Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of strong resonance in power systems with STATCOM supplementary modulation controller

The paper analyzes the behaviour of a pair of oscillatory modes of a power system, essentially a swing mode and an exciter mode, that pass near strong resonance. The method of perturbations suggested by A.P. Seiranyan (see J. Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, vol.58, no.5, p.805-13, 1994) to describe the behaviour of a pair of eigenvalues in the neighbourhood of a multiple point has been suitably modified to make it applicable to systems with feedback controllers. In the case of multimachine systems, the swing mode of interest is isolated by making use of the concept of modal transformation. The knowledge of participation factors helps in identifying the exciter mode that interacts with the swing mode. The illustrative examples comprise a single machine connected to infinite bus (SMIB) system and a 3-machine system with a STATCOM supplementary modulation controller.
Quantification of hepatic steatosis with T1-independent, T2-corrected MR imaging with spectral modeling of fat: blinded comparison with MR spectroscopy.

PURPOSE To prospectively compare an investigational version of a complex-based chemical shift-based fat fraction magnetic resonance (MR) imaging method with MR spectroscopy for the quantification of hepatic steatosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was approved by the institutional review board and was HIPAA compliant. Written informed consent was obtained before all studies. Fifty-five patients (31 women, 24 men; age range, 24-71 years) were prospectively imaged at 1.5 T with quantitative MR imaging and single-voxel MR spectroscopy, each within a single breath hold. The effects of T2 correction, spectral modeling of fat, and magnitude fitting for eddy current correction on fat quantification with MR imaging were investigated by reconstructing fat fraction images from the same source data with different combinations of error correction. Single-voxel T2-corrected MR spectroscopy was used to measure fat fraction and served as the reference standard. All MR spectroscopy data were postprocessed at a separate institution by an MR physicist who was blinded to MR imaging results. Fat fractions measured with MR imaging and MR spectroscopy were compared statistically to determine the correlation (r(2)), and the slope and intercept as measures of agreement between MR imaging and MR spectroscopy fat fraction measurements, to determine whether MR imaging can help quantify fat, and examine the importance of T2 correction, spectral modeling of fat, and eddy current correction. Two-sided t tests (significance level, P = .05) were used to determine whether estimated slopes and intercepts were significantly different from 1.0 and 0.0, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity for the classification of clinically significant steatosis were evaluated. RESULTS Overall, there was excellent correlation between MR imaging and MR spectroscopy for all reconstruction combinations. However, agreement was only achieved when T2 correction, spectral modeling of fat, and magnitude fitting for eddy current correction were used (r(2) = 0.99; slope ± standard deviation = 1.00 ± 0.01, P = . 77; intercept ± standard deviation = 0.2% ± 0.1, P = . 19). CONCLUSION T1-independent chemical shift-based water-fat separation MR imaging methods can accurately quantify fat over the entire liver, by using MR spectroscopy as the reference standard, when T2 correction, spectral modeling of fat, and eddy current correction methods are used.
Design fabrication of high-precision stage and ultrahigh-speed nanoscale positioning

Motion control techniques are employed on nanoscale positioning in precision mechanical equipment, for example, NC machine tools, exposure systems, and so on. The advanced motion control techniques are based on the precise current control. However, speed-up of the precise current response has a serious limitation because of the carrier period of an inverter. In addition, the positional response has to be slower than the current response. In this paper, an experimental precision stage was designed and fabricated. Then, a novel ultrahigh-speed nanoscale positioning was achieved based on multirate PWM control. The positional error is in 100 nm. The positioning time is 2 ms which is only 20 times as long as the carrier period.
The Impact of Imperfect Channel Estimations on the Performance of Optimum Combining in Decode-and-Forward Relaying in the Presence of Co-Channel Interference

Optimum combining (OC) in cooperative relaying enables achieving a diversity gain of M in the presence of co-channel interference (CCI), where M is the number of relay nodes. The additional performance overhead of OC is the need for estimation of interferer channels. The impact of imperfect channel estimation on the performance of OC with decode-and-forward relaying is analyzed. When the source-destination and relay-destination channel estimations are imperfect, the diversity gains of OC deteriorate and the performance further degrades with increase of the error variance. When the destination node accurately estimates the variances of the interferer channel state information (CSI), instead of instantaneous CSI, no performance loss is observed. Thus, the overhead associated with the interferer channel estimation in OC can be significantly reduced.
Quarterly Progress and Status Report Aerodynamic and acoustical measures of speech , operatic , and Broadway vocal styles in a professional female

Understanding how the voice is used in different styles of singing is commonly based on intuitive descriptions offered by performers who are proficient in only one style. Such descriptions are debatable, lack reproducibility and lack scientifically derived explanations of the characteristics. We undertook acoustic and aerodynamic analyses of a female subject with professional experience in both operatic and Broadway styles of singing, who sang examples in these two styles. How representative the examples are of the respective styles was investigated by means of a listening test. Further, as a reference point, we compared the styles with her speech. Variation in styles associated with pitch and vocal loudness was investigated for various parameters: subglottal pressure, closed quotient, glottal leakage, H1-H2 difference (the level difference between the two lowest partials of the source spectrum), and glottal compliance (the ratio between the air volume displaced in a glottal pulse and the subglottal pressure). Formant frequencies, long-term-average spectrum and vibrato characteristics were also studied. Characteristics of operatic style emerge as distinctly different from Broadway style, the latter being more similar to speaking.
Genetic basis, epidemiology, and future significance of antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus: a review.

The extensive use of antibiotics has undoubtedly been responsible for the large numbers of staphylococci that have become resistant to them. This resistance could have arisen entirely by mutation and selection, ie, multiplication of a few cells already resistant which have replaced the existing, predominantly sensitive population. If this has been the only mechanism, then the more antibiotics are used, the greater should be the incidence of resistant strains. Although this may be true overall, there are a number of anomalies; eg, resistance to neomycin did not appear for nine years after its introduction, resistance to fusidic acid is still uncommon (this is particularly significant because fusidic-acid-resistant variants arise at high frequency in vitro), and methicillin-resistant isolates are infrequent in the UK and very rare in the USA, although the use of all the penicillins and cephalosporins might be expected to favour their appearance. In contrast, resistance of hospital staphylococci to some antibiotics, eg, tetracycline and penicillin (by the production of penicillinase), may be higher than expected. These observations argue against the development of antibiotic resistance by mutation and selection alone. Transfer of certain resistance genes between strains of Staphylococcus aureus could account for some of these discrepancies. But as recently as 1969, the Swann Report considered only the mutation/selection origin for antibiotic resistance in this organism. This review will describe ways in which staphylococci can acquire antibiotic resistance in vitro, and other genetic manipulations that can be performed in the laboratory, and it will attempt to assess the importance of these, particularly transfer of resistance, under natural conditions. The rationale behind, and the execution of some of the genetic techniques that are used, will be discussed. The relationship of antibiotic resistance to virulence will also be examined.
Study of ZnS Nanostructures Based Electrochemical and Photoelectrochemical Biosensors for Uric Acid Detection †

Uric acid (UA) is a kind of purine metabolism product and important in clinical diagnosis. In this work, we present a study of ZnS nanostructures-based electrochemical and photoelectrochemical biosensors for UA detection. Through a simple hydrothermal method and varying the ratio of reaction solvents, we obtained ZnS nanomaterials of one-dimensional to three-dimensional morphologies and they were characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). To fabricate the UA biosensor and study the effect of material morphology on its performance, ZnS nanomaterials were deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) conducting glass and then coated with uricase by physical absorption. Three kinds of working electrodes were characterized by cyclic voltammetry method. The effect of material morphology on performance of UA detection was investigated via amperometric response based electrochemical method based on enzymatic reaction. The ZnS urchin-like nanostructures electrode shows better sensitivity compared with those made of nanoparticles and nanoflakes because of its high surface-area-to-volume ratio. The photoelectrochemical method for detection of UA was also studied. The sensitivity was increased 5 times after irradiation of 300 nm UV light. These results indicate that ZnS nanostructures are good candidate materials for developing enzyme-based UA biosensors.
Early motherhood and mental health in midlife: A study of British and American cohorts

Objectives: Examine the relationship between early age at first birth and mental health among women in their fifties. Methods: Analysis of data on women from a British 1946 birth cohort study and the U.S. Health and Retirement Study birth cohort of 1931–1941. Results: In both samples a first birth before 21 years, compared to a later first birth, is associated with poorer mental health. The association between early first birth and poorer mental health persists in the British study even after controlling for early socioeconomic status, midlife socioeconomic status and midlife health. In the U.S. sample, the association becomes non-significant after controlling for educational attainment. Conclusions: Early age at first birth is associated with poorer mental health among women in their fifties in both studies, though the pattern of associations differs.
Involvement of PITPnm, a Mammalian Homologue of Drosophila rdgB, in Phosphoinositide Synthesis on Golgi Membranes*

Phosphatidylinositol transfer protein (PITP) is involved in phospholipase C-mediated signaling and membrane trafficking. We previously reported cloning and characterization of a gene encoding for membrane-bound PITP, named PITPnm, that is a mammalian homologue of the Drosophila retinal degeneration B (rdgB) gene (Aikawa, Y., Hara, H., and Watanabe, T. (1997)Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 236, 559–564). Here we report the subcellular localization of PITPnm protein and provide evidence for its involvement in phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate (PtdIns 4-P) synthesis. PITPnm is an integral membrane protein that largely localized in close association with membranes of Golgi vacuoles and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The amino terminus region of PITPnm was exposed to cytoplasmic side. Interaction with various phosphoinositides was observed in the amino terminus region spanning from 196 amino acids to 257 amino acids of PITPnm. At the amino terminus regions of 1–372 amino acids, PITPnm formed a complex with type III PtdIns 4-kinase. The transmembrane and carboxyl-terminal portions (residues 418–1242) functioned to retain the PITPnm in the Golgi vacuole. These results suggest that PITPnm plays a role in phosphoinositide synthesis on the Golgi vacuoles and possibly in the PtdIns signaling pathway in mammalian cells.
A Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium hemA Mutant Is Highly Susceptible to Oxidative DNA Damage

ABSTRACT The first committed step in the biosynthesis of heme, an important cofactor of two catalases and a number of cytochromes, is catalyzed by the hemA gene product. Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium hemA26::Tn10d (hemA26) was identified in a genetic screen of insertion mutants that were sensitive to hydrogen peroxide. Here we show that the hemA26 mutant respires at half the rate of wild-type cells and is highly susceptible to the effects of oxygen species. Exposure of the hemA26 strain to hydrogen peroxide results in extensive DNA damage and cell death. The chelation of intracellular free iron fully abrogates the sensitivity of this mutant, indicating that the DNA damage results from the iron-catalyzed formation of hydroxyl radicals. The inactivation of heme synthesis does not change the amount of intracellular iron, but by diminishing the rate of respiration, it apparently increases the amount of reducing equivalents available to drive the Fenton reaction. We also report that hydrogen peroxide has opposite effects on the expression of hemA and hemH, the first and last genes of heme biosynthesis pathway, respectively. hemA mRNA levels decrease, while the transcription of hemH is induced by hydrogen peroxide, in an oxyR-dependent manner. The oxyR-dependent induction is suppressed under conditions that accelerate the Fenton reaction by a mechanism that is not yet understood.
Bridging the Gap: Perceived Educational Needs in the Inpatient to Home Care Setting for the Person With a New Ostomy

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate what specific ostomy self-care educational content is considered the most useful by the new ostomy patient after discharge. DESIGN: A cross-sectional, correlational design was used to address study aims. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: The sample comprised 33 men and 27 women with a mean age of 55.58 ± 15.56 (mean ± SD) years, range 27 to 79 years old. The study setting was a 587-bed teaching hospital, level 1 trauma center in the Midwest, with Magnet designation. METHODS: Demographic data were collected during the patients' hospital stay as part of routine care. This information is used for follow-up with all ostomy patients who have surgery in this hospital. All of the participants in this study completed an interview administered by phone or in person. A semistructured interview guide was used to elicit participant perceptions of the usefulness of 4 categories of ostomy care, including (1) ostomy information (ostomy function), (2) activities of daily living (strategies to manage travel, bathing, intimacy, odor), (3) ostomy care (strategies for managing the ostomy), and (4) other informational needs (social support resources). Participants were asked to rate these 4 areas from most useful to least useful, using a 4-point scale. At the end of the interview, participants were asked, “Has there been anything that has happened or event related to your ostomy that your ostomy teaching did not prepare you for? ” The interview took place several weeks after surgery or during their readmission visit for surgical ostomy takedown. RESULTS: Sixty-two patients were enrolled into the study, and 60 participants completed the data collection. The sample included 26 (43%) patients with ileostomies, 18 (30%) with colostomies, and 16 (27%) with urostomies. Ninety percent ranked the education category of ostomy self-care as the most useful content, 55% ranked information on resuming activities of daily living as the second most useful category, and 55% ranked general information as third most useful content area. Fifty respondents (83%) ranked ostomy support as the least useful. Nine (15%) of the participants felt unprepared for their first pouch leak, and 2 (3%) reported difficulty adjusting to the feel of the stool entering the pouch. Two patients would have liked more photos of peristomal skin conditions and how to treat them. CONCLUSIONS: Since the category of ostomy self-care ranked highest, patient teaching for the new ostomy patient should focus on this skill set, including stoma care, how, and when to empty and change the pouch.
Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) Profiles of Offenders and Their Relationship to Institutional Misconduct and Risk of Reconviction

This article investigates whether particular scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) are associated with institutional misconduct and risk of reconviction among 268 offenders in a therapeutic community prison. A moderate positive correlation was found between the Antisocial Behavior subscale of the PAI and general institutional misconduct. Moderate positive correlations were also found between the Antisocial Features, Aggression, and Drug Problems scales and risk of reconviction as measured by the Offender Group Reconviction Scale (Francis, Soothill, & Humphries, 2007; Taylor, 1999). In addition, receiver operating characteristic analyses showed that certain PAI cut scores had utility in identifying prisoners who had engaged in institutional misconduct and who posed a high risk of reconviction.
Hilbert Scan Based Bag-of-Features for Image Retrieval

Generally, two problems of bag-of-features in image retrieval are still considered unsolved: one is that spatial information about descriptors is not employed well, which affects the accuracy of retrieval; the other is that the trade-off between vocabulary size and good precision, which decides the storage and retrieval performance. In this paper, we propose a novel approach called Hilbert scan based bag-of-features (HS-BoF) for image retrieval. Firstly, Hilbert scan based tree representation (HSBT) is studied, which is built based on the local descriptors while spatial relationships are added into the nodes by a novel grouping rule, resulting of a tree structure for each image. Further, we give two ways of codebook production based on HSBT: multi-layer codebook and multi-size codebook. Owing to the properties of Hilbert scanning and the merits of our grouping method, sub-regions of the tree are not only flexible to the distribution of local patches but also have hierarchical relations. Extensive experiments on caltech-256, 13-scene and 1 million ImageNet images show that HS-BoF obtains higher accuracy with less memory usage.
Magnetization transfer ratio histogram analysis of gray matter in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Gray matter may be affected by multiple sclerosis (MS), a white matter disease. Magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) is a sensitive and quantitative marker for structural abnormalities, and has been used frequently in the imaging of MS. In this study, we evaluated the amount of MTR of gray matter among patients with relapsing-remitting MS and healthy control subjects as well as the correlation between gray matter MTR abnormality and neurologic disability associated with relapsing-remitting MS. METHODS We obtained fast spin-echo dual-echo and magnetization transfer (with and without MT saturation pulses) images from eighteen patients with relapsing-remitting MS and 18 age-matched healthy control subjects. Gray matter was segmented using a semiautomated system. Gray matter MTR histogram parameters, Kurtzke Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), total T2 lesion volume, and gray matter volumes were obtained for statistical analysis. RESULTS A significant difference was found in gray matter MTR between patients with relapsing-remitting MS and healthy subjects (mean and median). Gray matter MTR histogram normalized peak heights in patients inversely correlated with EDSS (r = -0.65, P =.01). There was also an inverse correlation between mean MTR of gray matter and total T2 lesion volume. CONCLUSION The MTR of gray matter significantly differed between patients with relapsing-remitting MS and healthy control subjects, suggesting that MS is a more diffuse disease affecting the whole brain, and neuronal damage accumulates in step with T2 lesion volume. Our finding of the relationship between gray matter MTR and EDSS indicates that measurement of gray matter abnormality may be a potentially useful tool for assessing clinical disability in MS.
Chemoprevention of Colon and Small Intestinal Tumorigenesis in APCMin/+ Mice by Licofelone, a Novel Dual 5-LOX/COX Inhibitor: Potential Implications for Human Colon Cancer Prevention

Preclinical and clinical studies suggest that 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX), such as COX-2, is a potential target for colon cancer inhibition and, in part, contributes to cardiovascular side effects associated with COX-2 inhibitors. Experiments were designed to assess the chemopreventive effects of a novel dual 5-LOX/COX inhibitor, licofelone {[6-(4-chlorophenyl)-2,2-dimethyl-7-phenyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-pyrrolizin-5-yl] acetic acid}, in APCMin/+ mouse intestinal tumorigenesis. Six-week-old male and female APCMin/+ mice (n = 10 per group) were fed with control American Institute of Nutrition-76A diet or diets containing 150 or 300 ppm licofelone for 14 weeks (∼100 days), and intestinal tumors were evaluated for tumor multiplicity and size. Licofelone significantly inhibited total intestinal tumor multiplicity and size in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.0001; mean tumors for 0, 150, and 300 ppm: 48.8, 17, and 8, respectively, in male mice; and 34.3, 8.8, and 5.5, respectively, in female mice). Licofelone at high dose showed more than 83% (P < 0.0001) tumor inhibition in both genders of mice. One hundred and fifty and 300 ppm licofelone resulted in 86% to 97% inhibition of polyps having size greater than 2 mm. One hundred and fifty and 300 ppm licofelone caused more than 72% and 100% inhibition of colonic tumors, respectively. Importantly, in mice fed with licofelone, tumors showed significantly reduced proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression (70%, P < 0.0001), increased terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase–mediated dUTP nick end labeling–positive cells (75%, P < 0.0001), and there was dose-dependent suppression of serum triglycerides (71%–83%, P < 0.0001), decreased inflammatory cytokines; and decreased COX and 5-LOX activities (57%–64%, P < 0.0001). Also, compared with 300 ppm celecoxib, 300 ppm licofelone provided better efficacy in suppressing tumor growth. These observations show that a novel dual 5-LOX/COX inhibitor dramatically suppresses small intestinal and colonic tumor formation in APCMin/+ mice. Cancer Prev Res; 4(12); 2015–26. ©2011 AACR.