristic quality. Although no reduction in C4 grasses was detected, there was a significant association between hemiparasite abundance and increased floristic quality at all 5 sites. Hemiparasite abundance and species richness were positively correlated at one restoration site. In a greenhouse mesocosm experiment, we investigated response to parasitism by P. canadensis in 6 species representing different plant functional groups of the tallgrass prairie. The annual legume partridge pea, Fabaceae (Chamaecrista fasciculata) had the greatest significant dry biomass reduction among 6 host species, but the C4 grass big bluestem, Poaceae (Andropogon gerardii) had significantly greater aboveground biomass when grown with the hemiparasite. Overall, host species biomass as a total community was significantly reduced in mesocosms, consistent with other investigations that demonstrate influence on community structure by hemiparasitic plant species. Although hemiparasites were not acting as pseudograzers, they have the potential to influence community structure in grassland restorations and remnants.
Thermal and Electrolytic Decomposition and Ignition of HAN–Water Solutions

Thermal and electrolytic decomposition and ignition of water solutions of hydroxylammonium nitrate (HAN, [NH3OH]+[NO3]−) are investigated. Experiments are conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of electrolytic ignition for HAN-based ionic liquid propellants. As a consequence of electrolysis, the propellant decomposes to NH2OH, HNO3, HONO, HNO, N2O, N2, NO, NO2, H2O, H2(g), and O2(g). These species then initiate a series of gas phase reactions, governed by the H–O–N kinetics scheme, and lead to ignition. Electrochemical mechanisms are established and incorporated into an existing chemical kinetics scheme for thermal decomposition of HAN–water solutions. The analysis treats the liquid and gas phases separately, and matches their respective processes at the interfacial boundary to determine the overall decomposition and ignition characteristics. Results are benchmarked against experimental data for the species evolution in the condensed phase, as well as laser-induced ignition delay of 13 M HAN–water solution. The effects of electric current (0–2.5 A), propellant volume (0.1–0.3 cc), initial temperature (300–450 K), and HAN concentration (9–13 M) on the ignition behaviors are investigated systematically. The ignition delay decreases with increasing electric current as a power-law function: , where A = 3.95 and n = 0.95 for a 0.1 cc 13 M HAN–water solution at an initial condition of 300 K and 1 atm. The exponent n and coefficient A are decreasing functions of the initial temperature. For a given power, decreasing the initial volume of HAN–water solution increases the current density available for electrolysis, and expedites the ignition process. The work represents the first theoretical study of its kind on this topic.
REPUTATIONAL DYNAMIC CAPABILITY – WHAT’S BOARD GOT TO DO WITH IT

The power of intangible corporate assets, on disposal to board and management provide immense possibilities to enhance corporate performance. Dynamic capabilities and corporate reputation are the most salient of a kind, beside knowledge. While the relevant literature about both phenomena is ample, their synergic impact on the corporate performance is lacking. The main challenge of the paper is to seal this important gap by proposing an integrated framework of dynamic capabilities and corporate reputation. In particular, by examining the mediating role of corporate reputation in corporate interactions, the reputational capability is shaped to enhance the corporate sensibility to changes in its operating ecosystem, prior to its competition, therefore assuring corporate fitness. This new breed of dynamic capability is designed as a driver of the firm's market and non-market based competitiveness. In order to empirically verify this new mechanism, the research results conducted in Croatia are presented. The model is designed as generic in nature, hence is suitable for applying to other intangible corporate assets and dynamic capabilities interaction analysis.
BASED FIRM ’ S FINANCING : AN OPERATIONAL MODEL FOR MALAYSIA

Venture capital (VC) as a method of funding technology based firms (TBFs) is a concept which emerged from the United States of America since over 30 years and has spread tremendously across the world. This concept has gained considerable awareness in Malaysia since the early 1990’s when goverment established the first venture capital company to promote and accelerate the development of the venture capital concept and also encourage the commercialization of technology based products through the management of the technology transfer funds. Due to the difficulty technology based firms owners go through in the process of growing their innovations particularly during the initial phase of growth of their businesses their is need to encourage financial managers to take up equity stakes and help nurture technology based firms to maturity. As a result of the perception in some quarters that their is a dearth of investments in the Malaysian VC industry which they opined has contributed to the slow pace of growth recorded in the industry despite huge government financial support. This study adopts a grounded theory approach (within-method triangulation) to collect data from 34 respondents in the industry. The model proposed in this study will benefit stakeholders to evaluate technology based firms.
Coordinate Descent with Bandit Sampling

Coordinate descent methods minimize a cost function by updating a single decision variable (corresponding to one coordinate) at a time. Ideally, we would update the decision variable that yields the largest marginal decrease in the cost function. However, finding this coordinate would require checking all of them, which is not computationally practical. Therefore, we propose a new adaptive method for coordinate descent. First, we define a lower bound on the decrease of the cost function when a coordinate is updated and, instead of calculating this lower bound for all coordinates, we use a multi-armed bandit algorithm to learn which coordinates result in the largest marginal decrease and simultaneously perform coordinate descent. We show that our approach improves the convergence of the coordinate methods both theoretically and experimentally.
The Importance of Sampling in Meta-Reinforcement Learning

We interpret meta-reinforcement learning as the problem of learning how to quickly find a good sampling distribution in a new environment. This interpretation leads to the development of two new meta-reinforcement learning algorithms: E-MAML and E-RL. Results are presented on a new environment we call ‘Krazy World’: a difficult high-dimensional gridworld which is designed to highlight the importance of correctly differentiating through sampling distributions in meta-reinforcement learning. Further results are presented on a set of maze environments. We show E-MAML and E-RL deliver better performance than baseline algorithms on both tasks.
Codelivery of doxorubicin and elacridar to target both liver cancer cells and stem cells by polylactide-co-glycolide/d-alpha-tocopherol polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate nanoparticles

Purpose Liver cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Liver cancer stem cells (LCSCs) are a subpopulation of cancer cells that are responsible for the initiation, progression, drug resistance, recurrence, and metastasis of liver cancer. Recent studies have suggested that the eradication of both LCSCs and liver cancer cells is necessary because the conversion of cancer stem cells (CSCs) to cancer cells occasionally occurs. As ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are overexpressed in both CSCs and cancer cells, combined therapies using ABC transporter inhibitors and chemotherapy drugs could show superior therapeutic efficacy in liver cancer. In this study, we developed poly(lactide-co-glycolide)/d-alpha-tocopherol polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate nanoparticles to accomplish the simultaneous delivery of an optimized ratio of doxorubicin (DOX) and elacridar (ELC) to target both LCSCs and liver cancer cells. Methods Median-effect analysis was used for screening of DOX and ELC for synergy in liver cancer cells (HepG2 cells) and LCSCs (HepG2 tumor sphere [HepG2-TS]). Then, nanoparticles loaded with DOX and ELC at the optimized ratio (NDEs) were prepared by nanoprecipitation method. The cytotoxicity and colony and tumor sphere formation ability of nanoparticles were investigated in vitro, and the tissue distribution and antitumor activity of nanoparticles were evaluated in vivo. Results We demonstrated that a DOX/ELC molar ratio of 1:1 was synergistic in HepG2 cells and HepG2-TS. NDEs were shown to exhibit significantly increased cytotoxic effects against both HepG2 and HepG2-TS compared with DOX-loaded nanoparticles (NDs) or ELC-loaded nanoparticles (NEs) in vitro. In vivo studies demonstrated that the nanoparticles exhibited better tumor targeting, with NDE showing the strongest antitumor activity with lower systemic toxicity. Conclusion These results suggested that NDE represented a promising combination therapy against liver cancer by targeting both liver cancer cells and CSCs.
The time scale for the transition to turbulence in a high Reynolds number, accelerated flow

An experiment is described in which an interface between materials of different density is subjected to an acceleration history consisting of a strong shock followed by a period of deceleration. The resulting flow at this interface, initiated by the deposition of strong laser radiation into the initially well characterized solid materials, is unstable to both the Richtmyer–Meshkov (RM) and Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) instabilities. These experiments are of importance in their ability to access a difficult experimental regime characterized by very high energy density (high temperature and pressure) as well as large Reynolds number and Mach number. Such conditions are of interest, for example, in the study of the RM/RT induced mixing that occurs during the explosion of a core-collapse supernova. Under these experimental conditions, the flow is in the plasma state and given enough time will transition to turbulence. By analysis of the experimental data and a corresponding one-dimensional numerical simulation of the.
A Review on Recommendation Systems: Context-aware to Social-based

The number of Internet users had grown rapidly enticing companies and cooperations to make full use of recommendation infrastructures. Consequently, online advertisement companies emerged to aid us in the presence of numerous items and users. Even as a user, you may find yourself drowned in a set of items that you think you might need, but you are not sure if you should try them. Those items could be online services, products, places or even a person for a friendship. Therefore, we need recommender systems that pave the way and help us making good decisions. This paper provides a review on traditional recommendation systems, recommendation system evaluations and metrics, context-aware recommendation systems, and social-based recommendation systems. While it is hard to include all the information in a brief review paper, we try to have an introductory review over the essentials of recommendation systems. More detailed information on each chapter will be found in the corresponding references. For the purpose of explaining the concept in a different way, we provided slides available on this https URL.
Structural levels of deformation and failure of heat-resistant 12Cr1MoV steel modified by vacuum arc treatment by Zr+ ion beam

Study of structural changes occurring in the surface layer modified by ion-beam irradiation was carried out by means of optical, scanning and transmission electron microscopy. It was shown that irradiation induces the structure modification not only in the surface layer, but along the entire cross section of 1 mm thick specimens. It was elucidated that the complex pattern of structural changes is responsible for the pronounced variation of mechanical properties taking place under static tension and cyclic alternating bending.
Winter 12-4-2017 Real Money Trading in Virtual Worlds

Significant real money is traded into and out of virtual world currencies. Virtual world participating users buy and sell virtual products, virtual goods, virtual properties, virtual services, and other virtual items of interest. As gamers, some trade real money to: buy assets including characters, currencies and other auctioned items. Others buy at virtual auctions, purchase virtual currencies, purchase virtual land, build virtual properties and use virtual facilities. The Theory of Planned Behavior maps a structural equation modelling approach for real money trading (RMT) suggesting RMT can be behaviorally promoted to participant users in virtual worlds.
Network-based Analysis and Classification of Malware using Behavioral Artifacts Ordering

Using runtime execution artifacts to identify malware and its associated family is an established technique in the security domain. Many papers in the literature rely on explicit features derived from network, file system, or registry interaction. While effective, the use of these fine-granularity data points makes these techniques computationally expensive. Moreover, the signatures and heuristics are often circumvented by subsequent malware authors. In this work, we propose Chatter, a system that is concerned only with the order in which high-level system events take place. Individual events are mapped onto an alphabet and execution traces are captured via terse concatenations of those letters. Then, leveraging an analyst labeled corpus of malware, n-gram document classification techniques are applied to produce a classifier predicting malware family. This paper describes that technique and its proof-of-concept evaluation. In its prototype form, only network events are considered and eleven malware families are used. We show the technique achieves 83%-94% accuracy in isolation and makes non-trivial performance improvements when integrated with a baseline classifier of combined order features to reach an accuracy of up to 98.8%.
Characterization of Recombinant Poliovirus 2A Protease; A Potential Anti-Viral Drug Target

Poliovirus 2A protease (PV2Apro) plays a vital role in viral replication and down-regulation of host cell protein synthesis. In order to understand more concerning PV2Apro, the protein was over-expressed in bacteria following amplification using sense and antisense primers and cloning in pET15b. Several expression hosts were tested and BL21 (DE3) pLysS cells gave the best expression of PV2Apro with minimal unwanted protein expression following IPTG induction. The 2Apro protein was purified to homogeneity using column chromatography, its solubility determined and its molecular weight and composition determined by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. The protease was found in the insoluble fraction and the purified protein had a slightly lower molecular weight than predicted. Moreover, three dimensional structure was modelled using template 1z8r with 58% identity and validated using ramachandran plot. Results revealed that most of the residues lie in favoured and allowed regions. These findings could help in a better understanding of PV2Apro structure and inhibition thus, highlighting potential targets for antiviral drug development.
The Sub-Polar Gyre Index – a community data set for application in fisheries and environment research

Abstract. Scientific interest in the sub-polar gyre of the North Atlantic Ocean has increased in recent years. The sub-polar gyre has contracted and weakened, and changes in circulation pathways have been linked to changes in marine ecosystem productivity. To aid fisheries and environmental scientists, we present here a time series of the Sub-Polar Gyre Index (SPG-I) based on monthly mean maps of sea surface height. The established definition of the SPG-I is applied, and the first EOF (empirical orthogonal function) and PC (principal component) are presented. Sensitivity to the spatial domain and time series length are explored but found not to be important factors in terms of the SPG-I's interpretation. Our time series compares well with indices presented previously. The SPG-I time series is freely available online ( http://dx.doi.org/10.7489/1806-1 ), and we invite the community to access, apply, and publish studies using this index time series.
Dynamic Linkages between Health and Wealth in the European Union

The relationship of health and wealth has been for long the subject of academic research as well as a hot policy issue. In this paper we examine this relationship using data on infant mortality rate and real GDP per capita for the 28 European Union countries over the period 1960-2012. The long-run and short run dynamics of the relationship are examined through panel co-integration tests, error correction models and Granger causality tests. The empirical analysis reveals the existence of a long-run negative relationship between GDP and infant mortality. In the short-run there are bidirectional causal effects between the two variables. In summary, the two variables affect each other in a spiral way.
Elimination of TSWV from Impatiens hawkerii Bull. and regeneration of virus-free plant

The possibility for obtaining virus free plants from Impatiens hawkerii Bull. shoots infectedwith Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) through meristem-tip culture was examined. TSWV presence in I. hawkerii plants was detected by DAS-ELISA and RT-PCR and identification of the virus was confirmed by sequencing one of the chosen isolate (GenBank Accesion CQ132190). Meristem-tip explants (0.3-1.5 mm) from virus-infected shoots are cultured on MS media supplemented with different concentrations of the cytokinins, CPPU or TDZ (0.01-1.0 µM), respectively. Using this system, a large number of in vitro shoots could be produced from a single explant. Also, cytokinins showed a stimulatory effect on the length, fresh and dry weights of the newly formed shoots. Plant pigments content in I. hawkerii shoots increased significantly in the presence of cytokinins. Rooting of shoots was spontaneous on the same media. Rooted plantlets were transferred to soil where 97% successfully acclimatized. By DAS-ELISA and RT-PCR, 80% of the in vitro plantlets were shown to be a virus-free. Considering these, the present protocol seems to be an efficient method for in vitro generation of virus-free I. hawkerii plantlets by meristem tip cultures.
Development and initial application of the global-through-urban weather research and forecasting model with chemistry (GU-WRF/Chem)

[1] A unified model framework with online-coupled meteorology and chemistry and consistent model treatments across spatial scales is required to realistically simulate chemistry-aerosol-cloud-radiation-precipitation-climate interactions. In this work, a global-through-urban WRF/Chem model (i.e., GU-WRF/Chem) has been developed to provide such a unified model framework to simulate these important interactions across a wide range of spatial scales while reducing uncertainties from the use of offline-coupled model systems with inconsistent model treatments. Evaluation against available observations shows that GU-WRF/Chem is capable of reproducing observations with comparable or superior fidelity than existing mesoscale models. The net effect of atmospheric aerosols is to decrease shortwave and longwave radiation, NO2photolysis rate, near-surface temperature, wind speed at 10-m, planetary boundary layer height, and precipitation as well as to increase relative humidity at 2-m, aerosol optical depths, column cloud condensation nuclei, cloud optical thickness, and cloud droplet number concentrations at all scales. As expected, such feedbacks also change the abundance and lifetimes of chemical species through changing radiation, atmospheric stability, and the rates of many meteorologically-dependent chemical and microphysical processes. The use of higher resolutions in progressively nested domains from the global to local scale notably improves the model performance of some model predictions (especially for chemical predictions) and also captures spatial variability of aerosol feedbacks that cannot be simulated at a coarser grid resolution. Simulated aerosol, radiation, and cloud properties exhibit small-to-high sensitivity to various nucleation and aerosol activation parameterizations. Representing one of the few unified global-through-urban models, GU-WRF/Chem can be applied to simulate air quality and its interactions with meteorology and climate and to quantify the impact of global change on urban/regional air quality across various spatial scales.
5 G K-SimNet : End-to-End Performance Evaluation of 5 G Cellular Systems

We introduce 5G K-SimNet, a network simulator for evaluating end-to-end performance of the fifth generation (5G) cellular system. 5G K-SimNet provides the features of 5G new radio (NR), 5G core, multi-radio access technology (RAT) protocol, traffic management on multi-connectivity, and softwaredefined network/network function virtualization (SDN/NFV). In this paper, we present the features of 5G K-SimNet, scenarios that can be simulated by using the simulator, and the simulation results.
Feeling committed to a robot: why, what, when and how?

The paper spells out the rationale for developing means of manipulating and of measuring people's sense of commitment to robot interaction partners. A sense of commitment may lead people to be patient when a robot is not working smoothly, to remain vigilant when a robot is working so smoothly that a task becomes boring and to increase their willingness to invest effort in teaching a robot. We identify a range of contexts in which a sense of commitment to robot interaction partners may be particularly important. This article is part of the theme issue ‘From social brains to social robots: applying neurocognitive insights to human–robot interaction’.