Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new single-stage three-phase AC/DC medium voltage step-up transformer-less converter with ZVS for wind energy systems

The use of medium voltage DC grid in offshore wind farms power architecture is becoming a promising solution to eliminate the bulky line frequency transformers used in the conventional AC power transmission system. In this power architecture, several wind turbines are first connected to a collective medium voltage DC grid (20~60kV) through an AC/DC power conversion and a medium voltage step-up DC/DC converter. A central step-up DC/DC converter is then used to step-up the medium voltage to high voltage (> 600kV) for HVDC transmission. In order to reduce the number of power conversion stage, this paper proposes a new single-stage three-phase AC/DC medium voltage step-up transformer-less converter for high power wind turbines. The proposed converter is a constant frequency converter and it is controlled by varying the phase-shift between 2 three level circuits. A three-phase boost rectifier is then integrated with the transform-less step-up converter to become a single stage power converter. The converter's characteristics and its operating waveforms will be discussed in this paper. Results will be provided to highlight the merits of the proposed converter.
Labor Market Reforms: Issues, Evidence and Prospects

The study of labor market segmentation and the estimation of the deadweight loss due to policy distortions reflected in wage structures require analyses of labor force surveys. These data are increasingly available in most countries. But evaluations of labor market reforms are uncommon. The lack of documented labor market reforms may reflect the difficulty of reducing wage distortions by direct policy measures, and the greater capacity of trade reforms and changes in industrial structure to erode wage distortions indirectly, and thereby promote efficiency and economic growth. The economic case for labor market reforms should nonetheless strengthen support for allied policies.
Pseudohyponatremia: Does It Matter in Current Clinical Practice?

Serum consists of water (93% of serum volume) and nonaqueous components, mainly lipids and proteins (7% of serum volume). Sodium is restricted to serum water. In states of hyperproteinemia or hyperlipidemia, there is an increased mass of the nonaqueous components of serum and a concomitant decrease in the proportion of serum composed of water. Thus, pseudohyponatremia results because the flame photometry method measures sodium concentration in whole plasma. A sodium-selective electrode gives the true, physiologically pertinent sodium concentration because it measures sodium activity in serum water. Whereas the serum sample is diluted in indirect potentiometry, the sample is not diluted in direct potentiometry. Because only direct reading gives an accurate concentration, we suspect that indirect potentiometry which many hospital laboratories are now using may mislead us to confusion in interpreting the serum sodium data. However, it seems that indirect potentiometry very rarely gives us discernibly low serum sodium levels in cases with hyperproteinemia and hyperlipidemia. As long as small margins of errors are kept in mind of clinicians when serum sodium is measured from the patients with hyperproteinemia or hyperlipidemia, the present methods for measuring sodium concentration in serum by indirect sodium-selective electrode potentiometry could be maintained in the clinical practice.
Magnetization transfer ratio abnormalities reflect clinically relevant grey matter damage in multiple sclerosis

Background In multiple sclerosis, grey matter (GM) damage appears more clinically relevant than either white matter damage or lesion load. Objective We investigated if normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) and grey matter tissue changes assessed by magnetization transfer ratio were associated with long-term disability. Methods Sixty-nine people were assessed 20 years after presentation with a clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) [28 still CIS, 31 relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, 10 secondary progressive multiple sclerosis], along with 19 healthy subjects. Mean magnetization transfer ratio, peak height (PH) and peak location of the normalized magnetization transfer ratio histograms were determined in NAWM and grey matter, as well as, white matter and GM Fraction (GMF) and T2-weighted lesion load. Results Median expanded disability status scale for multiple sclerosis patients was 2.5 (range 1–8). GM-PH, and less so, NAWM mean and peak location, were lower in multiple sclerosis patients (P = 0.009) versus controls, relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis versus CIS (P = 0.008) and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis versus relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (P = 0.002). GM-PH (as well as GMF) correlated with expanded disability status scale (r s = −0.49; P = 0.001) and multiple sclerosis functional score (r s = 0.51; P = 0.001). GM-PH independently predicted disability with similar strength to the associations of GMF with clinical measures. Conclusion Grey matter damage was related to long-term disability in multiple sclerosis cohort with a relatively low median expanded disability status scale. Markers of intrinsic grey matter damage (magnetization transfer ratio) and tissue loss offer clinically relevant information in multiple sclerosis.
Structural and Population Polymorphism of RT-Like Sequences in Avian Schistosomes Trichobilharzia szidati (Platyhelminthes: Digenea: Schistosomatidae)

Recently we developed the genus-specific markers of the avian schistosomes of the genus Trichobilharzia, the causative agents of human cercarial dermatitis. The 7 novel genome sequences of T. franki, T. regenti, and T. szidati revealed similarity with genome repeat region of African schistosome Schistosoma mansoni. In the present work we analyzed the 37 new T. szidati sequences to study intragenome variability and host specificity for the parasite from three localities of East Europe. DNAs were isolated from cercariae or single sporocysts obtained from 6 lymnaeid snails Lymnaea stagnalis and L. palustris from Belarus and Russia. All sequences formed three diverged groups, one of which consists of the sequences with multiple deletions; other groups involved two paralogous copies with stop codons and frameshift mutations. Strong association between geographical distribution and snail host specificity cannot be established. All studied sequences have homology with the reverse transcriptase domain (RT) of Penelope-like elements (PLE) of S. mansoni and S. japonicum and new members of RT family were identified. We proposed that three diverged groups RT sequences of T. szidati are results of duplication or transposition of PLE during parasite evolution. Implications of the retroelement dynamics in the life history of avian schistosomes are discussed.
Ranking causal variants and associated regions in genome-wide association studies by the support vector machine and random forest

We study the number of causal variants and associated regions identified by top SNPs in rankings given by the popular 1 df chi-squared statistic, support vector machine (SVM) and the random forest (RF) on simulated and real data. If we apply the SVM and RF to the top 2r chi-square-ranked SNPs, where r is the number of SNPs with P-values within the Bonferroni correction, we find that both improve the ranks of causal variants and associated regions and achieve higher power on simulated data. These improvements, however, as well as stability of the SVM and RF rankings, progressively decrease as the cutoff increases to 5r and 10r. As applications we compare the ranks of previously replicated SNPs in real data, associated regions in type 1 diabetes, as provided by the Type 1 Diabetes Consortium, and disease risk prediction accuracies as given by top ranked SNPs by the three methods. Software and webserver are available at http://svmsnps.njit. edu.
Rate of Change and other Metrics: a Live Study of the World Wide Web

Caching in the World Wide Web is based on two critical assumptions: that a significant fraction of requests reaccess resources that have already been retrieved; and that those resources do not change between accesses. We tested the validity of these assumptions, and their dependence on characteristics of Web resources, including access rate, age at time of reference, content type, resource size, and Internet top-level domain. We also measured the rate at which resources change, and the prevalence of duplicate copies in the Web. We quantified the potential benefit of a shared proxy-caching server in a large environment by using traces that were collected at the Internet connection points for two large corporations, representing significant numbers of references. Only 22% of the resources referenced in the traces we analyzed were accessed more than once, but about half of the references were to those multiply-referenced resources. Of this half, 13% were to a resource that had been modified since the previous traced reference to it. We found that the content type and rate of access have a strong influence on these metrics, the domain has a moderate influence, and size has little effect. In addition, we studied other aspects of the rate of change, including semantic differences such as the insertion or deletion of anchors, phone numbers, and email addresses.
Face Detection Based on SkinColor Using Neural Networks

The present invention provides a method for type determination in body fluids of antibodies of a definite immunoglobulin class which are directed against an antigen A according to the immunoassay principle by incubation of the sample solution with at least two receptors R1 and R2, of which R1 is immobilizable and binds with the antibody to be determined and R2 is labelled and binds either with the antibody to be determined or with the antigen A, separation of the solid phase from the liquid phase and measurement of the label in one of the two phases, wherein the immunological reaction is carried out in homogeneous phase and the sample solution is incubated simultaneously with receptor R1 and an excess of human antibodies or fragments thereof which belong to the same immunoglobulin class as the antibody to be determined and are not bindable with the antigen A and subsequently receptor R2 and possibly further receptors are added thereto. The present invention also provides a reagent for carrying out this method.
Mass Transport of Proform of a Kdel-Tailed Cysteine Proteinase (Sh-EP) to Protein Storage Vacuoles by Endoplasmic Reticulum–Derived Vesicle Is Involved in Protein Mobilization in Germinating Seeds

A vacuolar cysteine proteinase, designated SH-EP, is expressed in the cotyledon of germinated Vigna mungo seeds and is responsible for the degradation of storage proteins. SH-EP is a characteristic vacuolar proteinase possessing a COOH-terminal endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention sequence, KDEL. In this work, immunocytochemical analysis of the cotyledon cells of germinated V. mungo seeds was performed using seven kinds of antibodies to identify the intracellular transport pathway of SH-EP from ER to protein storage vacuoles. A proform of SH-EP synthesized in ER accumulated at the edge or middle region of ER where the transport vesicle was formed. The vesicle containing a large amount of proSH-EP, termed KV, budded off from ER, bypassed the Golgi complex, and was sorted to protein storage vacuoles. This massive transport of SH-EP via KV was thought to mediate dynamic protein mobilization in the cotyledon cells of germinated seeds. We discuss the possibilities that the KDEL sequence of KDEL-tailed vacuolar cysteine proteinases function as an accumulation signal at ER, and that the mass transport of the proteinases by ER-derived KV-like vesicle is involved in the protein mobilization of plants.
How Well Will MODIS Measure Top of Atmosphere Aerosol Direct Radiative Forcing

The new generation of satellite sensors such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) will be able to detect and characterize global aerosols with an unprecedented accuracy. The question remains whether this accuracy will be sufficient to narrow the uncertainties in our estimates of aerosol radiative forcing at the top of the atmosphere. Satellite remote sensing detects aerosol optical thickness with the least amount of relative error when aerosol loading is high. Satellites are less effective when aerosol loading is low. We use the monthly mean results of two global aerosol transport models to simulate the spatial distribution of smoke aerosol in the Southern Hemisphere during the tropical biomass burning season. This spatial distribution allows us to determine that 87-94% of the smoke aerosol forcing at the top of the atmosphere occurs in grid squares with sufficient signal to noise ratio to be detectable from space. The uncertainty of quantifying the smoke aerosol forcing in the Southern Hemisphere depends on the uncertainty introduced by errors in estimating the background aerosol, errors resulting from uncertainties in surface properties and errors resulting from uncertainties in assumptions of aerosol properties. These three errors combine to give overall uncertainties of 1.5 to 2.2 Wm-2 (21-56%) in determining the Southern Hemisphere smoke aerosol forcing at the top of the atmosphere. The range of values depend on which estimate of MODIS retrieval uncertainty is used, either the theoretical calculation (upper bound) or the empirical estimate (lower bound). Strategies that use the satellite data to derive flux directly or use the data in conjunction with ground-based remote sensing and aerosol transport models can reduce these uncertainties.
Multi-user interaction with public screens using mobile devices

Public screens can now be found in many places, from shopping malls and airports to museums and restaurants, and even in the outside walls of tall buildings. These public screens usually convey contextual information to the public, and even though some of them support interactivity via touchscreen, the same information is always displayed to all its users regardless of their interests or preferences. On the other hand, mobile devices in general have shown great success by substantially increasing their numbers and their power. As such it is common to start viewing them as tools to achieve previously unattainable capabilities. In this article we engage the idea of using mobile devices to allow multiple users to simultaneously interact with public screens. As a matter of motivation, we consider a few potential applications that range from the marketing to the entertaining industry. We discuss some key characteristics that are desired on a platform that supports this kind of interaction. Finally we present PACMEN, a platform that supports the development of applications oriented to allow multiple users to simultaneously interact with public screens using mobile devices.
Reorganizing the Intrinsic Functional Architecture of the Human Primary Motor Cortex during Rest with Non-Invasive Cortical Stimulation

The primary motor cortex (M1) is the main effector structure implicated in the generation of voluntary movements and is directly involved in motor learning. The intrinsic horizontal neuronal connections of M1 exhibit short-term and long-term plasticity, which is a strong substrate for learning-related map reorganization. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied for few minutes over M1 has been shown to induce relatively long-lasting plastic alterations and to modulate motor performance. Here we test the hypothesis that the relatively long-lasting synaptic modification induced by tDCS over M1 results in the alteration of associations among populations of M1 neurons which may be reflected in changes of its functional architecture. fMRI resting-state datasets were acquired immediately before and after 10 minutes of tDCS during rest, with the anode/cathode placed over the left M1. For each functional dataset, grey-matter voxels belonging to Brodmann area 4 (BA4) were labelled and afterwards BA4 voxel-based synchronization matrices were calculated and thresholded to construct undirected graphs. Nodal network parameters which characterize the architecture of functional networks (connectivity degree, clustering coefficient and characteristic path-length) were computed, transformed to volume maps and compared before and after stimulation. At the dorsolateral-BA4 region cathodal tDCS boosted local connectedness, while anodal-tDCS enhanced long distance functional communication within M1. Additionally, the more efficient the functional architecture of M1 was at baseline, the more efficient the tDCS-induced functional modulations were. In summary, we show here that it is possible to non-invasively reorganize the intrinsic functional architecture of M1, and to image such alterations.
Parasismique, oser éprouver l’acceptabilité sociale

La confrontation aux risques naturels provoque une reorganisation sociale constante. L’acceptation de la menace et l’acceptabilite des solutions pour reduire la vulnerabilite evoluent avec les connaissances des phenomenes et le consentement collectif a la contrainte. En France, l’importance de l’engagement etatique face aux risques naturels dissuade d’en interroger l’acceptabilite collective. La protection parasismique de l’habitat impose un zonage de l’alea sismique pour graduer les contraintes architecturales selon la probabilite de secousses. La revision probabiliste de ce zonage est l’occasion d’interroger sa doctrine et sa matrice scientifique pour comprendre les choix reglementaires operes par les experts et les pouvoirs publics. En contraste, l’enquete sociologique REVDOU effectuee en 2011 a Salon-de-Provence, Albertville, Mulhouse et Tarbes, sur la protection parasismique par les proprietaires, constructeurs et administrations montre comment l’acceptabilite du risque varie selon le consensus local autour de l’organisation des solutions preventives. Pour ces quatre situations de sismicite moyenne, le renouvellement du zonage sismique reglementaire reinterroge les relations autour du controle collectif de la solidite des constructions. L’article montre l’ecart entre conception probabiliste de l’alea a l’origine de la reglementation et l’acceptabilite locale du risque sismique et des contraintes professionnelles entre acteurs pour diminuer un danger invisible.
A Lossy Circuit Model Based on Physical Interpretation for Integrated Shielded Slow-Wave CMOS Coplanar Waveguide Structures

This paper presents a new physical model for shielded slow-wave coplanar waveguide structures. This lossy electrical model is based on physical behavior of the transmission lines. It allows a better understanding of the losses distribution along the structure. The ohmic losses in the coplanar strips, as well as the ohmic losses and the eddy current losses in the floating shield strips are studied for transmission lines having different geometrical dimensions and hence electrical characteristics. The model is then validated on different CMOS technologies and leads to the efficient optimization of the slow-wave transmission lines, especially concerning the floating shield dimensions.
Comparison of Electrochemical Immunosensors and Aptasensors for Detection of Small Organic Molecules in Environment, Food Safety, Clinical and Public Security

We review here the most frequently reported targets among the electrochemical immunosensors and aptasensors: antibiotics, bisphenol A, cocaine, ochratoxin A and estradiol. In each case, the immobilization procedures are described as well as the transduction schemes and the limits of detection. It is shown that limits of detections are generally two to three orders of magnitude lower for immunosensors than for aptasensors, due to the highest affinities of antibodies. No significant progresses have been made to improve these affinities, but transduction schemes were improved instead, which lead to a regular improvement of the limit of detections corresponding to ca. five orders of magnitude over these last 10 years. These progresses depend on the target, however.
Depolarization Stimulates Initial Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide Expression by Embryonic Sensory Neurons In Vitro

The neuropeptide calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is expressed by one-third of adult rat lumbar dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons, many of which mediate pain sensation or cause vasodilation. The factors that regulate the developmental expression of CGRP are poorly understood. Embryonic DRG neurons initially lack CGRP. When these neurons were stimulated in culture by serum or persistent 50 mm KCl application, the same percentage of CGRP-immunoreactive (CGRP-IR) neurons developed in vitroas was seen in the adult DRG in vivo. The addition of the L-type calcium channel blockers, 5 μm nifedipine or 10 μm verapamil, dramatically decreased the proportion of CGRP-IR neurons that developed, although the N-type calcium channel blocker, 2.5 μm ω-conotoxin, was less effective. By contrast, the sodium channel blocker 1 μm tetrodotoxin had no effect on CGRP expression after depolarization. Fura-2 ratiometric imaging demonstrated that mean intracellular free calcium levels increased from 70 to 135 nm with chronic depolarization, and the addition of nifedipine inhibited that increase. Only a subpopulation of neurons had elevated calcium concentrations during chronic depolarization, and they were correlated with CGRP expression. Key signal transduction pathways were tested pharmacologically for their role in CGRP expression after depolarization; the addition of the CaM kinase inhibitor KN-62 reduced the proportion of CGRP-IR neurons to basal levels. By contrast, protein kinase A and protein kinase C were not implicated in the depolarization-induced CGRP increases. These data suggest that depolarization and the subsequent Ca2+-based signal transduction mechanisms play important roles in the de novo expression of CGRP by specific embryonic DRG neurons.
New non-diagonal solutions to the $a_n^{(1)}$ boundary Yang-Baxter equation

Extending previous work on $a_2^{(1)}$, we present a set of reflection matrices, which are explicit solutions to the $a_n^{(1)}$ boundary Yang-Baxter equation. Unlike solutions found previously these are multiplet-changing $K$-matrices, and could therefore be used as soliton reflection matrices for affine Toda field theories on the half-line.
A review on the aging performance of direct current cross-linked polyethylene insulation materials

With the bulge of electrical load for big cities, acceleration of island exploitation strategy and rapid development of renewable energy power generation, the development and application of flexible direct current (DC) power transmission have become an inexorable trend. As a major carrier of flexible DC power transmission, cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) insulated high voltage direct current (HVDC) cables become more and more important in recent years due to their light weight, good electrical and thermal performance, simple manufacturing process, convenient installation and maintenance in combination with non environmental pollution. The aging of XLPE insulation usually occurs under the effects of such factors as electricity, heat, oxygen, humidity, mechanical stresses, light, chemicals and microorganism encountered in service. It can lead to irreversible damage of XLPE insulation materials, even power accidents, which may bring hidden danger to the operation of power network. In this paper, a comprehensive review is presented on the worldwide research and development related to the aging of XLPE insulation in HVDC cables. The principal factors and mechanisms causing the aging of DC XLPE insulation are also introduced together with the inhibition methods of space charge, which is one of the major components of the aging process in XLPE insulation.