Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simple digital control improving dynamic performance of power factor preregulators

This paper presents the practical implementation of a fully digital control for boost power factor preregulators (PFPs). The control algorithm, which is simple and fast, provides a significant improvement in the system's dynamic performance compared to the usual analog control techniques. The paper discusses the design criteria and the actions taken for the implementation of the digital control, which is performed by means of a standard microcontroller (Siemens 80C166). The effectiveness of the approach is assessed by experimental tests.
Design considerations in choosing operations for building groupware systems (abstract)

We report our experiences from building a prototype toolkit, called DistEdit, for building interactive group editors in distributed environments. Based on our experience in building the toolkit, we found that some design solutions that are commonly used in single-user editors are not necessarily appropriate in group editors. Furthermore, design of group editors requires a better understanding of the semantics of editing operations than in the corresponding single-user editors. These semantics are useful for providing a variety of services, such as undo, concurrency control, and selective replay. This position paper is presented in the context of text editors; however, many of the ideas presented here also apply to other types of group editors.
Influence of conservation on calculations of amino acid covariance in multiple sequence alignments

It has long been argued that algorithms that find correlated mutations in multiple sequence alignments can be used to find structurally or functionally important residues in proteins. We examined the properties of four different methods for detecting these correlated mutations. On both simple, artificial alignments and real alignments from the Pfam database, we found a surprising lack of agreement between the four correlated mutation methods. We argue that these differences are caused in part by differing sensitivities to background conservation. Correlated mutation algorithms can be envisioned as “filters” of background conservation with each algorithm searching for correlated mutations that occur at a different background conservation frequency. Proteins 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Speaker Personality Classification Using Systems Based on Acoustic-Lexical Cues and an Optimal Tree-Structured Bayesian Network

Automatic classiﬁcation of human personality along the Big Five dimensions is an interesting problem with several practical applications. This paper makes some contributions in this regard. First, we propose a few automatically-derived personality-discriminating lexical features which provide information complementary to the conventional acoustic-prosodic cues. We also design a frame-level Gaussian mixture model based system which adds complimentary information to the systems trained on global statistical functionals. Next, we note that the Big Five dimensions are correlated and thus model the dependency between these dimensions in the form of an optimal tree-structured Bayesian network. Our ﬁnal sub-system consists of within class covariance normalization followed by L1-regularized logistic regression. Fusion of all these sub-systems achieves better classiﬁcation performance than independently trained classiﬁers using just acoustic features.
On-chip carbide derived carbon films for high performance micro-supercapacitors

The integration of high performance energy storage systems on silicon chips is necessary to support the development of portable electronic devices. Electrochemical double layer capacitors (or supercapacitors) are a good candidate for this purpose as they provide high power densities and long cycle life. Nevertheless, the improvement of the energy densities delivered by supercapacitors is required. High areal and volumetric capacitance values could be reached while using carbide-derived carbons (CDCs), thanks to their tunable nanoporous structure. The fabrication of interdigitated micro-supercapacitors from chlorination of sputtered TiC films on silicon wafer is presented here. On-chip CDC film electrodes were successfully prepared and tested in aqueous electrolyte, delivering high volumetric capacitance of 410 F.cm−3. Moreover, the use of ionic liquids/solvent mixtures provided larger potential windows, leading to high energy densities up to 90 μWh. cm−2.
Genomic and Transcriptomic Resolution of Organic Matter Utilization Among Deep-Sea Bacteria in Guaymas Basin Hydrothermal Plumes

Microbial chemosynthesis within deep-sea hydrothermal vent plumes is a regionally important source of organic carbon to the deep ocean. Although chemolithoautotrophs within hydrothermal plumes have attracted much attention, a gap remains in understanding the fate of organic carbon produced via chemosynthesis. In the present study, we conducted shotgun metagenomic and metatranscriptomic sequencing on samples from deep-sea hydrothermal vent plumes and surrounding background seawaters at Guaymas Basin (GB) in the Gulf of California. De novo assembly of metagenomic reads and binning by tetranucleotide signatures using emergent self-organizing maps (ESOM) revealed 66 partial and nearly complete bacterial genomes. These bacterial genomes belong to 10 different phyla: Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Deferribacteres, Firmicutes, Gemmatimonadetes, Nitrospirae, Planctomycetes, Proteobacteria, Verrucomicrobia. Although several major transcriptionally active bacterial groups (Methylococcaceae, Methylomicrobium, SUP05, and SAR324) displayed methanotrophic and chemolithoautotrophic metabolisms, most other bacterial groups contain genes encoding extracellular peptidases and carbohydrate metabolizing enzymes with significantly higher transcripts in the plume than in background, indicating they are involved in degrading organic carbon derived from hydrothermal chemosynthesis. Among the most abundant and active heterotrophic bacteria in deep-sea hydrothermal plumes are Planctomycetes, which accounted for seven genomes with distinct functional and transcriptional activities. The Gemmatimonadetes and Verrucomicrobia also had abundant transcripts involved in organic carbon utilization. These results extend our knowledge of heterotrophic metabolism of bacterial communities in deep-sea hydrothermal plumes.
An international prospective general population-based study of respiratory work disability

Background: Previous cross-sectional studies have shown that job change due to breathing problems at the workplace (respiratory work disability) is common among adults of working age. That research indicated that occupational exposure to gases, dust and fumes was associated with job change due to breathing problems, although causal inferences have been tempered by the cross-sectional nature of previously available data. There is a need for general population-based prospective studies to assess the incidence of respiratory work disability and to delineate better the roles of potential predictors of respiratory work disability. Methods: A prospective general population cohort study was performed in 25 centres in 11 European countries and one centre in the USA. A longitudinal analysis was undertaken of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey including all participants employed at any point since the baseline survey, 6659 subjects randomly sampled and 779 subjects comprising all subjects reporting physician-diagnosed asthma. The main outcome measure was new-onset respiratory work disability, defined as a reported job change during follow-up attributed to breathing problems. Exposure to dusts (biological or mineral), gases or fumes during follow-up was recorded using a job-exposure matrix. Cox proportional hazard regression modelling was used to analyse such exposure as a predictor of time until job change due to breathing problems. Results: The incidence rate of respiratory work disability was 1.2/1000 person-years of observation in the random sample (95% CI 1.0 to 1.5) and 5.7/1000 person-years in the asthma cohort (95% CI 4.1 to 7.8). In the random population sample, as well as in the asthma cohort, high occupational exposure to biological dust, mineral dust or gases or fumes predicted increased risk of respiratory work disability. In the random sample, sex was not associated with increased risk of work disability while, in the asthma cohort, female sex was associated with an increased disability risk (hazard ratio 2.8, 95% CI 1.3 to 5.9). Conclusions: Respiratory work disability is common overall. It is associated with workplace exposures that could be controlled through preventive measures.
Information activities and appropriation in teacher trainees' digital, group-based learning

Introduction: This paper reports results from an ethnographic study of teacher trainees’ information activities in digital, group-based learning and their relation to the interplay between use and appropriation of digital tools and the learning environment. Method. The participants in the present study are 249 pre-school teacher trainees in Sweden. Three key informants and their teams were followed during a course module using online and offline participant observation. The produced material includes transcribed interviews with nine students, recorded digital interactions from Facebook, Google Drive and Prezi, field notes and a field diary. Analysis: The material was read repeatedly, coded and comparatively analysed using the lens of information literacy and the concept appropriation. The analysis generated recurring themes. These themes emerged as phases of the group-based learning process. Results. The results illustrate how information activities during teacher trainees’ digital, group-based learning are performed during four phases: setting the scene, negotiating the topic, gathering material and presenting the assignment. Conclusions: Crucial aspects of an information literacy of digital, group-based learning in teacher training are identified. The learning environment of teacher training constrains and enables use and appropriation of digital tools in terms of flexibility, lack of participation and transparency. (Less)
A Statistical Framework for Elastic Shape Analysis of Spatio-Temporal Evolutions of Planar Closed Curves

We propose a new statistical framework for spatiotemporal modeling of elastic planar, closed curves. This approach combines two recent frameworks for elastic functional data analysis and elastic shape analysis. The proposed trajectory registration framework enables matching and averaging to quantify spatio-temporal deformations while taking into account their dynamic specificities. A key ingredient of this framework is a tracking method that optimizes the evolution of curves extracted from sequences of consecutive images to estimate the spatio-temporal deformation fields. Automatic estimation of such deformations including spatial changes (strain) and dynamic temporal changes (phase) was tested on simulated examples and real myocardial trajectories. Experimental results show significant improvements in the spatio-temporal structure of trajectory comparisons and averages using the proposed framework.
The groovepad: ergonomic integration of isotonic and elastic input for efficient control of complementary subtasks

The Groovepad is an input device that uses the physical frame of a regular touchpad as an elastic force sensor to permit additional rate-control input. The two independent input sensors can be used separately, but facilitate frequent and fluent switching between position-controlled and rate-controlled interaction techniques. We studied the usability of the Groovepad in pointing, panning, and dragging tasks. Our observations indicate that the use of the two input sensors for the same functionality (e.g.,cursor control) can result in a decision dilemma, which adversely affects performance. As an alternative, we propose to use both sensors for complementary subtasks. For example, we performed workspace panning with the elastic frame of the Groovepad, while cursor motion was operated with the touchpad. This particular mapping possesses the compelling property that the frame of the touchpad serves as a tactile reference of the visual workspace. A user study revealed that our approach was preferred and performed significantly better than techniques that only used touchpad input.
IBEX: Harvesting Entities from the Web Using Unique Identifiers

In this paper we study the prevalence of unique entity identifiers on the Web. These are, e.g., ISBNs (for books), GTINs (for commercial products), DOIs (for documents), email addresses, and others. We show how these identifiers can be harvested systematically from Web pages, and how they can be associated with humanreadable names for the entities at large scale. Starting with a simple extraction of identifiers and names from Web pages, we show how we can use the properties of unique identifiers to filter out noise and clean up the extraction result on the entire corpus. The end result is a database of millions of uniquely identified entities of different types, with an accuracy of 73--96% and a very high coverage compared to existing knowledge bases. We use this database to compute novel statistics on the presence of products, people, and other entities on the Web.
Foundational and Mathematical Uses of Higher Types

In this paper we develop mathematically strong systems of analysis in higher types which, nevertheless, are proof-theoretically weak, i.e. conservative over elementary resp. primitive recursive arithmetic. These systems are based on non-collapsing hierarchies (Phi_n-WKL+, Psi_n-WKL+) of principles which generalize (and for n = 0 coincide with) the so-called `weak' K¨onig's lemma WKL (which has been studied extensively in the context of second order arithmetic) to logically more complex tree predicates. Whereas the second order context used in the program of reverse mathematics requires an encoding of higher analytical concepts like continuous functions F : X -> Y between Polish spaces X, Y , the more flexible language of our systems allows to treat such objects directly. This is of relevance as the encoding of F used in reverse mathematics tacitly yields a constructively enriched notion of continuous functions which e.g. for F : N^N -> N can be seen (in our higher order context) to be equivalent to the existence of a continuous modulus of pointwise continuity. For the direct representation of F the existence of such a modulus is independent even of full arithmetic in all finite types E-PA^omega plus quantifier-free choice, as we show using a priority construction due to L. Harrington. The usual WKL-based proofs of properties of F given in reverse mathematics make use of the enrichment provided by codes of F, and WKL does not seem to be sufficient to obtain similar results for the direct representation of F in our setting. However, it turns out that Psi_1-WKL+ is sufficient. Our conservation results for (Phi_n-WKL+, Psi_n-WKL+) are proved via a new elimination result for a strong non-standard principle of uniform Sigma^0_1- boundedness which we introduced in 1996 and which implies the WKL-extensions studied in this paper.
Left Ventricle Load Impedance Control by Apical VAD Can Help Heart Recovery and Patient Perfusion: A Numerical Study

The aim of this work is to investigate the dependence between left ventricular load impedance control by an apical ventricular assist device (VAD) and the consequent benefits for pathological heart recovery. A pathological left ventricle with 34% contractility has been simulated in the assisted and nonassisted conditions. By means of an extended Kalman filter, left ventricular pressure-volume loops have been partially estimated and ventricular as well as circulatory quantities inferred. The heart operation mode, based on cardiac energetic criteria, is imposed by controlling the VAD filling phase. In the assisted condition, results show that the left ventricle end-diastolic volume, left atrial pressure, and wall stress all decrease; stroke volume, ejection fraction, ventricular efficiency, aortic pressure, and cardiac output all increase. Benefits are also evident for the right ventricle and systemic and pulmonary circulation. The strategy outlined in this work also shows that good results for heart recovery are achievable and a possible way to improve the functional properties of commercial pulsatile VADs.
Trailblazing the literature of hypertext: author co-citation analysis (1989–1998)

This paper presents the analysis and modelling of two data sets associated with the literature of hypertext as represented by the ACM Hypertext conference series. This work explores new ways of organising and accessing the vast amount of interrelated information. The first data set, including all the full papers published in this series (1987 1998), is structured and visualised as a semantic space. This semantic space provides an access point for each paper in this collection. The second data set, containing author co-citation counts based on nine conferences in the series (1989 1998), is analysed and mapped in its entirety and in three evenly distributed sub-periods. Specialties  major research fronts in the field of hypertext  are identified based on the results of a factor analysis and corresponding author co-citation maps. The names of authors in these maps are linked to the bibliographical and citation summaries of these authors on the WWW.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Evoked Potential Correlates of Conscious and Unconscious Vision in Parietal Extinction Patients

We describe recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potential (ERP) studies of visual extinction in patients with right parietal damage who can detect isolated visual stimuli on either side, yet often miss contralesional (left) stimuli during bilateral stimulation. We consider the neural fate of such extinguished visual stimuli and how neural responses differ for consciously detected versus extinguished stimuli. fMRI findings indicate that extinguished stimuli evoke activity in striate and ventral extrastriate visual cortex, despite escaping awareness. Activations for extinguished stimuli can be found even in category-specific (face-responsive) areas of the fusiform gyrus. On the other hand, activations in visual cortex are stronger for consciously detected versus extinguished stimuli, with parietal and frontal areas of the intact left hemisphere also implicated in this comparison. Recent ERP data likewise suggest differential neural responses for consciously detected versus extinguished stimuli. We discuss these findings in relation to current speculations about the neural basis of conscious and unconscious perception.
Towards Growing Self-Organizing Neural Networks with Fixed Dimensionality

— The competitive learning is an adaptive process in which the neurons in a neural network gradually become sensitive to different input pattern clusters. The basic idea behind the Kohonen’s Self-Organizing Feature Maps (SOFM) is competitive learning. SOFM can generate mappings from high-dimensional signal spaces to lower dimensional topological structures. The main features of this kind of mappings are topology preserving, feature mappings and probability distribution approximation of input patterns. To overcome some limitations of SOFM, e.g., a fixed number of neural units and a topology of fixed dimensionality, Growing Self-Organizing Neural Network (GSONN) can be used. GSONN can change its topological structure during learning. It grows by learning and shrinks by forgetting. To speed up the training and convergence, a new variant of GSONN, twin growing cell structures (TGCS) is presented here. This paper first gives an introduction to competitive learning, SOFM and its variants. Then, we discuss some GSONN with fixed dimensionality, which include growing cell structures, its variants and the author’s model: TGCS. It is ended with some testing results comparison and conclusions.
An Improved Straggler Identification Scheme for Data-Intensive Computing on Cloud Platforms

One of the challenges faced by data-intensive computing is the problem of stragglers, which can significantly increase the job completion time. Various proactive and reactive straggler mitigation techniques have been developed to address the problem. The straggler identification scheme is a crucial part of the straggler mitigation techniques, as only when stragglers are detected not only correctly but also early enough, the improvement in job completion time can make a real difference. Although the classical standard deviation method is a widely adopted straggler identification scheme, it is not an ideal solution due to certain inherent limitations. In this paper, we present Tukey's method, another statistical method for outlier detection, which is more suitable for the identification of stragglers for two reasons. First, it is robust to extreme observations from stragglers. Second, it can identify stragglers and, more importantly, start speculative execution earlier than the standard deviation method. Our extensive simulation results confirm that Tukey's method can remarkably outperform the standard deviation method.
Neutrophils From Acute Pancreatitis Patients Cause More Severe In Vitro Endothelial Damage Compared With Neutrophils From Healthy Donors and Are Differently Regulated by Endothelins

Objective: There is evidence that endothelin (ET) 1 affect neutrophil functions and that patients with severe acute pancreatitis have increased plasma levels of ETs. Under appropriate conditions, neutrophils are able to injure the endothelium. In the present study, we compared healthy donors with acute pancreatitis patients for neutrophil degranulation and its ability to injure the endothelium and the contribution of ET-1 to this injury. Methods: Injury was evaluated by measuring the detachment of endothelial cells (ECV-304) growing in monolayer in coculture with human neutrophils for 4 hours. Neutrophil degranulation was assessed by myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity in coculture supernatants. In some experiments, neutrophils were pretreated with the antagonist of ETA receptor (BQ-123, 10−6 M), which has high affinity for ET-1. Results: Neutrophils from both healthy donors and acute pancreatitis patients caused detachment of endothelial cells, and levels of MPO activity were increased in coculture supernatants. Neutrophils from acute pancreatitis patients caused significantly higher levels of detachment and MPO in the supernatants. Pretreatment of neutrophils with BQ-123 inhibited the detachment caused by neutrophils from healthy donors but not by neutrophils from acute pancreatitis patients. Conclusions: These results show that neutrophils taken from healthy donors damage the endothelium by a mechanism dependent on ETs acting via ETA receptor, whereas neutrophils from acute pancreatitis patients cause more severe damage that is not dependent on ETs in the in vitro system used.
Spark Plasma Sintering TiAl Alloy from Mechanically Activated Powders

Powder of Ti-46at%Al alloy was synthesized through mechanical activation (MA) and then sintered and concurrently consolidated in a short sintering time of 900 s by using spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. The XRD and SEM profiles show that the microstructures of TiAl alloys contained γ TiAl and small amount α-2 Ti3Al phase, whose amount can be controlled by the sintering temperature. The compacts retained the original fine-grained fully densified bodies by avoiding an excessively high sintering temperature. The alloys sintered at higher temperature with this process showed a coarser microstructure. So it is possible to produce dense nanostructured TiAl alloys by mechanically activated spark plasma sintering (MASPS) within a very short period of time.