Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Robust control of systems with RHP zeros and poles via disturbance observer

Non-minimum phase plants cause fundamental design constraints, such as bandwidth limitation, in the feed-back control systems due to their peculiar phase characteristics. Therefore, the control problem of non-minimum phase systems is quantifiably harder than the minimum phase's one. Furthermore, the control problem becomes more severe in the presence of system uncertainties and external disturbances. In this paper, we propose a disturbance observer (DOB) based solution for the robust control problem of non-minimum phase systems. This paper shows that non-minimum phase systems limit the DOB's bandwidth, which is one of the most significant design parameters in the DOB based robust control systems, to satisfy robustness. The Poisson integral formula is utilized so that the bandwidth limitations are derived analytically. As a result, a new analysis and design tool is proposed for the robust control problem of non-minimum phase systems by using the DOB. The proposed method is implemented into two different non-minimum phase plant models, which have right half plane (RHP) zero and pole, and its validity is shown by given simulation results.
Evidence for an Essential Deglycosylation-Independent Activity of PNGase in Drosophila melanogaster

Background Peptide:N-glycanase (PNGase) is an enzyme which releases N-linked glycans from glycopeptides/glycoproteins. This enzyme plays a role in the ER-associated degradation (ERAD) pathway in yeast and mice, but the biological importance of this activity remains unknown. Principal Findings In this study, we characterized the ortholog of cytoplasmic PNGases, PNGase-like (Pngl), in Drosophila melanogaster. Pngl was found to have a molecular weight of ∼74K and was mainly localized in the cytosol. Pngl lacks a CXXC motif that is critical for enzymatic activity in other species and accordingly did not appear to possess PNGase activity, though it still retains carbohydrate-binding activity. We generated microdeletions in the Pngl locus in order to investigate the functional importance of this protein in vivo. Elimination of Pngl led to a serious developmental delay or arrest during the larval and pupal stages, and surviving mutant adult males and females were frequently sterile. Most importantly, these phenotypes were rescued by ubiquitous expression of Pngl, clearly indicating that those phenotypic consequences were indeed due to the lack of functional Pngl. Interestingly, a putative “catalytic-inactive” mutant could not rescue the growth-delay phenotype, indicating that a biochemical activity of this protein is important for its biological function. Conclusion Pngl was shown to be inevitable for the proper developmental transition and the biochemical properties other than deglycosylation activity is important for its biological function.
The Energy - momentum tensor for cosmological perturbations

We study the effective energy-momentum tensor (EMT) for cosmological perturbations and formulate the gravitational back-reaction problem in a gauge-invariant manner. We analyze the explicit expressions for the EMT in the cases of scalar metric fluctuations and of gravitational waves and derive the resulting equations of state. The formalism is applied to investigate the back-reaction effects in chaotic inflation. We find that for long wavelength scalar and tensor perturbations, the effective energy density is negative and thus counteracts any preexisting cosmological constant. For scalar perturbations during an epoch of inflation, the equation of state is de Sitter-like. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}
Divergence and minimum mean-square error in continuous-time additive white Gaussian noise channels

New relations between the divergence of a process measure in the function space relative to the measure of the Gaussian process with the same covariance, and both the causal minimum mean-square error (CMMSE) and the noncausal minimum mean-square error (MMSE), are proved. As an example-a special type of signal which is composed of a sum of independent narrow-band waves, the divergence and its derivative relative to the signal energy to the white Gaussian noise (WGN) energy ratio, is calculated. The results are used to evaluate the CMMSE and the MMSE of the signal optimum estimation. Since the divergence takes also a significant role in the derivation of the capacity of the additive non-Gaussian channel, we use the calculation that was made for the divergence in the example to evaluate the capacity of an additive noise channel, where the noise is composed of the sum of WGN and narrow-band interferes
Vertices of localized imbalance in a biased graph

A biased graph consists of a graph T and a subclass B of the polygons of T, such that no theta subgraph of T contains exactly two members of B. A subgraph is balanced when all its polygons belong to B. A vertex is a balancing vertex if deleting it leaves a balanced graph. We give a construction for unbalanced biased graphs having a balancing vertex and we show that an unbalanced biased graph having more than one balancing vertex is an unbalanced series or parallel connection of balanced graphs. Introduction. A polygon in a graph T is the edge set of a simple closed path. A subclass of polygons of T is a linear subclass if no theta subgraph of T contains exactly two polygons in the subclass. A biased graph consists of a graph T and a linear subclass S of polygons of T [2]. A subgraph or edge set is balanced if every polygon in it belongs to B. Biased graphs are a generalization of ordinary graphs, in the sense that for most purposes the latter can be treated as biased graphs that are balanced. For instance, a biased graph (r, B) has a "bias matroid" G(T, B) and a "lift matroid" L(T,B) (see [3]), which when (T,B) is balanced equal the usual polygon matroid of T. We say that the imbalance of a biased graph (T,B) is localized at a vertex v if the vertex-deleted subgraph T \ v is balanced. Briefly, we call v a balancing vertex. We are interested in biased graphs that have balancing vertices because in several senses they are among the least unbalanced. For one thing, by definition they are the unbalanced graphs in which balance results by deleting the fewest vertices. They are also the simplest kind of unbalanced graph having no two vertex-disjoint unbalanced polygons. Finally, they are among those biased graphs whose bias and lift matroids are graphic matroids. In this article we see that the set V* of balancing vertices of (T,B) is usually empty and we describe the exceptions (see the Theorem and Corollary 2). Definitions and a lemma. We let T denote a graph (V, E) with vertex set V and edge set E. All graphs are finite. Loops and multiple edges are allowed. By mKi we mean m links (edges with two distinct endpoints) in parallel on two vertices. By the polygon graph C¡ we mean the graph of a simple, closed path of length /; in particular, C2 = 2K2. Received by the editors November 20, 1985 and, in revised form, June 14, 1986. 1980 Mathematics Subject Classification (1985 Revision). Primary 05C99; Secondary 05C25.
Perillyl Alcohol Protects Against Fe-NTA-Induced Nephrotoxicity and Early Tumor Promotional Events in Rat Experimental Model

Plants have been widely used as protective agents against a wide variety of processes and compounds that damage tissues via free radical mechanisms. Perillyl alcohol (PA) is a naturally occurring monoterpene found in the essential oils of numerous species of plants including mints, cherries and celery seeds. This monocyclic monoterpene has shown antioxidant and therapeutic activity in various studies against various xenobiotics. In this study, we have analyzed the effects of PA against single intraperitoneal dose of ferric nitrilotriacetate (Fe-NTA) (9 mg iron per kg body weight)-induced nephrotoxicity and early tumor promotional events. The pretreatment of Fe-NTA-treated rats with 0.5% per kg body weight dose and 1% per kg body weight dose of PA for seven consecutive days significantly reversed the Fe-NTA-induced malondialdehyde formation, xanthine oxidase activity (P < 0.001), ornithine decarboxylase activity (P < 0.001) and 3[H]thymidine incorporation in renal DNA (P < 0.001) with simultaneous significant depletion in serum toxicity markers blood urea nitrogen and creatinine (P < 0.001). Significant restoration at both the doses was recorded in depleted renal glutathione content, and its dependent enzymes with prophylactic treatment of PA. Present results suggest that PA potentially attenuates against Fe-NTA-induced oxidative damage and tumor promotional events that preclude its development as a future drug to avert the free radical-induced toxicity.
Shape of the Galactic Orbits in the CNOC1 Clusters

We present an analysis of the orbital properties of nine intermediate-redshift clusters of the Canadian Network for Observational Cosmology (CNOC1) survey and compare them to a control sample of 12 nearby clusters. Similar to the nearby elliptical galaxies, the bulge-dominated galaxies in clusters at redshifts ~0.1-0.4 present orbits that are more eccentric than those of disk-dominated galaxies. However, the orbital segregation is less significant than that found for elliptical and spiral galaxies in nearby clusters. The strongest orbital segregation is found when galaxies are separated by colors [red galaxies with colors in the rest frame (U-V)0 > 1.4, blue galaxies with (U-V)0 ≤ 1.4]. Therefore, the segregation we find seems to modify the star formation activity more efficiently than the internal shape of the galaxies. When we compare the orbits of early-type galaxies at intermediate redshift with those for z = 0, they seem to develop significant changes, becoming much more eccentric. A different behavior is observed in the late-type galaxies, which present no significant evolution in their orbit shapes.
Symbolic User Model Representation in User Modeling Shell Systems

A wide range of methods for user model representation and reasoning (UMRR) has been employed in previous systems. In a first part, the thesis that is described in this paper develops a scheme for characterizing symbolic UMRR systems and introduces a description language for user model contents that can be used as a reference. Furthermore, it will be tried to discover relationships between UMRR methods and application domains. In the second and main part, a UMRR system is presented that is part of the shell system BGP-MS. It provides powerful representation and inference techniques to satisfy complex application needs, but can be configured down to better suit applications with lower demands without causing unnecessary representational overhead. Finally, future directions of UMRR research are discussed.
Joint time offset and fading channel coefficient estimation for cooperative communication systems

In this paper, we investigate joint channel gain and time offset estimation for two different data aided methods in cooperative communication with amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying. First one is the Cascaded Estimation (CE) method which channel gain, and time offset consisting of both source-to-relay, and relay-to-destination links are estimated at the destination terminal, second one is Disintegrated Estimation (DE) method which channel gain, and time offset are estimated seperately at the relay for source-to-relay link, and at the destination for relay-to-destination link. Both of the proposed joint estimators are based on Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm and, produce a low-complexity solution of itaretive maximum likelihood (ML) estimation. It was observed by the bit error rate (BER) curves, the proposed methods provide good performances with low-complexity.
The Effects of Parent Workshops on the Home Literacy Environments of Urban Prekindergarten Children

The purpose of this study was to determine if a series of parent workshops based on early literacy development would empower parents to provide their prekindergarten children with increased literature-rich materials and experiences within their homes. The fifteen subjects were the parents of prekindergarten students attending an urban school in western New York. The subjects attended a series of parent workshops which focused on incorporating literature events into everyday life activities. The subjects completed a pre survey and post survey. This researcher-designed survey was used as a pre-assessment and post-assessment to determine the quantity of literature-rich materials which were present and activities which occurred within each subject's home. This study shows an effective model for a parent workshop directed at helping urban prekindergarten parents develop their children's language and literacy skills in their home environment. The results of this study indicated that parents did provide for more literacy development to occur. It is apparent from the survey results, that the workshop participants facilitated an increased awareness of the text in their children's everyday lives.
MOLES: Malicious off-chip leakage enabled by side-channels

Economic incentives have driven the semiconductor industry to separate design from fabrication in recent years. This trend leads to potential vulnerabilities from untrusted circuit foundries to covertly implant malicious hardware Trojans into a genuine design. Hardware Trojans provide back doors for on-chip manipulation, or leak secret information off-chip once the compromised IC is deployed in the field. This paper explores the design space of hardware Trojans and proposes a novel technique, “Malicious Off-chip Leakage Enabled by Side-channels” (MOLES), which employs power side-channels to convey secret information off-chip. An experimental MOLES circuit is designed with fewer than 50 gates and is embedded into an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) cryptographic circuit in a predictive 45nm CMOS technology model. Engineered by a spread-spectrum technique, the MOLES technique is capable of leaking multi-bit information below the noise power level of the host IC to evade evaluators' detections. In addition, a generalized methodology for a class of MOLES circuits and design verification by statistical correlation analysis are presented. The goal of this work is to demonstrate the potential threats of MOLES on embedded system security. Nevertheless, MOLES could be constructively used for hardware authentication, fingerprinting and IP protection.
An Effective Video Shot Boundary Detection Method Based on the Local Color Features of Interest Points

Video shot boundary detection is an important early stage of video analysis. In this paper, a new method for shot boundary detection using local color features (LCF) is presented. Firstly, interest points are detected for each frame. Then, local images are obtained based on the interest points. Finally, shot boundaries are detected based on the histogram difference of local images. LCF can overcome the deficiency of traditional histogram-based method that different contents frames have similar histograms, and can distinguish between gradual changes and camera motions effectively. Experimental results successfully validate the new method and show that it can effectively detect both abrupt transitions and gradual transitions.
Accurate parameter estimation for amplitude modulated sinusoidal signals incorporating smoothness constraints

Amplitude modulated sinusoidal signals arise in a wide variety of applications, e.g. in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy [1], Doppler radar [2], and wide-band frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar signal processing. In some cases the type of amplitude modulation, e.g. exponential or polynomial, is known a priori, whereas in most practical cases such detailed information is not available. In this paper we derive estimators for the frequency, phase, and the modulation when only prior knowledge about the worst-case variation/smoothness of the modulation is available. No assumption on the type of modulation in terms of a parametric model is made. The estimators are compared to the best possible performance given by the Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRB) derived in [3]. Furthermore, they are shown to outperform the well-known “squaring loop” estimator [4, pp. 186], [5] that does not incorporate the smoothness of the modulation in terms of variance, threshold level (i.e. minimum necessary SNR for reliable operation), and restriction of the allowable range of signal frequencies in comparison to the sampling frequency. The presented method to incorporate constraints e.g. on the smoothness of the linear parameters in a parameter estimation problems with linear and nonlinear parameters is suitable to be applied in general constrained parameter estimation problems.
Developing a Model of Team Skill Decay

Predicting team skill decay can support decisions intended to counter erosion of U.S. industrial base essential design skills. Despite the large extant research investigating both individual and team skill acquisition, there is no comprehensive model of skill decay involving intact teams (Day et al., 2013). We conducted a literature review and identified retention interval, initial skill level, task, environment, and team as the critical factors in determining team skill decay. Sub-factors for each critical variable were also specified. A model incorporating each factor is proposed, and in a related research effort (Trani et al., 2017), initial results of applying the model to industry-wide skill decay prediction is presented. Being able to predict and estimate team skill decay supports long-term planning and assessment in all types of industry—from military systems relevant to the industrial base to specific fields such as aviation and healthcare.
PIC-based receiver structure for 5G downlink NOMA

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is considered as a promising multiple access scheme for 5G downlink transmission. In this paper, we first review the existing downlink NOMA with successive interference cancellation (SIC) and then highlight some of the critical performance limiting factors related to SIC which can result in the performance degradation of NOMA. In order to alleviate the problems posed by SIC, we propose an alternate receiver structure for downlink NOMA based on parallel interference cancellation (PIC), along with some design consideration factors. The simulation results show that the proposed receiver outperforms that with SIC and hence is a promising receiver structure for future 5G downlink NOMA.
Market Liquidity and Institutional Trading During the 2007-8 Financial Crisis

This paper shows that institutional sell-side herding increased bid–ask spreads and liquidity risk during the 2007–8 financial crisis. Such an impact on liquidity is most pronounced in firms with large numbers of institutions that sold the same stocks, that is, have correlated trades. For the same reason, we find institutional investors with a dedicated, buy-and-hold, investment style to be the least likely to herd; their trading activity did not affect stock market liquidity during the crisis. Our results are robust to alternative explanations, different test specifications and consistent with recent theories highlighting the negative impact of institutional trading activity on market liquidity during a crisis.
The Role Of Oxidative Stress In The Pathogenesis Of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

THE ROLE OF OXIDATIVE STRESS IN THE PATHOGENESIS OF EPITHELIAL OVARIAN CANCER by NICOLE MARIE FLETCHER-KING August 2013 Advisor: Dr. Ghassan Saed Major: Physiology Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic malignancies yet the underlying pathophysiology is not clearly established. The disease is usually diagnosed in the advanced stage and carries a poor prognosis. The 5-year survival rate is greater than 75% if diagnosis of the cancer occurs at an early stage; however, this rate drops to 20% when the tumor has spread beyond its origin. Thus, a method for early detection is critically needed, which can help prolong, or even save lives. Currently, an effective screening test for ovarian cancer is lacking. Many tests have been evaluated but have been found to be lacking in sensitivity, specificity, or both. This becomes even more difficult as ovarian cancer is so rare in the general population, with an estimated prevalence of 0.04%. To date, 96% is the highest sensitivity recorded for the early detection of ovarian cancer. However, because of the low prevalence of ovarian cancer, a sensitivity and specificity of 96% would only detect 1 case of cancer per 100 oophorectomies done for positive screens due to the high false positive rate. Clinical and epidemiological investigations have provided evidence supporting the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the prognosis and metastasis of cancer due to exogenous factors that lead to chronic inflammation. In addition, cancer cells are frequently under
Alcohol Consumption and Insulin Concentrations Role of Insulin in Associations of Alcohol Intake With High‐Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol and Triglycerides

BackgroundThe relation between alcohol intake and insulin levels may explain, in part, the reported associations of alcohol with cardiovascular disease risk factors, including high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, and glucose levels, each of which has been recognized as a component of the insulin resistance syndrome. Methods and ResultsSubjects included nondiabetic participants of the Kaiser Permanente Women Twins Study (1989 through 1990). Usual alcohol intake was assessed as part of a food frequency questionnaire. For women from twin pairs in which both twins drank (n=338), an increment of 12 g of alcohol per day (about one drink) was associated with an 8% lower 2-hour post-glucose-load insulin (P<.01) in a multiple regression analysis for twin data, adjusted for age, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, total caloric intake, and family history of diabetes. With genetic influences removed by matched analysis of the subset of 98 monozygotic twin pairs, an intrapair difference of 12 g of alcohol per day was associated with a 12.4% intrapair decrement in postload insulin (P<.01). Inverse associations were also seen for fasting insulin. Alcohol consumption was inversely associated with postload glucose but not with fasting glucose in unmatched (P=.05) and matched (P=.005) analyses. A significant positive association of alcohol intake with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and an inverse relation of alcohol intake with triglycerides were each independent of insulin levels (Ps.02 in the matched models). Neither systolic nor diastolic blood pressures were related to alcohol consumption in this sample, perhaps because of the rather low level of alcohol intake in the study population (median, 4 g/d). ConclusionsWithin the range of light to moderate drinking habits, alcohol consumption was inversely related to fasting and postload insulin levels. This relation did not explain associations of alcohol intake with lipid levels and may instead reflect an additional mechanism by which moderate alcohol consumption impacts cardiovascular disease risk.