Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Selection and design of ultra-capacitor modules for power conversion applications: From theory to practice

Electrochemical double layer capacitors (EDLC), well known as ultra-capacitors have been used intensively in power conversion applications such as controlled electric drives, active filters, power conditioners and uninterruptible power supplies. In such applications, an ultra-capacitor is used as a short-term energy storage device that can be fully charged/discharge within few seconds. This paper gives a comprehensive procedure and guideline for selection and design of ultra-capacitor module. Selection of main parameters, such as voltage and capacitance rating, is discussed in details. Conversion losses and efficiency as well as thermal design of the ultra-capacitor module are also discussed. In last part of the paper, design of voltage balancing circuit is addressed. At the end of the paper, a design example is given and the experimental results presented.
Epidemiology of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease in Asia: A Systematic Review

Ethnic and geographical differences are important factors in studying disease frequencies, because they may highlight the environmental or genetic influences in the etiology. We retrieved the studies which have been published regarding the epidemiologic features of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in Asia, based on the definitions of GERD, study settings, publication years and geographical regions. From the population-based studies, the prevalence of symptom-based GERD in Eastern Asia was found to be 2.5%-4.8% before 2005 and 5.2%-8.5% from 2005 to 2010. In Southeast and Western Asia, it was 6.3%-18.3% after 2005, which was much higher than those in Eastern Asia. There were robust epidemiologic data of endoscopic reflux esophagitis in medical check-up participants. The prevalence of endoscopic reflux esophagitis in Eastern Asia increased from 3.4%-5.0% before 2000, to 4.3%-15.7% after 2005. Although there were only limited studies, the prevalence of extra-esophageal syndromes in Asia was higher in GERD group than in controls. The prevalence of Barrett's esophagus was 0.06%-0.84% in the health check-up participants, whereas it was 0.31%-2.00% in the referral hospital settings. In summary, the prevalence of symptom-based GERD and endoscopic reflux esophagitis has increased in Asian countries. However, the prevalence of Barrett's esophagus in Asia has not changed and also still rare.
Mental disorder, subsistence strategies, and victimization among gay, lesbian, and bisexual homeless and runaway adolescents

This study compares participation in deviant subsistence strategies, street victimization, and lifetime prevalence of five mental disorders (conduct disorder, major depressive disorder, post‐traumatic stress disorder, alcohol abuse, and drug abuse) among heterosexual males and females (n = 366) and gay, lesbian, and bisexual (n = 63) homeless and runaway adolescents from the first wave of a longitudinal study of homeless youth in four Midwestern states. The results indicate that gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents were more likely to have been physically and sexually abused by caretakers, were more likely to engage in risky survival strategies when on their own (including survival sex), were more likely to be physically and sexually victimized when on the streets, and were more likely to meet criteria for mental disorder than were their heterosexual counterparts.
On The Organization Of Human T Cell Receptor Loci

The human T cell repertoire is complex and is generated by the rearrangement of variable (V), diversity (D) and joining (J) segments on the T cell receptor (TCR) loci. The T cell repertoire demonstrates selfsimilarity in terms clonal frequencies when defined by V, D and J gene segment usage; therefore to determine whether the structural ordering of these gene segments on the TCR loci contributes to the observed clonal frequencies, the TCR loci were examined for self-similarity and periodicity in terms of gene segment organization. Logarithmic transformation of numeric sequence order demonstrated that the V and J gene segments for both T cell receptor α (TRA) and β (TRB) loci were arranged in a selfsimilar manner when the spacing between the adjacent segments was considered as a function of the size of the neighboring gene segment, with an average fractal dimension of ͠1.5. The ratio of genomic distance between either the J (in TRA) or D (in TRB) segments and successive V segments on these loci declined logarithmically with a slope of similar magnitude. Accounting for the gene segments occurring on helical DNA molecules in a logarithmic distribution, sine and cosine functions of the log transformed angular coordinates of the start and stop nucleotides of successive TCR gene segments showed an ordered progression from the 5’ to the 3’ end of the locus, supporting a log-periodic organization. T cell clonal frequencies, based on V and J segment usage, from three normal stem cell donors were plotted against the V and J segment on TRB locus and demonstrated a periodic distribution. We hypothesize that this quasi-periodic variation in gene-segment representation in the T cell clonal repertoire may be influenced by the location of the gene segments on the periodic-logarithmically scaled TCR loci. Interactions between the two strands of DNA in the double helix may influence the probability of gene segment usage by means of either constructive or destructive interference resulting from the superposition of the two helices.
Molecular Epidemiology of a Multiresistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa Outbreak in a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit

After isolation of multiresistant (MR) Pseudomonas aeruginosa from 3 hospitalized patients in a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU), a prospective surveillance programme was established to detect infected and/or colonized patients in the hospital. Isolates were examined by means of outer membrane protein (OMP) profiles, serotyping and DNA genomic analysis using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Fifty-five P. aeruginosa strains were isolated from 23 hospitalized patients during September and October 1997. The median hospital stay before isolation of P. aeruginosa was 8 d. PFGE demonstrated that the same clone infected 14 patients, 4 of whom were not hospitalized in the PICU. Susceptibility patterns and OMP profiles correlated with PFGE results in 37.8% and 36.4% of cases, respectively. Serotype O11 correlated with pattern A in 77% of cases and serotype O4 correlated with unrelated strains in 75% of cases but did not discriminate between outbreak and unrelated isolates. Extensive investigation of cultures failed to identify a reservoir of P. aeruginosa. PFGE was superior to OMP analysis and serotyping for discriminating between strains. The possible mode of acquisition for most of the patients infected with the same clone was cross-contamination.
A team is more than the sum of its parts : the role of diversity in personalities in virtual teams

Working in teams is growing in popularity during the past decades. The purpose of this research is to identify the role of diversity in personality for the anticipated productivity and satisfaction of the team-members. Furthermore the effect of receiving information about diversity on the anticipated productivity and satisfaction is measured. After filling in a personality-questionnaire participants got the idea they had to work in a team. They had to solve some examples of the task and became members of a high emotional or high extravert team, as well as a homogeneous or diverse team. Participants received a preprogramed message of their fictional team-members. They were asked to fill in another questionnaire about their expectations regarding productivity, satisfaction and conflict in their team. Conclusions of the questionnaires are that members of a diverse team expect more satisfaction in their team than in a homogeneous team. Also, members of a high extravert team expect more satisfaction than members of a high emotional team. Providing participants with positive information about diversity has a positive effect on the expected satisfaction in a diverse team, but not in a homogeneous team. Furthermore, the explorative part of this study indicates that high extravert participants expect high productivity, satisfaction and conflict in a diverse team constellation. They expect low productivity in a homogeneous team-constellation. We can conclude that personality, as well as diversity in a team, plays a crucial role in the anticipated productivity, satisfaction and conflict. Interesting is that anticipated conflict goes in combination with anticipated satisfaction and productivity. These ideas provide a good starting point for future research, to finally advise management on how to create a well balanced team in terms of personality-diversity.
Further Empirical Results on Parametric Versus Non-Parametric IRT Modeling of Likert-Type Personality Data

Chernyshenko, Stark, Chan, Drasgow, and Williams (2001) investigated the fit of Samejima's logistic graded model and Levine's non-parametric MFS model to the scales of two personality questionnaires and found that the graded model did not fit well. We attribute the poor fit of the graded model to small amounts of multidimensionality present in their data. To verify this conjecture, we compare the fit of these models to the Social Problem Solving Inventory-Revised, whose scales were designed to be unidimensional. A calibration and a cross-validation sample of new observations were used. We also included the following parametric models in the comparison: Bock's nominal model, Masters' partial credit model, and Thissen and Steinberg's extension of the latter. All models were estimated using full information maximum likelihood. We also included in the comparison a normal ogive model version of Samejima's model estimated using limited information estimation. We found that for all scales Samejima's model outperformed all other parametric IRT models in both samples, regardless of the estimation method employed. The non-parametric model outperformed all parametric models in the calibration sample. However, the graded model outperformed MFS in the cross-validation sample in some of the scales. We advocate employing the graded model estimated using limited information methods in modeling Likert-type data, as these methods are more versatile than full information methods to capture the multidimensionality that is generally present in personality data.
Xception fault injection and robustness testing framework: a case-study of testing RTEMS

Xception is an automated and comprehensive fault injection and robustness testing environment that enables accurate and flexible V&V (verification & validation) and evaluation of mission and business critical computer systems and computer components, with particular emphasis to software components. In this paper we focus on the new robustness testing features of Xception and illustrate them with a concrete example of robustness testing of the Real Time Executive for Multiprocessor Systems (RTEMS) performed under a European Space Agency (ESA) contract. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that robustness testing results for this real time operating system are presented. The testing revealed a significant number of critical flaws in RTEMS 4.5. 0 and shows the effectiveness of Xception toolset.
Intracellular metabolism and mechanism of anti-retrovirus action of 9-(2-phosphonylmethoxyethyl)adenine, a potent anti-human immunodeficiency virus compound.

9-(2-Phosphonylmethoxyethyl)adenine (PMEA) is a potent and selective inhibitor of retrovirus (i.e., human immunodeficiency virus) replication in vitro and in vivo. Uptake of PMEA by human MT-4 cells and subsequent conversion to the mono- and diphosphorylated metabolites (PMEAp and PMEApp) are dose-dependent and occur proportionally with the initial extracellular PMEA concentrations. Adenylate kinase is unable to phosphorylate PMEA. However, 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate synthetase directly converts PMEA to PMEApp with a Km of 1.47 mM and a Vmax that is 150-fold lower than the Vmax for AMP. ATPase, 5'-phosphodiesterase, and nucleoside diphosphate kinase are able to dephosphorylate PMEApp to PMEAp, albeit to a much lower extent than the dephosphorylation of ATP. PMEApp has a relatively long intracellular half-life (16-18 hr) and has a much higher affinity for the human immunodeficiency virus-specified reverse transcriptase than for the cellular DNA polymerase alpha (Ki/Km: 0.01 and 0.60, respectively). PMEApp is at least as potent an inhibitor of human immunodeficiency virus reverse transcriptase as 2',3'-dideoxyadenosine 5'-triphosphate. Being an alternative substrate to dATP, PMEApp acts as a potent DNA chain terminator, and this may explain its anti-retrovirus activity.
A comparison of microRNA sequencing reproducibility and noise reduction using mirVana and TRIzol isolation methods

MicroRNAseq (miRNAseq) is a form of RNAseq technology that has become an increasingly popular alternative to miRNA expression profiling. Unlike messenger RNA (mRNA), miRNA extraction can be difficult, and sequencing such small RNA can also be problematic. We designed a study to test the reproducibility of miRNAseq technology and the performance of the two popular miRNA isolation methods, mirVana and TRIzol, by sequencing replicated samples using microRNA isolated with each kit. Through careful analysis of our data, we found excellent repeatability of miRNAseq technology. The mirVana method performed better than TRIzol in terms of useful reads sequenced, number of miRNA identified, and reproducibility. Finally, we identified a baseline noise level for miRNAseq technology; this baseline noise level can be used as a filter in future miRNAseq studies.
Weaver Syndrome‐Associated EZH2 Protein Variants Show Impaired Histone Methyltransferase Function In Vitro

Weaver syndrome (WS) is a rare congenital disorder characterized by generalized overgrowth, macrocephaly, specific facial features, accelerated bone age, intellectual disability, and susceptibility to cancers. De novo mutations in the enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) have been shown to cause WS. EZH2 is a histone methyltransferase that acts as the catalytic agent of the polycomb‐repressive complex 2 (PRC2) to maintain gene repression via methylation of lysine 27 on histone H3 (H3K27). Functional studies investigating histone methyltransferase activity of mutant EZH2 from various cancers have been reported, whereas WS‐associated mutations remain poorly characterized. To investigate the role of EZH2 in WS, we performed functional studies using artificially assembled PRC2 complexes containing mutagenized human EZH2 that reflected the codon changes predicted from patients with WS. We found that WS‐associated amino acid alterations reduce the histone methyltransferase function of EZH2 in this in vitro assay. Our results support the hypothesis that WS is caused by constitutional mutations in EZH2 that alter the histone methyltransferase function of PRC2. However, histone methyltransferase activities of different EZH2 variants do not appear to correlate directly with the phenotypic variability between WS patients and individuals with a common c.553G>C (p.Asp185His) polymorphism in EZH2.
Feeding lactating dairy cattle long hay separate from the total mixed ration can maintain dry matter intake during incidents of low rumen pH.

The objective of this study was to investigate effects of offering dry hay of different quality and length on rumen pH and feed preference in lactating dairy cows. Eight rumen-cannulated Holstein cows (104 ± 34 d in milk, body weight of 601 ± 116 kg, and parity of 2.38 ± 1.69; mean ± standard deviation) were used in a replicated 4 × 4 Latin square design. Each period encompassed 21 d divided into 5 phases: adaptation (d 1 to 14), with ad libitum total mixed ration (TMR); baseline (d 15 to 17), with ad libitum TMR; restricted feeding (d 18), with cows fed for 75% of baseline dry matter intake; challenge (d 19), with 4 kg (as-fed) of finely ground wheat mixed into the digesta of each cow via rumen cannula before feeding; and recovery (d 20 to 21), with ad libitum TMR. Cows were assigned to squares by parity and randomly assigned to treatments. Treatments were 5.2% low-quality hay TMR (CL), 5.2% high-quality hay TMR (CH; both hays were chopped and included in TMR), TMR with 5.2% supplemental long low-quality hay (TMR+L), and TMR with 5.2% supplemental long high-quality hay (TMR+H; both hays were unprocessed and fed separate from TMR). Low-quality hay contained 8.6% crude protein and 67.1% neutral detergent fiber, whereas high-quality hay contained 14.4% crude protein and 56.2% neutral detergent fiber. Animals were housed individually, milked twice per day, and fed once per day for 10% refusal rate. Data were analyzed using PROC MIXED of SAS (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). Subacute ruminal acidosis challenge decreased weighted average rumen pH from 5.72 to 5.51. Cows fed TMR+L had higher rumen pH compared with CL and TMR+H on d 19. During d 20, cows fed chopped hay had higher rumen pH than cows fed supplemental long hay. Cows fed supplemental long hay had greater dry matter intake during baseline and challenge days compared with when hay was chopped and included in the TMR. Minimal differences among diets were found for TMR particle size selection during the challenge day; however, cows had a greater preference for high-quality long hay during recovery days. Milk production averaged 38.3 kg/d and did not differ among treatments. Fat, protein, and lactose yields were also not different among treatments. Milk fatty acid profile was altered by treatment. The TMR+L and CH treatments increased production of cis-9,trans-11 conjugated linoleic acid. Results of this study indicate that feeding TMR plus supplemental long hay can maintain dry matter intake during incidents of and recovery from periods of low ruminal pH.
Multimedia Data Navigation in Wireless Sensor Networks

Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSNs) is simply a wireless sensor network supporting multimedia traffic by deployment of data sensors and multimedia sensors as the nodes. The requirements of the WMSN is much different and specific as compared to other genera wireless networks, hence requires more specific protocols designed for each layers. These layers need to support the issues that multimedia traffic brings to the sensor networks, e.g. QoS, energy, MAC layer, bandwidth, etc. However it doesn't support the cause that these protocols are being treated as independent identities, as WMSN requires a cross-layer optimization of these protocols for proper functioning. With the assumption that most of the multimedia traffic consists of real-time video sensing and transmission, several solutions have been released, proposed and still are in research.
Peripheral Deletion of Autoreactive CD8 T Cells by Cross Presentation of Self-Antigen Occurs by a Bcl-2–inhibitable Pathway Mediated by Bim

By transgenic expression of ovalbumin (OVA) as a model self antigen in the β cells of the pancreas, we have shown that self tolerance can be maintained by the cross-presentation of this antigen on dendritic cells in the draining lymph nodes. Such cross-presentation causes initial activation of OVA-specific CD8 T cells, which proliferate but are ultimately deleted; a process referred to as cross-tolerance. Here, we investigated the molecular basis of cross-tolerance. Deletion of CD8 T cells was prevented by overexpression of Bcl-2, indicating that cross-tolerance was mediated by a Bcl-2 inhibitable pathway. Recently, Bim, a pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 family member whose function can be inhibited by Bcl-2, was found to play a critical role in the deletion of autoreactive thymocytes, leading us to examine its role in cross-tolerance. Bim-deficient T cells were not deleted in response to cross-presented self-antigen, strongly implicating Bim as the pro-apoptotic mediator of cross-tolerance.
Quantization of Binary-Input Discrete Memoryless Channels

The quantization of the output of a binary-input discrete memoryless channel to a smaller number of levels is considered. An algorithm, which finds an optimal quantizer, in the sense of maximizing mutual information between the channel input and quantizer output is given. This result holds for arbitrary channels, in contrast to previous results for restricted channels or a restricted number of quantizer outputs. In the worst case, the algorithm complexity is cubic M3 in the number of channel outputs M. Optimality is proved using the theorem of Burshtein, Della Pietra, Kanevsky, and Nádas for mappings, which minimize average impurity for classification and regression trees.
Modeling and analysis of the polyhedral pyramid structures by method of modified traveling salesman problem (TSP)

In this paper we discuss the features and benefits of usage the concepts of polyhedral pyramidal structure in design and analysis of flexible and adaptive organizational structures. Pyramidal polyhedra are considered as a network consisting of nodes and flows where nodes correspond to points of polyhedra, and edges correspond to flows. In this concept flows include all possible links between the points of polyhedra. Polyhedral pyramid structure is considered from the perspective of the possibilities for flexible and adaptive connecting between nodes with the possibilities of achieving more combinations that generate optimum solutions, related to optimal organizational structure. In considering of dynamic potential of pyramidal polyhedral structure uses a modified method of traveling salesman problem (TSP).