Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prognosis of chip-loss failure in high-power IGBT module by self-testing

Reliability is of great importance for power converter systems, such as metro, high-speed train and offshore wind turbine. Bonding wire lift-off is a common failure in IGBT module due to the thermomechanical fatigue under cyclical temperature and power swings. Consequently, this will lead to the chip-loss failure gradually in a high power multi-chip IGBT module during long-term operation. To prevent a catastrophic failure from happening, a self-testing technique for IGBT module is proposed in this paper to detect the chip-loss failure at initial stage. During the test, a shoot-through current is imposed on the device under test (DUT) by gate control and its peak value is selected as the failure criterion for chip-loss failure prognosis. Since the IGBT switching behavior changes after failure, the shoot-through current will deviate from its initial value, which can be detected for failure prognosis. For safety, the self-testing is conducted intermittently on-site during system down time and the shoot-through current is limited less than the IGBT rated current at lowered DC voltage. To clarify the method, its test scheme, working principle and implementation are firstly discussed in the paper. Then, experimental work was carried out on a test rig with 3.3kV/800A IGBT modules (emulating a metro traction drive system) to verify the method. Preliminary test results demonstrate that the proposed self-testing method is a simple and effective technique for detecting the gradually developed IGBT chip-loss failure.
An assembly strategy scheduling method for human and robot coordinated cell manufacturing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a model of assembly strategy generation and selection for human and robot coordinated (HRC) cell assembly. High‐Mix, Low‐Volume production in small production manufacturing industry, tends to employ more flexible assembly cells. The authors propose innovative human and robot coordinated assembly cells to solve the problem of persistent growing cost for human resources and occasional changes in programs and configurations for robots. The first issue is to find out an optimal way to allocate the assembly subtasks to both humans and robots.Design/methodology/approach – A dual Generalized Stochastic Petri Net (GSPN) model is theoretically studied and then off line built based on a practical assembly task for human and robot coordination. Based on GSPN, Monte Carlo method is carried out to study the time cost and payment cost or possible strategies, and Multiple‐Objective Optimization (MOOP) method related Cost‐effectiveness analysis is adopted to select the op.
Environmental Persistence and Infectivity of Oocysts of Two Species of Gregarines, Blabericola migrator and Blabericola cubensis (Apicomplexa: Eugregarinida: Blabericolidae), Parasitizing Blaberid Cockroaches (Dictyoptera: Blaberidae)

Abstract For apicomplexan parasites using an oral-fecal transmission route with significant environmental exposure, the environmental persistence and infectivity of the oocyst has a direct impact on local infection dynamics, including the ability to withstand extended periods without readily available hosts. Herein we quantify the environmental persistence and infectivity of the oocysts of 2 septate gregarine species at controlled temperature and humidity and demonstrate that they can persist over multiple generational time spans. Species of Blabericola generally complete their endogenous life cycles from oocyst to oocyst within 10 days. The median residual environmental oocyst lifetime for Blabericola oocysts in this study is 21–28 days, but a significant number of oocysts of Blabericola migrator persisted and remained infective in the environment for up to 39 days while those of Blabericola cubensis persisted and remained infective for up to 92 days. Although long-lived relative to their own generational time, the oocysts of Blabericola species infecting cockroaches are short-lived relative to gregarines infecting tenebrionid beetles. For these gregarines, oocysts can persist in the environment and remain infective for up to 787 days. Mechanistically, environmental persistence and infectivity are probably energy-limited phenomena related to the amount of stored amylopectin and the basal metabolic rate of quiescent oocysts.
Knowledge extraction by probabilistic cognitive structure modeling using a Bayesian network for use by a retail service

By understanding the behavior, satisfaction level, or values of the customer, the productivity and level of customer satisfaction of a service industry can be improved. Such customer-based considerations are estimated from questionnaire data in a general manner. The useful estimation of such considerations requires effective methods for modeling the cognitive structures of customers based on such data. However, it is difficult to model the behavior or decision making process of the customer, which involves nonlinear or non-Gaussian variables, using conventional statistical modeling techniques, which assume linear or Gaussian models. The present paper describes a method of constructing a probabilistic model of the cognitive structure of the customer, which clarifies the satisfaction level and decision making process of the customer of a retail service through statistical graphical modeling. The proposed method constructs a probabilistic cognitive structure model by integrating questionnaire data and a Bayesian network, which can handle nonlinear and non-Gaussian variables as conditional probabilities. The model structure can be constructed automatically based on information criteria and can embed some of the experiences of the model designer and/or physical or social rules in advance. The proposed method is applied to an analysis of the requested function from customers regarding the continued use of an item of interest. We obtained useful knowledge for function design and marketing from the model constructed by a simulation and sensitivity analysis. The proposed method can be applied to various services that use a variety of data.
Recently Evolved Tumor Suppressor Transcript TP73-AS1 Functions as Sponge of Human-Specific miR-941

Abstract MicroRNA (miRNA) sponges are vital components of posttranscriptional gene regulation. Yet, only a limited number of miRNA sponges have been identified. Here, we show that the recently evolved noncoding tumor suppressor transcript, antisense RNA to TP73 gene (TP73‐AS1), functions as a natural sponge of human‐specific miRNA miR‐941. We find unusually nine high‐affinity miR‐941 binding sites clustering within 1 kb region on TP73‐AS1, which forms miR‐941 sponge region. This sponge region displays increased sequence constraint only in humans, and its formation can be traced to the tandem expansion of a 71‐nt‐long sequence containing a single miR‐941 binding site in old world monkeys. We further confirm TP73‐AS1 functions as an efficient miR‐941 sponge based on massive transcriptome data analyses, wound‐healing assay, and Argonaute protein immunoprecipitation experiments conducted in cell lines. The expression of miR‐941 and its sponge correlate inversely across multiple healthy and cancerous tissues, with miR‐941 being highly expressed in tumors and preferentially repressing tumor suppressors. Thus, the TP73‐AS1 and miR‐941 duo represents an unusual case of the extremely rapid evolution of noncoding regulators controlling cell migration, proliferation, and tumorigenesis.
Near-Optimal Total Order Message Scattering in Data Center Networks

Distributed transaction processing is an important workload in data centers. One line of work [5, 7, 15] use locks to protect from conflicts among concurrent transactions. Clearly, for a contented object, the lock must be held for a network RTT per transaction, limiting the transaction throughput to 1/RTT [8]. The other line of work, optimistic concurrency control [9] assigns a logical timestamp to each transaction and orders transactions by the timestamps. A transaction needs rollback when a node receives a late write that conflicts with a previous read [4]. If the network has an ordering property to ensure transactions are received in strict timestamp order, single round-trip transactions can be processed without locks and rollbacks (in the absence of failure) [2]. Our work follows the trend of co-designing distributed systems with network layer [10, 12]. We propose total order message scattering to ensure each receiver processes transaction messages in timestamp order, so that each transaction is processed atomically. On the sender side, send(messages) scatters a group of messages with an automatically generated unique timestamp. Each message is a tuple of application data and a recipient. Transaction processing requires scattering different messages to different receivers atomically, and each message may span multiple packets. Mostly-Ordered Multicast [12] and NOPaxos [10] cannot guarantee ordering of multi-packet messages. Furthermore, [10, 12] require a centralized switch or sequencer, while we hope to leverage multiple shortest paths to improve network utilization. On the receiver side, recv() receives a message and returns data and sender. The messages are guaranteed to be delivered to the application in increasing timestamp order. Because packet loss in data center networks with carefully engineered hop-by-hop flow control or end-to-end congestion control are rare [12], we follow the end-to-end principle in system design [13] and leave packet loss detection and recovery to applications, as in [10, 12].
TGFβ upregulates PAR-1 expression and signalling responses in A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells

The major high-affinity thrombin receptor, proteinase activated receptor-1 (PAR-1) is expressed at low levels by the normal epithelium but is upregulated in many types of cancer, including lung cancer. The thrombin-PAR-1 signalling axis contributes to the activation of latent TGFβ in response to tissue injury via an αvβ6 integrin-mediated mechanism. TGFβ is a pleiotropic cytokine that acts as a tumour suppressor in normal and dysplastic cells but switches into a tumour promoter in advanced tumours. In this study we demonstrate that TGFβ is a positive regulator of PAR-1 expression in A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells, which in turn increases the sensitivity of these cells to thrombin signalling. We further demonstrate that this effect is Smad3-, ERK1/2- and Sp1-dependent. We also show that TGFβ-mediated PAR-1 upregulation is accompanied by increased expression of integrin αv and β6 subunits. Finally, TGFβ pre-stimulation promotes increased migratory potential of A549 to thrombin. These data have important implications for our understanding of the interplay between coagulation and TGFβ signalling responses in lung cancer.
Evidence That Transition from Health to Psychotic Disorder Can Be Traced to Semi-Ubiquitous Environmental Effects Operating against Background Genetic Risk

Background In order to assess the importance of environmental and genetic risk on transition from health to psychotic disorder, a prospective study of individuals at average (n = 462) and high genetic risk (n = 810) was conducted. Method A three-year cohort study examined the rate of transition to psychotic disorder. Binary measures indexing environmental exposure (combining urban birth, cannabis use, ethnicity and childhood trauma) and proxy genetic risk (high-risk sibling status) were used to model transition. Results The majority of high-risk siblings (68%) and healthy comparison subjects (60%) had been exposed to one or more environmental risks. The risk of transition in siblings (n = 9, 1.1%) was higher than the risk in healthy comparison subjects (n = 2, 0.4%; ORadj = 2.2,95%CI:5–10.3). All transitions (100%) were associated with environmental exposure, compared to 65% of non-transitions (p = 0.014), with the greatest effects for childhood trauma (ORadj = 34.4,95%CI:4.4–267.4), cannabis use (OR = 4.1,95%CI:1.1, 15.4), minority ethnic group (OR = 3.8,95%CI:1.2,12.8) and urban birth (OR = 3.7,95%CI:0.9,15.4). The proportion of transitions in the population attributable to environmental and genetic risk ranged from 28% for minority ethnic group, 45% for urban birth, 57% for cannabis use, 86% for childhood trauma, and 50% for high-risk sibling status. Nine out of 11 transitions (82%) were exposed to both genetic and environmental risk, compared to only 43% of non-transitions (p = 0.03). Conclusion Environmental risk associated with transition to psychotic disorder is semi-ubiquitous regardless of genetic high risk status. Careful prospective documentation suggests most transitions can be attributed to powerful environmental effects that become detectable when analysed against elevated background genetic risk, indicating gene-environment interaction.
Prodynorphin gene deletion increased anxiety-like behaviours, impaired the anxiolytic effect of bromazepam and altered GABAA receptor subunits gene expression in the amygdala

This study evaluated the role of prodynorphin gene in the regulation of anxiety and associated molecular mechanisms. Emotional responses were assessed using the light–dark test, elevated plus maze and social interaction tests in prodynorphin knockout and wild-type mice. Corticotrophin releasing factor and proopiomelanocortin gene expressions in the hypothalamus were evaluated after restraint stress using in situ hybridization. The anxiolytic efficacy of bromazepam and GABAA receptor subunits gene expression in the amygdala were also assessed in both genotypes. The deletion of prodynorphin increased anxiety-like behaviours and proopiomelanocortin gene expression in the arcuate nucleus (two-fold). Moreover, the anxiolytic action of bromazepam was significantly attenuated in the mutant mice. Decreased GABAAγ2 and increased GABAAβ2 gene expression receptor subunits were found in the amygdala of prodynorphin knockout mice. These results indicate that deletion of prodynorphin gene is associated with increased anxiety-like behaviours, enhanced sensibility response to stress stimuli, reduced anxiolytic efficacy of bromazepam and altered expression of the GABAA receptor subunits.
A Novel Approach to Priority based Focused Crawler

The web continues to grow at an exponential rate so fetching relevant information about a specific topic is gaining importance. Web crawlers are programs that traverse the web and fetch the web documents in an automated manner. Focused crawlers search for a specific keyword in a web page. Link based focused crawlers focus on the anchor links of the page and seeks out the most relevant links without actually downloading the web page itself. This paper is based on assigning priorities to different links so that the most relevant links are displayed to the user first. The insignificant links are avoided which leads to significant savings in the computational costs involved in query processing, network, as well as the hardware resources.
Fructose and glucose co-ingestion during prolonged exercise increases lactate and glucose fluxes and oxidation compared with an equimolar intake of glucose.

BACKGROUND When fructose is ingested together with glucose (GLUFRU) during exercise, plasma lactate and exogenous carbohydrate oxidation rates are higher than with glucose alone. OBJECTIVE The objective was to investigate to what extent GLUFRU increased lactate kinetics and oxidation rate and gluconeogenesis from lactate (GNG(L)) and from fructose (GNG(F)). DESIGN Seven endurance-trained men performed 120 min of exercise at ≈60% VO₂max (maximal oxygen consumption) while ingesting 1.2 g glucose/min + 0.8 g of either glucose or fructose/min (GLUFRU). In 2 trials, the effects of glucose and GLUFRU on lactate and glucose kinetics were investigated with glucose and lactate tracers. In a third trial, labeled fructose was added to GLUFRU to assess fructose disposal. RESULTS In GLUFRU, lactate appearance (120 ± 6 μmol · kg⁻¹ · min⁻¹), lactate disappearance (121 ± 7 μmol · kg⁻¹ · min⁻¹), and oxidation (127 ± 12 μmol · kg⁻¹ · min⁻¹) rates increased significantly (P < 0.001) in comparison with glucose alone (94 ± 16, 95 ± 16, and 97 ± 16 μmol · kg⁻¹ · min⁻¹, respectively). GNG(L) was negligible in both conditions. In GLUFRU, GNG(F) and exogenous fructose oxidation increased with time and leveled off at 18.8 ± 3.7 and 38 ± 4 μmol · kg⁻¹ · min⁻¹, respectively, at 100 min. Plasma glucose appearance rate was significantly higher (P < 0.01) in GLUFRU (91 ± 6 μmol · kg⁻¹ · min⁻¹) than in glucose alone (82 ± 9 μmol · kg⁻¹ · min⁻¹). Carbohydrate oxidation rate was higher (P < 0.05) in GLUFRU. CONCLUSIONS Fructose increased total carbohydrate oxidation, lactate production and oxidation, and GNG(F). Fructose oxidation was explained equally by fructose-derived lactate and glucose oxidation, most likely in skeletal and cardiac muscle. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01128647.
TiO2 Photocatalysis: A Historical Overview and Future Prospects

Photocatalysis has recently become a common word and various products using photocatalytic functions have been commercialized. Among many candidates for photocatalysts, TiO2 is almost the only material suitable for industrial use at present and also probably in the future. This is because TiO2 has the most efficient photoactivity, the highest stability and the lowest cost. More significantly, it has been used as a white pigment from ancient times, and thus, its safety to humans and the environment is guaranteed by history. There are two types of photochemical reaction proceeding on a TiO2 surface when irradiated with ultraviolet light. One includes the photo-induced redox reactions of adsorbed substances, and the other is the photo-induced hydrophilic conversion of TiO2 itself. The former type has been known since the early part of the 20th century, but the latter was found only at the end of the century. The combination of these two functions has opened up various novel applications of TiO2, particularly in the field of building materials. Here, we review the progress of the scientific research on TiO2 photocatalysis as well as its industrial applications, and describe future prospects of this field mainly based on the present authors' work.
System regression test prioritization in factory automation: Relating functional system tests to the tested code using field data

After changes to a system in factory automation, testers are under high time pressure to ensure that changes did not introduce new faults, so-called regressions. This is done using regression testing by re-performing system test, i.e. functional test cases relating to the complete automated production system (aPS), to identify whether previously tested functionality is still fulfilling the requirements. Up to now, system regression testing is exclusively performed manually, heavily relying on the ability and stress resistance of the tester. This results in fluctuating regression test quality and unnecessarily prolonged test processes due to choosing and performing irrelevant test cases. In this paper, an approach in which the tester is supported in choosing, prioritizing and performing relevant test cases during regression testing by means of gathering and analyzing field data acquired during the original execution of the system tests is proposed. By using a guided system testing approach and instrumenting the control program implemented in the IEC 61131-3, it is possible to record relevant data during testing efficiently, in line with real-time constraints that are prevalent in the factory automation domain. The concepts and an evaluation based on two performed experiments using a laboratory case study are presented. The evaluation regarding the performance of the prioritizing approach as well as its run-time properties show promising results for an application in the factory automation domain.
Resource-efficient Incremental learning in very high dimensions

We propose a three-layer neural architecture for incremental multi-class learning that remains resource-efficient even when the number of input dimensions is very high (≥ 1000). This so-called projection-prediction (PROPRE) architecture is strongly inspired by biological information processing in that it uses a prototype-based, topologically organized hidden layers trained with the SOM learning rule controlled by a global, task-related error signal. Furthermore, the SOM learning adapts only the weights of localized neural sub-populations that are similar to the input, which explicitly avoids the catastrophic forgetting effect of MLPs in case new input statistics are presented to the architecture. As the readout layer uses simple linear regression, the approach essentially applies locally linear models to " receptive fields " (RF) defined by SOM prototypes, whereas RF shape is implicitly defined by adjacent prototypes (which avoids the storage of covariance matrices that gets prohibitive for high input dimensionality). Both RF centers and shapes are jointly adapted w.r. t. input statistics and the classification task. Tests on the MNIST dataset show that the algorithm achieves compares favorably compared to the state-of-the-art LWPR algorithm at vastly decreased resource requirements .
Antimicrobial Susceptibility Trends among Staphylococcus aureus Isolates from U.S. Hospitals: Results from 7 Years of the Ceftaroline (AWARE) Surveillance Program, 2010 to 2016

ABSTRACT We evaluated trends in Staphylococcus aureus antimicrobial susceptibility in U.S. hospitals in the 2010–2016 period. A total of 21,056 clinical isolates from 42 medical centers were tested for susceptibility by broth microdilution methods. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) rates decreased from 50.0% (in 2010) to 42.2% (in 2016). Susceptibility to erythromycin, levofloxacin, and clindamycin increased slightly, whereas susceptibility to ceftaroline, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and tetracycline remained stable. Ceftaroline retained potent activity against methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) and MRSA (97.2% susceptible) with no marked variations.
Mitochondrial deficits and abnormal mitochondrial retrograde axonal transport play a role in the pathogenesis of mutant Hsp27-induced Charcot Marie Tooth Disease

Abstract Mutations in the small heat shock protein Hsp27, encoded by the HSPB1 gene, have been shown to cause Charcot Marie Tooth Disease type 2 (CMT-2) or distal hereditary motor neuropathy (dHMN). Protein aggregation and axonal transport deficits have been implicated in the disease. In this study, we conducted analysis of bidirectional movements of mitochondria in primary motor neuron axons expressing wild type and mutant Hsp27. We found significantly slower retrograde transport of mitochondria in Ser135Phe, Pro39Leu and Arg140Gly mutant Hsp27 expressing motor neurons than in wild type Hsp27 neurons, although anterograde movement velocities remained normal. Retrograde transport of other important cargoes, such as the p75 neurotrophic factor receptor was minimally altered in mutant Hsp27 neurons, implicating that axonal transport deficits primarily affect mitochondria and the axonal transport machinery itself is less affected. Investigation of mitochondrial function revealed a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential in mutant Hsp27 expressing motor axons, as well as a reduction in mitochondrial complex 1 activity, increased vulnerability of mitochondria to mitochondrial stressors, leading to elevated superoxide release and reduced mitochondrial glutathione (GSH) levels, although cytosolic GSH remained normal. This mitochondrial redox imbalance in mutant Hsp27 motor neurons is likely to cause low level of oxidative stress, which in turn will contribute to, and indeed may be the underlying cause of the deficits in mitochondrial axonal transport. Together, these findings suggest that the mitochondrial abnormalities in mutant Hsp27-induced neuropathies may be a primary cause of pathology, leading to further deficits in the mitochondrial axonal transport and onset of disease.