Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Waste heat recovery from the exhaust of low-power diesel engine using thermoelectric generators

To meet the increasing world demand for energy, the rate of depletion of non-renewable energy sources must be reduced while developing alternative renewable sources. This can be achieved by increasing the overall thermal efficiency of conventional power plants. One way to do this is by waste heat recovery. Most of the techniques currently available recover waste heat in the form of thermal energy which is then converted to electricity in a conventional steam power plant. Another approach which has received little attention so far is direct conversion of thermal waste energy into electricity. Thermoelectrics is the science dealing with both low-temperature and high-temperature thermal to electrical energy conversion systems. The paper describes a pilot program to investigate the applicability of thermoelectric generators to the recovery of medium-temperature waste heat from a low-power stationary diesel engine. Commercial thermoelectric modules using bismuth telluride based alloys and consisting of 98 couples were used. The modules require a heat source capable of supplying a heat flux of about 8 W/cm/sup 2/. With a temperature difference of 200/spl deg/C, each module converts 5% of the thermal energy that passes through it into electricity generating 14 W of electrical power. Heat transfer modelling was used to locate the optimum mounting position of the waste heat recovery system (WHRS) on the exhaust pipe. A compact device was then designed incorporating six modules with the exhaust pipe acting as the heat source. The required minimum temperature on the cold side of the modules was provided by using water-cooled heat sinks. Tests have shown that the performance specified by the manufacturer can be reproduced. One promising application for the tested WHRD is as a source of electrical power in motor vehicles in lieu of or in addition to the alternator. A detailed analysis of this application is also presented.
New Fixed-Time Stability Analysis of Delayed Discontinuous Systems via an Augmented Indefinite Lyapunov–Krasovskii Functional

This article discusses the fixed-time stability (FTS) of a kind of delayed discontinuous system (DS) in Filippov sense. Based on the set-valued map, the FTS analysis of the general solution is first transformed into the zero solution of the differential inclusion. Second, the new criteria of the Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional (LKF) are given and LKF is proved to possess the indefinite derivatives by using the simple integral inequalities. In addition, the FTS of the considered delayed DS is achieved and the new settling time is estimated. Third, to demonstrate the applicability of the new FTS theorems, the FTS control of a class of discontinuous inertial neural networks (DINNs) with time-varying delays is solved. Finally, two numerical examples are given to examine the theoretical results and simulations are also provided to make some illustrations.
A time‐varying network model for sexually transmitted infections accounting for behavior and control actions

In this article, we propose a stochastic network model for the spread of common sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The model expands the standard susceptible–infected–susceptible model by incorporating asymptomatic infected individuals—who are unaware that they are posing a health threat to themselves and the population—and individuals' behavioral preferences with regard to the use of protective measures during encounters. Behavioral preferences evolve according to a nontrivial mechanism accounting for the cost of using protection, the perceived risk, and persuasive effects due to sexual encounters with different‐minded individuals. The disease spreads on a time‐varying network of sexual contacts, generated using a mechanism inspired by continuous‐time activity‐driven networks. Such a network accounts for regular partners and casual encounters, which are regulated by a negotiation process that accounts for the individuals' behavioral preferences. Finally, three control measures are included in the model: (i) condom (social) marketing campaigns, (ii) routine screening at STI clinics, and (iii) partner notification. We use a mean‐field approach to analytically derive the epidemic threshold in the limit of large‐scale populations, in the absence of a partner network, for two distinct negotiation processes. Our results indicate that routine screening is key to the eradication of local outbreaks, while condom marketing campaigns become effective only when combined with screening. Monte Carlo simulations are then employed to extend our analytical findings, casting lights on the role of the partner network and on partner notification as a control measure in the spread of STIs.
Investigating the Poverty Human Capital and Economic Development Nexus in Dera Ghazi Khan Division: An Econometric Analysis

The present study focuses on the D. G. Khan division, which is one of the important divisions of Southern Punjab, Pakistan. Being less developed, this study tries to find out different factors that can contribute to the betterment of this region. The study was based on primary data collected during the year 2019. The findings revealed that human capital is the most significant factor that can contribute to alleviating poverty and promoting the development of the D.G. Khan division.
Los Angeles: miasto ruchomych obrazów

Dla Europejczyka fascynacja Ameryką ma charakter zauroczenia dziwacznością. Przejawia się ona w rzeczywistości stanowiącej ponowoczesną mieszaninę fragmentarycznych doznań, które manifestują się w obrazie zarówno wielkich miast amerykańskich jak i architekturze przydrożnej. Autorka poddaje analizie horyzontalnie rozciągnięte Los Angeles jako żywiołowe widowisko ruchu ulicznego. Pomimo powstających wciąż nowych ikonicznych dzieł architektury, bezkształtność, amorficzność i rozproszenie formacji przestrzennych tego miasta nie pozwalają na prawidłowe odczytanie jego struktur. Z badań autorki wysuwa się wniosek, iż nie budynki czy historyczne miejsca, lecz właśnie ruch uliczny i system autostradowy stanowią głównie o charakterze tego miasta, którego wizerunek utrwaliło wielkie kino. Los Angeles: a city of moving images To Europeans, fascination with America is like being charmed by oddity. It manifests itself in a reality that is a postmodern mixture of fragmentary experiences that manifest themselves in the image of both large American cities and roadside architecture. I analyse the horizontally stretched Los Angeles as a lively spectacle of street traffic. Despite newer and newer iconic works of architecture, shapelessness, amorphousness and scattering of this city’s spatial formations does not allow for a proper reading of its structures. My study concludes that it is not buildings or historical sites but street traffic and the highway system that define the character of this city, whose image was enhanced by world-class cinema.
The FBA Motif-Containing Protein NpFBA1 Causes Leaf Curling and Reduces Resistance to Black Shank Disease in Tobacco

Plant leaf morphology has a great impact on plant drought resistance, ornamental research and leaf yield. In this study, we identified a new gene in Nicotiana plumbaginifolia, NpFBA1, that causes leaf curl. The results show that the NpFBA1 protein contains only one unique F-box associated (FBA) domain and does not have an F-box conserved domain. Phylogenetic analysis placed this gene and other Nicotiana FBA genes on a separate branch, and the NpFBA1 protein localized to the nucleus and cytoplasm. The expression of NpFBA1 was induced by black shank pathogen (Phytophthora parasitica var. nicotianae) infection and treatment with salicylic acid (SA) and methyl jasmonate (MeJA). NpFBA1-overexpressing transgenic lines showed leaf curling and aging during the rosette phase. During the bolting period, the leaves were curly and rounded, and the plants were dwarfed. In addition, NpFBA1-overexpressing lines were more susceptible to disease than wild-type (WT) plants. Further studies revealed that overexpression of NpFBA1 significantly downregulated the expression of auxin response factors such as NtARF3 and the lignin synthesis genes NtPAL, NtC4H, NtCAD2, and NtCCR1 in the leaves. In conclusion, NpFBA1 may play a key role in regulating leaf development and the response to pathogen infection.
Combined apocyanin and aspirin treatment activates the PI3K/Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway and ameliorates preeclampsia symptoms in rats

ABSTRACT Objective Pre-eclampsia (PE) is a pregnancy-associated disease characterized by placental dysfunction and increased oxidative stress. Apocyanin is a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory which has shown beneficial effects on PE pathogenesis. Aspirin is recognized as the recommendable drug in PE prevention and therapy. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effects of combining apocyanin and aspirin to treat PE on rat models induced by N-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) from gestational day (GD) 6 to 16 and elucidate the potential mechanisms. Methods First, female pregnant rats were divided into five different groups: pregnant control, PE, PE + apocyanin, PE + aspirin, and PE + apocyanin + aspirin. Animals received apocyanin (16 mg/kg/day) orally or aspirin by gavage (1.5 mg/kg BM/day) from GD 4 to 16. Blood pressure and urine protein content were monitored every 4 days. Results In the PE rat model, elevated systolic blood pressure and proteinuria were ameliorated by the combination of apocyanin and aspirin. Meanwhile, compared with single-dose apocyanin or aspirin, the combined treatment significantly corrected abnormal pregnancy outcomes, decreased sFlt-1 and PlGF, and alleviated oxidative stress both in blood and placental tissues. Moreover, the combined treatment upregulated PI3K, Akt, Nrf2, and HO-1 protein levels in the placental tissues from PE rats. Conclusion Overall, our results suggested that combined treatment of apocyanin and aspirin ameliorates the PE symptoms compared with single-dose apocyanin or aspirin in a PE rat model. Also, we demonstrated that activating the PI3K/Nrf2/HO-1 pathway can be a valuable therapeutic target to improve the pregnancy outcomes of PE.
Comparison of hot-carrier and radiation induced increases in base current in bipolar transistors

A comparison was made between hot-carrier stress induced and ionizing-radiation induced increases in the base current of bipolar linear microcircuit transistors from two process technologies. The comparison was made on the basis of a failure stress in seconds and a failure dose in rad(SiO/sub 2/) for a failure criterion of /spl Delta/I/sub B/=2 nA measured at an I/sub C/ of 1 /spl mu/A and V/sub CE/ of 5 V. Comparisons were made for several die on a single wafer, die from different wafers in a process lot, and die from split lots with various base oxide (also called spacer of screen oxide) hardening techniques applied. For each of these cases no correlation was found between stress-induced failure and ionizing-radiation induced failure. This result is consistent with modeling that shows different mechanisms for the degradation from hot-carriers and ionization. Hot-carrier stress induced damage is dominated by interface traps near the emitter-base junction periphery; whereas, ionizing-radiation induced damage is dominated by trapped positive charge in the base oxide over the extrinsic base region. >
Assessment of Silting Degree and Usable Lifetime of Small Reservoirs

Statistical analysis of the parameters describing the silting process in 53 small reservoirs, located in 4 catchments in different geographical regions, yielded a model explaining general relationships between mean annual silting ratio (SA) and silting intensity (Si), as defined by Ŝamov. The silting intensity (Si) depends mainly on the regional hydrological conditions and the capability of a drainage system to transport the sediment, and it was defined by Ŝamov as the ratio of the initial reservoir capacity (V0) to the mean annual volume of sediment flowing into the reservoir (R). Regional relationships between SA and capacity–watershed area ratio were also developed for water reservoirs located in four climatic regions, i.e. in the Upper Vistula Basin, in the Rio Grande Basin in North America, in Puerto Rico and in the North Caucasus. It was found that the usable lifetime, determined for reservoirs in the Upper Vistula Basin, where SA was from 0.06 to 5.08%, ranged from a few dozen to over 100 years. It was also discovered that determining the usable lifetime for small reservoirs using the Pitt and Thompson nomogram is impossible or subject to considerable error. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Wideband MEMS energy harvesters utilizing nonlinear springs

Micro-scale energy harvesting from motion has received increasing research interest. The energy harvesters can be used as replacements for batteries in low-power wireless electronic devices. Conventional vibration energy harvesters are designed as linear resonance structures. These have a very narrow bandwidth and operate efficiently only when the excitation frequency is very close to the resonant frequency of the harvester. The narrow bandwidth limits their applications in realworld environments that have a wide spectrum of frequencies or varying vibration spectra. This thesis investigates a method to extend the bandwidth of the energy harvesters. We exploit nonlinearities of suspensions, in particular softening and bistable characteristics, to widen the harvesting bandwidth. The nonlinear-spring characteristics are obtained purely through their geometrical design without relying on extra features such as permanent magnets that can interfere with the surroundings. Two electrostatic energy harvesters are designed, fabricated and characterized based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The first harvester with a quad-angled spring, which displays a softening characteristic, is made by through-wafer-thickness deep-reactive ion etching onto a silicon wafer. The experimental results show that a 13-fold increase in the bandwidth of the harvester with the angled springs and an average output power increase of 68% compared with that of linear-vibrating energy harvesters at a broadband random vibration of 7×10−4 g/Hz. We also find that the harvester is tolerant to variations both in the center frequency and bandwidth of vibration, and can perform close to its theoretical maximum with wideband vibrations. The second MEMS electrostatic energy harvester with curved springs is fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator wafer using bulk micro-fabrication technology. The curved springs display an asymmetrical bistable behavior obtained purely through geometrical design. The experimental results with a white noise vibration at 4×10−3 g/Hz show that the harvester bandwidth reaches 715 Hz, representing the largest bandwidth reported in the literature so far. Such wideband harvesters are well-suited to extract power from a wide spectrum of vibrations or from sources with a wide range of variability in the spectrum.
Disrupting the Molecular Pathway in Myotonic Dystrophy

Myotonic dystrophy is the most common muscular dystrophy in adults. It consists of two forms: type 1 (DM1) and type 2 (DM2). DM1 is associated with a trinucleotide repeat expansion mutation, which is transcribed but not translated into protein. The mutant RNA remains in the nucleus, which leads to a series of downstream abnormalities. DM1 is widely considered to be an RNA-based disorder. Thus, we consider three areas of the RNA pathway that may offer targeting opportunities to disrupt the production, stability, and degradation of the mutant RNA.
Homofobia en la escuela: psicología afirmativa gay en el contexto educativo

En los últimos años ha aumentado significativamente el bullying homofóbico en los centros escolares. El presente artículo surge de la necesidad de escuchar y visibilizar las experiencias vividas por un alumno gay a lo largo de las diversas etapas educativas. La psicología afirmativa gay ofrece un enfoque de conocimiento y comprensión de las realidades y problemáticas concretas de las personas homosexuales. El objetivo de este artículo es analizar las vivencias homofóbicas que se han detectado en el acompañamiento terapéutico de un chico homosexual a lo largo de los diferentes ciclos educativos. Hemos utilizado la metodología biográfica-narrativa para dialogar con nuestro informante y acercarnos a una realidad compleja pero necesaria de abordar. Concretamente el instrumento empleado ha sido la entrevista semiestructurada. Entre los resultados obtenidos más destacados se refleja la necesidad de sensibilización y formación en la comunidad educativa sobre las diversidades sexo-genéricas desde una perspectiva inclusiva. A su vez, se pone de manifiesto la carencia de herramientas del profesorado para prevenir, detectar y abordar los casos de bullying homofóbico y promover la inclusión de la diversidad sexogenérica en los centros escolares.
High order interactions among environmental variables : diagnostics and initial steps towards modeling

In the field of geostatistics and spatial statistics, variogram based models have proved a very flexible and useful tool. However, such spatial models take into account only interdependencies between pairs of variables, mostly in the form of covariances. In the present work, we point out to the necessity to extend the interdependence models beyond covariance modeling; we summarize some of the difficulties arising when attempting such extensions; and propose an approach to address these difficulties. Im Bereich der Geostatistik und der raumlichen Statistik haben sich variogrammbasierte Modelle in der Praxis als ntuzlich und flexibel erwiesen um raumliche Zusammenhange zu beschreiben. Allerdings beziehen diese Modelle nur Wechselwirkungen zwischen Paaren von Variablen, vor allem in Form von Kovarianzen, mit ein. In dieser Dissertation weisen wir auf die Notwendigkeit hin, raumliche Modelle jenseits der Kovarianz Modellierung zu erweitern. Wir fassen einige Schwierigkeiten zusammen, die bei solch einer Erweiterung entstehen. Letztendlich prasentieren wir einen Ansatz, mit dem man diesen Schwierigkeiten behandeln kann.
Unreported standard errors in meta-analysis

Abstract A study that would otherwise be eligible is commonly excluded from a meta-analysis when the standard error of its treatment-effect estimator, or the estimate of the variance of the outcomes, is not reported and cannot be recovered from the available information. This is wasteful when the estimate of the treatment effect is reported. We assess the loss of information caused by this practice and explore methods of imputation for the missing variance. The methods are illustrated on two sets of examples, one constructed specifically for illustration and another based on a published systematic review.
Wireless Power Transfer

In the recent years, the wireless power transfer technique has attracted a lot of attention in research. As a result, it is becoming an increasingly popular technology in consumer electronic devices and electric vehicles. However, there are other methods in which energy could be transmitted, and they could be further classified according to their working ranges, namely the near-field and the far-field transmission. In this chapter, an overview on the principles of different types of wireless power transmission is described. Then, the investigation of the receiver block is discussed through studying the features of rectifier technologies. Later, the book continues to describe the Rectenna system (rectifying antenna) adopted to the Internet of Things (IoT) wireless charge in remote locations.
High-speed tracking with multi-templates correlation filters

Abstract. Correlation filter (CF)-based trackers have demonstrated impressive performance on visual tracking benchmark datasets with high frame rates. A lot of research focuses on extracting strong features to learn a robust model of the object’s appearance. However, the circularly shifted samples used in traditional CF training come from one single image patch and have limited information about the target. Inspired by various data augmentation methods in deep learning, we propose a general multi-templates correlation filter-based tracker that expands the CF tracker with multihandcrafted training samples. We reformulate the original optimization problem and provide a closed-form solution to maintain the high-speed calculation. Several methods to generate the additional samples are evaluated. Comprehensive experiments illustrate that our framework obviously improves the tracking performance and is general enough to be incorporated with classical CF trackers.
Reconfigurable Instrumentation Technologies, Architectures and Trends

Reconfigurability is liberating radio‐based instrumentation devices from chronic dependency on hard‐wired characteristics of the radio front end. Today the evolution toward practical “reconfigurable” instrumentation is accelerating through a combination of approaches. This evolution is challenging analog, digital and software designers and the associated product development process. The goal of this paper is to give a short overview of the latest technologies, architectures and trends in this field.
A Method Based On Dual-Network Information Fusion to Predict MiRNA-Disease Associations

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are single-stranded small RNAs. An increasing number of studies have shown that miRNAs play a vital role in many important biological processes. However, some experimental methods to predict unknown miRNA-disease associations (MDAs) are time-consuming and costly. Only a small percentage of MDAs are verified by researchers. Therefore, there is a great need for high-speed and efficient methods to predict novel MDAs. In this paper, a new computational method based on Dual-Network Information Fusion (DNIF) is developed to predict potential MDAs. Specifically, on the one hand, two enhanced sub-models are integrated to reconstruct an effective prediction framework; on the other hand, the prediction performance of the algorithm is improved by fully fusing multiple omics data information, including validated miRNA-disease associations network, miRNA functional similarity, disease semantic similarity and Gaussian interaction profile (GIP) kernel network associations. As a result, DNIF achieves the excellent performance under situation of 5-fold cross validation (average AUC of 0.9571). In the cases study of three important human diseases, our model has achieved satisfactory performance in predicting potential miRNAs for certain diseases. The reliable experimental results demonstrate that DNIF could serve as an effective calculation method to accelerate the identification of MDAs.
The decline of authority and the rise of managerialism

Managerialism, as an ideology and management practice, is grounded on a theory of authority. Such grounding has been neglected in the relevant literature since scholars have generally treated authority as a form of power and have ignored the view that authority is also a source of power. Following a review of the construct of authority as it appears in the works of noted social psychologists and critical management authors, this essay argues that Carl Friedrich’s theory of authority as reasoned elaboration reveals two manifestations: authoritativeness and authoritarianism. It is argued here that managerialism draws on authoritarian ideas and practices, whereas management, as traditionally conceived, draws on authoritativeness. To promote authoritative management, therefore, is to resist (authoritarian) managerialism since authority redirects power to technical experts and professional colleagues and thereby limits managerial power.