Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi-Frequency Impedance Transformers for Frequency-Dependent Complex Loads

In this paper, a general synthesis method is proposed for the design of multi-frequency impedance transformers (MFITs) for arbitrary frequency-dependent complex loads (FDCLs) by adopting the concept of multi-frequency inverters (MFIs). An MFI, which is placed between two susceptance blocks, is constructed with a transmission line and two-side multi-frequency susceptances (MFSs), whose values at multiple frequencies are independently specified. By merging neighboring susceptances, we get a very simple Pi-shaped topology of MFITs, which in theory has no limitation on the number of matching frequencies. The MFS blocks are realized with one or more parallel shunt stubs, providing needed susceptance values at several specified frequencies. A genetic algorithm is used in extracting the circuit parameters of the parallel stubs. Several dual-, triple-, and quad-frequency impedance transformers for FDCLs are designed for illustrating the design methods. Experiment and simulation results are compared with good agreement, validating the feasibility of the theory. The designed impedance transformers are concise in circuit and compact in dimensions.
Search Strategy, Self-Concept and Metacognitive Skills of Secondary School Teachers in Selected Cities in Nigeria and South Africa

Abstract Information Literacy (IL) is fundamental for lifelong learning, especially for the teaching profession, where information is critical for imparting knowledge to students who are expected to be creative, critical thinkers and lifelong learners. The study investigates the search strategy, self-concept and metacognitive skills of secondary school teachers in selected cities in Nigeria and South Africa. The study adopted a post-positivist research paradigm combining both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies largely through a multi- case study research design. Data were gathered through questionnaires, interviews, observation and document analysis that included a literature review. The target population was secondary school teachers in Lagos and Durban. The sample for the research was drawn from teachers in government secondary schools in Lagos and Durban. A multi-stage sampling technique was used in the first stage to purposively select samples from the two cities of Lagos and Durban in order to make comparisons. The second stage involved stratified random sampling, and the third stage applied simple random sampling. Literature analysis and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) were used to inform the study. The study revealed the following: (i) teachers in Durban had a higher level of perception of the need for information literacy than their counterparts in Lagos; (ii) electronic information resources were infrequently used by the teachers; (iii) younger teachers tended to possess a higher level of information literacy than their older colleagues, which proves why in-service training is imperative; (iv) female teachers were significantly more information literate than their male counterparts; (v) many of the school libraries seem to have been afterthoughts, and the specifications for library building and planning were not observed as itemized by IFLA library building guidelines; and (vi) interaction and collaboration between teachers and librarians was limited. Recommendations have been made regarding how the issues and challenges could be addressed and solved with IL policy and work shopping of teachers for IL.
Low-Serotonin Levels Increase Delayed Reward Discounting in Humans

Previous animal experiments have shown that serotonin is involved in the control of impulsive choice, as characterized by high preference for small immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards. Previous human studies under serotonin manipulation, however, have been either inconclusive on the effect on impulsivity or have shown an effect in the speed of action–reward learning or the optimality of action choice. Here, we manipulated central serotonergic levels of healthy volunteers by dietary tryptophan depletion and loading. Subjects performed a “dynamic” delayed reward choice task that required a continuous update of the reward value estimates to maximize total gain. By using a computational model of delayed reward choice learning, we estimated the parameters governing the subjects' reward choices in low-, normal, and high-serotonin conditions. We found an increase of proportion in small reward choices, together with an increase in the rate of discounting of delayed rewards in the low-serotonin condition compared with the control and high-serotonin conditions. There were no significant differences between conditions in the speed of learning of the estimated delayed reward values or in the variability of reward choice. Therefore, in line with previous animal experiments, our results show that low-serotonin levels steepen delayed reward discounting in humans. The combined results of our previous and current studies suggest that serotonin may adjust the rate of delayed reward discounting via the modulation of specific loops in parallel corticobasal ganglia circuits.
Improving Searching Performance Based on Semantic Correlativity in Peer to Peer Network

Most existing peer-to-peer (P2P) systems support only title-based searches, which can not satisfy the content searches. In this paper, we proposed a semantic correlativity model which can support semantic content-based searches. Firstly, using VSM to represent content and using KNN algorithm to implement self- clustering. Secondly, based on framework, accessing to compute semantic similarity, SCRA policy is proposed to improve routing performance with prefetch technology. By this model, routing overhead can be greatly reduced. At last, preliminary simulation results show that SCRA achieves a great routing performance over the previous algorithms.
Multitemporal RADARSAT-2 polarimetric SAR data for urban land-cover mapping

The objective of this research is to evaluate the performance of multitemporal RADARSAT-2 polarimetric SAR data for urban land use/land-cover classification. Three dates of RADARSAT-2 polarimetric SAR data were acquired during the summer of 2008 over the rural-urban fringe of the Greater Toronto Area. The major land-cover types are residential areas, industry areas, bare land, golf courses, forest, and agricultural crops. The methodology used in this study follow the manner that first extracting the features and then carrying out the supervised classification taking the different feature combinations as an input. Support vectors machine is selected to be the classifier. SAR features including amplitude, intensity, long-term coherence, Freeman-Durden decomposition are extracted and compared by evaluating the classification abilities. Long-term coherence plays an important role in building discrimination in this study. The best classification results achieved by using the three dates HH, VH, HV amplitude layers and the coherence map. The overall accuracy is 82.3%. The results indicate that RADARSAT-2 polarimetric data has a potential to urban land-cover classification with the proper feature combinations.
A Temporal Role Of Type I Interferon Signaling in CD8+ T Cell Maturation during Acute West Nile Virus Infection

A genetic absence of the common IFN- α/β signaling receptor (IFNAR) in mice is associated with enhanced viral replication and altered adaptive immune responses. However, analysis of IFNAR-/- mice is limited for studying the functions of type I IFN at discrete stages of viral infection. To define the temporal functions of type I IFN signaling in the context of infection by West Nile virus (WNV), we treated mice with MAR1-5A3, a neutralizing, non cell-depleting anti-IFNAR antibody. Inhibition of type I IFN signaling at or before day 2 after infection was associated with markedly enhanced viral burden, whereas treatment at day 4 had substantially less effect on WNV dissemination. While antibody treatment prior to infection resulted in massive expansion of virus-specific CD8+ T cells, blockade of type I IFN signaling starting at day 4 induced dysfunctional CD8+ T cells with depressed cytokine responses and expression of phenotypic markers suggesting exhaustion. Thus, only the later maturation phase of anti-WNV CD8+ T cell development requires type I IFN signaling. WNV infection experiments in BATF3 -/- mice, which lack CD8-α dendritic cells and have impaired priming due to inefficient antigen cross-presentation, revealed a similar effect of blocking IFN signaling on CD8+ T cell maturation. Collectively, our results suggest that cell non-autonomous type I IFN signaling shapes maturation of antiviral CD8+ T cell response at a stage distinct from the initial priming event.
Votes and Comments in Recommender Systems : The Case of Digg Tasos Spiliotopoulos Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute University of Madeira

In this paper we describe Digg, a successful social news aggregator web site. Digg allows users to submit links to news stories, as well as vote and comment on other submitted stories. It also enables users to designate other users as friends and makes it easy to track their activities, thereby creating a social network within Digg. We perform a statistical analysis of a sample of 1000 popular stories on Digg. We explore relationships and correlations between the two main ways of interacting with submissions on the website and we explain that votes (diggs) and comments constitute qualitatively different mechanisms for providing recommendations. Furthermore, we investigate the voting and commenting behavior for different content categories and discover significant differences among them. Author
Research on compressed sensing of KL domain with limited feedback in MIMO-OFDM system

In order to solve the problem of feedback link overhead in MIMO-OFDM system, and improve the transmission efficiency, a limited feedback method based on KL domain is proposed in this paper. In this method, the state information which is obtained from the channel estimation performed in KL domain sparse at the receiving end. Thereby a small amount of linear measurements are obtained which represents the total channel state information, Then these measurements are fed back to the transmitting end. In the transmitter, the channel state information is reconstructed through orthogonal matching pursuit algorithm. The simulation results show that the proposed limited feedback based on KL (Karhuner-Loeve) domain method can achieve full channel state feedback effect and decreases the overhead in the feedback link.
Pulsatility of ascending aortic pressure waveform is a powerful predictor of restenosis after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.

BACKGROUND Because ascending aortic pressure has a greater effect on coronary perfusion during diastole than systole, we hypothesized that a high coronary diastolic-to-systolic pressure ratio prevents coronary lesions from restenosing after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) and that ascending aortic pulsatility relative to mean pressure is higher in patients with restenosis than in those without restenosis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate prospectively whether the morphology of the ascending aortic pressure wave can be used to predict restenosis after PTCA. METHODS AND RESULTS We measured the coronary artery diameter and the aortic pressure before PTCA. To quantify the relative magnitude of the pulsatile-to-mean aortic pressure, we normalized the pulse pressure to mean pressure and referred to this value as the fractional pulse pressure (PPf). We prospectively investigated the effect of PPf in relation to subsequent risk of restenosis after PTCA in patients with coronary artery disease. PPf was a powerful predictor of restenosis. Crude cumulative incidence rates of restenosis were 17.6% for the lowest, 33.3% for the middle, and 77. 8% for the highest tertile of PPf levels. After adjustments for age, smoking habits, systolic blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, old myocardial infarction, vessel location, vessel size, and sex, the odds ratio of restenosis was 33.5 (95% confidence interval, 2.04 to 550.6) for the highest tertile of the PPf level compared with the lowest tertile level. CONCLUSIONS Pulsatility of the ascending aortic pressure is a predictive factor for restenosis after PTCA.
Money demand and disinflation in selected CEECs during the accession to the EU

A panel data set for six countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) is used to estimate money demand with panel cointegration methods over the recent disinflation period. The basic money demand model is able to convincingly explain the long-run dynamics of M2 in the selected countries. However, money demand is found to have been significantly determined by the euro area interest rates and the exchange rate against the euro, which indicates possible instability of money demand functions in the Central and Eastern European countries. Therefore, direct inflation targeting is an appropriate monetary regime before the eventual adoption of the euro.
Object detection based on contour learning and template matching

A method of object detecting based on local contour learning and matching is proposed. Firstly, the representative images are obtained through unsupervised clustering to be as templates. The local contour information of template is extracted and generalized as the template feature, at the same time, codebook dictionary of local contour is built up. Secondly, based on codebook dictionary, using simple sliding-window mechanism and vote algorithm to select initial candidate object windows, the final object windows are got from initial candidate windows based on template feature matching. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed approach is able to consistently identify and accurately detect the objects with better performance than the existing methods.
THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION OF HERITAGE BUILDINGS

Traditionally within the developed western world, decisions concerning the preservation of heritage buildings and sites have been primarily based upon economic measurement and criteria. It is recognised that heritage assets offer many experiential qualities and hold importance to the wider lives of individuals; specifically, tourists and host communities imbue the sites with their own personal values and subjective significance. They seek personal meaning and connection through their experiences with heritage. In this way, the accountability of heritage building preservation can be viewed in greater terms than solely their economic value. Despite this recognition, there remains a lack of attention in previous heritage tourism studies towards exploring the personal meaning and experiential qualities of heritage buildings, with the exception of the literature focusing on buildings of religious significance. Further, the spiritual value of heritage has been explored largely within the context of sites of religious significance; spirituality though is a broader, more encompassing concept than religion. This paper explores the spiritual value ascribed by international tourists to heritage buildings within a particular region of New Zealand: Hawke’s Bay. Sixty-six photograph-supported interviews conducted with international tourists found that heritage buildings can hold deep ‘spiritual’ meaning to individuals. Rather than any religious significance, findings showed that heritage buildings render the townscape an experiential ‘spiritual’ space filled with emotion, mindfulness, engagement and personal meaning. The paper concludes that this finding has important implications for the way in which heritage buildings are promoted, developed and preserved within a destination townscape.
A text analytics-based approach to compute coverage, readability and comprehensibility of eBooks

This paper presents our text analytics-based algorithmic formulation for qualitative evaluation of eBooks. Our algorithmic approach computes qualitative aspects of an eBook, particularly its coverage, readability and comprehensibility. Measurement of these qualitative aspects required parsing the eBook text and extracting different information from it such as the concepts described in the eBook. For computing coverage, we have used some standard reference documents in a novel manner. For readability, we have resorted to standard definition and metrics for readability described in some past works. The comprehensibility aspect computation is based on coherent, cohesive and sequentially progressive discussion of learning concepts described in the eBook. The qualitative aspects are quantified in terms of numerical values. The system is tested on a small but diverse dataset of about 30 eBooks. The results are validated by using external information about eBook popularity collected from the Word Wide Web, such as eBook review, and performing sentiment analysis on them. The results obtained give us a fair measure of qualitative account of an eBook on the parameters of coverage, readability and comprehensibility and demonstrates the usefulness of our algorithmic approach.
Differential immune clonal selection algorithm

Based on the antibody clonal selection theory of immunology and differential evolution paradigm, we put forward a novel artificial immune system algorithm, differential immune clonal selection algorithm, termed as DICSA. The DICSA evolves and improves the population by clonal proliferation operator, differential mutation operator, differential crossover operator and (mu+lambda)-selection operator. In experiments, six composition functions are used to validate the performance of the DICSA. The results confirm its potential to solve the global optimization problems.
Research and Design of Web-Based Wireless Sensor Network Management System for Greenhouse

Greenhouse environment is a special application of wireless sensor network, efficient real-time monitor and control is the key point. For well solve this problem, this paper researches and designs a Web-based management system with embedded control platform. The system provides a human-based monitor and control platform for the wireless sensor network for greenhouse.
Model order reduction for decentralized PID control design on TITO processes

Abstract The decentralized PID control design of multivariable processes is an appealing approach due to its practical applicability and the existence of a good theoretical basis. However, although industrial processes may be modeled using simple first order and second order models, in decentralized control, the models increase their complexity due to loop interaction, compromising the applicability of existing PID tuning rules. In fact, even inverse response behavior may appear due to loop interaction. The contribution of the article is twofold. First, we derive conditions to assess the inverse response behavior of reduced effective transfer functions. As a result, we know when tuning rules for first order and minimum phase second order models are suited for decentralized control tunning. Secondly, at the sight of matrix transfer function parameters, we derive simplified models in a straightforward way. The results are useful for decentralized MIMO process control design using simple tuning rules derived for first order and second order systems.
Action Video Gaming and Cognitive Control: Playing First Person Shooter Games Is Associated with Improved Action Cascading but Not Inhibition

There is a constantly growing interest in developing efficient methods to enhance cognitive functioning and/or to ameliorate cognitive deficits. One particular line of research focuses on the possibly cognitive enhancing effects that action video game (AVG) playing may have on game players. Interestingly, AVGs, especially first person shooter games, require gamers to develop different action control strategies to rapidly react to fast moving visual and auditory stimuli, and to flexibly adapt their behaviour to the ever-changing context. This study investigated whether and to what extent experience with such videogames is associated with enhanced performance on cognitive control tasks that require similar abilities. Experienced action videogame-players (AVGPs) and individuals with little to no videogame experience (NVGPs) performed a stop-change paradigm that provides a relatively well-established diagnostic measure of action cascading and response inhibition. Replicating previous findings, AVGPs showed higher efficiency in response execution, but not improved response inhibition (i.e. inhibitory control), as compared to NVGPs. More importantly, compared to NVGPs, AVGPs showed enhanced action cascading processes when an interruption (stop) and a change towards an alternative response were required simultaneously, as well as when such a change had to occur after the completion of the stop process. Our findings suggest that playing AVGs is associated with enhanced action cascading and multi-component behaviour without affecting inhibitory control.
Technical Evaluation of Superconducting Fault Current Limiters Used in a Micro-Grid by Considering the Fault Characteristics of Distributed Generation, Energy Storage and Power Loads

Concerning the development of a micro-grid integrated with multiple intermittent renewable energy resources, one of the main issues is related to the improvement of its robustness against short-circuit faults. In a sense, the superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) can be regarded as a feasible approach to enhance the transient performance of a micro-grid under fault conditions. In this paper, the fault transient analysis of a micro-grid, including distributed generation, energy storage and power loads, is conducted, and regarding the application of one or more flux-coupling-type SFCLs in the micro-grid, an integrated technical evaluation method considering current-limiting performance, bus voltage stability and device cost is proposed. In order to assess the performance of the SFCLs and verify the effectiveness of the evaluation method, different fault cases of a 10-kV micro-grid with photovoltaic (PV), wind generator and energy storage are simulated in the MATLAB software. The results show that, the efficient use of the SFCLs for the micro-grid can contribute to reducing the fault current, improving the voltage sags and suppressing the frequency fluctuations. Moreover, there will be a compromise design to fully take advantage of the SFCL parameters, and thus, the transient performance of the micro-grid can be guaranteed.
Distributed resource control using shadowed subgraphs

As software defined networks (SDN) grow in size and in number, the problem of coordinating the actions of multiple SDN controllers will grow in importance. In this paper, we propose a way of organizing SDN control based on coordinated subgraph shadowing. Graphs are a natural way to think about and describe SDN activity. Subgraphs provide a means to share a subset of a network's resources. Shadowing provides a means to dynamically update shared subgraphs. Leveraging advances in graph databases and our shadowing messaging technique, we discuss our implementation of a multi-domain virtual private network (VPN) using multi-protocol label switching (MPLS).