Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In-Situ Stress Measurements during Cobalt Electrodeposition on (111)-Textured Au

Cantilever curvature was used to examine stress generation during the electrodeposition of Co onto (111)-textured Au from 0.1 mol/L NaClO 4 + 0.001 mol/L Co(ClO 4 ) 2 (pH = 4.8) in ﬁlms measuring less than 25 nm in thickness and at Co current efﬁciencies ranging from 65% to 90%. XRD analysis indicates that the Co is face-centered cubic and maintains the (111) texture of the Au substrate, suggesting epitaxial but not pseudomorphic growth on the Au. The stress-thickness product showed a − 0.2 N/m compression in the ﬁrst monolayer followed by increasing tensile stress as the ﬁlm thickened. The initial compressive stress is most likely due to surface and interface stresses that dominate at submonolayer coverage. Steady state tensile stress, ranging from 0 to + 450 MPa, developed in continuous Co ﬁlms and showed a strong dependence on electrode potential. However, over this potential range there is no change in grain size or growth rate, factors typically associated with tensile stress. We attribute the tensile stress and its potential dependence to the formation of hydrogen stabilized vacancies, defects found to be quite stable in fcc Fe-group metals and alloys deposited under conditions of H + discharge. ©
Series Hybrid Electric Vehicle Simultaneous Energy Management and Driving Speed Optimization

The energy management (EM) and driving speed co-optimization of a series hybrid electric vehicle for minimizing fuel consumption is addressed in this paper on the basis of a suitably modeled series powertrain architecture. This paper proposes a novel strategy that finds the optimal driving speed simultaneously with the energy source power split for the drive mission specified in terms of the road geometry and travel time. Such a combined optimization task is formulated as an optimal control problem (OCP) that is solved by an indirect optimal control method, based on Pontryagin's minimum principle. The optimization scheme is tested under a rural drive mission by extensive comparisons with conventional methods that deal with either speed optimization only or EM strategies with given driving cycles. The comparative results show the superior performance of the proposed method and provide further insight into efficient driving.
Enhanced Synaptic Linearity in ZnO-Based Invisible Memristive Synapse by Introducing Double Pulsing Scheme

The synaptic plasticity of indium tin oxide (ITO)/ZnO/ITO highly transparent (more than 88%) analog switching resistive memory device is investigated. Highly stable analog switching behavior for more than 2500 cycles with a good memory window of approximately two orders makes it suitable for synapse application. The synaptic response is investigated by applying identical electrical pulses. The potentiation and depression of the device used the conventional identical single-pulse scheme to perform high nonlinearity (0.83) and decaying training epochs. However, the linearity and the training epochs are improved to 0.44 by implementing the identical double-pulse scheme. The proposed double-pulse scheme offers a broad dynamic range (200) having 320 conductance states. This invisible structure and double-pulse scheme can be highly suitable for the neuromorphic computing devices.
Personal Information Classification on Aggregated Android Application’s Permissions

Android is offering millions of apps on Google Play-store by the application publishers. However, those publishers do have a parent organization and share information with them. Through the ‘Android permission system’, a user permits an app to access sensitive personal data. Large-scale personal data integration can reveal user identity, enabling new insights and earn revenue for the organizations. Similarly, aggregation of Android app permissions by the app owning parent organizations can also cause privacy leakage by revealing the user profile. This work classifies risky personal data by proposing a threat model on the large-scale app permission aggregation by the app publishers and associated owners. A Google-play application programming interface (API) assisted web app is developed that visualizes all the permissions an app owner can collectively gather through multiple apps released via several publishers. The work empirically validates the performance of the risk model with two case studies. The top two Korean app owners, seven publishers, 108 apps and 720 sets of permissions are studied. With reasonable accuracy, the study finds the contact number, biometric ID, address, social graph, human behavior, email, location and unique ID as frequently exposed data. Finally, the work concludes that the real-time tracking of aggregated permissions can limit the odds of user profiling.
Model Based Inference of Large Scale Brain Networks with Approximate Bayesian Computation

Brain networks and the neural dynamics that unfold upon them are of great interest across the many scales of systems neuroscience. The tools of inverse modelling provide a way of both constraining and selecting models of large scale brain networks from empirical data. Such models have the potential to yield broad theoretical insights in the understanding of the physiological processes behind the integration and segregation of activity in the brain. In order to make inverse modelling computationally tractable, simplifying model assumptions have often been adopted that appeal to steady-state approximations to neural dynamics and thus prevent the investigation of stochastic or intermittent dynamics such as gamma or beta burst activity. In this work we describe a framework that uses the Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) algorithm for the inversion of neural models that can flexibly represent any statistical feature of empirically recorded data and eschew the need to assume a locally linearized system. Further, we demonstrate how Bayesian model comparison can be applied to fitted models to enable the selection of competing hypotheses regarding the causes of neural data. This work establishes a validation of the procedures by testing for both the face validity (i.e. the ability to identify the original model that has generated the observed data) and predictive validity (i.e. the consistency of the parameter estimation across multiple realizations of the same data). From the validation and example applications presented here we conclude that the proposed framework provides a novel opportunity to researchers aiming to explain how complex brain dynamics emerge from neural circuits.
Perceptive Locomotion for Legged Robots in Rough Terrain

Robotic technologies will continue to enter new applications in addition to automated manufacturing and logistics. Once mobile robots can also operate outside of today's special facilities, they have the potential to relieve us of dirty and dangerous labor in various areas. However, for this purpose, these machines will need to be able to navigate autonomously in complex natural, urban, and industrial settings. This thesis addresses the development of locomotion skills for legged robots in challenging environments. Our work focuses on perceptive locomotion where exteroceptive sensing of the surrounding is exploited to plan and control the robot’s motion. This enables quadrupedal robots to negotiate rough terrain through carefully selected contacts. In this work, we evaluate different sensing technologies and analyze their performance for local dense terrain mapping on a mobile robot. We include special conditions such as close range objects and the influence of ambient light as we find them in real-world applications. By modeling the error characteristics of the sensors, the robot can judge the quality of the resulting terrain reconstruction. As the robot moves, the surrounding is continuously mapped to capture new areas and update regions which have changed. We contribute with a mapping framework that models the terrain from a robot-centric perspective. To this end, we present a novel approach for the error propagation from the robot's state estimation to the representation of the map. This formulation allows for robust and high-rate local mapping that is independent of a global localization method. We introduce our approach to locomotion planning, which finds safe footholds along with collision-free swing-leg motions, leveraging the generated terrain map. A nonlinear optimization finds postures that respect kinematic and stability constraints. We experimentally verify this work with torque-controllable quadrupedal robots that autonomously traverse obstacles, such as rubble, steps, gaps, and stairs without prior knowledge of the scene or any additional equipment. The locomotion planner re-plans its motion at every step in real-time, to cope with disturbances and dynamic environments. For the control of the legged robot, we contribute architecturally to the versatile and task-oriented motion execution. This method enables the robust tracking of motion plans, even with significant mismatches between the models and reality. In addition to rough terrain locomotion, we demonstrate the integration of our method for applications, such as whole-body stair climbing, manipulation, jumping, docking, inspection, payload delivery, dancing, and more. Our approach is thoroughly validated with the quadrupedal robot ANYmal in realistic long-term missions for autonomous industrial inspection and search and rescue. Finally, we extend our work with the design and implementation of a collaborative navigation framework for ground and flying robots. The ground vehicle utilizes the data captured by the flying robot to navigate uncharted…
Cytogenetic studies on parthenogenesis of 1B/1R wheat male sterile lines

Five alloplasmic male sterile lines of 1B/1R wheat with Aeilops kotschyi, Ae. variabilis and Ae. ventricosa cytoplasms were crossed with Chinese spring wheat having 21″, 20″+t″ 1BL +t″ 1BS and 19″+1B°1D Ⅳ , and the characteristic of 1B/1R translocation chromosome was studied by using satellite identification and terminal body analysis. It is found that 1BS chromosomes were substituted by 1R chromosome of rye in their centromere. The change of haploid of 1B/1R wheat male sterile lines was the result that alloplasmic and 1B/1R chromosome interactive in CMS. The differences of haploid frequency of alloplasmic 1B/1R wheat male sterile lines were related to the length of 1RS.
Power-Time Exploration Tools for NMP-Enabled Systems

Recently, dramatic improvements in memory performance have been highly required for data demanding application services such as deep learning, big data, and immersive videos. To this end, the throughput-oriented memory such as high bandwidth memory (HBM) and hybrid memory cube (HMC) has been introduced to provide a high bandwidth. For its effective use, various research efforts have been conducted. Among them, the near-memory-processing (NMP) is a concept that utilizes bandwidth and power consumption by placing computation logic near the memory. In the NMP-enabled system, a processor hierarchy consisting of hosts and NMPs is formed based on the distance from the main memory. In this paper, an evaluation tool is proposed to obtain the optimal design decision considering the power-time trade-off in the processor hierarchy. Every time the operating condition and constraints change, the decision of task-level offloading is dynamically made. For the realistic NMP-enabled system environment, the relationship among HBM, host, and NMP should be carefully considered. Hosts and NMPs are almost hidden from each other and the communications between them are extremely limited. In the simulation results, popular benchmarks and a machine learning application are used to demonstrate power-time trade-offs depending on applications and system conditions.
THE STATUS OF PSEUDOGYMNOASCUS DESTRUCTANS IN LOUISIANA

Abstract White-nose syndrome (WNS) represents an emerging infectious disease in bats caused by the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd). The fatal disease has devastated populations of several species of bats in North America, so there is interest in delimiting its current range to aid containment and other management efforts. Early detection of the fungus aids in risk assessment of the disease and managing its presence in areas with hibernating bats. Infection by Pd in bats has been neither surveyed nor reported in Louisiana, despite the fact that WNS has been recorded approximately 150 km across the border of two neighboring states, Arkansas and Mississippi. Between December 2015 and January 2016, we surveyed 190 culverts distributed across the northern portion of Louisiana. In total, we encountered 801 individual bats (355 Perimyotis subflavus, 299 Myotis, 54 Eptesicus fuscus, 47 Tadarida brasiliensis, and 46 Corynorhinus rafinesquii). We used ultraviolet illumination to inspect each individual for presence of WNS symptoms, and no visible symptoms were detected. We also swabbed the skin of 244 bats and 316 habitat walls, and swabs were returned to the laboratory and analyzed using quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Pd-specific primers for presence of the pathogen. No genetic detections occurred in any bat or habitat wall samples. Based on negative detection, we hypothesize that the fungus has not yet been introduced into the state of Louisiana or the environmental conditions of culverts found in Louisiana are not conducive to persistence of the fungus; however, ours is the first survey to assess the status of Pd in the state. Monitoring should continue to confirm that no evidence of the fungal pathogen exists anywhere in the state and to enable rapid response if detection occurs.
Effect of Stocking Density and Probiotic Supplementation on Broiler Performance

A factorial experiment (3×3) was conducted to evaluate the response of broiler to stocking density (8, 12 and 16 bird/m2) with probiotic supplementation (Almiral plus® at 0, 1.5 and 2.5 g/l water). A total of 324 one day old unsexed Hubbard broiler chicks were used. All birds were randomly housed in twenty seven floor pens and reared under similar managerial conditions. The most important results obtained could be summarized as follows: Decreasing stocking density to 8 birds/m2 showed the best values of live body weight, live body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, performance index, plasma globulin concentration, net revenue and economic efficiency. However, no significant differences in feed intake, protein efficiency, plasma total protein and albumin due to stocking density. Probiotic supplementation at level 2.5g/l water showed the best value of body weight, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, protein efficiency, performance index and net revenue, economic efficiency. However, probiotic supplementation didn't have any significant effect on feed intake, plasma total protein, albumin and globulin concentration. According to the obtained results, probiotic (Almiral plus®) can be used at level of 2.5 g/l water to improve broilers growth performance and level of 8 birds/m 2 can protect birds from the reduction in their growth performance.
Study of the monte-carlo fault injection simulator to measure a fault derating

The SER of the selected circuits can be determined via radiation tests. However, the time and costs required to perform radiation tests are prohibitive. Here, the authors introduce an accelerated Monte–Carlo fault injection (MCFI) method that can solve the slow execution time problem of the previous MCFI method using a modified simulator that uses the Verilog Procedural Interface (VPI). To demonstrate the performance of authors’ accelerated MCFI tool, the authors perform a fault-injection campaign using the ISCAS85 and ITC99 benchmark circuits. Compared with the results from previous studies, the authors obtain an accurate logical derating rate value with a 3% variance, and the authors accelerate the execution time by 20 times or more.
PHF2 regulates homology-directed DNA repair by controlling the resection of DNA double strand breaks

Post-translational histone modifications and chromatin remodelling play a critical role in the mechanisms controlling the integrity of the genome. Here we identify histone lysine demethylase PHF2 as a novel regulator of the DNA damage response by regulating the balance between DNA damage-induced focus formation by 53BP1 and BRCA1, critical factors in the pathway choice for DNA double strand break repair. PHF2 knock down leads to impaired BRCA1 focus formation and delays the resolution of 53BP1 foci. Moreover, irradiation-induced RPA phosphorylation and focus formation, as well as localization of CtIP, required for DNA end resection, to sites of DNA lesions are affected by depletion of PHF2. These results are indicative of a defective resection of double strand breaks and thereby an impaired homologous recombination upon PHF2 depletion. In accordance with these data, Rad51 focus formation and homology-directed double strand break repair is inhibited in cells depleted for PHF2. Importantly, we demonstrate that PHF2 knock down decreases CtIP and BRCA1 protein and mRNA levels and cells depleted of PHF2 display genome instability and are sensitive to the inhibition of PARP. Together these results demonstrate that PHF2 promotes DNA repair by homologous recombination by controlling CtIP-dependent resection of double strand breaks.
Mass spectrometry applied to the identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and biomarker discovery

An adequate and effective tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis system has been identified by the World Health Organization as a priority in the fight against this disease. Over the years, several methods have been developed to identify the bacillus, but bacterial culture remains one of the most affordable methods for most countries. For rapid and accurate identification, however, it is more feasible to implement molecular techniques, taking advantage of the availability of public databases containing protein sequences. Mass spectrometry (MS) has become an interesting technique for the identification of TB. Here, we review some of the most widely employed methods for identifying Mycobacterium tuberculosis and present an update on MS applied for the identification of mycobacterial species.
High-speed quantitative optical imaging of absolute metabolism in the rat cortex

Quantitative measures of blood flow and metabolism are essential for improved assessment of brain health and response to ischemic injury. In this report, we demonstrate a multimodal technique for measuring the cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2) in the rodent brain on an absolute scale (μM O2 / min). We use laser speckle imaging (LSI) at 809 nm and spatial frequency domain imaging (SFDI) at 655 nm, 730 nm, and 850 nm to obtain spatiotemporal maps of cerebral blood flow (CBF), tissue absorption (μa), and tissue scattering (μs’). Knowledge of these three values enables calculation of a characteristic blood flow speed, which in turn is input to a mathematical model with a “zero-flow” boundary condition to calculate absolute CMRO2. We apply this method to a rat model of cardiac arrest (CA) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. With this model, the zero-flow condition occurs during entry into CA. The CMRO2 values calculated with our method are in good agreement with those measured with magnetic resonance (MR) and positron emission tomography (PET) by other groups. Our technique provides a quantitative metric of cerebral metabolism that can potentially be used for comparison between animals and longitudinal monitoring of a single animal over multiple days, to assess differences in baseline metabolism and track recovery of metabolism in survival studies following ischemia and reperfusion.
Microwave Vortex Imaging Based on Dual Coupled OAM Beams

This paper investigates electromagnetic (EM) vortex imaging based on dual coupled orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams. An OAM-generating scheme is proposed to generate radio waves carrying various dual coupled OAM at the X-frequency band and the experimental results of radar imaging in an anechoic chamber are illustrated for the first time. The uniform circular array (UCA) is exploited to generate dual coupled OAM beams and the radiated fields are presented by both theoretical analysis and full-wave EM simulation. Subsequently, the mathematical imaging model is established and the target reconstruction method is proposed. The relative imaging error (RIE) is introduce to evaluate the imaging performance. The imaging results indicate that the proposed method can have a better performance than EM vortex imaging without OAM-multiplexing and save half time of OAM beams transmitting. Moreover, the imaging experimental results in the anechoic chamber validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. This paper applies OAM-multiplexing beams to radar imaging and improves the vortex imaging efficiency, which can benefit the applications of OAM beams and the design of OAM-based radar systems.
Exploring the Relation Among Product Complexity, Team Seniority, and Project Performance as a Path for Planning New Product Development Projects: A Predictive Model Applying the System Dynamics Theory

For complex new product development (NPD) projects, traditional planning techniques have failed in realistic planning. Consequently, project performance has poor results, despite the dissemination of project management knowledge. This research aims to investigate the relationship between product complexity and team seniority as planning parameters for the NPD project, exploring the effect on project performance. The research applies a system dynamics model for simulating the influence of these parameters on project performance, particularly relating schedule and scope dimensions. In this article, we compare the impact of different relations between product complexity and team seniority on three projects in order to test the method. Only the product primary functions must be taken into account for gathering data from product complexity, and team seniority must be known. Besides, the decision-maker applies a first-order linear model to a goal-seeking background to predict the project schedule for a specified product scope. The results show that the model predicts the project schedule performance with an error of less than 15%, as compared to the actual projects’ performance.