Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A soft-switching multi-phase converter with coupled inductors and switch-time-delay control

There is an increasing demand to implement soft-switching techniques to inductor coupled power converters in order to reduce their overall profiles and costs. This paper proposes a simple, low cost method to soft switch multi-phase converters. Specifically, a switch-time-delay control instead of auxiliary circuit is implemented to the positively coupled inductors. By taking the benefit of voltage coupling effect of the inductors wound on the same magnetic core, resonance between the leakage inductance and the parasitic capacitor is properly utilized during the delay time, and zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) of the power switches is achieved. In additional to detailed theoretical analysis, experimental results verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed concept.
AHP-Based Evaluation of Information Service Quality of Information Center Web Portals in High-Tech Industry

Nowadays, web portals have become a useful way for high-tech information centers providing information services for high-tech enterprises. The importance of evaluating the information service quality of these web portals has been recognized by both information service researchers and practitioners. By applying an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach, a hierarchical structure evaluation criteria model has been constructed, and the global priority weight of each criterion in the model has also been determined in this study. According to the model, a comprehensive score method has been used to evaluate the information service quality of ten primary high-tech industry information center web portals in China. The findings of this study provide a useful instrument for researchers who wish to measure the information service quality of web portals, as well as for high-tech information center managers who want to enhance their web portals service performance. Keywords-AHP;high-tehc industry; informaiton service quality; web portals
Fuzzy service matching in on-the-fly computing

In the future vision of software engineering, services from world-wide markets are composed automated in order to build custom-made systems. Supporting such scenarios requires an adequate service matching approach. Many existing approaches do not fulfill two key requirements of emerging concepts like On-The-Fly-Computing, namely (1) comprehensiveness, i.e., the consideration of different service views that cover not only functional properties, but also non-functional properties and (2) fuzzy matching, i.e., the ability to deliver gradual results in order to cope with a certain extent of uncertainty, incompleteness, and tolerance ranges. In this paper, I present a fuzzy matching process that distinguishes between different fuzziness sources and leverages fuzziness in different matching steps which consider several service views, e.g., behavior and quality properties.
Finding programming errors earlier by evaluating runtime monitors ahead-of-time

Runtime monitoring allows programmers to validate, for instance, the proper use of application interfaces. Given a property specification, a runtime monitor tracks appropriate runtime events to detect violations and possibly execute recovery code. Although powerful, runtime monitoring inspects only one program run at a time and so may require many program runs to find errors. Therefore, in this paper, we present ahead-of-time techniques that can (1) prove the absence of property violations on all program runs, or (2) flag locations where violations are likely to occur. Our work focuses on tracematches, an expressive runtime monitoring notation for reasoning about groups of correlated objects. We describe a novel flow-sensitive static analysis for analyzing monitor states. Our abstraction captures both positive information (a set of objects could be in a particular monitor state) and negative information (the set is known not to be in a state). The analysis resolves heap references by combining the results of three points-to and alias analyses. We also propose a machine learning phase to filter out likely false positives. We applied a set of 13 tracematches to the DaCapo benchmark suite and SciMark2. Our static analysis rules out all potential points of failure in 50% of the cases, and 75% of false positives on average. Our machine learning algorithm correctly classifies the remaining potential points of failure in all but three of 461 cases. The approach revealed defects and suspicious code in three benchmark programs.
Overweight and Obesity in Children and Adolescents

Obesity among children, adolescents and adults has emerged as one of the most serious public health concerns in the 21st century. The worldwide prevalence of childhood obesity has increased remarkably over the past 3 decades. The growing prevalence of childhood obesity has also led to appearance of obesity-related comorbid disease entities at an early age. Childhood obesity can adversely affect nearly every organ system and often causes serious consequences, including hypertension, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, dysglycemia, fatty liver disease and psychosocial complications. It is also a major contributor to increasing healthcare expenditures. For all these reasons, it is important to prevent childhood obesity as well as to identify overweight and obese children at an early stage so they can begin treatment and attain and maintain a healthy weight. At present, pharmacotherapy options for treatment of pediatric obesity are very limited. Therefore, establishing a comprehensive management program that emphasizes appropriate nutrition, exercise and behavioral modification is crucial. The physician’s role should expand beyond the clinical setting to the community to serve as a role model and to advocate for prevention and early treatment of obesity.
The Albumin in Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (ALISAH) Multicenter Pilot Clinical Trial: Safety and Neurologic Outcomes

Background and Purpose— Human albumin has been shown to exert neuroprotective effects in animal models of cerebral ischemia and humans with various intracranial pathologies. We investigated the safety and tolerability of 25% human albumin in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage. Methods— The Albumin in Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (ALISAH) Pilot Clinical Trial was an open-label, dose-escalation study. We intended to study 4 different dosages of albumin of increasing magnitude (0.625 g/kg: Tier 1; 1.25 g/kg: Tier 2; 1.875 g/kg: Tier 3; and 2.5 g/kg: Tier 4). Each dosage was to be given to 20 adult patients. Treatment was administered daily for 7 days. We investigated the maximum tolerated dose of albumin based on the rate of severe-to-life-threatening heart failure and anaphylactic reaction and functional outcome at 3 months. Results— We treated 47 adult subjects: 20 in Tier 1; 20 in Tier 2; and 7 in Tier 3. We found that doses ranging up to 1.25 g/kg/day×7 days were tolerated by patients without major dose-limiting complications. We also found that outcomes trended toward better responses in those subjects enrolled in Tier 2 compared with Tier 1 (OR, 3.0513; CI, 0.6586–14.1367) and with the International Intraoperative Hypothermia for Aneurysm Surgery Trial cohort (OR, 3.1462; CI, 0.9158–10.8089). Conclusions— Albumin in doses ranging up to 1.25 g/kg/day×7 days was tolerated by patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage without major complications and may be neuroprotective. Based on these results, planning of the ALISAH II, a Phase III, randomized, placebo-controlled trial to test the efficacy of albumin, is underway. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00283400.
On a Design of SCORM-Compliant SMIL-Enabled Multimedia Streaming E-Learning System

E-learning plays a key enabling role in knowledge management for individuals, schools, and enterprises. Nevertheless, the lack of standards in content and learning management systems (LMSs) makes the reusability and interoperability of learning resources infeasible. The emergence of the SCORM specification has shed light on the standardization of e-learning. Unfortunately, the existing SCORM-compliant asset model is simplified; only a few asset types are allowed. On the other hand, W3C’s declarative-style SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) is becoming prevalent in designing Web-based instructions with the consideration of temporality and spatiality of presentations. In addition, advances in real-time multimedia technologies can vitalize further these instructions. In this study, we propose an SMIL-enabled asset model with the enhancement of multimedia streaming. To render SCORMcompliant SMIL-enabled streaming contents, a Java applet-based SMIL RTP/RTSP LMS system is designed. We develop the proposed system in the Java EJB environment to tackle the issue of platform interoperability. The resulting system demonstrates an encouraging direction towards a more vivid and interactive SCORM-compliant e-learning.
Quality Attribute Driven Architecture Design and Evaluation for Embedded Operating System

When architecture is changed, reconstructed, or maintained, architectural design decisions are changed according to the functional requirements, constraints, and quality attributes. In this paper, quality attribute driven architecture is designed and evaluated for architecture design of OSEK standard operating system. In addition, the authors select AT AM among architecture evaluation methods and evaluate the designed architecture for the target system.
Sapa: A Multi-objective Metric Temporal Planner

SAPA is a domain-independent heuristic forward chaining planner that can handle durative actions, metric resource constraints, and deadline goals. It is designed to be capable of handling the multi-objective nature of metric temporal planning. Our technical contributions include (i) planning-graph based methods for deriving heuristics that are sensitive to both cost and makespan (ii) techniques for adjusting the heuristic estimates to take action interactions and metric resource limitations into account and (iii) a linear time greedy post-processing technique to improve execution flexibility of the solution plans. An implementation of SAPA using many of the techniques presented in this paper was one of the best domain independent planners for domains with metric and temporal constraints in the third International Planning Competition, held at AIPS-02. We describe the technical details of extracting the heuristics and present an empirical evaluation of the current implementation of SAPA.
Control of renal Na+ excretion by heme oxygenase.

In the current issue of Hypertension , Li et al provide evidence that supports acute and chronic roles for renal medullary heme oxygenase (HO) in the regulation of salt and water excretion by the kidney.1 Their findings may be summarized as follows: HO activity and expression rises with medullary axis; inner medulla >outer medulla >cortex. Acute elevation of renal perfusion pressure (RPP) induces a rise in the medullary tissue carbon monoxide (CO) and NO concentrations accompanied by natriuresis. Chromium mesoporphyrin (CrMP) inhibits the HO activity of medullary homogenates and, when infused into the renal interstitium, reduces both basal- and RPP-stimulated CO, NO levels, and salt and water excretion. Li and colleagues carried their investigation an important step further by examining chronic interstitial infusion of CrMP in rats maintained on either a 1% or 8% NaCl diet. Those on a 1% NaCl diet experienced a transient, 1-week elevation of mean arterial pressure of 5 to 10 mm Hg. By comparison, on an 8% NaCl diet, CrMP induced a sustained and impressive rise of 25 to 30 mm Hg. Finally, expression and activity of inducible HO-1 but not HO-2 was increased by the high salt diet. The effectiveness of basal HO blockade shows a tonic effect of the products of heme degradation on epithelial Na+ reabsorption. Moreover, HO inhibition by CrMP blunts the diuresis and natriuresis associated with an acute increase in RPP; it blocks “pressure natriuresis” (Figure …
Evaluating a Computational Approach to Labeling Politeness

Social computing researchers are beginning to apply machine learning tools to classify and analyze social media data. Our interest in understanding politeness in an online community focused our attention on tools that would help automate politeness analysis. This paper highlights one popular classification tool designed to score the politeness of text. Our application of this tool to Wikipedia data yielded some unexpected results. Those unexpected results led us to question how the tool worked and its effectiveness relative to human judgment and classification. We designed a user study to revalidate the tool with crowdworkers labeling samples of content from Wikipedia talk pages, imitating the original efforts to validate the tool. This revalidation points to challenges for automatic labeling. Based on our results, this paper reconsiders politeness in online communities as well as broader trends in the use of machine classifiers in social computing research.
Prediction of suicide.

SUICIDE IS A DRAMATIC EVENT AND IT HAS A PROFOUND EFFECT UPON THOSE who have known the person who has committed suicide. It seems to be such a pointless waste of life and often, in retrospect, we can see measures which may have influenced the deceased. Inevitably we feel guilty about not having done just that little bit extra in trying to avert the suicide. In this paper attention will be drawn both to the extent of suicide and suicidal ideation. The two will be drawn together and reference will be made to two studies which have tried to produce some understanding in our prediction of suicide.
Changes in Hypothalamic‐Pituitary‐Adrenal Function, Body Temperature, Body Weight and Food Intake with Repeated Social Stress Exposure in Rats

These present studies aimed to compare changes in hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) activity and body temperature in response to acute social defeat, to repeated social stress and to novel restraint after repeated stress, as well as to assess effects on metabolic parameters by measuring body weight gain and food and water intake. We found that social defeat produced a marked increase in both adrenocorticotrophic hormone and corticosterone compared to placement in a novel cage. Similarly, body temperature was also increased during social defeat and during 30 min of recovery from defeat. We then examined the effects of 6 days of repeated social stress and observed minimal HPA responses to repeated social stress compared to control rats. These neuroendocrine responses were contrasted by robust increases in body temperature during stress and during recovery from stress during 6 days of repeated stress. However, in response to novel restraint, repeatedly stressed rats displayed facilitated body temperature responses compared to controls, similar to our previous findings with HPA activity. Food intake was increased during the light period during which defeat took place, but later intake during the dark period was not affected. Repeated stress decreased body weight gain in the dark period but food intake was increased overall during the 6 days of repeated stress in the light period. As a result, repeated stress increased cumulative food intake during the light period in the stressed rats but these relatively small increases in food intake were unable to prevent the diminished total weight gain in repeatedly stressed rats. Overall, the results demonstrate that, although acute social defeat has similar effects on temperature and HPA activity, repeated exposure to social stress has divergent effects on HPA activity compared to body temperature and that dampened weight gain produced by repeated social stress cannot be fully explained by changes in food intake.
Stable Matching Between a Hand Structure and an Object Silhouette

A method is proposed which determines the possible ways to grasp an object, defined by its silhouette. This method is quite general and versatile: the geometry of the object is arbitrary and a large class of grippers is allowed; no a priori information is needed, except the parameters of the gripper, and so the method applies, in particular, to all the automatic prehension problems when the object and/or its orientation are unknown. Suitable segmentation and parametrization of the silhouette yields an explicit solution and a very fast and simple algorithm.
The Difference Between Being and Seeing: The Relative Contribution of Self-Perception and Priming to Behavioral Changes via Digital Self-Representation

Studies in the Proteus Effect (N. Yee & J. Bailenson, 2007) have shown that the appearance of avatars (i.e., digital representations of ourselves) can lead to behavioral changes in users. For example, participants in attractive avatars became friendlier to confederate strangers than participants in unattractive avatars. While the Proteus Effect is premised on self-perception theory (D. Bem, 1972)—the notion that we infer our own attitudes by observing ourselves as if from a third party—it is also possible that the previous findings were caused by priming (i.e., behavioral assimilation; J. Bargh, M. Chen, & L. Burrows, 1996). In our study, we used immersive virtual environment technology to experimentally tease apart embodiment from perception of the same visual stimulus. Our results showed that embodiment produced significantly larger behavioral changes than mere observation of the same visual stimuli. These findings support the claim that our avatars provide a unique lever to behavioral change; however, more work is needed to pin down the exact mechanism behind the effect.
Sex differences in the epidemiology of tuberculosis in San Francisco.

SETTING Worldwide differences in sex-specific tuberculosis case rates remain fundamentally unexplained. OBJECTIVE To explore various factors that may explain sex differences in tuberculosis incidence rates for San Francisco from 1991-1996. DESIGN A retrospective epidemiologic analysis of sex-specific tuberculosis incidence rates in San Francisco from 1991-1996. Stratified analyses were performed on age at diagnosis, racial/ethnic group, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status, and place of birth. Molecular fingerprinting with IS6110 data was used to study sex differences in the incidence of disease for recently transmitted and reactivated cases of tuberculosis. RESULTS In the study period, the male to female incidence rate ratio was 2.1 (95% CI 1.9-2.3). Stratified analyses revealed differences in sex-specific rates after the age of 14 and the highest male:female ratios were seen in the US-born, white, and black populations. High ratios were also observed for cases with clustered fingerprints, similar to those observed for the US-born population. In sub-populations with predominantly reactivated cases of tuberculosis, ratios were also above unity after adolescence, but the effect was less pronounced. CONCLUSION The ongoing transmission of tuberculosis in the US-born population is one of the factors that explains the difference in sex-specific rates of disease in San Francisco. Observed differences in tuberculosis rates between the sexes may be due to a difference in transmission dynamics rather than diagnosis or reporting biases.
TLR2 Signaling Decreases Transmission of Streptococcus pneumoniae by Limiting Bacterial Shedding in an Infant Mouse Influenza A Co-infection Model

While the importance of transmission of pathogens is widely accepted, there is currently little mechanistic understanding of this process. Nasal carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) is common in humans, especially in early childhood, and is a prerequisite for the development of disease and transmission among hosts. In this study, we adapted an infant mouse model to elucidate host determinants of transmission of S. pneumoniae from inoculated index mice to uninfected contact mice. In the context of co-infection with influenza A virus, the pneumococcus was transmitted among wildtype littermates, with approximately half of the contact mice acquiring colonization. Mice deficient for TLR2 were colonized to a similar density but transmitted S. pneumoniae more efficiently (100% transmission) than wildtype animals and showed decreased expression of interferon α and higher viral titers. The greater viral burden in tlr2−/− mice correlated with heightened inflammation, and was responsible for an increase in bacterial shedding from the mouse nose. The role of TLR2 signaling was confirmed by intranasal treatment of wildtype mice with the agonist Pam3Cys, which decreased inflammation and reduced bacterial shedding and transmission. Taken together, these results suggest that the innate immune response to influenza virus promotes bacterial shedding, allowing the bacteria to transit from host to host. These findings provide insight into the role of host factors in the increased pneumococcal carriage rates seen during flu season and contribute to our overall understanding of pathogen transmission.
The sublaminar organization of corticogeniculate neurons in layer 6 of macaque striate cortex

Abstract We examined the laminar distribution of corticogeniculate neurons in the macaque striate cortex labeled by axonal transport following injections of retrograde tracers into the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). Large injections of retrograde tracers involving all layers of the LGN resulted in a distinctive bilaminar distribution of labeled cells in cortical layer 6. One tier of labeled neurons was located along the layer 5–6 border and a second was located near the bottom of the layer, leaving the middle of layer 6 largely free of labeled neurons. Following injections of tracers that were restricted to the magnocellular layers of the LGN, almost all of the labeled neurons were located in the lower tier. In contrast, following injections of retrograde tracers confined to the parvocellular layers of the LGN, labeled cells were found in both tiers, with the greatest number in the upper tier. Thus, layer 6 of macaque striate cortex consists of three distinct sublayers only two of which are the source of descending projections to the LGN: an upper tier that projects exclusively to the parvocellular layers and a lower tier that projects to both magnocellular and parvocellular layers.
The impact of peer mediation training on conflict

The problem investigated in this study relates specifically to high school students and their response to conflict. The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not there is an improvement for peer mediators in handling inter-personal conflict situations after receiving peer mediation skills training. The effectiveness of this training was measured by using both the quantitative and qualitative methods. Cross-sectional surveys were distributed to a cluster sample of 18 grade 11 and grade 12 peer mediators and the resulting data were analyzed. Interviews with 7 peer mediators were also conducted. Although the sample group size may be too small to make conclusive statements, a relationship between peer mediation training and constructive outcomes in conflict situations was indicated for trainees in their inter-personal associations.