Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The coordinated operation scheduling of distributed generation, demand response and storage based on the optimization energy hub for minimal energy usage costs

Energy hub (EH) can optimize the input power and gas for some goals such as minimal energy usage costs without alerting the demand of users. Demand response (DR) and storage can adjust the energy from the grid during a time period to cut the expense of energy too. Nowadays, with the shortage of resources and the degradation of environment, more and more scholars all over the world began to concentrate on the research of distributed generation (DG), which can not only increase the utilization rate of renewable energy but also decrease the costs of traditional energy. This paper sets up an EH model which comprises the DG, DR and storage, in which the objective function is to minimize the costs of the input energy including electricity and gas. Six different cases are simulated in this paper to compare the importance of elements mentioned before, and the results show that the proposed model has the highest revenue.
Perfusion settings and additives in liver normothermic machine perfusion with red blood cells as oxygen carrier. A systematic review of human and porcine perfusion protocols

Liver machine perfusion (MP) at normothermic temperature (NMP) is a promising way to preserve and evaluate extended criteria donor livers. Currently, no consensus exists in methodology and perfusion protocols. Here, the authors performed a systematic literature search to identify human and porcine studies reporting on liver NMP with red blood cells. A qualitative synthesis was performed concerning technical aspects of MP, fluid composition, gas supply, and liver positioning. Thirty‐seven publications including 11 human and 26 porcine studies were considered for qualitative synthesis. Control mode, pressure, flow, perfusate additives, and targeted blood gas parameters varied across human as well as porcine studies. For future analyses, it is advisable to report flow adjusted to liver weight and exact pressure parameters including mean, systolic, and diastolic pressure. Parenteral nutrition and insulin addition was common. Parenteral nutrition included amino acids and/or glucose without lipids. Taurocholic acid derivatives were used as bile flow promoters. However, short‐term human NMP without taurocholic acid derivatives seems to be possible. This finding is relevant due to the lack of clinical grade bile salts. Near physiological oxygen tension in the perfusate is doable by adjusting gas flows, while blood gas parameters regulation needs more detailed description.
Identification of appropriate lags and temporal resolutions for low flow indicators in the River Rhine to forecast low flows with different lead times

The aim of this paper is to assess the relative importance of low flow indicators for the River Rhine and to identify their appropriate temporal lag and resolution. This is done in the context of low flow forecasting with lead times of 14 and 90 days. First, the Rhine basin is subdivided into seven sub‐basins. By considering the dominant processes in the sub‐basins, five low flow indicators were selected: precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, groundwater storage, snow storage and lake storage. Correlation analysis was then carried out to determine the relationship between observed low flows and preselected indicators with varying lags (days) and temporal resolutions (from 1 day to 7 months).
Global Impact of Gas Flaring

This work deals with the multi-faceted impact of gas flaring on a global scale and the different approach employed by researchers to measure gas flared and its resulting emissions. It gives an overview of methods employed by these researchers in the oil and gas industry, academia and governments in attempt to determine ways of measuring and reducing gas flaring and its emission drastically. This approach so far includes analytical studies, numerical studies, modeling, computer simulations, etc. the goal behind each study being to mitigate the effects of gas flaring. The outcome indicates that there is a seemingly absence of a single global method, emission factor and estimation procedure used in the oil and gas industry all over the world to determine the volume of gas flared and its emissions be it from complete or incomplete combustion, sweet or sulphur present hydrocarbons and this poses a continuous problem in determining the actual impact of gas flaring and its emissions on human and its role in environmental degradation both at a local and global level. An attempt has also being made to cover up-to-date trends in gas flaring and current developments in some of the most flared countries.
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

A new descriptor model based on shape contour representation aimed to object recognition in non-structured images is presented. The model uses the second derivative of the contour curve –a rotation invariant representation-for contour representation. A contour segmentation criterion suitable for form description is presented. An adaptation of this descriptor able to operate in scale-space is discussed. Some results are presented and further research work is proposed involving descriptor’s use in more complex problems.
An approach for tracking of mobile robot with vision sensor

In mobile robots tracking is an important requirement for real time path planning and obstacle avoidance. Current work proposes an innovative approach which combines feature based object detection, KLT Algorithm based tracking method and Kalman filter based de-noising technique for mobile robot working in real time environment. In the detection phase, the mobile robot is detected using Viola Jones algorithm which extracts detectable feature. Then the position of mobile robot is computed with homography constraints and a region of interest window was set up to accommodate the mobile robot. In the tracking phase, the region of interest window was dealt with using KLT algorithm. The proposed method is of special practical importance in case of specified path tracking as the size of mobile robot image is usually small relative to the captured image of the environment. Thus the analysis of captured image of environment become unnecessary for tracking and thereby reduce computational load. Experiments show that the proposed approach accurately detect and track the mobile robot with error percentage ranging from 0.5% to 8% in different parts of the specified path.
New Distributional Bird Data from the Cordillera Central of the Colombian Andes, with Implications for the Biogeography of Northwestern South America

Abstract Northwestern South America is a complex area that has witnessed the differentiation and expansion of a major portion of the Neotropical avifauna. The northern end of the Cordillera Central of the Colombian Andes contributes to this complexity by bringing a continuum of humid habitats from the Andean highlands to the lowland rainforests. We present new distributional information on 36 avian species of the cloud forests and páramos of this region (1300–3250 m), gained through eight years of fieldwork and general collecting. These new records reflect the mixed biogeographic affinities of the avifauna of the northern Cordillera Central, which is composed of taxa from the pluvial foothills of the Chocó (e.g., Indigo Flowerpiercer [Diglossa indigotica], Scarlet-and-white Tanager [Chrysothlypis salmoni]), Central America and Darién (e.g., Purple-throated Woodstar [Calliphlox mitchellii]), and elsewhere in the Andean mountains (e.g., Semicollared Hawk [Accipiter collaris], Yellow Manakin [Xenopipo flavicapilla]). In addition, we report the first or second definite Colombian records of the Pavonine Cuckoo (Dromococcyx pavoninus), Cinnamon Screech-Owl (Megascops petersoni), and Sharpbill (Oxyruncus cristatus). Our findings support Chapman's (1917) view of Colombia as being "at the crux of the problem of intercontinental relationships" of Neotropical birds.
EVALUATION OF THE OSTEOINDUCTIVE POTENTIAL OF FREEZE-DRIED HUMAN AMNIOTIC MEMBRANE (EXPERIMENTAL STUDY)

INTRODUCTION: Bone regeneration represents an important challenge in oral surgery. Several means have been employed to improve bonehealing, each having several advantages and disadvantages. The search for new materials and methods is an ongoing process.OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the bone inductive effect of the freeze-dried human amniotic membrane (FDAM)as a novel biomaterial for bone regeneration.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twelve adult male dogs were involved in this study. Bilateral critical-sized mandibular defects were createdin each dog. One defect was left uncovered as a control. The other defect was covered with a double layered sterile freeze-dried human amnioticmembrane (FDAM) to serve as a study. At each of three time points - 4, 8, and 12 weeks - four dogs were euthanized and their mandibles wereharvested en bloc and osteotomy sites were submitted for histochemical examination to evaluate bone healing.RESULTS: The tissue samples were obtained after 4, 8, and 12 weeks for histochemical examination. The FDAM was found to enhance theblood supply to the defect area in the study group and gave rise to bone induction (P ˂0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our study findings indicate that the FDAM has the potential for the enhancement of bone healing and bone induction.KEYWORDS: Amniotic membrane, freeze-dried, bone regeneration, critical-sized bone defect.
Queueing Network Model and Average Delay Analysis for Mobile Edge Computing

In the near future, mobile edge computing (MEC) services are expected with edge servers equipped in base stations whose current top priority is to provide the quality-of-service (QoS) of uplink and downlink transmission (UT & DT). The coexistence of MEC, UT & DT users may lead a big difference since MEC users compete with UT & DT users for wireless transmission resources. To investigate the impact caused by the admission of MEC users, this paper proposes a queueing network model for a base station which serves multi-class UT, DT and MEC users simultaneously. The average delay of each user class of each service type is derived. Simulations are done to validate all the analysis. Both simulation and analysis reveal that the average delay performance highly depends on the access rates of users and the resource deployment, especially for the performance of the low-priority users.
Effect of Fitbit and iPad Wearable Technology in Health-Related Quality of Life in Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Patients.

PURPOSE Adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients with cancer face significant challenges with regard to fatigue, reduced physical activity, and social isolation, which may negatively impact quality of life. This study investigated whether the use of digital wearable technology (Fitbits, along with synced iPads) can affect health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in AYA aged patients with cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a prospective cohort study that offered Fitbits and iPads to all AYA patients aged 15 to 29 at an academic medical center at the time of cancer diagnosis. Patients completed the Short Form Health Survey developed by RAND (RAND-36) assessing eight dimensions of HRQOL on entering the study and at the time of their 6-month follow-up or the end of treatment, whichever occurred first. At the time of follow-up, patients also completed a questionnaire that assessed user experience, including frequency of wearable device use, enjoyment, challenges, and participation, in online communities. RESULTS Thirty-three patients participated in the study. Most patients reported enjoying the digital technology and using the devices to track multiple aspects of their health (85%). Most also reported a subjective increase in physical activity (79%). After the intervention, participants demonstrated significant improvements across all eight dimensions of HRQOL measured by the RAND-36 (p < 0.00 to 0.01). CONCLUSION Distributing wearable technology at the time of diagnosis may provide an avenue for improving HRQOL in adolescents and young adults with cancer.
Fragile States

Fragile States Fragile States T UNU-WIDER PROJECT ON “FRAGILITY AND development’’ began with the premise that dealing simultaneously with household vulnerability and state fragility is probably one of the most urgent development challenges of our time. Consequently, the project explored the dimensions of household vulnerability and state fragility in development. This research brief is about the roughly 50 or more fragile states that are home to around a billion people. An accompanying UNU research brief considers vulnerability in developing countries (see UNU Research Brief No. 2, 2008). State fragility has serious repercussions for national and international security and prosperity. Many fragile states are ravaged by conflict and have become “failed” states. Some have only recently emerged from devastating civil wars and remain fragile. Others have histories of military coups or have been through serious political crises. Others still are small states with limited resource endowments and high debts, and are subject to natural hazards that render them extremely unstable. The UNU-WIDER project on “Fragility and Development” brought an economic perspective to the concept and classification of fragile states, the costs they impose on global development and security, and the challenges they and the international community face in the quest for development, particularly for those in or emerging from conflict. A number of pertinent questions were addressed. When are states fragile? What are the costs that fragile states impose on their people and the international community? Should the sovereignty of fragile states in conflict be reconsidered? How can peace agreements be enforced through appropriate economic incentives? How does conflict impact disproportionately on women? How can aid flows to fragile states be made more effective? The studies addressing these questions are summarized in the box “Selected WIDER Papers Dealing with Fragile States”, which also refers to their UNUWIDER research paper numbers to facilitate downloading from the website (www.wider.unu.edu).
Voltage Regulation Support Along a Distribution Line by a Virtual Power Plant Based on a Center of Mass Load Modeling

A voltage regulation method for slow voltage variations at distribution level is proposed, based on a view of the loads, generators, and storage along a distribution line as point weights. The “centers of mass” of the absorbed and injected currents (loads and generation, respectively) are compensated by minimizing the distance between them, through proper redispatching of the power of the available units and interruptible loads. The technique is recursively applied to lesser parts of the distribution line to address local phenomena and is assumed to be offered as ancillary service to the system operator by a virtual power plant. The favorable results of the methodology are assessed on a distribution line of the island of Rhodes (Greece) under critical loading for numerous scenarios. Unlike previous approaches, the technique focuses specifically in the restoration of bus voltages within standard limits and may reduce the activation of on-line tap changing transformers control.
Full and Half Duplex-Switching Policy for Cellular Networks under Uplink Degradation Constraint

Full-duplex (FD) is a principle in which a transceiver can receive and transmit on the same time-frequency radio resource. Assuming perfect self-interference cancellation (self-IC), FD can potentially double the spectral efficiency (SE) of a given point-to-point communication. However in cellular networks, we may be far from this upper bound due to base stations (BSs) and users interference. In particular, even if the overall SE is improved, the uplink (UL) performance is degraded compared to a traditional half-duplex (HD) system. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a new duplex-switching (DS) policy in which BSs can adopt FD- or HD-mode according to the position of their scheduled users. This system is analyzed using stochastic geometry in terms of average SE (ASE) and signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). The proposed scheme allows to trade-off the downlink (DL) for the UL performance when comparing to a FD scenario. In terms of cell performance (UL+DL), our DS policy even outperform both HD and FD systems when the parameters are optimized.
Effects of irrigation with treated agro-industrial wastewater on soil chemical characteristics and fungal populations during processing tomato crop cycle.

This study was carried out in 2012 at Stornarella (Italy; 41° 15’29" N; 15° 43, 56" E; 154 m a.s.l.). We investigated the effects of reuse of secondary treated agro-industrial wastewater for irrigation, in comparison with conventional groundwater, and we monitored soil chemical characteristics and fungal populations during the crop cycle of processing tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). Compared to the groundwater, the wastewater had significantly higher electrical conductivity, total suspended solids, sodium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium adsorption ratio, chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand over five days, ammonium-nitrogen, phenols, bicarbonates, phosphates, sulphates and chlorides. Most of these parameters were significantly greater also in the wastewater-irrigated soil. During the tomato crop cycle, there were significant shifts in the structure of the soil microfungal community. Saprophytic species increased in the wastewater-treated soil, while phytopathogens such as Fusarium oxysporum progressively decreased. More investigations into the mechanisms by which wastewater acts on disease suppression is needed to make the use of such wastewaters more predictable. The irrigation water source did not significantly affect the qualitative traits of the crop yield. For both irrigation treatments, the most important qualitative parameters that characterized the processing tomato fruit (i.e., dry matter content, pH, soluble solid content, colour parameters) were in agreement with reports in the literature.
Laser Cutting as a Rapid Method for Fabricating Thin Soft Pneumatic Actuators and Robots.

Pneumatically actuated soft robots address many challenges with interfacing with delicate objects, but these actuators/robots are still bulky and require many hours to fabricate, limiting their widespread use. This article reports a novel design and manufacturing method for ultrathin soft robots and actuators (∼70 μm) using a laser-cutting machine that cuts/welds sheets of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) from a 2D CAD drawing. Using this method, five different soft actuators (e.g., bending, rotating, contracting) are designed, fabricated, and characterized with both planar and nonplanar motions. Furthermore, we show how stacking multiple sheets of TPU enables rapid fabrication of multifunctional actuators. Finally, a portable four-arm swimming robot is designed and fabricated without any assembly steps. This rapid fabrication method enables soft robots to go from concept to operational within minutes, and creates a new subclass of soft robots suitable for applications requiring a robot to be ultrathin, lightweight, and/or fit within small volumes.
Facultative bacterial endosymbionts shape parasitoid food webs in natural host populations: A correlative analysis

Abstract Facultative bacterial endosymbionts can protect their aphid hosts from natural enemies such as hymenopteran parasitoids. As such, they have the capability to modulate interactions between aphids, parasitoids and hyperparasitoids. However, the magnitude of these effects in natural aphid populations and their associated parasitoid communities is currently unknown. Moreover, environmental factors such as plant fertilization and landscape complexity are known to affect aphid–parasitoid interactions but it remains unclear how such environmental factors affect the interplay between aphids, parasitoids and endosymbionts. Here, we tested whether facultative endosymbionts confer protection to parasitoids in natural populations of the English grain aphid, Sitobion avenae, and if this is affected by plant fertilization and landscape complexity. Furthermore, we examined whether the effects of facultative endosymbionts can cascade up to the hyperparasitoid level and increase primary‐hyperparasitoid food web specialization. Living aphids and mummies were collected in fertilized and unfertilized plots within 13 wheat fields in Central Germany. We assessed the occurrence of primary parasitoid, hyperparasitoid and endosymbiont species in aphids and mummies using a newly established molecular approach. Facultative endosymbiont infection rates were high across fields (~80%), independent of whether aphids were parasitized or unparasitized. Aphid mummies exhibited a significantly lower share of facultative endosymbiont infection (~38%). These findings suggest that facultative endosymbionts do not affect parasitoid oviposition behaviour, but decrease parasitoid survival in the host. Facultative endosymbiont infection rates were lower in mummies collected from fertilized compared to unfertilized plants, indicating that plant fertilization boosts the facultative endosymbiont protective effect. Furthermore, we found strong evidence for species‐specific and negative cascading effects of facultative endosymbionts on primary and hyperparasitoids, respectively. Facultative endosymbionts impacted parasitoid assemblages and increased the specialization of primary‐hyperparasitoid food webs: these effects were independent from and much stronger than other environmental factors. The current findings strongly suggest that facultative endosymbionts act as a driving force in aphid–parasitoid–hyperparasitoid networks: they shape insect community composition at different trophic levels and modulate, directly and indirectly, the interactions between aphids, parasitoids and their environment.
Optical toolkits for in vivo deep tissue laser scanning microscopy: a primer

Life at the microscale is animated and multifaceted. The impact of dynamic in vivo microscopy in small animals has opened up opportunities to peer into a multitude of biological processes at the cellular scale in their native microenvironments. Laser scanning microscopy (LSM) coupled with targeted fluorescent proteins has become an indispensable tool to enable dynamic imaging in vivo at high temporal and spatial resolutions. In the last few decades, the technique has been translated from imaging cells in thin samples to mapping cells in the thick biological tissue of living organisms. Here, we sought to provide a concise overview of the design considerations of a LSM that enables cellular and subcellular imaging in deep tissue. Individual components under review include: long working distance microscope objectives, laser scanning technologies, adaptive optics devices, beam shaping technologies and photon detectors, with an emphasis on more recent advances. The review will conclude with the latest innovations in automated optical microscopy, which would impact tracking and quantification of heterogeneous populations of cells in vivo.