Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Field Evaluation of LED Fluorescence Microscopy for Demonstration of Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense in Patient Blood

Diagnosis of Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense human African trypanosomiasis requires demonstration of parasites in body fluids by microscopy. The microscopy methods that are routinely used are difficult to deploy in resource-limited settings due to practical challenges, including lengthy and tedious procedures, and the need for specific equipment to centrifuge samples in glass capillary tubes. We report here on a study that was conducted in a rural region of eastern Uganda to evaluate new methods that take advantage of a field-deployable LED fluorescence microscope. Examination of acridine orange-stained blood smears by LED fluorescence microscopy resulted in a diagnostic accuracy that was similar to that of routine methods, while the time needed to identify parasites was shortened significantly. These findings make these new microscopy methods attractive alternatives to procedures that are currently used for diagnosis of T. b. rhodesiense human African trypanosomiasis.
Interactions of complement receptor type 2 with C3d and factor H with C3u

Complement receptor type 2 (CR2, CD21) is a cell surface protein that links the innate and adaptive immune response through its binding to C3d, a cleavage fragment of the major complement component C3. Factor H (FH) is a major plasma protein that is the major regulator of the activity of C3b in the alternative pathway. FH binds to C3u, which is formed from C3 by hydrolysis, and C3u shows functional similarities to C3b. In this thesis, X-ray scattering, analytical ultracentrifugation and constrained modelling were used to determine solution structures and interactions of CR2 with C3d and FH with C3u. Structural studies reveal that the overall CR2 structure is unaffected by change in ionic strength or when C3d is bound to it. Unbound C3d exists in monomerdimer and monomer-trimer equilibria in low salt buffer, but as a monomer only in physiological buffer. The CR2-C3d interaction is not formed in physiological salt conditions, but was observed in low salt conditions. The solution structure and selfassociation of C3u were investigated. C3u underwent weak salt-dependent dimerisation, similar to that for C3d. Modelling showed that the functionally-important TED/CUB domains in the C3d part of C3u were extended away from the rest of the C3u structure. This TED/CUB conformation is intermediate between those of C3 and C3b. C3u and FH were observed to interact as 1:1 and 2:1 complexes in a salt-dependent manner. The modelling of the interaction showed that no major conformational changes occurred in C3u or FH, and suggested that C3u binds separately to FH at two independent sites. These results provide new insights in the activation of C3 and the complement regulatory activity of CR2 and FH.
Diagnosis and management of halo blight in Australian mungbeans: a review

Mungbean (Vigna radiata L. Wilczek var. radiata) is an important food crop cultivated on over 6 Mha throughout the world. Its short duration of 55–70 days, capacity to fix atmospheric nitrogen, and exceptional grain nutritional profile makes the crop a staple for smallholder and subsistence farmers. In Australia, mungbean is grown as a high-value export crop and established as a main summer rotation for dryland farmers. A major threat to the integrity of the industry is halo blight, a bacterial disease leading to necrotic lesions surrounded by a chlorotic halo that stunts and ultimately kills the plant. Caused by Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. phaseolicola, this seed-borne disease is extremely difficult to control, resulting in significant yield loss and production volatility. The challenge of managing halo blight is exacerbated by a wide host range that includes many legume and weed species, and the presence of multiple epidemiologically significant strains. Molecular technologies could play a pivotal role in addressing these issues. This review synthesises current and emerging technologies to develop improved management strategies for the control of halo blight in mungbean.
Consultancy skills in the light of emotional intelligence and communication skills of students specialised in human resources consultancy

In our research we examined two groups of students specialised in human resources studying at University of Győr. We analysed the self-reflective communication developmental plans of 32 students (group 1) because we wanted to learn which communication needs they could identify and are ready to overcome. We also looked at the emotional intelligence of 44 students (group 2) drawing on Bar-On’s model which focuses on the harmony of intrapsychic and interpsychic skills. After comparing the two areas we could identify relations between the selfreflective description of communication and empathy, self-esteem, adaptability and handling stress and emotions. There are also links with age-related characteristics, and it points at the importance of learning through life experience while becoming an effective consultant.
Adaptive Driving Scheme for ZVS and Minimizing Circulating Current in MHz CRM Converters

The synchronous rectifier (SR) turn-off time should be accurately controlled to achieve zero voltage switching (ZVS) while minimizing circulating current in pulsewidth modulation converters operating at critical conduction mode. Traditionally, the zero-crossing of the inductor current needs to be detected, and the optimal SR turn-off time is set with reference to the zero-crossing signal. However, problems such as nonlinearity and time delay need to be dealt with, and these make the tuning process very time-consuming at high frequencies. Moreover, accurate zero-current detection is also challenging at high frequencies. This letter proposes an adaptive SR turn-off time tuning method for MHz power converters. The body diode conduction of active switch is detected to adjust the SR turn-off time. With the proposed method, the SR turn-off time can be tuned under various working conditions so that ZVS is achieved while circulating current is minimized. The proposed scheme is easy to implement and not sensitive to switching noise at high frequencies. A 500-W gallium nitride based boost converter is built to verify the proposed method, and the peak efficiency reaches 99% at 1 MHz.
Effect of environmental conditions on the growth and activity of chemolithotrophic sulphur-oxidising bacteria

Quantifying the extent and rate of sulphur oxidation in systems catalysed by chemolithotrophic bacteria is inherently difficult due to the presence of solid phase sulphur. The absence of reliable measurements on the extent and rate of sulphur oxidation hinders investigations into the effects that water quality has on the catalysis caused by these organisms. This absence severely hampers attempts to optimise sulphur oxidation in base metal extraction systems and minimise environmental problems associated with acid mine drainage. This study examined the catalysed oxidation of elemental sulphur and soluble reduced sulphur species in an attempt to circumvent the difficulties arising from a solid phase substrate and to provide an understanding of how solution parameters, such as pH and ionic strength, affect the catalytic processes. Complete oxidation of elemental sulphur and sulphur species result in the formation of sulphuric acid and cause the acidification of the medium. This phenomenon was first examined to determine the conditions under which a proton balance could be used to quantify the conversion of insoluble elemental sulphur to sulphuric acid. Results from these experiments showed that a proton balance can provide estimates of the rate and extent of elemental and solid phase sulphur oxidation but the limiting factor is the performance of the glass electrodes now universally used to determine the activity of the proton in solution. The impact of environmental variables on chemolithotrophic cells growing on sulphur substrates was also examined in this project. The influence of pH, ionic strength and CO2 partial pressures on bacterial yields and sulphur oxidation rates were examined using a number of culturing techniques, including open and closed batch cultures and a reactor system operated at fixed pH values.
A Multilevel Inverter for Contactless Power Transfer System

In contactless power transfer (CPT) system, voltage-source inverters are widely used with a resonant tank. However, because of the influence of the working environment, aging, and other factors, the resonant frequency of the primary varies. Moreover, the reflected equivalent impedance of the secondary coil may affect the design of a resonant tank with a constant switching frequency. In this brief, a multilevel inverter (MLI) without the resonant circuit tuning is proposed for the CPT system. The proposed inverter can produce a high-frequency ac voltage with an approximated sinusoidal envelope for the primary coil. According to the equation developed for the inverter, low-order harmonics can be eliminated by selecting an appropriate input voltage ratio and switching angles for the switches. Furthermore, the cancelation of multiple harmonics can be achieved by designing multilevel circuits. The advantages of the proposed MLI include the reduction in low-order harmonics, low voltage stress, and high reliability. Hardware experimental results were obtained for a CPT system prototype to verify the performance of the proposed MLI.
Attendance System Using Face Recognition

Authentication is one of the significant issues in the era of information system. Among other things, human face recognition is one of known techniques which can be used for user authentication. As an important branch of biometric verification, HFR (Human Face Recognition) has been widely used in many applications, such as video monitoring/surveillance system, human-computer interaction, door access control system and network security. Face Recognition begins with extracting the coordinates of features such as width of mouth, width of eyes, pupil, and compare the result with the measurements stored in the database and return the closest record (facial metrics). Nowadays, there are a lot of face recognition techniques and algorithms found and developed around the world. This system uses this face detection for attendance of students in a classroom. The traditional method of attendance requires more physical effort. It can be a little time consuming. Through this system, attendance can be handled without human intervention. Not only the attendance on a daily basis but a small report required to track student activity (total number of lectures attended and pertaining percentages can be displayed).
Realistic Constrained Multiobjective Optimization Benchmark Problems From Design

Multiobjective optimization is increasingly used in engineering to design new systems and to identify design tradeoffs. Yet, design problems often have objective functions and constraints that are expensive and highly nonlinear. Combinations of these features lead to poor convergence and diversity loss with common algorithms that have not been specifically designed for constrained optimization. Constrained benchmark problems exist, but they do not necessarily represent the challenges of engineering problems. In this article, a framework to design electro-mechanical actuators, called multiobjective design of actuators (MODAct), is presented and 20 constrained multiobjective optimization test problems are derived from the framework with a specific focus on constraints. The full source code is made available to ease its use. The effects of the constraints are analyzed through their impact on the Pareto front as well as on the convergence performance. A constraint landscape analysis approach is followed and extended with three new metrics to characterize the search and objective spaces. The features of MODAct are compared to existing test suites to highlight the differences. In addition, a convergence analysis using NSGA-II, NSGA-III, and C-TAEA on MODAct and existing test suites suggests that the design problems are indeed difficult due to the constraints. In particular, the number of simultaneously violated constraints in newly generated solutions seems key in understanding the convergence challenges. Thus, MODAct offers an efficient framework to analyze and handle constraints in future optimization algorithm design.
The optimal discovery procedure for significance analysis of general gene expression studies

Analysis of biological data often involves the simultaneous testing of thousands of genes. This requires two key steps: the ranking of genes and the selection of important genes based on a significance threshold. One such testing procedure, called the ‘optimal discovery procedure’ (ODP), leverages information across different tests to provide an optimal ranking of genes. This approach can lead to substantial improvements in statistical power compared to other methods. However, current applications of the ODP have only been established for simple study designs using microarray technology. Here we extend this work to the analysis of complex study designs and RNA sequencing studies. We then apply our extended framework to a static RNA sequencing study, a longitudinal and an independent sampling time-series study, and an independent sampling dose-response study. We find that our method shows improved performance compared to other testing procedures, finding more differentially expressed genes and increasing power for enrichment analysis. Thus the extended ODP enables a superior significance analysis of genomic studies. The algorithm is implemented in our freely available R package called edge.
Molecular phylogenetic and morphological studies on the systematic position of Heracula discivitta reveal a new subfamily of Pseudobistonidae (Lepidoptera: Geometroidea)

Heracula discivitta Moore is an uncommon moth species currently recorded from India, Nepal and China. Although this species has traditionally been placed in Lymantriinae, its systematic position in Macroheterocera has been enigmatic due to its unique morphological features. Here we used molecular and morphological data to explore the systematic position of H. discivitta. Our molecular phylogenetic analyses indicate that this species is sister to Pseudobiston pinratanai Inoue, a member of a recently established monotypic family Pseudobistonidae. The examinations of morphological features further show that H. discivitta shares synapomorphies with Pseudobistonidae. Based on the analysis results, we propose a new subfamily of Pseudobistonidae (Heraculinae subfam.n.) to accommodate H. discivitta. The resemblance of the habitus to that of the brahmaeid genus Calliprogonos Mell & Hering is discussed.
A dynamic and statistical analysis of the temperature- and fatigue behavior of a race power unit – The effect of different thermodynamic states

In this work, the dynamic behavior of a lean combustion race engine is investigated with regard to cycle-averaged component temperatures, heat fluxes and piston failure under high cycle fatigue loading. A special focus lies on the influence of various engine settings, like ignition time and the airfuel ratio. For the introduced stationary, as well as transient, temperature calculation method, in cylinder pressure curves are measured and processed statistically by probability density functions.
Increased SLC4A11 expression is associated with poor prognosis of gastric cancer

Solute carrier family 4 member 11 (SLC4A11) is a member of the SLC4 family of bicarbonate transporters, which have been reported to encode sodium-coupled bicarbonate transporters. In this study, SLC4A11 mRNA and protein expression in stomach tissue of 441 patients and 5 cell lines were detected by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, Western blot, and immunohistochemistry. SLC4A11 expression was predictively analyzed using Oncomine online resources. The results revealed that SLC4A11 mRNA and protein levels were both significantly higher in gastric cancer than those in normal gastric tissues (both P<0.001). Statistical analysis revealed that SLC4A11 high expression was associated with Her-2 expression (P=0.018), N stage (P=0.031), TNM stage (P=0.015), and preoperative CEA levels (P=0.017). In univariate and multivariate analyses, SLC4A11 overexpression and advanced N stage showed a great prognostic value for 5-year survival. Our results suggest that SLC4A11 plays an important role in gastric carcinoma development and progression and that SLC4A11 could be a significant prognostic marker for gastric cancer patients.
What Do You and I Have to Lose? Influence of Relationship Factors on Couple Help Seeking

OF DISSERTATION WHAT DO YOU AND I HAVE TO LOSE? INFLUENCE OF RELATIONSHIP FACTORS ON COUPLE HELP SEEKING Without intervention, most distressed couples will not see relationship quality improvement. Couple therapy has demonstrated efficacy, yet many distressed couples are reluctant to access these services. Despite this well-documented treatment gap, limited research exists on why relationally distressed individuals in relationships do or do not seek couple therapy. An unexplored avenue to increasing couple help seeking is leveraging research and theory on why couples stay together (i.e., relationship-based motives). Interdependence theory and Investment Model of Commitment posit that couples persist in relationships for both self-focused (i.e., commitment, positive and negative relationship quality) and partner-focused relationship reasons (i.e., perceived partner commitment, perceived partner support). To address this gap, the current study used the theory of planned behavior (TPB) within an alternative structural equation model testing framework to examine the links between self/partner-focused relationship motives and intention to seek couple therapy in a sample of 288 relationally distressed individuals. Key findings included: people highly committed to their relationship were both more (via indirect effects) and less (via direct effect) likely to intend to seek couple therapy; the absence of positive relationship quality and presence of negative relationship quality were associated with greater intention; perceiving one’s partner as not committed to the relationship increased intention, and perceiving one’s partner as supportive of couple therapy increased one’s own intention to seek couple therapy. Our results indicate that targeting relationship-based motivations could potentially improve the perceptions of couple therapy amongst individuals experiencing relationship distress.
Nonlinear dynamics and noise in fisheries recruitment: A global meta-analysis

The relative importance of environmental and intrinsic controls on recruitment in fishes has been studied for over a century. Despite this, we are not much closer to predicting recruitment. Rather, recent analyses suggest that recruitment is virtually independent of stock size and, instead, seems to occur in distinct environmental regimes. This issue of whether or not recruitment and subsequent production are coupled to stock size is highly relevant to management. Here, we apply empirical dynamical modelling (EDM) to a global database of 185 fish populations to address the questions of whether or not variation in recruitment is (a) predictable and (b) coupled to stock size. We find that a substantial fraction of recruitment variation is predictable using only the observed history of fluctuations (~40% on average). In addition, although recruitment is often coupled to stock size (107 of 185 stocks), stock size alone explains very little of the variation in recruitment; In ~90% of the stocks analysed, EDM forecasts have substantially lower prediction error than models based solely on stock size. We find that predictability varies across taxa and improves with the number of generations that have been sampled. In the light of these results, we suggest that EDM will be of greatest use in managing relatively short‐lived species.
Hand Gesture Recognition Using Deep Feature Fusion Network Based on Wearable Sensors

Hand gesture recognition is an important way for human machine interaction, and it is widely used in many areas, such as health care, smart home, virtual reality as well as other areas. While many valuable efforts have been made, it still lacks efficient ways to capture fine grain hand gesture as well as track data of long distance dependency in complex gesture. In this paper, we firstly design a novel data glove with two arm rings and a specially integrated three-dimensional flex sensor to capture fine grain motion from full arm and all knuckles. Secondly, an improved deep feature fusion network is proposed to detect long distance dependency in complex hand gestures. In order to track detailed motion features, a convolutional neural network based feature fusion strategy is given to fuse data from multi-sensors by extracting both shallow and deep features. Moreover, a residual module is introduced to avoid over fitting and gradient vanishing during deepening the neural network. Thirdly, a long short term memory (LSTM) model with fused feature vector as input is introduced to classify complex hand motions into corresponding categories. Results of comprehensive experiments demonstrate that our work performs better than related algorithms, especially in America sign language (with the precise of 99.93%) and Chinese sign language (with the precise of 96.1%).
Predictive Model Based Low-Speed Adaptive Cruise Control for Autonomous Vehicles

European Union confirmed the “Vision Zero” objective in June 2019, as to achieve zero deaths and serious injuries by 2050. This can only be attained through connected and autonomous vehicles integrated into intelligent transport systems and a sustainable mobility system. This requires a cost-effective, fast,and efficient development process for advanced connected and autonomous vehicle functions. In this article, a methodology to develop low-speed Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), which is one of the most important functions of an autonomous vehicle, is explained. Vehicle tracking at slow speeds is a problem especially for conventional vehicles with high levels of nonlinearities in the powertrain system. As a part of a university-industry collaboration project “SAE level 3 autonomous bus development”, a flexible and realistic discrete plant model including longitudinal vehicle and powertrain model has been developed and discrete low-speed ACC is designed. The plant model aims to perform detailed and realistic software tests of autonomous features, which interfaces with the vehicle controllers. OKAN_UTAS autocorrectedmulti-parameter longitudinal model is integrated. For engine modeling via shaft dynamometer the 3D map of the engine is reproduced. The transmission characteristics were prepared through the road tests. To increase the reliability of the developed functions, Software in the Loop (SIL) and Model in the Loop (MIL) simulations were conducted before the on-road vehicle tests. Finally, C code with the MISRA C standard of ACC is generated and embedded into a real-time platform. The plant model, ACC design, and Model in the Loop test results are presented.