Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Finite state model predictive current control of a three-level five-phase NPC voltage source inverter

The paper proposes finite state model based current control of a three-level neutral point clamped (NPC) five-phase voltage source inverter. The space vector model of a five-phase voltage source inverter (VSI) yield 243 space vectors, with 240 active and three zero vectors. The presented technique utilizes only 21 space vectors for the current control and hence the name finite state is given. Search is made by the algorithm to find the vector which minimizes the chosen cost function. The performance of the current control heavily depends upon the choice of the cost function, the number of vectors used and the sampling time. The developed technique is tested for RLE load using simulation approach. The proposed technique offers very good capacitor voltage balancing and offers high performance results in terms of current distortion. The technique is very useful for real time implementation due to a small number of vectors being used in contrary to space vector PWM where at least 43 vectors are required to obtain similar results. Simulation results are given in the this submission, while the experimental validation of the concept will be provided in the final paper.
Alpha-prime corrections to space-like branes

Space-like branes or S-branes are certain class of time dependent solutions of M/string theories having isometries ISO(p+1) × SO(d−p−2,1), where d = 11,10 respectively and have singularities at t = 0. In [1], we found that the asymptotically flat S-branes have the structure of generalized Kasner geometry near t = 0. In this work we evaluate higher order α' corrections perturbatively to the heterotic string Kasner backgrounds to probe the singularity at t = 0. We generally find that the perturbative corrections do not permit us to reach the singular point, as the supergravity framework fails near t ~ √α' blurring the origin of space-like singularities. This is analogous to the concept of stretched horizons in the case of black holes.
Leptin transport in the central nervous system

Synthesized and released by the adipose tissue, leptin is the widely studied 167‐amino acid hormonal protein product of the obesity gene. Originally leptin was defined in association with satiety and energy balance and claimed to be an anti‐obesity factor that functioned via a feedback effect from adipocytes to hypothalamus. There is a growing body of evidence that emphasizes the importance of leptin in the regulation of food intake and body weight in animals and humans, alike. Other research findings point out that it plays a role in the regulation of the metabolism, sexual development, reproduction, hematopoiesis, immunity, gastrointestinal functions, sympathetic activation, and angiogenesis. The aim of this review is to evaluate the relation between leptin and the central nervous system (CNS). Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Nearby Neighbor Selection in P2P Systems to Localize Traffic

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) software as major Internet applications bring convenience and pleasure to users, while become a nightmare of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) because they produce huge traffic on network. The enormous traffic come from the fact that when P2P systems construct overlay networks, they ignore the underlying network topology, so most of the connections are between remote peers and most of the traffic are cross-network traffic. To overcome this, we present a simple mechanism named LHF (Least Hops First) to construct overlay network mostly with nearby peers. With analysis we show that P2P network constructed by LHF is “small world” network, in which most of the connections are local ones, while a few remote connections accelerate the system dramatically. Simulation experiments demonstrate that LHF can decrease cross-network traffic remarkably, and can improve the performance of P2P application at the same time.
NT-proBNP levels, as predictor of left ventricular systolic and diastolic dysfunction in patients with chronic heart failure

Background: Heart failure (HF) is a complex clinical syndrome that can result from any structural or functional cardiac disorder that impairs the ability of the ventricle to fill with or eject blood. Diastolic and systolic heart failure are the two clinical subsets of the syndrome of heart failure (HF), Regardless of ejection fraction (EF) the severity of HF and its prognosis and degree of exercise intolerance are closely related to the degree of diastolic filling abnormalities. Echocardiography parameters and the amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptides ( NT-proBNPs) provide powerful incremental assessment of left ventricular (LV) diastolic and systolic functions. Aim: The objective was to assess the correlation between echocardiographic parameters and plasma N-terminal pro brain natriuretic peptide (NT- proBNP) level in patient with systolic or diastolic dysfunction. Method: The study included 109 heart failure patients. They underwent conventional and tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) echocardiography and NT-proBNP level was measured at the same time. Results: Significant correlations were found between NT-proBNP level and late diastolic mitral annulus velocity Am (r=-0.72, P=0.0001), systolic mitral annulus velocity Sm (r=-0.72, p=0.0001), early diastolic mitral annulus velocity Em (r =- 0.51, p=0.0001), early transmitral to Em velocity ratio (r=0.51, p= 0,0001), LV ejection fraction (r=-0.83, p=0.0001). In multiple regression, log NT-proBNP levels were independently related to age, LV ejection fraction, Am velocity and Em velocity (R2=0.78, P=0.0001), the relation to ejection fraction was the strongest (β= -0.56). Conclusions: NT-proBNP levels correlate with echocardiographic parameters, and are simple, accurate markers of systolic and diastolic heart failure.
Multiple linear regression model for forecasting Bluetongue disease outbreak in sheep of North-west agroclimatic zone of Tamil Nadu, India.

Aim: A study was undertaken to develop a forecasting model for predicting bluetongue outbreaks in North-west agroclimatic zone of Tamil Nadu, India. Materials and Methods: Eleven bluetongue outbreaks were characterised by active and passive surveillances for a period of twelve years and used in this study. Meteorological data comprising of maximum and minimum temperatures, relative humidity, rainfall and wind speed were collected and used as the multiple predictor variables in the multiple liner regression model. Results: A multiple liner regression model was developed for the North-west zone of Tamil Nadu. Values of the dependant variables were less than or greater than one, and indicated remote or greater chances of bluetongue outbreaks respectively. The monthly mean maximum and minimum temperatures, relative humidity at 8.30 h and at 17.00 h IST, wind speed, and monthly total rainfall of 29.1 - 31.0°C, 20.1 - 22.0°C, 80.1 - 85.0%, 65.1 - 70.0%, 3.1 - 5.0 km/h and < 200 mm respectively, were identified as the ideal climatic conditions for increased numbers of bluetongue outbreaks in this zone. Conclusion: Based on the values obtained from the prediction model, stake holders can be warned timely through the media to institute suitable prophylactic measures against bluetongue, to avoid economic losses due to disease.
Accelerated Stochastic Gradient Descent for Minimizing Finite Sums

We propose an optimization method for minimizing the finite sums of smooth convex functions. Our method incorporates an accelerated gradient descent (AGD) and a stochastic variance reduction gradient (SVRG) in a mini-batch setting. Unlike SVRG, our method can be directly applied to non-strongly and strongly convex problems. We show that our method achieves a lower overall complexity than the recently proposed methods that supports non-strongly convex problems. Moreover, this method has a fast rate of convergence for strongly convex problems. Our experiments show the effectiveness of our method.
Modulation of the 3′→5′-Exonuclease Activity of Human Apurinic Endonuclease (Ape1) by Its 5′-incised Abasic DNA Product*

The major abasic endonuclease of human cells, Ape1 protein, is a multifunctional enzyme with critical roles in base excision repair (BER) of DNA. In addition to its primary activity as an apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease in BER, Ape1 also possesses 3′-phosphodiesterase, 3′-phosphatase, and 3′→5′-exonuclease functions specific for the 3′ termini of internal nicks and gaps in DNA. The exonuclease activity is enhanced at 3′ mismatches, which suggests a possible role in BER for Ape1 as a proofreading activity for the relatively inaccurate DNA polymerase β. To elucidate this role more precisely, we investigated the ability of Ape1 to degrade DNA substrates that mimic BER intermediates. We found that the Ape1 exonuclease is active at both mismatched and correctly matched 3′ termini, with preference for mismatches. In our hands, the exonuclease activity of Ape1 was more active at one-nucleotide gaps than at nicks in DNA, even though the latter should represent the product of repair synthesis by polymerase β. However, the exonuclease activity was inhibited by the presence of nearby 5′-incised abasic residues, which result from the apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease activity of Ape1. The same was true for the recently described exonuclease activity of Escherichia coli endonuclease IV. Exonuclease III, the E. coli homolog of Ape1, did not discriminate among the different substrates. Removal of the 5′ abasic residue by polymerase β alleviated the inhibition of the Ape1 exonuclease activity. These results suggest roles for the Ape1 exonuclease during BER after both DNA repair synthesis and excision of the abasic deoxyribose-5-phosphate by polymerase β.
Spacing effects on cued-memory tests depend on level of processing.

In the reported experiments, the spacing of repetitions improved performance on cued-memory tests (a frequency judgment test and graphemic cued-recall test) when items were studied in an intentional or an incidental-semantic condition but not in an incidental-graphemic study condition. The results imply that spacing effects on cued tests depend on level of processing carried out on the stimuli rather than on intentionality of learning per se, as suggested by R. L. Greene (1989, 1990). The findings undermine a voluntary rehearsal account of spacing effects in cued tests. Alternative accounts are discussed, including the view that involuntary processes akin to semantic (or lexical) priming play a critical role in spacing effects on cued-memory tests
Exploring sensor network communication strategies with the mote-in-the-loop approach

The performance of wireless sensor networks is heavily influenced by the surrounding environment. Hence, in different scenarios different communication strategies, i.e., different packet sizes or retransmission strategies etc., are preferable. There are, however, currently no appropriate methods to investigate the optimal strategy. Analysis and simulation rely on abstract, often unrealistic assumptions and experiments with real hardware are time-consuming. Towards this end, we present mote-in-the-loop, a new approach to explore sensor network communication strategies. Our experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of our approach and make us believe that mote-in-the-loop can become a powerful and useful tool.
Single motor unit myoelectric signal analysis with nonstationary data

The information content of the myoelectric signal (MES) is commonly revealed by statistical measures in the time or frequency domain. Empirical analyses of the MES from a single motor unit have generally assumed that features are invariant with time. Theoretical and experimental work has been done to demonstrate how nonstationary behavior in the discharge statistics of a motor neuron may affect estimates of features extracted from the motor unit's contribution to the MES. Specifically, it has been shown that nonstationary behavior can markedly influence estimates of features describing motor neuron firing behavior and consequently, the low-frequency portion of the MES power spectral density. These results may help to explain the discrepancies in the literature which report empirical models of motor neuron firing statistics. <<ETX>>
State-Driven Test Generation Based On UML

Both object-oriented modeling techniques using UML and software testing play important roles in current commercial software development. The integration of test case generation and UML is highly expected. In this project, we survey the current advances of this field and introduce three representative approaches of test case generation based on UML. The respective pros and cons are discussed in depth. Finally, our vision of future direction in this field is given.
Persuasion in Family Decision-Making

This study evaluates the influence strategies used by husbands and wives in resolving disagreements concerning purchase decisions. It also identifies those characteristics of the individuals and of the situation that affect the spouse's use of influence. The results suggest that there are several socioeconomic and life-cycle variables that discriminate among groups of individuals who vary not only in the intensity of influence used, but also in the particular combination or mixes of influence strategies used. The results also indicate that most partners' perceptions of each other's influence attempts do not agree.
Water literacy: An ‘other wise’, active and cross-cultural approach to pedagogy, sustainability and human rights

Water is life's blood … all life is reciprocal Monica Morgan, Yorta Yorta woman This paper draws on Indigenous Australian relationships with water as evidenced in the particular cross-cultural and cross-literary collaboration ‘Sustainable Futures’1 between the Widjabul/Bundjalung Nations of New South Wales, Australia, and Lismore local government managed water authority, Rous Water. It also references the ecological dialogue with traditional owners put forward by Jessica Weir and the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (Victoria). In both cases non-Indigenes from economics and politics, socio-cultural geography as well as local activist citizens have been invited into dialogue, and into particular Indigenous knowledge systems, to co-create water management strategies for Australia's troubled river systems. The motivation behind such cross-cultural dialogue is hope for a meaningful future of sustainability in which human rights and notions of reverence are imbricated. The current water crisis, as articulated by Maude Barlow (Senior Advisor on Water to the President of The United Nations General Assembly), provides acute provocation for a radical re-thinking of approaches to water. This paper advances ‘other-wise’ notions of literacy, pedagogy, and epistemology to enable such re-thinking. The water crisis questions the legacy that a western lack of reverence for water, borne of narrow history making, means in current times. This inquiry is predicated on a critical need for understanding the greater properties and meanings of water beyond commodification frameworks, towards socio-cultural and spiritual knowledge and notions of reverence. To that end it locates water firstly as its ‘own self’, as part of a ‘sacred geography’ as Deborah Bird Rose suggests, and further as a pedagogical and geographical meeting place between different territories and ontologies.
Dynamic Rate Allocation for Multipath Routing under Path Stability and Prioritized Traffic Session Constraints for Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks with Selfish Secondary Users

—In this paper, we investigate the dynamic rate allocation for multipath routing with the node-disjoint paths in cognitive radio ad hoc networks composed of selfish secondary users (SUs) which are unwilling to forward the packets. We model the path stability factor of each path under a certain traffic session by distributing available channel in view of the carrier frequency of the available uplink channel on each path. Then the traffic sensing factor is also devised to characterize the priorities of different traffic sessions along the node-disjoint paths. In addition, we propose the differential game model of dynamic rate allocation for multi-path routing by taking into account both the mobility and random nature of the selfish SUs. A set of the non-cooperative optimal solutions to the dynamic rate allocation model is further obtained by deriving an optimization problem. Moreover, the distributed optimal rate update rule is developed to dynamically regulate the rate of traffic session over a certain path. Numerical results confirm that the effectiveness of the proposed dynamic rate allocation model.
Process Mining Extension to SCAMPI

Existing process assessment methods, such as SCAMPI-Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement, do not use contemporary data collection and analysis techniques like processes mining, text mining or data mining. On the contrary, they use traditional ones: questionnaires, document review, interviews and demonstrations. Process mining is a technique that can be used to aid process assessments, aiming to conduct them with greater deepness and coverage, while keeping similar level of effort. The purpose of the PhD work is to develop a framework (structure and content) to apply process mining techniques in SCAMPI assessments.
The potential for using humor in global advertising

International marketing firms offen strive to standardize their advertising campaigns in the countries where they operate. Because ofits universality, its popularity and its persuasive effect, humor may well be an advertising element which can be transferred from culture to culture. Both cognitive and affective models have been used to explain humor's role in persuasion. However, the problems associated with using humor, particularly across cultures, threaten its potential. Humor in persuasion has been criticized because it detractsfrom message comprehension and because diverse tastes in humor threaten Information processing. The international advertising trade press has long touted the benefits of advertising standardization (Levitt 1983; McCarthy 1989; McNally 1986). Consistency across cultures must be maximized before the promised economies can be realized. In order to achieve high standardization in the advertising message, copy elements within the ad should "travel well. " Communication techniques must be universal enough to promote product benefits and image across cultures. One communication technique with such potential is humor. Although the type of humor appreciated may vary considerably across cultures, humor itself is universal to humankind (Berlyne 1969; Monro 1963; Sternthal and Craig 1973). Jokes and comedy appear to be easily borrowed from culture to culture (Mintz 1983). According to a number of content analyses, humor is a frequently used communication technique in advertising. Reported frequencies in studies of American television ads ränge from 15% (Kelly and Solomon 1975) to 24% (Weinberger and Spotts 1989) to äs much äs 42% (Markiewicz 1972). One study indicates Humor 9-2 (1996), 143-168. 0933-1719/96/0009-0143 © Walter de Gruyter
An Acquired Defect in IgG-Dependent Phagocytosis Explains the Impairment in Antibody-Mediated Cellular Depletion in Lupus

B cells play important roles in autoimmune diseases ranging from multiple sclerosis to rheumatoid arthritis. B cells have also long been considered central players in systemic lupus erythematosus. However, anti-CD20–mediated B cell depletion was not effective in two clinical lupus studies, whereas anti-B lymphocyte stimulator, which inhibits B cell survival, was effective. Others and we previously found that anti-CD20–based depletion was surprisingly ineffective in tissues of lupus-prone mice, but that persistent high doses eventually led to depletion and ameliorated lupus. Lupus patients might also have incomplete depletion, as suggested in several studies, and which could have led to therapeutic failure. In this study, we investigated the mechanism of resistance to Ab-mediated cellular depletion in murine lupus. B cells from lupus-prone mice were easily depleted when transferred into normal environments or in lupus-prone mice that lacked serum Ig. Serum from lupus-prone mice transferred depletion resistance, with the active component being IgG. Because depletion is FcγR-dependent, we assayed macrophages and neutrophils exposed to lupus mouse serum, showing that they are impaired in IgG-mediated phagocytosis. We conclude that depletion resistance is an acquired, reversible phagocytic defect depending on exposure to lupus serum IgG. These results have implications for optimizing and monitoring cellular depletion therapy.
Design of a Custom RT-qPCR Array for Assignment of Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Traditional Portuguese Grapevine Varieties

Widespread agricultural losses attributed to drought, often combined with high temperatures, frequently occur in the field, namely in Mediterranean climate areas, where the existing scenarios for climate change indicate an increase in the frequency of heat waves and severe drought events in summer. Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) is the most cultivated fruit species in the world and the most valuable one and is a traditional Mediterranean species. Currently, viticulture must adjust to impending climate changes that are already pushing vine-growers toward the use of ancient and resilient varieties. Portugal is very rich in grapevine biodiversity, however, currently, 90% of the total producing area is planted with only 16 varieties. There is a pressing need to understand the existing genetic diversity and the physiological potential of the varieties/genotypes available to be able to respond to climate changes. With the above scenario in mind, an assembly of 65 differentially expresses genes (DEGs) previously identified as responsive to abiotic stresses in two well studied genotypes, ‘Touriga Nacional’ and ‘Trincadeira,’ was designed to scan the gene expression of leaf samples from 10 traditional Portuguese varieties growing in two regions with distinct environmental conditions. Forty-five of those DEGs proved to be associated to “abiotic stress” and were chosen to build a custom qPCR array to identify uncharacterized genotypes as sensitive or tolerant to abiotic stress. According to the experimental set-up behind the array design these DEGs can also be used as indicators of the main abiotic stress that the plant is subjected and responding to (drought, heat, or excess light).
Transactional Analysis in Developing Countries

Transactional analysis began about 20 years ago as a form of psychological therapy. Eric Berne, its creator, wrote that the method was aimed at improving human behaviour by making the person aware of the psychological forces which tended to influence his behaviour when he was interacting with others. The technique was simplified and has been used in management training for a number of years. Using this method, the Bank of New York, for instance, has trained about 500 managers since 1970; the American Airlines have followed suit and the United Nations Headquarters in New York has held several transactional analysis seminars as part of their regular training programmes.