Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design Optimization of a Surface-Mounted Permanent-Magnet Motor With Concentrated Windings for Electric Vehicle Applications

This paper describes design techniques for electric vehicle (EV) traction machines to achieve high efficiency against a defined driving cycle such as the New European Drive Cycle (NEDC) while satisfying the required torque-speed operating range. A fractional-slot concentrated-winding (FSCW) surface-mounted permanent-magnet (SPM) machine has been identified as a suitable candidate for EV applications due to its high power/torque density, high efficiency, and good flux-weakening capability compared with other competing machine topologies. Based on the vehicle characteristics and the reference driving cycle, the motor specifications are established, and the design constraints for the SPM machine to satisfy the peak torque and flux-weakening capabilities are derived. Furthermore, the influence of the key parameters, such as slot-pole number combination, machine inductance, axial length, and number of turns, on the machine copper and iron losses over the NEDC is evaluated. Optimizations were carried for these parameters to minimize the total energy losses over the driving cycle. It has been shown that conventional design methodologies that aim to maximize efficiency in the region close to the rated operating condition may lead to less optimal designs and higher energy losses over the NEDC. A prototype motor for a front- and rear-wheel-driven EV has been designed, manufactured, and tested. The experimental results validate the proposed design methodology.
Barriers to parental involvement in education: an explanatory model

The issue of parental involvement (PI) in education is notable for the extensive rhetoric supporting it and considerable variation in the reality of its practice. It is proposed that the gap between rhetoric and reality in PI has come about because of the influence of factors at the parent and family, child, parent–teacher and societal levels which act as barriers to the development of effective PI. This article presents a model which has been developed in order to clarify and elaborate on the barriers in each of these four areas. First, parent and family factors are discussed, focusing on parents’ beliefs about PI, parents’ current life contexts, parents’ perceptions of invitations for involvement, and class, ethnicity and gender. Next, child factors are addressed, focusing on age, learning difficulties and disabilities, gifts and talents, and behavioural problems. Then, parent–teacher factors are discussed, focusing on differing agendas, attitudes and language used. Finally, societal factors are addressed, including historical and demographic issues, political issues, and economic issues. It is argued that the model will enable education professionals to achieve a greater understanding of the barriers to PI, which is a necessary precursor to the development of more effective PI in education. The model can also be used in pre‐service teacher education and professional development courses for education professionals, as well as for identifying areas of future research on PI.
Reactive oxygen species stimulate VEGF production from C 2 C 12 skeletal myotubes through a PI 3 K / Akt pathway

Kosmidou, Ioanna, Angeliki Xagorari, Charis Roussos, and Andreas Papapetropoulos. Reactive oxygen species stimulate VEGF production from C2C12 skeletal myotubes through a PI3K/Akt pathway. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 280: L585–L592, 2001. —Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a potent angiogenic stimulus, the expression of which increases in skeletal muscle after exercise. Because exercise is also accompanied by increased intramuscular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, we tested the hypothesis that ROS stimulate VEGF production from skeletal myotubes. Differentiated C2C12 skeletal myotubes exposed to ROS-producing agents exhibited a concentration-dependent increase in VEGF production, whereas undifferentiated myoblasts did not respond to oxidants. Moreover, conditioned medium from ROS-treated myotubes increased the bovine lung microvascular cell proliferation rate. To study the mechanism(s) involved in the stimulation of VEGF production by ROS, myotubes were pretreated with a selective phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor, LY-294002, before being exposed to hydrogen peroxide or pyrogallol. LY-294002 attenuated both Akt phosphorylation and VEGF production. In addition, oxidants increased nuclear factor-kB-dependent promoter activity in transiently transfected myotubes; however, pretreatment with the pharmacological inhibitor of nuclear factor-kB, diethyldithiocarbamate, did not affect the oxidant-stimulated VEGF release. We conclude that ROS induce VEGF release from myotubes via a PI3K/Akt-dependent pathway.
Analysis of multiprototype over single prototype filter bank for non uniform filter bank

In this paper, an analysis of Multi-prototype based filter bank design over Single prototype based design for non uniform signal decomposition is done. The Multi-prototype based method reduces the number of channel combiners and residual errors when compared to Single prototype based channel combination technique. In both methods, the prototype filters with different pass-bands are optimized to have their 3dB frequency at π/(2M), where M is the number of sub-channels in the corresponding uniform filter bank. In the Single prototype based channel combiner method, Non uniform filter banks (NUFB) are generated by sub-channel merging whereas, in Multi-prototype method, NUFB with varying bandwidths is generated from multiple prototype filters, where M determines the granularity of the system. A rigorous analysis of both the methods is done and compared. The Multi-prototype based method is found to have less complexity and distortions as compared to the Single prototype channel combiner based approach. Simulations are done to obtain varying bandwidth channels, and analyzed for different input signals. The evaluation with various fidelity parameters and are found to be comparable with existing methods.
Noise Cancellation using Adaptive Filtering: A Review

At the end of communication system information signal may be introduced with some noise along with the information signal. Noise may be additive or convoluted . Adaptive filter finds better solution to deal this problem. Use of Adaptive filter may filter out or suppressed noise from noisy signal getting the clean speech . This process is known as the adaptive noise cancellation. Subband adaptive filtering (SAF) finds better performance over a fullband adaptive filtering which employs multirate filter bank for signal decomposition and reconstruction. This technique allows for fast convergence and reduced computational complexity however insertion of filter bank introduced artifacts such as: aliasing, amplitude and phase distortion. This article deals with the review of various advancement in the adaptive algorithms made. Recently many methods have been proposed to reduce the effect of one or more artifacts. This article deals with the review of various advancement in this particular area of digital signal processing. Comparison tables of the main subband adaptive filtering are shown . The more effective comparison parameter of t these methods is Mean square Error (MSE) Plot.
Erectile Dysfunction Prelox® for Improvement of Erectile Quality

Sexual desire typically persists when men grow older although their ability to attain and maintain erections sufficient to permit satisfactory sexual intercourse gradually declines. Decreasing erectile quality is a common age-related problem affecting the lives of both men and their partners. Lifestyle plays an important role in the onset of erectile quality problems, and timely improvements such as a healthier diet and exercise may significantly slow the progression to erectile dysfunction with increasing age. Essentially, all cardiovascular risk factors – including hypertension, dyslipidaemia, hyperglycaemia, obesity and cigarette smoking – impair endothelial function, which in turn directly translates into declining erectile function. In this regard a man’s penis does indeed represent a barometer indicating his cardiovascular health status. Once endothelial function has declined to a point where its restoration is not feasible, pharmacological interventions with phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE5) inhibitors may temporarily bypass physiological processes so that affected men may still enjoy sexual intercourse. A timely intervention that helps to restore endothelial function will have the advantage of preserving a man’s ability to spontaneously respond to sexual arousal. Prelox®, a patented complex formulation consisting of Pycnogenol® and L-arginine aspartate, has been demonstrated in four clinical trials to naturally restore healthy erectile quality in men presenting with moderate erectile problems. Pycnogenol, a key component of Prelox, was shown in human pharmacological studies to act as a catalyst on endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase for amplified synthesis of NO, the initial mediator for triggering an erection. Its combination with the enzyme’s substrate, L-arginine, synergistically increases synthesis of NO, the key component involved in vasodilatation for improved blood flow to engorge the penis. According to reviewed clinical trials, Prelox will help men with moderate erectile problems to regain healthy erectile function, greater confidence to initiate and sustain erections and more frequent morning erections. As a result of higher intercourse frequency, men taking Prelox developed significantly higher plasma testosterone values. Prelox is a safe, well-tolerated and efficacious treatment for mild to moderate cases of declining erectile quality.
Attractiveness of women’s body: body mass index, waist–hip ratio, and their relative importance

Body mass index and waist–hip ratio are related to human health and both play a role in mate choice. However, previous research is inconsistent as to what body mass index and waist–hip ratio values are preferred in women and what the relative importance of body mass index and waist–hip ratio for attractiveness is. Here, we made several methodological refinements to obtain reliable estimations. Participants (Poles) indicated the most attractive woman from a set of digitally manipulated high-quality silhouettes varying orthogonally in body mass index and waist–hip ratio and viewed from behind to exclude effects of the breast size. Then, each participant chose the more attractive silhouette from pairs in which one figure deviated from his/her ideal in body mass index and the other in waist–hip ratio. Both sexes preferred underweight women (body mass index = 17.3) with accentuated waist (waist–hip ratio = 0.66 for female and 0.70 for male judges). These represent preferences for unhealthy body mass and healthy body shape. Furthermore, body mass index proved twice as important for attractiveness as waist–hip ratio, even though literature data indicate that waist–hip ratio is at least as important for health as body mass index. We discuss the obtained pattern of preferences from the perspective of evolutionary psychology.
Power consumption analysis of different hexapod robot gaits ( MTR 308-15 )

The paper is focused on the power consumption analysis of different gaits of our constructed hexapod robot controlled by different Central Pattern Generator (CPG) models. There are a lot of gait patterns in the literature constructed either by different CPG models or using a series of oscillations with adjustable phase lag. The mentioned models, as well as those proposed in our previous paper are used and compared from the viewpoint of energy demand. In general, power consumption of the constructed hexapod robot is experimentally analyzed based on the current consumption in the applied servo motors, which drive the robot limbs. For this purpose the suitable drivers allowing a simple measurement of electric energy consumption of servo motors are used. The obtained experimental results show different energy demand for different robot gaits. Because power consumption is one of the main operational restrictions imposed on autonomous walking robots, we show that the performed energy efficiency analysis and the choice of the appropriate robot gaits depending on the actual situation can reduce the energy costs.
Characteristics of driver and receiver circuits with a passive transmission line in RSFQ circuits

We report simulated results of-rapid single flux quantum (SFQ) circuits having driver, receiver, and passive transmission lines for propagating SFQ pulses to investigate the design criteria. We have studied the equivalent input/output resistance of the driver/receiver in various bias conditions and found that the resistance is almost proportional to the bias current of the driver/receiver. Furthermore, we have proposed inserting a series resistor at the end of the superconducting passive transmission line (PTL) for avoiding undesirable flux trapping in the loop and for isolation in regard to the DC current. We also found that the reduction of the bias margin due to the resistance is rather small when the resistance is much smaller than the impedance of the PTL. An operating margin of more than 30% was obtained in the driver/receiver circuits including the PTL and the series resistor.
Maximum Performance of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters When Coupled to Interface Circuits

This paper presents a complete optimization of a piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting system, including a piezoelectric transducer, a power conditioning circuit with full semiconductor device models, a battery and passive components. To the authors awareness, this is the first time and all of these elements have been integrated into one optimization. The optimization is done within a framework, which models the combined mechanical and electrical elements of a complete piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting system. To realize the optimization, an optimal electrical damping is achieved using a single-supply pre-biasing circuit with a buck converter to charge the battery. The model is implemented in MATLAB and verified in SPICE. The results of the full system model are used to find the mechanical and electrical system parameters required to maximize the power output. The model, therefore, yields the upper bound of the output power and the system effectiveness of complete piezoelectric energy harvesting systems and, hence, provides both a benchmark for assessing the effectiveness of existing harvesters and a framework to design the optimized harvesters. It is also shown that the increased acceleration does not always result in increased power generation as a larger damping force is required, forcing a geometry change of the harvester to avoid exceeding the piezoelectric breakdown voltage. Similarly, increasing available volume may not result in the increased power generation because of the difficulty of resonating the beam at certain frequencies whilst utilizing the entire volume. A maximum system effectiveness of 48% is shown to be achievable at 100 Hz for a 3.38-cm3 generator.
Compact Printed UWB Diversity Slot Antenna With 5.5-GHz Band-Notched Characteristics

A novel compact printed ultrawideband (UWB) slot antenna for MIMO/diversity applications is presented in this letter. The antenna consists of two modified coplanar waveguides (CPWs) feeding staircase-shaped radiating elements for orthogonal radiation patterns, where a rectangle stub is placed at 45° between the CPW to ensure high isolations. By etching two split-ring resonator (SRR) slots on the radiators respectively, the band-notched property is achieved. Results show that this antenna meets a 10-dB impedance bandwidth and 15 dB isolation from 2.5 to 12 GHz, with a notched band at 5.5 GHz. The measurements of the radiation patterns and envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) denote that the antenna is suitable for multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO)/diversity systems. Furthermore, it has a compact size of 48 × 48 mm2, which has been significantly reduced, and it is a good candidate for portable devices.
Energy management system for microgrids including batteries with degradation costs

Integration of renewable energy source (RES) and energy storage system (ESS) in microgrids has a potential benefit to users and system operators. However, new operating issues brought by RES and high cost of ESS need to be scrutinized for economic operation of microgrids. In order to evaluate the economic operation, this paper presents a predictive energy management system (EMS) for microgrids that manifests the process of battery degradation under the minimum system operating cost. The proposed EMS provides the power dispatch based on the hourly-ahead price and forecast data in a most cost-saving way, in which the battery degradation cost with respect to the depth of charge and lifetime is incorporated, transforming the long-term installation cost to the short-term operational cost that accounts for the real-time scheduling. The effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated by case studies in the simulation.
Information Title The Effect of Spectral Space Reduction in Spontaneous Speech on Recognition Performances Author

Although speech derived from reading texts and similar types of speech, e.g., that from reading newspapers or that from news broadcasts, can be recognizedwith high accuracy, recognition performance drastically decreases for spontaneous speech. This is due to the fact that spontaneous speech and read speech are signi cantly different acoustically as well as linguistically. This paper analyzes differences in acoustic features between spontaneous and read speech using a large-scale spontaneous speech database “Corpus of Spontaneous Japanese (CSJ)”. Using a linear transformationmatrix, experimental results show that spontaneous speech can be characterized by reduced size of spectral space in comparisonwith that of read speech. These have also clari ed that a reduction in the spectral space leads to a reduction in phoneme recognition accuracy. This result indicates that spectral reduction is one major reason for the decrease of recognition accuracy of spontaneous speech.
Double-Stacked MoSi2-Barrier Junctions for Programmable Josephson Voltage Standards

We are developing MoSi2-barrier stacked-junction arrays for Josephson voltage standards in order to increase the output voltage, operating bandwidth, and operating margins. In this paper we present measurements of a programmable voltage standard circuit with double-stacked arrays, where two junctions are fabricated in each stack. Although a mask defect prevented operation of one-eighth of the fabricated junctions, the remaining circuit, with a total of 51,344 junctions, succeeded in producing an output of 1.93 V with a range of operating current greater than 1 mA for the combined 13 subarrays
Transformation of 2-line ferrihydrite to 6-line ferrihydrite under oxic and anoxic conditions

Abstract Mineralogical transformations of 2-line ferrihydrite were studied under oxic and Fe3+-reducing conditions to establish the role, if any, of 6-line ferrihydrite (“well” organized ferrihydrite) in the reaction pathway and as a final product. In oxic experiments, concentrated suspensions (0.42 mol/L Fe3+ in 0.1 mol/L NaClO4) of freshly synthesized 2-line ferrihydrite, with and without 3% Ni2+, were aged at an initial pH = 7.2 (unbuffered and unadjusted) and 25 °C for more than three years. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and Mössbauer spectroscopy measurements were performed on the solids after different aging periods. The primary mineralogical products observed were 6-line ferrihydrite and goethite, with minor hematite. Aggregation and crystallization of the 2- line ferrihydrite liberated protons and depressed suspension pH, but coprecipitated Ni2+ retarded this process. The joint, interrelated effects of Ni and pH influenced both the extent of conversion of 2- line ferrihydrite and the identity of the major transformation products. Six-line ferrihydrite dominated in the Ni ferrihydrite suspension, whereas goethite dominated in the absence of Ni. Aggregation-induced crystallization of 2-line ferrihydrite particles seemed responsible for 6-line ferrihydrite formation. Mineralogical changes to Ni ferrihydrite under anaerobic conditions were investigated at circumneutral pH using the Fe3+-reducing bacterium Shewanella putrefaciens. Residual 6-line ferrihydrite dominated bioreduced samples that also contained goethite and magnetite. The conversion of 2-line ferrihydrite to 6-line ferrihydrite was considerably more rapid under anaerobic conditions. The sorption of biogenic Fe2+ apparently induced intra-aggregate transformation of 2-line ferrihydrite to 6-line ferrihydrite. Collectively, abiotic and biotic studies indicated that 6-line ferrihydrite can be a transformation product of 2-line ferrihydrite, especially when 2-line ferrihydrite is undergoing transformation to more stable hematite or magnetite.
US power plant sites at risk of future sea-level rise

Unmitigated greenhouse gas emissions may increase global mean sea-level by about 1 meter during this century. Such elevation of the mean sea-level enhances the risk of ﬂ ooding of coastal areas. We compute the power capacity that is currently out-of-reach of a 100-year coastal ﬂ ooding but will be exposed to such a ﬂ ood by the end of the century for different US states, if no adaptation measures are taken. The additional exposed capacity varies strongly among states. For Delaware it is 80% of the mean generated power load. For New York this number is 63% and for Florida 43%. The capacity that needs additional protection compared to today increases by more than 250% for Texas, 90% for Florida and 70% for New York. Current development in power plant building points towards a reduced future exposure to sea-level rise: proposed and planned power plants are less exposed than those which are currently operating. However, power plants that have been retired or canceled were less exposed than those operating at present. If sea-level rise is properly accounted for in future planning, an adaptation to sea-level rise may be costly but possible.
Calculating the Activating Function in the Human Brain by Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

It has been shown that the negative gradient of the component of the electric field, called the activating function, contributes to nerve excitation. In this paper, the induced electric field in a 3-D human head model by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been calculated by employing the impedance method. The activating functions are then obtained by gradient operations to the three components of the induced electric field. The activating functions are scattered over the different brain tissues. Peaks of the activating functions are presented at the interfaces of the different tissues. The largest values of the activating functions are presented in the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF). Results in this paper will be beneficial to the TMS applications in clinic as well as in the brain research.