Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A New EPS Control Strategy Based on Feedback of Yaw Rate and Lateral Acceleration

In this study, a new Electric Power Steering(EPS) control strategy based on feedback of vehicle yaw rate and lateral acceleration was investigated for the improvement of vehicle steering stability and increase of vehicle dynamic performance. An integrated control model based on EPS system model including steering resistance torque and full-car 3 Degree-Of-Freedom (DOF) dynamic model was developed. Various step inputs and sinusoidal inputs were applied to the integrated control model for simulation and the resulting performance was analyzed. In addition,real vehicle test was carried out. The results revealed that the proposed EPS control strategy can provide good performance of stability and controllability of the vehicle, also can reduce the rise time, the adjust time and the overshoot.
Design and Control of a Doubly-Excited Permanent-Magnet Brushless Integrated-Starter-Generator for Hybrid Electric Vehicles

This paper presents a new doubly-excited permanent-magnet (PM) brushless machine as the integrated-starter-generator (ISG) for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). The proposed machine adopts both PM and DC field winding excitations in the inner stator to produce magnetic field. Meanwhile, an additional air bridge shunt with each PM is used to amplify the flux control ability. Hence, by tuning a small DC field current, the machine can flexibly regulate the airgap flux distribution up to the range of 9 times. Therefore, through flux regulation, the proposed machine not only can provide a very high starting torque for HEV cold cranking, but also can maintain constant voltage output for battery charging over wide ranges of speeds and loads. A three-phase 36 slots 24 pole-pair prototype has been made. The time-stepping finite element method (TS-FEM) and experiments are implemented to verify the performance of the machine.
Design and Analysis of Sliding Mode Controller Under Approximate Hysteresis Compensation

A sliding mode controller (SMC) is proposed for a class of systems comprising a hysteresis operator preceding a linear system with an all-pole transfer function. The hysteresis operator is modeled with uncertain piecewise linear characteristics, and a nominal inverse operator is included to mitigate the hysteresis effect. A classical SMC design typically uses a constant coefficient in the switching component, which is tuned via trial-and-error. In this paper, a state- and time-dependent coefficient is proposed based on the derived inversion error, which eliminates the need for parameter tuning and ensures the convergence of the sliding surface to the boundary layer without compactness assumptions. In addition, singular perturbation is used to analyze the system behavior within the sliding-surface boundary layer for the case of a constant coefficient in the classical SMC design. In particular, analytical insight is gained on the frequency-scaling behavior of the tracking error under a periodic reference. Simulation and experimental results based on a piezoelectric actuator-based nanopositioner are presented to illustrate the design and analysis, where the hysteresis nonlinearity is represented by a Prandtal-Ishlinskii operator.
Scaling of Theory-of-Mind Understandings in Chinese Children

Prior research demonstrates that understanding of theory of mind develops at different paces in children raised in different cultures. Are these differences simply differences in timing, or do they represent different patterns of cultural learning? That is, to what extent are sequences of theory-of-mind understanding universal, and to what extent are they culture-specific? We addressed these questions by using a theory-of-mind scale to examine performance of 140 Chinese children living in Beijing and to compare their performance with that of 135 English-speaking children living in the United States and Australia. Results reveal a common sequence of understanding, as well as sociocultural differences in children's developing theories of mind.
Reliable Space–Time Prisms Under Travel Time Uncertainty

Time geography is a powerful framework for analyzing human activities under various space–time constraints. At the core of time geography is the concept of the space–time prism, which delimits an individual's potential activity locations in space and time. The classical space–time prism, however, admits only deterministic travel speeds and ignores the stochastic nature of travel environments. In this article, the classical space–time prism model is extended to congested road networks with travel time uncertainty. A reliable space–time prism is proposed to consider explicitly an individual's on-time arrival probability concerns in the face of travel time uncertainty. The reliable space–time prism is defined as the set of space–time locations where an individual can participate in an activity and return to his or her destination with a given on-time arrival probability. To construct such a reliable space–time prism in a road network, a solution algorithm is developed. A case study using real-world traffic information is carried out to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed prism model. The results of the case study indicate that the proposed prism model can represent well individuals’ space–time taking into account various on-time arrival probability concerns.
Nanotechnology for the Treatment of NeuroAIDS

Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com ultimately progressing to neuroAIDS [1-3]. This is mainly attributed to the integration of the HIV-1 genome into the host genome causing viral latency. The cells that harbor latent HIV typically stay in specific anatomic sites e.g. secondary lymphoid tissue, testes, liver, gut and the CNS [4,5]. The situation is more complicated because in addition to the latent reservoir, other cryptic viral sources exist during HAART, including a very small amount of active virus replication that occurs even during therapy [6]. It is not clear whether this is due to poor HAART penetration into the sites of virus replication or to residual replication that occurs even at ideal drug concentrations. Moreover, neurotoxicity and drug resistance makes the treatment of HIV infection more challenging. Thus, complete eradication of HIV-1 reservoirs from CNS remains a clinically formidable task to cure or treat NeuroAIDS [7].
Controlling reaching movements with unpredictable object motion

1 Now at: Friedrich-Miescher-Laboratory of the Max-Planck-Society Abstract In the experiment we investigated the reaching behaviour of 10-year-old children and adults for virtual objects moving either on a predictable (linear) path or an unpredictable path (with random direction changes). 24 adults and 24 10-year-olds observed a spherical object which varied in the predictability of motion (linear vs. nonlinear) and the speed of object motion (17 cm/s vs. 24 cm/s). In an action condition the participants had to reach for the objects via a force-feedback device. We compared reaching movements for the linearly moving object with reaching movements for the nonlinearly moving object (but only those trials were evaluated where the normally unpredictable object moved linear). We analysed initial movement direction and maximum speed of the first submovement. In a judgement condition participants indicated the initial movement direction on a rating scale. Children and adults produced higher initial movement speeds and the initial movement direction was geared further towards the current position of the object for unpredictably moving objects. Our results show that predictable and unpredictable behavior is processed differently.
Mixing Times and Moving Targets

We consider irreducible Markov chains on a finite state space. We show that the mixing time of any such chain is equivalent to the maximum, over initial states x and moving large sets (As)s, of the hitting time of (As)s starting from x. We prove that in the case of the d-dimensional torus the maximum hitting time of moving targets is equal to the maximum hitting time of stationary targets. Nevertheless, we construct a transitive graph where these two quantities are not equal, resolving an open question of Aldous and Fill on a ‘cat and mouse’ game.
Micro-benchmarking the GT 200 GPU

Graphics processors (GPU) are interesting for nongraphics parallel computation because of the potential for more than an order of magnitude of speedup over CPUs. Because the GPU is often presented as a C-like abstraction like Nvidia’s CUDA, little is known about the hardware architecture of the GPU beyond the high-level descriptions documented by the manufacturer. We develop a suite of micro-benchmarks to measure the CUDA-visible architectural characteristics of the Nvidia GT200 (GTX280) GPU. We measure properties of the arithmetic pipelines, the stack-based handling of branch divergence, and the warp-granularity operation of the barrier synchronization instruction. We confirm that global memory is uncached with ∼441 clock cycles of latency, and measure parameters of the three levels of instruction and constant caches and three levels of TLBs. We succeed in revealing more detail about the GT200 architecture than previously disclosed.
UKF and EKF estimator design based on a nonlinear vehicle model containing UniTire model

Dynamic model based vehicle state variables observer is a step towards economical on-board sensing system. However a complex model always leads to a control system with a poor real-time performance, while a simple model cannot exhibit real characteristics of a vehicle. In order to make an accurate and sententious estimate for yaw rate and side slip angle, an ameliorated 2-DOF bicycle model containing UniTire model is introduced. Then two observers based on Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) are introduced. And validity of the two algorithms is verified by simulation test and contrast is brought out respectively. The simulation results show that the UKF based observer performs better in accuracy and computing speed.
Immunotherapy and Targeted Therapies in Treatment of Visceral Leishmaniasis: Current Status and Future Prospects

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a vector-borne chronic infectious disease caused by the protozoan parasite Leishmania donovani or Leishmania infantum. VL is a serious public health problem, causing high morbidity and mortality in the developing world with an estimated 0.2–0.4 million new cases each year. In the absence of a vaccine, chemotherapy remains the favored option for disease control, but is limited by a narrow therapeutic index, significant toxicities, and frequently acquired resistance. Improved understanding of VL pathogenesis offers the development and deployment of immune based treatment options either alone or in combination with chemotherapy. Modulations of host immune response include the inhibition of molecular pathways that are crucial for parasite growth and maintenance; and stimulation of host effectors immune responses that restore the impaired effector functions. In this review, we highlight the challenges in treatment of VL with a particular emphasis on immunotherapy and targeted therapies to improve clinical outcomes.
L'incidence des LBO sur la politique d'investissement et la gestion opérationnelle des firmes acquises:le cas français

In this paper, we study to what extent French LBOs investment policy and operations can explain their overperformance discrepancy. Our empirical study has been carried out on 132 French LBOs between 1989 and 1994. The results show that the abnormal falling of their economic return cannot be explained neither by overinvestment nor by a lack of efficiency in their working capital management. Nevertheless, abnormal in-creases in wages, in supplies and/or sales price reductions appear to be preeminent.
Information, incentives, and bargaining in the Japanese economy

This book is not another parable of Japan's economic success; it provides rich and systematic descriptions of Japanese microeconomic institutions and interprets their work in terms familiar to Western economists. A systematic, in-depth analysis of Japanese institutions of this kind has never been available before. In making his comparative analysis of the Japanese system, Professor Aoki critically examines conventional notions about the microstructure of the market economy that have strongly shaped and influenced economists' approach to industrial organization (e.g., hierarchy as the alternative to the market, the firm as a propery of the stockholders, and market-oriented incentive contracts). While these notions may constitute an appropriate foundation for the analysis of the highly market-oriented Western economies, the author has found that a more complete understanding of the Japanese economy requires us to broaden such 'specific' notions. At one level, therefore, this book may be regarded as a provocative exercise in comparative industrial organization and the theory of the firm. To the extent that this approach is convincing, the book suggests a reordering of focus and emphasis in these studies.
Radical reform of the civil service

Chapter 1 Foreward Chapter 2 Why Radica Reform? Chapter 3 A History of the Federal Civil Service: A Values-Based Perspective Chapter 4 The Great Transformation? : Administrative and Civil Service Reform in Western Democracies Chapter 5 Thinking the Unthinkable in Public Administration: A Case for Spoils in the Federal Bureaucracy Chapter 6 Rethinking the Unthinkable: A Cautionary Note Chapter 7 A Radical Idea Welcomed - But with Some Buts Chapter 8 A Return to Spoils: The Wrong Solution for the Right Problem Chapter 9 Rejoinder to Maranto: Been There Chapter 10 Rethinking the Unthinkable: Reply to Durant Chapter 11 Merit without the System: An Emergent Model for Public Sector HRM Chapter 12 Human Resource Management Reform in the States: Entrepeneurialism and Incremental Change Chapter 13 Georgia's Civil Service Reform: A Four Year Assessment Chapter 14 Beyond Civil Service: New Roles and New Tools for Public Personnel Managers Chapter 15 Radical Reform: Some Concluding Remarks
Cross-generalization: learning novel classes from a single example by feature replacement

We develop an object classification method that can learn a novel class from a single training example. In this method, experience with already learned classes is used to facilitate the learning of novel classes. Our classification scheme employs features that discriminate between class and non-class images. For a novel class, new features are derived by selecting features that proved useful for already learned classification tasks, and adapting these features to the new classification task. This adaptation is performed by replacing the features from already learned classes with similar features taken from the novel class. A single example of a novel class is sufficient to perform feature adaptation and achieve useful classification performance. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can learn a novel class from a single training example, using 10 additional familiar classes. The performance is significantly improved compared to using no feature adaptation. The robustness of the proposed feature adaptation concept is demonstrated by similar performance gains across 107 widely varying object categories.
The Plasmodium falciparum Translationally Controlled Tumor Protein (TCTP) Is Incorporated More Efficiently into B Cells than Its Human Homologue

Plasmodium falciparum secretes a homologue of the translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) into serum of infected individuals, although its role in pathogenesis or virulence is unknown. To determine the effect of P. falciparum TCTP on B cells as compared to human TCTP, fluorescently labeled proteins were incubated on primary cultures of mouse splenic B cells and analyzed by flow cytometry and confocal microscopy. Our results indicate that both recombinant proteins are incorporated into B cells, but differ significantly in their rate and percentage of incorporation, being significantly higher for P. falciparum TCTP. Furthermore, P. falciparum TCTP showed a lower B cell proliferative effect than human TCTP, suggesting a mechanism through which the former could interfere in the host's immune response.
A New Approach Based on Genetic Algorithm for Optimal Reactive Power Flow Solution in Multi-terminal ACDC Systems

This paper presents a new approach based on Genetic Algorithm (GA) for the solution of Optimal Reactive Power Flow (ORPF) in multiterminal ac-dc systems. Active power loss optimization is implemented through GA considering the constraints of entire multi-terminal ac-dc system. Ac-dc power flow is solved by sequential method. So, any ac and dc power flow algorithm can be used effectively in the proposed approach. Unlike the similar studies, active powers of all converters except at least one are selected as control variables for ORPF in this study to achieve most suitable converter active powers and converter types that improve active power loss minimization.This paper presents the first study that utilizes GA for the solution of optimal reactive power flow in multi-terminal ac-dc systems in the literature. The proposed approach is tested on the modified IEEE 14-bus ac-dc test system. The obtained results by this study and another alternative study are also given. Comparative results showed that the proposed approach is more efficient and reliable in reaching to a global optimum while satisfying entire system constraints. Streszczenie. W artykule przedstawiono propozycję metody zarządzania rozpływem mocy biernej w sieci AC-DC, opartej na algorytmie genetycznym. Optymalizacja strat mocy czynnej została dokonana przez uwzględnienie w algorytmie ograniczeń w całym systemie AC-DC. Proponowane rozwiązanie jest pierwszym tego typu podejściem do optymalizacji rozpływu mocy biernej w wieloterminalowej sieci. Testy wykonane zostały na zmodyfikowanym 14-szynowym systemie w standardzie IEEE. Analiza porównawcza z innymi rozwiązaniami wskazuje, na większą skuteczność i niezawodność przedstawionej metody. (Optymalizacja rozpływu mocy biernej w wieloterminalowym systemie AC-DC w oparciu o algorytm genetyczny).
A first-order solution to simultaneous localization and mapping with graphical models

In this work we investigate the problem of Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) for the case in which the information acquired by the robot is modeled as a network of constraints in a graphical model. Analyzing the resulting formulation we propose a closed-form approach to tackle the problem, which is proved to retrieve a first-order approximation of the actual nonlinear solution, under mild assumptions on the structure of the involved covariance matrices. The outcome of the analysis reveals several desirable properties of the proposed approach: no initial guess for optimization is needed and the technique is able to correctly estimate robot posterior also in presence of arbitrarily long loops. The approach is further validated by means of extensive simulations and real tests, and the consistency of the estimation process is also evaluated. We remark that this work is not intended to extend the already crowded literature on SLAM but is aimed at providing a consistent analytical insight, useful for efficiently attacking several open research issues, like active SLAM and exploration, for which the computational cost of simulating SLAM posterior still constitutes a troublesome bottleneck.
Adenylate Cyclase Toxin Promotes Internalisation of Integrins and Raft Components and Decreases Macrophage Adhesion Capacity

Bordetella pertussis, the bacterium that causes whooping cough, secretes an adenylate cyclase toxin (ACT) that must be post-translationally palmitoylated in the bacterium cytosol to be active. The toxin targets phagocytes expressing the CD11b/CD18 integrin receptor. It delivers a catalytic adenylate cyclase domain into the target cell cytosol producing a rapid increase of intracellular cAMP concentration that suppresses bactericidal functions of the phagocyte. ACT also induces calcium fluxes into target cells. Biochemical, biophysical and cell biology approaches have been applied here to show evidence that ACT and integrin molecules, along with other raft components, are rapidly internalized by the macrophages in a toxin-induced calcium rise-dependent process. The toxin-triggered internalisation events occur through two different routes of entry, chlorpromazine-sensitive receptor-mediated endocytosis and clathrin-independent internalisation, maybe acting in parallel. ACT locates into raft-like domains, and is internalised, also in cells devoid of receptor. Altogether our results suggest that adenylate cyclase toxin, and maybe other homologous pathogenic toxins from the RTX (Repeats in Toxin) family to which ACT belongs, may be endowed with an intrinsic capacity to, directly and efficiently, insert into raft-like domains, promoting there its multiple activities. One direct consequence of the integrin removal from the cell surface of the macrophages is the hampering of their adhesion ability, a fundamental property in the immune response of the leukocytes that could be instrumental in the pathogenesis of Bordetella pertussis.
The Effects of Mindful Awareness Teaching Practices on the Executive Functions of Students in an Urban, Low Income Middle School

Purpose This research project evaluated the effectiveness of a school-based program of mindful awareness on the executive functions of 40 sixth grade children, ages 11-12 years, in an urban, low income, public middle school in a randomized control study. Although mindful awareness is often viewed as a multi-faceted construct, this study operationally defines mindful awareness as defined by the Wellness Works in Schools Program and is based primarily on research on the executive functions behaviors that manifest themselves cognitively, emotionally, and physically. Inhibition, emotional control, initiation, working memory, monitoring, and organizational skills are examples of executive function capabilities. Self regulation and focused attention behaviors as related to executive function are important for children’s emerging academic achievement in school (Blair & Razza, 2007). Poor executive function may manifest as a lack of concentration, impulsivity, inability to understand and/or retain information, inability to transition to new tasks, and poor socio-emotional adjustment; all of which can affect academic functioning in the classroom. This study builds on the existing work of Flook et al (2010) which found some support for improved executive functioning in elementary and preschool children as a result of participation in a mindful awareness program. However, to date, there is no known research that looks at the effects of mindful awareness programs on executive function behaviors in urban, low-income middle school aged students. We believe we fill a much-needed gap in the research literature by conducting the present study with such a population.
The differential effects of agency costs on multinational corporations

This study develops arguments explaining why agency costs are more pronounced for firms with higher degrees of multinational business. Empirical tests are conducted to determine whether firms with more exposure to foreign markets have greater agency costs than less exposed firms. Specifically, valuation effects of security offerings are assessed cross-sectionally to determine whether the change in the firm's value attributed to agency costs is associated with the firm's degree of international business. It was found that valuation effects associated with security offering announcements are more negative for firms with higher degrees of international business, which supports the hypothesis presented. The results suggest that better monitoring could be especially beneficial to MNCs with large exposure to foreign markets.