Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A New Active Snubber Circuit for PFC Converter

In this paper, a new active snubber circuit is developed for PFC converter. This active snubber circuit provides zero voltage transition (ZVT) turn on and zero current transition (ZCT) turn off for the main switch without any extra current or voltage stresses. Auxiliary switch turns on and off with zero current switching (ZCS) without voltage stress. Although there is a current stress on the auxiliary switch, it is decreased by diverting it to the output side with coupling inductance. The proposed PFC converter controls output current and voltage in very wide line and load range. This PFC converter has simple structure, low cost and ease of control as well. In this study, a detailed steady state analysis of the new converter is presented, and the theoretical analysis is verified exactly by 100 kHz and 300 W prototype. This prototype has 98% total efficiency and 0.99 power factor with sinusoidal current shape.
Human Bronchial Smooth Muscle Cells Express Adenylyl Cyclase Isoforms 2, 4, and 6 in Distinct Membrane Microdomains

Adenylyl cyclases (AC) are important regulators of airway smooth muscle function, because β-adrenergic receptor (AR) agonists stimulate AC activity and increase airway diameter. We assessed expression of AC isoforms in human bronchial smooth muscle cells (hBSMC). Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and immunoblot analyses detected expression of AC2, AC4, and AC6. Forskolin-stimulated AC activity in membranes from hBSMC displayed Ca2+-inhibited and Gβγ-stimulated AC activity, consistent with expression of AC6, AC2, and AC4. Isoproterenol-stimulated AC activity was inhibited by Ca2+ but unaltered by Gβγ, whereas butaprost-stimulated AC activity was stimulated by Gβγ but unaffected by Ca2+ addition. Using sucrose density centrifugation to isolate lipid raft fractions, we found that only AC6 localized in lipid raft fractions, whereas AC2 and AC4 localized in nonraft fractions. Immunoisolation of caveolae using caveolin-1 antibodies yielded Ca2+-inhibited AC activity (consistent with AC6 expression), whereas the nonprecipitated material displayed Gβγ-stimulated AC activity (consistent with expression of AC2 and/or AC4). Overexpression of AC6 enhanced cAMP production in response to isoproterenol and beraprost but did not increase responses to prostaglandin E2 or butaprost. β2AR, but not prostanoid EP2 or EP4 receptors, colocalized with AC5/6 in lipid raft fractions. Thus, particular G protein-coupled receptors couple to discreet AC isoforms based, in part, on their colocalization in membrane microdomains. These different cAMP signaling compartments in airway smooth muscle cells are responsive to different hormones and neurotransmitters and can be regulated by different coincident signals such as Ca2+ and Gβγ.
Improving College Readiness for Historically Underserved Students: The Role of the District Office

Research on the role of institutions in influencing students’ readiness for college has so far focused primarily on the school level and the state policy context, with only little attention to the district. This case study, based on interview data and documents collected over the course of a year, analyzes an urban district’s attempt to create a systematic approach to improving the college readiness of its students, many of whom have been traditionally underserved by the educational system. It identifies factors contributing to progress as well as challenges encountered in several critical areas: (a) leadership commitment, (b) data infrastructure, (c) building adult capacity around data use and college readiness, (d) connecting indicators with supports to promote college readiness, and (e) partnerships with community and higher education institutions.
Self-Organizing Maps Neural Networks on Parallel Cluster

Parallel design and realization of artificial neutral networks on clusters can fully employ the advantage of ANN parallel processing, shorten the training time and reduce the algorithm complexity. As the parallel techniques become more and more developed, it's increasingly important to design artificial neutral networks on clusters via a combined software and hardware method. The support of parallel cluster technique on artificial neutral networks is discussed in several aspects on software and hardware platforms. A design method and basis frame of SOM neutral networks on parallel clusters is presented, and problems on the training efficiency of neutral networks on parallel clusters are further discussed. This approach is widely applicable to the computer realization on many neutral network models.
On the Performance of Devnagari Handwritten Character Recognition

This paper presents the offline handwritten character recognition for Devnagari, a major script of India. The main objective of this work is to develop a handwritten dataset (CPAR-2012) for Devnagari character and further develop a character recognition scheme for benchmark study. The present dataset is a new development in Devnagari optical document recognition. The dataset includes 78,400 samples collected from 2,000 heterogeneous strata of Hindi speaking persons. These dataset is further divided into 49,000 as training set and 29,400 as test set. The evaluated feature extraction includes: direct pixel, image zoning, wavelet transformation and Gaussian image transformation techniques. These features were classified by using KNN and neural network classifier. The experiment shows that Gaussian image transformation (level 1) using KNN classifier has achieved highest recognition 72.18 % than other feature extraction methods. Further classification result obtained from KNN classifier were combined, the combined result shows 84.03 % recognition accuracy with expense of 5.3 % rejection. Based on this result some shape similar character zones in Devnagari characters are highlighted in this paper.
Interactive Distributed Translucent Volume Rendering

Translucent volume rendering is a robust and efficient direct volume-rendering technique for capturing optical effects, like subsurface scattering, translucency, and volumetric shadows. However, due to the limited computing and memory resources of the recent consumer graphics hardware, high-resolution volume data can still hardly be interactively visualized by this method. In this paper we present the theoretical aspects and implementation details of a parallelization scheme for translucent volume rendering. Our method is a three-pass parallel rendering algorithm with parallel compositing, based on object-space distribution of the data among the rendering nodes. In the first pass the 2D shadow maps are computed and sent to the effected nodes. In the second pass the nodes render their associated subvolumes by sequential translucent volume rendering. The generated framelets are then visualized by a dedicated display node in the third pass.
A novel probabilistic trust evaluation algorithm

Trust and reputation are being used by commercial reputation or rating systems for online trading communities over Internet. Evaluation of trust for an unknown agent in web environment is a challenging job. In this paper we propose a novel probabilistic trust evaluation algorithm (NPTEA) for computing recommendation trust by modifying parallelization algorithm [1] suggested for Bayesian social networks. In order to solve the problem a definition of trust scaling factor (TSF) has been proposed. We compare the performance of our algorithm with BBK [2] under same environment and show how it can reduce the impact of malicious agents.
How to become immortal: let MEFs count the ways

Understanding the molecular mechanisms and biological consequences of genetic changes occurring during bypass of cellular senescence spans a broad area of medical research from the cancer field to regenerative medicine. Senescence escape and immortalisation have been intensively studied in murine embryonic fibroblasts as a model system, and are known to occur when the p53/ARF tumour suppressor pathway is disrupted. We showed recently that murine fibroblasts with a humanised p53 gene (Hupki cells, from a human p53 knock-in mouse model) first senesce, and then become immortalised in the same way as their homologues with normal murine p53. In both cell types, immortalised cultures frequently sustain either a p53 gene mutation matching a human tumour mutation and resulting in loss of p53 transcriptional transactivation, or a biallelic deletion at the p19/ARF locus. Whilst these genetic events were not unexpected, we were surprised to find that a significant proportion of immortalised cell cultures apparently had neither a p53 mutation nor loss of p19/ARF. Here we consider various routes to p53/ARF disruption in senescence bypass, and dysfunction of other tumour suppressor networks that may contribute to release from tenacious cell cycle arrest in senescent cultures.
Application-aware Interface for SOAP Communication in Web Services

SOAP protocol has emerged as the Web service communication standard. Because of the relatively poor performance, many researchers focus on improving the speed of processing SOAP message. In this paper, we propose SPI, which introduces client usage pattern to the low level SOAP process infrastructure, in order to improve the performance of some kind of Web services applications with specific communication patterns. The pack interface of SPI is an approach to reduce the number of the SOAP messages to improve the latency on client side. This SOAP optimization technique packs concurrent service requests into one SOAP message on client side, and unpacks and executes them on server side. Our implementation and performance study demonstrates the usefulness and effectiveness of the technique
Robust secure charge-sharing symmetric adiabatic logic against side-channel attacks

This paper implements our proposed charge-sharing symmetric adiabatic logic (CSSAL) into the cellular multiplier used in finite field over GF(2m) arithmetic using secure system for resistant against side-channel attacks. To validate our proposed logic, we have evaluated the current traces and energy dissipation of the individual secure adiabatic logics; proposed CSSAL, secure adiabatic logic, symmetric adiabatic logic, 2N-2N2P, and the conventional three-phase dual-rail pre-charged logic. Furthermore, the thoroughly investigation and comparative study on the logic's resistance and the energy efficiency in the multiplier over GF(2m) have been conducted. Based on the obtained SPICE simulation results, we deduce that, the proposed typical logics is stronger against differential power analysis and more robust for differential electromagnetic analysis attacks, because it consumes constant low power and uniformly low peak current since ever in the literature.
PENINGKATAN KEMAMPUAN BERBICARA SISWA KELAS IV

Research of background by lowering of ability converse class student of IV SDN 20 Kurao Pagang Field. Target of this research is mendeskripsikan of[is make-up of ability converse class student of IV at Study of Indonesian through model study of Guided Teaching [in] SDN 20 Kurao Pagang Field: Theory which [is] used in this research is theory ( 1) Model study of Guided Teaching told by Istarani ( 2002), ( 2) Teoiri learn and study told by Hamalik ( 2007). This research represent research of class action with subjek 25 student people. There are men student 13 people and 12 student people woman of class of IV SDN 20 Kurao Pagang Field. Research conducted in II cycle. Result learn cycle of I is 70,8. Happened the make-up of percentage result of learningat cycle of II that is 81. Pursuant to result of research can be concluded that study of Indonesian pass model study of Guided Teaching can improve ability converse class student of IV in SDN 20 Kurao Pagang Field. Keyword : Ability Converse, Study Of Indonesian, Model Study of Guided Teaching.
Rubicon and PLEKHM1 Negatively Regulate the Endocytic/Autophagic Pathway via a Novel Rab7-binding Domain

Rubicon, a subunit of the Beclin 1-PI3-kinase complex and its homologue, PLEKHM1, negatively regulate endocytic pathway through the interaction with Rab7. Synchronous association with the Beclin 1–PI3-kinase complex and Rab7 is necessary for the function of Rubicon, but not PLEKHM1.
Randomly tampered image detection and self-recovery for a text document using Shamir secret sharing

Forgery of the digital image is to hide or to remove some meaningful or useful information of the image. In this paper (k, n) Shamir threshold scheme is applied to an image where the tampering is done randomly all over the image. Performance parameters are checked with the random tampering. Comparative study of algorithm for different block sizes is presented. The algorithm is checked for four different block sizes 2×2, 2×4, 3×3, 2×5. Effect of these blocks sizes on stego image and reconstructed image is observed. PSNR is calculated for various block sized algorithm and the visual quality is compared.
Identification of the In Vivo Casein Kinase II Phosphorylation Site within the Homeodomain of the Cardiac Tisue-Specifying Homeobox Gene Product Csx/Nkx2.5

ABSTRACT Csx/Nkx2.5, a member of the homeodomain-containing transcription factors, serves critical developmental functions in heart formation in vertebrates and nonvertebrates. In this study the putative nuclear localization signal (NLS) of Csx/Nkx2.5 was identified by site-directed mutagenesis to the amino terminus of the homeodomain, which is conserved in almost all homeodomain proteins. When the putative NLS of Csx/Nkx2.5 was mutated a significant amount of the cytoplasmically localized Csx/Nkx2.5 was unphosphorylated, in contrast to the nuclearly localized Csx/Nkx2.5, which is serine- and threonine-phosphorylated, suggesting that Csx/Nkx2.5 phosphorylation is regulated, at least in part, by intracellular localization. Tryptic phosphopeptide mapping indicated that Csx/Nkx2.5 has at least five phosphorylation sites. Using in-gel kinase assays, we detected a Csx/Nkx2.5 kinase whose molecular mass is approximately 40 kDa in both cytoplasmic and nuclear extracts. Mutational analysis and in vitro kinase assays suggested that this 40-kDa Csx/Nkx2.5 kinase is a catalytic subunit of casein kinase II (CKII) that phosphorylates the serine residue between the first and second helix of the homeodomain. This CKII site is phosphorylated in vivo. CKII-dependent phosphorylation of the homeodomain increased Csx/Nkx2.5 DNA binding. Serine-to-alanine mutation at the CKII phosphorylation site reduced transcriptional activity when the carboxyl-terminal repressor domain was deleted. Although the precise biological function of Csx/Nkx2.5 phosphorylation by CKII remains to be determined, it may play an important role, as this CKII phosphorylation site within the homeodomain is fully conserved in all known members of the NK2 family of the homeobox genes.
Toward fully-shared access: hybrid isp traffic control architecture and service plans exploiting excess bandwidth in shared access networks

We report the current status of our work on the hybrid traffic control schemes and service plans exploiting excess bandwidth allocation for the implementation of fully-shared access networks. The current practice of shaping subscriber traffic using a token bucket filter results in a severe waste of network resources in shared access networks, because it cannot allocate excess bandwidth to active subscribers even when there is plenty of excess bandwidth. New service plans under a hybrid traffic control architecture exploit the excess bandwidth allocation enabled by new traffic control schemes we proposed before and thereby can provide benefits to both Internet service providers and their subscribers in terms of revenue and quality of service. A modular approach is suggested for the implementation of the hybrid traffic control architecture, which is based on IEEE 802.1Q stacked virtual local area networks and priority-based flow control, with preliminary simulation results demonstrating the advantage of the new hybrid service plans.
Social Media Sources for Personality Profiling

Social media provide a rich source of author-identified text that can be used for personality profiling. However, differences in length and number of entries, syntax, abbreviations, spelling and grammar errors, and topics can affect type and difficulty of preprocessing to extract appropriate text, accuracy of training, time period sampling for training texts, and rate of degradation of accuracy over time. Biases introduced by the topic areas of the social media, author self-selection, and current events affect different social media to varying extents and can bias both the demographics and possibly the personality types of users.
Hydrogen Phases on the Surfaces of a Strongly Magnetized Neutron Star

The outermost layers of some neutron stars are likely to be dominated by hydrogen, as a result of fast gravitational settling of heavier elements. These layers directly mediate thermal radiation from the stars and determine the characteristics of X-ray/EUV spectra. For a neutron star with surface temperature T ≲ 106 K and magnetic field B ≳ 1012 G, various forms of hydrogen can be present in the envelope, including atoms, polyatomic molecules, and condensed metal. We study the physical properties of different hydrogen phases on the surface of a strongly magnetized neutron star for a wide range of field strengths B and surface temperatures T. Depending on the values of B and T, the outer envelope can be either in a nondegenerate gaseous phase or in a degenerate metallic phase. For T ≳ 105 K and moderately strong magnetic field, B ≲ 1013 G, the envelope is nondegenerate and the surface material gradually transforms into a degenerate Coulomb plasma as density increases. For higher field strength, B ≫ 1013 G, there exists a first-order phase transition from the non-degenerate gaseous phase to the condensed metallic phase. The column density of saturated vapor above the metallic hydrogen decreases rapidly as the magnetic field increases or/and temperature decreases. Thus the thermal radiation can directly emerge from the degenerate metallic hydrogen surface. The characteristics of surface X-ray/EUV emission for different phases are discussed. We also study the possibility of magnetic field-induced nuclear fusion on the neutron star surface. Because of the strong compression of molecules and condensed droplets by the magnetic field, the fusion rate can be significantly enhanced even at a low temperature and external pressure. This implies that for nonaccreting neutron stars, there is a limit to the field strength, ~1014 G, above which the surface hydrogen layer is absent.
Congestion pricing, Bertrand oligopoly, and forward contracts for bandwidth

These papers are produced by Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. They are circulated for discussion purposes only. Their contents should be considered preliminary and are not to be quoted without the authors' permission. Abstract We develop a pricing game modelling a monopoly and an oligopoly of Inter-net Service Providers selling bandwidth on two complementary segments of a multi-provider communication network. We consider pricing behavior when the oligopolists have previously sold part of their capacity by means of forward contracts , assuming all prices are set simultaneously. We find the equilibria in pure strategies where they exist. Where they do not exist, we find an equilibrium allowing the oligopolists to use mixed strategies. This requires solving an extension of the Bertrand-Edgeworth game with symmetric capacities and asym-metric contracting levels. Although providers have an incentive to sell forward contracts to insure against demand uncertainty, contracting also commits them to lower prices in general. We find that any equilibrium with contracting levels is asymmetric with a unique provider choosing the lowest level of contracting. By refraining from signing too many contracts, this provider guarantees a high general downstream price level at a private cost. An increase in the lowest contracting level results in negative marginal externalities on all other oligopolists. On the other hand, an increase in any other contracting level causes positive marginal externalities.
The effect of maternal attachment and internalization of culture on loss of self

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of attachment history and internalization of culture to loss of self in young women. It was hypothesized that maternal attachrrtent security would be negatively related to loss of self, and that internalization of culture would be positively related to loss of self. Participants were 201 undergraduate women from a Southwestern college ranging in age from 18-23 years old (mean age = 20.9) who completed a questiohnaire assessing loss of self utilizing the Silencing the Self Scale (Jack, 1991), the Objectified Body Consciousness Scale (McKinley & Hyde, 1996), and the Self Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), internalization of culture utilizing the Liberal Feminist Attitude and Ideology Scale (Morgan, 1996) and the Attitudes toward Women Scale (Spence & Helmreich, 1978), maternal attachment utilizing the maternal attachment scale from the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987), the Maternal Attachment Security Scale (Shaver & Hazen, 1987), and a maternal warmth scale (Kamptner, personal communication). Using EQS, a structural equation model was estimated, and it was found that maternal attachment was significantly negatively related to loss of self. Internalization of culture, however, was not a significant predictor of loss of
Process Evaluation of a Psychosocial Intervention Addressing Women in a Disadvantaged Setting

Objectives: This paper presents the process evaluation of a community-based randomized psycho-social trial aimed to enhance reproductive and mental health outcomes of disadvantaged women living in the southern suburb of Beirut-Lebanon. Process evaluation of public health interventions involves the monitoring and documentation of interventions’ implementation to allow for better understanding of planned outcomes and of intervention effectiveness. Methods: A community-based randomized trial was conducted. The intervention consisted of 12 sessions (of combined 30 minutes of relaxation exercises and 75 minutes of structured support groups) delivered twice per week over a period of six-weeks. A process evaluation was conducted during the implementation of the intervention. This process evaluation aimed to ensure that the intervention was delivered and implemented as planned, as well as to monitor women’s satisfaction and attendance. The main components of the process evaluation included: dose delivered, dose received, and reach. Closed ended questionnaires were administered before/after/during each intervention session. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS. Analysis revolved around simple frequency distribution for categorical variables and means (SD) for continuous variables. Limited bivariate analysis (using CHI Square and Anova) was done. Results: Results indicated that the delivery, implementation, and reach of the intervention were favorable. Participation was acceptable and satisfaction rates were very high. Conclusion: These favorable findings pertaining to intervention satisfaction, reach and participation highlight a number of lessons for future intervention studies in the context of disadvantaged settings. They also support the importance of involving the local community members in intervention planning, implementation and evaluation early on. We believe that the community involvement in this trial directly and significantly contributed to the results of this process evaluation.