Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Artificial Intelligence In Self-Driving: Study of Advanced Current Applications

- In this paper, we investigate the advances of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the field of self-driving technology. We provide an overview of the key processes involved in autonomous navigation, including perception, mapping, localization, path planning, and motion control. We highlight the crucial role of AI in the development of self-driving technologies, in particular Machine Learning (ML), Deep Learning Networks (DLN), and Computer Vision Techniques (CVT). Special attention is also given to various existing navigation approaches and the role of ADAS in assisting the driver in various tasks. We discuss how AI is used to solve the various environmental challenges faced by automotive sensors and the contribution of v2x communication and the SLAM system to safe and efficient navigation. Finally, We conclude with potential future research segments and opportunities for AI in the self-driving industry. Overall, this study emphasizes the growing importance of AI in the development of self-driving technology and its potential to revolutionize the transportation industry.
Unraveling Anisotropy in Crystalline Orientation under Shock-Induced Dynamic Responses in High-Entropy Alloy Co25Ni25Fe25Al7.5Cu17.5

Shock-induced plastic deformation and spall damage in the single-crystalline FCC Co25Ni25Fe25Al7.5Cu17. 5 high-entropy alloy (HEA) under varying shock intensities were systematically investigated using large-scale molecular dynamics simulations. The study reveals the significant influence of crystalline orientation on the deformation mechanism and spall damage. Specifically, the shock wave velocities in the [110] and [111] directions are significantly higher than that in the [001] direction, resulting in a two-zone elastic-plastic shock wave structure observed in the [110] and [111] samples, while only a single-wave structure is found in the [001] sample. The plastic deformation is dominated by the FCC to BCC transformation following the Bain path and a small amount of stacking faults during the compression stage in the [001] sample, whereas it depends on the stacking faults induced by Shockley dislocation motion in the [110] and [111] samples. The stacking faults and phase transformation in the [001] sample exhibit high reversibility under release effects, while extensive dislocations are present in the [110] and [111] samples after release. Interestingly, tension-strain-induced FCC to BCC phase transformation is observed in the [001] sample during the release stage, resulting in increased spall strength compared to the [110] and [111] samples. The spall strength estimated from both bulk and free surface velocity history shows reasonable consistency. Additionally, the spall strength remains stable with increasing shock intensities. The study discusses in detail the shock wave propagation, microstructure change, and spall damage evolution. Overall, our comprehensive studies provide deep insights into the deformation and fracture mechanisms of Co25Ni25Fe25Al7.5Cu17. 5 HEA under shock loading, contributing to a better understanding of dynamic deformation under extreme environments.
Dynamic Edge-centric Resource Provisioning for Online and Offline Services Co-location

Due to the penetration of edge computing, a wide variety of workloads are sunk down to the network edge to alleviate huge pressure of the cloud. With the presence of high input workload dynamics and intensive edge resource contention, it is highly non-trivial for an edge proxy to optimize the scheduling of heterogeneous services with diverse QoS requirements. In general, online services should be quickly completed in a quite stable running environment to meet their tight latency constraint, while offline services can be processed in a loose manner for their elastic soft deadlines. To well coordinate such services at the resource-limited edge cluster, in this paper, we study an edge-centric resource provisioning optimization for dynamic online and offline services co-location, where the proxy seeks to maximize timely online service performances while maintaining satisfactory long-term offline service performances. However, intricate hybrid couplings for provisioning decisions arise due to heterogeneous constraints of the co-located services and their different time-scale performances. We hence first propose a reactive provisioning approach without requiring a prior knowledge of future system dynamics, which leverages a Lagrange relaxation for devising constraint-aware stochastic subgradient algorithm to deal with the challenge of hybrid couplings. To further boost the performance by integrating the powerful machine learning techniques, we also advocate a predictive provisioning approach, where the future request arrivals can be estimated accurately. With rigorous theoretical analysis and extensive trace-driven evaluations, we show the superior performance of our proposed algorithms for online and offline services co-location at the edge.
Reduced Opioid Use and Hospital Stay in Patients Undergoing Total Knee or Total Hip Arthroplasty when Treated with Sublingual Sufentanil Compared with Standard of Analgesic Care

A prospective study with a historical control group was performed to assess opioid use and length of stay in patients receiving a sufentanil sublingual tablet (SST) perioperatively for hip or knee arthroplasty compared to standard opioid administration. Patients were prospectively enrolled following informed consent and were dosed with one SST 30 mcg in the post-anesthesia care room following spinal anesthesia. Patients unable to receive spinal anesthesia received one SST 30 mcg dose prior to general anesthesia. The comparator group was patients undergoing the same procedures within the previous 3 months. All patients received non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and acetaminophen, with peripheral anesthesia blocks for knee arthroplasty. Intravenous and oral opioids were used as rescue analgesics. A total of 110 patients were evaluated, with 53 patients prospectively treated with SST and 57 patients in the comparator group. Patient demographics, anesthesia techniques and type of surgery were similar between the groups. The SST group utilized less morphine milligram equivalents throughout their stay (17.8 ± 2.4 vs 25.0 ± 3.3 for control patients [P < .05]). Hospital length of stay was shorter for the SST group (0.87 ± 0.12 vs 1.23 ± 0.16 nights [P < .05]). In the control group, 9 patients (15.8%) were discharged to a skilled nursing facility compared to none in the SST group (P < .01). In patients undergoing hip or knee arthroplasty, the addition of SST to a multimodal analgesic regimen is associated with lower opioid utilization, more rapid discharge and fewer admissions to skilled nursing facilities.
Aerobic methanotrophic bacterial communities in sediments of Lake Constance

25 Introduction 26 Materials and Methods 28 Results 36 Discussion 47 3. Characterization of a novel methanotroph, Methylosoma difficile gen. nov., sp. nov., enriched by gradient cultivation from littoral sediment of Lake Constance 55 Summary 55 Introduction 57 Methods 58 Results and 64 Discussion 4. Comparison of aerobic methanotrophic communities in littoral and profundal sediment of Lake Constance by a molecular approach 74 Abstract 74 Introduction 75 Materials and Methods 76 Results 78 Discussion 8274 Introduction 75 Materials and Methods 76 Results 78 Discussion 82 5. Depth distribution of methanotrophic bacteria in littoral and profundal sediments of Lake Constance 85 Abstract 85 Introduction 86 Materials and Methods 88 Results 94 Discussion 10385 Introduction 86 Materials and Methods 88 Results 94 Discussion 103 6. Oxygen Relationships and Ultra-structure of a novel methanotroph 112 Abstract 112 Introduction 113 Materials and Methods 115 Results 118 Discussion 126 7. General Discussion 134
An Improved Three-Phase Transformerless Neutral Point Clamped Inverter Topology for Common Mode Voltage Reduction

Transformerless photovoltaic (PV) inverters are more effective, lighter in weight, and less expensive than transformer-based topologies. However, a leakage current $(i_{Leakage})$ is produced when transformers are removed due to the direct connection between the PV panel and the grid. This current reduces the life of the insulation, causes safety problems, and increases the harmonic distortion in the grid current. To overcome these issues, an improved three-phase transformerless neutral point clamped (NPC) topology is proposed by employing two additional switches on the primary side of a traditional NPC inverter. This arrangement reduces the iLeakage significantly and improves the harmonic behavior of the grid current by operating the additional switches in zero switching states. Furthermore, when compared to a conventional H8 inverter, its multilevel capability reduces voltage stress on semiconductor devices. Finally, the proposed topology is validated with the help of the Simulink model in MATLAB by comparing it to a traditional three-phase H8 inverter, considering $i_{Leakage},$ common-mode voltage (CMV), and the grid current total harmonic distortions (THD).
A CPW‐fed broadband circularly polarized square slot antenna

A new broadband circularly polarized (CP) square slot antenna with coplanar waveguide fed is proposed. Two symmetrical E‐shaped slits embedded in opposite corners of ground plane are designed to obtain an excellent CP bandwidth. Simulated results show that the broadband performance is formed by three resonant modes. Some key parameters are studied to analysis the characteristics of the proposed antenna. Measured results show that the 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth is larger than 32.8% relative to the center frequency of 2165 MHz and the impedance bandwidth is as large as 54.8% with voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) ≤2. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 52: 409–412, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24904
Awareness of Policy Frameworks that Affect the Provision and Utilization of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services among University Students in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Purpose: the study sought to determine awareness of SRH policy frameworks that impact on the provision and utilization of SRH services among university students. Methodology: The study used a cross sectional research design complemented by exploratory research design. The study was conducted in the main campuses of two public universities namely Kenyatta University and Multimedia University and two private universities, United States International University- Africa, KCA-University in Nairobi County in Kenya. The target population were students aged between 18-25 years studying in universities with main campuses in Nairobi County. The total study population was approximately 192,193 students. The study applied stratified random sampling to identify the 370 students who completed the study questionnaires. Purposive sampling was used to select the students and staff who participated in in-depth interviews. The students who participated in focus group discussions were randomly selected. Findings: The study found out that most students, 95 (25.7%) reported to be aware of the Constitution of Kenya (2010) followed by 74 (20%) students who reported to be aware of the National Reproductive Health Policy (2007). When looking at the university level policy frameworks, most students, 229 (61.9%) split in almost equal numbers, male, 120 (32.4%) and female, 109 (29.5%) are aware of the university HIV/AIDS policy. The surveyed students who said they were not aware of any university SRH policies were 94 (25.4%), split in equal numbers between male and female students. The findings indicate low awareness of SRH policy frameworks by either gender which can be interpreted to mean that participation of the students in the development of the policy frameworks and dissemination of the developed policies is poor. Recommendations: The study’s recommendation to universities is to regularly disseminate national and university level SRH policy frameworks to the students. This can be done during orientation, as part of their studies and on special days convened to sensitize the students on their health.
Galliot: Path Merging Based Betweenness Centrality Algorithm on GPU

Betweenness centrality (BC) is widely used to measure a vertex’s significance by using the frequency of a vertex appearing in the shortest path between other vertices. However, most recent algorithms in BC computation suffer from the problem of high auxiliary memory consumption. To reduce BC computing’s memory consumption, we propose a path-mergingbased algorithm called Galliot to calculate the BC values on GPU, which aims to minimize the on-board memory consumption and enable the BC computation of large-scale graphs. The proposed algorithm requires $\mathcal{O}$(n) space and runs in $\mathcal{O}$(mn) time on unweighted graphs. We present the theoretical principle for the proposed path merging method. Moreover, we propose a locality-oriented policy to maintain and update the worklist to improve GPU data locality. In addition, we conducted extensive experiments on NVIDIA GPUs to show the performance of Galliot. The results show that Galliot can process the larger graphs, which have 11.32× more vertices and 5.67× more edges than the graphs that recent works. Moreover, Galliot can achieve up to 38.77× speedup over the existing methods.
Chemical Kinetics of the Nitridation Process of Silicon Si(111) Substrates at Different Ammonia Fluxes

The chemical kinetics of the formation of two-dimensional (2D) crystalline and amorphous silicon nitride (SiN) layers on the Si(111) surface during nitridation has been studied as a function of ammonia flux using the reflection high-energy electron diffraction technique at a fixed substrate temperature. It was experimentally determined that the formation rate of both crystalline and amorphous silicon nitride phases increases with ammonia flux growth. The formation rate of the crystalline silicon nitride phase is characterized by a linear dependence, while the dependence of the formation rate of the amorphous phase on the ammonia flux is sub-linear and two orders of magnitude slower than that of the 2D crystalline phase due to the higher activation barrier formation of amorphous SiN. The processes on the Si(111) surface are described in the framework of a kinetic model of chemical reactions including the interaction between top-active Si atoms on the surface and chemisorbed NH2 particles. The experimentally determined SiN formation rates as a function of ammonia pressure are successfully described by a simple set of kinetic equations.
Design and Examination of an Automatic Control System of Time Scale Generation

Article considered an automatic control system of the time scale generation of the reference time scale holding system with compare Time scale UTC(SU). The issues of generation and holding of time scales. An algorithm for the generation of analytical and physical time scales of the reference time scale holding system is proposed. Existing automatic control systems of the time scale generation are built on the predicted values of the time scale move of the frequency and time reference oscillators. The automatic control system of the time scale is based on the principle of controlling the phase shift of the output signal. For navigation equipment is not allowed to break out the reference signal phase and is proposed a control system on based control action of the frequency shift. It is shown that when generating a control action based on the clock rate variation of the frequency and time standard from the reference time scale holding system, the instability of the physical time scale is determined only by the output signal frequency drifting of the hydrogen maser and increases the reliability of the control system as a whole.
A Digital Tool for the Self-Assessment of Homes to Increase Age-Friendliness: Validity Study

Background Age-friendly environments in homes and communities play an important role in optimizing the health and well-being of society. Older people have strong preferences for remaining at home as they age. Home environment assessment tools that enable older people to assess their homes and prepare for aging in place may be beneficial. Objective This study aims to establish the validity of a digital self-assessment tool by assessing it against the current gold standard, an occupational therapy home assessment. Methods A cohort of adults aged ≥60 years living in metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, assessed their homes using a digital self-assessment tool with 89 questions simultaneously with an occupational therapist. Adults who were living within their homes and did not have significant levels of disabilities were recruited. Cohen κ and Gwet AC1 were used to assess validity. Results A total of 61 participants (age: mean 71.2, SD 7.03 years) self-assessed their own homes using the digital self-assessment tool. The overall levels of agreement were high, supporting the validity of the tool in identifying potential hazards. Lower levels of agreement were found in the following domains: steps (77% agreement, Gwet AC1=0.56), toilets (56% agreement, κ=0.10), bathrooms (64% agreement, κ=0.46), and backyards (55% agreement, κ=0.24). Conclusions Older people were able to self-assess their homes using a digital self-assessment tool. Digital health tools enable older people to start thinking about their future housing needs. Innovative tools that can identify problems and generate solutions may improve the age-friendliness of the home environment.
Turning waste into value: eco‐efficient recovery of by‐products from biomass pretreatment in lignocellulosic biorefineries

This original research contributes to enhancing the viability of biorefineries through recovering valuable by‐products from the liquid remaining after the biomass pretreatment by hot liquid water. A novel downstream processing method is developed for the recovery of acetic acid, formic acid, furfural and 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) by enhanced distillation. The major challenge in this research is the processing of the highly diluted initial solution (>96 wt% water) and the thermodynamic limitations owing to possible formation of several azeotropes. This new process recovers 78.7% of the acetic acid (99.8 wt%), while the rest of it is recycled back to the biomass pretreatment step together with most of the separated water from the initial solution. Over 99.5% of formic acid, furfural and HMF is also recovered, at purities of 74.7, 98.0 and 100 wt%, respectively. Vapor recompression and heat integration are implemented to decrease the energy use. The results demonstrate a 77.4% decrease in total annual costs (from $3.44 to 0.78/kgproduct), a 75.0% reduction in minimum average selling price (from $3.50 to 0.87/kgproduct), an 81.1% reduction in energy requirements (from 77.41 to 14.66 kWthh/kgproduct) and an up to 99.7% decrease in CO2 emissions (from 11.17 to 0.03 kgCO2/kgproduct).
CS-LAKA: A Lightweight Authenticated Key Agreement Protocol With Critical Security Properties for IoT Environments

Anonymity, robust synchronization, and perfect forward secrecy are the most important security properties of authenticated key agreement (AKA) protocols. Designing AKA protocols that simultaneously achieve these security properties and availability in the IoT environment is a challenging task. AKA protocols built using public key cryptographic primitives have advantages in achieving these critical security properties, but performing expensive public-key cryptographic operations is inefficient for resource-constrained IoT devices. The authentication protocols based on symmetric cryptographic primitives are often subject to various attacks. This paper proposes a secure lightweight AKA protocol with critical security properties (called CS-LAKA) for IoT environments without using public-key cryptographic primitives. LAKA cleverly achieves the security goals of anonymity, robust synchronization, and perfect forward secrecy by embedding dynamic identities in authenticators, and a few additional exchange messages are added. This enables LAKA to have both robust security and high efficiency. Subsequently, we perform a formal security analysis to prove that LAKA is secure, and compared with existing related schemes, LAKA has obvious advantages in terms of security, functionality and running performance.
LTP-triggered cholesterol redistribution activates Cdc42 and drives AMPA receptor synaptic delivery

-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid–type glutamate receptors (AMPARs) from Rab11-recycling endosomes into the synaptic membrane, leading to synaptic potentiation. This process is accompanied by an increase of NMDAR function and an enhancement of LTP. These results imply that cholesterol acts as a sensor of NMDAR activation and as a trigger of downstream signaling to engage small GTPase (guanosine triphosphatase) activation and AMPAR synaptic delivery during LTP.
Comparison of Decoupling Control Strategies for Multiple Active Bridge DC-DC Converter

With the benefit of high power density and bidirectional multi-input multi-output (MIMO) power transfer capability, the multiport active bridge (MAB) topology has been widely used in the electric transportation onboard propulsion and charging systems. However, the nonlinear power transfer behavior brings challenge to its control system design. As the dynamic performance of the traditional proportional-integral (PI) controller is characterized by a relatively slow response and large overshoot. To address this issue, decoupling control strategies have been proposed to enhance the transient response and control flexibility of the system. This paper discussed and compared several nonlinear decoupling control methodologies including the small signal state-space linearization based and optimization algorithm based decoupling control. Simulation verifications are performed to conclude the suitable applications.
Effect of sound therapy on whole scalp oscillatory brain activity and distress in chronic tinnitus patients

Introduction Sound therapy is a common tinnitus treatment, where the tinnitus percept is either fully or partially masked by an external sound. Some tinnitus patients experience a decrease in tinnitus related distress after the use of sound therapy. Differences in the neural response to sound therapy may form a basis for classifying tinnitus patients. Methods In this study, the long-term (2 months) effects of sound therapy on the oscillatory brain activity and tinnitus related distress were investigated in chronic tinnitus patients. Baseline oscillatory activity in the group of tinnitus participants was also compared to a matched control group. Results No differences were found in the oscillatory activity when comparing the tinnitus group to the control group. Differences were found for the frequency range between 27.5 and 41.5 Hz corresponding to high beta and gamma power when comparing the tinnitus group before and after the use of sound therapy. Furthermore, a reduction of the tinnitus-related distress was found after the long-term use of sound therapy. However, there was no correlation between the changes in the oscillatory activity and the reductions of the tinnitus-related distress. Discussion Overall, the lack of correlation between the changes in tinnitus-related distress and changes in power activity hampers the interpretability of the findings and undermines the utility of using oscillatory activity as a biomarker for the effect of sound therapy treatment.