Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Guaranteed Cost Control Problem of Uncertain Singularly Perturbed Systems

Abstract In this paper we study the algebraic Riccati equation corresponding to the guaranteed cost control theory for an uncertain singularly perturbed system. The construction of the controller involves solving the full-order algebraic Riccati equation with small parameter e. Under control-oriented assumptions, we first provide the sufficient conditions such that the full-order algebraic Riccati equation has a positive semi-definite stabilizing solution. Next we propose an iterative algorithm based on the Kleinman algorithm to solve the algebraic Riccati equation which depends on the parameter e. Our new idea is to use the solutions of the reduced-order algebraic Riccati equations for the initial condition. By using the iterative algorithm, we can easily obtain a required solution of the algebraic Riccati equation. Moreover, using the initial conditions without e, we show that there exists an e such that the proposed algorithm has quadratic convergence. Finally, in order to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, numerical examples are included.
Primary Prevention of Variceal Bleeding: Pharmacological Therapy Versus Endoscopic Banding

Variceal bleeding is one of the most feared complications in patients with liver cirrhosis. It continues to be a leading cause of death among patients with liver cirrhosis. Although its prognosis has improved over the last several decades, it still carries substantial mortality. Preventing variceal bleeding has been extensively studied and evaluated in several studies in the recent years and the comparison between the different modalities available to prevent variceal bleeding has been an area of discussion. Currently the two most widely used modalities to prevent variceal bleeding are pharmacologic (non-selective beta-blockers [NSBB]) and endoscopic (variceal band ligation [VBL]) which have replaced sclerotherapy in the recent years. In addition to NSBB and recent carvedilol, different other medications have been evaluated including isosorbide mononitrates, spironolactone and angiotensin blocking agents. Comparing the outcomes and adverse effects of these two modalities has been evaluated in different studies. Some studies have showed superiority of VBL until recently, when carvedilol has been included, however; overall mortality has been similar in most trials. Despite that, NSBB remain the first line treatment, as they are cheaper and relatively effective in preventing both esophageal and gastric bleeding. The following sections discuss the primary prevention of variceal bleeding with a focus on NSBB, carvedilol and VBL.
Adaptive vector OFDM system for transmission over doubly selective fading channels

Multipath delay, Doppler shift and spread lead to overlapping and distortion in both the time and frequency domain of a wireless wideband signal. Although the resulting time-and-frequency-selective (or namely, doubly selective) fading may degrade the system performance, it also enables possible multipath and Doppler diversity when the system is properly designed. In this paper, based on the basis expansion model (BEM) and the time-frequency domain transformation, an Adaptive Vector OFDM (AVOFDM) transmission scheme is proposed. It is demonstrated that AVOFDM can achieve considerable joint Multipath-Doppler diversity gain over doubly selective channels, which is even more closer to the upper bound of the maximum achievable multipath-Doppler diversity in comparison with that can be achieved by the traditional non-adaptive Vector OFDM. Furthermore, the number of bits carried by each modulated symbol increases and the overhead cost by the 2-dimension cyclic prefix is reduced. Both factors contribute to an increased data throughput.
A novel Sub-Nyquist sampling of sparse wideband signals

We propose a Sub-Nyquist sampling scheme using only one mixer, one filter bank with M subfilters and M low rate ADCs. Compared to the MWC (Modulated Wideband Converter) system in [1], the proposed sampling system has several complexity advantages. First, due to the use of only one mixer, the hardware complexity for analog circuits is significantly reduced. Moreover, the system only needs one PN sequence and thus the search complexity for the best sequence is greatly reduced. The use of the best sequence enables the proposed system to achieve a smaller mean square error (MSE) between the original and the reconstructed signals than that of the MWC system. Simulation results are provided to show the performance superiority of the proposed system in terms of MSE and recovery percentage.
Environment-aware clock skew estimation and synchronization for wireless sensor networks

Clock synchronization is a fundamental requirement for network systems. It is particularly crucial and challenging in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), because WSN environments are dynamic and unpredictable. To tackle this problem, how to accurately estimate clock skew, the inherent reason causing clock desynchronization, is investigated. According to the measurement results, clock skew is a non-stationary random process highly correlated to temperature, and its measurements contain severe noises. Based on the observation, an additional information aided multi-model Kalman filter (AMKF) algorithm is proposed, which uses temperature measurements to assist clock skew estimation. Using AMKF, an environment-aware clock synchronization (EACS) scheme is proposed to dynamically compensate clock skew. The scheme is simple, scalable, and of low computation and energy cost. Using EACS as an additional component of the conventional synchronization protocols, the clock is updated with local information before the clock re-synchronization process is triggered, so it can substantially prolong the re-synchronization period, which not only reduces the energy consumption but also is essential for the scenarios where frequent synchronization is infeasible. The theoretical lower bound of clock skew estimation error is derived as a benchmark. Extensive simulation and experimental verification results have demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme which can prolong the time resynchronization period by an order of magnitude in dynamic environments.
A novel fusion method for robot indoor environment mapping

In order to solve the stability of mapping of mobile robot, a fusion method based on Kalman Filter is proposed to reduce the accumulative errors during the mobile motion. This fusion method, which can fuse the sequential scan matching results and odometer measures, is suitable for raw points based scan matching method. In this paper, pose estimation results from raw points based scan matching method are viewed as the observation model, and odometer measures are viewed as the status model. Experimental results are shown to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Guatemalan school food environment: impact on schoolchildren's risk of both undernutrition and overweight/obesity

Guatemala suffers the double burden of malnutrition with high rates of stunting alongside increasing childhood overweight/obesity. This study examines the school food environment (SFE) at low-income Guatemalan elementary schools and discusses its potential impact on undernutrition and overweight/obesity. From July through October 2013, direct observations, in-depth interviews with school principals (n = 4) and food kiosk vendors (n = 4, 2 interviews each) and also focus groups (FGs) with children (n = 48, 8 FGs) were conducted. The SFE comprises food from school food kiosks (casetas); food from home or purchased in the street; and food provided by the school (refacción). School casetas, street vendors and children's parents largely provide sandwiches, calorie-rich snacks and sugar-sweetened beverages. Refacción typically serves energy dense atol, a traditional beverage. The current school food program (refacción), the overall SFE and the roles/opinions of vendors and principals reveal persistent anxiety concerning undernutrition and insufficient concern for overweight/obesity. Predominant concern for elementary schoolchildren remains focused on undernutrition. However, by the time children reach elementary school (ages 6–12+), food environments should encourage dietary behaviors to prevent childhood overweight/obesity.
Butyrate inhibits inflammatory responses through NFkappaB inhibition: implications for Crohn's disease.

BACKGROUND/AIM Proinflammatory cytokines are key factors in the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease (CD). Activation of nuclear factor kappa B (NFkappaB), which is involved in their gene transcription, is increased in the intestinal mucosa of CD patients. As butyrate enemas may be beneficial in treating colonic inflammation, we investigated if butyrate promotes this effect by acting on proinflammatory cytokine expression. METHODS Intestinal biopsy specimens, isolated lamina propria cells (LPMC), and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were cultured with or without butyrate for assessment of secretion of tumour necrosis factor (TNF) and mRNA levels. NFkappaB p65 activation was determined by immunofluorescence and gene reporter experiments. Levels of NFkappaB inhibitory protein (IkappaBalpha) were analysed by western blotting. The in vivo efficacy of butyrate was assessed in rats with trinitrobenzene sulphonic acid (TNBS) induced colitis. RESULTS Butyrate decreased TNF production and proinflammatory cytokine mRNA expression by intestinal biopsies and LPMC from CD patients. Butyrate abolished lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced expression of cytokines by PBMC and transmigration of NFkappaB from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. LPS induced NFkappaB transcriptional activity was decreased by butyrate while IkappaBalpha levels were stable. Butyrate treatment also improved TNBS induced colitis. CONCLUSIONS Butyrate decreases proinflammatory cytokine expression via inhibition of NFkappaB activation and IkappaBalpha degradation. These anti-inflammatory properties provide a rationale for assessing butyrate in the treatment of CD.
Transforming Valid XML Documents into RDF via RDF Schema

Interpreting the XML data in a current web into sources that can be used by the Semantic Web has received great attention in recent years. In this paper, we propose a procedure for transforming valid XML documents into RDF by using vocabularies of RDF schema. The first objective here is to obtain classes and properties from labels in XML document exactly by accessing the XML DTD. After that, we can interpret XML data as RDF triples by using some vocabularies of RDF schema. The main advantage of our approach is that it ensures the integrity of the structure and meaning of the original XML documents while transforming them into RDF. This procedure can be used for any kind of valid XML documents.
Controlling injected electron and hole profiles for better reliability of split gate SONOS

SONOS memory cell using a split gate structure is studied using simulations. The dependence of channel hot electron (HE) and hot hole (HH) profiles (during program and erase) on bias, doping, and program gate length (L/sub PG/) is studied. The effect of trapped charge position on the threshold voltage is also studied. L/sub PG/ is found to be crucial in minimizing the mismatch of HE and HH profiles as the regions of their generation are separate. Program gate voltage during program and erase is found to be the key bias for spatially adjusting the HE and HH profiles.
Physical Activity of Moderate Intensity and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE—To systematically evaluate the evidence for an association between physical activity of moderate intensity and risk of type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—We searched EMBASE and Medline through March 2006 and examined reference lists of retrieved articles. We excluded studies that did not assess physical activity of moderate intensity independent of activities of vigorous intensity (more than six times the resting metabolic rate). Information on study design, participant characteristics, assessment of physical activity, and outcomes and estimates of associations were extracted independently by two investigators. We calculated summary relative risks (RRs) using a random-effects model for the highest versus the lowest reported duration of activities. RESULTS—We identified 10 prospective cohort studies of physical activity of moderate intensity and type 2 diabetes, including a total of 301,221 participants and 9,367 incident cases. Five of these studies specifically investigated the role of walking. The summary RR of type 2 diabetes was 0.69 (95% CI 0.58–0.83) for regular participation in physical activity of moderate intensity as compared with being sedentary. Similarly, the RR was 0.70 (0.58–0.84) for regular walking (typically ≥2.5 h/week brisk walking) as compared with almost no walking. The associations remained significant after adjustment for BMI. Similar associations were observed in men and women and in the U.S. and Europe. CONCLUSIONS—These findings indicate that adherence to recommendations to participate in physical activities of moderate intensity such as brisk walking can substantially reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Separately excited DC motor drive with fuzzy self-organizing

This paper presents the algorithm for speed control of a separately excited dc motor (SEDCM) drive with fuzzy self-organizing. The objective is to design the system that can learn, increase, reduce and modify rule in knowledge base or rule base to suit the case and set response within acceptable area. The concepts about state analyze and performance measure are used to determine the modification rule in the knowledge base. The structure of fuzzy self-organizing controller consists of self-organizing control, dc chopper and speed sensor devices. For the control method, the close loop speed techniques are applied. The fuzzy self-organizing algorithm is experimented by controlling the speed of separately excited dc motor. The rules of fuzzy self-organizing with separately excited dc motor is to see response when load is changed.
Can Vitamin D Suppress Endothelial Cells Apoptosis in Multiple Sclerosis Patients?

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of central nerves system, in which neurological disabilities occur in young adults. Despite increasing number of studies on MS, some aspects of this disorder are still unclear. In the previous studies, it has been proven that there is direct relation between MS incidence and vitamin D deficiency. Thereby, strong evidence in MS pathogenesis suggests that endothelial cells (EC) could be harmed in MS. In addition, functional changes in EC and macrovascular injuries lead blood-brain barrier disruption in MS. Current study is the first investigation to elucidate positive influences of vitamin D against EC apoptosis in MS. Methods: Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were cultured and then treated with sera from patients with active MS (in relapse) and sera from healthy volunteer participants as control group (each group n=15). 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5- (3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium, inner salt (MTS) assay for cell surveillance and cell-death detection kit for evaluating apoptosis were used in this study. Results: There was a significant decrease in apoptosis rate by the serum of patients, just when 1,25(OH)2D3 applied before treating HUVECs with sera from active MS (in relapse). Furthermore, the cells surveillance increased markedly with the presence of 1,25(OH)(2)D(3) in culture, too. Conclusion: Withregard to increment in EC apoptosis rate, which treated by the sera from MS patients and decrement in apoptosis rate by the presence of vitamin D in culture media, it could be proposed that vitamin D pre-treatment can be used for MS patients, due to its beneficial effects on protecting EC apoptosis.
Diagnostic evaluation of a large group of patients with immediate allergy to penicillins: the role of skin testing

Background: Penicillin is no longer the most commonly prescribed β‐lactam, and the pattern of reactions has changed. We studied the diagnostic value of skin testing in penicillin‐allergic subjects from a population where benzylpenicillin is not now the most frequently used β‐lactam.
Inferring palaeo-accumulation records from ice-core data by an adjoint-based method: application to James Ross Island's ice core

Abstract. Ice cores contain a record of snow precipitation that includes information about past atmospheric circulation and mass imbalance in the polar regions. We present a novel approach to reconstruct a climatic record – by both optimally dating an ice core and deriving from it a detailed accumulation history – that uses an adjoint-based method. The motivation of our work is the recent application of phase-sensitive radar which measures the vertical velocity of an ice column. The velocity is dependent on the history of subsequent snow accumulation, compaction and compression; in our inverse formulation of this problem, measured vertical velocity profiles can be utilized directly, thereby reducing the uncertainty introduced by ice-flow modelling. We first apply our method to synthetic data in order to study its capability and the effect of noise and gaps in the age–depth observations. The method is then applied to the ice core retrieved from James Ross Island, Antarctica. We show that the method is robust and that the results depend on the quality of the age–depth observations and the derived flow regime around the core site. The method facilitates the incorporation of increasing detail provided by ice-core analysis together with observed full-depth velocity in order to construct a complete climatic record of the polar regions.
Preliminary Observations on Sensitivity and Specificity of Magnetization Transfer Asymmetry for Imaging Myelin of Rat Brain at High Field

Magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) has been often used for imaging myelination. Despite its high sensitivity, the specificity of MTR to myelination is not high because tissues with no myelin such as muscle can also show high MTR. In this study, we propose a new magnetization transfer (MT) indicator, MT asymmetry (MTA), as a new method of myelin imaging. The experiments were performed on rat brain at 9.4 T. MTA revealed high signals in white matter and significantly low signals in gray matter and muscle, indicating that MTA has higher specificity than MTR. Demyelination and remyelination studies demonstrated that the sensitivity of MTA to myelination was as high as that of MTR. These experimental results indicate that MTA can be a good biomarker for imaging myelination. In addition, MTA images can be efficiently acquired with an interslice MTA method, which may accelerate clinical application of myelin imaging.
Tariquidar and elacridar are dose-dependently transported by P-glycoprotein and Bcrp at the blood-brain barrier: a small-animal PET and in-vitro study

Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmacy, University of Veterinary Medicine, and Center for Systems Neuroscience, Hannover, Germany: J.P.B. , M.B. , K.R. , M.F. , W.L. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Preclinical Molecular Imaging, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany: J.P.B. Health and Environment Department, Biomedical Systems, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Seibersdorf, Austria: T.W. , J.S. , O.L. , C.K. Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria: J.S. , M.M. , O.L. Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Vienna, Austria: T.E. Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET Research, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: A.D.W. DMD Fast Forward. Published on January 10, 2013 as doi:10.1124/dmd.112. 049148
Open Government Data Visualization System to Facilitate Evidence-Based Debate Using a Large-Scale Interactive Display

In this study, we develop an evidence-based debate system using visual information to represent Open Government Data, which allows governments and ministries to distribute public data. This system allows citizens to engage in debates using Open Government Data to enhance life and business. The debates must be directed toward evidence-based decision making because they have major effects on many citizens. These decisions require extensive debate, because the evidence will be different for each stakeholder. Therefore, we focus on the use of visual media because it provides a common language among stakeholders. To display the large volumes of visual media required by various stakeholders to facilitate debate using different forms of evidence, a large-scale display is required for presenting various types of content simultaneously. Thus, we develop an interactive display system with a touch screen interface and a smart phone controller to allow simultaneous operation by multiple users. The display presents visual information using a web rendering engine, which allows the presentation of various types of visual media such as graphs, text, and pictures. Furthermore, it is expandable so that users can develop specialized applications. The results of a user study confirm that the display of multiple visual media is useful for making comparisons, although intellectual layout suggestion function will be required in order to facilitate informal communication with visual media.
A Novel 3D Shape Retrieval Method Using Point Spatial Distributions along Principal Axis

Rapidly increasing 3D shape application has led to the development of content-based 3D shape retrieval research. In this paper, we proposed a new retrieval method. The method is constructed on a spatial distribution computation of sampling points on the surface of 3D shape. The contribution is that we use an inner cylinder to contain the points distributed nearer on the largest principal axis, and its radius is the average distance of points to the largest principal axis. And then we compute the point spatial distribution by partitions of the minimum bounding box and the inner cylinder. We have examined our method on a 3D shape database of general objects from Princeton Shape Benchmark and confirmed its efficiency. We also compared this method with other similar methods on the same shapes database from Princeton Shape Benchmark, and it achieved better retrieving precision. This method can be used to extract the feature of 3D shapes, classify 3D shapes and retrieve similar shapes in shapes database.
A region-dependent image matching method for image and video annotation

In this paper we propose an image matching approach that selects the method of matching for each region in the image based on the region properties. This method can be used to find images similar to a query image from a database, which is useful for automatic image and video annotation. In this approach, each image is first divided into large homogeneous areas, identified as “texture areas”, and non-texture areas. Local descriptors are then used to match the keypoints in the non-texture areas, while texture regions are matched based on low level visual features. Experimental results prove that while exclusion of texture areas from local descriptor matching increases the efficiency of the whole process, utilization of appropriate measures for different regions can also increase the overall performance.