Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
FPGA-based intelligent power regulator IC design for forward DC-DC converters

The DC-DC converters are used extensively in personal computers, computer peripherals, and adapters of consumer electronic devices to provide a fixed dc voltage. From the control viewpoint, the controller design must cope with their wide input voltage and load resistance variations to ensure the stability in any operating condition while providing fast transient response. For many years, the control approaches for the DC-DC converters are limited to PI controller structures. However, it gives the overshoot in output voltage as the rise time of response is reduced. To tackle this problem, an adaptive recurrent fuzzy neural network control (ARFNNC) system is developed. The proposed ARFNNC system is comprised of a neural controller and a compensate controller. The on-line adaptive laws of the proposed ARFNNC scheme are derived based on the Lyapunov stability theorem, so that the stability of the system can be guaranteed. Finally, the hardware implementation of the ARFNNC scheme is developed on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) chip in a real-time mode. Experimental results show the proposed ARFNNC scheme can achieve good regulation performances.
Psychosocial correlates of organized physical activity in Portuguese urban youth

This study aimed to explore the association between psychosocial factors and organized physical activity (PA) in urban children and adolescents. Data on organized PA, psychosocial variables, and demographic characteristics were collected via questionnaires. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between psychosocial correlates and organized PA. Analyses were run separately for different age groups. Results showed that children and adolescents with a greater positive attitude toward PA were more likely to be involved in organized PA. Ego orientation was associated with organized PA at the age of 13-15 years. Task orientation was related to PA participation at the age of 13-15 and 16-18 years. Perception of competence was related to participation at the age of 10-12 and 13-15 years. These findings suggest that interventions to increase the level of participation in organized PA in youth should focus on increasing students' perceived physical competence, attitude toward PA, and establishing a strong motivational task/mastery climate.
Absence of Macrophage Inflammatory Protein-1α Prevents the Development of Blinding Herpes Stromal Keratitis

ABSTRACT Prior studies in our laboratory have suggested that the CC chemokine macrophage inflammatory protein-1α (MIP-1α) may be an important mediator in the blinding ocular inflammation which develops following herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection of the murine cornea. To directly test this hypothesis, MIP-1α-deficient (−/−) mice and their wild-type (+/+) counterparts were infected topically on the scarified cornea with 2.5 × 105 PFU of HSV-1 strain RE and subsequently graded for corneal opacity. Four weeks postinfection (p.i.), the mean corneal opacity score of −/− mice was 1.1 ± 0.3 while that of the +/+ mice was 3.7 ± 0.5. No detectable infiltrating CD4+ T cells were seen histologically at 14 or 21 days p.i. in −/− animals, whereas the mean CD4+ T-cell count per field (36 fields counted) in +/+ hosts was 26 ± 2 (P < 0.001). In addition, neutrophil counts in the −/− mouse corneas were reduced by >80% in comparison to the wild-type controls. At 2 weeks p.i. , no interleukin-2 or gamma interferon could be detected in six of seven −/− mice, whereas both T-cell cytokines were readily demonstrable in +/+ mouse corneas. Also, MIP-2 and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 protein levels were significantly lower in MIP-1α −/− mouse corneas than in +/+ host corneas, suggesting that MIP-1α directly, or more likely indirectly, influences the expression of other chemokines. Interestingly, despite the paucity of infiltrating cells, HSV-1 clearance from the eyes of −/− mice was not significantly different from that observed in +/+ hosts. We conclude that MIP-1α is not needed to control virus growth in the cornea but is essential for the development of severe stromal keratitis.
Performance Limits of Sparse Support Recovery Algorithms

Compressed Sensing (CS) is a signal acquisition approach aiming to reduce the number of measurements required to capture a sparse (or, more generally, compressible) signal. Several works have shown significant performance advantages over conventional sampling techniques, through both theoretical analyses and experimental results, and have established CS as an efficient way to acquire and reconstruct a sparse signal with low sampling rate, even below Nyquist. However, apart from the full signal recovery, in some cases only certain features and properties of the signal are required. For instance, in many wireless communication applications, e.g. cognitive radio systems and channel estimation, the indices recovery of the non-zero components of a sparse signal is required. In this work, we study the problem of sparse support recovery from few and noisy signal measurements by examining both fundamental bounds and performance of some of the prevailing practical algorithms for support recovery. After summarizing some algorithm-independent information theoretic limits, we present four frequently used support recovery algorithms with different complexity requirements and recovery capabilities: (i) maximum correlation (MC) algorithm, (ii) a thresholded greedy optimization algorithm, (iii) an `1-constrained quadratic programming approach, and (iv) thresholded basis pursuit (TBP) algorithm. Their performance is simulated and examined for different sparsity levels, number of measurements, signal characteristics (i.e. βmin,MAR) and SNR values. Our simulation results indicate that TBP outperforms the other methods at the expense of higher complexity. In addition, simulation results emphasize the importance of signal characteristics on the success of the support recovery.
Semi supervised soft label propagation algorithm for CBIR

The increase popularity of using huge image databases in various image retrieval applications construct a need to develop an efficient and robust system provides the output in the form of similar images with respect to the input or query image. Also to carry out its management and retrieval, Content-Based Image Retrieval is an effective method in retrieval system, as well as key technologies. In addition to Compare the shortcoming feature is used in the traditional system, this paper introduces a method that combines color, texture and shape for image retrieval and shows its advantage. But dealing with pattern recognition and machine learning a major problem occur on dimension. Among the dimensionality reduction techniques, Linear Discriminant Analysis is one of the popular methods, but LDA neglect the unlabeled samples. The proposed method propagates the label information from the labeled set to unlabeled set with label propagation process and compare with robust local binary pattern. Further the extensive simulations are conducted on two datasets are Corel 1000 and Brodatz texture database under different noise condition. The results after investigation show a significant improvement in terms of average retrieval precision (ARP) and average retrieval recall (ARR) as compared.
Health aspects of wireless communication: mobile telephone radiation and the exposure of children

It seems as though the daily news reports from the "Wall Streets" around the globe have become fodder for the continued meltdown of the telecommunication industry, worldwide. The Motorola company has disclosed that it had cut breakeven costs substantially to restore profits to its biggest business, mobile cellular telephones. Even so, the telecommunications industry has had another really bad year, across the board.
Learning user preference in a personalized CBIR system

A new approach for learning user preference in a personalized content-based image retrieval (CBIR) system is proposed in this study. This approach provides users with textual descriptions, visual examples, and relevance feedbacks to find target images. The user query can be expressed by syntactic rules and semantic rules. To build a personalized CBIR system, two problems should be overcome in advance, including the semantic gap and the human perception subjectivity. In this study, the semantic gap is bridged through linguistic term sets, which are represented as fuzzy membership functions. The human perception subjectivity is modelled from relevance feedbacks through profile updating and feature re-weighting algorithms. The user preference is stored in a personal profile for further retrieval. Experimental results support the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Risky Behaviors: Integrating Adolescent Egocentrism with the Theory of Planned Behavior

Of all age groups, adolescents are at the highest risk for experiencing negative health outcomes associated with risky behaviors. Persuasive messages targeting adolescents that urge them to refrain from tobacco use and alcohol consumption have not been met with great success, perhaps in part due to adolescent egocentrism. The utility of the theory of planned behavior applied to health outcomes has been supported across multiple health behaviors for adults. Perhaps integrating the two constructs of adolescent egocentrism with the three components of the theory of planned behavior will better enable researchers to persuade adolescents to refrain from risky behaviors, leading to improved health outcomes.
Usefulness of Leukocyte Esterase Test Versus Rapid Strep Test for Diagnosis of Acute Strep Pharyngitis

Objective: A study to compare the usage of throat swab testing for leukocyte esterase on a test strip(urine dip stick-multi stick) to rapid strep test for rapid diagnosis of Group A Beta hemolytic streptococci in cases of acute pharyngitis in children. Hypothesis: The testing of throat swab for leukocyte esterase on test strip currently used for urine testing may be used to detect throat infection and might be as useful as rapid strep. Methods: All patients who come with a complaint of sore throat and fever were examined clinically for erythema of pharynx, tonsils and also for any exudates. Informed consent was obtained from the parents and assent from the subjects. 3 swabs were taken from pharyngo-tonsillar region, testing for culture, rapid strep & Leukocyte Esterase. Results: Total number is 100. Cultures 9(+); for rapid strep== 84(-) and16 (+); For LE== 80(-) and 20(+) Statistics: From data configuration Rapid Strep versus LE test don’t seem to be a random (independent) assignment but extremely aligned. The Statistical results show rapid and LE show very agreeable results. Calculated Value of Chi Squared Exceeds Tabulated under 1 Degree Of Freedom (P<.0.0001) reject Null Hypothesis and Conclude Alternative Conclusions: Leukocyte esterase on throat swab is as useful as rapid strep test for rapid diagnosis of strep pharyngitis on test strip currently used for urine dip stick causing acute pharyngitis in children.
Evidence for a Complex Mosaic Genome Pattern in a Full-length Hepatitis C Virus Sequence

The genome of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) exhibits a high genetic variability. This remarkable heterogeneity is mainly attributed to the gradual accumulation of mutational changes, whereas the contribution of recombination events to the evolution of HCV remains controversial so far. While performing phylogenetic analyses including a large number of sequences deposited in the GenBank, we encountered a full-length HCV sequence (AY651061) that showed evidence for inter-subtype recombination and was, therefore, subjected to a detailed analysis of its molecular structure. The obtained results indicated that AY651061 does not represent a “simple” HCV 1c isolate, but a complex 1a/1c mosaic genome, showing five putative breakpoints in the core to NS3 regions. To our knowledge, this is the first report on a mosaic HCV full-length sequence with multiple breakpoints. The molecular structure of AY651061 is reminiscent of complex homologous recombinant variants occurring among other members of the flaviviridae family, e.g. GB virus C, dengue virus, and Japanese encephalitis virus. Our finding of a mosaic HCV sequence may have important implications for many fields of current HCV research which merit careful consideration.
A Newly Developed Sublingual Tonometric Method for the Evaluation of Tissue Perfusion and Its Validation In Vitro and in Healthy Persons In Vivo and the Results of the Measurements in COPD Patients

Introduction. Since its first publication in the medical literature, an extremely large number of references have demonstrated that the tonometric measurement of tissue perfusion is a reliable indicator of the actual condition of critically ill patients. Later a new method was developed by the introduction of sublingual tonometry for the determination of tissue perfusion. In comparison with gastric tonometry, the new method was simpler and could even be used in awake patients. Unfortunately, at present, because of severe failures of manufacturing, the device is withdrawn from commerce. Materials and Methods. In this study, we present a new method using a newly developed tool for the PslCO2 measurement in sublingual tonometry as well as the data for its validation in vitro and in vivo and the results of 25 volunteers and 54 COPD patients belonging to different GOLD groups at their hospitalization due to the acute exacerbation of the disease but already in a stable condition at the time of the examination. Results and Conclusion. The results of the performed examinations showed that the method is suitable for monitoring the actual condition of the patients by mucosal perfusion tonometry in the sublingual region.
Movement Activity Based Classification of Animal Behaviour with an Application to Data from Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)

We propose a new method, based on machine learning techniques, for the analysis of a combination of continuous data from dataloggers and a sampling of contemporaneous behaviour observations. This data combination provides an opportunity for biologists to study behaviour at a previously unknown level of detail and accuracy; however, continuously recorded data are of little use unless the resulting large volumes of raw data can be reliably translated into actual behaviour. We address this problem by applying a Support Vector Machine and a Hidden-Markov Model that allows us to classify an animal's behaviour using a small set of field observations to calibrate continuously recorded activity data. Such classified data can be applied quantitatively to the behaviour of animals over extended periods and at times during which observation is difficult or impossible. We demonstrate the usefulness of the method by applying it to data from six cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Cumulative activity data scores were recorded every five minutes by accelerometers embedded in GPS radio-collars for around one year on average. Direct behaviour sampling of each of the six cheetah were collected in the field for comparatively short periods. Using this approach we are able to classify each five minute activity score into a set of three key behaviour (feeding, mobile and stationary), creating a continuous behavioural sequence for the entire period for which the collars were deployed. Evaluation of our classifier with cross-validation shows the accuracy to be , but that the accuracy for individual classes is reduced with decreasing sample size of direct observations. We demonstrate how these processed data can be used to study behaviour identifying seasonal and gender differences in daily activity and feeding times. Results given here are unlike any that could be obtained using traditional approaches in both accuracy and detail.
The Application of Bioelectrical Impedance to Monitor Leg Movement

The purpose of this study is to provide a new approach for detection using bio-impedance. This impedance is measured by the four-electrode method. As the impedance changes resulting from ankle, knee, and hip movements depended heavily on electrode placement, we determined the optimal electrode configurations for those movements by searching for high correlation coefficients, large impedance changes, and minimum interferences in ten subjects (Age: 20±4). Our optimal electrode configurations showed very strong relationships between the ankle joint angle and ankle impedance (γ = −0.913±0.03), between the knee joint angle and knee impedance (γ = 0.944±0.02), and between the hip joint angle and hip impedance (γ = 0.823 ± 0.08). This study showed the possibility that lower leg movement could be easily measured by impedance measurement system with two pairs of skin-electrodes. key words: electrical bio-impedance, joint movement, human motion, impedance method
Re-architecting a data analysis system to enable pluggable tools and data

Department of Computer Science, University of Alabama, Box 870290, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487-0290, U.S.A. email: hawker@cs.ua. edu phone: +1 205 348 1667 fax: +1 205 348 0219 Lockheed-Martin Mission Systems, Santa Maria, CA U.S.A Department of Computer Science, University of Alabama, Box 870290, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487-0290, U.S.A. ____________________________________________________________________________________
Prevention and early intervention for borderline personality disorder: current status and recent evidence

Summary Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a leading candidate for developing empirically based prevention and early intervention programmes because it is common in clinical practice, it is among the most functionally disabling of all mental disorders, it is often associated with help-seeking, and it has been shown to respond to intervention, even in those with established disorder. Moreover, it can be reliably diagnosed in its early stages and it demarcates a group with high levels of current and future morbidity and mortality. Data also suggest considerable flexibility and malleability of BPD traits in youth, making this a key developmental period during which to intervene. Novel indicated prevention and early intervention programmes have shown that BPD in young people responds to intervention. Further work is required to develop appropriate universal and selective preventive interventions.
Delayed Visual Feedback of One’s Own Action Promotes Sense of Control for Auditory Events

Sense of control refers to one’s feelings to control environmental events through one’s own action. A prevailing view is that the sense of control is strong (or is not diminished) when predicted sensory signals, which are generated in motor control mechanisms, are consistent with afferent sensory signals. Such intact sense of control often leads to the misjudgment of temporal relation between timings of one’s action and its effect (so-called, intentional binding). The present study showed that the intentional binding could be enhanced by the delayed visual feedback of an agent’s action. We asked participants to press a button to produce a tone as action outcome. In some conditions, they were given the delayed visual feedback of their button press. Participants judged whether the onset of the auditory outcome was delayed from the timing of their button press. Consequently, delay detection thresholds were significantly higher when the feedback was given 0.2 and 0.4 s delays than when no feedback was displayed to the participants. The results indicate that action agents misjudge the timing of their action (button press) in the presence of the delayed visual feedback of their action. Interestingly, delay detection thresholds were strongly correlated with the subjective magnitude of the sense of control. Thus, the sense of control is possibly determined by cross-modal processing for action-related and outcome-related sensory signals.
A level-wise search approach to frequent web access pattern discovery with hybrid reasoning

Discovering frequent patterns from ontologies has become a central topic in the Semantic Web. To find more efficient frequent web access patterns, the hybrid reasoning framework DatalogSHIQ(D) is defined to express log ontology knowledge base, in which DL language SHIQ(D) and restricted datalog rules are combined with the basic datalog safeness. After introducing the expression of web access pattern and the tasks to the mining problem, an ILP approach is illustrated to generate the candidate frequent web access pattern set by breadth-first expansion. The experimental results show that our approach can discover more expressive web usage information without increasing calculation complexity compared with previous work.
Life-long Map Learning for Graph-based SLAM Approaches in Static Environments

In this paper, we consider the problem of life-long map learning with mobile robots using the graph-based formulation of the simultaneous localization and mapping problem. To allow for life-long mapping, the memory and computational requirements for mapping should remain bounded when re-traversing already mapped areas. Our method discards observations that do not provide relevant new information with respect to the model constructed so far. This decision is made based on the entropy reduction caused by observations. As a result, our approach scales with the size of the environment and not with the length of the trajectory. The experiments presented in this paper illustrate the advantages of our method using real robot data.
Mapping and Optimizing 2-D Jacobi Iteration on a Stream Processor

Stream processors, with the stream programming model, have demonstrated significant performance advantages in the domains signal processing, multimedia and graphics applications. In this paper we examine the applicability of a stream processor to 2-D Jacobi iteration which is widely used to solve partial differential equations, an important class of scientific programs. We first map 2-D Jacobi iteration in FORTRAN version to the stream processor in a straightforward way. In a stream processor system, the management of system resources is the programmers' responsibility. We then present several optimizations, which avail the stream program for 2-D Jacobi iteration, called StreamJacobi, of various aspects of the stream processor architecture. Finally, we analyze the performance of StreamJacobi, with different scales, and the presented optimizations. The final stream program StreamJacobi is from 2.31 to 6.42 times faster than the corresponding FORTRAN programs on a Xeon 5100 processor, with the optimizations playing an important role in realizing the performance improvement.
Chemistry-inspired Programmable Hardware in Communication and Networking Systems

Chemistry-inspired algorithms represent a novel approach to control dynamics in networking and communication systems, as well as to generally perform distributed computations. The benefits of using Chemistry-inspired algorithms range from the design (i.e., enabling runtime programmability of mechanisms to control network dynamics) to the analysis (i.e., automatic fluid model extraction of the implemented mechanism). Since their novelty, these algorithms have been tested by means of simulations and only recently in real environments: A Chemistry-inspired flow controller has been implemented in the linux kernel to regulate, at the transport layer, the access of hosts to a shared resource; a Chemistry-inspired algorithm has been implemented in an embedded microprocessor to directly control the RF transceiver and manage the interactions among nodes and let them convergence to a common value (consensus algorithm). In this paper, we further investigate on the realizability of this novel class of algorithms and propose a first hardware implementation of them. We describe a very flexible way of implementing an artificial chemistry for networking on FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Array). The provided middleware/abstraction can be used to deploy any (Chemistry-inspired) hardware controller, which is runtime programmable by simply configuring a few memories.